PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

Not only so, He told the disciples that He would not leave them as orphans but that He would come back to them (14:18). While in the form of the flesh He would leave them, but He would return in another form as the Spirit. His intention when He left the disciples was to die in the form of the flesh. After His death in the flesh, He would be resurrected from the dead and come back to them not in the flesh but as the Spirit. As the Spirit He can enter into us and be one with us. Now that the Lord is the Spirit, He can dwell within us. In John 14:20 the Lord told them, "In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you." That day is the day of resurrection. In resurrection the disciples would realize that He is in the Father, and the disciples are in Him, and He is in them. Christ is in the Father, we are in Christ, and Christ is in us. After Christ's death and resurrection, He became the Spirit. Today this very Spirit is within us. He is both the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God. That the Holy Spirit is now indwelling us means that Christ and God are also within us. This indicates that all three of the Triune God are within us.

We need to forget our natural thoughts about God. There are many concepts remaining within us concerning our relationship with God. Some have the consideration to behave themselves in a proper way in order to please God and to sacrifice themselves for the Lord's work. Others have aspirations to go to faraway places to preach the gospel. Still others consider how to worship the Lord and how to do their best to serve the Lord for their entire life. This is what is in our heart, and these are matters which are always on our mind. Whether this is right or wrong is hard to say, but we should forget all these things. The one thing we need to realize is that today the Triune God in Christ and as the Spirit is indwelling us to be our food, our life, our life supply, and our everything. When we go to the Lord, we need to praise Him and thank Him that He is in us as our life, our food, our drink, our strength, and our everything. All we need to do is realize Him, enjoy Him, apply Him, and experience Him. We should have no intention to do this or that for Him, but simply learn how to enjoy Him and apply Him. Praise the Lord, we only care to enjoy Him.

...Please remember that we are all branches of the vine (15:1-5). As such, we should not consider ourselves so small and pitiful that we only have the thought to worship the vine or sacrifice ourselves to do something for the vine. No branch would serve the vine or bow down to worship the vine in this way. If it did, the vine may say, "Little branch, don't be foolish. Simply realize that you are a branch and I am the vine. Abide in me and allow me to abide in you. There is nothing left for you to do." ...

The secret of being a living Christian is not merely to listen to messages, learn doctrines, or gain knowledge in letters. The secret is to practice staying in contact with Christ continuously. He is the vine, and we are one of the branches. We need to practice abiding in Him and always maintain the sense of life within. We can make sure that a current of life is flowing within us all the time by keeping a sweet fellowship between Him and us. We will learn to sense His presence within. Then, whatever we do, whatever we speak, and wherever we go, we will maintain His smiling presence by the flow of life within us. This is a proof that we are abiding in Him and He is abiding in us.

When we rise up every morning, there is no need to go to Him to pray for so many things, asking Him for help to do this and that. The first thing that we should take care of in the morning is to go to the Lord to be nourished by Him. Even to sustain our physical body, the first thing we should have every morning is a nourishing breakfast. In principle it is the same for our spiritual life. Each day in the morning we should speak to Christ, saying, "Lord, now I come to You. You are my table. You are my feast, and You are my breakfast. I want to feed on You and drink of You. Praise You that You are my life, my food, and my daily supply." He will take care of everything that we need, for He knows what we need better than we do. Therefore, to ask Him to do this and that for us is not only wrong but foolish.

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