There’s a Man in the glory

We should not do things in the same way all the time so that our meetings become full of traditions. For instance, in a meeting we should not always begin by singing and then continue with pray-singing. We need to be living. In a meeting, after singing a hymn, such as Hymns, #505, someone may stand up and say, "Brothers and sisters, in this hymn there is a line that says, 'How buoyant is He!' I would like to testify of how buoyant Christ is in me." Then such a one may give a testimony of how he experienced Christ as the buoyant One in his daily life. Then after his brief speaking, he may take the lead to sing stanza 3 of this hymn. This will be a living exhibition of Christ. There is no need for us to keep any forms in the meetings. Before we sing a hymn, a brother or a sister can stand up and say, "Brothers and sisters, let me testify something before we sing this hymn." Then he or she can proceed to speak a short word of experience about a line or a point in the hymn. We should not be formal but should be living....

When we pray-read the Word, our emphasis is not on interpretation or on understanding but on eating and receiving the Lord's word into us and on digesting the Lord's word. Pray-reading is not for receiving teaching but for obtaining nourishment. This is vastly different from studying and searching through the Bible. This does not mean that we do not care for the Bible; rather, it means that we do not want a dead Bible, a Bible only in letter. We want to receive a living Bible, a Bible in spirit. We do not want to read the Bible mechanically or read it for research. Rather, we want to read the Bible livingly and to pray-read the Bible. The more we pray-read, the more living and satisfied we are inwardly. The more we pray-read, the more fresh and free we are inwardly. The more we pray-read, the more it seems as if a fire is burning within us. The more we pray-read, the more we soar like eagles stretching out their wings. There is a hymn that contains these few lines: "There's a Man in the glory / Whose Life is for me. /.. .He's strong and in vigor, / How buoyant is He!" (Hymns, #505). The Lord's life does not sink or fall; it is always buoyant and soaring. The more we pray-read and enjoy the Lord, the higher we will soar.

At this point we may ask how we can enjoy Christ and have Him constituted into us when He is in heaven and we are on earth. The answer lies in the fact that there is a transmission taking place from Christ in heaven to us on earth by means of the all-inclusive Spirit. By means of this transmission, the electricity from the heavenly power plant flows into us, just as electricity flows from the power plant into our homes and into the meeting hall. Hallelujah for the transmission from the third heaven into us! "There's a Man in the glory Whose Life is for me" (Hymns, #505). Christ is the Man in the glory, but His life is for us. We all need a vision of the heavenly transmission from the glorified Christ into us. Furthermore, we need to stay open to this transmission so that it will not be cut off. Even a small amount of insulation will cause this transmission to cease. Between Christ as the fullness of God and the one new man, there is our experience of the heavenly transmission. May there be no insulation to hinder this divine transmission.

If today we had only a Redeemer who died for us on the cross and only a Savior who stretches out His hand to pull us out of the "water" of our troubles, this would not be sufficient. The Savior we need today is the One who can enter into us. We need the life-giving Spirit who dwells in our spirit and who is one spirit with us (1 Cor. 6:17). When we fall into the "water," He falls in with us. He is buoyant. If we did not have the life-giving Spirit in our spirit, we would sink in the "water" because we are not buoyant. But, praise the Lord, we do have a buoyant One within us. The third stanza of Hymns, #505 expresses this thought: "There's a Man in the glory / Whose Life is for me. / ...He's strong and in vigor, / How buoyant is He!" Where is Christ buoyant? He is buoyant in our spirit. He has been buoyant within me for sixty-five years. Because of this buoyant One, I can boast that I have been kept from falling. The life-giving Spirit as the seed of Abraham and as the consummation of the processed Triune God is the top blessing. As such a One, He can be in us with both His divinity and His humanity. How wonderful this is! The totality of what He is, is called the Spirit. The good land given to Abraham was a type of this Spirit. The Spirit is the blessing God promised Abraham.

Yet you are concerned about losing your temper. You keep regretting that you have not kept your marriage vow to love your wife or to submit to your husband. How you need your concepts changed! For you to live is Christ, not spirituality. For you to live is Christ, not love for your wife or submission to your husband. Stop trying to be even-tempered. God does not care about your being delivered from your temper. A statue never loses its temper, however much it is insulted. Do you think God wants you to be like that? God wants you to be full of Christ! Even if you are a very hot-tempered person, you can still live Christ. What we need is what God wants—Christ. God wants Christ to be lived out of us.