In order for Him to carry out what is in His heart, God needs some representatives on earth; like Moses, Samuel, and Paul, Elisha as a man of God behaved as God’s representative, the acting God on earth at his time.
He didn’t behave in a presumptuous way, assuming authority and doing things on his own; rather, he depended on God, he was one with God, and he properly represented God.
Elisha is a type of Christ in his ministry of grace in life and as a man of God behaving himself as God’s representative on earth.
On one hand, Elisha did miracles out of grace in life, and on the other hand, he represented God in his work and speaking.
God created man in His image and according to His likeness so that man would express God and represent Him.
God gave man His image; if we look at one another as human beings, we have God’s image.
Also, God gave us His likeness, for inwardly we are like Him, having feelings, thoughts, decisions, and a heart.
God made us in His image and according to His likeness so that we would enjoy Him as life, be filled with life, and minister Him as life; as we enjoy Him as our life, we live because of Him, and our ministry is of grace in life.
This is on the positive side. On the negative side, God needs someone to represent Him with His authority.
This also comes from life, for the result of our enjoyment of the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness is that we reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:10, 17).
God desires to gain a corporate man that would express Him with His image and represent Him with His authority.
This is us, the believers in Christ; we are saved not only to be rescued from eternal perdition but even more, to express God in His image and represent Him with His dominion.
God doesn’t want just one person to express and represent Him; yes, the Lord Jesus came and, as the reality of all the positive ones that went before Him, He expressed and represented God individually when He was on earth, but this is not enough.
In His economy, God wants to gain a corporate man, the Body of Christ as the one new man, for Him to be expressed and represented in a corporate way.
This is what the Lord is after, and this is what He is gaining today. Elisha is a type of such a corporate man, which is the enlarged Christ.
Elisha had the ministry of grace in life to minister life to those around him, and he also represented God with His authority.
We need to be those who express God and also be God’s representatives on earth, representing Him with His authority.
In this article, we want to take a look at how Moses and Samuel represented God.
Moses was God’s Representative on Earth, being One with Him to Execute His Will
In Exo. 7:1 Jehovah said to Moses, See, I have made you God to Pharaoh; Moses was God’s representative before Pharaoh.
If we look at the conflicts between God and Pharaoh we can learn the proper way to work for God and to represent God.
The way to be God’s representative today is not to labor or endeavour but to represent Him.
Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people (Exo. 11:3).
He didn’t fight or work hard for others to respect him and recognize his authority; he simply was God’s representative.
When Moses spoke, he spoke one with God; he didn’t speak of himself but what God told him to speak.
He came as one sent by God who spoke the word of God, letting Pharaoh know what God required of him.
In a sense, Pharaoh was dealing with God and not with Moses, for Moses was God’s representative in all that he did.
Moses was God’s ambassador, God’s sent one, and he simply spoke what God told him to speak. How can we represent God today?
We don’t need to endeavour or work much, nor do we need to be idle or lazy – we simply need to spend time with God!
We need to spend time with the Lord, have His appearing, and let Him infuse us with His thoughts, His desire, and His intentions.
We need to come to the Lord in prayer and just open our being to Him. As He speaks to us, we need to remain in His presence until He saturates our being.
Then, we will represent Him, and He will send us forth. It is not our ability, zeal, natural love for the Lord, or eloquence that qualifies us to be God’s representative on earth.
It’s not of him who wills; it is not of him who runs; it is of God, the One who shows mercy (Rom. 9:16).
We need the Lord’s mercy; we simply need to come to Him and spend adequate time with Him to enjoy Him, and He will send us and make us His representatives.
And as He sends us, as God’s sent ones, we need to have the assurance that we are there as God’s representatives.
We are not there expressing ourselves; we are not sent by God to be God’s representatives so that we express ourselves but to express Him and represent Him.
We should not speak our own words or carry out our own work; we simply need to be the bush and let Him be the fire burning in the midst of the bush, while we and He are one. Amen!
We are joined to the Lord as one spirit, and in this mingled spirit we can express Him and represent Him.
In Moses, God had a person who represented Him and executed His will; Moses never spoke to Pharaoh on his own but always spoke what the Lord had told him to say (Exo. 7:1; 3:16-18; 5:1).
