The Development of the Divine Life and Nature: Faith, Virtue, Knowledge, Self-control, Endurance, Godliness

As believers in Christ, we need to experience the development of the divine life and the divine nature contained in the divine seed that was sown into us so that we may have a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom; we need to cooperate by adding all diligence to supply bountifully in our faith virtue, knowledge, self-control, endurance, and godliness. Amen!

We were born of God, and now we have the divine life and nature of God; praise the Lord, we are children of God, and as God’s children, we partake of the riches of God’s life and nature.

What a privilege and what a blessing it is to partake of God’s nature!

As we exercise our spirit over the word of God, the riches of God’s nature are infused into us and constituted into our being so that we may become His expression!

In order for us to have a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when He comes, there must be the development of the divine life and the divine nature.

When a baby is born, even though he has everything he needs in the human life he received at birth, he needs to grow and develop, and the virtues, characteristics, features, and character he received at birth has to be developed and cultivated.

This takes a lifetime, and there are many failures and successes. We believers in Christ have been born of God, and the divine seed has been planted into our being.

In this divine seed is all we need: all the features, characteristics, virtues, and attributes of God are in the divine seed we received when we were born again.

Now, we need to add all diligence to supply bountifully what is needed so that the virtues and riches of the divine life and nature would be developed.

No one can do it for us and, no matter how much we love others and how dearly we care for them, we cannot do this for them.

This is part of our personal, intimate, and spiritual relationship with the Lord.

There has to be a growth in life in each one of us.

We need to be desperate before the Lord that we would not remain the same.

We need to grow in life and experience the development of the divine life and the divine nature.

God has given to us His precious and exceedingly great promises, and we enjoy the word of God by the exercise of our spirit.

Also, we need to bring in all diligence to cooperate with the enabling of the dynamic divine nature for the carrying out of God’s promises. Amen!

We have been Allotted the Wonderful Equally Precious Faith: this Faith is an All-inclusive Seed!

2 Pet. 1:1 tells us that we all have been allotted the wonderful equally precious faith, and this faith is an all-inclusive seed. Praise the Lord!

When we speak of the development of the divine life and the divine nature, we don’t speak of our own effort to do this or that for the Lord; everything we need is in the seed we have received, our faith, and we simply need to develop this.

God’s divine power has given to us all things which relates to life and godliness (vv. 3-4).

We have the equally precious faith allotted to us by God; this is the common portion of the New Testament blessing of life for the initiation of our Christian life.

Faith has been given to us by God; faith comes through the hearing of the word of God.

When we hear the word of God, something rises up in us to appreciate the Lord and respond to Him; this is faith, which is wonderful and equally precious in all the saints.

All the divine riches are in this seed, but we need to be diligent to develop them (vv. 1-8; 3:18).

We develop the riches in the divine life and nature by growing in life unto maturity.

May we add all diligence to develop the divine life and nature in our Christian experience today so that we may have a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom.

To be diligent to develop these virtues means that we do something seriously, continually; we don’t do this only when we feel like it or when the right situation comes along.

We want to be in the coming kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we take the personal journey with the Lord to develop the divine life unto maturity.

By developing these virtues, we grow in life, and eventually we will reach maturity, we will be full of Christ, and we will be qualified and equipped to be kings in the coming kingdom (Eph. 4:13-15; Col. 2:19; 2 Pet. 1:11).

It all depends on our cooperation with the Lord to develop the riches in the divine life and nature in us; we have been allotted the wonderful equally precious faith as the all-inclusive seed, and now we need to be diligent to develop the riches in this seed.

We develop these riches not in a general way, by some teachings, or by learning some doctrines; rather, it is by our growth in life unto maturity.

We have received the seed of the divine life in us by faith, and now we need to cooperate with the Lord for this seed to grow in us.

Just as children grow to be teenagers, and there’s much growth and development in the teenage years, so we need to grow in the divine life unto maturity by developing the divine life and nature.

This doesn’t mean that we need to be introspective and see how much we have grown this year and why we didn’t grow; rather, we should exercise our spirit and cooperate with the Lord today, and we should keep our being open to the Lord.

We need to have the full development and maturity from the seed of faith through the roots of virtue and knowledge, the trunk of self-control, and the branches of endurance and godliness, to the blossom of fruit of brotherly love and love (2 Pet. 1:5-7).

This is the procedure, from Peter’s perspective, of how we can grow in life unto maturity by the development of the divine life and nature so that we may have a rich entrance into the kingdom of God.

