We believers in Christ not only have eternal life and enjoy it, but also we can minister this life to other members of the Body, as seen in 1 John 5:14-17, for when we abide in the Lord and are one with Him to pray in the fellowship of eternal life, we can ask and give life to others for the Body.
Lord Jesus, make us those who not only receive and enjoy the eternal life but who also life by this life and even flow out this life to others. We love You, Lord, and we exercise our spirit to contact You. May we pray in the abiding today. May we see the saints and pray for them one with the Lord so that we may ask and give them life. Make us life-giving members of the Body of Christ, those who are one with You to impart life to others in and for the Body! Amen!
This week in our morning revival, we come to the topic of, Ministering Life for the Body; as we prayerfully consider the ministry of the Word and God’s dispensing for God’s economy, we want to see that we can minister life to others for the Body of Christ.
Many think that only when someone is up there on a platform and speaks for a prolonged time can he minister life to the saints; however, if we simply bear testimony of this crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ, we all participate and partake in this ministry.
The essential function of the ministry of the Word is not merely to speak some teaching or render some exposition of the Bible but to minister life.
Every genuine ministry must have the element of life and must be for the goal of building up the Body of Christ; otherwise, it will be just some nice talk, a nice sermon, and some nice lectures.
Every genuine ministry must be in life, with life, by life, and resulting in the building up of the Body of Christ.
Not only those who serve the Lord full time or the elders in the churches have a portion in this ministry; we all have a part, a share, in the ministry of the word, for we can ask and give life to others.
If we look at the church in Corinth, a typical church in the New Testament age, we see many problems; the root problem was due to division, for from this problem all other problems stem.
Division, however, is not the root cause; the root cause is the shortage of life. The saints in Corinth needed to grow in life and mature in life.
They needed the ministry of life to impart life to them for the building of the church as the Body of Christ.
What we need is not just teachings or perfecting; we need more life, that is, we need to grow in life, gain more of Christ as life, and minister Christ as life to others.
Abide in the Lord and be One with Him to Pray in the Fellowship of Eternal Life to Minister Life to Others
If we prayerfully read and consider 1 John 5:14-17 we see that we not only have eternal life and enjoy it but we can also minister this life to other members of the Body of Christ.
In this portion, we see that the eternal life within us can overcome death both in ourselves an din other members of the church.
First, we enjoy the eternal life, we have the fellowship of eternal life, and we abide in the Lord to be one with Him and pray in the fellowship of eternal life. As we do this, we minister life to others for the Body.
We may wonder how we can minister life to others; how can we minister Christ to them. We may think that we need to help someone read the Bible or sing a hymn, or maybe give him a book from the ministry.
But in these verses we see that we have boldness toward God to ask something from Him concerning a brother who is sinning a sin not unto death; we can be one with the Lord to ask and give life to a brother.
When we abide in the Lord, we have the boldness toward Him that, whatever we ask, He will give to us that which we ask from Him.
We have this life in us, the eternal life, which overcomes death, and this life can be imparted to others by our asking the Lord.
We have received a death-overcoming life; we commit sins every day, but not all of them unto death yet they bring in an atmosphere of death, causing us to be disconnected from the Lord and interrupting our fellowship with God.
Sins such envy, jealousy, greediness, etc cause interruption to our fellowship with God. We all commit such sins, and when we see that others sin, we should not gossip or criticise but pray one with the Lord and give life.
In verse 16 we are told that we can minister life to someone by our prayer in the fellowship of eternal life. When we have the surplus of life, we can minister from this supply to others also.
First, if we want to minister life, we need to have life; we can’t give life to others if we don’t have life. Thank the Lord that we have the divine life!
Now we need to grow in life, enjoy this life, and cooperate with God’s life so that this life may grow, increase, multiply, and be in surplus in us, so that we may minister life to others also.
If we have an abundance of the divine life, we can impart this life to others also.
If we daily remain in the process of growth in life so that God’s element would increase in us while our natural element is being eliminated, we will have life and we can minister life to others also.
We can have prayer in the fellowship of eternal life; as we ask, we do so according to God’s will, not according to our way, desire, or preference.
We don’t come to God with our agenda and tell Him what we want; we come one with the Lord to seek His will, what He desires, and pray in the fellowship of eternal life.
The fellowship that is according to God’s will indicates that the praying one is abiding in the fellowship of the divine life and is also abiding in the Lord Himself, and thus he is truly one with the Lord (John 15:4-5).
We need to be one with the Lord, abiding in Him, and asking according to His will.
The knowing in 1 John 5:15 is based on the fact that, after receiving the divine life, we abide in the Lord and are one with Him in our praying to God in His name (John 15:7, 16; 16:23-24).
We believers in Christ can and should abide in the Lord and ask in His name according to His will, and we will give life to others. Wow, not just God gives life but we can give life!
We are the asker; we abide in the Lord, we are one with the Lord, and we are asking in one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17); as such a one, we become the means, the channel, by which God’s life-giving Spirit can give life to the ones for whom he is asking. God in Christ is the life-giving Spirit today, and He needs a means to dispense life.
We all need to aspire to be channels of life in the churches, those through whom the divine life can flow into so many others. Life is in God, we are in Christ, we pray in the fellowship of eternal life, and we give life to others.
This is a matter of ministering life in the fellowship of the divine life.
The vital point in this matter is that we need to be one with the Lord to minister life to others.
We abide in Him, He abides in us, and we pray what He prays, thus asking and giving life to others.
