Do not have an Evil Heart of Unbelief: God can bring us to the Goal of His Calling

The goal of God’s calling is that we would enter into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ so that we may be God’s kingdom and His expression on the earth; we should not have an evil heart of unbelief, thinking that we are not able to enter into the possession of the all-inclusive land nor overcome the enemies. Amen!

This week in our morning revival we come to the second week in the 2023 winter training, and the title is, Inheriting the All-inclusive Christ as the Good Land by Taking Heed to His Words of Advice and Warnings and by Receiving His Renewed Training to Have Our Inner Man Renewed Day by Day.

We need to open to the Lord and have an attitude of receiving His speaking.

There are four important points related to receiving the Lord’s speaking, as seen in Mary’s attitude in Luke 10:38-42.

Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and was listening to His word.

We need to have the same attitude as Mary when we come to the Lord in His word so that we can receive His speaking.

We need to sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus; we should sit at the feet of no one else but the Lord Jesus.

We need to draw near to the Lord.

Drawing near to the Lord is the shortest and quickest way to grow in life.

No method is better than us coming to the Lord moment by moment, loving Him, worshipping Him, unceasingly fellowshipping with the Lord, and remaining in His presence.

When we come into the Lord’s presence, we need to sit at His feet.

We put ourselves in a humble position. Humility is a crucial condition for us to receive God’s blessing.

If we think we know and we understand, if we are proud of what we have and know, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

To be humble is not to belittle ourselves; even our belittling can be a form of pride.

Humility is ignoring ourselves, negating ourselves, and considering ourselves as nothing.

If we draw near to God with deep humility, He will give grace to us.

As we draw near to the Lord, we need to be those who are “sitting down”.

We may be sitting down physically, but not inwardly. Inwardly we may be quite busy, thinking of this and that, considering this and that matter.

Quietness is often the source of spiritual strength.

In today’s world with so many things going on around us and with the world flooding us in every possible way, the greatest challenge we face is being quiet before the Lord.

Our eyes and our thoughts are often distracted by the outside world. Especially our eyes are so busy, and our mind is the busiest. Oh, Lord.

We may be somewhere physically, but our mind may be doing tours around the world thinking of so many things.

May we stop our mind from wandering and sit at the Lord’s feet to listen to His voice.

Isa 30:15 says that in returning and rest we will be saved, and in quietness and trust will be our strength.

A wandering mind and vacillating thoughts are like restless waves on a lake; the lake cannot clearly reflect the flowers and trees if there are waves.

May we calm our inner being and listen to the Lord’s voice.

May the Lord have mercy on us and speak to us, and may we have a proper attitude in receiving the word of God.

The Goal of God’s Calling is for us to Enjoy Christ to be His Kingdom and His Expression on Earth

As seen in Exo. 3:8, 14, and 17, the goal of God’s calling of the children of Israel was that they would enter into the promised land to enjoy its riches so that they might establish God’s kingdom and be God’s expression on earth.

This is the goal of God’s calling for us today.

The goal of God’s calling is for us to enjoy Christ to be His kingdom and His expression on earth.

God wants us to be delivered from any of Satan’s usurpation and brought into the full enjoyment of Christ as the good land so that we may be built up as the kingdom of God and the corporate expression of God.

God came down to deliver the people of Israel out of the hands of the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.

The good land is a land flowing with milk and honey.

It is very interesting that the Lord chose this descriptor of the good land – flowing with milk and honey.

This is very meaningful, for milk and honey are the combination and issue of two kinds of life – the redeeming life (the animal life) and the generating life (the vegetable life).

Milk and honey both refer to the Lord Jesus, who is both the redeeming life (John 1:29, the Lamb of God) and the generating life (John 12:24, the grain of wheat).

On one hand, He came to be the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world, and by believing into Him we are saved through faith in His blood.

On the other hand, He came to give us life, that is, to impart the divine life into us and make us children of God, the reproduction of God.

Milk is produced by the cows eating the grass and bringing forth milk through an organic process, and honey is produced by the bees taking in the pollen of the flowers and bringing forth the sweetest honey.

The good land into which God wants to bring us is a land full of milk and honey, a land of God’s judicial redemption and His organic salvation for our enjoyment and experience so that we may become the kingdom of God and His expression on the earth.

In this land, there is the Triune God flowing into us as milk and honey, God’s redemption and His salvation, for us to partake of God, enjoy Him, and be constituted with Him to become the same as He is.

May we partake of this rich Christ.

May we go on to the goal of God’s calling to enjoy the riches of Christ until we become the kingdom of God on earth and express Him corporately.

