THE FOCUS OF THE BIBLE
What God wants is a Person, not some thing. This Person is beyond our understanding. He is the infinite, eternal God. He is the Creator. Yet He became flesh. He lived on this earth. He passed through death, subdued it, and entered into resurrection. Then He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As such, He has entered into us and now lives in our spirit. Once He has entered us, He will never leave. He not only stays, but wants to settle down. He wants to make His home in all the inner chambers of our heart—our mind, our emotion, and our will.
This is the heart of the Bible. You may forget the story of Enoch, for example, but do not forget this focal point. If I lose an ear, I can still live; but if my heart is removed, I am through. Too many Christians today are dealing with the little finger, or even a fingernail of the little finger! They argue about whether the nail is square or triangular. They write books to prove that it is half round and half square! But the heart they disregard. The Lord’s recovery is to bring us back to the heart. Do not argue about the ten toes! Come back to the heart: God, the mystery of the universe; Christ, the mystery of God; the church, the mystery of Christ; and we His people, living Him.
THE KEY TO SEEING THE VISION
Do you want this vision to be clear to you? Pray! But do not focus your prayer on things, persons, or situations. Give yourself to pray over these verses. You may pray, “Lord, it pleased You to reveal Christ in me. This was a pleasure to God. God was pleased. God was pleased not to teach me, but to reveal. Reveal! Reveal His Son, not Theresa, not an angel, but His Son! In me, not in my mind, but in me!” If you will pray-read in this way, you will become excited. You will realize you are no ordinary person. You will want to declare to the universe that you have Christ in you. You will become Christ-conscious and Christ-centered. Your pride in being an American, or a Texan, or a Scot will fade away. It pleased God to reveal His Son in you! His Son!
By pray-reading all the verses we have listed at the beginning of the message, your mind and even your whole being will be set upon the spirit. You will be saturated with a view of Christ as the mystery of God. You will realize that Christ is in you as your life. Do not wonder how you can be rid of the seven layers that keep you in the tomb! As you read and pray, they will all drop off with no further effort on your part.
While you are praying, the understanding will come. As you digest and assimilate these verses, you will enjoy their riches. Though their words are clear, they convey a mystery. How could Christ make His home in your heart? How could you be filled unto all the fullness of God? As you pray, you will realize that “unto all the fullness of God” means “resulting in the proper church life.” All the fullness of God is the Body of Christ, the church, the fullness of Him that fills all in all (Eph. 1:23). When Christ makes His home in your heart, then, the result will be the proper church life.
Take Colossians 3:11 for another example. Here it says that in the new man “there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman, but Christ is all and in all.” As you pray over this verse, your view of the church will become clear. The church is the new man, not an organization but the Body of Christ, an organism. In this new man Christ is all and in all. The church is Christ, being all—that is, being you, me, and every other believer—and being in all, that is, being in every one of us.
Pray yourself into these verses and pray them into you. Then you will see that what God wants is Christ, not the Christ of knowledge and doctrine, but the Christ of experience. This Christ must be mingled with you. He must saturate you with all He is. Once you have this view, it kills ethics, religion, human culture, natural virtues, and even your spiritual seeking. In this vision only Christ survives.
Even though nearly two thousand years have gone by, the Lord Jesus still does not have what He is after. There may be millions of Christians, but few pay attention to this focus of the biblical revelation. Will you bestir yourself to get into this focus? Will you lay other things aside and deal with the Lord about these verses? “Lord, reveal this matter in Galatians 1:15a and 16a to me. I know this is serious, but I don’t fully grasp it. Infuse me with what it means.” Pray this way over all these verses until they are a part of your being. Then you will realize how pitiful the situation among Christians is. You will see that they are off, caring for minor matters and neglecting the heart. May we be those who see the focus of the Bible.
(Life Messages, Vol. 2 (#42-75), Chapter 14, by Witness Lee)