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming into us as the eternal life to regenerate us and make us sons of God. We want to enjoy Your life today. We open to You and we cooperate with You today so that Your life may grow, increase, and even abound in us. Amen, Lord, may Your life in us overcome death and sin. Fill us with Your divine life. Keep us in the fellowship of life. We exercise our spirit to contact You and be one with You. Amen, Lord, even as we see a brother sinning a sin not unto death, may we ask one with You and give him life! Wow, we can give life to others by praying in the fellowship of eternal life, one with the Lord, so that the divine life may be dispensed to him! Amen, Lord, may we ask according to Your will and not according to our way, desire, and preference. We want to abide in the fellowship of the divine life and abide in the Lord to be truly one with the Lord! Make us channels of life to others. May we learn to ask and give life to the saints! Oh Lord Jesus, keep us one spirit with You today!
The Ministry of Life is to Minister as Life the Christ whom we have Experienced
In the matter of the ministry of life, our knowledge and our gifts don’t matter; it does not matter how much we know the Bible and what our natural gift is; what matters is that we have a surplus of life.
The ministry of life is to minister as life the Christ whom we have experienced (2 Cor. 1:3-4). We need to experience Christ. We need to enjoy Christ.
Paul said that God is the Father of compassions and God of all comfort, who comforted the apostles in their affliction, so that they also may be able to comfort those in affliction with the comforting with which they have been comforted by God.
If we are those who experience Christ as life, if we experience God’s comforting in our afflictions, we can also minister this Christ we experienced to others, that is, we can comfort others also.
As we go through afflictions, as we pass through sufferings and dire situations, may we open to the Lord and experience Christ as life.
May we be those who are comforted by God so that we may be able to comfort others with this comforting! Whatever we arrive at, whatever we experience of Christ as life, we can also minister to others; this is the ministry of life.
The ministry of life comes out by the working of the cross; it is by the way of the cross that we have the riches of Christ as life to minister to others (2 Cor. 4:12).
If we look at the story of brother Watchman Nee, what was formed in him was not just a gift or some teachings but the ministry; this ministry was based on the revelation he received and was through the sufferings he passed through.
When we see a revelation of God’s economy and pass through sufferings, the riches of Christ can be constituted into us and we can flow these riches into others as life.
How much life and how much reality of the riches of Christ we can minister depends upon how much revelation we have received and how much we have suffered for what has been revealed to us (Eph. 3:8).
On the one hand, we need to receive the divine revelation; on the other hand, suffering is also needed for us to have the ministry of life.
Our life is not measured by how much we gain of Christ but how much we have lost of ourselves; the more we lose of ourselves, the more we deny ourselves, the more we can gain Christ, and He is the life that fills us and flows through us.
It’s not how much wine is drunk by us but how much wine is produced in us and is outpoured to others. He that suffers the greatest has the most to share, and he who treats himself severely is the best for God to gain.
This doesn’t mean that we need to seek suffering or cause ourselves to suffer and treat ourselves in a severe way outwardly; we simply need to come to the Lord and let Him infuse us with Himself, and then be open to what He wants to work in us through the sufferings.
Especially these days when many saints among us gain some knowledge of Christ, receive some revelation, are trained, and go through certain situations in their married life, raising up children, the work life, and serving in the church, we don’t need to ask for sufferings but seek not to spare ourselves.
We need to not escape what the Lord has ordained for us but just be willing to submit ourselves to all of God’s assignment.
We have our share of suffering as we go on, but as we suffer, we want more life to be wrought into us.
We need to gain more of Christ as life so that we may have something of Christ to minister to others also. In this way we have the ministry of life, for we minister the Christ we enjoy and experience to others also.
Lord Jesus, grant us to have the ministry of life in the church life today. May we enjoy Christ, experience Christ, and gain Christ, and may we be filled with the life of Christ little by little, day by day. Oh Lord, we don’t ask for more suffering, but we ask for an increase of Your life in us! Grow in us! May we be open to You inwardly as we go through sufferings and trials so that Your life may spread in us, grow in us, and occupy and possess our inner being! May we gain more of the riches of Christ by having the revelation of Christ and allowing the suffering to work this revelation into our being! Amen, Lord, we just open. We want to cooperate with You today. Work in us what You want to work. Keep us open to You as we go through this and that. May we be a channel of life who has a surplus of Christ to minister to others also! Amen, Lord, may we be those who minister as life the Christ whom we have experienced! Flow in us, flow within us, and flow through us to many others for the building up of the church! 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 1 John (msgs. 37 and 39) by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Ministry of the Word and God’s Dispensing for God’s Economy (2026 March ITERO), week 3, “Ministering Life for the Body” – day 1.
- Hymns on this topic:
– To the lost world minister Christ, / Not just by word, but by life, / Imparting Christ by living deeds / To the poor souls living in strife. / To the lost world minister Christ, / By daily walk making Him known; / Imparting Christ by whom you live, / Share with all men what you own. (Hymns #922 stanza 1 and chorus)
– I would inhale Thee, Lord, e’en as I breathe, / And eat and drink Thee as my life supply. / A deeper fellowship with Thee bequeath / That Thou express Thyself through me thereby… / Myself I open that Thou may flow in; / Op’ning myself to others, Lord, flow out; / By such a stream, the fellowship within, / Thou, Lord, expressed will be my life throughout. (Hymns #764 stanzas 4 and 7)
– He who treats himself severely / Is the best for God to gain; / He who hurts himself most dearly / Most can comfort those in pain. / He who suffering never beareth / Is but empty “sounding brass”; / He who self-life never spareth / Has the joys which all surpass. (Hymns #536 stanza 16)
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