One day we heard the gospel, and we repented and confessed our sins. We called on the Lord’s name and received Him. When we received the Lord, we received another person into us. He changed our choices and preferences. One by one our sinful habits were dropped, and we became different persons. From the day that I received the Lord, I had the sensation that Someone was taking care of me, controlling me, and regulating me. When I was going to lose my temper, He did not agree with this. He spoke to me from within, “You have to go along with Me.” Thus, I was forced to stop my temper. Do you realize that this was to live Christ? Since the day I received Christ, when I began to criticize others, He within me as a person said, “Do not say anything like this. I do not speak in this way.” I did not speak my criticism, because He did not speak it. This is to live Christ.
Christ lives in us not only as our life but also as our person. We have a particular person within us, and this particular person is our unique life. Christ is now subjective and organic to us. He is our person, the better person, even the best person. He should become our daily life, our daily living, and our reality. Many times we neglect to hear Him and act too fast. Even though He says, “Do not do it,” we do not care for His speaking. At these times, we neglect Jesus within us, without caring for Him. Then we have to say, “Lord, forgive me. Lord, I rebelled against You.” When we say this to the Lord, He may tell us to confess to someone we have argued with or offended. He is always urging us from within to go along with Him, to be one with Him, and to follow Him.
To live Christ is to go along with Him as our inner person. Our Christian life is not merely a matter of speaking something spiritual in the meetings, but a matter of living Christ in our private life. Many times I wanted to say something or go somewhere, but Christ within me was not saying what I wanted to say or going where I wanted to go. His not going forced me to say, “Lord, since You will not go, I will not go either. I will stay home.” This is living Christ.
By going along with Christ as my inner person, I have been graced by Him to grow in Him. It was easy for me to lose my temper when I was young. Now, however, it is difficult for anyone to offend me so that I lose my temper. This is because the One who lives in me does not lose His temper. I exercise myself to be one with Him to live Him. When Christ is increasing in us, all things other than Christ are decreasing. This experience is another part of the biography of Christ.
Paul said that Christ is our life (Col. 3:4). He also said in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” This should not be just a doctrine or theological knowledge. This should be a living fact in our experience. It is no more I who live, but the very Christ who died for me and who died with me, lives in me. We all have to declare this, and this should be our experience in our daily life.
We need to live Christ in all the details of our daily life. Sometimes when I am joking, the One within me tells me to stop. I stopped joking in order to live Christ. He is not only my life but also my person. When the brothers buy a tie, they should buy a tie according to the One who lives in them. We do not wear the kind of ties many of the people in the world wear because Christ within us does not wear that kind of tie. We should also experience Christ as our person in the way that we cut our hair. We should not think that this is a small thing. If a brother’s hair is too long, do you think Christ would still speak freely through him? To live Christ means having Christ as our person and life, not just day by day but moment by moment. The living of Christ is the organic and basic foundation of the church life. The aggregate of each one of us living Christ is the church. The church is the totality of the living of Christ of all the saints.
(Five Emphases in the Lord's Recovery, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)