For us to live in resurrection for the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to know, experience, and gain the God of resurrection.
Our God may be a living God to us, doing things for us and even performing miracles to help us, heal us, and save us, but his intention is that we would know Him and experience Him as the God of resurrection.
We do not merely experience resurrection as a thing in itself – we experience the God of resurrection being wrought into our being so that we may be fully renewed and made part of the New Jerusalem.
This means that we all need to learn not to live according to our natural life but by the divine life within us, turning to our spirit to live not in death or darkness but in God’s light and in resurrection.
The Lord Jesus lived such a life, a life not in and of Himself, but a life of the Father, in the Father, for the Father, and by the Father. In everything that He said and did, the Lord took the Father as His source, speaking the Father’s words, doing the Father’s work, and seeking the Father’s glory.
Then Paul became an imitator of Christ, and his desire – even at the end of his life – was that he would know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, so that he may be conformed to His death.
We need the Lord to disciple us to live no longer in our natural man but in the mingled spirit so that we may be divine and mystical persons living in the divine and mystical realm, just as He was.
As we turn to the Lord within, His answer to our question many times is, No, don’t do that, don’t go there, don’t say that… And as we listen to His speaking and accept His inner guiding, we will live a life not of good vs evil or correct vs incorrect but a life by the divine life, a life in resurrection.
May the Lord have mercy on us and not let us remain the same month after month and year after year. May he have a way to work Himself into us, working His nature in our nature and mingling His life with our life, so that we may live a God-man life and not a natural life.
May we know, experience, and gain the God of resurrection so that we may be in reality the Body of Christ, having one life and one living with Christ.
We need to Experience the God of Resurrection Working Himself into our Being
The book of 2 Corinthians can be considered as Paul’s autobiography, but what we see in this book is not the many blessings that God bestowed on him but a life of suffering.
We need to realise that God is working through the cross to terminate us, to bring us to an end, so that we may no longer trust in ourselves but in the God of resurrection.
Do we know God as the God of resurrection? We may know God as the living God, the God who imparts life into us and who does many things for us. We may be sick and pray to God, and He may heal us.
We may have some problems at work or at home, and we open to Him, and the living God will take care of things and bring in peace. How wonderful this is!
The living God can perform many acts on behalf of man, but many times when this happens, God’s nature is not wrought into man. We may appreciate what God can do for us, but we may not have His nature wrought into us: we may remain the same, He is still Him and we are still us.
The living God working on our behalf and helping us does not affect us inwardly, for His nature is not wrought into us.
But when the God of resurrection works and we know God as the God of resurrection, His nature is wrought into us, and He communicates Himself to us by what He does for us and in us.
We see this with the apostle Paul, who was so sorely tried that he despaired even of living, but it was in this way that he learned to trust in the God who raises the dead (2 Cor. 1:8-9). God is not working to merely make His external acts to man; He is working to impart and work Himself into man (Gal. 4:19).
When we are young and we ask the Lord to do something for us, He may do it and we may appreciate Him for this, but as we grow in life, He may not do things for us but may rather want us to seek Him and know Him as the God of resurrection.
There may be problems sickness, and turmoil, and God may do nothing about it – He may not rescue us, He may not heal us in a timely way, and He may not change the situation.
All these situations that don’t seem so positive are an opportunity for the God of resurrection to work Himself into us and mingle Himself with us.
This is actually what He is after. He doesn’t want to merely do things for us but to work Himself into us so that we may subjectively know Him, gain Him and experience Him as the God of resurrection.
For example, the people of Israel were rescued by God from Egypt and they saw the living God part the Red Sea for them to cross, and then closed it back behind them to terminate their enemies.
They were full of joy and rejoicing, and they danced and sang with joy. However, this did not affect their inner being, for a short while later they murmured and rebelled against Moses and Aaron.
With the apostle Paul it was different, for he learned to experience God as the God of resurrection, and even though he was in prison, he did not pray or beg for his liberation but he allowed God to work Himself into him and mingle His nature with his nature.
He was pressed on every side but not constricted, unable to find a way out but not utterly without a way out, persecuted by not abandoned, cast down but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the putting of death of Jesus that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in his body (2 Cor. 4:8-11).
We may think that when we follow the Lord and heed the anointing everything will go right and we will be blessed, but what we see with Paul is not such a life but a life of suffering in which he experienced the God of resurrection. May we be those who aspire to have the God of resurrection wrought into their being!
