The Lord is with our Spirit for us to Enjoy Christ as our Empowering Grace today

The Lord is with our spirit so that we may enjoy Him as our empowering grace for us to minister the healthy teaching of God’s eternal economy and build up the church; when we exercise our God-given spirit, we enjoy the empowering grace and we partake of Him as the ever-present grace. Hallelujah!

This week we come to a new topic in our morning revival, with the title of, The Lord Being with Our Spirit to Be Our Empowering Grace, Enabling Us to Minister the Healthy Teaching of God’s Eternal Economy, Speaking with Healthy Words of the Grace of Life for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ.

We need to open to the Lord for His up-to-date speaking to us today.

As we live in the grievous days during the worsening degradation of the church, what we need is the eternal grace of God.

The grace of God was given to us in eternity and is appropriated by us in this age.

This grace, which is the indestructible life, is nothing less than Christ Himself, the Son of God, who is the very embodiment of the divine life.

This One dwells in our spirit. As we exercise our spirit, we enjoy the riches of Christ as the sufficient grace.

Thus, we may live Him as our godliness for the building up of the church as the testimony of Christ.

This testimony bears all the divine realities according to God’s economy. Amen.

The church today in general is in a state of decline; even from Paul’s time, so many left him by leaving his ministry.

The ministry of the apostles is crucial for the accomplishing of God’s economy for the building up of the church.

But even though many left Paul’s ministry, he was not discouraged; rather, he knew that the foundation of God stood firm.

God never changes. His life is indestructible and incorruptible.

We need to be encouraged and stand firm, take the grace, and not be discouraged or distracted by the changing environment.

May we stand firm, hold fast, and guard the good deposit of the healthy words, the healthy teaching, in order for us to exercise the ministry that is needed for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

Today, many years after the Lord’s ascension, the condition of the church continues to decline.

Just as in Paul’s days, some leave the church, some fail terribly and bring shame to the Lord’s name, and some simply leave the ministry. Oh, Lord Jesus.

Degradation is everywhere, and it is spreading. We need to stand fast. We need to guard the good deposit.

We need to hold fast to the healthy teaching passed on to us.

We need to continue in the enjoyment of the eternal grace of God. We do this by exercising our spirit. The grace of the Lord is with our spirit.

The Lord is with our Spirit that we may Enjoy Him as our Empowering Grace today

We need to see that the Lord is with our spirit so that we may enjoy Him as our empowering grace, which enables us to minister the healthy teaching of God’s economy (2 Tim. 1:13-14; 2:1; 4:22; 1 Tim. 1:3-4, 10; 6:3; 2 Cor. 1:12; 12:9; Eph. 4:16; Rev. 22:21).

We minister the healthy teaching by speaking with healthy words of the grace of life for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

Paul concludes the book of 2 Timothy by saying that the Lord is with our spirit.

The Lord as grace is with our spirit.

We have a spirit, which is not just a human spirit but a regenerated spirit, a spirit that is indwelt by God.

The Lord is with us, and He is with us in our spirit. He is with us in our spirit so that we may enjoy Him as our empowering grace which enables us to minister the healthy teaching of God’s eternal economy.

The healthy teaching is God’s eternal economy, His eternal plan, which ministers life and life supply to God’s people for the building up of the Body of Christ.

This is the ministry we have today. We need to be in this ministry today and carry out our ministry.

The degradation of the church is due to a departure from the ministry, from the bride-preparing ministry., the ministry that builds up the church as the Body of Christ.

There needs to be much speaking of the healthy words, the healthy teaching according to God’s eternal economy for the building up of the Body of Christ.

This speaking, however, needs to be empowered by grace.

We need the empowering grace to enable us to be ministers of the new covenant in the New Testament ministry.

In order for us to be empowered by grace, we need to exercise to live in the mingled spirit. Our spirit is a mingled spirit. 2 Tim. 4:22 says, The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

In the beginning of 2 Timothy, we see that God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but of power and of love and of sobermindedness.

Such a spirit we need to fan into flame (2 Tim. 1:6-7).

In order for us to stand against and overcome the degradation of the church, we need to exercise our spirit, for the grace of the Lord is with our spirit.

