Experiencing Christ to have a Keen Sense of Discernment and be Fresh and Living

As believers in Christ, we need to discern between what is of God and what is not of God, what is of life and what is of death, what is good and what is evil, and what God wants and what He hates; we need to have a walk that has been tested and burned by the Lord so that we be shining, and we need to have a keen sense of discernment.

On the one hand, we need to enjoy God as grace and have His power in life applied to us to become our grace, supplying us daily, strengthening us within, and overshadowing us (see: the wings of an eagle, the four living creatures).

We need to wait on the Lord, enjoy Him, let Him satisfy us and renew us, and sprout wings like eagles; as we wait on the Lord, we are terminated and stopped, and God in Christ becomes our life, our person, and our replacement, with the result that everything we do is by the grace of God and under His overshadowing grace.

On the other hand, we need to not only do everything by the grace of God but we should be normal Christians, doing everything exactly like a man; we need to have “the hands of a man”, and these hands need to always be working.

Having the divine life and nature doesn’t mean that now we don’t need to take care of the daily necessary things of our human life; rather, the more we enjoy the Lord, experience Him as grace, and become spiritual, the more we become normal human beings who live not by their natural humanity but by the humanity of Jesus in their spirit.

Christian humanity is not us working on our human virtues to improve them and uplift them, but Christ living in us and out of us; the result of such a living of Christ in us is that we become human Christians, those living in a Jesusly human way according to the humanity of Jesus.

God doesn’t want us to be like angels; He wants genuine me who live by the divine nature, by the grace of God, and thus live the highest human life, a life like that of the Lord Jesus.

How can we live like the Lord Jesus? It is simply by drinking the Spirit of Jesus, in whom there’s the humanity of Jesus; as we drink Jesus, His humanity is infused into us, and we spontaneously live out Christ.

Experiencing Christ to have Full Knowledge and a Keen Sense of Discernment

Through regeneration we received another life, the divine life, and this life has a sense of life, giving us discernment concerning all things.

The more we experience Christ and grow in life, we learn and develop the ability to discern the spiritual things from the natural things, the things that are pleasing to God from the things He hates, life and death, and good and evil.

As we read the Bible, pray over God’s word, and allow the word of God to pierce and divide the soul and the spirit (Heb. 4:12), we develop our sense of discernment, and we eat not only the milk of the word but also solid food, having our faculties exercise to discern (Heb. 5:14).

The degree of learning and experience we have before God is the degree of the discernment we have, and the most profound discernment comes from the most profound dealings. Paul encourages us to abound in love yet more and more in full knowledge and all discernment (Phil. 1:9).

Discernment is the ability to sense things; the Greek word for discernment means “sensitive perception, moral tact”. As we read the Bible, the rich word of God enables us to discern what God approves and what He disapproves.

If we don’t know the truth, we will think that everything is OK and acceptable, and we may find ourselves in mixture; there has to be a sensitive perception – we need to discern things spiritually.

The knowledge and discernment that we need to have in loving others are Christ Himself; we don’t have discernment apart from Christ but rather, when we experience Christ, He becomes our knowledge and discernment, our perceptive power.

The more we experience Christ day by day, the more we will discern matters not by our cleverness but by the Christ who lives within us (Gal. 2:20). When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He had a keen sense of discernment; without those around Him even saying a word, He knew what was in their heart and what they were considering in their mind.

We need to experience Christ so that we may love and know others with a mind full of knowledge and in all discernment. For example, we need to discern between ethics and Christ; ethical teachings – no matter how high, elevated, and scriptural they may be, they are not of Christ, of the Spirit, of resurrection, or of the new creation (Gal. 6:15).

What matters in God’s eyes and in our Christian life is Christ; we need to be those experiencing Christ to have knowledge and a keen sense of discernment, so that we may discern between ethics and Christ, good things and Christ, and morality and Christ.

Otherwise, when we see some who are humble, kind, good, and well-behaved, we may think they live Christ – but we may not discern that they don’t express Christ nor do they live by the divine life.

In Rom. 8 we see the best way to discern a matter: the secret of discernment is to discern according to life or death. What we need for the building up of the church is not more gifts and eloquence but the ministry of life; when we speak, we need to not merely impart doctrines to others but to minister life to them.

