Go In and Out and Find Pasture

Go In and Out and Find Pasture

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5:3.

The poor in spirit are hungry souls. The rich in spirit are content with what they have. The poor person seeks food wherever he can find it; he is always in a receptive state and always in a giving state in relation to the others because he finds nourishment in two ways: he goes in and out to find pasture (food). John 10:9.

He goes in and finds food. The one who is poor in spirit stays close to God’s riches. A soul never becomes rich in his spirit by abiding in God’s presence, because the riches he sees work an even greater poverty in him. Each new abundance with which the soul is enriched in God’s presence gives rise to a longing for an even greater fullness. Thus a soul receives a glory which is greater than the former glory, without becoming rich in himself. He only becomes rich when he begins to view the treasures he has received from God with human satisfaction, and he will right away compare his pound to what the others have received and then be satisfied with his riches.

The one who is poor in spirit goes from one degree of glory to another degree of glory without lingering by the last degree of glory; he only sees the glory as a golden stairway on which he ascends to Him who is the Lord of glory. All his glorious experiences in God are steps on which he ascends further. Stopping at his experiences would be the same as if he settled down on one of the golden steps. But when you have your face turned toward God, you do not stop on a golden step, you always ascend higher. God is far above all our understanding. Moreover, if the stairs are glorious, then the mansions which Jesus has prepared are even more glorious. The stairs consist of light and truth. One light testifies of a greater light, and one truth is the key to the next truth, until we attain to all truth. Acknowledgment of the truth is a step of faith that leads to the next step. And since the stairs are living, they lead us higher and further. Each step on the stairway is also food, so that by it the soul can ascend further, thereby eating and absorbing in himself all the glories whereby he has ascended. This same stairway or heavenly ladder is raised up in his own spirit, with the result that he himself becomes a step for hungry souls.

The truth forms the way; we live by the truth by eating it, and we discover that we have life by it. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6. He is the way to the Father’s house where the many mansions are. “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.” John 6:57. Therefore He can say: “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me . . . .” John 17:22-23. Jesus Himself is the living and life-giving way of glory, who also is our food. We abide in Him; we walk in Him; we live in Him in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily.

Someone who is poor also seeks his food with those souls who have advanced further in their spiritual life. He who is poor receives nourishment anywhere, and now God also uses others so that the soul can live by them. When two people who are poor in spirit, meet, they provide food for each other, even though they are at different stages in their development. For the one who has advanced further it is food to be able to nourish another. Jesus spoke to the woman at the well, and afterwards He spoke to His disciples, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” John 4:34. It was food for Jesus to give the woman living water, but the living water was Jesus Himself. He was nourished by giving His own life as food for the others. This was the Father’s will; this is what it means to finish the Father’s work. A soul is also satisfied by giving his life as food for another soul, and the hungry soul is nourished by receiving from him. This is so that they all may be one.

Only those who are poor in their spirit—acknowledging souls—can become one in this way. They love each other as their own life because they are one. Those who are rich in their spirit are sufficient in themselves and do not have a share in this deep, inner, brotherly fellowship—because they are rich in their experiences, in their thoughts, in their deeds. They have ceased to grow; they constitute a hindrance to the growth of the kingdom of God wherever they are. However, they do not know that they are poor, wretched, naked, and blind. When the poor in spirit meet, they live in and by each other in Christ Jesus. The one receives food by giving, the other by receiving, so they together can grow up to Him who is the Head. Thus there is no disharmony between them. A great light and a small light always work together in harmony. Jesus was sent to the poor. It is more profitable to speak with one who is poor in his spirit than with a thousand who are not. Giving food to someone who rejects it is the same as being unfaithful and casting pearls before swine.

To all those who are poor in their spirit I say: Seek out those who are poor in spirit; give them nourishment because they are qualified to go on the inner ways. You can recommend eye salve to the rich in spirit so they can see. Work with the individual soul. If he hears you, you will love him as your own soul. He will be like a tree of life to you. You will live by nourishing him. “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.” Prov. 11:30. You shall go out and win souls, and you shall live by nourishing them. The tree of life is yours to eat from. However, since you are always poor in your spirit, you will be like someone who has nothing; therefore you must stay close to God’s riches. When you come into contact with a hungry soul, nourishment will then flow out to him in abundance. When you yourself hunger for food inwardly you will also hunger after food outwardly—i.e., you will hunger to give others food. Therefore you shall give them food, and you yourself will hunger to receive food from those who have more light than you.

Those who are poor in spirit need one another. They live by and in one another in the body of Christ. They care for one another, for that is a condition of life for them.

