Col. 2:19 …Holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.
The all-inclusive Christ is the reality of all the positive things in the universe, and this One is the Head of the Body. When we enjoy Christ as the reality of all the positive things we become conscious of the Body of Christ and we desire to meet with the saints and share our enjoyment of Christ with them.
In Col. 2:15-19 we see a progression and even an uplifting of our enjoyment of Christ: Christ is the reality of all the shadows, and He is our enjoyment; as such a One, Christ is the Head of the Body, the church, and we hold Him and are richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, growing with the growth of God.
If we touch the Lord in the morning and enjoy Him in His word through the exercise of our spirit, we will desire to meet with the saints in the evening. Sometimes the outward circumstances may not allow us to meet with the saints every day, but inwardly we are one with them in spirit, enjoying the Lord in the meeting wherever we are.
If we really enjoy the Lord, that is, if we genuinely touch Him by exercising our spirit, we can no longer be individualistic but we will seek to fellowship with the saints. The more we enjoy Christ, the more we become Body-conscious, since our enjoyment of Christ is not an individual matter but a Body matter.
The more we enjoy Christ, the more we love the brothers and the sisters. But if we don’t enjoy the Lord, if we let days go by without enjoying the Lord, Satan will come in and we will have a critical view of the saints. When we enjoy the Lord all saints are lovable, but when we don’t enjoy the Lord we may not even want to see the saints.
May we fight for our enjoyment of Christ and enjoy Him in the morning, throughout the day, in the evening, and at all time. We need to seek to enjoy Christ all the time, and we will be saved from our selfish and self-centered natural man, being brought into resurrection to love all the saints as the Lord does, seeking to minister Christ to others.
Lord Jesus, keep us enjoying You! We want to hold You as the Head by enjoying You at all times. Save us from not enjoying You. We want to take You as the reality of all the positive things in our daily living, talking to You all the time and about all things. Lord, bring us out of ourselves and save us from our natural man as we enjoy You day by day. Uplift and upgrade our enjoyment of Christ for the Body!
The More we Enjoy Christ the More we Become Body-Conscious
Some believers say, I enjoy the Lord by myself, and I love Him very much! – yet they don’t really want to meet with the saints and enjoy the Lord together. We need to see that the Christ we enjoy, the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of all the positive things in the universe, is the Head of the Body.
In Col. 2:15-19 we see that the enjoyment of Christ is our prize, and we should enjoy Him as the reality of all the shadows; this One is our food, our drink, our feast, our new moon, our Sabbath, and our everything, and He is also the Head of the Body. If we truly enjoy Christ, we will care for the Body.
If we enjoy Christ continually we cannot be individualistic anymore, but we will seek to meet with the saints in the local church and be built up together (see Eph. 3:8; 4:15-16). It is normal to enjoy the Lord in the morning and throughout the day, and then in the evening to be with the saints and enjoy Him more.
What we enjoy of Christ in our personal time with Him is actually something of Him as the Head of the Body, and this One makes us conscious of the Body.
If you check with your experience, you will realize that the more you enjoy Christ, the more you desire to meet with the saints. But if you don’t enjoy Christ for a period of time, you will neglect meeting with the saints and you may even lose interest in the meetings.
If we don’t enjoy Christ for a period of time, Satan may come in to make us critical of the church and of the saints. The reason we criticize others is not because “we are right and they need to repent!” but because we are short of the enjoyment of Christ.
But whenever we begin enjoying the Lord, whenever we call on the name of the Lord, pray-read His word, sing to the Lord, pray to Him, and open our whole being to Him, we will have a change in attitude. When we enjoy the Lord we will praise Him for the saints and for the church life.
When we enjoy the Lord we will love the saints with His love in us. But when we don’t enjoy the Lord we will criticize others and find their faults. The shortage of the enjoyment of Christ opens the door for Satan to come in and make us critical toward other members of the Body.
Let us enjoy Christ! The more we enjoy the Lord, the more we become Body-conscious. The more we enjoy the Lord the more we hold Him as the Head and care for the Body.
How can we take Christ as our Head? How can we hold Him as the head? The most simple way is to enjoy Him. The more we enjoy Christ the more we hold Him as the Head, being headed up in Him in all things. The more we enjoy Christ, the more we become Body-conscious.
We should never lose our enjoyment of Christ. Never be cheated from the enjoyment of Christ. When we enjoy Christ we will be one with the Lord and with each other for the Lord’s testimony on the earth.
The Enjoyment of Christ Brings us into Resurrection
No matter how much of a people-person we are, at one point we all will realize that in ourselves we are selfish, self-centered, and individualistic. When we come into the church life and start enjoying the Lord, however, we will more and more be saved from our self and from our natural man, and we will become beings in resurrection.
Because Christ’s headship is in resurrection (Col. 2:18), the enjoyment of Christ spontaneously brings us into resurrection and saves us from our natural being.
We cannot change our disposition or improve our self, but by the enjoyment of Christ there’s an organic change taking place in our being and we love others, relate to them, and do everything in resurrection and not in our natural man.
The enjoyment of Christ brings us into resurrection and saves us from our natural being. The more we enjoy the Lord, the less natural we are and the more one with Christ we become.
If you check with your experience you will realize that whenever you enjoy Christ by exercising your spirit you become different: you are no longer natural but in resurrection.
This is something you can’t manufacture by yourself; you cannot enter into resurrection by “trying really hard to die to yourself” or by “doing your best to be a better Christian”. The way to live in resurrection is to enjoy Christ.
The way to hold Christ as the Head and to build up the Body is to enjoy Christ. The way to know God’s heart and be governed by a vision of His economy is to enjoy Christ. The way to love the saints, no matter who they are and what they do, is to enjoy Christ.
When we enjoy Christ, the enjoyment of Christ spontaneously brings us out of ourselves, saves us from our natural man, and brings us into resurrection!
Lord Jesus, save us from losing our enjoyment of Christ! Keep us enjoying You in all things for the Body. May we focus not on improving ourselves or being better people but on enjoying Christ. Lord, You are our life, our peace, our joy, and our rest. You are the real air we breathe, the real water we drink, and the real food we eat. You are the real chair we sit on, the real work we do, the real car or bus carrying us to our destination, and the real family to us. Keep us taking You as the reality of all the positive things until You become so real to us, heading us up and giving us a deep consciousness of Your Body!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Colossians (msgs. 56-57), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Heavenly Vision, week 2 / msg 2, The Vision of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# We have seen Christ is reality: / But it’s not sufficient just to see: / He in our experience must be / Everything to us. / We in prayer behold Him face to face, / In the Word and meetings know His grace; / But in daily life, in every place, / What is He to us? (Hymns #1178)
# Christ is our light, our food, our air; / He’s everything we’ll ever need. / Christ is our drink, our life, our way, / If in our being, He’d be freed. (Song on Enjoying Christ)
# We have found the way to live by Christ— / Pray His Word and call His name! / This—the eating, drinking—has sufficed / And its worth we now proclaim. / We have found the local church, our home; / We are home and home indeed! / Nevermore in Babylon we roam; / In the church is all we need. (Hymns #1153)
# 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)
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