For us to have the flow of the divine life out of our innermost being, we must dig away the many things condemned by the Lord in our heart and also deal with our conscience to have it purified.
As believers in Christ, we have drank of the smitten rock – which is Christ, and the Spirit ans the living water has come into our being; now in our spirit there’s a fountain springing up and flowing unto eternal life.
On His side, the Lord has gone through a process to become the rock of our salvation which was cleft for us, and out of Him flows living water; He flowed out blood for our redemption and water for our regeneration and supply.
Praise the Lord, the Triune God has been installed in our innermost being, and from our spirit within flows a fountain of life!
Whenever we turn to our spirit, when we exercise to turn to the Lord and deal with anything that blocks the flow, there’s a pure flow of life out of our innermost being.
However, our experience is that many times the water does not spring up or flow out of our innermost being because there’s so much dirt covering it.
In Num. 21:18 we see that the children of Israel arrived to a certain place where there was a well with water, but for them to drink of the water, they had to dig it out. So the leaders dug out the well with their staff and their sceptre, and abundant water flowed for the children of Israel to drink.
This is a type of our experience; in our experience we have a fountain installed in our innermost being, and we need to dig away the dirt – dig away any barrier in our heart so that the Spirit as the living water may spring up and flow out.
What does it mean in our experience practically? There’s no particular thing that we should do as a practice – we simply need to go to the Lord and deal with Him; we need to go to the Lord and spend time with Him to deal with the things in our being.
We need to be before the Lord and ask Him to shine on anything that constitutes a hindrance or a blockage for the flow of of life.
We have to admit that, even though we have a fountain of water in our innermost being, the flow of life is not that pure, clean, and full; so we need to deal with the issues in our heart – our mind, emotion, will, and conscience – so that there would be a free flow of the living water within us. Oh, how we treasure the pure flow of life!
Dealing with the Accusations in our Conscience to have a Pure Conscience and Life would Flow
How can the divine life flow freely within us and out of us if we do not have a pure conscience? Our conscience is not so pure; there are many things in our conscience that we have not dealt with, and there’s many things that cause our conscience not to be clean.
There are accusations in our conscience which constitute “dirt” that needs to be “dug away”; we need to be those digging away any accusations in our conscience so that w e have a clean conscience, a pure conscience, a conscience without offense before the Lord.
Many times we don’t sense much liberty before the Lord because of the accusations in our conscience.
If we go before the Lord and deal with Him, if we ask the Lord to show us where we’re not right with others or right with God, He will shine on us.
Only we and the Lord know what these accusations in our conscience are; if we’re not right with others or right with God, the accusations persist.
If we refuse to do what the Lord demands us, this becomes an accusation in our conscience, and we are bound, without freedom.
Many times we know the Lord’s demand on us, but we do not want to do it; this becomes an immediate accusation in our conscience, so our conscience is not pure from accusations and without offense.
Therefore, we cannot have an inward, free flow of the Spirit, for our conscience is not pure.
For us to experience the inward flow of life in a free and pure way, we need to deal with the accusations in our conscience; we need to dig away the dirt by going to the Lord again and again.
We may have to go to the Lord several times a day to have Him shine on us, and then we will be dug in His presence.
Our part is to do the digging; His part is to spring up and flow out. As long as we do the digging, the Lord will flow; the more digging we do, the more He will flow out of our innermost being!
By the help of the Holy Spirit and with our prayer, we must dig away the dirt in our conscience.
We may think that we are alright, that we have no dirt in our conscience, but we still do not have a free flow of life; we therefore need to come to the Lord, open to Him, be in His word, and ask Him to shine in us and on us so that, under His shining, we will dig away any dirt that He exposes.
It is possible, however, that we are in the church life for many years and our conscience is not dug for a long time; so our conscience is not good, pure, and free from offense.
The more we delay dealing with our conscience, the more layers of dirt are deposited on our conscience to frustrate the free flow of the Spirit within us.
We need to go to the Lord again and again in our spirit to be dug in His presence, and by the help of the Holy Spirit we must dig away all the dirt.
This is not done by being introspective and seeking to find what are some problems in our being; this is by the help of the Holy Spirit to dig away the dirt. A conscience void of offense means we’re free from any kind of offense or accusation (Acts 24:!6).
