As believers in Christ, we are God-men, those who are born of God possessing the divine life and nature of God and belonging to the species of God; we can be imitators of God and we can be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect because we live according to the divine life and nature of our Father. Hallelujah!
This week, we continue to enjoy the wonderful Christ revealed in the book of Ephesians together with some portions from 1 John, and the topic is, The Children of God Walking in Love and Light.
God predestinated us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself. Amen!
By faith in Christ, we are children of God, and now we can be imitators of God, as His beloved children. As children of God, we walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. Amen!
Many times we do not live Christ and our walk is not in love and light because we do not see who we are and what we are. We are children of God, and our walk should be in love and light.
This doesn’t mean that we need to get up and walk around in the sunshine; rather, it refers to our daily human living. How do children of God walk and live? They live in love and light, for they live according to the life and nature of their heavenly Father.
This means that we are brought into the very inner essence of God, who is love and light, and we live one spirit with Him, even allowing Him to live in us and express Himself through us.
When we live in spirit and according to the Spirit, we live in love and light, for the divine nature in us is love and light.
This is to live and walk in intimacy with God, being constituted with the life and nature of God, and having God’s life and nature as the inner source for our daily walk. Praise the Lord!
May we open to the Lord day by day, even moment by moment, to allow Him to shine in us, expose any sin and wickedness, and bring us in His way, even bring us up-to-date with Him, so that we may live one spirit with Him.
When Christ lives in us and we live Christ, we live in love and light. When we live one spirit with the Lord, we will walk in the light even as He is in the light, and we will walk in love, loving God and loving one another by God as our love.
By Faith in Christ we are Children of God, God-men born of God having His Life and Nature
According to Ephesians 1:5 and 9 we see that God has a good pleasure and a heart’s desire; according to the New Testament revelation, God wants to be one with man and make man the same as He is.
God’s good pleasure is to be one with man and to make man the same as God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. This is tremendous!
God doesn’t just want us to do our best to imitate Christ and be like Christ by our own efforts; He wants to be one with us and make us the same as He is in every possible way!
And it all starts with our regeneration. When we repent and believe into the Lord Jesus, we are regenerated with the life of God to be children of God, even to be God-men (1 John 3:1; John 1:12-13). Wow!
We may not have felt anything special or spectacular when we repented and believed into the Lord Jesus, but something amazing happened: we were born of God to belong to the species of God!
Just as we are born of our human parents to be part of the human species, so we are born of God to be part of the species of God!
Now God is our Father! 1 John 3:1 tells us that God showed us His love that we are called children of God, and we are; we are now children of God, having His life and nature. We are children of God who are begotten of God (2:29).
By faith in Christ, we are begotten of God to be children of God, having God as our genuine Father. This is truly amazing!
God is our real, genuine Father, and we are His real, genuine children. We need to know this. This has to be a realisation that we have day by day.
We can call God our Father, even call Him lovingly, Abba Father. We have a tender and precious relationship with God, for God is our Father.
It is the greatest wonder in the universe that we human beings can be begotten of God and that sinners could be made children of God (1 John 3:1, 9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18; John 1:12-13).
Other religions teach people to do good works and bring sacrifices to appease a god, but the Bible tells us that we can be born of God and that we sinners can become sons of God! Hallelujah!
Through such an amazing divine birth, we have received the divine life, the eternal life, as the divine seed sown into our being (1 John 1:2; 3:9). We obtained the divine life by faith in Christ.
This life, the divine life we obtained at the time of our regeneration, enables us to be God’s children. Even more, the divine life we received gives us the authority to be children of God.
John 1:12-13 is an amazing portion of the Word showing us that everyone who receives Christ by faith is given the authority to become a child of God, that is, the one who believes into His name.
Such a one is begotten not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God.
The children of God have been begotten of God, not of blood (the physical life), nor of the will of the flesh (the will of the fallen man after man became flesh), nor of the will of man (the will of man created by God) but of God. Hallelujah, we are born of God!
When we became children of God, we were born of God; we were not born of our physical life, our fallen life, or our created life, but of the uncreated divine life of God!
By our divine birth of our heavenly Father, we are children of God, we have the authority to be children of God, and we now have a relationship of life with our God! Hallelujah!
God sent the Spirit of His Son into our spirit, and the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:16).
Even though we may sin, backslide, and stay away from God sometimes, we still have the deep conviction that we are children of God.
Once we are born of God to be His children, we will always be His children, no matter how naughty or disobedient we may be.
God wants to not only regenerate us but also impart more of His life into us, even to saturate us with His life and nature so that we may walk according to His life and nature and therefore walk in love and light.
May we realise that, as those who have been born of God, we have not only the divine life but also the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).
Since we have been born of the divine life and we possess the divine life, we, the children of God, are divine persons (1 John 5:11-13; 3:1, 10).
