Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me

1
Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me,
  For my very life art Thou;
Thee I take to all my problems
  As the full solution now.
Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me,
  In all things Thy will be done;
I but a transparent vessel
  To make visible the Son.
2
Consecrated is Thy temple,
  Purged from every stain and sin;
May Thy flame of glory now be
  Manifested from within.
Let the earth in solemn wonder
  See my body willingly
Offered as Thy slave obedient,
  Energized alone by Thee.
3
Every moment, every member,
  Girded, waiting Thy command;
Underneath the yoke to labor
  Or be laid aside as planned.
When restricted in pursuing,
  No disquiet will beset;
Underneath Thy faithful dealing
  Not a murmur or regret.
4
Ever tender, quiet, restful,
  Inclinations put away,
That Thou may for me choose freely
  As Thy finger points the way.
Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me,
  For my very life art Thou;
Thee I take to all my problems
  As the full solution now.
37
Brandon Lamark

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

O Lord, come thru me!


Deidre Johnson

Long Beach, CA, United States

“Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me, …Thee I take to all my PROBLEMS… Consecrated is Thy temple, Purged from every stain and sin; May Thy flame of glory now be Manifested from within. ”


John Ferrante

Athens, Georgia, United States

Steven J,

Thanks for the original! It's so sweet to see a dear sister loving the Lord in this way and even able to poetically convey such feelings in pen and paper. It's so cool because it shows Watchman Nee's faithful rendering (in as much as translation allows) in Chinese to then be used back into English. Awesome fun fact.

Still, such a hymn is lacking and hope so many dear saints all over will come to find this particular hymn, it's original writing, and enjoy the Lord!


Steve J

Centennial, CO, United States

Ana, that's a nice story, but this hymn was not written by Watchman Nee. It was written by a sister, Frances Ridley Havergal, who was associated with the Keswick movement. According to some of the ones who served full-time in China, brother Nee translated this hymn into Chinese to include it in their hymn collection, Hymns for the Little Flock. The hymn was never popular and was not included in many English hymn books, so in 1965 when the brothers compiled a collection of hymns for The Stream, they were unable to find the original lyrics to the song. Thus, they re-translated it from Chinese back into English. The original lyrics of the song (before double translation) are as follows:

1. Live out Thy life within me, O Jesus, King of kings!

Be Thou Thyself the answer to all my questionings;

Live out Thy life within me, in all things have Thy way!

I, the transparent medium, Thy glory to display.

2. The temple has been yielded, and purified of sin,

Let Thy Shekinah glory now shine forth from within,

And all the earth keep silence, the body henceforth be

Thy silent, gentle servant, moved only as by Thee.

3. Its members every moment held subject to Thy call,

Ready to have Thee use them, or not be used at all,

Held without restless longing, or strain, or stress, or fret,

Or chafings at Thy dealings, or thoughts of vain regret.

4. But restful, calm and pliant, from bend and bias free,

Awaiting Thy decision, when Thou hast need of me;

Live out Thy life within me, O Jesus, King of kings!

Be Thou the glorious answer to all my questionings.


Ana Lara

Storrs, Connecticut, United States

Many spiritual songs of modern Christianity purport to be love songs to the Lord, but though they are filled with glowing terms of endearment, they are bereft of any genuine depth of commitment. Love is nothing if it does not require the dedication of the lover to the loved one—not an outward demand but an inner constraint generated out of the heart of love. This hymn, written by Watchman Nee, stands in stark contrast to the offerings in many modern Christian songs. The writer deeply experienced the constraining power of the lovely person of the Lord Jesus, and he expressed his profound devotion and allegiance as one who had been smitten with the attractiveness of the Savior. The feeling of the hymn is similar to the thought expressed by the apostle Paul in his second epistle to the Corinthian believers: “For the love of Christ constraints us because we have been judged this, that One died for all therefore all died; and He died for all that those who live may no longer live to themselves but to him who died for them and has been raised“ (5:14-15). Based on his attraction to the Lord Jesus, the writer of this hymn prays with intense longing, “Live Thyself Lord Jesus, through me, / For my very life art Thou. ”

(Affirmation and Critique, April 2001)


Brother Jeff Hall

Church In Worcester, Massachusetts, United States

This life is the solution to all our problems, we have no say, letting Him call the shots may go against our natural man, but the result is the Glory of oness with Him eternally!


