We praise and thank the Lord that He has regenerated us and came as the Spirit in our spirit; however, for us to be prepared for His return, we need to pay the price to gain more of the Spirit in our soul.
The parable of the ten virgins in Matt. 25 is a very sobering one, for there is a real chance that, even though we’re believers in Christ who love Him and enjoy Him, we may not enter into the wedding feast of the Lamb.
All ten virgins love the Lord, await His return, and are preparing for His imminent coming. However, five of them are prudent, for they have oil not only in their lamps but also in their vessel; the other five are foolish, for they have oil only in their lamps, but they didn’t accumulate extra oil in their vessel.
What does this mean and how does this apply to us? Our lamp is our spirit; Christ as the Spirit came into our spirit, and when we were regenerated, the divine fire came into us, and the Spirit as the oil is in our spirit to maintain that fire.
As long as we are alive and regenerated, our spirit is the lamp of God, and the Spirit is burning in our spirit.
The Lord came into us and made us the light of the world; He in us is the light of the world, and He made us light in this dark world. Praise the Lord!
However, besides our lamp we also have our vessel, which refers mainly to our soul; we need to not only have oil in our lamp (the Spirit in our spirit) but also a deposit of oil in our vessel (gain the saturating and filling Spirit in our soul) to be prepared for the Lord’s return.
May we be the prudent virgins, those who took oil in their vessels with their lamps; may we be those who have an extra portion of oil in our vessel by being filled with the Spirit in our soul for our transformation! Amen!
And a very enjoyable and simple way for us to gain oil in our vessel is for us to prayerfully consider and muse on the word of God; when we prayerfully read, pray, consider, and muse on God’s word, being in intimate fellowship with the Lord, we gain more of the Spirit into our soul.
We can worship God with His word, converse with ourselves with His word, speak aloud with His word, take the word through careful considering, and muse on His word, so that we may breathe God in, be infused with Him, and receive spiritual nourishment.
This will constitute us with the very element of God, and we will gain the extra portion of the Spirit in our soul.
We need to Pay the Price for the Filling of the Spirit in our Soul to be Prepared for the Lord’s Return
It is very interesting to read in Matt. 25:8-9 that, when the unwise virgins asked the prudent ones for some oil, they prudent ones didn’t “share their oil” with them.
Rather, they asked the unwise virgins to go buy oil from those who sell.
This means that they had to pay a price; we cannot enjoy the Lord for others, we cannot “share our oil reserve” with others, and we cannot buy oil for others.
Rather, we need to pay the price for the filling of the Spirit in our soul so that we may be prepared for the Lord’s return (Prov. 23:23; Rev. 3:18).
May we buy the truth and not sell it; may we pay the price to be sanctified in the truth, that is, in the word of God, paying the price to get in the word every day.
Every day we need to wake up a bit earlier in the morning to pay the price for the filling of the Spirit in our soul; we need to open to the Lord, pray over His word, receive the Word in an atmosphere of prayer, and receive more of the Spirit in our soul.
In Rev. 3:18 the Lord counsels us to buy from Him gold refined by fire, white garments that we may be clothed, and eyesalve to anoint our eyes and see.
We need to pay the price to gain God the Father in His divine nature, God the Son as our lived-out righteousness, and God the Spirit as the ointment to anoint us to see God’s economy.
The progress of our Christian life is living a life of being a prudent virgin.
We have not only the regenerating Spirit but also the infilling Spirit; on one hand, we have the regenerating Spirit in our spirit, and on the other, we have the infilling Spirit in our soul.
We don’t know how long we still have to live on this earth, but like Paul, we want to pursue the infilling of the Spirit.
We can be filled with the Spirit by giving the Spirit the ground in us; by giving the Lord the full ground in our being, opening Him without reservation, and allowing the infilling Spirit to have more ground in us, we pay the price for the filling Spirit to come in and spread in our soul.
May we empty ourselves before the Lord, being unloaded and emptied to only be filled with Him.
On His side, the Lord is working as the Spirit in our environment, and we need to accept the Lord’s breaking of the outer man.
The breaking of the outer man is what the Bible calls, the discipline of the Spirit (Heb. 12).
This means that, even though in all things and matters we reject what is from Satan, we also realize that the Lord arranges things, environments, and situations so that He may get through in certain parts of our being.
The Lord wants that the discipline of the Spirit would work together with the inner renewing of the Spirit, so that we may gain more of the Spirit in our soul.
So when the environment or situation we’re in seems to be quite difficult and even limiting, we shouldn’t struggle with the Lord or try to change things; we should simply let the Lord subdue us, defeat us, and work Himself into us.
We may even tell the Lord that He would never let us win but defeat us and work Himself into us! Amen!
The Spirit who came into our spirit (Rom. 8:16) was given to us freely, but the saturating Spirit as the extra portion of oil to fill our soul is not free; rather, we need to pay the price for the filling of the Spirit in our soul.
This price involves matters such as giving up the world, dealing with the self, loving the Lord above all, and counting all things loss on account of Christ (Matt. 16:24-26; Mark 12:30; Phil. 3:7-8).
Amen, our urgent need today is to gain more of the Spirit in our soul; the Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God needs to saturate our entire being, and for this, we need to live a life of buying the extra portion of the Spirit.
