We need to be brought back to the enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life, in particular, to the eating of the crucified and resurrected Christ as the tree of life in the church life today, so that we may partake of a special portion of the tree of life in the next age and enjoy the tree of life in the New Jerusalem for eternity.
Lord Jesus, bring us back from any other thing to the enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life today. We come back to You, dear Lord. We come to You in our spirit and in Your word to be nourished by You and supplied by You. We depend on You as the tree of life. You are our life. Oh Lord, show us what it means to eat the tree of life! Show us that the tree of life is the crucified and resurrected Christ for our enjoyment and supply today! Amen!
We can never overemphasise the matter of the tree of life, for both in Genesis 1-2 and in Revelation 21-22 we see the tree of life, which shows us that God’s eternal intention is related to our eating of this tree.
It is easy, however, for us to think we know what the tree of life is, and to believe that we are eating the tree of life, while in reality, we merely have knowledge of good and evil, which helps us not do the evil but choose the good.
We need to let the Lord shine on us in a fresh way today so that we may see our need to enjoy Christ as the tree of life.
How much have we seen of the tree of life? We may be doing the things we usually have to take care of in our daily life, but how much do we see and enjoy Christ as the tree of life?
May we allow the Lord to shine on us and expose us so that we may realise that every kind of problem we have, regardless of what it may be, is the result of a shortage of life.
We are short of life. We need more life. When we see our lack of life, we will be remorseful, and we will confess before the Lord.
When the Lord truly shines on us, and we see our need for more of God’s life, when we realise that we don’t live Christ that much, even though we have been a Christian for many years, we will repent before the Lord.
We will have many dealings with Him. We will even stop our being and our work and just come back to Christ.
We are so used to do this and that, go here and there, and speak this and that, doing everything in ourselves and by ourselves. We do not depend on the Lord as the tree of life that much.
May the Lord really shine on us in our daily life to show us how much we need Him, how much we need to depend on Him, and how much we need to partake of the tree of life in reality and practicality today.
Partake of the Crucified and Resurrected Christ as the Reality of the Tree of Life
In Revelation 2:7 the Lord promises the overcoming believers in Ephesus that He will give them to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.
We need to eat Christ as the tree of life today so that, when He returns with His reward, He will reward us with a special portion of Christ as the tree of life, the portion reserved for the overcomers.
The word for “tree” in the “tree of life” in Revelation 2:7 is the same as in 1 Peter 2:24, where we are told that Christ bore up our sins in His body on the tree, in order that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness.
This is very interesting. We may wonder what the tree of life is, for nowhere in the Bible do we have a chapter or book that describes in detail what the tree of life is.
But simply by looking at the words, the tree of life, in their Greek significance and meaning, we can tell that the tree of life is the crucified (implied by the tree) and resurrected (implied by life) Christ.
Christ died on the tree; the tree of life includes and is the crucified Christ. Christ is our life, even the resurrection and the life (John 11:25); the tree of life includes and is the resurrected Christ. This is wonderful!
In the whole Bible, the tree of life always signifies Christ as the embodiment of all the riches of God (Col. 2:9) for our food (Gen. 2:9; 3:22, 24; Rev. 22:2, 14, 19).
God is embodied in Christ to be our food; He came so that we may partake of the riches of what God is, and He went through a process for us to be able to enjoy God.
In particular, the tree of life we see both in the garden of Eden and in the New Jerusalem signifies the crucified and resurrected Christ for our enjoyment and experience.
We can testify that this is our experience.
We may be in a certain situation where we are pressed and constrained, and we exercise our spirit to contact the Lord; as soon as we do this, the cross of Christ is applied to us to put to death anything of the self and the flesh (Matt. 16:24), and we also experience the resurrected Christ rising up and not remaining in any kind of death or death situation.
On the negative side, the negative things in our being, our attitude, our behaviour, and our daily living are being put to death as we partake of Christ as the tree of life. On the positive side, we live in resurrection, one spirit with the Lord.
May we come to the Lord again and again to enjoy Christ as the tree of life, that is, to partake of the crucified and resurrected Christ as the reality of the tree of life.
Where can we enjoy this Christ? It is in the church life, for Christ today is the tree of life in the church life as the foretaste of the New Jerusalem.
As we enjoy Christ today, as we turn to Him and remain in the organic union with Him, allowing Him to put to death anything of the enemy in us and bring us into His resurrection to live one spirit with Him, we live Christ.
This is to overcome: to enjoy Christ as the tree of life, that is, to partake of the crucified and resurrected Christ in our daily life.
As we enjoy Christ daily in this way, we will live a crucified life and a resurrected life; we live the crucified and resurrected Christ to whom we have been joined in spirit.
The self, the flesh, and the natural man are put to death, and we have Christ living in us, for we not only eat Him but also live because of Him, depending on Him for everything (John 6:57; 15:1-5).
We are in Him, and He is in us, we depend on Him and we allow Him to do everything in us, and He applies His death and resurrection to our being.
Lord Jesus, we want to enjoy You as the tree of life in the church life today. Hallelujah, the tree of life is the crucified and resurrected Christ for our enjoyment and experience today. Thank You, Lord, for dying for us on the tree to redeem us and take away all our sins. Thank You for entering into resurrection and even being resurrection to us. We come to You as we are; we apply Your precious blood. We want to live a crucified life by the power of Your resurrection. Save us from living in and by ourselves. May we allow Your cross to operate in our being to put to death anything negative and old. Amen, Lord, bring us fully into the enjoyment and experience of the crucified and resurrected Christ in our daily life so that we may eat the tree of life and live Christ! Hallelujah, today the crucified and resurrected Christ is in the church, the consummation of which is the New Jerusalem! Praise the Lord, for eternity we will enjoy the crucified and resurrected Christ as the tree of life for our nourishment!