Those who are hungry for nourishment without will receive it by satisfying those who hunger for nourishment within. They will seek each other. The one is satisfied by giving, the other by receiving. They immediately enter into each other’s hearts where they break bread together by Jesus breaking the bread of life to each one of them. This is the union of the hearts in spirit and in truth. When you have received a “tree of life,” a soul whom you “eat” by giving him food, you will always have a deep desire in your soul to receive more from God. Your whole longing is that the soul you have gained might grow by the pure, spiritual milk. When you receive light, you will no longer rejoice over it except in connection with the soul who is your “tree of life.” Then your goal will not be, as one brother said, to become something, but that the other one should become something. The other one’s growth in the truth will then be your joy, even as John did not have any greater joy than that his children walked in truth. 3 John 4. Whatever you receive from God is not received for yourself, but for the purpose of giving it to those souls who have been entrusted to you. You will become as the fathers who owe it to the children to lay up for them. 2 Cor. 12:14.

All those who are poor in spirit have certain “trees of life” from which they eat. These souls will be their crown of glory on that Day, just as the Thessalonians were Paul’s crown of glory. 1 Thess. 2:19. Those who are rich and satisfied have no such souls to care for, for if they were hungry, they would have to go out to find food.

Now someone will say, “I need to grow more in God first before I can give someone food.” Someone who is poor in his spirit will always, irrespective of how much he has grown in God, say that he longs for and desires growth and progress in God. Give of your poverty; in the Master’s hand a little boy’s five loaves of bread and two small fish were sufficient to feed five thousand; they even had more than enough. John 6:5-13. He who is faithful in little things will be set over more. You have to go out if you are hungry. The laborer’s hunger works for him. Prov. 16:26. If you are a beginner, this is written for you: Much food is in the fallow ground of the poor. Prov. 13:23. If you are lowly, it is written: The lowliest among the lowly will find abundant food. Isa. 14:30. Thus you will immediately find food by giving to others, and you will have a need for more from God to be able to give them more. Then you will be like a fountain with water that springs forth to eternal life for the others. “The law of the wise is a fountain of life . . . .” Prov. 13:14. When your inner fountain wells forth abundantly, your “tree of life” will be like a tree that is planted by the rivers of water. This soul’s progress will be your happiness and joy, so you will have to say that your “tree of life” is in the midst of Paradise, because the soul’s progress in God is your joy in God. The soul whom you lead on in truth will one day be the comfort of your old age because he will nourish your soul with joy by the truth of his life. How will you know whether a soul is poor in spirit? It is written that God spoke suddenly to Moses. Num. 12:4. Moses was so meek, so expectant in his relationship to God that he heard Him even when God spoke suddenly to him. A hungry soul will always be aware of his need for food—whether it is by giving or by receiving. You can speak suddenly to such a soul about the increase of the inner life in Christ Jesus. You will immediately enter into his heart, and he into yours and you can have communion immediately together in Christ. A rich and satisfied soul will speak about everything else. You have a feeling that you are standing outside the door of his heart, as Jesus did in the case of the church in Laodicea. If you begin to offer him something of your inner life, he will not receive it, and you will leave him, downcast, with a feeling that your holiest, your purest, the life of Jesus Christ in you has been trampled down. You did not find nourishment in this brother, and he had no need. Concerning these brothers, Jesus says in Revelation 3:17-20: “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. . . . Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Jesus stands outside their hearts, and you who are poor in spirit also remain standing outside. Jesus only enters as the One who is poor yet makes many rich. Jesus says, “He who receives you, receives Me,” and He goes in to those who are poor in spirit. They will be exalted and set among princes, but He will cast the rich down into the dust. Therefore He says, “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne.” Who is he who overcomes other than the one who goes in and goes out and finds food?

It is necessary that these things be practiced so that life may increase. Go only to those who hunger. Jesus went to them. If you have Jesus’ spirit, you will walk in His steps. These souls are most often the lowliest in the assembly, the most insignificant, so you could almost ask, “Can anything good come of such a soul? Can something good come from Nazareth, this insignificant and wretched town in Galilee? A branch out of dry ground? Wouldn’t there be greater opportunities in other places— more talents, greater riches, and people with more influence? Wouldn’t it have a greater effect if such people were won?” The Scriptures say, “A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation.” Isa. 60:22. “He who has a good eye will be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor.” Prov. 22:9. Giving to the rich will surely impoverish you. Prov. 22:16. Vanity seeks after greatness; God blesses what is lowly. It is more profitable to sit alone with a poor person who hungers for the bread of life than to be together with a thousand who are rich in their spirit—because Jesus is present in the first place [with the poor in spirit]; in the latter place [where the rich in spirit are], He stands outside.