The Will of God - One Person
What is the meaning of the universe? Why do stars, planets, heavens, earth, seas, abyss exist? These kind of questions were asked by mankind perhaps for every generations of human. Some come up with their scientific theory. Some come up with their philosophy theory. But, what does bible say about it?

Rev 4:11 You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, for You have created all things, and because of Your will they were, and were created.


This verse tell us that all thing were created because of God’s will. The reason why we live, why we exist, why the sun is there above our head, is His will. His will is what God intends, what God wants. what God want to achieve. There is something is His heart that cause Him to create all things. There is something that He wants. The question arise, what does God want? What does God intends to achieve? What is His Will?

Paul in the books of Colossians tell us
Col 1:9 Therefore we also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease praying and asking on your behalf that you may be filled with the full knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Paul eagerly prayed on our behalf so that we may be filled with the full knowledge of His will, with the knowledge of what His desire.This knowledge is not a part knowledge, but full knowledge. And this is the knowledge of His will, the reason why everything is created. Paul is such a one who know the knowledge of His will, otherwise it is not possible for him to pray and ask on our behalf for something he does not know. Paul knew what God’s will is, he knew why everything was created, he knew why God had to become man, he know why Christ had to die. He know His will, and he prayed that we may know God’s will as well. And this will of God is revealed on this letter he wrote to Colossians.

On the letter to Ephesus Paul wrote:
Eph 5:16-17 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

He exhorted the saints in Ephesus to understand what the will of the Lord is. Before he said this word, he charged them to redeem the time, not wasting the time. This shows the reason why they waste most of their time. The reason is that they did not understand the will of the Lord. If we do not understand the will of the Lord, surely we will waste our time. Understanding the will of God is the prerequisite to redeem the time. Thus, what is the will God?

In Col 1:9 Paul speak concerning the full knowledge of His will. The will of God he mentioned is not His will in small matters, rather this is the eternal will of God, the great will of God. The will of God here is not His will in our job, in our education, in our marriage, but this is the eternal will of God, His heart desire from eternity, His economy. With this great will of God we need to be filled, even fully. To have the full knowledge of God’s will is to have the revelation of God’s plan so that we may know what God plans to do in the universe.

Colossians is a book concerning the will of God. We can see the eternal will of God in Col 1:15-18
Col 1:15-18 Who is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation, Because in Him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or lordships or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and unto Him. And He is before all things, and all things cohere in Him; And He is the Head of the Body, the church; He is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, that He Himself might have the first place in all things;

The eternal will of God is one Person. God’s will is in this Person only. God wants to have One Person. God intends to have this One person magnified. He needs to have this Person as the firstborn of all creation, the firstborn Son of God, the Head of the Body, centrality and universality in God’s economy, everything in the divine economy. This Person is Christ, in Him all things created, in Him the universe created.

The will of God is in Christ, concentrated in Christ, and for Christ; Christ is everything in the will of God. After knowing this, then we can have second question. What is God’s will in us in related to His eternal will? What should we do for the sake of His will? What kind of clothes we buy for the sake of His will? Whom should we marry for the sake of His economy? What kind of job we take? How we maintain our health for His sake? The sequence of knowing is very important, otherwise our prayer will be self-centered, asking what is God’s will to meet my will. If we do not know His economy, we will get lost in our self-personal universe. And, we will waste most of our time.

Knowing God’s eternal economy is not merely mental understanding, but this is spiritual understanding, subjective knowing from within, deep realization of His economy. This requires prayers and revelation from the Lord in order to come to full knowledge of His will.

