Contacting the Lord in our Limiting Situations to Experience Him as the Wheat

The good land is a land of wheat – here we enjoy and experience the all-inclusive Christ as the limited Jesus, the One who has incarnated, crucified, and buried, and who live such a life for Him to be reproduced and multiplied.

Praise the Lord for this wonderful type of the good land which shows us the all-inclusive Christ as everything to us!

In Deut. 8:7-10 we see the many characteristics of the good land; there we shall eat and we shall be satisfied, and we shall bless the Lord for the good land that He has given us.

As we see aspect after aspect of Christ as the all-inclusive good land, as we enjoy Him and experience Him as the reality of all the things in the good land, we will bless the Lord our God for the good land He has given us!

The first item in the land is that it is a land of wheat; wheat typifies the limited Jesus, the One who was incarnated, crucified, and buried (Deut. 8:8; John 12:24).

This is Christ in the stage of incarnation; in this stage He was the limited One, the crucified One, and even the buried One.

How do we eat Christ as the wheat and how do we experience Him as such a One? It’s easy to understand that the wheat symbolizes Christ in incarnation, but how do we eat Him and experience Him?

We all are under God’s sovereignty, and we all experience some kind of limitation, death, and burial in our environment, almost every day.

Sometimes we suffer persecution from our relatives, our co-workers, or our family members.

Especially as we came into the church life, all kinds of persecution came from every side, causing us to die and be buried and remain here in the church life in the Lord’s recovery.

Sometimes this restriction and limitation comes from the other members in the church life such as the elders, the serving ones, or the saints; in such a time we can turn to the Lord and experience Christ as the wheat.

If we do this, if we contact the Lord and exercise our spirit even in the midst our limiting and restricting situations, there will be a multiplication of life!

The apostle Paul was such a one; he was a pattern to us in experiencing the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land.

Even when he was in prison, he experienced Christ as the wheat; instead of complaining that he couldn’t preach the gospel or go visit the saints, he was not sorrowful but was full of rejoicing! Praise the Lord for such a pattern.

Contacting the Lord in our Limiting and Restricting Circumstances to Experience Him as the Wheat

In John 12:24 we see that Christ is a grain of wheat who didn’t save Himself but fell into the earth to die and be buried; the result is that He was multiplied in His resurrection for the glory of the Father.

The wheat represents Christ incarnated, Christ who was limited and died and was buried. How can we experience such a One?

It is one thing to know what the significance of the wheat is, and it is another to enter into this experience.

By the Lord’s sovereignty we are put into situations where we are limited, pressed, and restricted; in such situations we can experience Him as the wheat.

All human beings go through sufferings and restrictions, but we as believers can contact the Lord and turn to Him; then, He as the limited One and restricted One will live in us.

When we turn to the Lord and contact Him in our limiting and restricting situations, we experience Him as the wheat; He in us will live such a life.

When we are in a certain environment in which we’re restricted, suppressed, or limited, we can simply turn to the Lord inwardly and pray, and He will become our experience.

The more we experience Him, the more we realize that He is such a One. He is the infinite God becoming a finite man; we cannot conceive or apprehend with our human mind what this means, but we can clearly say that this is such a limitation and restriction.

He lived a limited and restricted life; He was not well-known on the whole earth, neither did He have a ministry that during His lifetime reached all the corners of the earth.

Rather, His mother and brothers didn’t believe Him, the Pharisees and Sadducees persecuted Him, the disciples caused Him to suffer, the Jewish people wanted more signs and more food, and everywhere He went, He was limited.

He was willing to be limited, willing to die, willing to be buried, and willing to be nothing. This is the One who lives in us and can be experienced by us.

The more we turn to the Lord in our situations, the more we realize that He is our life, and this life is making us willing to be limited, to die, to be buried, and to be nothing.

But if we still argue with our spouse with no problem or inner bothering, we do not experience Christ as the wheat. May we learn to experience Him in a rich way, both as the living water to quench our thirst and as the grain of wheat.

We may be in some situations that cause us to be perplexed and very limited, but we can look to the Lord and take Him as our life, allowing Him to live in us.

When we contact the Lord in our limiting and restricting circumstances, He will sustain us to be limited; He will support us inwardly so that we may be put to death and buried. He will inwardly energize and sustain us to be like Him and live like Him, a limited life, a life of dying daily so that God may be manifested and increased in us.

It may be our health, our family, our job, or our money situation; the Lord uses all these to bring us to experience Christ.

