To Be a Believer

To be a believer in Christ is the most wonderful experience in the human life; to be a dissatisfied believer unfulfilled is the most frustrating experience in the spiritual life.

As a young student attending Bible school in Portland, Oregon in 1962 I was seeking the Lord and His will for my life, but the more I sought Him, the more frustrated and dissatisfied I became. During the time, a well-known Bible teacher came from England and spoke at the Bible school. It was probably the most glorious message I ever heard describing the victorious life in Christ from Exodus where Moses met God at the burning bush. Moses was never the same after his encounter with God. When the message was over, I felt more discouraged than ever. Such an experience could be realized by Moses, but how about me? Was God interested in revealing Himself to me so many centuries later? I was not a Moses, my calling could never be like Moses; yet deep within I longed to know God to such an extent and to live in His presence. But there seemed no way into God for me. That was the experience of the Moses', the Samuels, the Davids, the Peters, the Pauls, the Madam Guyons, the George Muellers, the Hudson Taylors of the world, but what about me?

Somehow, The Normal Christian Life, by Watchman Nee, came to my attention. I read that book like a starving person. I was greatly refreshed and helped. Another book by Watchman Nee also came my way entitled, The Normal Christian Church Life. That seemed like a dream. Could all the Christians really be one to be the church Christ desired?

Early in 1963 I heard of a co-worker of Watchman Nee by the name of Witness Lee that came to America and was giving a conference in Los Angeles in the spring of that year. Several students, including me, went to hear this man speak. For the first time I heard of the function of my human spirit, a fact I knew due to the proper teaching of the Bible school. Man was created by God as tripartite--spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). But the spirit was very mysterious and illusive, not easily grasped; yet here was a man, Witness Lee, co-worker of Watchman Nee, telling me I could know God inwardly, personally, even being transformed to become one with God in life and nature (2 Corinthians 3:18). “God is Spirit, they that worship Him must worship in spirit and reality” (John 4:24). To know God the Spirit, I must touch Him with my human spirit. It was for this very purpose that God became the man, Jesus; lived on this earth as a God-man for thirty three and a half years; died on the cross to obtain redemption; was buried for three days, walking through death and Hades, gaining the keys of death, walking out of death, conquering and defeating Satan; resurrecting to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Corinthians 15:45); ascending to the throne at God's right hand to become the Lord of all; descending as the life-giving Spirit to get into my spirit that I could know God (John 20:22)! No one ever revealed Christ in such a touchable, knowable way to me before as did Witness Lee in those few days in March '63.

Since that time, I gave myself to the Lord to know Him according to spirit. He led me to move to L.A. in 1963 to take the way of the local churches, to be one with all believers in the city as a testimony of the church according to the revelation in the New Testament. The veils have continued to be removed from my eyes day by day, year by year. Some 36 years have passed since I first heard Witness Lee share on the riches of this glorious Christ. I can only praise the Lord that He heard the cry of my heart in my youth, leading me step by step into His eternal economy for man on this earth today. “That they all may be one; even as You Father are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe that You have sent me,” (John 17:21). The key to experiencing all the spiritual realities as revealed in the Bible is the human spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17). “All will know Me from the little one to the great one” (Hebrews 8:11b). “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let him who hears say, Come! And let him who is thirsty come; let him who wills take the water of life freely.” (Revelation 22:17)

DP