Experience Reigning in Life by being Under the Ruling of the Divine Life Inwardly

As believers in Christ, we need to enter into the experience of reigning in life; we need to be under the ruling of the divine life, subdue all kinds of insubordination, have our hearts directed by the Lord, and become the same as the Lord is in every possible way.

When we hear of reigning in life we may be quite sceptical, for we look at our situation and the condition of our spiritual life, we may be discouraged.

But we need to remember that God created us in His image and according to His likeness for us to express and represent Him, and He gave us dominion over all things.

Furthermore, we have received a royal, kingly, ruling life; the divine life we received at the time of our regeneration is able to rule and reign.

Rom. 5:17 says that, if we receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, we will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

Our enjoyment of Christ in abundance, our receiving grace and righteousness abundantly, will cause us to reign in life.

It is not our improving ourselves nor is it our striving to be better; it is our enjoyment of Christ as grace.

When grace reigns (v. 21), we reign in life. And our reigning is not so that we may rule over others outwardly or do anything as an outward show; it is an inward reigning, us being under the Lord’s reign so that He may reign in us and we may reign in life.

As we enjoy the Lord as the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, we need to practice the restriction and limitation in the divine life.

This means that day by day we need to enthrone the Lord in our being; on one hand, we come to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace for timely help, and on the other hand, we are under the Lord’s rule as grace.

He is the King, and we are under His rule. In His organic salvation, God wants to bring us to the point where we rule and reign with Him; He wants to save us to the extent that we reign in life.

May we be those like Noah today who find grace in the eyes of the Lord.

In Gen. 6 we see that Noah lived in a crooked and perverted generation; the violence, immorality, and corruption of the people at his time was so evil that God regretted that He had made man.

So He wanted to wipe man out and have a new beginning, but Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord.

He found favour in the eyes of Jehovah.

This enabled him to be faithful to the Lord and His command, and he built an ark to give the Lord a way to turn the age.

We live in the days as of Noah, and we need to find grace in the Lord’s eyes so that we may reign in life and give Him a way to end this age.

Experience Reigning in Life by being Under the Ruling of the Divine Life Inwardly

It is one thing to know about reigning in life and aspire to reign in life, but we need to go further: we need to experience reigning in life.

This is our future, our destiny; in Rev. 20 we see that we will reign with the Lord forever and ever.

Today we need to reign with the Lord. The very life we received from the Lord is a kingly and royal life.

We were regenerated by God with a divine, spiritual, heavenly, kingly, and royal life (John 1:12-13; 3:3, 5; Rev. 5:10).

This life in our spirit, the divine life we received at the time of our regeneration, enthrones us to reign as kings over all things.

In experience, for us to reign in life means to be under the ruling of the divine life (Matt. 8:9).

An example of this was Joseph in the Old Testament.

His brothers wanted to cause him evil, but Joseph reigned in life; in him, we see the reigning aspect of the mature life.

Jacob, his father, went through many experiences of being broken and disciplined by the Lord so that God would gain more ground in him and mature him.

But with Joseph what we see is that, even though he was mistreated and imprisoned, he never reviled nor did he fight back; rather, he reigned in life.

He realized that God meant it for good, for He wanted to work out something in him and through him.

So he reigned in life to the extent that even outwardly he reigned over the whole world known at that time.

Christ is a pattern of reigning in life by being under the ruling of the divine life of the Father (Matt. 5:5-13).

He did not only tell us what to do without Himself doing the same thing; He was under the Father’s rule, being limited by the life of the Father, and He reigned in life by being under the ruling of the divine life.

The apostle Paul is also an example of one who, in his life and ministry, was under the ruling of the divine life (2 Cor. 2:12-14).

Especially in Acts 27-28, all throughout his unfortunate imprisonment-voyage with many others, he reigned in life by being under the ruling of the divine life inwardly.

He was a prisoner of the Roman Empire with a centurion and soldiers around him, but he was entrusted by God with the 276 souls on the ship he was travelling with.

All during the long and unfortunate voyage he had through the winter, the Lord kept Paul in His ascendancy and enabled him to live a life far beyond the realm of anxiety but fully dignified with the highest standard of human virtues expressing the most excellent divine attributes.

His life resembled the life that the Lord Jesus Himself had lived on earth years before.

He was Jesus living again in that situation and in that environment.

Paul experienced reigning in life by being under the inner ruling of the divine life.

No wonder that people honored him and his companions with many honours and much respect.

There was a kind of royalty there in the way that he conducted himself. And the people recognized this and understood it.

When we believers in Christ reign in life by being under the ruling of the divine life, we are delivered from the authority of darkness (Col. 1:13).

There’s a great need today on earth and even among us that many saints would live in this way, under the ruling of the divine life, so that the authority of darkness would be rejected and cast out.

When we are under the ruling of the divine life, we live in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, where we are ruled and restricted in the sweetness of love.

May we practice this today in our daily living.

May we turn to the Lord again and again, in all our situations, so that we may live under the ruling of the divine life so that we may experience reigning in life.

Lord Jesus, we want to experience reigning in life by living under the ruling of the divine life. Thank You for regenerating us with a divine, spiritual, heavenly, kingly, and royal life! Hallelujah for the divine life in us, a life that enthrones us to reign as kings over all things! May Your life grow in us, flow in us, and rule and reign in us. Amen, Lord, take You as our pattern so that, just as You lived under the ruling of the life of the Father, so we may live under the rule of the divine life. We come to You again and again, Lord, and we enthrone You in our being. May Your life reign in us. May we reign in life by being under the ruling of the divine life so that we may be delivered from the authority of darkness. Amen, Lord, may we live in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love where we’re restricted and ruled by the sweetness of love.

