Growing in Life for our Transformation in Life to be Designated the Sons of God

The desire of God’s heart is to have many sons who are conformed to the image of Christ, His Firstborn Son. From eternity past, Christ as the second of the Godhead was the only begotten Son of God, possessing only divinity; through incarnation, Christ put on humanity, and in His resurrection He brought His humanity into divinity, putting His divinity into His humanity and uplifting His humanity into His divinity by being begotten of God in His humanity to be the Firstborn Son of God (Rom. 1:3-4).

Now Christ is not only divine but also human, and both in His humanity and in His divinity He is the Son of God. In His humanity Christ is the Firstborn Son of God, and all the believers in Christ are the many sons of God regenerated by Him with Christ’s life in His resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3). Inwardly, all believers have the divine life; no matter how we all look outwardly, we are all one and the same inwardly by having God’s life in us.

Throughout our Christian life we are in the process of being designated the sons of God, and this process is through our growth in life for our transformation in life. The more we cooperate with the Lord to grow in life and be transformed, the more we are designated sons of God.

To grow in life, we need to turn our heart to the Lord, have a pure heart toward Him, feed on the guileless milk and the solid food of the Word, receive the watering of the gifted members and flow out with Christ toward others, and allow the Lord to tear down our self through our environment and failures.

God’s desire is to obtain many sons who are the same as His firstborn Son, Jesus Christ, and for this we all need to experience Christ’s resurrection and stay in the process of being designated sons of God.

Hallelujah, Christ is in us right now as the rising-up Spirit, the sonizing Spirit, and the designating Spirit, constantly operating to both tear down our self and to impart His resurrection life into all our being until we are fully sanctified, transformed, conformed to His image, and glorified to become sons of God expressing God corporately!

Growing in Life for our Transformation in Life to be Designated the Sons of God

The more we grow in life for our transformation in life, the more we are designated the sons of God. Day by day and little by little, even without us seeing this or understanding how this happens, we are undergoing the process of designation until we are fully transformed and conformed to Christ’s glorious image. We can cooperate with the Lord to be designated sons of God by growing in life for our transformation in life in at least four ways:

1. Turning our heart to the Lord and being pure in heart. Whenever the heart turns to the Lord, all the veils between us and Him are taken away, and we can clearly see Him and be infused with Him (2 Cor. 3:16). As we turn our heart to the Lord and have an unveiled face, we behold Him and reflect Him, and we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).

If we seek the Lord with a pure heart and cooperate with Him to be purified in our heart toward Him, we will see Him and even become Him, not just being in His presence but being one with Him. What we should do today is flee youthful lusts and pursue Christ together with all those who call on Him out of a pure heart. We need to flee the lusts in the world that are so available to us online and offline, and fan into flame our spirit of love, power, and sobermindedness together with those who call on the Lord and love Him (2 Tim. 2:22).

2. Feeding on the guileless milk and the solid food in the word of God. In order for us to grow humanly, we need to eat and drink; for us to grow spiritually in the divine life, we need to drink the guileless milk of the word and eat the solid food in the word of God (1 Pet. 2:2; Heb. 5:12-14). We need to long for the pure unadulterated milk in the word of God, praying over God’s word to be nourished with Him, and we need the word of righteousness and the high peak of the divine revelation, the solid food in God’s word.

3. Being watered by the saints and watering others. As we drink the Lord, He in us will flow out unto others as waters of life; the more we drink the Lord, the more there will be a flowing out (John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 3:6). One way to cooperate with the Lord to grow in life and be sonized is by letting Him flow through us in little ways here and there, flowing Christ to our family members, the saints, and those around us.

If we bless others, we ourselves will prosper, and if we water others we also will be watered (Prov. 11:25). We need to receive others’ watering and water others to grow in life and be designated sons of God.

4. Allowing the Lord to tear down our self and work within us. Through all the things in our environment and especially by our failures, our ugly self is torn down, and the Lord has a greater opportunity to work within us. We just need to love Him and enjoy Him, and even our messy and ugly situations will work together for good so that we may be called, justified, and glorified by Him (Rom. 8:28-29).

According to our flesh, we are all troublesome to the church life and to those we live with; but whenever we turn to our spirit and walk according to the Spirit, the church life and the family life will be pleasant. We urgently need to learn how to walk according to the Spirit; when we walk according to the Spirit, the self-will be torn down and the church life will be in the heavens.

