Christ must have the first place not only in our living but also in our messages, for we work for Christ, we bring people back to Christ, we speak Christ, and we have an affectionate love for Him, so we praise Him and testify of Him, taking Him as our centrality and our universality.
Lord Jesus, we give You the first place in our being. We want to enjoy You as the tree of life by loving You with the best love and giving You the first place in us. Have the first place in our work and in our speaking. May we speak nothing else but Christ. May our work not be for ourselves but for Christ. May we learn to minister Christ and bring others back to Christ for them to eat Christ as the tree of life. Amen, Lord, we love You and we focus only on You! Amen!
What a privilege it is for us to partake of Christ as the tree of life in the church life today, thus having a wonderful church life as a foretaste of the Paradise of God!
If we today exercise our spirit to just enjoy the Lord, focusing not on the lacks or the negative things around us, but on Christ Himself, giving Him the first love, we will enjoy a wonderful and sweet church life in the Lord and with the saints.
If we enjoy Christ as the tree of life today, we will surely participate in the tree of life in the coming kingdom age.
But if we live today in ourselves, just being what we are, living in the darkness of our human concepts, even though we think we are right, we will be in death.
Wow, we can be in the church life and yet live in death and darkness when we do not exercise our spirit to enjoy Christ as the tree of life!
At the centre of our being and in the centre of the church life we have Christ as the tree of life; of course, right next to Christ there’s the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
May we exercise our spirit today to enjoy and experience the crucified and resurrected Christ as the tree of life throughout the day so that the church may be a paradise to us! Amen!
We are not speaking of utopia, nor are we promoting closing our eyes to the existing problems and not dealing with the issues among the saints.
We simply want to come back to the tree of life. When we live by the tree of life, depending on Christ as life, He in us will deal with problems, He will dispense life to others, and He will heal the sick and cast out any demons.
May we really touch Christ and remain in the touch with Christ as the tree of life as we live the Christian life and church life today!
Give Christ the First Place in our Speaking and Work for the Lord to Speak Christ and Serve God
We believers in Christ need to give Christ the first place in all things in our daily life; even more, we need to give Him the first place in our message (2 Cor. 4:5; cf. Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 12:2; Psa. 80:1, 17-19; 110:1-7).
In our speaking for the Lord and in our work for Him, we need to give Him the first place.
First of all, we need to come to the Lord to obtain a fresh and new message from Him, even to gain Him as the living message of God.
We need to ask Him to make us His messengers, those who are filled with Christ as the living message of God and who infuse others with Christ.
God made us His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand in order that we would walk in them (Eph. 2:10).
These good works are just Christ, for the goal of God’s work is Christ. We need to walk in Christ, walk in the good works God prepared for us; this means that we need to give Christ the first place in our speaking and work for the Lord.
Many people today do many things, and their goal is to make a name for themselves.
Even among Christians, so many Christians work, speak, and do great works for the Lord, but somehow the result is that they make a name for themselves, not having Christ as the goal. Oh Lord Jesus!
It is possible for us to work for God yet not serve God. God’s goal from eternity to eternity is that His Son would have the first place in all things. Our work and our speaking should be for Christ.
We need to come to the Lord to purify our motive, our intention, and our aim in speaking to others. We work not only to save sinners but even more, we give Christ the first place in our work so that sinners are brought to Christ.
How successful our work is depends on how much Christ is in it. Our work is not for our own increase, our own group, or our own message; our work is for Christ, for we want God to gain an increase.
When God gains something, we should rejoice, even though it may not be through our own hands.
In our work, we should continually draw people back to the centre and let them see that Jesus Christ is Lord; we must give the Lord Jesus His place on the throne (see S. S. 1:1-4; Isa. 6:1, 3; John 12:41).
It is an ugly thing in Christian service when the workers seek to exalt themselves or enlarge their sphere of influence, gain more following, and increase their own group.
We may gain many people for the Lord, yet there may be a hidden ambition and pride in our being, seeking some kind of respect or admiration. Oh Lord.
May we realise that we’re not here to exalt ourselves. Christ needs to have the first place in our messages, our speaking, and our work for the Lord.
We should preach Jesus Christ as Lord (2 Cor. 4:5), and we should determine to know only Christ and Him crucified among the saints (1 Cor. 2:2).
Christ is the centre and the goal. We bring people back to Christ, we minister Christ to people, and we just want others to gain more of Christ.
Christ is the centre of God’s plan and the centre of God’s goal, and the cross is the centre of God’s work.
We need to allow the cross to operate in us as we enjoy and experience the crucified Christ, and we need to give the Lord the first place in all things.
In order for us to bring others back to Christ, we ourselves must be broken by God and allow Christ to have the first place in us; then, our message will be not just what we know but our very person, our God-constituted being ( Cor. 4:10-13; John 12:24-26; cf. Luke 12:49-50).
Our person is our work, and what we minister to others is what we are in our constitution.
The central message should not be things such as dispensations, prophecies, types and figures, the kingdom, baptism, speaking in tongues, keeping the Sabbath, holiness, victory, or any such things.
Our central message is Christ. We simply minister Christ to others, we bring them to Christ, and the goal of our work is for others to gain more of Christ.
To a sinner, we minister Christ, and we lead him to Christ. After a sinner is saved, we should help him to consecrate himself to be a slave of Christ and serve Christ.
We need to help one another give Christ the first place in our speaking and our work.
May we take the lead, each one of us personally, to give Christ the first place in our life, in our daily living, in our being, in our personal universe, in our speaking, in our work, and in all things.
