This morning, Johannes was boasting a little bit. He said that he came to the conference in Fullness, and his wife is with him. I thought, “I can go too.”
The Wongs are three generations here. My father, who is eighty-four, is attending the Richmond Conference. My wife, my daughter, and my younger brother from Minnesota with his family are here. Later in the week, my other daughter and her new husband will be here. I also have another brother and his wife joining us this weekend. So that is a real fullness.
Well, the Lord Jesus Christ is the fullness of God, and that is what we are seeking: to know Him and to enter into His fullness. So let us look to the Lord for a moment.
Oh, Father, we acknowledge openly that without Thee we can do nothing. Without Thee, there is nothing. Oh, thank You that You have given us Your Son, the Lord Jesus. With Him, we have all.
We pray that You will teach us and help us to enter into the Lord Jesus Himself. Prepare our hearts not to receive a teaching from man, but to receive instruction by Your Word through the Holy Spirit. We thank You that we can count on Your help, because You are the faithful One. We give You praise and thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
I was given the assignment to speak on this matter of personal discipline. It is a very difficult subject, and I struggled before the Lord for some time.
As I was given this assignment, I tried to look at it positively. It is always a learning situation for me. Perhaps this is the area in my personal life where I need discipline the most.
By way of introduction, life itself is adjustment. You cannot go through life without some form of discipline or adjustment. That is life, even on a natural level.
If you want to get somewhere in this world, you have to discipline yourself. I am in the area of music. If you want to perform well, you have to discipline yourself. You need to practise. You have to give yourself one hundred percent to what you want to do.
I have a friend who is a conductor. He said that when he has to prepare for a concert, he tells his wife, “I am shut in my study for the next three days. Nobody is to call on me. If I am hungry, I will go to the kitchen and get some food, but I am not to be bothered for the next three days.”
So, in this world, if we are going to get somewhere, we have to discipline ourselves somehow. Of course, in the world system, people discipline themselves for their own gain, satisfaction, gratification, power, and success.
Even on a natural level, discipline is necessary if we are going to get anywhere in this world. Look at people who have achieved success. In some area of their lives, there is self-discipline. It may not be moral discipline, but it is discipline. Some people in business stay awake at night thinking, working, and planning in order to gain and profit themselves. That is a kind of discipline.
Spiritually, there is also discipline, but it is a different kind of discipline. In one sense, we cannot discipline ourselves spiritually. We do not want to be disciplined. We hate discipline.
If you have children, you know how they hate it. Tell them to do something, and they refuse. They become angry when you tell them to obey. At home, at school, and in society, we are living in a generation in which indiscipline is prevalent everywhere, particularly in schools.
I know this because I taught school for twenty-two years. It is very difficult to get young people to listen and follow instruction correctly. They all want to do things their own way.
Spiritually, when the Lord transfers us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, that is the most tremendous adjustment we have to face. From the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God and the Lord Jesus—what a transaction, what a changeover.
Think of the adjustments we have to go through: from the old creation to the new creation. Everything is new to us. Everything is foreign to us.
For the last four or five years, I have usually gone to the Philippines to visit my brothers. The first week after I arrive is the most difficult for me because I have to make many adjustments. I have to change my whole lifestyle and fit into their life pattern—their food, their routine, and the way they live.
I have no way of asking them to change their ways to suit me. Since I enter into their situation, I must be the one who makes the necessary adjustments. That requires some form of self-discipline.
God’s purpose is not discipline merely for discipline’s sake. Discipline is unto something. God’s purpose is to bring many sons to glory so that we may become partakers of His nature. As Hebrews 12 says, we are to be sharers of His holiness.
To achieve that, in His love, God disciplines us. But on the other hand, we have to be willing to cooperate with Him. We have to be willing to place ourselves under the discipline of the Holy Spirit.
What is discipline? To most people, discipline simply means do’s and don’ts. But I think it is much more than that.
Through the Scriptures, we can see that discipline is really instruction: to instruct, to teach, to correct, to train, to improve, to mould, to strengthen, and to perfect character. It has to do with our life, our whole being, and our spiritual character.
Therefore, we need to be instructed, corrected, trained, improved, strengthened, moulded, and perfected. That is how discipline is defined in Scripture: instruction, correction, training, improvement, moulding, strengthening, and the perfecting of character.
