As believers in Christ, we have not only the human life inherited from our parents but also the divine life which we received through regeneration; now we need to practice giving the Lord the ground to fill us with life so that we may minister His life in our service.
The Lord Jesus came so that we, His disciples, may have life, and may have it abundantly; now we as His followers do the same as He does, making sure that in everything we do and say we minister the divine life to others.
To minister life is simply to impart life; in order for us to impart something of the divine life to others we first need to have life, experience life, and have a surplus of life so that life may overflow through us when we meet others.
Our service for the building up of the church is a life-ministering service, meaning that the goal of our service is not primarily to accomplish something but to minister life.
No matter what we serve God in or with, we need to make sure that our service is merely a means to supply life to others. But if the church is a place where the believers focus on taking care of matters, managing the church’s business affairs, and having a good order yet with no supply of life, the church loses its nature and becomes a society.
The Lord is very much ill-spoken of because His people do a lot of work for Him with no life supply and no ministry of life. When God’s people focus on doing things for God and accomplishing great works in the name of God yet with no ministry of life, the result is that the church becomes yet another charitable society that does a lot of good works and helps people, all in the name of God.
We need to realize that, as believers in Christ, we have the life-giving Spirit with our spirit, and life is in the mingled spirit; therefore, our living must be according to the spirit and our actions must be in the mingled spirit so that life may grow in us, flow through us, and be ministered to others in whatever we do and say.
The Service from God Requires us to Fellowship with God to Minister Life to Others
As those who serve the Lord, we need to be deeply impressed with the necessity of being able to minister life (1 John 5:11-16). The service that is from God requires us to first fellowship with God and then minister life to others (see 2 Cor. 4:1, 12).
God doesn’t need us to do many things for Him; He doesn’t need man to accomplish great works for God – He simply wants man to receive His life, enjoy and experience His life, and minister His life to others.
The center and goal of our service in the church life shouldn’t be to build up a work or enterprise but to minister God’s life. If we merely successfully finish our work and accomplish what we set out to do in our service to God, yet there’s no ministering of life, this is considered as worthless and nothing in God’s eyes.
We must abandon our plans and aims and intentions, we must deny our self, and we simply need to let Christ live in us and through us. Yes, we need to take care of many practical and necessary things in the church life, but our focus should not merely doing these things but ministering life.
We need to be before the Lord and ask Him, Lord, is my service before You and with the saints in the church full of the supply of life and the ministry of life? Does my service impart life to others?
The center and focus of the service of the saints and of the church are NOT to build up an enterprise or work but to minister life. God’s desire is that the emphasis of our service would be on ministering life (1 John 2:25; 5:11-13).
The emphasis should not be on building the meeting hall, carrying out certain activities, accomplishing a work, or even bringing in many people; the goal in our service in the church should be to minister life.
How weighty the church service is, how high it is, how much value it has, and how acceptable it is in God’s eyes are measured by how much the church has ministered God’s life into others and how much element of the divine life has entered into others through the church’s help and service.
We may not do much outwardly, but if we inwardly contact the Lord, fellowship with Him, enjoy the flow of His life, and minister Him as life, we serve God and the church is supplied with life. To minister life is to touch life and be a channel of life so that the divine life would flow through us without us realizing it or doing anything in particular.
Of course, life should be ministered in our vital groups, home meetings, group meetings, district meetings, church meetings, conferences, trainings, blending times, etc, but the ministering of life should not depend on outward activity!
The ministry of life depends on our living in fellowship with God, receiving the life supply of the Head in the Body, and allowing this life to be ministered through us into other members of the Body for the building up of the Body. This is the real service to God in the Body.
Lord Jesus, save us from merely serving You outwardly in the church yet without the ministry of life. May our emphasis be on fellowshipping with God, enjoying God, experiencing God, and ministering God as life to others. Oh Lord, we want to live in the mingled spirit to receive the fresh supply of the divine life in the Body, and just allow this life to flow through us and be ministered into others for the building up of the Body. Keep us in fellowship with You and ministering life to others as we serve in the church.
Giving Christ the Ground to Fill us with Life for us to Minister Life in our Service
God’s standard of measurement for our service is different from our standard; our standard is tainted and corrupted with the worldly mentality that we need to accomplish something, do good work, grow the business, and have a great result, but God’s standard is simply the ministry of life.
