Rev. 3:17 Because you say, I am wealthy and have become rich and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, (18) I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed and that the shame of your nakedness may not be manifested, and eyesalve to anoint your eyes that you may see.
Being rich is not merely a question of having something. It is a question of how much one has, what he has, and to what degree he has it. It is not the initial experiences. It is not a mere understanding of doctrine or something that one claims with his mouth. When God opens the eyes of a person, he begins to enter the land of spiritual riches. One brother spent a great deal of time to study the Bible during the first year after his salvation. He concentrated on one subject: the Lord's second coming. He did a clear analysis of the things concerning the Lord's second coming, and he felt quite proud of himself. One day he met a sister who was deep in the Lord. When she talked to him about the Lord's second coming, she did not analyze; her attention was on how one should prepare himself for His coming. On that day, he learned a lesson. While he was talking about the Lord's coming, here was a person who was waiting for the Lord's coming. The one who only talked about the Lord's coming was poor, while the sister who waited for the Lord's coming was rich. All those who have truly seen something before the Lord are not presumptuous and do not think that they have something. For example, it may take a person one, two, ten, or even twenty times of revelation before he can really see the truth in Romans 6. The first time he sees the truth in Romans 6, he may feel that nothing more can top this experience. He may say that he has seen it. But the second time he sees it, he will say, "I did not see this before" This means that when the light comes, it will tear down what one originally had. There is a brother who knows the truth about the church very well. Once a few people gathered together and had some light concerning the church. This brother said, "How interesting! I never knew what the church was. But thank the Lord that I see it today." Every time a person truly sees something before the Lord, he will feel that he has never seen anything. This does not mean that he has actually seen nothing; he may have seen something. But after he receives the greater light, he will not think much of what he saw before. On the contrary, he will realize that he had nothing.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Watchman Nee, General Messages, Vol. 37, in The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, pp. 60-62. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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