In the New Testament, the move of God is in man to meet man’s need before God; this move is from the first coming of Christ to the manifestation of the New Jerusalem, and it is an unprecedented move, for God is moving not just among and with man but in man! Hallelujah!
This is something that Job and many other seekers of God in the Old Testament never realized, that is, God moving in man by God Himself becoming man to make man the same as He is in life and nature.
Sadly, however, many Christians today don’t see the intention of God or His economy, and they are just like Job, thinking that it is not fair for suffering to come their way, for they do good things and stay away from evil.
After thirty-seven chapters of Job, his friends, and Elihu speaking and debating in the book of Job, God came in and appeared to Job, and first He asked him some questions.
God introduced Himself as being the all-knowing, unlimited, unsearchable, and untraceable One.
At the same time, however, He wanted to help Job to know that he was in the realm of building up himself as a man in the old creation – which is the wrong realm, for God is not in this realm.
God is not after our being better, improving ourselves, and achieving uprightness, integrity, and perfection through our natural effort.
We may think that this is what God wants, but it is not; we may teach our children to be good, upright, and perfect, but eventually what God wants is that we would become a God-man.
God is not after a good man or a perfect man; He is after a man who receives God in His life, nature, element, and essence, so that man would be metabolically transformed and be a God-man.
Such a God-man is a new creation who expresses God and dispenses Him to those around Him.
Because this is God’s intention, He comes in, again and again, to help us become God-men, and the way He does it is by the environment and situations with the people and things around us; He does a work of stripping and consuming of our natural man.
We may be content in our godly attainments and obtainment, but we don’t realize that these things are barriers and coverings to God’s work in us. Oh, Lord!
May we all be unveiled to see what is God’s intention, to see God moving in man, and to have a deeper seeking after God so that we may gain Him and be conformed to the image of Christ! Amen!
In all that He does to us and with us, the Lord wants us to realize that in ourselves we are nothing, but Christ is our everything, and in Christ and with Christ we are pleasing to God, we can fulfil God’s purpose, and the church is being built up.
How much more of Christ we need to be added to us, to be infused into us, and to even replace us for the fulfilment of God’s purpose!
The Move of God in Man is to Meet Man’s Need before God; this move is from Christ’s Incarnation to the New Jerusalem
In the New Testament, the move of God in man has advanced to another level; God is not moving merely among men and with men but in man.
The move of God is in the New Testament to meet man’s need before God (John 1:1, 14; Eph. 3:16-19; Rev. 21:2, 9-10).
The move of God in man is from Christ’s incarnation – the first coming of Christ – to the manifestation of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth.
Such a move, God moving in man, is an unprecedented move in human history. We no longer live in the Old Testament but in the New Testament, and the move of God has progressed to the stage of His move in man.
In the New Testament we see how God moves in the first God-man, Jesus Christ, who is God becoming a man, what He passed through in order to accomplish God’s desire and meet man’s need.
We see how God, entering into and becoming one with the first God-man, passed through different processes and had various accomplishments to satisfy God’s desire and meet man’s need.
Then this One became a life-giving Spirit to enter into and live in the many believers in Christ, the many God-men; they experience Christ, they become the church, and they enter into what the first God-man has accomplished in order to fulfil God’s economy.
As those who have been chosen and called by God, we need to believe into Jesus Christ, who is the incarnated God, who lived a human life, died, resurrected, and ascended for us and with us, and who became the life-giving Spirit as the pneumatic Christ to us so that He may be our salvation, life, and everything.
All of this is revealed in Matthew through Romans in the New Testament. In an unprecedented event in history, there was a man who was not just man but also God; God was incarnated in a man, and in this man Jesus Christ there was the very God.
He was not just a prophet, He was not just another religious leader – He was the very God incarnated as a man, a man indeed but with God living in Him. Wow!
Before Christ, God was God and man was man; although man feared God and bowed down to God, God and man never met or came together.
After moving among man and with man in the Old Testament, God finally took a further step to enter into man.
This man is first Jesus Christ, the incarnated God, and then this man is the Body of Christ, the many believers in Christ who have and live by the divine life in their spirit.
Jesus Christ passed thorugh different stages of experience, from His incarnation to His ascension; we need to see each and every one of these processes and appreciate them, for they are the steps of God’s move in man.
The Lord’s incarnation was a spectacular, extraordinary event; His human living was superb and His death was unspeakable and all-inclusive.
We are awestruck with His resurrection, and His ascension is indescribable.
We need to see that God’s relationship with man in the New Testament is for God to enter into man and move in man; for God to have such a relationship with man, He had to pass through some processes.
The consummation of God moving in man in the New Testament is the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity.
Hallelujah, the move of God today is not only with man and among man but in man! Thank You, Lord Jesus, for coming as God stepping out from eternity and into time to bring God into man and become a God-man for the move of God in man! Praise the Lord, Christ came as the first God-man to fulfil God’s purpose and desire and also to meet man’s need before God. We praise You Lord for Your spectacular incarnation and for Your superb human living. We praise You for Your unspeakable and all-inclusive death on the cross. We are awestruck with Your all-conquering and life-imparting resurrection. Your ascension is indescribable. We simply believe into You, Lord Jesus Christ, and we receive You as the life-giving Spirit to be our salvation, life, and everything!
