Deep Calls Unto Deep: take Time to Absorb Christ and have a Hidden Life with Him

Deep calls unto deep, and only what comes from the depths of our being can touch the depths of others’ being; we need to send roots downward and bear fruit upward, sending our roots deep down into Christ in our personal and private time with Him and not exposing our roots but having hidden and secret experiences of Christ.

Living the kingdom life is not merely related to things we do outwardly but even more, it is very much related to our personal, private, intimate, and spiritual fellowship with the Lord.

The kingdom of God is a realm of life, the realm of the divine life, and we all need to let the Lord increase in us.

This means that we need to spend much personal time with Him and have solid deep roots in Him.

What God is after is not outward miracles and manifestations of power; these may take place in the next age but in this age what He wants to gain is our heart, our secret and hidden fellowship with Him.

In the Old Testament, Elijah was a person who was very much used by God, and he just witnessed, together with the people of Israel, how God sent fire from heaven to show that He is the real God.

However, even after such a great miracle and work of power, Elijah became afraid for his life and ran away, hiding himself in a cave in the mountains.

It was there that the Lord came to him and revealed Himself to him.

Elijah was probably expecting that God would show him His glory, His greatness, and how awesome He is, but God was not in the great wind, the earthquake, or the fire, but in the small and gentle voice.

This is something that should encourage us as believers in the New Testament: our natural man may expect that God would do great things for us, but what He does is speak to us inwardly, quietly, and gently, for us to know who He is and for Him to add Himself to us.

We all have the anointing from the Holy One, and each one of us knows God; there’s no need for others to come and teach us, for we can subjectively know God by means of the anointing. Praise the Lord!

We may want to manifest outwardly what God does for us inwardly, but the very nature of God in us is hidden and God dislikes ostentation.

As we contact the Lord and spend time with Him, we realize that this almighty God who created all things is now the Spirit with our spirit anointing us, speaking to us in the secret place in our being, and adding Himself to us little by little, day by day. Hallelujah!

May we learn to spend much secret and hidden time with God so that we may know Him not only according to what He does for us but even more, according to what He is to us in our secret, personal, intimate time with Him.

Deep Calls unto Deep: we need to Take Root Doward and Bear Fruit Upward

Psa. 42:7a says, Deep calls unto deep.

This means that we need to have a personal time with the Lord and have deep roots in Him day by day so that, when we speak to others, we may have something of Him to impart into them.

Only what is deep inside our being of God can touch what is deep inside others’ being.

When we speak something shallow, not from the depths of our being issued from our time with God, we can never touch the being of other people.

Others will respond from deep within only to what issues from deep within us.

If we express our anger, others will touch the anger and will realize that we’re angry from deep within.

But if we spend time with the Lord and send roots deep down in Him, we will be able to have a deep relationship with Him, and deep calls unto deep – when we speak, others will touch the Lord, for He will flow from the depth of our being.

Anything that is not from the depths of our being will never reach the depths of others.

Sometimes we’re in the meeting of the church and someone shares something that may not be that high but it touches the depths of our being, for it comes from their deep experience with the Lord.

If we don’t dig deep, we can never gain others; when we touch the Lord from deep within and exercise to speak one spirit with Him, we will touch the depths of others’ being.

When we utter something from the depths, we will touch the depths of others.

But if we are shallow with the Lord, we may be able to speak something from the Word and others may be touched in their emotions and may even cry or be happy, but nothing is touched in the depths of their being.

As believers in Christ who live the kingdom life, we need to take root downward and bear fruit upward (see Isa. 37:31; cf. Acts 6:7; 12:24; 19:20).

Our Christian life should be a life in the depths, a life that can take root downward in Christ so that we can bear fruit upward for His expression.

When the word of God dwells in us richly (Col. 3:16), making His home in our heart, we will be able to speak something from the depths of our being to touch the depths of others’ being.

May the word of God grow in us and be multiplied among us to be mighty and prevailing.

May we give ourselves to the Lord to pray and remain in the Word of God day by day, praying secretly before the Lord and with the Lord to send our roots deep down into Him.

Isa. 37:31 says that the remnant will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

Many times we have some outward display of what we enjoy of the Lord, but there are no roots downward. Oh, Lord!

Many times when we speak to others, we have a lot of knowledge, we may be able to expound the truth, and we understand the doctrines, but there’s a lack of depth.

Only deep calls unto deep.

Only when we deal with the soil of our heart for the seed of life to grow in us and be mature in us can we speak something to others that touch the depth of their being.

