As those who aspire to be the Lord’s overcomers today, the church of brotherly love, we need to realize that we have been fired and replaced with Christ, and today we live in an organic union with the Lord in which it is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us.
Hallelujah! This is good news!
We believers in Christ have been shown mercy by God to see something of God’s economy, and we have the teaching of the apostles, the healthy teaching of God’s New Testament economy in our hands.
Now we just want to keep God’s word not only by reading it but even more, by considering it prayerfully, getting into it with much prayerful consideration, so that we may be constituted with God’s word.
We receive the word of God warmly and gladly, and we raise our hands to God’s word, saying Amen to it.
Don’t you love the word of God?
The word of God is not merely something that God wants to communicate to us of His plan and desire; it is the very person of God who can be infused into us as spirit and life.
As we come to the word of God with an exercised spirit, turning our heart to the Lord, we can be infused with the very essence of God.
As we daily come to the Lord in His word, turning our heart to Him and exercising our spirit to receive Him as spirit and life, we will be constituted with what God is.
If we remain in this process of being constituted with God, God is wrought into us and we are built into God; God is built into our being and we are built into the Triune God.
This is what is happening in us in an intrinsic and organic way; this is not yet visible, but one day we will become pillars in the temple of our God.
Wow, we will become pillars in God Himself, for He is the temple!
As we remain in the healthy teaching of God’s economy and are infused with Him as our life and everything, He gets built into us and we are built into Him.
When others see us, they can read the name of God, the name of the New Jerusalem, and the Lord’s new name on our forehead, for we have been mingled with the Triune God in our experience.
This is what Rev. 3:12 says. And we believe it, pray about it and open to the Lord day by day until He works Himself into our being in a full way.
We aspire to be the Lord’s overcomers who are possessed by God, by the New Jerusalem, and by the Lord Himself, and we want to express Him simply by enjoying Him and allowing Him to be expressed through us. Hallelujah!
Let’s remain in this process of becoming the New Jerusalem in our experience by remaining in the healthy teaching of God’s New Testament economy until we are fully constituted with God, and until He is built into us and we are built into Him!
God Fires Everyone and Replaces them with Christ: He Hired us by Creating us and He Fired us by Crucifying us with Christ
![Thus says the Lord Jehovah of hosts: / Get up, go to this steward, / To Shebna, who is over the [king's] house, [and say,]...And I will drive you from your position, / And from your standing He will pull you down...And in that day / I will call to My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,...And I will set the key of the house of David upon his shoulder - / When he opens, no one will shut; / When he shuts, no one will open. Isa. 22:15, 17, 20, 22](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Thus-says-the-Lord-Jehovah-of-hosts-Get-up-go-to-this-steward-To-Shebna-who-is-over-the-kings-house-683x1024.webp?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "Thus says the Lord Jehovah of hosts: / Get up, go to this steward, / To Shebna, who is over the [king's] house, [and say,]...And I will drive you from your position, / And from your standing He will pull you down...And in that day / I will call to My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,...And I will set the key of the house of David upon his shoulder - / When he opens, no one will shut; / When he shuts, no one will open. Isa. 22:15, 17, 20, 22")
The characteristic of the overcomers in Philadelphia is their endeavouring to enter into the God-man living by enjoying the riches of Christ as their indwelling treasure (Eph. 3:8; 2 Cor. 4:7).
We see this in type in Isa. 22, where Christ is the Steward in God’s house replacing Shebna, whom God fired.
In this chapter, God fired Shebna, a steward in the house of the king (vv. 15-19), and replaced him with Eliakim, who is a type of the all-inclusive Christ as the Steward in God’s house.
Christ is the real Steward in God’s house, the One upon whose shoulder the key of the house of God is set (vv. 20-25). Wow!
In Rev. 3:7-8 we are told that Christ has the key of David who opens the door and no one can shut, and shuts and no one can open.
In Isa. 20:20-25 we see Christ as the One upon whose shoulder the key of the house of God is set.
The matter of God firing Shebna and hiring Eliakim is very significant.
When God created us, He hired us; we were created in God’s image and according to His likeness to express Him and represent Him (Gen. 1:26).
God hired us to express Him. But we fell, and we did not express God nor did we represent Him, for man chose not to eat of the tree of life but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Therefore, God fired us through Christ’s crucifixion.
We were made one with Christ and, through the cross, we were fired by God.
In this entire universe, everything in God’s house and outside God’s house needs to be fired and replaced with Christ.
