All believers in Christ are, on the one hand, those who want to know God and experience Him more, and, on the other hand, the lovers of Christ, those who love Him and seek Him in love. As those who love the Lord and seek Him, we are eventually called by our Beloved Lord to live with Him in His ascension as a new creation in resurrection, as seen in the seeker’s experience in Song of Songs 4:7-15.
The Lord knows when we’re ready; He prepares us and sets up the environment in such a way that, when we hear His call, we simply are with Him in ascension, and He is delighted to have us be with Him.
Our relationship with the Lord and our experience of Him is not something dry, sombre, fearful, or merely respectful; we have a love relationship with Christ, and we pursue Him, seek Him, and experience Him in love. At the same time, we live in ascension as a new creation in resurrection so that we may become a garden to satisfy Christ (S.S. 4:12-15).
As seen in Song of Songs, once we get into ascension with Christ we don’t focus on “working with God” or “doing things for God”; we simply become an enclosed garden with all kinds of flowers, fruit trees, and waters for Christ’s satisfaction in love. Our experience of Christ is not only for our growth in life or for the building up of the church; we experience Christ and something is being constituted into our being that is only for Christ Himself to enjoy and be satisfied with.
How do we live in ascension with Christ? Being in ascension is intimately related to living in the mingled spirit; we need to discern the spirit from the soul and live in our mingled spirit constantly during the day, and we will know and live in ascension as a new creation in resurrection.
One of the most crucial matters in our Christian life is knowing our spirit, that is, discerning our spirit from our soul. When our focus is turned from merely doing the right thing or doing good to living according to our spirit, we will know resurrection and live in ascension with Christ.
The Lover of Christ in Ascension becomes a Garden to Satisfy Christ
After the Lord calls His lover to live with Him in ascension what we see is the Lord’s description of His lover as an enclosed garden where He is satisfied (S.S. 4:12-15). This garden is enclosed, and there’s a spring shut up, a fountain sealed, all for Christ’s private enjoyment. This indicates that, as seeking believers, we must have something private, hidden, shut up, and sealed that is for Christ alone, for His personal satisfaction and enjoyment.
The spring refers to the Spirit of life seen in Rev. 22:1 as the river of water of life; the fountain is the source of the spring, which is God’s throne. The fountain and the spring stream out from the overcomers, flowing out from where they are and from what they are; as we live with Christ in ascension as a new creation in resurrection, springs of living water stream out from us, flowing from what we are and from where we are.
In this garden for Christ’s satisfaction we see all kinds of plants in different colors; the lover of Christ “grows all kinds of plants in different colors” as different expressions of the inner life and in a variety of fragrances as the rich expression of the mature life, producing fruits to nourish and refresh, giving forth sweet fragrances, and displaying beautiful colors for Christ’s enjoyment.
As we live in ascension with Christ, we care first not for the outward work but for the first love – we love the Lord, enjoy Him, and let Him enjoy the rich expressions of the mature divine life in us. We need to enter into this intimate experience of Christ where He is satisfied with our rich and hidden experience of Christ.
We need to set forth roots deep into Christ, learn how to be with Him for His satisfaction, and have a secret life with the Lord in which He is enjoying us and we are enjoying Him. When such a life with Christ reaches maturity, something flows spontaneously out of us for Christ to drink and for others to enjoy.
Lord Jesus, show us how to be with You. Train us how to have a secret life with You. We don’t want to be persons with no roots; we want to have a life of hidden realities that the Father appreciates and the Son enjoys. Lord Jesus, we love You. We open to You. We want to experience You and enjoy You in love for Your satisfaction and delight. Lord, may there be much fruit brought forth to nourish and refresh, with sweet fragrances, and with a beautiful display of colors for Your enjoyment. Dear Lord Jesus, bring us on to maturity in our experience of life until we live one with You in Your ascension!
Living in Ascension by Discerning our Spirit from our Soul and Living in our Spirit
Where and how can we live in ascension with Christ today? In order for us to live in ascension we need to discern our spirit from our soul, and we need to live by the spirit and in the spirit (see 1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 8:4; Heb. 4:12).
We have three parts: a spirit (where Christ lives), a soul (where we have the self), and a body (which is the flesh) – see 1 Thes. 5:23. In His economy, God first saves us by first regenerating our spirit; He imparts His divine element into our spirit and makes us alive and new.
