OVERCOMING THE WORLD
Your experience will confirm this. Before you were saved, you loved the world. Even afterwards, the world still attracted you. Whenever you still felt drawn to the world, however, you can testify that something within you was opposed to that attraction. There was a part inside you that would not agree with your continuing to love the world. Your mind might dwell on worldly things. Your emotions might be stirred by the world’s appeal. Your will might lean toward the world’s allure. Your spirit, however, utterly refused to go along. Within you it was constantly hating the world. It is our spirit which overcomes the world.
Let us go along with this part! Do not follow the dictates of your mind. Begin early in the day by saying to the Lord, “Lord, thank You that I have a part within me that has been born of You. Thank You for my spirit, which overcomes the world. Lord, have mercy upon me. Grant me the portion of grace for this day that I may live You by this part which has been born of You. Thank You, Lord, that I have such a part within me.”
Do not try to use another organ to overcome the world. If you want to see, you need to exercise your eyes, not your ears! To overcome the world, the right organ is your regenerated spirit. It is not your clever mind or your strong will. Your spirit was regenerated when you believed in the Lord Jesus. It has been born of God, with God, and in God. This organ is capable of overcoming the world.
THE SEED OF GOD
“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9).
This verse with “whosoever” seems to refer to the whole person. From 5:4, however, we know that only a part of us is born of God. Notice the second part of the verse: “His seed remaineth in him.” The seed of God abides in us.
Suppose you want to grow some flowers. You buy the seeds and sow them into the earth. The seed is the seed of the flower, but it is also the flower itself. The same is true of the seed of God; the seed of God is God Himself planted in you as a seed. A few days after you plant the flower seeds, something will break through the soil. After another little period of time, sprouts will appear. Before too long you will see the beautiful blossoms. If you have planted carnation seeds, you will see the carnation blossoms. What blossoms from the seed of God? This seed grows, sprouts, and blossoms God Himself!
God is a seed in us, growing until He Himself blossoms forth. This is not a human teaching, or Greek philosophical thought, or Chinese ethics. It is a heavenly truth. The Triune God, the almighty, infinite, eternal God has been sown into our spirit to grow Himself and to blossom Himself!
In this series of messages we have been considering how to live Christ. We have already said that we live Him by fellowship, by mutual abiding, and by the anointing. Now we add what we have covered here. We live Christ by the spirit born of God and by the seed of God which grows God from within us and blossoms Him out. Because we have been born of God, we have the Spirit of God and the life of God within our spirit. Instead of committing sin, this wonderful spirit overcomes the world.
Let us live Christ by the spirit and by this seed of God within us.
(The Mending Ministry of John, Chapter 10, by Witness Lee)
