As believers in Christ, we need live Christ for the church life; we need to not only know the truth or doctrine of living Christ, but have a daily experience of living Christ for the church life.
For us to live Christ we need to practice walking according to the Spirit; living Christ is actually walking according to the Spirit for the Body life.
We have learned Christ as the reality is in Jesus (Eph. 4:22); reality here refers not just to truth but to the actual condition of the life of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels. In the godly life of Jesus – who lived a life in which He did everything for God, in God, and with God – there is truth, reality.
As those who are regenerated by God with His life, we have Christ as our life, we are taught in Him, and we learn from Christ as the reality is in Jesus. There was actually a real man who lived someone else – Christ lived God. He was the pioneer, the first One, the Model, the Example, and Pattern of what we should do today.
We need to live not only by another life – the divine life of Christ in our spirit, but also live by another Person, live Christ. While Christ was living on earth, he was doing this and saying that, doing many works, but what people saw was not just Jesus but God living and being manifested through Him as a man.
Today what God wants is for us, the children of God, to live Christ as Christ has lived God, in exactly the same way. Even though Jesus was sinless, born of a virgin (unlike us who are sinful, corrupt, vain, and once godless), He lived not by His perfect human life but by the Father, with the Father, and for the Father.
Now what we have to do is to believe in Jesus to have eternal life, love the Lord, and live Christ; we need to live Christ for the church life.
When we speak of living Christ, we need to realize that our daily experience is that of a failure of living Christ; we may know the truth in the Bible, we may know even the high peak truth in God’s revelation, and we may have a certain degree of oneness in the church and harmony in the church life, but how much do we live Christ in our daily life?
We may do many things in the church life, and we may have a heart for God and for the church, but what about our daily living: do we live Christ habitually, or is it still the self who lives, and the old man is being expressed?
The focus of living Christ to be the Lord’s testimony on earth for the building of the Body and the preparing of the bride – this focus may become dimmer and dimmer…we may be off-focus, not so definite, and we may not pursue living Christ.
If this continues, the light of the lampstand may not shine as bright as it should. Outwardly we may carry out a lot of things, but in terms of the expression of the Triune God, we lack very much. We may have a testimony which is empty, a testimony without a prevailing living.
We may have the right ground, the best and highest teaching, but all these may not be backed up, supported, or substantiated by a corporate living of a blended group of God-men who live Christ in their daily life by walking according to the Spirit in the smallest matter.
May we personally go to the Lord and open to Him concerning our living, for we need to live Christ for the church life but we are still so short.
Lord Jesus, save us from merely knowing the doctrines and truths in the Bible yet not living Christ for the church life. Have mercy on us, Lord, that today we may walk according to the Spirit so that we may live Christ. We admit, Lord, that we do not live Christ that much in our daily living. We may not do evil and we may not lose our temper, but our daily living is not Christ living in us. Oh Lord Jesus, forgive us for not living You. Forgive us for habitually and unconsciously living ourselves.
We need to Live Christ for the Church Life by Taking Christ as our Person and Praying without Ceasing
The Apostle Paul emphasizes the matter of living Christ, and he even said, For to me, to live is Christ (Phil. 1:21). If we would live Christ, w must take Him as our person and we must be one person with Him.
It should be no longer us who live, but it should be Christ living in us (Gal. 2:20). This shouldn’t be merely a doctrine but our daily living, a fact in our daily life. We need to live Christ for the church life.
To live Christ is not merely to have an ethical and moral behavior, to pursue a holy life, and to live holiness; to live Christ is to live a person, Christ. We should live a life that is Christ Himself, that is, we should let Christ Himself live from within us.
Quite often, however, it is still us who live; by default we may live in the self and the natural man, and Christ is not lived out of us. For us to live Christ we must take Him as our person and our life, and we must pray that He would live in us, cooperating with Him by praying unceasingly.
We shouldn’t care for having a victorious living or a holy life as things in themselves; our main goal should be to live Christ for the church life. We need to practice living Christ, realizing that He is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit; we need to practice this until living Christ is something that we do habitually.
Our focus and attention should be on living Christ, caring only to live Christ so that He may be magnified in us for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
How can we live Christ?
The highest point of the divine revelation in the entire Bible, as it applies to us, is to live Christ in and for the church life, so that God would gain a corporate expression – a corporate God-man living.
