HOW TO BE LED
The Bible tells us that the Lord is the Potter, and we are the clay (Rom. 9:21). Oftentimes a potter will pick up some unmolded clay, pat it gently, shave off the excess, and make straight the crooked angles. Eventually a shape is formed, and the clay is burned in fire. Christians are like clay in the hands of the Lord, and He intends to make us into His vessels. Therefore, we have to be led. First, we must not consider blessings our priority. If we do, we cannot be led by the Lord. Someone asked me, “I have some problems. If I pray earnestly, will God turn around the difficulties?” I said, “I do not know the pathway that God has arranged for you. He can turn around the situation, but I do not know if He is willing to do that for you. He wants to place you in a distressing situation so that you may be burned and burned again. Through the burning He can make you into a precious vessel in His hand.” We should not use our believing in the Lord as a means to obtain some blessings according to our will and not according to His will.
Second, in order to be led by the Lord we need to conduct ourselves in the world not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God (2 Cor. 1:12). A person who depends on his abilities cannot receive leading from the Lord. Everyone who has been led by the Lord has crushed his fleshly wisdom and his abilities. Perhaps we are afraid that if our abilities are demolished, we will not have anything and will not be able to do anything. In reality, though, the most competent person is one whose abilities and fleshly wisdom have been broken. Is God not more capable than we are? Is God not wiser than we are? There was an elderly Christian in London who had a very intelligent son. Every morning, when her son was about to go to his office, she would repeatedly remind her son to not live according to the wisdom of his flesh but according to the grace of God.
Third, we have to learn to consecrate ourselves to God. A person who has not consecrated himself to God cannot be led. We have to absolutely consecrate to God our family and our whole being with all that we have and all that we are. Only then can the Lord lead us. Then we can learn to rely on the Lord and ask for His leading in big things and small things. For example, someone may ask us, “Would you like to come with me to Tamsui for a walk?” We do not have to rigidly kneel down to pray, but we have to inquire of God inwardly, bringing the matter before Him to discuss it with Him. If we would follow the Lord, walk in His path, and commit ourselves to God, discussing all matters, big or small, with Him, and clearly receiving His leading before we take action, then we are truly walking in and with the Lord.
In summary, Christians possess four things—Christ, the Bible, the church, and fellow Christians as their companions. Christians also have four characteristics—being peculiar, being full of contradictions, taking their innermost part as the starting point, and being led. This is wonderful. If, as Christians, we have reached a point where we are simply following the current in society, then we have degraded and have lost our normal Christian status. Conversely, if we live before God and maintain fellowship with Him, we are definitely peculiar before men, we are full of contradictions within ourselves—being always against ourselves, and we conduct ourselves as Christians from within our innermost part. In addition, we do not make decisions for ourselves, nor are we individualistic, but we are daily led by the Lord, allowing Him to make decisions for us and to walk and live with us. We are not careless. Rather, we are living before God, walking with Him, and being led by Him in big things and small things.
(The Pursuit of a Christian, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee)
