Enjoying and Experiencing the Riches of Christ issues in the Genuine Church Life

The issue of our being brought back to Christ Himself is the genuine church life; the genuine church life is the issue of the enjoyment of the riches of Christ so that we may become His fullness, and it is Christ realized, experienced, and expressed by the saints in a corporate way.

Amen, may the Lord gain the genuine church life among us today!

As believers in Christ, we need to be brought back to Christ Himself; we need to return to Christ from all other things to just enjoy Him, experience Him, and express Him for the genuine church life.

Like the apostle Paul, we need to consider all other things as junk, dung, and refuse, on account of Christ.

When we touch the Lord in His word, when He shines on us and infuses us with what He is, we realize how precious and wonderful the Lord is.

He truly is our life, our joy, our peace, our patience, our righteousness, our holiness, and our sanctification. He is everything we need.

And we are created in the image of God with the intention that God would come in and fill us; when we are filled with Christ, we are satisfied.

When we find the meaning of our human life, which is to be filled with God to express God and become the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead, we will drop all other things and focus only on Christ.

Christ is everything to us. This means that, in a very practical way, we start in the morning by calling on the name of the Lord and opening to Him.

We may not be that happy when we wake up but rather, we may be quite tired and not willing to say a word, but we can just tell Him, Lord Jesus, thank You for a new day to enjoy You.

Then, as we take a shower, we can open to Him a little more, asking Him to give us the portion of grace we need for that day.

As we get dressed, have our breakfast, travel to work, or take care of the things at home, we can simply open to the Lord and call on His name, fellowship with Him, and bring all things to Him.

No matter what happens, what we do, where we go, who we meet, and what we have to do, we can bring it to the Lord in prayer and fellowship.

We can just tell the Lord, Lord Jesus, I want to gain more of You today. Work Yourself into me a little more today.

As we do this and that, we can take yet another little break to tell the Lord, Lord, I love You. I still love You. You are the most wonderful One. Keep me in my spirit today.

All throughout the day we can have many little conversations with the Lord.

We may have to drive somewhere and the ones in front of us at the traffic light may not be that quick, so we may have to wait for the next green light…even in such a situation, we can open to the Lord. We can tell Him all.

We can breathe ourselves out and breathe Him in.

As we do this, as we remain in a constant fellowship with the Lord about all things, both great and small, He works Himself into us and we gain more of Him.

Little by little, we enjoy Him, experience Him, and express Him for the genuine church life.

The Genuine Church Life is Christ Realized, Experienced, and Expressed by all the Saints in a Corporate Way

As we are brought back to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself from anything else, there will be an issue, a result: the genuine church life (1 Cor. 1:2; 12:27; Rom. 16:1, 4-5, 16, 20).

The Lord wants to gain the genuine church life among us today.

What is the church life? Is it just our social life as Christians? Is it just the activities we do with other believers, our meetings, conferences, outings, etc?

And what is the GENUINE church life? There must be something called “church life” which is not genuine, if there is such a thing called “genuine church life”. Oh Lord.

The genuine church life involves almost one hundred per cent of our daily living; it is like our body life, the life of our physical body, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

We may have a sweet church life, but is it genuine?

The genuine church life is not merely the activities we have, the meetings we go to, or the things we do with other saints.

The genuine church life is Christ realized, experienced, and expressed by all the saints in a corporate way (Eph. 3:16-21).

We need to pray that we daily enjoy Christ, experience Christ, and express Christ, so that we may be in the genuine church life day by day.

The church life doesn’t stop because we’re at work or taking care of our family at home; the genuine church life goes on all the time, no matter what we do and where we are.

God planned the church for the purpose of expressing Christ; therefore, the church is the expression of Christ (vv. 9-11, 21).

As we enjoy the Lord day by day in our daily living, both personally and corporately, we will be constituted with Christ.

If we would have the genuine church life, we need to be constituted with Christ until all that we are and have is simply Christ Himself, and He becomes our all in all (Col. 1:12; 2:9-10, 16-17; 3:4, 10-11; 4:15-16).

