The crux of the spiritual warfare is that God wants to gain the good land as a type of the all-inclusive Christ who is everything to us, so that we as His people would express God and represent Him.
This week in our deeper study of the spiritual warfare of the church as the new man we are enjoying the topic of, The Formation of a Corporate Joshua to Possess the Good Land by Defeating the Satanic Forces.
The Bible is a book concerning God’s expression and dominion, and this dominion refers to exercising God’s authority to deal with God’s enemy. Both expression and dominion involve and focus on Christ, the One who is the center of God’s eternal economy.
It is God’s intention and pleasure to dispense Christ into His chosen people for them to gain Him, possess Him, and enjoy Him, so that they become one with Him as He is one with them, and they would be His kingdom to express Him and represent Him on earth.
The good land has been the subject of the struggle between God and His enemy throughout history. God’s enemy, Satan, wants to usurp, spoil, and devastate the land so that he may hinder God from gaining His purpose.
When we come to the matter of the spiritual warfare, we need to realise that spiritual warfare is necessary not merely to fend off the problems, troubles, and attacks of the enemy, so that we can have a good and peaceful life on this earth.
Rather, spiritual warfare is needed for God go attain His purpose, that is, to make the all-inclusive Christ – as typified by the good land – be everything to us, His people, so that we may enjoy Christ, take Christ as our everything, and build the church as the temple for God’s expression and the city for His dominion.
This is the crux of the spiritual warfare, that is, that God would bring His people into the full enjoyment of Christ as the all-inclusive good land so that they would build His temple and city for Him to have an expression and representation on earth.
We are fighting the spiritual warfare not just for ourselves but for God’s interest, for us to enter into the possession of the good land so that God may have His expression and representation on this earth.
Seeing how the Good Land is a Type of the All-inclusive Christ who is Everything to us
The good land – the land of Canaan – is a type of the all-inclusive Christ, the Christ who is all and in all, the Christ who is everything to us (Deut. 8:7-10).
There are many types and figures in the Old Testament that point to Christ, such as the Passover, the manna, the tabernacle with its furniture, the offerings, etc, each depicting one or more aspects of Christ; only the good land is a complete and all-inclusive type of Christ.
In the Old Testament there’s no other type that shows that Christ is the all-inclusive One; the good land is the ultimate type of Christ found in the Scriptures.
First of all, the land itself is a type of Christ; in Gen. 1:9-10, 13 we see that the land came out of the death waters on the third day, which is a type of Christ who came out of death on the third day.
Christ is the reality of the land – He is the resurrected One, the rich soil into which we have been rooted and grounded, and the source of everything that we need to live the Christian life and church life for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.
Just as the physical land produces many kinds of life, including the vegetable life, the animal life, and the human life, and the land is the sustenance for all these kinds of life to exist, so Christ Himself is the source of all kinds of life, and He provides everything for us to exist and live.
Everything that God has prepared for mankind is concentrated on the land; everything that God has prepared for us to live our Christian life for the fulfillment of God’s purpose is concentrated in the all-inclusive Christ who is everything to us.
God’s intention is for Christ to be not just this and that but the all-inclusive good land in which we live, move, exist, breathe, and do everything; God wants that His Christ would be everything to us. Christ is the good land came out of death water and produces everything that we need for our existence and work.
In the Old Testament the good land is the focus of God’s plan; God called Abraham out of the land of his fathers to come into the good land, and He brought His people into the good land so that they may build His temple and His city for His expression and His representation.
God gives us only one thing: Christ, the reality of the good land, and He wants us to enjoy Christ, work on Christ as the good land, reap Christ, be filled with Christ, and build up the church as the temple of God to express Christ and as the city of God to represent Christ.
We need to see how the all-inclusive Christ who is everything to us, and we need to fight for our enjoyment of Christ as the good land!
Thank You Lord for being the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land for our enjoyment! Hallelujah, God gave the all-inclusive Christ to be everything to us in our Christian life for us to fulfill God’s purpose of expressing Him and representing Him corporately on earth! Praise the Lord: everything we need is in Christ, for He is the all-inclusive One given to us by God for us to live in, be rooted and grounded in, enjoy, and live a life for the fulfillment of God’s purpose! Lord, we want to enjoy You as everything to us, the all-inclusive good land!
