Live by the Divine Life and Gain the God of Resurrection to Live in Resurrection

When we don’t live by our natural life but by the divine life, we’re in resurrection, and the issue is the Body of Christ; for us to live in resurrection, we need to know, experience, and gain the God of resurrection, not only know the living God but even more, the God of resurrection.

Thank the Lord for not only resurrecting from the dead but even more, for being resurrection itself! Hallelujah, Jesus Christ is resurrection and life, and today He as the life-giving Spirit is in our spirit to apply the reality of His resurrection to our being!

Humanly speaking, it is impossible to beat death; we can maybe delay it, but we can never defeat it.

But here is one person, Jesus Christ, who has overcome death and came out of death in resurrection, and He is resurrection and life to us.

Humanly speaking, we may never be able to beat death, for we may die like those before us; spiritually speaking, however, we can overcome death, for we have resurrection life in our spirit!

With man, there are many things which are impossible, including our transformation and conformation to the image of Christ, but with God, all things are possible!

Many times in our Christian life we come into situations and touch matters that bring us to the realization that we are nothing and can do nothing, for we cannot break through or overcome.

When we come to the end of ourselves and realize that we’re utterly useless, both in our Christian life and in our service to God, God can come in as resurrection life and be expressed through us.

When we realize our own inability, we can experience God’s ability.

This is not just a motto or a great saying to live by; this needs to become our reality.

In our daily Christian life we need to keep turning to the Lord and enjoying Him, depending on Him for all things.

When things are beyond our power to deal with and to go through, we can simply trust in the Lord, for He as resurrection life is in us.

His speciality is to overcome death; death to us is impossible to overcome, but to Him, it is not a problem: He has overcome death and He is in us to overcome death in us.

To experience resurrection is to realize that we cannot make it and that God is the One who does everything in us, through us, and for us.

He in us can do it. We cannot do it, but He can. So we open to Him. We allow Him to do everything in us.

We put an end to our efforts and struggle to do things for God, and we simply let God do all things in us in resurrection and as resurrection.

Living by the Divine Life within us and Not by our Natural Life issues in the Body of Christ

As believers in Christ, we have the divine life in our spirit; the Lord as the life-giving Spirit is with our spirit, and we’re one spirit with the Lord.

When we are in our spirit, we enjoy the sweet flow of life. The Lord is with our spirit today (2 Tim. 4:22), and Christ lives in us to be our life and our everything (Col. 1:27).

We need to be reminded of this every day, that we have another Person living in us.

We are so used to living by our natural life that, by default, we live in ourselves, by ourselves, and even for ourselves.

But when we exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and live not by our natural life but by the divine life within us, we are in resurrection, and the issue of this is the Body of Christ!

Paul testified that he aspired to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if perhaps he may attain to the out-resurrection from the dead (Phil. 3:10-11).

Our whole life is a quest to know Christ, experience Christ, and live one spirit with Him so that we may experience His death and resurrection, be conformed to His death, and attain to the out-resurrection from the dead.

We need to be discipled by the Lord to be divine and mystical persons, that is, to be persons who live by the divine life by denying our natural life (John 3:8).

All men today live by and in their natural life; it is natural to live in the natural life.

However, we believers in Christ need to be discipled by the Lord, inwardly and subjectively taught by Him, how to live the divine life and deny the natural life.

We should no longer live in and by our natural life; rather, we need to live by the divine life in our spirit.

As we read the Gospels we see Jesus Christ, the God-man, who lived a perfect human life not in His natural life but by the divine life in His spirit.

He had a perfect human life with a perfect humanity, but He denied Himself and took the Father’s will, did the Father’s will, spoke the Father’s words, and did everything according to what He heard from the Father.

As we read the Gospels we learn from Christ as the reality is in Jesus, and we are discipled by the Lord.

And as we live in the church life and see many patterns of brothers and sisters who live by the divine life, we are further discipled by the Lord to live by the divine life so that He may be expressed through us, and the issue of this is the Body of Christ.

May no one despise our youth but rather, may we be a pattern to the believers in the way we live, in our conduct, in our faith, and in our purity.

When others look at us, they should see a person living by the divine life and not by their natural life. Amen!

May we pray and open to the Lord so that He may make this real to us in our daily life.

