Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” It is so easy to take these verses for granted, but if we are enlightened by the Lord […]
living by the resurrection life to be in the reality of the Body of Christ
Paul’s aspiration and prayer in Phil. 3:10 was that he would know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. We need to ask ourselves, How much do we live, serve, and do things in the resurrection life? We may have a good coordination with […]
the Spirit honors only what we do in, by, and through the resurrection life
We need to learn to turn to our spirit and first contact the Lord, be one with Him, and then do anything or say anything. Anything that is natural coming out of ourselves belongs to the old creation and is not pleasing in God’s sight. King Saul wanted to offer to God the best of the Amalekites sheep and cattle, which God ordered to be fully destroyed, but God did not receive it but rather Saul lost his kingship because of this. God was not happy with the product of Cain’s sweat, the fruit of his human labor, no matter how good they were. What God desires is something in resurrection – He wants Christ to be lived out in us, the Christ who passed through death and is now in resurrection! [read more online]
through the church as the Zion today God will turn the whole earth to Himself
In the local churches and in the proper church life we as God’s servants “take pleasure in her stones” – we learn to take pleasure in all the saints, the stones in God’s building. We all are stones as building materials for the church (1 Pet. 2:5). We should take pleasure in all the members of the church. When we experience the resurrected Christ, we will see more than the natural features of others, and we will treasure all the other stones. Yes, others may have some peculiarities, but Christ as the stone element is in them, and we also have Christ as the stone in us! Praise the Lord for all the stones. [read more online]
Christ was like a lone sparrow on a housetop, spending much time with the Father
As a lone sparrow, Christ spend much time in prayer and watching with the Father, caring for God’s interest and God’s house. What do you think He prayed about? Do you think the Lord Jesus prayed about Him still being single, about His business, about His welfare, or about Him being physically unattractive? No, the Lord didn’t care about Himself but He cared for God’s interest, the desire of God’s heart. In His loneliness – in the sense that He couldn’t open the depths of His being to any human being – Christ spent much time with God and took God as His companion! [read more online]
the results of our deeper experience of God by dwelling in God as seen in Psalm 92
Psalms 90 and 91 show us a person who seeks to have a deeper experience of God by dwelling in God and taking God as his habitation. This person is Christ Himself – He took God as His habitation and He did everything in God, by God, and through God. By virtue of us being identified with Christ in the organic union with Him (1 Cor. 6:17), we also dwell in God and take God as our habitation. Psalm 92 tells us of many wonderful issues and results of our experience of God in a deeper way by dwelling in God and taking God as our habitation. [read more online]
abiding in the Lord by giving thanks in everything and praying unceasingly
What does it really mean to “unceasingly pray”? Does it mean that you have to stop any other outward activity and spend 24/7 in prayer on your knees before God? This natural thought seems rather impractical and intangible, impossible to attain by a human being. Prayer is an activity of our spirit – our mingled spirit prays all the time. To pray is to use our spirit to fellowship with God. Our spirit is always willing, ready to pray, but we need to turn to our spirit and use our spirit to pray! Let us not quench the Spirit in our spirit but allow our spirit to be active all the time by praying unceasingly! [read more online]