Our Christian Living is Based on the Sense of the Inner Life, not on Right or Wrong

Our Christian living is based on our inner life, and we determine everything based not on right or wrong but on the divine life within us with its sense and feeling; we need to come before God to determine what is of life and what is of death. Amen!

However, if we do not see this, if we don’t realize that we as believers in Christ need to take the way of life and not of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we may take the wrong way in our living and serving before the Lord.

What is right and what is wrong is not determined by the generally accepted standard in the world today, nor is it determined merely by the letter of the Bible.

The Lord’s living word needs to get inside of us and become life to us; we have the divine life in our spirit, and our Christian living is based on our inner life. Amen!

We definitely need to have a drastic change, a severe change in our concept, that we may take the way of the tree of life in everything.

We should not think that we are quite familiar with what the tree of life represents, and that we read the Bible and call on the Lord, so we should be fine.

Rather, in all our decisions, in all the things we have to do, and in all things in our Christian life and in the church life, we need to check with the divine life within.

We need to take the way of life in every single thing in our daily life and our church life.

The way to the tree of life is open, and we can wash our robes and have the right to partake of the tree of life today.

The matter of eating the tree of life wasn’t just something we see in Gen. 2; it continues through the Bible and is strengthened in Revelation.

The Lord is still calling, and the Spirit and the bride are one in this call, for all those who are hungry and thirsty to come and eat and drink.

Those who are qualified to eat and drink of Him are not those who are doing a good job, those who improved themselves, or those who finally know how to worship God; no, all we need is to be thirsty and hungry.

May we be on the central line of the Bible by eating Christ as the tree of life and drinking Him as the river of water of life.

All our problems, every kind of problem that we have, is due to one thing: the shortage of life, the lack of growth in life.

We need to grow in life by eating the tree of life. It’s not trying to solve the problem – it is about eating the tree of life.

Our Christian Living is Based on the Inner Life, not on Right or Wrong

The standard of Christian living deals not only with evil things but also with good things and right things; our Christian living is based on the inner life, not on right and wrong.

Many things are right according to human standards, but the divine standard pronounces them wrong because they lack the divine life.

When we see this light, this will change our Christian life, for we will no longer ask ourselves whether something is good or bad, right or wrong, but whether it is of life or death.

Our Christian living is based on the inner life (Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11).

No Christian should determine anything apart from life (1 John 5:13), for only what increases the inner life is right and whatever decreases the inner life is wrong.

Our pathway is not doing the right thing; it is God’s life, not right and wrong.

The difference between these two principles is immense, and the contrast here is great.

Some say that, as long as they do the good or right thing, they are pretty close to life.

No, they are immensely different, and the contrast is too great.

Look at the story in Matt. 17 on the Mount of Transfiguration; here we have the Lord Jesus and also Moses and Elijah.

Moses represents the law and Elijah, the prophets. Here we have the standard of the law and the standard of the prophets; in the Old Testament, the most qualified to speak are the law and the prophets.

But God silenced them both, for on the Mount of Transfiguration He said, This is My Beloved Son, Hear Him!

Who do we hear all day long? Do we hear only this one or that one, or do we hear the right thing versus the wrong thing?

When we’re making a decision, do we pay attention to the law, the self-made law, the good law, the right law, or do we hear Him?

The one question we must ask is whether the divine life within us rises or falls; this is what must determine the path that we take.

One of the striking differences between the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is that the tree of life is simple – the source is life, the element is life, and the destiny is life.

But the tree of knowledge is so complicated and complicating!

This tree is of knowledge – what particular knowledge? Who decides the knowledge? It’s complicated.

How about good – I don’t think that even two of us can decide what good is; even we ourselves can’t decide what is good, for when we were younger we thought something is good, but now we think that is not good anymore.

And evil – very complicated, for what used to be evil is now good, and what is good is now evil.

The one question we need to ask is very simple: does the divine life in us rise or fall as we do this?

We should have a lot of feeling inwardly because we are regenerated; we have received the highest life in the universe in our spirit, and we should be full of feeling inwardly.

But many times we are so dull – we cease to care, we are past feeling, like the people in the world.

We simply know what is good and what is evil, and we do the good and reject the evil, without even checking with the divine life within.

We need to live according to the sense of the inner life, not according to right and wrong.

For example, in 2 Cor. 2 we have the story of Paul going to preach the gospel to Troas; preaching the gospel is a very good thing, and the Lord even opened a door for the gospel for him.

Paul was doing the right thing, even the scriptural thing, for he was going to preach the gospel, and it seems that the Lord opened a door for him to do it.

So what did Paul do? Did he just go ahead and preach the gospel, because it is the right thing, and a door was open to him?

No, he said that, because he didn’t find his brother Titus, he had no peace in his spirit, so he left and went somewhere else.

Surely it was the right thing to do to preach the gospel, and the Lord seems to open the door for it, but Paul cared more for the sense of the inner life than for the outward confirmation and for doing the right thing.

