When we turn our heart to the Lord and behold Him with an unveiled face, we see God and are transformed by God into the same image as Christ from glory to glory for the purpose of God.
Our heart is the key: we need to turn our heart to the Lord and deal with anything that comes between us and Him, so that we may behold Him face to face and be transformed into His image.
May this be our aspiration, to dwell in the house of God and behold the beauty of God to be infused with God!
The highest profession on earth is not to be a CEO or COO with lots of good ideas and world-changing decisions; the highest profession on earth is for a man to behold God by spending time with God to be infused with God so that he can glow with God.
When we spend time with the Lord, when we behold the Lord in our spirit and in the meetings of the church, He shines on us, He exposes anything that doesn’t match Him, and we are being inwardly transformed into His image until outwardly we are conformed to Him.
Every day we want to be infused with God so that we can actually glow with God and shine forth God into others.
We do this by coming to the Lord in His word daily and also by coming to the meetings of the church; when we come into the sanctuary (our mingled spirit and the meetings of the church), the Lord has a way to shine on us and in us, and He infuses us with Himself.
We may seek the solution to our problem, we may have questions that are burning and need an answer, and we may have a lot of puzzling situations that bother us, but as long as we are in the Lord’s presence, everything is taken care of.
May we seek the Lord with all our heart, enjoying Him not only with part of our heart but with our whole being.
Even though outwardly we may seem to not have a change in our environment or situation, even though we may seem to be stripped and consumed, and even though we do not seem to prosper outwardly, we still seek the Lord and enjoy Him, for He is actually our portion, even our unique portion, and there’s nothing on earth or in heaven that we desire but Him.
May nothing hinder us from enjoying the Lord, and may nothing distract us from the absolute enjoyment of Christ Himself!
Even when we don’t understand things when we think that nothing that happens to us makes sense, and when there are storms and trials, we can still run to the high tower of our spirit and we can come together with the saints in the meetings of the church, and the Lord will have a way to shine on us, infuse us with Himself.
Gaining more of God is the answer and solution to all our problems. Problems and situations come and go, but gaining God is what really matters.
We Turn our Heart to the Lord to Behold Him with an Unveiled Face and be Transformed into His Image
Our need today is to turn our heart to the Lord so that we may behold Him with an unveiled face, for Him to transform us into His image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).
The transformation of the tripartite man is God’s move to deify man, that is, to constitute man with the processed and consummated Triune God (2 Cor. 3:16-18; Heb. 12:1-2).
In Job’s case, when he saw God, he gained God to be transformed by God for the purpose of God; he had no more questions after he saw God, for he gained the real thing, God Himself (Job 28:1-3; 42:1-6).
When we see God, we are transformed into the image of God; the more we look at the Lord as the Spirit in our spirit, the more we receive all His ingredients into our being as the divine element to discharge our old element so that our whole being becomes new! Amen!
Our Christian life is not a matter of changing outwardly but of being transformed from within (2 Cor. 3:18; Psa. 27:4; Gal. 6:15-16).
The more we behold the Lord as we turn our heart to the Lord, the more we are transformed into His image; our focus shouldn’t be improving ourselves or changing something outwardly but turning our heart to the Lord to behold Him with an unveiled face.
May we behold the beauty of the Lord in our time with Him; the beauty of the Lord is His loveliness, His pleasantness.
To see God, we have to first exercise our spirit, realizing that the Spirit – who is the processed and consummated Triune God – is mingled with our spirit, and it is by means of this mingled spirit that we can experience God in His economy.
To see God, we need to be in our spirit, for it is in spirit that we can enjoy all the ingredients of the Triune God.
We also need to give the Lord a way to deal with all the parts of our heart – our mind, our emotion, our will, and our conscience – so that He can make His home in all the inward parts of our being, in all our heart.
If we behold the beauty of the Lord in our spirit and in the church meetings, we can testify that we have the presence of the Lord, we have the beauty of the Lord, and we also have the joy of the Lord.
In Isa. 60:7 the Lord says, I will beautify the house of My beauty; the church is the house of God’s beauty, for it is here that God’s beauty is.
God is in the process of beautifying us, His house, as we turn our heart to the Lord to behold Him, behold His beauty, to make us as beautiful as He is.
May we remain in the daily process of transformation by turning our heart to the Lord so that we can behold Him and reflect Him with an unveiled face! Amen!
What does it mean for us to have an unveiled face? In 2 Cor. 3:15 it says that, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart; then verse 16 says, but whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
We may read the Bible and try to spend time with the Lord with a veil on our heart, that is, with a heart that is not turned to the Lord; but whenever our heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away, and we can behold the Lord to be transformed into His image.
Whenever we read the Bible, when we come to the Lord in His Word, and when we come to the meetings of the church, we need to turn our heart to the Lord; then, we can behold Him and reflect Him, and we can enjoy Him and be infused with Him.
Lord Jesus, we turn our heart to You so that we may be transformed into the same image. By Your mercy, we turn our heart to You to behold You and reflect You like a mirror. Save us from having a veil on our heart that would hinder us from seeing You. We want to remain in the daily process of transformation by turning our heart to the Lord so that we can behold HIm and reflect Him with an unveiled face! Lord, we come to You in our personal time with You and in the meetings of the church to just behold You, behold Your beauty, and be infused with Your loveliness and comeliness. May we see You face to face. May we be transformed into the same image as You, even as the divine element is added to our being and our old element is being discharged. Amen, Lord, may there be a change from within to without as we behold You face to face!
