Learning how to Speak for the Lord and how to Stop to Listen to God’s Voice daily

As believers in Christ, we are the living creatures learning to coordinate and afford God a way to move on earth; in our coordination and living, we are learning both to speak one with God and to listen to God’s voice, stopping in our fellowship to hear the Lord’s speaking.

The four living creatures in Ezekiel 1 are a type of us, the believers in Christ who are here on earth to give God a way to move, administrate, and be expressed; as such ones, we are learning to have a proper and straight coordination and fellowship, with nothing crooked or biased.

In our fellowship we are open, straight, and frank with one another, and we are under the covering and overshadowing of the Lord’s grace, behaving ourselves in the enjoyment of the Lord.

Regarding the move and voice of the four living creatures in Ezekiel 1, the sound of their wings was like the sound of great waters, like the Lord’s voice, even the sound of an army.

This is very significant, for it refers to the result of our fellowship and coordination as living creatures; when we coordinate together in fellowship in the church life, enjoying the Lord as grace and being straight in fellowship, there’s no particular brother or sister that stands out but rather, there’s a voice – the voice of a corporate body, the voice of coordination.

This voice is the voice coming out of the proper coordination, and it is the voice of the Lord speaking through us; at the same time, this voice is of an army fighting the battle for God’s economy.

This is quite mysterious and significant at the same time: on the one hand we are the living creatures coordinating in spirit in the enjoyment of the Lord, and on the other hand, the Lord has a way to speak through us, and His administration is carried out through us.

Like Paul, we are fighting the good fight – we are together fighting against Satan and his kingdom of darkness for the interest of God’s kingdom. We are running the course for the carrying out of God’s economy according to His eternal purpose. And we are keeping the faith for the participation in the riches in God’s economy.

Learning how to Speak for the Lord and how to Stop to Listen to God’s Voice daily

Whenever the living creatures stood still, they dropped their wings, and they listened to the Lord’s voice from above the expanse that was over their heads (see Ezek. 1:24-25).

The living creatures don’t move all the time, with no rest or stopping time; rather, when they hear God’s voice, they stop and listen, dropping their wings. We need to know not only how to speak one with the Lord as a result of our coordination and fellowship, but also how and when to stop and listen to God’s voice, lowering our wings.

On the one hand, we have a clear sky between us and the Lord, a sky that is open and expanding, and under this sky we fellowship and coordinate with the saints, being covered by the Lord’s grace. On the other hand, when the Lord speaks, we stop, lower our wings, and listen to His voice.

We need to know not only how to speak and sound forth our voice, but also how to listen to God’s voice. We need to be the Lord’s duplication who, as the Servant of God, loved the Father, the church, and the saints, and He had his ear bored through with an awl, serving God by listening to God and doing what He told Him to do (Exo. 21:5-6).

We need to fellowship with the Lord and let Him open our ear to speak to us, and we will act only according to the word of our Master. We need to ask the Lord to wake us up in the morning and awake our ear to listen, so that we may be filled with His words and speak with the tongue of an instructed (Isa. 50:4-5).

It is good to tell the Lord, when we go to sleep at night, to wake us up in the morning to spend time with Him and receive His speaking. Again and again, we need to stop and listen to the Lord’s voice, not only speaking for Him and doing things in His name but also listening to Him.

Martha was very busy with many necessary things, serving in practical matters related to feeding the Lord Jesus and His disciples, and she wanted Mary to also help her; but the Lord’s word was clear, Mary has chosen the better part (see Luke 10:38-42).

We need to sit at the Lord’s feet, humbling ourselves before Him to receive His speaking. The shortest and quickest way to grow in life is to draw near to Jesus and sit at His feet; sitting at His feet constitutes all our service.

We need to ignore ourselves, negate ourselves, and put ourselves aside, so that we may be before the Lord to hear His voice. Quietness is the source of spiritual strength (Isa. 30:15), and when we hear the Lord’s word, His words are spirit and life dispensing God into our being (John 6:63).

The extent to which we see and enter into the reality of spiritual things is dependent on the extent to which are willing to hear; in spiritual things, seeing depends on hearing, and hearing is deeper than seeing, more intimate than seeing (see Rev. 2:7a; 1:10, 12; Isa. 50:4-5; Matt. 18:15-17).

