The Gaining of the Soul will be the Reward of the Kingdom to the Lord’s Overcoming Followers

May we be those who do not shrink back to ruin but those who have faith to the gaining of the soul, so that we may receive the reward of the kingdom given to the overcoming followers of the Lord. Amen!

Being a believer in Christ, a genuine Christian, is quite a mysterious yet amazing matter, for we receive a new life – the divine life, the life of God, and living a Christian life is the living by the divine life which we received at the time of our regeneration.

On the positive side, we need to live by the divine life so that we may express Christ, live Christ, and fulfill God’s purpose.

On the negative side, for us to live Christ we need to deny the self, lose our soul-life, and take up our cross to follow the Lord.

We do not live Christ by default; rather, our default daily is to live in the self, seek enjoyment for the soul-life, and avoid sufferings as much as possible.

No sane person willingly chooses to suffer, and no normal person consciously denies the desires of his soul.

But the Lord Jesus told us that, if we want to follow Him in reality, we need to deny the self, lose our soul-life, and take up our own cross; this also is related to our gaining of our soul in the coming age and receiving the reward at the Lord’s return.

Today people live so much in their self, they seek to satisfy the desire of their soul, and they avoid sufferings as much as possible.

Even we as believers in Christ, when sufferings come our way, we try to avoid them.

But if we are to follow the Lord in His steps, we need to live by His divine life and not avoid sufferings but rather, as we exercise our spirit to contact the Lord, we need to receive sufferings and the losing of our soul-life for His sake and for the sake of the gospel.

Our hope and commonwealth, even our reward, is not in this age; we are saved for the next age and for eternity, and our hope is in the better things that are above.

The things we see around us, the entertainment that this world has to offer, and the pleasures in this age, all these are not real; they may offer a temporary enjoyment in the soul, but the real enjoyment can be found in the Lord, and the full enjoyment in the soul is in the next age as a reward to those who lose their soul-life in this age for the Lord’s sake.

May we be wise Christians, those who don’t live with one foot in the world and another in the church but rather, by the Lord’s mercy and grace, exercise their spirit to be joined to the Lord, and lose their soul-life for the Lord’s sake and for the sake of the gospel, so that we may have faith to the gaining of the soul in the next age.

The soul refers to our old natural being, and the soul-life refers to the life of the soul, our natural human life; what can we give in exchange for our soul-life?

We should choose wisely to lose our soul-life in this age (which is max. 100 years) so that we may gain it in the next age to the full extent for one thousand years!

Receiving the Salvation of the Soul by Not Shrinking Back to Ruin but have Faith to the Gaining of the Soul

After hearing the Lord’s word that, at His return, He will take those who did not love their soul-life in this age but chose to suffer for the Lord’s sake and for the sake of the gospel, we should NOT shrink back to ruin.

We may think that this is too difficult, this is impossible; we may ask, Who can actually do this? Who is willing to deny himself, lose his soul-life, deny the soul its pleasures in this age, and suffer for the Lord’s sake?

If we read the Bible, we will see that many believers and seekers of God have done this; Abraham did this, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph did this, and David, the prophets, and the apostles – they all did this for the Lord’s sake.

There are many patterns of the faith in Hebrews that went before us; there are so many in the church age who have followed the Lord completely, even to the very end, never shrinking back.

There is a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, encouraging us to go on with the Lord and with one another! Amen!

So we should not be of those who shrink back to ruin but of those who have faith to the gaining of the soul (Heb. 10:39).

We shouldn’t cast away our boldness, which has a great reward (Heb. 10:35).

Our being is of three parts – we have a spirit, a soul, and a body (1 Thes. 5:23).

When the Lord Jesus came into us, He came in our spirit to regenerate it; this happened in an instant, for when we repented and opened to the Lord, His life regenerated our spirit to make us children of God (John 3:6; 1:12-13).

Similarly, when the Lord will transfigure our mortal body, this will happen in an instant – He will make us the same as He is, having a body of glory, and He will release us from the body of this death (Rom. 8:23-25; Phil. 3:21).

However, regarding our soul, we need to daily pay the price to deny the soulish pleasures and lose our soul-life, going through the process of transformation, so that we may receive the salvation of our soul, the gaining of our soul when the Lord returns.

The gaining of our soul depends upon how we deal with it in following the Lord after we are saved and regenerated.

If we allow our soul to have enjoyment in this age by satisfying its desires and indulging in the pleasures in the world today, we will lose our soul-life in the next age.

If we lose our soul-life in this age for the Lord’s sake, we will save our soul at the Lord’s return (Matt. 16:25; Luke 9:24; 17:33; John 12:25; 1 Pet. 1:9); we will have the gaining of the soul at the Lord’s coming back, and our soul will enter into the enjoyment of the Lord.

So the gaining of our soul depends on how we deal with our soul in following the Lord day by day; now that we have received the Lord and have His divine life in us, we need to pay the price of losing our soul-life today for the sake of the Lord and of the gospel, and our soul will be gained in that day.

We want to preserve, save, and possess our soul on the day of the Lord’s return; for this, we need to deal with our soul as we follow the Lord.

Day by day we need to choose to turn to the Lord, enjoy Him, set our heart on Him, turn our heart to Him and, as He arranges certain things to happen and sufferings to come our way, we should allow our soul to not have its pleasure, satisfaction, and desire in this age for the Lord’s sake, seeking to enjoy the Lord and find our satisfaction in Him.