We need to experience Christ to have full knowledge and a keen sense of discernment in our Christian life.

Lord Jesus, we want to experience You day by day so that we may develop a keen sense of discernment and know the things of God and the things not of God. Lord, may we experience You more so that we may discern matters not by our cleverness but by the Christ who lives within us. May we live one spirit with You, being one with You in what we do and say every day. Lord, save us from having a lack of discernment; may we discern everything according to life or death. May we focus on life, give life, minister life, receive life, know life, and live by the sense of life every day!

Having a Walk that has been Tested and Burned by the Lord, and being Fresh, Living, and Full of Vigor

The calf’s feet in Ezek. 1:7 sparkled like the sight of burnished bronze; this indicates that we believers need a walk that has been tested and burned by the Lord (so that it would be like shining bronze) to enlighten and test others (Rev. 1:15).

The shining of bronze comes from the heat of the furnace; the more the bronze is tested and burned, the brighter it shines.

In our Christian life we need to have a walk that has been tested, burned, and shined on by the Lord, being examined by Him; if this is our experience, our walk will shine and give light to others, testing them, and causing them to realize whether their walk is right or wrong.

If we are shined on by the Lord and allow Him to examine us and test us, our walk before others will shine on them and test them, bringing them in the Lord’s light.

A calf, in the Bible, signifies freshness and livingness, full of vigor; a calf is young, vigorous, and full of energy (see Mal. 4:2). When we touch the Lord and enjoy Him, He makes us fresh, living, and full of vigor, and we don’t just walk about but skip and leap like a well-fed calf.

Our Christian walk should be a “skipping walk”, a walk that is full of life (see Psa. 29:6). If we are those who enjoy grace and live in the presence of God, we will always be new and fresh, and with us there will be no oldness.

We can all testify that, when we touch a brother or sister who enjoys grace and lives in God’s presence, we are enlightened, we touch life, and we are convicted; furthermore, we are encouraged and strengthened to go on with the Lord.

Sometimes we may meet an older brother (a brother who is elderly in human age) who is so fresh, new, and full of vigor; when he shares or prays, you receive life, and you taste how living and fresh he is with the Lord.

At other times, however, we may fellowship with a younger brother (a brother who is young in human age) and who is rather old spiritually, with no freshness or vigor.

In all our activities as believers we should be new and fresh, full of vigor, and living before the Lord; if we become old and stale, we no longer are living creatures.

May we not have a dead and formal walk in our Christian life but be full of energy, vigorous, and fresh in our time with the Lord and fellowship in the church life.

Only the Lord is the living, fresh, new, and vigorous One; we need to experience Him daily and be fresh, new, and living with Him and before Him, so that we may be the living creatures He needs on earth today.

Lord Jesus, save us from having a dead or stale walk before You; we want to experience You as the new, fresh, vigorous, and living One so that we may be living creatures full of energy skipping and leaping! May we always enjoy grace and live in Your presence constantly so that there would be no oldness, staleness, lukewarmness, or death with us. Lord Jesus, shine on us, examine us, burn in us, and test us, and may our living and walk be shining and enlightening, full of life, energy, vigor, and freshness!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother James Lee’s for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ezekiel, pp. 64-66 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (1), msg. 5 (week 5), The Wings of an Eagle, the Hands of a Man, and the Feet of a Calf.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # It is the inner sense in us, / The inmost consciousness, / Discerning matters inwardly, / God’s will to thus express. / ’Tis by this sense that God we know, / The sense of inner life; / ’Tis pow’rful and spontaneous, / And not of any strife. (Hymns #738)
  # Reading in the Bible, / Each one taking turns; / Fellowship together, / How our spirit burns! / Christ in all the saints, / Living, fresh and new. / Blending with each other, / Tasting morning dew! (Song on being living and fresh)
  # But unto you who fear My name / Will the Sun of righteousness arise / With healing in His wings, / With healing in His wings. / And you will go forth and leap about / like well-fed calves, / And you will go forth and leap about / like well-fed calves. (Scripture song)