EXPERIENCING RESURRECTION
The Christian life is a life in Christ’s resurrection. To know the Spirit, we have to know resurrection. Resurrection is the Triune God consummated to be the life-giving Spirit. We are not able to understand such a deep and high mystery, the mystery of resurrection, but we can experience resurrection. We do not even understand our human life, but we can experience this life daily. When we eat food, we take in many nourishing elements and vitamins which we do not understand, yet we can enjoy them. We do not know what human life is, but we can surely enjoy this life.
Who can fully understand the Triune God? We cannot understand the Triune God, but He is available for us to experience and enjoy. Nearly every morning, my first prayer is somewhat like this: "Thank You, Lord, for the peace. Thank You for the safety. Thank You for Your presence. Thank You for Your cleansing. Thank You for Your forgiveness. Thank You for Your preserving of my health." This is a simple prayer, but through this simple prayer, I enjoy the Triune God and I am filled with the Spirit. I have been enjoying the Triune God for close to seventy years. I cannot deny there is a God, because day by day I enjoy Him as resurrection.
The God whom we contact is resurrection. When we contact God, resurrection functions in us, and everything is under our feet. When resurrection functions in us, we are full of joy, full of peace, full of rest, full of praising, and full of rejoicing. When we are experiencing the Spirit as resurrection, all the negative things are on the cross, in the tomb, and under our feet.
Human life is full of troubles, worries, and all kinds of sorrows. We can rid our being of these things only by our God who is resurrection, which is the Spirit. The Spirit kills, and the Spirit also resurrects. This is because Christ’s killing death and His uplifting resurrection are compounded in the compound Spirit, whom we are enjoying. As we enjoy the compound Spirit, we are experiencing the inner killing and the inner resurrecting. As long as we have this killing plus the resurrecting, we have God. Killing plus resurrecting is God. God moves in us, works in us, functions in us. He gives us Himself as patience, peace, and power to endure sufferings. He gives us Himself as everything we need to live the Christian life.
God is mysterious, resurrection is mysterious, and the compound Spirit is also mysterious. The Bible has much to say about these three items, but they are mysterious to the uttermost. Even though they are so mysterious, they are real in our daily experience in the Christian life.
We need to experience the Spirit’s application of Christ’s resurrection and its power all the time. The full-time trainees need to enter into this experience in their limited environment. Five sisters may live in one apartment unit. In this apartment, each of them has to do everything carefully. Otherwise, they can offend one another. This apartment is like a small "tomb" to them. To be in the full-time training is a suffering, but in this suffering, there is joy and peace. If we try to escape from the environment which God has arranged for us, we will not have joy and peace. When we stay in this limited environment, we can experience resurrection.
In order to experience resurrection, we also need to be limited in our speaking. The more we gossip, the more resurrection is gone. The more we gossip, the more there is no Spirit in our experience. To experience the Spirit as the reality of resurrection, we need to turn to our spirit to pray, praise, sing, or talk to God. The title of Psalm 18 indicates that this psalm was David’s conversation with God, his talk to God. We need to talk to God and consult with Him. After ten minutes of talking to God, we will be on fire and full of the Spirit as the reality of resurrection.
(The Christian Life, Chapter 10, by Witness Lee)
