All our service to the Lord must originate from God and not from ourselves, as we allow His death to operate in us so that His resurrection life can be imparted through us into others; we believers are the salt of the earth who kill and eliminate the earth’s germs of corruption and rottenness.
Lord Jesus, we open to You. Work Yourself into us more today. Make us those who not only love God and fear God but also cooperate with God in His work today. Amen, Lord, may we realise that all work in this universe should come from God and not from man. May we see that what matters is what God does for man and not primarily what man does for God. Amen, Lord, make us those who cooperate with You in Your work on the earth today! Praise the Lord, we are the salt of the earth, one with the Lord to sanctify those around us! Amen!
As we are prayerfully considering what does it mean for us to be the good seed, the sons of the kingdom who are sown by the Lord to grow in His kingdom, we believers in Christ need to open to the Lord concerning our experience of Him and our work for Him.
First of all, we need to come to God’s word, for His word is full of His life, and we need to allow the Word of God to nourish us. At the same time, the word that nourishes us also burns us and burns many of the things in which we have confidence.
The word of God is also like a hammer, smashing the things that are of the self, the natural life, the flesh, the lusts, and the concepts. Thank the Lord for His word.
As the good seed, we need to be filled with the Lord’s life and, at the same time, we need to follow the Lord into the earth to die. His love constrains us to live to the Lord, and the environment works together with the Lord’s inner operation to put us to death so that the Lord’s life may flow out of us.
Just as a grain of wheat falls into the earth to die so that the life within it may be released and bear fruit, so we need to be conformed to the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection so that His life may flow out of us.
Our service to the Lord in resurrection is not of ourselves; it is not initiated by us but by God, for God is the only One who can initiate the service. We simply love the Lord, open to Him, and give Him more ground in our being, and He operates in us and through us. May we be vessels open to the Lord for His continual and constant divine dispensing today!
All our Service to the Lord must Originate from God and not from Ourselves: What Matters most is what God does for Man!
Thank the Lord that He regenerated us with His life to make us the good seed; our living and work now are in the mingled spirit, one with the Lord, for Him to be seen, manifested, and exhibited through us.
As we live our Christian life loving the Lord and opening to Him, we realise that all our service to the Lord must originate from God, not from ourselves, as we allow His death to operate in us so that His resurrection life can be imparted through us into others (2 Cor. 4:12-13; 1:8-9; 4:5; 10:13).
God is the source, the Initiator, the Origin, and the only One who can initiate and originate the service. We need to learn this lesson, in all our work and service, that nothing should originate from us – everything must originate from God.
This is not an easy lesson to learn, but it is a very serious lesson. We see this in the story of David in 2 Samuel 7; he wanted to build a house for God, but God stopped him.
God wants David to love God and seek God, but God did not want David to do something for God but rather, that God would do something for him.
David loved God, feared God, and cooperated with God in order to let God work; although he had the ability to build the temple of God, he stopped when God’s word came to him (2 Sam. 7:18, 25, 27; cf. Luke 1:38).
Wow, he stopped! He could have just gone ahead and build the temple, for he wanted to, he had the ability, and the materials were ready; however, when God spoke to him, he stopped.
Oftentimes this is what God wants; He wants us to stop so that He can work. David’s stopping established a twofold testimony in the universe: first, all the work in this universe should come from God, not from man, and second, all that matters is what God does for man, and not what man does for God.
We need to be before the Lord regarding this, for this is very important to us in our Christian life and service.
Simply because we love the Lord and are able to do something for Him when we see the need does not mean that we should do it; rather, we need to contact the Lord, wait on Him, and let Him initiate.
What we initiate is not pleasing to God; He may go along, there may be some blessing, but this is not what God wants. He needs to initiate all work for the Lord.
All that matters is not what we can do for God but what God does for us. We need to open to the Lord and let Him work in us, even to work Himself into us.
