We started in English. And finally we were continuing in Mandarin. We were going to use the English language. "You're fine," he said. There's nothing very strange about that. Of course, he came from the United States, so that he should speak English is not very surprising. And then we went on to speak in Mandarin, which he spoke very well. You said there's nothing strange about that? Well, nothing, except for the fact that he is a Jewish brother. Amazing, isn't it? He could speak fluent Mandarin. In fact, he was the one who switched from English to Mandarin. I thought, wow, what a challenge to many of us.
I asked him, "How come you speak such good Mandarin? How long have you been learning Mandarin?" He said, "Fourteen years." And actually, he studied in Taipei. He is good enough to study in a seminary. He is now serving in another church in Hong Kong. I want to invite him to come to our church. He will finish his one-year service in the church by next month. Then he will go back to the United States. I asked him which church he would like to serve in. He said there are two possibilities: one is in California, and the other is in New Jersey. I asked him, "Which church in New Jersey?" He said, "The church at Rutgers University." I said, "Oh, so that is Pastor Shiu's church." He said, "Indeed, that is Pastor Shiu's church." Many of you who are from Montreal know Pastor Shiu very well. Especially those of you from the third team. Pastor Shiu came to our church for one week. I think even Brother Jeffrey was there at the time. He was training with the late training team for one week. Now he keeps claiming that he belongs to the late training team. A very humble pastor.
I asked why. He said because he had been asked to serve with the English section of the church. But when the church invited him to go to the English section, he said, "I don't want to work in the English section. I want to work in the Chinese section. I want to speak Chinese." He just wants to speak Chinese. That's really a challenge.
Today we are talking about drawing near to the heart of God. We want to look at the spiritual principles by which we can draw near and be near to the heart of God. Now, to be near the heart of anyone, one must be able to communicate. We have immediately a problem: to be near to one another when we don't speak the same language. You have found, I'm sure, that communication is difficult when you don't share a language. How can we draw near to one another when we don't even speak the same language?
I think God's grace and God's love is amazing. Why should a Jewish brother who graduated from a well-known university in America want to communicate with Chinese people? Why should he not go and get a good job and make a good living? Why should he come to the Far East? You have no explanation except that God put that love in his heart. He wants to communicate with the Chinese people. Does God's love move you in this way to draw near?
He said that we can speak in English, but maybe he can speak in Chinese. In this one year he was in Hong Kong, he also learned Cantonese. I don't want to speak to him in Cantonese, because his Cantonese may be better than mine. But what about God and our communication with God? Do you feel that you are communicating with Him? Do you have a problem of language with Him?
God learned to speak the human language. Jesus came into the world — the Word became flesh, became a man — in order to be able to understand us perfectly as a man. When we speak about drawing near to the heart of God, we must understand that He took the first step. This means that He is more anxious to draw near to us than we are to draw near to Him. That means that most of our problems have been dealt with already at that point.
There are some people you try to draw near to them, and they keep drawing away from you. There are some people — literally, you walk closer to them, and they step further back. It's almost like a race. At the end you are running after them to draw near. Something about them wants to keep a distance from you. Maybe they are not sure who you are. Maybe they think you want to get something from them. But God is not like that. He wants to be close to us.
Somebody said to me, "I'm really afraid to talk to you." I said, "Why? Do I look like a man-eater?" "No," they said, "because somehow you are very holy." Maybe that's our problem. We are afraid of God because we are afraid of His holiness. If at a low level, people are already afraid of holiness, then what shall we do with the holy God? We also need to overcome that.
But our problem of communication with God is not a language problem, is it? The problem of communicating with Him is on the level of understanding. A lot of people speak the same language — maybe you have English in common, or Cantonese, or Mandarin. In fact, some of us can communicate in several languages. But in fact, we don't communicate at all. So even if the person sitting next to you speaks as good Cantonese as you do — no language problem — maybe through all this camp you never talked to that person.
So what is the problem, if it is not a language problem? The problem often is in the area of knowing one another, understanding one another. We must take the first step to break that barrier, to understand one another. Now this is exactly the situation with God. We must realize that we don't work in the same thought world as God does. We don't know exactly how He thinks. And so we dare not communicate with Him. We don't even know whether we can get through on this level of understanding.
