THE ABOVE CRUCIAL MATTERS BEING THE MARK OF GOD’S ECONOMY
I hope you will do some homework to read the passages of Scriptures concerning the above five matters: the light of life, the law of life, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Christ living in us, and God operating in us. We must consider these teachings not only in the meetings. We should spend some time to read all the related passages, meditate, and pray about them. I would especially ask the young brothers and sisters to practice these matters much and to remember them. Even while you sleep, you may repeat, “The light of life, the law of life, the anointing, Christ lives in me, God operates in me.” This is truly helpful. If I had ten lives, I would spend them all to teach people about these very matters. Nothing is more important than this today. This is the mark of God’s economy. How pitiful it is among God’s people today! No one helps them to know these things. They talk about many other things that do not help much. It means little whether or not you know those other things. But the sense of life is one thing that is truly meaningful. If we know this, we are alive; if we do not know it, we are dead. This is a matter of life and death. Therefore, I beg you young brothers and sisters to learn to know these matters—the light of life, the law of life, the inner anointing, the living of Christ in us, and the operating of God—in your experience. The inner sense, the inner consciousness, always comes from these five items. The more we are conscious of the inner sense, the more we are healthy spiritually. If you do not have the inner sense, I am afraid that you are wrong.
THE NEED OF OUR OBEDIENCE TO THE INNER SENSE
Since we know these matters, we must take care of our obedience to them. As obedient Christians we must learn to obey the inner working of God, the inner sense, all the day long. We must take care of the inner sense and obey it. The true obedient child of God is one who truly obeys the inner sense. We may obey many teachings, but we may be rebellious to the inner sense. People may admire that we are so obedient to all the teachings and doctrines, yet we ourselves may know that we are always very rebellious to God according to the inner sense. We need to learn to obey God in the inner sense. This is the true meaning of walking according to the spirit. Romans 8 and Galatians 5 both speak of walking according to the spirit or walking by the Spirit. To walk according to the spirit is simply to take care of the inner sense deep within us. When we take care of the inner sense, we are walking according to, or in, the spirit. Thus, to obey the inner sense and walk according to the spirit are one thing.
It is by this obedience that we are able to abide in the Lord. First John 2:27 and 28 tell us to abide in the Lord according to the anointing. This is to abide in the Lord according to the inner sense, the inner consciousness. To have something wrong in our inner consciousness means that we are not abiding in the Lord.
The result of taking care of the inner sense is that we keep the fellowship with the Lord, we know the Lord in a living way, we grow in life, we are built up in the Body, and we have not merely outward power but the inner might in life. By being obedient to the inner consciousness we realize all good things in the spiritual life. This is the secret and the key, but this has been lost by so many Christians. From now on we must consecrate ourselves to the Lord for this: “Lord, now I know that I have the light of life, the law of life, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Christ living in me, and God operating within me. I have all these wonderful, divine things that are so active, alive, and living in me. For this purpose I consecrate myself to You, Lord. I hand myself over to You.” By this you can see that to consecrate ourselves does not mean that we work for the Lord. Rather, it means that we cooperate with Him. We must consecrate ourselves to Him for this, and after our consecration we simply must take care of the inner sense, going along with it not only in great matters but also in small matters in our daily walk and even our family life. In all our daily life and walk we must take care of the inner consciousness.
We must consecrate ourselves once again, read all the related passages of the Scriptures, put ourselves on the test, and practice these things. If the dear brothers and sisters truly put this into practice, there will be a great change among us. We must strictly take care of the inner sense of life, the inner consciousness.
As we have seen, 1 John shows us that our fellowship comes from life; thus, it is the fellowship of life. This fellowship is maintained, on the negative side, by the cleansing of the blood and, on the positive side, by the anointing of the Spirit. The blood is mentioned in chapter one, and the anointing is in chapter two. In the Old Testament type, anything or anyone brought into the presence of God needed to be sprinkled with the blood and anointed. We must learn how to apply the blood of Christ and how to take care of the anointing, the inner consciousness. The sense, the consciousness, of life has very much to do with the fellowship of life. The fellowship of life depends on the consciousness of life. If we are careless with the consciousness of life, we will lose the fellowship of life.
This fellowship comes from life and brings us into light. Fellowship brings light to us because fellowship brings us into the presence of God, who is light. To fellowship with Him means that we are in the light. Experientially, the light gives us the inner consciousness. All these things are related. When we fellowship with God, we are in the light, and when we are in the light, we are full of the inner consciousness and we are clear in the inner sense. Then if anything is wrong, we can apply the blood for cleansing. Following the cleansing of the blood we enjoy the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and by the anointing of the Holy Spirit we have the inner sense, the inner consciousness. It is by all these things that we go on in life. Therefore, I hope that you will learn to take care of all these matters. Then you will know the way for the growth in life.
Again I would ask you to do some homework on these points. If you do, you will receive a double portion. Otherwise, you eventually will not have much benefit from what you have heard. Look into all these points, read all the passages, pray about them, meditate a little, and put them into practice. Then you will learn these things, and you will be able to help others. Among the Lord’s children there is the real need of these matters of the inner life.
(Practical Lessons on the Experience of Life, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee)
