Our modern life today is one of comfort, convenience and distraction—full of places, things, people, jobs, houses, entertainment, and responsibilities that tie us down. And yet true believers are sojourners on this earth, awaiting our eternal dwelling place. In the book of Genesis, Abraham was called to leave all that he knew and journey to an unknown land: “Now Jehovah said to Abram, Go from your land, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you; and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing” (Genesis 12:1). And thus Abraham began a life of tenting—to be mobile and go wherever and whenever God calls. While he had many failures and a stubborn flesh, Abraham’s life reveals God’s desire for His people to live a simple life without earthly attachment; Abraham was called to walk and live by faith outside of man’s fallen, independent system, aiming towards a “better country”—the eternal one.
Abraham came out of a very modern city, Ur of the Chaldeans, which was well developed and sophisticated, and held much attachment for him—including his home, his family, and his lifestyle. The Bible shows us that the manmade city is altogether a result and symbol of independence and rebellion against God. In Genesis, the very first city in human history was built out of Cain’s rebellion (Gen. 4). Seven chapters later, we see the development of another, even more rebellious city: “And they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and they had tar for mortar. / And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens; and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the surface of the whole earth…its name was called Babel” (11:3-4, 9). In Revelation, the city initiated in Genesis culminates in the Great Babylon, the ultimate expression of man’s rebellion and self-glorification.
Living not according to outward systems, but according to the conscience
We all were once “city people,” with eyes only for the comfort and convenience of our earthly life. Modern life—the extension of the city life from Cain—purposely eases any inconveniences or hardship, and doesn’t require us to use our conscience. Our conscience becomes numb, and gradually we feel more and more free to live according to whatever the world and the flesh desires from us. When we live according to the fallen, earthly life, it is easy for “things”—worldly, religious, bad, and good alike—to come in to take away the very raw sense of humanity that we should have in our daily living; the conscience then becomes an inconvenience to us because it reminds us that our life does not belong to this system. According to how we were created, we should be simple beings, able to quickly respond to God’s calling without consideration. Yet in the world, many considerations, opportunities, and excuses distract us from heeding the call unreservedly. Even Abraham, the father of the called race, couldn’t leave the city without taking along some fleshly attachments, as shown in his unwillingness to leave behind his nephew, Lot.
Some might think that the world provides a good support system, but it is only temporary and corrupt, and will ultimately perish. To God’s genuine, chosen people—those who have been called out of their background, customs, and traditions to live according to the true meaning of our existence—the fallen human culture and system of the world are worthless. Instead, we live according to our conscience, walking according to a very specific rule—the governmental principle of the law of the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). Under this rule, there is no other consideration; when and where our spirit tells us to go, we go. Our conscience helps us to recognize who we are and why we exist on the earth—it leads us back to our spirit. This “sense” helps us know how to walk every step of our lives, and guides us to live by faith according to our spirit, not by any worldly system.
Being humbled and tested in a harsh land as the Lord’s leading to live by the spirit
This life of sojourning is the true test for those who seek Him; we need to be brought into the real experience of living and walking on the earth according to His purpose. All of those on this very specific line of life in the Bible until today have been brought back to this source. When the Israelites were preparing to enter the good land, the Lord reminded them again why they had been sojourning. Deuteronomy 8:2 says, “And you shall remember all the way that Jehovah your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness in order to humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.” What must we remember, why does God need to humble us, and on what part do we need to be tested? The testing and the humbling have to do with the nature of our being; we all need to be reminded of who we are and of where we come from. It is easy to be prideful and forget the real reason we are here on the earth, and thus the Lord says, “Remember”—remember who led us, remember by whom we lived, remember by what we were fed.
8:3 goes on, “And He humbled and let you go hungry, fed you the manna which you had never known nor your fathers had ever known, so that He might make you know that man lives not by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out from the mouth of Jehovah.” The Lord humbles us and specifically lets us go hungry. This hunger might not be physical, and it surely isn’t what we think of as “positive,” but it kindles in us a sense of life. It is a warning sign—a sense that is life-saving. The Lord allows hunger as a test for us, but for our hunger to be satisfied, the Lord uses manna. What is manna? Manna is the irrefutable proof of the Lord’s provision to sustain our life. It is not man-made; it is given to us so that we can be sustained by “everything that proceeds out from the mouth of Jehovah”—nothing else. That is the true tenting life.
In 1969, Brother Lee came to Erie, Pennsylvania. Why Erie, Pennsylvania, a tiny town in the middle of nowhere? Why not a larger, more promising city? Erie has a cold, snowy, harsh climate, and very few people like to stay there. Yet it was actually this condition of “tenting” that allowed for the beginning of the Lord’s work in this region when Brother Lee gave an overcoming and revelational conference there about the seven spirits. What a bright shining all the way back in 1969 until today! This is our history—from the Old Testament to the dear saints who lived and walked these many years before us—but it is also happening in our church life today. This must be our experience in the church life in this final age. The harshness, the hunger, and the tenting lead us into the real life by which we must live; it is the life that magnifies the living by the spirit. Faith does not have any power without the living by the spirit.
Footnote 1 of Deut. 8:3 says that “God’s desire is that we put ourselves aside, forget ourselves, and fulfill His economy by the Spirit…” The church life can never exist if we don’t have our spirit—if we don’t have the realization of the Son, which is the Spirit. What is the breath, the word of God? The Spirit. Where is God? In our spirit. Who is the Son? Who is Jesus, the Lord we call on all the time? The realization is in our spirit. We have to exercise our spirit, because the Spirit is the living realization of the Son of God in our day-to-day life. If we don’t exercise our spirit, the church life is just a good ideal without reality. But if we do, our church life is the fulfillment of the true sojourning life—the subsisting off of the word of God, the living out of the Spirit. We can have a church life today because we have the constant, present speaking outflowing through our spirit. Moreover, the church life today, in this last degraded age, needs the reality of the multiplied, sevenfold, intensified Spirit that sustains, enlivens, and completes us for His return.
The modern life that surrounds us today is more advanced, more complicated, and busier than ever before, but the Lord’s very specific calling and leading have never changed from Abraham to the river-crossing Israelites and even to the saints in 1969 at Erie, Pennsylvania until now. Today, the multiplication on this line of life is for the continuation of the called-out ones who carry in them the divine life—the Spirit in our spirit—in our human living on the earth in this age. We are the enlarged version of Abraham’s life, living as a corporate people unto the same calling—unto this life of tenting—so that we may live, multiply and enter and possess the good land. We are the called-out ones! Today, the gathering of the called ones is the church. The Lord is seeking the one new man—the corporate being that can fulfill His desire. He wants Himself, His name, His person, and His life to be lived and manifested on the earth, yet remaining undefiled and divine in nature. That is the church. From Abraham until today, His desire has never changed; because of that, we know clearly the purpose of our temporary existence on the earth unto the building up of the church as His counterpart, with whom He will dwell in eternity.
“By faith Abraham, being called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt as a foreigner in the land of promise as in a foreign land, making his home in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the fellow heirs of the same promise; For he eagerly waited for the city which has the foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God.” (Hebrews 11:8-10)
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 10/23/2020, not reviewed by the speaker.)