When we see God in Spirit, we Gain God, we’re Transformed by God, and we Deny Ourselves

When Job saw God, he gained God in his personal experience and he abhorred himself; when we see God by the exercise of our spirit, we are constituted with God, we deny ourselves, and we take Him as our secret of sufficiency. Amen!

This week we were exploring the great question in the book of Job and the great answer to this question of two parts.

Believers and unbelievers alike ask these two fundamental questions, which can be considered part of one great question: what is the purpose of God in creating us, and, why does God deal with us in this way, especially by means of suffering?

Whether we are a believer or an unbeliever, suffering is our portion; whether we deserve it or we think we don’t deserve it, suffering befalls us all.

And especially as believers in Christ, we should have a proper view of suffering, and we should realize that God does not hate us, He’s not after us, He doesn’t want to do evil to us but rather, He loves us, He wants us to partake of all that He is, and His heart is full of love and care for us.

God really loved and cared for His servant Job, for He realized that Job was full of self-righteousness, self-made integrity, and self-made uprightness; so God allowed Satan – this evil one who wants to tempt and test all men – to fulfil a negative part in His purpose.

Why did God allow Satan to bring about so much suffering, pain, and loss in the life of Job?

Job was such a good man, staying away from evil and doing what is good – why did God allow all these sufferings and pains to come over him?

Well, according to the first chapter of the book of Job, God held two councils in the heavens in which He talked about Job, and God Himself initiated the discussion as He asked Satan, Did you see My servant Job, how righteous he is?

God did not want His servant Job to be a righteous or upright person; He wanted him to be a God-man, a man filled with God, a man in God’s purpose who has God as his everything.

But Job was so filled with his uprightness, his perfection, and his righteousness, that God could not work Himself into him.

So God used this “ugly tool” called Satan to inflict suffering on Job to empty him, strip him of his righteousness and uprightness, and cause an opening in him so that He would come in and fill him with Himself.

At the end of his book, we see that Job saw God, so Job gained God; when we see God, we gain God, we are constituted with God, and we experience Him, and at the same time we abhor ourselves, we deny ourselves, and we put ourselves aside.

When we see God, we have no more questions for Him, for we gain Him, we are constituted with Him, and we take Him as our everything.

When we see God in Spirit, we Gain God, we are transformed by God, and we Deny Ourselves

When Job saw God, he abhorred himself and he gained God in his personal experience; in God’s appearing to him, Job saw God and gained God in his experience (Job 38:1-3; 42:1-6).

To abhor is to feel hatred for something, to loathe something to the extreme; Job abhorred himself because he saw God.

The more we see God, the more we see how much we are apart from God, and the more we hate ourselves, deny ourselves, and put ourselves aside.

It is one thing, however, to hear about God and to know things about God, and it is another thing to see God. It is one thing to have a doctrinal knowledge of God and it is something else to see God in our experience.

How can we see God? Today our God is the all-inclusive Spirit as the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God; the way for us to see God is to exercise our spirit to touch God, for He is the Spirit in our spirit.

The God whom we look at today is the Spirit in our spirit, and we can see God by turning to Him in spirit (2 Cor. 2:10; 2 Tim. 4:22).

Whenever we turn our heart to the Lord, our spirit is the hidden man of the heart, and we can behold the Lord in our spirit.

We see God so that we may be constituted with God; seeing God transforms us, and seeing God equals gaining God (2 Cor. 3:16, 18; Matt. 5:8; Rev. 22:4).

On the negative side, the more we see God and the more we love God, the more we deny ourselves and hate ourselves (Job 42:5-6; Isa. 6:5; Luke 14:26).

When Isaiah saw God sitting on a high and lofty throne, he said, Woe is me, for I am undone; I have seen the King on the throne!

When we see the Lord through the exercise of our spirit, the more we see what we are apart from Him, and we deny ourselves, we hate ourselves, and we put ourselves aside.

Actually, we don’t see our real condition in our natural life and in our old man until we really see the Lord.

When we see God, we see who and what we really are in our fallen being, and we deny ourselves; this will cause us to be transformed by the Lord, and we will gain more of God.

In Job’s case, he could not see God or need God until the sufferings came, and he was stripped and consumed; then, God appeared to him, and he saw God, he gained God, and he was constituted with God.

Our suffering is allowed by God for a purpose; His purpose is to strip us of our integrity, our self-made righteousness, and our uprightness, so that He may come in and reconstitute us with Himself.

God wants to give Himself to us; instead of us enjoying or pursuing other things apart from God, He wants us to pursue Him, gain Him, and be constituted with Him.

Matt. 5:8 says that if we are pure in heart, we will see God; seeing God is a great reward in the kingdom.

Seeing God is receiving God; it is not merely an objective seeing of God but a subjective seeing that causes us to gain God and be transformed with God, for God comes in to add the divine element into our being.

First, we behold the Lord with an unveiled face, and as we do this, we’re transformed into His image; then, we reflect Him by being transformed into His glorious image, from one degree of glory to another.

When Job Saw God, He could not yet be received into man, for He did not yet go through a process; today, however, when we behold Christ in our spirit, we are infused with Him, and He transforms us into the same image, and the result is that we gain God, we are constituted with God, and we reflect God. How wonderful this is!

Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit to behold You face to face so that we may be infused with Your element and be transformed into Your glorious image! Appear to us, dear Lord. We don’t want merely to know about You or to know You in doctrine; we want to see God so that we may gain God and be constituted with God! Amen, Lord Jesus, we turn our heart to You and we exercise our spirit to behold You and reflect You in Your glorious image! Infuse us with Yourself much more today. The more we see You, the more we love You, and the more we hate and deny ourselves. Oh Lord, may we see God more today. May we enjoy God more today. May we be transformed into the glorious image of Christ today!

In order to see God, we must Exercise our Spirit and Deal with our Heart

How can we see God? How can we look at God? He dwells in unapproachable light, and no man can ever see God.

But God went through a process to become the consummated Spirit who is now in our spirit; we can see God by exercising our spirit.

Seeing God is a matter in the spirit; seeing God is by exercising our spirit. This requires that we spend time with the Lord every day. We need to take time to behold the Lord by exercising our spirit; we cannot see God if we don’t stop to spend time with Him.

If we are too busy or too careless to have a time with God, we miss the opportunity of spending time with the Lord.

But if we spend even fifteen minutes with the Lord to pray, call on His name, and pray over His word, we will see God, we will be infused with God, we will gain God, and something of God’s element will be infused into our being.

When we spend time with the Lord with the exercise of our spirit, we see God and we absorb the riches of God into our being; in this way, we will be under the divine transformation day by day.

This is what our Christian life should be: not a life of outward change or correction but a life of being transformed into the image of the Lord by beholding Him and reflecting Him as we exercise our spirit.

The more we behold the Lord in our time with Him through the exercise of our spirit, the more our old element is discharged and His new element is being added to our being.

In order for us to see God, we must exercise our spirit (Eph. 1:17-18; 3:16-17; 1 Cor. 2:9-16; 2 Cor. 4:13; 1 Tim. 4:7; 2 Tim. 1:6-7); God is Spirit, and as the Spirit, He is in our spirit for us to behold Him and reflect Him.

The more we look at Him in our spirit, the more we receive all His ingredients into our being as our inner supply; the more we see God, the more we are infused with all that He is.

He is the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and He has all the divine and mystical ingredients ready for us to enjoy and partake of.

In the midst of our afflictions, even as we suffer, we need to take heed to our spirit (Mal. 2:15-16); we need to take the Lord as our dwelling place, the secret of our sufficiency (2 Cor. 2:13; 7:5-6; Psa. 91:1; Phil. 4:11-18; Psa. 90:1-12; 31:20; Isa. 32:2).

May we dwell in the secret place of the Most High and abide in the shadow of the Almighty, taking Him as our secret place and as our secret of sufficiency.

In order for us to see God, we must deal with our heart (2 Cor. 3:16, 18; Matt. 5:8; 13:18-23); our heart needs to be unveiled and turned to the Lord, we need to be pure in heart, and all the problems in our heart need to be dealt with.

We must be renewed in the spirit of our mind by being reconstituted with the holy word of God to be instructed, governed, ruled, and controlled by God’s word (Eph. 4:23; Deut. 17:18-20; Phil. 2:2, 5).

We also must be on fire with the Lord’s love, having an emotion filled with Him as our zeal for His house (Phil. 1:8; 2 Cor. 5:14; 2 Tim. 1:6-7; John 2:17; Mark 12:30).

Our virtue of emotion needs to be filled with Christ as the real love, and we will love the Lord and others with the best love, being filled with Christ as our zeal for God’s house.

We must have our will subdued by Christ and transformed with Christ through sufferings so that our will is submitted to the headship of Christ (Phil. 2:13; cf. S. S. 4:1, 4; 7:4a, 5).

Our will must be subdued and transformed so that it submits to the headship of Christ.

Furthermore, we need to maintain a good and pure conscience by the priceless, cleansing, and purifying blood of Christ (Acts 24:16; 1 Tim. 3:9; Heb. 9:14; 10:22).

For us to see God so that we may gain God and be constituted with God, we need to exercise our spirit and deal with our heart.

For us to deal with our heart, we must be on fire for the Lord, love with Him as our love, have our mind renewed in God’s word, have our will subdued, and have our conscience purified by the blood of Christ.

Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit and deal with our heart so that we may be poor in spirit and pure in heart to see God! We want to look at You in our spirit to receive all Your ingredients into our being as our inner supply. We want to take heed to our spirit, taking the Lord as our dwelling place, our secret of sufficiency. Amen, Lord, may we be renewed in the spirit of our mind so that we may be ruled and governed by Your word. May our emotion be filled with Christ as our zeal for God’s house. May our emotion be subdued and transformed with Christ to be submitted to the headship of Christ! Amen, may our conscience be good and pure by the purifying blood of Christ. Yes, Lord, we want to deal with our heart and exercise our spirit so that we may see God to gain God and be constituted with God!

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, Life-study of Job, msg. 21 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 1, The Great Question in the Book of Job and the Great Answer.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Walk in the light, and sin abhorred / Shall ne’er defile again; / The blood of Jesus Christ the Lord / Shall cleanse from every stain. (Hymns #658)
  – Oh, how blessed is this process! / It’s the Lord’s life-saving way. / It’s our constant, real experience; / It’s our life from day to day. / As we’re minding just the spirit, / Then the mind is life to us, / And the Lord in us is gaining / Transformation marvelous! (Hymns #1203)
  – In dealings with the Lord as life / We need a proper heart, / That of His riches, in His grace, / We fully may take part. (Hymns #744)