The nations, the stewards, and all the bowls and jars in the king’s house need to be replaced; they are all replaced with Immanuel, with Christ.
God replaces everyone and everything with Christ; He fires everyone and replaces them with Christ, for Christ is the only One qualified for God’s building and to fulfil His purpose and satisfy His desire.
Christ is revealed in Isaiah to be a Father, a Steward, a throne of glory, and a peg (a nail) driven into a sure place (a wall), on which hang all the utensils and vessels, is because He is everything and everyone in God’s house.
All the things that belong to God for His people to enjoy Him, in so many aspects and with so many characteristics and uses, are Christ Himself.
Whatever and whoever is not Christ, God fires and replaces with Christ.
We were created in God’s image and according to His likeness, and God hired us to express Him and fulfil His purpose.
![We need to see that when God created us, He hired us, and that when He put us on the cross, crucifying us with Christ, He fired us...God fired everyone on the cross, and He is replacing everyone with Christ [cf. Gal.2:20]. After God’s firing and replacing of everyone and everything with Christ, there will first be the restoration for the kingdom, and then there will be the restoration for the new heaven and new earth for the New Jerusalem...The real church life is a life in which all the saints are fired and replaced with Christ. This will make Christ everything in the church. This is the vision of God’s economy hidden in Isaiah 1—23. Life-study of Isaiah, pp. 87-89, by Witness Lee](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/We-need-to-see-that-when-God-created-us-He-hired-us-and-that-when-He-put-us-on-the-cross-crucifying-us-with-Christ-He-fired-us-683x1024.webp?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "We need to see that when God created us, He hired us, and that when He put us on the cross, crucifying us with Christ, He fired us...God fired everyone on the cross, and He is replacing everyone with Christ [cf. Gal.2:20]. After God’s firing and replacing of everyone and everything with Christ, there will first be the restoration for the kingdom, and then there will be the restoration for the new heaven and new earth for the New Jerusalem...The real church life is a life in which all the saints are fired and replaced with Christ. This will make Christ everything in the church. This is the vision of God’s economy hidden in Isaiah 1—23. Life-study of Isaiah, pp. 87-89, by Witness Lee")
But we failed, and Christ came to fulfil God’s purpose; through Christ’s crucifixion, we were all fired by God and replaced with Christ.
God put us on the cross with Christ, crucifying us with Christ; we have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20).
Hallelujah, on the cross God fired everyone and everything, and He is replacing everyone with Christ!
The real church life is a life in which all the saints are fired and replaced with Christ; it is not us who live the church life in our natural man, but Christ who lives in us – He is the One who lives the church life.
After God fires and replaces everyone and everything with Christ, there will be first the restoration for the kingdom, and then there will be the restoration for the new heaven and new earth for the New Jerusalem. Hallelujah!
This is the vision of God’s economy hidden in Isaiah chs. 1-23; God makes Christ everything to us in the church by replacing everything and everyone with Christ.
Christ is all and in all in the church life (Col. 3:10), for He is all members and in all members of the Body, and He is the unique constituent of the one new man. Hallelujah!
We need to thank and praise the Lord about this, realizing that we are not the ones who should live the Christian life and the church life but Christ is the One, for God fired us and replaced us with Christ, and Christ in us can live a life for the fulfilment of God’s purpose.
Hallelujah, God hired us by creating us in His image and He fired us by crucifying us with Christ so that Christ may be all and in all! Praise the Lord, Christ is everything and everyone in the house of God, and only He is pleasing to God, fulfilling God’s purpose! Thank You, Lord, for hiring us by creating us in God’s image and firing us through the crucifixion of Christ. Lord Jesus, You are everything to us. We take You as our life, our person, and our everything, and we want to be one with You in living the Christian life and church life. May Christ be everything to us in our Christian life and church life. Save us from not living Christ. May Christ be the One living in us and doing everything in us for the church, so that the church as the Body of Christ may be built up!
Living in the Organic Union with the Lord to be Fired and Replaced by Christ as He Lives in us
What does it mean that we have been fired and replaced by Christ? This may not sound so positive but rather, it seems that we no longer exist, and now Christ is.
In the New Testament, Christ’s replacing of us is altogether a matter of the grafted life.
We were wild olive branches, and by faith into Christ and baptism into Him we have been cut off from the old source and organically joined to Him (Rom. 11:17, 24).
Yes, God hired us by creating us and He fired us by crucifying us with Christ, and it is no longer us who live.
However, this doesn’t mean that we don’t exist or don’t do anything; rather, the life which we now live, we live in the organic union with the Lord so that He may live in us and we may live Christ (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21).
