In the Grafted Life the Human Life is Strengthened and Enriched by the Divine Life

Our Christian life is not an exchanged life but a grafted life, a life in which the human life with its virtues is strengthened, uplifted, and enriched by the divine life, while all the negative elements are discharged and eliminated. Hallelujah!

This week we have been enjoying and prayerfully considering the matter of Christian life being a grafted life.

We believers in Christ are Christians – we are grafted in Christ, even part of Christ as the branches of the vine, and we should live a grafted life.

What does it mean to live a grafted life? It means that we are one spirit with the Lord and we live in an organic union with Him.

When we look at the process of grafting, we see that two similar lives are joined together and then they grow together.

Our human life is quite similar to God’s life, for we were created in God’s image and according to His likeness.

Therefore, we can be grafted into Him and He can live in us.

But how can we human beings who are mortal, sinful, and rebellious, be grafted into God?

First, Christ had to go through a process; He went through the processes of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection.

He became the same as we are by putting on humanity, and He died on the cross to bear all our sins away.

Furthermore, when He was on the cross, Christ was cut – He was cut by God, and now there’s an open wound where we as the many believers in Christ can be grafted.

Praise the Lord, all those who hear the gospel and believe into the Lord Jesus, repenting and confessing the name of the Lord, are grafted into Christ!

On our side, we are cut when we repent and believe into the Lord, and we are connected to the Lord in spirit.

We believers in Christ are the regenerated ones, and we should daily live a grafted life.

We no longer have just the human life; we also have the divine life, and the divine life is growing in our human life.

This is not an exchanged life. We don’t give the Lord all our human life and He gives us all His divine life, and we act like robots or puppets for HIm to do what He wants.

Rather, it is a life of mingling; God mingles Himself with us and dispenses what He is into our being.

Our Christian life is a grafted life, and this grafted life is the mingling of the human life with the divine life.

May we remain here, in the continual process of mingling of God and man, in all the situations and things of our daily living!

In the Grafted Life the Human Life is Strengthened, Uplifted, and Enriched by the Divine Life

We need to realize that we believers in Christ have a grafted life: we were grafted into Christ, and God and man have been grafted together.

In the grafted life, however, the human life is not eliminated or annihilated; rather, it is strengthened, uplifted, and enriched by the divine life (see Rom. 11:17-24).

According to the natural law ordained by God, when you graft a branch from a poor tree into a superior tree, the life of that superior tree enriches the branch and causes it to be uplifted and strengthened; it is not the other way around.

In the same principle, when we believers in Christ were grafted into Christ, He has the superior life, the divine life, and He swallows up our defects and problems, uplifting and strengthening our human life.

However, it is not our human life that is expressed but rather, it is the divine life as the source filling up, mingling with, and being expressed through our human life.

Our Christian life is not a matter of exchange but of grafting.

We may be tempted to think that we need to give up our poor life and get God’s life so that He replaces us with what He is; in a sense, that is what He is doing, but the way He does it is by dispensing Himself into us and by mingling us with Himself.

In the grafted life, the branch still retains its same essential characteristics, but its life is uplifted and transformed by being grafted into a better life.

This is why we shouldn’t worry about improving ourselves or bettering our behaviour and character; we simply need to enjoy the grafted life and our human life will be strengthened, uplifted, and enriched by the divine life.

It is of God that we are in Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 1:30), who has become everything to us for the past, present, and future.

We have been joined to Him, and now in this organic union with Him we have everything we need.

The higher life, the divine life in our spirit, subdues and saturates the lower life, our human life.

Many times this is our experience.

For example, the Bible says that we should give thanks at all times and for all things.

It is easy to do this when things are going well, but when we miss the bus to work or the elevator in our apartment building and we need to wait for a while, which will make us late for some appointments, are we still thankful?

We may be thankful that we’re on our way to work on public transport, but the persons in front of us may not move that fast so we miss our exit from the train and things are delayed; are we still thankful?

It is not easy to be thankful; it is actually impossible.

But being thankful is spontaneous when we remain in the organic union with the Lord.

When we exercise our spirit and remain one spirit with the Lord, we are thankful to the Lord for all things and at all times.

The higher life in our spirit – the divine life – fills us and saturates us, and we simply express Christ.

