We must stay on the way of life, the line of life, in the maintenance of life by enjoying Christ as the tree of life in the flow of life for God’s building in life by our growth in life; day by day we need to have our living and work in the way of life so that we may take the way that leads to life.
Lord Jesus, we want to stay on the way of life today. We choose to be on the line of life in our daily living and our work for the Lord. May we maintain the divine life by enjoying Christ as the tree of life in the flow of life! Amen, Lord, may we eat the tree of life and drink the water of life for God’s building in life! Keep us growing in life! Amen!
We believers in Christ have entered through the narrow gate when we believed into the Lord Jesus, and now we need to walk on the constricted path, the path that leads to life. We need to follow the Lord’s pattern, always choosing the way of life, the way that leads to life.
The Lord Jesus did not go where He wanted to go, and He did not do what He wanted to do. He did not speak what He wanted to speak, and He did not do the work that He initiated or wanted to do.
Rather, He looked to the Father for all things. The work He did was the work the Father gave Him to do. The words He spoke were the words He heard from the Father.
The places He went to and the time He went to those places were according to the Father, not according to Him.
The others around Him were free to do this and that, go here and there, and speak whatever they wanted to speak.
But the Lord Jesus took the constricted way, allowing the Father and His will to limit Him. He could have done so much more than what He did when He was on the earth, but He took the constricted way.
The apostle Paul, similarly, allowed the Lord to restrict him in his speaking, living, and work, and he laboured more abundantly, yet not him but the grace of God that was with him.
He did not work or labour beyond the measure which the God of measure apportioned to him.
We need to remain on the constricted way. This doesn’t mean that we should always take the hardest way and constrain ourselves in doing this or that.
Rather, we need to allow the divine life to restrict us, constrain us, and limit us, and our daily living and work should be under the restriction of the divine life in our spirit.
May we always check with the Lord concerning all things, and may we walk on the constricted way that leads to life!
We must Stay on the Way of Life in the Maintainance of Life by Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life in the Flow of Life for God’s Building in Life by our Growth in Life
The constricted way is the way that leads to life.
We need to remain on the constricted way, the way of life, day by day. We must stay on the way of life in the maintenance of life by enjoying Christ as the tree of life in the flow of life for God’s building in life by our growth in life (John 10:10b; Rev. 22:1-2; Eph. 4:16; 2:21-22).
Praise the Lord for life! Life is a principle, and we must stay on the line of life. Without life, God’s economy can never be fulfilled or accomplished. As kingdom people, we must be men of life, tree-of-life-men.
As we are aspiring to serve the Lord, work to serve in the church, and work for the Lord, we should not aspire to be a great worker, a successful worker, a powerful worker, but be a life-man, a man of life, by enjoying Christ as the tree of life.
Life is the Triune God Himself embodied in Christ realised as the Spirit flowing into us, reaching us, filling us, saturating us, and flowing out of us unto the New Jerusalem.
Our work and service must be measured by life; is our work and service something of life, something that imparts life, or is it just work? We need to pay more attention to life than to work.
When we are dormant or lukewarm, we are tempted to work for God and just do a work outwardly. But when we are revived, right away we want to do something for God.
And so often, this kind of endeavouring and work, initially it is blessed and brings in some blessing, but eventually it may cause more damage, for we do not stay in the line of life.
We need to be reminded again and again that only life can build the house of God.
The Body of Christ can be built up only in life, by life, and with life.
We can’t work for God by any other means; we need to remain on the line of life, enjoy Christ as the tree of life, remain in the flow of life, build God’s house in life, and grow in life.
Lord Jesus, we want to stay on the way of life today. Save us from merely working for God without remaining on the line of life. Save us from doing whatever we want to do in our serving God. Oh Lord, keep us enjoying You as the tree of life day by day. May we serve You in the way of life. May our living be on the line of life. May we be in the flow of life. Amen, Lord, may we build up the house of God in life by our growth in life! Amen!
We Stay on the Way of Life by Living and Serving according to the Principle of Life, by Loving the Lord to the Uttermost, and by Eating Jesus
How do we stay on the way of life? How do we remain on the constricted way that leads to life?
We stay on the way of life by living and serving according to the principle of life, not according to the principle of right and wrong.
We think that for us to know life requires that we know what is right and wrong; however, we need to be delivered from the knowledge of right and wrong and be brought to the tree of life.
May the Lord save us from being caught in the web of who is right, who is wrong, who did good and who did evil.
There are certain situations in the churches, and the saints caught in these situations consider what is the right thing to do and who is doing something wrong.
May we be saved from this; may we be brought out of our assessment of things according to right and wrong and stay on the way of life. We need to live and serve according to the principle of life.
