May we be those who are living the Christian life by checking with the divine life within us, not by living according to right and wrong or good and bad.
As believers in Christ, our Christian life is based on an inner life – not on an outward standard of right and wrong, for we have the divine life in us, and when we do something, we can check with the Lord within. Amen!
God’s desire from eternity to eternity is to be life to man; He wants to be enjoyed by man as the tree of life. So God became a man, went through a perfect human life, died on the cross, and was resurrected to be a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45).
Now as such a Spirit who gives life, He lives in us and supplies us with life.
However, throughout the centuries Christians have lost the matter of enjoying Christ as the tree of life.
Instead of checking with the Lord within and paying attention to the sense of life, many Christians pay more attention to the work they do for God or to doing the right thing instead of doing the wrong thing.
On His side, God is calling us to come and drink the water of life, eat the tree of life, and breathe Him in as the living breath in His word, but on our side, we need to pay attention more to life than to anything else.
We may think that we have sinned and made so many mistakes, so there’s no way to come and eat the tree of life; however, we can wash our robes in the blood of the Lamb and we can come forward to God to partake of Him as life!
The matter of eating the tree of life was not dropped right after Genesis two; though it was not mentioned for a while, we can see the tree of life in Revelation.
God promises to the overcoming believers to give them of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God, and those who wash their robes have the right to partake of the tree of life. Hallelujah!
We can daily wash our conduct in the blood of Christ, the precious blood of Christ, and we can come forward to enjoy the tree of life!
His heart is for us to come to Him and enjoy Him as life.
Even when the Lord was on the earth, He called all those who are hungry and thirsty to come to Him and eat and drink.
The religionists of His time thought they don’t need this, but the sinners and tax collectors flocked around Him and loved to spend time with Him.
May we come to the Lord Jesus as the tree of life today, and may we eat and drink of Him!
The more we eat Him as the tree of life, the more we can live the Christian life.
Our unique diet today should be the tree of life, and we should stay away from anything that is of mere knowledge, whether of good or of evil, whether of right or of wrong.
Being a Christian is a matter of Checking with the Divine Life Inside us when we Do Something
Being a Christian doesn’t mean that we now need to ask ourselves what would Jesus do in this situation, or that we should do the right thing and the good thing vs doing the wrong thing and the bad thing.
Being a Christian is a matter of checking with the life inside of us whenever we do something (Rom. 8:6; Eph. 4:18-19).
When we receive the Lord Jesus and thus became believers in Christ, genuine Christians, we gained something marvellous: we gained the divine life!
However, we need to recognize this life within and pay attention to the sense of the divine life in us.
We gained a new principle of living that issues out of the divine life in us: the principle of life.
There are now in our life two principles of living: the principle of right and wrong, and the principle of life.
For unbelievers, the highest principle of living is choosing good and rejecting evil, while the lowest principle of living is living in sin and in the lusts of the flesh.
But we as believers in Christ have a choice: we can choose to live by the divine life within, checking with the divine life inside of us whenever we do something, or we can just do the right thing without checking with the Lord.
May the Lord open our eyes and cause us to realize that we have another life within us, the divine life.
May we realize that our Christian life is not about doing good or doing the right thing, but it is checking with the divine life within us.
The divine life within has a certain sense, a certain feeling; many times the result of doing things according to the sense of life within us is that we do the right thing, but the source is the divine life and not merely our choice to do the good.
If our conduct is guided and controlled by the principle of right and wrong, we will ask ourselves all the time whether what we do is the right thing or the wrong thing (Rom. 8:6; Eph. 4:18-19).
Many people consider much whether something is good or evil, right or wrong; when they figure it out, they choose the good and the right thing to do.
But this is not what a Christian should do; choosing to do the good thing vs rejecting the wrong thing is the Old Testament law, worldly religions, human morality, and human ethics, but it is not of life.
Christianity is life; it is not doing the right thing vs the wrong thing. We need to check with the Lord within, checking with the divine life in us whether we should do something or not.
What does the new life which God has given us tell us inwardly about the thing we’re about to do?
The result may be that we do the right thing, but the source in doing this is our inner checking with the Lord, with the divine life within.
Many people think that Christians should do the right thing and stay away from anything that is bad, but we need to realize that our behaviour and living should be controlled by the principle of life.
The principle of living is life, not good and bad, right and wrong.
We Christians don’t have a new set of Ten Commandments to which we need to adhere and which we should live by.
