All the members of the Body of Christ are ministers of life, imparting life to the ones around them for the growth and the building up of the Body. In the church life, we all are learning to minister life – this is our only need. We don’t need more teachings, doctrines, do’s and dont’s; what we need is more life.
The only way to help others is by ministering the divine life as their supply so that the divine life in them would do what they cannot do. Yet we may be short of life – what shall we do then? We need to desperately turn to the Lord to seek Him and ask Him to supply us with more life so that we may have a supply of life to impart to others!
Having a surplus of life to minister to others
Sometimes we may see or hear of a brother or a sister falling in sin; in cases like this we should not “fellowship about it” or talk about it, but rather realize that our brother/sister needs more life. We need to learn to do what 1 John 5:16 says – pray to minister life to the sinning one.
If we don’t have a surplus of life, we need to go before the Lord and enjoy Him more so that we would have a bigger portion of Jesus! We need to first be richly supplied with Christ and then we can minister the life supply to others. It is not teachings, doctrines, or corrections that will help others – it is the supply of life that will help!
“This is the true God and the eternal life” (1 John 5:20). Life is nothing else but God Himself – we need to enjoy God more, so that we may have a rich supply of life in our being. As we enjoy the Lord, we abide in Him as branches in the vine; in oneness with the Lord as the vine, we pray according to His will, and we know that He will hear us (1 John 5:14).
By virtue of abiding in the Lord and being one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17), we can ask the Lord to minister life to the saints, and He as the life-giving Spirit can give life to others. Aren’t you glad you are in the Body of Christ, where the members pray for one another for more imparting of life?
Being one with the Lord to minister life
Our prayer in itself or us in all our good will cannot give life to the sinning brother; rather, we need to be one with the Lord and abide in Him to ask Him to give life to the sinning one. It all boils down to our organic union with the Lord – we are one with Him and ask according to His will, and we simply become a channel through which the life-giving Spirit can impart life to the one concerning whom we ask.
In order to be those who can give and impart life to others, we need to abide in the divine life and have our whole being in the divine life, being saturated and filled with life so that life may flow out of us into the Body of Christ (1 John 1:1-7).
Being a channel of the divine life
In the Body of Christ, we need to be channels for the divine life to flow to others – first, we need to enjoy Christ as life and then we can minister life to others. It is so real and practical to enjoy this eternal life within us and then to pass it on, flow it out, minister it, and impart it into others!
To be a channel for the eternal life is a deep matter – it is not something superficial. We need to be deep in the Lord, one with His heart, knowing Him in a deeper way, so that we may spontaneously know what His will is. Brother Lee puts it so well in his Life-study of 1 John page 338,
If we would be a channel for eternal life to flow out to others, we must be deep in the Lord, and we must know the Lord’s heart by being in His heart. If we have entered into the Lord to such a degree, spontaneously we shall know the Lord’s will concerning a brother close to us who has sinned. Because we know the Lord’s will concerning the brother’s situation, we shall know how to pray for him.
If we are those who are one with the Lord in His heart, those who know God’s heart and who are deep in the Lord, Amos 3:7 becomes our reality. “Surely the Lord Jehovah will not do anything unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.”
Hallelujah, we can be His servants, the prophets, those who know God’s heart and who receive an intimate revelation of the secrets of what God wants to do (see Gen. 18:17; Psa. 25:14)! He is looking for some who would be available for Him to such an extent that God, in the principle of incarnation, would reveal things to them and would have a free way in them to minister life to the other members in the Body of Christ.
Lord, make us such ones – ministers of life. Have mercy on us, Lord! We need more life, more supply of life! We need a bigger portion of the Lord Jesus every day that we may gain a surplus of life to minister to others! Lord, cause us to go deeper with You, to experience You as life more, so that we may know what’s on Your heart! Reveal to us Your secret, Lord, and cause us to be channels of life!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from, the Life-study of 1 John (by Witness Lee, msg. 39), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Lead as Elders and Responsible Ones, week 3.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Would you like to know that sweetness / Of the secret of the Lord?
# Channels only, blessed Master, / But with all Thy wondrous grace, / Flowing through us, Thou canst use us / Every hour in every place.
# Eat, eat more of Jesus! / Why should we undernourished be / When we have His humanity?
