We need to be those who enjoy the divine nature to be filled with God as love and live a life of holiness in the church life for God’s expression today.
The divine love, agape, is the ultimate development of the divine nature, and holiness is the manner of life that partakes of the divine nature; the more we partake of God’s divine nature and are filled with His love, even becoming love, the more we are holy, living a sanctified life in holiness. Hallelujah!
It is a human aspiration to love and to be faithful in love toward others; however, as human beings, we fall short.
We have an ability in us to love, and there is a desire to love, but we don’t have love unless we have God as love being poured out in us and living in us.
Love is the greatest attribute of God; it is the inner substance of God, the very essence of God’s being. God is love.
When we touch God, we touch love, and when God reaches out to us, we sense love.
When we believe into the Lord, the love of God is poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who indwells us. Hallelujah!
Now this love has to increase in us, be perfected in us, and be manifested through us. How is the love of God perfected in us?
In Himself, God is love, and He is perfect; there is perfect love with God, but with us, there is no perfect love or perfected love.
Therefore, we need to enjoy and experience God as love so that we may live out His love, and in this way, His love is perfected in us.
We are now in the process of being perfected in love.
Just as we are in the process of being saved, having been saved from eternal perdition and now being saved much more in His life, so we are in the process of being perfected in the love of God.
Each one of us has a certain amount of experience of God as love, but we also have many other experiences that may hinder God as love being expressed through us.
We are diversely minded and there are many problems related to us, both individually and together as the church in a certain locality, just as it happened in the church in Corinth.
But we are being perfected, we are being attuned, and we’re being brought into one accord to speak the same thing with the same mind and mouth.
Our experience validates the fact that the love of God is being perfected in us. We have the wonderful love of God in our spirit – there’s no doubt about that, but the problem is with our soul.
Our heart is the problem, and the rest of our person is a great problem and hindrance, and the love of God cannot be manifested through us. His love wants to break through in us and be manifested through us.
And He will do it: He will gain a universal couple – the processed and consummated Triune God marrying and living a life of love and oneness with the regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite man as the New Jerusalem for eternity. Hallelujah!
We will become as perfect as God is perfect, for we are being perfected in His love.
As we enjoy and experience God as love, we will not have fear on the day of judgment, for His love is perfected in us, and perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment, and he who fears has not been perfected in love.
Enjoy the Divine Nature to become Beings of Love and live a life of Holiness in the Church Life
In 2 Peter 1:5-7, we see the development of the divine nature until we reach the divine love, agape; the divine love is the ultimate development of the divine nature.
God has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these we might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust (v. 4).
For this reason also, we need to add all diligence and supply bountifully in our faith virtue, in virtue knowledge, in knowledge – self-control, in self-control – endurance, in endurance – godliness, in godliness – brotherly love, and in brotherly love – love.
These virtues are in us – they exist in us and even abound, and they need to be developed by our enjoyment of the divine nature.
We believers in Christ have already received the divine life with the divine nature (v. 4), which is nothing but God Himself in what He is for us to enjoy. God is love (love is the nature of His essence), Spirit (Spirit is the nature of His being), and light (light is the nature of His expression).
When we enjoy God, when we enjoy the divine nature by partaking of His precious and exceedingly great promises through the exercise of our spirit, we mainly enjoy God as Spirit, love, and light.
We enjoy the nature of God’s person (Spirit), the nature of God’s essence (love), and the nature of God’s expression (light).
When we touch and enjoy what God is, we become the same as He is. When we touch God and enjoy Him as the Spirit, this issues in us being filled in spirit, and we can minister God as the Spirit to others.
When we touch God as the super, nobler, and higher love, we will be filled with love and we will love God and others with God as love, and the result is that we will live a life of holiness.
When we enjoy God as light, any darkness will be dispelled and dispersed, and we will become beings of light, even becoming a city situated on a mountain for all to see, a beacon of light.
We were all dead in sins and offenses, and everyone in this world is darkened by sin.