Back to the first question. What is the meaning of the universe? Why do all things exist? All things exist because He wants to have Christ as everything. The sun above our head exists because He wants to have Christ as the Head of the Body. Man was created to enjoy and to be filled with God. We were born so that Christ can be wrought into us. We were living so that Christ can become our life, our living, and eventually our everything, and we become nothing. This is God’s economy. This is God’s will. This is the meaning why you live and exist in this universe !!
Saturday, December 04, 2010 | Category: | 0 comments

Church is absolutely Organic
The burden of these messages is to point out that the church is absolutely organic. We need to see that the church as the Body of Christ is altogether organic, absolutely of life, with nothing organizational. The Body of Christ is the organism of the Triune God. The Triune God has an organism. An organism and an organization are entirely different. To illustrate this difference, we may compare a living person to a wooden stand. The wooden stand is without life, while a living person is full of life. The wooden stand is an organization of pieces of wood put together, but a living person has many members which are joined together organically. A person is a living, moving, functioning organism, unlike a robot, which is an organization of inorganic parts. The church is not an organization without life, but an organism with life.

One of the most damaging things to the church is organization. History tells us that nothing kills, damages, and annuls the reality of the church as much as organization does. Some may think that the appointment of the elders is something organizational. They may feel that an appointment is always something organizational. We must realize, however, that the elders are appointed according to the manifestation of the measure of their growth in the divine life. To appoint a principal of a school or a manager in a corporation is not according to life. This kind of appointment is organizational. But in the Lord’s recovery, according to the New Testament, the appointment of the elders is absolutely according to the growth in life. If a brother does not have the adequate growth in life, he cannot be an elder. According to their physical life, older people are elders. Their age comes from their growth in their physical life. Their being elders is an organic matter. In like manner, the elders in the churches are appointed according to the manifestation of the measure of their growth in the divine life. The appointment of the elders is altogether organic, having nothing to do with organization.

To even mention the word organization concerning the church and the church life is wrong. The church and the church life are not in the field of organization. The Apostle Paul told us that the church is God’s farm (1 Cor. 3:9). Anything that grows on a farm does not belong to an organization. Rice or wheat cannot be organized by a farmer to grow in a certain way. A farmer plants the seed and then waters what he has planted. His work on the farm is something of life. Planting and watering are matters of life. Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God made to grow” (1 Cor. 3:6). The church as God’s farm, God’s cultivated land, is something totally of life, having nothing to do with organization. Paul also tells us that the church is God’s building (3:9). A physical building is something of organization because it is composed of lifeless materials. But the church as God’s building is not a lifeless building. It is a building full of life. The divine life is the basic and unique factor of all the building materials of this spiritual building, God’s house. God’s house is an organic matter.

(Witness Lee, "Organism of the Triune God in the Organic Union of His Divine Trinity, The", LSM)
Tuesday, August 03, 2010 | Category: | 0 comments

What is Regeneration ?
In regeneration the Spirit of God regenerates us in our spirit with the divine life. Regeneration is not an outward matter. It is not “to mend one’s ways and turn over a new leaf” as people generally say; nor is it, as the Chinese say, that “everything in the past died yesterday and everything henceforth is born today.” That is the common Chinese saying, not the biblical revelation. The reality of regeneration is related to the two spirits. One is the divine Spirit of God, the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ; the other is our created human spirit. On the day we received the Lord with repentance by believing into His name, He as the divine Spirit came into our spirit to enliven it; thus, we were regenerated in our created spirit. This is the real meaning of regeneration. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6). The Spirit begetting the spirit is the reality of regeneration. Our spirit has been regenerated and made alive; hence, we are a group of regenerated ones.

Regeneration is our being born of God as God’s species (John 1:13), that is, that we may be of the same kind as God. Such a concept is exceedingly great, high, and profound. In the beginning, we human beings were created according to the image of God and were of God’s kind. Yet we did not have God’s life or His divine nature. However, when our spirit was made alive by His Spirit through regeneration, we were born to be children of God. John 1:12 says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name.” God’s children are God’s species. Goats beget goats, cows beget cows, and humans beget humans; likewise, God begets gods. We who have been born of God are God’s species. We do not share in the divine Godhead, but we have God’s life and nature. The heart’s desire and good pleasure of God are to have a group of people who are exactly like Him, having His nature and His life to be His expression. This is why we need regeneration. We need to be regenerated not because we have sins but because God’s desire is that we have His life and be exactly like Him.

