As believers in the Lord and lovers of Christ, we are called to live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection by living continually in our spirit; this will cause us to be transformed inwardly and reconstituted with the Triune God to be His private garden and the means for Him to move on the earth.
In the first stage of our loving relationship with Christ, as seen in the Song of Songs, we pursue Christ for satisfaction; we love Him and we simply want Him to kiss us with the kisses of His mouth.
Our Christian life is a romance with the Lord; He is our Beloved, He draws us to Himself, and we run after Him.
As we spend time with the Lord every morning, having a personal, affectionate, intimate, private, and spiritual time with Him, we develop our love toward Him, and we pursue after Him for satisfaction.
On His side, the Lord keeps drawing us to Himself; on our side, we run after Him and pursue Him. How we love the Lord Jesus!
However, if we overcare for our spiritual condition before Christ, without checking with Him about it or being in His light concerning it, if we introspect, it is easy to have a wall between us and the Lord.
Yes, we do love the Lord, and we sense His presence, but there’s a wall of introspection between us and Him, for the self is right there, blocking us from touching Him and enjoying Him as before.
So the Lord comes in to call us to be delivered from the self through our oneness with the cross of Christ by the power of His resurrection.
The Lord doesn’t want to perfect us in the sense of making us better, stronger, and more confident; He wants to bring us into the experience of Himself and of His cross with His resurrection.
The only way we can be delivered from the self is by being one with the cross of Christ by the power of His resurrection.
On His side, the Lord is the mountain-leaping and hill-skipping Christ, the Christ in resurrection who skips and leaps over any problem, difficulty, and hindrance.
On our side, however, we need to be one with the cross of Christ by the power of His resurrection in our spirit.
Introspection becomes a seclusion, a wall, that keeps us away from the presence of Christ.
When we contact the Lord, though we may feel we’re in seclusion and away from Him, He encourages us to rise up and come out of our low situation to be with Him.
May we have a progressive experience of Christ in the divine romance, heeding His call and being one with Him to go on with Him, be transformed, and be conformed to His image until we are fully His duplication, the Shulammite, to match Him in every possible way.
We are Called to Live in Ascension as the new Creation in Resurrection by Continually Living in our Spirit
![And He said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, You shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. John 1:51 Immediately I was in spirit; and behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and upon the throne [there was] One sitting. Rev. 4:2 Let us therefore come forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help. Heb. 4:16](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/And-He-said-to-him-Truly-truly-I-say-to-you-You-shall-see-heaven-opened-683x1024.webp?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "And He said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, You shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. John 1:51 Immediately I was in spirit; and behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and upon the throne [there was] One sitting. Rev. 4:2 Let us therefore come forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help. Heb. 4:16")
In Song of Songs 3:6 – 5:1, we see the third stage of our experience of Christ in the divine romance; as lovers of Christ, we are called to live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection by continually living in our spirit.
What does it mean to live in ascension? To live in ascension is to live continually live in our spirit, for when we live in our spirit, we’re joined to the ascended Christ in the heavens (see Eph. 2:22; Gen. 28:12-17; John 1:51; Rev. 4:1-2; Heb. 4:12, 16).
Ascension is the heavens, and we are on earth; however, we as believers in Christ have a regenerated spirit, and our spirit is joined to God the Spirit in the heavens.
The way for us to live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection is by continually living in our mingled spirit.
Our spirit and the divine Spirit have been joined as one.
Christ as the heavenly ladder is set up in our spirit, and when we’re in spirit, we are joined to the heavens; in our spirit, we can live in ascension.
The ladder that Jacob saw in his dream in Gen. 28 is a type of Christ as the ladder joining earth to heaven in John 1; through Christ as the heavenly ladder heaven is joined to earth and earth is joined to heaven.
The dream of the processed Triune God is to be joined to man and for man to be joined to Him; this is now possible because Christ became the ladder joining man to God, and this Christ is the Spirit in our spirit.