In the story of David, we see that, even after he stopped working to build the temple, he had two great failures: he murdered Uriah and usurped his wife Bath-sheba (2 Sam. 11:2-17, 26-27), and second, he numbered the children of Israel (24:1-10).
In both cases, he failed tremendously; however, he repented, having a deep regret, and God forgave him. Out of both failures, however, something came out for God’s building.
David’s failure with his repentance married God’s forgiveness to produce Solomon, the builder of God’s temple. Also, the piece of land where David offered sacrifices after he was chastised by God, this land became the site for the building of the temple (vv. 18-25; 1 Chron. 21:1; 2 Chron. 3:1).
Both the builder of the temple and the site of the building of the temple came out of David’s being forgiven of his sins. Wow! All we can do is worship God, realising that it is not what we can do for God but what He does for us. God wants our cooperation, not our initiation.
When God works in us and on us, we may fail and commit mistakes, but we repent and we are forgiven by God, and something comes out of this for God’s building, for the building up of God’s dwelling place. We need God’s forgiveness.
We repent, and God forgives. We are forgiven sinners. We stop our opinions, decisions, and ideas, and we let the Lord speak to us and through us.
We let Him come in and speak and do all things. Opportunities come, the need is there, and we are able to do something for the Lord to meet the need, but we need to stop first, enjoy the Lord, and let Him initiate all things.
When the opportunity to work comes, we need to slow down and come to God’s word; the Lord may stop us or slow us down, for He wants to initiate all things.
Lord Jesus, we love You and we open to You. We come to You to just enjoy You. We give ourselves to love You and serve You. Amen, Lord, we want to cooperate with You for the building up of the church. We open to You and we give You the first place. Lord, have a way to initiate all things. May we see that all work in this universe should come from God, and not from man. Amen, Lord, be the Initiator and the Source of all our work! May we realise that all that matters is what God does for man and not what man does for God! Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You today. Work in us. Operate in us. Gain in us what You are after. We come to You again and again to repent of our sins, trespasses, failures, and mistakes. We humble ourselves before You. May Your forgiveness work in us to produce something for the building up of the church. Lord, we are nothing, but You are everything. Lord Jesus, we can do nothing, but You can do everything in us for God’s building! We give ourselves to You today! Amen!
We Believers are the Salt of the Earth who Kill and Eliminate the Earth’s Germs of Corruption and Rottenness
According to Matthew 5:13, we believers in Christ and disciples of Jesus are the salt of the earth, those who kill and eliminate the earth’s germs of corruption and rottenness (cf. Lev. 2:13).
We are the salt of the earth not merely individually but corporately, as overcoming believers living in the kingdom life. Being the salt of the earth is a corporate matter, not an individual one; as a corporate entity, we are the salt of the earth.
We need to remain both in the word of the Lord to enjoy Him and be sanctified by Him and also remain in the church life to be the salt of the earth. The earth created by God has become fallen; it is corrupted and polluted.
Salt kills germs, eliminates rottenness, and preserves things in their original condition. The function of salt is to preserve what God has created. Throughout the ages until today, the earth has become more and more corrupted and rotten.
Simply look at the situation around us; corruption and immorality is prevalent, and sins are on display for others to see. Oh Lord!
We as kingdom people are the salt of the earth, keeping the earth from being fully corrupted. In the Old Testament, all the offerings had salt, especially the burnt offering; the salt typifies the crucified Christ, the Christ who was killed on the cross.
We are the salt of the earth; we enjoy and experience the crucified Christ day by day, and we sanctify the situation and people around us by our very presence.
To the corrupted earth, we as people of the kingdom of the heavens have the salting function, keeping the earth from being fully corrupted.
Our presence on this earth, at home, at work, at school, wherever we are, eliminates rottenness, kills germs, and keeps things in their original condition, bringing them to their original God-created condition.
This is what our function is today as the salt of the earth, until the millennial kingdom come, when all the germs on the earth will be utterly killed, and the whole earth will be regained by Christ and brought back to its God-created condition.
