As believers in Christ, we need to take Christ as our way and live Him in what He is, which is to express Him and manifest Him; also, we fight the spiritual warfare for Christ as we remain in Christ.
As we love God and fear God, being filled both with God as love and with a healthy fear of God, we will not only keep God’s commandments but also walk in His ways.
As we love the Lord, our love for Him is complemented by our fear of Him and by having an awe-filled reverence. We do not only judge things outwardly, but we know God in His ways.
Moses knew not only God’s works – which were miraculous and wonderful; he also knew God’s ways, for he knew God in what He is.
We need not only to know what God can do for us and for His people, but know God Himself, know what He is, and be one with Him so that we may walk in His ways.
Actually, whatever God is, is a way to us; God is love, light, holiness, and righteousness, and all these are His ways.
By being joined to Him organically, we can know Him in an intrinsic way – we can know Him not only in what He does but in what He is, and as we know Him, we walk according to His ways.
Such a knowing of God is not objective or outward but subjective and inward; we know God in His way by believing into Him, that is, by laying hold of Him in our organic union with Him.
As we abide in this organic union with the Lord, His person and our person merge together, His attributes and ours merge, and in this wonderful organic union we know God subjectively according to His ways of honesty, justice, righteousness, love, etc and we walk according to His ways.
As we live in the organic union with the Lord, we live God, we express God, we manifest God, and we magnify God; the way to do this is simply by remaining in the organic union with the Lord and we will magnify Him.
In the book of Deuteronomy we are told again and again concerning who and what our God is; He not only delivers us from the world and brings us into the wilderness, feeds us with heavenly food, gives us revelation concerning His building, and makes us His people, etc.
Even more, our God is that He loves the sojourners and feeds them; He is holy and righteous; He doesn’t regard persons and doesn’t take bribes, and He executes justice for the orphan and the widow. To walk in God’s ways is to walk according to what God is.
Taking Christ as our Way to Live Him in what He is to Magnify Him and Manifest Him
We need to walk in the ways of God; the God who is our way is Christ, and for us to take Christ as our way is for us to live Him in what He is.
To live Christ in what He is to express God, to manifest Him, and even to magnify Him (John 14:6; Phil. 1:20-21).
Christ is the way and the reality and the life; the way we should live is Christ, and we can know Christ and His ways through our organic union with Christ.
As we know Christ, we take Christ as our way and, as we do so, we are able to live Him in what He is; the result is that we manifest Him and magnify Him.
When we take what God is as our ways and we walk in this ways, we live God. We need to be such ones – we need to take God in what He is and live Him in what He is; Christ is our way, when we take Him as our way, we live Him, we express Him, we manifest Him, and we magnify Him.
May we learn to take God as our way and act as He acts; may we walk in God’s ways to live God, express God, manifest God, and magnify God.
In the vision of the New Jerusalem in Rev. 21:21 we see that there’s just one street made of pure gold; this signifies that the nature of God is our unique way.
As those living in the church life as a foretaste and miniature of the New Jerusalem, we need to walk according to the unique way, which is the nature of God.
The river of water of life proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb and flows in the midst of the street (Rev. 22:1).
This shows that God is both our way (as typified by the street) and our life (as typified by the river of life and the tree of life in the middle of the street).
When we take God as our life, His life and nature becomes the way in which we walk. Today we need to be those who fear God and walk in His ways.
We do this by partaking of Him as the water of life and the tree of life in our mingled spirit, for in this way we partake of the divine nature and we can walk in God’s ways.
We take God as our life, and His life with His nature then becomes the way on which we walk (1 John 5:13; 2 Pet. 1:4).
We did not only receive God’s life and nature once and for all; we need to daily continue to enjoy God’s life and walk according to His divine nature.
When we enjoy God as life and take Christ as our way, we will live Christ in what He is, and in this way we will express Him, manifest Him, and magnify Him.
Lord Jesus, we take You as our life and as our way; we take You as our way day by day so that we may live You in what You are. Keep us in the organic union with You so that we may not only know about You or about what You do, but that we may know You intimately and intrinsically, even know Your ways. Lord, may we have a foretaste of the New Jerusalem in our Christian life and church life by taking God as our life and walking according to the divine nature in our daily living!
Fighting to Remain in Christ and Enjoy what God gave us, knowing that God Fights for us!
In Deut. 20:1-20 we see that the children of Israel went forth in battle to fight against their enemies; today we also are in a war. We need to dispossess those who are usurping the good land, so fighting is involved.
We may think we’re not a fighter and we can’t really fight, but we need to realize that the good land is prepared for us and the good land is in our mingled spirit!
So when we turn to our spirit and enjoy the organic union with the Lord, we touch Him, we enjoy Him as the good land, and we are fighting the battle in the organic union with the Lord, for He fights in us and for us!
In this war we are fighting for Christ and to remain in Christ. Our fight is not for victory; the victory has been won, we stand in the victory of Christ, and we fight to remain in Christ!
When it comes down to it, our fight is not for this or for that – our fight is to remain in Christ, to remain in the organic union, which is both our entry into the good land and the reality of the good land.