![I am crucified with Christ; and [it is] no longer I [who] live, but [it is] Christ [who] lives in me; and the [life] which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the [faith] of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Gal. 2:20 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Phil. 1:21](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/I-am-crucified-with-Christ-and-it-is-no-longer-I-who-live-but-it-is-Christ-who-lives-in-me-2-683x1024.webp?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "I am crucified with Christ; and [it is] no longer I [who] live, but [it is] Christ [who] lives in me; and the [life] which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the [faith] of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Gal. 2:20 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Phil. 1:21")
We have been fired by God through our faith and baptism, and we have been replaced with Christ through our organic union with Him.
We are united with Christ, and in this union, Christ replaces us.
Because we have been joined to Christ and Christ joined Himself to us, we are one with Him and He is one with us.
When He died on the cross, we died with Him and were terminated, and when He was resurrected, we were raised with Him to live in newness of life, even to live Christ as He lives in us (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17).
We are now one spirit with the Lord; actually, He and we are one spirit.
We are just one – He is in us and we are in Him, He is becoming us and we are becoming Him, and when we live, He lives in us, with us, by us, and through us. Wow!
Our real Christian life is a life in the organic union with the Lord so that we may be fired and replaced by Christ as He lives in us and we live Christ.
Now as we believers in Christ, we live, yet not us, but Christ lives in us; the life we live today in the flesh is by the faith of the Son of God.
We have been joined to Him. He was joined to us.
In this organic union, we are fired and replaced by Christ – but not in the sense that we are “obliterated by Christ” and only Christ is and we are not, but in the sense that we are joined organically with Him, and He and us grow together, live together, and do everything in oneness.
On the one hand, we are fired and, on the other hand, we are not expelled, for Christ comes to live in us, with us, by us, and through us.
It is in this way that the all-inclusive Christ as Immanuel (Isa. 7:14) replaces everything and everyone and becomes everything and everyone in God’s economy (Col. 3:10-11).
We need to see this spiritual reality and enter into this experience in our daily living.
It should not be us who live in our natural man and by our self, but it should be Christ who lives in us, and we live Christ by remaining in the organic union with Him.
We need to realize that, though God created us in His image and according to His likeness, thus hiring us to do His purpose, we were fired by God and replaced with Christ, for Christ now lives in us to do everything in us.
Paul spoke concerning this in Col. 2:16-17 when he said that our food and drink, our feasts, our new moons, and all the Sabbaths are shadows of Christ, who is the reality of all these things.
Everything in God’s economy is fired by God and replaced with Christ, for Christ is all and in all for God in His economy.
Both the Old and the New Testament show us that God fires and replaces everything with Christ, and we now live in an organic union with Christ who is everything to us, so that He lives in us and we live Him out, He is expressed through us as we remain one with Him, and He fulfils God’s purpose as we live in the organic union with Him. Hallelujah!
The real church life is a life in which all the saints, both brothers and sisters, both young and old, and both new ones and saints who have been in the church life for a long time, are fired and replaced with Christ, so that Christ may be everything and everyone in the church.
We all have been fired by God and replaced by Christ so that we become the duplication and continuation of Christ on the earth to be stewards of the mysteries of God and the varied grace of God (Col. 3:10-11; 1 Cor. 4:1; 1 Pet. 4:10). Hallelujah!
We can now all declare one with Paul,
Thank You, Lord, for making us one spirit with You! Hallelujah, he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit! Keep us in this organic union today so that we may be fired and replaced by Christ. May Christ be the One living in us today as we remain in the organic union with Christ. Amen, Lord, may all the saints in the church life enter into the experience of being fired and replaced with Christ so that Christ may be the One living in the saints for the building up of the church! May it be no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us. Make us Your duplication, Lord, as stewards of the mysteries of Christ and the varied grace of God. May Christ become everything and everyone in the church so that He would be the unique constituent of the one new man. Hallelujah, Christ lives in us and we live one spirit with Him a life for the fulfilment of God’s purpose in the church life as the church of brotherly love!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks in the message, and portions from, Life-study of Isaiah, msgs. 13, 42, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Loving the Lord and loving one another for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ (2022 fall ITERO), week 8, entitled, Taking the God-ordained Pathway for the Church—the Way of Philadelphia—according to the Lord’s Up-to-date and Ultimate Recovery to Bring Us into a New Revival to Turn the Age.