The All-inclusive Christ is the Allotted Portion of the Saints to be our Everything
In the book of Colossians, where he presents the highest revelation concerning Christ, Paul employs the concept of the all-inclusive land when he speaks of “the allotted portion of the saints” (Col. 1:12; Josh. 5:11-12).
In this book we see that Christ is all and in all, and here Paul makes reference to the Old Testament principle of the good land being allotted to the people of Israel. The all-inclusive Christ has been allotted to us, and we all have a portion to enjoy, possess, and gain.
We have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, and now we walk in Him, for He is our good land. We were rooted in Him, and we are being built up in Him. Christ is the rich soil into which we are rooted.
The all-inclusive Christ is everything to us; He is the portion allotted by God to us and to all the saints for our enjoyment (Col. 3:4, 11). The Greek word rendered “portion” in Col. 1:12 can also be translated, “lot”, referring to an allotment of the inheritance, as mentioned in Joshua 14:1.
The land of Canaan was everything to the children of Israel, and Christ, the reality of the type of the good land, is everything to us (Deut. 8:7-10).
Christ is not just our Savior, Lord, and Master; God wants His all-inclusive Christ to be everything to us, as typified by the good land being everything to God’s people. Our whole existence and supply should be in Christ and off Christ as the all-inclusive good land.
To the children of Israel the good land provided everything they needed for their living and existence: water, wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive trees, animals, milk, honey, stones, iron, copper.
All these items are types of Christ. Christ is the water that springs from valleys and hills to water us. Christ is the wheat, which signifies the incarnated and crucified Christ, and the barley, which signifies the resurrected Christ.
The vine typifies Christ as the sacrificing One who cheers God and man; the fig tree, the sweetness and satisfaction of Christ as our life supply. The pomegranate typifies the abundance and beauty of the life of Christ.
The olive tree typifies Christ as the man filled with the Spirit and anointed with the Spirit as the oil of exultant joy. The animal life typifies Christ with His redeeming life. Milk and honey typify Christ in His richness and sweetness.
The stones, the iron, and the copper, typify Christ as the materials for building and fighting.
God uses the good land as a type of Christ – God wants that the all-inclusive Christ be everything to us. We eat Christ, we drink Him, we live in Him and by Him, we walk in Him, and we are clothed with Him; He is everything to us.
God’s goal is for us to gain the all-inclusive Christ – typified by the good land – to the point that Christ becomes everything to us.
When we speak of the church as the new man, it’s not about having saints of different races and backgrounds coming together and being one, but it’s about the all-inclusive Christ who is everything to us.
If we do not have the reality of enjoying and experiencing the all-inclusive Christ as our all, we are short of the reality of what the one new man is. When we experience Christ as our person, the all-inclusive Christ is everything to us.
Lord Jesus, we want to enjoy You and experience You as the allotted portion of the saints in the light. Thank You Lord, You are our good land, the all-inclusive good land that provides for all our needs. We want to eat You, drink You, live in You and because of You, breathe You in, walk in You, and be clothed in You, so that we may be fully one with You for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Be our experience and enjoyment today. Lord, we want to allow You to grow in us in all things and be everything to us in our daily life. Lord Jesus, You are our everything!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by James Lee for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 466-468 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Spiritual Warfare of the Church as the New Man (2018 Memorial Day Conference), week 5, The Formation of a Corporate Joshua to Possess the Good Land by Defeating the Satanic Forces.
- Hymns on this topic:
# So subjective is my Christ to me! / Real in me, and rich and sweet! / All-inclusive is my Christ to me! / All my needs He fully meets. (Hymns #537)
# Jesus, the all-inclusive land, / Is everything to me: / A Christ of brooks, of depths and streams, / And fountains bubbling free. / Springing from valleys and from hills, / Flowing till every part He fills, / He waters us—how glorious— / By His life! (Hymns #1164)
# We have seen Christ is reality: / But it’s not sufficient just to see: / He in our experience must be / Everything to us. / We in prayer behold Him face to face, / In the Word and meetings know His grace; / But in daily life, in every place, / What is He to us? (Hymns #1178)
About aGodMan
