An overcomer lives in the Body and works according to the principle of the Body in the blending life of the entire Body of Christ; whoever cannot be blended with others will be disqualified by the age.
Paul encourages Timothy in 2 Tim. 2:22, But flee youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Today God appoints to us some companions – it is not necessarily the ones that we would prefer or we think “would match us”, but those that He considers are the ones we can pursue the Lord with.
We need to flee youthful lusts and pursue Christ in the Body and for the Body, together with our God-given companions. To be overcomers, we need to be those who live in the Body and do everything according to the principle of the Body.
This age is not an age of spiritual giants but the age of blending, coordination, and building up. We need to allow God to match us with others and be blended with the other saints the Lord sovereignly puts us with – if we cannot be blended with others, we are disqualified by the age.
How much we need companions to pursue the Lord with! How much we need to take care of our diet, eating only Christ and feeding only on the divine life, so that we would live a holy life for the church life!
Lord, strengthen our fleeing from youthful lusts! Strengthen all the saints to flee the trend in this world and pursue You with the companions You give them. Match us in Your sovereignty, Lord, and blend us with the saints. Save us from pursuing You in an individualistic way. May we see the Body, care for the Body, and do everything in the principle of the Body!
Flee Youthful Lusts and Pursue Christ!
Don’t presume you can pursue Christ by yourself and you don’t need companions. Don’t think you can overcome the youthful lusts and the trend of this age by yourself, just you and the Lord. We need to be those who flee youthful lusts – not just “avoid them” or “stay away from them”, but FLEE, run away from them.
As we flee youthful lusts, we need to pursue Christ in the Body with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart! We don’t just flee and that’s it; we flee and we pursue Christ together with companions – we pursue Christ as righteousness, faith, love, and peace!
Our companions need to be God-lovers. May the Lord save us from being or hanging out with people who are lovers of self, lovers of money, or lovers of pleasures. May we be those who are deniers of self, givers of money, lovers of enjoying God as our pleasure, and crazy lovers of God!
For us to love God more and pursue gaining Him we need companions, the God-given saints who are as desperate as we are to gain Christ, obtain Him, and know Him more! The more we fellowship, pray, and are together to pursue Christ, the more we will love Him!
Together with the God-Given Companions
We all have certain preferences and tastes, and according to our preference we would like God to match us / put us together with this or that person. But God always matches us according to His arrangement, and not according to our preference or maneuvering. We need to be matched with some God-given companions so that we may pursue Him together.
The divine principle is that the proper representation of the Body is always by those who are matched with others.
Nehemiah was matched with Ezra to lead the returned captives of Israel in Jerusalem (Neh. 1:1; 8:2). Paul was matched with Sosthenes the brother when he wrote the epistle to Corinth (1 Cor. 1:1). Moses was matched with Aaron when he was sent by God to deliver the people of Israel from Egypt (Exo. 4:14-16).
Paul was matched with Timothy and had the same heart as Timothy in the things that concern Christ and the saints (Phil. 2:19-22). The Lord Jesus sent the disciples two by two to preach the gospel (Luke 10:1).
The Holy Spirit sent Barnabas and Paul for the work of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 13:1-3). Paul was matched with Silvanus and Timothy when he was writing to the church in Thessaloniki (1 Thes. 1:1).
God matches us with whomever He considers will help us most to gain Him and be transformed into the image of Christ. We should not behave individualistically but rather act according to the principle of corporateness, always seeking to have another member of the Body to match us.
The more saints we have to match us and coordinate with us, the better and safer it is! It may be difficult for us and it may limit us a lot, restricting us in our preferences and decisions, but when God matches us with some to pursue Him and do something for Him, we are blessed!
This is the age of blending – if we are not blended, we are disqualified. But the more we are blended, matched, restricted, and together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart, the better it is!
Taking Care of Our Diet: it is a Matter of Life or Death!
If we are going to live a holy life for the church life, we must care for our diet, which is a matter of life or death.
In God’s eyes, everything that is of the worldly enjoyment and the earthly supply is nothing but death (see Exo. 4:9 – the Nile as the source of supply and enjoyment is just blood, death). We need to see that the enjoyment in the world and the pleasures of this age bring death into us.
For us as overcomers-to-be and manchild-wanna-be’s who want to live a holy life for the church life, we need to take care of our diet! What we eat, what we take into us, what our diet is every day is a matter of life or death (see Gen. 2:9, 17; Dan. 1:8-9).
The Lord Jesus lived because of the Father, and we should eat Him and live because of Him (John 6:57). We don’t live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4).
We need to overcome by eating – overcome to eat the tree of life and the hidden manna, until this will be our reward (Rev. 2:17). We need to reject the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and choose to eat Christ as the tree of life by eating the words of the Scriptures (John 6:63) and drinking the guileless milk of the Word (1 Pet. 2:2).