There are two aspects I would like to consider in this session. The first is instruction; the second is evaluation.
To instruct, we need an instructor. To be trained, we need a trainer. A soldier needs a sergeant; an athlete needs a trainer or coach.
Thank God, our Instructor, Coach, and Trainer is the Holy Spirit. We have no other Teacher and no other Trainer than the Holy Spirit whom God has given to each one of us.
Under the new covenant, we do not need someone merely to teach us from the outside, because we have the anointing within us. He teaches from within. That is real teaching, and it requires discipline to listen and to be conscious of that inward instruction and inward voice.
The instruction is our transformation and conformity to the Lord Jesus Himself. The one objective of the Holy Spirit’s work of instruction and training in our lives is that we may be conformed to the image of God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us not forget that. The goal of the Holy Spirit is to change us and transform us so that we may become Christlike.
Evaluation is necessary on our part. How can we tell whether we have learned something? How can our Instructor know whether we have received and learned something? It is only by testing, by evaluation.
Our whole Christian learning is a life of receiving instruction and a life of evaluation in the light of the Holy Spirit. He teaches us, and He also tests us to find out whether we have learned anything or whether we have learned something wrongly and need correction.
Evaluation has two sides. On the positive side, it confirms that we have learned something. On the negative side, it discovers that we have not really learned much yet. But then there is hope for us to be instructed again.
Thank God, the Holy Spirit never gives us up. If we fail, He is very patient. He will keep teaching us until the lesson is learned.
There are no shortcuts here. There is no shortcut to the throne, and there is no shortcut to the fullness of Christ. We have to pass through the cross. We have to give ourselves up—emptiness unto fullness.
The Holy Spirit is very particular. There is no way of bypassing this. The question is: are we willing to endure His instruction and evaluation until whatever lesson He is teaching us has been learned?
What is the purpose of this discipline? We have mentioned that the goal of the Holy Spirit is our conformity and transformation into the image of the Lord Jesus. But as far as our practical life here on earth is concerned, I believe there are two aspects.
First, He prepares us individually so that we can fit into the corporate expression of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fullness of His life is to be expressed in His people.
The problem in any fellowship is not merely an individual problem. The problem is how we can live together. It is a corporate problem. The dealings of the Lord and the discipline of the Holy Spirit prepare us so that we may be fitted together corporately into an expression of the Lord Jesus on this earth.
Second, the Holy Spirit prepares us in this life so that we will fit into what is to come. He is preparing a people for the life to come—for the kingdom, for the reign of the King of kings and Lord of lords—so that we may assist Him in administering His kingly affairs in the ages to come.
If that is the case, it will require strict discipline.
Even on a human level, if you are common, you receive one kind of education. But if you are born into a royal family, you receive a totally different education because you have the throne in view. You have to go through much discipline and much instruction that average people may not experience.
We are called to be kings and priests. Therefore, our spiritual education is different. We must view it from the heavenly point of view, not the earthly point of view, because God is calling us to be heavenly people. Our discipline is heavenly and spiritual.
We all know discipline is necessary, but how do we participate in it? There are three aspects:
To obey is very difficult, if not impossible. To submit is also very difficult, if not impossible. And sacrifice must be in love.
Let us turn to Deuteronomy 8:5-10.
Thus thou shalt know in thy heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee.
Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways, and to fear Him.
For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths, springing forth in valleys and hills;
a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey;
a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig copper.
And thou shalt eat and be full, and thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which He hath given thee.
In these verses, discipline is related to Israel’s entering into and possessing the land. In New Testament terms, discipline is closely related to our entering into the fullness of Christ. If Canaan speaks of the fullness of Christ, there is no shortcut to entering Canaan.
Let us turn to Hebrews 12:5-11. The book of Hebrews challenges Hebrew believers to enter into something far better—to enter into sonship.
My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord,
Nor faint when thou art reproved of Him;
For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,
And scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.
It is for chastening that ye endure; God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father chasteneth not?
But if ye are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed good to them; but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness.
Let us also consider Revelation 3:19:
As many as I love, I reprove and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
And Psalm 50:17:
For thou hatest instruction,
And castest My words behind thee.