Lord Jesus, we want to learn how to speak one with You and how to stop and listen to God’s voice. Save us from merely being busy with many necessary outward activities for God – yet without spending time to listen to God’s voice. Oh Lord, awaken us morning by morning, speak to us, put Your words into our being, and infuse us more with Yourself. We draw near to You, Lord, to sit at Your feet, ignore ourselves, be quiet before You, and listen to Your speaking. Lord, we want to develop a habit of stopping to listen to God’s voice!

In Fellowship we have a Clear and Open Heaven, we Speak for the Lord, and we Listen to Him

A clear sky, speaking for the Lord, and listening to the Lord are all matters of fellowship. Genuine fellowship is related to genuine coordination. When we have fellowship with God and with one another, there will be a genuine coordination among us. Then as we move we can speak for God, and when God comes to speak to us, we can listen quietly to His speaking. (Life-study of Ezekiel, p. 109, by Witness Lee)

The divine fellowship – our fellowship with the Lord and with the saints in the Body – is everything in our Christian life and church life. When our fellowship is interrupted, we need to come to the Lord, confess our sins, and have the cleansing of the blood of Jesus, and our fellowship will be restored.

Both God’s forgiveness and His cleansing are needed for the restoration of our broken fellowship with God, so that we may enjoy Him in an uninterrupted fellowship (see 1 John 1:9).

This should be the situation in all the local churches, a situation of living in the divine fellowship. In the church life we need to know both how to move and how to stop, how to speak one with the Lord and how to listen to His voice, and all this has to be under an open and clear heaven.

If we look at our practice, however, it may not be like this; we may have a one-man-speaking and directing everything, or we may have someone who stands out of the rest, and he replaces in function many of the saints.

There should not be any one-man-show in the church life, but we all should be the living creatures coordinating together, having an open and clear heaven, and learning to speak and to listen one with the Lord.

The coordination shown in Ezekiel chapter 1 is marvelous, and it should be applied to our church life. We need to have all the experiences depicted in this chapter so that we may reach a point where we are under a crystal-clear, expanding, and stable heaven, and in such a situation we can speak one with the Lord and we can listen to His voice.

We need to learn how to give the voice by moving, and how to listen to God’s voice by stopping, all under the clear and open heaven. A clear and open heaven, speaking for the Lord, and listening to the Lord are all matters of fellowship, and genuine fellowship is related to genuine coordination.

When we as living creatures have fellowship with God and with one another, there will be a genuine coordination among us; then, we can speak for God, and we also listen quietly to His speaking.

We need to maintain our fellowship with the Lord by habitually walking in the light; in the light of the Lord our sins and shortcomings are exposed, we confess them, the Lord’s blood washes them, and we receive forgiveness of sins for the restoration of our fellowship with the Lord.

Furthermore, as we walk in the light in fellowship with the Lord and with the saints, we have fellowship with one another, our coordination is strengthened and straight, and we have an open heaven; here we speak for God and listen to God’s speaking.

Lord Jesus, we want to maintain our fellowship with You by walking in the light, confessing our sins, and having Your cleansing and forgiveness. We want to maintain an uninterrupted fellowship with God and with the saints, so that we may have a genuine coordination among us and be able to speak for God and also listen quietly to His speaking. Lord, may we have a clear and open heaven in our fellowship, so that we may speak for You and one with You, and we would know how and when to stop to listen to God’s voice.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ezekiel, msg. 10 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (1), msg. 7 (week 7), The Highest Point in Our Spiritual Experience — Having a Clear Sky with a Throne above It.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Oh Jesus, Master, to the door post now bring me. / Open my ears to hear, Your voice and all that You say to me. / Oh Jesus, Master, I will obey willingly. / To love and serve Him all my life, this my plea! (Song on listening to the Lord)
  # Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / In the spirit seek His face; / Ask and listen in His presence, / Waiting in the secret place. (Hymns #784)
  # God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all! / Oh, how we love within His presence to dwell! / In this light we enjoy a constant cleansing within— / From every sin! (Hymns #1197)