THE NEED FOR OUR COOPERATION
We have the fellowship of life, the sense of life, and the law of life within, and we have the anointing of the Triune God within us. However, this requires our cooperation, and our cooperation depends first on the heart. We speak much about the exercise of the spirit. This is good, but before we learn how to exercise our spirit, we must learn how to deal with our heart—to be renewed in our mind, to have a loving emotion, to be right in our conscience, and to have a soft will.
I hate to see that the dear brothers come simply to listen to messages. If we do not put all these things into practice, the messages will not help much. If we deal with our mind, emotion, conscience, and will, we will have a proper heart, and it will be a useful entrance for God. We will have a good dealing with the Lord, and we will allow Him to have the ground and the way to deal with us in a proper way. Then we will have the Triune God within us as life and the anointing. This requires our cooperation. Therefore, I ask you, especially the young brothers and sisters, to put all this into practice. Practice to be clear in your mind, love the Lord with your emotion, have a right conscience, and be softened in your will. The only way to do this is by praying. We need to go to the Lord to pray, “Lord, give me a clear mind, an understanding heart.” The prayer in Song of Songs 1:4, “Draw me; we will run after you,” is a prayer for a loving heart. We also have to pray, “Lord, give me a loving heart toward You and emotions that love only You.” We also must pray for this, and also pray for our conscience to be right. Then when we pray, we will see that our will is not only hardened but stubborn, so we need to pray for our will to be softened.
If we do not deal with these things, we can never have the proper growth in the inner life. The proper growth of the inner life depends on dealing with the heart. That is why in the New Testament there are many teachings concerning the renewing of the mind, the understanding of the heart, loving the Lord, how the conscience must be good, pure, and without offense, and concerning the will. All the New Testament teachings concerning life stress these matters. Many Christians today read these words in the New Testament, but they do not know why there is so much stress on these four matters. It is simply because these are the things related to our heart. If our heart is not ready and right with God, there is no way for God to deal with us, and there is no way for us to grow.
If we deal with our heart, we will have a pure heart. Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” What does it mean for a person to have a pure heart? It is these four matters—the mind is clear, the emotion is loving, the conscience is right, and the will is soft. This kind of heart is a pure and right heart. It is a proper heart. We all need to deal with our heart in this way. We need such a heart, so we must pray for this.
(Practical Lessons on the Experience of Life, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee)
