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Quotes from Witness Lee’s Ministry on Calling on the Lord
When we see that we should not be presumptuous, but should live for God and worship Him according to His way and realize the vanity of human life and the fragility of man, we will say, “O Lord, I shouldn’t be presumptuous. I must live for You and worship You in Your way. Lord, my life is vanity. I am frail and mortal.” When we see that our life is vanity and that we ourselves are frail, spontaneously we will call upon the name of the Lord. This is the reason that Genesis 4:26 says, “Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.” From the time of Enosh, the third generation of mankind, men began to call upon the name of the Lord, realizing their weakness, fragility, and mortality. In Hebrew, the word for “the Lord” is Jehovah (4:26; cf. Exo. 3:14). The title “God” is primarily used for God’s relation to His creation in Genesis 1. The name Jehovah is primarily used for God in relation to man starting from Genesis 2. Jehovah is the name for God coming into an intimate relationship with man. Hence, Genesis 4:26 does not say that men began to call on the name of God, but on the name of Jehovah. Men did not call on the One who created all things, but on the One who was so near to them, on the One who was closely related to them. The name Jehovah means “I am that I am,” that is, He is the One existing from eternity to eternity. He is the One who was in the past, who is in the present, and who will be in the future forever. He is the everlasting One. When men realized that they were fragile and mortal, they began to call on Jehovah, the everlasting One. This is the calling on the name of the Lord. This calling began even with the third human generation. When we are careless about God, we do not call on His name. However, when we realize that we must live for Him and worship Him in His way, and when we realize that we are frail and mortal and that our life is nothing but vanity, spontaneously, from deep within us, we not only pray, but call upon the name of the Lord. Therefore, we must consider this most important seed of calling on the name of the Lord. It is a most significant matter in both the Old and New Testaments. (Back) Firstly, we need to learn the meaning of calling on the name of the Lord. Some Christians think that calling on the Lord is the same as praying to Him. Formerly, I held the same concept. One day, however, the Lord showed me that calling on His name is different from merely praying. Yes, calling is a type of prayer, for it is a part of our prayer, but calling is not merely praying. The Hebrew word for call means to “call out to,” “to cry unto,” that is, to cry out. The Greek word for call means “to invoke a person,” “to call a person by name.” In other words, it is to call a person by naming him audibly. Although prayer may be silent, calling must be audible. To call on the Lord also means to cry to Him and to experience spiritual breathing. “I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry” (Lam. 3:55-56). These verses indicate that calling is also crying and breathing. Crying is the best breathing. I have been told that crying is the best exercise for little babies. Whenever you cry out, you breathe spontaneously and deeply. By crying and breathing we both exhale and inhale. Inhaling always follows exhaling. By exhaling we breathe out all the negative things. Whenever you breathe out the negative things, the positive things of the Lord will fill you up. Let me take the example of losing your temper. When you are about to lose your temper, do not try to suppress it, but call, “O Lord Jesus.” Then add a short prayer, “Lord Jesus, I am going to lose my temper.” Do this and see whether you still lose your temper. By calling on the name of the Lord you will breathe out your temper and you will breathe in the Lord Jesus. You will exhale your temper and inhale the Lord. Do you want to be holy? The way to be holy is to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. By calling on His name all the sinful, evil, and unclean things will be breathed out, and all the positive things—the riches of the Lord—will be breathed into you. A. B. Simpson wrote a hymn on breathing the Lord. Let us read some of the stanzas: O Lord, breathe Thy Spirit on me, Help me pour into Thy bosom I am breathing out my sorrow, I am breathing, breathing, breathing, Breathing out my sinful nature, Breathing in Thy cleansing fulness, In 1963 I introduced this hymn to some of the saints in the United States. One day, after we had sung this hymn, a dear saint came to me and said, “I can’t understand this hymn. Breathing, breathing, breathing—breathing what?” He was somewhat bothered. A few years later, after we had published our hymnal, this same saint said to me, “Brother, my favorite hymn in the hymnal is that hymn on breathing the Lord.” How do we breathe the Lord? We breathe the Lord by opening ourselves to the Lord and calling upon His name. We need to call out to Him and even cry to Him, for, as Jeremiah has told us, calling on the Lord is to cry out to Him. He did this out of the low dungeon. Whenever we are low, that is, down in a “dungeon,” we have to call on the Lord by crying out to Him that we may be released from confinement and receive more of the Lord into us. Isaiah also tells us that our calling on the Lord is our crying to Him. “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name…Sing unto the Lord…Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee” (Isa. 12:2-6). In these verses Isaiah tells us to praise, sing, cry out, and shout. All of these match the calling mentioned in verse 4. In verse 2 he says that God is our salvation and our strength. God is everything to us. We simply need to draw water out of the wells of God’s salvation. How can we with joy draw water out of the wells of salvation? The way is to call on His name, to praise the Lord, to sing a hymn, and to cry out and shout. In verse 4 we find that praising and calling are put together, and in verse 6 we find that crying and shouting are put together. This proves that to call on the Lord is to cry and shout to Him. Many Christians have never shouted. If you have never shouted before the Lord, I doubt that you could have enjoyed the Lord in a rich way. Try shouting before Him. If you have never shouted about what the Lord is to you, I encourage you to try it. The more you shout, “O Lord Jesus, You are so good to me,” the more you will be released from your self and be filled with the Lord. You will be in the third heaven. Thus, Isaiah, even in Old Testament times, told people to praise the Lord, call upon His name, cry out and shout. Let me share with you something of my own testimony regarding calling on the Lord. I was raised in the Southern Baptist Church. After I was saved, due to my seeking after the Word, I stayed for several years with a very strict Brethren assembly. Their practice was always to be silent. It is no exaggeration to say that even if a needle fell on the floor in their meetings, it would have been heard. We were trained in that way. I sat under the feet of these Brethren teachers, listening to their teachings. I thank the Lord for that. Although I loved the Lord and the Word, I did not receive the proper help of life. The only help I received was in understanding the black and white letters of the Scriptures. One day, in August, 1931, while I was walking on the street, the Spirit spoke within me, “Look at yourself. You have so much knowledge. You know the prophecies and the types, but look at how dead you are.” Immediately deep within I was conscious of a thirst and a hunger. Something within wanted to burst out. However, because of my religious background, I would not do that on the street. I restrained myself, suffering for the remainder of that afternoon, evening, and night, waiting for morning to come, when I would be able to release myself before the Lord. My home was at the foot of a small mountain. When morning came, I ran to the top of that mountain and released what was on my heart. I had no intention to shout, but something burst forth from within, saying, “O Lord Jesus.” I spontaneously called on the Lord. No one taught me to call on the Lord, and I had not seen anything in the Bible regarding it. I simply did it spontaneously. Although I did not have the terms “enjoying the Lord” and “the release of the spirit,” I had the reality of them both. I did exercise and release my spirit and I certainly enjoyed the Lord. Nearly every morning thereafter I went to the top of the mountain, calling on the Lord each time. By calling on the Lord I was filled with the Lord. Each morning as I descended from the top of that mountain, I was filled with joy. I was in the heavens, and the whole earth with everything in it was under my feet. However, due to my background, I never brought this matter into the teaching. I did not teach others to practice it. Twelve years later, in 1943, I was put into prison by the Japanese army which had invaded China. One day they were persecuting me and beating me. I could do nothing. Spontaneously I called, “O Lord Jesus,” and they stopped beating me. Nevertheless, due to my religious background, I still did not bring it into the daily practice. I did not realize that we could do it in our daily life. Twenty-four years later, in 1967, the matter of calling on the Lord came forth in Los Angeles. At that time I felt the need to verify this matter by studying the Word. As a result of spending much time in the Word regarding calling on the Lord, I discovered that it was a practice of the saints in ancient times. It started thousands of years ago. Using a concordance, I found a great many references to calling on the Lord and I noted the various aspects of calling. At that time I was confirmed and strengthened not only to practice calling on the Lord, but also to teach others and to help others to call on Him. Since 1967, calling on the Lord has been one of the items in the Lord’s recovery. It was discovered that it was the best way to touch the Lord. In that same year I visited the Far East and brought this to the saints. I can testify that thousands of saints were released and enriched through calling on the name of the Lord. (Back) Do not think that calling on the Lord was invented by us. It is not a new invention. At most, it may be called a new discovery or a part of the Lord’s recovery. Calling on the Lord began, as we have seen, with the third generation of the human race. Enosh, the son of Seth, was the third generation. Eve named her second son Abel, which means vanity. Then Seth, Abel’s brother, called his son Enosh, which indicates that Seth realized that human life was weak, frail, and mortal. By calling his son Enosh, Seth might have told his son that he was weak and fragile. Since Enosh realized the fragility of human life, he began to call on the name of the everlasting Lord. Therefore, when we realize that we are nothing, that we are weak and frail, what should we do? We should simply call, “O Lord Jesus.” The history of calling on the Lord’s name continues throughout the Bible, and we may list the names of many of those who called on His name: Abraham (Gen. 12:8), Isaac (Gen. 26:25), Moses (Deut. 4:7), Job (Job 12:4), Jabez (1 Chron. 4:10), Samson (Judg. 16:28), Samuel (1 Sam. 12:10), David (2 Sam. 22:4), Jonah (Jonah 1:6), Elijah (1 Kings 18:24), Elisha (2 Kings 5:11), Jeremiah (Lam. 3:55). Not only did the Old Testament saints call on the Lord; they even prophesied that people would call on His name (Joel 2:32; Zeph. 3:9; Zech. 13:9). Although many are familiar with Joel’s prophecy regarding the Holy Spirit, not many have paid attention to the fact that receiving the outpoured Holy Spirit requires our calling on the name of the Lord. On the one hand, Joel prophesied that God would pour out His Spirit; on the other hand, he prophesied that people would call on the name of the Lord. God’s outpouring needs the cooperation of our calling on Him. Joel’s prophecy was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Calling on the name of the Lord was also practiced by the New Testament saints. It began on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:21). On the day of Pentecost God poured out His Spirit, and the early saints received the Spirit by calling on the name of the Lord. Their calling was a response to God’s pouring out of His Spirit. Stephen also called on the Lord’s name. While he was being stoned to death, he was calling on the name of the Lord (Acts 7:59). He died calling on the Lord’s name. If the Lord delays His coming and we die, I hope that we die calling on His name. All the New Testament believers practiced the matter of calling on the Lord (Acts 9:14; 22:16; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Tim. 2:22). When Paul was Saul of Tarsus he received authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on the name of the Lord (Acts 9:14). This indicates that all the early saints were Jesus callers. Their calling on the name of the Lord was a sign, a mark, that they were Christians. Thus, Saul of Tarsus felt that it would be easy to identify the Christians in Damascus by the fact that they called on the Lord’s name. They not only prayed to the Lord, but called on Him. There are many true Christians who pray to the Lord daily, yet their neighbors, friends, and classmates do not know that they are Christians. We may describe them as silent Christians. However, if they become Christians who call on the name of the Lord, their calling will mark them out as Christians. It was this way with the early Christians. Do you know what happened to Saul when he was on the way to Damascus with the intention of binding all that call on the Lord’s name? He was captured by the Lord and was blinded. The Lord sent a little disciple named Ananias to visit Saul and to speak a word from the Lord to him. Listen to what Ananias said: “And now, why do you delay? Rise up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name” (Acts 22:16). According to the grammar of the English language, the word “calling” modifies the verb “wash.” What sin did Saul need to wash away? The sin of binding those who called on the name of Jesus. He did this at Jerusalem and intended to do it at Damascus. All the Christians knew that he was such an evil one. In their eyes, Saul sinned by persecuting the saints and by binding the