May we be those who daily enjoy the Lord, experience Him, and seek Him, so that He may be expressed through us.

May we open to the Lord day by day and allow Him to infuse us with what He is so that we may be reconstituted with Christ and He becomes our all in all.

When Christ becomes all in all to us, we will live and practice the genuine church life.

No matter where we are, we will simply enjoy, experience, and express Christ.

The genuine church life is Christ enjoyed, realized, and expressed through us.

The genuine church life is the life of Christ, Christ Himself, flowing in us and out of us to be expressed through us (Col. 3:4; John 11:25).

The genuine church life is not something of doctrines, teachings, or practices; rather, it is a life in which we realize, experience, enjoy, express, and exhibit Christ (Phil. 3:10).

The genuine church life is a life in which Christ Himself is realized, experienced, enjoyed, expressed, and exhibited by us in a corporate way.

Therefore, the genuine church life can be realized only by the experience of Christ in our daily life (Rom. 8:9-11, 17).

We need to daily enjoy Christ and experience Christ so that we may realize the church life.

As we enjoy and experience Christ, we will have something of Christ to bring to the meeting to exhibit Christ and express Christ.

If we don’t enjoy and experience Christ, we will not have much to bring to the meeting, and the meeting will not be that rich.

Our coming together with the saints is not only for us to sing and do some things out of a routine; our meetings should be filled with the expression of Christ, the exhibition of Christ, the very Christ we have enjoyed and experienced.

Lord Jesus, we want to enjoy and experience Christ daily for the genuine church life. Grant us today’s portion of grace so that we may enjoy Christ and experience Him a little more. Save us from merely focusing on doctrines, teachings, or outward practices in the church life. May we have a genuine church life, a life in which Christ Himself is realized, experienced, enjoyed, expressed, and exhibited by us! Amen, Lord, we want to realize You, experience You, enjoy You, and express You! May we have a daily experience of Christ in our living so that we may realize the genuine church life. Amen, Lord, may Christ be realized, experienced, and expressed by all the saints in a corporate way so that we may have the genuine church life.

Enjoy and Experience the Riches of Christ for the Genuine Church Life

Christ is not a religion or a doctrine; He is not just a teaching or a concept – He is all-inclusive, rich, and so wonderful.

Paul did not preach a religion, a doctrine, or a good teaching; he announced the riches of Christ as the gospel (Eph. 3:8).

The riches of Christ are unsearchable, and we can enjoy and experience these riches in our daily living.

The riches of Christ are what Christ is. He is immensely rich, all-inclusive, vast, and inexhaustible; we can experience Him in His riches to become His fullness, His corporate expression.

In order for us to have a genuine church life we must experience and enjoy the riches of Christ.

The church life is not something apart from Christ; it is the issue, the result, the flowing out of the saints’ enjoyment and experience of the riches of Christ.

The unique content of the church is the riches of Christ realized and experienced by all the members of the Body of Christ.

If we don’t enjoy the riches of Christ and do not bring them to the meetings of the church to share them with others, we will have only an organization or a social gathering when we come together.

But the genuine Body of Christ comes out of the riches of Christ. He fills all and in all, and the church is His fullness, His Body (Eph. 1:22-23).

The universally rich Christ needs a Body to be His fullness, His expression.

There is a difference between the riches of Christ and the fullness of Christ.

The riches of Christ are what He is, all the items of what He is for us to enjoy and experience.

Christ is life, light, holiness, righteousness, peace, joy, humility, patience, and endurance.

Christ is also the door, the way, the pasture, the Shepherd, the light, the Lamb, the Redeemer, the Savior, and the great I Am.

If we read the Gospels and the Epistles we will see so many aspects of what Christ is. He is our love, our humility, patience, wisdom, strength, power, and authority.

Whatever we need, He is, and He is rich and inexhaustible.

And He wants us to enjoy Him and partake of His riches so that we may become His fullness.

As believers in Christ, we are members of the Body of Christ, and as the Body of Christ, we must match the Head, who is universally great.