For us to live Christ, we must practice being one spirit with Him; for this, we need to exercise our spirit to pray unceasingly. We need to contact the Lord all the time and tell Him, Lord Jesus, live in me today! Lord, live through me. May it be no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me today in all the details and aspects of my daily life!
As we open to the Lord again and again, we build up a habit of not living our self but Christ; as we practice to pray unceasingly, we will live Christ habitually.
The matter of living Christ is not something deliberate – it should be spontaneous, unconscious, and even habitual; apart from unceasingly praying, we cannot live Christ.
We need to live Christ for the church life, and for us to do this, we need to pray unceasingly, pray without ceasing. Only by continually breathing Christ in and breathing ourselves out can we live Christ habitually and spontaneously.
We need to watch and pray for our prayer life, praying at every time in spirit, and watching unto prayer in all petition, so that we may persevere in prayer (Matt. 26:41; Eph. 6:18; Col. 4:2).
Lord Jesus, we want to practice living Christ for the church life every day. We cannot do this in ourselves, Lord, so we ask You to remind us to live Christ. Grant us the grace that we need to do this. Lord, may it be no longer us who lives but Christ who lives in us. May we pray at every time in spirit, opening to You concerning all things and persevering in prayer, so that Christ would live in us. Live in us, Lord. May our living be the living of Christ, and may our words and actions be Christ living in us for the church life.
Loving the Lord and Praying Unceasingly for us to Live Christ for the Church Life
The foundation for us to pray unceasingly is our love for the Lord. The Bible commands us to love God (Mark 12:30).
First, we need to believe into the Lord Jesus to be saved; then, we need to love the Lord, and finally, we need to live Christ. Living Christ requires that we love Him to the uttermost.
When we see that Christ lived God and He died for us, we are constrained by His love to live no longer to ourselves but to Him who died for us and has been raised (1 Cor. 2:9).
Part of the secret of living Christ is telling the Lord again and again that we love Him.
Even when we don’t feel that we love the Lord, we need to open to Him and tell Him, Lord Jesus, I love You! I may not feel it or feel like it, but I just want to tell You that I love You! You loved me, You died for me, You poured out Your love in me, and I just love You!
Because we love the Lord and seek Him, we like to contact Him, pray to Him, and call upon Him.
Contacting the Lord is not a chore for those who love Him; when we love the Lord, we spontaneously contact Him and pray to Him.
As we are engaged in our daily activities, our living shouldn’t be focused on those activities but on Christ.
We may be at the office taking care of so many necessary things, but our being should be focused on the Lord, and inwardly we need to tell Him, Lord Jesus, I am so busy, but I still love You!
We may have to clean the house and take care of our family in so many practical things, but our focus should not be these things but Christ; we need to tell Him, Lord, I love You, and I want to focus only on You as I take care of this and that!
Our mind should be concentrated on Christ, but the concentration of our mind depends on our love for Christ; whatever we love, our mind will automatically focus on it.
If we don’t love Christ, we cannot live Him; loving the Lord is the best way to concentrate our entire being on Him and the best motivation for us to pray unceasingly.
We need to live Christ for the church life, and this can be done only by loving the Lord and praying unceasingly.
We need to ask the Lord to draw us with His love and beauty, and as we love Him in response, we will set our whole being on Him and we will pray without ceasing.
Because we love the Lord with all our heart, He captivates us, we live one spirit with Him, and we live Christ for the church life; even in our dreams we will live Christ and love Him.
Lord Jesus, we love You! We set our entire being on You. Lord, captivate us with Your beauty and draw us with Your radiance so that we concentrate our whole being on nothing else but Christ. Because we love You and we seek You, we love to contact You, pray to You, and call on Your name! Lord Jesus, we love You so much! We love to live one spirit with You. We love to open to You about all the details of our daily life. Remind us Lord to live Christ for the church life. Keep us in a spirit of prayer, always contacting You and telling You how much we love You and we need You!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 346 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking Christ as our Person and Living Him in and for the Church Life (2018 spring ITERO), week 3, Living Christ by Walking according to the Spirit for the Body Life.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me, / For my very life art Thou; / Thee I take to all my problems / As the full solution now. (Hymns #403)
# We have found the way to live by Christ— / Pray His Word and call His name! / This—the eating, drinking—has sufficed / And its worth we now proclaim. (Hymns #1153)
# Saints, if we do not love Christ / Then we surely cannot live Him. / Loving Him is the best way / To concentrate our being on Him. (Song on, Living Christ is by loving Him)
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