callers of Jesus. Thus, the best way for him to wash away his sins was to call on the name of Jesus. By doing this it would be made clear to all the believers that he was truly converted. He who once bound those who called on the name now called on the Lord’s name. Some Christians misinterpret Acts 22:16, thinking that “wash away your sins” modifies “be baptized.” According to grammar, that cannot be the meaning. There are two things mentioned in this verse—“be baptized” and “wash away your sins”—and the Greek word kai, translated “and” in English, connect them. Thus, to be baptized is one thing and to wash away your sins is another. Saul was baptized and washed away his sins, calling on the name of the Lord. The Lord captured Saul of Tarsus, who had persecuted so many who called on the name of the Lord. Then Ananias, who had been sent by the Lord, told Saul to be baptized and to wash away his sins by calling on the name of the Lord. If Saul had only been baptized, many of the believers would have doubted that he had actually been converted. They might have said, “Ananias, you should not have baptized such a silent believer.” However, when Ananias was about to baptize Saul, he seemed to tell him, “Brother, wash away your sins by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. Brother Saul, you have bound many Christians. You are evil in the eyes of the saints. You have tried to bind all the Jesus callers. Now the best way in their eyes for you to wash away your sins is to call, ‘O Lord Jesus.’” Once Saul called on the name of the Lord, all the Christians could see that the persecutor had become one of their brothers. His calling on the Lord was the proof that he had been converted. Paul himself stressed the matter of calling when he wrote the book of Romans. He said, “For there is no difference between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord of all is rich to all who call upon Him. For, Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:12-13). In Romans 10:12 Paul said that the Lord is rich unto all who call on Him, and in verse 13 he quoted the prophecy of Joel which says that whoever calls on the Lord’s name will be saved. Paul also spoke of calling on the Lord in 1 Corinthians when he wrote the words, “with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, theirs and ours” (1 Cor. 1:2). Furthermore, in 2 Timothy he told Timothy to pursue spiritual things with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart (2 Tim. 2:22). By all of these verses we can see that in the first century the Christians practiced the matter of calling on the name of the Lord very much. Therefore, throughout the Old Testament as well as in the early days of the Christian age, the saints called on the Lord’s name. How regrettable that it has been neglected by most Christians for a long time. I believe that today the Lord wants to recover this matter and to have us practice it that we also may enjoy the riches of His life. (Back) Why do we need to call on the name of the Lord? Men need to call on the name of the Lord in order to be saved (Rom. 10:13). Suppose a particular person hears the gospel and begins to believe in the Lord. You can help him to be saved by having him pray to the Lord in a very quiet way, and I have seen many persons saved in this manner. However, if you would not only help him to pray, but also to call upon the name of the Lord, his experience of salvation would be much stronger. The first way, the way of praying quietly, does help people to be saved, but not so richly. The second way, the way of calling loudly, helps people to be saved in a richer and more thorough way. Thus, we need to encourage people to open themselves and to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. (Back) Another reason for calling on the Lord is to be rescued from distress (Psa. 18:6; 118:5), from trouble (Psa. 50:15; 86:7; 81:7), and from sorrow and pain (Psa. 116:3-4). People who have argued about calling on the Lord found themselves calling on Him when they were subject to a certain trouble or illness. When our lives are free from trouble, we will argue about calling on the Lord. However, when trouble comes, there will be no need for anyone to tell you to call on Him. You will call spontaneously. Calling on the Lord rescues us and delivers us. We need to call on the Lord when in distress and trouble. Furthermore, Psalm 116:3-4 tells us that calling on the name of the Lord rescues us from many negative things such as pain, sorrow, death, and hell. If you want to be delivered from such things, you need to call on the Lord. (Back) Psalm 86:5 says that the Lord is good, ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon Him. The way for us to participate in the Lord’s plenteous mercy is to call upon Him. The more we call upon Him, the more we enjoy His mercy. (Back) Psalm 116 also tells us that we may partake of the Lord’s salvation by calling on Him. “I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord” (v. 13). In this one psalm calling on the Lord is mentioned four times (vv. 2, 4, 13, 17). The calling here is for the purpose of partaking of the Lord’s salvation. As we have seen earlier, the way to draw water out of the wells of salvation is to call upon the name of the Lord (Isa. 12:2-4). (Back) Another reason for calling on the Lord is to receive the Spirit (Acts 2:17, 21). The best and easiest way to be filled with the Holy Spirit is to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. The Spirit has already been poured out. We simply need to receive Him by calling on the Lord. We can do it anytime. If you call on the name of the Lord several times, you will be filled with the Spirit. (Back) Isaiah 55:1 says, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” What is the way to eat and drink the Lord? Isaiah gives us the way in verse 6 of the same chapter: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” Thus, the way to drink the spiritual water and to eat the spiritual food for our satisfaction is to seek the Lord and to call upon His name. (Back) Romans 10:12 says that the Lord of all is rich to all who call upon Him. The Lord is rich and rich to all who call upon Him. The way to enjoy the riches of the Lord is to call upon Him. The Lord is not only rich, but also nigh and available as mentioned in verse 8 of the same chapter because He is the life-giving Spirit. As the Spirit, He is omnipresent. At any time and in any place we may call on His name. When we call on Him, He comes to us as the Spirit, and we enjoy His riches. When you call on Jesus, the Spirit comes. First Corinthians is a book on the enjoyment of Christ. In chapter twelve Paul tells us how to enjoy Him. The way to enjoy the Lord is to call on His name (12:3; 1:2). Whenever we say, “Lord Jesus,” we drink of Him, the life-giving Spirit (v. 13). In 15:45 we are told that the Lord is now the life-giving Spirit. Whenever we call, “Lord Jesus,” He comes as the Spirit. If I call a person’s name, and if he is real, living, and present, then that person will come to me. The Lord Jesus is real, living, and present. He is always available. Whenever we call on Him, He comes. Even during the Old Testament times Moses said of the Lord, “For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is whenever we call upon him” (Deut. 4:7, Heb.). Whenever we call upon His name, He is nigh (Psa. 145:18). Do you want to enjoy the Lord’s presence with all His riches? The best way to experience His presence with all His riches is to call on His name. Call on Him while you are driving on the freeway or while you are at work. Anywhere and anytime you call, the Lord is nigh and rich to you. (Back) By calling on the name of the Lord we can stir up ourselves. Isaiah 64:7 says, “And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee.” When we feel that we are down or low, we can lift and stir ourselves up by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. (Back) Now we need to consider how we should call on the Lord. Firstly, we must call on Him out of a pure heart (2 Tim. 2:22). Our heart, which is the source, must be pure, seeking nothing but the Lord Himself. Secondly, we must call with a pure lip (Zeph. 3:9, Heb.). We need to watch our speech, for nothing contaminates our lips more than loose talk. If our lips are impure due to loose talk, it will be difficult for us to call on the Lord. Along with a pure heart and pure lips, we need to have an open mouth (Psa. 81:10; cf. v. 7). We need to open our mouth wide to call on the Lord. Furthermore, we need to call on the Lord corporately. Second Timothy 2:22 says, “Flee youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” We need to come together for the purpose of calling on the name of the Lord. Psalm 88:9 says, “Lord, I have called daily upon thee.” Hence, we should call daily upon His name. This matter of calling on the name of the Lord is not a doctrine. It is very practical. We need to practice it daily and hourly. We should never stop breathing. We all know what happens when breathing ceases. Furthermore, Psalm 116:2 says, “Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.” As long as we live we should call on the name of the Lord. I hope that many more of the Lord’s people, especially the new ones, will begin this practice of calling on the Lord. If you do it, you will see that it is the best way to enjoy the Lord’s riches. Ever since the matter of calling on the name of the Lord has become an item in the Lord’s recovery, some people have checked with me, “Is not the Lord within us? Why do you need to say that the Lord is near you when you call?” I have a question to address to those who think that we do not need to call on the Lord since He is already within us. Do you not have breath within you? Since the breath is already within you, why do you still need to breathe? The logic of this question is the same as that pertaining to calling on the Lord when He is already within us. Although it may sound logical to say that we need not call on Him since He already indwells us, it is not practical. No one would practice this with respect to breathing. No one would say that since the breath is in us we no longer need to breathe. We must keep breathing in order to exist. Likewise, the Lord is in us, but we still need to call on Him and breathe Him in the more. Others have asked, “Why do you call so loudly? Is our God deaf? Can’t He hear our silent prayer?” They argue that since the Lord is not deaf, we need not to pray loudly by calling on Him. However, look at how the Lord prayed as described in Hebrews 5:7. “Who in the days of his flesh, having offered up petitions and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him who was able to save Him out of death, and having been heard because of His piety.” The “strong crying” in this verse surely is not a silent prayer. If you complain about those who call on the Lord loudly, you need to ask the Lord Jesus why He prayed with strong crying. Since God the Father is not deaf, why did the Lord pray in that way? Moreover, at least twice in the Gospel of John the Lord Jesus said that He was not alone, that the Father was always with Him (16:32; 8:29). Since the Father was continually with Him, why did He need to cry out strongly in prayer to the Father? (Back) (Witness Lee, LS Genesis, 333-346) What is the meaning of calling on the name of the Lord? Some Christians think that calling on the Lord is the same as praying to Him. Yes, calling is a kind of prayer, but it is not merely praying. The Hebrew word for call means to call out to, to cry unto, to cry out. The Greek word for call means to invoke a person, to call a person by name. In other words, it is to call a person by naming him audibly. Although prayer may be silent, calling must be audible. Two Old Testament prophets help us to see what is meant by calling on the Lord. Jeremiah tells us that to call on the Lord means to cry to Him and to experience spiritual breathing. “I called upon Your name, O Jehovah, from the lowest pit. You have heard my voice; do not hide Your ear at my breathing, at my cry” (Lam. 3:55-56). Isaiah also tells us that our calling on the Lord is our crying to Him. “God is now my salvation; I will trust and not dread; for Jah Jehovah is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. Therefore you will draw water with rejoicing from the springs of salvation, and you will say in that day, Praise Jehovah; call upon His name!..Sing to Jehovah… Cry out and give a ringing shout, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel” (Isa. 12:2-6). How may God become our salvation, our strength, and our song? How can we draw water with rejoicing from the springs of salvation? The way is to call on His name, to praise the Lord, to sing a hymn, and to cry out and shout. All of these match the calling mentioned in verse 4! (Back) Calling on the Lord began in the third generation of the human race with Enosh, the son of Seth (Gen. 4:26). The history of calling on the Lord’s name continued throughout the Bible with Abraham (Gen. 12:8), Isaac (Gen. 26:25), Moses (Deut. 4:7), Job (Job 12:4), Jabez (1 Chron. 