When reading the books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth we need to beware of not taking the way of the judges to be powerful and to do a great work but rather, take the way of life in the church life, for only life can bring forth Christ. Amen!
This week we come to the last week in our Crystallization-study of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, and this week is simply entitled, Taking the Way of Life in the Lord’s Recovery.
After seeing such wonderful matters concerning Ruth and such dreadful and fallen things concerning the judges, we need to make a choice: we need to take the way of life.
We are blessed to be poor in spirit and pure in heart, by the Lord’s grace, to live under the reality of the kingdom of God.
It is the Lord that brought us here in the church life in the Lord’s recovery, it is His mercy that He keeps us here, and He is the One who shepherds us day by day.
We want to be in the church, in the universal fellowship of the Body of Christ, supporting and praying for the one work, and receiving the benefit of the new covenant ministry.
May we receive the Lord’s mercy to take the way of life. Life is not a thing but a person; life is God Himself. God the Father is life; God the Son is life; the Spirit is the Spirit that gives life.
The words which God speaks are spirit and life (John 6:63). To take the way of life is to take the way of the processed and consummated Triune God being dispensed into us continuously.
The word “way” has two basic meanings; first, it denotes the direction, the path, to get to a certain destination, and second, it speaks of the means, the method.
We need to take the way of life. To take is to make something become your possession; when you take some ice cream, you make that ice cream your possession by reaching out, grasping it, and possessing it.
This verb refers to taking action in doing something. As the Lord is showing us mercy continually to keep us in the church life in the Lord’s recovery under His up-to-date speaking, we need to take the way of life.
This is something continuously active; whenever we are passive, we are in death, for passivity equals death, but when we exercise our spirit and turn our heart to the Lord, we are in life.
We need to exercise our spirit, turn our hearts to the Lord, call on Him, pray, and read His word prayerfully so that we may take action.
However, we shouldn’t be confident in ourselves, thinking that it is us in ourselves that can do this or that; rather, we need to be poor in spirit, relying on the Lord to do this in us.
May we choose to take the way of life instead of taking the way of having power or doing things in a powerful way.
Seeing a Clear Picture of God’s Move in His Spirit of Power and the Spirit of Life in Joshua, Judges, and Ruth
In the books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, which refer to a particular age in the history of the people of Israel, we see a clear picture of the two aspects of God’s move.
First, we see God’s move in His economical Spirit, the Spirit of power, and His move in His essential Spirit, the Spirit of life.
If we look at the book of Joshua and Judges we mainly see the aspect of the move of God in power. With Joshua, Caleb, and all the judges we see the move of God in power.
The typical illustration of this is Samson; he was the last of the judges, and he was powerful in his life and even more powerful in his death, which was actually a suicide.
But we can’t see much of life in him; he was a Nazarite, submitting himself under God’s headship by not cutting his hair, not eating unclean food, and not drinking wine (Judg. 13:5-7), but there wasn’t much of life there.
It may seem that he had many aspects of life, but actually, he only kept a lot of regulations.
What we see in Samson is that, on one hand, he took God as his Head according to regulation, but on the other hand, he had no restrain in the lust of his flesh.
The matter of sex was a big stumbling block to Samson, for he had no restriction in his indulgence, so he indulged himself wherever he went.
He may have had the greatest power, and the Spirit of God moved him to do this and that; however, he did not take the way of life, that is, he didn’t experience being one spirit with the Lord in doing what he did.
Since he was the last of the judges in the book of Judges, we can say that the conclusion and consummation of the book of Judges is a person of power yet without life, a person that was powerful yet so full of lust and unrestrained. This is deplorable.
When we think of a Nazarite, we think of one who is under God’s headship, one who is full of submission to God and separated unto Him, one full of the divine power; but here we see such a one who was also full of the indulgence of lust.
Taking the way of power by the Spirit of power is not the way that God wants to take.
In contrast to the book of Judges, in Ruth, we see this seemingly weak and insignificant person called Naomi with this stranger called Ruth, who were not powerful or mighty but who chose to take the way of life.
On the background of such a black situation as seen in Judges, we see a bright, white, and shining story with Naomi and Ruth with Boaz.
Elimelech swerved from the Holy Land and was chastised by God; both he and his two sons died in Moab, leaving his wife and two daughters-in-law as widows without children (Ruth 1:1-5).
Naomi, however, didn’t rebel against God but instead, she acknowledged Him as the One who stripped her of her husband and sons (vv. 20-21), and she chose to return to the land of Israel.
Ruth also chose to take the way of life, even though she was on the wrong path and in the wrong people.
Through such people who chose the way of life and experienced the Spirit of life, the Lord Jesus had a way to be brought forth.
They didn’t have power neither was the Spirit of power upon them to do mighty works for God, but they took the way of life and became part of the lineage that brought forth Christ.
