The genuine Christian life is the life of an overcomer, and we as the overcomers in the New Testament should be kings who have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to reign in life. Amen, Hallelujah!
This week we come to the last crystal in the books of 1 and 2 Kings, Living an Overcoming Life by Reigning in Life to Become the New Jerusalem as the City of Life.
If we read these two books and try to find out what are the major points or the crystals, we may not have much success; we need to put on the glasses of God’s economy to see what the Lord sees and be one with Him to pick the major points in these two books.
It is the Lord’s mercy that we can look at such seemingly negative books, the records of the many failures of the kings of Israel and of Judah, receive the holy warnings, learn the spiritual lessons, and be filled with hope for our Christian life.
In particular this week we want to see the matter of living an overcoming life by reigning in life so that we may become the New Jerusalem as the city of life.
As we remain in the Word of God and under the Lord’s speaking in a living way, we are purified and cleansed, and our hearts are filled with hope and joy, for the Lord is doing in us what He wants to do.
There is a clear need among us to tear down any high places, anything that rises up above Christ, anything that is elevated and becomes something that distinguishes us from others besides Christ.
May we return to the divine revelation in God’s word and give the Lord the preeminence in all things.
When we speak, may we speak Christ and not preach ourselves. He must have preeminence in all things.
When we give the Lord the first place in all things, He rules and reigns in us, and we rule and reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
The fact that the life of the kings is being recorded in the books of 1 and 2 kings shows that we, as believers in Christ, need to be kings with Christ and with God, those ruling and reigning in life.
And this life in which we rule and reign is not the human life (bios) or the psychological life (psuche) but the divine life (zoe), the uncreated life of God.
We are called, chosen, and set to be kings and priests, those who rule and reign with Christ and who serve God and man with the riches of Christ.
And our destiny is to become the New Jerusalem, the city of life – we will fully be swallowed up in life, we will eat the tree of life and drink the water of life, and we will be the city of life for eternity. Hallelujah!
The Genuine Christian Life is the Life of an Overcomer – we are Kings, Priests, and Prophets in God’s Economy
As believers in Christ, we are to live the life of an overcomer; the genuine Christian life is the life of an overcomer. All the overcomers in the New Testament should be kings who have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness (Rom. 5:17).
It is impossible for us as human beings to live the Christian life; it is impossible for us to be an overcomer in and by ourselves.
The only One who can live the Christian life is Christ who is the sevenfold intensified Spirit in our spirit.
The only One who can be an overcomer and live the life of an overcomer is Christ as the life-giving Spirit with our spirit.
We need to touch Him, experience Him, enjoy Him, and allow Him to flow in us and out of us in this way.
We want to live Him out and let Him live in us. When we do this, the genuine Christian life becomes the life of an overcomer.
How can we be an overcomer? It is by receiving the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness so that we may reign in life through Christ, the One who is the Overcomer in our spirit.
First, we receive the abundance of grace, and then the abundance of the gift of righteousness.
The abundance of grace has to do with our organic salvation and the gift of righteousness has to do with our redemption.
In our natural thinking, we would think that first comes righteousness and then grace.
But in God’s eyes, grace is first and then righteousness. It is similar to having the bread at the Lord’s table meeting, and then having the cup. In our natural thought, we think that the cup comes first, for redemption is our need.
But in God’s purpose, according to His original intention, He wants man to enjoy God and partake of His riches to be His corporate expression, and redemption is after that.
Redemption is symbolized by the cup; redemption was not the original and ultimate purpose of God, but it was given by God to recover us to God’s original purpose.
As believers in Christ, we are ordained by God to be prophets and priests, and we are also kings to allow God to rule in us and through us over all His enemies! Amen!
The genuine Christian life is the life of an overcomer. The New Testament believers should fulfil the typology of the kings, priests, and prophets in God’s economy.
God ordained us to be prophets, those who speak for God, and priests, those who contact God and minister God to others.
In the New Testament, all the believers are saved to be kings and priests (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 20:6; 22:3-5; 1 Cor. 14:12, 24-25, 31).
When we as priests to God speak for God, we become God’s spokesmen, God’s mouthpiece – these are the prophets.
We are a holy priesthood – we are a royal priesthood, a priesthood that reigns in life. God made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father.
May we be those who pursue Christ toward the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called us upward.
In the Old Testament in the people of Israel, the kings were those who enjoyed the top portion of the good land; they enjoyed the good land on the top level.
This is what God wants us to be today – He wants us to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ on the top level so that we may rule and reign with Him and for Him.
