God has a purpose, and for the accomplishment of His purpose He made an economy; in His economy God desires to obtain a group of people who are filled and saturated with God to become His expression and representation on earth. In order for God to accomplish His economy, He Himself came and did many things, one of which is that Christ as the Angel of Jehovah came to keep us – the believers in Christ – in the way and bring us all the way into the full enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ, the reality of the good land (see Col. 1:12).
When we enter into the full enjoyment of Christ, we are filled and saturated with Him to express Him corporately as His people. God has called us to a high walk; His intention is to bring us into the good land, and all the things we go through is to enter into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land.
He called us to this, He is leading us into Himself, and He is also keeping us on the way so that we may enjoy Him and go on in Him. If we just listen to the Lord’s voice and obey His word, we will take possession of Him as the good land.
Regarding the good land, in the Old Testament we see that, before the children of Israel entered into it, there were a lot of pagan tribes that occupied it, and they had to fight them and destroy them so that they may dwell in this land.
Instead of the full enjoyment of Christ, because of Satan’s rebellion and man’s fall, by default we have many aspects of the natural life; in order for us to enjoy Christ, the aspects of our natural life need to be exposed by the Lord driven out by Him, and replaced with Himself. We need to cooperate with the Lord by growing in life day by day unto maturity so that we may enter into the full possession of Christ as the good land.
Being Willing to Drive out our Natural Life by Growing in Christ and by Enjoying Him
The various pagan tribes that occupied the good land signify, in our Christian experience, the different aspects of our natural life (see Exo. 23:23). There are six tribes mentioned, each representing different aspects of our natural life. For example, the Canaanites represent making money, having a business (Canaan means merchant); in our natural man we want to make more money and increase our business. Other tribes signify the lust of our natural man and the greed of the natural life.
These tribes were not just in the land of Canaan but are today in us; there are many frustraters in our natural life which hinder us from taking possession of the all-inclusive Christ. You may say that desiring to make more money by having a better business is not wrong, but we need to realize that, behind all these pagan tribes there are idols.
Each tribe was not just pagan but had idols, and the children of Israel were specifically instructed to destroy the people and their idols, because these idols are related to demons. Behind every aspect of our natural life there’s an idol, which is related to demons, evil spiritual forces (Eph. 6:12).
For example, we do not like to lose our temper, but in our natural life there’s an evil temper, which we despise, and which takes over us from time to time. Sometimes we as believers have lost our temper and it’s almost as if there’s nothing we could do about it: there’s some kind of a force behind this aspect of our natural life that causes us to do things!
The aspects of our natural life are utilized, manipulated, and directed by the spiritual forces behind the scene, and they frustrate us from the enjoyment of the riches of the all-inclusive Christ. We need to be willing to cooperate with the Lord by growing in life and by enjoying Him little by little and day by day so that He may drive them out from within us.
We need to be willing – we just need to open to the Lord, be willing, and cooperate with Him so that He in us may drive out the many aspects of the natural life and replace them with Himself. As the Lord exposes different aspects of our natural life, we need to cooperate with Him and be willing to let Him drive them out from us and replace them with the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ.
If we allow the aspects of our natural life to dwell in us even though the Lord exposes them, we will be frustrated in our growth in life and we will be led to sin. When the people of Israel allowed certain pagan tribes to remain, these tribes became a temptation to them and eventually they led them to sin. We need to realize that the source of sin is the natural life, and we need to hate it and, as we grow in life, be willing to drive it out!
We need to enjoy the Lord and grow in life so that little by little the aspects of our natural life would be exposed and driven out, and Christ would become our full enjoyment! In the sight of God, those who live according to the natural life are sinning continually – whether they do good or evil; because the natural life frustrates us from possessing and enjoying Christ, we must hate it (Luke 14:26) and, as we grow in Christ, be willing to drive it out!
Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with You to drive out the aspects of our natural life in us so that we may enter into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ. Lord, grow in us day by day. We just want to enjoy You and allow You to make Your home in our heart every day. Lord, You see what we are and You know our natural being; keep shining on us to expose the aspects of our natural life and drive them out! Lord, may nothing frustrate us from taking possession of the all-inclusive Christ and from enjoying His riches!
