Serve the Lord Faithfully as a Faithful and Prudent Slave by His Resurrection Life

Our desire is to serve the Lord faithfully as a faithful and prudent slave by His resurrection life and power, depending on Him in all things in our service to Him.

As believers in Christ who love the Lord and want to serve Him faithfully, we want to be faithful and prudent slaves who give food to those in God’s household at the proper time, not mistreat our fellow believers nor be involved with things in the world to bury our talent but work for the Lord by His resurrection life and power. Amen!

This week in our morning revival we have been enjoying prayerfully the two parables in Matt. 25 and we realized that we need to be watchful in life and faithful in service.

On the one hand, we are chaste virgins to the Lord, waiting for Him, preparing ourselves for His coming, loving Him, being filled with Him, and living for Him.

This is in the aspect of life, and we want to be watchful in life so that we may be prepared when He returns, having oil not only in our lamp (our spirit) but even more, an extra portion of oil in our vessel (our soul).

This means that we daily we’re learning to pay the price to gain an extra portion of the Spirit in our vessel; we buy the oil, paying the price to buy the Spirit as the golden oil.

All other things are loss on account of Christ, we abide in fellowship with Him, and we redeem the time and spend our energy to be saturated and soaked with God’s holy word. Amen!

We are learning to be filled with the Spirit all day, even throughout the day, so that we may have more of the Spirit in our mind, emotion, and will.

When we come together and when we’re with other people, we are learning not to grieve the Holy Spirit by speaking corrupt words but rather, speak words of grace to give grace to those who hear.

And we do not want to quench the Spirit but rather, always rejoice, in everything give thanks, and unceasingly pray! Amen! This is on the side of life.

On the side of service, we all have a spiritual gift given by the Lord to us, His slaves, for us to accomplish what the Lord intends to accomplish.

He is not only our Bridegroom but also our Master. As our Master, we serve Him faithfully.

He has entrusted us with His possessions, which signify the church with all the believers.

He has also given us some talents, some spiritual gifts, for us to use in His service.

The more we seek to be filled with the Spirit, the more our spiritual gift is increased and manifested for the building up of the Body of Christ.

We serve the Lord out of love for Him, and we use the Lord’s gift to build up the church by serving others with Christ and by ministering Christ as grace to them. Amen!

Serve the Lord Faithfully as a Faithful and Prudent Slave, not Mistreating our Fellow Believers nor being Involved with the World

On the positive side, we serve the Lord faithfully, learning to be a prudent and faithful slave; on the negative side, we need to make sure we don’t mistreat our fellow believers nor be involved with the world so that our talent is buried in the world. Oh, Lord!

In Matt. 24:48-49 the Lord Jesus said that the slave may be evil, for he begins to beat his fellow slaves and eats and drinks with the drunken. Oh, Lord!

What does this mean and how does this apply to our Christian experience? Some slaves of the Lord may “beat their fellow slaves,” that is, they may mistreat their fellow believers.

This may seem a bit too much or too harsh, but this is what happens sometimes in the Lord’s service.

We may serve the Lord together with others, but we may mistreat them by criticizing them or judging them, condemning them, or speaking evil things about them.

We may have a quarrel in our coordination time, we may debate and argue; this is to mistreat our fellow slaves. Oh, Lord!

Instead of this, we need to honor one another as fellow members of the Body.

Those who mistreat their fellow believers may also eat and drink with the drunken; this is to drift away further, hanging out and being with worldly people who are drunk and even drugged with worldly things.

The people in the world today are stupefied, drugged, with the things of the present age, and if we spend time with them and are involved with them, we may mistreat our fellow believers and lose our appetite for the Lord or the church life. Oh, Lord!

May we be saved from criticising the saints or murmuring about them. Instead of speaking anything negative about the saints, we need to speak Christ to them.

Our mouth was not made to criticize others nor to speak evil things about them; our mouth was made to call on the Lord and enjoy Him.

We should exercise our spirit and be in the word of God, allowing the word of Christ to dwell in us richly (Col. 3:16) so that, when we meet with others, we may speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

Another warning in our service to the Lord is that we may be so involved in the world that we render the Lord’s gift useless, letting it lie waste under the cloak of certain earthly excuses (Matt. 25:18-19).

