Let us turn to the Gospel according to John, chapter 3, verse 8.
The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the voice thereof,
but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth:
so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
This is just a verse for the moment. We know that this is the word of our Lord to Nicodemus. In John 3:7, the Lord said:
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born anew.
We know that being born again is the work of the Holy Spirit. According to the interpretation of our Lord, being born again simply means being born of the Spirit.
In order for us to understand this better, our Lord spoke to Nicodemus in this way:
The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the voice thereof,
but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth:
so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Now, in this verse, the word wind and the word spirit—whether in Hebrew or Greek—are actually the same word. Sometimes it can be translated as wind; sometimes it can be translated as spirit. I think this is very meaningful. Our Lord was very careful in His use of words.
If we read this verse again, I think we understand much more, especially concerning the work of the Holy Spirit:
The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the voice thereof,
but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth:
so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Our Lord used the wind—especially the manner in which the wind blows—to describe the dynamic work of the Holy Spirit. Of course, being born again is one of the works of the Holy Spirit.
This morning, I would like to share with the brothers and sisters just one point. We know there are many aspects of the dynamic work of the Holy Spirit, but I want to concentrate on one.
Let us turn to Romans 8, verse 28.
And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good,
even to them that are called according to His purpose.
I think we are very familiar with this verse, because we use it quite often to comfort ourselves and also to comfort our brothers and sisters. Even when some brother gets a ticket because of speeding, we may comfort him with this verse: “All things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to His purpose.”
But, brothers and sisters, I feel that somehow this verse has been greatly misunderstood.
I do not know about you, but I remember very well how I used to understand this verse and how I tried to apply it. Sometimes, when I applied this verse, I came to a point of almost complete helplessness. Something happened to me, and I thought, “This must be the will of the Lord.”
Since God is greater than I am, and since He is all-powerful, I thought that He could arrange anything. Whether I said yes to the will of God or not, the thing had already happened to me. So I thought that I had better say yes. If I said yes, perhaps the Lord would turn the situation.
So often, that is the condition in which we apply this verse to ourselves or to our brothers and sisters.
But this is a very important verse, and often we neglect two or three words at the very beginning: “And we know.” This phrase is very important. It is real knowledge within us: we know deep down that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God.
But so often, we do not have that knowledge. How can we gain such knowledge?
If we read the context, we discover that it begins with the work of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we take Romans 8:28 as an isolated, independent verse. But before we come to this knowledge—before we can say, “We know”—there is another important phrase in Romans 8:26:
And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity:
for we know not how to pray as we ought.
Here we find the Holy Spirit. The Spirit helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should.
Before we know, we have to learn a lesson: we do not know.
Sometimes we are just like geniuses. Before we learn algebra, we already study calculus. No wonder we cannot understand calculus very well. So often, we forget the order here. First, we do not know; then, we know.
According to Romans 8:26, “we know not how to pray as we ought.” I think this is a wonderful work of the Holy Spirit. He always leads us to the first lesson: we come to the point where we know that we do not know how to pray.
Sometimes we do not understand this, because we think that we know how to pray—both individually and corporately. Every Wednesday, when we are together, we know how to pray, and we think that when we pray, the Lord will definitely answer our prayer.
I remember when I was newly saved. I was told that I should learn the art of prayer—not merely to pray, but to pray in such a way that the Lord would answer my prayer.
We found a few techniques. We thought there were conditions that we had to fulfil before God could answer our prayer. First, we had to pray. Then we had to pray unceasingly. We had to pray every day. We should not pray amiss. We should not pray for something beyond our need. We had to deal with sin, and we had to pray by faith.
When I was young, I tried to fulfil these conditions. Then I thought that the Lord definitely would answer my prayer.
I still remember a story from when I was about seventeen. Some of our young brothers were trying to enter college. In Taiwan, most people had to go through a very difficult entrance examination. We had to work very hard, but we knew that it was not merely by our own effort. We needed to pray and ask the Lord to answer our prayer.
