CHAPTER THREE
GOD’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR MAN
Scripture Reading: Psa. 27:4; 43:4; 1 John 2:27-28
GOD’S DESIRE BEING TO MINGLE HIMSELF WITH MAN
FOR MAN’S ENJOYMENT
The Bible unveils that throughout the ages God has been doing one thing in man: He has been mingling Himself with man. The human concept is that God wants man to worship and serve Him. He is seen as the sovereign One far away in the heavens, and men on earth are expected to worship and serve Him. This is man’s concept. The Bible, however, shows that God does not require such things from us. Rather, God wants to mingle Himself with us. He wants to work His entire being into us to the extent that He becomes our constitution. He wants to enter into us to be our content. He wants to be our life and our nature. He wants to be the love in our emotion, the thoughts in our mind, and the decisions and deliberations in our will. He even wants to be our ability and discernment. In brief, God wants to enter into us to be everything to us. We should simply be a vessel in the hands of God for His expression.
This divine intention is seen in the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is unique among the human race. Outwardly, He was a man, a perfect man. In every aspect He was a complete man. But God was inside this man. Inwardly, He was filled with God, and God was expressed through Him. When He was on the earth, those who followed Him often asked, “Who is this man?” He was hungry, and He was thirsty. He was tired and even exhausted. He was confined to a body the same as we. But if we look deeper, we will find that within this man there was unfathomable wisdom, unlimited power, immeasurable life, and eternal discernment. Hardly anyone could answer this question when He was on the earth, but we know who He is today. He is God mingled with man. He is God entering into man, becoming man’s life and nature and being expressed through man. The Lord Jesus manifests God’s eternal intention for man.
Brothers and sisters, we must realize that unless God is mingled with us in our worship and service, they are not worth anything before God. The real worship rendered to God is one in which God is mingled with the worshipper. This also applies to service. Real service to God is one in which the serving one is mingled with God. When we are going to preach the gospel, we need to remember that the Lord, who is mingled with us, should be the one preaching the gospel. This is the only preaching that counts. When we are praying, the Lord must be the one who is praying through us, that is, praying by mingling Himself with us. Only such prayers are real prayers. If we are on earth, praying to a God who is far away in heaven, and we have nothing in common with Him, our prayers are not real but are merely a religious petition. In the genuine prayer that God desires, He enters into us, mingles with us, and prays through us. Every genuine prayer is a dual prayer; outwardly, we are praying, but inwardly, God is praying. Outwardly, we petition, but inwardly, He is petitioning. Outwardly, we are speaking, but inwardly, the Holy Spirit is speaking. Only this kind of dual prayer is genuine.
This applies to prayer as well as to preaching the gospel. If only I am speaking and the Lord is not, my preaching is worthless; it is merely human oration. The real preaching and release of the Lord’s message is one in which the Lord in His humanity speaks through us. Outwardly, we are speaking, but it is the Lord speaking from within. Outwardly, it seems as if we are the source of the speaking, but the Lord is the source of the speaking. This speaking is a dual speaking, and only this kind of speaking has value.
This principle applies not only to our praying and preaching but also to the entire realm of our Christian life. When it is said that a man has a dual character, it often is spoken in a derogatory way; nevertheless, this is a very fitting description of the Christian life. The real Christian life should be a dual life. If we are living as an individual person, we are not living like a Christian; we are merely living like a human being. As genuine Christians, it seems as if we are the ones living, but inwardly God is living through us. Every Christian should be like Jesus of Nazareth; we should be God manifested in the flesh. Outwardly, we are men, but inwardly, we are God. The entire Christian life should be one in which God is mingled with man.
God’s children need to see this basic issue: God does not desire worship or service from man; neither does He desire to do things for man or man to do things for Him. He only desires that every part of our being would be filled with His element by His mingling of Himself with us and becoming the constituent of our being. When we are filled with God’s element, we will enjoy Him and know Him to the uttermost. Only when we allow Him to fill us and become every part of our being can we truly know Him as He desires to be known. This knowledge is not in doctrine, mental understanding, or intellectual apprehension. We can know Him deep in our being as the One whom we taste in our living and practical experience. This is to enjoy God.