A Digital Newsletter from Living Stream Ministry
Sometimes under the Lord’s sovereignty we are put into a certain situation in which we must sacrifice ourselves to make others happy and the Lord happy. When in this situation we come to contact the Lord, it is then that we experience Him as the wine-producing vine; we experience Christ as the One who gives cheer to God and cheer to others.
Out of this experience we become the vine; we become the producer of something that cheers both man and God…Christ is so rich. He is not only the grain of wheat and the loaf of barley, but He is also all the trees, and the first is one that produces happiness for God and happiness for others. If all the brothers and sisters are happy with you, I am sure that to a greater or lesser degree you are experiencing Christ in this aspect; you are experiencing Christ as a wine producer. Christ as the sacrificing Lamb lives in you, energizing you to sacrifice yourself for others to bring them cheer.
If you experience Christ in this aspect, you yourself will have much wine to drink, and you will be drunk. Then you will be crazy with Christ. You should be a person who is drunk and crazy with Christ. You should be able to say, “I am so happy, Lord, I am so happy. I don’t know what selfishness means; that is a foreign language to me. Day by day I am drinking the wine of Christ.” (CWWL, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” pp. 239-240)
If you see a ripe pomegranate with its seeds, you will receive an impression that a pomegranate is full of life. In the Bible pomegranates signify the fullness of life. The church should be full of life in her humanity. This is the significance of pomegranates made of linen.
The church differs from Christ in that Christ never makes mistakes, but the church does make mistakes. You and I often make mistakes, especially when we act too hastily. For this reason, we need the golden bells to warn us not to walk too fast or carelessly. Fullness of life is expressed in the church’s humanity, but the voice of warning is expressed in the church’s divinity, as signified by the golden bells. The proper speaking of the church always comes from her divinity. If in the church we speak from ourselves, that is pitiful. We all need to learn to be little bells uttering a sound that has its source in divinity, not humanity. Such a sound is pleasant and gentle, for it comes not from a steel bell but from a golden one. What the church needs is not a few large bells, but a great many small ones.
Throughout the years in the church life, I have been warned a number of times by the speaking of young brothers and sisters. Sometimes they stand up and speak something in the meeting that is a warning to me. It seems that I hear the sounding of a little golden bell warning me not to walk carelessly. This is a description of a particular aspect of the church life: the church speaking out of divinity, based upon the fullness of life in humanity. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1442-1443)
A schedule of the upcoming conferences and trainings is provided on lsm.org.