4:10), Samson (Judg. 16:28), Samuel (1 Sam. 12:18), David (2 Sam. 22:4), Jonah (Jonah 1:6), Elijah (1 Kings 18:24), and Jeremiah (Lam. 3:55). Not only did the Old Testament saints call on the Lord, they even prophesied that others would call on His name (Joel 2:32; Zeph. 3:9; Zech. 13:9). Although many are familiar with Joel’s prophecy regarding the Holy Spirit, not many have paid attention to the fact that receiving the outpoured Holy Spirit requires our calling on the name of the Lord. On the one hand, Joel prophesied that God would pour out His Spirit; on the other hand, he prophesied that people would call on the name of the Lord. This prophecy was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17a, 21). God’s outpouring needs the cooperation of our calling on Him. (Back) Calling on the name of the Lord was practiced by the New Testament believers beginning on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:21). While Stephen was being stoned to death, he was calling on the name of the Lord (Acts 7:59). The New Testament believers practiced calling on the Lord (Acts 9:14; 22:16; 1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Tim. 2:22). Saul of Tarsus received authority from the chief priests to bind all that called on the name of the Lord (Acts 9:14). This indicates that all the early saints were Jesus-callers. Their calling on the name of the Lord was a sign, a mark, that they were Christians. If we become those who call on the name of the Lord, our calling will mark us out as Christians. Paul the apostle stressed the matter of calling when he wrote the book of Romans. He said, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call upon Him; for whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:12-13). Paul also spoke of calling on the Lord in 1 Corinthians when he wrote the words, “With all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, who is theirs and ours” (1 Cor. 1:2). Furthermore, in 2 Timothy he told Timothy to pursue spiritual things with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart (2:22). By all of these verses we can see that in the first century the Christians practiced calling on the name of the Lord very much. Therefore, throughout the Old Testament as well as in the early days of the Christian age, the saints called on the Lord’s name. How regrettable that it has been neglected by most Christians for so long a time. We believe that today the Lord wants to recover calling on His name and to have us practice it so that we may enjoy the riches of His life. (Back) Why do we need to call on the name of the Lord? Men need to call on the name of the Lord in order to be saved (Rom. 10:13). The way of praying quietly does help people to be saved, but not so richly. The way of calling loudly helps people to be saved in a richer and more thorough way. Thus, we need to encourage people to open themselves and to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. Psalm 116 tells us that we may partake of the Lord’s salvation by calling on Him: “I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord” (v. 13). In this one Psalm, calling on the Lord is mentioned four times (vv. 2, 4, 13, 17). As we have seen earlier, the way to draw water from the springs of salvation is to call upon the name of the Lord (Isa. 12:2-4). Many Christians have never called upon the Lord. If you have never called, even shouted before the Lord, it is doubtful that you have enjoyed the Lord in a rich way. “Call upon His name!..Cry out and give a ringing shout” (Isa. 12:4, 6). Try shouting before Him. If you have never shouted about what the Lord is to you, try it. The more you shout, “O Lord Jesus, You are so good to me!” the more you will be released from your self and filled with the Lord. Thousands of saints have been released and enriched through calling on the name of the Lord. Another reason for calling on the Lord is to be rescued from distress (Psa. 18:6; 118:5), from trouble (Psa. 50:15; 86:7; 81:7), and from sorrow and pain (Psa. 116:3-4). People who have argued against calling on the Lord have found themselves calling on Him when they were subject to a certain trouble or illness. When our lives are free from trouble, we may argue against calling on the Lord. However, when trouble comes, no one will need to tell us to call on Him; we will call spontaneously. Also, the way for us to participate in the Lord’s plenteous mercy is to call upon Him. The more we call upon Him, the more we enjoy His mercy (Psa. 86:5). Another reason for calling on the Lord is to receive the Spirit (Acts 2:17a, 21). The best and easiest way to be filled with the Holy Spirit is to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. The Spirit has already been poured out. We simply need to receive Him by calling on the Lord. Isaiah 55:1 says, “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no money; come, buy and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” What is the way to eat and drink the Lord? Isaiah gives us the way in verse 6 of the same chapter: “Seek Jehovah while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.” Thus, the way to eat the spiritual food for our satisfaction is to seek the Lord and to call upon His name. Romans 10:12 says that the Lord of all is rich to all who call upon Him. The way to enjoy the riches of the Lord is to call upon Him. The Lord is not only rich, but also near and available, because He is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). As the Spirit, He is omnipresent. We may call on His name at any time and in any place. When we call on Him, He comes to us as the Spirit, and we enjoy His riches. First Corinthians is a book on the enjoyment of Christ. In chapter twelve, Paul tells us how to enjoy Him. The way to enjoy the Lord is to call on His name (12:3; 1:2). Whenever we call “Lord Jesus,” He comes as the Spirit, and we drink of Him (12:13), the life-giving Spirit. If I call a person’s name, and if he is real, living, and present, that person will come to me. The Lord Jesus is real, living, and present! He is always available. Whenever we call on Him, He comes. Do you want to enjoy the Lord’s presence with all His riches? The best way to experience His presence with all His riches is to call on His name. Call on Him while you are driving on the freeway or while you are at work. Anywhere and anytime you may call. The Lord is near and rich to you. Also, by calling on the name of the Lord, we can stir ourselves up. Isaiah 64:7 says, “And there is no one who calls upon Your name, who stirs himself up to lay hold of You.” When we feel that we are down or low, we can lift and stir ourselves up by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. (Back) How should we call on the Lord? We must call on Him out of a pure heart (2 Tim. 2:22). Our heart, which is the source of our calling, must be pure, seeking nothing except the Lord Himself. Also, we must call with a pure lip (Zeph. 3:9). We need to watch our speech, for nothing contaminates our lips more than loose talk. If our lips are impure due to loose talk, it will be difficult for us to call on the Lord. Along with a pure heart and pure lips, we need to have an open mouth (Psa. 81:10). We need to open our mouth wide to call on the Lord. Furthermore, we need to call on the Lord corporately. Second Timothy 2:22 says, “But flee youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” We need to come together for the purpose of calling on the name of the Lord. Psalm 88:9 says, “Lord, I have called daily upon thee.” Hence, we should call daily upon His name. Furthermore, Psalm 116:2 says, “Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.” As long as we live, we should call on the name of the Lord. (Back) Calling on the name of the Lord is not merely a doctrine. It is very practical. We need to practice it daily and hourly. We should never stop our spiritual breathing. We hope that many more of the Lord’s people, especially new believers, will begin the practice of calling on the Lord. Today, many Christians have found that they can know Him, that they can be brought into the power of His resurrection, that they can experience His spontaneous salvation, and that they can walk in oneness with Him by calling on His name. In any situation, at any time, call: “Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus!” If you practice calling on His name, you will see that it is a wonderful way to enjoy the Lord’s riches. (Back) (Witness Lee, Calling, 1-11) Perhaps the names of Seth and Enosh are unfamiliar to you. Seth and Enosh were the third and fourth generations of mankind, although the Bible considers them as one. After Abel was slain, the line of life seemed to be terminated. Nevertheless, Seth and Enosh were raised up to continue it. These two generations had one outstanding characteristic—they began to call upon the name of the Lord (Gen. 4:26). They not only prayed, but called on the name of the Lord. If you read the original text of the Hebrew and Greek, you will see that the word call means to cry out, not only to pray. Although all Christians pray, few pray in a calling way. Most pray very quietly, even in silence. However, the third and fourth generations of mankind learned that in order to contact God they needed to cry out to Him and call on Him. Do not argue that God is not deaf, that He is able to hear us. Even the Lord Jesus Himself prayed with a strong cry in the garden (Heb. 5:7). During the time of Seth and Enosh, men learned how to pray to God in the way of calling on Him. If you try it, you will discover that it makes a difference. The Apostle Paul said that the Lord is rich unto all who call upon Him (Rom. 10:12). If you want to enjoy the riches of the Lord, you need to call upon His name. Suppose you are helping a new convert touch the Lord in prayer. He prays, “Jesus, You are the Son of God. You died for me. I take You as my Savior. Thank You.” Although this is a good prayer, it is better for him to call on the Lord in a strong way. If he says, “O Lord Jesus, thank You for dying for me,” his spirit will be stirred up and he will touch the Lord in a living way. Although the third and fourth generations of mankind discovered the way of calling on the name of the Lord, this way of calling on Him was gradually lost. Many Christians today neglect it and even despise it. However, no Christian can escape calling on the Lord’s name. During peaceful and untroubled times you may retain your composure, unwilling to lose your face by calling on the name of the Lord. However, during a time of difficulty, perhaps after an automobile accident or in a time of sudden illness, you will call on Him spontaneously, saying, “O Lord.” It is unnecessary for us to teach people to call on the Lord. One day they will call on Him. When troubles come, they will have the need to call on His name. To call on the name of the Lord is simply to enjoy Him and to eat Him as the tree of life. (Back) Abraham was more outstanding than Noah. As we pointed out in the Life-study of Romans, Abraham was transfused with the appearing of the God of glory. While Abraham was in Ur of the Chaldees, the God of glory appeared to him and attracted him (Acts 7:2). According to the record in Genesis, God appeared to Abraham several other times as well (Gen. 12:7; 17:1; 18:1). Abraham was not a giant of faith by himself; he was as weak as we are. The God of glory appeared to Abraham again and again, each time transfusing and infusing His divine elements into him, enabling him to live by the faith of God. Abraham’s experience reminds us of a battery which operates well after it is charged, but which needs recharging after a period of time. It is very interesting to study Abraham’s history according to God’s appearings to him. God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees and led him on by appearing to him again and again. As I have mentioned previously, when God called Abraham to leave Ur, He did not give him a map or any directions. Abraham walked according to the appearing of God. If God’s appearing was in a certain direction, Abraham simply moved in that direction. In this way Abraham enjoyed the riches of God. In addition to experiencing the appearings of God, Abraham called upon the name of the Lord (Gen. 12:7-8). Abraham’s son, Isaac, and his grandson, Jacob, also called upon the name of the Lord. Since these three generations were all the same, God was called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This means that God is the God of His people who live in His appearing and who call upon His name. As Abraham lived in the appearing of God and called upon the name of the Lord, he enjoyed Him as the tree of life. According to Genesis 18, God appeared to Abraham as he sat at the entrance of his tent, and He stayed with him for about half a day, even enjoying a meal with him. Thus, the Bible even says that Abraham was called the friend of God (James 2:23). In Genesis 18 God and Abraham conversed together and ate together as friends. Certainly we all would like to have such an enjoyment of the Lord. Nevertheless, our portion today is much better than Abraham’s experience in Genesis 18. According to Revelation 3:20, the Lord Jesus is knocking at the door. If anyone will hear His voice and open the door, the Lord will come into him and sup with him. Day by day we may have a feast with the Lord. Abraham dined with the Lord for approximately half a day, but we may feast with Him continually. We may meet with the Lord at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Our portion is higher and richer than was Abraham’s. Abraham enjoyed God as the tree of life. What is the tree of life? The tree of life is the supply of life that maintains our living in the presence of God. Abraham enjoyed God in such a way. (Back) Isaac, as the son of Abraham, was in the same way of contacting God as was his father. He also lived in the appearing of God and called upon the name of the Lord (Gen. 26:2, 24-25). He did not only inherit all the blessings of his father, but also his way to enjoy God. (Back) Jacob, as the third generation of the called race, was eventually led by God not to live by his supplanting way, but by the same way of contacting God as his grandfather and his father did. After being dealt with by the Lord for a considerable time, he learned to live in the appearing of God and to call upon the name of the Lord (Gen. 35:1, 9; 48:3). To him, this was not only the inherited way, but also the way to which he was led by God’s discipline. (Back) Samuel was another wonderful person in the Old Testament, a man who prayed for the children of God continually. The Bible says that Samuel told the people that he would not sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for them (1 Sam. 12:23). When Samuel learned that King Saul offended God, he was grieved and cried to the Lord the entire night (1 Sam. 15:11). Therefore, the Bible refers to Samuel as a man who called upon the name of the Lord (Psa. 99:6) and as a man who stood in the presence of God (Jer. 15:1). All of this reveals to us that Samuel was a person who prayed continually, who called on the name of the Lord, and who stood in the presence of God. By standing in the presence of the Lord and by calling on the name of the Lord, he enjoyed the Lord, partaking of Him as the tree of life. This motivation and enjoyment made him such a wonderful person in human history. (Back) (Witness Lee, LS of Genesis,184, 186-188, 192) In Romans 10 Paul said, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ that is, to bring Christ down; or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ that is, to bring Christ up from the dead” (vv. 6-7). You do not need someone to bring Christ down from the heavens for you