The basis of our service to God should be the resurrection life, and we need to realise our own inability and serve God in the principle of resurrection today.
The resurrected Christ should be our life, our living, and the resurrection life within us; and this life should bud, blossom, and bear fruit to maturity.
We need to live in resurrection for the reality of the Body of Christ, and a very good picture of what it means to live in resurrection is seen in the story of the budding rod in Numbers 17.
After the children of Israel came out of Egypt, had a marvelous salvation, came to Sinai where the Lord opened His heart to them and unveiled Himself to them through the law and the ordinances, they built the tabernacle, and they traveled through the wilderness toward the good land.
However, at one point the leaders of Israel rebelled against Moses and Aaron, contesting their leadership. So the Lord asked them to each bring a stick, a rod, one for each of the tribes of Israel, and write their name on them, and put them before God overnight in front of the ark.
From the tribe of Levi the rod was of Aaron, and his name was written on it.
The rod who was to bud and blossom was the one chosen by God to have the authority.
This is an unusual and even strange situation, in which God wanted to vindicate or point out who is the authority and where does it come from, and what is the principle of serving God.
We all are like dead sticks, for whenever we serve in our natural man we are lifeless and bear no fruit. So we need to give ourselves to the Lord, and we need to come before Him to enjoy Him and experience Him as the resurrection life, so that the basis of our service to God would be nothing else but His resurrection life.
As long as we can still live and do things in and of our natural man, the resurrection life cannot be manifested in us, and we do not live in the reality of the Body of Christ.
But when we come to the end of our efforts, when we give up, and when we simply turn to the Lord and deny our self and our natural efforts, the Lord Himself as the resurrected One will live in us, He will be expressed through us, and He will lead us in the reality of the Body of Christ.
We need to know the principle of resurrection and trust in ourselves no more but rely on the Lord, turn to our mingled spirit where the resurrection life is, and experience Christ as the resurrection life and power on our daily life and in the church life so that we may live in reality in the Body of Christ.
Experiencing Resurrection is the Basis of our Service to God in the Church Life
The budding rod in Num. 17:8 signifies that Christ, the resurrected One, should be our life, our living, and the resurrection life within us, and that this life should bud, blossom, and bear fruit unto maturity.
After the children of Israel rebelled – as recorded in Num. 16 – God commanded the twelve leaders to take twelve rods according to the twelve tribes of Israel and put them in the Tent of Meeting before the Testimony (Num. 17:4), and then He said, “The rod of the man whom I choose shall bud” (v. 5), and this shall put a stop against the murmurings of the children of Israel against God and against Moses and Aaron.
The next day Moses came and took the rods, and Aaron’s rod had budded, blossomed, and even ripe almonds were produced, while the other rods were the same as before – leafless, lifeless, dead, and dry.
All the twelve rods were leafless, rootless, dry, and dead, so whichever of them budded was the one chosen by God.
What we see here is that resurrection is the basis of God’s selection, and the basis of service is not our natural life but Christ’s resurrection life in us. The budding rod signifies our experience of Christ in His resurrection as our acceptance by God for authority in the God-given ministry.
We need to experience Christ in His resurrection.
On one hand the budding rod signifies the resurrected Christ, the One who not only died but also resurrected and brought forth fruit by imparting His divine life into all His believers (John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3).
This Christ today is still budding, still blossoming, and still bearing fruit – and we are the fruit, the “almonds”, of His budding.
On the other hand, the budding rod signifies our experience of Christ in His death and resurrection for serving God and living in resurrection for the reality of the Body of Christ.
The basis of our service is resurrection; we all are serving ones in the church life, we all learn to serve, and we all learn to practice the universal priesthood, but the basis of our service is experiencing Christ in His resurrection.
The result of experiencing Christ in His resurrection is that we will feed others and there’s a flourishing of life for others to enjoy.
We may have good arrangements in our church life, we may enjoy a good coordination, and we may be happy that the saints coordinate together, are engaged in doing things, and there are many activities, but we need to make sure that the basis of our service is the resurrection life and not our natural zeal, strength, or ability.
We need to open to the Lord and tell Him,
Lord Jesus, we want to experience Christ in His resurrection for our service and living before Him to be acceptable to God. Save us from serving You or living in our natural man, by our natural zeal, and with our natural ability. Oh Lord, we give ourselves to You to experience You in Your death and resurrection so that there may be a budding, a blossoming, and a bearing of fruit that will feed others and nourish them with the divine life. We desire to do everything through the cross and by the Spirit for the ministering of Christ to others so that the Body may be built up! Amen, Lord, may our service to You be in resurrection!
