GOD HUMBLING HIMSELF TO BE OUR ENJOYMENT

Regrettably, Christians today are full of common, religious concepts about God. They realize that there is a sovereign Lord in this universe who is great, holy, and bright. They also realize that as creatures they should worship such a sovereign Creator. This is not an erroneous concept, but it is altogether religious; it does not reflect the true revelation in the Bible. If we understand the Bible, our eyes will be opened to see that this great, holy, bright, and sovereign Lord has humbled Himself to meet with small, lowly, filthy, and sinful men such as we. Just as He was happy to speak with the immoral Samaritan woman by the well in Sychar (John 4:5), He is happy to contact us, the despicable sinners. He desires to dispense Himself into us. Even though He is our Redeemer on the cross and the Lord of all on the throne, He has condescended and lowered Himself to be as small and lowly as we are so that we can receive Him.

I sometimes have a wonderful thought as I meditate on the Lord, and I say, “Lord, You have become so small that You are even the same as I am. You have not made Yourself greater than I am; instead, You have become as small as I am. You lowered Yourself to be found in fashion as a man. If You were five feet taller than I am, I could not reach You. I know that You are as low as I am. This is the reason I can fellowship with You and be filled with sweetness and joy instead of fear.” My fellowship with the Lord is sweeter and more intimate than the time I spend with my own mother. When I was young, my heart was filled with warmth and comfort every time I saw my mother. In the same way, there is absolutely no fear when I contact the Lord. I can say, “Lord, while I am touching You, I experience an intimacy and sweetness that far exceeds my feelings toward my mother.” This is not because I have become as great as the Lord. No, it is because He has become low. I have not become tall; rather, He has become small. I am the same person. I have not changed. My sinful nature is still with me. I am wicked, depraved, in the old creation, and in the evil world. But I praise the Lord that I can fellowship with Him in my situation. I do not have the slightest feeling that He is in heaven and is greater than I am. Rather, I feel that He is small and lowly. He is the same as I am. I can fellowship with Him, touch Him, and enjoy Him.

The Bible reveals such a Lord to us. He is our enjoyment. We can enjoy Him as our life, our Husband, our food, our drink, our habitation, our dwelling place, our strength, our love, joy, comfort, healing, and everything we need.

When we worship Him, we should not consider Him as a great and sovereign Lord sitting far above all. We should not be afraid to approach Him. There is no need to pray to Him with trembling and trepidation. Approaching Him in this way proves that we have no revelation and that we have insufficient knowledge of Him; we are void of light and are filled with religious concepts. If we have revelation, we will see that while He is high and lofty, the Lord of glory and holiness, He also loves to dispense Himself into us. He wants us to draw near to Him. If He remained in heaven, we could neither be saved nor receive Him as life. If He remained on the throne, we could not touch Him or enjoy Him. But now He has stepped forward. He has lowered Himself, left the throne, and come to us. He is now where we are. He is as low as we are, and He is the same as we are. He has condescended and come to us in order to make Himself available to us for our enjoyment.

Every child of God needs to realize that the God whom we worship and serve is not the God of our religious concept. Even though our God is the Lord of all, He has lowered Himself, humbled Himself, to the extent that He has become the same as we are. He is the same as we are in everything except sin. He did this in order to make Himself available to us for our enjoyment and so that we can gain Him and experience Him. He wants us to receive Him into us as our everything.

HOW TO ENJOY GOD

Some may now be anxious to know how to enjoy God. Since God is life, food, drink, light, strength, and everything to us, how can we touch Him? Let us consider two points.

Turning to Our Inner Being

First, God is inside of us. If we want to enjoy Him, we should learn to turn to our inner being. We must turn in order to exercise our inner being. God is not outside of us. Even if we went to heaven today, we would not find Him there, because He is within us. He dwells in our spirit. We do not need to look for Him outside. He is very near to us; He is within us.

Being Calm

Second, we must learn to be calm before Him and pray to Him. In other words, we need to fellowship with Him. Although God is in us, we are often drawn to the outside world through busy distractions. To be busy is to have our heart drawn away by distractions. When our outer man is busy, our heart is dead to God. The Chinese character for busy is composed of the root words for heart and dead. When a person is busy, his heart is dead. Our heart may also be asleep even though it is not dead. The Chinese character for forget is also composed of the root words for heart and dead, but the character for heart is turned on its side. This shows that it is asleep. Forgetfulness means that the heart is asleep. This is not a joke. The heart should not be dead, and it should not be asleep. We do not want either situation. We should be normal and exercise our inward being in quietness in order to absorb God. The best prayer is one that absorbs God. Prayer has nothing to do with how many words we utter. It is a matter of finding a quiet time to turn our busy heart to the inner chamber in order to fellowship with God and to absorb His very being. We can then realize that He is our life, food, drink, light, strength, joy, and comfort. He is the answer to whatever we need. This is the meaning of being a Christian. We are not those in religion who worship a God who is high above and far away from us. A Christian does not worship in this way. Instead, he abides quietly in the inner chamber and touches God. He fellowships with God and absorbs Him in his spirit. In this way God abides in him and becomes his all.