OUR GROWTH IN LIFE BY THE GROWTH OF GOD IN US
Now we want to go on to see that the building up of the church as the Body of Christ is by our growth in life, and our growth in life is by the growth of God in us. Colossians 2:19 says that all the Body grows with the growth of God. This means that our growth in the divine life needs God growing in us. When God grows in us, we grow with the growth of God.
This is quite deep and very mysterious. We may wonder how God could grow, but Colossians 2:19 tells us that if we are going to grow, we have to grow with some growth. We grow with God’s growth. We can grow only with the growth of God. God is perfect and complete, so how can One who is perfect and complete grow? Growth is for maturity, but we know that God is ancient. He is not old, but He is ancient. The Old Testament calls Him “the Ancient of days” (Dan. 7:9, 13, 22). Does such an ancient One need to grow? The answer is this: in Himself God does not grow, but in you and me, He needs to grow.
God is in us, but how much is God in us? We Christians are the children of God, and we have God in us. God and we are mingled together as one person, but we have to check our real situation. Is there more of us and less of God, or more of God and less of us? We may declare that we have God and that God and we are one, but what about the fact of our case presently? Many of us have to admit that with us there is more of us and less of God.
We are more and God is less because we do not give Him the room in us. We do not give Him the cooperation. To give Him the room within us is to let Him grow. Any organic matter needs room to grow properly. In Matthew 13 the seed typifies the word with the divine life in it (vv. 3-23). This seed has been sown into our heart. It needs the adequate room to grow properly and fully. According to Matthew 13 in some cases the seed can hardly grow because many things in our heart leave no room for it to grow. There are many things other than God that occupy our heart. The Lord tells us that the thorns are the anxiety of the age and the deceitfulness of riches that choke the word (v. 22). All things other than God are choking things. These things choke the divine life, which is God, within us. Because of the occupying things in our heart, the seed of life within us does not have the room; it does not have the possibility to grow. In order for us to grow with the growth of God, we have to give God the room within us.
In every meeting we attend, we should give God the room within us. We should cooperate with Him. The Christian meeting is a realm for God to speak. If God cannot speak, He cannot gain anything. Most of the human race will not allow God to speak. God saves people and gathers them together in meetings so that He can speak in their speaking. Who will let God speak on this earth? God saves, rescues, separates us from the world, and gathers us together so that He can speak, but He cannot speak by Himself. In the New Testament age, God does everything in the principle of incarnation. He does not do anything by Himself alone. He always does things with man, in man, and through man by being one with man and by man being one with Him. For Him to speak today, He cannot speak by Himself. He has to speak through us.
God desires to speak, but do we speak? The practice of Christianity is that of one man speaking and the rest listening. Because not many of the Lord’s children will speak, some professionals are trained to speak for the congregation. Surely God does not like this, so we are trying our best to put this practice aside and give God the opportunity to speak. God is in us, and He wants to speak. He wants us to speak so that He may speak in our speaking. But why do we not speak? We do not speak because with us there is too much of us and very little of the Triune God. If we cooperate with God to speak, He will gain the room within us to grow.
Many times and in many things, we do not give God the room in us. He is waiting within us for the opportunity to grow. He wants to grow in us. We need to give Him the room within us all the time. When we give Him the room within us, He grows, and His growth within us becomes our growth. Today within many Christians there is hardly any room for the indwelling God to grow. Even within us, according to my realization, there is not much room for Him to grow. On the Lord’s Day morning, many of us come to the meeting and do not speak. God is in us, but we would not give Him room to grow. We can give Him a little bit of room by speaking. We need to speak for the Lord and speak the Lord forth. The more we speak, the more we will have to speak. The more we speak, the more we will be able to speak. The more we speak, the more we will learn how to speak. And the more we speak, the more we receive God’s supply. The more we speak, the more we give God the room within us. Then He grows in us.
The reason we have endeavored and paid such a great price to change our way from one man speaking to all speaking is so that God may grow within us. The principle of letting God grow is not only in speaking in the meetings but also in all things in our daily life. In John 3:30, John the Baptist said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” This is God’s way. He increases, and we decrease. The word increase and the word grow are the same word in Greek. To grow is to increase. We must let God grow, which means that we must give Him the room within us to increase. Then He has the way to grow in us in everything.
(The Experience and Growth in Life, Chapter 27, by Witness Lee)
