Minister Christ to others to Present every man Full-Grown in Christ to be Rapture-Ready

We need to enjoy and be filled with the riches of Christ so that we may minister Christ to others and present every man full-grown in Christ for the one new man; to be ready for rapture, we need the maturity in life. Amen!

No farmer expects results right after sowing the seed; similarly, after the Lord Jesus sowed Himself as the seed of life into our being, He is not expecting to have a harvest overnight, but He wants us to grow in life daily.

We need to remain daily under the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity so that we may grow in life, having the divine life grow and expand in our being, so that we may arrive to maturity.

Through the dispensing of the Divine Trinity into us, the Lord grows in us and we will grow unto maturity.

There is a supply and protection, even a kind of fixing and guarding, so that the Lord may grow in us.

Each one of us has been given a part of the stewardship of grace, that we would cooperate with the Lord in His economy to minister Christ to others and present every man full-grown in Christ.

After the Lord as the seed of life is sown into us, we need to cooperate with Him so that He may grow in us little by little, day by day, until there is a harvest.

Christ is in us as the hope of glory (Col. 1:27), and He makes known to us what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in us, the hope of glory.

As we grow in life and arrive at maturity, there is hope, which is glory.

The harvest is glory, the full manifestation of the divine life. God has sown Himself into us, He planted Himself in us, and there’s the hope that He grows in us and will bear fruit in us.

Eventually, He will manifest the glory of God’s life in us. For this to happen, we need to grow in life.

We need to grow in life unto maturity so that the Lord may be expressed through us and in us.

Enjoy the Riches of Christ and Minister Christ to others to Present every man Full-Grown in Christ

The goal of Paul’s ministry was to present every man mature, full-grown, in Christ for the one new man (Col. 1:28-29; 3:10-11).

This Greek word rendered “full-grown” in Col. 1:28 can also be translated as perfect, complete, or mature.

It means there’s no blemish or shortage, there are no spots or wrinkles, and it is complete in stature.

We need to grow in life unto maturity to the extent that we are full-grown in Christ.

Even more, we need to enjoy the riches of Christ and be filled with Christ so that we may minister Christ to others until we can present every man full-grown in Christ.

As we preach the gospel to unbelievers and help them to receive the Lord, the goal is not merely that they should be saved from the lake of fire and from God’s condemnation.

Our goal is that we would minister Christ to them so that they may grow in life and we would present them as full-grown in Christ.

Paul’s ministry was to dispense Christ into others so that they would be perfected and completed by maturing in Christ unto full growth (Eph. 4:13).

If we only bring others to experience God’s forgiveness but do not minister Christ into them so that we present them full-grown in Christ, we fall short of God’s standard.

We need to infuse Christ into those whom we speak. In our gospel preaching, in our being with the saints, and even as we talk to others in our daily life, we need to minister the riches of Christ to them.

Christ is the portion of the saints (Col. 1:12); the One we enjoy and minister is all-inclusive, the centrality and universality of God’s economy (1:15, 18-19, 27; 2:4, 9, 16-17; 3:4, 11).

However, if we do not enjoy and experience the riches of Christ, we will find it difficult to minister Christ to others.

For example, if we don’t live Christ and we don’t take Him as our life in our daily living, we can’t help others also live by Christ and take Him as their supply.

But if we daily enjoy the Lord, live Christ, grow Christ, and produce Christ, we will spontaneously infuse Christ into others as we contact them.

We need to enjoy the riches of Christ and experience Christ so that, when we meet with others, we would minister Christ to them to present every man full-grown in Christ.

To present every man full-grown in Christ, we need to minister the unsearchable riches of Christ into others for the building up of the church to fulfil God’s eternal purpose (Eph. 3:8-11).

The more we take Christ as our life and our person, the more we will be able to minister Christ to others.

The more we enjoy Christ day by day, labor on Him as the good land, live in Christ, walk in Christ, and have our being in Him, the more we will infuse this wonderful Christ we enjoy and experience into others also.

If we are those who enjoy the riches of Christ day by day, we will be able to minister Christ into others, for Christ is filling us and overflowing through us.

However, if we don’t daily enjoy Christ and we don’t partake of His riches, we may be good saints, good brothers or sisters, but we will lack the riches of Christ in our daily living, so we can’t minister Christ to others.

May we all have the aspiration to be rich in Christ. May we be saved from being poor as far as the riches of Christ are concerned.

