abiding in the Lord by giving thanks in everything and praying unceasingly

March 16, 2012 by · 6 Comments

abiding in the Lord by giving thanks in everything and praying unceasinglyAs believers in Christ we have already been grafted into Christ, we have been put in Christ, and all we have to do is abide in Him. Just remain here – stay at home in Christ! How? The Bible is full of indications here and there concerning the simple ways of practicing our abiding in the Lord. This morning we were enjoying the simple ways of always rejoicing, unceasingly praying, in everything giving thanks (see 1 Thes. 5:16-17). This is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us, that we always rejoice, that we pray unceasingly, and that we give thanks to God in all things and for everything!

abiding in the Lord daily and moment by moment

At the moment of our regeneration the Triune God came into our spirit with all that He is and all He has accomplished – He came to abide in us, remain in us, and continually supply us from within. Our whole Christian life is now a process of learning to abide in the Lord in big things or small things, at home or at work, among our friends, with our colleagues, and in all our living and actions. We are learning to abide in the Lord daily and moment by moment, checking with Him about everything, thanking Him, praying to Him, and opening to Him. As we abide in Him, we are soaked and saturated with Him, and He abides in us richly!

giving thanks to the Lord in everything

When we give thanks to the Lord, we are spontaneously brought into Him and we abide in Him. This is a very simple way to abide in the Lord – give Him thanks! Even after the moment of our regeneration, if we simply thank the Lord for coming into us, the light will shine brighter and we will abide in the Lord. We shouldn’t just ask the Lord for things that we need for our human existence; we need to rather increase our thanking Him for everything. Thank the Lord for having breath, for being healthy, for the divine life, for your mingled spirit, for what He has done for us, for what He is to us, etc. There are so many things we can thank Him for!

1 Thessalonians speaks of how we can be saved and how we can live a holy life for the church life, and it is here that Paul encourages us to give thanks in everything (1 Thes. 5:16). In Colossians we see that the life of experiencing Christ is a life of giving thanks in everything and for all things. In Ephesians we see the church in a very high and comprehensive way – we can have the church life only by living in spirit, and such a church life is a matter of giving thanks in everything. For us to live our Christian life for the church life and for us to experience Christ in a proper way, we need to give thanks to the Lord in everything!

Many times we forget to thank the Lord for everything: when we feel happy we may thank Him, but when we don’t feel anything or when we feel down we don’t thank Him. A very good way for us to be uplifted from our condition and to be brought into a higher enjoyment of the Lord is to thank Him. We can thank Him for the things He gave us, for the people He put around us, for the human life, for the divine life, etc – we will soon discover there are SO MANY things we can thank Him for! This opening to Him to thank Him will deepen our organic union with Him and will bring us further in our abiding in the Lord!

unceasingly pray – praying unceasingly

What does it really mean to “unceasingly pray“? Does it mean that you have to stop any other outward activity and spend 24/7 in prayer on your knees before God? This natural thought seems rather impractical and intangible, impossible to attain by a human being. Prayer is an activity of our spirit – our mingled spirit prays all the time. To pray is to use our spirit to fellowship with God. Our spirit is always willing, ready to pray, but we need to turn to our spirit and use our spirit to pray! Let us not quench the Spirit in our spirit (1 Thes. 5:19) but allow our spirit to be active all the time by praying unceasingly!

Wherever we are, whatever we do, no matter in what condition we are, we can simply call on the name of the Lord, O Lord Jesus! We may call audibly or we may call inwardly – as we call, we breathe spiritually! We pray unceasingly by all the time learning to turn to our ever-praying spirit and keep it active and living. There are many simple ways to turn to our spirit and thank the Lord, praise Him, rejoice in Him, and pray. If we daily practice this as a spiritual exercise, we will spontaneously abide in the Lord and enjoy all that He is – He will be our life, and we will become His living, His expression!

