When we believers in Christ contact the Christ typified by the vine and experience His sacrificing life, He in us will energize us to live a life of sacrifice, producing wine to make others happy and also to make God happy. Amen!
The Lord Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches; as the vine, He has a sacrificing life, a life that sacrifices itself for God to be cheered and for man to be happy.
There is a story in Judges 9 that shows that the vine produces the wine which cheers god and man, and the vine does not want to leave this wonderful function in order to go and wave over the trees, that is, to lord it over other trees.
Abimelech, one of the many sons of Gideon, wanted to wave over the trees and lost his function of cheering others by drinking and flowing the new wine of God.
But Jotham chose not to do this; he chose to not lord it over others.
We need to realize that the Lord Jesus as the reality of the all-inclusive good land is a land of vines; He is the vine, the self-sacrificing One.
When we read the Gospels we cannot but be impressed and filled with appreciation of the Lord Jesus, who was God who became man but lived a life of sacrificing Himself.
He sacrificed Himself to the uttermost to serve those around Him, and He even laid down His own life for His sheep, His disciples.
He was not forced or coerced to die for us; He willingly laid down His life for us.
He had the power and authority to lay down His life, and He could have passed this cup from the Father, but He took the Father’s will and drank the cup, dying for us.
Because He died for us, we as many sinners can believe into Him and partake of His eternal redemption, and we can enter into the enjoyment of all that God is and has.
Because of Christ’s redemption, we are filled with enjoyment and rejoicing.
We can now rejoice and be cheered because Christ died for us, sacrificing Himself for us.
This One lives in us today. As believers in Christ, we have Christ living in us, and He in us energizes us to live a life of sacrifice so that we may sacrifice ourselves for others.
We may think that, because we love our spouse and our children, and because we love the saints, we are willing to sacrifice for them.
Unfortunately, there’s no way for us to do this, for our life is ultimately a selfish life; our natural life is a selfish life.
We need to contact the Lord again and again to experience Him as the vine, and He will energize us to live a life of sacrifice, producing wine to make God happy and to make others happy as well.
Contact Christ and Experience His Sacrificing Life to be Energized to Live a Life of Sacrifice
![I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, [which is] your reasonable service. Rom. 12:1](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/I-exhort-you-therefore-brothers-through-the-compassions-of-God-to-present-your-bodies-a-living-sacrifice-holy.jpg?resize=750%2C750&ssl=1 "I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, [which is] your reasonable service. Rom. 12:1")
On His side, the Lord Jesus lived a life of sacrifice. He is the vine, and we are the branches in the vine.
If today we contact the Christ typified by the vine and experience His sacrificing life, we will be energized by Him to live a life of sacrifice to make God and others happy (Rom. 12:1; Eph. 5:2; 2 Cor. 1:24).
Christ lived a sacrificing life, and now He is looking for many who would follow Him to live such a life of sacrifice today so that new wine may be produced to make others and God happy.
In Matt. 9:17 the Lord Jesus said that people do not put new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the wineskins burst and the wine pours out, thus both the wine and the wineskins are wasted or ruined.
The new wine needs to be put in new wineskins.
The new wine refers to Christ as the new life that we enjoy through our regeneration. This new wine invigorates us, cheers us, satisfies us, and energizes us.
When we drink Christ as the new wine, we are energized and cheered, and we’re inwardly invigorated.
The more we drink Christ as the new wine, the more we become cheerful.
Under the Lord’s sovereignty, we may be put into situations when we need to sacrifice ourselves to make others happy (Rom. 12:1; Eph. 5:2).
The Lord sovereignly arranges circumstances in which we can grasp the opportunity to sacrifice ourselves to make others happy.
For example, a mother of a young child needs to sacrifice herself to wake up in the middle of the night when her little one wakes up.
In the family life much sacrifice is needed, out of love for one another; the husbands sacrifice themselves for their wife and their children, and the wife sacrifices herself for her husband and her children.
Sometimes we may say that the marriage life is like a cage, for we’re stuck in there, very limited, and there are many restrictions.
