Being Diligent to Labor on Christ, Seeking Christ and Enjoying Him in every Situation

We need to be diligent to labor on Christ, seeking Christ and enjoying Him in every situation. As those who have entered into Christ as the reality of the good land, we need to live a life of laboring on Christ; we need to labor on Christ day by day by enjoying and experiencing Him. Amen!

This week in our morning revival we come to the topic of, Laboring on the all-inclusive Christ – “a Land flowing with Milk and Honey” – and Bringing the Surplus of the Riches of Christ to the Meetings of the Church for an Exhibition of Christ and the Corporate Worship of God.

We need to allow the Lord to train us to labor on Christ as the good land so that we may have a surplus of Christ to bring to the meetings of the church to offer to the saints for the building up of the church.

The Lord as light itself wants us to walk in the light, as He is in the light, so that He can shine on us, shepherd us, and deal with us in any way that He wants for the benefit of the church as the Body of Christ.

We all need to learn to labor on the all-inclusive Christ as the good land, little by little, day by day.

In the Old Testament, the people of God experienced the lamb (typifying Christ as the Redeemer) in Egypt, and the Passover enabled them to be brought out of Egypt.

The goal was for them to be brought into the good land, typifying the all-inclusive Christ, but due to their disobedience and lack of faith, they wandered in the wilderness for forty years.

Here they ate the manna, the daily food, which enabled them to not only survive but also travel toward the good land for the fulfilment of God’s purpose.

When they entered into the good land, they started to labor on their allotted portion of the good land so that they would have food for their living and also to bring to worship God, the first fruits and the top portion, when they came together for the feasts.

This should be our normal experience today, laboring on Christ as the good land and bringing the top portion to the meetings of the church to share with the saints and with God for our corporate enjoyment before God and for the worship of God.

Unfortunately, there are millions of Christians today who are genuinely saved and love the Lord, but so many of them are in Egypt, and some of them are in the wilderness.

Many saints among us in the church life are also in the wilderness; they have been saved from the world, they do not love the world, and they are on a journey toward the good land, but they do not labor on Christ day by day.

Many Christians are okay with just having a little nourishment with the Lord in the morning, but they do not labor on the all-inclusive Christ during the day.

We need to eat Christ, enjoy Christ, and partake of His riches in the morning, and we also need to labor on Christ throughout the day so that we may have a surplus of Christ to bring to the meetings of the church.

Those who labor on Christ and have a rich surplus of Christ, they will bring something of Christ to the meetings of church, but those who only enjoy the manna in the morning, they don’t have a surplus of Christ to bring to the meetings of the church.

Just as the Children of Israel Labored on the Good Land, so we need to Labor on Christ

As believers in Christ who have been led by Christ into Himself as the good land typified by the land of Canaan, we need to labor on Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 1:12).

When the children of Israel entered into the good land, they could no longer eat manna, for the manna was over; they had to labor on the good land.

Each one of them, tribe by tribe and family by family, was allotted a portion of the good land, and they had to labor on their allotted portion.

If they were not willing to labor on their portion of the good land, they became poor and had to sell their portion, even selling themselves as slaves to their brothers.

If an Israel was lazy and didn’t rise early daily to diligently labor, his plot of land would be desolate, and he would not have harvest at the end of the year.

When they came together with the others at the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Pentecost, others would come to worship God with their surplus, but those who did not labor on the land had nothing to bring.

We need to apply this matter to us today.

When we come together to enjoy the Lord with the saints, each one of us needs to bring a certain portion of Christ.

This means that every morning we need to come to the Lord, enjoy Him, and experience Him, so that we may have not only the supply we need for our going on with the Lord but also an extra portion for the saints to enjoy.

Each believer in Christ has a particular portion of Christ; I have my portion of Christ and you have your allotted portion of Christ.

But if we don’t draw near to the Lord in the morning and we don’t enjoy Him and experience Him throughout the day, if we don’t talk to the Lord and don’t experience Him, we will be poor in our portion of Christ.

May we learn to labor on Christ as the all-inclusive good land so that we may gain something of Christ and be filled with His riches.

May we be diligent to fellowship with the Lord by enjoying Him in the morning and also by experiencing Him during the day, especially during difficult times.

After the people of Israel entered into and possessed the land of Canaan and received their allotted portion, they labored on the land (Deut. 8:7-10; 12:6-7, 11-12, 18).

This should be our situation in the churches today so that we all gain something of Christ, even an extra portion of Christ, to bring to the meetings of the church for the saints’ enjoyment and going on.

We need to realize that each one has a portion of Christ that is unique to each one of us.

No one has our portion, and only we can enjoy and experience Christ the way we do.

No one can share our portion, for we have our unique allotted portion of Christ to labor on and produce Christ.

Each one of us has a particular function and portion of the all-inclusive Christ measured out to us.

Whether or not we are willing to labor on the all-inclusive Christ is a serious matter; if we don’t labor on Christ today by enjoying and experiencing Him, we will not produce Christ to bring to the meetings of the church for the saints’ enjoyment and the worship of God.

Just as the children of Israel had to be willing to diligently labor on the land so that they would produce something for their living and bring it to the feasts, so we have to be willing to diligently labor on the all-inclusive Christ by enjoying and experiencing Him daily.

We need to labor diligently on Christ so that we may enjoy His all-inclusive riches (Eph. 3:8; 1:7; 1 Cor. 15:58; Phil. 3:10).

He is so rich; He is all-inclusive; He is so vast. And we can enjoy and partake of His riches by our enjoyment and experience of Him day by day.