or to bring Christ up from the abyss for you. As the last Adam, He has come down from the heavens and has risen up from the abyss. He was incarnated, coming down from the heavens. He was resurrected, rising up from the abyss. He has completed all of His traffic. Now where is He? Christ, who is the end of the law, is not far from you. Paul said that He is in your mouth (v. 8). Many say that we have to believe in the Lord Jesus in our heart. This is true but we also need to exercise our mouth. Romans 10 says you have to confess, “Lord Jesus,” with your mouth (v. 9). You should not merely exercise your heart; you also have to use your mouth. Many of you have not used your mouth. You may say that you have prayed much, but have you ever shouted, calling on Jesus with your mouth? Use your mouth, not just to pray to the Lord Jesus, but to confess the Lord Jesus, to call upon His name. I hope that you all would underline the word mouth in Romans 10. You have to use your mouth to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. Romans 10 does not say that the Lord is rich unto all that believe in Him, worship Him, meditate on Him, or pray to Him. It says that the Lord is rich to all who call upon Him (v. 12). Have you ever called upon the Lord? I am sharing something with you that is missed by Christianity. Many will tell you that you have to believe in the Lord Jesus. Then you have to confess your failures and sins to the Lord and pray much. But in today’s Christianity, the matter of calling on the name of the Lord has been and still is missed. I would like to illustrate the difference between calling and praying. If my house were on fire, I could come to someone and say, “Sir, my house is on fire, and we are short of water. Please come to help us.” This is an illustration of what it is to pray by saying, “Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. You are my Redeemer. I need You.” But a person whose house is on fire can also cry out, “Fire! Fire!” This is what it is to call on the Lord’s name—“O Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus!” When Saul of Tarsus fell on the ground on his way to Damascus, he cried out, “Who are You, Lord?!” Later, the Lord went to Ananias and told him to visit Saul. Ananias was concerned and told the Lord, “He has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon Your name” (Acts 9:14). While Saul was on the way to Damascus, he wanted to bind all of the ones who called on the Lord Jesus day by day. Suddenly he fell down to the earth and said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you persecute” (v. 5). Without his being conscious of anything, Jesus came into him. If we call on a person who is real, true, and living, he will come to us. Is Jesus real today? Is Jesus living? Surely He is. When we call, “O Lord Jesus,” He comes to us with all of His riches. The Lord is rich unto all that call upon Him. Whosoever calls upon His name shall be saved (Rom. 10:12-13). Do not consider that being saved is such a simple thing. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we were saved, but we also need to be saved throughout our Christian life. To be saved is not merely to be delivered from hell, to be rescued from God’s eternal judgment. That is too negative. To be saved is to get into the full enjoyment of all the riches of Christ. Christ is so rich. He is everything to us. We can enter into the enjoyment of all the riches of Christ by calling on His name—“O Lord Jesus.” (Back) The practice of calling upon the Lord is not only in the New Testament but also in the Old Testament. Isaiah 12:2 tells us that God Himself is our salvation and our song. Verse 3 says that He is the wells of salvation, and we have to draw water from these wells with joy. Then the following verses tell us how to draw out this water. Verse 4 says we have to praise the Lord and then call upon His name. Verse 6 says that we should cry out and shout. How do we drink the waters of salvation? Some may say that we should quietly meditate on the Lord or study the Word. But Isaiah 12 tells us clearly that God is our salvation and our song. He is the wells of salvation. We have to draw water out of these wells not by meditating, not by being silent, but by praising the Lord, by calling upon His name, and even by crying out and shouting. According to Romans 10, if we are going to enjoy the Lord’s salvation and get into the enjoyment of all the riches of Christ, we have to exercise our mouth to call upon His name. And according to Isaiah 12, the way to draw the living water out of the wells of salvation is to praise the Lord, call upon His name, and even cry out and shout. (Back) (Witness Lee, Living and Practical, 30-32, 33) The Spirit we have today is the consummated Spirit, not the “raw” Spirit. The divine Spirit has been consummated with humanity, with the sweetness and effectiveness of Christ’s death, and with the power of Christ’s resurrection. This consummated Spirit has become the very dose God has prescribed for us. We just have to take this dose by continually calling on the Lord’s name—“O Lord Jesus. O Lord Jesus.” Certain medicines are prescribed for high blood pressure. Within a short period of time after they are taken, a person’s blood pressure will come down. We need to take such an effective dose for our Christian life and church life. This dose is the compound Spirit. We can take this dose by calling, “O Lord Jesus.” It is not necessary for us to shout. If we call on the Lord repeatedly, our temper will be gone. This is why we are told to pray unceasingly (1 Thes. 5:17). To pray we have to say, “O Lord Jesus.” To call on the Lord’s name is to breathe in the Spirit. M.E. Barber wrote a hymn which says, “Just to breathe the Name of Jesus, / Is to drink of Life indeed” (Hymns, #73-verse 2). When we breathe the name of Jesus by calling on His name, we drink of the Spirit of life. To call on the Lord is to breathe in the Spirit (Lam. 3:55-56). The Spirit today is the consummation of the Triune God. He is the consummated Spirit of God compounded with divinity, with humanity, with Jesus’ death, and with Christ’s resurrection. In Philippians 1:19 Paul speaks of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is bountiful. He is bountifully rich, and He has a bountiful supply. How can we touch Him and gain Him? We must call on the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the name, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the person. If we call a person’s name, he may respond, “Yes, I am here.” If we call, “O Lord Jesus,” the Spirit says, “Yes, I am here.” This is because the Spirit is the person. We need to call on the name of the Lord in every place (1 Cor. 1:2). Some brothers and sisters may not want to call on the Lord before others in the meetings because they feel that they are too dignified. If a brother is a professor, he may feel that if he calls on the Lord, he will lose his dignity. It is easier for the young people to call on the Lord. The older saints may call on the Lord privately and secretly, but they may not call on the Lord publicly in the meetings. If we do not call on the Lord, however, we are refusing to take the Spirit as our medicine, as our dose. It is not a shame to take the best medicine. We have to call on the name of the Lord to receive the Spirit. (Back) (Witness Lee, Five Emphases, 40-41) Many in Christianity think that the Bible merely teaches people what to do and what not to do. This, however, is similar to the teachings of Confucius. Christ’s salvation is not mainly to teach us but mainly to dispense Himself into us. This is why we need to call on the name of the Lord early in the morning, saying “O Lord Jesus.” If some of you have never done this, I would encourage you to try it from today. In the morning the first thing you should do is to call on the name of the Lord three to eight times. In order not to bother others early in the morning, you can call “O Lord Jesus” softly. By practicing this, you will be a different person. By calling on the Lord, you receive the fresh dispensing. (Back) (Witness Lee, Intrinsic View, 20) The circulation of the blood is very important to our physical body. This circulation carries nourishment to every part of our body, and it also causes our body to be cherished. At times we may need to do some physical exercises to improve the circulation in our body. This may cause us to be more healthy. Romans 10:12 says that whenever we call on the name of the Lord, the Lord becomes rich to us. I have discovered that the more we call on the Lord with a loud voice, the more our spirit is released and the more we are healed and strengthened. Such calling on the Lord will make us very healthy, because to call in this way is to exercise. If we are always quiet and shut up within ourselves, we will be very weak. But if we call, “O Lord Jesus! O Lord! O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!” for ten minutes, the Lord will become rich to us. We will have joy, and eventually we will have strength. The joy of the Lord will be our strength (Neh. 8:10). I have learned the secret of calling on the name of the Lord. The Lord is rich to all who call on Him. To call is not merely to pray. The Greek word for call means to cry out, even loudly. In certain situations it would not be appropriate for us to call on the Lord loudly. However, when we are in a proper situation to do so, we should call loudly, “O Lord Jesus! Amen!” By calling on the Lord in this way, we will enjoy the riches of Christ, and we will be strengthened. This is because our calling on the name of the Lord causes the Spirit to circulate within us. This circulating Spirit is the compound Spirit, who includes divinity, humanity, Christ’s person, Christ’s death, and Christ’s resurrection. The riches in this compound Spirit are unsearchable. When this Spirit circulates within us, we enjoy all Christ’s riches. This circulation is the fellowship of the Body of Christ. (Back) (Witness Lee, Eldership (2), 115-116) God began to have His name called upon by Enosh (Gen. 4:26). We also need to give the credit for this to God. Do we think calling on the name of God was initiated by Enosh? Actually, it was not initiated or motivated by Enosh. God moved Enosh to call on Him. The name Enosh means frail, mortal man. Enosh was very frail, weak, and fragile, so he realized he had nothing to trust in. At that juncture God came in to motivate him to call spontaneously, “O Jehovah. O Jehovah.” Calling on the Lord’s name started in this way. Some people oppose the truth and practice of calling on the name of the Lord. But we have to realize that all real Christians, when they feel they are so weak and fragile, would spontaneously call, “O Lord.” Even before we knew the truth concerning calling on the Lord’s name, many of us practiced it. Whenever we got into trouble, whenever we felt so weak, fragile, and helpless, we spontaneously called, “O Lord.” Actually, when we felt so weak and helpless, God the Spirit motivated us from within to call, “O Lord, help me.” This was not only the practice of calling upon the name of the Lord but also God’s working. All the positive doings we see in the Bible are always something motivated by God. We human beings actually are not inventors but imitators. God is the unique Inventor. God invented everything, so He is the One who motivates, who invents. We are those who follow His motivation. After we were saved, there were a number of times when we could not manage our situation, so we called upon Him and exercised our whole being to trust in Him. In mainland China during the Second World War, I was put into prison by the invading Japanese army. While I was there I spontaneously called on the Lord and exercised my whole being to trust absolutely in Him. At that time it was a small thing for the invading Japanese army to kill people, and I was under their hand. They could have killed me at any time. If I had not trusted in the Lord, in whom could I have trusted? He motivated me to trust in Him. (Back) (Witness Lee, Union with Man, 57-58) If someone asked us how to enjoy Christ, what would we say? We should be able to give a brief, definite, and accurate answer concerning how to enjoy Christ. In order to enjoy Christ, we first have to realize who and what Christ is. Christ today is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Then we need to realize where Christ is. He is in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). In order to enjoy Christ we have to realize that He is the Spirit dwelling in our spirit, so we have to exercise our spirit to call on Him—“O Lord Jesus!” This is very simple. If we do not call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we cannot enjoy Him. To the feeling of many Christians, Christ is objective and far away from them. The way to enjoy Christ is to call, “O Lord Jesus!” When we call upon Him, we have the inward sensation that He is present with us. In the New Testament, the teaching concerning calling on the Lord is very great (see Acts 2:21 and note 1-Recovery Version). Romans 10:12 says that the Lord is “rich to all who call upon Him.” He is rich to us if we call on Him. His riches can be enjoyed by us only by our calling on Him. The proper worship to God is with Christ as His embodiment for our enjoyment of God in all His riches. Who could invent such a worship, but God?! If there were no Christ, there would be no worship to God and no enjoyment of God. (Back) (Witness Lee, Union with Man) Thus far, we have seen that we are vessels of God and that God as the all-inclusive Spirit is the content to us. The way for us to take Him in is to call upon His name. Now we want to see that calling upon Him is likened in the Bible to drinking and eating. Isaiah 55:1 and 6 show that the way to drink and to eat is to call upon Him. Isaiah 55:1 says, “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters,/And you who have no money;/Come, buy and eat;/Yes, come, buy wine and milk/Without money and without price.” This verse is somewhat complicated because it says we come to the waters and yet we eat. Do you come to the waters to eat or to drink? Mothers feed their newborn babes with milk. When the little babes are drinking milk, they are also eating. Eating is included in drinking. We come to the waters and buy and eat. Then this verse says that we buy wine and milk. Both wine and milk are liquids, but the nourishment of food is included