Our spirit is really an awesome place: it is the gate of heaven, for in spirit we are joined to the Lord and He is joined to us! Hallelujah!
Our spirit is the habitation of God; when we’re in the spirit, we’re one with the Lord, and we live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection.
When we live in our spirit, God is brought into us and we are brought into us.
![Ascension is in the heavens. Although we are on earth, as believers in Christ, our regenerated spirit is joined to God the Spirit in the heavens. These two spirits are one. This is like electricity: It is in the power plant and also in our room, yet there is one current. When we are in our spirit, we are joined to the ascended Christ in the heavens. To live in ascension [is to live continually] in our spirit... If we love others by our soul, we are on the earth, not in ascension. But if we love by our spirit, we are in ascension. We have been seated in the heavens with Christ (Eph. 2:6). Positionally, we are seated there, but we need to live in ascension. After calling us to the cross, Christ calls us further to live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection. Life-study of Song of Songs, pp. 27-28](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Ascension-is-in-the-heavens-683x1024.webp?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "Ascension is in the heavens. Although we are on earth, as believers in Christ, our regenerated spirit is joined to God the Spirit in the heavens. These two spirits are one. This is like electricity: It is in the power plant and also in our room, yet there is one current. When we are in our spirit, we are joined to the ascended Christ in the heavens. To live in ascension [is to live continually] in our spirit... If we love others by our soul, we are on the earth, not in ascension. But if we love by our spirit, we are in ascension. We have been seated in the heavens with Christ (Eph. 2:6). Positionally, we are seated there, but we need to live in ascension. After calling us to the cross, Christ calls us further to live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection. Life-study of Song of Songs, pp. 27-28")
This is like the electricity: it is both in the power plant and in our room and at a flick of the switch, electricity powers the lights.
There is one electricity, one current; the same electricity in the power plant is also in our room, for there is the current of electricity which is flowing continually.
The Triune God as the divine electricity has been installed in our being, and we simply need to live in our spirit, and He will be continually dispensed into us to bring God into man and man into God. Hallelujah!
When we turn to our spirit and live in the mingled spirit, we are joined to the ascended Christ in the heavens.
However, if we love others by our soul, we’re on the earth, not in the spirit and therefore we don’t live in ascension.
We need to realize that we have already been seated with Christ in the heavens (Eph. 2:6); positionally, we are seated there, but we still need to live in ascension.
Yes, we do love the Lord, and yes, we experience the application of His cross through the power of His resurrection; however, we still need to go on and live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection.
May we heed the Lord’s call and come to Him again and again, contacting Him in our spirit, and asking Him to fully bring us in ascension in our experience. We may even tell the Lord,
Lord Jesus, cause us to hear Your call that we may live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection. Hallelujah, we are joined to the Lord in spirit, and our spirit is the gate of heaven where God is joined to man and man is joined to God! Thank You, Lord, for our mingled spirit; we want to live continually in our spirit so that we may live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection. Save us from living in the soul or in the flesh. Cause us to advance with You in our experience of the divine romance until we continually live in our spirit. Amen Lord, we want to live one spirit with You today. We choose to live in the mingled spirit so that we may be joined to the ascended Christ in the heavens and live a heavenly life on earth.
We’re being Transformed to be the Moving Vessel of Christ Constituted with Christ’s Humanity and Decorated Inwardly with our Love for the Lord
![King Solomon made himself a palanquin / Of the wood of Lebanon. Its posts he made of silver; / Its bottom, of gold; / Its seat, of purple; / Its midst was inlaid [with] love / From the daughters of Jerusalem. Song of Songs 3:9-10](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/King-Solomon-made-himself-a-palanquin-Of-the-wood-of-Lebanon-jpg.webp?resize=750%2C750&ssl=1 "King Solomon made himself a palanquin / Of the wood of Lebanon. Its posts he made of silver; / Its bottom, of gold; / Its seat, of purple; / Its midst was inlaid [with] love / From the daughters of Jerusalem. Song of Songs 3:9-10")
Song of Songs 3:9-10 speaks of King Solomon making himself a palanquin of the wood of Lebanon; its posts he made of silver, its bottom he made of gold, its seat was of purple, and its midst was inlaid with love from the daughters of Jerusalem. This is very significant.
