«　WEEK 5　DAY 6　»

　　Jer. 31:33 "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Jehovah: I will put My law in their inward parts and write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be My people."

　　Ezek. 36:27 "And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and My ordinances you shall keep and do."

　　According to its life, the law of the new covenant is the Triune God, and according to its function, it is the almighty divine capacity. This divine capacity can do everything in us for the carrying out of God's economy. According to this capacity we can know God, live God, and be constituted with God in His life and nature that we may become His increase, His enlargement, to be His fullness for His eternal expression (Eph. 1:22-23; 3:19-21). Furthermore, the capacity of the inner law of life constitutes us the members of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 5:30) with all kinds of functions (Rom. 12:4-8; Eph. 4:11, 16). (Jer. 31:33, footnote 1)

　　In Romans 9:23 Paul tells us that God created us as vessels of mercy unto glory. Then in 2 Corinthians 4:7 he says that “we have this treasure in earthen vessels.” These two verses may be considered as a basic secret to our experience of Christ and the church. You may hear a lot of messages on Christ and the church, yet if you do not realize that you have to be an open vessel, Christ and the church still have no way. What is the meaning of an open vessel? An open vessel is doing nothing but keeping itself open to the filling up. The processed God—the Triune God, the all-inclusive Spirit, the compound Spirit—is here waiting for an opening to get into you. How much He would enter into you depends upon how much opening you would give Him.

　　The Lord wants you to be active-passive. This means that He wants you to love Him and keep yourself all the time open to Him but to stop doing. Then you would see that you are saved, you are empowered, you are sanctified. You will become one who really enjoys the Lord's doing. When you pray, you will all the time be full of thanks.…You do not need to pray that the Lord will help you to win the victory and to overcome sin and to be patient. When you pray in this way, asking the Lord to help you, eventually it is not the Lord who helps you. You simply help yourself. Eventually, you are not so grateful, because you realize that you did everything. You just need to love Him and to keep yourself open to Him, giving Him every opportunity to do everything He wants to do. You become the enjoyer, enjoying Him and enjoying His doing. So whenever you would pray, thanks would come out of your mouth because you are so grateful to the Lord. You would experience that the Lord is your victory, your sanctification, everything to you. You will be the enjoyer of what the Lord is and of what the Lord does.

　　It does not mean that you are lazy or indifferent or dumb or sleepy. No. You are on the alert, and you are so sober. You love the Lord, and you keep yourself open to Him all the time. Yet you would not do anything, but He would do everything. Not only is this possible, but this is also required by the Lord. The Lord requires you to stop your doing. But He does not want you to be sleepy or indifferent; He wants you to be very alert. Love Him and keep yourself open to Him. Tell Him every day, “Lord, I love You. Lord, I am here open to You. Lord, have mercy upon me, and by Your grace I do not like to have any part of my being closed to You. I like to keep myself entirely and thoroughly open to You.” If you try this, you will see what will happen. You will not need to worry about your victory; you will not need to care for the losing of your temper. (CWWL, 1980, vol. 1, “Perfecting Training, “pp. 241, 246)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Jeremiah, msg. 26; CWWN, vol. 37, ch. 22