In order for the divine life to have a free and full flow within us and through us, we need to do the work of digging by prayer; we need to dig away the dirt in our mind, emotion, and will, and we need to do this simply by spending much personal time with the Lord to allow Him to shine on us and in us.
On His side, the Lord has gone through a process to become the life-giving Spirit who entered into our spirit to be the fountain of water of life, ready to spring up within us and flow out through us all the way into the New Jerusalem.
On our side, however, we need to be those who take the lead to do the digging; the fountain is in us, the well is deep within our being, but there are many layers of dirt in our inward parts, and the living water cannot flow out.
It’s like a well that is buried under the soil; for it to spring up and flow out to quench our thirst, we need to dig it, and we need to dig properly, to remove all the layers of dirt, sand, stones, etc, until the water flows freely in a pure way.
The fountain of water of life in our inner being needs our cooperation in order to flow out freely and in a pure way; we need to do the digging by prayer!
Just as the leaders of Israel took their staff and their sceptre and dug the well at Beer (Num. 21:16-18), so we need to take the lead and dig until living water flows.
We need in particular to dig the dirt in our heart with our conscience, mind, emotion, and will, digging layer after layer of dirt, until the water of life can flow freely.
The Lord is faithful to shine on us, and He exposes us through our conscience; many times we have accusations in our conscience, and we cannot have a pure flow of life unless our conscience is clear.
So we need to exercise to be like Paul, having a conscience void of offense before God and man, so that the well within us may spring up and flow out.
Also, we need to come before the Lord concerning our heart; there are so many complications in our heart, and we are so mixed and impure in our desires, intentions, thoughts, decisions, and goals. Oh Lord Jesus!
We may think we are one hundred percent for the Lord, but when He shines on us, we realise that we still hold things back, we still have our own goals, and our heart simply sticks to anything that it likes. Oh Lord Jesus!
May we be those who come before the Lord again and again to deal with anything that He shines on, so that we may have a pure and free flow of life out of our innermost being!
We must Dig Away the Dirt in our Mind, Emotion, and Will under the Lord’s Shining
After we do the digging in our conscience and in our heart, we need to be before the Lord concerning the other parts of our heart: our mind, our emotion, and our will.
We must cooperate with the Lord to dig away the dirt in our mind, for the Lord wants to transform us by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23; Rom. 8:6; 2 Cor. 10:4-5).
In so many ways we, the believers in Christ regenerated with the life of God, think the same way as the people in the world. Many who are regenerated are just like the people in this world in their thinking about fashion, for example; they dress in conformity to the modern age, and they see no problem with this.
Many who are regenerated still continue to use their money in the same way as those in the world; they may spend their money in the same way as those in the world, and in the matter of money they may not love the Lord more.
It is not until we love the Lord more and give Him more ground to work within us that we are transformed in our way of spending the money.
Many young people who study in university have the same thoughts about their studies and degrees as the other worldly young people; if their minds were being renewed, they would not give up their studies, but they would have the Lord’s point of view in which to evaluate their studies.
We have to admit in the Lord’s light as He shines on us in our personal time with Him that our mind has been blinded and is so full of dirt; our mind has so many imaginations day by day, and we think of things that we are even ashamed to say out loud.
We may daydream regularly, and even in the meeting as we listen to others’ speaking, our mind may be somewhere else. There are heaps of dirt in our thoughts through our imaginations and dreams, and all these need to be dug away before the living water can freely flow.
Then, we need to dig away the dirt in our will; in this respect, there are not many who are absolutely and utterly obedient to the Lord.
We may say that we love the Lord, we trust in Him, and submit to Him, but when it comes to submitting to His sovereign arrangement in our environment, we may not agree with this (Phil. 4:11-13).
We may think we’re quite submissive to the Lord, but then He puts us into certain circumstances, and we are exposed of how stiff-necked we are and how unsubmissive our being is.
Many experiences and circumstances under the Lord’s sovereignty simply expose us to the light so that we may know how stubborn our will is.
We may think we submit to the Lord whom we do not see, but it is hard for us to submit to the saints in the church whom we see; we may say that we have no problem submitting to the Lord, but we do have a problem with submitting to the leading ones in the church.
A married sister may think that she is so submissive, but if only her husband would be a little better and sweeter, she will submit to him. If the Lord would give us the spouse of our dreams, we would never be exposed of how unsubmissive we are and how stubborn our will is.
Our will must be wholly submissive, and not only submissive but also in harmony with the will of God; then, every decision that we make will be an expression of Christ (Luke 22:42; James 4:7; Phil. 2:13).
After digging the dirt from our will, we need to deal with our emotion. When we’re emotional, we focus on ourselves to the uttermost, and we are occupied only with ourselves.
When we’re in our emotion, we are under the bondage and control of our emotion.