He did this as a result of being called by God, spending time with God, and being dealt with by God.
God had His timing in calling, dealing with, and perfecting Moses, and at eighty years old, Moses was ready to be God’s representative on earth.
Pharaoh was stubborn, but Moses came as God’s representative and expressed and represented God before him.
By Pharaoh God made Himself manifest as the sovereign God, but in Moses God had one to represent Him and to execute His will.
God was happy, for He could be expressed and represented through a man on earth.
May we be the Moses of today, those who express God and represent Him, being one with Him in our going to execute His will on earth.
May others see God in our living, hear God in our speaking, and smell God in our daily activities.
May we be those who are one with God by spending much time with God and by allowing Him to deal with anything in us that does not correspond to Him.
Amen, may the Lord have mercy on us and He be sovereign in all things so that we today corporately would be the Body of Christ as the one new man expressing God and representing Him on earth.
Lord Jesus, make us God’s representatives on earth today. We stop our activities and endeavour and simply come to You to enjoy You and be filled with You. We want to spend adequate time contacting God and being infused with God. Amen, Lord, we want to touch You, know Your heart, and sense Your feeling. Keep us in Your presence, dear Lord, until You saturate our being. May we represent You and express You in our daily living. Have Your way in us. Have mercy on us, dear Lord, to make us fully one with You! We want to be Your ambassadors, Your representatives on earth. Attune our ear to Your speaking; we want to listen to Your word, be infused with Your desire, and represent You on earth. Amen, Lord, may our speaking be Your speaking, may our words be Your words, and may our expression be Your expression!
Samuel was the Representative of God to Rule over His People on Earth – He was the Acting God
Samuel was a person according to God’s heart who was so one with God that he was the representative of God on earth to rule over His people on earth.
Toward the end of his ministry, Samuel was the representative of God to rule over His people on earth; as such, he was the acting God (1 Sam. 1:11; 2:35; 7:3; 8:22).
How could Samuel, a man, be one with God, and even be “the acting God”?
Samuel could be the acting God, God’s representative on earth, because his being and God’s heart were one.
By the time Saul was raised up to be the king in Israel (1 Sam. 9:3-10:27), Samuel had reached the highest position.
In a sense, in the whole universe, there was only one person who was above him, and that person was God.
Samuel was so one with God by knowing God’s heart and expressing God, that Samuel’s being and God’s heart were one.
As God’s representative on earth, Samuel was the acting God.
When God intended to do something, He disclosed it to Samuel, and Samuel was one with God to carry it out.
God wanted to do something, to move, and to act, but He needed a representative; Samuel was God’s representative in that age.
Samuel was a prophet, a priest, and a judge. He was one with God to speak for God and to carry out God’s administration.
The Lord needs such persons on earth today; He needs some who are one with God to the uttermost so that they express God and represent Him.
We need to be fully open to God, turning our hearts to Him, and allowing Him to make His home in our heart.
We cannot represent God until we allow Him to make His home deep down in our heart; He lives in us, and for Him to be expressed through us, He needs to rearrange our inner being.
Our being, our spirit, is His permanent dwelling place; he wants to spread from our spirit to our mind, emotion, and will. God wants to make His home in our heart to the extent that our heart and His heart are fully one.
He wants to make the desire of His heart be the desire of our heart.
And one main aspect of the desire of the Lord’s heart is that He wants to gain His counterpart, His bride.
He wants to gain a wife who is the same as He is in life and nature to match Him for their eternal marriage life together.
The bride of Christ is composed of the overcomers in Christ who are one with the Lord and carry out His economy, consummating His economy in every way.
The Lord is longing for His bride to get ready.
For this, He is making His home in us, he is working Himself into us, and He is making our heart one with His heart until we can sincerely say that His desire is our desire, and we are here for His purpose.
May we be those who are according to God’s heart, a copy and duplicate of God’s heart.
May we be God’s representatives on earth, those whose living and working are for the carrying out of whatever is in God’s heart.
And may we follow those who express God and represent Him, following their pattern in spirit.
We are not here to outwardly imitate others; we are here to see others’ pattern, contact the Lord in spirit, spend time with Him, and allow Him to infuse Himself into us so that we may live Christ, express Him, and be God’s representative on earth.