Thank You Lord for everything. Thank You for Your living Word. Thank You for Your speaking today. Thank You for revealing us these simple ways to abide in You. Lord, we want to enjoy You as life and as everything. Increase our thanking. Uplift our experience and enjoyment of You by our giving thanks in everything. Lord, keep us praying unceasingly by turning to You in our spirit everywhere and at all times. Lord, amen, keep us turning all the way! 

References and Further Reading

Filed Under: Christ became the Spirit, Enjoying Christ, experiencing Christ, expounding the truth, God's economy, morning revival, the all-inclusive Christ, the Christian Life, the Lord's recovery, the Word of God · Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

being identified with Christ to dwell in God and see the extension of our days

March 14, 2012 by · 3 Comments

being identified with Christ to dwell in God and see the extension of our daysAs Moses took God as his dwelling place, he realized that the span of his life on earth is short (see Psa. 90:3-11). We may live on earth for 70 or 80 years, and to God even 1000 years are “like yesterday when it passes by, and like a watch in the night” (see v. 4). Our life on earth is short and “full of sins and afflictions” – if we have such a realization, we will take God as our dwelling place! We need to take God as our habitation that we may dwell in God, living in Him every minute of our life, and having all our being in God!

teach us to number our days

Moses prayed, “Teach us then to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psa. 90:12). As he dwelt in God, he realized that he needs to have a heart of wisdom so that he may number his days and have a glad and rejoicing life (see v. 13-17). We may look back to the day of yesterday and feel not so happy about it, but we need to let God teach us to number our days. As we dwell in God we are learning to have every aspect of our daily life in God so that every minute would matter in His eyes. Oh, to dwell in God had have God as our permanent and continual dwelling place!

dwelling in God by dwelling in the secret place

In Psalm 91 we have many aspects of our identification with Christ – in this identification with Christ, we as the believers in Christ make God our habitation, dwelling in the secret place, and abiding under the shadow of His wings (Psa. 91:1-9). This is how we dwell in God by being identified with Christ – we dwell in the secret place of our mingled spirit, and we hide under the shadow of God’s wings. We simply abide in the real oneness with God, and here God becomes us, we are constituted with God and we are one with Him. We simply live together as one – God and man, one life and one living.

enjoying the identification with Christ

There are so many wonderful things that we enjoy when we are in this sweet identification with Christ! Psalm 91 speaks of Christ, the One who lived a life fully one with the Father and took God as His dwelling place. In identification with Christ, we also are under the keeping care of the angels, and we tread upon the enemy Satan (see Psa. 91:11-13 and Matt. 4:6). The way we defeat Satan, the serpent that poisons God’s people and the lion that devours God’s people is by being identified with Christ! In Christ we overcome the enemy and we tread upon his head.

We need to enjoy the sweet oneness with Christ – here we set our love upon God, we are set on high by God, and we see His salvation in the extension of our days (Psa. 91:14-16). As we know, these verses are a prophecy concerning Christ – He has set His love upon the the Father, He has been exalted by God to the highest of heavens, and He is now seeing God’s salvation in the extension of His days in resurrection! Christ can be the One who says, “I became dead, and behold, I am living forever and ever” (Rev. 1:18a). We are the extension of His days for the carrying out of His salvation!

All we have to do is remain in this wonderful organic union, in the identification with Christ. Praise God – He put us here, never to leave – oh, we’re abiding in the vine! In the identification with Christ we take God as our habitation. Here, in this identification with Christ, we are one with Christ in His crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and in His taking God as His habitation. Our days on earth will be filled with purpose, filled with meaning, and they will be extended in much salvation! We want to see God’s salvation in the extension of our days!

Lord, keep us in this sweet and wonderful organic union with Christ! Thank You that it is of God that we are in Christ Jesus – keep us here, identified with Christ. We want to be one with Christ in His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Lord, make us one with You in Your taking God as Your dwelling place. We want to enjoy all the benefits and wonderful things derived from our being identified with Christ in His dwelling in God!