I invited some brothers to pray with me. We all prayed together for one purpose: that we could enter a certain college. Actually, we chose the best college and asked the Lord to answer our prayer.
We said, “Lord, we want that college because it is for Your testimony, not for ourselves. We want to show people that those who love the Lord are not foolish people. God is not the God of junk collectors.”
So we prayed very hard before the Lord. We knew that entering college was important for our lives.
We wanted that college so much, and we wanted God to answer our prayer in a definite way. So we tried to fulfil every condition.
In Taiwan, there are typhoons, especially in the summertime. Storms would come, but we had a specific prayer before the Lord. We went to the meeting place to pray every day. Even when there was a storm, we told ourselves, “No matter what happens, we should go to the meeting place and pray together.”
We thought, “Perhaps if we do not go, the Lord will say, ‘That day you did not come, so you did not pray unceasingly.’” We took that word very literally.
We also confessed our sins and dealt with them before the Lord. Not only that, we exercised faith. Even when we knew that we did not have faith, we thought that at least we could sing hymns about faith. We sang those beautiful hymns, and our spirits were lifted up. Then we thought that we had faith.
By this means, we thought that the Lord had to answer our prayer.
For one year, we prayed every day. We applied our hearts. If anyone had asked us, “Do you know how to pray?” we would have said, “Yes, we know how to pray. After we pray, the Lord definitely will answer us, because God never fails.”
After prayer, we began to praise the Lord, thinking that this was the way in which He would answer our prayer.
But it was very interesting. After one year of prayer, we went through a very difficult examination. Several of us had been praying together, but strangely, none of us passed. The Lord did not answer our prayer—not even for a second-class college. None of us entered at all.
It was a shock to us.
But when I look back now, I am very thankful. Sooner or later, we had to be brought to the point where we would say to the Lord, “We do not know how to pray.”
Actually, what we had done was try to corner God. We tried to force Him into such a corner that He had to answer our prayer. We surrounded Him with all the conditions and fulfilled every one of them. God had no way out—or so we thought. But then we discovered that He took the helicopter and went away.
We simply could not do anything. He did not answer our prayer.
Gradually, by the mercy of the Lord, I discovered from this verse that sooner or later we need the help of the Holy Spirit. We may think that if we fulfil the conditions of prayer, the Lord definitely will answer us. But as time goes by, especially as we grow in the Lord, we face situations in which we really do not know how to pray.
Sometimes we think something is good and that we should pray for it. We think, “The Lord should answer this prayer.” But if we pray very hard and the Lord does answer, we may discover later that we must ask whether it was really a blessing.
Sometimes we have a very strong will. We think that something is the will of the Lord and the best arrangement for our lives. We may pray for the future of our children—for their schooling or their marriage. We see an open door and think, “This must be it.” Then we begin to pray.
We may think that entrusting our daughter to a certain brother would be a wonderful thing. We pray and pray and pray, asking God to answer. Sometimes, by the mercy of the Lord, God does answer. But after many years, we may wonder whether it was a blessing or not.
According to our flesh, we always try to avoid difficulties and suffering. But sometimes, when we receive suffering from the Lord and afterwards look back, we discover that it was indeed a blessing to go through deep waters. Because of that suffering, the Lord led us to avoid some greater suffering.
So, brothers and sisters, we really do not know how to pray, especially when we come to the will of God. We have to pray according to His will.
Thank the Lord that we ought to come to this point: we do not know how to pray as we should. When we do not know, the only thing we can do, as a garden locked, is simply hand ourselves over to the Lord.
One day we tell the Lord, “Lord, we simply do not know how to pray. You take over.”
Then we discover that the Holy Spirit does take over.
But the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
The Holy Spirit begins to pray for us. If we read on:
And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,
because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Here we find the mind of the Holy Spirit, and God knows the mind of the Spirit. When the Holy Spirit prays, He always prays according to His mind. He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God, not according to our will.
Since the Holy Spirit knows the will of God for our lives, He knows what we lack in our Christian lives. Therefore, He prays for us that we may truly grow.
According to that prayer, we come to Romans 8:28:
And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good,
even to them that are called according to His purpose.
