Being a Lover of the Lord and having His Manifestation to us, His Present Presence

When we love the Lord, He will manifest Himself to us, and He and the Father will come and make an abode with us; we need to love the Lord and be saved to the uttermost to have His manifestation to us again and again, even all the time.

As believers in Christ, it is easy to simply walk and live according to right and wrong, according to a certain code of morality and ethics, and not to consult with the Lord or depend on Him for all things.

We need to be calibrated and adjusted in our concept, for our concept dictates our living, and our living will express the way we think and feel.

It is possible to live the Christian life for many years and even to serve the Lord, be involved in working for the Lord, and do things for the Lord, yet be on the line of the tree of knowledge, not having the Lord’s fresh appearing, His manifestation to us, and His instant presence. Oh, Lord Jesus!

We may spend our time and energy reading the Bible and studying spiritual books, yet with no value, for we do not really contact the Lord, enquire of Him, or love Him with the first love. Oh, Lord Jesus.

It is possible for our spiritual pursuit and even do the Lord’s work in a wrong way, wrong not outwardly but wrong in the eyes of God, for we do not live on the line of the tree of life.

May we not make this mistake again; may the Lord have mercy on us and expose our lack of love for the Lord so that we may repent and come back to enjoying Christ.

May we be those who love the Lord with the first love, enjoy the Lord as the tree of life, and be the golden lampstand for His expression on the earth.

May we allow the Lord to expose our loss of first love, and may we come to Him again and again, repent for not loving Him first, and turn our hearts to Him to love Him and enjoy Him as the tree of life.

We want to be part of the testimony of Jesus, the living and shining testimony of Jesus as the golden lampstand consummating in the New Jerusalem, the goal of God’s eternal economy.

May we allow the Lord to recover us back to the first love for Him.

Especially as we meet with the saints in the church life, the Lord is doing a work of recovering the first love for the Lord Jesus and the eating of Christ as the tree of life for the building up of the organic Body of Christ.

This is what the Lord is up to today; He is drawing all His seekers to Himself, and He is supplying us with Himself as the tree of life.

The love we love the Lord with, however, is not our own love, for we have none to give; all the love is the Lord’s, for by His love we live.

The tree of life is Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God for our enjoyment and supply; He is in our spirit and He is embodied in His word, and we can come to partake of Him through the exercise of our spirit.

Being a Lover of the Lord and enjoying His Present Presence with us in Love

It is one thing to believe into the Lord and come to Him in His word daily, and it is another thing to be a lover of the Lord.

There are millions of believers in Christ, but there are not many lovers of the Lord.

This doesn’t mean that most believers don’t love the Lord; it means that they do not love Him with the first love but rather, their love for Him is stale, not fresh. Oh, Lord Jesus!

We need to be a lover of the Lord Jesus all day long, even moment by moment.

In John 12 we see a miniature of the church life with Martha serving and preparing many practical things, Mary loving the Lord Jesus, and Lazarus testifying of the Lord’s resurrection life.

In this sweet miniature of the church life, we see that Mary pours out the best she had on the Lord; she must have saved for many years to get that pure nard, but she poured it all on the Lord.

This is someone who loves the Lord with the first love; she not only loved to listen to His words and be in His presence but also responded to the revelation she received from the Lord by “wasting” herself on the Lord.

We need to be those who love the Lord Jesus all the time, even be a lover of the Lord, enjoying His fresh, instant presence with us in love.

If we love the Lord with the first love, the best love, we will pour out all we have on Him.

To others, this may seem to be a waste, but to us it is a loving response to His sweetness, His loveliness, and His preciousness. How lovely is our dear Lord Jesus!

How we love to be in His presence, have His instant presence with us, and fellowship with Him!

When we enjoy the Lord, that is His presence; His presence is simply the enjoyment of Christ.

He is a real and living person in us, and when we turn our heart to Him and exercise to love Him, we have His fresh, instant, living presence.

The more we love the Lord, the more we have His presence, and the more we have His presence, the more we enjoy all that He is to us.

No matter how advanced we are in the Lord, how many years we have been saved, and how much we know of the Bible, we need to freshly love the Lord and have His presence.

The Lord is the most lovely One, and we can tell Him with all our heart that we love Him and we want to be in His presence.

No one is as lovely as He is; He is altogether lovely (Song of Songs 5:16).

The Lord’s recovery is a recovery of loving the Lord Jesus with the first love.

This is not something we can do in ourselves; this is by being attracted by His beauty, His loveliness, and His preciousness.

When we see Him, we simply love Him. The more we spend in His presence, the more we just love Him.

But if we don’t love Him, we are finished with His recovery, and we are not pleasing to the Lord, no matter how much we know and how much we do for Him.

We should not think that the Lord will get tired of us telling Him that we love Him.

Day after day and even throughout the day we need to tell Him that we love Him; even a thousand times a day we should declare our love for Him.

If we fail Him, He still comes to us and reveals Himself to us, and He wants to recover our love for Him.

This is what happened to Peter; he denied the Lord, but He didn’t give up on him.

Rather, the Lord came to recover his love for the Lord, and He charged him to shepherd His sheep.

The more we love the Lord, the more we will have His presence in our fellowship with Him (Song of Songs 1:1-4).

