We need to have the being of the Lord
https://www.facebook.com/thechurchintoledo/posts/1571437886348547If as a parent, or as a husband, wife or sibling, we work to the point that we are exhausted and have nothing left of ourselves when we come home, then our work is everything to us. When we come home we won’t have a family life. It’s not that we don’t want to have a family life; it’s that we don’t have the energy. We don’t have the energy to have life. We put our work as priority on top of our family. Now, the world has basically stopped, a great majority of people are working from home, and all schools have been suspended. This is a critical moment for our children. Do our children understand the current situation we are facing? Do they know what is going on in the world? Do they understand why they need to wear a mask, for example?
If as parents, we fail to be with our children in this critical timing, we fail them forever. We need to give them our being. Do you know what our being is? When our children get confused, they want something to hold onto. They don’t need a guideline. We have deaf ears - we only hear guidelines, which are orders. We are afraid to be chastised because we don’t follow orders. As parents, we always give our children guidelines— do this and don’t do that. If this is the only way we train our children, then they will always just follow the rules, like a robot or like how we train a dog— sit, stand. Parenting cannot be just giving guidelines. How can you give a two-year-old guidelines? You have to give them your being. What does that mean— your being? They need to have you to become that secure zone; they have to feel you. Family is not just a name only; it is a being, it has a sphere. When our children are in that being, they feel secure. The understanding is not based on guidelines; it is the reality of your being. For example, when we take our kids traveling, we tell them to stay close and not to wander off. A parent will have a very tough time holding onto children that are naughty and constantly wanting to run off. If a child runs around in the house, that’s fine. But if he/she runs off when you are in the middle of the New York Penn Station, in an instant he/she will disappear.
Children know the guidelines such as, “stay with mom and dad…don’t run away.” But just because they know the guidelines does not mean they will follow them. What can prevent them from running away? Only our being. We cannot constantly hold the hand of the naughty child. The naughty one has to be aware that they need their mom and dad. We don’t need to discipline them and ask them why they aren’t listening. We should be aware and ask ourselves, why don’t our children listen to us? Why don’t they have our being? Where is the awareness and fear of danger? If the danger has already come to our children, that's already a tragedy. How can they feel danger ahead of time, if they don’t feel us? “I’m not leaving my dad because I’m afraid of the danger. I'm afraid I won’t have mom and dad as my protection.” That is the power of your being. It’s not lecturing.
The Lord is the same way. We say, “Enjoy the Lord.” Sounds like a guideline, but do you know what that means? Enjoying the Lord is not equal to reading Bible footnotes. Enjoying the Lord is not reading Watchman Nee’s writing. Enjoying the Lord is not coming to the meeting and shouting or calling on the Lord’s name. To enjoy the Lord, we need to have the being of the Lord, or the sphere, the Person. We have to enter into His Person. If we take enjoying the Lord as a guideline, then what happens is when we pray, we have the Lord’s presence. But if we don’t pray, we lose the Lord’s presence. That should not be who we are. That’s Christianity’s view— when I go to the meeting I can be a Christian and when I’m out of that domain, I’m not a Christian any more. No, we as believers have to have His Person, His Being 24/7, just like our children have to have our being 24/7.
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 3/8/20, not reviewed by the speaker.)
