According to the principle in the holy Word of God, our natural strength and ability need to be dealt with by the cross to become useful in resurrection for our service to the Lord.
We may have a certain ability or capacity, and we may have love for the Lord and zeal to do His work; however, if we do something for the Lord in our own ability and with our own zeal, not having passed through death and resurrection, then what we do is not pleasing to the Lord and is not for the building up of the Body.
In our service to the Lord we must do everything in the principle of incarnation, that is, the divine nature needs to be wrought into humanity. The Lord Jesus did this – He did everything not by Himself, in Himself, or for Himself, but in His humanity full of the divine element.
The Lord didn’t do anything by the natural strength or ability; rather, He turned to the Father, He ate and was nourished with the Father, He lived because of the Father, and He was one with the Father in all He did, all He spoke, and all His works (see John 14:10; 10:30).
Whatever the Lord Jesus did, He did one with the Father; whatever He spoke, He spoke with the Father’s words; whatever He worked, He did with the Father as the divine element.
This is why His work had great significance, His words touched people’ hearts, and His deeds were full of meaning, because He had the divine nature wrought into the human nature, and whatever He did was by this mingling of God and man.
The Lord Jesus didn’t bear the cross only on the way to Calvary – He bore the cross daily, rejecting Himself with His thoughts, desires, will, and intentions, and taking the Father as His life, person, and element, so that everything He did was not by or for Himself but by the Father and for the Father.
What about our service to the Lord? Especially as we speak of living the resurrection life to live in the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to realise that our natural strength, ability, love, zeal, and capacity need to be dealt with by the cross so that they may become useful in resurrection for our service to the Lord.
So many Christians are zealous for the Lord and, because they have certain abilities such as a good voice, they play a musical instrument, they know to manage finances, or they know how to organise things, so they “use their gift” for the Lord.
But how many of them allow the cross to deal with their being, with all their natural strength and ability, so that they may serve the Lord in resurrection?
It may seem that, if we allow the cross to deal with our natural strength and ability, nothing will come out of it….but it is then that resurrection life can be manifested, and we can be useful to the Lord for His purpose.
Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You. You know what we are, who we are, and what our ability is; Lord, bring us into resurrection so that we may be useful to You for Your service. Save us from serving in our natural man with our natural strength and according to our natural ability. Lord, save us from damaging Your church by serving in a natural way. Cause us to see that only the resurrected Christ in us can build up the church. May we allow You to operate in us to deal with our natural strength and ability so that they may be useful in resurrection.
Learning to Serve God according to His Leading and Trust in Him, as Moses did
When we speak of the matter of our natural strength and ability needing to be dealt with by the cross so that they become useful in resurrection, we don’t speak of something “in principle”, something “up in the air” that has nothing to do with us.
We see this principle in the Bible in a clear way with Moses in the Old Testament.
Moses was a man full of ability and knowledge, and he became zealous for his people (Exo. 2:14-15; Acts 7:22-36; Heb. 11:28); however, he was put aside by God for forty years until he learned to serve God according to His leading and to trust in Him.
Moses was full of assurance that he could accomplish something, but what he ended up doing is carry out his will, not God’s will; he was full of knowledge, he was powerful in words and works, and he defended the Jewish man who was beaten by an Egyptian, thus killing the Egyptian and having to run from Egypt.
But God purposely and sovereignly put Moses aside for forty years (see Exo. 2:14-15; Acts 7:27-30), and during this time Moses learned to serve God according to His leading, and he also learned to trust in God and not in himself.
When God came to call Moses in the wilderness, Moses did not trust in himself anymore, he had no more faith in his ability, and he fully trusted in God.
Moses was still very capable, but he didn’t use his natural ability anymore; his ability was now in resurrection, being fully dealt with by God. God still used Moses very much, both in releasing the people of Israel from Egypt and leading them to the good land across the wilderness.
God also used Moses’ ability in resurrection to write the first five books of the Bible, giving us a complete view of God’s heart’s desire and His work with His people.
When Moses spoke, he spoke God’s word; when the people of Israel complained and murmured, he contacted God, and he conveyed God’s word and His feeling to His people.
Moses led the people of Israel by following God’s leading, and he brought them into God’s presence and brought God’s presence to them.
What about us? Is our natural ability and strength dealt with, or can we still do things in ourselves, by ourselves, and without contacting the Lord? If our ability is not dealt with, it is separate from God’s move; if our ability is dealt with, it is useful to the Lord and it becomes one with God’s move.
