RESTORING OUR FELLOWSHIP WITH THE LORD THROUGH DEALINGS
Whenever we sense that we are disconnected from Christ, we have to deal with it immediately. Before we preach the gospel or preach the word, if we sense that we are not connected to Christ, we have to deal with this right away in order that we may be reconnected with the “electricity,” the Spirit. The reason why our preaching cannot touch people is that we are not connected or joined to Christ. The One who touches people is Christ as the Spirit. It is not our mind, our thought, our eloquence, or our knowledge that can touch or minister to others; rather, it is the Christ transfused through our preaching who can touch and minister to people. Therefore, we must be connected to Christ all the time.
Sometimes we may have the experience that right before we are going to speak, our inner fellowship with the Lord is interrupted. At this time, we should go to the Lord immediately to deal with what needs to be dealt with in order to restore the fellowship. There is no problem with the Christ who is in us; however, if we do not abide in Christ or fellowship with Him but speak by ourselves in our mind and in our determination, Christ will be gone. This does not mean that Christ is no longer in us but that our fellowship with Him is interrupted. Thus, we must learn that when we are not moved inwardly, we should not say anything, but when we have a feeling within, we should speak according to this inner feeling. We must be cautious and fearful to speak according to our memory, knowledge, and doctrines; rather, we must speak according to the feeling of Christ inwardly. In this way, what we speak will be Christ and the Spirit.
CHRIST BEING THE UNIQUE GOAL
We should contact Christ in everything we do. When we serve, we have to contact Christ; when we read the Bible, we have to contact Christ; when we preach the gospel, we have to contact Christ; when we talk, we have to contact Christ; when we pray, we have to contact Christ. We must always contact Christ inwardly. For this we have to practice in our daily living firstly to be connected with Christ, secondly to do everything in union with Christ, and thirdly to take Christ as the goal all the time. If a saint is sad, we should not merely comfort him; we have to give him Christ. When we preach the gospel, we should not only show people that they are sinful, but we should also show them that they need Christ and that God’s purpose in them is for them to receive Christ. We may speak thousands of messages or do thousands of things, but in all of them our unique goal must be Christ. In this way our daily living, our work, and our service will be spiritual and will have spiritual reality.
(The Crucified Christ, Chapter 13, by Witness Lee)
