Tasting the secret of “continuing”

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ไธญๆ–‡

โ€œ๐ด๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’๐‘ฆ ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘›๐‘ข๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘‘๐‘“๐‘Ž๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘–๐‘› ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘โ„Ž๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘“๐‘’๐‘™๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘ค๐‘ โ„Ž๐‘–๐‘ ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘œ๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘™๐‘’๐‘ , ๐‘–๐‘› ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘˜๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘‘ ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘ โ€ฆโ€ (๐ด๐‘๐‘ก๐‘  2:42)
โ€œ๐ด๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘‘๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ ๐‘๐‘ฆ ๐‘‘๐‘Ž๐‘ฆ, ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘›๐‘ข๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘‘๐‘“๐‘Ž๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘ค๐‘–๐‘กโ„Ž ๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘‘โ€ฆโ€ (46)

What are we โ€œcontinuing steadfastlyโ€? Many people like this verse because it clearly describes practices in the church lifeโ€”the teaching and the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers. But actually, in Acts chapter two, the emphasis is not on the ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘ฃ๐‘–๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘’๐‘  the saints continued โ€œin,โ€ but rather on the ๐‘๐‘œ๐‘›๐‘‘๐‘–๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘œ๐‘› that is being โ€œcontinued.โ€ 

What is upholding our church life? If we read this verse superficially, we will only point to those practices as the answer. Many believers read the Bible and even go through the church life focusing on things to โ€œdoโ€ or โ€œeffortsโ€ they can make to become spiritual. If those people approach this section of Acts with a mentality to simply learn or study, they would definitely highlight this passage, thinking it tells us exactly what to do to be good Christians: to teach, to fellowship, to break bread, and to pray (v. 42). But this kind of reading of the Bible reveals how limited we are in seeing the profound truth of the Bible when in our own understanding. The Bible doesnโ€™t record these details in the sequence of human morality or logic, so religious understanding will never help us to unlock the reality of these verses. If we remain in the physical realm of โ€œdoingโ€ or โ€œbehaving,โ€ we will neither understand nor realize what the church is, and what it is that those saints in the book of Acts were continuing. 

The book of Acts does not give us exact directions or practices for churching, yet if we look deeper into chapter two and even the entire book, there is a hidden blueprint and key to realize the essence of the churching as shown to us in the early days of the church life recorded there. The answer to the realization of the church life lies in another realm, beyond the physical, visible practices: the realm of the Spirit. In our church life, doing spiritual activities and looking spiritual doesnโ€™t mean we are in the Spirit. The Spirit doesnโ€™t have a form and shapeโ€”it simply ๐‘–๐‘ . So whenever we come to the Bible or the Lordโ€™s speaking, we cannot seek for understanding only; understanding only comes in when we have the reality of the Spirit indwelling our spirit. Likewise, whenever we come to our living in the church life, we cannot seek outward practices only. ๐ˆ๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐œ๐ก๐ฎ๐ซ๐œ๐ก ๐ฅ๐ข๐Ÿ๐ž, ๐ญ๐ก๐ž๐ซ๐ž ๐ข๐ฌ ๐š ๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ญ๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐›๐ž๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐›๐ž๐ข๐ง๐  ๐œ๐จ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ฎ๐ž๐, ๐ฐ๐ก๐ข๐œ๐ก ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฌ๐ž๐œ๐ซ๐ž๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐–๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฉ๐ซ๐š๐œ๐ญ๐ข๐œ๐š๐ฅ โ€œ๐œ๐ก๐ฎ๐ซ๐œ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ .โ€ ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐ฌ๐ž๐œ๐ซ๐ž๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ โ€œ๐œ๐จ๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ฎ๐ข๐ง๐ โ€ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐’๐ฉ๐ข๐ซ๐ข๐ญ; the Spirit grants us understanding and reality that substantiates everything we encounter when we come to the Word and to this โ€œchurching.โ€

The church life often suffers because rather than being in the condition of โ€œcontinuing,โ€ we are in a condition of โ€œactivities.โ€ We pray and read the Bible in a superficial and physical way, frequently finding ourselves either carried away in our own religious understanding or feeling offended by the practices of others. Take, for example, a box of fruit. The box is useful, but we would never eat the box and throw away the fruitโ€”who would willingly eat the inedible and miss all the nutrients and enjoyment? We should ask ourselves whether we are truly hungry. Do we really want to eat? Can we discern the food from the box? If so, we surely will find a way to be satisfied and full. Without the fruit, the box has no use to us. But when we are truly hungry and recognize the nutritious food within, the box will merely be a help to us to get to the food. In the same way, without that secret of โ€œcontinuing,โ€ the practices themselves are not useful to us. But when we have that secret, the outward practices become simply a tool and a help to us to taste the real thing. 