The kings of Israel in the Old Testament are types of the New Testament believers, for the believers are saved by God to be kings and priests.
The priests were entrusted not only with the speaking part of God’s deputy authority but also the ruling part; the priests were speakers and also kings.
But they did not replace God as the king. God wants to express His authority through the believers in Christ as the kings and He wants to be manifested and spoken forth through the believers as the priests. Amen!
This shows that the genuine Christian life is the life of an overcomer; we need to overcome so that we may express God and represent Him with His authority.
Prophesying (speaking Christ into people) makes us overcomers; prophesying is the function of the overcomers (1 Cor. 14:4; 1 Pet. 4:10-11; Acts 5:20).
If we want to be an overcomer, we need to aspire to prophesy.
We may not be naturally inclined to speak to people but be rather shy in our natural man, but we aspire to be overcomers, and we allow the Lord to break our natural man so that we may speak Christ to others.
The Lord came into us, after passing through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, to live the life of an overcomer in us.
May we be those who live a genuine Christian life, that is, live the life of an overcomer in the church life, being the priests, kings, and prophets for the Lord in the church life today.
Thank You, Lord Jesus, for regenerating us and making us a kingdom, priests to our God and Father! Praise the Lord, we believers in Christ are priests to God, kings with Christ, and prophets to speak forth Christ! We open to You, dear Lord, and we receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness so that we may reign in life through Christ, the One who reigns in us. Rule in us, Lord, and reign in our being. Fill us with Yourself and flow out through us. Make us those who live the genuine Christian life. Make us Your overcomers in this age. Make us kings, priests, and prophets to God in reality in the church life today. We want to be those who speak for God, express God, represent God, and rule and reign for God and with God on earth today. Grant us to have the life of an overcomer by reigning in life through Christ!
Enjoy Christ to the Kingship Level: receive the Abundance of Grace until Grace Reigns in us and we Reign in Life!
God’s purpose and desire for us as believers in Christ, the genuine Christians, is to live the life of an overcomer.
However, if we have not reached the level of a king in our Christian life, we are still below the proper standard.
We may say we enjoy Christ, but to what degree do we enjoy Christ.
To what extent do we enjoy the Lord: are we reigning in life through Christ?
Our enjoyment of Christ may only be “one-inch high”; however, Christ is unlimited, and our enjoyment of Christ needs to come up to the kingship level.
We should not compare our enjoyment and experience of Christ to others; rather, we should not be contented with where we are and always aspire to enjoy Christ more until we live the life of an overcomer.
Our enjoyment of Christ needs to increase and reach higher until we reach the kingship level.
We need to receive grace upon grace to such an extent that grace reigns in us so that we can be good stewards of the varied grace of God (Phil. 3:13; John 1:16; Rom. 5:21; 1 Pet. 4:10; Eph. 3:2).
Grace is God in Christ as the Spirit for our enjoyment; if we enjoy God, we are filled with pleasure and delight – that is grace.
Grace is God in Christ as the Spirit for our enjoyment; this grace is multiplied to us through sufferings, limitations, and weaknesses.
Grace is Christ Himself as our burden bearer; the more burdens we have, the more opportunities we have for us to experience Christ as grace.
This stewardship of the grace of God was given to us for others; we enjoy Christ so that we may gain a portion of Christ to also minister to others.
May we advance in our enjoyment of Christ until we are co-kings with Christ, reigning and ruling with Him in life.
May we daily receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness until we reign in life through Christ and with Christ!
First of all, we need to spend time with the Lord personally to allow Him to infuse us with Himself as grace.
We need to enjoy Him personally, affectionately, privately, and spiritually.
In our time with the Lord personally, we are infused with God until we glow with God – we shine with God!
When we send our roots deep down into Christ as the rich soil in our time with Him to receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, we will grow in Him and bear fruit upwards.
May we start in the morning by having time with the Lord to consecrate our spirit to contact Him, our soul to enjoy Him, and our body to glorify and magnify Him.
May we consecrate all our circumstances so that, even in our limited and limiting situations, we can enjoy HIm to the uttermost as the grace of the Triune God.
May we consecrate our family to Him and may we consecrate everything we have to Him.
As we give ourselves to Him and take Him as our burnt offering, our absoluteness for God, He becomes our peace offering, and we begin to fellowship with Him. Amen!
God’s complete salvation is not only to save us from sins and eternal perdition. God’s complete salvation is for us to be saved in the life of Christ to reign in this life by the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness (Rom. 5:10, 17, 21).
