God’s main goal is not for man to work for Him but for God to gain our so that He may work Himself into us; in and for the church life what we are is more important than what we do.
The central work of God, the unique work that God does in this universe, is for Him to work Himself into His chosen people to be one with them and be their everything, and then in them and through them He will live and do things.
In and for the church life we all need to experience the central work of God by daily cooperating with the Lord to let Him work Himself into every part of our inner being.
God’s central work – His unique work in the universe and throughout all the ages and generations – is to work Himself in Christ into His chosen people, making Himself one with them and them one with Him organically.
God is not after what we can do for Him, and He doesn’t primarily want to use our abilities to do great works for Him. To God work is secondary – the person is most important.
God Himself doesn’t want to do many works for us or to give us many things; He wants to work Himself into us, into our inner being, to become our very constitution and inner element.
However, many times in our spiritual seeking we have no regards for God’s central work, and we have no concern for the unique work that God wants to do. We may be concerned for our spiritual welfare and progress, and we may be more concerned about being victorious or spiritual than for God working Himself into us.
If we look at the case of Job, he did many righteous works for God, but he didn’t have God revealed to him or wrought into him. So God stripped him of all his righteousness and attainments, and he showed Job that what he really needs is a personal seeing and receiving of God.
Similarly, David had such a good heart to build God’s house, and he was ready to do it. However, God stopped him and told him that He will work Himself into him and then out of him, out of David, a seed will come, and this seed will build the house of God.
In our Christian life we may pursue the Lord and read His word, we may meet with the saints and be in the church life in a general way, but our Christian life and living may be aimless. Both unbelievers and believers live an aimless life of they don’t see God’s central work and if they don’t cooperate with it.
If we realise that God is after us, the persons, that He would work Himself into us to be our life and person for the church life, then we will stop again and again from what we are doing to simply enjoy the Lord, receive His dispensing, and be freshly infused with His element.
We will seek for opportunities to tell the Lord,
Lord Jesus, work Yourself into us for the sake of the church as the one new man, for the Body of Christ. We open to You in the small and big details of our daily living so that You may work Yourself into us all throughout the day. May today be a day of gaining Christ and being infused with Christ. May we not miss Your constant divine dispensing. Oh Lord, we want to focus not on working for You but on letting You work Yourself into our inner being until You become our very element, our inward constitution!
In the Church Life what we are, our Person, is more Important than what we Do, our Work
The importance of our person far exceeds the size of our work in the church life. In God’s eyes what we are is more important than what we can do.
In the world it is the opposite, for the world appreciates your work and your abilities, but they don’t care for your person. But God’s view is that He wants to gain persons, not to gain much work for Him. Actually, in all His works God wants to gain persons, so that He may work Himself into them for His purpose.
God doesn’t do works for the sake of the works but for the sake of gaining men through His works. He’s not merely after accomplishing some works but after gaining us, the persons.
When the Bible speaks of the elders, what is most emphasized and spoken of is not what they should do, their work, or the way for them to serve, but their person (1 Tim. 3:1-5).
The person of the elder is their work; our work is actually our very person. In the church life the person is the way, and the person is the Lord’s work.
If God doesn’t gain our person, He cannot have a proper work, and He can’t have a way. Our view is that we should do a great work for God and take the best way to do God’s work.
God’s view is to gain our person by working Himself into us, and then our person becomes our work.
Even if we have the best way to do something, if our person is wrong, the Lord cannot have a way. It is meaningless for things to be done properly without the person being a proper one.
We cannot serve God beyond our person, for what we are is what we do, and our way is our very person. This is why the Lord wants to work Himself into us and gain our person in and for the church life.
Hudson Taylor said in his book, Union and Communion, that what we are is more important than what we do. This is a great thing to learn, something that will save us from many problems in the church life.
The principle of God’s work is to gain persons and by gaining them to have a way to go on. We limit God or allow Him to freely do what He wants to do depending on our person, depending on what kind of constitution we have.
The proper priority is not for us to work for God but for God to work Himself into us (Eph. 2:10; Phil. 2:13).
