In God’s economy God wants that Christ would be our all in all – He is faithful to call us into the fellowship of His Son (1 Cor. 1:9). But for Christ to be our all we need that all we have and are in our natural man would be stripped away. We are full of ourselves, so natural, and with no element of Christ in us – we need to be reorganized, reconstituted, and remodelled with God! This is why God allows things to happen in our life, things that are not so pleasant or sweet, so that we may be reconstituted with Christ and may enjoy Him only! He wants to strip us of our idols, our ambition, our self-confidence, and our self-sufficiency, that we may enjoy Him! [continue reading online and leave your comment / portion of enjoyment]
whenever we as God’s people exalt Christ there will be restoration and revival!
After we are saved, we daily call on the name of the Lord and we daily learn to give Him the first place in all things. We as regenerated people need to come together in the meetings of the church and exalt Christ by our singing, our praising, our praying, and even our shouting, Praise the Lord! We shouldn’t be silent – we need to exalt Christ by declaring, Oh, Lord Jesus, You are right now at the right hand of God – we exalt You! We give You the preeminence in our church life, our family life, our work life, our personal life, and in everything! We exalt You Lord Jesus! [continue reading online]
being the seekers of God who care for nothing but gaining God and obtaining God
It is not a matter of “keeping the law”, “doing the right thing and not the wrong thing”, “being good and not being evil” – all these belong to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is a matter of enjoying God, seeking God, obtaining God, and even possessing God as our everything. God wants us to experience Him and enjoy Him to the extent that we honestly and genuinely say, “Lord, I don’t care for anything but the tree of life – I don’t care for anything other than God Himself”. This is what the psalmist experienced, enjoyed, and spoke about when he wrote Psalm 73. [read more online]
overcoming the loss of the first love by giving the Lord the preeminence in all things
One very simple way to overcome the loss of the first love for the Lord is to give Christ the first place, the preeminence, in all things. The Bible begins with, “In the beginning, God …” (Gen. 1:1), and Colossians tells us that Christ must have the first place, the preeminence, in all things (Col. 1:18). In order for us to love the Lord with the first and best love, we need to consider the Lord Jesus as the first in everything. In God’s eyes and in God’s economy, Christ is the first – but what about in our personal universe, in our decisions, considerations, emotions, living, walking, speaking, attitude, and in all our being? [read more online]
desolation comes in when God’s people do not properly appreciate and exalt Christ
Our failure to give Christ the first place in all things – our failure to love Him with the best love and appreciate Him – brings in desolation and degradation. The problem of desolation can be solved by Christ being appreciated and exalted by God’s people (see Psa. 80:17). When Christ is enjoyed, appreciated, given the first place, given the preeminence in all things – when He is properly appreciated and exalted, the house and the city of God can be maintained, preserved, and built up! Our not giving Christ the preeminence and our not appreciating Him is the cause of our failure and desolation. [read more online]
seeing what it means to be a genuine church in the focus of the Lord’s recovery
To be in the Lord’s recovery means that we are Christians NOT just for our own need and not just for ourselves (we don’t focus only on, What can God do for me?) – we are Christians for God’s need, God’s pleasure, God’s heart’s desire, and even God’s goal! Yes, we have our needs, we see what we are, but what about God’s need? What about God’s purpose, His goal, and His economy? We are here learning to lift our view from our petty needs and problems, and look to the Lord to be one with Him for His economy, His need. [read more online]
being the captives of Christ in His triumphal procession scattering His fragrance
In our experience we all have to admit that many times Christ is captive to us, and we “defeat Christ” by living in our natural man, in our flesh, and guided by our self. We may not have problems with sin or with the world, but the question is, Who is Whose Captive? This is why we all need to pray, Lord, make me Your captive – never let me win! Defeat me all the time! The Lord doesn’t need “spiritual giants” but He needs little captives, those who have been defeated by Christ and who are subdued by Him. We need to cooperate with the Lord’s defeating work by praying in such a way, so that He may have a gateway to enter in and defeat us all the time. [continue reading online]