A palanquin is a vessel to contain christ and carry Him about in His move; it is a stately, royal car to carry important persons around.
As lovers of the Lord, we are becoming the moving vessel of Christ, the carriage of Christ, the “car” of Christ, for the move of Christ in and for the Body of Christ; this is by the Spirit’s transforming work in us (2 Cor. 2:12-17).
This is an inward process taking place as we live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection.
The Spirit is inwardly transforming us and remaking us to make us suitable for us to be the moving vessel of Christ.
We are rebuilt with the Divine Trinity so that our external structure is the resurrected and ascended humanity of Jesus, and our interior decoration is our love for the Lord.
God is the most amazing Designer, Architect, and Interior Decorator.
He is remodelling, restructuring, and rebuilding our inner being to transform us inwardly and conform us outwardly to the image of Christ.
The wood of Lebanon signifies the resurrected and ascended humanity of Jesus; what others see when they touch us is Christ in His humanity.
The interior decoration of our being is inlaid with our love for the Lord. May our inner being be inlaid with love!
Loving the Lord will keep us in the realm of having Christ as our humanity, safeguarding our humanity in the constrain of His affection (2 Cor. 5:14).
May we just continue to love the Lord and keep our being open to Him, turning to our spirit and continually living in spirit so that we may live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection until we are inwardly remodelled, restructured, and reconstituted with Christ.
Through our loving the Lord in a personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual way, our natural being is torn down, and we are remodelled with Christ’s redeeming death (signified by the posts made of silver), God’s divine nature (signified by the golden base), and Christ’s kingship as the life-giving Spirit ruling within us (signified by the seat of purple; see S. S. 3:10; cf. Rom. 8:28-29; 2 Cor. 4:16-18).
What a remodelling job this is!
May we pray short prayers of opening to the Lord concerning this, and may we say Amen to His inner work and through His work in the environment.
We really want to go on with the Lord and live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection.
May we open to Him again and again and ask Him to have a way in our being so that anything of the natural man would be torn down and He would work Himself into us for the building of God into man and of man into God.
May we be those who love the Lord in a personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual way so that our inner being may be remodelled with Christ’s redeeming death, God’s divine nature, and Christ’s kingship as the life-giving Spirit ruling within us.
It helps to tell the Lord throughout the day,
Lord Jesus, we love You. We open our being to You. Rebuild our being with the Divine Trinity until our external structure is the resurrected and ascended humanity of Jesus and our interior decoration is our love for the Lord. Work Yourself into us. May our inner being be inlaid with our love for the Lord. May our humanity be safeguarded in the constraint of Your affection. We love You, dear Lord, in a personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual way. Have Your way in us. May our natural being be torn down and may our inner being be remodelled with Christ’s redeeming death, God’s divine nature, and Christ’s kingship as the life-giving Spirit ruling within us.
Becoming Mature in the Riches of the Life of Christ to be a Garden for His Private Enjoyment and Spreading the Fragrance of Christ
![A garden enclosed is my sister, [my] bride, / A spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates / With choicest fruit; / Henna with spikenard, Spikenard and saffron; / Calamus and cinnamon, / With all the trees of frankincense; / Myrrh and aloes, / With all the chief spices. A fountain in gardens, / A well of living water, / And streams from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind; / And come, O south wind! / Blow upon my garden: / Let its spices flow forth; / Let my beloved come into his garden / And eat his choicest fruit. Song of Songs 4:12-16](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/A-garden-enclosed-is-my-sister-my-bride-A-spring-shut-up-a-fountain-sealed-683x1024.webp?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "A garden enclosed is my sister, [my] bride, / A spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates / With choicest fruit; / Henna with spikenard, Spikenard and saffron; / Calamus and cinnamon, / With all the trees of frankincense; / Myrrh and aloes, / With all the chief spices. A fountain in gardens, / A well of living water, / And streams from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind; / And come, O south wind! / Blow upon my garden: / Let its spices flow forth; / Let my beloved come into his garden / And eat his choicest fruit. Song of Songs 4:12-16")
In Song of Songs 4:12-15, we see that the lover becomes to Christ a private garden for His enjoyment; she becomes a spring shut up, a fountain sealed, only for Christ to enjoy and partake of. How sweet this is!
