As we take the way of life by exercising our spirit and turning our heart to the Lord, we realize that the love between us and the Lord depends on our thoughts, and there are some symptoms of problems with our thoughts as hindrances to the enjoyment of Christ.
As believers in Christ, we want to stay on the way of life by loving the Lord to the uttermost and by exercising our spirit to contact Him.
When we believe into the Lord, we receive Him as life; when we love the Lord, we enjoy Him as life.
On one hand, we need to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and receive Him as life, and on the other hand, we need to turn our heart to Him so that we may enjoy Him as life.
The Lord commands us to love Him with all of our heart and soul and strength, even with all our mind, heart, soul, and power.
The way we remain in the intrinsic essence of the church for its organic existence is not by emphasizing certain sound doctrines and sticking to them but by exercising our spirit and turning our heart to the lord so that we may stay on the way of life.
As we turn our heart to the Lord and exercise our spirit, we will stay on the way of life in the reality of the intrinsic essence of the church for its organic existence.
When we speak of the intrinsic essence of something, we refer not only to the inward content but to the element, the intrinsic substance of one thing; we need to know and remain in the intrinsic essence of the church.
When we consider the church as the Body of Christ and want to build up and fellowship in the church, we must touch the essence of the church; we must touch what is most intrinsic.
Christ has come as the incarnation of the Triune God and He has passed through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, so that He may be a life-giving Spirit to be mingled with our spirit.
When He comes into our spirit, our spirit becomes life; our spirit is regenerated by the divine life and with the divine life, and we become members of the Body of Christ in spirit.
Our soul, however, needs to be continually renewed and transformed so that we may be in the intrinsic essence of the church.
The more the divine life spreads from our spirit into our soul, the more we are brought into the intrinsic essence of the church, for the divine life – Christ as life, the processed and now-dispensing Triune God – is the essence of the church for its organic existence.
The divine life generates the church, and we as children of God are the many members of the Body of Christ for the corporate expression of the Triune God.
Dealing with the Symptoms of Problems with our Thoughts to be Rescued back to the Enjoyment of God as Life
The Lord as life is in our spirit, and whenever we exercise our spirit, we can contact Him and receive Him as life.
However, there are some problems with our thoughts; there are some symptoms of problems with our thoughts, for many times our thoughts are hindrances to the enjoyment of Christ as life.
Our mind has many problems; we may exercise our spirit, but the problems in our mind hinder us from experiencing Christ as our life.
It all depends on what is our mind set on; if we set our mind on our spirit, our mind becomes life and peace, but if we set our mind on the flesh, we experience death.
We may think that we are not like Eve, that is, we won’t be deceived by Satan, but Satan is cunning, and he will not let us freely enjoy Christ or eat the fruit of the tree of life.
Rather, he puts thoughts in our mind, and he even corrupts our thoughts from the simplicity and sincerity toward Christ.
Our thoughts toward the Lord must be proper, preserved, and not corrupted.
The first symptom of problems with our thoughts is having hardened thoughts (2 Cor. 3:14); our thoughts are not soft or tender, but they are hardened and even unbreakable.
When our thoughts are hardened, we need the Lord’s mercy to become softened.
We may know the Bible, we may enjoy the Lord, but our thoughts need to be soft toward Him.
We may pray-read the word of God and we may have the Lord’s Spirit in our spirit, but if our thoughts are hardened, the Lord will not have a way in us. Oh, Lord!
The second symptom of problems with our thoughts is that our thoughts are blinded by Satan (2 Cor. 4:4).
Our thoughts are like our eyes: everything that comes into us must first pass through our thoughts, just as the physical scenery outside of us is taken in firstly by our eyes.
But if our thoughts are blinded by Satan, there will be a veil lying on our thoughts.
The god of this age blinds the thoughts of the unbelievers, and we may also have our thoughts blinded if we don’t have singleness toward God.
When we’re single toward God, our thoughts will be transparent. However, as soon as we seek other things besides God, the god of this age will cause our thoughts to be blinded.
May we turn our heart to the Lord and open to Him so that He may remove any veil and cause our thoughts to be focused on Him.
May we open to the Lord concerning our seeking and desire, so that we do not seek other things than Him.
The third symptom of problems with our thoughts is rebellion (2 Cor. 10:4-5). We may be touched by the Lord when we hear His word, but inwardly we may be rebellious and unwilling to submit to the Lord.
We may harbour or entertain thoughts that are disobedient, stubborn, and offensive to the Lord.
When we or someone else have such thoughts, we need to pray and open to the Lord; our need is not that someone would expose us of having such thoughts but rather, we need to come to the Lord and pray over the word of God.
We must pray that all our reasonings and rebellious, stubborn and disobedient thoughts would be taken captive unto the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:4-5).
There’s a warfare going on, which is in our mind; the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly but powerful before God for the overthrowing of strongholds, as we overthrow reasonings and every high thing rising against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought unto the obedience of Christ.
The fourth symptom of problems with our thoughts is corruption (2 Cor. 11:3); our thoughts may not be hardened or blinded or rebellious, but there’s a danger that our thoughts can be corrupted.
This is not easy to discern, for such a symptom is very difficult and quite deceiving.
Although we may have our heart somewhat turned toward the Lord and we love Him, we may also be turned toward other things, and thoughts are not focused on the Lord, they are not pure, single, or simple. Oh, Lord!
We may love the Lord and practice to exercise our spirit, but Satan may deceive our thoughts and corrupt them, blind them, make them rebellious, or fill them with mixture.
