Exercise our spirit to Absorb the Riches of Christ into whom we’re Grafted Contrary to Nature

As believers in Christ, we are branches of Christ, those grafted into Him as the cultivated olive tree to enjoy Him as the life-giving Spirit by denying the self to absorb the riches of Christ. Hallelujah!

The types and figures in the Old Testament show us a picture of what we the New Testament believers experience and go through.

For example, the materials used for the building of the temple show how we can experience Christ in His death, resurrection, and in being the Spirit in resurrection for the building of God.

The fact that the inner part of the temple was covered with wood, in particular with cypress wood for the doors and cedar wood for the panelling, is very significant.

In ancient times the Jews planted cypress trees above their graves; hence, cypress signifies Christ’s humanity in His death, the crucified Jesus.

How can we become a proper material for the building of God? It is by experiencing the crucified Christ, His humanity in His death.

How can we experience Him as such a one? It is not by praying to have more suffering or more trials, nor is it merely by our passing through suffering and trial.

The crucified Christ, His crucifixion, and the effectiveness of His death, are all in the Spirit that is now mingled with our spirit.

When we turn to our spirit, again and again, we enjoy and experience the crucified Christ.

Going through suffering and trial will work on our outer man to cause it to be consumed and decay; however, we need to match the outward consuming work with an inward turn to the Lord so that He may apply the effectiveness of His death to our being.

Cedar signifies the resurrected Christ, for cedar trees grow on the mountains of Lebanon, and they signify Christ’s humanity in resurrection.

We can experience the resurrected Christ by turning to our spirit.

On one hand, as we turn to the Lord and exercise our spirit, we experience the death of Christ, and on the other hand, we experience His resurrection. His death and resurrection go together.

And both His death and His resurrection are in the compound Spirit that is mingled with our spirit, for we are joined to the Lord as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

Merely going through sufferings, trials, problems, and tough situations doesn’t guarantee that we experience the crucified Christ; we need to contact Him and remain in the organic union with Him in order to experience Him. May we learn to turn.

May we learn to contact the Lord in all kinds of situations, and may we send our roots deep down in Him so that we may absorb His riches and partake of all that He is, so that we may become suitable materials for God’s building.

Exercise our Spirit Continually to Absorb the Riches of Christ, the Cultivated Olive Tree into whom we’re Grafted

Olive wood, the third main kind of wood used in the building of the temple, signifies the transformed Christ as the life-giving Spirit (1 Kings 6:23, 31-33; 1 Cor. 15:45).

Olive oil typifies the Spirit of God; hence, olive wood signifies Christ’s humanity in the Spirit of God, the anointed Christ, who also is the compound Spirit as the anointing (see Heb. 1:9; 2 Cor. 1:21; 1 John 2:20, 27; Exo. 30:25, 30).

The olive wood was used for the entrance of the innermost sanctuary.

The doors of cypress were outside, but the doors of olive wood were leading to the Holy of Holies, and they also were carved with cherubim and palm trees and open flowers.

Christ is the cultivated olive tree, and we as believers in Christ have been cut off from the uncultivated olive tree and have been grafted into Christ.

On one hand, we have received the life of God through repentance and belief into the Lord; on the other hand, we have been grafted into Christ to partake of all His riches.

We are now firmly attached to the anointed One, and we simply need to exercise our spirit to absorb the riches of Christ.

We were attached to Christ, joined to Him, in spirit; our mingled spirit is the location, the place, the exact spot where we are joined to the Lord.

We now simply need to exercise our spirit continually to absorb the riches of Christ, the cultivated olive tree into whom we’re grafted.

We are branches of Christ who have been grafted into Christ as the cultivated olive tree to enjoy Him (Rom. 11:17, 24).

The life-giving Spirit is the life juice of Christ as the heavenly olive tree, and He flows continually in us, in our mingled spirit.

If we desire to partake of the riches of Christ as the fatness, the sap, of the heavenly olive tree, we need to contact the life-giving Spirit as the life-juice of Christ (Luke 23:31; Psa. 92:13-14; 36:8-9).

How can we contact the Lord as the life-giving Spirit so that we can absorb the riches of Christ? It is by exercising our spirit, especially by calling, Oh Lord! Oh, Lord!

Our grafting with Christ has taken place in our spirit; therefore, we need to exercise our spirit continually.

When we call on the name of the Lord and say, “O Lord, O Lord” we exercise our spirit and immediately we partake of the Lord as the life-giving Spirit (see Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 10:9-13).

Calling on the name of the Lord, the simple mentioning of His name from deep within, causes us to absorb the riches of Christ into whom we’re grafted.

We need to realize that we were cut off from the old source, the old man, the world, the self, the sin, and Satan, and we have been intimately joined to the Lord in spirit to abide in Him and absorb the riches of Christ in spirit.

He was cut on the cross, and we were cut through repentance and belief into Him; in spirit, we have been joined together, and we simply need to remain in this joining, this kiss, this contact with the Lord.

His Spirit and our spirit were joined, and we are one spirit with the Lord. He now flows as the rich sap of the cultivated olive tree, the life-giving Spirit, and we need to drink, enjoy, and absorb the riches of Christ.

All day long we need to call on the name of the Lord.

He is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17) and we have a human spirit (John 32:8; Zech. 12:1; 1 Cor. 2:11); these two spirits have been mingled, and in this mingling, we enjoy the riches of Christ, we absorb God, and we become His growth, His continuation, and His expression.

May we remain in the mingled spirit throughout the day and call on the name of the Lord to enjoy all His riches!

One other way to absorb the riches of Christ into whom we are grafted is by reading and praying over His word. His word is food to us, and we can taste and see that the Lord is good.

When we come to the Lord in His word and contact Him, call on His name, and pray and say Amen to His word, we absorb His riches.

The riches of Christ are embodied in His word; when we contact the Word of God by the exercise of our spirit, we absorb the riches of Christ embodied in His word.

We never graduate from this. We can never graduate from calling on the name of the Lord and from praying over His word, for this is our lifeline, our life supply, our way to remain in the organic union with the Lord into whom we’re grafted.

Hallelujah, God is Spirit and we have a human spirit to contact God, receive God, partake of God, and be joined to God! Thank You, Lord Jesus, for grafting us into Yourself as the cultivated olive tree. We have been cut off from the old source and we were grafted into Christ in spirit. Keep us here, Lord, in the mingled spirit, enjoying and absorbing all Your riches. We want to exercise our spirit continually by calling on Your name and praying over Your word to absorb the riches of Christ into whom we’re grafted. Amen, Lord, we call on Your name, again and again, to partake of the Lord as the life-giving Spirit! We desire to partake of the riches of Christ as the fatness, the sap, of the heavenly olive tree! We come to You, we open to You, and we contact You as the life-giving Spirit today!

We have been Grafted into Christ Contrary to Nature – we need to Deny the Self and just Enjoy Christ!

Two trees can be grafted together if they share the same life and nature if they are of similar species, and if they are cut and bound properly together.

This is how we and the Lord were grafted together; we have a human spirit, He has become the Spirit, and in spirit, we are joined to Him organically to be one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

However, Rom. 11:24 also says that we have been grafted into Christ “contrary to nature”, which indicates that, though we were joined to the Lord in spirit, there are many things in our nature that are contrary to Him.

Contrary to nature in this verse means contrary to the self. Everything of our old nature contradicts the Lord’s nature; our natural man, our fallen humanity, our self, our flesh, our old man, and everything of the old man is contrary to God.

However, in spirit we are joined to the Lord; this joining is contrary to our nature.

The flesh and the Spirit always oppose each other and there is no way to reconcile them (Gal. 5:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:4).

This is why the Lord’s favourite and most common word to us is NO.

We come to Him to contact Him about this or about that situation, and we tell Him we want to do this or that, and His word is No.

