THE PROPER AGGRESSIVENESS OF THE FULL-TIME SERVING ONES

Message Four
The Experience and Growth in Life

Scripture Reading: Col. 3:4; John 6:57; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10; Col. 2:19; Eph. 4:16

I. The knowledge and experience of life are our urgent need; you must have the knowledge of life, and you must also have the genuine experience and growth in life—John 6:57; 14:19; Gal. 2:20:

A. According to the Scriptures, in the whole universe, there is only one life; this life is eternal in every way; this eternal life is not only of God but is the very God Himself—John 10:10.

B. In every aspect and in every regard, this life is unlimited and unrestricted; the Bible tells us that when we believed into the Lord Jesus, we received such an eternal life—John 3:16.

C. In God Himself there is no need of increase; He is complete, perfect, and eternal; however, God needs to grow in us; when God grows in us, we grow in His growth—Col. 2:19.

D. In order to grow in life, we need to see that the Christian life is a grafted life; Because man was created according to God’s kind, man and God can be grafted together—Rom. 11:24:

1. This is a good picture showing us how to grow; first, we must be cut off from the old, wild, uncultivated tree of Adam; this is the meaning of baptism—Rom. 11:24.

2. Second, we must believe; to believe is to put the branch which has been cut off into Christ as the cultivated tree full of rich life-juice; after we are put into Him, we then remain in Him—John 15:4.

3. In this way we will surely grow in life; we will grow with the growth of the tree, which is Christ, the embodiment of God—John 15:5; Col. 2:19.

II. Christian life is a life of living through dying; it is a life that expresses the resurrection of Christ through being crucified—Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10; Gal. 5:24; Rom. 8:13b:

A. The basic principle of the truths in the Bible is death and resurrection; God does not want anything of the old creation; God only wants the new creation transformed from the old creation—2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15.

B. The resurrection of Christ is manifested through His death; where the death of Christ is, there the resurrection of Christ is also manifested—Phil. 3:10a; Rom. 6:4-5; 8:13b:

1. The resurrection of Christ is death-overcoming—Acts 2:23-24; Rom. 6:9.

2. The reality of the resurrection of Christ is the Spirit; living in the Spirit is to live in the resurrection of Christ—1 Cor. 15:45b.

3. The resurrection of Christ is the manifestation of the divine life—Rom. 6:4-5; 2 Cor. 4:10-11.

C. The power of Christ’s resurrection conforms us to His death; the more we love the Lord, the more we need to learn to live in the Lord’s death so that we can be delivered from our natural affection, taste, and opinion.—Phil. 3:10b:

D. The flesh with its passions and its lusts has been crucified; the meaning of the cross is the putting aside of you; by the cross, your whole being and your whole life is being put aside—Gal. 5:24.

1. In the death of Christ and in dying to ourselves, we experience Christ; to follow the Lord and to always take the way of the cross means to always remain in the death of Christ—Matt. 16:24-25.

2. The secret of coordination is to stay on the cross and to be without opinion; having no consideration and knowing only to work; no preference only obedience; no ambition or consideration but only the cross and resurrection— 2 Cor. 4:10.

E. We must learn to exercise our spirit, experience the Spirit, and receive the killing of the cross; the result of a true exercise of the spirit will surely cause us to die and to be crucified—Rom. 8:13b:

F. This operating God, bountifully supplying Spirit, and empowering Christ work in me continually, supplying me daily with the resurrection power; in the end, salvation is lived out, and Christ is magnified in me; I will have the highest humanity—Phil. 1:19; 3:10.

III. This growth by regulation has a goal, and this goal is maturity and function; life grows by regulation toward maturity and function—Col. 2:19; Matt. 25:1-4, 24-27:

A. The divine life is precious, the regulation is lovely, and the growth is so valuable because it issues in maturity which gives you the function—1 Cor. 3:6; Eph. 4:15.

B. The growth in life, our human beings’ growth in the divine life, needs regulation;   regulation actually is the top teaching; every teaching regulates you—Col. 2:19.