In Hebrews, we read that those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines. He disciplines every child of His. That is very encouraging, because it does not say that He disciplines most of His children, or only some of His children. He disciplines every one of His children. That includes us.
No one is exempt from discipline. You may try to avoid it, but eventually it will catch up with you. Why try to ignore it, reject it, or take it lightly? Let us value it.
As long as you are a child, you are not exempt from discipline. When we are disciplined, we know we are loved. We know we are in the household.
You can only discipline those who belong to your household. I have two girls. I can discipline my two girls, but I cannot discipline someone else’s children; I have no right. Their children are their responsibility. My children are my responsibility. We are God’s children, and it is His responsibility to discipline us.
We are in the household. If we are disciplined, we know we belong to Him, we are loved by Him, and we are in the house. To me, that is very encouraging and comforting.
The first point is faith in obedience. In Scripture, faith and obedience are always linked together. If we merely believe but there is no obedience in our faith, our faith is not living faith. It is not real.
Faith is the gift of God. We have no faith of our own. Galatians 2:20 tells us that the faith by which we live is the faith of the Son of God.
Why did the Lord Jesus have this faith? He believed His Father and trusted Him completely because, when He came, He was prepared to do the will of the Father. Therefore, His faith was real faith. His faith worked.
If we are not prepared to obey the Lord, our faith is not real faith. It is not living faith. But when we are prepared to obey, that faith is real. That faith has power. That faith is active in life.
Many Christians live defeated lives because they want to believe but are not prepared to obey. Therefore, their faith is not living faith. Their faith does not transform their lives. There is no transformation and no conformity to the image of Christ because they are not prepared to obey the Word of God.
Faith and obedience are linked together. Through faith and obedience, we have fellowship with the things that are spiritual and heavenly. Hebrews tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God.
And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that seek after Him.
Faith is the link, and through faith we honour Him. But I am not speaking about empty faith that merely says, “I believe.” I mean faith through obedience. Through faith and obedience, we honour Him and please Him.
Many of us live a Christian life that features believing but never enters into the obedience of faith. Therefore, we live an impotent Christian life that has no power. We say, “I believe, I believe,” but we neglect the element of obedience.
Faith and obedience must be maintained, and they are progressive. Romans 1 says that the righteousness of God is revealed from faith unto faith. We receive the gift of faith initially, but that faith must be activated continually. We move from faith to faith.
It is faith, obedience; faith, obedience; faith, obedience.
Let us turn to Hebrews 11. We know that 1 Corinthians 13 ends with three things: faith, hope, and love. If you look at the last three chapters of Hebrews, chapter 11 is the chapter of faith, chapter 12 is the chapter of hope, and chapter 13 is the chapter of love.
Recently, I was in a conference in Australia, and one brother shared about the three colours necessary for the building of the church. Without these three colours, there can be no building up of the church. These colours are illustrated by James, Cephas, and John.
James speaks of faith in works. Peter represents hope, and John represents love. Without faith, hope, and love, the church cannot be built corporately. The same is true individually. If we do not have faith, hope, and love, we cannot build up spiritual life in the Lord.
All three aspects require discipline. I hesitate to use the term self-discipline or personal discipline, because we do not want to stress self. Let us be very honest: we hate discipline. Psalm 50:17 says, “Thou hatest instruction, and castest My words behind thee.”
We do not like discipline because we want to do things our own way. That is our fallen nature.
If we are going to have any discipline, we need to rely on the life of the Lord Jesus. It is only through His life that we can live a disciplined life.
All of us have tried many times and failed miserably. At least once in our lives, we have determined to read through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation within a year. I do not know how many times I have tried. You determine to do it, and what happens? You fail miserably.
You know you ought to do it, but you cannot do it. When you do not do it, your conscience bothers you. Something inside tells you that something is wrong.
The same is true with witnessing. We know that, as the Lord’s people, we ought to share the gospel with the unsaved. Yet how often we neglect opportunities that the Lord has given us.
We know we ought to do it, but somehow we cannot. When we plan to do it in ourselves, we feel miserable inside. I believe that is the teaching and discipline of the Holy Spirit, telling us that apart from Him we can do nothing.
He is wisdom, energy, power, and everything. Without Him, there is nothing we can do. Discipline is not a matter of my disciplining myself; it is a matter of giving myself over to Him.