Lord Jesus, thank You for allotting to us the wonderful equally precious faith as an all-inclusive seed! Hallelujah, we have received faith from the Lord, and by faith, we receive the divine life and the divine nature! Amen, Lord, we want to cooperate with You today for the growth and development of the divine seed in our being! We want to experience the development of the divine life and the divine nature contained in the divine seed that has been sown into us so that we may have a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom! Hallelujah, all the divine riches are in the divine seed in us, and we need to be diligent to develop them! Yes, Lord, we want to grow in life unto maturity. We want to develop what we already have so that the divine seed in us may grow day by day. May we all add diligence to develop the virtues of the divine life and nature so that we may grow in life and reach maturity! Oh Lord, may we have the full development and maturity from the seed of faith through the roots of virtue and knowledge, the trunk of self-control, and the branches of endurance and godliness, to the blossom and fruit of brotherly love and love!

Add All Diligence to Supply in Faith, Virtue, and in Virtue, Knowledge

We have the faith given to us by God as the divine seed, and all the riches and virtues of the divine life and nature are in this seed.

However, we need to develop these riches and virtues. We need to add all diligence to supply in faith, virtue (2 Pet. 1:5).

To supply in faith virtue is to develop virtue; virtue is the energy of the divine life issuing in vigorous action. We need to develop virtue in the exercise of the equally precious faith.

This faith needs to be exercised so that the virtue of the divine life may be developed in the succeeding steps and reach maturity.

Faith can be compared to a seed, and virtue can be compared to a root coming out of that seed.

We need to be diligent to supply in faith, virtue, sending our roots into the Lord so that our faith would grow.

To supply is to develop; we already have virtue and faith, we just need to develop the virtue found in the divine seed, our faith.

When we exercise our spirit of faith, we will have the divine virtues, which are in this divine seed.

In 1 Pet. 1 we see that the seed is the word with Christ in it as life; in 2 Pet. 1, the seed becomes our faith, the equally precious faith that has been allotted to all the saints.

Our precious faith, which has been allotted to each one of us, is one with Christ as the seed. This seed has been sown into the soil and needs to develop.

First, it develops by growing some roots; one of these roots is virtue.

Virtue in Greek is, excellency. Virtue denotes the energy of the divine life, the excellency of the divine life, which issues in vigorous action.

May we exercise our spirit of faith and develop the excellency and energy of the divine life, issuing in vigorous action.

Furthermore, we need to add all diligence to supply in virtue, knowledge.

Virtue needs the bountiful supply of the knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!

The vigorous action taken as we exercise our spirit of faith needs to bountiful supply of knowledge.

We need the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord (vv. 2, 3, 8) regarding all the things that relate to the divine life and godliness and the partaking of the divine nature (vv. 3-4; Rev. 4:11; Phil. 3:8) for our enjoyment in the subsequent development. Amen!

In virtue, we should develop knowledge; this includes the knowledge of God and our Savior, the knowledge of God’s economy, the knowledge of what faith is, and the knowledge of the divine power, glory, virtue, nature, and life.

What a rich knowledge this is! This is the knowledge of all things related to life and godliness.

Knowledge can also be considered a root that develops out of the seed of faith. Therefore, there are two roots, virtue and knowledge, that need to be developed from the seed of faith.

We need to know God’s economy. We need to be constituted with the healthy teaching of God’s eternal economy by being in the Word of God and by praying over God’s word, even by reading the ministry books that unfold the riches and revelations of God’s economy.

God does all things based on His economy, and even in our personal life, He is working out His eternal economy.

May we develop in our virtue knowledge, the knowledge of God, of God’s economy, of His desire, and of His power, glory, virtue, nature, and life.

Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit of faith to develop the divine life and nature in our spirit. Amen, Lord, we want to add all diligence to supply bountifully in our faith, virtue. Hallelujah, we have the energy of the divine life issuing in vigorous action! We exercise our spirit, Lord, to contact You, enjoy You, and develop virtue in our faith. Wow, virtue is in our spirit of faith, and when we live in our spirit and walk according to the spirit, we develop the root of virtue. Amen, Lord, may we have the bountiful supply of the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord developed in our virtue! We come to You in Your word to have the knowledge of God and our Savior, the knowledge of God’s economy, the knowledge of what faith is, and the knowledge of the divine power, glory, virtue, nature, and life! Amen, Lord, may we grow in life day by day unto maturity. May there be a development of the divine life and nature with its virtues and riches in us!

Add All Diligence to Supply in Virtue, Self-control, in Self-control, Endurance, and in Endurance, Godliness

When we have the bountiful supply of the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, of God’s economy, and of what faith is, what God is, what is His divine glory and power, it is easy for us to be proud or lifted up.

Therefore, we need to add all diligence to supply in virtue, self-control (2 Pet. 1:6).

What is self-control? Self-control is the exercise of control and restraint over our self in its passions, desires, and habits.

On the one hand, we need to exercise our spirit of faith and supply knowledge in virtue, and on the other hand, we need to exercise self-control in all things.

Such self-control needs to be exercised in knowledge for the proper growth in life.

As we grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, as we are filled with the bountiful supply of God’s economy, we need to also add all diligence to supply in knowledge, self-control.

In this way, we are saved from being proud. To develop in knowledge, self-control implies restriction.

