As believers in Christ, we need to be the prudent virgins who gain the Spirit not only in their lamps (our spirit) but also in their vessels (our soul), seeking to be filled with the Spirit to live a virgin life for the Lord’s testimony.
This week in our morning revival we come to the matter of, Being Watchful in Life and Faithful in Service.
Two words stand out – buy and invest; we need to be the buyers and investors – we buy the oil (the Spirit) and we invest our spiritual gift (our spiritual talant). Every day we need to gain more of the Spirit, be filled more with the Spirit, and allow the saturating Spirit in our spirit to fill and saturate our soul so that we can enter into the wedding feast of the Lamb.
The Lord’s recovery is for the purpose of preparing the bride of Christ, and the wise virgins in Matt. 25 are the constituents of the bride of Christ. These prudent virgins redeemed the time to buy the Spirit and gain more of the Spirit.
On the other hand, the prudent slaves used their spiritual gift and were good and faithful slaves, not evil and slothful slaves. On one hand we want to enter into the wedding feast of the Lord, and on the other, we want to enter into the joy of our Master.
It would be such a tragedy to be in the Lord’s recovery for many years and not enter into the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens as our reward, that is, not to be the bride of Christ, and not to enter into the joy of our Master. We don’t want to be cast in the outer darkness….
Concerning the evil and slothful slave, the useless slave, he was cast into the outer darkness where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth. Weeping indicates self-blame – he blames himself, he could have gained so much of Christ; gnashing of teeth is regret.
We want to pray that the Lord would welcome us and tell us, Well done, good and faithful slave, enter into the joy of your Master!
Regarding being filled in spirit, we need to ask the Lord to fill us; if we ask Him, He will do it for us, and He will give us the Spirit not by measure.
The unsearchable riches of Christ are realised and embodied in the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, and these riches feed us and also those under our care; for us to enjoy these riches we need to pray ourselves into God every day.
May we ask the Lord to fill us, and may we seek to gain the Spirit not only in our spirit by the exercise of our spirit, but also in our vessel, in our soul, so that we may be the prudent virgins who will enter into the weeding feast with the Lord.
We are persons of today; we do not have yesterday, we cannot rely on the Lord’s filling yesterday – every day we have a new day, every day we need to seek to be filled in spirit. We shouldn’t look back to the past or forward to the future but today seek to be filled in spirit, today seek to be filled with the Spirit.
Being Prudent Virgins who are Filled with the Spirit in their Vessel for the Lord’s Return
In the aspect of life, we are virgins before the Lord, those who need the oil, the Spirit of God, even His filling, so that we may be enabled to live the virgin life for the Lord’s testimony on earth today (see Matt. 25:4, 9-10).
In Matt. 25 there’s the parable of the ten virgins, signifying the believers, who each took their lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom; because He tarried, they fell asleep, and when the call was made that the Bridegroom is coming, they got up and dressed their lamps to meet Him.
However, five of them were foolish, for they didn’t take extra oil in their vessel, while five were prudent, for they had oil not only in their lamps but also in their vessel.
Our lamps signify our spirit; the Spirit indwells our spirit, but we want this oil to spread from our spirit to all the parts of our soul. Our soul is our vessel; as prudent virgins, we need to pay the price to buy the oil not only in our spirit but also in our soul, our vessel.
The foolish virgins asked the prudent ones to give them some oil, for their oil was running out; but the prudent answered and said, Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you; go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves.
No one can buy the oil for us; no one can enjoy the Lord for us; no one can be transformed or renewed in in their soul for us.
We need to be the prudent virgins today, those who enjoy the Lord, gain an extra portion of the Spirit in our vessel, and this is not just for ourselves, but so that we collectively be the preparation of the bride of Christ.
The virgins in Matt. 25 signify us, the believers, from the aspect of life. Paul says that he betrothed the believers through his ministry, considering the believers as virgin betrothed to Christ; he wanted to present us as a pure virgin to Christ.
So we should not allow the serpent, the enemy, to deceive us as he deceived Eve, causing our thoughts to be corrupted from the simplicity and purity toward Christ.
May we have a genuine appreciation, love, and enjoyment of the precious person of our Lord Jesus Christ as our life and everything, and we shouldn’t be distracted from this.
We believers, who are the kingdom people today, are like chaste virgins, bearing the Lord’s testimony (the lamp) in this dark age, and we are going out of the world to meet the Lord; for this, we need not only the indwelling of the Spirit but also the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Our lamp is our spirit; the spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah (Prov. 20:27), which contains the Spirit of God as the oil (Rom. 8:16).
As believers we shine forth the light of the Spirit of God within our spirit; for the divine light to shine into our inward parts, God’s Spirit as the oil must soak (mingle with) our spirit as the wick (cf. v. 16) and “burn” together with man’s spirit (Rom. 12:11).
In this way, we believers become the light of the world and we shine as a lamp in the darkness of this age (Matt. 5:14-16; Phil. 2:15-16), bearing the testimony of the Lord for the glorification of God.
May we let our light shine and be seen before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in the heavens!
