GOD HAVING GRANTED TO US ALL THINGS RELATED TO LIFE AND GODLINESS
All the ones sitting here are working saints. When I was young, I was also working. Because my background was poor, I had to work when I was a teenager. Afterwards, I got saved, and because of the Lord’s calling and attracting, I was very happy being a Christian. Whether I was reading the Bible, praying, or preaching the gospel, I enjoyed it very much. But sometimes I read some words in the Bible which caused me to feel sad. For example, the Bible says, “You shall be holy, because I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16). It also says, “You, therefore, shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). In another place it says, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27). I thought in my heart, “How can I be holy? How can I be perfect as my heavenly Father? To ask me to carry the cross to follow the Lord is an impossible task. However, I cannot just drop it and forget about it; it was not up to me to decide whether I should be a Christian.” Therefore, I was really sad and full of worry.
My Christian life was like this year after year. More and more I found myself to be no good. If we still have some hope for ourselves, then it proves that we still consider ourselves to be all right. I finally reached a point where you may say that I knew myself thoroughly and realized that there was not even one bit of hope with me. I could not be holy, I could not follow the Lord, I could not overcome, I could not be spiritual, and I could not be perfect as God is perfect. I could not do it at all.
It was at this time that the light of the Bible enlightened me to see that God never said that we are all right. We are rotten to the core. It is impossible for us to be holy and perfect. When I was subdued, the life supply came. I saw that it was due to my being no good that I needed Jesus to be my life. Afterwards when I went to read the Bible, the situation was different. What had formerly been words of requirement in the Bible was all changed in my reading to become words of supply. I remember that one time about thirty years ago when I was working in Manila, as I was reading 2 Peter 1, I was greatly opened up to see that the divine power of God has already granted to us all things related to life and godliness. Life and godliness include sanctification, perfection, spirituality, overcoming, and all the requirements in the Bible. Therefore, we do not have to worry, because all these have already been granted to us.
DRAWING ON GOD’S SUPPLY BY FAITH
I know that many working brothers and sisters, after finding a job, experience pressure from their boss, competition from their co-workers, plus the jealousy of the aggressive ones. It is indeed not a simple situation. Not only so, but after marriage they will have a wife, and not long afterwards they will have children. It is indeed troublesome. Although there is enjoyment in these things, yet it is not without troubles. What shall we do? This is just like the hymn we sang tonight, which says,
Thou art all my life, Lord,
In me Thou dost live;
With Thee all God’s fulness
Thou to me dost give.
By Thy holy nature I am sanctified,
By Thy resurrection, Vict’ry is supplied.
The last stanza says,
I would cease completely
From my efforts vain,
Let Thy life transform me,
Full release to gain.
(Hymns, #841)
(Messages Given to the Working Saints, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee)