References and Further Reading

Filed Under: Christ lives in me, consecration, Enjoying Christ, experiencing Christ, expounding the truth, God's economy, longings, morning revival, the Christian Life, the high peak, the Lord's recovery · Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

taking God as our dwelling place by abiding in Christ and being in Christ

March 14, 2012 by · 8 Comments

taking God as our dwelling place by abiding in Christ and being in ChristIn Psalms 90-92 we see the saints’ deeper experience of God in the identification with Christ by taking God as their dwelling place. On the one hand we eat Christ, enjoy Christ, drink Christ, and take Him as so many things – He meets all our needs. On the other hand, we need to dwell in God, that is, take God as our dwelling place. We don’t just take “things of God” and enjoy them – we need to enjoy God in a complete and full way by taking Him as our dwelling place – everything we do and are and say are in Him and of Him!

the highest and fullest experience of God

To take God as our habitation, to take God as our dwelling place, is actually the highest and the fullest experience of God. Everything we are and do is in our dwelling place and for our dwelling place – it is here we live, we eat, we drink, we rest, we have our being, and it is this place that we beautify, we improve, and we love. It is the same with God – in God as our dwelling place we eat God, enjoy God, drink God, and we have our living with all the details of our daily experience IN GOD! We take God as our dwelling place in a practical way by being identified with Christ!

This is fresh new light for me – we don’t just “enjoy Christ”, “eat Jesus”, “drink the Spirit”, as things in themselves, but as part of living in God as our dwelling place. As we eat Christ, we dwell in God; as we drink the Spirit, we dwell in God, and as we enjoy Jesus, we should dwell in God. Our eating, drinking, enjoying, and breathing Christ are for our dwelling in God, for our abiding in Christ, in our organic union with the Lord! Moses took God as his dwelling place (Psa. 90), and the Lord Jesus took God as His habitation and He remained in God all His life on earth. This is the fullest and highest experience of God.

dwelling in God by being identified with Christ

How can we dwell in God? Actually, can we really dwell in God? Can we dwell in God in and of ourselves? The only way we can dwell in God and take God as our habitation daily is by abiding in Christ and being identified with Christ. Christ is in the bossom of the Father, and He is the Father’s delight – He dwells in God continually, taking God as His habitation. By abiding in Christ as branches in the vine (John 15:5) we dwell in God, taking Him as our everything. By virtue of abiding in Christ and Christ being in God, we also dwell in God by being in Christ!

We need to be identified with Christ not only in His death (as sister Jessie Penn-Lewis emphasized in her writings), in His resurrection (as brother T. Austin-Sparks wrote), and in His ascension (as brother Watchman Nee wrote many times), but also in our abiding in him to dwell in Him and take Him as our everything. This is what God wants – He wants us to be IN CHRIST, to abide in Christ, and be identified with Christ in everything we are and we do. We need to go on and experience Christ to such an extent in which every part of our daily living would be in Christ!

dwelling in God for His purpose

Furthermore, even our dwelling in God by being in Christ is not only for our personal enjoyment or our individual progress in our Christian life. This higher and fuller experience of God is for God’s purpose to recover the earth. As we experience God in the identification with Christ, God has a way to recover His title and right over the earth! As we take God as our dwelling place, as we abide in the Lord daily and even continually, God has a way to fulfill His purpose to recover the earth and bring in His kingdom! Hallelujah!

Lord, You are our dwelling place! Thank You that we can dwell in You – we can eat You, drink You, and take You in as we dwell in God! Keep us abiding in You as branches in the vine. Lord, we just want to dwell in You and take You as our all-inclusive wonderful habitation. Thank You for grafting us into Christ as the vine – we want to abide here, make our home here in Christ, and live daily in Christ for God’s purpose!

