When we Enjoy the Bountiful Supply of the Spirit, we Magnify Christ in our Living

The key to our experience of God’s salvation is the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ; when we enjoy this supply, we are saved to the extent that we magnify Christ no matter the circumstances, and Christ is magnified in us whether through life or through death.

This was Paul’s testimony in Phil. 1:19-21, and this can and should be our testimony and experience today.

This week in our morning revival we come to the topic of, Taking Christ as our Living for His Magnification and Dealing with the Self for our Oneness in the Divine Glory in the Genuine Church Life.

For the genuine church life, we need to enjoy, experience, and live Christ, partaking of Him and magnifying Him.

We need to realize that, as believers in Christ, we need to live Christ for His magnification; we need to take Christ as our living for His magnification.

We don’t have to try to imitate the Lord’s living, nor should we try to copy the things that He did or answer others in the way that He did, that is, in a mechanical or robotic way.

We simply need to enjoy the Lord and experience Him day by day, and we need to be saved from not living Christ and not magnifying Christ.

As we enjoy the Lord day by day, we take Him as our life and person, and we take Christ as our living, we will live Christ and magnify Christ; this will be for the genuine church life.

It is important for us to walk according to the spirit, that is, to mind our spirit, pay attention to our spirit, and allow the Lord to lead us by His Spirit in our spirit.

The genuine church life is not a performance or a show, neither is something that is deliberate; it is a spontaneous issue, an automatic result, of our genuine enjoyment, experience, and living of Christ.

When we all the saints enjoy Christ, take Him as our life and person, and take Him as our living, we will magnify Him.

Furthermore, the self will be exposed, and we will realize how much the self with all its expressions hinders the expression of Christ.

When we live Christ, the self is denied, but when we do not live Christ, the self is expressed, and the church life is not there.

May we pay attention to the matter of living Christ by living according to the spirit, and may we allow the Lord to shine on us, especially shine on the self.

As we receive and enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ day by day, we will live Christ for His magnification, and we will deal with the self for our oneness in the divine glory in the genuine church life.

We can Live Christ for His Magnification by Enjoying the Bountiful Supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ

Phil. 1:19-21 is one of the most well-known or popular sets of verses among us in the church life concerning living Christ for His magnification by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

May we come to these verses with an unveiled face and by forgetting what is behind to stretch forward to gain more of Christ, even gain the rich Christ ahead of us.

To live Christ for His magnification is to participate in Christ’s salvation in life.

We are daily being saved in life (Rom. 5:10), and we are saved from the failure of not living Christ and from the defeat of not magnifying Christ.

As we live the Christian life and the church life, we need to live Christ for His magnification.

As we serve the Lord and serve the saints in the Lord, we need to live Christ for His magnification.

We cannot just live by our own faithfulness, with zeal, with a good heart, and with a burden; we need to pay attention to the matter of living Christ for Him to be magnified in us.

On one hand, we are saved eternally, for the Lord saved us when we repented and believed into Him; on the other hand, we need to be continually saved, even saved much more.

In Phil. 2:13 it says we need to work out our own salvation, and in Phil. 1:19-21 Paul shows how this salvation is worked out: it is by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ so that we may live Christ for His magnification.

We need to be saved not only from sins, from the world, and from outward sinful and evil matters; we need to be saved even more from the failure of not living Christ.

Not living Christ is a gigantic failure. Day by day, especially in our family life, we fail in the matter of living Christ.

We do not live Christ with our spouse, with our children, and at work.

We need to be saved from the failure of not living Christ.

And we need to be saved from the defeat of not magnifying Christ.

When we do not magnify Christ, we are defeated. We need to have such a consciousness that, if we don’t magnify Christ as we live Him, we are not an overcomer at that moment.

We need to repent for not living Christ and not magnifying Christ, and we need to enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ so that all things would turn out to our salvation, and so that we may live Christ for His magnification.

The salvation spoken of in Phil. 1:19 is being sustained and strengthened to live and magnify Christ; this requires the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Paul was in prison when he wrote these words; he did not say that the saints should pray for him to be released or to get a better treatment from the guards.

Rather, he said that the petition of the saints and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ sustained him to live Christ for His magnification, and everyone could see Christ in him.

The Spirit of Jesus Christ with His bountiful supply is what we need for us to live Christ under any circumstances.

What we need is not outward miracles or works of power, which may or not be true and genuine but will definitely be something we will see in the next age.

What we need is to enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ day by day, opening to this bountiful supply moment by moment so that we may live Christ for His magnification.

May we participate in Christ’s salvation in life and be saved from the failure of not living Christ and from the defeat of not magnifying Him.

And may we be sustained and strengthened to live and magnify Christ by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Lord Jesus, we come to You to receive and enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen, Lord, we want to live Christ for His magnification in us by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ! May we participate in Christ’s salvation in life today. Save us, Lord, much more in Your life. Save us from the failure of not living Christ and from the defeat of not magnifying Christ. Sustain us and strengthen us to live and magnify Christ in our daily living. We open to You to receive and enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ so that all things in our daily life would turn out to our salvation. Oh Lord, how much we need the bountiful supply of the all-inclusive Spirit of Jesus Christ! Fill us with Yourself today. Fill us with the Spirit so that we may live Christ for His magnification in our daily living today!

When we Enjoy the Bountifully Supplying Spirit of Jesus Christ, Christ is Magnified and Becomes our Expression

Even though Paul was in prison, away from the saints and the meetings of the church, he was not disconnected from the Body.

