Enjoy the Goodness and Sweetness of the Life of Christ and Minister Him to Others

The all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land of Canaan is a land flowing with milk and honey; in and with Him we see the redeeming aspect and the generating aspect, and we enjoy the goodness and sweetness of the life of Christ to minister Him to others as milk and honey.

Oh, what a rich Christ we have! He is so rich that an entire land, the land of Canaan, is used as one of the types of His richness.

All believers in Christ have been allotted a portion of the all-inclusive Christ (Col. 1:12), and this land is so rich, so full, so vast, and so wonderful.

However, it is up to us whether we labour on Christ so that we may obtain the rich produce of Christ.

In other words, God gave Christ to us as our everything, but it is up to us how much we enjoy Christ and experience Him.

It is up to us how much time we spend with the Lord in the morning to absorb His riches.

Many Christians may read a few verses in the morning and say a short prayer; this may be something, but it is not enough for us to be sustained for the whole day.

We may have a Bible reading schedule and we may read through the Holy Word for Morning Revival or some spiritual nourishment portion, but in whatever we do, we need to contact the Lord as the Spirit.

Christ, the all-inclusive and vast One, is the reality of the good land, and He is now the Spirit with our spirit.

In order for us to enjoy the blessing coming from this all-inclusive Christ and labour on Him, we need to exercise our spirit.

We need to exercise our spirit to labour on Christ and experience Him. In the morning we may have a good time with the Lord, but throughout the day we need to enjoy Him and contact Him.

As we remain in the touch with the Lord, coming back to Him, again and again, to just contact Him and enjoy Him, we labour on Christ.

This is not just a work – it is a labour. This is not just an optional matter – it is our life.

Just as the farmer has to labour intensely on the farm in order to have the rich produce of the land, so we need to be diligent to labour on Christ day by day so that we may grow with the growth of God.

Our mindset as Christians, as those who love the Lord and pursue Him, should be that we want to gain more of Christ, seeking to be found in Him, and magnifying Him in all things.

Outwardly we need to do many things, and there are many activities that involve our presence; inwardly, however, we need to keep contacting the Lord, living in our spirit so that we may be supplied and enabled to live Christ.

May the Lord gain this in us little by little, day by day.

Milk and Honey show the Redeeming and Generating Aspects of Christ’s Life

It is very interesting to notice that the good land, a type of the all-inclusive Christ allotted to each one of us for our enjoyment, is described as a land flowing with milk and honey.

Milk and honey are the product of two kinds of life – the animal life and the vegetable life. Milk is produced by cattle, which are of the animal life, who eat the grass, the vegetable life.

Milk is therefore the product of the animal life nourished by the vegetable life. Similarly, honey is a product of the bees (the animal life) taking in the flowers and trees (the vegetable life).

Milk and honey, which are the mingling of both the animal life and the vegetable life, signify two aspects of the life of Christ — the redeeming aspect and the generating aspect (Deut. 8:8; 32:13-14).

The animal life represents the redeeming aspect of Christ’s life; when Christ came, John the Baptist said about Him, Behold, the Lamb of God (John 1:29).

Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; He is the reality of the animal life, which is for redemption.

In John 12:24 the Lord referred to Himself as a grain of wheat that died and in resurrection brought forth many grains; He is the reality of the vegetable life, which is for generating life.

Christ is the mingling of two kinds of lives to produce milk and honey.

How wise is our God! He creates all things and then Christ comes as the reality of all the positive things to be our rich portion in spirit.

The vegetable life is the life that generates and multiplies; this life signifies the generating and multiplying life of Christ.

The life of Christ generates, multiplies, grows, and brings forth fruit for multiplication and reproduction.

When we receive His life, He grows in us, He imparts life to every part of our being, and He flows in us and out of us to reach others too.

The animal life signifies the redeeming life of Christ (John 6:54-55). Christ came to be our life – He came that we may have life and may have it abundantly (John 10:10).

But in order for us to receive and enjoy the life of God, we needed to be redeemed; therefore, Christ’s life is a redeeming life.

When we come to the Lord, He grants us the gift of the forgiveness of sins in His blood, for His life is a redeeming life.

Although Christ is one person, in Him we see both the reality of the vegetable life (the generating life) and of the animal life (the redeeming life).

On one hand, Christ is the Lamb of God to redeem us and cleanse us of our sins.

On the other hand, He is the loaf of barley, the unleavened bread, for us to enjoy and be sustained, thus having more life.

These two lives are combined and mingled in one person, the all-inclusive Christ, so that we may enjoy Him and partake of His riches.

The redeeming aspect of the life of Christ is for our judicial redemption, and the generating aspect of the life of Christ is for our organic salvation (1:29; 12:24; Rev. 2:7; Rom. 5:10).

With milk and honey we see both God’s judicial redemption and His organic salvation, all in one.

And we are reminded of these two aspects whenever we come to the Lord’s table meeting.

The symbols of the Lord’s table signify the redeeming and generating aspects of Christ’s life for God’s complete salvation (Matt. 26:26-28; 1 Cor. 10:17).

When we come to the Lord’s table and partake of the symbols, we see both His redemption and His organic salvation; we take and eat and drink, partaking of the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land flowing with milk and honey.

Lord Jesus, thank You that we can partake of Your judicial redemption and Your organic salvation. We come to You, dear Lord, and we take You as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We apply Your redemption, we believe into You, and we apply Your precious blood to be cleansed of all our sins. We come forward to You, Lord, to partake of Your life. Your life is so rich, so bountiful, and so supplying! Save us much more in Your life today, for we have been reconciled to God through the death of Christ. Thank You, dear Lord, for dying for us to redeem us and for giving us Your life to regenerate us and impart the divine life into our being. Hallelujah for Christ’s judicial redemption and His organic salvation! We partake of You, Lord Jesus, as the reality of the good land flowing with milk and honey. We apply Your judicial redemption and we partake of Your organic salvation!

Enjoy the Goodness and Sweetness of the Life of Christ and Minister Him to Others

Milk and honey speak forth the goodness and sweetness of the life of Christ (Eph. 5:2; Phil. 4:18).

No matter what we think about the Lord, where we are in our experience of Him, and what we have done and what failures we have, when we come to the Lord and enjoy His redemption and salvation, we realize how good and sweet He is.

He does not condemn, judge, or criticize us; He simply applies His redemption and supplies us with His life.

It is so sweet, so pleasant, and so delightful. When we contact the Lord and enjoy Him in His redemption and organic salvation, we enjoy the goodness and sweetness of the life of Christ.

He is so good and He is so sweet! We can all testify to this.

We come to the Lord to contact Him, we confess our sins under His light, and He cleanses and washes us with His precious blood (1 John 1:7, 9).

Then, we simply partake of Him as life, for He is the bread of life and the water of life (John 4:13-14; 6:35, 63). This is so sweet and so good.

Our all-inclusive Christ, the reality of the good land, is full of goodness and sweetness.

When we enjoy His life, we are filled with the goodness and sweetness of the life of Christ.

When at the same time we experience and enjoy Christ as both the vegetable life and the animal life, we realize how good, sweet, and rich the Lord is to us.

We have the consciousness that He is so rich, so compassionate, so merciful, so kind, so loving, and so long-suffering.

On one hand, He is our Redeemer, and on the other hand, He is our life and life supply.

We can come to Him and wash our robes in the blood of the Lamb to have the right to partake of the tree of life (Rev. 22:14).

We can enjoy both aspects of Christ’s life – the redeeming and generating aspect – simultaneously by washing our garments from any defects, failures, and mistakes, and then coming to Him to partake of the tree of life.

We have the right to the tree of life, and we can exercise our faith in the blood of Jesus to wash our garments and any defects.

We realize, on the other hand, that the enemy is very subtle, trying to get us to stay away from God, accusing us before God and accusing God before us.

But praise the Lord, we can overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony and by not loving our soul-life even unto death (Rev. 12:11).

How wonderful it is that we can enjoy the richness and sweetness of Christ – the goodness of the milk and the sweetness of the honey!

And as we enjoy Him as such a One, as we partake of the goodness and sweetness of His life, we will have something to minister to others also.

By enjoying Christ as the land of milk and honey, we will be constituted with Him as milk and honey, and we will minister Him as such a One to others also.

Song of Songs 4:11a says, Your lips drip fresh honey, my bride; / Honey and milk are under your tongue.

We enjoy Christ as the fresh honey by enjoying His word that restores us, and we partake of Him as the milk by feeding on the word of God to be supplied.

Then, in our daily living and in the meetings with the saints, we will have a word as fresh honey to restore the weak and a nourishing word to feed the immature ones.

There will be milk and honey under our tongue, for we are filled with the goodness and sweetness of the life of Christ.

And we are prepared to be the bride of Christ, making ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming.

As we enjoy the goodness and sweetness of the life of Christ, our word is like fresh honey to restore the weak, and our word is like honey and milk to restore the weak and feed the immature ones.

We will have something of the goodness and sweetness of Christ under our tongue to restore and feed others, and the fragrance of our conduct will be the fragrance of ascension.

Amen, may the Lord gain this in us and among us today.

May we enjoy the Lord’s goodness and sweetness day by day, and may we be filled to the brim with what He is so that we may minister a restoring and feeding word to others, being one with the Lord in all that we do.

May the Lord make us His bride, His overcoming bride, for us to be fully one with Him and express Him even in our living, in our conduct, having the fragrance of ascension.

Lord Jesus, we want to enjoy the goodness and sweetness of the life of Christ. Hallelujah, Christ is the all-inclusive good land flowing with milk and honey, full of goodness and sweetness! Amen, Lord, we want to experience and enjoy the redeeming and generating life of Christ day by day. How good, how sweet, and how rich You are to us. We love to partake of You and enjoy the goodness and sweetness of Your life. Constitute us with Yourself, dear Lord. May we be filled with You to the brim. May we keep coming to You to partake of the tree of life as we wash our robes in the blood of the Lamb. Amen, Lord, thank You for Your precious blood that cleanses us and defeats the adversary with all his accusations. Thank You for Your nourishing life that supplies us and causes us to grow in life. May we be those constituted with You as milk and honey so that we may minister the goodness and sweetness of Christ to others! Amen, Lord, may our words be nourishing and restoring to the saints, and may our living and conduct have the fragrance of ascension.

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, Life-study of Exodus (pp. 62-63) by Witness Lee, 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:
  – Rich milk and honey He doth bring, / Sweet, satisfying, nourishing. / Our Christ is such; He is so much! / What a Christ! (Hymns #1164 stanza 3)
  – Lord, Thou art the Land of Canaan- / Elevated, rich and good, / Flowing with both milk and honey / In a glorious plenitude. / By Thy surplus God we worship, / In Thy fellowship we move; / Thus in love we’re joined together / And God’s building we will prove. (Hymns #196 stanza 5)
  – We are washing all our robes the tree of life to eat; / “O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!”—Jesus is so sweet! / We our spirits exercise, and thus experience Christ. / What a Christ have we! (Hymns #1151 stanza 3)