Having Great Resolutions in Heart and Great Searchings of Heart to Live for God on Earth

As believers who love the Lord and pursue Him, we need to have great resolutions in heart and great searchings of heart for us to live for God, allowing Him to lead us to express Him and have our path brighter and brighter until we are renewed to become the New Jerusalem. Hallelujah!

This week we have been enjoying a crystallized view of Judges 4-5, where we saw that God raised up Deborah as a judge of Israel and as a mother in Israel.

She wasn’t just raised by God to judge and to be a mother, but she also practised the female submission to the man in order to keep God’s ordination and bring all of Israel into a proper order under God’s kingship and headship.

This woman, Deborah, was an extraordinary woman, very capable and able, but somehow she knew how to keep a certain principle that brought in God’s blessing.

Through her actions and attitude, the whole Israel was headed up, and the entire situation was very proper and orderly.

Because the children of Israel did again what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, He sold them into the hand of Jabin the king of Canaan, and they were oppressed by him with his army for twenty years.

When they cried out to God, He raised up Deborah, who became a judge of Israel. She told Barak to gather the army and go fight the enemy, and Barak said that he won’t go unless she goes with him.

The result was that a woman was used by the Lord to save the children of Israel, not a man. This woman wasn’t Deborah but Jael. This Jael welcomed Sisera, the commander of the enemy’s army, and hid him from others, but when he was sleeping, she killed him.

The Lord used these two women to save Israel.

May we have the same attitude as Deborah, learning to submit to God and to the deputy authority He put over us, so that He can use us to save His people and bring them into peace and rest, and so that they would have the Lord as their King, Lord, Head, and Husband.

Satan is working tirelessly to wear out our consecration, and he has many wearing-out tactics that he uses on us and on all the saints; may we be aware of his tactics and may we renew our consecration and submit ourselves to the Lord.

In looking at Debora’s story we realize the need for the sisters in the church life to be like Deborah, taking the lead to submit, have the Lord’s speaking, serve, be a mother to the saints, and be headed up so that the entire church would be headed up and brought in proper order.

We can even say that seventy per cent of the practical building up of the church depends on the sisters, for when they serve, have a spirit of submission, pray, and function as mothers to the saints, the church is built up very much.

Having Great Resolutions in Heart and Great Searchings of Heart to Live for God

In her song, Deborah mentioned that among the divisions of Reuben there were great resolutions in heart, and in the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.

We all need to have great searchings of heart and make great resolutions in heart to live for God, that is, to express Him and fulfill His purpose.

A person of aspiration, though he lives on the earth, always turns his heart to the Lord.

We believers in Christ do not just live here on earth for ourselves; we live here for God, and we always turn our heart to the Lord.

As we turn our heart to the Lord, no matter what happens around us, we have great resolutions in heart and great searchings of heart, for the Lord infuses HIs heart’s desire into us, and we desire to live for the Lord.

To make great resolutions in heart is to have a great resolve, make a firm decision; to have great searchings of heart is to devise a plan.

As we turn our heart to the Lord, again and again, we not only enjoy Him and are transformed into His image by beholding Him face to face, but we also have a great resolve and make a great plan.

This great resolve and this great plan is nothing else but to live for God on earth.

To live for God encompasses many things, for it is a broad phrase.

We have great resolutions in heart and great searchings for heart to live for God on earth by taking Him as our life and living Him out.

We need to allow Him to lead us to express Him on this earth, wherever He has placed us and whenever He leads us.

We may even have a dream of the great and bright future that the Lord has prepared for us, that is, that He is renewing us until we become the New Jerusalem.

The love of Christ constrains us, for we consider this – one died for all, therefore all died, and He died for us so that we, who live, would no longer live to ourselves but to Him who died for us (2 Cor. 5:14-15).

No one lives to himself, and no one dies to himself; whether we live, we live to the Lord, and whether we die, we die to the Lord, for whether we live or we die, we are the Lord’s (Rom. 14:7-8).

Amen, Christ died and lived again for this, that He might be the Lord both of the dead and of the living (v. 9).

Our aspiration and resolution is that we would be ready and prepared to participate in the wedding feast of the Lamb, being clothed in fine linen, and enjoy the Lord at the marriage dinner of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9).

Amen, may we be those who have great resolutions in heart and great searchings of heart by allowing the Lord to lead us and use us for Him to be expressed through us!

May we be those who testify for the Lord and lead people to know Him.

As we live to Christ in the church life, as we learn to submit to the Lord and to one another according to God’s ordination, as we enjoy the loving care of the mothers in the church life, we have great resolutions in heart and great searchings of heart that we live for God on the earth.

If we do this, if we have such a living, the Lord will be able to lead us to express Him on this earth by going to every place, every country, and every nation to testify on His behalf and to lead people to know Him.

