Hudson Taylor's Story

Hudson Taylor’s Story

“Hudson Taylor knew that in order to be fruitful he had to be able to 

draw the sap out of the Vine into himself. ‘I knew,’ he said, writing to

his sister from Chinkiang in 1869, ‘that if only I could abide in Christ,

all would be well, but I could not.’ The more he tried the worse it got.

One day revelation came and he saw. 

‘I have not got to make myself a branch. The Lord Jesus tells me I 

am a branch. I am part of Him and I have to just believe it and act

upon it. I have seen it long enough in the Bible, but I believe it now

as a living reality.’

A brother in Shanghai wanted to know the crucified life, the resurrected

life, but he could see no way of getting there. There was a thermos on

the table and his friend said, ‘what is this?’  ‘A thermos’ he answered.

‘Well what if the thermos started to pray, “Lord make me a thermos. I very 

much want to be a thermos!” ‘What would you say?‘ The brother said,

‘It would be nonsense to pray like that. It is a thermos.‘ The friend then said 

to him, ‘You are doing the same thing. God in times past has included you

in Christ. When He died you died. When He lived you lived. Now today

you cannot say, “I want to die. I want to be crucified. I want to have 

resurrection life.” The Lord simply looks at you and says, “You are dead!

You have new life!” ‘All your praying is just as absurd as that of the thermos

flask. You do not need to ask the Lord for anything; you merely need your

eyes opened to see that He has done it all.’  The man was shocked and

the light dawned. With tears in his eyes he said, ‘Lord, I praise Thee that

Thou hast included me in Christ. All that is His is mine!’ And, that brother

began to live a changed life.”  Watchman Nee