Eventually, we realize that, if we speak of our marriage life in this way, our cellmate may not appreciate it so much. It’s better to say that our marriage life is a situation in which sacrifice is involved.
In our daily life, especially in the marriage life, we need to learn to sacrifice ourselves, not by our own effort but by the Lord’s life of sacrifice.
We are daily put in situations where we need to sacrifice ourselves.
In our relationships with others, much sacrifice is required.
The problem is, however, that many times we don’t see the opportunity that is available.
Rather, we complain, we murmur, we want to change our situation, or we want to escape.
Instead of this, may we all learn to turn to the Lord, open to Him, and contact Him as the vine so that we may enjoy and experience His life of sacrifice in the midst of this situation.
If in the midst of our situations, we contact the Lord, we will experience Him as the wine-producing vine, as the One who gives cheer to God and to others (Phil. 3:1).
In the situations that we’re in, under the Lord’s sovereign arrangement, we can learn what it means to contact the Lord and experience Him as the wine-producing vine.
![The most happy person is the most unselfish one. The most selfish people are always the most miserable…We have no energy to sacrifice, for our life is a natural life, a selfish life. Only the life of Christ is a life of sacrifice. If you contact this Christ and experience His sacrificing life, He will energize you; He will strengthen you to sacrifice for God and for others. Then you will be the most happy person; you will be drunk with happiness. This is the experience of Christ as the vine tree. By this experience you will become a vine to others. All of those who contact you will be happy with you, and you will bring cheer to God. [To make grapes into wine], they must be pressed. To make God and others happy, you must be pressed. Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” p. 240](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-most-happy-person-is-the-most-unselfish-one.jpg?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "The most happy person is the most unselfish one. The most selfish people are always the most miserable…We have no energy to sacrifice, for our life is a natural life, a selfish life. Only the life of Christ is a life of sacrifice. If you contact this Christ and experience His sacrificing life, He will energize you; He will strengthen you to sacrifice for God and for others. Then you will be the most happy person; you will be drunk with happiness. This is the experience of Christ as the vine tree. By this experience you will become a vine to others. All of those who contact you will be happy with you, and you will bring cheer to God. [To make grapes into wine], they must be pressed. To make God and others happy, you must be pressed. Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” p. 240")
We can enjoy Him as our new wine, and as we do this, we’re cheered up, and we will be able to give cheer to others.
The issue of contacting, enjoying, and experiencing Christ as the new wine is that in Him, by Him, with Him, and through Him we become a vine that produces something to cheer God and man.
He in us can do it. He in us can feed others and cheer them. It is not us in ourselves and by ourselves.
Especially in the marriage life we see and sense this quite often; sometimes one of the spouses tries really hard in their natural power and zeal to sacrifice themselves, but at one point they “crash and burn”, being bitter with their situation and unwilling to sacrifice anymore. Oh, Lord.
May we simply present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing to God, for this is our reasonable service.
May we contact the Lord as the wine-producing vine so that we may experience His sacrificing life and be willing to be a sacrifice for others for them to drink the new wine.
When we experience Christ’s life of sacrifice in this way, others will drink the new wine and will be cheered.
It is good to have many intimate conversations with the Lord regarding this, throughout the day and all the time, to open to Him and tell Him,
Lord Jesus, we want to contact You as the wine-producing vine. You are the One who always sacrifices Himself for others to be happy and for God to be satisfied. We want to experience Your sacrificing life today. Energize us to live a life of sacrifice today. Oh Lord, in ourselves we’re not willing to sacrifice ourselves for others, but we come to You to enjoy and experience Your life of sacrifice. May we contact You in the midst of all our situations so that we may experience You as the wine-producing vine. Cheer us as the new wine. Fill us with Yourself as the new wine. May we enjoy and experience You as the sacrificing life so that in You, by You, with You, and through You, we may become a vine that produces something to cheer God and man. Amen, Lord, be expressed through us and in us. Increase Yourself in us and be manifested through us today. Be the new wine flowing out of us into others for them to be cheered and made happy!
