As believers in Christ we are saved by God and now we all serve Him; however, we need to be careful how we serve Him so that our service to Him would be pleasing and rewarded by Him. There are two kinds of service: the service for the building up of the church, and the service that is frustrating the building and even tearing down the building.
If we serve God from ourselves, according to our natural concept, in our flesh, and with our own strength, no matter how much we serve Him and how many great work we may do for Him, our service is not pleasing to Him and it even damages the Body of Christ.
Much service has been rendered to God throughout the ages yet with very little value in His eyes; to many He will say, Depart from Me, workers of lawlessness, I never knew you!
We need to be before the Lord in fear and trembling, deny ourselves, and simply take Him as our source, our life, our person, and our everything, so that we may be one with Christ as the unique Serving One pleasing to God and serve in Christ and with Christ before God.
We want to have a revelation concerning the building up of the church, and we want to enter into a moment-by-moment living for the building up of the church. This week we are diving deeper into, The Service that is From God.
God Himself needs to be the source and originator of all our service: He needs to be the initiator, operator, motivator, and source of all our service.
Our service to God is in the principle of the tree of life: after God created man, He placed him in front of the tree of life so that man would live a life of unceasing dependence on God as his source. In our service to God we need to take Him as our source, originator, and motivator.
Anything that we do and is not originated or initiated from God is of the flesh and is not accepted by Him.
Believing in God as our Unique Source: He calls the Things NOT Being as Being
Like our father Abraham, we should believe in God as the unique source, as the One who “calls the things not being as being” (Rom. 4:17). Apart from God there’s no other source; He is the only One who can call things not being as being.
As the creating God, He needs no material to work with: He can create something out of nothing simply by speaking (see Psa. 33:9). He spoke, and it was; again and again He said, Let there be….and it was!
Abraham believed God regarding two things: (1) the birth of Isaac, which is related to the God who “calls the things not being as being” [Rom. 4:17], and (2) the offering up and the gaining back of Isaac, which is related to the God who “gives life to the dead.” Abraham believed such a God and applied Him to his situation. Because Abraham had such faith, he believed God’s seemingly impossible word concerning the birth of Isaac, and he also immediately obeyed God’s commandment to offer Isaac, believing that God would raise him from the dead (Heb. 11:17-19). (Rom. 4:17, footnote 1, Recovery Version Bible)
As the father of all those called by God, Abraham believed God concerning the birth and offering up of Isaac; we as believers in Christ need to know God as our Father, the source, the unique initiator.
What does it mean to know God as our Father? To know God as the Father is to know that He is the source, the unique initiator, and that everything originates from Him and proceeds out of Him (Eph. 4:6; Matt. 15:13; Rom. 11:36; 1 Cor. 8:6).
Our wonderful God is the Father: He is the originator and initiator of everything, and He is the unique source in this universe. We need to see this basic truth so that all our service would be from God as our unique source. Out from God, through God, and to God are all things; therefore, to Him be the glory forever, amen!
There’s one God the Father, and we are all unto Him. God is the source of our human existence: He created us, He gives us life, He maintains our life, we have our breath from Him, He guards over us, and from Him are all things that we have in our life.
God is the source of our spiritual life: He chose us, predestinated us, redeemed us, imparted His life into us, and He is conforming us to the image of Christ. It is nothing of us: it is all of God. We need to see that God is the source, the initiator, and we need to believe into God as our unique source: He calls things NOT being as being!
Lord, we take You as our source. You are the Only One qualified to be the source, the originator, the initiator, and the motivator of the service we can render to You. We simply believe into You and take You as our unique source. Lord, we don’t want to initiate anything: we let You initiate. We don’t want to motivate or originate any service toward You: You be the source, the motivator, and the initiator. Cause us to see that You are the unique source, and only You can call things not being as being!
