Our Christian life is a life of suffering, but in the midst of sufferings we rejoice, for more of God is added to our being, and we are daily being renewed; our desire is to gain more of God.
Our sufferings and difficulties are an opportunity for us to gain more God, for us to be renewed to become as new as the New Jerusalem, even as the cross is applied to our being and our natural man is being consumed.
Paul testified that death operates in him but life in the others; as he was in prison, suffering for the sake of Christ, he was identified with Christ in His sufferings, and he completed what was lacking to the sufferings of Christ in the Body of Christ.
In our situation and experience today, the putting to death of Jesus in our environment cooperates with the indwelling Spirit who operates in us with the result that the natural man (the outer man) is consumed and even killed, and the inner man is being renewed for us to gain more God.
Our outer man is composed of our body with the soul as its person; it is the totality of our fallen being, and throughout our life, we build up and perfect this outer man.
But in God’s sovereignty, the outer man is being consumed by the putting to death of Jesus in our environment, and the Spirit operates in our spirit to dispense more of God into us.
How can we experience and enjoy, even realize, the application of the death of Christ to our being, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in us?
It is by the compound Spirit in our spirit; the Spirit dwells in our spirit to dispense the death of Christ with its effectiveness from our spirit to all the inner parts of our being and even to our mortal body.
Hallelujah, whenever we turn to our spirit and remain in the spirit, walking in the spirit and living according to the spirit, we enjoy the divine dispensing of all the elements of God together with the death and resurrection of Christ!
The Spirit is moving in our inner being; the anointing is the moving of the indwelling Spirit, and when we pray, we activate the moving of the indwelling Spirit.
Within this moving of the Spirit in our spirit, there’s the killing power of the death of Christ, which is being applied to our being.
May we learn to stop and pray, especially as we sense that our temper rises and we’re about to lose our temper, we need to learn to stop and pray, taking time to enjoy the Lord so that we activate the anointing.
The anointing – the moving and operating of the Spirit in our spirit – adds the element of God to us and removes from us anything that doesn’t correspond to God’s nature; the result is that we’re being renewed and we gain more God. Hallelujah!
What matters is a new creation; it is not circumcision or uncircumcision but a new creation, so all things work together for good so that we may gain more God, that is, that we would be renewed to become as new as the New Jerusalem.
Through our Sufferings, we have the Opportunity to Gain more of God
Whether we like it or not, sufferings are our portion as human beings; we may have a lot of money and we may be able to live an easy and pleasant life, but still, sufferings are our portion.
As believers in Christ, we have even more sufferings, for the Lord allots us sufferings so that the outer man may decay and the inner man may be renewed.
As we go through sufferings, we should not have the thought of revenge or avenging ourselves; rather, we commit all things to our faithful Creator, and we forgive and forget others’ mistakes.
Such a forgiving and forgetting others’ mistakes is the conformation to the death of Christ.
We may think that this is impossible, but actually, the capacity to forgive and forget is in the resurrection life of Christ in our spirit.
Just as there’s the life power in the seed that falls in the ground and dies, so there’s the resurrection life in the divine seed, and this power enables us to do things that we may consider impossible.
We can forgive and forget others’ mistake because of the power of resurrection. In and through our sufferings, we have the opportunity to gain more of God; eventually, after passing through many sufferings, we will have more of God in us.
This is what matters: gaining more of God in all things. As long as we gain more of God, this is what really matters.
Yes, outwardly our old man is decaying, being consumed, and it is decaying; but hallelujah, inwardly we gain more of God, for the inner man is being renewed as we turn to the Lord and enjoy Him.
In his experience of God’s consuming and stripping, Paul said that all the sufferings were a “momentary lightness of affliction” which worked out for him “an eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:16-17; Rom. 8:28-29).
He was in prison, he was being persecuted, and he was suffering daily for the Lord’s sake, but he considered all these things as being momentary (not eternal) and light (not weighty) working out glory into him (and not affliction).
Job considered his suffering of affliction as being something very heavy; Paul, however, considered his affliction to be momentary and light.
We may consider our suffering to be heavy and very lengthy, but if we contact the Lord by turning to our spirit, our sufferings will be momentary and light, and we will gain more of God, being renewed in our inner man.
What we as Christians care for is the increase of God as the weight of glory within us for our being transformed from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor. 3:18).
As long as we gain more of God, everything is alright; what matters is that we gain more of God, for this both removes the old, natural element in us and adds more of the element of God to our being.
This has to dawn on us so that we may realize that, even though sufferings are our God-allotted portion, yet we have the opportunity to gain more of God so that we may be renewed and become as new as the New Jerusalem.
May we not look at our sufferings or at the difficulties but look to the Lord and be open to Him so that He may work Himself into us a little bit more!
May we not desire or aspire to have a pleasant and nice life with no sufferings in it; may we simply desire and aspire to gain more of God so that, as our outer man is decaying and is being consumed, our inner man is being renewed day by day!