So let's come to the first vital principle of communicating with God. I want to speak particularly to those who are not Christians. Romans 8, verse 8 says: "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God." This verse is very easy to remember — Romans 8:8. But it tells us a vital principle: those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Now, if you cannot please God — if God is not pleased with you — how can He communicate with you? How can you communicate with Him? That's easy to understand. If you have a bad relationship with somebody, you are not pleased with one another, all conversation breaks down. You may speak perfect Cantonese to one another, but you have nothing to say to each other.
So in order to be pleasing to God, we have to be not in the flesh. That means we have to be in the Spirit. Now the question is: we have come to this camp to draw near to God. If you haven't the Spirit of God in your heart, you are not in the Spirit. The Bible tells us what it means to be in the Spirit, not in the flesh. To be in the Spirit simply means that God's Spirit lives in you. You say, "That sounds very complicated." It is very simple. The next verse, in that same passage, tells us this: "If you do not have the Spirit of Christ, you do not belong to Christ." In other words, Paul is saying: every true Christian has been given the Holy Spirit.
And when you give your life to Jesus, God will give you His Holy Spirit. When He gives you the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is living in you. That's why the Bible says your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit — if you are a true Christian, of course. There are many Christians who don't have the Spirit living in them, unfortunately. Why? Because there is a problem with their relationship with God. They have not repented of their sins. They have not totally committed their life to Christ. In fact, in many churches, this matter of being totally committed to Christ is not even emphasized. We are just told to believe in Jesus, but nobody knows what that means. Now, in the Bible, to believe in Jesus means to be wholly and completely committed to Christ.
We are talking about drawing near to God. It becomes very tiring to talk to a wall. You will find that you're very tired. If you speak loud enough, your echo comes back and you end up talking with yourself. In the end, some people ask me, "Is prayer talking to God or talking to oneself?" There is some value to talking to yourself. There is something called meditation — talking to oneself. But I guess we didn't come to this camp to talk to ourselves. We're already quite good at that. We want to talk with God. Even better if we can listen to what God has to say. And many Christians are utterly frustrated.
The answer is precisely this first principle. When this kind of thing happens regularly, I say to this Christian, "Tell me this — how did you become a Christian?" I have to go back into their spiritual history, to see if they have really made a commitment to God, and whether they have repented of their sins, or whether they are still hiding some sin in their lives. It's true — God is a holy God. And if you hide sin in your heart, the Bible says God will not hear you.
When we talk about the principles of drawing near to God, we could cover the whole Bible, because everything is concerned with this matter. You have to go back to this question: have you received the Holy Spirit? If you have not done so before, but you are utterly repentant of your sins, and cleansed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus — you will have that sense of being freed from all your sins. Just like yesterday, we were sharing with a sense of freedom. One brother said it was like changing your clothing — taking off all the dirty clothing. And let the Holy Spirit come into your life. Then you will begin to find that walking with God is a new experience. Even these few days when I'm walking up to where I stay in the camp, it's so wonderful — the presence of the Lord, walking with the Lord. It's something that you can't explain. Unless someone experiences it, he doesn't know what you're talking about.
Now, our time, because we have to translate, would be very short, so I cannot deal very long with each point. But one more word to the non-Christian in this area — and in the same way, I am speaking to those who are being a Christian but really don't experience God at all. If you are not a Christian, it is no use trying to ask God for this and that, because you are not going to get an answer from Him. You must understand the mind of God in this matter: when you are in the flesh — that is, you live under the control of your carnal, your fleshly feelings — it is no use asking God for this and that because He is not pleased with you. It says here: "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
So some non-Christian says to me, "Yes, yes, I pray. I ask God to help me pass my exam." And there are people who say, "I've tried to ask God for this and that and the other thing." It's no use to say afterwards, "Well, God didn't hear me." Of course He wouldn't hear you. And then afterwards to say, "Well, you see, I tried praying and God is not real" — it's utter mockery. You don't understand the principles of the spiritual life. When somebody says, "Yes, my mother was sick, I prayed that she wouldn't die and she died, so I don't believe in God" — you're not a Christian. Why is God going to hear your prayer? And by Christian, I'm not talking about the nominal Christian. I'm talking about someone in whom the Spirit of God lives — someone who has got their relationship with God right, first that, and then all the other things. This is the first thing.
First, you must get right with God. If you are a non-Christian, you can only pray this: "Lord, I repent of my sins. I ask You to cleanse me with Your blood. I ask You to become Lord and King of my life." Those who are going to be baptized today will do this. And then they will receive the Holy Spirit. They will receive new life. That's the first step to drawing near to God.