Faith and obedience are, in the strictest sense, surrendering. Surrender and obedience are not merely something God commands us to do; they are something He expects because He has given His life to us. That new life within us is a surrendered life and an obedient life.
God never demands what He has not supplied. The problem is that we know God demands something, but we try to meet His demand through our own energy, knowledge, and ability. Therefore, we fail miserably.
This matter of faith and believing that God has given us faith is not a small matter. Sometimes we overlook the place of Christ in our lives. If Christ is the beloved Son of God, if He is what He claims to be, and if He has come into your heart and taken up residence, that is not a small matter.
The Creator Himself and the Redeemer Himself have come into our hearts. Yet do we express the greatness of Christ in our lives? We fail because we fail to believe that His life has the power, energy, and ability to express all that is in that divine life. It is because of our unbelief and disobedience.
The first matter is walking in obedience. The illustration in Hebrews 11 is Enoch.
In Genesis 5, we read that Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and he was not, for God took him. This is a walk of obedience.
In New Testament language, we may say that we are yoked to Christ. To be yoked to Christ is not an easy matter, because we have no choice. Wherever He goes, we go.
Our natural tendency is to do things our own way. We have our own desires. The flesh is still in us. We think we have solutions to our problems, and we struggle until the moment comes when we know we can no longer struggle. Then we submit.
To walk in obedience with the Lord requires tremendous discipline. Some people think that walking with the Lord must be a beautiful and happy walk because He is perfect. But He is perfect, and we are imperfect. He is holy, and we are unholy. He is heavenly, and we are earthly.
There is such a contrast between His life and ours that for these two lives to walk together is impossible—except by grace.
Thank God, He calls us to walk with Him. He is unchanging; therefore, all the adjustment and discipline must be on our side. Any change that needs to take place must be from our side. Thank God, He has given us the Holy Spirit to change us.
All we need to do is give our will to Him, surrender our will to Him, so that He can do His work in us.
Many Christians like to do work for the Lord. There are many Christian activities—radio, television, and all kinds of works throughout the world. Everybody is engaging in some form of Christian work.
But to do the work of God under the direction of the Holy Spirit is a different matter altogether. Everything we do must be initiated by Him if it is to have eternal value.
This matter of ministry and working for the Lord and with the Lord requires tremendous adjustment. Some brothers may have tremendous gifts, vision, and insight, yet they may not do works comparable to their vision.
If we have a vision of the Lord, that vision limits us. We cannot do what most people do. Vision increases our spiritual horizon, but it often restricts the activities of the flesh. That is very hard because we have love for the Lord and think that we should do things for Him.
If our ministry is to have eternal value, it must be initiated by the Lord Himself. We must discipline ourselves not to move until He tells us to move. Therefore, waiting is vital in working with the Lord.
This is a hard lesson to learn, but it is necessary.
In recent years, especially among some Chinese believers in this country, there have been many groups that love the Lord. They study the Word together, fellowship freely in the Spirit, grow in the Lord, and manifest the presence of the Lord.
But many of them, as soon as they form themselves into a church, enter into tremendous problems. Why? Because they did not seek the mind of the Lord. They moved into something they thought was expedient for themselves.
If our service and work for the Lord are to have lasting value, we must learn to wait for direction from the Lord. Walking with the Lord requires discipline; working with the Lord also requires discipline.
Another example in Hebrews 11 is Abraham. He lived a life of obedience, though there were times when he tried to do things his own way.
He went down to Egypt because there was famine in the land, and he got himself into trouble. That was unbelief and disobedience.
Sometimes discipline teaches us through hunger. Once we know hunger, we appreciate food. One problem in this country is that we have plenty of food, and we do not know much hunger. Therefore, we do not appreciate what we have.
I believe that, in Abraham’s case, God was teaching him to hunger first after God Himself. The provision was in the land, but he left the land and went into Egypt. He thought he could find food, but he found trouble.
Later, in the matter of Ishmael, Abraham again tried to do something for God. We need to walk in obedience. Discipline, strictly speaking, is learning to say no to the flesh and yes to the Holy Spirit.
That is the hardest lesson to learn in this life. It will take our whole lives to learn how to say no to the flesh and yes to the Holy Spirit. This was the lesson the Holy Spirit was teaching Abraham: to say no to his own way and yes to the will of God.
