We need to enjoy the marvelous, wonderful, immeasurable, unlimited, and all-inclusive riches of Christ as the good land by enjoying Christ as grace to us day by day for the building up of the Body of Christ! Amen!
As we enjoy Christ as grace and labour on Him to gain Him by enjoying and experiencing Him, we will have a rich exhibition of Christ whenever we come together.
We meet together with the saints to have an exhibition of the Christ upon whom we have laboured, the Christ whom we have enjoyed and experienced (Deut. 14:22-23).
The true worship of God by His people is when everyone is full of Christ, radiant with Christ, and exhibiting the Christ upon whom they have laboured.
The true worship that God gets from us, His people, is for us to be full of Christ to the point that we beam Christ, we radiate with Christ, and we exhibit the Christ whom we have enjoyed and experienced.
As Isa. 50:5 says, we shall see the Lord and we shall beam Him; as we see Christ face to face in our personal time with Him daily, we will then beam Him into one another!
May we all be such beamers, those who beam and radiate Christ into people! If we enjoy Christ as grace – the reality of the good land – we will always have something to speak in the meeting as a freewill offering to God and to the attendants (see 1 Cor. 14:26).
Before we come to the meeting, we should prepare ourselves for the meeting with something of the Lord; we do this by enjoying Him and experiencing Him, and then preparing something of our enjoyment in His word and our fellowship with Him in prayer (Rev. 1:20).
We shouldn’t be distracted by other things or people but rather, focus on the Lord, prepare something from what we enjoyed, pray over His word, and speak something of what the Lord has spoken to us.
Our meeting together shouldn’t be merely to catch up with one another and see how things are going; it has to be full of ministering Christ to one another by our speaking what we enjoyed of the Lord in His word and through our fellowship with Him in prayer.
After coming to the meeting, we don’t need to wait for inspiration – we should simply exercise our spirit and use our trained mind to function in the meeting by presenting what we have prepared to the Lord for His glory and satisfaction and to the attendants for their benefit!
Amen, we should simply enjoy and experience Christ as the good land every day, prepare something of the Christ we enjoyed, and exercise our spirit to speak something for the Lord and for the enlightenment, nourishment, and building up of the saints (1 Cor. 14:31-32).
Enjoying the All-inclusive Christ as Grace in our Spirit for the Body of Christ
What a Christ we have! He is marvelous, He is wonderful, He is immeasurable, He is unlimited, and He is all-inclusive, and all His riches are the reality of the good land for our enjoyment day by day and hour by hour (Eph. 3:8)!
In 1 Corinthians we see the children of Israel’s enjoyment of Christ in Egypt (the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs) and in the wilderness (eating the manna, drinking the living water, and the priests enjoying the offerings).
But 2 Corinthians is where we see some saints who enjoy Christ as the reality of the good land; the subject of this epistle is, Christ as the divine grace for our enjoyment.
We need to be the people who attain to the uttermost to fulfill God’s purpose; though we may not see the term “the good land” in 2 Corinthians, we see how we can enjoy Christ as grace to be the reality of the good land.
The good land in 2 Corinthians is Christ Himself as the very embodiment of the processed Triune God given to us as the divine grace for our enjoyment.
Amen, may we be those who possess Christ as our God-given portion by enjoying the all-inclusive Christ given to us as grace for our enjoyment!
Grace according to the Bible, however, is much different than what we think of grace; we may think that grace is something that God gives to us outwardly or something that He does for us, but grace is nothing else but God Himself in Christ for our enjoyment.
In 2 Cor. 12:7-9 we see how Paul experienced grace; he had a thorn in his flesh, a messenger of Satan, to buffed him, so taht he might not be exceedingly lifted up.
He entreated the Lord to remove the thorn, but the Lord told him, My grace is sufficient for you. We may think that grace is God removing the thorn; if He were to remove the thorn, we would praise Him and be very excited.
But this is not what grace is here; the Lord was not willing to take away the thorn but rather supplied Paul with grace, and this grace was sufficient to meet the need.
If the thorn is taken away, we would not know how sufficient grace is; grace here is not something done or given by the Lord, but it is simply the Lord supplying us inwardly.
Grace is the Lord Himself within us supporting us, energizing us, and strengthening us to face the trouble and to meet the situation; this grace is nothing less than Christ Himself for our enjoyment.
We need to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ given by God to us as grace for our enjoyment – He is the reality of the good land, and this grace is nothing less than Christ as the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9) for our enjoyment!
So God may assign us a co-worker or a spouse or a neighbour who is like a “thorn” to us, and He may not remove the thorn but rather, He wants us to enjoy Him as grace.
We may pray for God to remove the thorn; we may ask God to better this one or improve that one’s attitude toward us, but God wants us to simply enjoy His all-sufficient grace.
As we enjoy Christ as grace, the reality of the good land, something issues out – the Body of Christ.
The Body of Christ is not the issue of merely teachings about the Body, and the practical life of the Body is not merely the issue of teachings concerning how to enjoy Christ.
The practical life of the Body of Christ is the issue of the enjoyment of Christ as the grace of God; the more we enjoy Christ as grace, the more we live in the Body life, and the more the practical church life is produced!
Lord, we want to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ given to us by God as grace for our enjoyment for the building up of the Body of Christ! Thank You, Lord, Your grace is all-sufficient. May we focus not on the suffering or the trouble but focus on the Lord and enjoy the abundant grace of Christ to be energized and strengthened to meet the situation and face the trouble. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to enjoy You as grace and experience You as grace for the building up of the Body of Christ!
We Experience the Riches of Christ as the Good Land in our Spirit, in the Face of Christ
In order for us to experience the riches of Christ as the good land, we must be dominated, governed, directed, moved, and led by our mingled spirit (2 Cor. 2:13).
The riches of Christ are in spirit; they are not physical but spiritual, and for us to enjoy and experience the riches of Christ, we need to be spiritual men, those led and dominated by our spirit.
In 2 Cor. 2:12 Paul said that he came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and a door was opened to him in the Lord. This means that he had a green light from the Lord to go for the gospel.
But in v. 13 he said that he had no rest in his spirit, for he didn’t find Titus his brother, so he took leave of the saints and went forth into Macedonia.
This means that Paul was not governed by outward things, the outward environment, and not even by an open door in the Lord for the gospel; he was governed by the rest in his spirit.
What should govern us is not merely the environment through which we see God’s hand but our mingled spirit; even in a good and positive environment, we should pay attention to our spirit and allow our spirit to lead us, govern us, and move us where the Lord wants us to be.
We can enjoy Christ as grace only by being in the mingled spirit. If we are to experience the riches of Christ as the good land, we must live in the person, the presence, the face of Christ (2 Cor. 2:10; 4:6-7; 3:16-18; 12:2).
Paul forgave a brother in the face of Christ; the word for face is the same as in 2 Cor. 4:6, the glory of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ, and this face is the treasure we have in our earthen vessels.
Hallelujah, we can behold the Lord face to face and we can see His face and enjoy it in our mingled spirit!
May we be those who live in the person of Christ, in the presence of Christ, even in the index of the Lord’s eyes, doing everything in the face of Christ in our mingled spirit!
May our whole being be according to the presence of Christ, according to the index of His person expressed in His eyes.
The way for us to possess the all-inclusive Christ as the good land, we must be governed by His person, His presence (Exo. 33:14).
Paul was such a one; he lived in the person of Christ and thus experienced Christ as his changelessness (2 Cor. 1:17-20), as meekness and gentleness (10:1), as truthfulness (11:10), as power (12:10; 13:4), as grace (v. 14), and as the One speaking in him (v. 3; cf. 2:17).
When we live in the person of Christ, we experience Christ as grace to meet our every need and even more we experience Him as our truthfulness, power, grace, meekness, gentleness, changelessness, and as the One speaking in us.
We receive Christ as grace – the reality of the good land – through the breaking and constituting work of the Holy Spirit, whereby our inner being is rebuilt with the Divine Trinity (2 Cor. 12:7-10; 13:14).
On one hand the Holy Spirit works to break down our natural man and on the other, He constitutes us with the Triune God to make us grace-men, men full of the enjoyment of Christ as grace, so that we may live in the good land and build up the church as the Body of Christ for His corporate expression.
Lord Jesus, we pray that we would be persons who are dominated, governed, directed, moved, and led by our spirit! May we be led and governed not merely by the outward environment through which we can see God’s mighty hand, but even more by the rest in our mingled spirit. Amen, Lord, we want to live in the person of Christ, the presence of Christ, the face of Christ, and do all things in the index of His eyes. Lord Jesus, we want to enjoy You and experience You as grace, the reality of the good land! Give us the experiences we need so that we may live in Christ as the good land for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ!
Read this article in the Romanian language / citiți acest articol și în limba română la următorul link, Să-L savurăm pe Cristosul atotinclusiv ca har în duhul nostru pentru Trupul lui Cristos.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, CWWL, 1967, vol. 2, “An Autobiography of a Person in the Spirit,” chs. 4, 10, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Deuteronomy, week 6, Life in the Land and the Issue of the Land — the Church as the Temple, the Dwelling Place of God, and as the City, the Kingdom of God.
- Hymns on this topic:
– And He has said to me, / My grace is sufficient for you, / And He has said to me, / My grace is sufficient for you, / For My power is perfected in weakness, / For My power is perfected in weakness. (Scripture song)
– This grace, which is the living Christ Himself, / Is what we need and must experience; / Lord, may we know this grace and by it live, / Thyself increasingly as grace to sense. (Hymns #497)
– All sufficient grace! / Never powerless! / It is Christ who lives in me, / In His exhaustlessness. (Hymns #312)