Let's move to the second step. For this, we can look at Luke chapter 11. In this passage, the disciples come to the Lord Jesus and ask Him to teach them to pray. And the Lord answers their request by teaching them what is called the Lord's Prayer. I just ask Brother Mark to read for us the first verse. Following the Lord's Prayer — "Our Father which art in heaven" — I think most of you, even as non-Christians, would be familiar with this prayer.
Now this prayer, the Lord's Prayer, I learned when I was a very small boy. Why? Because I went to Catholic school as a little boy. And one of the only things about Christianity I learned in the Catholic school was the Lord's Prayer. So often when I didn't know how to pray or what to pray, I just kept repeating the Lord's Prayer. Just like many Catholics, they pray it once, two times, three times, and then keep repeating. The problem with that is that I really did not understand this prayer.
Now look at this prayer, and something seems to be remarkable about it. The disciples said to the Lord Jesus, "Teach us how to pray." If you ask that question, what kind of answer would you have expected to get? Maybe some technique, or He will tell you some tricks — how to close your eyes. Maybe the problem with our praying is we don't close our eyes in the right way. Or maybe the problem was with our hands — we didn't put our hands in the right position. Maybe those holy people have some reason to put their hands like this. Maybe it's more effective like this.
So you look in the Bible and it says — well, the Lord Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven and began to pray. You say, "Hey, the Lord Jesus doesn't do it quite right. He didn't close His eyes when He prayed." And He doesn't say that He put His hands together and prayed. We don't find that either. So we thought we'd get some technique. Maybe how to meditate. My problem when I pray is the problem of concentration, as you might say. It takes powerful mental concentration. So we have to get training in concentration. Maybe the way to learn to pray is to fix your mind on one spot on the wall. You put your concentration on that spot until you can see some smoke coming out. Then you can really have power to get through.
Maybe the problem is because when I pray, I was not kneeling down in the correct position. Especially on this kind of floor, my knees are so painful. So after a few minutes, I say, "Excuse me, Lord, my knees — can I stop?" So I get up and I put a pillow down on the floor. "Oh, this one is better." And then after five minutes, my back is so painful. "How can I pray like this?" Oh, praying is very complicated. I thought it was so easy.
So when the disciples asked the Lord to teach them how to pray, you might expect some lessons on concentration, on how to put yourself in the right position, and so on. Instead, the Lord tells them some words to pray. And so we think, "That's the way to do it." So like me, we repeat the prayer: "Our Father, hallowed be Thy name." I can pray it very fast. Too fast, this one. So the next time, slower. I don't feel I'm very near to the Lord yet. But I've been reading it a lot of times. Okay, louder this time. It still doesn't help much. Maybe God doesn't like me to shout, so I speak very softly this time. It still doesn't work. So maybe that's why some Catholic friends use the rosary — count one, two. Maybe if you pray fifty times, it's better. Only twenty-five times, that's not so good.
But if you have tried all of this, as I have tried, it doesn't work. By this time, quite desperate, don't know what to do. What is the Lord teaching His disciples here? The Lord is saying that prayer has nothing to do with technique. The Lord is telling them that prayer is not a technique of concentration. Not even that. Some people even suggest maybe one way to improve prayer is breathing technique. This is a kind of spiritual exercise. So you breathe deeply. Yeah, feels better already. When you breathe deeply, you feel better. But feeling physically better doesn't mean I'm nearer to God.
I'm sharing this with you because I'm sure that you know I'm not joking. Many Christians have tried all of this one way or another. It doesn't work. What the Lord is teaching us here is very, very important. Because He is telling us that to pray through to God is a matter of our attitude. If you don't get your attitude right, you will never get through to God. It's nothing to do with whether you are trained in the technique of concentration. It's also nothing to do with your physical position. What the Lord is telling us — and it took me so long finally to realize what the Lord was telling His disciples — there are seven principles telling us how to get our attitude right with God. And this is the second step that we are talking about. The second step really is seven points in one. He is not asking us just to repeat this prayer. You don't have to repeat these exact words. What you need to do is: every sentence, you check your attitude towards God.
In Luke you have the condensed version of the Lord's Prayer. In Matthew chapter 6, verses 9 to 13, you have the full version of it. We will cover it very quickly because our time is short.