One more example from Hebrews 11 is Moses. The world has attractions. It is very tempting—not only the world system, but even the religious world.
Moses was marked out by God to be a leader for Israel. Because he was a marked man, he went through strict discipline that the rest of Israel did not experience.
All of us are marked people. God will discipline you, and He will discipline me, until He gets us where He wants us to be.
Moses had the courage to refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. In the empire of Egypt, to be called the king’s son was something. In this world, to be recognised as somebody is an attraction. Even in the Christian world, to be recognised as a person with a great prophetic ministry is an attraction.
But Moses was a marked man, and he knew he was under the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, he refused. There are situations in which we must refuse. We must be separated.
We are a separated people. We are not our own. We have been purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus. We can never claim to be our own. We have no part in this world.
Yet the flesh is often drawn to this world, and the soul is often drawn to religious work and opportunity. Therefore, we need to be disciplined people, with the courage to say no to these attractions and, if necessary, to leave them.
Moses not only refused; he also left Egypt. Refusing is one thing, but leaving is another. That was a great price Moses paid.
In these last days, God needs men and women who will be able to help His people and deliver them from this present evil world and into Christ. We need to be prepared to take the steps Moses took—not merely to refuse, but to leave the system.
The easiest thing is to compromise. But once we compromise, God cannot use us.
Let us turn to Hebrews 12 and consider hope.
Faith often refers to the past and the present, while hope includes the future. Hope is always in front of us. We need faith, but we also need hope.
In 1 Timothy 1:1, Paul speaks of “Christ Jesus our hope.” This hope is none other than the Lord Jesus Himself.
First Peter 1:3 tells us that through new birth we are brought into this living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
The faith is Christ, and the hope is also Christ. We can build on nothing else but Christ Himself, because all other things will pass away. Christ alone is the solid rock.
The encouraging thing about Hebrews 12 is that it begins with a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. That tells us that we are not alone. These witnesses had hope in the Lord Jesus, and their hopes were fulfilled. They stand as testimonies that our hope in the Lord Jesus is not in vain.
The writer of Hebrews shows us this beautiful picture of witnesses whose hope in the Lord Jesus was realised. Then he encourages us to run the race. We can run because this hope is certain, sure, true, and real.
Hebrews 12:2 says:
Looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.
They were able to fulfil their hope because they fixed their eyes on the Lord Jesus. Our hope will not be fulfilled if our eyes are not fixed on Him. He is the Author and Perfecter of faith. If we turn our eyes away from Him, our hope will not be realised. But as long as our eyes are fixed on Him, hope becomes a reality.
Christ Himself gives us strength to run. It is not that we have strength in ourselves to run toward the goal; rather, the Goal, Christ Himself, gives us strength to run.
In the sports world, one must be physically fit to run a race. Spiritually, we are qualified through new birth, but the strength to run is found in the Goal. Christ is the attraction, the power that draws us, and the One who keeps us on the way.
To run requires endurance. Our problem is often not the initial start. We may begin the race strongly, but how do we maintain it? How do we endure?
We all began the race somewhere, but many have moved to the side or become disqualified because they did not continue. We let something else come in to hinder us from staying on the right course. Or our eyes become slightly out of focus from the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus is the One from whom we draw strength to run. He keeps us in the race, keeps us in our place, and strengthens us. To stay the course and endure requires discipline.
It is not merely how we begin; it is how we end. The prize is Christ Himself, and He is worth the endurance. When we realise that the gain is Christ Himself, it is easier to endure because we know it is worth it.
In this race, love is not jealous. This is not a competitive race like those we see in the world. If we see someone running ahead of us, that should not discourage us; it should encourage us.
What another gains is our gain. There is no jealousy. The race is no longer an individual matter; it is corporate.
When somebody runs ahead of me, I should rejoice and say, “Hallelujah, somebody is ahead of me in faith, obedience, and submission, running the race.” What he gains is for all of us. It should be a tremendous encouragement.
We are not to have a competitive spirit. It is not that someone has witnessed five times this week while I have witnessed nothing. We should thank God for what that person is doing, because what he does is for all of us.
We run this race together. When someone moves forward in the Lord, it should give us tremendous encouragement. He runs for you, and you need to run for others. Together, we maintain the race, and together we gain Christ.