If we are to eat the food and not the box, then our churching and reading the Bible must be ๐‘œ๐‘Ÿ๐‘”๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘–๐‘, sourced from that hunger inside of us for something nourishing and satisfying. As human beings, we have an internal consciousness in the spiritโ€”there, we find the reality of human living and what is being continued in the reality of the outlived church life. How do we differentiate truth in the church life? It’s not a matter of morality; it is a matter of our spirit. Today, what often hinders our living is that we prefer to live according to our self and religious practices, rather than by the spirit, ignoring that spiritual sense in our being. This is why so many apparently good believers are unhappy, malnourished and powerless. They have not yet tasted the secret of โ€œcontinuingโ€ in the spirit. Without this secret, we have no way to live joyfully, in that condition where we are โ€œfull of gladness with [His] presenceโ€ (v. 28). Out of that condition comes engagement with a vital and powerful life that sustains not only our individual living, but also our corporate one. Our spirit is the blueprint of our own salvation and our living together; it is the essential part that confirms not only our living, but also that of the entire genealogy of genuine believers who have gone before us and are with us today. Our spirit is what ties us to all the saints, past and present, and is the irrefutable proof of our salvation. 

The essence, purity and nature of the church is essential to our corporate living. Just as an electric current can only pass through a conductive material, we can only continue in the same life when we are of the same nature. It is the same when we come to the matter of eating, taking in the Word, or praying or fellowshipping with the saints. Something in us has to be mingled and engaged, a result of an awakening in our spirit as that internal sense of life. The Lord said clearly to His disciples, โ€œthe words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are lifeโ€ (John 6:63). The Spirit in the Word must be accessed by the spirit in man; that spirit-engagement has to happen or we will remain separateโ€”of a different nature, easily stumbled by anything that doesn’t align with our natural mind. We need to be set free by the spirit-engagement, no longer walking in religious frameworks and human logic, instead letting the truth mingle with our being. To continue in the line of the book of Acts, we must be conducting, communicating, fellowshipping with the same nature, engaged and mingled with His Word, Spirit to spirit. This mingling sets us free and makes us nourished and powerful to realize the essential element found in the churching in the book of Acts. This is the same principle of our churching today. 

Today, we are enjoying the โ€œcontinuingโ€ according to the vital life in the Spirit. The truth has already been revealed; it simply needs an entranceโ€”a realizationโ€”today. Living out the church life in the Spirit is the โ€œcontinuing;โ€ it is the key to carrying a real testimony on the essential line shown to us in Acts chapter two. We have a blueprint โ€œhidden in plain sightโ€! The spirit is the confirmation of what is revealed in the Bible and it is our unique privilege and responsibility in this age to keep and continue that line. This is why we refuse to settle for just the outward presentation or practice of the church lifeโ€”we need to have the churching in reality. If we have been truly touched by the Lord, we must be able to differentiate between the forms and the reality; we must be a vehicle to convey the substance of the essential church life rather than just the forms it may take. Then we will be qualified to be those overcomers to carry the joy and eternal satisfaction that comes from that vital life we enjoy in the Spirit.

โ€œContinuingโ€ in this specific churching is not the end point; it is unto the recovery of the original position the church was meant to hold: reigning as a corporate testimony expressing Christ on the earth today. Acts 2:28 tells us, โ€œYou have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of gladness with Your presence.โ€ Christ has opened the way directly for man to reign over death through His resurrection life; indeed Jesus has been raised up and exalted as a man to the right hand of God (v. 32-33). Human life was initiated in that reigning from its beginning in Adam; from this point in Acts, the church also began in that positionโ€”with that essence. That reigning position is where the church life started and is where we are aiming day by day until the end of this age. We are very blessed; through the truth revealed from the apostles and the faithful ones generation after generation, we also have โ€œthe ways of life.โ€ Today the church life is powerful not because of who we are individually, but because of the truth in the Spiritโ€”the secret of continuingโ€”that supports our living and churching together.

(๐ด๐‘๐‘œ๐‘ฃ๐‘’ ๐‘Ž๐‘Ÿ๐‘’ ๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘  ๐‘œ๐‘“ ๐‘“๐‘’๐‘™๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘ค๐‘ โ„Ž๐‘–๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘Ž๐‘˜๐‘’๐‘› ๐‘“๐‘Ÿ๐‘œ๐‘š ๐‘Ž ๐‘”๐‘Ž๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” 11/8/2020, ๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘ก ๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘ฃ๐‘–๐‘’๐‘ค๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘๐‘ฆ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘Ž๐‘˜๐‘’๐‘Ÿ.)

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