NOW IS THE TIME
We must cooperate with the Lord by saying, “Lord, now is the time. You must shame your enemy by building us up together.” This will defeat the enemy. I have the full assurance that the Lord is going to do this. If we do not afford Him the opportunity to do it, He will find others who will. But the Lord will get His building and shame His enemy.
Revelation 19 tells us clearly that the Lamb will come as the Bridegroom to take His Bride, who has made herself ready. But without the building, where is the possibility of the Lord having such a Bride? Is it in the Catholic Church? Is it in the denominations? Is it in the free groups, or in the scattered so-called spiritual ones? Where is the Bride being prepared? We should not care much for increase in numbers. Increase does not mean that much, but the building means everything. In the Lord’s recovery, we are only for the building.
I love the brothers in the churches in Texas. If you were to go visit them, you would see that they care for nothing but the building. In a sense, they are a real army with an impact. They do not have extensive Bible knowledge, and they do not know very much. They only know one thing: to be one. And they are one, praise the Lord!
We all must realize that the real impact which puts the enemy to shame is the building. The building is the impact. We all must pray, “Lord, I am through with so many things I appreciated in the past. I want to leave all those things behind. Only one goal is before me, and that is Your building. I am not for anything that hinders, hurts, or damages Your building!”
We should not care merely for our holiness and spirituality. I do not mean that we should not pray, or that we should not take the Word into us. What I mean is that everything we do must be for the building. Anything that distracts us from the building must be put aside. No matter how good or spiritual it seems to us, we must leave it if it is a frustration to God’s building. If we take this attitude, we will have the Lord’s rich presence, and we will experience the anointing with life and peace within. Then Satan will really be defeated and put under our feet. As long as we are in the building, there is no need to fight against him; he is defeated already. If, however, we are divided and scattered, Satan will get the glory.
EAT THE WORD
Now we must see some of the practical matters concerning the building. If we are really for God’s building, the first thing we must do is eat the Lord in the Word all the time. I say this from my own experience, and it is confirmed by the experience of many others. To eat means to take something into you. It is not to learn about something, but to digest and assimilate food. Day by day we must take the Lord Jesus into us. The best way to take the Lord in is to pray-read the Word or to pray Him in by calling on His name. I do not mean to pray in a way of asking the Lord to do something for you. The Lord already knows all our needs and will care for us. There is hardly any need to remind Him of these things. But we must spend more and more time to pray Him in. Then, practically speaking, in all our daily life we must learn to apply Him in many areas.
Praise the Lord that He is such a real Person to us! He is not vain; He is real! He is not far away from us; He is within our spirit! So we must pray, “Lord Jesus, I take You in.” He is a real Person, and He is so substantial. This is why Peter says, “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that ye may grow unto salvation” (1 Pet. 2:2). What is the pure milk of the Word? It is simply Jesus as the life-giving Spirit. He is in the Word, and He even is the Word. Then Paul says, “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the growth” (1 Cor. 3:6). The real growth is Jesus added into us. Paul planted Jesus into the Corinthians, and Apollos watered with the living water, which is also Jesus. Then God gave the growth, which is the increase, the addition of Jesus. In this way, Jesus is added into us bit by bit. This is not a matter of knowledge, doctrine, power, ability, or gifts. It is a matter of Jesus Himself being added into us all the time.
(Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs, Chapter 16, by Witness Lee)