The more we get into Christ, the more He comes into us; the more He comes into us, the more we get into Him!

By this cycle, we grow in the divine life (Col. 1:27-28).

As we grow in life and enjoy the riches of Christ, we will speak concerning the Lord to others, and we will bring them into the enjoyment of Christ.

May we all continue in the enjoyment of Christ and remain one spirit with the Lord in every aspect of our daily living.

As we live one spirit with the Lord, we will speak one with Him, do things one with Him, and live in Him and because of Him.

And as we meet others, we will simply minister Christ to them so that we may present every man full-grown in Christ.

Lord Jesus, we come to You to enjoy Your riches day by day. Oh, what a rich Christ we have! We open to You, dear Lord, and we want to live one spirit with You. We don’t want to be a good brother or sister who is poor as far as the riches of Christ are concerned. Oh Lord, awaken in us the aspiration to be rich in Christ! May we daily pay the price to be filled with the riches of Christ and to experience Christ so that we may be able to minister Christ to others! Lord, we take You as our life and person. We want to live Christ, grow Christ, and produce Christ so that we may spontaneously infuse Christ into others as we contact them. We take You, dear Lord, as our life and person, and we want to minister You to those around us so that they may partake of the riches of Christ! Grow in us, Lord, and keep us enjoying Your riches. May our speaking be to minister Christ to others so that we may present every man full-grown in Christ!

For us to be Ready for Rapture, we need to Prepare Ourselves, Love the Lord, and have Maturity in Life

In order for us to be ready for rapture, we need the maturity in life (Matt. 24:40-41).

The disciples asked the Lord what are the signs of the coming of the Son of Man, and the Lord answered them that, as it was in the days of Noah, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

And then He said, Two men were in the field – one is taken, and one is left; two women were grinding at the mill – one is taken and one is left.

This means that one is raptured but the other is not.

Related to the Jews and the nations, the signs of the Lord’s coming are that it will be as in the days of Noah.

Related to us, the believers in Christ, the signs are that some will be taken and some will be left.

We surely need to pay attention to the outward signs of the Lord’s coming, but at the same time, as we work in the field or grind at the mill, we need to be ready for rapture.

When the Lord comes, He will rapture the firstfruits, those who ripen early.

Just as a farmer plants fruit trees and takes good care of them, he picks the early fruit to bring into his house to enjoy first, so the Lord comes to rapture those who are ready.

The rapture is the consummating step of God’s full salvation in life; it is the transfiguration, the redemption of our body (Rom. 5:10; 8:23; Phil. 3:21).

We have the firstfruits of the spirit; the Spirit is in us, and we eagerly await sonship, the redemption of our body. Our mortal body will be swallowed up by life!

Because of the demand of the divine life that we have received and because of the intensity of our love toward the Lord, we desire to pursue a life that awaits the Lord’s coming (1 Thes. 1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23).

On one hand, we minister Christ to others to present them full-grown in Christ; on the other hand, we want to be ready for rapture, so we prepare ourselves.

Christ is our goal and destiny. Only the Lord’s coming is our true joy.

As we love the Lord and await His coming, we hope to be raptured to the presence of the Lord (Matt. 24:40-41; Luke 17:31-36; 21:36).

This means we cooperate with the Lord to be rapture-ready.

Becoming mature in the life of Christ is not an overnight matter; rather, it takes over a period of time, and we need to prepare ourselves for the Lord’s coming as we grow in life unto maturity.

For the Lord’s coming, we need to prepare ourselves, love Him, and grow in Him so that at His appearing we may be mature to be raptured (Rev. 14:1-5). Amen!

As we speak concerning the matter of being full-grown in Christ and arriving at maturity, we need to see from the word of God what are some of the marks of maturity.

We need to be brought to maturity (Heb. 6:1), and the Bible shows us what are some marks of maturity so that we can check whether or not we are on the right track to being mature.

The first mark of maturity is being filled with the divine life that changes us (Eph. 3:19).

We need to be filled with Christ Himself, with the life of Christ, unto the fullness of God.

We need to allow the Lord to increase in us every day.

We do not become mature overnight; we need to let the Lord fill our soul, all the parts of our soul so that we gradually become mature.

As we grow in life little by little, our progress will be manifest, and it will be visible to people.

May we grow in life every day, not remain the same, and not stay stagnant but have the increase of God’s life every day.

A second mark of maturity is that we reign in life (Rom. 5:17).