Through our living in Christ’s ascension as the new creation in resurrection, we as lovers of Christ become mature in the riches of the life of Christ so that we become a garden for His private enjoyment.
We are prepared to give forth Christ’s fragrance in any circumstance or environment.
We do not reject any difficult environment (north wind) nor prefer any particular pleasant environment (south wind) but welcome any environment to work on us as a garden so that the fragrance of Christ may spread (v. 16).
We need to live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection by continually living in the mingled spirit; this will result in us being a private garden for Christ to enjoy and to give forth the fragrance of Christ in any kind of environment.
The north wind is harsh and hard, and the south wind is mild and pleasant; no matter whether the environment is harsh or mild, we welcome it, for there’s much fragrance of Christ that can flow forth from us.
We may not be this way right now, but the Lord is training us by bringing us into different kinds of environments, and as the wind blows, the spices of Christ flow and His fragrance spreads.
This is our experience today, especially as we meet with the saints and gather in the church meetings; many times we feel that the fragrance of Christ fills the house, and the love outpoured by the saints toward the Lord is like a fragrant ointment.
When we come to the meetings of the church, there is something there that is inexplicable to us; we can’t touch it or see it, but we can smell it – we can smell the fragrance of Christ.
The fragrance of loving the Lord fills the church.
And when a new one comes in, no matter who talks to him or what kind of meeting we have, he is shepherded in love, for the love of Christ is outpoured by the saints.
As we live in Christ’s ascension as the new creation in resurrection, we as lovers of Christ become mature in the riches of the life of Christ to the extent that we become a garden to Christ.
Furthermore, we give forth the fragrance of Christ wherever we go and wherever we are, for we have enjoyed Him in love, and our love for Him pours forth.
We do not have any preference for any mild or pleasant environment but we welcome in faith and love any environment that the Lord puts us in, for we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28-29).
Lord Jesus, we want to live in Christ’s ascension as the new creation in resurrection until we become mature in the riches of the life of Christ! Amen, Lord, we love You. We treasure You. We are here for You. We want to be like a garden for Your private enjoyment. We are filled with love toward You, and we remain in our organic union with You no matter what the environment is. Oh Lord, how much we love You! May the north wind blow; may the south wind blow; may the fragrance of Christ spread to all those around us! Make us those who give forth the fragrance of Christ in any circumstance or environment! Amen, Lord, may the house of God, the church, be filled with the fragrance of the ointment, our outpoured love for the Lord!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1972, vol. 1, “Life and Building as Portrayed in the of Song of Songs,” pp. 264-265, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Loving the Lord and loving one another for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ (2022 fall ITERO), week 2, entitled, Song of Songs – the Progressive Experience of an Individual Believer’s Loving Fellowship with Christ for the Preparation of the Bride of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Christ will make His seeking lover / Pillar, couch, and palanquin, / E’en a crown, His boast and glory; / He will do it all! Amen! / His beloved—how He loves her, / So attractive, His delight. / He is captivated wholly; / She is comely in His sight. / But there still remains a shadow; / Christ is still not satisfied. / He must have a growing garden / To become His loving Bride! (Hymns #1161 stanzas 1&2 and chorus)
– The day will come—(’tis surely soon) / And glad will be Thy heart— / What boast and glory to Thyself; / Thy crown, Thy counterpart! / A garden fair, enclosed is she / With spices, fragrant, sweet. / She now brings forth materials / The building to complete! (Hymns #1241 stanzas 11-12)
– Myrrh of the death with Him and frankincense, / The resurrection, permeate my heart; / North wind awake, and let the south wind blow, / Make my heart’s garden pleasure to His heart. (Hymns #556 stanza 5)