C. The full-time training is the top and strictest teaching; it is a regulation; we Christians who want to serve the Lord need this kind of teaching, this kind of training, this kind of regulation.

D. The full-timers are going to carry out a heavenly commission, the commission of the King; but to be a king, you need the top training, and the top training is the strictest regulation to help you grow.

IV. The building of the Body of Christ depends absolutely on our growth; we grow in the growth of God within us; when He grows in us, we grow in His growth, and this growth is the building up of the Body—Col. 2:19; Eph. 4:16.

Ministry Excerpts:

Only the Eternal Life of God Being Life

What is life? Or who is life? According to the Scriptures, in the whole universe, there is only one life. All the other lives may be considered “non-life” because they are temporal lives. There are many different kinds of life, such as that of the mosquitos, termites, ants, wolves, dogs, and tigers. There are also different categories of life, such as the vegetable life and the animal life. The highest of all these created lives is the human life. Yet, all of these lives, including the human life, are temporal.

Only one life exists without beginning and without ending. Only one life is the source of life, the substance of life, the element of life, and the factor of life. This life is called the eternal life. This life is eternal, not only in time, but also in source, in substance, in element, and in factor. Eternal means unlimited and unrestricted. This eternal life is not bound, limited, or restricted in time, in source, in substance, in element, or in factor. In every aspect and in every regard, this life is unlimited and unrestricted. This life is eternal in every way. The Bible tells us that when we believed into the Lord Jesus, we received such an eternal life. (The Experience and Growth in Life, msg. 1)

Growing with the Growth of God

First Corinthians 3:6-7 says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God made to grow; so that neither is the one who plants anything nor the one who waters, but the One who makes to grow, God.” Verse 9 says, “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s farm, God’s building.” Growth in these verses is not the growth in knowledge because here Paul speaks of a farm. Planting and watering are not related to knowledge. To plant is not to instruct but to nourish by supplying the plant with fertile soil. Likewise, to water is not to teach but to supply the plant with nutrients in the water. This is related to life.

Growing by Supply

According to our natural concept, we cannot understand the growth in life. Today there are not many Christians who know what the growth in life is. Someone who is accustomed to losing his temper may one day be able to control his temper. This may or may not be the growth in life. The Bible has life, and it also has some amount of teaching. Without the teachings of Christianity for the past twenty centuries, the Western world might be barbaric. The Western world, from Europe to America, has received its proper teachings from Christianity. However, Christianity today has become a religion of teaching. When I was young, I heard an American pastor say that Christianity is the same as Confucianism. According to him, Confucius taught that we should honor our parents, and the Bible says the same thing. Ethically speaking, the Bible does appear to be the same as the teachings of Confucius, and to some extent it may not even appear to be as high. The Bible teaches submission, but Confucius taught threefold submission. He taught that a girl in her father’s house should submit herself to her father; when she marries, she should submit herself to her husband; and when her husband dies, she must submit herself to her son. (The Experience and Growth in Life, msg. 2)

Growing by Being Grafted

As men we were the wild olive tree (Rom. 11:17). How could we become the cultivated olive tree (v. 24)? To be cultivated does not merely mean to be educated or regulated. It mainly means to be nourished and fed. The wild olive tree can become cultivated only by being grafted. To carry out the grafting, the first thing needed is cutting. Grafting depends upon cutting both trees, the wild tree and the cultivated tree. The branch of the wild tree must be cut off, and an opening must be cut in the cultivated tree. Then the wild branch is put into the cultivated tree. They touch each other, and the wild branch receives the rich life-juice of the cultivated tree, that is, it eats, absorbs, and receives the riches of the cultivated tree. All the riches of the cultivated tree are digested and assimilated by the grafted branch. The wild branch retains the rich juice, and the rich juice eventually becomes the very grafted branch.

