God’s intention is to have persons who are on the line of life, those who eat the tree of life, live on the line of life, and do not rely on their own natural abilities, uprightness, or skills but fully depend on God as life to express God and represent God; for this, He allows a certain measure of suffering to strip us and reconstitute us with Himself.
Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You for Your purpose today. We love You and we open to You. Have a way in our being. We want to be one with You today in our daily living. Save us from relying on our natural being, our skills, and our uprightness; we simply want to seek You and be filled with You! Amen, Lord, bring us fully on the line of life. Make us persons of life who depend on the Lord and express the Lord! Amen!
In God’s eyes there are only two sources issuing in two lines, two principles of living, two kingdoms, and two consummations. There is the tree of life, which is God in Christ as life, and there is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is Satan as the source of death.
We either live by the tree of life or by the tree of knowledge. If we depend on Christ as life, if we take Christ our life, seek Christ, and gain Christ so that Christ may live in us and be expressed through us, we will be on the line of life, and we will live according to the principle of life.
This doesn’t mean that we will be perfect in all our living, we will not sin, and we will be upright and moral in all things. It simply means that we seek God, and even when we fail, we turn to Him, we rely on Him, we depend on Him, and we do all things one with Him.
But if we do not depend on God in Christ as life, if we do things according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we live in death, and we are on the line of death.
We may be moral, we may do all things right, and we may choose the good and reject the evil, having much knowledge of the good; however, we are in death.
We may even live the church life as proper Christians; we may not offend others, we may be kind, gentle, good, and mild, yet we live in and by ourselves, and others sense our own aroma and flavour, not Christ being lived out in us; this spreads death. Oh Lord!
May we be saved from this and may we be brought on the line of life today!
Man’s Final Outcome is Either the New Jerusalem or the Lake of Fire: Choose the Line of Life!
As believers in Christ, we need to choose the way of life so that we may be on the line of life and live according to the principle of life to be consummated in the New Jerusalem as the city of life and light. There are only two destinations or final outcomes for man: either the New Jerusalem or the lake of fire.
If we are on the line of life today, if we exercise our spirit and deny the self to allow Christ to live in us, we will have as our destination the city of water of life, the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2, 11, 23; 22:1-2, 14).
The New Jerusalem will be the eternal dwelling place of God and man; it is not a physical city with physical gold and pearls and precious stones but a spiritual entity, a corporate person and a corporate living.
The New Jerusalem is the best and most glorious goal for all men who walk in the way of life according to God’s desire and for God’s pleasure.
Having the New Jerusalem as the goal and incentive, we want to live on the line of life today.
We want to live not according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but according to the tree of life by turning to our spirit, living in our spirit, and allowing the Lord to deal with anything that He exposes under His light in our being.
Our desire is to participate with God in all the blessings of God as the eternal life for eternity; we desire to be the New Jerusalem, one with God!
The second outcome or destiny for man is the lake of fire; those who live on the line of death by depending on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will end up in the lake of fire of brimstone, the Gehenna of fire (Matt. 5:22).
This lake of fire was prepared for Satan and his followers to be their prison, as the worst and most miserable end for all the men who take the way of death according to Satan’s evil device.
This is not for man to be in but for Satan and his followers to share for eternity.
Those who today take Satan’s evil advice and live according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will share with Satan the eternal judgment and eternal perdition (John 16:11; Matt. 25:41; Rev. 21:8, 27; 22:15). Oh Lord Jesus!
We believers in Christ will never share in such a destiny, for we have been saved and regenerated, and the New Jerusalem is our destiny.
However, if we do not live on the line of life today by choosing the tree of life, we may be touched by this fire in the next age; the next age will be either a foretaste of the New Jerusalem or some judgment and perfecting.
Whether we will have a foretaste of the New Jerusalem by feasting with the Lord and reigning with Him, or whether we will be perfected by the Lord in the next age, depends on what line we live today.