Jess Castillo

San Marcos, Texas, United States

Thee I take to ALL my problems as the FULL solution now! Hallelujah! Everyday we can apply Him as the all-inclusive Christ to solve our problems and save us from them! He really is our full solution. Amen!


Sister Vali

Tirane, Albania

Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me


Joseph

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me,

In all things Thy will be done;

I but a transparent vessel

To make visible the Son.


Jasper C. Flores

Philippines

May the Lord direct us to what He have for us and we praise Him for being our Sovereign king working all our circumstances together for our good, His children.

May He just continually help us to put away all our inclinations, and help us to take what He wants for us to follow as He points us His way.

In general, as long as people are not saying anything wrong or not saying something negative about other people, they speak whenever it pleases them. However, because we enjoy the Lord as life, we should return to our spirit and speak in our spirit whenever we speak. A person might lose his temper if his wife or a classmate makes him angry. If it would be embarrassing to lose his temper in a particular environment, he may exercise control but lose his temper later. What should we do if we are about to lose our temper, since we have Christ as life and enjoy Him as life? We should not lift up our eyes to heaven and say, "O Lord Jesus, if You want me to lose my temper, I will lose my temper, but if You do not want me to lose my temper, I will not lose my temper." Instead, we should turn to our spirit and touch the feeling in our spirit by fellow-shipping with the Lord, and say, "I am about to lose my temper, but what are You doing?" Stanza 1 of Hymns, #403 says, "Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me, / For my very life art Thou; / Thee I take to all my problems / As the full solution now." Whether or not we lose our temper is not for us to decide; the Lord Jesus should be our answer. If after asking Him in this way He is silent within us, we will not have any temper to lose. We can even ask Him if He wants to lose His temper. If we fellowship with Him in this way, we will have no strength to lose our temper. This is not a joke. This is the testimony of many believers. This is the way for us to enjoy the Lord as life.

God desires that Christ be expressed through human life. We see this in [Colossians] 3:18—4:1, a sister passage to Ephesians 5:22—6:9, regarding the believers' ethical relationships. In Ephesians the emphasis is on the need of spirit-filled ethical relationships for the expression of the Body in the normal church life. In Colossians the emphasis is that we should hold Christ as our Head and take Him as our life by having His rich word dwelling in us, that the highest ethical relationships, issuing not from our natural life but from Christ as our life, may be realized for His expression.

If we live in union with Christ, Christ will be expressed through our humanity. Christ is to he expressed in the human life, not in the angelic life. Angels cannot express Christ. The Father has ordained that we, His chosen ones, be the expression of His Son. "Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me," should be our prayer (see Hymns #403).

This hymn tells us that Christ is concealed within us, waiting to be manifested.

Even though Christ is concealed within us, this hidden glory cannot always remain covered and sometimes becomes manifest openly. I know that some parents are against their children's becoming Christians, especially in the Chinese families that accept the ideologies of Confucius and Mencius. Such parents always think that when their children believe in Jesus, they are believing in a foreign religion, which is not a glory but a shame to their ancestors for three generations. This is why parents oppose their children's believing in the Lord Jesus. Among the brothers and sisters here today, there is one who believed in the Lord and was saved under such a circumstance. This brother was saved in junior high school. Before he was saved, he was a naughty teenager, but after getting saved, his living changed completely. When people scolded him, he remained pleasant. His parents would beat him for believing in the Lord, but he would go meekly into his bedroom to kneel by his bed and pray to the Lord. Time after time, day after day the Lord Jesus would manifest His glory in this previously naughty teenager. His parents were so touched that eventually they also believed in the Lord. Many parents oppose when their children first believe in the Lord, but eventually they end up believing in the Lord also. Hallelujah! It is hard to find a family in which the parents do not follow their children to believe in the Lord. Everyone who is genuinely saved has the glory of the Lord Jesus manifested in him; this means that the invisible God is expressed through him.

Piano Hymns