Now we begin to know.
According to the prayer of the Holy Spirit, we discover that the environment and circumstances are turning and spinning. Then we discover that all things work together. Nothing happens by accident. It is all according to the prayer of the Holy Spirit.
That is why I like one hymn very much. Its words are something like this:
Lord, I do not fear to see what is coming;
all I need is just a faithful heart to You.
This ought to be our prayer.
When all things work together, it is not because something happens by accident. With Christians, we have no accidents, only incidents. Because of the prayer of the Holy Spirit, we discover that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God.
God is answering the prayer of the Holy Spirit.
When we come to Romans 8:28, we may still misunderstand the verse. We may cultivate a mentality that is not very scriptural.
Suppose one day that we park our car on the street and it is stolen. We feel sad for one month. Then perhaps the Lord gives us another car—perhaps a Cadillac. We stand up in the fellowship meeting and say, “Thank God. God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God. If that car had not been stolen, I would never have had a Cadillac.”
We may think that this is the good God intended. But actually, the Lord gives us something much better.
The verse says, “to them that love God” and “to them that are called according to His purpose.” The Holy Spirit prays for us that we may fulfil His purpose. God has a purpose for us, and God has a will for us.
What is the will of God? What is the purpose of God? According to Romans 8:29:
For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son.
That is the good for those who love God. When all things work together, they work together for one purpose: that we may be transformed into the image of Christ. That is the good.
We are called to live such a life. This is the purpose of God for us. Unless God obtains what He wants in us, the Holy Spirit can never stop praying for us.
When we read this passage, we begin to understand the dynamic work of the Holy Spirit. First, He prays for us. Then He prays according to the will of God. Then we discover that the circumstances are turning and spinning.
In other words, the wind blows in all directions. When the wind blows, we discover that the Holy Spirit is doing a specific work, with just one purpose: that we may be transformed into the image of Christ.
When we study the Bible carefully, we discover that it speaks of winds from every direction: the north wind, the south wind, the east wind, and the west wind.
Let us turn to Song of Solomon 4:16.
Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south;
blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.
Let my beloved come into His garden,
and eat His precious fruits.
Last night, we shared especially from Song of Solomon 4:12:
A garden shut up is my sister, my bride;
a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
We know that there are trees, flowers, fruits, and spices in the garden. The fruit speaks of the fullness of the life of Christ; the flower speaks of the beauty of the life of Christ; and the spices speak of the fragrance of the life of Christ.
If we study the spices in the Bible, it is very interesting. Different spices release fragrance in different ways. Some release fragrance when they are cut. Some release fragrance when they are boiled. Some release fragrance when they are roasted.
There are many kinds of spices in the garden.
But here we have the prayer of the Shulamite:
Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south;
blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.
Through the work of the Holy Spirit, people can see beauty in us, smell the fragrance, and see the fullness of the life of Christ. But how does this fragrance flow forth?
When God sends the north wind or the south wind, the fragrance of Christ within us flows forth. Then the people around us can smell that fragrance.
We must thank the Lord that suffering itself has no merit. But after the wind blows, the Holy Spirit has done something in us. Then the spices may flow forth.
Sometimes all things work together, and we discover that it is a north wind. Sometimes it is a south wind.
The north wind is chilly—very chilly. When the south wind blows, it gives us warmth. Of course, we all welcome the south wind. But thank the Lord: He gives us not only the south wind, but also the north wind.
In our Christian lives, if I am not mistaken, God often sends the south wind and occasionally sends the north wind. But because of human nature, we tend to remember certain things.
For example, a husband may treat his wife kindly ten times, and she may forget. But if her husband hurts her once, she may remember it very well. She remembers how he hurt her.
The same is true with us. God often sends the south wind, but we always remember the north wind. Therefore, we lose many opportunities.
We may think that only through suffering, only through the north wind, does the fragrance of Christ flow out. But I do not think that is accurate. Our Lord has given us many opportunities, and often they are the south wind.
