Fellowship July 30, 2011

Fellowship in the Household of Faith

July 30, 2011

Giving up our rights and living by the heart

BELIEVER 6: (“Practical Matters of this Life” by Watchman Nee).  “An eye dry reveals a heart dry.  A dry heart reveals a heart of stone.  It is only as the tears flow that the heart is opened up.  How strange that what is in the heart finds its exit through the eyes.  Some regard tears as a sign of weakness; but quite the contrary, the one who has not tears to shed has buried his humanity.”

BELIEVER 4:  the practical experience of what you are speaking; we need to allow to come down to our hearts.  It is not easy to live by our heart.  The measure of our surrender to Him is the measure that our heart is open.  You BELIEVER 6 said to us, “it is only as the tears flow that the heart is opened up.”  I am going to give an example of what we are living here.  When you allow your heart (Verses the mind) to function, everything changes.  But the enemy doesn’t want us to live in our hearts.  This is what I am praying for BELIEVER 3; I don’t feel peace in that we feel something (in the spirit) and he feels something different, the Lord needs to work with our heart.  This is a fight if we don’t have a sensitive heart.  This is a problem with BELIEVER 2; brokenness hasn’t come to him for over 4 months.  We can think that we are near God, but we near only in our mind, or in our own strength.  Brother Nee says, “how strange that what is in the heart…” the problem is that the world thinks the tears are a sign of weakness.  This means we have a heart of stone.  The heart of stone is in the old man.  The Lord wants us to live by a heart of flesh, the problem for all of us is that in the heart of flesh, the “I” cannot exist.  In reality, the “I” doesn’t have the ability to do what God wants. 

BELIEVER 6:  “the tears have a cleansing effect not only in the physical realm, but also in the spiritual realm.  In the physical realm, a few tears will help you to see more clearly.  Similarly, without a few tears your spiritual eyes would soon lose their function….The attitude of a Christian should be one of meekness, not arrogance.  And the life of a Christian should be one of denial, not pleasure.”

BELIEVER 4:  to deny ourselves is contrary to our nature, our flesh.  How does this operate so that we can have divine life to flow to the brothers.  Not unless we allow God to do what He wants to do.  I am going to be more specific with what happened right now.  Today or yesterday, I said to BELIEVER 5 concerning her health, “you need to eat more healthy (more in the vegetable life, not in what we desire).” This is not something we can handle unless the Lord helps us.  We have problems to handle what we like and enjoy.  There are two types of circumstances concerning denying our self and what we want to live.  In 1 Corinthians concerning the offerings, “each day of the week, each one set aside something to offer…”   In 2 Corinthians chapter 9:7 says, “let each do according to what he has purposed in his heart.”  I don’t feel it is a free choice.  The recovery version says,  “each one as he has purposed in his heart.”  God needs to put the purpose in our heart.

BELIEVER 6:  “(when we) give up any claim to personal rights, these cannot be provoked to anger.  This is denying self.”

BELIEVER 4: why do we get angry in what we are living? Because we have not lost our rights.  We still are enemies of the cross of Christ.  If someone takes something from you and you are still alive (in the old man) you are going to be angry.  Sister BE has lived difficult things for some months.  She feels angry because she hasn’t lost her rights.  Losing your rights is only going to come if you eat Christ.  It won’t come because you read a book, but because you hear the Living Voice of God.  The practicality of this shows us where we are.  We have a chance to fight unto death over what we have in our hearts.

BELIEVER 6: “A subjective person is full of self.  He has an opinion on every matter and a conviction on every subject.”

BELIEVER 4: This is so real: more real than 2 plus 2 equals 4.  The fire of God needs to consume us.  What is it that God wants? His desire?  It is that we be subject to Him, not ourselves.  He doesn’t want our opinion to exist, only His opinion.  The word says He will give testimony to our spirit.  But this is not coming from ourselves (because we do it). 

BELIEVER 6: “If you are truly a humble person before God,  you will eventually come to realize that the ridicule, despising, and slander that is directed at you from people is part of the discipline of the Holy Spirit, and you will accept such discipline. “ 

BELIEVER 4: If you don’t go to the spirit, we don’t accept this discipline.  We (BELIEVER 4 and BELIEVER 3) are living certain things, and the Lord is showing many things, and to keep going, grace is the only thing that is going to help us. 

BELIEVER 6:  “A person who truly knows the Lord expects other people to be raised up, as well as himself…The deeper one’s self has been dealt with through the Cross, the greater one’s deliverance from self will be.  How is this manifested?  The man who has been totally delivered from self cannot be provoked to rise to his own defense…(BELIEVER 4: this nature is not in the old man)…A Christian who loses his temper is simply revealing his resistance to the discipline of the Holy Spirit.  He is unhappy and displeased with the arrangement of events the Holy Spirit ahs ordered for Him (BELIEVER 4: we need help for this).

BELIEVER 4: only in the spirit can we say amen to this.  In our flesh, we believe (and desire) we are going to live forever.