The empowering grace of God is with our spirit. God gave us a strong, loving, and sound spirit for us to fan into flame the gift of God and suffer evil with the gospel according to the power of God and the Lord’s life-imparting grace (1:6-10).

For us to be empowered by the grace, we need to exercise our spirit and live in the mingled spirit, the spirit that is indwelt by God.

It is not a small thing to live in our spirit.

The Lord is with our spirit, and grace is with us. As we are empowered by the grace of God, we will be enabled to be a faithful minister, to minister these things – the teaching of God’s eternal economy. Amen!

Second Timothy begins with our God-given spirit fanned into flame and ends with the Lord being with our spirit to be our empowering grace as the unsearchably rich capital of our Christian life and church life (2 Tim. 1:6-7; 4:22; Eph. 2:7; 3:8).

We can never graduate from exercising our spirit.

We need to daily exercise our spirit, fanning our spirit into flame.

Our spirit is not one of cowardice; it is of power, of love, and of a sound mind. Our spirit spreads into all the parts of our inner being to penetrate and saturate all the parts of our inner being.

By fanning into flame the God-given spirit, we will be empowered by grace as the unsearchably rich capital. Our spirit is a most wonderful and important matter.

If we do not know our spirit, we will not know how to enjoy God as grace and how to cooperate with God for the carrying out of His economy.

The Lord as grace is in our spirit and with our spirit.

Christ as the life-giving Spirit is mingled with our spirit and He is joined to us as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

When we realize that the Lord and us are joined as one spirit, we will brought on a higher level of the enjoyment of Christ, and we will partake of His empowering grace in our daily life.

May we be those who choose to daily exercise our spirit, remain in our spirit, and enjoy the empowering grace of God with our spirit.

May we be blessed with the Lord being with our spirit so that we may enjoy Him as the empowering grace for us to stand against the downward current of the church’s decline and carry out God’s economy through His indwelling Spirit and equipping word.

Lord Jesus, thank You for being the Spirit with our spirit. Hallelujah, the Lord is with our spirit! Amen, Lord, You are with our spirit, even mingled with us as one spirit. Cause us to see this. Cause us to experience this. Make us those who enjoy the grace of the Lord with our spirit! Amen, Lord, we exercise our mingled spirit. We exercise our spirit to enjoy the empowering grace of God with our spirit and carry out God’s New Testament economy. Praise the Lord that a strong, loving, and sound spirit has been given to us by which we can fan the gift of God into flame and suffer evil with the gospel according to the power of God and the Lord’s life-imparting grace! Praise the Lord! Empower us today by Your grace. Keep us enjoying You until we are inwardly empowered and strengthened to carry out God’s economy by grace. Amen, Lord, we choose to fan into flame the gift of God which is in us, our God-given spirit. Praise the Lord, grace is with our spirit!

Enjoy Christ as our Saving Grace, our Empowering Grace, and our Ever-Present Grace with our Spirit

The book of 2 Timothy begins with the wonderful Christ as our saving grace (1:9-10), continues with Him as our empowering grace (2:1), and ends with Him as our ever-present grace (4:22).

Christ is not just grace with us; He is grace in a specific and practical way.

What we need today, as we live in the grievous days during the worsening degradation of the church, is the eternal grace of God, which was given to us in eternity (2 Tim. 1:9).

This grace is eternal, it was given to us in eternity, and it is appropriated by us in this age.

What is this grace, the eternal grace of God? This eternal grace is in the indestructible life, and it is nothing less than Christ the Son of God with our spirit.

The eternal grace is Christ who is the very embodiment of the divine life, living and dwelling in our spirit.

The grace of the Lord is with our spirit; we need to exercise our spirit to enjoy Christ as the eternal grace, the empowering grace, and the ever-present grace.

Instead of paying attention to and being dragged down by the decline in the church, we need to exercise our God-given spirit to enjoy the riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8) as the sufficient grace of God with our spirit (2 Cor. 12:9).

When we do this, we will have a particular kind of living, a living of godliness, which expresses God (1 Tim. 4:7-8).

