徒九15 ……这人是我所拣选的器皿，要在外邦人和君王并以色列子孙面前，宣扬我的名。

　　弗三19　 ……使你们被充满，成为神一切的丰满。

　　路一53　 叫饥饿的得饱美物，叫富足的空着回去。

　　神创造我们作祂的容器，为要盛装祂自己。我们不过是虚空的容器，而神要成为我们唯一的内容。举例来说，装饮料必须用瓶子。……我们若看看为着装饮料而造的瓶子，……就会晓得这些“奇特的”容器非常特别，它们是为着特殊的用途而造的。我们人也是“奇特的”容器，因为我们也是为着特殊目的受造的。……瓶子若从来没有盛装饮料，〔就〕会失去意义。人受造正是为着盛装神。我们若不盛装神，不认识神是我们的内容，就与神造我们作祂器皿的目的相悖而失去了意义（李文集一九六四年第三册，二三三页）。

　　Acts 9:15 …This man is a chosen vessel to Me, to bear My name before both the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel.

　　Eph. 3:19 …That you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.

　　Luke 1:53 The hungry He has filled with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.

　　God created us to be His containers in order to contain Himself. We are only empty containers, and God intends to be our only content. To illustrate, bottles are necessary to contain beverages….If we look at the bottles made for beverages…, we will realize that these “peculiar” containers are quite specific articles; they were made for a particular use. We people are also “peculiar” containers, for we too were made for a specific purpose….If the bottles never contain a beverage, they…would become meaningless. Man was made purposely to contain God. If we do not contain God and know God as our content, we are a senseless contradiction. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 3, “The Economy of God,” pp. 183-184)

　　所有属灵长进的起头，都是在乎神借着圣灵在你里面动了善工，就是给你造出一个要的心来。……是圣灵使你对于你目前的情形不满意，叫你看见你目前的情形太不行，你属灵的生活太浅薄。圣灵第一步的工作就是叫你不满意，给你造出一个要求更好的心。……属灵的长进是从这里开始的。反过来说，所有的失败和退后，也没有别的原因，就是在于你以为自己已经够好了。……什么时候你觉得对于自己不满意，这就是圣灵已经在你里面动工，要使你向前进了。……退步的起点是由于自满，进步的起点是由于饥渴，这是事实，是从起头到末了都是如此的。总是圣灵先在我们里面造出一个要的心来，而后神就来饱足我们，充满我们。神要在你里面作祂丰盛的工，先要在你里面作祂倒空的工。你里面空了，神才能充满你。

　　这是主给我们看见的法则：属灵的长进乃是一直空又一直满的。……千万不要盼望一次空了，以后就不再空了。十字架在我们身上所作的是越过越多的，所挖的是越过越深的。

　　神就是在等着我们空。你如果有一个无限的空，圣灵就要给你一个无限的充满。我们能不能蒙圣灵赐福，就是看我们有没有空的器皿，就是看我们有没有为着圣灵留下余地，就是看我们有没有地位给圣灵作工。

　　我们要祷告，要求主把我们挖得更深，求主给我们造出更多的地位来，叫圣灵能充满我们。因为圣灵的充满与否，都是看我们的空了没有。让我们再说，我们的倒空乃是需要一直倒空的。我们如果不能把自己倒空了，神就不能充满我们。圣灵所等候的就是空的地位。若有更多空的地位为着祂，祂就要充满得更多。如果还有空的地位，就必定还能得到圣灵的充满。所以我们不必去追求充满，我们却要倒空自己，因为充满完全是圣灵负责的，空却是我们也要负责的。我们如果真能空，我们就必定能够得到充满；我们也许不觉得充满，但是充满的事实必定成功在我们身上。

　　神是叫饥饿的得饱美食，如果神已经在你里面造出了一个要的心，如果神正在那里挖空你，倒空你，你就要相信神必定充满你。只有自以为富足的人，神才叫他空手回去（倪柝声文集第二辑第十七册，一七二至一七三、一八○至一八二页）。

　　参读：神的经营，第五章；倪柝声文集第二辑第十七册，第二十二篇；权柄与顺服，第九篇。

　　All spiritual progress begins when God initiates a good work in a person through the Holy Spirit by creating a longing within….The Holy Spirit makes us feel that our present condition is wrong and that our spiritual life is too shallow. The first work of the Holy Spirit is to give us a sense of dissatisfaction and to create in us a desire to be better….This is the beginning of spiritual progress. Putting it another way, all failure and decadence is the result of self-complacency….Our feelings of dissatisfaction with ourselves indicate that the Holy Spirit has begun His work in us and that it is the time for us to go forward….Decadence comes from self-complacency, whereas progress comes from hunger. This is a fact, and it is true throughout our Christian life. Invariably the Holy Spirit first creates a desire in us for more, and then God comes in to satisfy us and fill us. In order to perform His filling work, He must first carry out His emptying work. When we are empty, God will fill us.

　　This is a principle which the Lord has shown us: spiritual progress is a matter of being continually emptied out and continually filled up….Do not think that as long as we have been emptied once, we will not need any more emptying. The work of the cross in us is ever-increasing and ever-deepening.

　　God is waiting for us to empty ourselves. If there is an infinite emptiness in us, the Holy Spirit will grant us an infinite filling. Whether or not we will receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit depends on whether we have empty vessels. It depends on whether or not we have reserved room for the Holy Spirit and whether or not we have provided Him a place to work in us.

　　We need to pray and ask the Lord to dig more deeply in us and make more room in us so that the Holy Spirit can fill us. The filling of the Holy Spirit depends on our emptiness. I will repeat: our emptiness ought to be a continuous state. If we cannot empty ourselves, God cannot fill us. The Holy Spirit is waiting for empty rooms within us. The more empty rooms we give to Him, the more He will fill us. If there is empty room, it means that there is more filling by the Holy Spirit to come. Therefore, we need not seek for the filling; all we have to do is to empty ourselves. The Holy Spirit alone is responsible for the filling; our responsibility is to empty ourselves. If we can empty ourselves, we will have the filling. We may not be conscious of the filling, but the fact of the filling will certainly be with us.

　　God wants to fill the hungry with good things. If God has already created a seeking heart within us and if He is digging and emptying us, we ought to believe that He will certainly fill us. God will only send away empty those who think that they are rich. (CWWN, vol. 37, pp. 132-133, 138-140)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1964, vol. 3, “The Economy of God,” ch. 5; CWWN, vol. 37, ch. 22; CWWN, vol. 47, “Authority and Submission,” ch. 9