To reign in Life is to Subdue all kinds of Insubordination by Submitting to God’s Authority

When we reign in the life of Christ, we are saved from any kind of insubordination; the divine life causes us to reign in life as kings, and the first thing we’re saved from is insubordination.

Insubordination many times describes our situation, for there are so many things in our being that are just insubordinate.

There are many things in our being that rebel against God.

To reign in life is to subdue all kinds of insubordination (Rom. 5:17-18, 21).

In Numbers 16 we see that Korah and others did not like Moses and Aaron taking the lead among the children of Israel, and they rebelled against them.

Moses, however, fell on his face before the Lord; instead of reacting or trying to deal with the situation, he simply went before God with it.

There are many things in us, such as sin, the flesh, the natural man, opinions, feelings, and thoughts that are insubordinate to God, and they rebel against God and His kingdom.

When we live under the ruling of the divine life, we are saved from any insubordination.

We will reign over sin, the world, Satan, the natural man, and even individualism, so that we may live a life for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

When others oppose us, instead of justifying us or throwing stones at them as they do to us, we should simply go to the Lord and let Him shine and deal with what needs to be dealt with.

We need to exercise our spirit and learn to exercise our kingship.

In our speaking, we should not say things that are rebellious but rather, reign in life in the way we speak.

When we feel that our temper rises up in us and we’re about to argue, we need to reign over our temper by being under the ruling of the divine life.

A reigning spirit must be strong and living, active and not passive, positive and not negative, diligent and not loose.

One who has such a spirit not only keeps the position of order and submits to God’s authority but also has strong faith and exercises God’s authority consistently in the position of ascension (Matt. 28:18; Eph. 2:6). Amen!

In order for us to reign in life over so many rebellious things in us, we first must be obedient and submissive to the Lord; we need to first submit to God’s authority and then we can reign in life.

If we’re not submissive to the Lord, who is our Master and our God, nothing and no one will be submissive to us.

For us to reign in life, first we need to be under someone, that is, under the Lord Himself.

If we open to the Lord and take the position of being submissive to Him, living under the ruling of the divine life, we will immediately sense grace within us.

When we sense the abundant grace, we know we’re submissive to the Lord; at this time, we reign in life.

May we be like Moses when we handle any situation, coming to the Lord and asking for His advice, His leading, and His vindication.

As we submit to the Lord, all the “rebels” within us are subdued.

Our temper is subdued, our self is subdued, and our natural man is subdued. And we will reign in life; actually, it is not us reigning but the Lord reigning in us and we reigning in life by being under His authority.

When we submit to our Master, He will come in to rule over all rebellious things in us.

If we submit, we will enjoy the Lord’s ruling in us, but if we identify ourselves with the rebellious matters and things in us, we will sense the Lord’s ruling.

May we come to the Lord again and again to enthrone Him in our life. May we let the Lord direct our heart (Prov. 21:1; 2 Thes. 3:5) so that it may be submissive to Him.

And may we bring to Him anything in us that rises up in rebellion to God, being before the Lord and allowing Him to rule in us by His divine life.

Lord Jesus, we enthrone You in our being. May all kinds of insubordination be subdued in us. You are our Lord, our King, and our Master, and we submit ourselves under Your authority. Keep us coming to You, Lord, and enthroning You in all things, all situations, and regarding all matters. Save us from trying to adjust ourselves or the situation; may we just enthrone You in our being. Save us from trying to deal with our temper or with the things that rise up in rebellion in our being; may we just submit ourselves to You and let You rule and reign in us. May we have a reigning spirit that is strong and living, active and not passive! May we have a reigning spirit that is positive and not negative, diligent and not loose! Amen, Lord, we submit to God’s authority and exercise our spirit of faith to exercise God’s authority in the position of ascension!

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 Ray Mulligan in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1990, vol. 2, “To Be Saved in the Life of Christ as Revealed in Romans,” pp. 301-304, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, An Overview of the Central Burden and Present Truth of the Lord’s Recovery Before His Appearing (2023 July Semiannual Training), week 8, entitled, Reigning in Life.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The Crystallization: Called into God’s Kingdom, article in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Authority and Fellowship, article via, Shepherding Words.
  – The experience of reigning – knowing our position, a portion from, The Experience of Life, Chapter 17, by Witness Lee.
  – The Experience of Reigning, newsletter via, Church in Regina.
  – Reigning in Life, newsletter via, The Church in Los Angeles.
  – The gospel of God: propositions on the book of Romans, article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – We Reign in Life Now and in New Jerusalem, article via, New Jerusalem blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – I belong to Jesus; / I am not my own; / All I have and all I am / Shall be His alone. / I belong to Jesus; / He is Lord and King, / Reigning in my inmost heart / Over everything. (Hymns #306 stanzas 1-2)
  – God’s children, we’re born to be kings with His Son, / And we need to be trained that we may overcome / And to know how to rule in His kingdom as kings, / That His kingship thru us be expressed o’er all things. / Today we must learn to submit to His throne, / How to have a strict life and His government own; / His authority then we’ll be able to share, / O’er the nations to rule with God’s Son as the heir. (Hymns #947 stanzas 2-3)
  – God’s kingdom is God’s reigning, / His glory to maintain; / It is His sovereign ruling, / His order to sustain. / He exercises fully / His own authority / Within His kingdom ever / And to eternity. / Upon the throne, the center / Of government divine, / God reigns, and with His purpose / Brings everything in line. / God’s headship and His lordship / He only can maintain / As King within His kingdom, / O’er everything to reign. (Hymns #941 stanzas 1-2)