On the one hand, it is easy to be disappointed when you look at the situation among the Lord’s children. Many Christians’ hearts are indifferent toward the Lord, and the Lord has gained very little ground within them. On the other hand, I am still joyful because the Lord is so gracious, patient, and merciful. The Lord is continually waiting for chances to mingle Himself with us. Whenever we call on His name, He takes the opportunity to mingle Himself with us a little bit. I have the assurance that sooner or later we will be transformed. If we are not transformed in this age, we will eventually be in the next age. The Lord is sovereign, and no one can stop Him from accomplishing His eternal purpose. His enemy may be able to frustrate Him a little bit, but this frustration gives Him an opportunity to display His multifarious wisdom (Eph. 3:10). The Lord will accomplish His purpose. He has chosen us, and we cannot retreat. He has called us, justified us, saved us, regenerated us, and indwelt us. Even if we wanted to divorce Him, He would not sign the divorce papers.

Sooner or later you will be subdued, convinced, taken over, occupied, and transformed by the Lord. Regardless of how much you love the world today, how much you are indifferent to the Lord, how cold your emotion is, and how stiff-necked your will is, I know that one day you will be absolutely gained by the Lord. He is merciful, and He is waiting. He has been waiting for two thousand years. We may feel that two thousand years are too long, but to Him one thousand years are just one day. One day He will purify us and clear us up. Today the Lord is within our spirit, and He is always waiting for opportunities to dispense Himself into us, to occupy our heart little by little. The all-inclusive, rich Christ is within us as the living Spirit. He is the heavenly ink waiting to inscribe Himself on the tablets of [207] our hearts of flesh. Whenever we turn to Him, the living Spirit will write something of Christ upon our mind, emotion, and will.

The Lord’s main concern is not for what we do outwardly but for what we are. He wants to dispense Himself, inscribe Himself, into our mind, emotion, and will all the time. One brother may be very good in his natural disposition. He may be nice, humble, and very stable. Since he got saved, he is so nice and humble all the time, and everyone likes him. He even comes to the church meetings on a regular basis. But it may be that this brother is always closed to the Lord. The Lord is within his spirit as a prisoner. Outwardly he is such a nice brother, and he is really stable. But the Lord has no way to write on his heart because he is not open to the Lord.

There may be another brother who is not good in his natural disposition. Right after he got saved, he may have backslidden. Then he came back to the Lord and confessed his sins, opening his heart to the Lord. This gave the Lord a chance to write on his being. Maybe a little later, this brother had a fight with some other brothers. Then he repented and realized that he was wrong. He confessed to the Lord and opened his heart again, so the Lord dispensed more of Himself into this brother. We have to consider where these brothers will be after fifteen years with the Lord. The one brother is so nice, humble, and stable, but always closed to the Lord. The other brother is not good according to his natural disposition, but gradually more and more of Christ has been wrought into him. The Christ who has been wrought into him will gradually swallow up his bad disposition, and there will be a real transformation with this brother. This shows us that the Christian life is not a life of outward doing, of outward working, but a life of inward transforming.

We need to be encouraged that no matter what kind of person we are, the Lord will work out His purpose of transformation in us. He is merciful, and little by little He will change us. He will transform us. I do not care for what you are outwardly or what you do outwardly, but I know there is One working within you inwardly. Praise Him for His inward working within us. He is taking every opportunity to write something of Christ within us little by little. I can testify that from observing many of the saints, more of Christ has been written into them year by year in a specific way. We need to be patient with one another in the church life because more and more of Christ is gradually being wrought into us. This is the Lord’s [208] transforming work. One person may be slow, and another person may be quick in his disposition. But before the Lord there is no difference. To be fast or to be slow does not mean anything. What means something is the Lord writing Himself into our being all the time to transform us. In the age of eternity all of us will become the complete letters of Christ. At that time the entire composition of Christ will be inscribed into our whole being. Christ alone will become the very content of our mind, emotion, and will.

MIRRORS BEHOLDING AND REFLECTING 
THE GLORY OF THE LORD

The second illustration in 2 Corinthians 3 is that we are mirrors beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord. We are mirrors beholding Christ and reflecting Him, but the problem is that sometimes our heart is turned away from the Lord. Thus, we have to turn our heart to Him. Whenever our heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away (v. 16). The Lord is waiting for us to turn our heart to Him. He is indwelling our spirit, and our spirit is the hidden man of our heart. Our heart must be turned inwardly to the indwelling Christ. Then we will behold Him and reflect Him. We have to turn our heart to Him all the time, morning and evening, day and night. Even while we are working or driving our car, we must turn our heart to Him. The more that we turn to Him and behold Him, the more we will reflect Him and be transformed into His image.

When we open ourselves to behold Him, He as the living Spirit imparts Himself into us. Whenever we behold the Lord, we return ourselves to the spirit. We need to look away from everything unto Jesus, who is the living Spirit in our spirit. When we behold Him, He has the ground and the opportunity to impart Himself into us. This imparting of Himself into us will transform us.

When tea is added to plain water, the tea becomes mingled with the water, and the tea transforms the water in color, in expression, and in flavor. The water is in the tea, and the tea is in the water. In the same way Christ is in us, and we are in Christ. Just as the tea and the water are mingled together, we and Christ are mingled together. The Lord is doing a mingling and transforming work within us. The Lord’s work is not a matter of outward adjustment, outward correction, or outward improvement, but a matter of Him imparting Himself into our being from within us. The more He imparts [209] Himself into us, the more He mingles Himself with us and the more He will transform us.

We are transformed by the living Spirit. Second Corinthians 3:18 tells us that we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory even as from the Lord Spirit. He is the living Spirit within us, so we have to pay our attention to the Spirit all the time. We have to learn to open to Him. If we open ourselves to Him, He will have a way to purify us, to purge us, to saturate us, to permeate us, to fill us, to mingle Himself with us, and to transform us. Transformation takes place by this living One imparting Himself more and more into us. He imparts Himself into us by our drinking Him, eating Him, and breathing Him in. To eat Him, drink Him, and breathe Him in is to allow Him to write Himself into us, to inscribe Himself into us, by our beholding Him. He is the living Spirit waiting within us, so we need to learn to turn ourselves to the Spirit and open to Him. Then He will saturate us, and we will be transformed.