Thou art all my life, Lord

Although our meetings in general were not bad in those years, one thing that was lacking was the matter of touching the spirit of the meeting. Often before a message, the brothers and sisters would exercise to pray over a hymn in order to uplift the spirit and atmosphere of the meeting. For example, Hymns, #841 says, "Thou art all my life, Lord, / In me Thou dost live; / With Thee all God's fullness / Thou to me dost give." After singing the hymn, one would say, "Thou art all my life, Lord," and another would say, "In me Thou dost live." One would say, "With Thee all God's fullness," and another would say, "Thou to me dost give." In this way, line by line the hymn was turned into prayer, from the first stanza to the last. If a hymn is turned into prayer properly and concisely, it will uplift one's spirit, but once it becomes a routine and an ordinance, the saints' spirits will all be quenched if they pray from the first stanza to the last. Eventually, this practice will become tasteless. However, we should not say that we should no longer pray the lines of a hymn; let us just pray! If not, this will become another routine and ordinance.

When someone is praying over Hymns, #841 and says, "With Thee all God's fullness," we can turn this into a real prayer, saying, "Lord, we praise You that You have the fullness." Once we pray this way, those serving with us should understand what we are doing. This may be compared to playing basketball. When one player move forward, the players on the left and right should know to follow and coordinate with him. Once I pray, another person should immediately follow, and then a third one, as well as all the others. This will bring in an atmosphere of prayer. We should not follow an old routine of praying the hymns, but we should grasp every opportunity to coordinate with one another to bring in a praying atmosphere. Once the atmosphere is changed, the message that follows can be easily released. This matter is very difficult to learn, but once we learn it, it will be easy. We all need to learn. If it is obvious that there is no need to pray a hymn, we do not need to wait until every line of the hymn has been prayed—or even wait until one stanza has been prayed—before focusing on a sentence and turning to our spirit to pray. This is also true in giving a testimony. If it is not according to the spirit of the meeting, we should not force ourselves to give a testimony just because we have prepared something. Otherwise, we will deviate from the main subject, and the listeners will be confused. In the long run the meetings will become weak.

In order to do the translation work well, you must be able to write well. Translating can be compared to writing poetry. Writing poetry requires hard work. Similarly, translation requires hard work in order for it to be done wel1. This work can also be compared to building a house in a sloppy or a careful way. In order to build carefully, one must take care of many fine details. Such details include polishing everything and even doing fine engravings. The hymns that I wrote, "O glorious Christ, Savior mine" (Hymns, #501) and "Thou art all my life, Lord, / In me Thou dost live" (#841), are good examples. I spent much time and effort on these hymns, considering and revising where to place certain words. The translation of the Recovery Version into Chinese requires even more consideration and time. The serving ones must set aside the time and come to the Book Room to work during normal office hours as if they were in the army. They must come to work in the morning and depart in the afternoon. In order to be in the church life or to serve in the churches, the serving ones in the Book Room must use their spare time after work for this in the same way as other working saints. Eight hours of the day must be spent on the work of the Book Room, and the serving ones must coordinate in a good way. Even if the church has a conference, they cannot miss work to attend the conference. This is the only way for us to get the work done. If we do not do this, we will not know when we will be able to publish something, nor will we have the assurance that the work will be done well. Everything depends on time. We cannot have an attitude of doing things carelessly or finishing in a hasty way. We cannot make many mistakes, because it is hard to make corrections after a book has been sent to the printer.

When we compiled the hymnal, we did consider this matter of the "rind" and the "flesh." Since a watermelon must have both rind and flesh, we kept the "rind" hymns. However, we must learn to eat the "flesh," because the essence and nutrients are in the flesh. We must not eat only the rind. The saints seldom call hymns on experiencing Christ as life, such as Hymns, #841 and #501, or hymns on Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit, such as #450 in the Chinese hymnal and Hymns, #612. Some may not even know the tune to these hymns. We do not call these hymns, because we lack a vision of the treasure within these hymns. These hymns are on the riches of Christ who, as the all-inclusive Spirit, is in us to be our supply. Regrettably, the brothers and sisters do not know how to appreciate these hymns. They prefer to sing "rind" hymns.

The problem is, by what life will we live? By the first life or the second life? By the natural life or the divine life? By our self or by Christ? I say again that I have not found anyone, even one who is very much in the church life, who lives Christ day by day and hour after hour and does not live himself. Hymns #841, 499, and 501 (Hymns) speak of living Christ and not ourselves. We need to check to see if our life matches the standard expressed in these hymns. We need to realize that we were created to be like God, even to be one with God. Furthermore, we have been saved into God to be regenerated by Him that we may be His children and may be members of Christ to constitute the Body of Christ. However, we need to ask ourselves whether we live God or not. We do have a marvelous provision. God has provided us with a body and with a spirit, which are very sufficient for us to live as a man to worship God, to receive God, and to contain God that we may live God and express Him.

Even after being saved by God, we may not live Him. We may be gentlemen, men who are right, but we may not be able to say, "It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20a). We may not be able to apply this holy word to ourselves. We need to realize the organic union between us and God. We need to behave ourselves, to walk, to live, to do everything, in this organic union. It should not be I but Christ; it should not be I by myself, but I with God, united, mingled, and blended to be one person, a God-man.

However, it is not sufficient to be separated and made holy unto God positionally. After we are sanctified positionally and reconciled to God, as we begin to pursue in life, we will sense something within us which is not our disposition but God's nature. This nature within us deals thoroughly with our natural disposition, our peculiar disposition, and our temperament so that the divine nature becomes our disposition. This is to sanctify the believers dispositionally that they may partake of God's holy nature and be one with God in this attribute of His (Rom. 15:16). This kind of sanctification uses the element of God's life as the material and is carried out through the sanctifying work in the believers by the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2).