Rather, we have a life within – we have the divine life within us, and this life is moving within us, speaking to us, and anointing us.
When we check with the divine life within us and feel a sense of peace and being refreshed, when we feel right inwardly and the Lord is moving in us, we know that we have life.
May we develop our relationship with the Lord and take care of the inner sense of life within us to be Christians who live in the principle of life and not in the principle of right and wrong.
Thank You, dear Lord Jesus, for coming into us to be our very life. Thank You for regenerating us with the divine life and being in us as life. We want to be proper Christians, those who do not live according to right and wrong but according to life. Keep us coming to You, Lord Jesus, to check with You concerning all things. Save us from merely doing the good thing or choosing the right way without checking with the divine life inside of us. Oh Lord, we turn to You right now. We want to be one with You as we do this or that. We want to be in the organic union with You as we speak or not speak. Amen, Lord, keep us abiding in You. May our mind be set on our spirit so that we may have life and peace!
Our Christian Life is based on an Inner Life not on the Standard of Right and Wrong
![In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. John 1:4 ...I have come that they may have life and may have [it] abundantly. John 10:10b](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/In-Him-was-life-and-the-life-was-the-light-of-men-1024x1024.jpg?resize=750%2C750&ssl=1 "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. John 1:4 ...I have come that they may have life and may have [it] abundantly. John 10:10b")
Our Christian life is not based on right or wrong but on an inner life, the divine life in our spirit.
The principle of our living is inward, not outward. If we live by the principle of right and wrong, which most Christians choose to do today, we are the same as the worldly people (Eph. 4:17). Oh Lord Jesus!
Many times we Christians behave like the worldly people because we live by the principle of right and wrong.
In Eph. 4 Paul testifies of the living that is needed in our daily life for the church life.
He nearly exhausted his vocabulary in describing the inner life in these verses, and then he does it in a way of contrasting the believers’ inner life with an unbelievers’ inner life.
Eph. 4:17 speaks of walking in the vanity of the mind; that’s the only option for an unbeliever, to walk in the vanity of their mind.
In v. 18 we are told that the unbelievers are darkened in their understanding, and in v. 19 we see that they are hardened in their hearts.
The vanity of the mind, the darkness in their understanding, and the hardness of their heart are all a result of being past feeling; an unbeliever is past feeling.
They cast off all feelings; there is a feeling there, but it is cast off.
They just ceased to care. Wow, it is possible to have feeling, but to cease to care about our inner life. It is possible to live in this way even as a believer.
Why? Because we think that we already know what is good and what is not good, so we just choose to do the right thing vs doing the wrong thing.
As believers in Christ, we may think that we have years of experience going through things, we have learned many things, we have been in meetings and conferences with Christians, and now we know.
So we cease to care for the inner sense of life.
Right and wrong are not decided by an outward standard according to man or even according to the Bible, but by the inner life.
We need to avoid all that is evil and also all that is merely good, all that doesn’t come from the inner sense of life.
Our religious concept is that we need to avoid what is evil and do what is good; we need to have a drastic change of concept.
We need to have a severe change in our concept because we can be very self-satisfied with good and with the right thing but completely miss the inner sense of life.
Christians can do only that which comes from life; we need to check with the inner sense of life and peace before doing anything.
There are good things, evil things, and the things of life; we are not here for good things but for the things of life (John 1:4; 10:10; 1 John 2:25; 5:13).
Our relationship with the Lord is a matter of life, not merely of doing the right things vs doing the wrong thing.
Christ came as life, He is our life, He wants us to have life abundantly, and He wants to live in us as life.
In Gen. 2:9 “good and evil” are put together as one way, whereas “life” is another way.
May the Lord deliver us from our religious concept of doing the right thing or choosing the right way, and may we turn to Him as our life, checking with the divine life within us concerning all things.
We should not think that if something is good, it is of life; rather, good and evil are from the same tree, in the same principle.
There is a standard that is higher than the standard of good – it is the standard of life (John 11:25; John 5:11-12). We can only see what is right and good when the Spirit of God operates in us.
If we feel that there’s life and peace inwardly, then the matter is right, but if we don’t feel life within, the matter is wrong.
Right and wrong are not decided by an outward standard but by the inner life.
Many times we refuse to do the good thing and the evil thing because they are not of life.