May we choose the way of life so that Christ may be brought forth through us today!
Lord Jesus, we choose life! We choose to take the way of life. Thank You for Your mercy and grace in bringing us into the church life. Thank You for bringing us into the church life as the kingdom of God today. We take You as our Head, our life, and our person. We want to take the way of life in everything that we do. We are not here to do great works for You outwardly: we are here to acknowledge Your sovereignty in all things, to allow You to deal with us, and to gain more of You as life. Amen, Lord, our desire is that Christ would be lived out through us. May Christ be brought forth in us and through us today!
Choosing to take the Way of Life and not the Way of Power so that we may Bring forth Christ
In contrast to the book of Judges, Ruth is a book of life; the purpose of this book is not to tell us anything about power or mighty works done by the Spirit of God but to reveal to us the things of life by using Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz as examples (Ruth 1:16-17, 20-21; 2:10-16; 3:1, 7-13; 4:9-15).
May are very much impressed with the mighty works done by the judges, especially Samson, but not many would pay attention to the way of life that Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz took in the book of Ruth.
In the church life in the Lord’s recovery we shouldn’t take the way of the judges to be powerful and to do a great work; if we take the way of power instead of the way of life, whatever we accomplish will mean nothing.
Samson accomplished so many great works, even mighty things, culminating in killing thousands of people at once; however, he accomplished nothing.
This reminds us of the Lord’s word to those who, before the judgment seat, remind the Lord of the great works they did for Him, and He tells them that He doesn’t know them, for they are workers of lawlessness.
God doesn’t want us to do great works of power for Him primarily; He wants us to take the way of life, experience Him as life and live Him out, instead of us doing great works for Him.
We don’t want to meet Him in that day and be told by Him, Depart from Me, workers of lawlessness.
On that day the fire will test our work of what sort it is – whether it is gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, or stubble.
What will pass the test of fire? It is only the work carried out in the way of life that brings forth Christ in our daily living.
Actually, when we take the way of life, the power of the economical Spirit will be applied to us in order to this intrinsic aspect of the work.
It is crucial for us to see that only life can bring forth Christ (Luke 1:35).
What will bring the Lord back is not merely some events in the human history outwardly but the level of experience of Christ as life that matches the Lord’s move in this age today.
The mere aligning of certain events and situations will not bring the Lord back a second time; what He wants is to gain a corporate person, the prepared bride, a new man that is mature in the divine life to become His fullness – this will bring Him back!
Only life can bring Christ into humanity, produce Christ, minister Christ, and supply the entire human race with Christ (Matt. 1:18, 20-21).
This was accomplished by Ruth and Boaz, who were persons of life taking the way of life. Such ones we need to be today.
We may love the Lord and desire to do great works for Him, but the greatest work we can do for the Lord is to take the way of life, enjoy and experience Him as life, grow in the divine life, build up the organic Body of Christ, and allow the Lord to be brought forth through us in our daily life.
Ruth and Boaz chose the way of life, and the result was that they became part of the lineage which brought God forth into humanity so that Christ as life may be supplied to the entire human race.
Gideon or Samson did not do this; they did great works of power, but they were not on the line of life that brought forth Christ.
Rather, they did great works for God but were fully unrestrained in their fleshly lust, and their continuation was a disaster.
May we take the way of life so that Christ may be brought forth through us today for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.
Lord Jesus, may our life and daily living count in Your eyes and in the fulfilment of Your purpose. We want to take the way of life so that Christ may be brought forth through us. Save us from merely taking the way of power instead of the way of life; save us from not experiencing You as life yet doing many things for You in power. Oh Lord, may our living and work withstand the test of fire in that day. May we be those who are acknowledged by You at Your judgment seat when You return. We choose to take the way of life: we choose to take You as our life, enjoy You as life, experience You as life, live You by Your life, and grow in life to be filled with life and overflow with life. Amen, Lord, may Christ be brought forth through us. Make us part of Your overcoming bride that brings You back!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 2, pp. 71-74, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth (2021 summer training), week 12, Taking the Way of Life in the Lord’s Recovery.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Christ to me is so subjective, / Life imparting all the way; / As the Spirit He revives me / And refreshes day by day. / So subjective is my Christ to me! / Real in me, and rich and sweet! / All-inclusive is my Christ to me! / All my needs He fully meets. (Hymns #537)
– Not of letters, but of spirit, / The New Testamental way; / For ‘tis life the spirit giveth, / But the letters always slay. / Outward work God never reckons, / But what’s from the inmost part; / It is not to serve in letter, / But life’s newness to impart. (Hymns #908)
– Lord, teach us only Thee to touch, / That with Thy life we filled may be, / And not to touch the good or bad, / Or anything apart from Thee. (Hymns #733)
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