Rather, he said that his salvation was “through your petition”; this is the supply of the Body of Christ, the church.

Imprisonment did NOT isolate Paul from the Body of Christ, neither did it cut him off from the supply of the Body.

The apostle was in jail, but he lived in the reality of the Body of Christ, being conscious of the Body.

He realized that he needs not only the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ but also the petition of the saints.

These two, the supply of the Spirit and the petition of the saints (the supply of the Body) caused his situation to turn out for his salvation, and he could live Christ for His magnification.

What caused Paul to be saved under those circumstances was first the supply of the Body of Christ, which brings in the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ; these two supplies are one.

The key to Paul’s experience of salvation was the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

When we believers in Christ enjoy the all-inclusive and bountifully supplying Spirit of Jesus Christ and are filled with Him, Christ is magnified in us and He becomes our very expression (Heb. 1:9; 3:14; 6:4; 1 Cor. 12:3).

We cannot live Christ for His magnification unless we enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

We cannot enjoy the much more salvation in His life by our own strength and determination; we need the bountiful supply.

When we enjoy the all-inclusive and bountifully supplying Spirit of Jesus Christ, and when we are filled with Him, we can live Christ for His magnification, and He is expressed in our daily living.

Paul had so many reasons to weep, be sad, and ask for prayers from the saints; he was in prison in a foreign country, far away from his homeland.

His circumstances were very difficult, and he could at least have complained about his situation.

But his situation and circumstances did not affect him; rather, he wanted to experience salvation even in that environment.

He was a Jewish person held captive in a Roman prison, with no reason to rejoice or be positive about anything, but he rejoiced in the Lord and knew that everything that happened to him turned out to salvation. What a salvation is this!

It is a salvation not only from feeling depressed or sad about the current situation but the salvation of not magnifying Christ in his body.

May we be those who are saved to the extent that we do not suffer the defeat of not living Christ.

May we have an earnest expectation and hope that we would not be put to shame in the situation and circumstances we are in but rather, that we would magnify Christ, and He would be expressed in our body.

May our current situation and sufferings not put us to shame but rather, may we take the opportunity to magnify Christ.

If we open to the Lord and enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, we will experience Christ’s salvation to the extent that, no matter what sufferings we undergo, we will magnify Christ and we will not be put to shame.

Amen, may this be our experience day by day!

We need to be in the Body life and remain in the priestly service that builds up the Body so that we can maintain our enjoyment of the bountiful supply of the Spirit, the supply of the Body, in order to live Christ for magnifying Christ (Psa. 133:2; Exo. 30:26-31; Phil. 1:19; Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9).

We may not be able to do much outwardly and we may not be able to do a great work for the Lord, but we can still partake of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and live Christ for His magnification even in the limiting and constraining situations we’re in.

We simply need to be in the Body life and remain in the priestly service that builds up the Body so that daily we can maintain our enjoyment of the bountiful supply of the Spirit.

If we do this, if we maintain our enjoyment of the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ day by day, we will live Christ for His magnification.

The same Spirit with the bountiful supply that dwelt in Paul also dwells in us today, and we can enjoy the much more salvation to magnify Christ for His expression in us.

Hallelujah for the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ with our spirit! Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to tap into this bountiful supply and be filled with the Spirit today so that we may live Christ for His magnification! We want to learn the key to experiencing Christ’s wonderful salvation – enjoying and being filled with the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the supply of the Body! Amen, Lord, keep us enjoying the all-inclusive and bountifully supplying Spirit of Jesus Christ until we are filled with Him! Fill us, Lord Jesus, with the bountiful supply of the Spirit, and keep us in the fellowship of the Body, living in the reality of the Body of Christ, so that Christ may be magnified in us and become our expression! Amen, Lord, we want to maintain our enjoyment of the bountiful supply of the Spirit, the supply of the Body, in order to live Christ for magnifying Christ!

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, 1977, vol. 3, “One Body, One Spirit, and One New Man,” pp. 323-326, 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 4, entitled, Taking Christ as our Living for His Magnification and Dealing with the Self for our Oneness in the Divine Glory in the Genuine Church Life.
• Similar articles on this topic for further reading:
  – Living Christ to magnify Him through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, a portion from, A General Outline of God’s Economy and the Proper Living of a God-Man, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee.
  – What is the all-inclusive Spirit of Jesus Christ? Read more via, Hearing of Faith newsletter
  – How the Spirit of Jesus Christ Becomes the Supply for Your Daily Salvation, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The Christian life in Philippians, an outline via, ChristianStudents.eu.
  – Magnifying Christ in the Midst of Turmoil, article via, Shepherding Words.
  – The bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, a portion from, The Economy and Dispensing of God, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee.
  – Bountifully Supplied to Exist, Live, & Magnify Christ, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – A short MR portion via, Church in Bangladesh.
  – The personal and intimate experience of Christ, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – God is in Christ to be my supply, / God as the Spirit nourisheth me; / If upon Christ in spirit I feed, / Filled with His life I’ll be. (Hymns #509 chorus)
  – Oh, what a thought! Oh, what a boast! / Christ shall in me be magnified. / In nothing shall I be ashamed, / For He in all shall be applied. / In woe or blessing, death or life, / Through me shall Christ be testified. (Hymns #499 stanza 3)
  – Lord, we’re expecting that we’ll be given / Boldness with every breath. / Christ must be magnified in our body / Whether by life or death. / We hope in nothing to be ashamed, / For us to live is Christ— / He is the Person in all our living, / Our everything, our life. (Hymns #1295 stanza 3)