- Hymns on this topic:
– I am one with Thee, Lord Jesus, / One in spirit now with Thee; / All Thyself I now possess, Lord, / All Thou art now lives in me… / One with Thee in crucifixion, / On the cross I died in Thee; / I am dead unto the world, Lord, / And the world is dead to me. (Hymns #474 stanzas 1 and 3)
– Oh, what a life! Oh, what a peace! / The Christ who’s all within me lives. / With Him I have been crucified; / This glorious fact to me He gives. / Now it’s no longer I that live, / But Christ the Lord within me lives. (Hymns #499 stanza 1)
– All types and figures of the ancient time, / All things we ever need, both great and small, / Only are shadows of the Christ of God, / Showing that He must be our all in all… / Christ also is the one reality / Of all our doctrine and theology; / And all our scriptural knowledge without Him / Is just in letter and is vanity. (Hymns #496 stanzas 2 and 5)
About aGodMan
God…fired Shebna, a steward in the house of the king (Isa. 22:15), and replaced him with Eliakim, a type of Christ (vv. 20-24; Rev. 3:7). In the entire universe everything in God’s house and outside God’s house should be fired and replaced with Christ. The nations, the steward, and all the bowls and jars in the king’s house needed to be replaced. God replaced all of them with Immanuel. He replaced everyone and everything with Christ. This is the reason Christ is unveiled as a Father, a Steward, a throne of glory, and a peg (a nail) driven into a sure place (a wall), on which hang all the utensils and vessels—all the things that belong to God for His people to enjoy Him. Here we see that whatever or whoever is not Christ, God fires. We need to see that when God created us, He hired us, and that when He put us on the cross, crucifying us with Christ, He fired us…God fired everyone on the cross, and He is replacing everyone with Christ [cf. Gal.2:20]. After God’s firing and replacing of everyone and everything with Christ, there will first be the restoration for the kingdom, and then there will be the restoration for the new heaven and new earth for the New Jerusalem…The real church life is a life in which all the saints are fired and replaced with Christ. This will make Christ everything in the church. This is the vision of God’s economy hidden in Isaiah 1—23. Life-study of Isaiah, pp. 87-89, by Witness Lee
I am so encouraged to realize that God hired us by creating us in His image and He fired us by crucifying us with Christ so that it is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us!
Hallelujah, we have been brought into an organic union with the Lord through our faith and baptism into Him, and now Christ replaces us by living in us, with us, by us, and through us.
Hallelujah brother, we’re all fired!
Everything & everyone should be fired & replaced by Christ.
Christ fired everyone on the cross and replaced everyone with Himself.
However, we are not expelled. The Lord’s desire is to live in us, with us, by us and through us.
Dear brother, today, in the real church life, we are Shebnas who have been fired, to be removed and replaced by Christ as the real Eliakim!
It is Christ who has the key to the riches and it is He who lives in us.
In union with such a one, enjoying all His riches we can fulfill our function as stewards in God’s economy to minister Him as we remain in this organic union.
Hallelujah, we were hired and then fired to be replaced with Christ
https://youtu.be/WsdLfM41mnY
We need to see that when God created us, He hired us, and that when He put us on the cross, crucifying us with Christ, He fired us.God fired everyone on the cross, and He is replacing everyone with Christ.
God, who had hired everyone, eventually fired everyone that He might replace everyone with Christ.
When everyone and everything is replaced with Christ, Christ becomes everything.
Hallelujah brother, on the one hand, we are fired, and on the other hand, we are not expelled, for Christ comes to live in us, with us, by us, and through us.
This is Immanuel replacing everything and being everything in God’s economy. Praise Him!
amen Brother just as God fired shebnah we have been fired when we died on the cross
we now need to live by this one who has the keys of the house of David
he has the riches for us to enjoy we just have deny ourselves and enjoy this life
Aaaaameeen brother, whilst eating the outline the Lord is shining, what way am I taking today?
Oh Lord may the Lord shine, may we take the up to date way, the way of Philadelphia!
Amen!
O Lord! help us to focus toward you so that all our attention can be on your eternal economy. Remove all common things and make us holy and perfect as you are Lord. Make our (your church) fellowship like the fellowship of the Triune -one God as stated in the book of (2 Cor. 13:14).
We praise you Lord!
Praise the Lord, no longer I, but Christ.
I enjoyed that when everyone and everything is replaced with Christ, Christ becomes everything for the real church life. Amen Lord, bring us and keep us in the experience of the real church life! May we be willing to remain in the mode of the death of Christ for Christ to live from within us!
Amen brother!
O Lord May I always remember I have been crucified (the old man has been fired) and Christ lives in me now as the new man!