Being Recovered to Eating Christ as the Tree of Life in the Church Life Today
From the very creation of man, God’s main concern was with man’s eating; He didn’t tell man not to do this or that, but He made sure man knew not to eat something of death but eat something of life.
God placed Himself as the tree of life in front of man in Genesis 2:9, and today we believers in Christ have the crucified and resurrected Christ as the tree of life in our spirit.
What we need today for the proper church life is not more mental knowledge of doctrines or teachings but the eating of the Lord Jesus as the bread of life, the tree of life, in our spirit (John 6:57).
We need to read the Bible but we should not merely gain more knowledge or doctrines to teach our mind but more food to nourish our spirit from God’s word (Matt. 4:4; Heb. 5:12-14).
The Lord is concerned with our eating; He wants us to be recovered to eating Christ as the tree of life in the church life.
To the overcomer in the church in Ephesus, the Lord promises to give him to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God (Rev. 2:7).
To the overcomer in the church in Pergamos, the Lord promises that he will eat of the hidden manna (2:17), which refers to the eating of manna by the children of Israel in the wilderness (Exo. 16:14-16, 31).
To the overcomer in the church in Laodicea, to the one who opens the door for the Lord to come in, He promises to come in and dine with him (Rev. 3:20).
The Lord desires to recover the eating of proper food by God’s people – the tree of life, the hidden manna, and the feast, all of which are types of the various aspects of Christ as food to us.
May we be brought back to the eating of Christ as the tree of life today.
May we not only know about Christ and read the Bible but even more, enjoy and experience the crucified and resurrected Christ in the church life today.
We should not merely wait until the Lord comes to give us of the tree of life as a reward; we need to daily eat Christ as the tree of life.
The tree of life is in the Paradise of God, which is the New Jerusalem; we can have a foretaste of eating the tree of life in the church life today.
As we enjoy Christ as the tree of life today, we will be ushered into the full taste of the tree of life for eternity.
As we eat Christ as the tree of life in the church life today, we will be ushered into more enjoyment of the tree of life as a reward in the coming age, and for eternity, the tree of life will be our eternal supply and portion together with all of God’s redeemed! Hallelujah!
As we see in Revelation 22:2 and 14, the enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth will be our common portion as God’s redeemed.
This is our destiny: to eat Christ as the tree of life and drink the water of life for eternity, which will make us part of the corporate expression of God, the bride of Christ, to shine God forth to the whole universe. Hallelujah!
May we today choose to be those eating Christ as the tree of life in the church life today.
May we seek to enjoy the Lord as life, leaving any knowledge, good, evil, and other things aside, so that we may be the Lord’s overcomers today. We overcome by eating Jesus, and we eat Jesus to overcome.
As we eat Christ as the tree of life, coming to Him in His word in the way of life to partake of the crucified and resurrected Christ in our spirit, we are constituted to be the Lord’s overcoming believers today.
The overcomers will be rewarded by Christ with a special portion of eating the tree of life and the hidden manna in the coming age.
May we remain in the foretaste today until we are rewarded with a special portion in the next age and we enter into the full taste in the New Jerusalem!
May we come back to the word of God, remaining in the divine revelation in God’s word related to eating Christ as the tree of life.
The tree of life brings us back to the beginning, where there’s nothing but God Himself: God in Christ to be our life.
Today we may work, labour, and do many things, but as we do this and that, may we pay attention to and come back to the eating of Christ as the tree of life.
As we live the Christian life in the church life today may we be brought back to the beginning so that we may forget all other things and enjoy God Himself as the tree of life. He is our portion, He is our life, and He is our supply.
Lord Jesus, bring us back to the beginning, where there’s nothing else but God Himself in Christ as the tree of life for our enjoyment! Amen, Lord, may we be brought back to eating Christ as the tree of life in all our daily living. We love You, Lord, and we come to You in spirit again and again. Keep us contacting You throughout the day. Keep us in fellowship with You. We exercise our spirit to just touch You and be in spirit. We take Your word into us in the way of life so that we may eat Christ as the tree of life. May we partake of and enjoy the crucified and resurrected Christ as the tree of life in the church life today. Amen, Lord, increase our enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life in the church life. May we remain in the foretaste of enjoying the tree of life in this age until we’re rewarded with a special portion of Christ in the coming age and the full enjoyment of the tree of life in eternity! Hallelujah, our destiny is to enjoy Christ as the tree of life for eternity to be His corporate expression in the universe! Praise the Lord!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ray Mulligan on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of Revelation, msg. 10 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (4) (2025 December Training), week 41 (msg. 5), The Tree of Life – day 2.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Life is mysterious, life is God Himself, / Whose whole intention focuses on man. / God made him to take in the tree of life, / To have a man of life for His own plan. (Hymns #1195 stanza 1)
– Eating is man’s destiny / And the Lord’s recovery; / This defeats the enemy— / Overcome! / Come enjoy the tree of life, / Leave the doctrines, leave the strife! / Overcome by eating Christ— / Overcome! / Teachings ne’er transform the soul, / Teachings never reach God’s goal, / Eating Christ will do it all— / Overcome! / We must overcome to eat, / By ourselves and when we meet, / Eat Him as the feast complete— / Overcome! (Hymns #1273 stanzas 2-3)
– The Lord Himself is food to me, / He is my life supply; / He will my pure enjoyment be, / None else can satisfy. / I freely eat this living tree, / For eating is the way / To put God’s life inside of me, / To live by Him today. (Hymns #1143 stanzas 3-4)