Anything that is carried out even scripturally but in the natural life is not the reality of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 3:12).

So many things that we do in the church life and for the Lord are scriptural and good, and they are absolutely necessary and positive, but we do them in our natural man and according to our natural life. Oh, Lord!

May we learn to keep turning to our spirit day after day to enjoy Him, partake of His riches, and live by the divine life and not by our natural life!

May our daily living be a living in and by the divine life, and may we contribute to the building up of the church as the Body of Christ in our daily life!

Lord Jesus, we choose to live not by our natural life but by the divine life in our spirit. We deny ourselves, we put ourselves aside, and we want to live in and by the divine life in our spirit. Amen, Lord, we want to live in resurrection today by living one spirit with You in all things. Disciple us, dear Lord, to be divine and mystical persons. Save us from living in and by our natural man. Save us from living in our natural life in our daily life and in the church life. Oh Lord Jesus, keep us turning to You today! Save us from carrying out things merely in a scriptural and good way but in the natural life. Oh Lord, save us from marring or damaging the Body of Christ by doing things in our natural man and by our natural life. Disciple us today to live the divine life by denying our natural life. May it be Christ who lives in us today for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. Lord Jesus, amen, gain the building up of Your Body as we live by the divine life and deny our natural life!

To Live in Resurrection we must Know, Experience, and Gain the God of Resurrection

We need to live in resurrection today, one spirit with the Lord. Our God is not just the living God, the God who is living and active in doing things for us and in us, but even more, He is the God of resurrection, the God who works Himself into us as resurrection and life.

There is a distinction between the living God and the God of resurrection. We need to gain the God of resurrection.

The living God can perform many acts on our behalf and do many things for us; however, the God of resurrection works not just outwardly but inwardly to impart His life and nature into us.

The living God can do many things for us like healing us, helping us in our troubles, delivering us from problems, and providing for us; however, as He does these things for us, the nature of the living God cannot blend with the nature of man.

So many people who loved God and pursued Him in the Old Testament experienced Him as the living God, and He delivered them, rescued them, provided for them, and took care of them.

However, the life and nature of the living God cannot be blended with the life and nature of man.

Even we ourselves as believers in Christ have experienced God so many times as the living God, for we asked Him to help us and do things for us, and He did it; He has worked miracles for us.

However, soon after a miracle is done for us, we forget about the Lord, for nothing of His life and nature has been wrought into us.

2 Cor. 1:8-9 shows us the experience of Paul and his co-workers; they were afflicted, excessively burdened beyond their power, to the extent that they despaired even of living.

They had the response of death in themselves, being assured that they were about to die, and in all these things, they based their confidence not on themselves but on God, who raises the dead.

Paul experienced God not as the living God who is able to rescue him from prison and from his opposers and persecutors but even more, as the God of resurrection, for he no longer trusted himself but in God who raises the dead.

He was sorely tried and despaired even of living, but it was in this way that he learned to trust in the God of resurrection.

The God of resurrection did not rescue him from the trying death situation he was in; He simply worked Himself with His life and nature into Paul.

God did not do a miraculous divine act to rescue Paul; rather, He communicated and transmitted His life and nature into him. In order for us to live in resurrection, we need to know, experience, and gain the God of resurrection.

God is working through the cross to terminate us, to bring us to an end, so that we will no longer trust in ourselves but in the God of resurrection.

We may want to know and experience God as the living God who delivers us from a trying and impossible situation, but He wants us to know, experience, and gain Him as the God of resurrection in that situation.

We need to realize that, although the living God can perform many acts on man’s behalf, the life and nature of the living God are not wrought into man; when the God of resurrection works, His life and nature are wrought into man.

God is not working to make His might known in external acts but is working to impart and work Himself into man (Gal. 1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19).

For this, God uses our environment so that He may work His life and nature into us (2 Cor. 4:7-12; 1 Thes. 3:3).

He arranges for each one of us a certain set of situations with many sufferings, specifically ordained for us, so that we may know Him as the God of resurrection who works Himself into us.

The significance of suffering, especially as it relates to us believers in Christ, is that it devastates and degrades the old creation so that God may have an opportunity to impart Himself as the God of resurrection into us.

