Praise the Lord for His divine and rich provision for our constant salvation! As we pray-read the Word, sing-read the Word, and even psalm-read the Word, the Word of Christ dwells in us richly, and we spontaneously hold forth the word of life – this is to live Christ that He may be magnified in us!
Paul said that for him to live is Christ, and he had the earnest expectation and hope that in nothing he would be put to shame but rather, even in the situation he was in, Christ would be magnified in his body as he lived Christ.
What does it mean to live Christ? In Phil. 1:19 Paul said that he knew that his situation will turn out to salvation, for to him was Christ, as he was bountifully supplied by the Spirit of Jesus Christ and the saints prayed for him.
But what does it mean to live Christ, and for us to live Christ? In ch. 2 of Philippians Paul presents to us a pattern of Christ, asking us that would allow this mind – the mind that was in Christ – to also be in us.
What a pattern the Lord is to us – He did not consider being equal with God as a treasure to be grasped but rather, He humbled Himself and emptied Himself, becoming a man and even a slave, learning obedience through the things that He suffered, and He obeyed God even unto death.
Now this One, this Christ, is in us to be the inward subjective pattern; He is both outside of us as recorded in the Scriptures, and within us – in our spirit – to live Himself out of us. So we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who operates in us.
On our side, we cooperate, and on His side, He operates as we cooperate. When we just say, Amen, Lord, do in me what You want to do! He will go ahead and operate in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.
As the Lord operates in us, we need to obey His operation and do all things without murmurings and reasonings, and we shine as luminaries in the midst of this dark and corrupt world.
Our cooperation with God’s inward operation includes doing all things without murmurings and reasonings, that is, we allow the Lord to save us from our constant complaining and our continual reasoning. Amen, Lord, save us!
And in the midst of this dark world, we shine as luminaries by holding forth the word of life. Our function as believers is to spend time with God so that we may be infused with God and shine forth God.
The way for us to live Christ is to be saturated with the word of life, so we need to be in the word of God by means of all prayer and petition, so that this word would dwell in us richly and supply us to live Christ.
We Sing-Read the Word to let it Dwell in us Richly and Live Christ to Magnify Him
Col. 3:16 encourages us to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom, teaching one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our heart to God.
Furthermore, Eph. 5:18-19 shows us the way to be filled in spirit, which is to speak one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with our heart to the Lord.
On one hand, as Eph. 6:17-18 tells us, we should read the word with all kinds of prayer and petition; on the other hand, we need to sing-read the word and psalm-read the word, that is, sing the word and psalm it, singing and psalming with our heart to God.
We may have been reading the Bible for many years without realising that one way we should received the Word of God is by singing.
We may read the Bible, we may even pray over the word, but do we sing the word? We may study the Bible and read it, and we may even memorize it, but we may not singing.
We must learn to sing-read the word of God; we need to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom by singing. Amen!
We need to let the word of Christ inhabit us in a rich way not as mere knowledge from the mind but by every kind of wisdom from our spirit, including singing and psalming.
We need to sing and psalm the Word of God! When we sing the word, our whole being is open and we enjoy the word and retain it even more.
When we psalm the word, we muse upon it and enjoy it, dwelling upon it, and giving the Word more opportunity to saturate us.
We need to learn not only to pray-read the Word of God but also sing-read it and psalm-read it, singing and psalming the word of God not only in the meetings but also in our personal time with Him.
We shouldn’t worry about the tune, whether it is perfect or we have the right pitch – we simply need to sing the word and psalm it! Even in the meetings, we should set some time aside in particular meetings to just sing the word!
For us to allow the Word of Christ to dwell in us richly, we need to sing-read the word and psalm-read the Bible; when we sing the whole book of Ephesians, for example, we will touch the riches in this book.
These two portions of the Word – Eph. 5:18-19 and Col. 3:16 – speak of the same thing, being filled in spirit with the word of Christ, so that we may live Christ.
The way for us to live Christ is by having the element of Christ in the word being infused into us by pray-reading the word, sing-reading the word, and psalm-reading the word, thus giving the Word of God the opportunity to dwell in us richly! Amen!
