THE SPEAKING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
WITHIN US BEING MORE PRECIOUS
One older brother has been a Christian ever since he was a student in school. But for all the years that he had been a Christian, he never knew that God could speak within man. One day he wanted to buy something, but a voice within him said, "Do not buy it." Later, he discovered that the thing he wanted to buy was booty stolen from others. Had he bought it, he would have trespassed the law. This brother told his pastor about this story and told the pastor that God was speaking within him. The pastor told him, "It is enough for God to speak to you from the Bible. There is no need for Him to speak again within you."
We have to know that God still speaks to man through the Holy Spirit today. The Holy Spirit is speaking on God’s behalf within man. On the one hand, those who follow the Lord today cannot act contrary to the Bible or go beyond it. But the more precious fact is that God speaks to man within him. God’s speaking within man will never be contrary to the Bible. If a man has never learned to follow God’s speaking within him, his living and work will not be of much worth.
THE FEELING OF GOD SPEAKING WITHIN MAN
Thirst and Dissatisfaction Being
God’s Calling for Man to Fellowship with Him
What kind of feeling does God give to man when He speaks within man? The best proof of God’s speaking is our feeling of dissatisfaction. If you ask others if they are satisfied, most people will tell you that they neither feel satisfied nor feel dissatisfied. Those who say this prove that they have not allowed God to work within them. If a man does not have God’s word within him, he will feel neither hungry nor satisfied. If a man feels thirsty and dissatisfied, as if he lacks something, it proves that God is working within such a person already. If a man feels empty and lacking in something, this lacking is God’s speaking within him. It speaks of a need. It proves that God is working in him to empty him out. This is like when a man feels hungry, it is his stomach speaking on behalf of water and food.
Satisfaction Being the Result
of Fellowship with God
If your meeting, praying, and study of the Bible do not satisfy you, it means that God is speaking to you and beckoning you to seek after Him and to have more fellowship with Him. Once you fellowship with God, you will be satisfied. You will be filled like a hungry man having taken a meal. When God speaks within man, man becomes hungry. When man meets God, he becomes satisfied. The Lord Jesus says that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are blessed. Also He says that whoever thirsts can come to the Lord to drink. Only the thirsty ones will come to the Lord, and only the thirsty ones will be satisfied. If we receive grace to have fellowship with God, the result will surely be satisfaction. I ate last night, and this morning I am hungry again. This hunger is my stomach speaking for food. When a man is hungry, even if you give him gold and jewels, he will not be satisfied. On the contrary, it will increase his sufferings. There is only one way to solve man’s hunger, and that is to bring him to the food. Only two kinds of people are not hungry, the dead ones and the critically ill ones. After a person has died, all year round he will not be hungry. If you do not have the sense of hunger within, I am afraid you have not been regenerated and have not been enlivened yet.
The Increase of Hunger and Thirst
Being an Indicator of the Growth in Life
The more a person grows, the more hungry he becomes, and the more food he needs. A newborn babe only needs his mother’s milk. But after he takes the milk, he becomes hungry very soon. As he grows, he will need more food; he will need to have the rice, the vegetables, and the meat before his hunger can be satisfied. When a man is first saved, he may think that the pastor’s preaching is very good. But after three or five years, he will feel that the pastor’s preaching does not satisfy his inner need any longer. This does not mean that the preacher’s speaking is not good, or that it is wrong. It is the same pastor. But the growth in life within a man causes him to have higher and deeper needs. Hence, the hunger within man speaks of the degree of growth he has. Today, your need is God’s need. Outwardly, it seems to be man’s own need. But actually it is God’s need. Man’s need speaks of God’s need. Man’s dissatisfaction speaks of God’s dissatisfaction. It is like the prodigal son having no rest away from home; it speaks of the father having no rest at home. Only when the father has rest will the son have rest. The rest the father has and the rest the son has are the same rest. The two rests are joined together and are related to one another. Frequently, we tell people that the Samaritan woman was thirsty. But the Lord was even more thirsty. The woman’s food was the Lord, whereas the Lord’s food was the woman. When the Savior meets the sinner, He is satisfied, and when the sinner meets the Savior, he is also satisfied.
(Messages Given During the Resumption of Watchman Nee's Ministry (2 volume set), Chapter 30, by Watchman Nee/Witness Lee)
