If we would minister life, we need to know, experience, and gain the God of resurrection, allowing the killing of the cross to work in us for the manifestation of the resurrection life and remaining in the death of Christ to be conformed to His death so that His resurrection life may be expressed through us.
Lord Jesus, we want to be those who minister life to others for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ! We give ourselves to You today. May we know, experience, and gain God as the God of resurrection. May we not only enjoy what God does for us but even more, gain the God of resurrection! Fill us with Your resurrection life! Grant us the experiences we need for us to be conformed to the death of Christ so that the resurrection life may flow out of us to others also! Amen!
We believers in Christ have been called by God not only to be with Him and enjoy Him but also to minister life to others. We can minister as life the Christ we have enjoyed and experienced.
However, how much life and how much reality of the riches of Christ we have and can minister depends upon how much revelation we have received and how much we have suffered for what has been revealed to us.
The way of the ministry is different from the way of gifts; when we have a gift, it is natural to us to just manifest it and express it, and it is a gift given to us by God.
However, the way of the ministry is revelation plus suffering; first, we see a revelation of the glorious Christ and of God’s eternal economy, and then we go through suffering so that this revelation may be wrought into us.
The ministry comes out by the working of the cross; when we allow the cross to operate in us, we will gain the riches of Christ and we will have something of Christ as life to minister to others also.
We may love the Lord, give Him the first place, enjoy Him, and even give ourselves to be trained; this is very good.
But then we go through so many things in our Christian life and church life; sufferings are our portion, and we do not seek to escape but rather, we want to gain more of Christ even through sufferings.
If we’re just willing to submit ourselves to God’s assignment, to His sovereign arrangement, we will have a share of sufferings, but He will also work out in us what He desires to gain, the ministry of life.
He wants to flow His life into us and also out of us to others.
May we take no shortcut to the ministry of life but simply open to the Lord little by little, day by day, for Him to infuse us with what He is and for Him to gain us as ministers of life.
To Minister Life we need to Know, Experience, and Gain the God of Resurrection
The life we enjoy and minister to others is resurrection life; if we would minister life, we need to know, experience, and gain God as the God of resurrection (Rom. 4:17; 2 Cor. 1:9; John 11:25).
On the one hand, the divine life can be ministered by God in Christ as the Spirit, for the Spirit is of life and gives life. On the other hand, we can minister life.
To minister life is more than speaking some Bible verses or sharing something we enjoyed in God’s word or the ministry.
The life we minister to others is the resurrection life; for us to have this life, we need to know, experience, and gain the God of resurrection.
Is our God the God of resurrection, or is He just a God of joy, blessing, and life? Our God is a living God, a god of blessing, and a God of joy; even more, He is the God of resurrection.
We may receive blessing from Him, He makes us happy, and He gives us life, but do we know Him as the God of resurrection? He is the One who gives life to the dead.
The Lord allows us to pass through many difficult situations, complicated situations, and situations that are not pleasant but rather negative and even discouraging. In these situations, we experience God as the God of resurrection.
As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:9, We ourselves had the response of death in ourselves, that we should not base our confidence on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.
We may not be in prison or being persecuted for the Lord’s sake, but we may be in some situations where we don’t know what else to do. We try this and that, and all our tricks or skills are of no use; we have the response of death in ourselves. We only trust in the God of resurrection.
The Lord will bring us to a place where all our cleverness and smartness will not avail anymore; we will simply have no confidence in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.
God is working through the cross to terminate us, to bring us to an end, so that we will no longer trust in ourselves but in the God of resurrection.
We still trust in ourselves so much. We may love the Lord, enjoy Him in the word, and have a desire to serve God, but our confidence is not in God but in ourselves.
We need to know God not only as the living God, the faithful God, the God of joy, and the God of peace but even more, as the God of resurrection.
When the God of resurrection works in us, His life and nature are wrought into us (2 Cor. 4:16). When we have the God of miracles work on us, we have His helpful hands and His blessings, but we may not get His life and nature.
