This morning we were enjoying some simple ways to cooperate with Christ in His heavenly ministry in the day of His warfare. First of all, we need to rise up early in the morning to contact the Lord whom we love so that we may enter into the womb of the dawn to be conceived as the dew for Christ’s watering (Psa. 110:3; Matt. 6:6, 14:22-23; Mark 1:35).
It all starts in the morning, with our time with Him personally. Then, we need to keep ourselves empty, open, fresh, living, and young with the Lord for His new move (see Gen. 12:7-8). Hallelujah, open and fresh! Amen, living and young!
Being open vessels
All we have to do is to be absolutely open to the Lord. The way to receive the greatest amount of transformation and the way to cooperate with the Lord in His heavenly ministry today is to be an open vessel to Him (see Luke 18:17; Prov. 20:27; Rev. 4:5).
Daily we need to learn to open to Him and allow Him to shine and penetrate with His light. As He shines into every area, life is being simultaneously supplied to us. This is the way to be renewed day by day – though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16).
Receive the Spirit as the fresh oil
We daily need to daily receive the Spirit as the fresh oil (see Zech. 4:12-14; Matt. 25:8-9; Rev. 3:18). Christ Himself is the olive tree and we are the shoot, the branches, in Christ.
For the church as the lampstand to shine forth Christ, for Christ to accomplish His heavenly ministry today, we need the Spirit, who is the oil, the liquid gold. We daily need to gain the oil, gain the Spirit, into all our vessel, and we need to supply others also with the sevenfold Spirit that they may also be enlivened for God’s testimony through the church. Gain the oil and minister the oil!
Walking in newness of life and serving in newness of spirit
There is a danger that our ministry or our walk with the Lord would become stale, old, and routine. We need to open to the Lord and pray to Him, Lord, save me from being stale – cause me to walk in newness of life and serve You in newness of spirit (Rom. 6:4; 7:6)!
We have been discharged from the law and we are now being joined to the resurrected Christ for our service to God – therefore, we need to walk in newness of spirit (Rom. 6:4).
Also, our service to God should be not in an old way but in the freshness and newness of this fresh, living, ever-flowing divine life which we enjoy! Our spirit is new, and everything coming from our spirit is new!
being vitalized by the Lord to be living and functioning
We need to be vitalized by the Lord and with the Lord – in the Lord’s recovery we need to be vital today! There needs to be “a revival of morale, of impact, of the dynamic motivation within us, and of vitality among us.”
We should not be satisfied and content with where we are, but personally come to the Lord that He would save us out of our routine, habit, and tradition, and make us living and functioning members of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 14:4, 31; also, Rev. 3:1, 14:4).
Daily we need to come to the Lord to be vitalized by Him so that we may be the living and functioning members of His organic Body.
being renewed day by day
On the one hand we need to be revived morning by morning, and on the other hand we need to be renewed day by day with a fresh supply with the resurrection life, so that we may stay and remain young in the Lord (see 2 Cor. 4:16; Eph. 5:26-27). Our outer man is decaying daily, being consumed by the killing work of death in our flesh, but our inner man, our regenerated spirit, needs to be renewed day by day!
Every day we need to enjoy a fresh portion of resurrection life to be renewed and to overcome any death in our being! This is a simple way to remain young in the Lord and cooperate with Him in His heavenly ministry today.
Lord Jesus, save us from becoming old or being satisfied with where we are today. Lord, keep us open to You as You are operating in us both the willing and the working. We want to daily receive a portion of fresh oil. We want to walk in newness of spirit and serve in newness of life every day. Oh, Lord, vitalize us that we may be living and functioning members of Your Body. May we be daily renewed by enjoying a fresh supply of resurrection life!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from portions in, The Vital Groups (msgs. 2-3) and Life Messages (vol. 2, ch. 69), and Zech. 4:12 (footnotes 1, 2, and 3), Rom. 7:6 (footnotes 3 and 4), and 2 Cor. 4:16 (footnote 3), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization-Study of Psalms (2), week 17.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Lord, keep my heart open and soft toward You. / Lord, draw my eyes to see nothing else but You.
# I never thought that God would be enjoyable, / And my experience of Him is indescribable; / When first I opened up my heart to Him, / He came in me and filled me to the brim.
# Transformation is my need, / To be broken more indeed, / That the clay may change in form, / To the treasure to conform.
# Now we’re learning to turn to our spirit, / Now we’re learning to take Christ as life; / Now we’re learning to feed upon Jesus / And be freed from all struggling and strife.