So we need to enjoy the riches of Christ for us to become the fullness of Christ, the church as the Body of Christ!

If we all enjoy Christ and partake of His riches, we will have something of Christ constituted into us, and when we come together with the saints, we can share something concerning the Christ we have enjoyed.

When we come together, we will spontaneously share concerning Christ as our patience and joy, and this will build up the church.

The spontaneous issue of the enjoyment of the riches of Christ is the genuine church life.

But if we don’t enjoy and experience the riches of Christ, we will not have much to share with the saints when we come together, and the church life may seem to be an organization or a Christian society. Oh Lord Jesus!

To practice the genuine church life, we need to first realize that the church life is not an organization, a social group, or a religious society, but the outcome, the result, of all the saints enjoying and experiencing the riches of Christ.

As we enjoy and experience the riches of Christ, we will gain something of Christ, a surplus, which we can bring to the meetings of the church to share with one another.

A brother may share concerning Christ as his patience, how he experienced Christ as his patience at his job.

Another sister may share concerning Christ as her joy, how she experienced Christ as her joy as he was taking care of her children at home.

Yet another one, even a young one, may share concerning Christ being his peace and rest, as he was struggling with exams and uncertainty concerning the future.

This is the genuine church life: Christ experienced, enjoyed, and expressed among us, the riches of Christ being constituted in us and flowing out of us as we meet together to express and exhibit Christ.

May the Lord gain such a genuine church life among us today.

Lord Jesus, we want to enjoy Your riches today. We want to experience what You are in all Your riches. Amen, Lord, You are our love, patience, humility, wisdom, power, strength, and authority. You are everything we need. Keep us coming to You today and day by day to partake of Your riches. Keep us enjoying Your riches day by day until we become Your fullness, Your Body, to express You corporately on the earth. Amen, Lord, we want to enjoy and experience You as our love, patience, humility, and everything so that we may have the genuine church life. May Christ be enjoyed and experienced by all the saints so that He would be expressed and exhibited among us as we meet! Praise the Lord, the church is the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all and in all!

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, 1968, vol. 1, pp. 129-131, 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 1, entitled, Being Brought Back to Christ Himself for the Genuine Church Life.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The Depth of God’s Riches, Wisdom, and Knowledge, via New Jerusalem blog.
  – Knowing, Experiencing, and Living the All-inclusive Christ for the genuine church life, outline via, Strumień Życia.
  – Enter Into the Riches, article via, Living to Him.
  – The Building Up of the Body of Christ, Message 2: The Saints’ Direct Building of the Body of Christ, a video message by Witness Lee.
  – Blending for the Reality of the Body of Christ, a newsletter via, The church in Regina.
  – Enjoying the riches of Christ by pray-reading the Word and praying into the Spirit, a portion from, The All-Inclusiveness and Unlimitedness of Christ, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee.
  – My Personal Testimony – Pursuing Christ, Living the Church Life, and Enjoying the Ministry, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Enjoying the Riches of Christ to become the Fullness of Christ, a portion from, Enjoying the Riches of Christ for the Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
  – The unsearchable riches of Christ as the content and structure of the gospel of God, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – O the riches, O the riches, / Christ my Savior has for me! / How unsearchable their measure, / Yet my full reality! / O the riches of my Savior, / All-embracing: life and light, / Wisdom, power, healing, comfort, / Treasures rich of God’s delight. (Hymns #542 stanza 2 and chorus)
  – So subjective is my Christ to me! / Real in me, and rich and sweet! / All-inclusive is my Christ to me! / All my needs He fully meets. / Christ to me is so subjective, / Life imparting all the way; / As the Spirit He revives me / And refreshes day by day. (Hymns #537 stanza 2 and chorus)
  – In Christ we live, by Christ we fight, / On Christ we labor day and night, / And with His surplus we unite / To thus exhibit Christ. / Our life and all we are and do / Is Christ Himself, the substance true, / That every time we meet anew / We may exhibit Christ. (Hymns #864 stanzas 2-3)