Abide in Christ as the Vine and Drink the New Wine, being Filled with Joy in the Lord
![I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:5 These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you and [that] your joy may be made full. John 15:11](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/I-am-the-vine-you-are-the-branches.jpg?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:5 These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you and [that] your joy may be made full. John 15:11")
John 15:5 shows us the kind of organic relationship we have with the Lord; we are the branches in Christ the vine.
Christ is the embodiment and expression of God, and in Him, all the fullness of the Godhead is pleased to dwell.
But this Christ went through a process to be enlarged and increased to include us, the many believers in Christ as the many branches of Christ.
The vine and the branches are intimately related; they cannot be separated, for the vine is in the branches and the branches are the vine.
Christ and His believers are joined together in spirit in an organic union to be the organism of the Triune God for His increase and expression on the earth.
When we believed into the Lord Jesus, He branched out in us and grafted us into Himself as the vine.
Now we are branches of Christ and we simply need to abide in Christ to absorb the riches of His life and be filled with Him.
As we fellowship with the Lord, open to Him, pray, sing, and contact Him, He dispenses Himself into us and His life becomes our life.
He flows in us and grows in us, and He is lived out in us and through us.
We believers in Christ are branches of the vine and, simply by abiding in Christ, we enjoy His rich supply and become His expression. Hallelujah!
If we experience Christ as the wine-producing vine, we will have much wine to drink, and we will be “drunken” and “mad” with Christ, that is, filled with joy in the Lord (John 15:11; Acts 5:41; 13:52; Phil. 3:1a; 4:4).
If we drink Christ, experience Christ as the wine-producing vine, and are filled with His sacrificing life, we will be filled with the Lord and we will have His joy become our joy.
This is the real joy, and this joy is not like the joy in the world.
We need to give the Lord the preeminence, focus on Him, turn to Him, and behold Him, and we will enjoy Him.
We will care only for Him. We will be a crazy lover of the Lord, for we only want more of Christ, the One whom we love.
We are in love with the Lord Jesus for only He is worthy of our love.
Many times, however, we get distracted by the things in the world and even by our own condition.
Sometimes we examine ourselves, turning inwardly and trying to see what is our condition and where we are. This is to be introspective. Oh, Lord Jesus.
When we are introspective, we turn our eyes from the Lord to ourselves, and we are miserable and poor.
But when we turn our eyes from ourselves and our condition unto the Lord, we will be filled with joy, for we will drink the new wine and we will even be drunk with this new wine!
May we have a habit of turning from ourselves, from our situation and from anything else to the Lord to drink Him, be filled with Him, and be saturated with Him as the new wine!
May we enjoy and experience the sacrificing life of Christ in our daily life so that others would drink the new wine of Christ and we ourselves would be filled with this new wine.
When we do this, the joy of the Lord becomes our strength.
The Lord Jesus was a joyful person; He was willing to sacrifice Himself for the joy set before Him.
All He cared for was to dispense His divine life into us.
May we not worry about improving ourselves, fixing our behaviour, and analysing what we are and have within us.
May we keep turning to the Lord and drink of Him inwardly, being one spirit with the Lord in all things (1 Cor. 6:17).
When we turn to the Lord in all our situations and drink of Him, when we simply abide in the Lord and drink Him as the new wine, we will be filled with the joy of the Lord.
Nothing and no one will bother us.
Others will reject us and persecute us, and even close friends may cut their ties to us because we love the Lord so much.
But we have the Lord, and He is enough. We are willing to live a life of sacrifice in the Lord and with Him.
Lord Jesus, thank You for branching out into us to make us branches of Christ, the vine! Hallelujah, we believers in Christ are branches in the Lord and we simply need to abide in Him! Keep us abiding in You today. Keep us enjoying all Your riches. Amen, Lord, may we forget about our situation and condition and simply focus on absorbing Your riches into us. Dispense more of Yourself into our being. Fill us with Yourself as the new wine. Oh Lord, we come to You as we are and we want to drink the new wine of Christ! Fill us with the new wine. Fill us to overflowing. May we have the joy of God and may we also bring others joy by flowing out the new wine of Christ to them. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to learn to contact You in all our situations and experience the sacrificing life of Christ so that we may be filled with the new wine and also flow out this wine to others to cheer them and to cheer God!
