In 1 Cor. 7:25 and 40 we see the highest spirituality – the spirituality of a person who is so one with the Lord and saturated with His word that even his opinion expresses the Lord’s mind.
This is what it is to be a prophet in the New Testament age; being a prophet today is not merely being “moved by the Spirit” to speak something for God when God tells us to speak, and then we mind our own business and “forget about the Lord”.
Being a prophet today is in the principle of incarnation; because Paul was one with the Lord, when he spoke, it was the Lord speaking through him and with him.
On one hand the apostle Paul spoke something from the Lord, for he had a commandment from the Lord what to say concerning a particular situation; on the other hand, Paul expressed his own opinion concerning a matter that the saints enquired but he didn’t have a clear commandment from the Lord, and the Lord spoke with him and in him.
The principle of incarnation is that God enters into man and mingles Himself with man to such an extent that man is one with God and God is one with man, man lives in God and God lives in man, and man speaks in God and God speaks in man and through man.
This is the principle of prophecy: God in us and we in Him, God speaks in us as we speak in Him.
The Lord Jesus didn’t prophesy for God by standing up and saying, “Listen oh Israel, Thus saith the Lord…”; similarly, Paul and Peter and the other apostles didn’t speak for God or write their epistles by saying this.
Rather, they spoke by being mingled with God, by having God in them and with them, and they spoke from God, being absolutely one with God.
Furthermore, they were constituted with the word of God and they cared for God’s interest; they didn’t express their opinion and cared for their own benefit or interest, but they cared for God’s interest in man, and they were speaking the word of God by being one with God.
It is important especially to touch Paul’s spirit in 1 Cor. 7; as he was answering the Corinthian believers, he expressed his spirit, and you can sense that he was absolutely for the Lord and one with Him.
Even as he was expressing his opinion, Paul realised that he had the Spirit of God, and he uttered not merely his commandments or feelings, but he spoke one with the Lord.
This is a very deep spiritual experience, for Paul was not presumptuous in his speaking but rather, he thought he has the Spirit of God, and he knew he had been shown mercy of the Lord to be faithful.
Amen, may we all follow Paul in this, and may we all have such deep spiritual experiences, even having the highest spirituality by being fully one with the Lord in our living and in our speaking day by day.
The Highest Spirituality is to be so One with the Lord that even our Opinion Expresses His Mind
In the New Testament we see that the Lord becomes one with His apostles and they become one with Him; He speaks in them, and they speak in Him – they speak together and their speaking is one speaking. In this way, His word becomes their word, and whatever they utter is God’s word (1 Cor. 2:12-13).
In 1 Cor. 7:10 we see the same principle as that in Gal. 2:20, the principle of incarnation – two persons living as one person.
In Gal. 2:20 Paul said that it was no longer him who live but it was Christ who lived in him, yet he lived, and Christ lived in him. In 1 Cor. 7:10 we have Paul speaking and yet the Lord spoke through him; there were two persons – Paul and the Lord, but they spoke as one.
He could have said, “But to the married the Lord charges”; instead, he said, “But to the married I charge, not I but the Lord”. It was Paul who charged, but it was the Lord; Paul was so one with the Lord that what he spoke was the Lord’s word.
We may think that Paul was too strong in giving his own opinion when he had no commandment from the Lord; we may never dar say that we have no commandment from the Lord yet we give our own opinion, but Paul did it, and his opinion became the word of God.
This is the highest spirituality, the spirituality of a person who is so one with the Lord that even his own opinion expresses the Lord’s mind.
We need to be so absolutely one with the Lord and so thoroughly saturated with Him that even our own opinion expresses the Lord’s mind.
This is in the principle of incarnation, that is, that God and man, man and God, are fully one, and they live as one and speak as one.
This is the principle of prophesying in the New Testament; a prophet is the mouthpiece of God in the sense that he is so one with the Lord that God speaks in him and he speaks the word of God.
God’s word became their word, and their word conveys God’s word; what a prophet says becomes part of God’s speaking, for God has a way to speak through him.
If we are saturated with the Spirit, what we express will be our our thought, but it will also be something of the Lord because we are one with Him.
This is the experience of Christ as the Prophet living in us to speak for God and to speak forth God (1 Cor. 6:17).
This is another dimension or aspect of Christ as the all-inclusive One for us to experience: knowing Him as our present Prophet, the indwelling speaking One.
May we all have this highest spirituality by speaking one with the Lord in the organic union with Him. On one hand we are strong because we have the word of God abiding in us; on the other hand, we have the anointing abiding in us.
We need to have these two abidings if we want to be the Lord’s present-day prophets: on one hand we need to have the Lord’s word abiding in us and His anointing abiding in us.
The word of God, the written word in the Bible, and the ministry that opens up the word of God needs to abide in us; if we don’t study the word of God, if we don’t pray the word into our being, and if we don’t have the word of Christ inhabiting us, we have nothing to say or speak – rather, we risk being a false prophet.
But not only the Word has to abide in us; there is an anointing in us, the living, moving, all-inclusive Spirit of Jesus Christ, typified by the ointment in Exodus.
The Spirit mingled with our spirit is also moving actively in us, speaking in us, revealing in us, and enlightening us.
So based on the word that richly dwells in us, the anointing speaks to us and guides us in all things. If we have the word abiding in us and the wonderful living anointing abiding in us, we can function as the Lord’s prophet.
In this way all of God’s people can be prophets – not just one or two or a few, but all the believers can be both priests, kings, and prophets to God, by having the highest spirituality: one with the Lord in our speaking so that He speaks in us and we speak His word, even when we speak our own opinion.
