SPIRITUAL LIFE AND DAILY LIFE
Message Four
Daily Life—Humanity and Character
Scripture Reading:
1 Tim. 4:12 Let no one despise your youth, but be a pattern to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
1 Pet. 4:1 Since Christ therefore has suffered in the flesh, you also arm yourselves with the same mind (because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin).
1 Cor. 9:27 But I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest perhaps having preached to others, I myself may become disapproved.
Rom. 12:11 Do not be slothful in zeal, but be burning in spirit, serving the Lord.
Ministry Excerpts:
In 1 Timothy 4:12 Paul said to Timothy, “Let no one despise your youth, but be a pattern to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” This verse has a very profound meaning. You should not let anyone despise your youth. However, if your attire is unsuitable and your speech is inappropriate, how could others not despise your youth? If you are careless and frivolous in your actions, people will spontaneously despise your youth. Therefore, what Paul was telling Timothy in this verse was that Timothy should be dignified in his conduct and actions and proper in his speech. What he said, how much he said, and when and how he said things should have caused others to respect him rather than despise his youth. (Vessels Useful to the Lord, msg. 5)
Humanity
True Christian humanity not only comprises the divine attributes that fill us within; it also comprises the attributes that we received at creation. At the time man was created, he had only the image of God’s attributes; he did not have the content and reality of these attributes. This is why we all have to receive this God of creation into us to be our content. When He fills us, we can truly love Him. This is not to live ourselves but to live Him. It comes out of divinity and is expressed through humanity. This is the humanity a Christian should have.
We need to be like God through divinity and to be like man through humanity. We need to have the excellent virtues, extraordinary love, boundless forbearance, unparalleled faithfulness, absolute humility, utmost purity, supreme holiness and righteousness, and rightness and uprightness. All the seven items combined give a proper humanity for a servant of the Lord. In conclusion, the Christian humanity is a life lived out through the mingling of the divine attributes and the created human morality. May the Lord preserve us to serve Him all the days of our life, without turning back or deviating. May we all live out the proper humanity of one who serves the Lord. The Lord be merciful to us all. (The Glorious Vision and the Way of the Cross, msg. 3)
Character
It is good that in the recovery we have truth and life. We have these items, but we have not entered into them to a very high degree. Therefore, I hope that in this training you would be faithful to build up your character. You should not be loose in the way you conduct yourself, in the way you do things. Instead, you must be diligent, you must learn, and you must make progress. In this training our emphasis is not on the teaching of the truth. We are only asking you to diligently study the New Testament Recovery Version and the life-study messages. Since we have an abundance of spiritual literature among us, our classes will be taught in a way similar to the way graduate classes are taught. This means that we will give you only the necessary directions and guidelines. The most important matter in this training is that in your pursuit of life you would endeavor to change your character to a character that is strict and not loose in any way. This will play a big part in determining whether or not you will be useful to the Lord in the future. (Vessels Useful to the Lord, msg. 5)
The Need for a Disciplined Character in Working for the Lord
Many people have a problem related to looseness and a lack of focus, but we should not serve the Lord in such a way. When we release the truth, there must be an introduction and a conclusion. If we are loose, we will speak in a light way. In order to release the truth, however, we must be serious. We must address every matter seriously, even our own personal matters. If some co-workers are working in Thailand for three years, they should either not mention the mystery of God at all or take it so seriously that all the saints in Thailand would know the mystery of God. Even though we have all heard and seen a little of the vision that God has given us throughout the ages, we have not taken it seriously. As a result, we can do only a little here and a little there in our work. (The Central Vision for Serving the Church, ch. 3)
A Good Listener
The first thing a worker of the Lord has to learn is to listen to others. When a brother or a sister is speaking or when an unbeliever is speaking, we have to learn to listen. We have to learn to think the way he thinks, and feel the way he feels. We have to know what he has not said and the condition of his spirit. If we practice this, our listening ability will greatly improve. Gradually, we will understand what others are saying. In the end, others will need to only open their mouth, and we will know immediately what they are saying. (The Character of the Lord’s Worker, ch. 1)
A Lover of Men