However, when we are saved, and then we contact the Lord daily in a personal way, we enjoy Him as the Spirit, as love, and as light.
As we remain in fellowship with the Lord and allow Him to operate in us, we will be filled with God as love.
This inward love will sanctify us and make us different; others will realize that we are distinct and uncommon, for we live a life of holiness by being filled with God as love.
When we enjoy the divine nature to the uttermost, love will be the consummation, and we will not only love others but we will become love itself.
The inward love that we enjoy and experience makes us different. Others will realize that we are not like them: we are like God, and God is holy, uncommon, and separated from everyone else.
The divine love sanctifies us – it separates us from others and saturates us with the element of God.
The more we enjoy God as love and partake of His divine nature, the more we become holy, utterly golden, just like Him.
We no longer are merely pieces of clay but transformed beings, even pieces of “gold” put together to be a golden lampstand (Rev. 1:12).
As such ones, we are built together to bear the testimony of the “golden” Jesus, and we will consummate in the New Jerusalem, a city of pure gold (21:18) for the accomplishment of God’s economy.
This is the consummation of the process of being partakers of the divine nature and enjoying what God is in His nature day by day until we become the same as He is.
Lord Jesus, thank You for regenerating us with the divine life and for imparting the divine nature into us. Hallelujah, we have become partakers of the divine nature, and we can develop the virtues in the divine nature until we are filled with love, with God as love! Amen, Lord, keep us enjoying the divine nature day by day; we want to enjoy the divine nature to the uttermost so that we may become a being of love. May the divine love we enjoy and experience separate us and saturate us with God to make us people who are fully holy! Amen, Lord, fill us with Yourself as love until we live a life of holiness. May we become part of the golden lampstand bearing the testimony of Jesus on earth and consummating in the New Jerusalem for the accomplishment of God’s economy!
Remain in the Divine Fellowship to Enjoy God as Love and be Sanctified in our Living
![As children of obedience, do not be fashioned according to the former lusts in your ignorance; but according to the Holy One who called you, you yourselves also be holy in all [your] manner of life; because it is written, "You shall be holy because I am holy." 1 Pet. 1:14-16](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/As-children-of-obedience-do-not-be-fashioned-according-to-the-former-lusts-in-your-ignorance-but-according-to-the-Holy-One-683x1024.webp?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "As children of obedience, do not be fashioned according to the former lusts in your ignorance; but according to the Holy One who called you, you yourselves also be holy in all [your] manner of life; because it is written, \"You shall be holy because I am holy.\" 1 Pet. 1:14-16")
The book of 1 Peter speaks of living a holy life for the church life.
Holiness means separation and distinction; God is holy, and to be holy is to be separated unto God and saturated with God.
We were born as common people, in sin and full of darkness, but we were regenerated to be partakers of the divine nature, enjoying God as life.
Our God is a holy God, the very God of separation; He is separated from anything common and He is a God of separation.
For us to be holy is to be set aside unto God, to be separated unto Him, and to be made distinct even as He is.
How can we be sanctified to be as holy as God is holy?
It is by remaining in the divine fellowship. When we remain in fellowship with the Lord, we enjoy not only what God gives to us or what He does for us, but also what God is to us.
God is love in His essence, light in His expression, and Spirit in His person; the more we enjoy God, the more we are filled with Him as the Spirit, we are bathed in the love of God, and we shine with Him as the light.
As we remain in fellowship with the Lord for a certain amount of time, we will be filled with Him as love, and this will cause us to be holy and distinct.
Those around us will notice that we are distinct; we are not merely “better people” but we are uncommon, separated and distinct.
The issue of remaining in the divine fellowship is that we enjoy God as love and we are sanctified in our living.
Our classmates and our workmates will realize that we are not like them; we are distinct, uncommon, and separated.
They may not understand what is it about us that makes us distinct, but they sense it.
We may be a student, and we may enjoy and partake of the divine nature in the morning, and when we are at school our teachers will realize that we are different.