Lord Jesus, we want to be of those who do not shrink back to ruin but who have faith to the gaining of the soul! Amen, Lord, we want to gain our soul in the next age and enter into the full enjoyment of the Lord in the age to come. We follow in Your footsteps, dear Lord Jesus, and we put our soul-life aside for Your sake and for the sake of the gospel. We choose You again and again, even if this means the loss of our soul-life and denying the soul its pleasure and satisfaction. Oh Lord, You are our only satisfaction. We delight in You. Our soul desires You, and our choice is made: we want the gaining of our soul!

The Gaining of the Soul will be the Reward of the Kingdom to the Overcoming Followers of the Lord

The gaining of our soul in the coming age will be the reward of the kingdom to the overcoming followers of the Lord (Heb. 10:35).

If in this age we follow our Lord to suffer for Him, not caring for the enjoyment of our soul but following Him faithfully, we will gain our soul in that age.

But if we don’t follow Christ faithfully today but care for the enjoyment of the sou, the psychological pleasures, we will suffer the Lord’s discipline in our soul in the coming age. Oh, Lord Jesus!

The Lord Jesus both promised us and warned us concerning the losing and the gaining of the soul in the Gospels when He said that if in this age we lose our soul for His sake and the sake of the gospel, at His coming back in the next age we shall gain it (Matt. 16:25; Luke 9:24; 17:33).

To lose our soul in this age is to suffer for the Lord’s sake in a human way. If we follow the Lord faithfully today, we shall surely suffer for His sake.

First of all, all human beings suffer; if in our sufferings we still choose the Lord, love Him, open to Him, and allow Him to be our enjoyment and hope, we will lose our soul-life to gain it in the next age.

Furthermore, if we are faithful and straight followers of the Lord Jesus, our teachers in school may not give us a higher grade, and our boss at work may not give us the promotion or salary rise that we were hoping and working for.

Instead of demanding our rights and fighting for what we deserve, however, we put our soul-life aside, and we seek to have enjoyment in the Lord, not in the world.

However, many times we may choose not to suffer in this age but rather, we want to enjoy our life today, desiring a nicer car, a bigger house, and many worldly things, even the latest in technology and in fashion, things which match our soul’s desire. Oh, Lord Jesus!

May we be saved from allowing our soul to have its pleasure and satisfaction today, and may we choose to follow the Lord faithfully on the way of the cross, which is the way of suffering the loss of our soul-life in this age!

May we aspire to be the overcomers today, those who overcome day by day not insisting on our rights but rather allowing our soul to suffer the loss of its enjoyment, satisfaction, and pleasure in this world for the Lord’s sake and for the sake of the gospel!

Someone may say something to us to hurt us or despise us for being a Christian, and we don’t fight back; we deny our rights, we are meek, and we don’t insist on being right.

We should not give in to our soulish desires and preferences but rather reject them and let them go, allowing our soul to suffer today for the Lord’s sake.

This is not to practice asceticism but, in our following the Lord, in our loving Him, in the building work of the church, and even in the spiritual warfare, we should put ourselves with the soulish desires aside, and seek to have the gaining of the soul in the coming age!

The gaining of the soul is a reward given by the Lord to His overcoming believers at His return; it is the reward of the coming kingdom.

The gaining of the soul equals being perfected and being glorified; for us to be perfected and be glorified, is for us to gain our soul in the next age – this is the goal of God’s salvation.

The Lord Jesus denied and put aside His soul-life for the sake of the Father in this age, and we are being conformed to His image today, so that He may be the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29).

Amen, may the Lord be merciful to us and strengthen us in our faith today for this, so that we may enter into the joy of the Lord in the coming age when He returns with His kingdom!

Lord, be merciful to us and strengthen us in our faith today so that we may be Your overcoming followers who receive the gaining of the soul, the reward of the kingdom at Your return! Amen, Lord, we want to enter into Your joy at Your coming. May we realize that in this age our portion is suffering in the soul, together with the real enjoyment of Christ, and in the next age our portion will be the full enjoyment of Christ in our soul. Amen, Lord, conform us to Your image so that, even as You lived on earth, so we do the same, living a life of denying the self and losing the soul-life for the Lord’s sake and the sake of the gospel! May we reach perfection and glorification, the gaining of the soul in the coming age, so that we may enter into the joy of our Master and receive the reward of the kingdom!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Hebrews, msg. 46 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Christian Life, the Church Life, the Consummation of the Age, and the Coming of the Lord (2020 fall ITERO), week 3, The Losing of the soul-life, Participating in the Rapture of the Overcomers, and Receiving the End of our Faith – the Salvation of the Soul.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Through the Cross, O Lord, I pray, / Put my soul-life all away; / Make me any price to pay, / Full anointing to receive…. / If with Christ we die completely, / Willing thus our all to lose, / He will clothe us with His power / And to win the world will use. (Hymns #279)
  – Our soul gained for the kingdom’s age— / For this we lose our soul life here; / If we lay down our soul life now, / We’ll save it for Christ’s kingdom there. / We all must learn to pay the price, / Christ must be worked into our soul; / ’Tis thus our soul is gained by Him, / This is our aim and this our goal. (Hymns #1298)
  – Did I meet no trials here, / No chastisement by the way, / Might I not with reason fear / I should prove a castaway? / Trials make the promise sweet; / Trials give new life to prayer; / Bring me to my Savior’s feet, / Lay me low and keep me there. (Hymns #625)