Lord Jesus, we pray that we would have great resolutions in heart and great searchings of heart so that we may live for God on the earth. Constrain us with Your love so that we may no longer live to ourselves but to Him who died for us and has been raised. Amen, Lord, we do not live to ourselves but to You. Amen, whether we live, we live to the Lord, and whether we die, we die to the Lord, for we are the Lord’s! We give ourselves to You, Lord, to live on earth for You and not to ourselves. We want to live one spirit with You and express You to become Your testimony on the earth!

May we Love the Lord and be like the Sun when it Rises in its Might, Shining out Christ and Enjoying Him as our Victory

We need to aspire and pray to be like those whom Deborah describes at the end of her son, which concludes in a glorious way, “May those who love Him be like the sun / When it rises in its might” (Judg. 5:31).

The Lord is the Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings (Mal. 4:2), and we need to experience Him as such a One.

For the sun to rise in its might means that it shines brightly, brilliantly, and gloriously; we need to experience Christ as the Sun of Righteousness arising in us and shining brighter and more brilliant day by day.

If all the churches would experience the great resolutions in heart, the great searchings of heart, and the rising up to shine like the sun, they surely would enjoy the Lord as their victory.

We all need to experience the great resolutions in heart, have great searchings of heart, and experience the Lord as the Sun of Righteousness rising up in our heart.

This will make us channels of blessing to the church and to the whole world.

The Lord has put before us a bright path that shines brighter and brighter; we need to walk on this way, have great resolutions in heart and great searchings of heart, and the Lord will shine on us and make us shining ones in His kingdom.

In His eyes, there is nothing more precious and glorious than serving Him with our whole being so that we may gain others for the Lord.

Gaining a million dollars cannot compare to the gaining of one soul.

If we give our time, energy, and whole being to the Lord to labor and gain others for the Lord, our pathway will be brighter and brighter until the full day!

What a glorious matter it is for us to speak to others about the Lord, bring them to receive Christ, visit them in their homes, shepherd them according to God, feed them to grow in life, bring them to the home meetings, and perfect them to learn the truth and speak forth Christ for the building up of the church!

Amen, may we be such ones today!

The overcomers who are reconstituted with the healing Christ as the Sun of righteousness will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Mal. 4:2; Luke 1:78-79; Matt. 13:43).

May we allow the Lord as the Sun of righteousness arise in us with healing in His wings so that He may heal us, expose anything of darkness in us, and make us shining like Him!

We who love Him will become like Him, shining ones.

May we all have great resolutions of heart and great searchings in heart, giving the Lord the ground to be our King, our Lord, our Head, and our Husband!

May the Lord become in us what He should be so that we can usher in the next age!

May we aspire to this and pray just like Deborah did in Judg. 5:31, that we would be who love the Lord and shine like the sun when it rises in its might.

May the Lord rise up in us as the Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings, and may we experience the resolutions, the searchings, and the rising up to shine like the sun so that we may also shine like Him – even as the sun in the kingdom of our Father!

Lord Jesus, we love You! Arise in us as the Sun of righteousness with healing in Your wings. Shine in us, shine on us, and shine through us; make us those who shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father! Amen, Lord, may we all experience the great resolutions in our heart, have the great searchings of heart and rise up to shine like the sun! Hallelujah for Christ as the Sun of righteousness being reproduced in us as we walk on the bright and brilliant way of the Christian life until we shine like the sun! Amen, Lord, be real to us; become in us what You should be! We take You as our Head, our King, our Lord, and our Husband!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ricky Acosta for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1986, vol. 2, A Blessed Human Life, chs. 3 and 6, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth (2021 summer training), week 7, God’s Raising Up of Deborah as a Judge of Israel and as a Mother in Israel Who Practiced the Female Submission to the Man in Order to Keep God’s Ordination and Bring All of Israel into a Proper Order under God’s Kingship and Headship.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – In these last days before the Lord’s coming, / before the Lord’s coming, / We must be those who have great resolutions in heart, / We must be those who have / Great resolutions in heart and great searchings of heart, / Who have great resolutions in heart, / and great searchings of heart, / searchings of heart, / We must be absolutely consecrated to God, / Having one heart to love Him, seek Him, live Him, / And be constituted with Him to be His expression. / We must be those who have. (Song on, Great Searchings of Heart)
  – Separated unto Jesus, / Loosed from all the world beside; / Blinded by the advent glory, / Hour by hour would I abide. / So from glory unto glory, / Gladdened by the advent ray; / All the path is growing brighter, / Shining unto perfect day. (Hymns #955)
  – Thou art the Sun of righteousness / With healing in Thy wings; / The shining of Thy glorious face / To us Thy riches brings. (Hymns #200)