According to God’s revelation in His word and also according to our experience, we Christians have a wonderful grafted life in which the divine life uplifts, strengthens, and enriches our human life so that Christ may be expressed through us and so that He may flow in us and through us.

The result of being grafted into Christ is that the divine life in our spirit constantly supplies us and nourishes us.

When we turn to our spirit, when we contact the Lord in spirit, we are uplifted, enriched, and strengthened into our inner man, and the Lord has a way of being expressed through us.

The fatness of the Lord’s life comes in, carries away anything negative, and uplifts the original function God had for us, strengthening it and enriching it.

The human life is enriched by the divine life. Amen!

In a natural and spontaneous way, our whole being is saturated with God’s life and we are transformed, and what comes forth is a marvellous fruit! Hallelujah!

This is not by reckoning ourselves dead to the world and to sin (Rom. 6:11) but rather by seeing that we have a grafted life and remain in the organic union with the Lord in our spirit.

When we are in our spirit, the Lord has a way to flow in us, and our human life is strengthened, uplifted, and enriched by the divine life.

Lord Jesus, thank You for grafting us into Yourself so that we may live a grafted life today. We choose to turn to our spirit and live in our mingled spirit. Dispense Yourself into us today. Swallow up any defects and imperfections in us and fill us with Your superior divine life. We just open to You, Lord, to continually receive Your divine dispensing. May our poorer human life be filled and saturated with Your divine life! Praise the Lord in the grafted life our human life is NOT eliminated but rather, it is strengthened, uplifted, and enriched by the divine life! Amen, Lord, may there be some strengthening, uplifting, and enriching taking place today as we open to You and remain in the organic union with You! We just want to enjoy the fatness of Your life, absorb Your riches, and let You flow in and flow out of our being. Have a way in us. Flow in us. Fill us. Saturate us. Permeate us. Transform us. May there be a marvellous fruit coming forth for others to see, enjoy, and praise God!

In the Grafted Life the Divine Life Discharges the Negative Elements, Resurrects God’s Original Creation, Supplies the Riches of Christ to our Being, and Saturates us!

One of the wonderful benefits taking place when a branch from a poor tree is grafted into a superior tree is that the negative elements or defects of the poor life are swallowed up and discharged by the superior life. This is what happens in our Christian life and experience.

In the grafted life the divine life works within us to discharge the negative elements (2 Cor. 3:18).

As we behold the Lord and remain in fellowship with Him, we don’t need to worry about the negative elements, for they are being removed and discharged.

It is the divine life in us that does it. We may be quite impatient, and it may be easy to get us upset about something; the only way to deal with our impatience is to stay in the grafted life.

The grafted life operates in us to discharge anything negative, any shortcoming, any defect, and any problem in us.

The divine life works in a gradual way to eliminate whatever is natural.

We all are in this process; daily, the Lord is gradually removing many negative things in our being.

As we open to the Lord, as He gains more ground in us, His dispensing adds the divine element and it also removes anything negative.

For example, the negative element in our disposition is killed; then, instead of casting away our disposition, the Lord uplifts it and uses it.

We all are different, we like different things, we have different tempers, and we are not alike with anyone else.

By remaining in the grafted life, the divine life discharges the negative elements and adds the Lord’s element to our being.

Furthermore, in the grafted life the divine life resurrects God’s original creation (John 11:25).

God didn’t give up on His creation; rather, He is reclaiming it.

Yes, His foe has worked throughout the ages to ruin man, but all he could do the foe is just release the flow!

Satan has done his best and continues to do his best, but our God just keeps on flowing.

In the grafted life, God intends to bring all the aspects of our being into resurrection (Phil. 3:11).

On the negative side, the divine life discharges the negative things; on the positive side, it works to resurrect God’s original creation.

In this way, our original functions, the functions given to us at creation, are restored, strengthened, and enriched (Gal. 2:20). Wow!

The way to do this is not by self-improvement or self-perfecting but by enjoying the Lord and living the grafted life, for it is then that our being is enriched by the divine life. Praise the Lord!

In the grafted life, the divine life supplies the riches of Christ to our inward parts (Rom. 12:2).

As we open to the Lord and let Him make His home in our heart, our mind is renewed, our emotion is being balanced, and our will is subdued.

