We need to experience the resurrected and ascended Christ, living in resurrection and ascension to engage in spiritual warfare for the sake of God’s kingdom.
Hallelujah for the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land! In this land we have everything we need and even more; here we enjoy all kinds of rich foodstuff such as wheat, barley, vine trees with grapes, pomegranates, fig trees, and olive trees, and milk and honey is flowing in this land.
When we eat, enjoy, and experience Christ as the reality of all the foodstuffs in the good land, we are inwardly supplied to live a life for the purpose of God in the land given to us by God.
However, God wants us to go on, to advance, from experiencing Christ merely as our food and drink to experiencing the more solid Christ, the crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ, so that we may live in the resurrection and ascension of Christ in our daily life and be produced as living stones for God’s building, having spiritual weapons for spiritual warfare to defeat the enemy and bring in God’s kingdom.
We need to experience Christ in His resurrection so that we may become stones for the building of God. God’s building, the church, is not built up with food and drink; God’s house is not a house made of bread, flour, fig trees, and pomegranates – such a house would not stand.
The house of God, the church, is built up with Christ as the living stone, and we all come to Him to be produced as living stones.
And as we experience Christ as the more solid Christ, the Christ in His resurrection and ascension, we share in His authority.
God’s authority can be ours in reality as the church only when we are in the resurrection of Christ. It is in His resurrection that Christ was given all authority in heaven and on earth, and when we experience the resurrection of Christ, we share in His authority.
So daily we need to live one spirit with the Lord, allowing His cross to operate in us to crucify anything of the old man, the self, and the natural man, and we need to live in the resurrection life of Christ so that we as the church may share in His authority.
The authority of the church is where the saints know what it means to be crucified with Christ and to live in resurrection.
When the church is able to exercise the authority of Christ, we all will have safety and security. When the saints in the church live in the resurrection life of Christ, there will be safety from any attacks of the enemy, and the church is kept in peace for its building up.
Experiencing Christ in His Resurrection and Ascension for the Building of the Church and the Spiritual Warfare
We need to experience Christ as a land from whose mountains we can mine copper (Deut. 8:9d; Ezek. 34:13; 37:22; 1 Sam. 17:5-6; Dan. 10:6d; Rev. 1:15a). Copper can be mined from the mountains; in order to mine copper, we need to have mountains.
What do mountains signify? Mountains signify resurrection and ascension (Matt. 28:16). In other words, for us to have a more solid experience of Christ for the building of God and for the spiritual warfare, we need to live in the resurrection and ascension of Christ.
The meaning of mountains and hills in the Scriptures is resurrection and ascension; these are something that are raised above the earth, above the plain.
As the One who has resurrected and ascended on high, Christ is the high mountain (Acts 2:32-33; Eph. 1:19-21; 4:8, 10). All the spiritual, living stones are in the resurrection life; they are stones joined to the mountain of Christ’s resurrection.
We are living stones; but if we still live in the adamic life, in the old life and nature, then we are simply in the plain, unable to be built up in the church or to fight for God’s kingdom.
May we come to the Lord and learn to enjoy Him and experience Him as the resurrected One, and may we live in the resurrection and ascension of Christ so that we may enjoy Him as the hills and the mountains, and have stones and copper for God’s building and the spiritual warfare.
Sometimes we meet with the saints and both us and them live in the natural life; the sisters may be so much in their emotions, the brothers may be so much in their mind, and we all live in our natural life.
We may feel good being together, but we are all so natural, continually living and walking in the natural life.
If we all live in the natural life, no matter how good and lovely it may be, we do not have hills and mountains among us, and we do not have God’s building; rather, we are all clay, we are all on the plain, and all we have is just dust and clay. Oh Lord Jesus!
But when we know the cross and know something of the denial of our natural life, we will be walking in newness of life and serving in newness of the spirit; then, we will live in resurrection, and with us there’s something raised, some hills and mountains, and there are many living stones.
We are all in the process of becoming living stones built up in the house of God, but we need to remember that it is only when we walk in resurrection that we can be living stones suitable for God’s building.
In the good land there are lots of mountains and hills for the building of the house, the city, and the kingdom of God; whenever we walk in the resurrection life by denying ourselves, putting ourselves aside, and being in resurrection, we have God’s authority and His kingdom, and the church can be built up.
Lord Jesus, save us from living in our natural life and by our natural man in our daily living; keep us turning to You in spirit and living in the resurrection life of Christ for the building up of the church! Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to experience You as the resurrected and ascended Christ so that we may become living stones, materials for the building up of the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God. May many among Your people today live and walk in the resurrection life so that the church may have many hills and mountains with stones for God’s building, the church!
We are one with Christ in His Ascension to Experience the Truth, the Victory, and the Destruction of the enemy!
In Song of Song 4:8 we see in type how we as believers may engage in spiritual warfare by being in the ascended Christ, for in Christ’s ascension there are the peaks of reality (Amana), victory (Senir), and the destruction of the enemy (Hermon).
The Lord calls to His seeker that she would come with Him from Lebanon, look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens and the leopards’ mountains.
Lebanon signifies ascension; in Christ’s ascension there are the positive peaks of reality, victory, and the destruction of the enemy.