When we come back to life, the Lord has a way to bless our living and service.
We stay on the way of life by loving the Lord to the uttermost, drawing others to also run after Him (Mark 12:30; S. S. 1:4).
On the one hand, we love the Lord, and we love Him to the uttermost. On the other hand, others are drawn to pursue after Him in love.
Life is not a thing; life is a person, the wonderful and lovely person of Jesus Christ. For us to take the way of life and stay on the way of life means that we take the way that is the Lord Jesus Himself.
We have to love the Lord! Amen, we ned to learn to love the Lord, take Him as our life and person, and enjoy Him in all things. As we love the Lord to the uttermost, others will also be drawn to Him, and they will pursue after Him in love.
When we love the Lord, others will be drawn to follow after Him, even to run after Him.
We stay on the way of life by eating Jesus through pray-reading and musing on the word and by ministering the word as the Spirit into others by exercising our spirit (John 6:57, 63; Eph. 6:17-18; Psa. 119:15 and footnote; Jer. 15:16; Matt. 4:4; 24:45; 1 Cor. 2:4-5, 13).
The way we are on is of life; we therefore need to eat Christ! Christ is our way, He is life, the way is of life, so we eat Christ through pray-reading the word, musing on the word, and prayerfully considering the word!
We can receive life and remain in life by eating the Lord in His word. Christ as life is in the word of God, so we need to exercise our spirit to pray over the word of God so that we may receive more life, enjoy more life, and be filled with His divine life.
We stay on the way of life by eating Jesus. God in Christ as the Spirit is embodied in the word of God; we need to eat the Lord in His word every day.
This means we need to have a daily time to read the Bible prayerfully.
We cannot just read only spiritual books, spiritual biographies, or even only the ministry; we love the Holy Word for Morning Revival, but we need to daily have a time to read the Bible.
We need to take God’s word and pray it every day. We need to exercise our spirit in coming to God’s word so that we may receive Him as life, have Him as life infused into us, and be constituted with Christ into our inner being.
Lord Jesus, we want to stay on the way of life today by living and serving according to the principle of life. Save us from living and serving according to the principle of right and wrong. Keep us on the line of life today in our living and our working. Oh Lord, we love You! We turn our heart to You! We love You and we give ourselves to love You to the uttermost! Oh Lord, draw us, and we will run after You! Draw us to love You more. Keep us loving You with the first love, the best love, so that both we and our companions would run after You! Amen, Lord, may we stay on the line of life by eating Jesus through pray-reading the word and by ministering the word as the Spirit into others! We exercise our spirit to touch You in the word. We come to Your word day by day to just enjoy You and partake of Your riches in spirit. We want to build up the habit of exercising our spirit to be filled with the riches of Christ as we prayerfully muse on the Word of God!
We Stay on the Line of Life by Enjoying the Law of the Spirit of Life, by Abiding in Christ as the Tree of Life, by Not Touching any Death, and by Living in Resurrection
According to Romans 8:2, we stay on the line of life by enjoying the Triune God as the law of the Spirit of life with its divine capacity.
Thank the Lord that He has infused us with Himself as the law of life, and He has written His laws upon our hearts by giving us the inward law of the Spirit of life (Jer. 32:39).
He is now in us as a spontaneous law; He operates in us automatically, spontaneously, and innately.
We just need to turn to our spirit and be in Christ, and God in Christ as the Spirit is the law of the Spirit of life operating in us to saturate us with what God is and save us from any kind of death.
Life is something spontaneous and effortless. When we activate the law of the Spirit of life, God will spontaneously work in us to do what He wants to do.
We stay on the way of life by abiding in Christ as the tree of life in the flow of life under His headship and according to His divine nature (Rev. 22:1-2). This is our destiny in the New Jerusalem, and this is our experience today.
We must abide in Christ, remain in Him who is our Head, and be under His headship. He is the source.
We are under the throne of God, enthroning Him in all the aspects of our life. Out of this enthroned God in our being flows a river of water of life to water us and there is also the tree of life to nourish us.
As we remain under the headship of Christ, we are richly supplied with the Triune God as life for us to stay on the line of life and fulfil God’s purpose in life.
We stay on the way of life by being careful about the people whom we contact and being separated unto God from every situation of death (Lev. 5:2; 11:1-40; Num. 6:6-7).
On the positive side, we stay on the way of life by partaking of God as life and by abiding in Him.
On the negative side, we stay on the way of life by being careful who we contact so that we are not touched by death.
Spiritual death can be wild, mild, or subtle, as signified by the kind of death that is around us, which we can touch.
