In order to be in reality the Israel of God, we need to experience God as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. It is not enough for us to know and experience God as our Father, our source; we need to go on and experience Him by enjoying Him and receiving of Him everything that He is in Christ!
The believers in Christ are the real Isaac today: all they have to do is receive what God has done for them and what He is doing for and in them! There’s nothing that we have which we can boast “it is of us” or “we did it”: redemption and salvation are from God, justification and forgiveness of sins is something we receive, and freedom is in Christ Jesus.
All we have to do is be open and receive Christ, enjoy Him, delight in Him, and allow Him to saturate us with all that He is! In the story of Isaac, he didn’t do much – all he did is enjoy the riches of Abraham and all that his father has prepared for him! This is what it means to experience God as the God of Isaac.
Furthermore, we need to experience God as the God of Jacob, whose history is a type of discipline and dealing of the Holy Spirit. Unlike Isaac, Jacob went through so many situations that allowed God to work on him, discipline him, transform him, and mature him to become Israel, a prince of God.
We shouldn’t pray for dealings or for God to break us; we simply need to pray for Christ to make His home in our hearts and for God to work Himself into us, and in His time and His way, the Lord will bring about the right people, situations, and things to help us be transformed and matured in life.
May we cooperate with the Lord and be open to Him to experience Him as the source, receive Him as everything we need, and allow the Spirit to break through in us that we may be transformed and mature in life as the real Israel of God on earth.
Experiencing God as the God of Isaac – Everything Comes from God the Father, so Just Receive and Enjoy!
If we read Isaac’s history in Genesis 24-25, we see that he didn’t struggle or do much: all he did is receive all that his father Abraham has prepared for him. The principle of Isaac is the principle of receiving, and we as believers in Christ are simply those who receive what God has done for us, what He has prepared for us, and all that He gives us in Christ (Gen. 25:5; 1 Cor. 4:7).
What can we boast of in our Christian life that we have not received? Is salvation something that you worked for? Did you do something to obtain forgiveness of sins, redemption, justification, or sanctification?
It is of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace (John 1:16). As many as receive the Lord, to them He gives the authority to become children of God (John 1:12-13). The Spirit whom Christ became in His resurrection can be received by us through drinking (John 7:37-39).
We simply need to receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:17). Everything we have and we give others is of what we have received. We shouldn’t initiate anything: just receive, enjoy, and be filled with the riches of God in the all-inclusive Christ.
Christ Himself is the real Isaac, and all He did is not initiate anything but receive from the Father and speak, do, and live (see John 16:15; 17:10; 5:19, 30). Our place is simply to receive from God, being open to Him as empty vessels to be filled with Him. God is our Supplier; everything proceeds from Him, and we as His sons simply receive and enjoy (see Gen. 26:12-13; Rom. 11:36; Gen. 24:36; 1 Cor. 8:6; 11:12b).
In Abraham we see God’s purpose, and in Isaac we see God’s power. In Abraham we see the standard which God requires of His people, and in Isaac we see the life which enables God’s people to reach that standard. May we see not only God’s purpose and God’s requirements but also God’s life, which can meet all of God’s demands.
As believers in Christ we simply need to believe and receive, and let God’s life operate in us and live in us.
Lord Jesus, we come to You as open vessels to receive Your dispensing, Your riches, and everything You are and have. Lord, make us the best receivers. Save us from trying to do anything or initiate anything; cause us to stop and receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness! We want to be receiving Christians and not doing Christians. Dispense Yourself into us. We admit that there’s nothing that we have which we have not received. Father, You are the Supplier, the Giver, and the Source; we want to be the receivers, the enjoyers, and the partakers!
Experiencing God as the God of Jacob – the work of the Holy Spirit and the discipline of the Spirit
Unlike his father Isaac, Jacob went through many things and situations; his experiences represent the work of the Holy Spirit, and his history is a type of the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Nothing will touch us more intrinsically than the experiences of the God of Jacob.
At the same time, we should not be subjective but open to the Lord to shine on us and take us on. Jacob’s life is a life that represents God’s dealings, and the God of Jacob is a God of dealings (see Gen. 31:38-41).
