In the local churches and in the proper church life we as God’s servants “take pleasure in her stones” – we learn to take pleasure in all the saints, the stones in God’s building. We all are stones as building materials for the church (1 Pet. 2:5). We should take pleasure in all the members of the church. When we experience the resurrected Christ, we will see more than the natural features of others, and we will treasure all the other stones. Yes, others may have some peculiarities, but Christ as the stone element is in them, and we also have Christ as the stone in us! Praise the Lord for all the stones. [read more online]
the results of our deeper experience of God by dwelling in God as seen in Psalm 92
Psalms 90 and 91 show us a person who seeks to have a deeper experience of God by dwelling in God and taking God as his habitation. This person is Christ Himself – He took God as His habitation and He did everything in God, by God, and through God. By virtue of us being identified with Christ in the organic union with Him (1 Cor. 6:17), we also dwell in God and take God as our habitation. Psalm 92 tells us of many wonderful issues and results of our experience of God in a deeper way by dwelling in God and taking God as our habitation. [read more online]
treasuring being in the house of God: here we’re enjoying all the blessings of God
From our experience we can testify that one single day in the house of God is better than a thousand anywhere else. We may be away from God and we may think “we have the time of our life”, but when we come into the house of God and we aspire to have the highways to Zion in our heart, taking the way of the church internally, we will realize how good it is to be here! We would rather “stand at the threshold of the house of God than dwell in the tents of the wicked” (Psa. 84:10). It is much better to be at the door, on the threshold, of the house of God, than to be in the house / tent of the wicked. [continue reading online]
turning our tears of weeping into springs of blessings by setting our eyes on Zion
The highways to Zion is not superficial or cheap; the way of the church life demands a price that we need to pay. It is not external, superficial, or cheap. If we wouldn’t care for Christ and the church that much, we wouldn’t suffer; but as we care for the church life, we will partake of the sufferings needed for the building up of the Body of Christ. We will have sufferings related to the church, related to God’s economy, some misunderstandings from your family because you stand for the church, etc – and you may shed tears…. But the Lord turns those tears to be the Spirit! You will be all the more filled with the Spirit and released in your spirit that you may flow! [read more online]
having the highways to Zion in our heart to be the overcomers who enter into God
We need to take a strong decision to be on the highways to Zion today – we need to pray that the Lord would produce us as His overcomers today! The Holy of Holies is Zion, the place where God is, His presence – and this is what we aim for! We are not satisfied to be “in Jerusalem”, in the general church life, but we want to be on the highways to Zion, on a journey toward Zion, by experiencing the Triune God internally for the Body of Christ in all His consummations! Today, in the church age, we need to be the God-men who are perfected and matured to be Zion, the overcomers, the vital groups within the churches. [read more online]
making our nest at the cross and finding our home in Christ at the golden altar
We can now clearly see that the two altars are related in our experience. Paul says in 1 Cor. 2:2, “I did not determine to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and this One crucified”. What we want to know is only Christ and His cross – the cross is our refuge and our hiding place, and Christ Himself is our acceptance and our rest. Day by day we need to come to these altars – we need to come to the cross, where we find our refuge and deliverance from all the troubles and the problems, and we need to further come to Christ at the golden altar, where we rest and are at home in God. [read more online]
having a sweeter experience of the house of God as we experience God’s faithfulness
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]