References and Further Reading

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the secret of the Christian life and the church life is living in the mingled spirit

February 4, 2012 by · 7 Comments

the secret of the Christian life and the church life is living in the mingled spiritWhat is the secret of the Christian life? Many unbelievers and believers alike may think that to be a Christian one must obey what the Word of God says practically and do your best to fulfill the Bible. But actually the secret of the Christian life, the power and supply for the Christian life, is not our doing and our striving but is living in the spirit. To live in the spirit does not mean that we engage in religious worship, in religious service, or in religious work. To live in the spirit means that we turn to our mingled spirit and allow the Lord to saturate us and pearmeate us to the point that He lives in us!

the reality of church life

The secret of the Christian life is to live in the spirit. This simply means that we allow Christ to fill us and saturate us to the point that He permeates our whole being – and we spontaneously live Christ, the One who made His home in our hearts and saturated us. Only the Christ who has been wrought into our being can express God and can fulfill God’s purpose – we need to allow Christ to make His home in all our inward being so that He may fill and saturate us! Then, there will be a spontaneous living, a “natural result” – we will live Christ and express God!

What is the reality of the church life? The church life is composed of all the believers in Christ who live in their spirit. The reality of the church life is to live in the spirit. In the church life we learn to pay attention not to our mind or emotion but to our spirit. The Christian life, the family life, and the church life – are all a life in our spirit. The divine Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God is mingled with our spirit as the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, continually saturating us as we open to Him and allow Him to spread in us…

the highest gospel and its result

What is the gospel and what is its result? The highest gospel as revealed in the whole Bible is that we would be saved to the extent that God and we are completely mingled as one – having one life and one living. Though we may be fallen sinners, in His salvation God regenerates us by putting His divine life into us, and daily He is working Himself into us to mingle Himself with us! We need to have a deep realization that the gospel of God saves us into Him to live with Him so that He and we can have one life and one living. We are branches abiding in Christ as the vine (John 15:4) and by eating Him and enjoying Him, we live because of Him (John 6:57).

the central vision of God’s economy

1 Corinthians deals with a lot of problems in the church, but in it Paul is faithful again and again in this epistle to bring us back to the central vision of God’s economy – the Triune God as the Spirit dwelling in our spirit. The solution to all the problems in the church is our experience of the all-inclusive, life-giving indwelling Spirit as the Christ who is applied to us today. We shouldn’t miss this – don’t focus on the problems in your life or the way to solve the problems in your life, but focus on enjoying the Spirit with your spirit as the ultimate consummation of the processed Triune God! When we enjoy this organic union with the Lord in our spirit, there are no more problems but Christ lives in us!

References and Further Reading

Lord Jesus, show us this secret for our Christian life! May we be those who give up trying to fulfill the law or the commandments and just focusing on their spirit! Lord, fill us and saturate our entire being until we are permeated with You. Fill us to the brim, Lord, until we spontaneously live out Christ. Make Your home in our heart, in all the inward parts of our being, until it is Christ living in us and being expressed through us!

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our mingled spirit is a spirit of faith and the way for us to abide in the Lord

February 2, 2012 by · 4 Comments

our mingled spirit is a spirit of faith and the way for us to abide in the Lord [in the picture: Faith is in our mingled spirit!]Every day we realize that our spirit is crucial to God’s economy and to our enjoying of God’s dynamic salvation. Every morning in our time with the Lord we learn again and again to exercise our spirit in a fresh way to contact Him. Our spirit is mingled with the divine Spirit – as soon as we have a clear sky between us and the Lord by applying His precious blood, we can abide in the Lord and He can abide in us! Praise the Lord for this wonderful organic union between us and the Lord in our mingled spirit!

the spirit of faith is our mingled spirit

In 2 Cor. 4:13 Paul says, And having the same spirit of faith according to that which is written, “I believed, therefore I spoke,” we also believe, therefore we also speak. What is this “spirit of faith“? Is it the Spirit of God only or is it the spirit of man? A famous Bible comentator, Alford, said that it refers to “the indwelling Holy Spirit penetrates and characterizes the whole renewed man“. Vincent, another respected comentator, says, “not distinctly the Holy Spirit, nor, on the other hand, a human faculty or disposition, but blending both“.