When we contact the Lord in our limiting and restricting circumstances, we will realize that He is the infinite God who became a finite man, and that in Him there’s power to bear any kind of limitation (Phil. 4:13).

In Him we can do all things! In ourselves we are not willing to die and be buried, but Christ can do this in us. We simply need to contact Him and experience Him as a grain of wheat, and in Him we will be content with our situation (Phil. 4:11-12).

But if we still fight against our environment and try to get out of it, if we’re not content with our environment, we are probably not enjoying Christ as the wheat.

Lord, we want to experience You as a grain of wheat, as the One who was limited, crucified, and buried, to be multiplied for God’s increase in humanity. Save us from looking at our circumstances and limiting situations; may we look to You, come to You, contact You, and be one with You so that we may experience You as the limited One, the crucified One, and the buried One. We want to contact You in our limiting and restricting circumstances, realizing that in You there’s power to bear any kind of limitation. Lord, You are our life, and You make us willing and able to be limited, to die, and to be buried, so that God would have an increase and a corporate expression!

Being the Faithful Lovers of Christ who are Imprisoned in Christ to Enjoy Him to the Uttermost

A very good pattern of one who enjoyed and experienced Christ as a grain of wheat was the apostle Paul.

He considered himself the prisoner of Christ Jesus; apparently he was confined in a physical prison by the Roman empire, but actually he was imprisoned in Christ (Eph. 3:1; 4:1). This was his realization. He didn’t complain about it and he didn’t ask others to go ask the king to release him or shorten his imprisonment.

Paul considered that confinement, that limitation, that restriction, to be Christ, so he didn’t want to get out of Christ but just stay there to experience Him and know Him.

Because Paul was a prisoner of Christ, he could beseech the saints to walk worthily of the Lord; his living and testimony could inspire and beseech the saints to walk in the Lord even as he did.

We all as those who love the Lord need to not only acknowledge that our limiting and restricting circumstances are something sovereignly arranged by God, but even more, take Christ as our prison. Sooner or later we all will be imprisoned not only by Christ but also in Christ.

It is one thing for Christ to imprison us, that is, for us to be “stuck” in our situations without us really wanting to be there. It is another thing, however, to turn to the Lord and experience Him as our prison, being imprisoned not only by Christ but also in Christ.

Paul took even his limiting and restricting circumstances to be Christ; he didn’t consider he was in a Roman prison but in Christ as his prison. Sooner or later, as those who love the lord and faithfully pursue Him, we will be imprisoned not only by Christ but also in Christ.

The more we love the Lord, the more we will be in Him, and the more He will be in us.

Eventually, we will be in Christ to such an extent that He becomes our prison, and we enjoy Him to the uttermost (Phil. 4:4).

Because of Paul’s experience while he was in prison, because he remained imprisoned in Christ, he experienced Christ as his supply, and he himself became a channel of supply for others.

He never complained or asked to be released from prison in his letters; rather, he realized that Christ was his prison – for he took Christ as his life and supply in his limiting and restricting circumstances – and he was a channel of supply and encouragement to all in the Body of Christ.

May we learn to turn to the Lord and take Him as our life and everything, and may we not look at the outward environment or circumstances but contact the Lord again and again, no matter how limiting or restricting the environment is so that we may experience Him as a grain of wheat and also as our prison.

Lord Jesus, we love You. We pursue after You to gain You, enjoy You, and experience You. We want to love You more and more until we are so much in You that You become our prison where we can enjoy You to the uttermost. Dear Lord Jesus, imprison us in You. Save us from looking at our limiting circumstances and complaining about them or trying to escape them; may we take all things from You and contact You to experience You both as a grain of wheat and also as our prison. Amen, Lord Jesus, make us such faithful lovers of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” ch. 4, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Deuteronomy, week 3, The Goodness of the Land – Its Food.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Jesus is now the land of wheat— / Incarnate, crucified. / But resurrection life is He / By barley signified. (Hymns #1164)
  – Grain of wheat, so small and lowly, / Without death abides alone; / Life divine enclosed within it, / Into death it must be sown. / Life releasing, Christ increasing, / Many grains to birth to bring, / Many grains to birth to bring! (Hymns #1089)
  – See the wheat, the restricted Jesus Christ. / Incarnation was restriction in the flesh. / Limited outwardly, by God’s power set free, / Resurrected as unlimited barley. (Song on, What a Christ We Have)