We want to take the New Jerusalem as the best and most glorious end of God’s way of life; this is our incentive today, even our dynamic incentive for us to seek God until we gain Him to the fullest extent according to His love and grace. Amen!
We also take the lake of fire as the worst and most miserable end of Satan’s way of death and of good and evil, as a solemn warning in our daily Christian life.
And we want to cooperate with the Lord to rescue many from the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and help them be transferred from the line of death to the line of life.
We pray for many around us to escape Satan’s eternal judgment and eternal perdition and be brought on the line of life to share in the New Jerusalem as their glorious and wonderful destiny! Amen!
Lord Jesus, we choose to stay on the line of life today! We exercise our spirit to partake of You as the tree of life and depend on You as life. Amen, Lord, we take the New Jerusalem as our goal, for we want to be consummated in the city of water of life, the eternal dwelling place of God and man! Hallelujah, our best and most glorious destiny is to live eternally one with God, depending on God, expressing God, and representing God by His life! Amen, Lord, we want to walk in the way of life according to God’s desire and for God’s pleasure. We want to enjoy You, partake of You and live one spirit with You. We stay away from anything of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; we simply choose You as life. Oh Lord, we enthrone You in our being today; You are the Lord, the King, and the Master. We give You the preeminence. We simply open to drink the river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb! Hallelujah, we are becoming the New Jerusalem and we can even have a foretaste of the New Jerusalem today! Amen!
God Strips and Consumes us to Rebuild us with God and bring us on the Line of Life
As we prayerfully consider the book of Job, one of the most difficult yet precious books in the Bible, we need to have God’s purpose in view; otherwise, we will be distracted by the knowledge and debates in this book.
Job was an upright and righteous man, so upright that God had a conference and even Satan came, and God pointed to Satan how upright Job was.
Unbeknownst to him, God wanted to use Satan as an ugly tool to deal with Job, strip him of his integrity and self-righteousness, and consume him to the uttermost so that Job would be on the line of life depending on God as life.
Job was perfect and upright, but this perfection and uprightness was in and of himself; it was his doing, his perfection, his uprightness, with nothing of God in it.
So Job went through much suffering and stripping; his possessions were destroyed, his children died, and even his health was severely affected, for he suffered very much and became depressed.
Even worse, three of his friends came and debated with him that there must be something wrong that he did for God to bring all these things upon him.
The logic of Job and his friends was according to the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Job 2:11-32:1).
For more than thirty chapters, they debated on this topic. Job, like his friends, was halted in the knowledge of right and wrong, not knowing God’s economy (4:7-8).
Both Job and his friends were in the wrong realm; they were in the realm of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (1:1; 2:3; 19:10).
God, however, was trying to rescue them from that realm and put them into the realm of the tree of life.
Here we see one of the main purposes in God’s dealing with us in the matter of suffering. God’s purpose in dealing with Job was to turn him from the way of good and evil to the way of life so that he may gain God to the fullest extent (Job 42:1-6).
God intended to consume this “perfect and upright” person and even strip him of his attainments, his achievements, and his highest standard of ethics in perfectness and uprightness.
This is not what God desires; this is what we think He wants, but God wants men on the line of life who depend on Him as the tree of life.
God’s intention was to tear down the natural Job in his perfection and uprightness so that God might build up a renewed Job in God’s nature and attributes.
God doesn’t want a perfect and upright person who does this in himself; He wants a renewed person who has God’s nature and attributes to express God on the line of life.
God doesn’t want people who are upright and perfect in the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but persons who are in the line of the tree of life. Amen!
In the book of Job, we see that God dealt severely with Job to adjust his logic concerning his relationship with God, which should be according to the principle of life, for man to gain God and be filled with God to express God.
God wants to adjust our logic as Christians concerning our relationship with God from the principle of good and evil according to ethics to the principle of life according to God!
Instead of trying to be ethical and moral, we should be those who gain God and participate in God for the fulfilment of God’s eternal economy!