Today, we are so privileged to know that the spirit of faith here refers to our spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit! Faith is not in our mind – rather, what we have in our mind what we have is just doubts. Faith is in our spirit because it is mingled with the Holy Spirit! We must exercise such a spirit of faith to believe and speak (see Psa. 116:19 and 2 Cor. 4:13). Faith is a reaction to the appearing of God, and it is absolutely of our spirit. In our spirit we can know God and it is here that we need to live a crucified life in resurrection, just like the apostles did for the carrying out of their ministry (see note 2 in 2 Cor. 4:13).

a union of coexisting and coinhering

God desires to be one with man, and the Spirit’s union with our spirit is much deeper and richer than a co-existence – it is an organic union. We can co-exist with other members of a certain club or union, but we cannot be organically one with them. The organic union we have with the Triune God is a matter of coinherence – God lives in us and we live in God! This is what the Lord is talking about in John 15:4, “Abide in Me and I in you“. We take the initiative to abide in the Lord by exercising our spirit, and the Lord abides in us by being joined and mingled to our spirit!

1 John 4:15-16 also speak of God abiding in us and us in God – this is a mutual abiding, a coinherence. Our oneness with God is not just unity but it is the Triune God including us in His divine oneness! After we were regenerated to have God in us as our life and nature we are in this organic union with God. We need to know and experience God in such a away – He is in us and we are in Him. Practically, in our daily living and our daily walk, we need to abide in the Lord by remaining in our mingled spirit to enjoy all that He is. Thank God – He put us here, never to leave – oh, we’re abiding in Christ as the vine!

References and Further Reading

Lord Jesus, thank You for uniting and mingling Yourself with our spirit! We thank You, Lord, for our mingled spirit. Save us from remaining in our mind, where doubts are…. Cause us to run to, flee, and remain in our spirit – where faith is! Oh, Lord, we want to live in this organic union with You in our spirit! Keep us abiding in You today. No more in vain need we struggle – trying the way in to find! Hallelujah, we are in Christ!

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we are joined to the Lord as one spirit, and now we live a life in our mingled spirit

January 31, 2012 by · 7 Comments

we are joined to the Lord as one spirit, and now we live a life in our mingled spirit [in the picture: mountains in China]There are many verses in the New Testament speaking about our organic union with the Lord, and one of the greatest verses in the Bible is 1 Cor. 6:17, He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. What does it really mean to be one spirit with the Lord? This union implies that Christ is in us and we are in Him, but it also implies that He has joined and mingled Himself with us, making us both one. How wonderful – we are one spirit with the Lord! Organically, we are blended with the Lord, and in life, we are mingled with Him!

absorbing all God is into us

Just as the branches in the vine absorb all the riches of the vine and bear fruit, so we as branches in Christ the vine absorb all the riches of Christ! We have been rooted and grounded in Christ, we are one spirit with the Lord, and we need to remain here in this organic union absorbing all the riches of Christ into our being. In this organic union, in this eternal kiss between God and man in our mingled spirit, we are made one with God and we are blended together in life organically to be one spirit!

we are God-men one with God

When we were regenerated, the divine life came in, and we became God-men – not only men, but men with the divine life, man with God in their being. Day by day we can enjoy the divine life in our mingled spirit because the regenerating Spirit has remained in our spirit and became one with our spirit! It is not a small thing to see that we are mingled with God by being one spirit with God. We may be people going about doing the daily things we need to do, taking care of our families, our job, our school, etc, but we are actually one with God and God lives in us! Just like the chorus in Hymns #501 says,

O, Christ! Expression of God, the Great,
Inexhaustible, rich, and sweet!
God mingled with humanity,
Lives in me, my all to be!

Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God has become the life-giving Spirit mingled with our spirit – and now He imparts all that God is into every part of our being. The ultimate result of the mingling of God with us is that we become the same as God is in life and nature but not in the Godhead! We need to see the key to God’s salvation and the practical way to our experience of God – our mingled spirit! We are in Him and He is in us – we are one in life (see John 14:20, 15:4-5).

