We can follow the limited Jesus by the power of the resurrected Christ in our spirit, for the only way we can live the Christian life and remain in the limiting and constraining situations is by the power of the unlimited Christ in resurrection. Amen!
May we all enter into the enjoyment and experience of the all-inclusive Christ as our God-allotted portion of the good land.
We have been qualified by the Father to enter into our allotted portion of Christ together with the saints in the light, and today we simply need to enjoy Him and experience Him.
We may have heard of the land of Canaan and we may think that this land is the heaven, where we go after we die; this is a common concept in Christianity today, a concept that is not entirely correct.
The good land of Canaan is a complete type of the all-inclusive Christ as our God-allotted good land for us to enjoy and experience today.
However, the enemy is actively working to veil the all-inclusiveness of Christ from God’s people.
Not only the Christians in the large pool of Christianity are being veiled by Satan, but even we today in the church life are being veiled.
We may know about Christ, we may enjoy a little of Christ and a little of Christ there, but the all-inclusive Christ may not be our portion yet.
We may enjoy a little of Him as the wheat and a little of Him as the barley, and we may be satisfied with that.
But Christ is all-inclusive and vast, and we need to advance in our enjoyment and experience of Christ.
How much of this all-inclusive Christ have we seen? How much vision of Christ have we received?
How earnest are we in gaining this Christ day by day? Are we coming short of the experience of the all-inclusive Christ due to our disobedience, unbelief, or rebellion?
May the Lord have mercy on us that we would no longer come short of the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ but advance in the Lord, even be one with Him, so that we may partake of His riches in spirit and experience Him for the building up of the church.
If we only hear and read about the all-inclusive Christ but do not enjoy Him and our life does not change by experiencing the all-inclusive Christ, we are, of all people, the most miserable ones. Oh, Lord.
Once we enter into the good land, the manna stops; we now need to labor on the good land to obtain its rich produce to be inwardly strengthened to fight the battle to take the land and build up God’s habitation.
May we advance with the Lord and in Him day by day, and may we let Him take us on with Him so that we enjoy more and more of the all-inclusive Christ, and we may apprehend with all the saints what are His universally vast dimensions for us to enjoy and partake of.
We Follow the Limited Jesus by the Power of the Resurrected Christ in our Spirit
The good land is a land of wheat and barley; on the one hand, we experience the limited Christ (the reality of the wheat) and on the other hand, we enjoy and experience the resurrected Christ who is unlimited (the reality of the barley).
On the one hand, we may experience the limited Jesus as signified by wheat; on the other hand, we may experience the unlimited Christ as signified by barley (John 12:24; 6:9, 13).
Praise the Lord, the death and burial of Christ is not the end; resurrection follows His death.
The tomb was not the end of Jesus; after three days in the tomb, He was resurrected.
There’s the valley of death and the mountain of resurrection.
![Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12:24 There is a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are these for so many?...So they gathered [them] and filled twelve handbaskets with broken pieces from the five barley loaves which were left over among those who had eaten. John 6:9, 13](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Truly-truly-I-say-to-you-Unless-the-grain-of-wheat-falls-into-the-ground-and-dies-it-abides-alone-but-if-it-dies-it-bears-much-fruit-4.jpg?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12:24 There is a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are these for so many?...So they gathered [them] and filled twelve handbaskets with broken pieces from the five barley loaves which were left over among those who had eaten. John 6:9, 13")
When we experience Christ as the wheat, we can be assured that we will have an experience of Christ as the barley.
Actually, in order for us to experience Christ as the wheat, that is, in order for us to follow the limited Jesus, we need to apply Him as the barley, that is, enjoy the power of His resurrection.
In His incarnation, the Lord Jesus was exceedingly limited; however, in His resurrection, He is unlimited (Luke 12:49-50; 24:5-6, 26, 34, 46).
He does not tell us to merely go through death and stay there in and by ourselves; we experience Christ in His death by the power of His resurrection.
We follow the limited Jesus by the power of the resurrected Christ in our spirit.
Death is only the opportunity for the resurrection life to be manifested and displayed; death cannot hold the resurrection life.
