We stay on the way of life by loving the Lord to the uttermost, drawing others to run after Him, and by eating Jesus through pray-reading on the Word, musing on God’s word, and ministering the Word as the Spirit into others.
As believers in Christ, those who have been grafted into Christ, we need to stay on the way of life, the line of life, in the maintenance of life by enjoying Christ as the tree of life.
This is for God’s building in life by our growth in life. We are not people of right or wrong; we are not people of good or evil; we are people of the tree of life. Amen!
The standard of our Christian living is the Lord’s presence within us. It is not merely because we see an opening here to do this or there’s an opportunity there to do that, so we go here and there and do this and that.
Rather, we care for the actual presence of the indwelling Christ, and we check with Him concerning everything.
The way we stay on the line of life, the way of life, is by living and serving according to the principle of life.
We do not live and serve according to the principle of right and wrong but according to the principle of life.
There’s an inner life in us, Christ Himself as our life, and He is a living person; He lives in us, He dwells in us, and He is our living map for our Christian life.
Whenever we set our mind on our spirit, where Christ lives, we enjoy life and peace.
Whenever we turn to the Lord, contact Him, and enjoy Him in spirit, we are filled with life, and Christ as life flows through us.
When we became a believer, everything changed, including our standard of living; we no longer live in and by ourselves but one with the Lord and by His divine life.
Our living is no longer according to the principle of right and wrong but according to the principle of life.
We may do certain things not because they are the right thing to do but because we contacted the Lord, we depend on Him, and we do something one with Him.
This is something we all are learning to do; we are learning to live by another life, the divine life in our spirit, and we’re learning to depend on the Lord in everything.
And we do this by taking heed to our spirit, by paying attention to our mingled spirit.
Our spirit is mingled with the Lord, and when we’re in the spirit, we’re one with Him; therefore, we do things according to the sense of life in our spirit, not according to or guided by the things in our environment. Amen!
Stay on the Way of Life by Loving the Lord to the Uttermost, Drawing others to Run after Him
We stay on the way of life by loving the Lord to the uttermost, thus drawing others to run after Him (Mark 12:30; Song of Songs 1:4).
The Lord Jesus is not a doctrine, a teaching, or a person who lived many years ago and is now in heaven; He’s not a set of gifts or a power, but a person who needs our love.
He is the most wonderful One in the universe, He loves us, and He drew us to Himself; now we as believers in Christ are filled with a sweet affection and love toward the Lord Jesus.
The reason we can take Christ as our life is that we love Him; if we don’t love the Lord, Christ being our life is a mere doctrine.
When we spend time with the Lord and exercise our heart to love Him, though we may not know what happens, we take Christ as our life and enjoy Him as life.
Christ as a living Person lives in us, and by our spending time with Him, we enjoy Him and love Him.
Loving the Lord to the uttermost is related to our personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual relationship with Him.
As we love the Lord, we also draw others to love Him; because we love Him, others are attracted to Him to run after Him and love Him also.
We can’t attract others to love the Lord unless we love Him.
If the Lord doesn’t draw us to Him, if we don’t love the Lord, we can’t bring others to love the Lord.
We need to tell the Lord to kiss us with the kisses of His mouth, for His love is sweeter than wine.
We need to be personal and affectionate with the Lord, allowing Him to draw us to Himself and to love us, and simply loving the Lord to the uttermost.
Even though we may fail and make mistakes, the Lord comes to us, again and again, to recover our love for Him and rekindle our love toward Him.
He simply wants us to love Him to the uttermost so that we may follow Him, take Him as our life and person, and even take His personality as our personality.
When we love the Lord, He commissions us to shepherd His sheep, feed His sheep, and feed His lambs (John 21:15, 17).
Our love for the Lord, our loving the Lord to the uttermost, is the qualification for us to care for others and bring them also into the enjoyment of Christ.
The more we love the Lord, the more we’re qualified to speak Him to others and bring them to love the Lord, the One whom we love.
To enjoy Christ as the tree of life, we must tell Him all the time, Lord Jesus, I love You!
We must be the “Lord Jesus, I love You”-kind of people, those who love the Lord to the uttermost.
Love is not a feeling, a warm feeling that people generally associate with “love”; love is the exercise of our heart with our whole being to love the Lord, appreciate Him, enjoy Him, be one with Him, and be fully open to Him.
If we have a burning love toward the Lord Jesus, giving Him the first place in all things, we will enjoy all that He is (Rev. 2:4-5, 7).
But if we lose our first love, the best love for the Lord, degradation comes in; degradation is present whenever we lose our love for the Lord.
![But I have [one thing] against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore where you have fallen from and repent and do the first works; but if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent...He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God. Rev. 2:4-5, 7](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/But-I-have-one-thing-against-you-that-you-have-left-your-first-love-1.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "But I have [one thing] against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore where you have fallen from and repent and do the first works; but if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent...He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God. Rev. 2:4-5, 7")
Just give yourself to love the Lord – no other way is so prevailing, so sweet, so rich, and so full of enjoyment!