When we have the south wind, brothers and sisters, let us remember that it is also part of God’s work in causing all things to work together. We tend to think that “all things” must refer only to bad things. That is wrong.
Sometimes it is the north wind, but many times it is the south wind. When we are enjoying the south wind, do we give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to blow upon us, so that the fragrance of Christ within us may flow forth?
Let us use all these opportunities for Christ, that we may testify of how our Lord has done a great work in us.
The Holy Spirit has already done something within us. But God wants it to be known to the world. Yes, we are a garden locked to Christ, but God wants the fragrance within that garden to spread abroad and be known to the world.
This is why God causes all things to work together. Sometimes He sends the north wind, and sometimes He sends the south wind.
The Bible also speaks of the east wind. Let us turn to Psalm 48:7.
With the east wind
Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish.
We Chinese like the east wind very much. If you look at the map of China, the sea is to the east. When the east wind blows, it carries showers. We have a saying: “Everything is ready except the east wind.” That is, when the east wind blows, everything goes smoothly.
But if we look at the map of Israel, the meaning is completely different.
In the Bible, the west wind brings showers, because the Great Sea is to the west. When the west wind blows, it brings showers of blessing. But to the east of Israel is a great desert. The east wind carries scorching sand, especially during the summer.
Therefore, the east wind is not a pleasant wind. Yet Psalm 48:7 says:
With the east wind
Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish.
This reminds us of the story of Jonah. God sent Jonah to Nineveh to give a message to the people there. Instead of going east, he went west. He went to Tarshish, which was in Spain, far from Israel.
Sometimes we cannot understand Jonah very well, because he was greatly used by the Lord. He was a great servant of God. The Lord Himself said that One greater than Jonah was present. This tells us that Jonah was great in the sight of God.
But how could God send Jonah east while Jonah went west? And how could Jonah get into the ship and fall asleep?
When we rebel against God, we normally feel uncomfortable. We cannot sleep. Our faces become red, and our hearts beat fast. It is like a radar detector in a car saying, “Slow down, slow down, slow down.” Deep within us, our conscience tells us the same thing.
When God asks us to go east and we turn west, when we are against the will of God, we normally have no peace. Yet Jonah slept.
I remember when I was young, we were taught that we should not go to the cinema because it was part of the world. I took it very seriously. I dared not go to see movies, but I still liked movies. So every day, when I read the newspaper, I read the movie advertisements.
One day, I saw an advertisement for a movie called The King of Kings. I thought, “This is wonderful. Other movies may contain many unclean things, but this movie is about our Lord and how He died on the cross.” So I tried to justify going.
I asked another brother to go with me. At that time, we were responsible for some young people, so we thought that perhaps it would not be good if anyone recognized us. We did not want to cause anyone to stumble.
We decided to wear raincoats so that no one could recognize us. It was a very hot summer day with bright sunshine, but both of us wore raincoats to the cinema.
Fortunately, perhaps nobody recognized us. But as we entered the cinema, I knew that my heart was beating fast. Everything seemed correct. I had justified it all. But deep within, I had no peace at all.
We all have this kind of experience. Therefore, we may wonder how Jonah’s conscience did not bother him and how he could fall asleep.
Later, as I studied a little more, I began to understand something. Jonah was a prophet, a great prophet. Most likely, he could see into the distant future in his spirit. He knew that one day Israel would be captured by Assyria, and Nineveh was the capital of Assyria.
Because of this knowledge, Jonah was in pain. He loved God’s testimony. He loved God’s people. He was patriotic, and he did not want this to happen.
He knew that if he preached to Nineveh and the people repented, God might spare them. Assyria would continue, and later Assyria would become an instrument of judgment against Israel.
Therefore, Jonah tried to help God. He did not want that to happen. He knew that God was gracious, compassionate, and full of mercy. He feared that God would relent if the people repented.
For what Jonah considered to be a noble cause, he made himself a self-exile. He fled to a far-distant place. Perhaps he ran quickly because he was afraid that God would catch him.
A round trip from Israel to Tarshish could take about three years. Jonah may have thought that within those three years anything could happen to Nineveh. Perhaps God would already judge the city.