![...all the genuine prophets were overcomers. This is fulfilled in Revelation... [where] the Lord repeated the following word seven times: he who overcomes... (2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). These overcomers are the fulfillment of the typology of the prophets. Therefore, when the apostle Paul speaks of how the church should meet, he stresses and uplifts prophesying (1 Cor. 14:1, 3-6, 24, 31, 39). Prophesying makes you an overcomer. Speaking Christ into people is prophesying. Prophesying is the function of the overcomers. All the overcomers of the New Testament are kings who have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to reign in life [Rom. 5:17]. Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” pp. 175, 177](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/all-the-genuine-prophets-were-overcomers-683x1024.webp?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "...all the genuine prophets were overcomers. This is fulfilled in Revelation... [where] the Lord repeated the following word seven times: he who overcomes... (2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). These overcomers are the fulfillment of the typology of the prophets. Therefore, when the apostle Paul speaks of how the church should meet, he stresses and uplifts prophesying (1 Cor. 14:1, 3-6, 24, 31, 39). Prophesying makes you an overcomer. Speaking Christ into people is prophesying. Prophesying is the function of the overcomers. All the overcomers of the New Testament are kings who have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to reign in life [Rom. 5:17]. Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” pp. 175, 177")
Hallelujah, God’s complete salvation is a MUCH MORE salvation.
Gal. 5:9 says, having been justified in His blood, much more we will be saved through Him from the wrath.
Rom. 5:10 says, If we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we shall be saved in His life.
Verse 15 says that much more the grace of God and the free gift in grace will abound and have abounded for many.
Verse 17 furthermore says that much more, as we receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, we will reign in life through Christ.
Our Christian life is a much-more life; this is the genuine Christian life – the life of an overcomer, in which we reign in life.
All the overcomers of the New Testament are kings who have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to reign in life.
May we continue to enjoy God’s complete salvation day by day, little by little, until we reign in life!
Lord Jesus, may our enjoyment and experience of Christ advance and go higher until we reach the level of reigning in life in our Christian life! Amen, Lord, increase our enjoyment of Christ in our daily life. Save us from having a small or reduced enjoyment of Christ; may our enjoyment of Christ come up to the kingship level! We open to You to receive grace upon grace to such an extent that grace reigns in us so that we can be good stewards of the varied grace of God! Amen, Lord, may grace reign in us so that we may reign in life! Hallelujah for God’s complete salvation which is for us to be saved in the life of Christ to reign in life by the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness! Amen, Lord, may we daily enjoy God Himself as our all-sufficient supply for our organic salvation!
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, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” pp. 171-183, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Kings (2022 summer training), week 12, entitled, Living an Overcoming Life by Reigning in Life to Become the New Jerusalem as the City of Life.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Savior, keep me up the mountain / Pressing on toward the goal, / Till, as one, we share Thine image, / And Thy love and grace extol. / Lead me higher up the mountain, / Give me fellowship with Thee; / In Thy light I see the fountain, / And the blood it cleanses me. (Hymns #378 stanza 3 and chorus)
– Lukewarmness we must ever spurn / And in the spirit always burn, / The inward life experience gain, / And pay the price with Him to reign. / Lord, shine Your light on us today / That we may fully go Your way; / Anoint our eyes and let us see / So You can have recovery. (Hymns #1274 stanzas 16-17)
– God’s complete salvation / Is based upon His righteousness and through our faith. / By the two divine transfers: / Out of Adam into Christ / And out of the flesh into the Spirit. / In the one spiritual union of the / Spirit of Life with our spirit / Forming a mingled spirit. / For us to reign in life by the abundance of grace / and of the gift of righteousness. / For us to reign in life by the abundance of grace / and of the gift of righteousness. (Song on, God’s complete salvation)
About aGodMan
In the New Testament all the believers were saved to be… kings, priests, and prophets. We can be such kings… by being men regenerated with God and transformed with God as the element… We were God’s created people who became fallen. Now we are God’s redeemed people based upon His choosing of us, and we are also God’s regenerated and transformed people who have been transformed with God’s element to make us God-men. Now we are here in resurrection. To be in resurrection means to deny everything old to become something new and live by the element of newness, which is the divine life, God Himself. In resurrection we have become God’s new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). This new creation is God’s re-created, regenerated, transformed people. This is also the church in localities and the Body of Christ universally. Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” pp. 181-183
The genuine Christian life is the life of an overcomer, and all the overcomers in the New Testament should be kings who have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to reign in life.