BELIEVER 6:  “some days are accredited and some rejected by God…As Christians, we should realize that the days that we live according to our own human will—away from God, defeated and fallen—are not numbered by Him.  (BELIEVER 4: we don’t understand this, if we did understand this we would take the cross in silence.  We have many things in us that we want to keep alive.) “If we spend our days foolishly—if we rebel against God, commit sins, or walk after our own will—our days will be totally wasted as far as God is concerned.  How dreadful this is!”

BELIEVER 4: Brother Austin-Sparks says our life is a life of credits and debits.  If we are in the natural life it is a life of debits, and if we live in the spirit, it is a life of credits.  The days we dedicate to doing good things may not count.   God is not interested in good things.  There is a great difference between what God wants and what we want. 

BELIEVER 6:  “if your service is done according to His will, one day in His sight may be reckoned as many days.  For one day in His courts is better than a thousand wasted days (Ps. 84:10).”  (BELIEVER 4: we don’t understand this.  We want many things; we spend a thousand days in what we want easily.)…Why do some many Christians have to go back to get more water after drinking from the well?  Because they are drinking from the wrong well.”  (BELIEVER 4:  do you know what the wrong well is?  It includes doctrine.  Only the living word is true water.)

BELIEVER 4: BELIEVER 6 is giving the living word for this day.  D you know how many times 2 Cor. 9:7 killed me?  Many times.  Not by obligation, not by necessity, not by grief or guilt.  This is death

“Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

BELIEVER 5:  “The Living Son of God talks about His Person, He has the consummation of the Spirit for the full expression of God.”  (BELIEVER 4: do you know what you are talking about?)  NO!  “The Lord Jesus is the Great Light that attracted His disciples to Himself to establish the kingdom of Heaven.  Christ is the Doctor and the Bridegroom.  The Individual Christ is the new wine, and the Corporate Christ is the new vessel.”  He doesn’t accept the old skin or the old vessel.  (BELIEVER 3: what does that mean?)  I believe Christ put in me a new heart, and what I have (the heart of stone) He took it away.

BELIEVER 4:  It is easy to put the doctrine in our brain without having the experience.  What I can speak to you is the experience.  I am going to choose the words of BELIEVER 5.  You said that God gave you a new heart.  In Jeremiah, the Lord says that He took out the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh.  The problem is that both are still living in you.  (BELIEVER 5: I recognize this).  Why do you still live by the old one?  It seems like there is a contradiction, but there is not a contradiction.  The scripture is not for public interpretation, it is by the Spirit of God, we need to see that our old man needs to be crucified.  The blood gives us forgiveness, but the cross takes away our old man.  We don’t go to the cross as much as we need to go (which is all the time).  (BELIEVER 5: who goes all the time to the cross?)  We are not going to ask what is first, “the egg or the hen.”  When the New Man starts to be manifested in our human life in the reality of the New Man, we receive the understanding that the old man is dead.  All that the New Man needs is a shell.  What is the function of this outer shell, the body.  The Spirit only uses our body only if we apply the blood of Christ.  The Lord loves the sinners, but hates the sin.  The old man needs the blood.  Without the blood we cannot enter the Holy of Holies.  And without the Cross, we cannot have divine nature.  We need to understand, we don’t need to go to the position of Job, fighting with God regarding our own righteousness. 

BELIEVER 5: “Christ is the Shepherd, the Lord of the harvest.  The Lord is the owner the harvest; He establishes things in Life that have a chance to grow and multiply.  Christ is the friend of sinners and the wisdom of God.  As the friend of Sinners He has compassion and feels their sorrows.  He gives them rest.  To take the yoke of the Lord is to accept the will of the Father and be constrained by the will of the Father.  Christ is the bread and the crumbs that come under the table.  The economy of God is not a matter of outward things.”  Christ is everything, we need to open our heart and our spirit so that He can do whatever He wants. If we don’t do this He cannot do anything.  (BELIEVER 4: do you know what you are talking about?)  NO! 

BELIEVER 4: do you know why you say “No!”  He wants your heart, and you are not experiencing these things.  (BELIEVER 5: he has my heart).  The word says, where your heart is, there your treasure is also.  He has your heart, but He only has a part of your heart.  (BELIEVER 5: only He knows how much of my heart is His).  No, you know too.  (BELIEVER 5: No, because the human heart is evil above all things.)  Can you allow me to bless you?  If you feel you this.  (BELIEVER 5: who said to you I don’t feel that you can bless me?)  By your words you will be justified and condemned.  There are two sources flowing two different directions inside of you.  There is one flowing one way and the other flowing the other way (the natural life and the life in the spirit).  (BELIEVER 5: I understand).  You can pray BELIEVER 5.