This is a good picture showing us how to grow. First, we must be cut off from the old, wild, uncultivated tree of Adam. This is the meaning of baptism. To be baptized is to be cut off from the Adamic race and to be put into death. This was what John the Baptist did. When some repented, he did not teach them. Rather, he cut them off and put them into death by putting them into the water. Second, we must believe. To believe is to put the branch which has been cut off into Christ as the cultivated tree full of rich life-juice. After we are put into Him, we then remain in Him (John 15:4). As those who are no longer merely the uncultivated branches but the branches grafted into the cultivated tree, Christ, we should remain there to receive, absorb, assimilate, and retain the rich life-juice of Christ in our being. In this way we will surely grow in life. We will grow with the growth of the tree, which is Christ, the embodiment of God. (The Experience and Growth in Life, msg. 2)

Growing by Exercising Our Spirit

The divine life is God, and God is a Spirit. If He were like a piece of gold and not a Spirit, how could He get into us? He must be a Spirit to get into us. Furthermore, God can get into man only because man has something that has come out of God, the breath of God, which became man’s spirit. To grow in the growth of life is altogether a matter of the divine Spirit and the human spirit. We, who have the breath of God as our spirit, must grow by this spirit. In order to grow in life we should not merely exercise our mind. We all need bodily exercise, but this does not help us to grow in life either. To grow in God as life we must exercise our spirit. When we exercise our spirit, we make the way for God to grow. (The Experience and Growth in Life, msg. 2)

Living through Dying Being God’s Way of Salvation

Living through dying is the basic thought of the Bible. For one to live, he must die. In John 12:24 the Lord Jesus said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Brother A. B. Simpson also said in one of his hymns, “This the secret nature hideth, harvest grows from buried grain” (Hymns, #482). This shows us that the biblical principle is living through dying. God’s way of salvation is to terminate us by the cross of Christ and to resurrect us by His Spirit of life. This appears to be a cruel punishment, but actually it is a glorious deliverance. Based on the revelation of the whole Bible, we see clearly that living through dying is God’s saving way.

A Few Proofs in the New Testament

Now let us examine a few obvious and important verses concerning this profound principle of living through dying. First, Galatians 2:20a says, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” According to God’s economy, when Christ was crucified on the cross, I was also included in Him. Through the death of Christ, I am dead in Him; and now through His resurrection, He lives within me. This shows us the principle of living through dying.

Second, Romans 8:13b says, “But if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.” What we need to put to death is not the body itself, but the practices of the body. These practices do not refer only to the sinful things, but also to all the things done by our body outside of the Spirit. When we take the initiative to put to death the practices of the body, the Spirit will apply the effectiveness of the death of Christ to those practices and terminate them so that we may live.

Our Living Depending on the Spirit and Being Regulated by the Spirit

Third, Galatians 5:24-25 says, “But they who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” Verse 24 speaks about death. Our old man and the “I” were crucified on the cross. This is a fact accomplished by Christ on the cross. The crucifying of the flesh with the passions and the lusts is our practical experience of this fact. The experience of this fact can be fulfilled only by our carrying out through the Spirit the crucifixion accomplished by Christ. Verse 25 speaks of living. In our Christian life, God does not want us to keep the law by the flesh, but to live Christ by the Spirit. Living by the Spirit implies that our living depends on the Spirit and is regulated by the Spirit. This again shows us that the Christian experience of life is one of living through dying. (Words of Life from the 1988 Full-Time Training, msg. 3)

Knowing the Resurrection of Christ

Through our dying and living with Christ, we can experientially know His resurrection (Phil. 3:10a). John 11:25 shows us that Christ Himself is the resurrection. Therefore, as long as we are in Him, receiving and enjoying the fact of dying and living with Him, we can experience and know the resurrection of Christ.

Being Conformed to the Death of Christ

When we know the resurrection of Christ, we will live a crucified life in the power of His resurrection. Our knowledge of the resurrection of Christ becomes a kind of power that enables us to be conformed to the death of Christ, that is, to have the death of Christ as our mold of living (Phil. 3:10b). Therefore, our daily life ought to be a life under the cross, in which our soul life is continually put to death, so that we may live by the life of God.