About aGodMan
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[The lover] is not only the bed for Solomon to rest in at night [S. S. 3:7]; she is also the palanquin [vv. 9-10] for him to move in by day…The seeking one is now a vessel to contain Christ, carrying Him about in His move. A palanquin is a stately, royal car. As a vessel, it contains the person it carries. She is now the moving vessel of Christ. Christ moves by being contained in her. While she is containing Him, He moves in her and with her. Hallelujah! This is the palanquin of Christ. The palanquin is constructed of wood, silver, and gold. The wood is the cedar of Lebanon, signifying the Lord’s humanity. The posts are silver. Silver always signifies the redemption of Christ. The palanquin is supported by the redemption of Christ. The bottom, the base, is made of gold, which signifies the life and nature of God. God’s divine nature is the base. When we pray-read all these verses, we see how much the seeking one has been transformed. The humanity of Jesus, the divinity of God, and the redemption of Christ are all wrought into her. Only these things can make us a palanquin to Christ. We must have these three materials wrought into us. Then, as His palanquin, we will be built with the humanity of Jesus, the redemption of Christ, and the divine nature of God. Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1972, vol. 1, “Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs,” pp. 264-265
Christ is calling us to live in ascension as the new creation in resurrection by continually living in our spirit, for in our spirit we’re joined to the ascended Christ in the heavens.
He wants to make us His personal vessel, “car”, for His move on earth. Wow!
We are being rebuilt with the Divine Trinity so that our external structure is the resurrected and ascended humanity of Jesus, and our interior decoration is our love for the Lord!
So encouraged by our verses today!
S.S. 3:9-10 King Solomon made himself a palanquin of the wood of Lebanon. Its posts he made of silver; its bottom, of gold; its seat, of purple; its midst was inlaid with love from the daughters of Jerusalem.
S.S. 4:12 A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
Amen
I enjoyed that we are the palanquin, the moving vessel of Christ as we enjoy the humanity of Jesus, the redemption of Christ, and the divine nature of God and as our midst is inlaid with love.
Christ’s lovers are moving vessels to contain Christ.
Such vessels are the “royal car”, the palaquin in Song of Songs 3. Hallelujah!
As such transformed ones the humanity of Jesus, the divinity of God and the redemption of Christ have been wrought into them. Praise the Lord!
We are here to carry Christ wherever we go as we live in ascension, being one spirit with the Lord, loving Him and loving others according to the Spirit!
Our Christ is calling us to live in ascension, and to live in ascension is to live in our mingled spirit.
We really need to learn to discern our spirit from our soul because we can, for example, love with our soul when God actually wants us to love with our spirit.
We should be a vessel that carries King Jesus about on the earth. Hallelujah!
We are the moving vessel of Christ.
For us to be a true vessel in which the very Christ can move requires that we are filled with the humanity of Jesus, the divinity of God and the redemption of Christ.
We should also be decorated & inlaid with our love toward Christ.
May we all cultivate an intimate and private time with Christ each day so that we might truly live in ascension as a new creation in resurrection.
To live in ascension is to live in our Sspirit continually connecting us to our Lord and Christ in Ascension.
This enables us to experience the transforming work of the Spirit in us, being rebuilt with the Divine Trinity to become the moving vessels of Christ, the carriage of Christ, the car of Christ for the move of Christ in and for the Body of Christ.
After resurrection we are called to live with the our dear Lord in ascension!
Bring us in to continually live in ascension!
To live in ascension [is to live continually] in our spirit…If we love others by our soul, we are on the earth, not in ascension. But if we love by our spirit, we are in ascension.
Amen Lord Jesus our Beloved
Wow!!! Aaaaameeen! Yes Lord constitute us with wood, silver and gold! May Your humanity mingled with divinity be wrought into our being to make us Your palanquin for Your move and Your rest as Your vessel! Do it in us Lord!