But if we open to the Lord as we pass through sufferings and difficulties, we can know, experience, and gain the God of resurrection, and He works His very life and nature into us.
On the negative side, He will work through the killing of the cross in our being to remove and terminate anything of the natural man.
On the positive side, He will manifest His resurrection life in us, for He works His life and nature into us for Him to be expressed through us.
Something is worked deeply into our being. The killing of the cross results in the manifestation of the resurrection life (vv. 10-12).
We bear about in the body the putting to death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. Death operates in us, and life in others. This is the ministry of life.
For us to be able to minister life to others, we need to know, experience, and gain God as the God of resurrection so that we may have His life and nature wrought into us for us to minister resurrection life to others also.
We need His life to be imparted into us through many consuming situations, pressures, and sufferings, so that He may fill us with His life and also flow through us as life.
Lord Jesus, we want to be those who minister life for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. May we gain You as life. May we be filled with You as life. Oh Lord Jesus, we want to know, experience, and gain God as the God of resurrection! Work in us, dear Lord Jesus, to terminate us and bring us to an end by means of the cross, so that we may no longer trust in ourselves but in the God of resurrection. Have Your way through all the things that we experience and go through to break our confidence in the self and the flesh so that we may trust in You, the God of resurrection! May we gain more of the God of resurrection today! Work Your life and nature into our being! Have a way in us through the cross by the Spirit to infuse the resurrection life into us. Flow in us as life and flow through us as resurrection life to those around us. Oh Lord, we no longer trust in ourselves; we trust in You, our confidence is in You, and we want to be one with You to minister life to others!
Remain in the Death of Christ for His Resurrection Life to be Manifested in us and Flow through Us
As seen in 2 Corinthians 4:16, the putting to death of Jesus destroys the natural man, the outer man, and the flesh, with the result that the inner man is given the opportunity to develop and be renewed to live out the resurrection life.
There is the putting to death of Jesus, which He perfected and experienced and we now also experience today.
All the work that the Lord is doing on us is to destroy our outer, natural man, so that we can live out the life of Christ from within us (John 12:24-26; Phil. 1:21).
He is doing the work in us; we simply need to be open to Him. We simply need to remain in the death of Christ for His resurrection life to be manifested in us and flow through us.
This is the deepest thought in the New Testament concerning the life of a Christian.
The outer man is broken and the inner man is renewed and comes forth. For the Lord as life to flow in us and through us to others, for us to have the ministry of life, the outer man needs to be broken.
We may be serving with the saints in different situations and aspects of the church life; in all the coordination and fellowship, we need to allow the cross to operate in us so that the divine life may flow in us and through us.
We need to be channels of life so that, no matter what we do, life may be ministered through us.
However, many times we have to admit that we are still living in the flesh, in our natural life, in our natural disposition; this is a great hindrance to the release and dispensing of God’s life to others.
Our strong disposition needs to be shattered. Our outer man needs to be broken. Then, we will become nothing; we will be crucified with Christ, and He will live in us.
Remaining in the death of Christ and being conformed to His death is a profound principle of the Christian life (Rom. 6:4-5; Phil. 3:10).
God doesn’t want the cross to be an incidental exercise, when something horrible happens to us and we are mistreated, and then we take the cross.
The cross is not something that is only in that instant. Rather, we need to all the time remain in the death of Christ as a mold.
Just as a person bakes a cake by putting the dough in a certain mould so that the cake takes the shape of the mould, so we need to remain in the death of Christ and be conformed to His death so that His resurrection life may be manifested in us and flow through us.
We belong in the death of Christ. As we live our Christian life, as we practice the church life, as we serve and coordinate with the saints, may we remain in the mold of Christ’s death.
If we do this, there will be peace, harmony, and reconciliation. When we do not remain in the death of Christ, however, we will have problems; we may not like others, and we trust in ourselves instead of trusting in God.
We all should have the mark of the cross on us; we should not be so free to express our opinion or claim our rights but rather, we should be willing to deny ourselves so that life may be ministered.
