OUR LIVING AND WORKING
BEING FOR GOD TO WORK HIMSELF INTO US
The problem today is that no one is willing to contain God. Our eyes need to be opened. If there is such a group of people, God will have a way here in this place, and man will receive the blessing. God has no intention for you to love your wife or to hate your wife. God has no intention for the wife to submit to the husband or to rebel against the husband. God has only one intention, and that is to work Himself into man.
If Brother Chow keeps walking around, it will be difficult for me to pour water on his head. But if he sits down, it will be easy for me to pour water on him. It may seem that he is doing something for me when he walks around. Actually, I can do nothing with him.
If by hating your wife you can have more of God in you, you can go ahead and hate your wife as much as you like. In facing an issue, the question is how much of God will pass through you, and how much He will gain in you. Why did God give you parents, husbands, wives, and children? He gave you these things in order that He can work Himself into you through these things. If the more I speak, the more God is added into you, this will achieve God’s goal. I did not come to Swatow to give teachings. I have come to have God worked into you. Why should the sisters manage their homes well? Is it to make better homes? No. It is to have more of God added into you. The more we manage our homes, the more God should be added into us. If you do this, after three or five years, you will have more of God. Your homes may still be the same, but God will have increased within you.
Some have asked me if they can quit their job to serve the Lord full-time. I told them bluntly that it does not mean anything for them to remain in their jobs, and it does not mean anything for them to quit their jobs and be a preacher. The question is not whether or not one should be a preacher, but whether or not one will allow the Lord to work in him. God’s work in the old creation is outside of man. His work in the new creation is within man. One day, the work of the old creation will pass away. But the work of the new creation will remain until the New Jerusalem; it will never pass away but will have eternal value.
Every time we do something, we should not ask if that thing is right or wrong, or if it is according to God’s will. In doing something, the question is this: Is it we who are doing it, or is it God? What we should ask is not what we do, but who is doing it.
GOD’S LEADING AND OVERSEEING
BEING FOR THE PURPOSE
OF WORKING HIMSELF INTO MAN
Today, many people talk about God’s leading. The word leading has been much misused by men. You may say that God is leading you to preach the gospel today, or that He is leading you to take care of your home tomorrow. The issue is not this or that kind of leading. The question is this: In such leadings, what do you do? By whom are you doing these things? God has not asked you only to be a steward and to manage your household well. He has not asked you only to preach the gospel and to preach it well. God’s goal is to go through you and be constituted in you. Some manage their homes well. But by doing so, God is put aside. The same is true in one’s management of the church. Some are led to manage the church. But the question is this: By what way is this one managing the church? For him to be led to take up the management of the church is one thing, but the way he manages the church is another thing. With some sisters, the more they manage their homes, the worse their homes become. Yet all the while, God is worked into them. Before they try to manage their homes, they do not have God. But after they start managing them, they are filled with God, even though their homes are still not well-managed. God is managing them through their home management. In their managing of their homes, God passes through them. Some may ask, "If a person has God, will she not manage her home well?" Consider the world; it is true that the world is under God’s management. But is the world good? Seemingly, the world is not managed very well. Out of this world, however, God gains a group of people that will allow Him to work Himself into them. This is God’s goal. Even when you save the whole county, if God cannot be worked into you, His plan in man is still defeated. If God can only be preached to people, without being preached into people, His will is still not accomplished.
We have to remember all the time that the need today is for God to work Himself into us, rather than for us to work for God. All those who will only work for God without allowing God to work in them will eventually be rejected. Only those who allow God to work in them through various circumstances, people, matters, and events will be blessed by Him.
(Messages Given During the Resumption of Watchman Nee's Ministry (2 volume set), Chapter 20, by Watchman Nee/Witness Lee)