Our time is nearly gone. Perhaps tomorrow we can touch further on this matter of love. But let us turn briefly to Hebrews 13.
Let love of the brethren continue.
Take note of the word continue. Our problem is not merely loving the brethren once; our problem is continuing in that love. We all love once, but are we continuing in love for the brethren?
That takes discipline. Out of ourselves, we can love once, but we cannot continue. The way to continue in love is not to rely on natural love. It is only the love of Christ that can maintain love. When we continue loving our brothers and sisters, we know it is not our love; it is the love of Christ.
We need to appropriate the love of God to maintain and continue in love for the brethren.
Hebrews 13:2 says:
Forget not to show love unto strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Neglect is another word. It is so easy to neglect. It is natural to neglect. But hospitality requires watchfulness and discipline.
It is easy to show hospitality to those we know. If we meet brothers and sisters at a conference and come to know them, we naturally say, “The next time you come our way, drop in and visit us.” That is natural, and thank God for it.
But the verse says not to neglect hospitality to strangers. What if someone you do not know knocks at your door? To receive that person and treat him as the Lord would have treated him requires discipline.
Hebrews 13:3 says:
Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; them that are ill-treated, as being yourselves also in the body.
We remember the things we like to remember. We are all like that. But to remember prisoners as though we were imprisoned with them is hard.
When we hear stories from China about those who have suffered torture and imprisonment for the Lord, do we not sense that we enter a little into what they have gone through? Something inside us responds. It is as though what they have gone through is part of us. That should be our response.
It takes discipline to enter into the suffering of others. We find it easy to treat kindly those we know and like, but we may treat strangers differently.
I am not saying that I know how to treat strangers properly. I do not. But we are all in the school of Christ. We are under discipline. We are learning, being instructed, and being transformed from glory to glory into Christ.
One of the vital lessons we must learn is to share God and the Lord Jesus by practical deeds. Sometimes a deed is better than preaching. By the way we treat people, we show Christ. Showing Christ is often more effective than merely preaching Christ.
I can give you one illustration. Recently, in our South Jersey Bible study, several of our friends came to know the Lord. There was no great effort on our part to preach the gospel to them, but in our hearts we had concern for them.
When we invited them to our fellowship, we did not aim the gospel at them, nor did we try to tell them that we were Christians and they were not. We simply had a longing that they would come and see Christ in the lives of God’s people.
Before we knew it, one after another came to know the Lord. We simply included them in our fellowship, brought them in, and treated them as though they were one of us.
We did not preach at them or treat them as though they were outside while we were inside. By faith and love, we included them in the family, hoping that they would become conscious that they were not yet in the family and would desire to be in the family. Then the Holy Spirit could begin to work.
I can testify that this has happened often in our area. Some of the new believers in our fellowship came to know the Lord within the last two years through this means. In our fellowship, we invited as many as we could. They became aware that the God we love and the Lord Jesus whom we appreciate and remember are living realities. Many came to know the Lord in this way.
That is love in demonstration. Perhaps this is something we should do in many localities: include people. It takes something, because we do not know how they will react when we invite them.
Sometimes those who come make it clear that they do not appreciate your invitation. What do you do? You still love them. You still show them that you want them to be with you. In that way, their hearts may be touched.
Perhaps tomorrow we can continue with some of the marks of a disciplined life—some spiritual marks of a disciplined life—and touch further on this matter of love.
This disciplined life is essential. It is expressed through obedience, hope, and love. I have not yet touched fully on the matter of submission in hope, so perhaps we will consider that tomorrow.
Let us pray.
Our Father, we do thank You for getting us together. We have to confess that we are so inadequate in sharing and expressing what is in Your heart. We just trust the Holy Spirit to speak and to do what is humanly impossible.
We pray that You will draw us to Yourself. Make us willing vessels. Make us willing and available to You, so that You can do Your work in us. You can love us, and You can change us into the likeness of Christ.
We know that the way of the cross is the only way. The way of death is the way to resurrection, and the way of the cross is the way to glory. We pray that You will challenge our hearts to be made willing to follow You all the way, so that we may enter into Your fullness.
We commit each one into Your loving hands. Be with us, bless Your people, Lord. We give You praise and thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus.