Maturity in Life is Having Christ Fully Formed in us and Being Subdued in our Will

While we’re awaiting with long-suffering the Lord’s coming, He, as the real Farmer, is awaiting with patience our maturity in life; to be mature is to have Christ fully formed in us, that is, to be fully transformed into His image, and maturity in life is reached by the subduing of the will.

Oh Lord Jesus, grow in us unto maturity! We believers in Christ are lovers of the Lord, those who love Him and pursue Him in love so that we may gain Him, be filled with Him, and grow in life unto maturity to hasten the Lord’s coming.

We love Him as our Bridegroom. The greatest matter in this universe is the relationship between God and His people; this is a loving relationship, even a fantastic romance.

When some Christians hear this, they have a lukewarm reaction; they know they love the Lord, but there’s no fervent love toward the Lord. Oh Lord!

We need to come to the Lord again and again to be infused with His love day by day so that we may be His bride who brings Him back.

The Lord today is recovering not only the truths, the proper way to meet, and the proper practices for us to enjoy the Lord, but even more, He is recovering the reality of the Body of Christ and the bride of Christ.

We are here for this. We are here for the Lord to gain His bride for Him to return.

He is doing a work in us and among us to recover our first love for the Lord, do the first works, and produce the overcomers who compose His bride to bring Him back.

May we not think that we know all this, we have heard all these things, and we agree with them, so now we need to move on to deeper things, more interesting doctrines, or even more practical matters. Oh Lord!

May we remain in the love for the Lord; may we never lose our first love for the Lord. May we allow the Lord to burn in our hearts and rekindle our love for Him.

He wants to gain His bride so that there would be a declaration in the universe, Rejoice and exult, the wife has made herself ready, and the wedding dinner of the Lamb is coming!

We are in this process of being made ready; we are being prepared as the bride of Christ.

We stay away from any mixture, any idolatry, any lukewarmness, and anything that opposes or replaces Christ, and we want to be the overcoming saints today, those who are overcoming individually and are built up corporately as the bride of Christ.

As we’re Awaiting with Long-Suffering the Lord’s coming, the Lord Jesus is the Real Farmer Awaiting with patience our Maturity in Life

James 5:7 gives us the illustration of a farmer awaiting the ripening of his crop in order to harvest it, and James links this to the Lord’s coming. In his Epistle, James uses the illustration of a farmer waiting with long-suffering the precious fruit of the earth.

The real Farmer is the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is the unique Farmer (Matt. 13:3), and He has sown Himself as the seed of life into our heart; now He is awaiting with patience our maturity in life.

On our side, we are awaiting the Lord’s coming, and we are long-suffering while we are waiting for His return.

On the Lord’s side, He, as the real Farmer, is awaiting our maturity. We pray that the Lord would come back quickly, but His answer is that He’s waiting for us to grow unto maturity.

The Lord cannot return until we have grown unto maturity so that He can come and harvest the ripened fruit.

We may wonder why the Lord has not returned yet, for it has been more than two thousand years; on His side, the Lord is waiting for our maturity so that He may return. Our maturity in life hastens the Lord’s coming back.

If we pray, “Lord, come back quickly,” the Lord may say, “While you are awaiting My coming back, I am awaiting your maturity; only your maturity can hasten My coming back.”

We need to realise this and we need to be one with the Lord in this matter, for our growth in life unto maturity, even our reaching maturity, is the way to hasten the Lord’s return.

It is a great help for us to realise that, if we are serious about awaiting the Lord’s coming back, we need to grow in life unto maturity.

Do we want the Lord to return quickly? Do we aspire to be raptured by Him soon? We need to reach maturity. Are we awaiting with long-suffering the Lord’s coming? He is also awaiting with patience our maturity in life.

The significant matter, the event which triggers and hastens the Lord’s coming, is the maturity in life of the overcomers. When the overcoming believers reach maturity in life, the bride of Christ is prepared, and the Lord will return.

Many times we may think how can we be useful to the Lord, how we can do things for Him, and how we can function in the church life.

We may focus quite a lot on outward matters, the things we do for the Lord, the services we are involved in the church life, but we may not realise that our maturity in life will bring the Lord back.

We may be a mother with little children, very limited in our usefulness in the church life, or we may be a middle-aged brother who is sick and cannot do much, and we may think, How can I be useful to the Lord?

The best way to be useful to the Lord is to grow in life unto maturity. We need to take every opportunity to grow a little bit more in the divine life, day by day.

Our growth in life unto maturity is the crucial factor in bringing the Lord back. It is not a matter of what we accomplish in a kind of an outward sense.