Realising our own Inability and Serving God in the Principle of Resurrection today
The principle of our service to God lies in the budding rod – this is the principle of resurrection. God returned all the eleven rods to the leaders of Israel but kept Aaron’s rod inside the Ark as an eternal memorial, which means that resurrection is an eternal principle in our service to God (vv. 9-10).
In the Ark there were the hidden manna in the golden pot, the law – the testimony, and the budding rod. How can we express God? We may enjoy God as the hidden manna, but we also need to experience the budding rod, living a life of death and resurrection by denying our natural man, so that we may express Christ.
Resurrection means that everything is of God and not of us; it means that God alone is able and we are not able (Phil. 3:10-11).
If we still are able to do things and can say and work, we cannot experience the resurrection life; when we realise our own inability to live Christ and to serve God, we are qualified to experience Christ in His resurrection.
All our service to the Lord must pass through death and resurrection before it can be acceptable to God.
This means that we are not able to serve God – only God is able; we cannot do anything in and of ourselves, we are not able, we are not useful, and we cannot do it – but God can.
We need to come to the end of our strength, losing hope in ourselves, and trusting in ourselves no more, and then the Lord in us will be the resurrection life for us to serve God. When we experience living in resurrection, all murmurings, complaints, and rebellion will be put aside and stopped.
In John 11 the Lord Jesus came as the resurrection life, and there were so many opinions expressed: Martha rebuked the Lord for coming so late, she interpreted His word concerning resurrection by applying it to the last day, she told Mary that the Lord is calling her, and so many things expressed by everyone there….our opinions delay the resurrection life, constituting an obstruction and an obstacle to our experience of the resurrection life.
For example, we may be with our spouse and we want to say something, but Someone within us gives us a feeling not to say it, or not to say it in a certain way and at a certain time….but as soon as we say that thing, we know we did it in our natural man, and we are exposed.
May we have the grace to see that the Lord within us keeps speaking to us and discipling us mainly by telling us, No, don’t do that…No, don’t say that…No, don’t look at that…No, don’t go there. This is the guiding of the Spirit of reality that we would deny our natural life and allow the resurrection life to flourish in our daily living.
Our daily life and even the church life is filled with murmurings and reasonings, showing us there’s not enough experience of resurrection life.
Where there’s resurrection, there’s no more talk, no more murmurings, and no more rebellion. What we can do belongs to the natural realm, and what is impossible for us to do belongs to the realm of resurrection; a man must come to the end of himself before he will be convinced of his utter uselessness (Matt. 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 18:27).
What is impossible with man, that is, living the church life, serving the Lord, and living in the reality of the Body of Christ, it is possible with God.
We may go through certain situations and blame the Lord for assigning us too many troubles and too much suffering, but what is impossible with us is possible with God.
We may be like Sarah, thinking that we’re too old and almost dead, not able to produce Christ (typified by Isaac, a son), but what is impossible with us is possible with God.
God’s ability is manifested not only in His creation but in resurrection; when death is operating and it seems there’s nothing happening and no one can make it, God comes in and brings in resurrection.
Before we can experience resurrection life we need to go through death, coming to the end of ourselves and realising our utter uselessness; then, the Lord will come in and live in us in resurrection; this is the principle of resurrection.
Praise the Lord, we have this treasure in our earthen vessels, we have no power or ability but the excellency of the power is of Christ, who is in resurrection and who lives in us (2 Cor. 1:8-9; 4:7).
Lord Jesus, may we be those who live and serve You in the principle of resurrection in the church life today! May the basis of our service be not our natural strength or ability but resurrection. Amen, Lord, give us the experiences we need so that we may experience Christ in His death and resurrection for the church life. Cause us to realise that what is impossible with man is possible with God. Hallelujah, it is possible with God to live Christ and live in resurrection for the reality of the Body of Christ! Do it in us, Lord!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ricky Acosta for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 47, “Authority and Submission,” ch. 15, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 2, Living in Resurrection for the Reality of the Body of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# When the resurrection life / Is made real in pow’r to me, / As the rod with sprouting buds, / I will then accepted be. (Hymns #769)
# I would give myself, Lord, / Fully unto Thee, / That Thy heart’s desire / Be fulfilled in me. / I no more would struggle / To myself reform, / Thus in me to hinder / What Thou wouldst perform. (Hymns #841)
# All things are possible to God; / To Christ, the power of God in me; / Now shed Thy mighty Self abroad, / Let me no longer live, but Thee; / Give me this hour in Thee to prove / The sweet omnipotence of love. (Hymns #535)
About aGodMan
