Friday

Related Verses
2 Cor. 12:1, 5
1 To boast is necessary, though indeed not expedient; yet I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
5 On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on behalf of myself I will not boast, except in my weaknesses.

Mark 5:19
19 And He did not allow him, but said to him, Go to your house, to your own people, and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.

Isa. 39:2, 6
2 And Hezekiah was glad for them and showed them his treasury, the silver and the gold, and the spices and the fine oil, and his whole armory and everything which was found among his treasures; there was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.
6 The days are now coming when everything that is in your house and that your fathers have laid up as a treasure unto this day will be carried away to Babylon; nothing will be left, says Jehovah.

Col. 3:23
23 Whatever you do, work from the soul as to the Lord and not to men,

Eph. 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God;
9 Not of works that no one should boast.

Related Reading
Should we not bear testimony? Yes, we should. Paul did so, and multitudes of God’s children from generation to generation have done so too. But bearing testimony is one thing; delighting in exhibiting one’s experience is quite another. What is our object in testifying?…The love of hearing one’s own voice and the desire to be helpful to others are two totally different things. We testify because there is a problem, and we have to speak about it…When the Lord so leads, we should testify because we want to render help to others. Paul testified in 2 Corinthians 12, but he did not lightly disclose his experience fourteen years earlier. He hid his experience for fourteen years, and no one knew about it. Even when he talked about this experience, he did not disclose everything…He only mentioned the fact that he received a revelation and heard unspeakable words…Even today, the third heaven is still a mystery, and we still do not know what it is like. (CWWN, vol. 37, pp. 41-42) 

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The Lord Jesus sometimes gave His testimony, but He was never talkative…The Lord healed the sick and insisted that the story of the healing be kept secret. This charge is repeated again and again in the Gospel of Mark. Once the Lord told a certain person, “Go to your house, to your own people, and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you” (5:19). We may speak of the great things the Lord has done for us, but we must not publish these things abroad as items of news; this only exposes ourselves as being without any root. To be without root is to be without any treasure; it is to be without any hidden life or hidden experiences. It is essential that some of our experiences remain covered; to uncover everything is to lose everything. 

Let us also remember that if we display all our treasure, captivity cannot be averted. Death and exposure go together, and spiritual dryness and exposure also go together. Even if we have to give a testimony, we must be like Paul, who boasted out of necessity, “though indeed not expedient” (2 Cor. 12:1). Satan’s attack often comes at the time a man is exposed…Many people are healed of their sickness, and they testify for the glory of God. But many testimonies of healing are not for the glory of God but for the glory of one’s own faith. As a result, the sickness comes back…This shows us that God covers those who cover their roots, and God does not protect those who disclose their roots; they will be exposed to attacks. If God wants us to testify, we still have to do it. But there are many things that ought to be hidden away. 

The same applies to our work. By His grace and mercy God has accomplished something through us, but remember that what He has accomplished is not a matter for advertisement or material for propaganda. If we expose the work of God, we will find that the touch of death comes upon it immediately, and the loss will correspond to the extent to which we expose ourselves. As soon as David numbered the children of Israel, death set in (2 Sam. 24). May God deliver us from this kind of exposure.

Whatever secrets we have with the Lord must be preserved…Only if He moves within us to reveal something, dare we reveal it. If He wants us to share some experience with a brother, we dare not withhold it, for that would be violating a law of the members of the Body of Christ. One law of the members of the Body of Christ is fellowship. Once we suppress this law, the flow stops…But I trust we shall also learn the need for safeguarding the hidden part we have before the Lord…No root should be exposed. (CWWN, vol. 37, pp. 42-44) 

Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 37, “Deep Calls unto Deep,” pp. 37-44; Life-study of Colossians, msgs. 44, 51—53