The only standard of measurement is how much life is ministered in our service. Paul testified of his service that death operated in him but life in the saints (2 Cor. 4:12); if we want to build up the church organically – and not just to build an organization – we need to experience being put to death so that life may operate in the church.
We are branches that need to constantly abide in Christ as the vine; we need to receive the supply of life coming from Christ, the vine, and let this life flow in us, develop in us, and be ministered to us as we abide in Him to bear fruit (see John 15).
The branches of a vine don’t “work”; their “service” is to just abide in the vine, receive the supply of life, and release this supply as they grow and bear fruit.
This is the service of the church, which is not a great work or large enterprise with a huge accomplishment but the ministering and flowing out of the life of Christ. It requires us to be joined to Christ, to abide in Christ, and to give Him the ground in us to fill us, so that His life, His nature, His likes, and His inclination can become our life, our nature, our likes, and our inclination. In other words, His all becomes our all. When we abide in Him, live in Him, and fellowship with Him like this, we allow Him to pass through us and flow out from us. What flows out from us is His life, the life of the vine. This will minister life to others, and it will give them life. When people touch this, they touch Christ and the life of the vine. This is the service of the church. (Witness Lee, The Spirit and Service in Spirit, pp. 114-115)
Hallelujah, our only job today is to be joined to Christ, abide in Christ, and give Him the ground to fill us with life!
We need to LET Christ fill us with His life, His nature, His likes, and His inclination until we are filled with His life, live according to His nature, like what He likes, and have His inclination as our inclination; Christ needs to become our all in our service, and our service will simply be Christ serving in us (1 John 2:27; Eph. 3:16-17).
Our service to God in the church can be compared to a tree: the seen part is our service, but the unseen part, the roots, is our hidden time with Him in secret. We need to open to the Lord again and again in many things and situations during the day to just give Him the ground in us to fill us with His life, so that we may have a surplus of life to minister to others.
The Lord needs to gain us inwardly and fill our whole being, so that outwardly there would be a ministry of life, a supply of life in our service. May we be those who abide in the Lord, live in Him, fellowship with Him, and allow Him to pass through us and flow out from us into others, so that life may be ministered through us.
May we be those who have a personal history with the Lord, develop our hidden life with Him, and have a solid root system in God so that our service – which is seen by others – would be a ministry of life to others for the building up of the church.
Lord Jesus, we want to be joined to You, abide in You, and give You the ground in our being to fill us with life so that Your life, Your nature, Your likes, and Your inclination become our life, our nature, our likes, and our inclination! Lord, for the sake of Your economy, the church, and the ministry of life, we give You the right to operate in every part of our inner being. Gain us fully, have the ground in us, and duplicate Yourself in us. We give You the permission to pass through us and flow out from us so that life may be ministered to others in all our service to God in the church.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from The Spirit and Service in Spirit, ch. 8 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Service for the Building up of the Church (2016 Spring ITERO), week 8 / msg. 8, A Life-ministering Service.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Fellowship and testimony, / Ministry and worship too, / In all helps and ministrations / Christ is all our service true. (Hymns #912)
# The work must be the fruit of life, / Born thru the Spirit’s flowing; / As branches of the Lord, the vine, / Fruit bearing, life bestowing. / ’Tis Christ Himself thru us to work, / Himself as life expressing, / And all the riches of His life / To others manifesting. (Hymns #910)
# As I dwell in You, and You in me, / Here I’m joined to You, Lord, practically. / As I stay with You, as You’re with me, / We will mingle, Lord, subjectively. / As I dwell in You, Lord You’re flowing through. / Lord, You’re filling me, overflowing too. / Here we all are one and expressing You. / Here our joy is full as we dwell in You. (Song on Abiding in Christ)
About aGodMan
The service that is from God requires us to have fellowship with God and minister life to others. The service that God wants from us does not focus on doing a work but on ministering life. The center and goal of the service of the saints and of the church are not to build up an enterprise or a work but to minister God’s life….The service of the church and of the saints is nothing and worthless in God’s eyes if all we have done is successfully finish our work, having built up either a big or a small enterprise. God’s desire is that the emphasis of our service be on ministering God’s life instead of producing a work or enterprise. (The Spirit and Service in Spirit, pp. 111-112, by W. Lee)