Through the Cross, O Lord, I pray

I would like to call our attention to two hymns—#279 and #631. The word fellowship is not mentioned in these hymns, but both of them touch the Spirit and the cross. The first line of #279 says, "First the blood, and then the ointment." The blood is a strong sign of the cross, and the ointment is a type of the all-inclusive, compound Spirit. These two elements are mentioned in Leviticus 14:6-10, 14-18. In this portion of the Word, we are told that a leper is to be cleansed firstly by the blood. The blood is the base. Then upon the base of the blood, the oil, the ointment, is applied. The blood and the ointment are applied to the tip of the leper's right ear, to the thumb of his right hand, and to the great toe of his right foot. The ear signifies our hearing, the hand signifies our working, and the foot signifies our walking. Our hearing is a big problem. We are troubled because we listen to many negative things. Because this is sinful, our ear, our hearing, needs the blood. In a sense, it is good for us to be "deaf" to many things. Our working and walking also need the cleansing of the blood.

It might be easier to bring them to Christ but more difficult to bring them into the church life. You should anticipate the need to spend much time on them in prayer and labor. This year you may bring them into Christ, but that still may not be the time to bring them to the church life. You may have to wait another time for this. There is no need to be anxious and hurried concerning their baptism or their coming into the church life. We must keep in mind that the vital groups need to gain the proper Caucasians through much prayer and labor.

In conclusion I would encourage us to sing and to pray Hymns, #279 to the Lord:

First the blood, and then the ointment,
Cleansing, then anointing comes;
If we pass not thru Golgotha,
Ne'er to Pentecost we'll come.
If the blood has never cleansed us,
Ne'er the Spirit's pow'r we'll know,

I will repeat and stress these matters more strongly in the upcoming international conference of co-workers and elders on the full ministry of Christ in His three stages: the stage of His incarnation, the stage of His inclusion, and the stage of His intensification. Intensification is not only to give you more of the Spirit; it is also to cause you to be conformed sevenfold to the death of Christ. Your being crucified, your denial of the self, and your bearing of the cross should be intensified sevenfold. You cannot preach only the side of the Spirit without the side of the cross. If there is no cross, there is no Spirit. Hymns, #279, written by Brother Nee, tells us that we first need the cross and then the Spirit. Verse 5 says, 'When we see the ripened harvest / Of the golden countryside, / We may know that many seeds have / Fallen to the earth and died.' The blossoming harvest is due to seeds falling into the earth to die. The shell of our natural humanity must be broken. First is Golgotha, the cross, and second is Pentecost, the Spirit (stanza 1). Without crossing through the Jordan River, that is, the cross, how can you enter into the good land (stanza 4)? On the one hand, I feel burdened to minister the high peaks of the truth concerning the full ministry of Christ in the flesh, as the life-giving Spirit, and as the sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit. On the other hand, the Lord has charged me to minister the cross.

To be an "information desk" in the church is very damaging. Because I have been learning the lesson of the cross and the Spirit for many years, no one receives any loose reports from me. Although I speak frankly, my speaking is by the cross and in the spirit. We must learn the lessons and consider whether or not it is merely we who are speaking. Hymns, #279 says, "First the blood, and then the ointment." The blood comes from the cross, and the ointment is the Spirit. We must first have the experience of the cross, and then we can have the anointing of the Spirit. Many brothers are gentlemen, being careful to behave themselves and keep the "constitution," the teachings of the Bible, in the way of keeping the law. However, they do this mostly in their natural life. In their relationship with the brothers, the co-workers, and the churches, they are still natural. We must all learn the lesson of the cross and the Spirit.

We know that the Holy Spirit is the reality of resurrection. When you are in the Holy Spirit, you are in resurrection. Although resurrection and the Holy Spirit are closely related, in our subjective experience resurrection is even more closely tied to death. Our natural being with its natural strength and natural views must pass through death before we can enter into resurrection. Hymns #279 says, "First the blood, and then the ointment, cleansing, then anointing comes; if we pass not thru Golgotha, ne'er to Pentecost we'll come." If we do not pass through the death on the cross, we can never receive the Spirit at Pentecost because the Spirit at Pentecost is the reality of resurrection. In order to have the reality of resurrection, we need to pass through Golgotha.

A stanza of a hymn in our hymnal says:

When we see the ripened harvest
Of the golden countryside,
We may know that many seeds have
Fallen to the earth and died.

Before there can be a harvest, many grains need to fall into the earth and die. But who is willing to die? Instead of dying, nearly everyone wants to receive glory. Thus, no life is imparted into others. It is easy to have a crowd, but difficult to impart life into others. To do this, we need to die. This is my burden in this message. In the Lord's recovery we do not need a crowd; we need the death that releases life. We need to experience this aspect of Christ's death.

The objective cross must become our subjective experience. We need to get into the cross and the cross must get into us. In this way we and the cross become one. Our oneness with the cross is our salvation. To be delivered from the self means to be saved from the self through becoming one with the cross. Every day we should be conformed to Christ's death by the power of His resurrection (Phil. 3:10). Without the oneness with the cross, we cannot be delivered from the self. I appreciate the chorus of the hymn which says, "Through the Cross, O Lord, I pray,/Put my soul-life all away;/Make me any price to pay,/Full anointing to receive" (Hymns, #279). We need to be willing to pay the price to enter into the subjective experience of the cross.

In our hymnal there is an excellent hymn with deep spiritual significance on the relationship between the cross and the Spirit (Hymns, #279). Stanza four of this hymn says that we must go through the Jordan before we can be anointed from above, that we must be baptized in death before we can experience the Dove. Here Jordan signifies death, and the Dove signifies the Spirit. If we pass through the river of death, we will receive the living Dove.