It is the unlimited Christ in His resurrection living in us that causes us to follow the limited Jesus.
Many today wonder how can we bear such limitations and restrictions, and how can we follow the limited Jesus.
The secret is simple: we can do all things in Christ who empowers us (Phil. 4:13).
We follow the limited Jesus by the power of the resurrected Christ in our spirit.
We may think that, now that we have the resurrected Christ who is unlimited, there is no more limitation but rather, we’re free, soaring above all things, with nothing negative touching us.
But if we look at our situation, when we’re at home with our family, at work with our workmates, or at school with our schoolmates, we realize that we are so limited.
Just like the Lord Jesus, we’re under great limitation.
When Jesus was on earth, He was always limited; He was limited by His flesh, by His family, by His mother in the flesh, by His brothers in the flesh, by His disciples, and by the people around Him.
But He remained in that limitation by the power of resurrection in His spirit; He was always in contact with God and remained in His mingled spirit to experience and live by the power of His resurrection.
The Lord Jesus was limited by space and time, and He was limited by everyone and everything around Him.
Today we follow in His footsteps; we are also limited in time, space, and by everything and everyone around us.
Sometimes we want to throw away the limitations and just be free; however, if we follow the limited Jesus, we experience the power of His resurrection to bear all things.
It is such a blessing to be limited for the sake of Jesus!
In Heb. 13:12-13 we are told that Jesus, that He might sanctify us through His own blood, suffered outside the gate, and now we also need to go forth unto Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. Amen!
He suffered for us; He chose to be finite, limited, restrained and constricted for our sake, so that He may sanctify us through His blood and bring us near to God.
Now we follow the limited Jesus by the power of the resurrected Christ in our spirit.
We are not here gritting our teeth and bearing the suffering and limitation stoically, being harder and harder in our hearts and bitter against the environment. No.
We are here following the limited Jesus by the power of the resurrected and unlimited Christ.
We are growing Christ as the wheat by following the limited Jesus and remaining in our limitations.
We are growing Christ as the barley by enjoying and experiencing the power of the resurrected Christ who is unlimited.
We walk through the valley of death (wheat) by the power of His resurrection (barley). May we bring this to the Lord and ask Him,
Lord Jesus, we want to follow the limited Jesus today in our Christian life. Empower us today with the power of Your resurrection so that we may follow the limited Jesus. Save us from trying to remove or get out of the limitations You put on us and around us. Keep us here, following the limited incarnated Jesus by the power of the resurrected Christ in our spirit. Praise the Lord, death cannot hold the resurrection life. Hallelujah, the more we are one with Christ in His death, the more the power of His resurrection is manifested in us! Wow, Lord, in Your incarnation You were exceedingly limited, but in Your resurrection, You are unlimited and powerful! We come to You again and again in all the situations we go through. We contact You and want to apply You as the reality of the wheat and the barley. We want to walk in the valley of death by the power of resurrection in our spirit!
Apply the Resurrected Christ to our Situation to Experience His Resurrection Life in our Limitations
Where is the energy and strength for us to bear the limitations and restrictions we experience in our daily life?
How can we follow the limited Jesus and be limited in our Christian experience?
In order for us to experience the wheat, the limited Jesus, we must apply the barley, the unlimited Christ – the resurrected Christ (Heb. 13:12-13).
We can follow the limited Jesus in the power of the resurrected Christ.
The strength enabling us to follow the limited Jesus must be very strong, for no human being can bear the limitations and restrictions of this limited Jesus.
It’s easy to be angry, but it requires great strength to be patient.
It is easy to lose our temper, but the energy of heaven is required to be long-suffering.
It is only by applying the resurrected Christ as our patience that we can experience Christ as the barley and be patient today.
It is only by applying the resurrected Christ to our situation that we will not lose our temper but rather, experience His unlimited resurrection life in our limitations.
The secret is Christ Himself; as Paul testified, we can do all things in the One who empowers us because He is the resurrected and unlimited Christ (Phil. 4:13).
On one hand, we clearly realize that in ourselves we can’t do it and we can’t bear the situation.