Furthermore, regeneration means that, in addition to our natural life, we have the divine, eternal life of God (John 3:16, 36a) as the basis and means of our spiritual life and living. Regeneration is not that we may improve our behavior, that we may have religious zeal and live a devout life, or that we may pay attention to ethics and morality. Rather, regeneration is for us to have God’s eternal life in addition to our natural life; this is to have the uncreated life, which is God Himself, in addition to our original, created life. This divine, eternal life becomes the basis and means of our living. What God desires today is for all of our living to be based on this life and by this life.
Thursday, January 07, 2010 | Category: | 0 comments

The church is Organism, not Organization

Through the twenty centuries of church history the matter of how the church should be organized has been a continual problem. The church does not consist of only one or two persons. On the day of Pentecost alone three thousand were saved and brought into the church (v. 41). Not long after, five thousand more were saved (4:4). It would be difficult even to know how to bring together only these eight thousand people. Eventually, there was not only a church in Jerusalem, but there were also churches in Samaria, Antioch, Asia Minor, and Europe. Furthermore, in the church there were not only believers but also apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers (Eph. 4:11). There were also elders, deacons, and deaconesses. All these believers, churches, gifts, and serving ones had to be arranged, or organized, in some way.

Actually, according to God’s New Testament economy, there should not be any organization in the church. The church is not an organization but an organism. A desk, which is an organization, consists of many pieces fitted together without any life. However, our physical body, which is an organism, was not organized but was born and grew into its present form. An organism with its many organic parts is altogether a matter of life. The word organic means “of or related to life.” An organism is an entity entirely of life. Nothing in our body is produced by organization. In contrast, in an organization nothing is living; every piece is dead. Everything in an organization is a human work arranged by human hands.

Today’s Christianity is altogether an organization. Positions and offices in many denominations are decided by elections. Pastors today are often hired and fired. However, nothing in an organic body can be elected, hired, or fired. Our arms are not placed on our bodies by an election, nor can an old or weak arm be hired or fired. Elections, hiring, and firing are inorganic tools of human organization. There should be no elections, hiring, or firing in the church, because the church is altogether an organism. However, today’s Christianity is full of elections, hiring, and firing because it is an organization.

The church is an organism, not an organization, yet there is surely the need of some arrangement among thousands of people who come together in various cities as local churches. Finding this arrangement and the proper way for all the affairs of the church to be carried out is a great problem. Most seminaries have a course concerning the organization of the church, but the concept of organization related to the church cannot be found in the New Testament. We need to see the basic principle that any kind of organization leads to a hierarchy and that any kind of hierarchy is an insult to the headship of Christ.

To work for the Lord, we should not rely on organization; once there is an arrangement and organization, our work will be similar to a worldly enterprise that first establishes a small unit and then develops into a bigger organization. This is how a general leads an army. First, he trains the soldiers; then he forms them into a corps or division. Although such an arrangement is not altogether useless in the Lord’s work, if our work relies entirely on organization, it will become like degraded Christianity. Organization is not a sign of advance but of becoming fallen. If the church is established by organization, it is merely an organization, not the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is an organism. It can be compared to the human body. In the operation of the human body, although there is a certain amount of organization, it is linked to the body organically. For example, although dentures can be inserted into our mouth, they are merely an organization; they may be in the right position and have the proper function, but they do not have an organic relation with the body.
Monday, July 20, 2009 | Category: | 0 comments

Lord Jesus is not a religion
The Lord Jesus is not a religion or a set of forms, regulations, or teachings. He is a living Person whom we may contact day by day. As the all-inclusive Spirit indwelling our spirit, He is real and available. Hour by hour and even moment by moment, we should exercise our spirit to contact Him in an intimate way. We need to develop the habit of calling on the Lord’s name at all times and in all places. If we build up this practice, we shall be able to say, “O Lord Jesus, Your name is the sweetest name on earth.”