May we not care for anything else except loving Him! When we love the Lord, we enjoy Him.
When we love the Lord to the uttermost, we shine Him forth.
When we love the Lord Jesus, we become part of the golden lampstand to be the testimony of Jesus.
When we love the Lord, we draw others to also run after Him, for our love for the Lord is contagious, infectious, and attractive.
When we love the Lord to the uttermost, we want to care for His people, bringing them to love the Lord and enjoy Him.
Loving the Lord to the uttermost is the way for us to stay on the way of life, the line of life, to enjoy the tree of life for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
To enjoy Christ as the tree of life, we must betroth people to Him, bringing them into the genuine appreciation, love, and enjoyment of the precious person of the Lord Jesus (2 Cor. 11:2-3).
Lord Jesus, we love You! Oh Lord Jesus, we just love You. We follow You. We take You as our person. We take Your personality as our personality. We take Your mind as our mind and Your will as our will. We just love You, dear Lord Jesus, and we give ourselves to You to love You more! Even though we may not feel that we love You, deep within our heart we know that we love You! We appreciate You and we enjoy You. You are the most wonderful One, and You are in us to supply us and be everything to us. Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to just love You, caring for nothing and no one else but You. We take You as our life and our everything. Draw us, Lord, and we will run after You. Draw us more today so that we may bring others also to love You and pursue after You!
Stay on the Way of Life by Eating Jesus through Pray-reading His Word, Musing on the Word, and Ministering the Word as the Spirit into Others
As those who love the Lord, we love to spend time with Him, and the best time we can spend with the Lord is early in the morning.
Every morning we can rise up and call on the name of the Lord; we can rise up a little earlier to just spend some time with Him.
Our loving the Lord to the uttermost causes us to spend time with Him in His word. We stay on the way of life, the line of life, by eating Jesus through pray-reading His word, musing on the Word, and ministering the word as the Spirit into others (John 6:57, 63; Jer. 15:16; Psa. 119:15; Matt. 4:4; 24:45; 1 Cor. 2:4-5, 13).
Like the Psalmist in Psa. 119:147-148, we need to anticipate the dawn to spend time with the Lord and enjoy Him; we need to come to Him in His word to breathe Him in and breathe ourselves out.
We may have had many failures today, but tomorrow we can have a new beginning.
Every day we can have a new start, for the Lord’s mercies and compassions are fresh and new every morning.
Though we may fail today and tomorrow, we still have another day to have a new start, and the Lord is waiting for us in the freshness of the morning to enjoy Him.
To have a new start with the Lord is not that difficult; we can simply rise up a little earlier and call on His name, O Lord Jesus. O, Lord Jesus.
Calling on the name of the Lord early in the morning makes a big difference.
Then, we can just take the Bible and read and pray over some verses.
We must enjoy the Lord in the Word early in the morning to have a new start each day, and we must receive His word with much and careful consideration (Psa. 119:15, 147-148; see Lev. 11:3).
To muse on God’s word implies to worship God with His word, to converse with ourselves with His word, and to speak His word aloud.
To muse on God’s word is to taste His word and enjoy it through careful consideration in prayer.
Included in musing on God’s word is prayer, speaking to ourselves, and praising the Lord.
As we muse on the word of God, we eat Jesus and we enjoy the word of God as the breath of God (2 Tim. 3:16), thus being infused with God, breathing God in, and receiving spiritual nourishment.
In Joshua 1:8 the Lord charged Joshua that this book of the law should not depart from his mouth and heart, and that he should move on it day and night, and he will be prosperous in his ways and have success.
When we take the word of God and pray over it, musing over the word of God with much prayerful consideration, we receive more of the element of God as the tree of life into us, and He is constituting Himself into our being.
![Who then is the faithful and prudent slave, whom the master has set over his household to give them food at the proper time? Matt. 24:45 Proclaim the word; be ready in season [and] out of season... 2 Tim. 4:2 What then, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up...He who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but he who prophesies builds up the church. 1 Cor. 14:26, 4](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Who-then-is-the-faithful-and-prudent-slave-whom-the-master-has-set-over.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "Who then is the faithful and prudent slave, whom the master has set over his household to give them food at the proper time? Matt. 24:45 Proclaim the word; be ready in season [and] out of season... 2 Tim. 4:2 What then, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up...He who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but he who prophesies builds up the church. 1 Cor. 14:26, 4")
And our enjoyment of God in His word is not silent: we need to speak the word of God!
We can speak the Word to our pets, to ourselves in the mirror, and even to our furniture.
We need to not be silent but speak; we enjoy the Lord in His word, and we speak His word to others.
We can speak the word to the ones in our family, to the ones in our class, and to the ones we work with.
We need to not only enjoy the Lord inwardly by musing on His word but also speak Christ to all kinds of people daily, ministering Him to others as life.