We may be a mother of three children who limit us very much, and our husband may also add to the limitation and suffering.
We may be a father who struggles with many responsibilities at work and, when we come home, more limitation and suffering awaits us.
How can we live the Christian life in such limitations? How can we follow the limited Jesus?
It is only by the power of the resurrected Christ in our spirit.
We can apply the resurrected Christ to our situation so that we may experience His resurrection life in all our limiting situations (2 Cor. 12:9; Eph. 3:16; 1 Tim. 1:12; Col. 1:11).
We may think that we have only a little of Christ, just a small loaf of barley loaf, and this may not be enough to meet the need.
We may not even have five loaves like the little boy in John 6; we may have only one little loaf of barley.
Yes, we may have just one loaf, but we need to remember it is a barley loaf.
It is a loaf of the resurrected Christ, and He can never be limited.
It may seem we have so little, and to our understanding and feeling we are so poor, but there’s no limitation with this One.
A little of the resurrected Christ is more than enough to meet the situation.
We cannot meet the situation, but in us, there is One who can – He is the reality of the barley loaf, for He is the resurrected One!
Even a little bit of the resurrected Christ in our spirit can supply us and enable us to live Christ for His magnification in our situation (Phil. 1:19-21).
If we just apply Christ, if we just apply the resurrected Christ to our experience, we can live out the life of the limited Jesus.
And when we come to the meetings of the church or we meet a brother or sister in the church life, we may think that we’re so weak, and there’s not much in us to feed so many around us.
However, if we just exercise our spirit of faith and release our portion, which seems to be so small for such a great demand, others will be richly supplied, for they enjoy the unlimited Christ being dispensed into them.
We can do all things in Him who empowers us for He is resurrected and knows no limit.
We are limited, but the One in us is not limited. We must apply Him.
We must enjoy Him and experience Him, and we can also minister Him to others.
Lord Jesus, we want to learn to apply You as the resurrected Christ to our situation. We come to You as we are. We exercise our spirit of faith to contact You in the midst of our limitations. Oh Lord, though we may have such a small portion of the resurrected Christ, we believe into You and we apply You right now. We want to follow the limited Jesus by the power of the resurrected Christ in our spirit. Teach us how to apply You as the resurrected Christ to our daily experience. Oh Lord, in all our limitations at home, at work, and among others, may we learn to apply the resurrected Christ and live one spirit with Him. Praise You, Lord, with You, there’s no limitation, for You are in resurrection! Hallelujah, we’re one spirit with the Lord. Hallelujah, we can do all things in the One who empowers us, for He is unlimited! Hallelujah for our resurrected Christ who is one with us in our spirit, always supplying us!
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 brother Minoru Chen in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” ch. 6, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good land for the Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, for the Reality and the Manifestation of the Kingdom, and for the Bride to make Herself Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 Winter Training), week 3, entitled, A Land of Wheat and Barley.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– Our need for Christ as our life supply, a portion from, The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, Chapter 19, by Witness Lee.
– Our Spiritual Remedy: The Spirit as an All-Inclusive Dose, via, Bibles for America blog.
– Being joined to the resurrection life of Christ, a portion from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 1) Vol. 11: The Present Testimony (4), Chapter 13, by Watchman Nee
– Christ is the Abundant Life Supply, Now and in New Jerusalem, via, New Jerusalem blog.
– The central thought of Deuteronomy, a portion from, Life-Study of Deuteronomy, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
– Magnifying Christ in the Midst of Turmoil, via, Shepherding Words.
– In John 6 the Lord Jesus performed a miracle by feeding five thousand people with five barley loaves, a portion from, Enjoying the Riches of Christ for the Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee.