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 in the message for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 286 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good land for the Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, for the Reality and the Manifestation of the Kingdom, and for the Bride to make Herself Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 Winter Training), week 5, entitled, A Land of Vines.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– My Sweet Experience of Growing up in the Church Life, via, Living to Him.
– The Ministry Produced through Revelation and Suffering, Part One: Revelation (4), article via, Shepherding Words.
– How Does God Want Christians to Live? Read more via, Bibles for America blog.
– The pathway of knowing the will of God – present yourself as a sacrifice, a portion from, The Experience of Life, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee.
– Living in the Mingled Spirit, The Secret of the Christian Life, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
– Recommendation: the LSM radio broadcast on Philippians here.
– The will of God in Hebrews 10, via, Conversant Faith.
– The way to abide in Christ, a portion from, Life Messages, Vol. 1 (#1-41), Chapter 7, by Witness Lee.
– Daily Experience of God in Christ Living in Us, via, New Jerusalem blog.
– The vine – God’s economy, article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique. - Hymns on this topic:
– Jesus called me one day to the Holiest Place, / To live in His presence divine; / Hallelujah, I’ve heard an encouraging word: / “Abide—you’re a branch in the vine.” / Lord, I treasure the sweet flow of life, / And my soul-life at last I lay down; / O Lord, deepen the pure flow of life; / At Your coming may life be my crown. (Hymns #1191 stanza 3 and chorus)
– “Consider Him,” and thus thy life shall be / Filled with self-sacrifice and purity; / God will work out in thee the pattern true, / And Christ’s example ever keep in view. (Hymns #656 stanza 4)
– He’s the vine and we’re the branches, / We should e’er abide in Him, / And let Him abide within us / As the flow of life within. / In the vine, in the vine, / In the vine, in the vine, / We would know Thee, Lord, / more deeply, / E’er abiding in the vine. (Hymns #1163 stanza 1 and chorus)
About aGodMan
Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” p. 240
Dear brother, we are branches in Christ, the vine, and we simply need to abide in Him and enjoy His rich supply.
May we learn to contact Him in all our situations today to drink Him as the new wine and also flow Him out to others to cheer God and man.
Yes Lord! Aaaaameeen!
The most happy person is the most unselfish one, our natural life is a selfish life, only the life of Christ is a life of sacrifice!
To sacrifice is to be pressed, we must be pressed to produce something in the house of the Lord to make others happy!
Oh hallelujah, we contact the Christ and we have the wine to cheer God and man, what a sacrifical life 👏🏼oh Lord we drink of you today ✨
Hymn 564.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NHlK4wbCJ4
Amen. May there be much new wine in the church today!
Hallelujah, we are branches filled with Christ our vine.
As such he strengthens us to sacrifice for God and others which means us being broken.
Unselfishness and sacrafice will however make us the most happiest people, amen.
Amen brother.
We don’t need to feel that we’re filled with Christ; we just need to keep saying “Hallelujah! I’m a branch.”
Our old man with all his feelings & concepts must be broken in order to produce something in the house of the Lord to make others happy.
As the vine, Christ is everything to us.
Whatever is in Him should also be in us for the expression of the Son with the Father through fruit-bearing.
Yes, branches without the vine are lifeless.
If the branches are cut off from the vine automatically they will die.
To live the right life needs to stick with the vine so that we can bear much fruits and press into wine to be drunk by others for their enjoyment.
Amen keep us enjoying You in newness of Life
Dear brother, although we may enjoy Christ as the wheat and the barley, we must not say “Hallelujah!” too quickly!
Because to become the vines to produce the cheering wine to make God and others happy, we must be pressed, broken as the real grapes for the sacrificing life of Christ to be lived out of us.
For this we must contact Christ the true vine in the midst of our situation to be saved from our natural, selfish life to be those who present our bodies as a living sacrifice, giving up ourselves to cheer God and others in the church.
