Having the Proper Standing when Enjoying the Grace of God for the Kingdom of God

And Jehovah appeared to him the same night and said, I am the God of Abraham your father. Do not be afraid, for I am with you, and I will bless you and multiply your seed for My servant Abraham’s sake. And he built an altar there and called upon the name of Jehovah and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well. Gen. 26:24-25

Isaac was a pattern of one who enjoyed God’s grace again and again. His father Abraham gave him all that he had, and God blessed Isaac abundantly. Wherever he went, Isaac prospered and increased. All he did was just to enjoy grace, and God blessed him.

However, we see something very interesting about him: even though he had a great enjoyment in the land of the Philistines and in the land of Gerar, he always had trouble there and had to move away.

Eventually, he returned to Beer-Sheba, where God appeared to him (Gen. 26:15-25). There Isaac built an altar, pitched his tent, called on the name of the Lord, dug a well, and lived under the tamarisk tree.

Yes, he did find enjoyment and satisfaction in every place that he went, but it was only in Beer-Sheba that he had God’s appearing, received His promise, built an altar, called on the name of the Lord, and pitched a tent as a testimony.

Applying Isaac’s experience to our life, we may have enjoyment in many places and many ways, and God may bless us; however, we may have the wrong standing.

We may be in “the land of the Philistines” or “in the land of Gerar”, not in “Beer-Sheba”. We can enjoy God’s grace regardless of our standing, but this enjoyment does not justify our standing. In His time and in His way, God will arrange the circumstances and things around us to bring us to the right standing, to the right place, where He can appear to us and cause us to enjoy Him on the proper ground.

We need to keep enjoying grace and live by grace until the Lord will arrange all things to bring us to our spiritual “Beer-Sheba”, to the proper ground where He can appear to us, we will build an altar to Him, we will call on the name of the Lord, and we will have a well with living water flowing out.

Then, we will become part of God’s kingdom as a testimony in this age. Through our enjoyment of grace on the proper ground, the kingdom of God will be realized, and God in Christ will be expressed through us in a full way.

Enjoying God’s Grace and His Appearing and Having the Proper Standing

We need to enjoy God’s grace on the proper ground

If you read Genesis 26 you will see that Isaac was blessed by God and prospered wherever he was, but he had a lot of troubles and opposition in the land of the Philistines and in the land of Gerar.

He himself was not troubled but was rather at rest, but the people around him were jealous of him and told him to go away from among them. On his side, Isaac was at rest enjoying God’s grace wherever he was; but God was showing him, through his environment, that he wasn’t on the proper ground.

God led Isaac to Beer-Sheba, and it was there that He appeared to him and strengthened the promise made to his father Abraham. Footnote 1 in Gen. 26:24 in the Recovery Version really helps understand this,

Although Isaac enjoyed God’s unconditional grace, finding enjoyment and satisfaction (signified by a well) in every place that he went (Gen. 25:11; 26:15-22), Beer-sheba was the unique place in which he experienced God’s appearing, received His promise, built an altar, called on the name of the Lord, and pitched a tent as a testimony. God’s called ones are destined to enjoy God’s grace regardless of their standing, but this enjoyment does not justify their standing. If we desire to have God’s appearing, inherit His promises, and live a life for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose, we must come to the unique place that God has chosen and remain there. This unique place is signified by Beer-sheba, with the well for life supply and the tamarisk tree as the expression of the rich flow of life (21:25, 33). Cf. footnotes 1 on Deuteronomy 12:5 and 17. (Gen. 26:24, footnote 1)

We may also be like Isaac: we may enjoy God’s grace wherever we are, but for some reason God allows a lot of trouble and opposition in our environment, giving us a hint that we’re not in the right place.

This is the testimony of many young people and saints who have been enjoying the Lord – yet were not fully in the church life but rather enjoyed living in their natural man and even in sin.

This is the testimony of many who were enjoying God’s grace in the denominations and in religion: there is some enjoyment of God’s grace there, but at the same time there’s a lot of opposition, troubles, and people telling you: Yes, you enjoy the Lord, but you shouldn’t be here; get out from among us!

If we really enjoy God’s grace, He will not let us go until we are on the proper ground having the right standing. God wants us to be in Beer-Sheba, where He can appear to us, we build an altar to Him (we consecrate ourselves to Him and put everything on the altar), we pitch our tent (we live for God’s testimony on earth), and there’s a tamarisk tree (we have the rich expression of the divine life).

