Advance in our Enjoyment of Christ to Reign in Life and Live Christ for His Magnification

We need to advance in our enjoyment of Christ until we reign in life and live Christ for His magnification.

The root of all evil of the evil kings in 1 and 2 Kings was their forsaking God as the fountain of living waters and turning to idols as broken cisterns that hold no water; we need to be warned by the history in these two books and live a life of enjoying Christ, living Christ, dying to the self, and living to God in resurrection.

Even Solomon, in all his glory and splendour, with all his great accomplishments and achievements, and with his wisdom and understanding, was not one who remained with God and who served God with his whole heart.

Rather, even though he was so wise and full of understanding as a result of having the gift of wisdom and understanding from God, he indulged in lust and had very little growth before God.

This should be such a warning to us, for we may be naturally gifted or we may have some natural ability which we think is useful to God in the service in the church, but God does not accept or appreciate anything of the natural man.

Actually, anything that we do in the natural man, anything that we do in our natural ability and capability, is like a snake, poisoning God’s people.

Outwardly, we may serve God, and the work we may do for Him may be quite good, for we have certain skills and abilities by nature, and we exercise our God-given abilities to do the work for Him.

However, what is infused into the saints is poison, for it is the natural man that works and serves God, not the new man in the resurrected ability.

This is why, at the entrance of the church, there is a big cross; only what can pass through the cross belongs in the church as the Body of Christ.

Only what is in the realm of resurrection can actually build up the Body of Christ.

What we are in ourselves by nature, our natural ability and strength, all this needs to be put to death and brought into resurrection to be useful to the Lord.

May the Lord have mercy on us and shine on our natural ability and strength, and may we learn to open to Him and allow His shining to expose and even purge what is natural in us.

Our natural ability is useful to the Lord only once it has passed through death and resurrection.

This is the case with all those who could be used by the Lord, as seen in the Bible.

Moses, Peter, and Paul all had to go through a certain measure of breaking of the outer man before the inner man could be released and the Lord could flow through them.

The Lord may allow a certain amount of suffering and limitations in our environment to wear out and destroy our outer man so that we may lose our confidence in ourselves.

May we allow His cross to operate in us and may we say Amen to His light as He shines on us.

May we not fight with the light or argue with the Lord’s shining but simply say, Amen, Lord.

The Root of all Evil is Forsaking God as the Fountain of Living Waters and Turning to Idols as Broken Cisterns

In the books of 1 and 2 Kings we see the way in which the kings of Israel and Judah had their being, how they behaved, lived, moved, and acted in their daily living and activities.

We see their careers and activities, and we can see a picture of how God’s elect can partake of the God-promised and God-given good land to enjoy all its rights so that they could become God’s kingdom on the earth.

David, a man after the heart of God, had a certain level of enjoyment of the good land, and Solomon, a man with a God-given gift of wisdom and understanding, had a different level of enjoyment of the good land.

However, most of the kings that followed them committed the greatest evil, even the root of all evil: they forsook God as the fountain of living waters and turned to idols as broken cisterns.

We need to learn the lessons and heed the holy warnings in the Word of God so that we may learn how to partake of the all-inclusive Christ as the portion ordained by God for us.

We need to be the believers in Christ who today enjoy all the rights in Christ assigned to us by God so that we may become God’s kingdom in Christ and with Christ on the earth usurped by the evil one, God’s enemy Satan.

Out of the thirty-eight kings besides Saul, David, and Solomon (who reigned over the entire people of Israel), only eight were comparatively good.

However, if we look at their life and reign, we realize that they were self-seeking and self-glorying, considering that the kingdom of God among them was their own monarchy.

They did not know God according to the way ordained by God and they did not deny themselves and their natural man to live a life and carry out a career absolutely by the Spirit of God. Oh, Lord!

The root of all evil of the evil kings that reigned over Judah and Israel was what Jeremiah said in 2:13, their forsaking the very God as the fountain of living waters and their turning away to the pagan idols as broken cisterns that hold no water.

Because they forsook God as the real fountain of living waters, they were drowned in the death waters of idolatry, of indulgence in lusts, and of injustice in shedding the blood of the innocent. Oh, Lord!

The evils these kings committed offended their God to such an extent that He was angry with them and cast them off, first into the hands of the Assyrians and then into the hands of the Babylonians.

What we see by the end of 1 and 2 Kings is that the Babylonians came, defeated them, destroyed and burned the holy temple and the holy city, carried away into captivity the holy people to a pagan land of idol worship, and desolated the holy land for seventy years. Oh, Lord!

The elect of God lost the enjoyment of the God-given good land and, instead of remaining the citizens of the kingdom of God in the holy land, they became captives in a heathen land.

The forty-one kings of Israel and Judah were in the highest position, but they were not careful in their enjoyment of the good land; not even David, a man according to the heart of God, enjoyed the good land in full.

May we apply their example to ourselves.

May we realize that the root of the evil of the evil kings was their forsaking God as the fountain of living waters and their turning away to the pagan idols as broken cisterns that hold no water.

We need to be filled with the enjoyment of Christ and advance in our enjoyment of Christ in the church life.