As we contact the Lord and call on His name, we must walk with Him, live by Him, and do everything according to the index of His eyes. The index denotes the area of the face around the eyes, the look as being the index of the inward thoughts and feelings to signify the presentation of the whole person. According to 2 Corinthians 2:10, Paul lived in the person, the index, of Christ. He did everything according to the expression conveyed through the index of the Lord’s eyes. We also should live according to this index of Christ. However, this is possible only when we are in His presence. If we are away from Him or if there is something between us and Him, we cannot live according to the index of His eyes. For example, a good wife will carefully watch the index of her husband’s eyes and live according to it. This is the way we should live in relation to the Lord. Everything we say or do should be in the index of the eyes of the Lord Jesus. As I am speaking to a brother, I should speak according to the indicators of the Lord’s index.

It is possible for us all to experience this. We can live in such intimate contact with the Lord Jesus that in every detail of our daily life we can behave according to the index of the Lord’s eyes. As I am about to put on a particular tie, I spontaneously know whether or not the Lord likes that tie. If He approves of it, I shall put it on. But if it displeases Him, I will gladly get rid of it. Oh, how sweet it is to live in the index of the eyes of Christ!

Romans 8:4 says, “That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to flesh, but according to spirit.” There is not the definite article here before the word “spirit,” which makes it difficult to decide whether it is our human spirit or the Holy Spirit. Therefore it must be the mingled spirit, the Holy Spirit and our spirit mingled as one. So now we must walk according to this mingled spirit, which simply means to walk according to the living Christ as the Spirit who indwells our spirit. Here there is the real fulfillment of the law. Whatever the law requires we will spontaneously fulfill, not by ourselves, but through Christ, the Spirit moving in our spirit.

This shows us how to take Christ as our person, which is to walk and live according to the mingled spirit. Day by day we should not have our being according to teaching, feelings, concepts, or circumstances, but according to the mingled spirit. Praise the Lord that we do have a spirit and that Christ as the life-giving Spirit is indwelling our spirit to make these two spirits one. Now we must walk according to this mingled spirit, and to walk according to this spirit is to take Christ as our person. The wording is different, but the fact is the same. To practically take Christ as our person is to have our being wholly according to the spirit.

In the entire Bible, especially in the New Testament, there is not one verse which tells us that we must walk according to Bible teaching. This does not mean that I am against the Bible. I am absolutely for the Bible, but our walk should not be something according to the outward teachings of the Bible; it must be according to a living person. If we walk only according to the teaching of the Bible, we will get into trouble. This is because there are many things that the Bible does not mention. It never tells us how long or short to cut our hair; nor does it say whether we should smoke or not. If you read the Bible two-hundred times, you will not find one verse about smoking. If the Lord meant for us to walk according to the Bible, the Bible would need to have thousands of pages! It would be difficult for us to carry such a book! But praise the Lord, it is so simple. We simply must learn to walk according to the mingled spirit.
Sunday, July 12, 2009 | Category: | 0 comments

God's Way

In verse 30 Paul continues, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things of my weakness.”

In ancient times as well as today, there was the concept that a person who is blessed of God should not have suffering. Paul’s adversaries thought that if Paul were truly of God, God would bless him and he would not suffer. They regarded Paul’s suffering as a sign that he was not of God or was not under God’s blessing. Paul’s concept was different. Here Paul seems to be saying to the Judaizers, “If you were truly of God, God would allow you to suffer a great deal. A genuine minister of Christ is one who suffers.” Many Christians today have the concept that if a person is rich, prosperous, and flourishing, he is a faithful servant of God and is blessed by Him. They also have the concept that those who must endure suffering and hardship are not under the blessing of God.

In verses 31 through 33 Paul concludes, “The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus, the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes to seize me, and I was lowered in a basket through a window, through the wall, and escaped his hands.” If you had been Paul, would you not have felt ashamed to escape in this way? Some may ask, “Why was it necessary for an ambassador of Christ to escape in a basket? Why did he not claim the victory of Jesus and the headship of the King of kings over this ethnarch? There is no need for you to escape in a basket through a window. This man cannot be God’s chosen one, for God does not bless him.”