This living of godliness issuing out our enjoyment of Christ as grace with our spirit is for the building up of the church as the testimony of Christ, bearing all the divine realities according to God’s economy.

Whenever we experience Christ being with our spirit and therefore partake of the eternal grace, the empowering grace, and the ever-present grace, we will overcome any degradation in the church and we will carry out our ministry within the New Testament ministry of God.

Hallelujah, the Creator of heaven and earth is now with our spirit, and we can enjoy the grace of the Lord with our spirit!

The secret of experiencing God’s organic salvation lies in this spirit with our spirit (Rom. 8:16).

Today Christ is the Spirit, and as the Spirit, He is in our spirit.

If we want to experience and enjoy Christ, we need to be in our spirit.

If we want to serve God and participate in God’s economy, we need to be in our spirit.

Praise the Lord, we have been called and saved by a holy calling, not according to our own works, but according to His own purpose and grace.

Now we need to be empowered in the grace which is in Christ Jesus.

This empowering grace is like a dynamite, empowering us and causing us to be empowered in our spirit.

The root word for empower is a dynamo, the same word as for dynamite.

We are being made dynamic inwardly by the empowering grace of God.

As we are facing many challenges, difficulties, and sufferings, we need the empowering grace to sustain us and enable us to overcome all the environmental difficulties.

This grace empowers us.

Even more, this grace is ever-present; this grace is not just to empower us from time to time but this grace is with our spirit! What a sweet word!

Today we can do all things in our spirit by exercising our spirit to be one spirit with the Lord.

We do not know what lies ahead. We do not know what will happen tomorrow.

But we know that the grace of the Lord is with our spirit, and the empowering grace is our portion, for this grace is ever-present with us.

We know that, as long as grace is with us, we will be OK.

As we are passing through this last part of the journey, which is the most tumultuous and most challenging part, before the Lord returns, we are in the darkest hour, and we need grace.

Grace is with us. The ever-present grace of the Lord is with our spirit.

Thank You, dear Lord, for the eternal grace given to us in eternity and applied to us in time today! Thank You for being our saving grace; You came to save us and be applied to us for us to enjoy God and partake of all of God’s riches. Amen, Lord, we open to You today and we exercise our spirit to enjoy You as the empowering grace. Hallelujah, the empowering grace of God is with our spirit. Empower us today to live the Christian life. We want to do everything one spirit with You. Keep us in our spirit today. We don’t want to do anything apart from the empowering grace with our spirit. Oh Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit to enjoy You as the ever-present grace with our spirit. Hallelujah, the Lord’s grace is always with us. Praise the Lord, grace supplies us with whatever we need day by day for us to do all things in the Lord and with Him. Amen, Lord, we want to do all things with You and by grace so that You may empower us, strengthen us, and do all things in us. We love You, Lord Jesus!

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 the brothers in the message for this week, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1985, vol. 3, “Elders’ Training, Book 6: The Crucial Points of the Truth in Paul’s Epistles,” pp. 551-552, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Being a Vessel unto Honor, a Fully Equipped Man of God, by being Empowered in the Grace which is in Christ Jesus to Fully Accomplish our Ministry in the Unique Ministry of God’s Economy (2024 April ITERO), week 7, The Lord Being with Our Spirit to Be Our Empowering Grace, Enabling Us to Minister the Healthy Teaching of God’s Eternal Economy, Speaking with Healthy Words of the Grace of Life for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Grace in its highest definition is / God in the Son to be enjoyed by us; / It is not only something done or giv’n, / But God Himself, our portion glorious… / This grace, which is the living Christ Himself, / Is what we need and must experience; / Lord, may we know this grace and by it live, / Thyself increasingly as grace to sense. (Hymns #497 stanzas 1 and 5)
  – Grace! ’tis a charming sound, / Harmonious to the ear; / Heav’n with the echo shall resound, / And all the earth shall hear. / All sufficient grace! / Never powerless! / It is Christ who lives in me, / In His exhaustlessness. (Hymns #312 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – His love has no limit, His grace has no measure, / His power no boundary known unto men, / For out of His infinite riches in Jesus, / He giveth and giveth and giveth again. (Hymns #723 stanza 3)