In one of brother Watchman Nee‘s trainings on Kuling mountain he shared concerning three kinds of dealings involved in Jacob’s life and in our life also: the fragmentary dealings, the fundamental dealings, and the supplementary dealings.
The fragmentary dealings are the ongoing series of things, matters, persons, and situations which the Spirit uses to touch us and deal with us. They may be dramatized by some believers as being “the breaking of the outer man”, but in Jacob’s life he spent 20 years running from his brother Esau, working for Laban, being cheated by Laban regarding his daughters, having his wages changed all the time, running from Laban, and many other things – and all these were fragmentary dealings!
After all those years Jacob had four wives, 11 sons, 1 daughter, and many herds of sheep, and still, he had zero transformation. It’s like “treating the symptoms” of a sick person.
The fundamental dealings break your being open, they terminate you, smash you, and reduce you to nothing. With Jacob it began when he met the Lord at Peniel and wrestled with Him. This kind of dealings are like major surgeries, going in deep in our being.
The supplementary dealings seem to be the same as the fragmentary dealings, but they can be likened to “aftercare” for a full recovery after a surgery. Few believers have experienced fundamental dealings, and it is sad to grow older and have merely fragmentary dealings….if the Lord doesn’t break through in us until the very end, the church doesn’t receive much benefit.
Our God is a God of dealings, and to experience God as the God of Jacob means to experience all manner of dealings. He wants to not merely treat the symptoms but shatter the self and reduce our natural life to nothing, so that our whole being would be open to Him to be constituted with God (according to Eph. 3:16-19).
Knowing that our God is a God of dealings, we should not be afraid, discouraged, or lose heart; we should simply be where we are until the Lord will take us further, and we should pray NOT for “more dealings” or “deeper breaking” but for God to work Himself into us. Pray in a positive way that God’s life in us may grow and mature.
He will answer your prayer by arranging all kinds of circumstances and things to deal with you and break you, with the goal that your natural life would be dealt with and you would be constituted with God.
Through the discipline of the Holy Spirit, God completely tears down the element of the old creation in us, and He does this so that the element of the new creation may be built up in us. The purpose of God’s dealing with our natural life through the discipline of the Holy Spirit is so that Christ may be wrought into us, constituted into us, and formed in our being for the corporate expression of the Triune God (Gal. 4:19; Eph. 3:16-21).
The result of Jacob’s being dealt with by God is that he became Israel, a prince of God, with no remorse for the past, no hard feelings against others, and nothing negative to say about anything or anyone; all he did is express God and bless others!
Lord Jesus, work Yourself into us. Cause Your life to grow in us. Save us from being introspective or negative. Lord, You know where we are, who we are, what we need, and what’s the next step. Take us on with You. We simply want to cooperate with Your inner operation and Your outward arrangement. You are our God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Fill us with God. Reconstitute us with God. Make us Your new creation in reality. Gain the Israel of God. Give us the experiences we need that we may be transformed and matured to be the real Israel of God!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 35, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” chs. 4-5, as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (2), week 1 / msg 1, Knowing and Experiencing the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob to Become the Israel of God.
- Hymns on this topic:
# God the Son gives man His rich inheritance, / And a life enjoying His abundance, / And a life in peace, totally without lack— / Fully blessed, in the section of Isaac. / God the Spirit transforms man and causes man / To be mature in life, enabling man / To bless and supply all, and rule o’er the earth, / In the section of Jacob with Joseph. (new hymn on Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob)
# In his father’s footsteps, Jacob then became / Prince of God, a wrestler, Israel his name; / By the Spirit’s dealing, fully grown, he reigned; / O’er the earth, through Joseph, ruling pow’r obtained. / Thus do Jacob, Isaac, Abraham portray / Path that we, God’s called ones, must walk in today: / Members of the Body, as a corporate man, / We complete His calling and fulfill His plan. (Hymns #1269)
# Every moment, every member, / Girded, waiting Thy command; / Underneath the yoke to labor / Or be laid aside as planned. / When restricted in pursuing, / No disquiet will beset; / Underneath Thy faithful dealing / Not a murmur or regret. (Hymns #403)
About aGodMan