May we learn what it means to send roots down in Christ to absorb Him in our personal, intimate, and private time with Him.

May we first pay attention to taking root downward and not be eager to show others or display before them what we have enjoyed of the Lord.

May we learn to have a hidden life with the Lord so that He may work Himself into the depth of our being and have a way to flow out to others to touch the depth of their being.

Lord Jesus, we do not want to be superficial Christians who have a lot of outward manifestations of being a Christian but lack depth. May we allow You to grow in us as we spend personal, intimate, and private time with You. Amen, Lord, strengthen our personal time with You day by day. We want to seek You in secret, obtain some secret answers from You, and open to You the secrets of our being. Oh Lord, may deep call unto deep! Work Yourself into the depths of our being. We want to learn to open the depths of our being to You so that You may work Yourself into them. Save us from skating on the surface. Save us from having merely a life that is outward without depth. Grow in us, Lord. We want to take root downward and bear fruit upward. We come to You, dear Lord, and we want to again take root downward. May we send roots deep down into Christ so that we may absorb the riches of Christ and be constituted with Christ in the depths of our being. Amen, Lord, may You have a way to flow in us and out of us so that others may receive You in the depths of their being!

Take Time to Absorb Christ by having a Hidden Life with Him to have the Growth

When some Christians hear that only deep calls unto deep, they may be discouraged, for they may not know what this means or they may think there’s not much in the depths of their being.

Every genuine Christian is one who has received the seed of life in the soil of their heart, and now this seed of life grows.

However, the depth to which the roots go down in the soil of heart depends on the kind of heart we have.

In Matt. 13:3-23 the Lord Jesus spoke the parable of the sower; the seed is the same in quality, but the soil in which the seed falls and tries to grow differs.

As believers in Christ who live the kingdom life, we need to have a hidden life with the Lord so that we may send roots deep down into Christ and have proper growth in life.

We have been planted in Christ as the reality of the good land, and now we need to take time to absorb Him.

Especially in our time with the Lord in the morning, we need to take time to absorb the Lord by having a hidden life with Him to have the growth in life.

Roots are the hidden life and leaves are the manifest life; the trouble with many Christians is that there’s much apparent life but there’s very little secret life.

In other words, there may be many works outwardly but there’s a lack of hidden life.

If we as believers in Christ have all our experiences with the Lord manifested before others, then all our growth is upward and there’s no downward growth.

We need to take time to absorb Christ day by day so that we may have a hidden life with Him and have downward growth in Him.

If we are only leaves but no root, then we’re on a shallow ground.

The Christian who parades or exposes all his virtues before men and doesn’t have anything in the depth of his being has no root. Oh, Lord!

Such a one will not be able to stand in the day of trial and temptation (Matt. 13:20-21; Luke 8:13).

May God work in us so that we are those who take root downward to absorb the riches of Christ and have a hidden life with Him.

We need to deal with the soil of our heart. Our heart can be one of four kinds: shallow soil with rocks underneath, soil with thorns and weeds, soil by the wayside, or good soil for the seed to grow properly.

We need to have a hidden life with the Lord and take time to absorb Christ in secret so that we may send roots deep down in Him to absorb Him.

When we do this, we will have deep roots in Christ and, when trial comes, we will rather grow and ripen than be burnt by the scorching sun.

The life that God delights in is a life that will be enduring and unchanging, a life that withstands the test.

We may have a quick sprouting of the divine life in us, but when the persecution comes or when trials arrive, instead of having an accelerated growth, this may become a death blow to the growth. Oh, Lord!

If there’s no depth of earth but there are rocks underneath the soil, how can the Lord grow in us?

We may have many works and growth outwardly, but how about our hidden life with the Lord in which we send our roots deep down in Him?

Isa. 53:2 says that the Lord Jesus was like a tender plant growing in a barren place, a dry place, but as we see in His living in the Gospels, He sent His roots down into His hidden life with the Father to grow properly before Him.

He didn’t draw the supply from the environment because His roots went down into the Father, taking the Father as His supply.

In Jer. 17:7-8 we see that those who trust in the Lord are like trees transplanted beside water, whose roots go forth to a stream.

They are not afraid when the heat comes or in the year of drought, for they have deep roots.

May we be such ones. May we grow in life day by day by having deep roots in Christ and a hidden life with Him so that we may have the growth of God.

Sometimes in the church life, we see or hear of someone who was much used by the Lord and who suddenly fell or left the church life; we may think that this happened so suddenly, but if we are before the Lord, we realize the lack of roots.

