THE SEARCHING LAMP
How will the gold in us take shape? There is no question regarding our having the gold within us. Our question concerns transformation, not regeneration. How can we be transformed into His image from glory to glory?
The answer lies with the Spirit. The church as the lampstand has seven lamps, which are God’s seven Spirits. God is Spirit (John 4:24). More than this, we are told in Proverbs 20:27, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord” (Heb.). Within us, then, we have two lamps, the Spirit of God and our human spirit. Inside our little lamp is a stronger lamp. Before we were saved, our spirit was a broken lamp. After we repented, the lamp was restored and began to give forth light. Day by day as we prayed, the shining increased. With regeneration this lamp also had another lamp come into it. This was the Spirit of God. It is because of these two lamps that there is so much shining within us. The two become one, for “he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17).
Man’s spirit, Proverbs 20:27 goes on to say, searches all his inward parts, or, as Darby’s footnote says, “all the chambers of the soul.” In your soul are various chambers, or rooms. The spirit is searching the chamber of your emotions, and of your mind, and of your will.
Though we all have the pure gold in us, the inward parts of our soul may not be open. When we pray, we are afraid to open our emotion, for example, to the Lord. After we reach a certain point in our praying, we close up because we are unwilling to open some inner chamber to Him. We may faithfully attend all the meetings, read the Word, and spend time in prayer. Yet there is a door within that is locked. We are aware of this, yet we tell the Lord that there is no way to open that door, even though we love Him and have paid a price in other ways.
The sisters’ way of getting around such a problem is to shed tears. Because they have learned to win out by crying, they try this same tactic on the Lord. The brothers, on their part, react with stubbornness. “No, Lord. I cannot open that part to You. You just have to forgive me.” Whatever way we try, we cannot subdue the Lord. He will not force us, however. He will wait. Meantime, in that chamber of our soul we are not being transformed to His image.
OPENING THE INNER CHAMBERS
To have our spirit regenerated is simple. We confess our sins and receive the Lord. Then we have the Spirit of God within. To be transformed in our soul, however, is not easy. It needs the lamp of the Lord to search all the inner chambers. There are very few who have opened all their inner chambers to Him.
You may love the Lord, and you may pray regularly for your children and your grandchildren. Yet in your soul are two chambers that you reserve for yourself. You keep the Lord locked out of there.
Many Christians are unaware that they have a spirit. They live in the soul. Without the spirit, however, the soul is dark. It needs the lamp of the Lord. A lamp is for use in darkness. Because man has fallen, he is in darkness. Thus he is corrupt. Because the spirit has lost its function, he has no light. He must repent, that is, turn his being to his spirit.
Before you heard the gospel, you did all kinds of evil things. You utterly neglected your spirit, and fully gave yourself to satisfy your soul. You lived according to your emotion, mind, and will. When you heeded the call to repent, however, you turned and experienced the light shining in the spirit. You were saved and regenerated.
Now that you are saved, how are you living? Do you pay attention to your spirit or still live according to the soul? The only way to have light is to walk according to spirit (Rom. 8:4). That light searches the inward parts of your soul. If you are not in your spirit, you cannot see your true condition. You quarrel with others, certain that you are in the right and unaware that you are in darkness.
(Life Messages, Vol. 2 (#42-75), Chapter 27, by Witness Lee)
