Wednesday

Related Verses
Matt. 5:8
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

2 Cor. 3:18
18 But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.

Matt. 13:19-23
19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand, the evil one comes and snatches away that which has been sown in his heart. This is the one sown beside the way.
20 And the one sown on the rocky places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;
21 Yet he does not have root in himself but lasts only for a time, and when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately he is stumbled.
22 And the one sown in the thorns, this is he who hears the word, and the anxiety of the age and the deceitfulness of riches utterly choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
23 But the one sown on the good earth, this is he who hears the word and understands, who by all means bears fruit and produces, one a hundredfold, and one sixtyfold, and one thirtyfold.

2 Cor. 2:10
10 But whom you forgive anything, I also forgive; for also what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it is for your sake in the person of Christ;

2 Cor. 3:16
16 But whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

2 Tim. 4:22
22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

Isa. 6:5
5 Then I said, Woe is me, for I am finished! For I am a man of unclean lips, And in the midst of a people of unclean lips I dwell; Yet my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts.

Related Reading
We must be pure in heart, seeking nothing besides Him. The reward for being pure in heart is to see God…God is our reward. We gain this reward by being strict, righteous, with ourselves, by being merciful toward others, and by being pure in heart toward God. To be pure in heart is to be single in purpose, to have the single goal of accomplishing God’s will for God’s glory (1 Cor. 10:31). This is for the kingdom of the heavens. Our spirit is the organ by which we receive Christ (John 1:12; 3:6), whereas our heart is the ground where Christ as the seed of life grows (Matt. 13:19). For the kingdom of the heavens we need to be poor in spirit, empty in our spirit, that we may receive Christ. We also need to be pure, single in our heart, that Christ may grow in us without frustration. If we are pure in heart in seeking God, we will see God…This blessing is both for today and for the coming age. (Life-study of Matthew, p. 172) 

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[In Matthew 5:8], seeing God is a great reward in the kingdom. According to the clear view in the New Testament, to see God is to receive God into us. If seeing God is merely an objective seeing of God and nothing else, that means very little. But seeing God is to receive God, and this means that God comes into us as our element to renew us, to transform us, because God’s coming in adds the divine element into our being. This divine element works on us and in us to renew us, discharging all our old element. Eventually, our entire being becomes new. This is transformation. 

First we behold God, that is, see God; then we reflect Him and are transformed [cf. 2 Cor. 3:18]. In our seeing God we are being transformed into His glorious image, from one degree of glory to another. This is from the Lord Spirit. 

Our way of looking at God today is altogether a matter in the spirit. The God whom we may look at is the consummated Spirit, and we can look at Him in our spirit…In our morning watch, even if only for fifteen or twenty minutes, we have time to be with the Lord, time to remain in the Spirit. At such a time we may pray-read His word, talk to Him, or pray to Him with short prayers. Then we will have the sense that we are receiving something of God’s element, that we are absorbing the riches of God into our being. In this way we are under the divine transformation day by day. 

Our Christian life is a life not of changing outwardly but of being transformed from within by having the divine element added into our inner being to replace our old element. This is altogether by our looking at the processed and consummated God, who is the all-inclusive Spirit. 

“I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, / But now my eye has seen You; / Therefore I abhor myself, and I repent / In dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6). This indicates that Job gained God in his personal experience (in addition to knowing God in his vain knowledge by tradition) and that he abhorred himself. 

Seeing God equals gaining God (Matt. 5:8). To gain God is to receive God in His element, in His life, and in His nature. Eventually, this not only makes us one with God—it even makes us a part of God…We see God that we may be constituted with God, yet we do not have any share in the Godhead. 

To see God is to be transformed into the glorious image of God. This makes us a part of God that we may express God in His life and represent Him in His authority. 

According to our experience, the more we see God and love God, the more we abhor ourselves. The more we know God, the more we deny ourselves. (Life-study of Job, pp. 116-118, 157-158) 

Further Reading: CWWL, 1950–1951, vol. 2, “The Pure in Heart,” chs. 1—2, 8—9; Life-study of Job, msgs. 21, 30”