Lord Jesus, we want to pay the price for the filling of the Spirit in our soul. Save us from being foolish or unwise in this age; make us those who pay the price by giving up the world, dealing with the self, love the Lord above all things, and count all things loss on account of Christ. We come to You, Lord, and we open our whole being to You; fill us with the Spirit in our soul! Remove the veils from our eyes, dear Lord, and cause our heart to turn to You. Dear Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with You so that our soul would be transformed and saturated with the Spirit. May we realize our urgent need to gain more of the Spirit in our soul, in our entire inner being!
Being Watchful by Paying the Price to gain more of the Spirit in our Soul and be Ready for the Lord’s Coming
The foolish virgins – the virgins who didn’t take oil in their vessels with their lamps – will miss the wedding feast; if we are not watchful by paying the price to gain more of the Spirit in our soul, we will miss the wedding feast. Oh, Lord!
Whether or not we will be raptured early to enter into the wedding feast depends upon our daily buying of the Spirit (Matt. 25:10-12; Rev. 19:7-9; 2 Cor. 4:16; Titus 3:5).
Our Christian life is not a matter of rules and regulations; we shouldn’t live according to legalities but rather, we should live before the Lord and pay the price to gain more of the Spirit in our soul.
It is free for us to receive the Spirit in our spirit, but the saturating of our soul with the Spirit requires that we pay a price.
From the time we wake up in the morning, we need to open to the Lord and be watchful so that we pay the price to gain more of the Spirit in our soul; we need to have a prayerful attitude of not wasting time but gaining more of the Spirit.
On one hand, we need to exercise our spirit and fan it into flame so that we may be filled in spirit with the divine Spirit. On the other hand, we need to gain the extra portion of the Spirit in our vessel, in our soul, in our being.
If we don’t pay the price today to buy the oil, we will miss the wedding feast on that day.
For us to be qualified to be raptured to enter into the Bridegroom’s marriage feast requires our passing through a long period of accumulating sufficient spiritual oil in our vessel (Rev. 19:7-9).
We shouldn’t think that, if we read the Bible yesterday and spent time with the Lord the other day, we no longer need to do that; rather, in all things of our daily life, we need to live before the Lord and cooperate with Him.
May the Lord save us from not attending the wedding feast; may He have mercy on u so that we would not miss the wedding feast!
And may we repent before the Lord for spending so much of our time not buying the Spirit, not receiving the Spirit, and not being constituted with the Spirit.
We do have time to buy the oil, but we do not have time to waste; we do have enough time to pay the price to gain more of the Spirit in our soul, but we don’t have time to waste.
Again and again, day by day, hour by hour, even moment by moment, we need to accumulate spiritual oil in our vessel.
If we would be prudent and wise virgins, those who are watchful in life, we need to redeem the time; this means that we must seize every available opportunity to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:16).
We may not spend the whole day buying the oil, but once we’re reminder as we turn to the Lord, we can just pay the price to gain the extra portion of the Spirit!
Having a sufficient amount of oil in our vessel will be our entry to the wedding feast.
May we be those watchful by being filled with the Spirit all day long. May we allow the Spirit to saturate our entire being so that we may be watchful and making ourselves ready for the Lord’s second coming.
Every day we need to be watchful by paying the price to buy the Spirit as the “golden oil” so that we may supply the churches with the Spirit for the testimony of Jesus and be rewarded by the Lord to participate in the marriage dinner of the Lamb (Matt. 25:9-10; Rev. 3:18; Zech. 4:6, 11-14; Judg. 9:9).
Lord Jesus, have mercy on us that we would not miss the wedding feast of the Lamb! We give ourselves to You to be the prudent and wise virgins who redeem the time by paying the price to gain more of the Spirit in our soul. Dear Lord Jesus, forgive us for spending most of our day not buying the Spirit or receiving the Spirit. Make us those watchful in life who seize every available opportunity to be filled with the Spirit. Amen, Lord, fill us with Yourself much more today. Saturate our entire being. Make us ready for Your second coming. May we be watchful daily by paying the price to buy the Spirit so that we may supply the churches with the Spirit for the testimony of Jesus and be rewarded by the Lord to participate in the marriage dinner of the Lamb!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1985, vol. 5, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” pp. 528-529, 501-502, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Christian Life, the Church Life, the Consummation of the Age, and the Coming of the Lord (2020 fall ITERO), week 2, Watching and being Ready in Order to be Prepared by the Lord for His Second Coming.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Wise virgins buy up the time; / Never drunk with the world’s wine, / Filled in the spirit they shine— / Jesus is coming again! / Let us go forth unto Him, / Not only with our lamps trimmed, / Buy the oil now lest they dim— / Jesus is coming again! (Hymns #1302)
– Oh, let us now redeem each moment, / More the precious oil to buy, / And have our vessels filled with ointment / Ere we hear the midnight cry. (Hymns #1315)
– Lord, help us to redeem these golden moments; / Our vessels fill with ointment from above; / Help us amen each trial and tribulation; / Increase in us; make us abound in love. / He’s coming soon—these moments are so precious. / The oil is here—Oh, let us buy the more. / Amen the trials and welcome tribulations— / The kingdom’s ours through these afflictions sore. (Hymns #1307)
About aGodMan