Lord Jesus, we desire to gain more of God even as we pass through sufferings and difficulties! Amen, Lord, work Yourself into us more and more every day. May the momentary lightness of affliction work out for us, more and more surpassingly, an eternal weight of glory! Lord, we care only for the increase of God as the weight of glory within us by our being transformed from one degree of glory to another! Amen, Lord, what matters is that we have more of God in us. May the element of God increase in us even at the expense of the loss of our natural man and old elements. Amen, Lord, we want to grasp the opportunity to gain more of God even as we pass through sufferings.
Exercising our Spirit to be Renewed and even to Rejoice in the Midst of Sufferings
Just like Paul, we also find ourselves in an environment of suffering and pressure, which is sovereignly arranged by God; this environment works with the Spirit to kill our natural man and also to cause us to gain more of God.
We should learn to cooperate with the indwelling Spirit and also accept the outward environment in our spirit, soul, and body; we do this because we don’t regard the things of temporary affliction which are seen but the things of the eternal glory which are not seen (Phil. 1:19-20; 2 Cor. 4:18; Heb. 11:1, 27; 2 Cor. 5:7).
It is human to look at the seen things; it is not uncommon for a man to complain as he looks at what is going on and the sufferings he passes through.
We as believers in Christ, however, need to realize that the seen things are not real but rather, the things which are not seen, the things of God, are of eternity.
We need to exercise our spirit to rejoice in the midst of our killing environment (Phil. 4:4).
If the Christian life were merely a happy life, the apostle Paul would not have needed to charge us to rejoice (Phil. 4:4).
Therefore, since sufferings are our portion, we should learn to rejoice by exercising our spirit.
While we’re suffering, while we’re wiping away our tears, we should rejoice; we do this because we exercise our spirit to gain more of God.
The reason Paul charges us to rejoice in the Lord is because it takes the exercise of our spirit in the midst of sufferings for us to rejoice.
On one hand, we are being renewed as we turn to the Lord to gain more of God, for the element of God is added to our being and Christ increases in us, even as we suffer.
On the other hand, however, we need to learn to exercise our spirit not only to bear the sufferings but even more, to rejoice in the Lord.
In His sovereignty, God is putting us all the time under the killing of the cross; the apostle Paul was under the killing of the cross, and so are we.
However, as we pass through sufferings and the cross operates in us, our outer man is decaying and our inner man is being renewed so that we may become the New Jerusalem!
All of God’s children are passing through the process of renewing to become the New Jerusalem; when we become the New Jerusalem, we are fully renewed.
The holy city is called the NEW Jerusalem because it has no old element of God’s old creation.
The way we’re being renewed is by our turning to the Lord and choosing to live by the divine life, not by the human life.
The more we live by the divine life and reject the natural life, the life of the self, the more the cross is applied to our being, and we do the will of God.
Doing the will of God should be something that comes naturally to us, but it actually is a suffering to us, for our natural life.
We have been saved, regenerated, and separated unto God to live not by our natural life but by the divine life, but we still live in and by the natural life so many times.
This is why the Lord allows sufferings and difficulties to be our portion – it is so that our natural life and our natural man would be exhausted and consumed, so that we may turn to the Lord and be renewed, and we would gain more of God.
When we do this, we will learn to live not by the natural life but by the divine life, and even though we may suffer in the midst of the environment the Lord sovereignly arranges, we exercise our spirit to rejoice.
How much we need to learn to exercise our spirit even in the midst of sufferings so that we may be renewed to be as new as the New Jerusalem, we would gain more of God, and we would rejoice in the Lord!
Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit to gain more of God even while we’re suffering! Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to rejoice in the midst of our killing environment. We do not want to live by our natural life but by the divine life! Oh Lord, even though the cross is applied to our natural life and we suffer, we still choose Your will! Amen, may Your will be done in our life. We choose You, dear Lord, and we choose to live not by our natural life but by the divine life! We exercise our spirit to rejoice in the Lord even while we’re suffering. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to receive more of God, gain more of God, and be renewed! Yes, Lord, renew us until we are as new as the New Jerusalem!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Christian Life,” chs. 15-16, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 3, Job’s Experience of God’s Consuming and Stripping in the Old Testament Being Far Behind That of Paul in the New Testament.
- Hymns on this topic:
– God’s purpose in dealing with those who love Him / is that they may gain Him to the fullest extent, / surpassing the loss of all that they have other than Him, / surpassing the loss of all that they have other than Him, / so that He might be expressed through them / for the fulfillment of His purpose in creating man. (Song on, God’s Purpose in Dealings)
– Oh, what a thought! Oh, what a boast! / Christ shall in me be magnified. / In nothing shall I be ashamed, / For He in all shall be applied. / In woe or blessing, death or life, / Through me shall Christ be testified. (Hymns #499)
– O let us rejoice in the Lord evermore, / Though all things around us be trying, / Though floods of affliction like sea billows roar, / It’s better to sing than be sighing. / Then rejoice evermore, rejoice evermore, / It is better to sing than be sighing: / It is better to live than be dying; / So let us rejoice evermore. (Hymns #717)
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