Lord Jesus, saturate us with Yourself as the Spirit until we are so one with You and permeated with You that even our opinion expresses the Lord’s mind! Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to have this highest spirituality by living in the organic union with the Lord until He lives in us, we live in Him, and He speaks in us as we speak one with Him! May we be so saturated with the Spirit that when we express our thought it will be something of the Lord because we are so one with Him! May we have the experience of Christ as the Prophet living in us to speak for God and to speak God forth. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to allow Your word to dwell in us richly and follow the leading of the inner anointing so that we may be the New Testament prophets of today!
A Word of Warning concerning the False Prophets – their Signs and Characteristics
Besides the real prophets, the New Testament prophets who live the highest spirituality by living and speaking one spirit with the Lord, there are the false prophets.
The Bible warns us about it and brother Nee has a chapter on it (see Collected Works of Watchman Nee, set 1, vol. 7, on the Christian, no. 5, ch. 16).
Eventually during the times of the great tribulation there will not only be the Antichrist, the beast, but also his partner, the false prophet, who is the culmination of all the false prophets past and present.
Together with the dragon they form a satanic “anti-Trinity” opposing the Father (Satan opposes the Father), the Son (the beast opposes the Son), and the Spirit (the false prophet).
The false prophet is part of that devilish trinity to work evil things in the last 3.5 years of this age.
This false prophet could be the coming back of Judas, the one who betrayed the Lord, hung himself, and went to his own place; he may be resuscitated, coming back, and be the false prophet to work with the resuscitated spirit of Nero, the beast, and Antichrist.
Before that time there are many antichrists roaming the earth, as well as many false prophets; the Lord spoke about that, and the apostles also spoke about that; today’s antichrists and false prophets are already among us.
We need to sign and characteristics of the false prophets, and we need to be warned concerning the false prophets. Here are at least seven signs and characteristics of the false prophets, as revealed in the Bible:
- The spirits of the false prophets are actuated by the spirit of deception. They mainly lie; the father of lies is Satan, and there’s a spirit of deception on earth today. There’s not only lawlessness, but also deception, and it abounds especially on the internet.
- The false prophets promise people vain and fleeting prosperity and pleasure; they promise a “prosperity gospel”. They say that if you do this and that, you will prosper, you will have a good time, and you will be successfully. These are not according to the teaching of God’s economy; they are vain and fleeting promises.
- The false prophets are greedy; they look for a pay, like Balaam with the teaching of Balaam and the works of Balaam, which abound all over the Christendom today. They are here to satisfy the base ones, whose god is their belly.
- The message that the false prophets preach is somewhat religious on the surface, but it actually helps people to do evil. It is religious, but the result is that people use this message to do evil.
- We should know a prophet not by his talk, his preaching or his work, because they can do signs and wonders; we need to check their fruit – their daily living, the fruit of their work and talk.
- False prophets are those who receive “a special inspiration” besides that of the Bible. They have inspiration, but it not from the Holy Spirit, and they speak words from another source, even a dark source. Their words are eloquent, seductive, but not the words of God.
- The false prophets are wolves dressed in sheep’s skin; they appear to be like sheep – sometimes they may be tamed, like a real prophet, but actually underneath is the evil spirits. The skins are stolen by them, and the inward things are not theirs. They may call themselves modernists but they are actually atheists, and their behavior is the same as the false prophets spoken of in the Bible, leading people away from the truth, which is God in Christ as the Spirit. The false prophets speak lies, they don’t believe in the Bible, they seek glory from men, their doctrines are covered by a religious cloak and a mask, but they cause people to perish.
The Bible charges us to love our enemies, but regarding the false prophets – those who preach heresies – the Bible is not so kind.
In 2 John it says that we should not even receive such a one in our house, and we should not even say to him, Rejoice, for they are sowing leaven into the meal.
So today we should first regard God’s prophets, realizing that God’s prophets are often dishonoured in their own country, but it is not a small thing to disobey or rebel against God’s spokesmen.
When the people of Israel were rebelling against Moses, they were actually rebelling against God. We need to live a life of prophecy, a life of the Lord’s incarnation, a life in oneness with the Lord, living the highest spirituality in our daily life.
We need to live a life of the word of God abiding in us and following the inner anointing within us, a life of living one person and one life with Christ.
If we are like this, we can be the Lord’s corporate prophet today to continue God’s speaking on the earth.
Finally, we need to beware of the false prophets, lest we be led astray; this has happened before, so we need to beware.
Lord Jesus, we want to live a life of prophecy, a life in oneness with the Lord to speak one with Him. May Your word richly abide in us and may Your anointing lead us and guide us in our daily life, and may we live one spirit with You, a life of the highest spirituality! Oh Lord, it is our yearning to live one in spirit with You so that we may have one life and one living with Christ! Amen, it is no longer us who live but Christ lives in us, and the life we now live in the flesh we live in the organic union with the Lord!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 Corinthians, pp. 380-383 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Deuteronomy, week 7, Christ — the True Prophet Typified by Moses.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Thou art the Prophet raised by God, / With pow’r for God to speak; / Like Moses, Thou God’s plan hast shown, / That we God’s will may seek. / Thou art like Jonah sent by God, / To enter death and live, / That by this sign of death and life, / We may in Thee believe. (Hymns #193)
– Th’ anointing’s here! It teaches us in everything; / The sense of life we always have within. / Obey this sense, and you will know what you must do, / And live by Life—Yes, clear in everything. (Hymns #1118)
– Let the word of Christ dwell in you / Richly, in all wisdom / Teaching and admonishing one another / In psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, / Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord / And whatever you do, in word or in work / Do all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, / Do all in the name of our Lord. (Scripture song)
About aGodMan