in them. Thus, to drink wine and milk really means to eat something for nourishment. Verse 6 says, “Seek Jehovah while He may be found;/Call upon Him while He is near.” This verse advises us to seek the Lord. To seek the Lord means to come to the waters. The Lord is the waters, and the seeking is the coming. To drink and to eat is to call upon His name while He is near. Thus, seeking the Lord equals coming to the waters. Calling upon Him equals drinking and eating. This is the way that we take in the Lord. The spiritual things are often hard to define. But there are the shadows given by the Lord through the material things, the physical things, to illustrate the spiritual things. (Back) We need to eat Jesus by calling on the name of the Lord. But after we eat, we also need a good digestion. We do not want to have indigestion. Indigestion first causes stomach trouble and then it may cause a stomach ulcer. This could even lead to stomach cancer, issuing in death. Eating without a good digestion will cause trouble. When we eat Christ, we also need to spiritually digest Him in a proper way. If you have a proper digestion, the food you eat can get into every part of your physical being. There is the thoroughfare for the food to get through. Indigestion means that there is no thoroughfare for the food. The food cannot get through, so you will have problems. Now we need to consider how this applies to us in a spiritual sense. Some dear saints may enjoy calling on the Lord and pray-reading the Word at first. But after a certain time, they lose their taste and appetite for this. This is because after taking in the Lord Jesus, something happened within them. There was indigestion. There was no thoroughfare for the Lord Jesus to get through. After calling on the Lord Jesus and pray-reading His Word, we have to say, “Lord, be merciful to me. Keep my whole being with all my inward parts open to You.” I am not speaking something doctrinally, but something which is very practical to us in our Christian life. After you call on the Lord, I have the full assurance that He gets into you. But the problem is this—after your calling on the name of the Lord, after the Lord gets into you, you probably would not be so open to Him. You may be open to Him in a little part of your being, but most of your being is closed to Him. The Lord Jesus is real, living, and practical. When you call, “Lord Jesus,” He gets into you and fills you up. While you are calling “Lord Jesus,” this practical and living Jesus will touch your natural being. But many of you would say, “No, Lord. Don’t touch me here. Stay where You are. You are my guest and You must stay in the living room. Don’t get into my private bedroom. That’s for me, not for You.” This means indigestion. There is no way for the Lord as the spiritual food to get through in you. There is no free course for the food to get into your inward parts, so you have indigestion. Today’s Christianity has many teachings, but we do not need these doctrinal teachings. We need to eat the Lord and enjoy the Lord. Suppose I invited you to a dinner, and instead of allowing you to eat and enjoy the food, I taught you about the food. This would be terrible. We do not need the teaching; we need the real nourishment. We need the riches of Christ to get into our being. We can get the riches of Christ into our being simply by calling on Him—“O Lord Jesus.” But after calling on Him, the Lord works and moves within us to touch us in our inward being. After calling on the Lord, a young brother may eventually have some sense within him that he needs to deal with the way he cuts his hair. If he is slow to respond to this sense, this means that he is not allowing the Lord Jesus to get through. Thus, you have to be on the alert. After calling on the Lord Jesus, if you have any sense within you, any feeling within you, that means the Lord Jesus is moving, and that means the digestion within you is going on. You have to go along with this inner sense. If you go along with this sense, you will be joyful and have a better, bigger, deeper, and higher appetite for Christ. This is because a good digestion brings in a better appetite. If you argue with the inner sense, this will result in indigestion. Then you will not be so eager to pray-read the Word, and calling on the name of the Lord will not be so sweet to you. But when you respond to and go along with the inner sense, your appetite for the Lord Jesus comes back and your spiritual digestion becomes proper. Then the riches of the Lord Jesus become your cells, and these cells grow into your organic tissues. This causes you to grow in the divine life and makes you strong in the Lord. It is easy for you to stand and not easy for you to backslide, because you are growing in the Lord. It is hard for the grown-up ones to fall down. This is because they have a good digestion to assimilate all the nourishment from the spiritual food they eat. (Back) (Witness Lee, Living and Practical, 43-44, 45-47) The book of Romans speaks of sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification. All of these are carried out by the anointing of the Spirit, and the Spirit is Christ Himself (2 Cor. 3:17). Some may ask, “Where is Christ?” Romans 10 says that there is no need to go to the heavens to bring Christ down or to go to the abyss to bring Christ up (vv. 6-7). Christ as the word is in our mouth (v. 8). He has become the living word, the Spirit, to be in our mouth like the air, the breath, that can be taken into our being. Christ today is the compound air, the life-giving Spirit, and we have to breathe Him in. Romans 10 tells us the way to breathe Him in, that is, by calling on the name of the Lord. Verse 12 says that He is rich to all who call upon Him. In order to participate in the Lord’s riches, we have to call upon Him day and night. According to the priestly service in the tabernacle, the priests had to light the lamp and then burn the incense (Exo. 30:7). The lamp signifies the Word (Psa. 119:105), and the incense signifies prayer (Psa. 141:2). Whenever we come to light the lamp, we have to offer the incense. This shows that whenever we touch the Word, we have to pray. Praying should never be separated from dealing with the Word. Dealing with the Word needs the real praying. To light the lamp, you need to burn the incense. The simplest way to pray is to call upon the name of the Lord. When we call on the name of the Lord, we get His person, and His person is the compound Spirit with all the ingredients of Christ’s being and work. If we mingle our reading of the Word with calling on the Lord’s name in prayer, we will be anointed with the compound Spirit, and spontaneously we will become holy. Today what we need is not the teachings but the anointing. Every part of the church life needs to be anointed. This is why we have to call on the name of the Lord. The more we call on the name of the Lord, the more we are anointed with Him as the compound Spirit. Under this anointing we have the reality of the tent of meeting, the tabernacle, and the priesthood. We have to turn away from the doctrinal teachings and cleave ourselves to calling upon the name of the Lord that we may be anointed. We have to be renewed and revolutionized. The anointing is always fresh, but the teachings are always old. We need to be freshly anointed with the Spirit continually by calling on the name of the Lord all day. (Back) (Witness Lee, Christ as Life, 93-94) My burden is that my fellowship could affect you to be burdened with me for the same thing. We have the local churches, but no model. For all the things the Lord has shown us, there is no model. With calling on the name of the Lord, there is no model. With praying unceasingly, there is no model. The Lord is rich unto all who call on Him, but there is no model of this. We are not that rich in the Lord’s recovery because we do not have the genuine, living practice of calling on the Lord. If we have this model, we will be enriched by the Lord through our calling on Him. Paul even tells us that we should pursue Christ not only by our own individual calling but also by our corporate calling with others who call on the Lord from their sincere and pure heart. This indicates that we do not only need to call on the Lord and pray-read the word of the Lord as the Spirit individually. We also need this corporately. In all the churches there should be groups of ten or fifteen saints who come together often to call on the Lord. Calling on the Lord implies a lot. When you open your mouth with the exercise of your spirit to call on the Lord, right away you are under His shining. You are enlightened and exposed. Then you see all your defects, shortcomings, and mistakes. As a wife, you see your mistakes in dealing with your husband. As a husband, you see that the way you deal with your wife is altogether not in the spirit. Then you make a thorough confession of your sins, failures, mistakes, defects, trespasses, transgressions, and wrongdoings. You cannot make such a thorough confession unless you are enlightened in the light of the Lord. Who can be enlightened in the light of the Lord? Only those who call on Him from a sincere and pure heart. This is the initial experience of Christ in calling on His name. Then the Lord will continue to transfuse all His particular riches into your spirit and even into your mind. In this way you will participate in and enjoy the Lord’s riches. Paul in Ephesians 6 said that the Spirit today is the word. The Bible must become the word as the Spirit. This means your Bible must be one with the Spirit. Your Bible is the Spirit, and the Spirit is your Bible. How can we get this? There is no other way except by calling on the Lord, by touching the Lord daily and moment by moment. If we are all such persons living in the presence of the Lord by calling on Him, by praying to Him unceasingly day after day and hour after hour, we will be the reality of the fulfillment of the typology in 1 and 2 Kings. This is my strong burden I would fellowship with the elders. Every local church needs this. Do not invent many formalities. You yourself should practice calling on the Lord. You yourself should practice pray-reading the word as the Spirit. You need to practice the unceasing prayer. You need to practice never quenching the Spirit, but rather, fanning the Spirit all the time into flame. You need to practice not despising any prophesying. You elders should take the lead to practice this. First, you be the model. Then your practice in such an intimate way with the Lord will influence the saints in your church. Especially as elders, you can exercise much influence over the members of the church. (Back) (Witness Lee, Living a Life, 31-33) The name of Jesus is for us to call upon (Rom. 10:13; 1 Cor. 1:2). I was a Christian for at least thirty-five years before I found the secret of calling on the name of Jesus. I thought that calling on the name of Jesus was the same as praying. Eventually, from the record of the Bible, I discovered that praying is one thing and calling is another. Fifteen years ago, I did a great deal of praying, mostly on my knees. I did not know the secret of calling upon the name of Jesus, nor did I know that calling is different from praying. Many of us have experienced praying, but with little inspiration. However, when we call on Jesus for five minutes, we are inspired. Try it! Many of us can testify that when we prayed in the old way, we sometimes prayed ourselves to sleep. But calling on the Lord never puts us to sleep. On the contrary, it stirs us up. Acts 9:14 says that Paul, when he was Saul of Tarsus, tried to damage all the saints. He intended to go from Jerusalem to Damascus to bind all those who called on the name of Jesus. This verse does not say that he was about to bind all those who prayed to Jesus, but all those who called on Jesus. By this one verse we can see that the early Christians were those who called on Jesus. Whenever they prayed, they called. They called upon the name of Jesus, and that became a mark of recognition. The Bible does not say that whoever prays shall be saved. It says that whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Rom. 10:13). Suppose that I am a sinner and I believe in the Lord Jesus. You help me to pray, and I say, “Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. You are my Savior. You love me. You died on the cross for me. Thank you.” Although it is good to pray this way, praying like this makes it very difficult for the Spirit to get into us. However, if you would help me to call, “O Lord Jesus,” louder and louder, it would make a big difference. When you preach the gospel, do not try so hard to change people’s thinking. Instead, help them to open up their being, their heart and their spirit, from deep within and to use their mouths to call upon the name of Jesus. If you help new believers to call on the name of Jesus in this way, the door will be open wide for the Spirit to enter in. There is no need to pray with vain words. After calling on the name of Jesus ten times, you will be in the heavens. Your sins will be forgiven, your burden will be lifted, and you will have life eternal. You will have everything. Even for a believer of many years, the best way to touch the Lord Jesus, to enjoy the Lord Jesus, to share something of the Lord Jesus, is not to say very much, but to go to the Lord and call, “Jesus! Jesus! Lord Jesus!” Call on the name of Jesus and you will taste something. “The same Lord of all is rich to all who call upon Him” (Rom. 10:12). Many times, our words are too vain. It is better just to call, “Jesus.” If you call on His name, you will taste Him and enjoy Him. The name of Jesus is a wonderful name. We all need to call on Him. (Back) When we call on the name of Jesus, we receive the Spirit, who is the Person, the reality, and the realization of Jesus. First Corinthians 12:3 says, “No man can say Lord Jesus but in the Holy Spirit” (Gk.). Whenever we say “Lord Jesus,” we are in the Spirit and we receive the Spirit. We have all been under the influence of tradition, thinking that we must fast and pray before we can receive the Spirit. However, it is simple to receive the Spirit—just call on the name of Jesus. (Back) (Witness Lee, Antecedents and Status, 71-73, 79) The main word stressed in Isaiah 12 is salvation. God is our salvation, and Jah Jehovah is our strength and song. Strength and song both indicate experience. When God’s salvation is experienced by us, this salvation becomes our strength, and eventually it will be our song, our praising. The strength and the song are experiences of salvation. In our experiences our God is Jah and Jehovah. In the New Testament, our God is called Jesus and Christ. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. When we are calling upon Him, we can say in a very intimate way, “My Lord Jesus Christ.” Sometimes we can express this in a more dear way by saying, “My dear Lord Jesus Christ.” Jah Jehovah in the New Testament is our Lord Jesus Christ. (Back) Along with drinking the Lord, we also need to breathe Him in. According to the spiritual reality, breathing is drinking. M.E. Barber said in one of her hymns, “Just to breathe the Name of Jesus / Is to drink of Life indeed” (Hymns, #73, verse 2). To breathe the name of Jesus is to drink the water of life. By calling “O Lord Jesus” we breathe, and by breathing we drink. Isaiah 12 speaks of drawing water (v. 3). No doubt, this is for drinking. Now we need to consider where breathing is revealed in this chapter. Verse 4 says, “And you will say in that day, / Praise Jehovah; call upon His name!” Praising Jehovah and calling upon His name are put together as one. Whenever we call on the name of the Lord, that implies praising. When we say “O Lord Jesus,” that is not only calling but also praising. When we say, “O Lord Jesus, I love You,” this is praising and breathing. Many Christians are deadened because they do not practice this spiritual breathing. If we do not breathe physically, we will die within a short period of time. This shows how crucial calling on the Lord is. Acts 2:21 says, “And it shall be that everyone, whoever calls on the name of the Lord, shall be saved.” The note on this verse in the Recovery Version points out that calling on the name of the Lord began with Enosh, the third generation of mankind, in Genesis 4:26. The name Enosh means frail, mortal man. We human beings are altogether weak, frail, fragile, and mortal. We cannot do anything apart from the Lord. Because we need Him in everything, we need to call on Him. When we call on Him, we breathe Him in, and our breathing is our drinking. The air we breathe includes water. When water becomes vapor, it gets into the air. The air sends water to the earth in the form of rain, and the water on the earth vaporizes and goes back to the air. There are devices called vaporizers which convert the water into vapor for inhalation. The water in the vaporizer goes into the air. When we breathe in this air, we get the water because the water is in the air. This illustrates that our breathing is also our drinking. Spiritually, our calling is our breathing, and our breathing is our drinking. When we say, “O Lord Jesus,” we breathe Him in, and we are watered and refreshed. (Back) (Witness Lee, LS of Isaiah, 278, 280-281) Even in the smallest things in our daily walk, we need to express God. If we enjoy the Lord day by day, we will be dealt with by the Lord in the way that we dress. Something in us will be touched. When you are calling on the Lord, the Lord may say, “What kind of tie is this that you are wearing?” As you are combing your hair, the Lord would say, “How will you comb your hair?” The Lord will touch us in these little things as we remain in the fellowship with Him. Eventually, the way we dress will be the expression of God. Even in our dress, the enemy, the evil one, will be subdued. In the way that some people dress, you can see the darkness of Satan. Everything of our daily walk is either the expression of God or the expression of Satan. Either the enemy is subdued or he is prevailing. (Back) Furthermore, the Bible is the breath of God, and the breath of God is the Spirit. The Lord Jesus told us that the words He speaks to us are spirit and life (John 6:63). The holy Word says that all Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16). Every word of this holy book is the breath of God, the Spirit. So we have Christ within us as the Spirit, and we have the Bible in our hand as the Spirit. The way to enjoy Christ as the Spirit is to call upon Him and to pray-read His word. When you live a life of calling on the Lord, all the barriers will be broken down. Then there will be a thorough passage for Christ to get in and to get out of you. If you open the window, the air without gets in and the air within gets out. When you call, “O Lord Jesus,” the window of your being is opened, and the air gets in and gets out. This is the way to enjoy Christ. The way to touch the Word is to pray-read. You need the calling, the praying, and the reading. You have to mingle your reading with praying and calling on the name of the Lord. (Back) Now we need to consider Acts 2:17-21, which is a quotation from the book of Joel. This portion of the Word begins by saying that God will pour out of His Spirit upon all flesh (v. 17). Then it ends by saying, “And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (v. 21). If you put the beginning and the end of this quotation together, you see something marvelous. This means that God pours out of His Spirit and that we have to call upon the Lord to get this Spirit. God has poured out already. Now what shall we do? Shall we ask Him to give us the outpouring of the Holy Spirit by fasting, by not sleeping, or by weeping with tears? This is the wrong way. God has poured out. Now what we need to do is to call upon the name of the Lord. Then we get the Spirit. If I present a glass of water to someone, all he has to do is take it and drink. In the same way, we do not need to ask God for the Spirit, because He has already been poured out. God has presented the Spirit to us already. He has poured out of His Spirit upon all flesh. Now all we need to do is to call on the Lord’s name. The Bible says that God has poured out of His Spirit, not upon all spiritual or religious persons, but upon all flesh. We all are flesh, and the Spirit has been poured out upon us. The drink has been presented to us, so we do not need to beg for it. We just need to take and drink by calling on the name of the Lord. The presentation of the drink is in verse 17; the way to drink is in verse 21. God says, “I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh.” Then He says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” We simply need to call, “O Lord Jesus.” Calling on the Lord in a simple way will water you and even flood you with the Spirit. This is the way to take in the Spirit. (Back) First Corinthians 12:13 says that we have all been given to drink one Spirit. This means that we have been positioned to drink and we are in a position to drink. God has accomplished everything, but God can never drink for us. Regardless of how much God loves you, you still have to drink. The way to drink is in verse 3. This verse says that when you say, “Lord Jesus,” you are in the Holy Spirit. In other words, when you say, “Lord Jesus,” you are drinking. To be in the Holy Spirit means you are drinking of the Spirit. You may feel you are so sinful, but your sinfulness has been taken care of on the cross. We were kept away by our sins, but our sins have been taken away (John 1:29). Then we were brought back to God and have been positioned and made to drink. You may say that you are so weak, but this is why you need to drink. There is no excuse or reason for being kept away from drinking the Spirit. Whatever sin you have committed cannot be bigger than the redemption accomplished on the cross. The redemption accomplished by Him on the cross is big enough to cover all your failures. You have to realize you were positioned to drink. Forget about your failures, your sins, and your weaknesses. The redeeming blood, the prevailing blood of Christ, has taken care of all things. This is why we are told that we have been given, or made, to drink. Whether we are Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free, we all have been made to drink. Now that we have been positioned to drink, we should drink simply by calling, “Lord Jesus,” again and again. Call on the Lord for fifteen minutes, and see what will happen. Some of the older saints may say, “All of this is good for the young people, but not for me.” But breathing is the same for all ages. The young ones need the breathing; the old ones also need the breathing. As an older one, you may need more breathing. Do not consider that because you are old, you are qualified to graduate from breathing. There is no graduation from breathing. Calling on the Lord makes you younger. By calling on the Lord, you enjoy the Lord as your new strength and you mount up with wings like eagles (Isa. 40:31). Many people have been Christians for years, and it is easy for them to read and consider the Bible. But if you ask them to pray or call on the Lord, you put them on the cross. When a newborn babe is delivered, sometimes the doctor has to spank him to get him to breathe. Sometimes we need to be “spanked” so that we will call on the name of the Lord. One brother did not want to call on the Lord. But one day he was involved in a car accident. That was a real spanking. Right away he began to call, “O Lord Jesus.” If you are not breathing, the Lord will give you a “spanking”; then you will right away say, “O Lord Jesus!” Whenever we have troubles or get sick, we may call on the Lord, but afterwards we may forget. We should build up a habit of calling on the Lord all day long. Do not think that this is a small matter. We should be the calling people. (Back) When Saul was saved by the Lord on the way to Damascus, the Lord told him to go into the city and then he would be told what he must do (Acts 9:6). Then the Lord came to a disciple named Ananias and asked him to go to Saul (vv. 10-12). Ananias told the Lord that he knew that this man had authority from the chief priests to bind everyone who called on the Lord’s name (v. 14). Ananias did not say that Saul had authority to bind all the Lord’s disciples but all those who call on the Lord’s name. This shows that in the early days calling upon the Lord’s name was a sign of the Lord’s followers (1 Cor. 1:2). This calling must have been audible, so that others could hear; thus it became a sign. We are the calling people. We are not the silent believers of Christ. Day by day we call on the name of the Lord Jesus. This is our mark, our sign. In the days when Saul was trying to bind all who called on the name of the Lord, it was hard for the believers to hide themselves, because it was their habit to call. Everyone knew that they were a calling people, and this calling became a sign. When I was staying in one locality for a conference, I stayed in the home of a brother who had two little boys. The older was about three years of age. As we were going to the meeting, I asked him where we were going. He said, “We are going to ‘O Lord.’” Even such a little one had the impression that the saints are the “O Lord” people. Whenever they come together, they come together to “O Lord.” Acts 2 tells us that God has poured out of His Spirit upon us. What we need to do now is to call upon the name of the Lord. This is the way to take the Spirit. (Back) Romans 10 tells us that this is also the way to contact the Word. It says that we do not need to ascend to the heavens to bring Christ down or to descend to the abyss to bring Christ up from the dead. This is because the word, the living word, is near us, in our mouth and in our heart, just like the air, the breath, that can be taken into our being (vv. 6-8). The air, the breath, is always in our mouth. The living word is like the air which is in our mouth. Now we just need to exercise our mouth to confess, “Lord Jesus” (v. 9). The way to take in the Spirit is to call on the Lord, and the way to take in the Word is to call on the Lord. (Back) Romans 10 also says that the Lord is “rich to all who call upon Him” (v. 12). It does not say that the Lord is rich to all who believe on Him, but to all who call on Him. We need the calling. In your home you need the calling. In your kitchen you need the calling. In your office you need the calling. On the street you need the calling. When you are weak, you need the calling. You can say, “O Lord Jesus, I am weak. O Lord Jesus.” If you call in this way, you will become stronger. If you are going to lose your temper, do not try to restrain it. Just call on the name of the Lord: “O Lord Jesus.” This calling on the name of the Lord Jesus will be a kind of power, a kind of authority, and this will chase away all the darkness. In any kind of situation, whether it is one of darkness or weakness, just call on the name of the Lord. By calling, “O Lord Jesus,” you will enjoy the riches of Christ. The Lord is rich to all who call on Him. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (v. 13). Now is the age for us to recover the practice of calling on the name of the Lord. (Back) First Corinthians 1:2 says that we are the called saints who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place. We have been called to be the calling people. On the one hand, we have been called. On the other hand, we have to be calling. We are the called people to be the calling people. We should not merely believe on Him or pray to Him; we must call on Him. God called us into the fellowship of Christ (v. 9). To us, the called ones, Christ is power and wisdom (v. 24), but how can we enjoy Christ as power and wisdom? It is by calling on His name. We have been called to enjoy Christ (v. 9). If we want to enjoy Christ, we have to call on Him. We have to be the calling people who call on the Lord all day long. In some situations you may have the feeling that you are in darkness. The best way to chase away the darkness is to call on the name of the Lord. You have to say, “O Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus!” Sometimes you may feel depressed in every way. If you call on the name of the Lord, you will be released. This is not a doctrine but something for our experience. If you do not take this and put it into practice, this fellowship will not mean anything to you. But if you put this into practice, you will see that this is the way to breathe in the Lord. To call on the name of the Lord is to breathe Him, and this includes drinking and eating Him. The drinking and eating are included in the breathing, and breathing is by calling on the name of the Lord. (Back) (Witness Lee, Growth of Christ, 31-39) Galatians 5 tells us that we have to walk in the Spirit (vv. 16, 25), but how do we do this? Today we know the secret. It is by calling on the name of the Lord. In our family life it is rather hard to walk in the spirit. Before we talk to our children or to our spouse, we had better say, “O Lord Jesus,” first. Then we will see the difference. We should not consider this as some kind of superstition. Calling on the name of the Lord is spiritual breathing. Breathing is not superstitious. In doing everything, you just breathe. If you do not breathe, you stop living. The Bible says to pray unceasingly (1 Thes. 5:17), but how can we do this? Praying unceasingly is like breathing unceasingly. We can pray unceasingly by continually calling on the Lord. In doing everything, we need to say, “O Lord.” We have to call on the name of the Lord Jesus without ceasing. To call on the name of the Lord by saying, “O Lord,” will keep us in the spirit all the time. This is the secret of walking and living in the spirit. Learn to breathe the Lord continually by calling on His name. If you do not call on the name of the Lord, whatever you have read or studied concerning spiritual things is mere knowledge in your mind. You may know that you have been crucified with Christ, but that is mere knowledge. If you call on the Lord’s name by saying, “O Lord,” this brings you into the spirit, and the death of Christ will be effective in your being through the spirit. All the truths you read and know must be realized by a living spirit. When you say, “O Lord,” you keep yourself in a living spirit. Then all the knowledge from the Bible will be prevailing to you. It will become your reality. Regardless of how much you know, as long as it is the mere letter, it does not help. Instead, your knowledge kills you. The letter kills (2 Cor. 3:6). You need to turn from the letter to the spirit. You need to turn from your mind to the spirit by saying, “O Lord.” When you call on the Lord, you should not do it lightly or loosely. You should sincerely mean business with Him. Then when you call, you are connected with Him to enjoy Him as the heavenly electricity. Right away you have the inward transmission of the reality of the all-inclusive Spirit. You have to contact the living Lord, not by using your mind, but by using your spirit. The best and simplest way to use your spirit is to say, “O Lord.” If you open up yourself by using your spirit to call on the name of the Lord Jesus, you will get into the spirit and be in the spirit. Whenever you call on Him, you are refreshed and empowered. Romans 8:6 says that to set our mind on the flesh is death, but to set our mind on the spirit is life and peace. The main part of the soul is the mind. The mind is between the spirit and the flesh. There are two places for us to set our mind. When we exercise our mind to think apart from the spirit, we are setting our mind on the flesh. When we call on the name of the Lord, we are setting our mind on the spirit. To say, “O Lord,” is not a small thing. Whenever we say, “O Lord,” right away we turn our mind to the spirit. By continually calling on His name, we set our mind on the spirit, and that is life and peace. But when we turn our mind to the flesh, right away that is death. Praise the Lord that by His mercy He has shown us the secret. It is so marvelous, real, and effective to call on the name of the Lord in every place (1 Cor. 1:2). When we say, “O Lord,” we set our mind on our spirit, and we have the inner sensation of life and peace. The New Testament tells us that we have to walk in and according to our spirit (Rom. 8:4b). The way to do this is by calling on the name of the Lord all the time. Then we are really one with the Lord. Saying “O Lord” continually keeps us in the spirit so that we can walk and live in and according to our spirit. (Back) (Witness Lee, Growth of Christ, 78-80) Verse 33, which tells us that Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, also says that he “called there on the name of the Lord, the Eternal God” (Heb.). Here we see another special title of God—Jehovah, El Olam. In chapter seventeen we saw El-Shaddai, the all-sufficient Mighty One. Here we see El Olam. The Hebrew word olam means eternity or eternal. However, the root of this Hebrew word means to conceal, hide, or veil from sight. Anything which is veiled spontaneously becomes secret. Abraham eventually experienced God as the Eternal One, as the secret and mysterious One. We cannot see or touch Him, yet He is so real. His existence is eternal, for He has neither beginning nor ending. He is the Eternal God (Psa. 90:2; Isa. 40:28). Here we find another seed which is developed in the New Testament. The God whom Abraham experienced in chapter twenty-one is the same as the One revealed in John 1:1, 4: “In the beginning was the Word..and the Word was God..in Him was life.” This life is the very El Olam. The mysterious God in eternity is our eternal life. Eternal life is a divine Person who is so concealed, veiled, hidden, mysterious, secret, and yet so real, ever-existing, and ever-living, without beginning or ending. The title El Olam implies eternal life. Here God was not revealed to Abraham but was experienced by him as the ever-living, secret, mysterious One who is the eternal life. In other words, in Genesis 21 Abraham experienced God as the eternal life. By the tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, Abraham could testify to the whole universe that he was experiencing the hidden, ever-living One as his mysterious life. There, at Beer-sheba, he called on the name of Jehovah, El Olam. In chapter twelve he only called upon the name of Jehovah, not yet experiencing Him as the God who is the mysterious, ever-living One. But here in chapter twenty-one, after having so much experience, with Isaac at Beer-sheba under the tamarisk tree he experienced the ever-living, mysterious One as his inner life and called, “O Jehovah, El Olam!” Although no one could see this mysterious One, He was real to Abraham in his experience. The One we have within us today is the very El Olam, the hidden, secret, concealed, mysterious, ever-living One. He is our life. We may have the same enjoyment Abraham had simply by calling, “O Lord Jesus.” While Abraham was sojourning in Beer-sheba, he must have done many things. But here the Scripture only tells us of one thing—that Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beer-sheba and called on the name of Jehovah, El Olam. By this brief record we can see two things. One is that the planting of the tamarisk tree must have been very significant; the other is that this planting of the tamarisk tree is connected with calling on the name of Jehovah, El Olam. As we have pointed out, Genesis 1 and 2 are not merely a record of God’s creation but a record of life, with the tree of life as its center. Likewise this section of the Word is not merely a record of Abraham’s history; it also is a record of life, showing by what source Abraham was living. He lived by calling on Jehovah, El Olam, by experiencing the eternal, hidden God as his life. In New Testament terms, he was experiencing the eternal life flowing with all its riches like a tamarisk tree which expresses the riches of the well by which it lives. As the tree of life is the center of the record in chapters one and two, the tamarisk tree is the center of the record here. We may say that the tamarisk tree is the tree of life experienced by us. It is the expression of the tree of life. Our Christian life and the proper church life are both a tamarisk tree, expressing the tree of life by which we live. This goes together with the calling on the Lord who is our eternal life, our Jehovah, El Olam. (Back) (Witness Lee, LS Genesis, 748-750) If the tree of life in Genesis 2 is important, then the tamarisk tree in Genesis 21 must also be important. Very few Christians, if any, have seen the importance of the tamarisk tree at Beer-sheba. Although some have paid a little attention to the tree of life, they have not paid attention to the tamarisk tree. In the past we did see the tree of life, but we did not see the tamarisk tree. Thank the Lord that in these days He has given us the vision of the tamarisk tree. One day, the inward stirring told me that I had to know the significance of the tamarisk tree in chapter twenty-one. Although this chapter does not waste a word, ignoring the other things that Abraham must have done, it specifically says that he planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba. According to our opinion, the planting of a tamarisk tree may be insignificant, perhaps being only an ancient type of landscaping. But the Bible connects the planting of the tamarisk tree with calling on a new title of the Lord, the Eternal God. Notice how the conjunction “and” is used to connect these two items in 21:33. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree and there called on the name of Jehovah, El Olam. According to our human thought, planting a tree is unrelated to calling on the name of the Lord, especially to such a new and recently revealed title. But in the Bible here it gives us the ground for the proper calling on the Lord. If we would call on the name of the Lord, we need a tamarisk tree. If we do not have this tamarisk tree experience, we can only call on the old title of God, Jehovah, not on His newly unveiled title, El Olam. In chapter twenty-one, Abraham called on a new title of God—El Olam, the mysterious, hidden, secret, yet so real, living, and ever-existing God. This title of God implies the term eternal life, for the eternal God means the eternal life. Abraham experienced the eternal life, but he did not have this term. The people in ancient times ate vitamins, but they had no scientific knowledge of them nor scientific terms to describe them. Because we were born after the writing of the New Testament, we have the term eternal life. But Abraham, who lived in ancient times, did not have such a divine term. Nevertheless, when he called on the name of Jehovah, El Olam, it is implied that he experienced God as the ever-existing and ever-living life, as the One who is real and living, yet so mysterious and secret. We need to consider our own experience. Whenever we have had the flow of the riches of the divine life, that was the time when we called on the name of the Lord Jesus with a new realization. We called on the same Lord, but in our calling we had a fresh sense. (Back) (Witness Lee, LS Genesis, 754-755) All this is indeed wonderful, the wonder of wonders, that Christ became a man, accomplished redemption for us, became the Spirit, and has now entered into us to be our life and everything to us; but the question we must now raise is this: How can we touch and experience Christ in a practical way as our very life moment by moment? The Lord has given us a simple way. All we have to do is call upon Him, and we will touch Him who is the life-giving supply. In Romans 10:12b-13 the Bible says, “For the same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call upon Him; for ‘whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” In the past we may have had the concept that these verses were only applicable to an initial salvation experience; however, every Christian also needs a daily salvation from sin, self, human weakness, and other negative things. On the positive side he also needs a bountiful supply of the Lord to nourish and strengthen him in order that he may grow up into Christ in all things. The way into the realization of this is simply by calling on the Lord. He is rich to all who call upon Him. We see Paul in 2 Timothy 2:22 urging Timothy to live the Christian life with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. The Christian’s experience of Christ as purposed by God is to be real to the believer and a testimony to those in the world. What was the testimony of the early Christians? It was this: they were a people who called on the name of the Lord. We are shown this in Acts 9:14, which states that Paul before his conversion was persecuting all those who called on the Lord’s name. He was given authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on His name. First Corinthians 1:2 reaffirms this by showing us that the early Christians were those who in every place called upon the name of the Lord. Many Christians today have begun to practice calling upon the Lord daily, hourly, and moment by moment in a simple, practical way. They have found to their joy that the Lord is all they need and that they can touch and fellowship with Him at any time and in any circumstance just by calling on Him from deep within. Our calling upon the Lord should not be in an objective manner, calling on the Christ who dwells in the heavens, but calling on the Christ who is the Spirit and who dwells within our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). By calling upon Him from deep within, we will sense the flowing and fellowship of Christ within us. (Back) (Witness Lee, Touch the Lord, 5-7) How could you live Christ? You need to call upon Him by saying, “O Lord Jesus, I love You.” Call on Him and say just this much to Him. Then right away He “jumps” within you, and this “jumping” Jesus becomes your faith. This “jumping” Jesus as the faith imparted into you links you with Him. Then you cannot help but live Him during the day. When you call on Him in this way, He becomes the faith imparted into you so that you spontaneously live Him by this faith. You should call on Him in such a way when you arise in the morning. Then at nine o’clock, at your work, you can look at the ceiling and say, “Lord Jesus, You are so good.” There is no need to say much. To speak to the Lord a little bit is good enough. When you say this to the Lord, you receive another infilling. Christ right away is imparted into you as your faith. Actually, He Himself as the faith becomes your faith, and this is the linking organ that links you to the unlimited, infinite Christ. Later, at noontime at the lunch table, you can say, “Lord Jesus, I don’t know what to say to You. I am so happy.” This brief word is good enough for you to receive another refilling. In the afternoon you may go to the rest room. Before you go in, you may say another brief word to Him by calling on His name. “Lord Jesus, I don’t know where I am or where I am going. Lord, You have made me beside myself toward You.” Just talk this much to Him and you will have another refilling. When I tell people to