– Lamb, Manna or Good Land—What Kind of Christ Do You Enjoy? Read more via, Holding to Truth in Love. - Hymns on this topic:
– Death cannot hold the resurrection life, / The life of God eternal manifest; / ’Tis uncreated, indestructible, / ’Tis Christ Himself, unconqu’rable, expressed. / Death cannot hold the resurrection life, / Though all its force against it may combine; / Death only gives it opportunity / To show the boundless pow’r of life divine. (Hymns #639 stanzas 1-2)
– Enter the veil, behold the glorious Christ, / Go out the camp to Jesus, let Him lead; / If throne and crown my spirit here enthrall, / Manger and cross cannot my steps impede. / Enter the veil for resurrection pow’r, / Go out the camp to bear the cross and woe, / If I His radiant face in heaven see, / His footsteps I will follow here below. (Hymns #549 stanzas 3-4)
– Minding just the spirit, we the cross will know, / And His resurrection pow’r thru us will flow; / Minding just the spirit, Christ will live thru me, / And His life within will reach maturity. / In the spirit Christ is life and all to me, / Strengthening and blessing all-inclusively; / Living in the spirit, holiness I prove, / And the triune God within my heart doth move. (Hymns #593 stanzas 6-7)
About aGodMan
Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1961- 1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” pp. 236-237
Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 1) Vol. 11: The Present Testimony (4), Chapter 13, by Watchman Nee
We follow the limited Jesus (the reality of the grain of wheat) by the power of the resurrected Christ (the reality of the barley).
Just as He was limited in His human life and living, so we are limited in our human life, and the energy and power to bear the limitation is in the resurrected Christ in our spirit.
Even though we may have just a little of this resurrected Christ, He’s unlimited and powerful to meet all our needs.
Amen, Hallelujah! In order to grow wheat we must be limited and crucified. Thank you, Lord for our limitations
Amen!
Hallelujah for the limited Jesus and the unlimited Christ!
Amen. For us to follow the Lord in His life, we must be limited.
However, we fail very easily and get angry or complain.
Thus, we need the resurrected Christ living in us in order to be our strength.
We follow the limited Yeshua in the power of the unlimited Christ.
In resurrection, Christ is unlimited & released. With this resurrected life, we can live out the life of the limited Jesus.
We can do all things in Him who empowers us because He is resurrected and has no limit.
We must remember that Christ is in us as the barley. We need to apply Him in our limited situation.
Every situation/circumstance is an opportunity to apply the unlimited Christ.
Praise the Lord! 😃🙌🙋🏽
https://youtu.be/_NE1GGVYuAc?si=PbCQOXdTV3jQVcKD
Praise the Lord, following the wheat is the barley!
Death cannot hold the resurection life because it is uncreated and indestructible!
Today we are following the limited Jesus but we do it in the power of the unlimited Christ!.
Praise the Lord we can do all things in Him who empowers us because he is resurrected and knows no limit!
Hallelujah!
Brother, wheat points to Christ incarnation, death and burial while barley points to His resurrection.
Hence wheat and barley represent the two aspects of Christ – His coming and His going.
As the barley follows wheat in the good land, so the unlimited Christ follows the limited Jesus.
In our experience of the valley of death we can be limited by our flesh, our wives, family even our boss.
But it is on the mountain of resurrection by the power of the unlimited and resurrected Christ who has passed through the processes of incarnation, crucifixion, burial and resurrection, we can endure.
This one, who as Jesus was Himself limited, is now in us as the unlimited Christ. Hallelujah!
We are able to do all things – including having no freedom or liberty to do as we please – through Him who empowers us!
Whenever we are limited or restricted we must apply Him as such a one to experience Him as the barley loaf.
I really enjoyed the typification of wheat and barley for incarnated and resurrection respectively.
Even His names Jesus and Christ are His limited and unlimited names respectively.
Praise the Lord for our limited life on this earth by His unlimited resurrection power of life. Amen
Listen to the audio version of this article via,
Youtube:
https://youtu.be/cd_500CKlg8
Rumble:
https://rumble.com/v4pyp23-follow-the-limited-jesus-by-the-power-of-the-resurrected-christ.html
I really enjoyed the typification of wheat and barley for incarcerated and resurrection respectively.
Even His names Jesus and Christ are His limited and unlimited names respectively.