Lord Jesus, we love You. We turn our heart to You. Infuse us with what is in Your heart. Make our heart a duplication of Your heart. Make us men according to the heart of God. We just want to be one with You. Amen, we want to be one with You in our daily living today. Infuse us with all that You are. Make Your home in our heart. Rearrange our inner being and work Yourself into us. May our being and Your heart be fully one. We are here for You, Lord, and for Your interest on earth. We give ourselves to You to just be one with You in all things. Make us the representatives of God on earth. We take You as our everything, and we want to do all things in oneness with You so that You may be expressed and represented through us.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, pp. 245-246 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Kings (2022 summer training), week 3, entitled, Elisha Being a Type of Christ in His Ministry of Grace in Life and as a Man of God Behaving Himself as God’s Representative, as the Acting God.
- Hymns on this topic:
– One with Thee, Thou Son ascended, / Seated with Thee on the throne, / Thine authority we share and / Rule with Thee, Thy rank our own. (Hymns #475, stanza 4)
– I would give myself, Lord, / Fully unto Thee, / That Thy heart’s desire / Be fulfilled in me. / I no more would struggle / To myself reform, / Thus in me to hinder / What Thou wouldst perform. (Hymns #841, stanza 5)
– What we are, we’re His image; / We’re created in His image, / To express the Christ, subdue the earth, / The purpose of our second birth, / We’re His image, glorious! (Hymns #1279, stanza 1)
About aGodMan
An apostle is a sent one. He is sent by the person he represents. As God’s sent ones, we need to have the assurance that wherever we may be, we are there as God’s representatives. We are insignificant and very weak. Actually, we are nothing. But we represent God. As God’s representatives, we do not speak our own words or carry out our own work. We are the bush, and the Lord is the fire burning in the midst of the bush. The fire and the bush are one. When we are in this reality, it is difficult to distinguish the bush from the fire. This reminds us of Paul’s word in 1 Corinthians 6:17: “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” The proper way to work for God is to have the assurance that we represent the One whom we love and serve. Wherever we go, we go not by ourselves, but with Him and in Him. Life-study of Exodus, pp. 245-246, by Witness Lee
God wants to gain some who are His representatives on earth by first spending time with Him to be infused with Him and have His heart, His mind, and His feeling, and then by living one spirit with Him.
May we learn to simply stop our being and contact the Lord, be infused with Him, and express Him and represent Him in our daily living.
We see today that the best way to work for God is to represent Him.
We should view ourselves as God’s ambassadors, His sent ones. We need to pray to touch the Lord, to know His heart and to sense His feeling.
Then, we will not speak our own words or carry out our own work.
May the Lord grant us the assurance that we represent the One whom we love & serve, so that we would go with Him, represent Him and execute His will.
God wants to move & act, but He needs representatives, those who will be the “acting God” on earth.
We need to see that as Moses, Samuel and Paul were God’s sent ones – the acting God on earth, those who represented Him, so we also should represent God and bring God wherever we go.
For this we should not seek to labour or endeavour but spend time contacting the Lord through prayer to be saturated with Him.
Only then will we have the proper way to work for Him because through such a process His heart and will will be duplicated in Him and we will be one spirit with Him as His ambassadors.
amen brother we as God representitives are not there to express ourselves but to express in his feeling, his desire and what he is saying to us just like Moses did with Pharaoh
in order for us to express God in such a way we need to be those, stop and take time to spend with the Lord to absorb him and enjoy him all his riches and be saturated with him so that we can have a sense of his feeling and therefore represent him,
Amen Lord, cause us to see that you only want representatives! Not people to will and run! Cause us to be such today…we are insignificant and weak… actually we are nothing but your representatives…save us from labouring and endeavoring!
Wow we don’t need to do anything for God! All we need to do is spend time to absorb God, to be infused with His mind, His heart and His very being. Then we are qualified to be His Representatives on earth!
Ammmeenn!!!!
The proper way to work for God is not to labor or endeavor for Him; it is to represent Him!
Hence, spending time to contact, enjoy, and be infused and saturated with the Lord is our highest profession.
We do not have to do much except to represent Him, the One that we love, and to execute His will.
Gain us to be Your sent ones, Your ambassadors and representatives here on earth!! Amen