This would be a difficult thing for us to do; we go somewhere to preach the gospel, the door is wide open and the people are ready, but we pause for a moment and contact the Lord, and He gives us a feeling not to go.

Would we stop when He asks us to, or would we just go ahead and do it?

Do we listen to the inner sense of life and do we pay attention to the sense of the inner life?

Or are we past feeling, not caring for the divine life in our spirit but just going ahead and doing the right thing? It is good to check with the Lord again and again and tell Him,

Lord Jesus, we love You and we depend on You. How do You feel about us doing this or going there? We care more for the sense of the inner life than for doing the right thing. Oh Lord, may the divine life in us rise and grow. We want to do all things according to the sense of the divine life in our spirit, not according to any standard of right and wrong. Save us from having our own man-made law, our own standard of good, and save us from living by the knowledge of good and evil. We just turn to You, Lord! Speak to us! Give us the sense of life and peace that we need in order to advance. We don’t just want to do things because they are good: we want to follow the sense of life and peace in our spirit!

Coming before God to Determine what is of Life and what is of Death and Following the Sense of the Inner Life

The Christian life is not a matter of following a certain set of rules or doing the right thing instead of doing the wrong thing.

Rather, a Christian is one who is regenerated with the divine life and who lives according to the sense of life in his spirit.

This means that we need to live not according to any standard that is generally accepted to be good but rather, we follow the sense of the inner life.

God requires us to satisfy the divine life, not any outward requirements. We must do things in a way that satisfies the life God has given us (John 1:4; 3:15).

This means that many times we need to repent before God not only for the sins that we have committed but even for the good things that we have done! Wow!

We may do the good thing and everything we do is right according to the standard of good and evil, but we do not do it by the divine life, and we did not check with the inner sense of life.

The principle of our living is not one that differentiates between good and evil; rather, we must come before God to determine what is of life and what is of death (Rom. 8:6; 1 John 3:14).

We must come before God again and again; we should not think that we know but rather, come before God to determine what is of life and what is of death.

When we set our mind on our spirit, we get life and peace. All day long, over and over again, we need to set our mind on our spirit, and we will have the inner sense of life and peace.

What is wrong is wrong, but what is right is not always right; rather, only what the divine life does is right, and only what the sense of the inner life tells us to do is right.

What the Lord Jesus does in us and through us is right, but if we do something that seems to be good and right without checking with the Lord, that is not the right.

This doesn’t mean that we should speed up and drive past the speed limit because the Lord told us to do so; we’re not talking about nonsense like this.

What is wrong is just wrong. But what is right is not always right. It all depends on the inner life.

And the demands of the inner life are higher than what is generally accepted to be right or good.

In every matter we need to contact the Lord and seek Him, checking with the inner sense of life so that we may have His shining and His feeling.

When we check with the indwelling Christ in our spirit, there will be a shining on what direction to take.

May we be such ones, those who care for the sense of life and for remaining on the line of life.

So many problems that we have are due to the fact that we’re not checking with the sense of life, and so many mistakes we make are due to not being on the line of life, and enjoying the tree of life.

Especially in our married life and family life, the main source of our problems is caring for right and wrong.

When the standard we impose upon our wife or husband is right and wrong, not the standard of life, this creates a lot of problems.

We have so many problems in the church life because we impose our own standard of right and wrong on the saints, so we criticize others based on what we think they should do and how they should be.

We criticize others because we have a standard of right and wrong; when they fall on the wrong side of our standard, we have a problem with them, for they are not doing the right thing. Oh, Lord.

May we really care for the inner sense of life, the sense of life in our spirit. This will save us from so many problems, and this will solve so many problems in our personal life and in our church life.

Lord Jesus, grace us so that we live by the tree of life and not by the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We want to constantly pay attention to life. We ask You, Lord, what is the sense of life? What is the divine life speaking and feeling in us right now? May we be those who care for the inner sense of life more than for any outward standard of right and wrong. We come to You, Lord Jesus, to have Your shining and Your infusing. May we determine what is of life and what is of death in Your presence, and may we stay away from merely doing good instead of doing evil. Forgive us, Lord, for our sins, and forgive us even for the good things we have done without being one with You. Forgive us for doing things apart from checking with You, apart from being in our spirit!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 56, “Two Principles of Living,” pp. 418-832, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life (2022 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 2, entitled, The Two Trees and the Two Principles of Living.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – It is the sense of life in us, / It is the sense of God; / ’Tis in our spirit made alive, / And more than sense of good. / It is the inner sense in us, / The inmost consciousness, / Discerning matters inwardly, / God’s will to thus express. (Hymns #738)
  – This inner knowledge obviates the need / Of outward knowledge, human eloquence, / But in the spirit we must ever live / And walk according to the inner sense. / The more we live in Christ, the life divine, / And by the inner consciousness behave, / The more we’ll have the inward knowledge true, / And on our heart God will His Son engrave. (Hymns #739)
  – 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)