May our enjoyment of Christ reach the level of kingship by our receiving the abundance of grace to reign in life through Christ.
We have been saved to be kings, priests & prophets.
The Old Testament kings are types of us, the New Testament believers.
The prophets of old were overcomers.
Prophesying is the function of overcomers.
May we all remain in contact with the Spirit so that we would reign in life by the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness.
Christ Himself is our all-sufficient supply and our practical judicial redemption.
brother, as the top ones in the Old Testament, the Kings were representatives of Israel. In the New Testament the overcomers – genuine Christians- should not only be Kings but also priests and prophets.
To be such ones is to reign in life through the abundance of grace (organic salvtion) and the gift of righteousness (judicial redemptiom).
Amen brother!
O Lord may we aspire to be kings and priests in your Kingdom by loving you and becoming your overcomers! Hallelujah!
Aaaaameeen! Lord make us Your Kings today!!
Amen Lord! Thank You for the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness to be Kings, priests and prophets to God, reigning in life through Christ! Keep us Lord enjoying You as life abundantly!
Yes Lord may we be those who reign in life! Not complain that life is hard, increase the flow of the spirit in us!
Amen, Our Christian life is a much-more life; this is the genuine Christian life – the life of an overcomer, in which we reign in life.
All the overcomers of the New Testament are kings who have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to reign in life
Rev. 1:6 And made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen.
Phil. 3:13 Brothers, I do not account of myself to have laid hold; but one thing I do: Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before,
1 Pet. 2:5, 9 You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired for a possession, so that you may tell out the virtues of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
RR:
“…These kings are types of the New Testament believers because all the New Testament believers were saved by God to be kings [and priests] (1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 2 Tim. 2:12). (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” p. 181)”.
“…God, however, does not want a king to replace Him. He just wants His authority to be exercised”.
“In the New Testament all the believers were saved to be…kings, priests, and prophets”.
“We can be such kings…by being men regenerated with God and transformed with God as the element…We were God’s created people who became fallen. Now we are God’s redeemed people based upon His choosing of us, and we are also God’s regenerated and transformed people who have been transformed with God’s element to make us God-men. Now we are here in resurrection. To be in resurrection means to deny everything old to become something new and live by the element of newness, which is the divine life, God Himself.
In resurrection we have become God’s new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). This new creation is God’s re-created, regenerated, transformed people. This is also the church in localities and the Body of Christ universally”.
“In the age of typology, the overcomers were the prophets…Thus, all the genuine prophets were overcomers.
“This is fulfilled in Revelation…[where] the Lord repeated the following word seven times: he who overcomes…(2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21)”.
“…when the apostle Paul speaks of how the church should meet, he stresses and uplifts prophesying (1 Cor. 14:1, 3-6, 24, 31, 39). Prophesying makes you an overcomer. Speaking Christ into people is prophesying. Prophesying is the function of the overcomers”.
“All the overcomers of the New Testament are kings who have received the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to reign in life [Rom. 5:17]”.
(CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” pp. 181-183, 175, 177)
“God’s complete salvation is for us to reign in life by the abundance of grace (God Himself as our all-sufficient supply for our organic salvation) and of the gift of righteousness (God’s judicial redemption applied to us in a practical way”.
(CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “Crystallization-study of the Complete Salvation of God in Romans,” p. 445)
When He made us a kingdom by releasing us from our sins, by bringing us back to life from the death, and by taking us out of the darkness, we passed through the process of regeneration. God has re-created us. Therefore, we live in the new creation rule by the Divine life.
Two important points to grasp and be aware of:
First, we need to overcome our own self and shine full of life, the Divine Life. So, when we prophecy we speak God not us.
Second, God does not want us to replace Him. We were made kings, priests, and prophets, NOT to replace Him BUT to carry on His plans by becoming His overcomers for whom He is coming back to bring us later as the New Jerusalem descending from heaven.
If we are not genuine in the way we are prophesying because we lack intimacy with our Lord, and we don’t allow Him to deal with our flesh, we are mere lecturers who strive to compete in a speech contest.
We need to be regenerated, transformed, and this will only happen if we get to know Him intimately through His Word, and the Word is the Spirit, and that Spirit should shine through us,
“so that you may tell out the virtues of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 1 Pet 2:9
Once we overcome our ego, our flesh, and stop living in deny individually, as ready to use shaped living stones, we will be able to prophecy to the Body of Christ and lift up others by soothing their pains and their struggles in their hearts, because Christ is manifested through us, and He is the only one who can touch other’s hearts. Amen!