Hallelujah!
Rev. 3:7
7 And to the messenger of the church in Philadelphia write: These things says the Holy One, the true One, the One who has the key of David, the One who opens and no one will shut, and shuts and no one opens:
Gal. 2:20
20 I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Col. 2:16-17
16 Let no one therefore judge you in eating and in drinking or in respect of a feast or of a new moon or of the Sabbath,
17 Which are a shadow of the things to come, but the body is of Christ.
Matt. 17:5, 8
5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight. Hear Him!
8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.
Col. 3:10-11
10 And have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
11 Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.
This is the word of God. Amen!
…
…
“In the entire universe everything in God’s house and outside God’s house should be fired and replaced with Christ…He replaced everyone and everything with Christ…Here we see that whatever or whoever is not Christ, God fires.”
“We need to see that when God created us, He hired us, and that when He put us on the cross, crucifying us with Christ, He fired us…God fired everyone on the cross, and He is replacing everyone with Christ [cf. Gal. 2:20].”
“…The real church life is a life in which all the saints are fired and replaced with Christ. This will make Christ everything in the church. This is the vision of God’s economy hidden in Isaiah 1—23.”
“In the New Testament, Christ’s replacing of us is altogether a matter of a grafted life. This grafted life is the highlight of God’s salvation in John 15. Christ is the vine, and we are the branches (v. 5). As wild olive branches, we have been grafted into Christ (Rom. 11:17). Thus, we are united with Christ, and in this union Christ replaces us. He replaces us by living in us, with us, by us, and through us. We live, yet not we, but Christ lives in us, and we live by the faith of the Son of God. This indicates a union with Christ.”
“…When everyone and everything is replaced with Christ, Christ becomes EVERYTHING.”
“…Paul’s concept in Colossians 2:16 and 17…is telling us that our food and drink, feasts, new moons, and Sabbaths are all shadows of Christ. Christ, therefore, is the replacement of all the things in God’s Old Testament economy.”
“On the one hand, we are fired, and on the other hand, we are not expelled, for Christ comes to live in us, with us, by us, and through us. This is Immanuel replacing everything and being everything in God’s economy.”
(Life-study of Isaiah, pp. 87-89)
Two verses that have touched me profoundly. Gal. 2:20 and Col. 2:16-17.
The latter is the one that I want to keep in mind all the time, especially when I am with the saints. As the footnote in Rom. 14:3 explains, we should never judge anybody who has received our Lord as his/her Savior no matter the differences on doctrine concepts or their religious practices, even in the ways they live.
ONLY Christ can take away anything He doesn’t like it, everything that is hanging in the walls of our hesrt that is not pleasant to Him, that is, IF we are humble and willing to let things go; IF we touch His Word everyday; and IF we let ourselves to be nourished and shepherd by the mature and gifted ones.
We need not to be narrow on our acceptance, and live by faith and lots of prayers for the new ones to grow into Christ through good shepherding and appropriate nourishment from the Word of God.
Rom. 14:3 He who eats, let him not despise him who does not eat; and he who does not eat, let him 1not judge him who eats, for 2God has received him
1 Concerning the receiving of the believers, Paul used eating (vv. 2-3) and the keeping of days (vv. 5-6) as examples. God’s receiving has nothing to do with what we eat or with our keeping of certain days. These are minor, secondary matters that have nothing to do with our salvation and basic faith. Therefore, we should not despise or judge others in these things.
2 The basis on which we receive the believers is that God has received them. God receives people according to His Son. When a person receives God’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, as his Savior, God receives that person immediately and ushers him into the enjoyment of the Triune God and of all He has prepared and accomplished in Christ for us. We should receive people in the same way and should not be more narrow than God. Regardless of how much they differ from us in doctrinal concepts or religious practices, we must receive them. When we receive people according to God and not according to doctrine or practice, we demonstrate and maintain the oneness of the Body of Christ.
The first verse I enjoyed is, Gal. 2:20. I want Christ to live with me, by me, through me, and in me so I can grow into Him everyday and be ready to give my portion to all the saints and to those that will be called by Him. I need to be well prepared and ready to be used by Him when He knocks a the doors of the hearts of those He is planning to call.
I don’t recruit people for the congregation, I recruit people for the Building Up of His Church, to enhance the beauty of His Bride, for His Army, because “…The real church life is a life in which all the saints are fired and replaced with Christ. This will make Christ everything in the church. This is the vision of God’s economy hidden in Isaiah 1—23.”
Amen!