Seeing God’s move in Man through the Incarnation and Human Living of Christ, the First God-man
How amazing it is to realize that God came to be conceived in a human virgin and to be born of her to be a man, thus bringing divinity into humanity and causing God and man to be mingled as one entity (Lev. 2:4-5; John 1:1, 14; Matt. 1:20, 23; 1 Tim. 3:16)! Wow!
Before Christ, God and man were separated and never united as one; One was in heaven and the other was on earth until Christ came to be born of a virgin and be a man in whom God is and lives.
Christ brought divinity into humanity and mingled God with man together as one entity but not as a third substance.
Some theologians wrongly teach that God and man are mingled together to produce a third entity, but this is not what the Bible teaches.
Rather, God was mingled with man and, as seen in the meal-offering, the two can be clearly seen – their identities remain, but they are mingled and inseparable.
In this mingled person there was God and there was man; God was in man, man was in God, and the two were inseparable.
For the first time ever in the history of mankind, divinity was brought into humanity.
In the Old Testament, we may have people who sought God, desired to be one with God, were inspired by God, and were moved by the Spirit to do something mighty for God, but they never had God in them, neither were they in God.
Samson was a powerful judge, but God never entered into him; Samson was Samson and God was God, even though God moved him, inspired him, and used him.
It was not until Jesus Christ that divinity was brought into humanity; in Jesus, God and man can be mingled as one entity.
This is indeed a spectacular event, an indescribable matter, for the infinite God came into the finite man; it is truly mind-blowing when you consider this.
This first God-man Jesus lived a life in which He did everything in God, with God, and for God; God was in His living, and He was one with God.
Everything He did was not in and of Himself but in God and with God, and His living expressed God, made God real, and explained and manifested God.
God was not someone far away, objective, outside of Him, a God whom He tried to serve and please, but God was in Him.
He confessed that the words He spoke were not his but the Father speaking, He was one with the Father, He did the Father’s work, and He sought the Father’s glory.
As He lived the life of a God-man on earth, He passed through sufferings, ridiculing, and misunderstandings.
Job suffered a lot, but his suffering cannot be compared with the Lord’s suffering. Job suffered the loss of his possessions, his family, and his health – mostly outward things.
Jesus suffered much more both in His body and in His soul, for many criticized Him, opposed Him, and misunderstood Him.
In His human living, Christ set His suffering life before us as a model so that we can copy it by tracing and following His steps; this doesn’t mean that we should merely imitate Him in His living but rather, that we become a reproduction of Him by enjoying Him as grace in our sufferings (Eph. 4:20-21; 1 Pet. 2:21).
Praise the Lord, as we enjoy Christ as grace in our sufferings, He Himself as the indwelling Spirit, with all the riches of His life, reproduces Himself in us!
As children of God and believers in Christ, we are Christ’s reproduction for Him to be manifested and lived out through us; we have Him within us, and we let Him live in us for Him to be reproduced in us and through us.
As we live the human life, we live a life full of suffering; as we suffer, we are reminded to take Christ as our model our standard copy, by turning to Him.
We don’t merely think, What Would Jesus Do? but even more we turn to Him, we apply Him, and we take Him as our life for Him to be reproduced in us.
He is the mold into which we were put, and we learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus; we have Him as our living mold, a living reality, and we are molded in Him and by Him.
Hallelujah for Christ as the first God-man, the One in whom God and many are mingled together into one for the expression and manifestation of God in man! What a miracle, that God and man can be united, mingled, and blended together! Thank You Lord for Your wonderful and excellent human living in which You did everything in God, with God, and for God. Thank You for setting Your suffering life before us as a model so that we can copy it by tracing and following Your steps. Lord, we don’t want to merely imitate You outwardly but rather, enjoy You as grace in our sufferings so that You may reproduce Yourself in us. Amen, Lord, we allow You to live in us and be reproduced in us, even as we pass through sufferings and difficulties. We take You as our life and live by You so that You may be reproduced in us in our daily living today!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-Study of Job, msg. 34 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 7, The Intrinsic Divine Revelation concerning the Move of God with and among Men in the Old Testament and concerning the Move of God in Man in the New Testament to Accomplish God’s Heart’s Desire and to Meet Man’s Need before God.
- Hymns on this topic:
– O glorious Christ, Savior mine, / Thou art truly radiance divine; / God infinite, in eternity, / Yet man in time, finite to be. / Oh! Christ, expression of God, the Great, / Inexhaustible, rich, and sweet! / God mingled with humanity / Lives in me my all to be. (Hymns #501)
– God was born a human being / As the Babe of Bethlehem, / Passed He then through human living, / Perfect blend of God with men. / God, according to His plan, / Lived a mingled life with man. / Hallelujah, Hallelujah, / Hallelujah, Amen! (Hymns #1088)
– Our God is living—say, Hallelujah! / He’s living in us—say, Hallelujah! / We taste His riches, / He is our portion. / Just say ’O Lord’ to taste and see. / We come together—there’s nothing better— / For in the Spirit we are His family, / His living Body! / We just express Him. / Jesus is our reality. (Hymns #1196)
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