If we would possess Christ and live in Christ as our land, we need to fight against the spiritual enemies (Col. 1:12; Eph. 3:8; 6:10-18).
As we are fighting, however, we need to realize that we are fighting for what God has already given to us; once the enemies have been defeated, the land will be cleared for our inheritance.
Actually, it’s not us who are fighting; God goes with us and He fights for us (see Deut. 20:3-4).
We are not the fighting ones; our fighting is to remain in Him, to abide in Him, and to be in the organic union with Him, and He will fight in us, with us, for us, and through us.
As long as we remain in Him, as long as we abide in this organic union with the Lord, we both enjoy the good land and we fight against the enemies to remove them from the land.
Our fighting is actually our dwelling; where we dwell, that’s where we fight, and as we dwell in Christ, we fight in Christ and Christ fights in us.
As we remain in the organic union with the Lord, there’s a way for us to have security, defense, and victory. Hallelujah!
Yes, it is our duty to fight, but we can’t fulfill this duty by ourselves; we can fulfill our duty to fight only by faith in the Lord, that is, only by the Lord Himself as our life and life supply.
As we take the Lord as our life and life supply, we can fight because He fights in us and through us. We need to believe that the Lord has ordained us to fight and that He will fight for us.
We are ordained to fight; we fight the warfare, but that fighting is mainly that we would hold to Him, abide in the mingled spirit as the good land, and as we take care of our organic union with the Lord, the battle is won.
We should simply take the Lord’s word and obey Him, knowing that the outcome depends on Him (Deut. 1:30).
However, whether we fight or not depends upon us; as seen in Deuteronomy, if some just married a wife, bought a vineyard, or is involved in a certain business, he can avoid the fight because he needs to enjoy his wife, take care of the vineyard, and is involved in the business.
Similarly today in the church life we do not HAVE To go to war, but if we want to experience Christ as the all-inclusive good land, we will fight.
However, if our priority is our new wife, our garden, or our business, we cannot go to war, because our heart is not fully for the Lord.
May we care for the Lord as our first priority, live in the mingled spirit with Him, and enable Him to do everything, including being the victorious one for us!
Lord Jesus, we fight for our abiding in You; we fight to remain in You, for You are everything to us. In ourselves we don’t like to fight and we are not fighters, but we are joined to You, we are organically one with You, and we fight for what God has given us! Hallelujah, God has already given us the good land, and we today can fight in Christ and by Christ to take possession of the good land! Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You to fight the warfare, knowing that we are not the ones fighting but God goes with us and fights for us! We believe that the Lord has ordained us to fight and that He will fight for us; we simply take His word and obey Him, knowing that He has give us the land and He has won the victory! Hallelujah!
Knowing God Better, knowing what kind of Person we should Be and what kind of Way we should Walk
If we thoroughly study these matters, we will know God better and we will also know what kind of person we should be, what kind of being we should have, and what kind of way we should walk (Deut. 4:20, 40).
This kind of experience described above allows us to know who God is, what are His attributes, and what kind of person we need to be to enter into the good land.
We realize that this is conditional – it is not obligatory.
We are under God’s government, but we are not obligated to enter the good land; if we want to enter in, however, we need to be those who love Him, fear Him with awe-filled love, and trust in Him.
We need to look beyond the apparent discrepancies in our daily living and see behind those things – see His loving care in placing these things to know Him in a better way.
May we not lose track of Him but cling to Him in our organic union with Him, even when it doesn’t make sense to do so!
If we prayerfully study these things and fight to remain in Him, we will know what kind of being we should have, what kind of person we should be, and what kind of way we should walk.
We should walk before God and with God according to what God is (Deut. 8:6).
Because we have God’s life, we should learn of Him to be the same as He is; in order to do all the things that God requires, we need the divine life, the life that works with God for His people (John 3:15; 1 John 5:11-13; 2 Pet. 1:4; Matt. 5:48).
We can fulfill all the Lord’s requirements only by God’s life, the divine eternal life, which is the Triune God embodied in Christ (John 14:6; 1 John 5:11) who is realized as the life-giving Spirit (John 14:16-20; 1 Cor. 15:45).
Amen, may we be those who are qualified by the Lord to inherit the good land!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Rick Scatterday for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Deuteronomy, msgs. 2-3, 8, 22-23, 28 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Deuteronomy, week 5, Becoming Qualified to Inherit the Promised Land.
- Hymns on this topic:
– I have learned the wondrous secret / Of abiding in the Lord; / I have tasted life’s pure fountain, / I am drinking of His word; / I have found the strength and sweetness / Of abiding ’neath the blood; / I have lost myself in Jesus, / I am sinking into God. (Hymns #564)
– Fill Thou my life, O Lord my God, / In every part with praise, / That my whole being may proclaim / Thy being and Thy ways. (Hymns #376)
– Oh, what a prize! Oh, what a gain! / Christ is the goal toward which I press. / Nothing I treasure, nor aught desire, / But Christ of all-inclusiveness. / My hope, my glory, and my crown / Is Christ, the One of peerlessness. (Hymns #499)
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