It is a great and joyful thing for us to realize man’s worth. If we see how the Lord has died for men, we will echo that very character that led Him to suffer such a death for men; we will feel what the Lord feels and conclude that man does deserve all of our love and interest. Unless we can do this, we will not be able to identify with the Lord’s feeling, and we will not be able to work for the Lord. (The Character of the Lord’s Worker, ch. 2)
Having a Mind to Suffer
Suffering and having a mind to suffer are two different things. Having a mind to suffer implies that we have a desire to willingly suffer for Christ’s sake; it means that we have a heart and a willingness to endure affliction on His behalf. This is the meaning of having a mind to suffer. Those who have a mind to suffer may not necessarily be suffering. But in their mind they are prepared to meet all sufferings with fortitude. (The Character of the Lord’s Worker, ch. 3)
Buffeting the Body and Making It a Slave
Remember that a man who loves himself cannot serve God. Those who are loose in their living and who cannot discipline themselves strictly cannot serve God. If we want to learn to serve the Lord, we have to exercise ourselves, control ourselves, and rule over ourselves every day. If our love for the Lord is strong enough, we will not be led away by the demands of the body. If our spirit is strong enough, we will not allow our flesh to remain in weakness. When the resurrection life in us multiplies, it will give life to our mortal body. We have to be brought on until our body will obey us and us alone, until it no longer frustrates us. When this happens, we will be able to serve the Lord in a good way. (The Character of the Lord’s Worker, ch. 4)
Diligent
What is diligence? It is the opposite of slothfulness. It is not shirking from responsibility. A diligent person does not try to reduce his work to nothing. On the contrary, he tries to create work out of nothing. In the Lord’s service, it is quite possible for us to take a day or two of rest if we do not look for work. We should not be those who stand around idly waiting for something to turn up. If we work only when work turns up, we are not diligent persons. A diligent person is never idle; he is always looking for things to do. He is always pondering, praying, contemplating, and considering before God as to what he should do. Unless he exercises himself this way, he can find himself with nothing to do. (The Character of the Lord’s Worker, ch. 5)
Restrained in Speaking
Brothers and sisters, in the face of such solemn facts, we need to be careful about our speaking. We should repent before the Lord for many words that have gone out of our mouth. These words do not produce good fruit. In fact, they harm in definite ways. Many of the words we uttered in the past were “idle words,” but they are no longer “idle”; they are spreading all over the earth. At the time we spoke them, they were idle words, but after a while they have become very busy and are working great havoc. We need to seek God’s mercy to be cleansed of our past, and for the present we need to ask Him to deal radically with us and to burn us with a burning coal. (The Character of the Lord’s Worker, ch. 6)
Stable
Stability in our character is a fundamental need in the work; only stable ones can work for the Lord. They work when they feel like it, and they work when they do not feel like it. They work when the sun shines, and they work when it rains. They work when they are very happy, and they work when they are very sad. These are the stable ones. Unstable ones are affected by everything; even the weather affects them. If our work is affected by our environment, we have failed the Lord. Before Him we must have a strong spirit. (The Character of the Lord’s Worker, ch. 7)
Not Subjective
Subjectivity is simply an unbroken self. Brothers and sisters, we have to pray for God’s breaking work, praying that we will not be subjective in any way, whether towards others or towards our own affairs. The Lord has to crush us completely before we will be soft and meek. Without such a crushing, we will always be somewhat subjective. Some people may be sharper than others, but a subjective person is always opinionated, full of methods, and ready to take control of others. We have to allow the Lord to deal with us in a severe way at least once so that we can be crushed to the ground and never rise again. When a test comes again, we then will be faithful to our testimony. We will allow others the freedom to choose to follow or to not follow us. (The Character of the Lord’s Worker, ch. 8)
Towards Money
May the Lord be gracious to us so that we would deal thoroughly with the matter of money. Unless we settle the issue of covetousness, we will find ourselves in difficulties sooner or later. In fact, we will become useless in the way. If we do not settle this issue, we cannot deal with other issues, and we will surely face problems and troubles down the road. We must not be influenced by money in any way. Whenever we hear anyone criticizing us, we have to learn to reject their gift. At the same time, we have to learn to bear others’ burdens. We should not only take care of our own needs and the needs of our co-workers, but we should take care of the needs of all the brothers and sisters as well. If we can handle the matter of money in a proper way, we will have done a great thing. Those who have not settled the basic issue of money can never work in a good way. (The Character of the Lord’s Worker, ch. 9)