It is good to bring all these verses and this topic to the Lord and pray over the verses, open to the Lord, and have a deep impression of what we are and who we are in God’s eyes. We may even tell the Lord,
Lord Jesus, cause us to see that God’s good pleasure is to be one with man and to make man the same as He is in life and nature. Hallelujah, we believers in Christ are children of God! Amen, Lord, may we see that, as children of God, we are God-men, possessing the life and nature of God, and belonging to the species of God! Praise the Lord, God is our real Father, and we are His real children! Wow, God is our genuine Father and we believers in Christ are the genuine children of God! What an amazing fact and what a wonder it is that we human beings can be begotten of God and that sinners can be made children of God! May we see this, Lord! May we see that through the divine birth we received the divine life of God in our spirit! May we realise that we are divine persons who possess the divine life and nature of God! Praise the Lord, the Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God! Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God – and we are! Praise the Lord!
As Children of God we should be Imitators of God and we can be Perfect as our Father
When we believers in Christ realise that we are children of God, born of God with His life and nature, we will be revolutionised in our way of living. We will no longer live like the rest of the people around us, for we have another life and nature according to which we should live today.
In Eph. 5:1 Paul tells us that we should be imitators of God, as beloved children. This is not merely an exhortation but a command, an imperative.
It is good to know we are children of God, but this is not enough; now that we know we are part of the species of God, we need to be imitators of God. Amen!
What a glorious fact it is that we are children of God! And what an amazing fact it is that we children of God can be imitators of God!
We imitate God not by our natural life or self-effort but by the divine life in our spirit! Seeing that we are born of God and that God is our Father results in an aspiration to be like Him, to live like Christ, to look like Christ, and even to be the same as Christ.
This aspiration is very good, but the way we accomplish this is not by our natural life or by the effort of the self; it is by the divine life.
John 1:13 clearly tells us that we have been born of God, and 2 Pet. 1:4 tells us that we are partakers of the divine nature.
We have the divine life and the divine nature; therefore, we can be imitators of God because of the divine life and nature in us.
Because we are children of God with the life and nature of God, we can be imitators of God. We can be the same as Christ in our living; even as He is, so we are in this world (John 14:19).
We don’t pretend to be like Him; we don’t outwardly try to be like Him; we don’t ask ourselves what would Jesus do.
Rather, we can be imitators of God because we have His life and nature in us, and we can live according to His life and nature.
As the Father’s children having the Father’s life and nature, we can be perfect as our Father is perfect (Matt. 5:49).
He is perfect. In ourselves and by ourselves, we are not perfect, but when we live by the divine life and nature of our heavenly Father, we can be imitators of God and we can be perfect as our heavenly Father.
We fellowship with God, with the Triune God, and we participate in the fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
We are daily learning to know and live in fellowship with God, our Father.
It is not only after the Lord’s Table meeting, when we worship the Father, that we seek to know Him. Daily, as we live and do many things, we learn to contact the Lord, worship the Father, know Him as the Father, and enjoy the riches of His life and nature.
We are all in an organic procedure to become the same as Christ, the Firstborn Son of God, and God as our Father is the source and rich supply for our Christian life.
If we look at our disposition, our condition, and our situation, we may be disappointed and discouraged, for we are not perfect, nor are we imitators of God.
But we simply need to ask the Lord to make us perfect even as our Father is perfect. We need to ask the Lord to teach us how to live in our spirit to be one spirit with the Lord in our daily life.
We are imitators of God in an organic way, not in the way that a monkey imitates a man. A monkey doesn’t have the human life and nature; it may imitate a man for a short time, but then it goes back to living as a monkey and does the things that monkeys do.
But we Christians are children of God having His life and nature, and we do not look at our failures and mistakes: we look to our Father, we remain in our mingled spirit, and we allow Him to perfect us and make us perfect as our Father is perfect!
Lord Jesus, we want to be imitators of God as His beloved children! Hallelujah, we are children of God, having the divine life and nature of God our Father! Praise the Lord, because of God’s life and nature in us, we can be imitators of God! Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit today. We exercise to contact You and remain in contact with You. We want to remain in the organic union with the Lord throughout the day in all things. We want to imitate God not by our natural life or self-effort but by the divine life in our spirit! Hallelujah, we are born of God to have His life, and we are partakers of the divine nature! Praise the Lord, we believers in Christ can be perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect! Amen, Lord, for the sake of Your heart’s desire and for the fulfilment of God’s eternal purpose, make us perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect! Perfect all the saints before the Lord comes back so that we may be perfect even as our Father is perfect! Amen, Lord, we love You!
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 Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1071-1073, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2) (2024 December Training), week 23 (msg. 11), The Children of God Walking in Love and Light.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– Growing by imitating, a portion from, Life-Study of 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Chapter 13, by Witness Lee.
