Learning to be Human Christians Living in a Jesusly Human Way by the Divine Life

The fact that the four living creatures in Ezek. 1 have the hands of a man under the wings of an eagle shows that we need to work and do things like a man, in a human way; Christian humanity refers not to our natural virtues but to Christ living in us as we live in a Jesusly human way.

On the one hand we need to experience the eagle’s wings, living by the grace of God and being covered and protected by His power and grace, and on the other, we need to live just as a man does, taking care of the necessary human things and activities, yet living by grace.

When we preach the gospel, we are not “powerful gospel preachers” that are unapproachable and untouchable; rather, we are those who care for the people we talk to, and we want to impart to them not only the gospel but even our own souls.

When others are sick, we shouldn’t be super-spiritual about it and pray for healing and deliverance in the Lord’s name, or anything of the kind; we should feel with them, care for them, encourage them to take care of their health, and enjoy the Lord with them.

We need to allow the inner divine life to limit us, discipline us, fill us, and live in us so that we may live just as Jesus did, in a Jesusly human way. Under the eagle’s wings there are human hands, and these hands should always be working.

The fact that we love the Lord, consecrate ourselves to Him, and want to be in the meetings to enjoy the Lord with the saints, doesn’t mean that we should no longer go to school, have a job, or take care of our family and human situation; rather, the more spiritual we are, the more human we will be, yet at the same time we will live not our own humanity but the humanity of Jesus.

The highest humanity is not the perfected, uplifted, worked-on humanity of those who are conscious of it, but the humanity in which divinity is added to it and in which the divine attributes are expressed in the human virtues.

We all have the virtues of love, peace, joy, humility, forgiveness, faithfulness, care, etc, but they are fallen, corrupt, tainted, and if exercised, they are peculiar and partial. We need to enjoy Jesus, eat His humanity, be filled with the grace of God, and let the divine attributes be expressed through our human virtues.

When we enjoy God as grace and let Christ live in us, He will live out in us the highest humanity according to God’s standard.

Learning to be Human Christians Living in a Jesusly Human Way by the Divine Life

When we read concerning the hands of a man under the wings of an eagle in Ezek. 1 we may think that we need to learn to be ethical, moral, and good men; we are not here for that, for having an uplifted humanity – we are here to learn to live by the divine life in the human life!

Christian humanity doesn’t refer to our natural virtues being expressed or lived out; it refers to Christ who lives in us and out of us (see Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21; 2 Cor. 12:2). The divine life in us enables our human life to live out Christ in our human virtues.

Our human virtues should not be just the natural virtues but filled the divine attributes so that it would no longer be us who live but Christ living in us.

We all need to learn to be human Christians – those living in a Jesusly human way according to the humanity of Jesus, which is His human life in resurrection (2 Cor. 4:10-11).

The Lord’s humanity is in resurrection: He passed through death, and He’s now in resurrection as the Spirit to live in us the same kind of life He lived while on earth. This means that we need to be conformed to His death, being daily put to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal body.

For us to have Christian humanity, the humanity of Jesus, we need the humanity which is in resurrection, which has been crucified and uplifted. We are daily being put to death – we are under the termination of the cross, and as we pass through death, we enter into resurrection.

However, Satan is working to damage humanity so that he may ruin both the means and the channel created by God for His economy. God needs humanity to be the means, the channel, the vessel for Him to be contained and expressed, but Satan’s tactic is to destroy and damage humanity.

In today’s age there is much lawlessness, all kinds of sins and worldliness, uncleanness, and many activities to lure the young ones to drugs, sex, and immoral behaviors, so that their body – their vessel – may be damaged, so that God would not have a good container and channel.

We need to take care of our humanity: we shouldn’t drop our guard to allow the things of this world to damage our humanity!

The more spiritual we are, the more human we will be; pursuing the Lord will not cause us to become super or “like an angel” but rather be quite human, approachable, and normal, as we live the divine life in the human life.

If we would live Christ, we need to learn to be human in a genuine way: on the one hand, we have the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4), and on the other, we are normal human beings.

The fact that we believers in Christ have the divine nature with the divine life doesn’t mean that we no longer need to be human; rather, we need to live a genuinely human life by the divine life and nature!