Learning to Open our Heart to the Lord for Him to Spread in us, Infuse us with Himself, and bring us into Freedom
We may hear that we need to turn our heart to the Lord – see 2 Cor. 3:16 – so that He may infuse Himself into us; the question is, how do we turn our heart to Him?
How do we open our heart to the Lord? Our heart is composed of our mind, emotion, will, and conscience; a very simple way to open our heart to the Lord is to pray.
And a very good prayer we can offer to the Lord again and again is, Lord Jesus, I love You; I want to please You. Before we make a decision or determination, we can tell the Lord, O Lord, I just love You; I am willing to please You.
When we pray in this way, we open our will to the Lord, and He can come in.
This doesn’t mean that suddenly our will changes; it simply means that the Lord has a way to come into our will.
When we love something or desire something, or when we sense that our emotion rises up toward a thing or a person, we can stop and tell the Lord, Lord Jesus, I love You; I want to please You.
When we pray in this way, this opens up our emotion to Him, and He can come in.
When we open our heart to the Lord in little things, again and again, He can come in to infuse us with Himself, and we are being transformed into the same image as Him.
When we begin to think about something when our mind is focused on something, it is good to stop our thinking for a moment and tell the Lord, O Lord, I love You; I want to please You.
When we stop and pray, we give the Lord the first place and we invite Him in; this will open our mind to Him, and He will be able to enter into our mind.
When we open to the Lord, again and again, He has a way to enter into our heart, little by little, until He settles down in our heart.
The Lord as the Spirit is in our spirit, but He wants to spread into our mind, emotion, and will.
To turn our heart to the Lord, to open our heart to Him, is the key to our growth in life; we can grow in life only when we practice turning our heart to the Lord.
However, many Christians are not joyful because the Spirit within them is not joyful (Eph. 4:30; cf. Psa. 16:11; 43:4; Acts 3:19-20; Exo. 33:11, 14-17; Heb. 1:9; Jer. 15:16; John 15:9-11; 1 John 1:3-4; 2 John 12; Phil. 4:4); if we do not turn our heart to the Lord to let the Spirit of the Lord spread out of our spirit into our heart, we will feel restrained and depressed.
Many times this is our experience; many times our heart has a veil on it, for it is turned away from the Lord.
But whenever the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away, and we can behold the Lord face to face to express Him.
A proof that we enjoy the Lord by beholding Him in our spirit is that we have freedom; where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Cor. 3:17).
If we say that a meeting is boring, we must realize that it is not the meeting that is boring but we are bored within; however, when we turn our heart to the Lord, we enjoy the Spirit as our freedom.
Sometimes we may feel that a meeting is boring, and we may think that the other saints are boring; however, it is us who is bored and even boring, for we don’t open our heart to the Lord!
We may be in a state of boredom; it’s not the meeting or others that are boring, but we are boring! However, once we turn our heart to the Lord, the liberating Spirit has the way to spread into all the parts of our heart, and we are released, transcendent, and free!
This freedom from the Spirit is glory, which is the presence of God and the expression of God. When we enjoy the Spirit as our freedom, we feel noble, honourable, and glorious, because we are being transformed into His image.
When we turn our heart to the Lord, we behold the Lord face to face, we are infused with Him, and we are freed inwardly; we feel bright inwardly, we feel shining, and we even feel the sense of soaring.
Just like Isa. 40:31 says, we who wait on the Lord will renew our strength and soar with wings like eagles! This is what happens when we truly open our heart to the Lord.
Lord Jesus, we love You. We want to please You. We open our heart to You. We open to You all our inward parts. Spread into our mind, emotion, and will. May our heart turn to You again and again. We give You all our decisions. We open our emotions and feelings to You. We allow You to spread into our thoughts, opinions, and mind. Lord, we just want to please You. We turn our heart to You, dear Lord so that You as the liberating Spirit would spread from our spirit into every part of our heart. Hallelujah, whenever our heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away, we enjoy freedom, and we are being transformed into the image of the Lord from glory to glory! Amen, Lord, may we enter into the freedom of the Spirit to be transformed into the image of Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, The Way for a Christian to Mature in Life, Chapter 12 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 6, Gaining God to Be Transformed by God for the purpose of God.
- Hymns on this topic:
– We all with unveiled face, / Beholding and reflecting / As a mirror the glory of the Lord, / Are being transformed / Into the same image / From glory to glory, / From the Lord Spirit. / Whenever the heart shall turn to the Lord, / The veil shall be taken away. / Where the Spirit of the Lord is, / There is freedom; / Whenever the heart turns to the Lord. (Scripture song)
– As a glass, beholding / With uncovered face, / I can see His glory / And reflect His grace. / O that no more covering / May the Lord obscure, / That I may reflect Him / With a heart made pure. / Gazing on His glory, / Face to face to see; / Constantly beholding, / Ever would I be. (Hymns #399)
– Take time to behold Him, / Speak oft with Thy Lord, / Abide in Him always, / And feed on His Word. / Wait thou in His presence, / Submissive and meek, / Forgetting in nothing / His blessing to seek. (Hymns #643)
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