Our thoughts must be pure; this means that our hardened thoughts are softened, our blinded thoughts are unveiled, our rebellious thoughts are subdued, and our corrupted thoughts are made single and pure toward the Lord.
For us to deal with our thoughts we need to pray; we need to ask the Lord to have mercy on us and rescue our thoughts, gather our thoughts, and focus our thoughts.
We need Him to rescue our thoughts so that they would focus on Him; our thoughts need to be searched by the Lord and rescued by Him.
We need to spend a good amount of time to thoroughly pray about this matter, so that we may allow Him to rescue, deal with, focus, and gather our thoughts for these to be pure, even transparent as crystal.
Once our thoughts are pure, they will be softened, unveiled, subdued, and single toward the Lord. Then, our enjoyment of Christ as life will be thorough and transparent.
Lord Jesus, have mercy on us and rescue our thoughts, gather our thoughts, and focus our thoughts only on You. We admit, Lord, that we have no way to deal with our thoughts. We just open to You. Rescue our thoughts, Lord, so that they would focus on You. Search our thoughts and rescue our thoughts. Search us oh God, and know our heart; try us and know our anxious thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in us and lead us on the eternal way. May our thoughts not be hardened but soft and inclined toward You. May our thoughts be rescued from being blinded by Satan; unveil us, Lord, to see You and to enjoy You! Rescue our thoughts from being rebellious and bring them unto the obedience of Christ. Rescue us from being corrupted and distracted in our thoughts; may our thoughts be focused on You alone! Amen, Lord Jesus, may our thoughts be pure, rescued, and focused only on You so that we may have the enjoyment of Christ as life!
Having a Burning Love toward the Lord to Remain on the Way of Life and Enjoy Christ as the Tree of Life
In order for us to enjoy Christ as the intrinsic essence of the church, we must have a burning love toward Him by giving Him the first place in all things (see Rev. 2:4-5, 7; Col. 1:18b; Rom. 12:11; 2 Tim. 1:6-7).
Christ is the intrinsic essence of the church; for us to know and enjoy Christ as such a One is not for us to know some doctrines but rather, in a practical way, it is for us to love Him and give Him the first place.
This is not about merely knowing some doctrines about the intrinsic essence and organic existence of the church.
May we all have a burning love toward the Lord, giving Him our best love and offering Him our highest, deepest, and best love.
In this way, we will give Him the first place in all things. Again and again, we need to open to Him and give Him the first place, allowing Him to be the One who decides things and who takes the lead.
He is the Head, and we love Him and submit ourselves to Him. He is our King, and we enthrone Him in the center of our being.
We just love Him, and we want to be filled with a burning love toward Him so that we may enjoy Him and remain on the way of life.
As we love the Lord, as we give Him the first place in our Christian life and our church life, we submit ourselves to Him, and we enjoy Him as the intrinsic element of the church for its organic existence.
May we be those who continually receive the merciful compassions of our God (Heb. 4:16; Luke 1:78-79) so that we may remain on the way of life, the line of life, and in the maintenance of life.
As we daily receive the merciful compassions of our God, we remain on the line of life and the maintenance of life by enjoying Christ as the tree of life in the flow of life for God’s building in life by our growth in life (Gen. 2:9; Rev. 22:1-2; Rom. 8:6; Eph. 4:15-16; Col. 2:19; John 6:57, 63; 7:38-39; 20:22).
This is for us to remain in the intrinsic essence of the church for its organic existence.
The Lord wants to gain a Body of Christ so that He may have a full manifestation on earth, to have a reality on earth, and to be expressed through all the local churches in the Lord’s recovery.
May the Lord truly have mercy on us so that we may open to Him concerning our thoughts, give Him a way in our being, and simply enjoy Christ as the tree of life to remain on the way of life and become the church, the Body of Christ, the organism of the Triune God for His corporate expression.
May we pay attention to the intrinsic essence of the church for its organic existence.
Lord Jesus, we love You! Infuse us with a burning love toward You. We give You the first place in all things by faith. We enthrone You in our being and we give You the preeminence in our being and in all the things related to us. You are the first, Lord, and whatever You say is fine with us; You are our Head, and we just submit to You. Keep us continuously receiving the merciful compassions of our God so that we may remain on the way of life! Amen, Lord, keep us on the line of life and in the maintenance of life by enjoying Christ as the tree of life in the flow of life for God’s building in life by our growth in life! May we remain in the intrinsic essence of the church for its organic existence.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1967, vol. 1, pp. 144-146, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Intrinsic and Organic Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ (2021 International Chinese-Speaking Conference), week 1, The Intrinsic Essence of the Church for Its Organic Existence.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Father God, Thou art the source of life. / We, Thy sons, are Thine expression; / In Thy name, our dear possession. / Father God, Thou art the source of life. / In Thy life, in Thy life, / We have oneness in Thy life. / In Thy life, in Thy life, / In Thy life, O Father, we are one. (Hymns #1081)
– Lord, we would our every thought be captured / By the rich enjoyment in Your Word. / In it we’re supplied, our mind there will abide, / Till our thoughts are wholly sanctified. / Let’s keep practicing the application / Of this life by minding just the Son. / Praise Him for the way to live by Him today! / Lord, on You our minds will ever stay. (Hymns #1193)
– I hardly know myself; / Deceived so much by pride, / I often think I’m right / And am self-satisfied. / I know Thee even less; / In doctrine, shallowly; / True revelation lack / Of Thy reality. / Oh, may Thy living light, Lord, / Scatter all my night, Lord, / And everything make bright, Lord, / For this I pray to Thee. (Hymns #426)
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