We all must learn to deal with our emotion according to the pleasure and joy of the Lord; we must learn that whatever we love or hate, whatever we like or dislike, all must be done under the permission of the Lord and with His joy.
But if we look at ourselves, it’s so easy to like someone and dislike the other, and it’s so easy to not like someone whom you liked while disliking the other. Oh Lord Jesus!
If our emotion is kept under the rule of the Lord with His pleasure and joy, it will be saturated with the Spirit and transformed. May we come to the Lord to have His shining and simply tell Him,
Lord, we give ourselves to You to do the work of digging away the dirt in our mind, emotion, and will so that the living water may spring up and flow out. Amen, Lord, we want to dig away all the dirt in our mind by digging away our imaginations, our thoughts, our opinions, our way of spending money, and our dream. We want to dig away all the dirt in our will by having a submissive will, a will in harmony with God, a will that makes every decision as an expression of Christ. Lord, we want to dig away the dirt in our emotion, having our love regulated by the Lord and exercising our emotion according to the Lord’s pleasure. Amen, Lord Jesus, we just want to cooperate with You by doing the work of digging in our inner being so that the well of living water may spring up and flow out!
Spending Personal Time with the Lord to do the Digging by Prayer According to His Leading
How do we do the work of digging? How do we cooperate with the Lord to dig away the dirt in our mind, emotion, and will, and how do we remove any dirt in our conscience and heart?
It is by coming to the Lord and spending personal time with Him.
We must forget about our needs, our jobs, our future, and our circumstances – we must seek only the Lord’s presence and ask Him to bring us into His light.
It is in His light that we see our real situation, our genuine condition, and our desperate need to deal with the dirt in our mind, emotion, and will, together with our heart and conscience.
We must seek the Lord’s presence and ask Him to bring us into His light; then, we can follow His light and His leading to dig away the dirt in our heart, conscience, mind, will, and emotion (Isa. 2:5; Luke 11:34-36; 1 John 1:5, 7, 9).
As we walk in the light – as He is in the light – the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from every sin; in the light we can’t hide our sin and our dirt but rather, we agree with the light, and we are cleansed.
The way we remove the dirt by digging is not by having times of introspection but rather by coming to the Lord and, with the help of the Spirit and by the divine light that shines within us, we will do the digging by prayer.
The digging is accomplished only by prayer in our private time with the Lord; there is some digging done when we’re with the other saints, but we need to spend more time with the Lord privately to pray according to His inner leading.
The best digging is primarily accomplished when we’re in prayer in our private time with the Lord, so we need to spend more time with Him and pray according to His inner leading.
The more we dig away the dirt in our mind, emotion, and will, under the Lord’s shining and according to His leading, the more living, strengthened, and victorious we will be as the living water flows freely within us to cause us to grow in life for the building up of the Body of Christ!
If we mean business to grow and mature in the Lord, we cannot go around this digging process.
Even as we read these words and as we read the words in the Bible, we need to open to the Lord in a personal way, spending personal time with Him in private to do the digging by prayer according to His leading.
As the Lord shines on us here and there, the Spirit will convict us, and, under the Lord’s leading, we need to keep digging by prayer.
As we eat our lunch at work, as we travel, as we carry out the common things in our daily life, inwardly there has to be a call to dig away the dirt in our mind, emotion, and will, together with our conscience and heart.
By this digging by prayer, all the various part of our being will be purified, and the dirt will be slowly removed.
The result will be a flowing river of water of life – there will be a fountain springing up with living water, and there will be a river of water of life flowing out of our innermost being! This river, coming out of all the members of the Body, is what builds up the Body of Christ.
Lord Jesus, we put aside our needs, our job, our future, and our circumstances, and we only seek Your presence; bring us into Your light and guide us to do the work of digging of all the dirt in our inward being! Amen, Lord Jesus, we follow the light You shine on us to dig away the dirt in our heart, conscience, mind, will, and emotion. May we be those who spend much personal time with the Lord to pray according to His leading and thus dig away the dirt. Amen, Lord, may the dirt be dug away and removed, and may the living water spring up and flow freely so that we may grow in life for the building up of the Body of Christ!
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,” ch. 10, 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:
# Dig away, dig away, dig away, / All my troublesome emotions dig away!… / All resistance in my will dig away!… / All self seeking in my heart dig away!… / Life can flow, praise the Lord, life can flow! / From the fountain in my heart life can flow! (Hymns #1214)
# Now I am in Penuel, / Face to face with God. / With an open, loving heart, / Spirit exercised. / Conscience, mind, emotion, will, / I will dig away, / That through me Thou may’st flow / Freely day by day. / Jesus, Lord, I come to Thee, / With an open heart. / I, my spirit exercise— / Inward, hidden parts. (Song on, Inward, Hidden Parts)
# 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)
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