God-men living the human life by the divine life

The believers in Christ – the genuine Christians, those regenerated with the life of God – are a special kind of people: they do not live their human life by themselves and in themselves, like everyone else does. They live the life of a God-man by living the divine life in their human life. As seen in Gal. 2:20 and Rom. 8:4, we live but it is not us – it is Christ living in us. Our life now is hidden with Christ in God, and daily we turn to our spirit to enjoy Him and experience the living of Christ in us. A mingled living in the mingled spirit!

References and Further Reading

Thank You Lord for making us one spirit with You! Cause us to realize the implications of this wonderful fact. We want to experience You in our spirit and express You in our living. Save us from living a life in and by ourselves – may we live and walk in our mingled spirit. Lord, organically save us from not living Christ – may it be no longer us but Christ living in us! More and more in our daily life, Lord, we want live out the life of the two spirits mingled as one, a mingled living!

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man cannot be justified out of works of law but out of faith in Christ, in the organic union!

January 2, 2012 by · 4 Comments

fallen man cannot be justified out of works of law but out of faith in ChristThe fourth great pillar in the Lord’s recovery is the gospel, and the preaching of the gospel is the speaking of the truth. For us to preach the gospel in an effective way, we need to know the truth in the Bible. In the book of Galatians we see the basic truth of the gospel, which is mainly that fallen man cannot be justified out of the works of law but out of faith in Christ (see Gal. 2:16). No flesh is justified out of the works of law – we are justified positionally and in life through our organic union with Christ!

justified not out of works of law

The truth is the reality of the gospel, and the book of Galatians affords us a complete revelation of the reality of the gospel in basic principles. The first aspect of the truth is that fallen sinful man cannot be justified by works of law. “Out of the works of law no flesh shall be justified” (Gal. 2:16). No matter how much fallen man tries to improve himself and adjust himself by doing his best to obey the law, “by law no one is justified before God is evident” (Gal. 3:11).

we are justified by faith in Christ

Praise the Lord, all we need to do in order to be justified is to believe into Christ! In God’s New Testament economy we are justified by faith in Christ (Gal. 2:16). This faith denotes an organic union with Christ – “in Christ” refers to the fact that before we believed into the Lord we were outside of Him, but now we are joined to Christ and even became one with Christ through believing into Christ. Hallelujah, we are now in Christ and Christ is in us – we are grafted into Christ to be organically one with Him!

Justification therefore is not just a positional matter – we are accepted before God, justified positionally – but also a dispositional matter – we are justified before God and Christ is our righteousness by virtue of our organic union with Him. God doesn’t just “give us righteousness” as a gift – He gives us Christ and makes Him one with us and us one with Him! It is by means of our organic union with Christ that what we are becomes His and all that He is becomes ours. Christ is our righteousness in our organic union with Christ!

an uplifted view of the truth of the gospel

It is so easy to have a low appreciation and view of the truth of the gospel in its basic principle of the justification by faith. We are fallen in our concept, our way of thinking, even in this respect. We need to have an uplifted view of justification by faith – to be justified by faith in Christ, we need to believe into the Lord Jesus out of an appreciation of His preciousness! The speaking of the gospel brings us into a sweet appreciation of the Lord, and we believe into Him! When we call on His name, we are regenerated and we are organically one with Him! In this organic union, God MUST reckon Christ as our righteousness!

[sharing inspired from the life-study of Galatians msg. 8-9, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Four Great Pillars in the Lord's Recovery. You can purchase the morning revival book online, follow the articles on The Four Great Pillars on this blog and become a fan on Facebook for more updates. Picture source: Justified out of Faith]

Lord Jesus, we love You! You are so precious, so wonderful, and so lovely. Infuse us more with Your preciousness, Lord, that we would be strengthened in our organic union with You. O, Lord, how we treasure this union with the Lord in spirit! In this organic union we are justified not by works of law but by faith in Christ! Hallelujah, Christ is our righteousness and He makes us God’s righteousness in this organic union with the Lord!

Filed Under: Enjoying Christ, experiencing Christ, expounding the truth, God's economy, morning revival, O Lord Jesus!, the all-inclusive Christ, the Christian Life, the Lord's recovery, the Word of God · Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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