Nothing happens suddenly or accidentally; there’s a lack of roots that eventually leads to a great fall.

May we take this to heart and be before the Lord concerning the soil of our heart.

May we allow the Lord to shine on any hidden sins, self-seeking, personal desires, and self-pity.

All these are in us, and they choke the growth of Christ in us.

May we cooperate with the Lord day by day as we live a hidden life with Him so that we may send our roots deep down in Him.

The Lord said that we’re the light of the world, even a city situated upon a mountain which cannot be hidden (Matt. 5:14).

This is to be a Christian openly, not hiddenly.

However, He also said that we should enter into our private room and pray, for the Father sees in secret and He will reward us in secret (6:6).

On one hand, we must come right out into the open and make a public confession that we are Christians who love the Lord.

On the other hand, we need to not parade our Christian virtues and our experiences of Christ before men but live a hidden life with the Lord so that we may have deep roots in Him.

If all our spiritual life is exposed, we do not have any root; if all our experiences are manifested, our growth is only upward with no root downward. Oh Lord!

How much we need to be before the Lord concerning this matter and open to Him, telling Him,

Lord Jesus, we want to take time to absorb You and send our roots deep down into You. Thank You for planting us into Christ as the reality of the good land for us to absorb all the riches of Christ. Amen, Lord, we want to have a hidden life with You so that we may have deep roots, even many roots, into You. Save us from parading our Christian virtues before others or making a show of what we enjoy and experience of Christ. May we have much living before You in secret to send our roots into Christ. Amen, Lord, may there be much downward growth in our being! Strengthen us into our inner man so that Christ may make His home deep in our heart! Amen, Lord Jesus, work Yourself into the depth of our being. May we treasure our secret, hidden, personal time with You. Shine on us, Lord, and expose any rocks in the depths of the soil of our heart. Expose any hidden sins, self-seeking, personal desires, and self-pity. We want to deal with the soil of our heart so that You may grow in us. Amen, Lord, may we send roots downward and have growth upward!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ricky Acosta in the message for this week, and portions from, Watchman Nee, Deep Calls Unto Deep (booket), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living in the Reality of the Kingdom of God (2024 October ITERO), week 2, Living the Kingdom Life by Living a Hidden Life.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Being Rooted in Christ as the Rich Soil and Absorbing Him, via, having this ministry.
  – Taking Time to Absorb the Lord, via, Living to Him.
  – Planted into Christ, a portion from, Life-Study of Colossians, Chapter 52.
  – Why We Need a Hidden Life with the Lord Jesus, via, Bibles for Australia blog.
  – Beholding and reflecting, a portion from, Life Messages, Vol. 1 (#1-41), Chapter 30, by Witness Lee.
  – Living the Kingdom Life by Living a Hidden Life (4), via, Uni Students.
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  – Deep Roots in Christ—Deep Calls unto Deep, Part 1 of 2, video via, Bibles for America YouTube.
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  – Christ as the seed of life sown into us to grow within us for God’s building, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Take Time To Behold Him, song via, NYCYPCD youtube.
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• Hymns on this topic:
  – Take time to behold Him, / Speak oft with Thy Lord, / Abide in Him always, / And feed on His Word. / Wait thou in His presence, / Submissive and meek, / Forgetting in nothing / His blessing to seek. / Take time to behold Him, / Be calm in thy soul, / Each thought and each temper / Beneath His control. / Thus led by His Spirit / To fountains of love, / Thou then shalt be fitted / His mercy to prove. (Hymns #643 stanzas 1 and 4)
  – His Son, Jesus, is our Savior. / Once in human form He came. / Now as Spirit He can enter / As the breath of life to man. / As a seed within our spirit / Christ takes root and starts to grow, / Spreading in our inmost being / Till His life we come to know. / Time is short, oh, brothers, hear it, / Christ is longing for His Bride. / We can hasten His returning / Simply by the growth in life. / No more struggling, no more striving, / Simply turn to Christ within. / See the seed begin to blossom. / Growing fully into Him. (Hymns #1299 stanzas 3-4)
  – Lord, You’re the seed of life; / You’ve sown Yourself into our heart, / And now You have a start; / So day by day more life to us impart— / Lord Jesus, grow in us. / Lord Jesus, soften us; / You know the source from which we came. / By calling on Your name, / Lord, let no earth unturned nor rocks remain— / Lord Jesus, grow in us. (Hymns #1132 stanzas 2-3)