Lord Jesus, may we know You not only as the living God who can do many things for man but as the God of resurrection who works Himself into man. Amen, Lord, work Your life and Your nature into our being, and cause us to be open to You to receive Your inner operating. Oh Lord, we don’t pray for sufferings or trials – we pray for us to know, experience, and gain You as the God of resurrection. May our being remain open to You so that, no matter what happens and what the situation is, You may have a way to work Yourself into us!
The Primary Purpose of Suffering is that God’s Nature would be Wrought into us to Renew us and make us the New Jerusalem
When we believe into the Lord Jesus, our life didn’t take a turn to prosperity or outward material blessings; rather, we may have encountered even more sufferings, pain, trials, and tribulations, but God became to us the God of resurrection.
God uses the environment in order to work His life and nature into us (see 2 Cor. 4:7-12; 1 Thes. 3:3).
He may allow suffering to beset us knowing that it will bring devastation to the natural man in the old creation, thus providing an opportunity for the God of resurrection to impart Himself into us so that we may have the divine element wrought into our being.
The primary purpose of suffering – especially for us as children of God – is not to cause us to suffer bitterly but to allow God to work His very nature into our being so that He may mingle Himself with us.
Through a process of outward decay of our natural man, an inward process is going on to add the divine nature into our being.
For us to live in resurrection and for us to be constituted with the God of resurrection, we must be conformed to the image of Christ as the firstborn Son of God through the “all things” which God arranges for us (see Rom. 8:28-29; Jer. 48:11).
If we as human parents know how to temporarily discipline our children, so does God; He disciplines us so that we may partake of His holiness (see Heb. 12:10).
Going through sufferings and hardships doesn’t necessarily mean that God wants to punish us; rather, He wants to train us and work Himself into us so that we may partake of His holiness.
The primary purpose of suffering in this universe, particularly as it relates to the children of God, is that through it the very nature of God may be wrought into the nature of man so that man may gain God to the fullest extent (2 Cor. 4:16).
Being a believer doesn’t mean that we are immune to human sufferings and our Christian life is a breeze….rather, God apportions to us a certain amount of suffering and hardships so that He may have a way to tear down our outer man and work Himself into our inner being.
We need to have full faith in God, in His heart, in His faithfulness, in His ability, in His word, in His will, and in His sovereignty, for as we pass through these things, there’s a renewing work going on.
As we pass through afflictions, there needs to be a continual renewing taking place in us day by day so that God can accomplish His heart’s desire to make us the New Jerusalem (see Ezek. 36:26; 2 Cor. 5:17; Rev. 21:2).
Hallelujah, our outer man is decaying but our inner man is being renewed unto the New Jerusalem day by day, and therefore we do not lose heart (2 Cor. 4:16). May the Lord have mercy on us and not let us remain the same year after year, even as we pass through many sufferings.
May we be open to His renewing work with us and in us until we know Him as the God of resurrection. He as the sovereign Lord controls the entire universe in order to renew us; He uses especially the environment to work His life and nature into our being.
Amen, may there be a continual work of renewing taking place in us day by day as we go through “all things” arranged by God, and may we know the God of resurrection in experience and reality!
Lord, may there be a continual work of renewing going on in us as we go through sufferings, afflictions, and hardships. Save us from remaining the same year after year. Have a way to tear down our outer man and weaken our natural man so that You may work Yourself into our being. Oh Lord, accomplish in us Your heart’s desire to work Your nature into our nature and mingle Your life with our life. We want to gain You to the fullest extent, Lord, and we want to partake of Your holiness. Grant us to know You and experience You as the God of resurrection!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ricky Acosta for this week, and portions from, Witness Lee, The God of Resurrection, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 2, Living in Resurrection for the Reality of the Body of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Pressed out of measure, pressed beyond all length; / Pressed so intensely, seeming beyond strength; / Pressed in the body, pressed within the soul, / Pressed in the mind till darksome surges roll. / God is my hope and God is my joy; / He is the resurrection life I enjoy. (Hymns #730)
# It is God’s intent and pleasure / That His Christ be wrought in me; / Nothing outwardly performing, / But His Christ my all to be. (Hymns #538)
# Lord, grant me the experiences / To produce such a ministry. / Through revelation and sufferings, / Lord, constitute Yourself in me. / By Your all-fitting life, / Lord, I learn to live. / By Your sufficient grace, / Lord, make home in me. (Song on, The new covenant ministers)
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