We may be a husband and father at home, and we may spend some time in fellowship with the Lord; after that time, others will realize we are distinct, uncommon, and even like God.
We don’t have to say or do anything; we simply need to partake of the divine nature, the love of God will fill us, and we will live a life of holiness.
Our spouse will realize that we spent time with God who is holy, for we are no longer common but distinct, even as God is holy.
If we all as saints in the church life spend time with our holy God and are saturated with Him as love, we will together become the golden lampstand holding God as the light.
Our living will be in holiness, and God will be expressed through us.
Holiness is the manner of life resulting from our partaking of the divine nature (2 Pet. 3:11).
When we enjoy God as love, light, and Spirit, we will be holy; our manner of life will be separated and distinct, making us uncommon and holy.
Holiness is the result of our enjoyment of the divine nature to the uttermost; it is a manner of life resulting from our partaking of the divine nature.
It is not our trying to separate ourselves or make ourselves distinct from others; it is our partaking of the divine nature that causes us to become distinct and separated, even to be holy as God is holy.
We are becoming the golden city, the same as God in life and nature, to express Him to the whole universe.
When others see us, they see men in flesh and blood, but there’s something distinct about us; our enjoying the divine nature results in a life of holiness, a sanctified living, a living in which God is expressed.
May we remain in the divine fellowship to enjoy all that God is to us.
May we spend adequate and thorough time with God to enjoy and experience Him as love, light, and Spirit, so that we may be sanctified and live a life of holiness for His expression on earth.
Lord Jesus, we want to remain in the divine fellowship to enjoy all that God is in His essence as love and in His expression as light. Keep us in fellowship with You throughout the day. Save us from trying to live the Christian life without contacting the Lord moment-by-moment. Amen, Lord, we want to remain in fellowship with You so that we may be saturated with God as love and live a life of holiness. Sanctify us, Lord, by dispensing what You are in Your nature into our being. May we be those who partake of the divine nature and live a life of holiness. May our enjoyment of God as love, light, and Spirit issue in a manner of life that is separated and distinct, a life that expresses God. Amen, Lord, sanctify us and sanctify all the saints as we partake of the divine nature so that You may gain Your holy city, New Jerusalem, for Your corporate expression for eternity!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chen in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, vol. 3, “God’s New Testament Economy,” pp. 407-409, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Loving the Lord and loving one another for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ (2022 fall ITERO), week 7, entitled, Being Perfect as the Heavenly Father is Perfect by being Perfected in His Love.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Oh, sanctify us, Lord; now add Thyself to us, / In our experience, Thy Person spread in us, / That in reality the church be glorious, / O Lord, do add Thyself, we pray. / Oh, sanctify us, Lord, today; / Lord Jesus, You’re the only way. / We take Your Person, Lord; / Oh, spread Yourself abroad. / Oh, sanctify us, Lord, today. (Hymns #1135 stanza 1 and chorus)
– God’s glorious substance Spirit is, / His essence, holy and divine; / To contact God and Him enjoy, / His Spirit I must touch with mine. / The spirit is the innermost, / The part of man most deep and real; / If he would contact God in life, / ’Tis with the spirit he must deal. (Hymns #611 stanzas 1-2)
– Thou art all my life, Lord, / In me Thou dost live; / With Thee all God’s fulness / Thou to me dost give. / By Thy holy nature / I am sanctified, / By Thy resurrection, / Vict’ry is supplied… / I would cease completely / From my efforts vain, / Let Thy life transform me, / Full release to gain; / Build me up with others / Till in us Thou see / Thy complete expression / Glorifying Thee. (Hymns #841 stanzas 1 and 6)
About aGodMan
The real meaning of the word holiness is separation and distinction…Gold typifies God in His divine nature. God is distinct, which means that God is holy. The opposite of the word holy is common. Gold signifies the “golden God” or the holy God, the very God of separation. Our God is separated and is a God of separation. To be holy is to be set aside, to be separated, to be made distinct, just as God is. If you remain in the divine fellowship to enjoy not only what God gives or what God does for you but also what God is as love in His essence and as light in His expression, you will be bathed in the love of God. You will become not only a man of love, but you will become love itself. This love makes you distinct… If you would remain in fellowship with the Lord for a length of time, both your wife and your children will have the realization that you are different after this fellowship. The issue of remaining in the fellowship is that you become someone who is not common but holy. In your office all your colleagues realize that you are different. In your school the teachers realize that you are different. Among your relatives you are a different person, and they realize it. You are holy, which means that you are different from all the others. You are different, separated, and uncommon. God is distinct and separate from all the material things in the universe, and the New Jerusalem is a golden mountain, a distinct entity in the entire universe. Also, every local church as a golden lampstand is distinct and different. Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, vol. 3, “God’s New Testament Economy,” pp. 408-409
We believers have received the divine life with the divine nature, which is God Himself for us to enjoy; when we enjoy this divine nature to the uttermost, love will be the consummation; then we become a being of love.