God Cuts off our Natural Life Gradually, According to the Degree of our Growth in Life
God told His people that He will NOT drive out all the pagan tribes at once from before the children of Israel, lest the land become desolate and the animals of the field multiply against them; rather, little by little He will drive them out from before them, until they become fruitful and inherit the land (see Exo. 23:29-30).
This means that God will NOT cut off our natural life (signified by these pagan tribes) all at once, because this would leave our being vacant and in danger of being taken over by demons (signified by the animals of the field, see Matt. 12:43-45). Rather, God cuts off our natural life gradually – little by little, according to the degree of our growth in the divine life. In other words, the more Christ increases in us, the more our natural life decreases (John 3:30).
The more we cooperate with the Lord by enjoying Him and by allowing Him to spread in us, grow in us, and gain more ground in us, the more our natural life decreases, and aspects of our natural life are being driven out. The more Christ increases in us, the more He will replace our natural life.
God commanded His people not to make a covenant with the pagan tribes inhabiting the land; this signifies that we should not tolerate or compromise with our natural life (Exo. 23:32).
On His side, God promises to drive out the aspects of our natural life (which have demons behind them and constantly frustrate us from enjoying the all-inclusive Christ); on our side, we need to cooperate with the Lord by taking the initiative in destroying them and growing in life.
The more we allow Christ to increase in us, the more we are able to cooperate with God in driving out the natural life (Exo. 23:29-33; see Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:24; Col. 3:5; Phil. 2:12-13; 1 Sam. 15:9, 15, 23). We need to take the initiative to exercise our spirit and reject our self, the expression of which is the many aspects of our natural life. We need to exercise our spirit, turn our heart to the Lord, and allow Christ to increase in us, and He will replace our natural life little by little.
The best way we can cooperate with the Lord right now is to just enjoy the Lord and let Him grow in us; the more He grows in us, the more our natural life will decrease, until we will be fully saturated with Christ and replaced by Him. All the frustrations from our natural life will disappear little by little as we enjoy the Lord, feed on Him, drink Him, and grow in Him.
Just as the children of Israel had to take the initiative and drive out the pagan tribes from the good land, not making a covenant with them, so we need to not tolerate or make compromise with any of the aspects of our natural life which the Lord exposes but condemn it and allow God to remove it and replace it with Himself!
Lord Jesus, increase in us. May the measure of Christ increase in our being, and may our natural life decrease. Lord, we want to cooperate with You so that Your divine life would grow in us more today. Grow in us and replace our natural life with Yourself. Lord, save us from tolerating our natural life or compromising with it; we want to cooperate with You in driving out the natural life by allowing You to grow in us and dealing with any aspect of our natural life which You expose! Lord, bring us fully into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of Exodus, msg. 75 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (2), week 11 / msg 11, The Angel of Jehovah for His people to take possession of the promised land.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# O Jesus Christ, grow Thou in me, / And all things else recede; / My heart be daily nearer Thee, / From sin be daily freed. (Hymns #395)
# Growing, growing, in us He is growing, / More and more each day. / Into all our living He is flowing— / This is now His way. / For growth, O Lord, we pray; / Increase in us each day. / It’s not enough to know; / Now Thy life in us must grow. (Hymns #1240)
# Lord, grant me today’s supply of grace; / May Your divine life grow apace; / Little by little, day by day, to grow / More and more, into You. / Day by day, bit by bit, life will grow as is fit, / Increasing gradually until, / However imperceptibly, / Your life matures within me. (Song on Growing in Life)
About aGodMan
The children of Israel were forbidden to make any covenant with the pagan tribes (v. 32). Today we should not make any covenants with the natural life. To make a covenant with the natural life is to compromise with it. Because it is not easy to eliminate the natural life, we may be tempted to compromise with it. To compromise in this way is to tolerate some aspect of the natural life. But we should not tolerate the natural life in any way….If we take the initiative to drive out the natural life, God will come in to honor us and strengthen us in this matter….[This] depends on our growth in Christ. God promised the children of Israel that He would drive out the pagan tribes from before them. But the children of Israel had to take the initiative to drive them out….The more we grow in life, the more we shall take the initiative to drive out the natural life. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Exodus, p. 889)