This work will be done by the kingdom people. Wherever we are, we need to exercise a salting influence over those around us. In our neighbourhood, at the office, where we are with other people, we need to keep contacting the Lord and be one spirit with Him so that we may be the salt of the earth.
We don’t have to try to say something to expose others or rebuke them; we’re not here to point out their mistakes or shortcomings, but simply be with them, so that we may salt them.
However, if we lose our salting function, nothing can help us regain it.
We need to remember Lot’s wife; she became a pillar of salt and lost her salting function because she took a lingering look at Sodom (Gen. 19:15, 24-26; Luke 17:32).
She was almost saved; she almost reached a place where she was safe from God’s judgment, but she took one last lingering look. She loved and treasured that evil world which God was going to destroy. Oh Lord!
God will destroy this world, but there are some things that we may still love; if we still love the world and the things in the world, we may lose our salting function.
We will not perish, but neither are we fully saved, for we still love some things. We become like salt that is tasteless (Luke 14:34-35), being left in a place of shame.
This should be a warning to us not to be world-loving believers.
To make a career of following the Lord, we must give all we have and all we can do to it, otherwise, we will be a failure, becoming the tasteless salt and being thrown out of the glorious realm into a sphere of shame (14:31-35; cf. Rev. 3:21; John 16:33).
We don’t want to be a failure. We do not want to be cast out of a glorious realm into a sphere of shame. May we not be in the middle, but by the Lord’s grace follow Him faithfully and be the salt of the earth.
We should not be disappointed or discouraged but strengthened and enabled to live out the divine economy by the processed and consummated Triune God as the all-sufficient grace (1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 12:9; 2 Tim. 4:22; Col. 4:6). Grace will strengthen us to take this way and cooperate with the Lord.
Lord Jesus, we love You and we stand for You. We give ourselves to You today. Make us the salt of the earth in reality. Make us those who kill and eliminate the earth’s germs of corruption and rottenness. Save us from losing our salting function because of taking a lingering look backward to the world. Oh Lord, may we see that You are the most precious One. May we appreciate You and treasure You above all things. May we not love or treasure the evil world that You will soon destroy. We love You, Lord Jesus! Sanctify us and sanctify the place where we are. We want to make a career of following the Lord, so we give all we have and all we are to it. We do not want to be a failure, those who are tasteless salt who are being thrown out of the glorious realm into a sphere of shame. Amen, Lord, we love You and we open to You! Strengthen us and enable us to live out the divine economy by the processed and consummated Triune God as our all-sufficient grace! Live in us today and be expressed through us! 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 brother Minoru Chen on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of Luke, msgs. 33, 39, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Believers (1) (2026 July Semi-Annual Training), week 3, “The Wheat of Life, the Good Seed, the Salt of the Earth, the Light of the World, and the Fishers of Men” – day 4.
- Hymns on this topic:
– My soul, be silent, wait upon the Lord! / First let Him speak to thee, then speak to Him; / True prayer in thee the Lord initiates, / Thou but a channel art expressing Him. / My soul, be silent, wait upon the Lord! / Learn to deny thy thought and all thy will. / Learn to let God anoint thee with Himself / And thru thy prayer His purposes fulfill. (Hymns #793 stanzas 1-2)
– Pray to labor with the Lord; / Self-ambition and self-will / We must ever cast away, / All His purpose to fulfill. / Pray to labor with the Lord; / Let the Lord initiate / All the plan and all the work; / Then thru us He’ll operate. (Hymns #786 stanzas 3-4)
– See the ruin of a nation / Going downward in sin; / All humanity is fallen / And corrupted within. / But as children of the kingdom / We are salting the earth; / His humanity preserves us / In the midst of such dearth. / Let us stand up in Jesus / In His full human life, / Human virtues prevailing / ’Gainst corruption so rife; / In this wickedness concerted, / In this age perverse, perverted, / The humanity of Jesus / Must the church now display. (Hymns #1172 stanza 4 and chorus)
