See a Controlling Vision and Take the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life

It is good for us to see a vision of the tree of life both in Genesis and in Revelation, but we need to go further than this: we need to take the way of enjoying Christ as the tree of life day by day. We believers in Christ need to daily be on the line of life, caring for the living Christ in our spirit and exercising to take Him as the tree of life and live because of Him! Amen, Lord, make us such ones today!

Hi there, welcome to this podcast! The title of this portion of enjoyment is, See a Controlling Vision and Take the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life. We hope you enjoy the Lord while listening to this portion. We welcome your comments with what touched you from this sharing.

As believers in Christ, we need to be on the line of life by taking the way of enjoying God in our daily living; we must take the way of enjoying Christ as the tree of life day by day. Amen!

In Romans chapters five through eight, we see the line of life and the line of death; these chapters can be called the kernel of the Bible, for they show us its entire theme in a concrete and detailed way in our experience.

We may hear of the story of the garden of Eden, how Adam was put in front of the tree of life but was deceived to partake of the tree of knowledge, but we may not know how to apply this to our experience.

Well, chapters 5-8 in Romans show us in an experiential way how we can be either on the line of life (resulting from our eating the tree of life) or on the line of death (resulting from our eating the tree of knowledge, the tree of death).

Life and death are repeatedly mentioned in these chapters, for the tree of life issues in the line of life consummating in the New Jerusalem, the city of life, and the tree of knowledge issues in the line of death ending in the lake of fire.

In the church life today the primary matter should be eating the tree of life, that is, enjoying Christ as our life supply.

This means that we need to love the Lord with the first love, eat Him as the tree of life, and allow Him to shine on us; then, we will have the lampstand, the testimony of Jesus, for He will shine in us and through us. Praise the Lord!

Each one of us as believers in Christ is a miniature garden of Eden, for God as the tree of life is in our spirit, Satan as the tree of knowledge, is in our flesh, and our mind is in between.

There’s no third place for us to be – we can be either in the flesh or in the spirit.

The flesh is the place where Satan dwells; we cannot improve the flesh, we cannot get rid of the flesh, and we cannot “save” the flesh – the flesh needs to be left aside and we need to set our mind on the spirit!

God in His sovereignty uses the flesh, the ugly and sinful flesh, to force us to turn to our spirit so that we may gain more of the Spirit for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

On the positive side, the flesh works to force us to turn to our spirit; on the negative side, though the flesh is with us, we do not trust in the flesh but rather, we trust in the Lord in our spirit.

In Romans 5 we are in Adam, but in Romans 6 we are in Christ; we are transferred from Adam into Christ through His death and resurrection.

In Romans 7 we are in the flesh – the practical Adam, and in Romans 8 we are in the spirit – the practical Christ. We need to daily be in the reality of the divine transfer by being in our mingled spirit!

Being a Christian is Living out the Life of God by Walking According to the Mingled Spirit within us

On the one hand, chapters 5 through 8 in Romans are the kernel of the Bible; on the other hand, Romans 8:5-6 shows us a miniature garden of Eden.

In these two verses, we see the flesh and death on the one side, and spirit and life on the other side; we are in the middle, with our mind being set on either the flesh or the spirit.

Where do we set our mind today? Where do we choose to set our mind?

If we set our mind on the flesh or the things of the flesh, we are in the line of death, being subject to Satan’s usurpation and destruction through sin and death.

But if we choose to set our mind on our spirit, setting our mind on the things above, where Christ is, we enjoy life and peace, and Christ is our portion.

When we set our mind on the spirit, we enjoy life and peace; our mind will be full of life, and we will have peace, for there’s no discord between our outward behaviour and our inner being.

When we do something or speak something, we will give life to others, because we are one with the Lord.

But if we do not set our mind on the spirit, even though we may not sin outwardly, we are in death, and we spread death. Oh Lord Jesus!

May we learn to turn to our spirit by setting our mind on the spirit! When we turn to our spirit and walk according to the mingled spirit, the righteous requirement of the law will be fulfilled in us (Rom. 8:4).