We all go through suffering, for suffering is the portion of every human being; however, we Christians can emerge from suffering with more of God added to our being if we simply open to Him.

May we realize that the primary purpose for suffering for us is that the very nature of God may be wrought into the nature of man.

Out outer man is decaying, but our inner man is being renewed, and God is adding more of Himself to our being (2 Cor. 4:6).

May we give the Lord the consent when He seeks to lead us through sufferings and devastating things.

He is the One who arranges all things in our environment; it is not persons, things, or situations that decide our environment and sufferings, but it is God Himself who arranges all things.

He wants to increase the divine element in our being so that we may know Him as the God of resurrection.

He chastises us with the goal that we may gain what is profitable and partake of His holiness (Heb. 12:10).

All things, all matters, all persons, and all environments and situations work together for good for us, for we love the Lord and are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).

In order to live in resurrection and be constituted with the God of resurrection, we must be conformed to the image of Christ as the firstborn Son of God through “all things” (Rom. 8:28-29; Heb. 12: 10; Jer. 48:11).

What is good in God’s eyes is not that we gain outward things or be more experienced and mature humanly speaking but that His life and nature is wrought more into our being through our knowing, experiencing, and gaining the God of resurrection by means of all things that we go through.

We need to gain the God of resurrection and be constituted with Him.

May we see this and may we open to the Lord as we go through all things so that the God of resurrection may be wrought into us and His life and nature increase in us day by day.

Lord Jesus, we want to live in resurrection today by knowing, experiencing, and gaining the God of resurrection. We love You, Lord, and we open to You. Cause us to realize that God is working through the cross to terminate us and bring us to an end so that we trust in the God who raises the dead. Oh Lord Jesus, may we learn this in our experience so that we no longer trust in ourselves but in the God of resurrection. May we no longer ask God to do things for us to rescue us and perform miracles on our behalf and simply consent to His work of tearing down the natural man so that the inner man be renewed. Amen, Lord, we want to know You as the God of resurrection in our daily experience. May Your life and nature be wrought into us. May we realize that God uses the environment to work His life and nature into us. Amen, Lord, conform us more to Your image by means of all things taking place around us and all matters, persons, and things related to us. May the very nature of God be wrought into our nature so that we may gain God to the fullest extent!

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 Ed marks in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1957, vol. 3, “The Living God and the God of Resurrection,” ch. 3, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2024 July Semiannual Training), week 9, Christ as the Resurrection and the Grain of Wheat.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The Glory of God (2): Released through Christ’s Crucifixion and Resurrection, via, Living to Him.
  – The God of Resurrection, a pdf booklet via LSM.
  – We Christians living in resurrection, not by ourselves but by Christ replacing us, a portion from, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, Chapter 12, by Witness Lee.
  – 3 Wonderful Things That Happened in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Living in the Resurrection Life, Living in the Fellowship of Life, and Reigning in Life unto Eternal Life, outline via, LSM webcast.
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  – 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.
  – Joshua, resurrection, and immersive theater, article via, Conversant Faith.
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  – Knowing Christ in His Resurrection as the Son of God Designated in Power with His Human Nature, message by brother Ron Kangas via, Heavenly Foods.
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• Hymns on this topic:
  – Pressed out of measure, pressed beyond all length; / Pressed so intensely, seeming beyond strength; / Pressed in the body, pressed within the soul, / Pressed in the mind till darksome surges roll. / God is my hope and God is my joy; / He is the resurrection life I enjoy. (Hymns #730 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Death cannot hold the resurrection life, / The life of God eternal manifest; / ’Tis uncreated, indestructible, / ’Tis Christ Himself, unconqu’rable, expressed… / Oh, may I know this resurrection life, / In every kind of death its pow’r outpoured, / In my experience ever realize / This life is nought but Christ my living Lord. (Hymns #639 stanzas 1 and 6)
  – Oh, how the Lord our self must break, / Our outward man does so impede! / It must be broken thoroughly, / And thus the Spirit will be freed. / This is the reason why the Lord / For us a certain measure makes / Of circumstantial suffering; / ’Tis thus our outward man He breaks. / The outward man, the self, the soul, / Must be consumed, must be decreased; / The inner man, our spirit, then / Shall with the Spirit be released. (Hymns #749 stanzas 4-6)