Crucifying the Flesh and the Lusts of the Flesh

When we acknowledge the fact of our dying with Christ and live under the cross, we can practically and experientially crucify the flesh and the lusts of the flesh. (Gal. 5:24)

Putting to Death by the Spirit the Practices of the Body

As a conclusion, the New Testament consistently reveals to us that our Christian life is a life of living through dying. It is a life that expresses the resurrection of Christ through being crucified. This was what Christ experienced in His human living; this is also a principle and a fundamental fact in the Bible. Such a living through dying surpasses any philosophy in the world and any concept of asceticism taught by religion. We Christians already have the accomplished facts in God’s New Testament economy. All we have to do is receive by faith. These facts will become our enjoyment and experience, and we will live out Christ through dying with Him. (Words of Life from the 1988 Full-Time Training, msg. 3)

Life Growing by Regulation toward Maturity and Function

Our spiritual life, the divine life, zoe, should grow. It does not need to grow in God, but it does need to grow in us. Colossians 2:19 says that we need to grow with the growth of God. The divine life in God Himself is perfect, complete. It is at the highest peak and does not need any growth in itself. But when this life is mingled with our life, this mingled life needs to grow.

But in another sense, after you have the divine life, you need teaching. In this message I substitute the word teaching with its synonym regulation. Regulation actually is the top teaching. Every teaching regulates you. Every teaching which a mother gives to her children is a kind of regulation. In this sense the Bible is full of teaching, full of regulation. The Old Testament, the testament of the law, is full of commandments, and the New Testament is also full of commandments. Even the Lord Jesus said in the Gospel of John that He gave the disciples a new commandment (13:34). John stresses the divine life and also stresses teaching. That means John stresses regulation.

Restriction and Regulation Helping You to Grow

The full-time training is the top and strictest teaching. It is a regulation. We Christians who want to serve the Lord need this kind of teaching, this kind of training, this kind of regulation. In the training, you are restricted. It is as if you are put into a box. Of course, this box is not a coffin. I once went to visit a certain locality, and the brothers there put me into an apartment with a small shower. When I was taking a shower, it was very difficult for me to move around freely. I had been used to taking a shower in a larger area, without hitting any of the four walls. But that small shower regulated me. It was a small box that restricted me. I could not be so free or loose with my actions. This is an example of being restricted and regulated from being too free, too loose. Such restriction and regulation helps you to grow.

Let me illustrate in this way. If four brothers would always be with you, you would be regulated on four sides every day. In the full-time training, you are surrounded by people and you have assigned roommates. Deep within your being, however, you would like to stay in a room by yourself. You do not like anyone to stay and sleep in one room with you. You might say, “I even don’t like a room just for two. I want a room for me alone.” All that you care about is “me”—me the first; me the second; me the third; me the last; me forever. You like to be free. To be free means not to be regulated. You may not like to be regulated by anybody. But when you are not regulated, you are through with the growth. (An Opening Word to the Full-Time Trainees Concerning Regulations and Opinions, msg. 1)

Needing to Grow for Its Building Up

If we do not grow, there can be no building up of the Body of Christ. The building of the Body of Christ depends absolutely on our growth. We grow in the growth of God within us (Col. 2:19). When He grows in us, we grow in His growth, and this growth is the building up of the Body. Today Christians easily come together, and they are also easily scattered. At first they are happy to come together, but after a while they begin to be unhappy with each other. Eventually, they separate from one another, and in some cases they become enemies.

Our eyes need to be opened and enlightened to the revelation in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, concerning the church as the Body of Christ. According to this revelation, the church as the Body of Christ is altogether a matter of life. First, it must be born of God. Then it must grow, and by growing it builds itself up. The growth is organic, and the building is even more organic. It is not organic in us, because we are not organic, but it is organic in God. Plants themselves are organic, but the soil in which they grow is not organic. Even the nutrients of the soil are not organic. Being organic is a matter on the side of life. The church as the Body of Christ is organic on the life side, that is, on the side of God. Before we were regenerated, we did not have God. Today, however, we have God. Through regeneration God has been born into our being. Hence, we not only have God added into us; we also have God born into us organically. From the time of regeneration we have an organic union with Him. (The Organic Union in God’s Relationship with Man, msg. 5)