What we eat decides and influences not only how we grow but also what we are. We need to eat Christ and encourage one another to eat Him so that we may become Him!
Lord Jesus, give us the companions that You want us to have that we may pursue You and gain You. Lord, we need companions – we need those who we can be matched with that we may call on the Lord out of a pure heart together! Make us blendable and buildable ones, those who live in the age of blending and are not individualistic. Keep us eating the tree of life and drinking the water of life in the Word of God! Lord Jesus, our diet!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother Ed Marks’ speaking in this message and portions in, Life-study of Exodus (pages. 97-103), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on Crystallization-Study of Daniel and Zechariah, week 2 (entitled, A Pattern of a Person Used by God to Turn the Age).
- Further reading: the wonderful matching of Moses and Aaron, via, Life-study of Exodus (msgs. 8-10).
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# But flee youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, / Faith, love, peace with those who / Call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
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# Immersed in Thy love; / Fresher than morning dew; / Here I’m kept away from every earthly care.
# Pursue Him and know Him; be found in Him. / Count all things loss for Him. / Just gain Him, obtain Him; lay hold of Him. / It’s Christ the central vision. - Pictures credit: Via, Inspiration Unlimited Facebook page, HWMR Daniel and Zechariah Quotes album.
About aGodMan
We need to flee youthful lusts and pursue Christ IN the Body and FOR the Body with God-given COMPANIONS, "with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart". According to the divine principle, the proper representation of the Body is always by those who are MATCHED with others; this matching is determined entirely by God's arrangement, not by man's maneuvering. An overcomer lives in the Body and works according to the principle of the Body in the blending of the ENTIRE Body of Christ; whoever cannot be blended with others will be disqualified by the age. This principle of matching applies today. If you have been called by the Lord, you need to realize that you need for someone to match you. To act individualistically in the Lord's service is not according to the divine principle. It violates the principle of the Body. We should not behave individualistically; rather, we should move and act according to the principle of corporateness, always having at least one other member to match us. The more members we have to match us, the better it is.
According to the record, Aaron might have been more capable than Moses in the matter of speaking; Aaron might have been more eloquent than Moses. However, Aaron was not to take this as an occasion to be proud. He could only do a certain amount, for God did not give him so much as far as position was concerned. In fact, Exodus 4:16 says that Moses was to be as God to Aaron. From the match of Moses and Aaron we all can learn the importance of knowing where we are. The place we occupy in a matching relationship depends entirely on the Lord’s arrangement. The Lord called Moses and He prepared Aaron to match him. There was no place for human maneuvering. Everything was according to the divine economy, the divine arrangement. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 99-101, 103)
Although the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision (Dan 2:19) but Daniel went to his companions and together they requested before God (2:17-18). Timothy were to flee youthful lust and pursue Christ, with “those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” God arranged Aaron to be a mouth for Moses (Exo 4:16). Paul always had a brother to match him. Peter, John and James, the Lord's most loved disciples, Mary and Martha, two sisters loving and serving the Lord, Aquila and his wife Prisca risking their necks for the apostles. Paul charged Euodias and Syntyche to have the same mind to pursue Christ. (Phil 4:2). Psalm 119:63 says, “I am a companion to all who fear (love) You and to those who keep Your precepts” The Body cannot be represented by individuals, but by the blended ones. It is difficult to match and to blend with others, because a matching one binds us and restricts us. Overcomers take care of their eating. They reject death by rejecting all earthly sources of supply and worldly enjoyment and they live a holy life for the church life by eating the tree of life. "O Lord, grant us Your mercy and grace that we would not be disqualified by the age."
A striking aspect of the pattern of Daniel was that he was matched with God-given companions. They weren't just buddies–people that Daniel had a natural liking for. Rather, they were ones that he could pray with for God's interest. We may like other believers but if we can't be in harmony with them in praying for God's interest (like the 2 or 3 in Matt 18:18-20) they won't enable to fulfill God's purpose. We need to be with those like Moses and Aaron, Nehemiah and Ezra, Paul and Timothy, and Daniel and his three companions who pursue together in the principle of the Body of Christ. Even as a Christian blogger, it helps to have others to pray and fellowship with.
Tom Smith commented on a God-man in Christ:
A striking aspect of the pattern of Daniel was that he was matched with God-given companions. They weren't just buddies–people that Daniel had a natural liking for. Rather, they were ones that he could pray with for God's interest. We may like other believers but if we can't be in harmony with them in praying for God's interest (like the 2 or 3 in Matt 18:18-20) they won't enable to fulfill God's purpose. We need to be with those like Moses and Aaron, Nehemiah and Ezra, Paul and Timothy, and Daniel and his three companions who pursue together in the principle of the Body of Christ. Even as a Christian blogger, it helps to have others to pray and fellowship with.