Lord, cause the desire of Your heart to become the desire of my heart! Make me an overcomer!

Message 9 in the second part of the Crystallization-Study of Psalms is on, The preciousness of Zion in Jerusalem and the situation of the overcomers in Zion. Zion is a height, an elevated place, within Jerusalem. Psa. 84 mentions, The highways to Zion are in their heart – can we say that in our heart there are highways leading into God, with the goal being Zion, the reality of the Body of Christ? Having the highways of Zion in our heart means that while we are practicing the God-ordained way in the church life, while we live a normal Christian life, there is a corresponding deep inward development taking place within us.

God desires Zion, the overcomers!

We need to know what is on God’s heart – day by day, in our personal conversation with the Lord, we need to tell Him, Lord, cause the desire of Your heart to become the desire of my heart! What does it mean that the true and living God desires something? O, Lord, make my heart a duplication of Your heart in every possible way! – praying in this way we will become, to a certain extent, someone who is inwardly one with God in the desire of His heart, because this desire becomes PART OF YOUR BEING! Not just a revelation, not just a vision, but this desire is part of what you are in Christ! You have a journey with the Spirit of reality into God in His economy to arrive at God’s goal.

Zion and Jerusalem are deeply our consideration

Do we deeply consider anything in relation to the Body of Christ and the reality of the Body of Christ? What are the considerations deep in our being – what occupies us? Paul said in Phil. 2 that he has no one like-souled with himself who genuinely cares for what concerns the saints, because all seek their own things and not the things of Jesus. We may be believers in the church life, enjoying the ministry, but are we like-souled with Paul as Timothy was, caring for the things of Jesus Christ? Yes, we have needs – but we have a Father, and He knows what we need! The Lord needs more brothers and sisters with an inward capacity to consider deeply what is on God’s heart.

The overcomers are concerned for Zion and Jerusalem. Lord Jesus, what are we very concerned about in the Lord’s recovery? Who is very concerned about the building up of the Body of Christ? Who is so concerned for the preparation of the Bride that he/she will say, I live, breathe, eat, exist for THIS – that my life would be a contribution to the Lord’s longing for a counterpart! We have many outward things to take care of – the church life, the human life, and the family life are all practical – but if this is all we have, there’s no zion, no overcoming ones, and no reality of the Body of Christ!

opening to the Lord for His dealings

This matter touched me – who cares for the reality of the Body of Christ today? In such a matter, the only way is to open our being to the Lord in love and give the Lord the ground to touch anything in us that is incompatible with His heart’s desire. We need to give Him the way to build Himself into our being, constituting Himself into us, saturating and permeating us, making us God in life and nature and in every possible way (apart from Godhead) – and then, our being corresponds to Him! Then, in our heart, there are the highways to Zion!

the principle of the overcomers

What is an overcomer? We don’t want to use terms casually – this word, overcomer, is a translation of the Greek verb, Nikao (to conquer, to be victorious, see Rev. 2-3). When the Lord Jesus is calling for overcomers, He uses the participial phrase, to the one who overcomes! An overcomer is one whose living, serving, and very being is for conquering anything that frustrates God’s economy, and he carries out God’s economy!

The principle of the overcomers is that they bear the responsibility that the entire church should have taken up and go on! The church as a whole has failed, and the overcomers are not Superman or Special men – but in normal in being willing to carry out this responsibility on behalf of the Lord and of the entire church, so that through their victory the Lord would consider that the church has fulfilled its mission! The overcomers will receive a reward, but in their being it is not that – they have the highways to Zion in thier heart, and they are very concerned for the building up of the Body of Christ!

the overcomers are for the building up of the Body

We are not yet overcomers – Paul could say only at the end of his life that he is ready to receive the crown – but we can receive from the Lord an aspiration to be an overcomer, and we can pray for the Lord to produce us as overcomers! The overcomers are for the building up of the Body of Christ! They don’t overcome only in their personal life matters such as their temper, the besetting sin, etc – they meet the Lord’s need to be the ones who are willing to be produced by the Lord as the sevenfold intensified Spirit, who give themselves for the building up of the Body of Christ as the reality in the churches!

You may be a very good work in teaching the truth, being constituted with the truth, or caring for others with a loving heart, and you may have success in your propagation, raising up many local churches and baptizing many people – but what is all for and what is all unto? Is there any connection between your experience and enjoyment of Christ, your function, your labor in the work, your sufferings and dealings, AND the Lord’s desire to have a Body built up in reality? The overcomers see the Body, know the Body, care for the Body, and keep every principle of the Body of Christ! The overcomers care for God’s interest above everything else, including their necessities!

[sharing inspired from message 9 in the Crystallization-Study of Psalms(2), given by brother Ron Kangas in the 2011 winter training. This is just a short part of the sharing on how God's desire needs to become our desire so that we may be His overcomers, those who really care very much for the building up of the Body of Christ, the preparation of the Bride, the army, the stone, and the bringing in of the kingdom of God! Lord, give us such an aspiration to be the overcomers today! On the same topic, read, The preciousness of Zion and Jerusalem.]