Whether it is wild death, mild death, or creeping death, we need to choose to stay away from death. God hates death more than He hates sin, for He is a God of the living and not of the dead.
We may hear gossip in the church life, and others may come to us to tell us things about this or that brother or sister. Oh Lord. Such speaking does not invigorate us nor does it impart life to us.
We need to stay away from any kind of speaking that does not bring us closer to the Lord.
When someone speaks something to us that puts a question mark in us, causing us to doubt the Lord and the saints, we must remain on the line of life and away from any death.
May we never give room for death in our being, whether it is mild, wild, or subtle. May we hate death both in our personal life and in the church life.
When we realise that death is present, may we not lend our ears to such speaking but keep ourselves in the realm of life.
We stay on the way of life by living in resurrection, in the reality of the church as the Body of Christ, signified by the golden lampstand, a tree of resurrection life (Eph. 1:22-23; Exo. 25:31- 40; Rev. 1:11-12).
Christ is not only life – He is resurrection life, life that death cannot hold or overcome. He is the Spirit of life in our spirit, and we can live by His resurrection life today.
When we live in resurrection, we become part of the church as the Body of Christ, the golden lampstand, which is a tree of resurrection life.
May we bring all these matters to the Lord in prayer, even prayerfully consider them throughout the day, so that the Lord would go deeper in us and keep us on the line of life.
Lord Jesus, we want to stay on the way of life by enjoying the Triune God as the law of the Spirit of life today! Hallelujah, the Triune God has been installed in our being as the law of the Spirit of life to spontaneously and effortlessly operate in us and dispense God’s life into us! Amen, Lord, we want to switch on the law of life and allow You to operate in us! May we abide in Christ as the tree of life today. Keep us in the flow of life under Your headship according to Your divine nature. We want to eat the tree of life and drink the Spirit as the water of life as we remain under the headship of Christ in our daily living. Amen, Lord, we want to stay away from contacting people who bring in death, for we want to remain on the line of life. May we live in resurrection today so that we may be in the reality of the church as the Body of Christ! Amen, Lord, keep us on the way of life today! May we take the narrow and constricted way that leads to life! 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, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1988, vol. 1, “Living in and with the Divine Trinity,” ch. 13, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crucial Aspects of Matthew 5 through 7 (2025 September ITERO), week 7, Entering through the Narrow Gate and Walking on the Constricted Way That Leads to Life, the Ever-blessed Condition of the Kingdom – day 2.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– To maintain the eating of Christ as the tree of life, a portion from, The Overcomers, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
– 2025 Summer Training Fellowship – Having Dealings as a Young Person for Full Sanctification, via, AgeTurners.com.
– Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life for the Accomplishing of God’s Eternal Economy, outline via, The Church in Regina.
– As offenses inevitably accumulate in the church life, how and to what extent should we forgive one another? More via, Living to Him.
– The New Testament believers – living by the Lord, a portion from, Life-Study of Genesis, Chapter 15, by Witness Lee.
– The Crucial Role of Our Mind in Our Christian Life, via, Bibles for America blog.
– Always staying in contact with the Lord, a portion from, Practical Lessons on the Experience of Life, Chapter 16, by Witness Lee.
– Our Basic Choice, via, Shepherding Words.
– The Experience of Christ as Life, books and excerpts via, An Open Letter.
– Genesis (Program #20) – The Line of Life Throughout the Scriptures, via, Bible study radio.
– Right and wrong bringing in death, a portion from, Messages Given During the Resumption of Watchman Nee’s Ministry (2 volume set), Chapter 79, by Watchman Nee/Witness Lee.
– Are You on God’s Line of Life? More via, New Jerusalem blog.
– 9 Crucial Practices for Building Up a Vital Christian Life, via, Holding to Truth in Love. - Hymns on this topic:
– The tree of life, how sweet the fruit, / With God as life complete. / I once was dead, but now I live, / Was starved, but now I eat… / 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 1 and 4)
– There are two lines to live by in our living today— / One the life line to bring us into Christ all the way. / But the other is knowledge which will make us die; / We must be very careful on which line we abide. / Oh, we’ll stay on God’s life line, never turning aside. / We don’t care for vain knowledge, which will cause us to die. / Lord, we’ll touch You by calling on Your name each day; / Living in Your appearing, in Your presence we’ll stay. (Hymns #1194 stanza 1 and chorus)
– Out from the throne of God and the Lamb / Flows midst the street a living stream, / And on its banks, on either side, / The tree of life is thriving seen. /
This signifies the life of God / Not just for food or water flows, / But carries God’s authority / As it throughout the city goes. (Hymns #979 stanzas 11-12)