The Lord very much diminishes the work we can do for Him, for we may be quite zealous and capable, but our work may be done not in oneness with Him. Oh Lord Jesus!

We may be zealous, doing many things for the Lord, engaged in many activities, but when we meet the Lord on that day, He may say, I never knew you! Oh Lord!

May we open to the Lord again and again and realise that it’s not the outward accomplishment that matters but His making His home in our heart little by little, day by day.

May we not be worried about what our role is in the church life and what our function is, but just go on, pray, allow the Lord to make His home in our hearts, and grow unto maturity. Only our maturity in life can hasten the Lord’s coming back.

May we not seek merely to increase the kingdom of God or the number of the saints in the church; may we pay attention more to life than to work, and may we allow the Lord to grow in us daily until we are mature in His life.

Lord Jesus, grow in us unto maturity today. May we see that You are the real Farmer eagerly awaiting the precious fruit of the earth, that is, the maturity in life of the saints! Amen, Lord, bring us on to maturity. May we focus more on our growth in life than on doing things for God. Oh Lord, we desire that You return soon! Come soon, dear Lord Jesus, our Bridegroom! We aspire to grow unto maturity so that we may hasten Your coming! Oh Lord, in all our situations, in all the things of our daily living, we want to give You our best cooperation to grow in Christ unto maturity. May we grasp every opportunity to allow You to make Your home in our heart and grow in us. Amen, Lord, grow in the way we think, in our decisions, in our feelings, and in every aspect of our daily living. Save us from merely doing things for You in the church life outwardly; may we pay attention more to the growth of God in us than doing things for God! Amen, Lord, bring us on to maturity so that we may hasten Your return!

To be Mature is to have Christ Fully Formed in us and to be Fully Transformed into His Image

To be mature in the divine life is to have Christ fully formed in us; it also means that we have been fully transformed into His image (Gal. 4:19; 2 Cor. 3:18).

We believers in Christ are different from all other human beings, for we have received the divine life in our spirit, and this life operates in us to transform us and conform us to the image of Christ.

Since the time of our regeneration, the Lord has been working in us so that we may be conformed to His image. The Father predestinated us to be conformed to the image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29).

The Spirit sought us out, brought us to Christ, and led us to repentance; then, Christ came into us as life and regenerated us to make us children of God.

After our regeneration, the Lord is working in us so that we may have His image. It is not enough to merely be redeemed and regenerated; we need to grow in life unto maturity so that Christ may be formed in us.

Day by day the Lord’s goal is to gain us and mature us, for His goal is to gain His bride, which is brought in by the maturity in life of the overcomers.

When the Lord has fully worked His image into us and is fully expressed through us, we will be mature in life (Eph. 3:16-17). Amen!

When we hear this, we may think that this sounds good, but it seems to be quite unattainable.

We may think that, looking at our situation, our condition, and our lack of growth unto maturity, this is unattainable. Oh Lord.

The Lord desires to work this in us, and whether we match Him right now, He will do this in us. He is working this out in us little by little, day by day, so that we may be brought into the same image as He is, and He could be expressed through us.

Brothers and sisters, we are believers in Christ, and we have to believe that we are in such a process today in which the Lord is gaining us more metabolically in the way of life!

We must open to the Lord and allow Him to operate in us, grow in us, and gain us so that we become different than we may have been before!

Little by little, day by day, the Lord operates in us and we cooperate with Him until, according to His timing and in His sovereign arrangement, we become His overcoming saints! We want to grow unto maturity and have Christ fully formed in us! We want to become His bride!

Lord Jesus, we open to You without any reservation: grow in us unto maturity and transform us into Your image! We open to You, dear Lord, and we allow You to be formed in us. Transform us in our very nature with Your divine nature. Work in us, Lord, and gain our cooperation day by day. We want to cooperate with You for You to gain Your image in us. Keep us in the process of growing in life unto maturity until we become the same as Christ in life, nature, expression, and function, to match Him as His bride! Save us from losing heart by looking to our condition and situation. We do not look at what we are and what we can do; we look to You, Lord, for You operate in us both the willing and the working! Amen, Lord, fully work Your image into us. Be fully expressed through us. Bring us on to maturity so that we may bring You back as Your bride!

Maturity is Reached by the Subduing of our Will – the Secret of our Maturity is that our Will is Completely Subdued and Resurrected

In chapter 3 of Song of Songs, we see the maturity of the seeking one, and in chapter 4, we see that such maturity is reached by the subduing of the will.

We can say that the secret of the maturity of the seeking one is that her will has been completely subdued and resurrected (S. S. 4:4). The Lord wants to gain His bride, His counterpart; this bride is mature in life.