When Jonah arrived at the harbor, the ship was there. Such a ship might come only once every three years. If we used modern language, Jonah might have said, “Hallelujah, thank the Lord. This must be the will of God.”
The ship was expensive because it carried gold and treasures, not people. Jonah had to pay a great price. Yet he had the money. He might have thought, “If it were not the will of the Lord, how could I have the money?”
Because of these circumstances, his conscience fell asleep.
But God loved Jonah. Even though Jonah fled for what he believed to be a noble cause, and even though his conscience had fallen asleep, God sent a wind.
According to Psalm 48:7, it was the east wind. It came to break the ship of Tarshish and to awaken Jonah.
So often we disobey the Lord. We know what He wants, but we go in another direction. We find good excuses and noble reasons. Then we look at our environment and say, “This confirms that it is from God.”
But sometimes our conscience has fallen asleep, and it is the love of God that wakes us by His wind.
Jonah had to be thrown into the sea. There he had a wonderful experience. In New Testament language, it was an experience of death and resurrection. Jonah came to the end of himself, and he began to learn obedience.
The second time, the word of God came to Jonah and told him to go to Nineveh. This time, he obeyed.
God gave Jonah only five words in Hebrew: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Jonah entered Nineveh as a foreigner, perhaps speaking with a Hebrew accent. Yet when he literally obeyed the word of God, the whole nation was turned.
There was a great revival. It was not because of Jonah himself. God had allowed him to pass through a wonderful experience, and Jonah had learned obedience.
Yet Jonah was angry. Why? If we read the Book of Jonah carefully, these five words were the only prophecy he uttered in the whole book. And this prophecy was not fulfilled because the city repented and God relented from the judgment.
In the Old Testament, if a prophet’s prophecy was not fulfilled, people might consider him a false prophet. Jonah’s soul and spirit had not yet been separated. He was more concerned with himself than with the joy of God.
If we truly love God, and many people are brought to Him, we should be happy. Even if, because of our obedience, our own word does not come to pass, we should be at peace. When God is happy, we should be happy.
But it was not so with Jonah.
In the last chapter of Jonah, God taught him another lesson. Let us read Jonah 4:8:
And it came to pass, when the sun did arise,
that God prepared a sultry east wind;
and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted,
and requested for himself that he might die, and said,
It is better for me to die than to live.
Again, God sent a scorching east wind. The sun beat upon Jonah’s head, and he wanted to die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
The passage says that Jonah asked for death with all his soul. This east wind exposed the real condition of this great servant of God.
If it had not been for the east wind, we would not have known what was within Jonah. It exposed the flesh. Even after Jonah had passed through death and resurrection, preached the gospel, and seen many people repent, the east wind revealed what was inside him.
Then we agree with Paul: “In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.”
The east wind not only awakens our conscience when we disobey the Lord. It also exposes our flesh, enabling us to know what we really are.
God’s way of education is unique. He uses His word to speak to Jonah. The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. It divides soul and spirit.
The Book of Jonah ends with the word of God. Jonah had to learn the lesson of the dividing of soul and spirit.
Let us now consider the west wind. We will read 1 Kings 18:44-45.
And it came to pass at the seventh time,
that he said, Behold, there ariseth a cloud out of the sea,
as small as a man’s hand.
And it came to pass in a little while,
that the heavens grew black with clouds and wind,
and there was a great rain.
Here we find the wind with clouds. Of course, this is the west wind. When God sends the west wind, there is a heavy shower. After a long period of dryness, God often sends the west wind to bring showers of blessing.
In the Bible, God sends the north wind, the south wind, the east wind, and the west wind.
But that is not all. The Bible speaks not only of north, south, east, and west. There is another wind. Let us turn to Ezekiel 37.
We know the story of the dry bones. Ezekiel 37:10 says:
So I prophesied as He commanded me,
and the breath came into them,
and they lived, and stood upon their feet,
an exceeding great army.