We need to understand why Paul wrote these verses in the way he did. Humanly speaking, Paul had no glory or honor. Moreover, his way of speaking in this chapter seems to be foolish. Paul was in a very difficult environment. He suffered a great deal, and he was even short of food. It seems that God was not with him and did not honor him. Where are the miracles promised in Mark 16? It seems that the Lord did not supply Paul. He even allowed him to be shipwrecked and to spend a day and a night afloat at sea. Why did Paul emphasize things that are neither honorable nor glorious? Paul’s way is the divine way. In contrast, the concept of many Christians is versus God’s way. What Paul writes in this chapter certainly corresponds to the life of the Lord Jesus. When He was on earth, the Lord suffered affliction. Even though He was the Son of God, His life was not a life of prosperity or outward blessing. Apparently, the Lord Jesus was not blessed by God. When He was crucified, the Jews mocked Him and said that if He were of God, God would deliver Him from the cross. But instead of sending angels to rescue the Lord Jesus, God allowed Him to die on the cross. In principle, Paul’s experience was the same.

By writing this chapter in the way he did, Paul made it clear not only to the believers at Corinth, but to all believers in Christ throughout the centuries, what God’s way is. God’s way is seen in the genuine apostles, in the genuine ministers of the new covenant, not in the so-called super-apostles. Those false apostles may be prosperous and flourishing, and they may have no need to escape in a basket. But the real apostles experience adversity and suffering because the entire earth is opposed to God’s economy. Moreover, this present age is not the time for us to prosper and flourish. Rather, it is a time for us to suffer for the sake of the Body of Christ. In the words of Colossians 1:24, we are filling up what is lacking of the sufferings of Christ for the sake of His Body, the church.

On the cross the Lord Jesus suffered for our redemption. But during His life on earth, He suffered for the building up of the Body. We cannot participate in the sufferings of Christ for redemption. It would be blasphemy to say that we can participate in such sufferings. However, we must share in Christ’s sufferings for His Body. This means that we must follow His way, the narrow way. We must walk in His footsteps and bear the cross. The Lord Jesus lived a life of suffering, and we must do the same. This is to fill up what is lacking of the sufferings of Christ for the building up of the church, His Body.
Monday, June 22, 2009 | Category: | 0 comments

What is the Truth ?

John 8:32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

Nineteen hundred years ago, Pilate asked, "What is truth?" (John 18:38). Many people have also asked this question. We cannot explain the biblical meaning of truth according to our concept. We have to consider what truth is according to God's Word.

The word truth in Greek means "absolute reality." Hence, truth is not a theory but a reality. We do not know the theory behind many real things, yet we can touch the fact and the reality of them.

The Lord Jesus said, "I am...the reality" (John 14:6). The truth mentioned in the Bible refers to nothing other than the reality. What is reality? It is what we really are before God as a result of the Lord Jesus' accomplished work. This is truth, and this is reality. The Lord Jesus has shed His blood to redeem all those who belong to Him. This is a fact. Because of Him, I am a redeemed person before the Lord. This is the truth. The truth is what I am as a result of the facts accomplished in the Lord Jesus. I can only have the truth through the work that the Lord Jesus has accomplished. If the Lord Jesus had not worked, I would not have any truth or any reality before the Lord. I was a dead man and a sinner before God; I did not have any standing or anything before Him. But now, thank the Lord, through the work of the Lord Jesus, I have the reality before God; I have gained something solid and real. This real and solid thing is the fact that I am now a redeemed person. We must remember that the truth mentioned in the Bible is not doctrines preached on a platform, but a fact before the Lord. A doctrine is man's explanation of something, while the truth is what we have become in the eyes of God through the accomplishments of the Lord Jesus. Through the work of the Lord Jesus, God has made me another person. This is a truth; it is a reality. We must remember that in God's eyes, the work of Jesus Christ is finished. The truth is what we have become as a result of this work. Truth is Christ; it is the Lord Jesus Himself because all the realities are in Christ. All the facts that we have been speaking of are in Christ. We can say that two plus two equalling four is a truth, but it is not the truth that we are speaking of here. The truth that we are speaking of here is just Christ Himself.
Saturday, June 13, 2009 | Category: | 0 comments