The Lord is aiming to make us the same as He is, and it is happening as we live the grafted life.

As we live by being one spirit with the Lord, our resurrected and uplifted faculties are supplied with the riches of Christ. Amen!

We do not sense how this happens nor do we see it happening, but as we enjoy the Lord and abide in Him, our mind, emotion, and will are being renewed and supplied; our whole being is enriched by the divine life.

In the grafted life the divine life saturates our whole being (Rom. 8:29-30). Amen!

We are being saturated with God as life. We are being renewed. We are being transformed.

We are being made the same as He is so that Christ may be the Firstborn among many brothers.

The riches of Christ saturate us and transform us (12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18).

We just need to turn our heart to the Lord and behold Him, and as we behold Him with an unveiled face, we are being transformed.

It’s a matter of beholding Him to enjoy all the benefits of the grafted life.

Through this grafted life, the Lord has the ground and the way to transform us.

May we daily cooperate with Him to remove any veils and just enjoy Him so that we may be transformed and saturated with Him!

By this saturation of the divine life, we’re conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29).

May we daily remain in this process day by day.

May we never close our being nor allow anything of religion to come in.

Religion is something we do for God but without the enjoyment of Christ.

When we are religious, we do many things for God, yet we do not live the grafted life.

Religion is a veil that covers us and hinders us from living one spirit with the Lord.

We need to exercise our spirit of faith to just believe into the Lord and live the grafted life.

We have a spirit of faith.

We don’t rely on outward practices or rituals; we rely on the operation of the life-giving Spirit in us to renew us, transform us, and make us the same as Christ.

Lord Jesus, we want to live the grafted life today so that our human life with our human virtues would be enriched by the divine life! Amen, Lord, keep us enjoying You today. We open to You and we allow You to work in us to discharge the negative elements in our being. Carry away and eliminate anything that is negative in us, anything natural, and anything that You don’t agree with. May the negative element in our disposition be killed and our disposition would be uplifted and enriched for You to use it! Amen, Lord, bring all the aspects of our being into resurrection! Have a way to resurrect God’s original creation and reclaim it! May our original functions, which were given to us at creation, be restored, strengthened, and enriched by the divine life! Fill us and saturate us with the riches of Christ in all our inward parts. Renew our mind and transform our soul. Saturate us with Yourself. Conform us to the image of Christ! We simply turn our heart to You and we want to behold You with an unveiled face so that we may be transformed into Your glorious image!

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 brother Ray Mulligan in the message for this week, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1979, vol. 1, “Life Messages, Volume 2,” pp. 47-49, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Christian Life (2024 Memorial Day Blending Conference), week 2, The Grafted Life.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The Christian Life – Week 2, A Grafted Life, via, The Church in New York City.
  – The grafted life, a portion from, The Experience and Growth in Life, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee.
  – Let Your Speech Be Always with Grace, Seasoned with Salt, via, Shepherding Words.
  – Crucial points of truth in John 14, article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Do You Know How to Exercise Your Spirit? More via, Bibles for America blog.
  – The living of the divine life through the human life, a portion from, General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, A – Part 1: The Gospels and the Acts, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
  – New Jerusalem is Built through Regeneration and Transformation, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Grafting and growing, a portion from, Life Messages, Vol. 2 (#42-75), Chapter 17, by Witness Lee.
  – The Tree of Life, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Grafted into Christ to Become Part of the Tree of Life, via, The Church in Plano.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – God’s intention is to have us / All conformed to His dear Son; / Thus a work of transformation / By the Spirit must be done. / Lord, transform us to Thine image / In emotion, mind, and will; / Saturate us with Thy Spirit, / All our being wholly fill. (Hymns #750 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Thy Spirit will me saturate / Every part will God permeate, / Deliv’ring me from the old man, / With all saints building for His plan. / Oh! Christ, expression of God, the Great, / Inexhaustible, rich, and sweet! / God mingled with humanity / Lives in me my all to be. (Hymns #501 stanza 7 and chorus)
  – Lord, Thy life abundant, / Flowing, rich and free, / Constantly refreshes / And empowers me. / Death by life is swallowed, / Weakness is made strong, / All my bonds are broken, / Gloom is turned to song. / 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 stanzas 4-5)