Enjoy Christ in our Soul and Experience Christ in our Spirit for the Furtherance of the Gospel

We experience Christ in our spirit but we enjoy Him mainly in our soul; we need to learn to enjoy Christ in our soul by having one soul and having fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel in a corporate way. Amen!

This week in our morning revival we come to the topic of, Being One in Soul to Enjoy Christ by Thinking the One Thing, by Being One with Christ in His Inward Parts, and by Allowing God to Operate in Us the Willing and the Working for His Good Pleasure.

We have seen the matter of taking Christ as everything so that we may gain Him by denying ourselves and turning to our spirit.

This is not something merely in the realm of doctrine or teaching; this is for our experience.

We need to pray and ask the Lord to bring us into the actual knowing of Christ, the actual experience of Christ, and the actual enjoyment of Christ as revealed in the book of Philippians.

We need to learn the secret of doing all things in Christ as the empowering us so that we may live Christ, magnify Christ, and gain Christ for Him to gain the glory in the church.

A very practical way to do this is to speak to the Lord genuinely from the heart; we need to be genuine with the Lord, talking to Him about our disappointments, our sorrows, and our depressions.

Also, we need to bring before Him our joys and our successes.

We may not have this practice, but we need to build up a habit of enjoying the Lord by speaking to Him.

May we offer short prayers over the word of God to Him so that He may do in us what He wants us to do.

This week we come to the matter of being one in soul to enjoy Christ by thinking the one thing, by being one with Christ in His inward parts, and by allowing God to operate in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.

In Phil. 1:27 we are told that we need to be in one spirit with one soul striving together for the faith of the gospel.

We may think that we need to do all things in one spirit, one in spirit with the Lord and with the saints, but here Paul says that we need to be one in soul.

We need to be one with Christ in His inward parts (Phil. 1:8), having His inward parts as our inward parts.

Christ’s emotions, His inner feelings of compassion and sympathy need to become ours. His affections, His emotions, and His desires need to become ours.

His mind needs to become our mind, and the same mind that was in Christ also needs to be ours.

May we allow the Lord to operate in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure, so that even our will is one with the Lord.

And all this is for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ, for the Lord to gain His testimony and glorious expression on the earth.

Experience Christ in our Spirit and Enjoy Christ in our Soul to Rejoice in the Lord Always

If we read the book of Philippians, we will see that this book is not just a book on the experience of Christ but also on the enjoyment of Christ.

There is a difference between experiencing Christ and enjoying Christ. We could say that the experience of Christ is primarily in our spirit, but the enjoyment of Christ is in our soul (our mind, emotion, and will).

We may not usually have this thought, but the experience of Christ is primarily in our spirit.

The book of Philippians is concerned mainly with the experience and enjoyment of Christ, which issue in joy; therefore, it is a book filled with joy and rejoicing (see Phil. 1:4, 18, 25; 2:2, 17-18, 28-29; 3:1; 4:1, 4).

We may not expect this book to be so filled with joy and rejoicing, but this is what Paul speaks of again and again.

Even from the very beginning of his experience in Philippi, when he was put in jail with Silas and there was a great earthquake in the middle of the night, Paul and Silas were rejoicing and singing.

Then later he wrote to the church in Philippi telling them to make his joy full to be in one spirit with one soul, and he said he was rejoicing with the saints as he was being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of their faith.

It’s almost as if Paul was so happy when he wrote to the Philippians, telling them to rejoice with him and rejoice with one another.

If we were Paul, we may have wanted the saints to send us a cake with a little tool inside that we may break out of prison, or something like that, but Paul was rejoicing.

On one hand, Paul experienced Christ in his spirit, and he experienced the loss of all things for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, his Lord.

On the other hand, Paul enjoyed Christ and rejoiced in the Lord.

Sometimes we may experience Christ but may not enjoy Him; we may experience Christ not in the way of enjoyment but in the way of suffering.

We can liken this to a child being given broccoli to eat, and he does not want to eat them; because he has to eat them and he does not want to disobey his parents, he eats them, but he does not actually enjoy them.

Just as the children have to eat the food without enjoying it, so we many times experience Christ without enjoying Him.