The Lord Jesus tells us the first thing: "Our Father who is in heaven." The first thing is to check your relationship to the Father. Can you truly say "Father" to God? You don't just say "Father" with your mouth. Even keep your mouth shut and ask yourself: can I really call God "Father"? You check your attitude. In your heart, can you really call God as your Father? When you say "Father" to Him and you feel inside, "No, I am not entitled to call Him Father," you have to stop already at this first point.
When I first prayed the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father which art in heaven" — He is not my Father. How can I call Him Father? It's like I go to somebody else's daddy and say, "Hello, Daddy. How are you today?" And he looks at me — "Are you talking to me?" I was not a Christian. We are not even aware of what we are saying with our mouth. That is why it says: check the attitude of heart.
Or maybe He really is your Father. You have committed your life to Christ. You have been baptized. You are really a true Christian. But in that case — is your behavior today pleasing to your Father? How can you rush into other things in prayer when you have not first dealt with this?
Most Christians, they just talk to God. If it depended on the amount of talking, they would already have conquered heaven with their talk. If you want to draw near to God, talk less. The secret of deep prayer is almost total silence. Because true prayer is an attitude of the heart. When your attitude of heart is right, one word of prayer is more powerful than ten thousand words spoken out of relationship with God.
So when in the evening I come to pray, and I remember, "Oh, I was very rude to Mark today." Then I cannot come in the evening to pray and just say, "Father, I thank You. It was a beautiful day. You gave me very good food. The cooks in the camp are very good." No, no, no, not so fast. First say, "Father." And see — the Spirit is very sensitive. If we only learn to hear and stop talking. So say, "Father," and then be quiet and listen. Then you immediately say, "Oh yes, I was rude today. I did not honor my Father. I have dishonored Your name, Lord." You see, immediately you know the attitude is out of tune. Tune into God.
Some people's praying is like scattering confetti in all directions and hoping that one piece will land in God's lap. You never get there like this. I stress again: the second principle has to do with attitude. I have expanded all these seven points of the Lord's Prayer in another place. I only want to stress here the attitude. Second: "Hallowed be Your name." This is the order in our lives.
# Near to the Heart of God (Part 2)
Another question of attitude. Most people come to God and they are conscious only about their needs, what they want. They come completely self-centered. When your whole concentration is only about yourself, how can you draw near to God? First God, then you. That is always the order. Put your needs and your requests for yourself at the end.
The second principle is: when you come to God, you think of His holiness. How do you treat God? As some grandfather or some friend or some uncle that dispenses presents to you whenever you want? If you treat God like that, He will not even answer you. Imagine you come into the presence of your father. You hardly even pay any attention to Him. The first thing you open your mouth is, "Daddy, I want this. I need money today. I have to get my hair done. I've got to buy a new bathing suit. I need a new watch." Well, keep on with your list, keep talking. If you are the father, what do you think of that? You will say, "Look, this is not quite the way to be talking to your daddy." If you are a responsible father, you will put a check to that, because that's the way to ruin your child. You have to teach them that there is something more to life than their needs.
Let's change the picture a little bit. We are conscious of Him, we are only conscious of ourselves. And we say, "How come God is so far away?" So the second thing when we come into His presence is: "Hallowed be Your name." Your name be exalted, Father. You have already given to me everything that is important. You have given me forgiveness of my sins. You have given me a new life. You have given me Your Son. You have given me everything that is worth giving. How can I come into Your presence and ask for this and that and everything? Your name be honored. You be glorified. Is that the way you pray? Very few Christians pray like that. Most Christians are utterly self-centered.
When the Holy Spirit dwells in us, He has to change us. Free us from ourselves. We become concerned with God's glory. Never mind about my little needs. Your glory comes first. And then I can pray for others, that Your glory will be manifest in their lives. And when you come to pray for yourself, you are praying not for this and that, but that God will be glorified in you, that He will be holy and sanctified in you. Now you are beginning to understand the secret of prayer.
To stress this point now, the third thing. "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." If your attitude is not right on this, you can stop your prayer right there, because that prayer will never get through and there's no point in keeping on talking. This is not a question of words — it's a question of checking your attitude with God. Just check it. Can I say "Your kingdom come" with all my heart? There are lots and lots of things involved in this prayer. What is involved is your will. "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" — which is another way of saying: let Your will now be done in my life as Your will is done in heaven.