God the Father is the only Originator and the Holy Spirit is the only Initiator
God the Father is the only legitimate Originator in the universe, and His Holy Spirit is the only legitimate Initiator in our hearts (Gen. 1:1; Acts 13:2, 4). The Lord Jesus took the Father as the only Originator, depending on Him, working as He worked, speaking His words, expressing Him, and seeking His glory and also His approval.
We must receive grace from God to realize that we CANNOT and SHOULD NOT initiate anything; only God the Father is the unique legitimate Initiator, and everything originates from Him. Watchman Nee has a very good portion on this matter,
“God is the only legitimate Originator in the universe (Gen. 1:1), and His Holy Spirit is the only legitimate initiator in our hearts. Anything that you or I plan and set on foot without Him has the taint of the flesh upon it, and it will never reach the realm of the Spirit however earnestly we seek God’s blessing on it. It may last for years, and then we may think we will adjust here and improve there and maybe bring it on a better plane, but it cannot be done.
Origin determines destination, and what was “of the flesh” originally will never be made spiritual by any amount of “improvement.” That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and it will never be otherwise. So anything for which we are sufficient in ourselves is “nothing” in God’s estimate, and we have to accept His estimate and write it down as nothing. “The flesh profiteth nothing.” It is only what comes from above that will abide.” (Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 33, “The Normal Christian Life,” p. 161)
In Acts 13 we see how the brothers were ministering to the Lord and fasting, and the Holy Spirit initiated something; their service issued from the Lord’s speaking, as they were enjoying the Lord as the source, originator, and initiator.
We need to know, experience, and enter into the reality of having God as the Originator and the Holy Spirit as the Initiator. When we take the Lord as our source, He blesses everything we do. God must be the originator in all spiritual work, and His will must govern the beginnings of all our service (see Matt. 7:21-23).
There is a possibility in serving the Lord that we would not take Him as the source, and He may say, Depart from Me… Oh Lord Jesus! May we be those who come to Him, take Him as the source of our service, and take His yoke upon us even as we bring all our troubles, burdens, and problems to Him (Matt. 11:28-30).
May we be those who continually unceasingly come to the source, the originator, to be one with Him, so that our service would be full of Him for the building up of the church.
May we never leave our first and best love but love the Lord to the uttermost, have our love toward Him be rekindled, and cling to Him as the unique source of our service, so that the church as the golden lampstand would be brightly shining (see Rev. 2).
May we speak, serve, and do whatever we need to do – whether in our personal life, at work, at school, at home, or in the church life – by taking God as our unique source.
Oh Lord Jesus, we love You with the first love! We cling to You as our unique source of our service, and we want to speak, serve, and do whatever we need to do by taking You as our source! God, we acknowledge You as the only legitimate Originator in the universe, and we agree that the Holy Spirit is the only legitimate Initiator in our hearts! We come to You, Lord, we want to minister to You, be filled with You, enjoy You, and be one with You as the source and initiator, so that all our service would be full of Christ for the building up of the church!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message for this week, and Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 35, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” ch. 6, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Service for the Building up of the Church (2016 Spring ITERO), week 4 / msg. 4, The Service that is from God.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Since Thou art the Beginning, / Thou hast preceded all; / And since Thou art the Ending, / Thou wilt inherit all. / Thou, the unique Beginning, / Didst all originate; / Thou, as the only Ending, / Wilt all things terminate. (Hymns #202)
# Father, source of glory, naming every fam’ly; / And the Son upholding all by His almighty power; / Holy Spirit, filling the vast scene of glory— / O glorious Fulness, let our hearts adore! (Hymns #2)
# I dwell with the King for His work, / The work, it is His and not mine; / He plans and prepares it for me / And fills me with power divine. (Hymns #904)
About aGodMan
As the father of all those called by God, Abraham was the first of a new race chosen by God. We were born into the fallen Adamic race, but we have been reborn into the called-out Abrahamic race. Whoever is of faith, as Abraham was, is a member of this new race and a son of Abraham (Gal. 3:7). (Rom. 4:16, footnote 1, Recovery Version Bible)