Job and his friends, however, were halted in the knowledge of right and wrong; they didn’t know God’s economy and did not realise in an adequate way what the purpose of God creating man was.
They had no divine revelation, nor did they have any experience of the divine life.
They had no idea that God has no intention to increase man’s perfection, uprightness, righteousness, and integrity but to have men on the line of life who depend on the tree of life.
We need to see this today. We need to realise that, even though it sounds good to be perfect, upright, and moral, what God wants is that we would be on the line of life by seeking God and gaining God.
For this purpose, God does a work of stripping and consuming so that we may be fully on the line of life.
The book of Job is like a black background, for the speaking of Job and his three friends indicates that, though they were apparently godly men, they were short of God and did not express God.
Instead of praying about this situation and opening to God about this, they debated and argued, and they were fully on the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God wanted to rescue them from that realm and bring them into the realm of the tree of life.
He allowed Satan to deal with Job in a severe way so that Job may be torn down and consumed, for God to come in and rebuild Job with the Divine Trinity so that Job may be a new man, part of God’s new creation for the fulfilment of God’s eternal economy for God’s expression (Gal. 2:20).
This is what God wants. He allows dealings, sufferings, and unpleasant things to happen to us for us to be consumed, stripped, and torn down in our natural man and our self-righteousness and uprightness, so that God may rebuild us and renew us with Himself.
May we open to the Lord as we go through all kinds of things, realising that all things work together for good to those who love God (Rom 8:28-29).
Lord Jesus, have mercy on us today and deliver us fully from living according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! Save us from being stuck in the knowledge of right and wrong yet not knowing God’s economy. May we realise that God is not after perfect and upright men but after men on the line of life who depend on God as life. We open to You, Lord. We open to Your dealings with us to tear down our natural man, our natural perfectness and uprightness, and rebuild us to make us renewed persons in God’s nature and attributes. Oh Lord, bring us fully on the line of the tree of life. Adjust our logic concerning our relationship with God. May we be saved from trying to do good, be ethical and moral, and be a good person; may we be those who seek God, gain God, and depend on God! Amen, Lord, have Your way through all things in our environment to strip our natural being with its positive aspects and rebuild us with God. Have a way, Lord, to make us a new man, a part of God’s new creation, to fulfil God’s eternal economy for God’s expression! Amen!
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 the brothers on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of Job, msgs. 4-5 and 9, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Noah, Daniel, and Job – Patterns of Living an Overcoming Life on the Line of Life to Fulfill the Economy of God (2026 International Chinese-Speaking Conference), week 4, Job and the Two Trees – day 3.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Eating is man’s destiny / And the Lord’s recovery; / This defeats the enemy— / Overcome! / Come enjoy the tree of life, / Leave the doctrines, leave the strife! / Overcome by eating Christ— / Overcome! / Overcome! Overcome! / Overcome the degradation of the church! / All your working lay aside, / All the teachings that divide; / Eat the Lord whate’er betide— / Overcome! (Hymns #1273 stanza 2 and chorus)
– There are two lines to live by in our living today— / One the life line to bring us into Christ all the way. / But the other is knowledge which will make us die; / We must be very careful on which line we abide. / Oh, we’ll stay on God’s life line, never turning aside. / We don’t care for vain knowledge, which will cause us to die. / Lord, we’ll touch You by calling on Your name each day; / Living in Your appearing, in Your presence we’ll stay. (Hymns #1194 stanza 1 and chorus)
– Thus within the church-life garden / There’s a fruit-producing tree / Full of life and so available to eat. / So be simple, don’t be hardened, / Drop your concepts—eat that tree! / Take in Jesus every moment—He’s so sweet! / With the tree there is the water, / Flowing God in Christ to us, / Quenching all our dryness, ending all our strife. / Hallelujah! In His garden / Jesus flows Himself to us, / As the full supply for us to grow in life. (Hymns #1237 stanzas 3-4)
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