Praise the Lord for our limited life on this earth by His unlimited resurrection power of life. Amen
04/12/24 A Land of Wheat and Barley (Week 3, Day 5)
“Just as We Can Experience the Limited Jesus as Signified by the Wheat, We can also Experience the Unlimited Christ as Signified by the Barley”
In John 6:9-13, we firstly have the barley loaf (bread), which belongs to the vegetable life and is good for feeding. As we shall see, since man has fallen and needs redeeming as well as feeding, the Lord Jesus turned the bread into flesh (John 6:51b). The bread is made from barley, while the flesh contains blood. Barley bread is of the vegetable life, but the flesh with the blood is of the animal life.
Eventually, in John 6, Christ is shown not only as the tree of life signified by the bread, but also as the Lamb of God signified by the flesh and blood. In the Lamb of God there are two elements: the blood for redeeming and the meat, the flesh, for feeding.
At the Passover, the people struck the blood and ate the meat. It is the same with us today. We accept Christ in the way of redeeming as well as in the way of feeding. He is both the vegetable life and the animal life, the feeding life and the redeeming life. Then, in order for us to grow in the divine life, we need to experience Christ as the wheat and barley.
Wheat signifies the incarnated, crucified, and buried Christ. Barley signifies Christ resurrected. According to the Scriptures, barley represents the firstfruit of resurrection. The Lord told His people in Leviticus 23 to offer the firstfruits of their harvest each year. Barley ripens earlier than any other crop and is the first of the harvest. Hence, it typifies the resurrected Christ (Lev 23:10). Therefore, barley signifies the resurrected Christ, who is our life supply.
As the firstfruit, He can become our bread of life. So, barley loaves represent Christ in resurrection as food to us. Actually, the feeding Christ is the resurrected Christ, Who strengthens us and empowers us. Today, we must apply the many types of Christ in our Christian life.
After we take Christ as the Lamb for our redemption, we must then be fed with Him, as the Bread of life, having the wheat and barley, to enable us to undergo any kind of situation necessary for us to grow and mature in the divine life. We need to undergo a limited and restricted life (wheat) by the power of Christ’s resurrection (barley) so that the divine life will be released and be manifested from within us.
We need a life of living and dying. Paul said that daily he was put to death. Day by day he was delivered into the death of Christ. This should also be our experience. Daily we may be put to death by others, perhaps by our family or by different things in our environment. As we live such a life of being put to death, we shall produce wine for the drink offering.
Whenever we are pressed to the limit by our spouse, our children, our parents, or our office mates, we need to turn to the unlimited Christ by praying desperately for Him to take over our situation. This is to put on Christ as our new man in order to put off our old man (Col 3:9-10). Then, deep within us shall rise up a power to sustain us and to strengthen us in our suffering situation to remain and receive the cutting, the grinding, and the pulverizing of our natural man in order for the glory of the divine life to be released and manifested from within us. This power is the power of resurrection of the unlimited Christ, typified by barley (Phil 3:10).
The text is talking about the idea of experiencing Christ as both wheat and barley. Wheat represents death, while barley represents resurrection.
The text says that whenever we experience Christ as the wheat, we can be assured that an experience of Christ as the barley will follow.
To understand this concept fully, we must apply Jesus not only in His limited form but also in His resurrected form. The resurrected Jesus possesses a life that has passed through incarnation, crucifixion, and burial. However, He Himself today is the resurrected One who lives in us.
Christ in flesh is always limited, but Christ in resurrection is unlimited and released. It is this unlimited Christ living within us that allows us to follow the limited Jesus with power and strength.
In summary, when we experience limitations or challenges (wheat) because of our faith journey following Jesus (limited), it’s important to remember that there will always be a time for renewal (barley). We need to trust in God’s plan for our lives even though it may seem difficult at times because He knows what’s best for us!
(HWMRW3D5) Enjoyment 😊
Ameeen!!!
The blessing of the promised Spirit corresponds with the blessing of the land promised to Abraham.
The greatest blessing, which is the Triune God — the Father, Son, and Spirit — as the processed, all-inclusive life-giving Spirit dwelling in us in a most subjective way for our enjoyment.
Oh, what a blessing that we can enjoy such an all-inclusive One as our daily portion, our all inclusive Drink!
Hallelujah!!!!