Amana means “truth, reality”; this is the truth and reality of the consummated Triune God , the all-inclusive Christ with His complete redemption, and the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving, sevenfold intensified Spirit. This is the reality.
Senir means “soft armor” which signifies that the war is over and the victory has been won, so we wear not hard armor but soft armor, for the victory is ours. Satan has been defeated; we do not need to fight, because Satan has already been defeated, and we stand in the victory of Christ (Heb. 2:14; Col. 2:15).
Hermon means “destruction”; in ascension the enemy is destroyed, and we enjoy our victory in Christ. Hallelujah!
Spiritual warfare can be carried out only in the ascension of Christ, where He has won the victory; Christ calls us to come and live with Him in His ascension a life in His victory!
We should never try to fight the spiritual battle in the low plain – we need to be in the resurrected and ascended Christ!
Many saints experience of Christ may be limited to something about His incarnation, Him being a wonderful God-man in His human living, and maybe something about His death and crucifixion, dealing with all our sins and problems. Some even experience something of Christ’s resurrection, as the One who has risen from the dead.
But what about our experience of Christ’s ascension? Not many of us are familiar with with this aspect of Christ’s process; many times we may consider it too objective, not having to do anything with us.
We may think we are down here while Christ is up there in ascension, and sometimes He gives us some help…but the reality is that we are in Christ, we are ascended with Him!
![[In Song of Songs 4:8] Lebanon signifies ascension. In Christ’s ascension there are the positive peaks of reality, victory, and the destruction of the enemy. Amana means “truth, reality.” This is the truth, the reality, of the consummated Triune God; the all-inclusive Christ with His complete redemption; and the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving, sevenfold intensified Spirit. These realities are the three of the Triune God. Senir means “soft armor,” signifying that the war is over and victory has been gained. We do not need to wear the hard armor to fight. Satan is the defeated foe. We do not need to fight, because he has been defeated already (Heb. 2:14; Col. 2:15). We are now wearing the soft armor to enjoy our victory in Christ. Hermon means “destruction.” In ascension the enemy is destroyed. CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “Crystallization-study of Song of Songs,” p. 321](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/In-Song-of-Songs-4_8-Lebanon-signifies-ascension.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "[In Song of Songs 4:8] Lebanon signifies ascension. In Christ’s ascension there are the positive peaks of reality, victory, and the destruction of the enemy. Amana means “truth, reality.” This is the truth, the reality, of the consummated Triune God; the all-inclusive Christ with His complete redemption; and the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving, sevenfold intensified Spirit. These realities are the three of the Triune God. Senir means “soft armor,” signifying that the war is over and victory has been gained. We do not need to wear the hard armor to fight. Satan is the defeated foe. We do not need to fight, because he has been defeated already (Heb. 2:14; Col. 2:15). We are now wearing the soft armor to enjoy our victory in Christ. Hermon means “destruction.” In ascension the enemy is destroyed. CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “Crystallization-study of Song of Songs,” p. 321")
We have been crucified with Christ, we were raised with Him, and now we are ascended with Him – our position is with Him in the heavenlies!
If we are going to be the people who enter into the good land, those who fight against the enemy, we need to know our position; we need to know that our position is in the heavenlies with Christ.
We are not on earth – we are in the heavens, one with the Lord, and here we enjoy the divine reality – the Triune God Himself as the divine truth, the reality in this universe!
Here in ascension we fight the spiritual warfare not based on our own reasoning, feeling, concepts, or ideas, but by standing in the position of ascension with Christ, enjoying the reality of the Triune God, and enjoying our victory in Christ!
Hallelujah, when we realize our position in Christ, when we see that we are ascended with Him, we will enjoy all that He is, we will live in this elevated land, and we will enjoy the reality of all that the Triune God is and has, and His victory is ours!
The Lord has to bring us into the experience of Christ as the mountains; we need to be elevated, uplifted from our low position; we need to get up to a high ground, the high mountains, where our ascended Christ is, experiencing the truth, the victory, and the destruction and defeat in the enemy in the ascended Christ!
Lord Jesus, cause us to realize our position in Christ: we are crucified, raised, and ascended with Christ, and now we are in the heavenlies with Him! Hallelujah, in Christ’s ascension we can enjoy the reality of all that the Triune God has and is, the victory of Christ, and the destruction of the enemy! Amen, Lord, bring us on the top of Amana and Senir and Hermon, enjoying You and experiencing You in Your ascension to fight the spiritual warfare in ascension with You! May we be elevated and uplifted from our low position and get up to a high ground, the high mountains, where our ascended Christ is, to experience the truth, the victory, and the destruction and defeat of the enemy!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” ch. 8, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Deuteronomy, week 4, The Goodness of the Land – Its Minerals.
- Hymns on this topic:
– In the heav’nlies more than conqu’ror, / In the power of His might, / As a soldier in the army, / In the Lord the battle fight. (Hymns #885)
– A lover of Christ should be one / Who is called by Him to live in ascension / As the new creation, creation of God, / In the resurrection of Christ. (Song on, A lover of Christ)
– Praise Him’ Christ hath now ascended! / God hath raised Him to the throne! / Far above all rule and power, / He the highest Name doth own! / All authority receiving / Till His foe is overthrown! (Hymns #124)
