CARING FOR PEOPLE AS NURSING MOTHERS
AND EXHORTING FATHERS (1)
In the previous chapter we stressed the need to go to the Lord, deal with Him, and receive light from Him to be exposed. Many Christians hope that a light from heaven will shine on them as it did on Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:3). However, there has never been another Saul in history. We should not expect that one day the Lord will have mercy and shine His light on us in this way. The proper way to receive enlightenment is to deal with the light that we already have. We already have a certain amount of light, whether or not we are willing to obey it.
As proper persons, we rise up in the morning at the right time, make our bed, wash, dress, and have breakfast, and after breakfast we arrange our affairs. To behave in this way is to not be sloppy. Because of our fallen nature, however, almost every Christian is sloppy in his spiritual life. This is because no one exercises control over us. In our schooling, we have a teacher, professor, or at least a grading system to exercise control over us. Similarly, many who are sloppy in other things are not sloppy on their job because their desire not to lose their job controls them. In the spiritual life, however, no one exercises control over us in this way. The church cannot “fire” a brother for being sloppy. Therefore, we need the training. The training is not merely the teaching of the Bible or of skills for the church. The training is simply a spiritual discipline that builds us up to discipline ourselves. As seeking ones of the Lord, we must learn to discipline ourselves… We should not tolerate having any matters that remain undealt with.
Some may say that they do not know how to receive light from the Lord. In actuality, we already have the light…However, we may not care for the light, and we may not want to be exposed. We may see many things that need to be dealt with, but we may not care to deal with them. Rather, we may claim that we do not have the light and do not know what to do. We do know what to do, but if we do not deal with what we see, we will not receive further light. Light brings in more light (Psa. 36:9)… The difference is a matter not of light but of sight. We may all be under the same light, but our sight is different. Proper sight depends much upon the exercise of our sight.
Do not wait for enlightenment. We are already in the light and under the light. This is the meaning of going to the Lord to deal thoroughly with Him… Now the light has already begun to shine on us all, and we are under the Lord’s enlightenment. We simply need to obey the light, exercise our sight, and have a thorough dealing in the presence of the Lord. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1973-1974, vol. 2, “The Normal Way of Fruit-bearing and Shepherding for the Building Up of the Church”, ch. 2, pp. 531-535)
The church in Zamboanga 