A Digital Newsletter from Living Stream Ministry
The most important thing in the Christian life is to seek out the journey which the Lord has ordained and faithfully walk on it. A poor phenomenon among believers today is that many have not found the journey that the Lord has ordained for them. Some, even though they have found it, do not walk on it. This is the reason that their living is filled with so much spiritual death, gloom, and restriction, and this is the reason that there are so many conflicts and arguments in God’s work.
The most important task for each of us is to put ourselves into God’s hand in a quiet, patient, prayerful, consecrated, and obedient way and wholeheartedly seek after His leading. We should be willing to obey Him and act only in accordance with His will. We should pray that He reveals to us the journey He has designated for us. After this, we should pay any price to wholeheartedly walk on it.
We still have not reached the destination of our journey. Although the matter of eternal life is resolved for us and we have no more problem with that, whether or not our history on the earth will be one of faithfulness or failure (of faithfulness to the end or desertion halfway), is yet to be determined. The boat is still in the midst of the sea and has not arrived in port. There is still the danger and possibility of changing. We should not be overly self-assured and should not presume that our ending is already determined. Of course, we are delighted to be on the right course, but how we run and end it is still a question. (The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 10, pp. 424-425)
[Song of Songs 8:]6 says, “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.” When she recalls her original condition, she cannot help but be filled with humility. She cannot help but consider her emptiness, the vanity of her experience, the undependability of her mind, and the futility of her pursuit. Her only hope is the Lord.
She realizes that whether she can endure to the end does not depend on her own endurance, but on the Lord’s preservation. No spiritual perfection can sustain a person until the Lord’s return. Everything depends on God and His preserving power. When she realizes this, she cannot help but exclaim, “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm.” The heart is the place of love, while the arm is the place of strength. “Set me as permanently as a seal upon Your heart, and as indelibly as a seal upon Your arm. Just as the priests bore the Israelites upon their breasts and their shoulders, remember me constantly in Your heart and sustain me with Your arm. I know that I am weak and empty, and I am conscious of my powerlessness. Lord, I am a helpless person. If I try to preserve myself until Your coming, it will only bring shame to Your name and loss to myself. All my hopes are in Your love and power. I loved You before. But I know the undependability of that love. Now I look only to the love You have toward me. I held You once, and it seemed to be a powerful grip. But now I realize that even my strongest grip is just weakness. My trust is not in my holding power, but in Your holding power. I dare not speak of my love to You any longer. I dare not speak of my grasping of You any longer. From this point on, everything depends on Your strength and Your love. (The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 23, “The Song of Songs,” pp. 119-120)
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