Instead of enjoying Christ in our soul as we experience Him in our spirit, we rather suffer; the problem here is not with our spirit but with our soul.

The apostle Paul experienced the loss of all things on behalf of Christ, the One whom he experienced; this was something in the soul, and though it was a suffering, to him it was an enjoyment, for he had the excellency of the knowledge of Christ (Phil. 3:8).

He even counted everything apart from Christ as refuse, dog food, for he considered the enjoyment of Christ to be the most precious thing.

He was not upset that no one was defending him in his case before Cesar, nor was he depressed because he was left in prison for such a long time.

Rather, he was rejoicing and he was asking the saints to rejoice with him.

It was not irksome for him to write this to him; it was not a trouble to him to write to the saints to rejoice with him.

Rejoicing in the Lord is a safeguard to us, a safety; it keeps us from the evil one and saves us from ourselves.

The problem with the saints in Philippi was not with their spirit; they experienced Christ in their spirit, but they did not have much enjoyment of Christ in their soul.

This may be the case with us also. We may have many experiences of Christ, but we may have lost the enjoyment of Christ in our soul.

We may be like children eating food without enjoying it. We may pray, praise, pray-read, and shout Hallelujah, but without enjoying Christ.

We may even go to preach the gospel with the saints, we may care for the new ones, and we may regularly attend the meetings of the church, but we may not have the enjoyment of Christ in our soul.

This is because we may not be one in soul with the saints; our thoughts and emotions and will differ from those of others, just as in the case of Euodias and Syntyche (Phil. 4:2).

If we don’t have much enjoyment of Christ in our soul, this indicates that we’re not one in soul.

May the Lord recover our enjoyment of Christ in our soul together with our experience of Christ in spirit so that we may rejoice in the Lord always and be one in soul with the saints!

Lord Jesus, we want to not only experience Christ in our spirit but also enjoy Christ in our soul. Amen, Lord, we open to You and we come to You as we are. Reveal Yourself to us in a fresh way today. We want to experience Christ in our spirit day by day. We want to enjoy Christ in our soul day by day. Save us from merely experiencing Christ in our spirit without enjoying Christ in our soul. May You be the most precious One to us so that we may count all things loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. Amen, Lord, we rejoice in the Lord and we are filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory in our soul, for our Christ is inexhaustibly rich and excellent in every way! Oh, what a Christ we have! He is our life and He is our joy, peace, forbearance, and everything. Amen, Lord, may we all be one in soul so that we may enjoy the Lord in our soul and rejoice in the Lord always!

The more we have Fellowship unto the Furtherance of the Gospel, the more we Enjoy and Experience Christ

Phil. 1:4-5 tells us that Paul was so grateful for the saints in Philippi, for they had fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now.

The saints in Philippi had fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel, through the apostle Paul’s ministry; this participation included their financial contributions to the apostle (vv. 10, 15-16).

This issued in the furtherance of the gospel and in their increased experience and enjoyment of Christ.

It is such a privilege to give to the Lord, even from our material possessions, for Him to further His work of the gospel and advance His interest.

What we are and do can actually participate in the furtherance of the gospel; this is a great thing.

Paul wanted to remind them in the beginning of the gospel, when he went out of Macedonia, that no church had fellowship with him in the account of giving and receiving except the church in Philippi.

They even sent twice to the apostles’ need, and this contributed to the furtherance of the gospel.

The Philippians opened an account with the apostle Paul, and they gave of their material possessions so that he could further the gospel.

They participated in the gospel that Paul was spreading in this way.

The gospel is the full economy of God; it includes not only forgiveness of sins and regeneration, but it goes all the way from the justification by faith to the Body of Christ, the local churches, and the New Jerusalem.

We have a full gospel, the gospel of God, and this gospel can and should go out.

The more we have fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel, the more we enjoy and experience Christ.

As we enjoy and experience Christ, we live a life in the furtherance of the gospel.

This means that, as we enjoy Christ in our soul and experience Him in our spirit, we live a gospel-preaching life.

Our life is not individualistic but corporate; we do not just go out and preach the gospel by ourselves: we are joined in soul with the saints and we go out together to preach the gospel.