May we learn to live by the sense of the divine life within, checking with the divine life concerning all things, so that we live according to the standard of life to receive more life, live Christ as our life, and express Him in our daily life.
Lord Jesus, save us from thinking we know what to do, for we have done this many times and we know what’s good and what’s evil. Keep us checking with the divine life within. Keep us living one spirit with You today, in the organic union with You. Amen, Lord, we want to cultivate the inner sense of life. May we listen to the Lord’s speaking and moving within us. May the standard of our living not be right and wrong but the inner sense of life. May we have a drastic change in our concept so that we may never be satisfied with good and with right but follow the inner sense. Amen, Lord, we care for life and peace in our spirit! We care for Your inner speaking and leading!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 56, “Two Principles of Living,” pp. 421-422, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life (2022 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 2, entitled, The Two Trees and the Two Principles of Living.
- Hymns on this topic:
– It is the sense of life in us, / It is the sense of God; / ’Tis in our spirit made alive, / And more than sense of good. / It is the inner sense in us, / The inmost consciousness, / Discerning matters inwardly, / God’s will to thus express. (Hymns #738)
– Oh, we’ll stay on God’s life line, never turning aside. / We don’t care for vain knowledge, which will cause us to die. / Lord, we’ll touch You by calling on Your name each day; / Living in Your appearing, in Your presence we’ll stay. (Hymns #1194)
– We have the triune God indwelling us, / Living and acting, working all the time, / That by the inner sense we have of Him / God we may know in magnitude sublime. / This inner knowledge obviates the need / Of outward knowledge, human eloquence, / But in the spirit we must ever live / And walk according to the inner sense. (Hymns #739)
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Our Christian living is based on an inner life, not an outward standard of right and wrong. Many worldly people, who are not saved, live according to the best standard of living they can attain: the principle of right and wrong. If you or I also live by the principle of right or wrong, we are the same as worldly people. Christians are different from non-Christians because we do not live by an outward standard or law. Our subject is not human morality or concepts. We do not determine whether something is right or wrong by subjecting it to human criticism or opinion. Today we have only one question: What does our inner life say? If the life is strong and active within us, we can do this; if the life is cold and retreating within us, we should not. Our principle for living is inward instead of outward…We can only see what is really right when the Spirit of God operates within us. If we feel that there is life inwardly, then that matter is right. If we do not feel the inward life, then the matter is wrong. Right and wrong are not decided by an outward standard but by the inner life. Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 56, “Two Principles of Living,” pp. 421-422
Our Christian life is based on an inner life, not on an outward standard of right and wrong. Instead of merely doing the right thing or choosing the right way, we should check with the sense of life within us.
If we live by the principle of right and wrong, we’re the same as the worldly people. Lord Jesus, may we as real Christians live according to the inner sense of life.
May we care more for the sense of life in our spirit than for doing the right thing.
Brother we can live today by the outward standard of good and evil which religion and human ethics or we can live today by the inner sense of lifev, if we live by inner sense of life we will never realise that even in the good things, the inner sense of life will give us peace to do those things, may we be those who learn to live according to the inner sense of life
Dear brother, the Christian life is a not a life according to an outward standard of right and wrong- like the worldy people – but according to the inner life.
If our living is merely according to right ad wrong outwardy we are no different.
This means we are living by law, religion, ethics and morality. Instead as we are about to do something we should check – is this according to the inner life?
When we feel cold and retreat from a matter then regardless how good it is we should follow this sense of life.
Today I was touched by Bible reading, in Kings, once the word of God through Elisha and the sons of the prophets, whoever received it carried it out and cooperates with God to fullfil that purpose in either being king or getting rid of the evil king, even other kings sort after the word of God!
Today the word of God is both logos and rhema to us, the Spirit is embodied in these words, when we pray read we take God into us, and spontaneously we are organically one with him and live by his life, when we receive the word, we can eat these words and have more God added into us.
Dear brother, our Christian living is based on an inner life, not an outward standard of right and wrong. Christians are different from non-Christians because we do not live by an outward standard or law.
Brother, today we have only one question: What does our inner life say?
Amen Lord, keep us in the organic union with You! May we learn to check with the sense of life within us before doing anything in the principle of life and not death!
Amen, Thank you Lord, keep us eating you as the tree of life everyday.
Amen. Our daily normal life in Christ is based on the law of life in the Spirit in our spirit and not outside of us. There the tree of life is planted and we are free to eat from time to time to live.