May we bring this to the Lord in prayer and ask Him,

Lord Jesus, save us from forsaking God as the fountain of living waters! We want to remain at the source, one with You, drinking of You as the fountain of living waters! Amen, Lord, keep us drinking You as living water and taking You as the fountain of life. We do not want to forsake You or hew out for ourselves cisterns, broken cisterns that hold no water. May we remain in the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as our God-allotted portion of the good land. Dear Lord Jesus, You are our portion. We just want to enjoy You and partake of You. Increase our enjoyment of Christ as the all-inclusive One until our enjoyment reaches the highest level, ruling and reigning with God!

Advancing in our Enjoyment of Christ until we Reign with Christ in Life and Live Christ for His Magnification

As we look at the tragic result of the pitiful history of the kings among God’s chosen and blessed elect in 1 and 2 King, we need to heed the serious warning to us, God’s elect in the New Testament age.

We may be like David, a man after the heart of God, or we may be a little like Solomon, having a God-given gift of knowledge or a certain ability.

But this is not enough. It is not enough or adequate for us to be a man who is according to God’s heart, like David, and to just be partly good and right in the eyes of God.

We need to advance in our enjoyment of Christ until we reign with Christ in life and live Christ for His magnification.

We need to be qualified to partake of Christ in full and to enjoy all the rights in Him so that we may become adequately the church as the Body of Christ and as the kingdom of God.

May we realize that, as believers in Christ, we today are kings who are reigning with Christ in life by receiving the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness (Rom. 5:10, 17).

We need to endeavour to follow the pattern of the apostle Paul, who could declare that he had been crucified with Christ and that he had no longer lived but Christ lived in him (Gal. 2:20).

We need to be those who live one spirit with the Lord, putting our self and old man to death by remaining in the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection.

It is not enough for us to be a good brother or a good sister who loves the Lord a little, pursues Him a little, and attends the meetings of the church.

We need to live Christ for His magnification by receiving the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the supply of the Body (Phil. 1:19-21).

We need to be careful in our enjoyment of Christ, paying attention, especially to the small things.

It is the small things that we neglect and gloss over; we may say that it’s no big deal if we fail a little here or there.

If we are wrong here a bit and there a bit, we may think it’s not a big deal.

But it is in the small things that our carelessness in the enjoyment and experience of Christ will strip us and reduce our enjoyment of Christ as the good land.

We aspire to be the Lord’s overcomers today; therefore, we need to die to ourselves, our natural man, and live to God in resurrection.

Our life needs to be one of living Christ, magnifying Christ, and moving and acting with Christ by the bountiful supply of the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit! Amen!

In everything we do, we need to contact the Lord and do all things in and according to the Spirit.

For us to be winners in the racecourse of the divine life so that we may fully enjoy Christ as the God-given good land in the church age, we need to enjoy Christ to the uttermost until we reign in life. To the self, our word is no, and to the Lord, it is always yes.

To the natural man, we need to let the Lord shine and agree with the light, allowing the cross to put the natural man to death.

To the Lord, we need to always exercise our spirit, be careful in our enjoyment of Christ, and advance in our enjoyment of the Lord until we reach the highest level of ruling and reigning with Christ.

May we take the history of the kings in 1 and 2 kings as both an encouragement, a warning, and an admonition to us so that we would not forget that we should be kings today reigning with Christ in His life by enjoying the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness.

And in the small things, we need to reign in life; we need to reign over the self, over the natural life, and over the natural abilities, allowing the Lord to take us through death and resurrection to live in resurrection a life in the mingled spirit for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

Lord Jesus, we want to live a life of magnifying Christ and moving and acting with Christ by the bountiful supply of the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit! Amen, Lord, we want to do everything in the mingled spirit and according to the Spirit so that we may be brought on in the enjoyment and experience of Christ until we reign in life! Save us from merely being good and honest Christians who love the Lord a little and go to the meetings of the church. Make us Your overcomers today, those who reign in life with Christ over anything of the enemy. May we be not only men according to God’s heart but even more, those who fully enjoy Christ as our God-allotted portion to reign in life as kings with Christ! Lord Jesus, we want to live Christ for His magnification by receiving the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the supply of the Body!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chen in the message, and portions from, Life-study of 1&2 Kings, pp. 155-158, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Kings (2022 summer training), week 5, entitled, Natural Ability versus the Resurrected Ability of the Maturity of Life for the Building up of the Church as the Organic Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – I have come to the Fountain of Life, / A fountain that flows from above; / I have passed from the waters of strife / And come to the Elim of love; / I have drunk of the heavenly well, / In the depths of my being it springs. / No mortal can measure or tell / The gladness the Comforter brings. (Hymns #523, stanza 1)
  – Since it must be thus, I pray, Lord, / Help me go the narrow way; / Deal with pride and make me willing / Thus to suffer, Thee t’obey. / I for greater power pray not, / Deeper death is what I need; / All the meaning of the Cross, Lord, / Work in me-for this I plead. (Hymns #279, stanza 6)
  – I tried the broken cisterns, Lord, / But, ah, the waters failed! / E’en as I stooped to drink they fled, / And mocked me as I wailed. / Now none but Christ can satisfy, / None other name for me; / There’s love and life and lasting joy, / Lord Jesus, found in Thee. (Hymns #522, stanza 3 and chorus)