The more we sing the Word and psalm the Word, the more we give the opportunity to the Word to sing into us and permeate us with the divine element.
In this way we are constituted with the element of Christ, and automatically we become what we eat, that is, we will live out what we absorb – we will live Christ! Hallelujah for this key to living Christ!
We should all learn and practice singing the word; singing and praising is uplifting…even when we don’t have a tune, we should make up one, and just sing the word to sing it!
Singing makes us calm, it affects our brain in a positive way, and singing together brings in harmony.
If we are filled with the riches of the living Word of God day by day, we will spontaneously hold forth the word of life, and we will live Christ so that He may be magnified in us! Amen!
When we pray-read the word, sing-read the Word, and psalm-read the Word, the riches of the living word of God are being infused into us to constitute us; spontaneously, what is lived out is what constitutes us, and Christ will be lived out in us to be magnified in us.
Lord, we want to learn to not only pray over Your word but also sing-read the Word and psalm the Word, so that we may let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom! Amen, Lord, we want to be filled with the riches of the living Word day by day so that we may spontaneously hold forth the word of life, and thus live Christ. May we daily pray Your word, sing Your word, and psalm Your word, giving it much prayer, consideration, singing, opening, and musing, so that we may hold forth the word of life and live Christ for Him to be magnified in us!
Praise the Lord for the Divine and Rich Provision for our Constant Salvation!
Philippians 2:5-16 reveals the divine and rich provision for our constant salvation; what Paul reveals in here is not a list of things for us to do, but the divine provision and the rich provision for our constant salvation.
First, we have the Lord Jesus as our pattern (vv. 6-11); we need to know, see, enjoy, and internalise this pattern, obey this pattern, and say Amen to the Lord’s wonderful pattern. He is our pattern not merely objectively but all the more subjectively, and He wants to live such a pattern in us.
Then, we have God operating in us (v. 13); He operates in us both the willing and the working, and we need to simply say Amen to His operation. He operates and we cooperate; He wants to work out His complete and wonderful salvation in us, and we simply say Amen, Lord, do it in us.
We are God’s children, having God’s life and the divine nature (v. 15); the reason we can actually live out such a pattern is because we have another life and another nature, and when we live according to this life and nature, we live Christ. Hallelujah, we can enjoy the riches of the divine life and we can walk according to the divine nature! What a provision!
We are luminaries qualified to reflect the divine light of Christ (v. 15). We do not have light in ourselves, but through regeneration we have received the capacity to be in God’s presence, enjoy God, be infused with God, and reflect God.
The more we spend time with the Lord and behold Him with an unveiled face, the more we reflect Him; He shines on us and in us, and we shine Him out to others! Amen, just as the moon and the stars reflect the sun, so we both individually and corporately as the church have the capacity to reflect the divine light of Christ!
Finally, we have the word of life to hold forth and present to others (v. 16). God has given us not only letters or words but the word of life; we must be in His word prayerfully and with much singing and psalming, and the word will become our constitution and even our very being.
Then, we can speak this word to others, especially to the world.
Praise the Lord for such a rich provision that He has given us so that we may work out our salvation, so that we can be saved not only from the negative things but even from our lack of living Christ.
Thank You Lord for the divine and rich provision You have given us for our constant salvation! Hallelujah, we have the Lord Jesus as our pattern both objectively and subjectively, and He has come into us to live in us the same kind of life! We have God operating in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure. We are God’s children – we have God’s life and His divine nature, and we can live out such a life! Amen, Lord, we are luminaries qualified to reflect the divine light of Christ. We have the word of life to hold forth, to present to others. Thank You Lord for such a rich provision for us to live Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ricky Acosta for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Philippians, msgs. 40-41, 46 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Experience of Christ (2019 Memorial Day Conference), week 3, Knowing and Experiencing Christ as the Pattern.
- Bible songs / verses to sing: Matt. 4:10, Matt. 6:33, 1 Pet. 1:8, 1 Pet. 2:9, 1 Thes. 1:9.
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