The Bible also says, "And the Lord is the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:17). He is the Spirit for the purpose of filling us up with Himself. He is the life-giving Spirit, and we are the containers. He is the "Coca-Cola," and we are the Coke bottles. There is no need for us to do anything except to be filled up with Him. Perhaps you want to know how to preach the gospel. The best way to preach the gospel is to contain Christ and convey Him to others. Do not try to preach by doctrine. You have to be filled up with Christ. You have to contain Christ and convey Christ to others.
Some may say that we need to be humble and kind. The best way to be humble and kind is to contain Christ. To contain Christ is the all-inclusive way. The wives should not try to love their husbands. Instead, they should do their best to be filled up with Christ. When you come to the meetings, do not try to get more help from the messages. Instead, open yourself up to be filled up with Jesus again. When we come to the meetings, we are coming to the heavenly gas station to be filled up with Jesus. I hope that whenever we come together, we have the sense that we are going to be filled up again. We are the containers of Jesus. We need to be filled up afresh and anew all the time.
The Lord’s children today have the concept that they need more teachings. We are like Nicodemus in John 3. He told the Lord, "You have come from God as a teacher" (v. 2). This indicates that he may have thought he needed better teachings so that he could improve himself. But the Lord told him that he needed to be regenerated, which means that he needed to receive the Lord as the life-giving Spirit. I hope that we can have a change in our concept. We do not need teachings for self-improvement. We need to be filled up with Christ. We are vessels, containers. As containers, we do not care for knowledge or doctrinal teachings. We just care for being filled up with Jesus. In order to fill us up, Jesus needs to be the life-giving Spirit.
In one sense, I encourage you to confess all your failures. But in another sense, do not try to deal with your wrongdoings and mistakes. You should forget about everything and come to Jesus to be filled up. Sometimes the churches have practiced some "burnings" to give the saints an opportunity to clear up their lives from sinful and worldly things (Acts 19:18-19). But if you just burn something, that means nothing. You burn things to take away all the wrong "fillings." But if you take away all these things and do not have the filling up of Jesus, this means nothing. The Christian life is a life of being filled up with Jesus.
We need to be emptied in our inward being to give more space, more room, to Jesus. Why do you have to repent and confess? Because you have to be emptied. You have to get all the wrong "fillings" out of you. The main purpose of repenting, confessing, and getting rid of all the evil things is to get yourself emptied that you may be filled again and again, all the time, with the living Spirit, who is Jesus Himself.
God is the Father, the Father is the Son, and the Son is the Spirit. In order for God to be the Spirit that we may receive Him into us, He had to pass through a process. He had to pass through incarnation, human living, death on the cross, burial in the tomb, and resurrection. In resurrection He became the all-inclusive Spirit. The Christian life, all-inclusively speaking, is a matter of being filled with Him. If you are filled with Him, you are saved, redeemed, regenerated, and brought back to God Himself. We should forget about everything else and say, "O Lord, I am Your container. I need to be filled up with You."
(The Living and Practical Way to Enjoy Christ, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)