Lord Jesus, we come to You again and again to have Your shining; shine on our conscience, Lord, and show us the things we need to deal with and confess. May we keep short accounts with You and allow Your light to shine and expose any dirt in our conscience. Amen, Lord, we want to exercise to have a conscience void of offense before God and man so that the living water in our spirit would flow freely. May we cooperate with You to deal with our conscience and be cleansed, purified, and void of offense in our conscience. Lord, we treasure the pure flow of life!
Digging Away the things Condemned by the Lord in our Heart to have a Pure Heart with the Flow of Life
After we deal with the dirt in our conscience, we need to continue to cooperate with the Lord to dig away the many things condemned by the Lord in our heart, so that we may have a pure heart with a free flow of life.
Sadly to say, there are not many brothers and sisters on earth today who have a pure heart in seeking only the Lord Himself (Matt. 5:8).
We can say with all honesty that we do love the Lord, we love the church, we love to read the Bible, and we love to meet with the saints, but we also have to admit that we are still seeking too many other things than the Lord Himself.
Our heart is so complicated; our heart is not free and pure. So we need to go to the Lord again and again to dig away all the things other than Christ in our heart.
We may wonder what needs to be dug in our heart….and we may try to analyze…but what we need to do is come to the Lord and ask Him to shine in us.
One of the things that the Lord may shine on us is our worry for our future, our career, our house, our family, our finances, etc.
We may say we trust in the Lord concerning the future, but actually we still worry about it. We need to take the Lord as our future and realise that He is our only future.
Our heart, however, is very “sticky”; when it sees one thing, it sticks to it. We may see some sports, and our heart sticks to it; we may see a prosperous future with someone who does a certain thing, and we may also want to do it.
Our heart is like the flypaper, which is used to get the flies and flying things to stick to it; whatever our heart touches, it sticks to.
Many of us live for the Lord and consider that our home, our family, our job, and all our time are for Him; we daily seek the Lord’s guidance, but as we seek Him, He may not flow so freely within us, for our heart is so complicated.
There’s so much dirt in our heart, and there are so many things that our heart likes and sticks to, thus becoming a complicated heart.
It may be easy for us to dig the dirt in our conscience, but it may not be easy to dig the dirt in our heart, for to do the digging of the heart we need to deal with it severely.
Our heart “takes things personally”; it sticks to things and people and situations, and it’s not easy for the heart to be “unstuck”. But if we have a pure heart, we will see God.
If we seek God yet we still have many other goals in our heart, our heart is complicated and the flow of life is frustrated. There’s so much dirt in our heart that complicates our heart and frustrates the flow of living water within us.
Yes, the Lord is within us as the springing well of living water, but the problem is that there’s too much dirt in our conscience and in our heart.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God; blessed are we when we have no other seeking but the Lord, for then we can see God, gain God, and have God flowing in Christ as the Spirit within us and out of us as the pure flow of life.
Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with You by digging away the things that You condemn in our heart so that we may have a pure heart with a free flow of life. Oh Lord, You see and You know our heart with all its goals and its seekings; purify our heart, Lord, and un-complicate it. We want to have a pure heart in seeking You so that there would be pure flow of life within us and out of us. We love You, Lord, and we wan to be purified in our seeking, in our goals, and in all our heart. We want to cooperate with You by digging away all the things You condemn in our heart for the living water to flow!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Să scoatem afară prin săpare și să tratăm lucrurile condamnate de Domnul în inima și conștiința noastră.
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, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1964, vol. 3, ”The Economy of God,” chs. 8-9, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 4, Speaking to the Rock to Drink of the Spirit as the Water of Life and Digging the Well to Allow the Spirit as the Water of Life to Flow Freely within Us.
- Hymns on this topic:
# We need a heart condemning not, / In all things right with God; / A heart which has a conscience purged / And covered with the blood. (Hymns #744)
# Dig away, dig away, dig away, / All self seeking in my heart dig away! / Dig away, dig away, dig away, / All self seeking in my heart dig away! / All my hopes have to go / That His life may flow… Hallelujah! / Dig away, dig away, dig away, / All self seeking in my heart dig away! (Hymns #1214)
# Dig till there is nothing / Left to block the passage; / Dig until the stream flows / With the living message. / Spring up, well, with water; / Dig Thou, Lord, completely; / Dig away all barriers / That Thy stream flow through me. (Hymns #250)
About aGodMan