– Preserving Human Life, via, Shepherding Words.
– Life-study of Ephesians, Message 18: The Church Being the Body of Christ, via, LSM Youtube.
– Ephesians (Program #65) – God’s Economy—To Work Christ into Us, via, Bible study radio.
– Man – Small yet Like God, a portion from, God’s Eternal Intention and Satan’s Counterplot, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
– The True Nature of Our Relationship with the Lord Jesus, via, Bibles for America blog.
– Being born of God to be sons of God, a portion from, Basic Principles of the Experience of Life, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
– Regenerated, Transformed, and Transfigured for New Jerusalem, via, New Jerusalem blog.
– The God-man Jesus, a portion from, The Full Knowledge of the Word of God, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee.
– What does it mean to be saved by Jesus? || CSOC UT Austin youtube.
– How God Created You with a Body, Soul and Spirit to Contain Him, via, Holding to Truth in Love. - Hymns on this topic:
– To God I’m reconciled, / His pardoning voice I hear; / He owns me for His child, / I can no longer fear. / With confidence I now draw nigh, / And Father, Abba, Father, cry. (Hymns #300 stanza 5)
– God, our Father, we adore Thee! / We, Thy children, bless Thy Name! / Chosen in the Christ before Thee, / We are “holy without blame.” / We adore Thee! we adore Thee! / Abba’s praises we proclaim! / We adore Thee! we adore Thee! / Abba’s praises we proclaim! (Hymns #5 stanza 1)
– By Thy love we are Thy children, / Abba Father calling Thee; / Light disperses all our darkness, / Till, like Him, Thy Son, we see. / O what grace! O what truth! / Love is seen and light is shown! / We would praise Thee never ceasing, / Thou by love and light art known! (Hymns #13 stanza 7 and chorus)
About aGodMan
The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1071-1073, by Witness Lee
It is the greatest wonder in the universe that we human beings can be born of God!
By faith in Christ, we are born of God to be His children, having His life and nature! Hallelujah. God is our genuine Father and we are His genuine children. We can now imitate God by living according to the divine life and nature of our Father.
Hallelujah!😃🙌
https://youtu.be/0N5GUSK9tU8?si=WTLJgfz1TbxywRZA
Amen brother. Praise God. He is our Father and we are His children today in Christ Jesus.
Aaaaameeen!
Behold, what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and we are!
Hallelujah, God is our genuine Father and we are His genuine children, as such we can imitate God because we have a relationship of life with God!
Amen, we are children of God, begotten by the Father.
As such, we have His divine life and nature to be imitators of God. What a bold and amazing fact.
What an amazing fact: the very God of the universe is our genuine Father if we have been born of Him.
The divine birth has gifted to us God’s life & nature and made us His species.
Therefore, we can be imitators of God not by our natural life but by His divine life.
This divine life is the authority to be children of God who can be imitators of God.
Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God! What a glorious mysterious fact that human beings can be begotten of God.
We are because we have His life and nature. And as children, we can imitate Him, not by our natural life but by the Father’s divine life and because we are partakers of the divine nature.
This life that makes us his children is not our fallen flesh and blood, but by His uncreated life. This is surely a mystery yet real.
Hallelujah, as many as received Him, he gave us authority to become children of God. By the Father’s divine life, we His children can gŕow n be perfect even as He is!
Today it is possible for man to live according to God’s divine life and nature, thanks to the Father’s manner of love!
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Amen!
We are children of God and He is our real Father because we have His divine life and nature! Hallelujah!
We can imitate God not as impersonators but because He lives in us!
Amen
Yes we are made Children of the almighty God to walk (experiencing Him) in love and and light so that we can enjoy and express Him day by day and movement by movement.
The greatest wonder in the universe is that human beings could be begotten of God and that sinners could be made children of God (Ephesians 2:1, 4, 5).
Praise the Lord for His mercy upon us!
Ameeen!!! Hallelujah!!!
What manner of love this is that we should be called the children of God!
What an amazing divine birth that we become divine persons, belonging to the species of God.
Because we are children of God, we can he imitators of God.
Moreover, we can we perfect as our Father who begotten us is perfect.
Sometimes I mused upon Luke 15 and how, although the father always loved the younger son, the prodigal son remained untouched by that love—until the famine drove him to return home. It matches our own experience: God is love, yet we often question the heart of our loving Father. Only when circumstances bring us to the end do we turn our hearts toward Him—then our eyes are opened, and we begin to see just how deeply He loves us, like a father who has long been watching and waiting. And how much merry and rejoicing He pours upon the entire household when a lost son returns.
Sometimes I see certain saints lamenting and complaining, wondering if God loves others more than them. And deep inside, there’s a quiet smile—Oh sister, oh brother—be strengthened! because once you’ve crossed that river, you will have full assurance of His love. You will see that God is love, and that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.