How did this happen? Let us go back to Ezekiel 37:9:
Then said He unto me, Prophesy unto the wind,
prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind,
Thus saith the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath,
and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
Here we have the phrase “the four winds.” Bible scholars tell us that the four winds are the north wind, the south wind, the east wind, and the west wind blowing together at the same time.
Through the four winds, the dry bones come together and eventually become an exceedingly great army.
Sometimes God does not merely send the north wind or the south wind. Sometimes He sends the four winds from every direction. As a result, the dry bones are built together as a great army.
The Bible uses another word for these four winds: a whirlwind. The whole wind is a whirlwind.
For Job, the whirlwind was terrible. A whirlwind had taken his children away. Yet after Job’s many discussions with his friends, God answered Job out of the whirlwind.
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind.
For Job, the whirlwind was an instrument of destruction. He could not imagine that God would speak in such circumstances. Yet God answered him out of the whirlwind.
Because of that answer, Job began to abhor himself. He began to know God in a better and more living way.
Sometimes God also sends the whirlwind. We cannot bear it. We think that it is beyond us. We think that the whirlwind is trying to destroy us.
But if we know the story of Job, we know that God is all-wise. If God had not sent the whirlwind, Job would have been in great danger.
When we study Job 29, we discover that Job was perfect and upright, but he was in danger. He was wrapped up in himself. He had sunk deeply into the mire of self, and he could not rescue himself. He thought himself perfect.
Through his discussions and his irritation with his friends, all the self of Job was exposed to the utmost.
God had to do something drastic to pluck Job out of himself, because he was so wrapped in the shell of himself. The north wind would not do it. The east wind would not do it. Only the whirlwind could do it.
But thank God: when the whirlwind works, it takes Job out of himself and brings him into union with God.
The path of a whirlwind is like a helix: it is circular, but it also goes upward. If it were merely circular, we would remain in the same place, making no progress. That is like Samson after his eyes were put out, grinding in circles.
But the path of the whirlwind is circular and upward at the same time.
We may think that the whirlwind drags us down. But by the wisdom of God, it perfects us on one level and uplifts us to another level. It is from perfection to perfection.
Job was perfect and upright, but only at his own level. God wanted him to go from one level to another, until he reached the heavenly places and entered into a wonderful union with God.
Sometimes God sends a whirlwind, and it causes pain and great shaking. Sometimes we do not know how to explain the whole thing. But actually, it is the wisdom of God. God wants us to be plucked out from ourselves and no longer dwell in ourselves.
By this means, we do not merely go in circles; we go upward, until we have union with God in Christ.
There is a true story about an artist in Italy who painted a wonderful work on a ceiling. After he completed the painting, he admired it as his masterpiece. He stood upon a platform high above the ground with his friend.
As he moved backward to appreciate his painting from a better angle, he nearly fell from the platform. At that critical moment, his friend threw ink upon the painting and destroyed it.
The artist could not understand why his friend had destroyed his work. Later, he discovered that his friend had not been trying to destroy him, but to save him. He had become so occupied with his work that he was in great danger and did not know it.
We may not understand the whole Book of Job. We ask, “How could these things happen to Job?” Actually, God loved Job very much. God had great confidence in him.
Job never cursed God, though he cursed the day of his birth. He had a wonderful heart. But at the same time, God had to rescue him from himself. When a person is occupied with himself, that is a great danger. People see Job, but they do not see God.
The whirlwind is like the ink thrown upon the painting. It seems to destroy something or take something away from us. But actually, it is the wisdom of God.
By the whirlwind, we are taken out of ourselves and brought into a wonderful union with God in Christ.
Of course, we remember how Elijah was taken to heaven in a whirlwind. The whirlwind brings us into the heavenly places with Christ.
We thank the Lord that this is the dynamic work of the Holy Spirit. Let us not forget the word of our Lord:
The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the voice thereof,
but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth:
so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
May we be encouraged by His word and know how the Holy Spirit is working in us. Let us remember that it is for one purpose, and one purpose only: that one day we may be transformed into the very image of Christ.
May the Lord use these words.