The slothful slave thought in his heart that, since his master is harsh and expects profit from him, he would rather hide the talent in the earth, burying it, so that he doesn’t lose it.

This is an excuse.

The earth signifies the world; to bury the talent in the earth signifies burying the spiritual gift by being involved in the world, and then having excuses for not using it.

When we are associated with the world, involved with the world, and entangled with the world, we bury the Lord’s gift to us. Oh, Lord!

We need to do many things in the world today, including going to school, studying diligently, getting a job, taking care of many things around the house, and having many responsibilities, but we should not be so involved with the world that we bury the Lord’s gift.

We need to study to the best of our ability, but we should not dig into it to the extent that we bury the Lord’s gift.

We need to have the best education, but education should not bury our talent.

Rather, we should serve the Lord faithfully even as we study, being a faithful and prudent slave.

We need to get a job and we need to do our best when we work, but we should not dig into it, make a career out of it, and allow the job to bury the Lord’s gift.

We are different from the worldly people.

They are swept away in the flood of dissoluteness and are drugged and stupefied by worldly things, having no idea what’s going on and what’s the meaning of their human life.

We are here not for the world but for the Lord.

We may have a job in tech and our job may be quite demanding, and we may need to take care of many things related to our house and our family, but we should still serve the Lord faithfully, being a faithful and prudent slave who exercises the Lord’s gift in serving Him.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with studying, working, and many other things in the world, but they can become a snare to occupy us, replace our time, and wear us out so that, when we have to serve the Lord in the church, we have no more energy.

This is to bury our talent in the ground or to put the light under a bushel, making the excuse that we do things for our living so we can’t serve the Lord. Oh, Lord Jesus!

May we exercise our spirit day by day to enjoy the Lord, do business for the Lord with the spiritual gift that He gave us, and give food to those in the Lord’s household at the proper time.

Instead of criticising or judging our fellow believers, may we speak Christ to them and minister them food.

Instead of burying our spiritual gift in the earth, being involved with the things of teh world, may we rather exercise to serve the Lord faithfully, being a faithful and prudent slave who will be rewarded by Him at His coming!

We should admonish the disorderly, console the fainthearted, the “little-souled,” sustain those who are weak in spirit, soul, or body, or are weak in faith, and be long-suffering toward all (Matt. 24:49; 1 Thes. 5:14).

Lord Jesus, we want to serve the Lord faithfully today, being a faithful and prudent slave. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to contact You and we want to be filled with the Spirit! Fill us today! We want to be those who serve You in the house of God, the church, and who never mistreat our fellow believers. Save us from criticizing others, judging them, or exposing them. May we rather minister Christ to others instead of judging them, and may we rather give them food instead of exposing them. Oh Lord, forgive us for mistreating our fellow believers; make us the faithful and prudent slaves who serve God faithfully today in the house of God! We love You, Lord, and we want to serve You faithfully until You return. Save us from burying the spiritual gift You gave us in the earth by being involved in the things of the world. Oh Lord, we are not like those in the world and we do not want to be stupefied or drugged by the things of this world! We set our heart on You, we love You, and we want to serve You even as we take care of many things related to our human life! Amen, Lord, we don’t want to dig into the world to make a career or become experts; we want to simply use the things of the world as needed and serve You faithfully!

Work and Labor for the Lord in the Gospel by the Lord’s Resurrection Life, not by our Natural Life or Ability

The eternal principle in our service to God, as seen in Num. 17:8, is resurrection; our work for the Lord should be in resurrection and by His resurrection life.

Our work and labour for the Lord in the gospel should not be by our natural life or natural ability but by the Lord’s resurrection life and power (1 Cor. 15:10, 58; 16:10).

As we are carrying out our service in the Lord and to the Lord, we need to realize that we can’t and should not do it in our natural life or by our natural ability.

We may have some natural ability to do this or that for the Lord, but our natural ability needs to pass through death and be in resurrection.

What we are by nature needs to be put to death and only what comes out in resurrection can be used by the Lord in His service.

The Lord rejects anything that comes out of our natural man, no matter how good it may seem and how useful it may be outwardly.

This means that we need to exercise our spirit, for the reality of resurrection is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit.