But if we try to be a Christian and strive to obey the law of God, we are in the flesh. The old man in us tries to keep the law; this is rejected by God, for the flesh cannot please God.

Being a Christian is a living out of the life of God within us by walking according to the mingled spirit. Wow!

This is the key to our Christian life. It is not about striving and struggling. It is not about trying to please God or do what the Bible tells us to do. Being a Christian is a matter of living out the life of God by walking according to the mingled spirit within us.

If we see this vision, if we realise that the Christian life is something spontaneous and effortless, for it is Christ living in us (Gal. 2:20), we will stop trying to be a Christian!

If we realise that being a Christian is about living Christ, that is, turning to our spirit to live in the mingled spirit, thus expressing Christ, we will give up our effort and we will simply live in the mingled spirit!

When we live in the spirit, the Spirit will act in us and we will fulfil the righteous requirements of God, not because we try to, but because Christ lives in us, and His living fulfils God’s purpose.

We all need to see this, otherwise, we will have the same experience as Paul did in Romans 7; we will try to do the good, for we agree with the holy, righteous, and glorious expression of God in His word, but we will fail every single time.

When we stop trying and start enjoying the Lord as the tree of life in our spirit, we will simply reign in life with grace over all things unto eternal life (Rom. 5:17, 21).

Today we can simply receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness and we will reign in life; we do this by turning to our spirit and living in the spirit.

When we are in spirit, God cannot withhold His grace from us; we stand on the ground of justification, and He gives Christ to us as our righteousness and grace as a gift. Praise the Lord!

Grace can do what we cannot do; grace is God in Christ coming to us to be our enjoyment and everything for us to do what God requires us to do. May we learn to receive and enjoy the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness so that we may reign in life through Christ!

Lord Jesus, we love You and we open to You. We stop our trying to be a Christian and to live the Christian life and we simply set our mind on our spirit! Amen, Lord, may we realise that being a Christian is a living out of the life of God in our spirit! We exercise our spirit. We turn to You in spirit. We want to walk according to the mingled spirit within so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us. Oh Lord, we just turn! We stop our trying, striving, and struggling to please God and do what the Bible requires of us. We simply exercise our spirit to be one spirit with You! Amen, Lord, we open to receive and enjoy the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness so that we may reign in life through Christ! Reign in us today! May the enjoyment of Christ reign in us. We stand on the position that You have given us, righteousness, and we claim grace! Hallelujah, grace is God in Christ coming into us to be our enjoyment and everything to us to do in us what God requires us to do! Praise the Lord!

See a Controlling Vision and Take the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life

May the Lord have mercy on us today as we live our Christian life so that we no longer remain on the line of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (the line of death) in our daily living but live on the line of tree of life (the line of life).

Christ Himself is the life of God, the eternal life (John 14:6a; 11:25; 1 John 1:2). Through His incarnation, He came that we may have life and may have it abundantly (John 10:10b).

Then, Christ died a life-releasing death and entered into a life-dispensing resurrection (12:24) to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) as the law of the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), giving life to our spirit, our mind, and our mortal bodies so that we might be those who are swallowed up by life to minister life to others (vv. 10, 6, 11; 2 Cor. 5:4; 1 John 5:16a; John 6:63; Acts 5:20).

This is where we are today. We are believers in Christ and children of God, and we have God in Christ as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit.

However, we may still live our daily life in the flesh, for we do not set our mind on our spirit.

In order for us believers in Christ to stay on the line of life, we need to see a controlling vision of the tree of life and take the way of enjoying Christ as the tree of life in our daily living.

How can we stay on the line of life in our daily living? How can we daily choose the tree of life? We must take the way of enjoying Christ as the tree of life.

It is not enough just to know things about God. It is not enough to merely know the sound doctrines in the word of God.

We need to see a vision of the tree of life and allow this vision to control our daily living.

If we take the way of enjoying Christ as the tree of life, we will realise that every kind of problem we have and every kind of problem that arises in the church life is due to the shortage of life.

When we are short of life, we have problems. When the divine life in us grows and matures, we have no problems, but rather, life takes care of all the problems.

May we have a change in our concept. May we enter into the reality of the enjoyment of God in our daily life by first seeing a controlling vision.