The more fellowship we have in the furtherance of the gospel, the more Christ we experience and enjoy.

On the negative side, our self, ambition, preference, and choice are being put to death; on the positive side, we gain Christ, enjoy Christ, and experience Christ, and the gospel is advanced.

Whether we speak or remain silent, our life, our living, our being, and our entire person must be a preaching of Christ (Phil. 1:20; 4:22; 2 Cor. 3:3).

Paul was in prison, but even though he was in such a situation, he magnified Christ; he magnified Christ to the extent that even those in the household of Cesar heard the gospel and many were saved.

Our life, our living, and our speaking, everything must be a preaching of Christ.

Whether we speak or are silent, whether we do something or are restrained from doing, and whether we go to visit others or just live a normal daily life under the divine dispensing, we need to fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel.

In Paul’s case, here we have Nero Cesar, one of the worst Cesars, and Paul was in prison; somehow, however, the Lord had a way of converting many from Cesar’s household through Paul’s testimony and magnification of Christ.

We may not be as limited and mistreated as the apostle Paul, but we still need to fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel.

As we do this and that, as we meet people and live among men, we need to inscribe others with the divine and mystical ink of the Spirit so that they become letters of Christ.

We need to be filled with the Spirit as we enjoy Christ in our soul and experience Christ in our spirit, and we need to minister the Spirit to others through our living, words, and actions, even by our inactivity and silence.

We need to write Christ into others so that they become a letter of Christ read and known by all men.

Lord Jesus, we want to participate in the furtherance of the gospel. May we enjoy and experience Christ more and more each day so that we may live a life in the furtherance of the gospel. May our life be a gospel-preaching life that is not individualistic but corporate. Amen, Lord, may our daily living and actions be a preaching of Christ. May our words, our silence, our living, our working, and our entire person be a preaching of Christ. We are here for You, Lord, and for Your interest. We are here to advance Your interests and bring in Your kingdom. We want to magnify Christ through our living, speaking, work, and being. May we have more fellowship in the furtherance of the gospel so that we may enjoy and experience Christ more in our daily life. Amen, Lord Jesus, make us those who are filled with the Spirit so that we may inscribe others with Christ for them to be letters of Christ, read and known by all men!

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 Ed Marks in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1978, vol. 1, “The Experience of Christ,” chs. 1-6, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing, Experiencing, and Enjoying Christ as Revealed in Philippians (2023 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 3, entitled, Being One in Soul to Enjoy Christ by Thinking the One Thing, by Being One with Christ in His Inward Parts, and by Allowing God to Operate in Us the Willing and the Working for His Good Pleasure.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel, a portion from, Preaching the Gospel in the Way of Life, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee.
  – I am grateful for my experiences in the wonderful church life – testimony via, Living to Him.
  – The experience of Christ and the enjoyment of Christ, a portion from, The Experience of Christ, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
  – The Christian Life in Philippians, outline via, Uni Students.
  – 21 Key Bible Verses Showing the Importance of Our Spirit, article at, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Magnifying Christ in the Midst of Turmoil, article via, Shepherding Words.
  – The Joy of Sharing the Gospel, article via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Fellowship – What is it and How Do You Enjoy it? Read more at, Holding to Truth in Love.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – God hath us regenerated / In our spirit with His life; / But He must transform us further- / In our soul by His own life. / Spreading outward from our spirit / Doth the Lord transform our soul, / By the inward parts renewing, / Till within His full control. (Hymns #750 stanzas 2-3)
  – Paul the Apostle counted all as dung, / ’Twas only God in Christ he counted grace; / ’Tis by this grace-the Lord experienced- / That he surpassed the others in the race. / It is this grace-Christ as our inward strength- / Which with His all-sufficiency doth fill; / It is this grace which in our spirit is, / There energizing, working out God’s will. (Hymns #497 stanzas 3-4)
  – Ours is a fellowship in the gospel / Since we received the Lord; / We’re for the furtherance of the gospel, / Spreading to all His Word. / For its defense and strong confirmation / We all partake of grace— / He who began this work will perfect it / Till we shall see His face. (Hymns #1295 stanza 1)