For us to be in the Lord’s recovery in an intrinsic way is for us to love the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 2:9; 16:22).

To those who love Him, He comes to reveal the secrets of His heart to them, and He reveals hidden things, even things beyond their understanding – simply because they love Him.

May we be lovers of the Lord all day, turning our heart to Him and asking Him to draw us and show us His love.

Lord Jesus, we love You! We love You very much. Thank You for drawing us to Yourself with Your loveliness and Your sweetness. Keep us loving You all the time. We want to be crazy lovers of Jesus who do not consider themselves but pay the price to waste everything they have on the Lord. Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord, we love to say Your precious name a thousand times a day! We love You, and Your love within us is like a burning fire eliminating all the dross and infusing us with what God is! Amen, Lord, keep us in Your love. Attract us with Yourself. Keep us all the time in Your loving and present presence!

If we Love the Lord, we have His Manifestation to us and His Abiding in us

In John 14:21-23 the Lord Jesus said that, if we keep His commandments, we love Him, and if we love Him, we will be loved by the Father, and the Son will manifest Himself to us.

Furthermore, the Father and the Son will come and make an abode with us, when we love the Lord.

As believers in Christ, we know that Christ is in us, for He has regenerated us and now lives in us, in our spirit.

We simply need to abide in the Lord by abiding in His word, and He will abide in us.

If we love the Lord, He will come and manifest Himself to us.

The Lord manifests Himself to His lovers.

May we be not only those who believe into the Lord and have Him living in them but even more, the lovers of Christ who enjoy His manifestation to us and His abiding in us.

We may experience this from time to time, but we need to experience it constantly, even moment by moment.

For example, we may have a sweet time with the Lord in the morning, and we enjoy His manifestation to us.

But later, we may be unhappy with our spouse or our workmates, and we lose His manifestation to us.

This doesn’t mean that we lose the Lord and that He leaves us when we fail; rather, we lose His present presence with us.

Some Christians think that, when they lose the manifestation of Jesus, they lose their salvation; to them, salvation is like an “elevator” which is up when they touch the Lord but they lose their salvation when they don’t.

Our salvation is not an “elevator salvation”; rather, it is a “stairway” kind of salvation, a stairway from which we cannot be removed.

What we want is to get to the top of the stairway to contact the Lord moment-by-moment and remain in His present presence, enjoying His blessing.

We want to be on the “top floor”, not in the “basement” of the stairway.

To advance or go up this “stairway” we need to just love the Lord Jesus; we simply need to give ourselves to love the Lord.

Even though we may not feel it in our emotion, we need to tell the Lord, again and again, Lord Jesus, I love You!

The more we tell the Lord that we love Him, the more we are saved from ourselves, we enjoy His manifestation to us in love, and He abides in us and with us.

When we love the Lord, not only does His Spirit abide in us but also He Himself will manifest Himself to us and will abide in us.

How sweet it is to have the Lord’s present presence with us as we love the Lord!

If we love Jesus, the Father will love us, and Jesus loves us also; then, Christ manifests Himself to us, and the Father comes with the Son to make an abode with us and stay with us.

We need to experience the Lord’s fresh, instant, present presence with us day by day. We need to go up the “stairway of the Lord’s salvation” by loving Him.

Then, He will manifest Himself to us, and we will have His abiding with us and in us. We love the Lord, but with no love of ours, for we have none to give; all the love is His, for by His love we live and we love Him.

We truly have no love for the Lord in ourselves, but He infuses us with Himself as our love, and we can just love Him. Amen, we love His appearing to us!

As we love the Lord, He manifests Himself to us, He abides with us, and we eat Him as the tree of life; the issue is that we become the testimony of Jesus, the golden lampstand, consummating in the New Jerusalem!

Dear Lord Jesus, we love You but with no love of ours, for we have none to give! We love You, Lord Jesus, but all the love is Thine, for by Your love we live! Oh Lord, we are as nothing and rejoice to be emptied and lost and swallowed up in You! Amen, Lord, our heart is drawn to You, for You have revealed Your loveliness and sweetness to us. We just love You, Lord Jesus! We give ourselves to love You with the first love. Take our heart, Lord, and make it faithful to You, for our heart loves You best! We treasure Your manifestation to us in love. We love being loved by You and having Your abiding in us.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chen in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1988, vol. 1, “Living in and with the Divine Trinity,” ch. 4, 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 3, entitled, Loving the Lord with the First Love, Enjoying the Lord as the Tree of Life, and Being the Golden Lampstand as the Testimony of Jesus for the Building up of the New Jerusalem as the Goal of God’s Eternal Economy.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – I love my Lord, but with no love of mine, / For I have none to give; / I love Thee, Lord, but all the love is Thine, / For by Thy love I live. (Hymns, #546, stanza 1)
  – Something every heart is loving: / If not Jesus, none can rest; / Lord, my heart to Thee is given; / Take it, for it loves Thee best. (Hymns, #547, stanza 1)
  – O Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord! / Forgive me if I say, / For very love, Thy sacred name / A thousand times a day. / O Jesus, Lord, with me abide; / I rest in Thee, whate’er betide; / Thy gracious smile is my reward; / I love, I love Thee, Lord! (Hymns #208)