May the Lord be merciful to us so that we may see a vision of the tree of life, so that we may take the way of enjoying Christ as the tree of life in all the details of our daily life.

We need to pray for this. Merely reading spiritual books and gaining more spiritual knowledge doesn’t work; enjoying Christ as the tree of life is the way we need to take today.

May we no longer take the wrong way today, but may we see a controlling vision of the tree of life and remain on the line of life.

And may we help one another to take the way of life by enjoying Christ as the tree of life!

What we need is not more teachings, more doctrines, or more outward things; what we need is more Christ, more of the divine life!

When we realise that taking Christ as the tree of life is the way we should take today in the church life, we will confess and repent before the Lord, and we will have many dealings with Him.

The apostle Paul took the way of enjoying Christ as the tree of life in all things. He was persecuted, imprisoned, beaten, stoned, and even forsaken by some of the churches that he helped to raise; however, he remained on the line of life.

In all things and through all things, he simply ministered life to the saints, helping the saints to be on the line of life.

The apostle John also ministered life in everything he spoke and wrote, and he emphasised the matter of life both in his Gospel and in his Epistles.

We need to consider our former way of pursuit and have a drastic change of concept. May we allow the Lord to shine on us and unveil us to see that the way He wants us to take is the way of enjoying Christ as the tree of life in all things.

How should we take care of the new ones? By eating Christ as the tree of life and helping them to eat Christ.

How should we take care of our family and of our family life? By eating Christ as the tree of life and then living Christ.

How should we meet in the church life? By enjoying Christ as the tree of life and then ministering Christ to others. May the Lord grant us such a controlling vision today.

Lord Jesus, give us a controlling vision of the tree of life so that we may be on the line of life today! May we see that we as believers in Christ, have God in Christ as the life-giving Spirit with our spirit! May we realise that the law of the Spirit of life sets us free from the law of sin and of death! Amen, Lord, may we learn to set our mind on our spirit and take the way of enjoying Christ as the tree of life today! Hallelujah, when we set our mind on the spirit, the law of the Spirit of life gives life to our spirit, our mind, and our mortal bodies! Wow, even our mortal bodies will be swallowed up by life! Amen, Lord, we choose to be on the line of life. We choose to enjoy the tree of life today. May we have a drastic change in our concept. May we have a controlling vision that will keep us on the line of life by eating Christ as the tree of life! Hallelujah, Christ as the tree of life is in our spirit, and we can set our mind on our spirit today!

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 in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1981, vol. 2, “The History and Revelation of the Lord’s Recovery, Part One,” ch. 8, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Chapters 5 through 8 of Romans – the Kernel of the Bible (2025 ICSC), week 1, The Line of Life and the Line of Death in Chapters 5 through 8 of Romans.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The vision controlling the gospel outreach, a portion from, The Glorious Vision and the Way of the Cross, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
  – The True Nature of Our Relationship with the Lord Jesus, via, Bibles for Europe blog.
  – Christ Is the Tree of Life, a new song via, Melody of Lilies.
  – Genesis (Program #19) – The Two Trees (2), via, Bible study radio.
  – To maintain the eating of Christ as the tree of life, a portion from, The Overcomers, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – Four ways to eat the Lord as the tree of life, via, Holding to Truth in love.
  – How to enjoy Christ as life, a portion from, The Experience of Christ as Life for the Building Up of the Church, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
  – The Tree of Life Shows Christ is Available, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life – Week 5, via, The Church in New York City.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Minding just the spirit, we the cross will know, / And His resurrection pow’r thru us will flow; / Minding just the spirit, Christ will live thru me, / And His life within will reach maturity. / In the spirit Christ is life and all to me, / Strengthening and blessing all-inclusively; / Living in the spirit, holiness I prove, / And the triune God within my heart doth move. (Hymns #593 stanzas 6-7)
  – The Lord Himself is food to me, / He is my life supply; / He will my pure enjoyment be, / None else can satisfy. / I freely eat this living tree, / For eating is the way / To put God’s life inside of me, / To live by Him today. (Hymns #1143 stanzas 3-4)
  – 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)