As the divine life grows in us, we can be filled with life and reign in life.

The life in us is a life that reigns; we need to let the Lord reign in us, allowing the life of God to reign in us, so that we may reign in life.

We see this in Acts 27 and 29, where Paul was shipwrecked with those with him, but he was reigning in life, even to the point that the Lord entrusted the others’ souls into his hand.

The third mark of maturity is being able to eat solid food (Heb. 5:12-14).

All believers in Christ need to grow in life unto maturity and not only drink the guileless milk of the word but also eat solid food.

Like the children of Israel who entered into the good land and had to labor on the land to eat its rich produce, so we need to enjoy Christ, experience Christ, and grow Christ as the reality of the wheat, barley, grapes, pomegranates, olives, and many other things.

We need to eat solid food and be able to discern; this is a sign of maturity.

A fourth sign of maturity is being full-grown in understanding (1 Cor. 14:20).

We should not be children in our understanding but understand what is God’s purpose and have the discernment to know what God desires.

We need to know what is God’s economy and have a clear understanding of what is the desire of God’s heart.

A fifth mark of maturity is being perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48).

How can we be perfect even as God is perfect? It is because we have His life, and as we become full-grown in Christ, we can be perfect in His life.

All we need to do is grow in His life.

The highest demand of the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens can be met by the highest life, the life of God in us.

Finally, the sixth mark of maturity in life is seeing the Body, knowing the Body, living in the Body and for the Body, caring for the Body, and honouring the Body (Eph. 4:13-16).

This is the ultimate goal of our maturity in life, that we live in the reality of the Body, know the Body, see the Body, live in and for the Body, care for the Body, and honor the Body.

We all need to grow in life unto maturity until we arrive at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of Christ, so that we may become the Lord’s duplication, His bride, to match Him in every possible way for our married life together.

Lord Jesus, we want to be ready for rapture by growing in life unto maturity day by day! Amen, Lord, grow in us. Our desire is to pursue a life that awaits the Lord’s coming. Oh Lord, because of the demand of the divine life that we have received and because of the intensity of our love toward the Lord, we desire to pursue a life that awaits the Lord’s coming! Amen, dear Lord, we love You and we await Your coming, and our hope is to be raptured to the presence of the Lord! Grow in us a little more today. We want to prepare ourselves, love You, and grow in You so that at Your appearing we may be mature to be raptured! Amen, Lord, grow in us unto maturity a little more today! We want to be filled with the divine life that changes us. Fill us with Your life and reign in us until we reign in life! We want to be those who are full-grown in our understanding, those who are able to eat solid food. Make us the same as You are, even as perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. Amen, Lord, may we be those who see the Body, know the Body, live in the Body and for the Body, care for the Body, and honor the Body!

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 the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Colossians, msg. 16, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 ICSC), week 2, entitled, Making ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming by Growing in Life unto Maturity.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – Perfecting every saint to preach the gospel, a portion from, The Church Life in the Lord’s Recovery Today, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – What is the Believers’ Organic Union with Christ? Read more via, LSM radio newsletters.
  – Week 2 day 6, via the Church in Aukland (in july 2023).
  – Be Brought on to Maturity for New Jerusalem, via New Jerusalem blog.
  – The universal priesthood of the gospel, a portion from, The Practice of the Church Life according to the God-ordained Way, Chapter 12, by Witness Lee.
  – On Holding the Head and Interpretational Differences, via, A Faithful Word.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – To the lost world minister Christ, / Not just by word, but by life, / Imparting Christ by living deeds / To the poor souls living in strife. / To the lost world minister Christ, / The precious One you possess, / Imparting Christ to those you love / As all their gain and success. (Hymns #922 stanzas 1-2)
  – By divine regeneration / We the sons of God became, / But we must mature to fullness, / Thus the birthright to obtain. / Born and fully grown to manhood, / God’s full sonship we may share; / By the measure of full stature, / We God’s sonship will declare. (Hymns #741 stanza 2)
  – Lord, keep us poor in spirit, / Pure in heart that we may be / Good ground in which the seed of life / May grow abundantly, / Until the final stage is reached / And You are satisfied / And have Your priceless, chosen pearl, / Your joy complete, Your Bride. / Lord, keep us poor in spirit / and purified in heart, / That growing up in us You may / bring forth Your counterpart. (Hymns #1242 stanza 8 and chorus)