We must speak Christ to all kinds of people daily in season and out of season (Acts 5:42; 8:4; 2 Tim. 4:2) and desperately endeavour to build up the habit of speaking in any meeting (1 Cor. 14:26, 4-5, 12, 31).
When we practice speaking the word of God by ourselves, when we’re alone, and with others, we will be the first ones nourished by the Lord, and the others will also receive the supply.
We stay on the way of life by eating Jesus through pray-reading the Word of God, musing on His word, and ministering the word to others by the exercise of our spirit of faith.
Lord Jesus, we want to stay on the way of life by eating Jesus through pray-reading the word of God! Amen, Lord, may we come to You every morning to call on Your name and eat You in Your word. Teach us how to breathe ourselves out and how to breathe You in. We want to learn to muse on the word of God with much prayerful consideration. Amen, Lord, we come to You every morning to have a new start each day and receive Your word with much and careful consideration. Fill us, Lord Jesus! Fill us with Your living word. Fill us with Yourself. Fill us to overflowing. May we be those who speak Christ to all kinds of people daily in season and out of season! We want to be those who desperately endeavour to build up a habit of speaking in any meeting for the building up of the church!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1988, vol. 1, “Speaking Christ for the Building Up of the Body of Christ,” pp. 172-176, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life (2022 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 1, entitled, Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life for the Accomplishing of God’s Eternal Economy.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Give yourself to love the Lord. / No other way is so prevailing / And no other way, no other way is so safe. / Give yourself to love the Lord. / No other way is so rich, / And so full, oh so full, of enjoyment. (Song on, Give Yourself to Love the Lord)
– How I love Thee, precious Jesus, / That Thy love laid hold of me; / Thou hast drawn and wooed and kissed me / That a lover I may be! / Our Beloved, how we love Him, / So attractive, our delight. / We are captivated wholly / And are comely in His sight. (Hymns #1155)
– We have found the way to live by Christ— / Pray His Word and call His name! / This—the eating, drinking—has sufficed / And its worth we now proclaim. (Hymns #1153)
About aGodMan
We may talk about Christ being our life, but if we do not have the real love toward Him, He is only life to us in doctrine… If we would enjoy Jesus as life, we must love Him. As long as we love Him, even if we do not know the term life, we will enjoy life. We will not know a doctrine, but we will enjoy Jesus, a living person, as our very life. We may have many teachings with all the gifts and power, and yet we would not take the personality of Christ. The Lord Jesus…needs someone like Peter to love Him, someone to tell Him, “O Lord Jesus, I love You! I follow You. I take You as my person. I take Your personality as my personality I take Your will as my will. I take Your desire as my desire. I do not care for teachings, gifts, and power I just care for You. I love “You, and I follow You, taking You as my person.” Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1972, vol. 1, “Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs,” pp. 234-236
we stay on the way of life by loving the Lord to the uttermost, drawing others to run after Him. Amen, give yourself to love the Lord!
There’s no other way so prevailing, so rich, and so full of enjoyment!
It was good to be reminded today that our Jesus is a real person who needs our love, our appreciation and our affection.
Religion tends to cause us to lose sight that the God whom we worship is a real, living person. He’s not some dumb idol. We must not be content to have Jesus as life only in doctrine. If we want to enjoy Jesus as life we must love him with our whole tripartite being. For us to feed the Lord’s sheep we must love Him.
If we keep telling the Lord that we love Him throughout the day, it will become our reality. Also if we begin our day by pray-reading even a few verses of His word, we will have something with which we can feed others.
The Christian life is really quite simple and straightforward: believe in the Lord Jesus, tell Him you love Him unceasingly, and eat & drink His word…
Ameeen!!
Praise the Lord brother for this new start. Every today is truly the Lord’s grace that we may have a new beginning. Day after we have this opportunity of enjoy the tree of life.
The tree of life is not a gift, power or doctrine but a Person!!
The way to enjoy this Person is by loving Him, having a personal, affectionate, and intimate relationship with Him.
We also enjoy this Person in His word. We love Him, live in His presence, and we pray read, and muse on His words.
Dear brother, we need a sweet affection and love toward the Lord Jesus by coming to Him every morning to call on Him, telling Him we love Him – O Lord Jesus we love You! We need You!
Then we can pray read and muse on His word. In this way we can take Him as our life and person and have something to speak of and for Christ to others- even daily.
We must practice to be on and stay on the line of life for God’s building!
Praise the Lord our God is a Person not a doctrine, a set of gifts or power but a Person. He is a Person who needs our love, our appreciation and affection.
Our degradation begins when we do not Love the Lord with our best and First love. We need to wake up every Morning to start the day with the Lord in a new, living, loving and fresh way. If not today, Praise the Lord we have tomorrow.
brother, the Lord Jesus is a person who needs our love, our appreciation, and our affection. How we need the sweet affection and love toward the Lord Jesus!
Amen, so rich & enjoyable