For it is God who operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13-14), so therefore we can do all things without murmurings and reasonings, without any indirect whisper or confidential complaints, or arguments used in thinking for argumentation.
In this way we will be blameless and guileless, shining as luminaries in the world, holding forth the word of life; we apply the word of life, we present it, and we offer it to the world by living out Christ. Amen!
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming as the Spirit to be mingled with our spirit, and now the divine light shines within us! Amen, hallelujah, our spirit is the lamp of Jehovah, and the Spirit burns in our spirit to shine forth the light of God to all men! Lord, may we as Your believers, the kingdom people, shine as the light of the world, shining in this dark place to bear the testimony of the Lord for the glorification of God! Amen, Lord Jesus, we love You, we open to You, we allow You to shine in us, and we let You shine through us to all those around us!
Paying the Price as Prudent Virgins to Gain and Be Saturated with the Spirit in our Soul
The difference between the prudent virgins and the foolish ones is that the prudent took oil in their vessels with their lamps (Matt. 25:4).
Man is a vessel made for God (Rom. 9:21, 23-24) and man’s personality is his soul; hence, our vessel is our soul.
As the prudent virgins, we need to take oil not only in our lamps (our spirit) but also in our vessel (in our soul); we need to have the Spirit of God not only dwelling in our spirit (Rom. 8:9, 16) but also have the Spirit of God filling and saturating our souls.
Christ is the Shepherd and overseer of our soul, and He wants us to gain the Spirit as the oil in our soul; furthermore, those who oversee the saints do the same thing, they are concerned for them that they would gain a larger measure of the Spirit in their soul.
The fact that Matt. 25:9 says that we need to buy the oil indicates that we need to pay a price; having the filling of the Holy Spirit is at a cost, such as giving up the world, dealing with the self, loving the Lord above all, and counting all things loss for Christ; if we don’t pay this price today, we will have to pay it after we are resurrected (see Rev. 3:18; 2 Cor. 5:10).
We need to be watchful to be filled with the Holy Spirit all day long; as believers who love the Lord and aspire to be prudent virgins, we should be daily paying the price to gain more of the Spirit in our soul.
We need to allow the Spirit to saturate our entire being from within our spirit to reach and penetrate our soul. If we mean business with the Lord’s present-day move, we must be filled with the Spirit every morning of every day.
On one hand we need to confess our sins and deal with anything between us and the Lord so that the Spirit in our spirit would shine. On the other hand we need to pay the price to buy the oil, that is, pay the price to be saturated with the Spirit in our soul.
We need a daily filling and saturating of the Spirit in our soul. We may need to wake up a little earlier to spend time with the Lord in His word, and we need to ask the Lord to fill us.
In Rev. 3:18 the Lord counsels us to buy from Him gold refined by fire, that we may be rich; this signifies that we need to gain the Father in His divine nature so that we may truly be rich.
We also need to buy white garments to be clothed and the shame of our nakedness would not be manifested; these white garments are Christ as the Son lived out in us as our subjective righteousnesses.
Finally, we need to buy eye salve to anoint our eyes and see; we need to pay the price to buy the anointing Spirit for us to see more of Christ, God’s economy, and God’s purpose.
Our urgent need today is to gain more of the Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God; we need to live a life of buying an extra portion of the Spirit to saturate our entire being (Matt. 25:9; cf. Dan. 5:27).
Every day there’s a price to pay to buy the oil. May we not be weighed by the Lord and found lacking in the level of the oil we have in our vessel. May we be the prudent virgins who gain and are saturated with the Spirit in our soul!
Lord Jesus, may we be the prudent virgins awaiting Your return, those who have not only oil in their lamps but also in their vessel. Amen, Lord, we want to pay the price to be saturated with the Spirit and be filled with the Spirit in our soul. May the “level of the oil” in our soul increase today. Strengthen us to pay the price of giving up the world, dealing with the self, loving the Lord above all, and counting all things as loss for Christ, so that we may gain the extra portion of the Spirit in our soul today!
Read this article / this sharing also in the Romanian language – Citiți acest articol și în limba română la următorul link, Ca fecioare înțelepte noi plătim prețul pentru a fi saturați cu Duhul în sufletul nostru.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” ch. 7 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Development of the Kingdom of God in the Church Life and the Christian Life (2019 spring ITERO), week 7, Being Watchful in Life and Faithful in Service.
- Hymns on this topic:
# As virgins we’re loving and enjoying You, / Always responding, You’re fresh and so new. / Our spirits You’re filling and soul saturating. / Our lamps and our vessels we surrender to You. (Song on, As virgins we must be wise and pure)
# Virgins Christ comes quickly for, / Those with oil an extra store, / Not the fools who oil ignore— / Buy in time! / For the oil a price we pay, / Deal with self without delay, / Fill your vessels every day— / Buy in time! (Hymns #1304)
# The kingdom of God is at hand: / Ten virgins with lamps lit arise / To go forth to meet the Bridegroom, / But only five virgins are wise. / The wise have abundance of oil, / The foolish are empty instead; / The wise used their time to buy oil, / The others their chance forfeited. (Hymns #1303)
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