God wants Man to Enjoy Him so that the Joy of the Triune God would Become our Joy

God wants man to enjoy Him, and He gives Himself to us to be our enjoyment for us to partake of Him as our food and drink and live because of Him; as we enjoy the Lord, the joy of the Triune God becomes our joy. Hallelujah!

Our God is a God of enjoyment; He created us with the need for enjoyment, and He Himself is our enjoyment.

The Triune God is a God of joy – the Father is the source of joy and is joy to us, Christ is our joy and He gives us His joy, and there is joy in the Holy Spirit.

The entire Triune God is in us for man to enjoy Him and partake of all His riches. If we read the Epistles we see that the apostles, especially the apostle Paul, was a rejoicing person.

He went through many things that were quite rough, including persecution, stoning, imprisonment, and beating, but in all these things he was rejoicing.

How can a human being rejoice when he is being persecuted and even imprisoned?

Paul was a rejoicing person, and he cooperated with God to serve the saints and minister to them so that they would also rejoice.

He ministered to the saints and to the churches for their progress and joy of the faith.

He knew that death was approaching, but he was not afraid; rather, his consideration was that he wanted to continue with the saints for their joy of the faith and for their going on in the faith.

When we visit the saints and care for the new ones, we need to not only impart the word of God to them but also minister to them in such a way that they progress in their faith and they have joy of the faith.

We rejoice, and we help them rejoice with us; we rejoice together, for our Triune God is a God of joy, and the joy of the Triune God is becoming our joy.

And our service to others is our being poured out upon the sacrifice and service of the believers’ faith, so we rejoice with the saints.

We may be in a certain situation that we do not like, something that limits us to the uttermost; however, even in such a situation, we can pour ourselves out for the saints’ joy and progress of the faith.

The Lord may not deliver us out of our limitations and restrictions, but even in this situation, we can be a factor of the saints’ progress and the joy of the faith.

May we experience the joy of the Lord’s word being in our heart by finding His word and eating His word so that His word becomes the joy and gladness of our heart (Jer. 15:16).

Every morning we need to come to the Lord in His word to find His word and partake of His riches by our eating Him in the word.

When we read the word of God and when we hear the word of God, joy is welling up in us, for it is through the word that Christ is being revealed in us and to us.

Through His word, the Triune God is being dispensed into us, and His word makes us joyful. Thank the Lord for His word!

God’s Desire is to Give Himself to us to be our Enjoyment: He wants Man to Enjoy Him

Throughout the Bible there’s a sweet thought that runs from Genesis to Revelation: in His relationship with man, God presents Himself as food, for He wants man to enjoy Him.

We see this from the very beginning of the Bible, in the book of Genesis.

Right after God created man, He didn’t give man a set of rules nor did He put Adam in a factory or on the field to work for God; rather, God put man in a garden with all kinds of trees that are pleasant to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life was there in the middle of the garden (Gen. 2:9).

God’s intention was not that man would work for Him or do many things for Him but that man would enjoy God as life, partake of God as life, and experience God as life.

The first mention of a particular matter in the Bible is very significant, for it sets an eternal governing principle for that matter throughout the rest of the Bible.

In the matter of God’s relationship with man, the first thing we see is that God presented Himself to man to be his food for his enjoyment.

After Adam was created, he was put in a garden and in front of the tree of life; God wants man to enjoy Him.

All this shows that God’s desire is to give Himself to us to be our enjoyment (Neh. 8:10).

When the Lord Jesus came, again, His thought was not that man would just know God, worship God, and fear God, but that man would eat Christ and take Him as their food for their life and life supply.

When Christ came, grace came; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ, and of His fullness we have all received – grace upon grace (John 1:16-17).

The people around Him, however, did not understand that Christ came to be their food.

One time the Lord performed the miracle of multiplying the bread and the fish for the multitude to eat, and there was much food left over.

The people thought, then, that He came to make sure they had lots of food, so they sought the outward food.

The Lord, however, told them not to seek the food that perishes, which is of no eternal value, but the food that is eternal, which is Himself.

He didn’t want man to follow Him or believe into Him because of the food which He gave them but rather because of Himself as their food, which is food that does not perish.

Christ came not to perform outward things; He came that we may know Him as the Creator who has come to be our food.