This is exactly my experience. After I was saved, because I loved the Lord and was growing in life, God's holy nature continually carried out a sanctifying work in me. When I went to the department stores, I looked at one item, yet I could not wear it; I looked at another item and I could not use it. When I first changed to wearing Western clothes, buying neckties was a big problem. Some neckties were too wide, others were too narrow, and still others were too fancy. Today my neckties are neither too wide nor too narrow nor too fancy. This is because when I go to buy a necktie, there is a nature within me that wants me to buy this kind of necktie. Brothers, the yardstick for our living and our clothing is the divine nature within us. This divine nature of God within us is the yardstick for our living. Stanza 1 of Hymns, #841 says, "Thou art all my life, Lord,/In me Thou dost live;/With Thee all God's fulness/Thou to me dost give./By Thy holy nature/I am sanctified,/By Thy resurrection,/Vict'ry is supplied." By the Lord's holy nature we are sanctified. This kind of sanctification is not outward but inward. Therefore, we do not say that this is positional sanctification; rather, we say that it is dispositional sanctification.

The second step of transformation is sanctification, the sanctification of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 6:19, 22; 15:16). After our old man was buried through baptism, God set us apart and sanctified our regenerated new man. This new man belongs to God, and God is in this new man. This sanctification is not only an objective sanctification in position; it is even more a subjective sanctification in disposition. We, as the saved ones, all have this experience. For example, after a person is saved, without anyone telling him, he may feel that the shoes he is wearing are too worldly. When he bought this pair, he liked the pointed style, which is a favorite of the Texan cowboys. But now that he is saved, when he wears these shoes, he feels that there is too much of a worldly flavor, so he cannot wear them. When I went to the United States about thirty years ago, it was the time of the hippies. There were many hippies who came to our meetings, but there was one that I can never forget. He was big in stature, wore a headdress with varied colors, and had a long beard. He came to the meetings barefoot and sat on the front row. Praise the Lord, after two or three meetings his headdress was gone, and after another week his long beard was also gone. I was very happy. Nevertheless, he still came barefoot. After another week he came wearing sandals. This was better than being barefoot. After another period of time he came wearing shoes, and after a little more time he came also wearing socks. He was sanctified. Stanza 1 of Hymns, #841 says, "Thou art all my life, Lord, / In me Thou dost live; / With Thee all God's fullness / Thou to me dost give. / By Thy holy nature / I am sanctified, / By Thy resurrection, / Vict'ry is supplied." The Lord lives in us to be our life, and this life with the divine nature sanctifies us within. This is the second step of transformation.

The first stanza of Hymns, #841 says that the Lord is our life, that He lives in us, and that we are sanctified by His holy nature. God the Father has put His life into us that we might be His sons, and He has put His nature into us that we might be made holy as He is. These are the blessings of the Father revealed in Ephesians 1:3-6. Verse 6 concludes this section of the blessings given to us by the Father by saying, "To the praise of the glory of His grace."

God's law of the Spirit of life does not move in a rash way within us. Rather, it operates spontaneously and softly. This can be compared to our eating. Within us is a law of digestion that does the work of digestion in us. A little while after the food gets into us, the digestion is completed, and the food becomes our nutrients. It is true that we are not good, but we should not expect to improve quickly. We have to do what Hymns, #841, stanza 6, says, "I would cease completely from my efforts vain." We should not struggle or strive anymore. Instead, we should simply hand ourselves over to God's law. We have to know that our natural life is also a law. After Satan entered into man, the natural law within man became distorted. Either we do not love the Lord, or we expect that we can be a "saint." However, we should not expect too much. Instead, we should simply allow the grafted life to grow spontaneously according to its own law of life.

I know that many working brothers and sisters, after finding a job, experience pressure from their boss, competition from their co-workers, plus the jealousy of the aggressive ones. It is indeed not a simple situation. Not only so, but after marriage they will have a wife, and not long afterwards they will have children. It is indeed troublesome. Although there is enjoyment in these things, yet it is not without troubles. What shall we do? This is just like the hymn we sang tonight, which says,

... [Stanza 1 and 6]

This is just like what the Bible shows us. The divine power of God has granted unto us all things related to life and godliness. The sufficient life supply will meet all our needs. Therefore, we do not have to worry; we need only to draw on God's supply by faith.

In this hymn the word "give" actually refers to the divine dispensing. All the fullness of God is given to us in Christ, and this giving is simply the dispensing of all that the Triune God is, has, and does into our being.

This hymn also tells us that we are sanctified by the Lord's holy nature. This sanctification is not so-called sinless perfection; it is the sanctification by the holy nature that has been imparted into our being. The holy nature imparted into us is the holy nature of the Triune God. This imparting of God's holy nature is not once for all; it is a matter that continues day by day and hour by hour. Continually the holy nature of the Triune God is being imparted into us. This impartation causes us to be saturated with the holy essence of the divine Trinity for our sanctification.

This hymn also tells us that by Christ's resurrection victory is supplied to us. In ourselves we cannot overcome anything or be victorious. In ourselves we are sinful and even dead in our spirit. But we have received the resurrected Christ as our life. Now, in His resurrection, He is dispensing Himself into us. Therefore, when we enjoy Him, we also enjoy Him as resurrection life and resurrection power. This resurrection life and power give us subjectively the victory over all negative things. Furthermore, by this life, which is Christ Himself, we live a life according to the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens. This means that we live a life which corresponds to the reality of the kingdom nature. This reality is the content of the church life. If we would live in this reality and express it in the church life, we need to receive the divine dispensing.