Lord Jesus, thank You for leading us into Yourself as the good land for us to enjoy and partake of the riches of Christ. Hallelujah, we have all been allotted a portion of Christ, a plot of Christ, for us to labor on and produce Christ for our daily living and to bring to the meetings! Amen, Lord, may we be those who are willing to labor diligently on Christ so that we may enjoy His all-inclusive riches day by day. May we not only contact the Lord in the morning to enjoy the daily manna but also enjoy and experience Christ during the day. Make us those who are diligent to fellowship with the Lord by enjoying Him in the morning and experiencing Him during the day and especially during difficult times! Amen, Lord, we want to gain more of the element of Christ in our being day by day!

Being Diligent to Labor on Christ, Seeking Christ and Enjoying Him in Every Situation

Thank the Lord for bringing us into Himself as the good land is a life of laboring on Christ (Col. 1:12; Rom. 15:16; 1 Cor. 15:10).

Our daily Christian life is a life of laboring on Christ, a life of enjoying and experiencing Christ so that we may gain Christ.

Our industry is Christ, our business is Christ, and our real job is Christ.

We may be students going to university and diligently studying to get a degree; our real occupation is Christ, for our real job is to diligently labor on Christ.

We may be at home taking care of the household things and raising a family, but our real occupation is Christ; we must labor on Christ.

We may be at the office taking care of so many things and doing our job, but our real industry is Christ.

Our real occupation is Christ, and our real business is laboring on Christ.

We need to be aware of this fact that we do not just study or work or take care of our family – we need to be diligent to labor on Christ, our all-inclusive good land.

We are Christ growers; we are Christ producers.

We are working on Christ day and night, for we are like farmers, laboring on Christ to bring forth the produce of Christ.

This means that we need to till our spiritual ground, sow the spiritual seed, and water the spiritual plants. And we need to do this every day, even all the time.

This is not a casual matter. We are all in the all-inclusive Christ, and from God’s point of view, we need to have a life of laboring on Christ.

We cannot labor on Christ when we are in the mood and, when we forget about it, we will not labor on Him.

This is our actual employment. We do have a job, we need to take care of our family, and we need to take care of so many things, but actually, all these are so that we can live as much as possible a normal and healthy human life for the sake of God’s eternal purpose.

We live for the desire of God’s heart, for His will, and we need to be diligent to labor on Christ.

While we are doing many things outwardly, while we take care of so many practical matters, we need to be laboring on Christ inwardly, seeking Christ and enjoying Him.

As the Lord’s people who are living in the all-inclusive Christ, we need to labor on Christ, seeking Christ and enjoying Him in every situation (Col. 1:12; 3:1, 4, 11).

None of us can honestly say that they labor on Christ in every situation, but we can say that we are learning to do this.

We are learning to labor on Christ in more situations than last year.

We are learning and are being trained that every day we would enjoy Christ and experience Christ as we are seeking Christ.

Every day we are learning to have a pursuing day, a day to pursue and enjoy the Lord.

Every day we are learning to have a day of laboring on Christ.

We simply want to gain more of Christ, enjoy Him more, and partake of His riches more.

We are in a rich land, for Christ as the all-inclusive One is our portion for our enjoyment.

But if we don’t labor on Christ, there will be no produce for us to experience and enjoy (Eph. 1:7; 2:7; 3:8; 1 Cor. 15:58).

We need to eat the manna every day, but this is not enough. It is very good to be revived every morning, but we still have the whole day – we still need to enjoy the Lord and experience Him!

During the day we need to be laboring on Christ, living in the good land and laboring to bring forth Christ as the rich produce of the good land.

We need to not only pray the word of God a little in the morning but even during the day, we need to take some time to enjoy the Lord, pray-read the word, and call on the name of the Lord.

We are so rich in produce, for our Christ is all-inclusive; however, we are short in produce, for we are not diligent to labor on Christ as the good land.

Lord Jesus, we want to be diligent to labor on Christ so that we may enjoy His all-inclusive riches! Thank You for bringing us into the all-inclusive Christ as the good land. We want to labor diligently on Christ to gain and obtain His riches. May our life in the good land be a life of laboring on Christ. May we not only enjoy Christ in the morning but also labor on Christ during the day by enjoying Him and experiencing Him in all situations. Amen, Lord, may we have some set times during the day to partake of the riches of Christ in spirit! Oh, what a rich Christ we have! How wonderful He is! We want to seek Christ and enjoy Christ in every situation, day by day!

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 the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” pp. 342-344, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing, Experiencing, and Living the All-inclusive Christ for the Genuine Church Life (2023 spring ITERO), week 7, entitled, Laboring on the all-inclusive Christ – “a Land flowing with Milk and Honey” – and Bringing the Surplus of the Riches of Christ to the Meetings of the Church for an Exhibition of Christ and the Corporate Worship of God.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Laboring on Jesus, the good land so real, / Plowing and planting and watering the field. / He yields the produce of reality, / God reaps a harvest of Jesus in me. / O Jesus! You’re God’s good land / For me to labor on! / I’ll bit by bit possess You / Until the whole is won! (Hymns #1168 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Laboring on the good land, laboring in the morning, / Laboring through the noontime to the early eve, / Laboring for a harvest, reaping all the produce, / Coming to the meeting, bringing in the sheaves. / Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, / Here we are rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves! (Hymns #1167 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – We have found the Christ who’s all in all; / He is everything to us; / O how blest upon His name to call, / How divine, how glorious! / It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, / Full of glory, full of glory; / It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, / And the half has never yet been told! (Hymns #1153 stanza 1 and chorus)