call on the name of the Lord, they think that they need to call on Him loudly and repeatedly. There is nothing wrong with this. Whatever way we call upon the Lord is right. But it is not necessary for us to call in that way in order to be filled. We can just say a simple word: “Lord Jesus, You know I am too busy. I have to rush to go to the office. Thank You, Lord.” With just this little bit of calling, you are infused. The infusing of Christ in you causes you to have Him in you as your faith, which is the linking organ that links you with Him. This is the way to live Christ. (Back) (Witness Lee, CS of Romans, 92-93) We need to read verses 9 through 13. “That if you confess with your mouth, Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from among the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth man confesses unto salvation. For the scripture says, All who believe on Him shall not be put to shame. For there is no difference between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord of all is rich to all who call upon Him. For, Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Paul says that with the heart “man believes unto righteousness.” “Unto” is an equivalent of a Greek preposition which, in many instances, means “resulting in.” Therefore the result of believing with the heart is righteousness, while the result of confessing with the mouth is salvation. If we want to be justified, that is, to have the righteousness of God, we must believe in the Lord Jesus. If we want to be saved, we need to confess the Lord Jesus, that is to call upon Him. In Romans 9:21, 23 we are told that under God’s selection we, the called ones, have been made vessels of mercy unto honor and glory. However, we still must realize that such vessels by themselves are empty. Vessels need content. Although Romans 9 tells us that we are vessels, it does not give us the way to be filled. It is wonderful to be a vessel of mercy unto honor and glory, but it is pitiful to be empty. We need to be filled. The way to be filled is found in Romans 10. Every vessel has a mouth, an opening. If it has no mouth, it is not a vessel. Instruments such as hammers, knives, and axes have no mouths. However, we are vessels, and as vessels we have an opening—our mouth. Do you know why you have a mouth? You were made with a mouth that you might be filled with the riches of Christ. Our mouth was made for calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. The Lord is so rich! He is rich to all who call upon Him. There is a verse in the Psalms which says, “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it” (81:10). As empty vessels with a mouth we should open our mouth wide that we may be filled with the riches of the Lord. In order to be saved we need to call upon the name of the Lord. However, calling upon His name is not only for salvation; it is also the way in which we receive the riches of Christ. The Lord is rich to all who call upon Him. When we call upon Him, we participate in and enjoy His riches. Do you want to participate in and enjoy the riches of Christ? If you do, do not be silent; open your mouth and call upon Him. In recent years the Lord has revealed very much to us regarding this matter of calling on His name. Even as late as ten years ago we knew little about this. We thank the Lord that He has made us clear. We appreciate Romans 10, especially verse 12. “For there is no difference between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord of all is rich to all who call upon Him.” Verse 13 has been used a great deal in gospel preaching. But we also must use it with verse 12, not for gospel preaching, but for filling up all the empty vessels with the riches of the Godhead. If you will open your mouth wide and call upon the Lord, the riches of divinity will be your portion. Now, we have the way to fill the empty vessels. We have a mouth to call on Him that we may be filled with Him, and we have a heart to believe in Him and to retain Him. The Bible reveals clearly that calling on the Lord is the way to partake of and enjoy the Lord. Deuteronomy 4:7 (ASV) says that the Lord is “nigh unto us whenever we call upon him.” Psalm 145:18 says, “the Lord is nigh to all them that call upon him.” Psalm 18:6 and 118:5 say that David called upon the Lord in his distress. In Psalm 50:15 the Lord asks us to call upon Him in the day of trouble, and in Psalm 86:7 David did it accordingly. Psalm 81:7 says that the children of Israel did the same thing (Exo. 2:23) and that the Lord told them, “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it” (v. 10). Psalm 86:5 says that the Lord is good, ready to forgive, and is plenteous in mercy to all that call upon Him. Psalm 116:3-4 says, “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord.” Verse 13 of the same Psalm says, “I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.” In order to take the cup of salvation, that is, to participate and enjoy the Lord’s salvation, we need to call upon the name of the Lord. Isaiah 12:2-6 tells us that the Lord is our salvation, our strength, and our song, and that we can draw water out of the wells of His salvation with joy. The way to draw water out of the wells of the Lord’s salvation, that is, to enjoy the Lord as our salvation, is to praise Him, to call upon His name, to sing unto Him, and even to cry out and shout. In Isaiah 55:1-6 we find God’s wonderful calling to the people. He calls the thirsty ones to come to the waters, to enjoy the riches of the Lord’s provision, such as wine, milk, and good food, and to delight themselves in fatness. The way to do this is to seek the Lord and to “call upon him while he is near.” Isaiah 64:7 shows us that by calling upon the Lord we can stir up ourselves to take hold of Him. Lamentations 3:55-57 makes it clear that when we call upon the Lord He draws near to us and that our calling upon Him is our breathing, our cry. By this we can realize that to call upon the Lord is not only to cry to Him, but also to experience a spiritual breathing (Exo. 2:23) in which we breathe out all that is within us, whether it be agony, pain, pressure, etc. Jeremiah did this when he called upon the Lord out of the low dungeon, that is, out of the lowest pit. Whenever we are in a spiritual dungeon or pit, under a certain suppression, we can call on the Lord, breathing out the heaviness within us, and thus be delivered from the lowest pit. This kind of calling on the Lord not only enables us to breathe out the negative things from within us, but also to breathe in the Lord Himself with all His riches as our strength, enjoyment, comfort, and rest. In this way we partake of the riches of the Lord. Hence, here in Romans 10:12 Paul tells us that “the Lord is rich to all who call upon Him.” Today in resurrection the Lord is ready and available for our participation in Him and He is rich for our enjoyment of Him. We simply need to call on Him all the time. Calling on Him, we partake of and enjoy all His riches. Calling on the Lord is different from merely praying to Him. The Greek word for “call on” or “call upon” means to invoke a person, to call a person by name. Although it is possible to pray to the Lord silently, calling on the Lord requires that we cry out to Him or address Him audibly. The Hebrew word for “call” in Genesis 4:26 firstly means to “call out to” or to “cry unto.” Isaiah 12:4 and 6 show that to call upon the Lord’s name is to “cry out and shout.” Lamentations 3:55 and 56 reveal the same thing—to call upon the Lord’s name is to “cry” to the Lord. Hence, David said, “I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God” (2 Sam. 22:7). To call upon the Lord is to cry to Him. According to the Scripture record, this matter of calling on the name of the Lord began with the third generation of mankind. From the time of Enos “men began to call upon the name of the Lord” (Gen. 4:26). Then Abraham (Gen. 12:8), Isaac (Gen. 26:25), Job (Job 12:4), Moses (Deut. 4:7), Jabez (1 Chron. 4:10), Samson (Judg. 16:28), Samuel (1 Sam. 12:18), David (2 Sam. 22:4; 1 Chron. 21:26), Jonah (Jonah 1:6), Elijah (1 Kings 18:24), Elisha (2 Kings 5:11), Jeremiah (Lam. 3:55)—they all practiced this matter of calling on the name of the Lord. Moreover, in Joel 2:32, Zephaniah 3:9, and Zechariah 13:9 it is prophesied that people will call on the name of the Lord. On the day of Pentecost the New Testament believers also called on the name of the Lord to receive the outpoured Spirit as the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy (Acts 2:17-21). God poured out His Spirit, and the believers opened their mouths to receive the Spirit by calling on the name of the Lord. The Spirit has been poured out by God, but we have to receive Him. The way to receive Him is to open our mouths and call on the Lord. Hence, the New Testament believers, like Stephen (Acts 7:59), practiced this. By practicing this they made it known that they were followers of the Lord (Acts 9:14). When Paul was Saul, the persecutor of the church, he intended to arrest the believers, recognizing them by their calling on the name of the Lord. After he was converted, he was advised to wash away his sins (mainly his persecution of those who called on the Lord) by calling on the name of the Lord himself (Acts 22:16). Undoubtedly, this practice was common among the early saints. In addressing his first epistle to the church at Corinth Paul said, “All that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:2). This indicates that all the early believers practiced this matter of calling. In his second epistle to Timothy Paul charged him to pursue spiritual things “with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2:22). So, we must practice it too. The Old Testament saints called on the Lord daily (Psa. 88:9) and throughout their entire life (Psa. 116:2). How about us? We should practice it more, calling on the Lord “out of a pure heart” (2 Tim. 2:22) and with “a pure lip” (Zeph. 3:9, Heb.). If we practice this, we will certainly partake of the Lord’s riches and enjoy them. To call on the Lord is not only for salvation, but also for the enjoyment of the Lord with all His riches. First Corinthians opens with calling on the name of the Lord, revealing that it is a book of the enjoyment of the Lord. It tells us that Christ is our wisdom and power (1 Cor. 1:24) and that He has been made our righteousness, sanctification, redemption (1:30), and so many other items for our enjoyment. Eventually, in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit of whom we may drink (1 Cor. 15:45; 12:13). The way to drink of Him as the life-giving Spirit is to call on His name. Thus, 1 Corinthians 12:3 indicates that if we say, “Lord Jesus,” we are immediately in the Spirit. To say, “Lord Jesus” is to call on the name of the Lord. Jesus is the name of the Lord, and the Spirit is His person. When we call on the name of the Lord, we get the person of the Lord. When we call, “Lord Jesus,” we get the Spirit. This kind of calling on the name of the Lord to receive the Spirit is not only spiritual breathing, but also spiritual drinking. When we call on the name of the Lord, we breathe Him in as the breath of life and we drink of Him as the water of life. The second stanza of hymn number seventy-three in our hymnal says, Blessed Jesus! Mighty Savior! Just to breathe the Name of Jesus, This is the way for us to partake of and enjoy the Lord. We all need to do it. May the Lord bless us in this matter. May it be fully recovered in these days. (Back) (Witness Lee, LS of Romans, 270-276) One time, before the Lord’s Day morning meeting, while everyone was sitting quietly and waiting, as was our custom, I stood up and said, “Everyone who came to the meeting can say four words.” As I was speaking, I still did not know what the four words were. While I was speaking, I was considering. Then I spoke the following four words: “O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!” Everyone practiced this on the spot, and some immediately composed some songs concerning it. Then this became prevailing. I knew that this was the Lord’s leading. So at that point we added another item—calling on the Lord’s name. At that time we were meeting in Elden Hall in Los Angeles. Many saints had moved to the neighborhood of the meeting hall. In the early evening, one could hear the voices of the saints calling, “O Lord Jesus!” Everyone was calling—calling in the homes, calling on the streets, and calling in the meeting hall. That fervent situation lasted for a considerable time. (Back) (Witness Lee, Up-to-Date,9) Bibliography—Calling on the LordWitness Lee. Calling on the Name of the Lord. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1991. Witness Lee. The Crystallization of the Gospel of God in the Epistle to the Romans. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1994. Witness Lee. Elder’s Training Book 10 The Eldership and the God-Ordained Way (2). Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1992. Witness Lee. The Experience of Christ as Life for the Building Up of the Church. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1994. Witness Lee. Five Emphases in the Lord’s Recovery. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1991. Witness Lee. The Fulfillment of God’s Purpose by the Growth of Christ in Us. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1994. Witness Lee. The History of God in His Union with Man. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1992. Witness Lee. The Intrinsic View of the Body of Christ. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1991. Witness Lee. The Kings Antecedents and Status. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1977. Witness Lee. Life-Study of Genesis. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1997. Witness Lee. Life-Study of Romans. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1984. Witness Lee. Living a Life According to the High Peak of God’s Revelation. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1994. Witness Lee. The Living and Practical Way to Enjoy Christ. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1994. Witness Lee. A Simple Way to Touch the Lord. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1991. Witness Lee. The Up-to-Date Presentation of the God-Ordained Way and the Signs Concerning the Coming Christ. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1991.
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