Oh Amen!!! Lord more saturation!
Amen brother!
O Lord make us holy and God-men in life and nature and love. Hallelujah!
What kind of persons ought we, the children of the holy God, to be in holy manner of life and godliness; that is, what kind of transformation ought we to experience in order to live a life in the manner of God’s holy nature and godliness to express Him, that we may be qualified to match His holy government?
We need to remain in the divine fellowship enjoying the riches of the Triune God, partaking of His divine nature as the Spirit, love, and light.
The ultimate issue of living and remaining in the divine fellowship, partaking of God’s divine nature to the uttermost is the divine love.
We become love itself. This love issues in a manner of life that is sanctified, separated, and distinct, different making us holy and not common.
We become the same as God. Just as He is, so also we are!!!
Amen!!!
Yes, very true.
When we touch the Spirit as a person His love transmitted into us and we became Love. This Love expressed in the form of light distinct us from the rest of the world.
This reflection of His light could come through our daily fellowship with the lord and other saints in God’s word and prayer every day.
Praise the Lord for this wonderful opportunity He gave us.
It’s the love of God growing in us that makes us holy; making us different & distinct.
Love is the ultimate development of the divine nature and it results in holiness.
When we become holy, we become pieces of gold, and put together we become a golden lampstand, bearing a testimony of the golden Jesus.
May we pursue & enjoy God as Spirit, love & light. In this way, we will be filled with Spirit as the nature of God’s person, with love as the nature of God’s essence, and with light as the nature of God’s expression.
Amen, yes LORD do it in us
The Greek word is used in the New Testament for the divine love, which God is in His nature (1 John 4:8, 16). It is nobler than human love. It adorns all the qualities of the Christian life (1 Cor. 13; Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:13-14). It is stronger in ability and greater in capacity than human love (Matt. 5:44, 46), yet a believer who lives by the divine life (v. 3) and partakes of the divine nature (v. 4) can be saturated with it and express it in full. Such a love needs to be developed in brotherly love to govern it and flow in it for the full expression of God, who is this love. Faith can be considered the seed of life, and this nobler love, the fruit (v. 8) in its full development. The six steps of development in between are the stages of its growth unto maturity. 2 Pet. 1:7, footnote 2, Recovery Version Bible
We don’t have to say or do anything; we simply need to partake of the divine nature, the love of God will fill us, and we will live a life of holiness.
2 Pet. 1:7
7 And in godliness, brotherly love; and in brotherly love, love.
2 Pet. 3:11
11 Since all these things are to be thus dissolved, what kind of persons ought you to be in holy manner of life and godliness,
Rev. 21:18
18 And the building work of its wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.
Rev. 1:12
12 And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me; and when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands,
Rev. 3:18
18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed and that the shame of your nakedness may not be manifested, and eyesalve to anoint your eyes that you may see.
1 Pet. 1:4
4 Unto an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, kept in the heavens for you,
This is the Word of God. Amen!
“When we enjoy the divine nature, we mainly enjoy God as Spirit, love, and light because these are the three main constituents of the divine nature.