God wants man to enjoy Him, so He came to give Himself to us as food and drink.

The tree of life came to be embodied as the Word who became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality (John 1:14).

Christ came as the embodiment of the tree of life – He is both the vine (John 15:1-5) and the life (14:6) – for us to “pick” the fruit from this tree and eat.

He told us that He is the living bread, the bread of life, and the true bread, the bread that comes out of heaven for us to eat and live because of Him (see John 6).

The people around Him asked Him what is the greatest commandment and what should they do to have eternal life (Matt. 19:16; 22:36), but the Lord’s answer, again and again, was that He came for them to eat Him and partake of Him so that they may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10).

May we have a change in our concept related to the Lord’s relationship with us; may we give up the thought that we need to primarily work for God and do this and that for Him, and may we come to Him to just enjoy Him.

The secret of the Christian life is not how much we work for God but how much we enjoy Him and absorb Him (John 15:4-5; Col. 2:6-7).

May we learn the secret of our Christian life, that is, to enjoy God and absorb God so that we may live because of Him and do all things in Him and with Him.

Many Christian workers today are so busy doing this and that for God; they love God and are dedicated to God, and they do many things for God, but do they enjoy God?

We may work for God to the point of exhaustion and depletion, and we may be dried up as a result; this shows that we are serving by our own strength and power, which has a limit.

But praise the Lord, the joy of the Lord is our strength. we can enjoy God.

The secret of all our service to God in our Christian life is not just being busy and faithful doing things for Him but enjoying Him!

Paul used the word sufficiency; the secret of our sufficiency is not of us but of God, who is our enjoyment.

God wants us to enjoy Him, and our sufficiency in our Christian life and church life is Christ Himself to be our enjoyment.

May we first enjoy God and absorb Him by spending much time with Him in His word in prayer so that we may live because of Him and let Him live in us and be expressed through us.

Lord Jesus, impress us with the fact that You desire man to enjoy God more than work for God. Hallelujah, God created man and put man not in a factory or in the field to work for God but in a garden in front of the tree of life for man to enjoy God! Amen, Lord, we come to You to enjoy You. We don’t want to primarily work for You or do things for You; we just come to You as the tree of life to enjoy You. We come to You in Your word; speak to us, infuse us with Your living word, and nourish our inner being. Your words are spirit and are life. Teach us how to enjoy God in the Word of God. Thank You for giving Yourself to us to be our enjoyment. Amen, Lord, we just want to enjoy You. Keep us in Your presence today. May we learn the secret to the Christian life – enjoying God and absorbing God! Keep our being open to You. Keep us in the organic union with You, receiving Your divine dispensing and absorbing all that You are into our being!

As we Eat and Enjoy the Lord, the Joy of the Triune God is Becoming our Joy

God created us in His image and according to His likeness; the Triune God is a God of joy, and He wants the joy of the Triune God would become our joy.

How can we be joyful, having real and genuine joy? It is by enjoying the Lord.

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are full of joy, and the Triune God wants to be joy to us; He wants His joy to become our joy.

In His person, Christ is our joy, and when we enjoy the Lord by abiding in Him, we have real joy.

In our human life, there are many moments of joy, and sometimes we manage to take a picture or remember these joyful moments; however, God wants to become our joy continually.

As we eat and enjoy the Lord, the joy of the Triune God is becoming our joy.

We are joyful persons not because of any outward factors such as God’s blessing and His making us prosperous but because of God Himself as our joy.

God wants man to enjoy Him; when we enjoy God and eat Him, His joy becomes our joy.

We are full of joy not because we have outward success and gain outward things but because of Christ, who is our joy.

If we abide in the Lord and keep abiding in Him by abiding in His love, we will be filled with joy (John 15:10-11).

We have been grafted into Him at the time of our regeneration, and we are in an organic union with the Lord in spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

As we abide in the Lord by abiding in His love and allowing His word to abide in us, we are filled with joy.

And this joy is beyond any human joy that we can have on earth.

The Lord today is recovering the matters that have been missed among most Christians, and enjoying the Lord is one of the most important of these matters (1 Pet. 1:8).

We are being recovered back to enjoying the Lord. Even we in the church life need to be reminded again and again to just enjoy the Lord.

