6我们一旦接受了基督耶稣，就不需要再接受第二次。但我们必须应用我们所接受的。然而，那些接受祂的人当中，应用祂的人只占很小的比例。日复一日，我们都必须操练实际的来应用这位活的基督。用一个普通的辞来说，我们需要运用基督。五十多年以来，我一直学习如何运用基督。我能见证这个不容易，因为我们生来就不习惯运用基督，我们所接受的训练也不是叫我们来运用祂。最近我向主的认罪，多半是与我没有应用祂有关。我们基督徒最不容易学的功课，就是如何应用基督，如何运用祂。我们听过许多论到活基督、长基督、并产生出基督的信息。但是在我们的日常生活中，我们总是自自然然的运用自己，而不运用基督。我们根本不需要试著来运用自己，因为我们运用自己是自动、自然的。在福音书中主吩咐我们要『儆醒祷告』，我花了好多年的时间揣摩这辞的意义。起初我觉得这个命令不太需要。但至终我懂得，我必须儆醒祷告，特别是在应用基督这件事上。我们早晨一醒来，就必须儆醒：不应用基督，就不作甚么事。常常我们一早醒来，似乎就有一群小鬼聚集在床头。虽然我们有主的保护，并有主得胜宝血的遮盖；我们仍旧需要儆醒，抵挡仇敌注入到我们里面的邪恶思想。若不应用基督，就不要想甚么事。我们当然需要有警觉，就是说，我们需要儆醒并祷告。但少有基督徒儆醒祷告，为要应用基督。虽然我们都接受了主耶稣，但我们却很少使用祂、应用祂。我们若不应用祂，在我们日常生活的实行上，我们接受祂就没有多大意义。我们对基督的经历不该这样肤浅，我们也不该把这么多的事情视为理所当然。我们为著神在基督里的救恩感谢祂，我们也为著我们接受了祂而心存感谢。但我们现今必须往前应用我们所接受的这一位。
6Once we have received Christ Jesus, we need not receive Him again. But we must apply what we have received. However, only a very small percentage of those who have received Christ apply Him. We all must practice to apply the living Christ in a practical way day by day. To employ a common term, we need to use Christ. For more than fifty years, I have been learning how to use Christ. I can testify that this is difficult because by birth it is not natural for us to use Christ, nor does our training condition us to use Him. Recently, most of my confession to the Lord has been related to my failure to apply Him. The hardest lesson for us to learn as Christians is to apply Christ and to use Him. We have heard a number of message son living Christ, growing Christ, and producing Christ. Nevertheless, in our daily living we spontaneously use the self instead of Christ. There is no need for us to try to use the self; we use it automatically and spontaneously. In the Gospels the Lord charges us to “watch and pray.” I have spent a number of years considering this word. At first I thought that this command was not necessary. But eventually I learned that I certainly need to watch and pray, especially in the matter of applying Christ. As we are waking up in the morning, we need to be watchful not to do anything without applying Christ. Often as we wake up early in the morning, it seems that demons are swarming around the headboard of the bed. Although we are protected by the Lord and covered with His prevailing blood, we still need to be watchful and resist the evil thoughts injected into us by the enemy. Do not think about anything without applying Christ. We certainly need to be on the alert; that is, we need to be watchful and to pray. But very few Christians watch and pray in order to apply Christ. Although we have all received the Lord Jesus, we are very short in using Him, in applying Him. If we fail to apply Him, then in a practical way in our daily living there is little significance to having received Him. Our experience of Christ should not be so superficial, and we should not take so many things for granted. We are thankful for God’s salvation in Christ, and we are grateful that we have received Him. But now we must go on to apply the very One we have received.