The life-giving Spirit is the reality of the Triune God, the reality of resurrection, and the reality of the Body of Christ (John 16:13-15; 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Eph. 4:4).

When we are in our spirit, we are in resurrection; when we exercise our spirit and remain in our spirit, we serve in resurrection.

The life-giving Spirit is the reality of the kingdom of God, and when we exercise our spirit and are in our spirit, we can be faithful and prudent slaves, serving the Lord in our spirit (Rom. 1:9).

As those learning to serve the Lord faithfully today, we need to give up any hope in ourselves; in ourselves we cannot make it, for everything that is of the natural man needs to be put on the cross and only what is in resurrection can be useful to the Lord.

Everything that is of death belongs to us, and everything that is of life belongs to the Lord (2 Cor. 1:8-9; cf. Eccl. 9:4). Amen!

The reality of the Lord’s death and resurrection is in the mingled spirit.

When we’re in our spirit, serving the Lord, we serve in resurrection, and the Lord is pleased with us.

On the side of life, we need to be filled with the Spirit in life; on the side of service, we need to be in our spirit to serve the Lord in resurrection.

We must acknowledge that we are nothing, we have nothing, and we can do nothing; we must come to the end of ourselves and be convinced of our utter uselessness (Exo. 2:14-15; 3:14-15; Luke 22:32-34; 1 Pet. 5:5-6).

In ourselves we can do nothing; apart from being organically joined to the Lord and abiding in Him, we can do nothing and we are nothing.

When we realize this, we will be faithful in our service and diligent before the Lord, for it will be the Lord in us that serves faithfully and diligently.

The resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit lives in us and enables us to do what we can never do in ourselves (1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 1:8-9, 12; 4:7-18).

It will be us who serve the Lord, but it will be by the grace of God that we serve Him, and the grace to us will not be in vain.

May we always abound in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labour for the Lord in His resurrection life with His resurrection power will never be in vain but will result in the fulfilment of God’s eternal purpose. Amen!

May we be before the Lord concerning our service so that our service would be pleasing to Him and acceptable before Him.

Lord Jesus, may our work and labor for the Lord in the gospel be not by our natural life and natural ability but by the Lord’s resurrection life and power! Amen, Lord, may we be those who faithfully serve the Lord, being faithful and prudent slaves of God, by doing all things in resurrection. Keep us in our spirit today. We want to serve You in the gospel by being in our spirit and by doing all things in our spirit! Oh Lord, in ourselves we are nothing and can do nothing; we utterly useless in our natural man. We exercise our spirit to serve You today. Amen, Lord, we turn to You, believing that the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit would do everything in us and for us! Hallelujah, what we cannot do in ourselves, the Spirit can do in us! Amen, Lord, we want to abound in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labor in Him is not in vain but rather, our labour will result in the fulfilling of God’s eternal purpose!

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 James Lee in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1985, vol. 5, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” ch. 10, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living in the Reality of the Kingdom of God (2024 October ITERO), week 6, Being Watchful in Life and Faithful in Service.
• Similar articles on this topic:
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  – The grace of God in the economy of God, article in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – At CSOC’s Special Lecture, someone asked during Q&A, “Can a Christian definitely say, I am saved?” The answer? YES! 🙌 More via, CSOC’s instagram account.
  – The Lord’s Faithful Slaves Serve Him, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – How to serve the Lord, a portion from, Life Lessons, Vol. 2 (#13-24), Chapter 11, by Witness Lee.
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• Hymns on this topic:
  – Soon the Lord will come from heaven; may we watch and wait with prayer, / Loins be girt about, and lamps be burning bright. / Soon the Lord will come from heaven, may we serve Him faithfully, / Thus the ministry fulfill, our gifts incite. (Hymns #1354 stanza 4)
  – For His servants Christ will come / And reward each faithful one; / Slothful ones will be undone— / Serve in time! / Make your single talent count, / All self’s problems now surmount, / Serve with Christ, the living fount— / Serve in time! (Hymns #1304 stanza 3)
  – O hope of glory, our Christ will return! / Waiting and watching, we faithfully serve, / Running the race, pressing on toward the goal / That we the Kingdom’s reward might deserve. (Hymns #966 stanza 4)