The highest human life, the genuine Christian humanity, is living a life like that of the Lord Jesus; we are still human, but we live by the divine life in our human life.

We all are daily learning to live a human life by the divine life and nature.

Lord Jesus, thank You for making us a vessel and a channel for Your economy. We want to preserve our vessel and safeguard our humanity so that You may be expressed through us. Lord, we want to learn to be human Christians living in a Jesusly human way according to the humanity of Jesus. Bring us through death into resurrection in our experience so that the divine attributes may be expressed through our human virtues. Amen, Lord, we want to learn to be human in a genuine way by living our human life by the divine life!

Jesus Lives, Acts, Moves, and Works as Life Within us in a Normal and Human way

When the Lord Jesus came into us as our Savior and life, He came as the eternal life; the eternal life is not only the life that is everlasting in time and space, but the life with both the divine life and nature and the human life and nature.

The eternal life is not just the divine life but the divine life with divinity and humanity, with the divine nature and the human nature. What builds up the church is this mingled life: the divine life with the human life. The real human life is the human life mingled with the divine life; this mingled life builds up the church.

Now that Christ is in us as our life (Col. 3:4), He as our wonderful Savior lives in us, acts in us, moves in us, and works in us as life, and He does it in a normal, quiet, ordinary way, and also in a very human way. The church life is actually Christ living in all the saints and being expressed through all the saints.

This mingled life, the divine life mingled with the human life, builds up the church as the Body of Christ; this is a life that is divine yet human, human yet divine. Just as the Lord Jesus lived, acted, moved, and worked in His life, so we should do; He did all things in a normal and quiet way, being human in a Jesusly way.

We may think that, when we are touched by the Holy Spirit, there will be thundering and earth-shaking, but He many times comes to us as a quiet gentle voice from within.

The Lord is not merely outside of us in the heavens; He is within us, and we have the eternal life – a life that is mingling of divinity with humanity.

We are joined to the Lord as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), and many times we may have a feeling from Him to go visit someone or contact someone, and as we go along with that feeling, we sense life and peace within, the Lord confirming both inwardly and outwardly that it is Him leading us.

As we live our Christian life it is not easy to differentiate whether it is the Lord or us, for we are mingled with the Lord; as we have a certain burden or feeling, we pray it back to the Lord, and we follow the sense of life and peace.

The Lord Jesus lives in us and acts in us, and He does it in a normal, ordinary, quiet, and very human way, as we exercise our spirit to live one spirit with the Lord.

May we all realize that the Lord Jesus lives in us and that we are mingled with the Lord, even one with Him in spirit; may we live such a mingled life, a human life by the divine life through contacting the Lord and letting Him live in us.

Thank You Lord for coming into us as life. Thank You for living in us, moving in us, working in us, and acting in us in a quiet, normal, ordinary and human way. Lord Jesus, keep us living one spirit with You. Keep us turning to You, conversing with You, contacting You, and praying back to You our feelings, burdens, desires, and situations. Lord, we just want to give You a way to live in us in such a normal way. Your living in us today expresses God in a normal and human way, and it builds up the church.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother James Lee’s for this week, and portions from, The Relationship of God with Man in God’s New Creation, ch. 10 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (1), msg. 5 (week 5), The Wings of an Eagle, the Hands of a Man, and the Feet of a Calf.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Lord, I do thank You for another day / To practice living You, in You to stay, / Lord, grant me the grace, Your life mine to replace / Two lives one, oh what a sweet embrace. / Lord, You are glory, You are beauty; / Divine and human woven utterly / Have mercy on me, that I may be / Joined to You, expressing You daily. (Prayer-song to the Lord)
  # God made man a vessel he / With a spirit, soul, body. / God to man his content be / That through man His glory see. / Christ in death as God expressed / Man redeemed, His blood was shedd’st. / In His resurrection He / Enters us our life to be. (Hymns #1404)
  # Christ lives in me, oh how can this be? / He breathed Himself as life to me. / How simple, and normal, His life becoming mine. / Yes, Lord, keep spreading in my being. (Song on Christ living in us)