After being regenerated, Christ wants to spread with His divine life from our spirit into our soul to renew our soul and transform it; this is a lifelong process of renewing and transformation. Eventually, the Lord wants to fill our body with His life until we are transfigured; daily our outer man is decaying, but our inner man is being renewed until our whole being is filled with the divine life and we have the redemption of our body (see 2 Cor. 4:16; Rom. 8:23; Phil. 3:21).
Today we are in this lifelong process of being renewed in our soul, and we need to realize that we have two persons living in us: Christ lives in our spirit, and the old man lives in our soul. Christ is calling us to live with Him in His ascension in our spirit, and for this we need to discern our spirit from our soul.
Living in ascension and living Christ is NOT a matter of doing good things (as opposed to doing evil things) or doing the right thing (as opposed to doing the wrong thing). Living in ascension with Christ is living in the mingled spirit and by the mingled spirit. The vast majority of our time is spent working at a job, taking care of human responsibilities, studying (if we’re a student), and taking care of so many things humanly.
We are involved with these necessary human things all the time, and if our soul and spirit are not divided, then our spirit remains encased in our soul, and we use our soul to do the work; then, we take a break or stop working, and exercise our spirit….and after the break is over we “shut up” the spirit and return to our soul. This should not be so!
We need to have our spirit divided from our soul by the piercing sword of the word of God and live in two realms at the same time: while we’re working, travelling, doing this or that outwardly, we need to live in our spirit inwardly! Our spirit is in touch with the heavenly ladder, and whenever we’re in our spirit we have the heavens opened, and we are in ascension, in the heavens, in the divine and mystical realm.
While we wait for the bus, travel to work, do our homework, take care of our family, etc we need to live in ascension by living in our mingled spirit. We can’t withdraw from the responsibilities of our human life, and the Lord doesn’t want to “take us out of this” – He wants us to live in the divine and mystical realm even while we live in the human realm.
Before we do anything we need to check with the Lord about it, and if He feels OK with it, we need to do that thing. Even such a good thing as visiting and helping a brother needs to first be fellowshipped with the Lord, asking how He feels about this.
There are many good people today doing many good things, but all these people are living in the soul. As those who love Christ and pursue to know Him and experience Him, we need to realize that our old man has been crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20), and it is no longer “I” who lives, but Christ lives in me.
When we live by the inner man in our spirit, Christ lives in us, and we are in ascension. If we don’t know our spirit, we can’t be a spiritual person; but when we live in our spirit, we are in ascension as the new creation in resurrection.
Lord Jesus, may we live in ascension with You in our daily living by discerning our spirit from our soul and living in our spirit. Lord, keep us coming to You and talking with You about everything so that we may be connected with the heavens and discern our spirit from our soul. Oh Lord, save us from living in our soul or in our flesh. We want to live, act, move, and do everything in our mingled spirit so that we may live in ascension with Christ. We want to live in the divine and mystical realm by living in our spirit today!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Song of Songs, msg. 5 (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 5 / msg 5, The Vision and Experience of Christ in His Ascension (3) Living with Christ in His Ascension as a New Creation in Resurrection to Engage in Spiritual Warfare for the Kingdom of God.
- All verses are taken from, Recovery Version Bible.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# Paradise of pomegranates, / Pleasant fruits, and henna flowers, / Spikenard, saffron, myrrh, and aloes: / His enjoyment now—not ours. / He has come into His garden, / Gathered myrrh and spices there, / Eaten honeycomb and honey; / Wine and milk He’ll drink fore’er. (Hymns #1161)
# Lord, teach us to discern the spirit / From soul that we Thyself may know; / Thou art the Spirit in our spirit, / In oneness mingled with us so. / Lord, teach us to discern the spirit, / The soul-life ever to deny, / And ever follow Thee in spirit, / Thyself, the Spirit, to apply. (Hymns #746)
# I am crucified with Christ… / And now I’m walking by the Spirit / Step by step, day by day, / O Lord, I love You. / You’re the precious One to me. / As I do this and that / Lord, remind me where You’re at; / You’re in my spirit, / Dispensing grace to me. (Song on Gal. 2:20)
In Christ’s enjoyment of His lover, she is an enclosed garden that grows all kinds of plants in different colors as different expressions of the inner life and in a variety of fragrances as the rich expression of the mature life (S.S. 4:13-14). This becomes the lover’s beauty to the Lord. The lover of Christ is now rich in life, producing fruits to nourish and refresh, giving forth sweet fragrances, and displaying beautiful colors for Christ’s enjoyment. (Song of Songs 4:13, footnote 1, Recovery Version Bible)