Virtue and knowledge are two roots coming out of the seed of faith; self-control is like the trunk, which grows upward in a restricted way, straight up.

To have self-control is to deal with ourselves.

We experience this especially in married life, where we are exposed all the time; many times, as we are about to say something, the Lord within us will stop us, and we cooperate by exercising self-control.

The Lord exposes the self, the pride, and anything that comes from the natural man, and we cooperate with Him by exercising our spirit to have self-control.

Our married life and family life are not perfect, but we realize that we need to exercise self-control by the exercise of our spirit. In self-control, we need to develop endurance.

By having self-control, we deal with ourselves; by having endurance, we bear with others and with circumstances.

As we send our roots deep down into Christ through virtue and knowledge, we grow upward in a restricted way toward ourselves and in an enduring way toward others.

We need to bountifully supply and develop endurance in self-control.

If we want to live a proper Christian life, we need to have endurance toward those around us and also toward our environment and circumstances.

The culture in the modern world today is one of having everything right now, with no patience or endurance.

However, as Rev. 1:9 says, we are fellow brothers and partakers of the endurance in Jesus.

We may have a strong character, and we may look down on those who are defeated easily; we may exalt ourselves as being better than them.

But the Lord is faithful to bring about certain situations and persons who will expose our lack of endurance and our weakness in our character; we realize we cannot endure.

So we exercise our spirit of faith to develop endurance in self-control for our growth in life, thus having the development of the divine life and nature.

In our endurance, we need to develop godliness; godliness is in the divine seed, and we simply need to exercise our spirit of faith to develop godliness.

What is godliness? Godliness is a living that is like God and that expresses God (1 Tim. 4:7-8; 6:6; Titus 1:1; 2:12; 1 Tim. 6:11).

As we exercise our spirit of faith to send the roots of virtue and knowledge to absorb all that God is, we grow with the trunk of self-control and have the branches of endurance and godliness.

The blossoms and fruits for God’s glory will be brotherly love and love (v. 7). Hallelujah!

Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit of faith to supply in faith, virtue, and in virtue, knowledge. We exercise our spirit to continue to supply in knowledge, self-control. Oh, Lord, save us from being proud of what we know. We want to gain the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and we exercise our spirit to develop self-control in knowledge! May we be those who exercise control and restraint over the self in its passions, desires, and habits. We want to grow in life in a proper way, dear Lord, so we exercise our spirit not just to know You but also to have self-control. We want to add all diligence to develop in self-control, endurance. Oh Lord, be the endurance in us to bear with others and with circumstances. Only You can bear all things, all persons, and all circumstances. Grow in us unto maturity. We exercise our spirit to develop in endurance, godliness so that we may have a living that is like God and that expresses God! Amen, Lord, be expressed in our daily living!

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 Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Peter, msg. 6, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living a Christian Life and Church Life under the Government of God for the Economy of God (2024 Thanksgiving Blending Conference), week 6, Partakers of the Divine Nature and the Development of the Divine Life and the Divine Nature for a Rich Entrance into the Eternal Kingdom.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Equally precious faith, a portion from, General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, A – Part 3: Hebrews through Jude, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee.
  – What Hebrews 12:2 Says About the Source of Faith, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – The divine provision, a portion from, Life-Study of 2 Peter, Chapter 6.
  – Walk in God’s Divine Nature, Have the Flow of Life, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The living of the divine life through the human life, a portion from, General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, A – Part 1: The Gospels and the Acts, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
  – The Way Christ is Building the Church, via, Living to Him.
  – The growth of the seed, a portion from, Seven Mysteries in the First Epistle of John, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee.
  – What Is Faith and Where Does It Come From? More via, Bibles for Europe blog.
  – 2 Peter (Program #6) – The Divine Provision (6), via, Bible study radio.
  – Knowing the Divine Truth, the Divine Reality, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Why do Christians suffer? More via, CSOC youtube channel.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Faith and pow’r, promises—these our full supply. / Diligence, diligence, let us now apply; / For if we, to these three, full attention show / From the seed of faith the fruit of love will grow. / In the growth from the seed many items come; / By this growth in the Lord fruitful we become. / For this we need to see what the Lord’s begun, / Ne’er forgetful be nor blind to what He’s done. (Hymns #1211 stanzas 6-7)
  – All the knowledge of the Scriptures / Into life must be transformed, / All the mental understanding / In the spirit must be formed; / All the Scriptural understanding / Must become the life received, / All the knowledge of the letters / In the spirit be conceived. (Hymns #816 stanza 4)
  – May my self be put to death, Lord, / Under Thy control I’d be, / Transformed to Thy living image, / I’d forever flow out Thee. / Fill me now! Fill me now! / Fill me with Thy Spirit now! / Strip me wholly, empty thoroughly, / Fill me with Thy Spirit now! (Hymns #1360 stanza 4 and chorus)