When you start tuning into God like that, the Holy Spirit is transforming you every minute. There is power coming into your life from God. You become more and more a powerful Christian. Even while you are thinking only about God, getting your attitude right with Him, His power is already moving into your life. He is already giving you the very thing you need which you haven't yet asked for. You have not said "me" yet. You are only saying, "Your will be done on earth as in heaven." When you pray like that, His will is already being done in your life. Look at how different. You see, the Lord's Prayer is so precious. Once I began to understand what the Lord was teaching His disciples — oh, this is a wonderful prayer.
The next principle: "Give us each day our daily bread." Now it is slowly coming to "us." For the first time you have an "us" here. And yet what is the essence of this prayer? Though it says "us," yet amazingly the concentration is still on God. Because it expresses the attitude of total dependence on God. Bread here does not just refer to physical bread, of course. It also refers to the spiritual bread. Just as the Lord Jesus said, "I am the bread of life, the bread from heaven." So we are first of all asking for Him — the living bread. And telling Him, "Lord, I recognize deep in my heart that I am totally dependent on You for everything I need through this day."
This sense of constant dependence upon God is lacking in the life of almost most Christians. You have not really understood what the spiritual life is about if you do not live by grace moment by moment. We are saved by grace. Anyone who thinks otherwise doesn't understand the spiritual life. Have you tried seriously to live the Christian life? There is no way you can live victoriously except by His power. That is why I share with many teammates and many people: I pray morning and night and through the day. My prayer is always, "Lord, fill me with Your Spirit. Because without Your Holy Spirit, I cannot live the life as I ought to live." That is the secret of a victorious life.
We have been trained to depend on ourselves. Just like many non-Christians who say, "What do you believe in?" "I believe in myself." That's fine — you live in the flesh, you can just depend on yourself. That road, of course, leads to death. But if we want to know the secret of walking with God — your ability will not help you one iota. Your ability compared to Almighty God is simply not even worth talking about — a drop in a bucket. You may have a lot of education. That's not going to help you as far as walking close with God, if it puts pride into your heart. In other words, this very principle teaches us to walk humbly in dependence on God, moment by moment.
So when you come before God, you check yourself: "Have I been just trying to rely on myself today?" No wonder I made such a mess. Is my attitude, "Lord, I depend wholly on You"?
The next principle: "And forgive us our sins." Second time "us," see? But when we talk about us, it's not what I want here and what I want there. It is the consciousness of our sinfulness. You see, it's checking my attitude: have I become self-righteous? Or am I aware that I depend on God's forgiveness all the time?
Sometimes I feel frustrated with some Christians. Sometimes I even get angry because I feel the Lord's work is being threatened by this kind of attitude or mistakes. And there is a kind of anger that is not sinful, the Bible says. But we must quickly remember that if they make mistakes, so can we. And so can I. And therefore: "Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us." These two cannot be separated. They are part of one principle.
When you try to draw near to God — I mean with all your heart — "I forgive them, really, all their sins. Even as You forgive me, Father." Until you feel in your heart — and the Spirit is very sensitive, the Holy Spirit will speak to you if you are listening. You will immediately sense, "I am not getting through. There is a problem here." Oh yes, "I am not happy with this person." Maybe you just had an argument with your wife, or with your son or daughter, whoever. You try praying after that. Can you get through? No way. Until you get right with them. No bitterness. The attitude is completely forgiving. That you can go through. These are the vital principles of prayer. You neglect one of these, and nowhere will you get through. Not one can you neglect.
And "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." The seventh and last principle. Sensitive to our weakness. We may be forgiven, but we must be constantly aware of our weakness. When you think you stand — beware. Because that's when you fall. The person who walks close to God is very conscious of his weakness. And yet that is the secret of his power. That's exactly what Paul says at the end of 2 Corinthians: "When I am weak, then am I strong." Because then God's power is manifested fully in me. That's a remarkable thing. The man who walks close to God walks humbly because he is aware of his weakness. Because he also knows how powerful sin is. He also knows how powerful the enemy is.
That is why it says, "Lead me not into temptation." I know I am weak, Lord. I know You are powerful. But I am weak. So Lord, have mercy on me and deliver me. Now this point — "deliver me" — is a constant, ongoing deliverance from the power of evil. Suddenly something can happen to you that catches you unaware. And you suddenly react in a way that can dishonor the Lord very seriously.