(BELIEVER 5 prays)

BELIEVER 6:  “Paul did not simply say that He gained the Lord as his treasure.  He had something to lose as well.  He counted all other things to be loss—he let go of all these things—so that he could know and gain the Excellency of the Lord Jesus Christ…”

BELIEVER 4: what brother Nee shared here is very deep.  We want this (the prize), but we don’t want to lose anything (the cost).  It doesn’t work in that way.  To be flexible is something that gives us many problems if we are not dead.  We cannot say to God what He needs to do.  Unconsciously we do this.  It works in our natural life.  Brother Sparks says that if we want to go to the fullness of what God is, we need to be flexible.  Flexible means you can have any kind of form that the Lord wants when the Lord wants.  In our natural life we don’t have this.  We don’t want to be flexible.  We want stability (by our own strength), not flexibility. 

BELIEVER 6:  “one who is meek is able to declare that he will have whatever God wants him to have.  Meekness is to maintain an attitude whereby whatever you have decided on is subject to change according to God’s will, because a meek heart is an obedient heart.”

BELIEVER 4:  I am going to put on the table what I lived today.  According to my best thought, I don’t feel I have a flight in the next days.  Flexibility is something where we allow the spirit to change the things that He wants, even on a very short notice.  WE have our plans, but these are subject to change.  The word says, “if the Lord wills” we will do this or that (James). 

BELIEVER 6: “Humility means a person will accept whatever the Lord gives him, for his expectations are not focused on himself.  He is able to shout “hallelujah” and offer thanks to the Lord concerning anything the Lord may be pleased to give…” (BELIEVER 4: in myself, I say here, help me Lord.  To accept what He wants is to die.  You suffer BELIEVER 3, because our nature cannot live these things.  From the depth of your heart you need to say, “Lord, help me”).  “Any person who has had some spiritual experience will agree that nothing is more joyous than consecration; nothing can surpass the joy of putting oneself in God’s hands and allowing Him to manage one’s life…Those who do not know God well will complain that God is too hear, reaping where He does not sow and gathering where He does not scatter.  But those who truly know God will confess that indeed the Lord’s yoke is easy, and His burden is light…How many of God’s children sing “hallelujah” when they hear of the love of God and His wisdom and power but are fearful when it comes to hearing the will of God for their own lives!”

BELIEVER 4: this is the fight between the old and new man.  We have a chance to sing the best songs but still be alive.  The Lord asks us for something, but we don’t give it and aren’t happy (with what He asks).  This is the lack of the cross in our life.

BELIEVER 6:  “Frequently we ask for fish, and God seemingly gives us a serpent; we ask for bread, and He appears to be  giving us a stone.  So we inquire why this is so.  The fact is that we often we ask for fish, not knowing that what we are actually asking for a serpent.  Moreover, what God gives us may appear to be a stone, whereas in truth it is bread…To praise God for what is gained initiates a person into praise, but to praise Him for what is lost is to perfect that person in praise…” (a bar of steel can be worth 5 dollars.  Under refinings and beatings to be made into springs for watches it can be worth over $250,000)…”In order that we may become more valuable to Him, He causes us to undergo more refinings and beatings…Rest comes from Consecration.”

BELIEVER 4: Do you know what consecration in reality is?  Everything is His.  Only when you give Him everything, you will have rest.  This is only in the new creation, by faith and obedience.  Without faith it is impossible.  This is a process; we are not going to go to a total consecration if we don’t go to a partial consecration (giving the Lord little by little).  This is for all who go the way of the Lord.  When there is a partial consecration, this is like the Corinthian Church: we need some of the Law, because we cannot(fully follow what the Lord wants).  But when we cannot go through truly, God can.  If we can, He can’t.  God says that only one can live in us.  Either Him, or us.  It is the mingle that brings the reality to us. 

BELIEVER 6: “Total Consecration means total rest…”

BELIEVER 4: when the Lord says, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  The Lord is saying that it is not in our strength.  My yoke and My burden.  He is speaking of Himself, not of us.  The problem of unbelief is there also.  We have been speaking of this all week with BELIEVER 3.  He has certain things inside His heart, and we cannot obtain rest this way (without taking His yoke).

BELIEVER 6:  “There is many things that make the Lord glad, but only when Christians are in one accord is His joy full.”

BELIEVER 4:  There are two positions, one is in the self, and the other is in Christ.  It says to us what He is.  To be in one accord, not only one needs to go to the cross; a corporate body needs to go to the cross.  He cannot be the Head if others are the head.  This is the mystery of the body of Christ.  One thing is to say by the mouth and another thing is to feel in the heart.

BELIEVER 6:  “Lowliness of mind means not leaving any room for oneself—it is when we count others as better than ourselves.  This is the most difficult of all Christian virtues.”  Everything here is for the glory of the Spirit.  This is one of the best writings of Nee.  God gave the privilege of sharing this tonight.  God put in our heart to give the proper discernment.  We all have our opinions.  The virtues that are supposed to be in the Christian life are here.  It is true that those we don’t know God give a complaint of everything.  Those who keep following Him; we know the dimension that He is over us.  Each day, by His mercy, whatever we achieve is not to our glory but to His.