Praise the Lord! 😃🙋🏽🙌
Amen! We must be pressed to produce the wine to cheer God and man.
The Lord is the vine and we are the branches.
The Lord of everything to us and His life is in us!
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04/23/24 A Land of Vines (Week 5, Day 2)
Matthew 9:17 also mentions the “new wine” being poured out into the new wineskin. The Greek word translated “new” in this verse is neos, which means new in time, recent, young. The “new wine” here signifies Christ as the new life, full of vigor, stirring people to excitement. The new wine is Christ’s cheering life. The divine life is likened to wine that has cheering strength.
When we, the believers in the Lord’s recovery, typified by the new wineskin, being vessels to contain the new wine, receive His divine life, it would work within us all day long to stir us up and to excite us. This new wine strengthens us, energizes us, and makes us very happy. The kingly Savior is not only the Bridegroom to the kingdom people for their enjoyment, but also their new garment to equip and qualify them outwardly for attending the wedding.
Furthermore, Christ is also their new life to excite them inwardly for the enjoyment of Him as their Bridegroom. He, as their heavenly King, is the Bridegroom for the kingdom people’s enjoyment, and His heavenly kingdom is the wedding feast (Mat 22:2) that they may enjoy Him. To enjoy Him as the Bridegroom in the kingdom feast, they need Him as their new garment outwardly and their new wine inwardly.
In our experience of Christ not only should we have the fullness, but we should also have the tears, the flow of wine and oil. The tears in Exodus 22:29 signify the overflow from our experience of the cross. The presses used to make wine and oil signify the cross. By the press, by the cross, wine flows out to cheer God and man, even to be used as a drink offering, and oil flows out to please God. The fullness and the tears signify the rich experience of Christ and the overflow from the suffering of the cross.
John 15:5a says, “I am the vine; you are the branches.” Christ is the true Vine, and we are the branches. Roman’s 12:1 also says, “I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.” As branches in the Vine, that is, having received the divine life of Christ by being grafted into Him as the Vine, we too must be willing to pass through the wine press, that is, to suffer for the sake of others in order to produce wine to make God and others happy. We must be willing to sacrifice ourselves in order to please God and others.
The most unselfish person is the happiest person; the most selfish person are always miserable. In our natural life, we are normally selfish because we do not want to sacrifice for others. Only by enjoying the life of Christ shall we be energized to sacrifice for others because His life is wine-producing and life-dispensing to motivate us to be willing to be pressed to supply wine and oil for others.
Apart from the presses, we may have grapes or olives, but we shall not have wine or oil flowing as tears. On the one hand, Christ is typified by the vine tree; on the other hand, He is typified by the olive tree. Hence, Christ is not only the wheat and the barley, but He is also the grape to produce wine and the olive to produce oil. When the wine flows forth, it cheers God and man, and when the olive oil flows, it pleases God.
Both the wine and the oil require the press. This indicates that Christ as the grape and the olive needs the cross. In our experience, we also must be pressed by the cross, that is, to suffer for other’s sake. In a very real and positive sense, the church life is a wine press and also an oil press.
We need to be pressed so that wine and oil may flow as wine and tears. If we do not experience the pressing in the church life, the grape and the olive will remain whole. The Christian life is a life continually under the pressing of the cross in order that the riches of Christ may flow into others.
As branches in the Vine, we, the believers in Christ, are good for nothing, except to express Christ, as the Vine. All that the Vine is and has is expressed through the branches. Individually, the branches are the regenerated ones. Corporate, the branches are the church, the Body of Christ,to be the expression of Christ as the Vine.
But hey! It doesn’t even feel like “sacrifice” as in the human concept.
On the contrary, it makes you jump up and down with joy!
Hallelujah amen! It doesn’t even come from us, but from Him who indwells us!
Just keep saying, “Hallelujah, I am a branch!” We as branches of the vine will be filled with Christ.
Amen, the vine is Christ in us to cheer others~ praise the Lord.
The vine tree has no trunk, therefore we as the branches are just the same with Christ, we are the branches to bear fruit.