That great servant of God, Moses — that happened to him. There is almost no one equal to Moses in the whole of Scripture, apart from the Lord Himself. Yet once in his life, he could not stand it anymore with the Israelites. Provoked and provoked and provoked by the Israelites, Moses, for one moment, exploded. For that, he was not to enter the promised land. He was suddenly caught, suddenly, in that moment. Of course, the Lord continued to be very gracious to him, even though he did not enter the land of promise. And you remember that at the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses was allowed to appear with the Lord Jesus. But to enter the land of promise was not granted to him. That is, both the goodness and the severity of God can be seen. Therefore, we must be conscious: if such a mighty man of God like Moses could slip, how much more we.
These are the seven principles. In this second point, they are like a cluster of fruit — they all belong together. You cannot neglect one of them. If you put them into practice, I can tell you, you will be near to the heart of God.
Some people say, "What is the importance of knowing the Bible? Why is it important to learn the Bible? We just have to be spiritual." That is also true — you just have to be spiritual. The problem is, do you know how to be spiritual? How can you tell people what is the path to being near to the heart of God? Therefore, we have to attend carefully to the teaching of the Lord. There are some Christians who have become so spiritual today, especially in some of the charismatic churches, that they say they don't even need the Bible anymore. I have nothing against our charismatic brothers and sisters. But we must be very careful of this kind of false spirituality. And this is what has caused so many people, even in these charismatic movements, who really want to draw near to God — they can't. They just don't know the way to get near to God. They think maybe it has to do with speaking in tongues, or maybe some other spiritual gifts. But that won't work. Not in the long term.
Our time is just about gone. We will close with the third point in only a couple of minutes. The third point has to do with one simple thing: time. You see, we want to draw near to God, but we don't want to give Him the time. We are all very busy. So let's get the praying business over with quickly. I wish that God would be as prompt. I just come near to God, immediately He is near to me. Everything settled in five minutes. I feel good now. I'm very near to God. Five minutes, we'll all be done.
But why is God so slow? I am in a hurry. "Lord, speed it up please. I've been here ten minutes already. I still don't feel very close. If You don't come close to me in two more minutes, I'm gone." You know, time is money in this part of the world. Time is more valuable than gold. "How much time do You want from me?" With that kind of attitude, you don't have to bother to pray. If we say we have given our lives to Christ, what is our life if it doesn't involve time? The way we give God time often proves that we are hypocrites as far as our commitment is concerned.
You can see that just to go through the seven points, checking your attitude with your whole heart — just these seven points could take you quite a while, wouldn't it? If you have to look at your watch every few minutes, how can you enjoy the communion? It's very, very difficult. So choose a time of the day when you are not pressed for time. If you have to go to work early in the morning, then you can only have a relatively short time in prayer. Then find another part of the day — maybe in the afternoon, maybe in the evening — where you can pray without being conscious of time.
I feel when I think of the words of the Lord Jesus when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane. He said to His disciples before He was about to die, "Could you not watch with Me one hour?" They couldn't — not one hour. When He came back a little later, they were all asleep. I think of the Lord's heart. He is about to lay down His life for His disciples and indeed for the whole world. He asked, "Could you just watch with Me one hour?" It's the only request He ever made of His disciples. We don't say that prayer has to be for just one hour. It can be shorter, it can be longer. The point is that you must have an attitude in which you are not rushed. Some things need a lot of time. The Lord Jesus once, when selecting His disciples, He prayed the whole night. You can see that in Luke chapter 6, verse 12.
So we are closing now. I try to help you to remember these three main points. Put them in this way. In English, the word is "SAT" — S for Spirit. A for attitude. T for time. Spirit, attitude, and time. In Chinese we may put it like this: Spirit, attitude, time. The three things together. The Spirit inside, the attitude, and time.
Which reminds me in 1 Chronicles chapter 17 and verse 16. David says that David sat before the Lord. David wrote so many psalms. He knew the truth of walking with the Lord. A very important way is to sit before the Lord. You're much more relaxed. Your knees don't hurt. Your back doesn't have to hurt. You sit before the Lord and put your whole concentration. Check your attitude.
I hope you will make a resolution to do this before you leave this camp. Tell the Lord, "I have now understood the principles to draw near to You." In English we say that the ball is in your court. Now it's up to you to do something about it. Because nobody can leave this camp and say, "Well, I don't know how to draw near to God. Nobody ever told me." No, we have been talking about drawing near to God in this camp. That God is real. You have heard it in the testimonies. You also know the principles. Put them into practice and then you will know that God is real. He is the living God.