The Lord is not OK with us enjoying grace yet having the wrong standing; He wants us to be settled and live in Beer-Sheba, the place of His appearing, the proper church life in spirit.

If we want to have God’s appearing, inherit His promises, and live a life for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose, we must come to the unique place that God has chosen and remain there.

We must come to the proper church life on the ground of oneness in spirit, the place of God’s choice, and God will appear to us, we will consecrate everything to Him, and we will live a life for His purpose.

Through our Enjoyment of Grace the Kingdom of God will be Realized

The result of Isaac’s coming to Beer-Sheba was the Lord’s appearing and His promise to inherit the land and have the seed (see Gen. 26:3-5). Isaac inherited the promise that God had given to his father Abraham concerning the good land and the unique seed; this seed is Christ, the One in whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed (see Gal. 3:14, 16).

Through His death and resurrection, Christ became the life-giving Spirit who is the blessing of Abraham, the reality of the good land, and He is constantly dispensing Himself into us to make us the corporate seed of Abraham (see Gal. 3:14, 16, 29; 1 Cor. 15:45b; John 12:24; Isa. 53:10).

When we cooperate with the Lord to return to the right standing before Him, we will have His appearing, He will confirm the promise given to our father Abraham, we will call upon the name of the Lord, and we will live a life for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.

Here in Beer-Sheba the opposers are subdued (Gen. 26:26-31), and we have the right standing to live a life for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.

The fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham is Christ as the life-giving Spirit being dispensed into our being to regenerate us and saturate us with the divine life to make us the corporate seed of Abraham, the kingdom of God.

The promise God made to Abraham was for the fulfillment of His purpose so that God may have a kingdom on earth in which He can reign and He can express Himself through a corporate people (see Gen. 1:26; Mark 4:26; Dan. 2:34-35).

As the Isaacs of today, we need to enjoy grace until the kingdom of God is realized on earth – until God in Christ reigns in us, is expressed through us, and is manifested in man.

The church today is the masterpiece of God, the manifestation of the kingdom of God in which God is busy doing a masterpiece out of a mess through the enjoyment of grace.

To become the kingdom of God in reality, we need to keep enjoying grace until God in Christ is expressed through us, the church, the masterpiece of God (Eph. 2:10).

Never stop practicing to live a grace-enjoying, grace-receiving, and grace-inheriting life for the fulfillment of God’s purpose!

Lord Jesus, bring us to Beer-Sheba, the place where we have a right standing with You. Keep us enjoying You and work in our environment to bring us into the proper church life in spirit so that we may have Your appearing, consecrate ourselves to You, live a life for Your purpose, and have a well of living water springing up to meet all our needs. Lord, make us those who practice living a grace-receiving, grace-enjoying, and grace-inheriting life. May we continue and grow in the enjoyment of grace for the manifestation of the kingdom of God!

References and Hymns on this Topic

Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (msg. 64), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (2), week 9 / msg 9, Living a Grace-enjoying Life for God’s Good Pleasure.
Hymns on this topic:
# O what a shame – when Christ with all His riches, / Has come into the world, life to supply – / That man would live, not by Him, but by teachings, / So powerless these riches to apply. / But all we need to do is eat the Lord; / He’s marvelous, He’s wonderful! / And as we eat, we’re inwardly restored; / Christ grows in us, grows to the full. (Hymns #1110)
# Let’s enjoy Christ to reach the goal, / Partake of Him to beat the foe, / All His vast riches we extol, / Yes, we are freed from every woe! / We may not know a lot of things, / But we are kept from Satan’s stings / By eating Christ, and Christ alone! (New song on Enjoying Christ to reach the goal)
# The grace which God bestows on us / Is just His Son in full; / The rich enjoyment of this Christ / Is plenteous, bountiful. / ’Tis far too great to comprehend, / Too wondrous to contain: / How we, once children of despair, / God’s masterpiece became. (Hymns #1321)
# Jesus, O living Word of God, / Wash me and cleanse me with Your blood / So You can speak to me. / Just let me hear Your words of grace, / Just let me see Your radiant face, / Beholding constantly. (New song on Enjoying Christ as the Word)