THE NEED TO SEE REVELATION
What we have been touching in these messages is a matter of revelation. We have seen God’s eternal plan, the all-inclusive Christ, the marvelous Spirit, and our spirit. In addition to these four visions, we also need to see clearly that God does not want anything from us. He does not want us to be broken, to improve our behavior, to learn lessons, to suffer, or to bear the cross. Rather, He wants Christ to be sown in us and to grow out of us. This is what He wants. We also need to see that the unsearchable riches, and the great power as well, are already in us. We need to see this.
Recently I fellowshipped with some brothers, saying, “To eat Christ we need to pray-read; to eat Christ we need to call on the Lord’s name; to eat Christ we need to turn to our spirit; and to eat Christ we need to pray a great deal. However, suppose you did not have pray-reading, calling on the Lord’s name, turning to the spirit, or praying. Then what would you do? In other words, suppose you were not allowed to pray-read, to call on the Lord’s name, to turn to your spirit, or to pray, what would you do? Would you still eat Christ or not? Would you have a way to do this?” Here I appreciate the word revelation. If you do not have revelation, you would be finished in this situation. If you have the revelation—if you have seen clearly that Christ has been sown into you, that all the riches of Christ are in you, and that the great power is already in you—then the more you were prohibited from outward activities, the more you would appreciate this revelation. Do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that we should not pray, call on the Lord’s name, pray-read, or turn to our spirit. I do not mean to say that we are now free and that we no longer need to do anything. We should not be this way. We all need revelation. If you have truly seen that Christ is in you, that the unsearchable riches of Christ are in you, and that the great power is in you, then the more you stop the outward activities, the better off you will be. Christ is a seed, and as such, He is living.
Farmers all know that when seed is sown into a field, the best thing to do is to ignore it. Suppose you loosen the soil today to take a look and to try to render a little help to the seed. The next day you do something else to try to help it somewhat, and then you try to pull on the sprout to help it grow. The result will be that the crop will be ruined. Similarly, the primary matter today is not pray-reading, eating and drinking, or turning to our spirit. Rather, it is giving Christ the opportunity to grow and spread in us. We do not need to receive anything anymore. All the riches are already in us. This is what Paul said: “For when I am weak, then I am powerful” (2 Cor. 12:10b). This was because when he was weak, he did not do anything; instead, he allowed the inner power to be expressed. This is revelation.
Do not misunderstand my words. It is correct that we need to pray-read, call on the Lord’s name, turn to our spirit, and pray a great deal. All these things are right, and we really need them. Strictly speaking, however, the growth of Christ in us does not depend on these things directly; rather, it depends on the opportunity we provide for Him to expand in us. The problem is that, because we do not have a strong and clear revelation, although it seems that we understand, we really do not understand. If we are truly clear, we will need to pray-read more, but the nature of our pray-reading will no longer be the same. We will need to call on the Lord’s name more, but the nature of our calling will be changed. We will need to turn to our spirit even more, but our turning now will be different from our turning before because we have seen the vision. Christ does not require us to do anything. He only wants us to give Him the greatest opportunity to spread in us.
In the previous message we used the gas station as an illustration of our relation to the Lord. However, this illustration is not so accurate. Since we have all the riches inside, what else do we need to be filled with? Once Christ comes into us, He is in us forever, and everything comes in with Him. It is not that today Christ comes into us with a little bit of Himself, then tomorrow He adds a little more, and the day after tomorrow He adds some more. Strictly speaking, it is not an adding but a spreading. Everything has already come into us. Now the question is, will we let Him spread? When we see a big peach tree with hundreds of peaches on it, do not forget that five years earlier the peach tree may have been only a seed. When that seed was sown into the soil five years earlier, fertilizer and water may have been added. However, in any case, the substance of life, the function of life, and the shape of life were all contained in that seed. After it has been sown into the soil, all that matters is whether it is given the opportunity to grow, and whether the riches inside are given the chance to develop fully. If you allow the seed to develop today, in five years you will have a tree full of peaches.
We all need to see a revelation. We need to pray, “O Lord, show me the revelations in Ephesians, and show me how Christ is the all-inclusive seed, how all His riches are in the seed, and how He has been sown in me.” Within this seed there are the substance, the function (which is His great power), and the form (which is His image). Do we allow Him to expand in us, to develop all that He is, all that He has, and all that He can do? We definitely need to see the importance of this. When we minister to others, strictly speaking, it is not we who minister to them. We simply help them to see that Christ is already in them and that He needs the opportunity to spread out of them.
(The Revelation of the Mystery, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee)