When we remain in the death of Christ, we experience the power of Christ’s resurrection (vv. 10-11; Rom. 8:11; 2 Cor. 1:8-10; 4:14). We just need to remain here by being in our spirit.
The more we die with Christ in this way, the more His resurrection power will be manifested in us and the more we will be able to minister life to the Body of Christ.
If no death, no life. If we do not die to the self, if we don’t remain in the death of Christ, there’s no way for God’s life, even the resurrection life of God, to flow through us.
May we remain in His death and allow the resurrection life to operate in us. We need the resurrection life; we may not suffer outwardly, but we can be joined to the Lord in spirit to remain in the death of Christ inwardly.
We may be in a situation where our husband or wife gives us a difficult time; we’re right there, in the midst of that tension.
And we may not have the power to endure: we want to speak out, argue, and speak back, even defend ourselves and vindicate. The resurrection power has not yet come.
We shouldn’t think that resurrection power is just a burst of energy, something that suddenly floods us and carries us off from our anger and temper; this is not what resurrection life is.
Rather, in the midst of that anguish, as we’re ready to burst, we inwardly and quietly tell the Lord, Oh Lord, I turn to You. I just turn. I don’t know what to do. I need You.
We don’t speak this outwardly, or things will get worse; we simply turn inwardly.
We are full of weakness, facing difficult and unsolvable problems; we open to the Lord and remain in the death of Christ so that the power of His resurrection may come in and supply us, fill us, and even flow through us.
Our natural strength and ability need to be dealt with by the cross so that they may become useful in resurrection for the ministry of life (Phil. 3:3). May we allow the Lord to operate in us by His cross to work this out in us.
Lord Jesus, we open to You. We want to remain in the death of Christ today so that we may be conformed to His death and enjoy the power of Your resurrection. May we see that You are working to destroy our outer man so that the life of Christ may be manifested in us! Amen, Lord, may we open to Your work through the cross so that the outer man may be consumed and the inner man may be renewed! Lord Jesus, may our inner man be given the opportunity to develop and be renewed to live out the resurrection life! Have a way in us. Grant us the experiences we need today so that we may remain one with You in Your death. Lord Jesus, may we remain in Your death so that we may experience the power of Your resurrection! May we be those who die with Christ so that His resurrection power may be manifested in us and we may be able to minister life to the Body of Christ! Amen, Lord, may death operate in us and life operate in so many saints in the Body! Have Your way to deal with our natural strength and ability by the cross so that we may be useful to You in resurrection! Amen!
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 the brothers on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of 2 Corinthians (pp. 91-93) by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Ministry of the Word and God’s Dispensing for God’s Economy (2026 March ITERO), week 3, “Ministering Life for the Body” – day 2.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Deeper, deeper, in the cross of Jesus; / Deeper let me go; / Death and life, they always go together; / Deepen, Lord, the flow. / Oh, deeper yet we pray, / Do work in us each day; / Go deeper, through and through, / Till in Thee we’re wholly new. / Higher, higher, in the life of Jesus; / Lord, we are so low. / By Thy life we all can go much higher— / Higher let us go. / Oh, higher yet we pray— / Transform us every day— / And richer in the flow; / May Thy life be all we know. (Hymns #1240 stanzas 1-2)
– If I’d know Christ’s risen power. / I must ever love the Cross; / Life from death alone arises; / There’s no gain except by loss. / If no death, no life, / If no death, no life; / Life from death alone arises; / If no death, no life. (Hymns #631 stanza 1 and chorus)
– First the blood, and then the ointment, / Cleansing, then anointing comes; / If we pass not thru Golgotha, / Ne’er to Pentecost we’ll come. / If the blood has never cleansed us, / Ne’er the Spirit’s pow’r we’ll know, / If for Christ we’d truly witness, / Self-life to the Cross must go. / Through the Cross, O Lord, I pray, / Put my soul-life all away; / Make me any price to pay, / Full anointing to receive. (Hymns #279 stanza 1 and chorus)