The Lord’s “well done” surpasses all the praises of the world; the smiling face of heaven surpasses all the angry faces of the earth; the comfort of heaven surpasses all the tears of the earth (Matt. 25:21, 23; Jer. 1:7-9, 18-19; Dan. 4:26).
Lord Jesus, we give You the first place in our living today. We give You the first place in all our messages, our speaking. May we not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as slaves to the saints for the Lord’s sake. Amen, Lord, save us from working for God without serving God. Save us from doing things for God or in the name of God yet with the aim of making a name for ourselves. Purify our heart, Lord, and purify our intention and goal in seeking You and serving You. May we be those who continually draw people back to Christ as the centre so that they enthrone Christ Jesus as Lord. We give You, dear Lord Jesus, Your place on the throne in our being and in our work. Have a way to break us. We allow You to have the first place in us. May You fill us, saturate us, and flow through us as our message. What we desire is to hear Your “well done” and not the praises of those around us. What we want is the smiling face of heaven and the comfort of heaven! We love You, Lord, and we give You the first place today!
Love the Lord with an Affectionate Love and Take Him as our Centrality and our Universality so that we may Give Christ the First Place
How can we give another person, Christ, the first place in all things? According to what we see in God’s word and based on our experience, in order for us to give Christ the first place in all things, we must have an affectionate love for Him as our King (Psa. 45:1-2; 2 Cor. 3:3, 6).
When we love the Lord with an affectionate love, our tongue will be the pen of a ready writer, ready to write our love for Him and our praise to Him with our enjoyment and experience of Him according to all that He is.
We just need to give ourselves to love the Lord. Day by day, we are learning to develop an intimate, personal, and affectionate relationship with the Lord by spending time with Him in spirit.
Then, we just give Him the first place spontaneously, and when we meet others, we speak of Him, for our tongue will be ready, even like the pen of a ready writer.
We will speak of Christ and minister Christ in season and out of season, for we love the Lord with an affectionate love.
It is not only the leading brothers or those who speak messages that should speak for the Lord; we all should speak for Christ, for we love Him, we are filled with an affectionate love for Him, and we’re ready to overflow Him to others.
To love the Lord with the first love, to give Him the first place in all things, is to take Him as our centrality and our universality; we need to take Him as our holding centre and our everything (Col. 1:17-18).
We need to take Christ as the centre, the content, and the circumference of our personal universe.
All the truths in the Bible are related like a wheel with spokes and a hub; Christ is the centre, and all the truths in the Bible are related to Christ.
God’s economy is focused on Christ and is related to Christ. We do not neglect certain truths in the Bible, but rather, we see how they relate to Christ and we focus on Christ as we speak to others.
May we take Christ as our centrality – our holding centre, and also as our universality our everything.
In all things, may we check with the Lord, open to Him, and take Him as our everything and as our centre. In big things and in small things, in all things in our daily living, may we give Christ the first place.
When we experience Christ as our centre and as our everything, we will have nothing else to give others except Christ. Whatever we read in the Bible, we see Christ.
When we meet sinners, we just want to bring them to Christ and let them know the wonderful Christ.
When we meet with the saints, our tongue is ready to speak of the wonderful and dear Christ whom we have enjoyed and experienced.
For this to happen, we need to let the Lord work in us and break us, even break through in us, so that He may have the first place in all things.
Before we can lead others to the Lord, we first must live a life of giving Christ the first place, for our speaking to others and our work for the Lord is just our person, what we are.
We will compose things for the Lord, either in text messages, WhatsApp messages, social media posts, or even hymns – we will just overflow the Christ we have enjoyed and experienced.
May we learn daily, in our daily living, to give the Lord the first place in all things. May we take Christ as the centre, the content, and the circumference of our personal universe.
And may we let Him flow out from within us as we meet others, not being ashamed to minister Christ by speaking of the One we love!
Lord Jesus, we love You. We love You with the first love. We give You the first place in all things by faith. We take You as our centrality and as our universality. Oh Lord, You are our center. You are our content. You are the circumference. You are everything. May Christ be all and in all to us. We open to You and we just wnat to love You more! We want to develop our personal, intimate, spiritual relationship with You throughout the day. Oh, may we be those who have an affectionate love for the Lord as our King! Lord Jesus, we love You! We love You so much that we overflow with the good things we have composed for You! Amen, Lord, we love You, and our tongue is like the pen of a ready writer, ready to write our love for the Lord! We praise You! We want to speak well of You, for we have enjoyed and experienced You, and we want to minister You to others also! Amen, Lord, may we keep coming back to You throughout the day. May we want nothing but Christ and may we speak nothing but Christ! We love You, Lord!
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 on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 11, pp. 750-753, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (4) (2025 December Training), week 41 (msg. 5), The Tree of Life – day 5.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Christ is God’s centrality / And His universality; / He is God’s delight and joy / Throughout all eternity… / God intends in everything / Christ should have preeminence, / And that such a Christ of all / We should now experience. (Hymns #495 stanzas 1 and 8)
– Lord, we’re expecting that we’ll be given / Boldness with every breath. / Christ must be magnified in our body / Whether by life or death. / We hope in nothing to be ashamed, / For us to live is Christ— / He is the Person in all our living, / Our everything, our life. (Hymns #1295 stanza 3)
– Dear Lord Jesus, precious Jesus, / Thou hast won each love from me; / Who like Thee—so fair and comely? / Who like Thee—so sweet and lovely? / Matchless One, unrivaled beauty, / None can e’er compete with Thee! / Dear Lord Jesus, precious Jesus, / Gladly will I hear Thy call; / Since Thy voice my heart hath entered, / I from all things could but sever; / Void are all my other seekings, / Every pride hath disappeared. (Hymns #1158 stanzas 1-2)
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