Spirit is the nature of God’s person,
[Love] is the nature of God’s essence, and
[Light] is the nature of God’s expression.
To partake of the divine nature is to partake of the divine Spirit, the divine love, and the divine light. When we touch the Spirit, this issues in the person of God. When we touch God as the super, nobler, and higher love, the issue is that we are made distinct and different…When someone gets saved, however, and they contact the Lord [DAILY], remaining in the fellowship and cooperating with the inward divine operation, they are filled with God as love. This inward love makes them different. They become distinct in their school, in their homes, and among their relatives, colleagues, and classmates.”
(CWWL, 1984, vol. 3, “God’s New Testament Economy,” p. 407)
“The real meaning of the word holiness is separation and distinction…To be holy is to be set aside, to be separated, TO BE MADE DISTINCT , just as God is.”
“If you remain in the divine fellowship to enjoy not only what God gives or what God does for you but also what God is as love in His essence and as light in His expression, you will be bathed in the love of God. You will become not only a man of love, but you will become love itself…THIS LOVE [MAKES] [US] DISTINCT…[WE] are different, separated, and uncommon…”
“… The divine love sanctifies us, separates us, and makes us different. We are a people who are so holy, so golden. We are no longer pieces of clay but pieces of gold, and when we come together, all the pieces put together become a golden lampstand, bearing a testimony of the “golden” Jesus. This is the central lane, the central thought, of Peter’s writing.”
(CWWL, 1984, vol. 3, “God’s New Testament Economy,” pp. 408-409)
We are Holy, separated, DISTINCT, UNCOMMON. Today is very clear to me what this exactly means.
20 years ago, when I started in the recovery of His Word, I made many mistakes because I relied on my own understanding instead of the revelation of His Word. Of course I considered myself a well educated person that didn’t need much explanation because I could read and understand what I was reading. Huge mistake I made!
I became very judgmental, criticizing my friends, my family. I wanted everything ‘Christian’ in my home, and I wanted only to hang out with Christian people. I SEPARATED MYSELF from the ones I called sinners. How stupid was that!! How ignorant I was misinterpreting His Word!
It is my fault that my kids and my husband are far away from the Lord. I was a hypocrite! Knew the Word (pure knowledge no revelation), I physically separated from earthly things and sinners, I criticized and condemned my friends, neighbors for not going to our church, for not listening to me when I tried to preach to them.
The worse thing, I did not change inside, my inner condition was the same. I did not have that precious Divine Love ( and I’m still short of it), I was not different, I was not distinct, or uncommon. I thought I was because I just went away from all of them that did not do what I was doing, being a religious person. What a wreck I was!
Jesus walked with the worse of the worse, however, He was separated, He was distinct, He was uncommon among them. He never condemned them, He was full of compassion and love toward them. HE WAS LOVE!
Let’s not push away the people the Lord bring them to us, He is sending them to us to recruit them NOT for our congregation BUT for Christ, He needs them to build up His Body, to enhance His Bride, to form His Army the consummation of God’s Economy.
We are not judges, we should not judge, criticize, or condemn anyone because they drink a glass of wine with their meals, or like to dance in a family celebration, or still immature in the Word. We are nobody to judge. We are sinners in many ways, that is why we need His infinite mercies every day, that is why our feet need to be washed every second we walk on this earth, through our fellowship with Him.
We need to “…CONTACT THE LORD DAILY, remaining in the fellowship and cooperating with the inward divine operation, [we will be] filled with God as love. This inward love makes [us] different. [We] become distinct in [our] school, in [our] homes, and among [our] relatives, colleagues, and classmates.
Lord keep strong Your Divine Love in our hearts that we can minister to those in need You bring to our lives. Keep our hearts growing into You, separated, unique, distinct, uncommon, full of Your compassion and Your love, so others can see it without us opening our mouths, just through our actions, behavior, and attitudes. As a wise sister told me once, “more than your words, your actions will conquer them for Christ”. Amen!