By our very disposition and nature, we are either active in doing things for the Lord or quite passive and letting things go by; we are not inclined to enjoy the Lord by our nature.

But we need to build up a habit day by day to enjoy the Lord.

How much we enjoy the Lord day by day determines how much we grow in Him and how quickly we arrive at maturity.

May our enjoyment of the Lord be upgraded and uplifted day by day.

It’s not a small thing to say that we enjoy the Lord.

We should not be complacent, thinking that as long as we read some verses and say a few prayers over these verses, we enjoy the Lord.

May we take time to enjoy the Lord. May we take time to eat Him.

Eating and enjoying the Lord is something that the Lord Jesus told us to do in John 6:57.

The Lord Jesus enjoyed the Father by eating Him in His word, and He lived because of the Father.

We need to also enjoy the Lord; God wants man to enjoy Him, for when man enjoys and eats God, the joy of the Triune God becomes our joy.

The Christian life is a life of eating, drinking, and enjoying the Lord day by day (1 Cor. 10:4).

Whether we are busy at work, taking care of family situations and things, or serving in the church life in different aspects, we need to enjoy the Lord.

Just enjoy the Lord in all things! Before doing something, as we do something, and even while resting and not doing anything, we need to eat, drink, and enjoy the Lord.

When we’re stuck in traffic or we miss the bus and the next one will take ten minutes or so to arrive, we can enjoy the Lord.

May we learn to redeem the time to enjoy the Lord again and again!

May we eat and enjoy the Lord until the joy of the Triune God is our joy!

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming to us to be our enjoyment. We want to abide in You by abiding in Your love so that we may be filled with joy. Amen, Lord, recover the matter of enjoying the Lord among us. Save us from just reading the Bible without contacting You. May we come to You in Your word with the exercise of our spirit so that we may enjoy You. Be our enjoyment today. Amen, Lord, we want to eat You so that we may live because of You. We want to enjoy You so that we may live one spirit with You today. May our Christian living be filled with eating, drinking, and enjoying the Lord day by day! May we never stop eating You. May our eating and drinking of the Lord be upgraded and uplifted so that we may absorb more of God into our being! Amen, Lord Jesus, fill us with Yourself. Live in us today. Be expressed through us. Do all things in us! We love You, Lord Jesus!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by James Lee in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1958, vol. 1, pp. 375-377, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Enjoyment of Christ and our Growth in Life unto Maturity (2023 Thanksgiving Blending Conference), week 2, entitled, The Joy of the Triune God Becoming our Joy.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The Second Great Pillar in the Lord’s Recovery—Life, article via, Living to Him.
  – The tree of life, article via, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Have Right to the Tree of Life; Take the Water of Life, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Eating, drinking, and breathing Christ, a portion from, The Fulfillment of God’s Purpose by the Growth of Christ in Us, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – The two trees: the way of life versus the religion of death, article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Why We Need a Hidden Life with the Lord Jesus, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Growing in life by eating Jesus, a portion from, The Flesh and the Spirit, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee.
  – Four ways to eat the Lord as the tree of life, article via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Enjoying God – God is enjoyable, a portion from, How to Enjoy God and How to Practice the Enjoyment of God, Chapter 1.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Thou from the heavens as food camest down, / Thou to be drink hast been smitten for me; / Thou as the food, my exhaustless supply, / Thou as the water, a stream unto me. / Thou in the Word art the Spirit and life, / Thus by the Word I may feed upon Thee; / Thou dost as Spirit in my spirit live, / Thus I may drink in the spirit of Thee. (Hymns #811 stanzas 4-5)
  – Thus, to receive Thy Word is not / To read it only with our eyes / And understand it in our mind, / But ’tis the spirit’s exercise. / Thy Word in spirit we must eat / And to our inmost part receive; / ’Tis by our spirit’s exercise / To pray with what our minds perceive. / Thy Word remaining in our mind / Is only knowledge burdensome, / But when it to the spirit goes / Then life and spirit it becomes. (Hymns #814 stanzas 5-7)
  – We have found that Christ the Spirit is / Who within our spirit dwells; / How available, how near He is, / And His sweetness all excels. / We have found the way to live by Christ— / Pray His Word and call His name! / This—the eating, drinking—has sufficed / And its worth we now proclaim. (Hymns #1153 stanzas 2-3)