When we allow the Lord to deal with our natural strength and ability, He works Himself into us and our ability becomes full of God, expressing Him and being joined to Him in His move.
We will then have no more faith in our natural ability, but we will be useful in resurrection, for God worked Himself into our being and brought us through death into resurrection.
Lord Jesus, have mercy on us. Save us from trusting ourselves and relying on our own ability or our strength in our service to You. Oh Lord, grant us the experiences that You think we need so that we may have the cross applied to our natural strength and ability so that they may become useful in resurrection for Your service. Bring us to the point that we do everything according to Your leading, trusting in You, and relying only on You. Dear Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You that You may work Yourself into us more and more each day!
Learning to Serve the Brothers by Faith and with Humility as Peter did
In the New Testament Peter is a good example of being dealt with in our natural strength and ability so that they become useful in resurrection.
After Peter became a complete failure, he learned to serve the brothers by faith and with humility (Luke 22:32-33; John 18:15-18, 25-27; Matt. 26:69-75; 1 Pet. 5:5-6).
In Luke 22 the Lord told Peter that he will never deny Him but rather, he is ready to go and die for the Lord, but the Lord warned him that he will deny the Lord three times, and He also encouraged him that He has prayed for Peter that, when he returns, he would establish the brothers.
The Lord didn’t pray that Peter would not fail or not have a failure, but that his faith would not fail. The Lord sovereignly arranged the situations for Peter on the night that He was betrayed so that the servant of the high priest, who was related to the person whose ear Peter cut earlier in the garden would recognise him in the courtyard.
As the Lord was on His way to accomplish redemption, He had to arrange a few situations for Peter to perfect him, to help him realise that he is a complete failure.
Through his failure Peter did not give up but rather, he repented, he went through death and entered in resurrection, and on the day of Pentecost he spoke a clear message, ushering in the Jewish side of the believers into the Body, and then in the house of Cornelius he ushered the Gentiles into the Body.
When Peter realised he is a complete failure, he experienced the cross being applied to his natural zeal, natural strength, and natural ability, and he entered into resurrection; in resurrection, he became a real fisher of man by being one with the Lord.
He later told us that we should humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, for He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. The Lord Jesus today wants us also to allow Him to deal with our natural strength and ability, and He arranges all our situations so that we would be someone living in resurrection for the reality of the Body of Christ!
Through his failure Peter learned to serve the brothers by faith in the Lord and with humility (Luke 22:32; 1 Pet. 5:5-6); he was broken in his natural man, and he was turned from the natural ability to something in resurrection.
Our natural strength and ability must be dealt with and put on the cross; then, they will be useful in resurrection for the Lord’s service, being full of the divine element, and whatever we do in the church service will be a ministry of the divine element to others.
The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit honors only the things in resurrection; if we do any work that is not in resurrection, the life-giving Spirit will not honor it (1 Cor. 15:58; 3:12). May we come before Lord and open our whole being to Him to tell Him,
Lord Jesus, guide us into the reality of Your resurrection. We want to be those who live in the reality of the Body of Christ today. Oh Lord, in ourselves we are complete failures, but we give ourselves to You, and we allow You to work Yourself into us. Lord, grant us Your mercy that our natural strength and ability would be dealt with and put on the cross, so that they become useful in resurrection for Your service. Amen, Lord, may we be such ones who, whatever we do in the church service would be a ministry of the divine element into others for the building up of the church!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ricky Acosta for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1979, vol. 2, “Basic Lessons on Service,” lsn. 20, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 2, Living in Resurrection for the Reality of the Body of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# If I’d have Christ formed within me, / I must breathe my final breath, / Live within the Cross’s shadow, / Put my soul-life e’er to death. / If God thru th’ Eternal Spirit / Nail me ever with the Lord; / Only then as death is working / Will His life thru me be poured. (Hymns #631)
# Since it must be thus, I pray, Lord, / Help me go the narrow way; / Deal with pride and make me willing / Thus to suffer, Thee t’obey. / I for greater power pray not, / Deeper death is what I need; / All the meaning of the Cross, Lord, / Work in me-for this I plead. (Hymns #279)
# When I am in the natural man, / How very strong I feel I am. / I do not know, I cannot scan / How weak I am…. / I want to pray, but faith have not, / I fain would seek Thee as Thou art. / Oh, canst Thou e’er renew my heart, / Have mercy, Lord! (Hymns #430)
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