What prevents us from attaining to this maturity, the limiting factors that frustrate our growth, is our will, our rebellious, stubborn, and unsubdued will. The neck of the seeking one in Song of Songs signifies our human will under God; the Lord considers the submission of our will a most beautiful thing.

Those who are rebellious toward God in the Bible are called stiff-necked (Exo. 32:9; Acts 7:51). Oh Lord! Our will must be subdued, and it needs to be resurrected; it has to go through death and resurrection to be useful to the Lord in resurrection.

Our natural will needs to be dealt with, and then we will have a resurrected will. To have a crucified and subdued will is like a flock of goats standing on the mountainside. To have a resurrected will is to be like the tower of David, built up as an armoury.

We need to open to the Lord about this and allow Him to work in us and around us to subdue our will; on our side, we need to be willing to be subdued, and on His side, He will operate to bring our will through death and resurrection.

If our will has never been subdued by the Lord, it can never be a strong armory to keep all the weapons for spiritual warfare.

The Lord wants our will to be strong in resurrection, but our will is still so rebellious and unsubmissive to the Lord. Oh Lord!

If our will is not subdued by the Lord, it will be rebellious against God and weak toward the enemy, and we will be easily defeated by the enemy. Oh Lord!

May we allow the Lord to subdue our will so that He may bring it into resurrection and make it like the tower of David, full of shields and bucklers for spiritual warfare against the enemy!

When our will is subdued by the Lord and is in resurrection, we are mature in life, and we can stand against the enemy’s attacks.

We don’t mainly attack in spiritual warfare; we stand one with the Lord who has gained the victory, and we have defensive weapons to be protected against the enemy’s attacks.

This is what we see in Ephesians 6 – the items of the armour of God are mainly defensive, and we fight the battle in the Body, having our will subdued by the Lord. Hallelujah, Christ has won the victory already, and we stand in His victory today!

If we have an unsubdued will, we are stubborn toward God and weak toward the enemy; when the enemy attacks, our stubborn and unsubdued will makes an unconditional surrender.

But if our will is submissive to the Lord, and the enemy comes, our will is like the tower of David, holding all kinds of weapons against his attacks. Amen!

May we be those who cooperate with the Lord today by allowing Him to operate in us by means of all things to subdue our will and bring it in resurrection!

First, our will must be subdued; then it will be strong in resurrection and like the tower of David, the armoury for the spiritual warfare (Eph. 6:10).

The weapons for spiritual warfare are kept in our subdued and resurrected will (2 Cor. 10:3-5). This is to be mature in life; the secret to our maturity in life is having a submissive will. May the Lord gain this 5in us today!

Lord Jesus, we love You and we want to arrive at maturity in the divine life to be Your bride! We open to You and we allow You to subdue our will. Oh Lord, what about our unsubmissive and rebellious will? We open to You, Lord, and we want to cooperate with Your work of subduing our will. May our will be brought through death into resurrection so that it may be strong in resurrection, one with You! May we see that the secret of our maturity in life is that our will is completely subdued and resurrected! Yes, Lord, may our will be strong in resurrection to be like the tower of David, the armoury for spiritual warfare! Save us from remaining stubborn and unsubdued in our will, thus being easily defeated by Satan! Oh Lord, we stand one with You. We choose You. We reject ourselves. Have a way in us. Have Your way to subdue our will and resurrect it so that we may be strong in resurrection, standing one with You in the spiritual warfare! Amen, Lord, bring us on to maturity!

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 brother Ray Mulligan in this conference, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1972, vol. 1, “Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs,” ch. 6, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Maturity of the Bride (2025 Memorial Day Blending Conference), week 3, The Building of the Bride – day 3.
  Hymns on this topic:
  – The local churches are preparing for the Lord’s return— / We know the time is near for our Bridegroom so dear. / He’s coming back to claim the Bride for which His heart doth yearn, / That with Him we may be through all eternity. / The Christ we love is coming soon, / And He will come as our Bridegroom. / We’ll wait for Him, we’ll watch and pray— / It may be today, it may be today! (Hymns #1311 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – It is God’s intent and pleasure / That His Christ be formed in me; / Not the outward forms to follow, / But Christ growing inwardly. / It is God’s intent and pleasure / That His Christ be wrought in me; / Nothing outwardly performing, / But His Christ my all to be. (Hymns #538 stanza 3 and chorus)
  – In my knowledge and experience / I would not exalted be, / But submitting and accepting / Let the Body balance me; / Holding fast the Head, and growing / With His increase, in His way, / By the joints and bands supplying, / Knit together day by day. (Hymns #840 stanza 3)