We may be about to exchange some words with our spouse and we just call, O Lord; we then have an inner feeling, No, don’t argue.

The more we listen to the Lord’s inner speaking, the more we heed the anointing within, the more we allow the Lord to regulate us from within, and the more we absorb the riches of Christ.

Our outer man needs to be broken, the self needs to be denied, and the flesh needs to be put to death; this is not by being like an ascetic who physically buffets his body “for the Lord” but by our heeding the inner speaking of the Lord, especially when He says, No.

We may be about to pick up our phone and spend some time on it, but the Lord’s inner speaking is, No, don’t do that.

We may be about to just mindlessly scroll through certain social media websites, but the Lord’s inner speaking is, No, don’t do that.

If we do not heed the Lord’s speaking, if we don’t deny the self and just say Amen to His inner anointing, we will not gain more of Christ.

But if we keep calling on the name of the Lord every day and just absorb the riches of Christ into whom we’re grafted, and we say Amen to His inner speaking, we will gain more of Christ.

When we are driving and someone just cuts us off, and we are ready to express our feelings, there is a little “No, don’t say anything” within us.

When our dear wife says something and we sense a reaction coming to her seemingly innocent comment, yet we turn to the Lord and heed His inner, “No, don’t say anything,” though this is contrary to nature, we will absorb more of the riches of Christ.

On one hand, we call on the Lord all the time, Oh Lord, Oh Lord; on the other hand, we need to allow Him to speak to us and regulate our living from within, heeding the inner speaking of the Lord even when this is “contrary to nature”.

The Lord is rich to all who call upon Him (Rom. 10:11, 13); when we call on the name of the Lord and say Amen to His word, we contact Him, we enjoy Him, and we partake of the all-inclusive Spirit as the fatness (Psa. 106:48; Neh. 8:6; 2 Cor. 1:20; Rev. 19:4; Eph. 6:17-18).

Though many times the word of God is contrary to our nature, exposing the self and the flesh, we simply need to say Amen to His word.

In the meetings with the saints, in our time of fellowship with the Lord, and even in our daily living, the Lord has a way to shine on us and expose what we are by nature.

We simply need to say Amen to His light, His speaking and take Him in, allow Him to work Himself into us, and absorb the riches of Christ into whom we’re grafted.

Lord Jesus, we love You. We open to You. We desire to have Your shining and Your appearing. We say Amen to Your word. Amen, Lord, even though Your word is “contrary to nature” and exposes the self and the flesh, we say Amen to Your word. We say Amen to Your word which exposes our sinful and rebellious nature. We want to partake of Your divine, spiritual, and holy nature. Oh Lord, keep us in our mingled spirit today. Keep us absorbing You and partaking of the all-inclusive Spirit as the fatness. Keep speaking to us in the meetings, in Your word, at home, at work, and all the time. We want to heed the inner anointing. We say Amen to Your word in the Bible and to Your inner speaking throughout the day. May there be more absorbing and enjoying of the riches of Christ throughout the day!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ricky Acosta in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1968, vol. 1, pp. 11-16, 47-56, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Kings (2022 summer training), week 7, entitled, The Intrinsic Significance of the Materials of the Temple.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – O how deep and how far-reaching / Is Thy love, dear Lord, to me! / Far beyond my pow’r to fathom, / Deeper than the deepest sea! / It has caused Thee death to suffer / And to me Thyself impart, / That in Thee I might be grafted / And become of Thee a part. (Hymns #152, stanza 1)
  – Take time to behold Him, / Speak oft with Thy Lord, / Abide in Him always, / And feed on His Word. / Wait thou in His presence, / Submissive and meek, / Forgetting in nothing / His blessing to seek. (Hymns #643, stanza 1)
  – O Lord, Thou art the Spirit now / Who in my spirit makes His home; / He mingles with my spirit too, / And both one spirit thus become. / Lord, teach me how to exercise / My spirit now to contact Thee, / That in Thy Spirit I may walk / And live by Thy reality. (Hymns #493, stanzas 4 and 5)