Our sense should not be that we work for God but that God is working Himself into us, and we just allow Him to do this; then the result is that God works in us and through us, for He Himself has gained our person and has become our inward constitution.
We need to have many instances of opening to the Lord throughout the day to allow Him to work Himself into us. Time and time again we need to ask Him,
Lord, work Yourself into us so that You may gain our being, our very person. Amen, Lord, work Yourself into our being for the church, for Your corporate expression and representation on earth. We open to You, Lord, even as we take care of mundane things such as driving to work, travelling, working, doing our job, taking a break, eating lunch, walking, cleaning the house, etc. Amen, Lord, keep our being open to You so that we may be under the divine dispensing all the time. Work Yourself into us more and more each day and all throughout the day. May all things that we do and that happen to us be opportunities for God to work Himself in us and into all the saints for the sake of the church as the Body of Christ and as the one new man.
Spiritual Progress is Allowing God to Gain more Ground Within us for Him to Live in us
If we realize that God cares more for what we are then for what we do, we will cooperate with the Lord again and again throughout the day to let Him work Himself into us.
When the Lord attracts us by His love, we will be willing to give ourselves to the Lord. The degree to which we can render help to others is determined to the degree to which we have advanced ourselves and the amount of learning we have picked up.
Our spiritual progress consists in allowing God to gain ground within us for Him to live out through us (Col. 2:19; Eph. 3:17). All our spiritual experiences after we are saved consist of allowing God to gain the proper ground within us, so that we may allow Him to live Himself out of us.
Before we were saved, we were empty and dirty, but through salvation we were cleansed and washed, and God came into us to be our content. The Lord washed us with His own blood for the purpose of putting Himself into us.
Now all genuine believers in Christ are containers of God, and God wants to gain more ground in each and every one of them.
The degree to which we progress in our spiritual life is the degree to which we allow God to have more ground within us. The more we cooperate with God’s central work of working Himself into our being, the more we progress spiritually.
The more we open to the Lord throughout the day to pray and let Him work Himself into us, the more we grow in life, the more ground God gains in us, and the more He can live in us.
But if we don’t cooperate with the Lord daily but resist Him and do not allow Him to work Himself into us, He cannot be expressed through us, and our work is not acceptable to Him.
If in the church life a quarter of the saints would cooperate with the Lord by letting Him work Himself into their being for Him to live out through them, the Lord will have a way to increase His corporate expression on earth tenfold.
What brings in God’s blessing is not our having the proper doctrines or merely being on the proper ground but our person, our inward constitution.
God wants to gain our person, our very being; He can do many works outwardly, He can arrange the whole world situation, but He is after our intrinsic constitution – He wants to work Himself into us until He lives out through us.
Thank You Lord for coming into us to be our content, our life, and our everything. We give ourselves to You, Lord, that You may work Yourself into us until You are the One living in us. Grow in us, Lord, and increase the element of God in our being day by day. Grant us today’s growth in the divine life. May the element of God increase in our being as our old element is being discharged and eliminated. May we have real spiritual progress daily by allowing God to work Himself into us for the church!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Messages Given during the Resumption of Watchman Nee’s Ministry, vol. 1, chs. 4-5, 10, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking Christ as our Person and Living Him in and for the Church Life (2018 spring ITERO), week 1, Experiencing the Central Work of God and taking Christ as our Person in and for the Church Life.
- Hymns on this topic:
# God has worked in three directions / For His plan so marvelous: / As the Father, Son, and Spirit / To dispense Himself to us! / All creation gives the setting— / Heav’n and earth are for this plan; / ’Tis for this God made a body, / Soul and spirit—three-part man. (Hymns #1325)
# The work must be the fruit of life, / Born thru the Spirit’s flowing; / As branches of the Lord, the vine, / Fruit bearing, life bestowing. / ’Tis Christ Himself thru us to work, / Himself as life expressing, / And all the riches of His life / To others manifesting. (Hymns #910)
# Into our innermost / Intrinsic constitution, / Come, Lord, Yourself dispense / By constant, fresh infusion; / Transform us, Lord, and work Yourself, / As God’s embodiment, / Into our heart, and life each part, / With Your reality. (Song on, Recall how David swore)
About aGodMan