Lord Jesus, we choose to turn to our spirit and walk according to our spirit. We want to learn to live according to the Spirit so that our self may be torn down, we would be designated sons of God, and the church life would be in the heavens. Lord, we turn our heart to You: unveil us that we may see You and be transformed into the same image from glory to glory even as from the sonizing, deifying, and designating Spirit. Oh Lord Jesus, we love You! Transform us into Your image by keeping us in the process of designation and sonizing!

Being Designated Sons of God by Walking According to the Spirit in Resurrection

The key to the process of being designated sons of God is resurrection: it was in resurrection that Christ in His humanity was designated the Son of God, and by means of such a resurrection are also are in the process of being designated sons of God. The process of our being designated sons of God is the process of resurrection with four main aspects: sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification (see Rom. 6:22; 12:2; 8:29-30).

These aspects are distinct but they are not separate, being related to our experience of Christ as the life-giving Spirit with our spirit. The key to the process of designation is resurrection, which is the indwelling Christ as the rising-up Spirit, the designating Spirit, the power of life in our mingled spirit (see John 11:25; Rom. 8:10-11; Acts 2:24; 1 Cor. 15:26; 5:4).

We need to stay in the process of being designated sons of God by giving the Spirit a way in our being; the Spirit only needs our permission and active cooperation, and He will take us on in the process of designation as sons of God.

If we look at ourselves today we may not have the confidence to say that we are sons of God; we may look at the negative aspects of our character, our flaws, and our mistakes, and even outwardly we may not have the appearance of God’s sons. But we are undergoing the process of being designated sons of God by resurrection, and eventually, after being fully processed, all will know that we are sons of God.

Christ in us and we with Christ inwardly are groaning today, yearning for the day of our glorification to fully be sons of God. However, we are still so short of expressing Christ and shining out God; yet God uses even our failures and mistakes in this process of designation, tearing down our ugly self and taking the opportunity to work in us.

Praise the Lord for the process of designating us sons of God! We urgently need to learn how to walk according to the Spirit, to enjoy and experience the designating Spirit; those who walk by the Spirit are sons of God (Rom. 8:4, 14). The more we enjoy the rising-up Spirit and walk according to the Spirit, we do all things in oneness with the Lord, being joined to Him as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

The more we touch the Spirit, the more we are sanctified, transformed, and glorified to become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem (1 Cor. 12:3; Rom. 10:12; 8:15-16; Gal. 4:6).

The most simple way to touch the Lord and breathe Him in so that we may live by Him is to call on the name of the Lord. When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we enjoy His resurrection life being dispensed into us and spreading in our whole being to designate us as sons of God.

Keep calling on the name of the Lord throughout the day and you will breathe Him in and give Him more ground to infuse His resurrection life into all the parts of your being!

Lord Jesus, we love to call on Your name and be infused with Your resurrection life. Oh Lord Jesus, we just want to touch You as the Spirit so that we may be sanctified, transformed, and glorified to become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead for the building up of the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem! Oh Lord, keep us in the process of designation by learning to walk according to the Spirit so that we may enjoy and experience the designating, sonizing, rising-up, and deifying Spirit with our spirit!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Romans, msgs. 54-55 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision and Experience of Christ in His Resurrection and Ascension, week 2 / msg 2, The Vision and Experience of Christ in His Resurrection (2) – The Seed of David Becoming the Son of God by Resurrection.
• All verses are taken from, Recovery Version Bible.
• Hymns to strengthen the burden in this article:
  # As my heart turns, with love it burns / Your face is all I want to see / Your image Lord which I adore / My image soon will be. (Song on Turning our Heart to the Lord)
  # Oh, may my spirit flow, / Oh, may it flow! / I ask Thee, gracious Lord, / Oh, may it flow! / My trust in self o’erthrow, / Down from self’s throne I’ll go, / That living water flow / In spirit, Lord. (Hymns #846)
  # Every time I say “Amen” to His Spirit / And walk by my spirit, / The kingdom seed grows and develops / Deep inside of me. / On the outside, it may seem that there’s / No change in me— / But I’m not the same, / ’Cause as the seed grows in me, / Inside I’m becoming God! (Song on Walking by the Spirit)