May we not have any doubt of thought of unbelief but rather, may we have full faith in the God who operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).

On one hand, we enjoy the Lord as milk and honey – the richest grace and sweetest love, and on the other hand, God operates in us in His organic salvation to make us His kingdom and His expression.

Thank the Lord that He is daily delivering us from any usurpation of the world and bringing us into the enjoyment of Himself to partake of all His riches so that He may establish His kingdom and gain His corporate expression on the earth.

Lord Jesus, thank You for delivering us out of the usurpation of Satan in the world to bring us into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land! Hallelujah, today Christ is the good land flowing with milk and honey for us to enjoy and partake of. Praise You, Lord, for Your judicial redemption qualifying us to partake of Christ and Your organic salvation operating in us to gain our whole being. Amen, Lord, we come to You to enjoy You as the sweetest love and the richest grace so that we may be constituted with You and become Your corporate expression. Operate in us, Lord, both the willing and the working. Operate in us according to Your good pleasure. We want to establish Your kingdom and be part of Your corporate expression on the earth. Amen, Lord, may we arrive at the goal of Your calling, having no doubt or thought of unbelief!

Not having an Evil Heart of Unbelief but Believing that Christ in us can Do it

Although all Israel was redeemed through the Passover, delivered out of the Egyptian tyranny, and brought to the mountain of God to receive the revelation of God’s dwelling place, the tabernacle, nearly all fell and died in the wilderness, failing to reach the goal of God’s salvation (Heb. 3:7-19).

Because of their evil doings and unbelief, they fell in the wilderness and were unable to reach the goal of God’s salvation.

What happened to them is also happening to us today.

The enemy is lying to us and trying to deceive us into thinking that God will not bring us into the full enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ.

We have been saved by the Lord, we enjoy His salvation, and we are in the process of being transformed, but we may not fail to reach the goal of God’s salvation because of an evil heart of unbelief.

This is a warning to us all.

Although we believers in Christ have been redeemed through Christ, delivered out of Satan’s bondage, and brought into the revelation of God’s economy, we may yet fail to reach the goal of God’s calling, that is, to enter into the possession of our good land, Christ (Phil. 3:12-14).

Because of an evil heart of unbelief, we may fail to enjoy the riches of Christ for the kingdom of God that we may be His expression in the present age and participate in the fullest enjoyment of Christ in the kingdom age (Matt. 25:21, 23).

What a solemn warning this is to us all!

When the twelve spies returned from seeing the good land, though they saw the riches of the land and how beautiful it is, ten of the twelve gave an evil report, for they paid more attention to the giants in the land and the fortified cities than to the Lord who promised to bring them into the land. Oh, Lord!

Their report was that Israel would not be able to conquer the land, and even if they tried, they would be utterly defeated and devoured.

Many times the enemy comes to us and disguises himself as our thoughts; he whispers in our ears that we are not good enough or spiritual enough to enter the good land, and this all-inclusive Christ is far beyond our ability to enjoy and experience. Oh, Lord!

Satan hides in many of us, waiting for an opportunity to inject his deadly poison.

We may think that there are giants in the land, we are too weak to fight them, and we will be defeated if we try.

When our heart has unbelief because of our believing the enemy’s lies, we have an evil heart of unbelief (Heb. 3:12).

Our heart becomes occupied by the evil one, so it is called an evil heart.

When we have such doubts, when we feel that we can’t do it and there are negative thoughts related to our entering the land, we can simply contact the Lord and be infused with faith.

We can pray,

Lord, we want to have a good heart, a heart that is full of faith! We refuse to believe that we can’t do it and that the enemies are too strong. We believe not in our ability to overcome but in You! You promised to bring us into the land, and You will do it. We are not able to enter the land, but You are able. We believe that You are able to do what You promised You will do. Hallelujah, our God is able to do exceedingly above what we think or ask!

We must have faith in the Lord, realizing that greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world.

The world may be too enticing and tempting, the enemy may be much stronger than us, and we may be so weak in ourselves, but the Lord in us is stronger than the one in the world.

We need to be like Joshua and Caleb, filled with faith and of full assurance that, what God has promised to do, He will do it.

May we avoid all unbelief. May we beware of having an evil heart of unbelief.

Satan is lying in wait, waiting for the opportune moment to inject some of his evil thoughts into us and cause our heart to be of unbelief.

We may be walking down the street one day and we may think that we can’t enjoy such an all-inclusive Christ, for we’re not able, we had so many failures, and we’re not as strong as brother so-and-so or sister so-and-so.

May we call this by its true name: an evil heart of unbelief, and may we come to the Lord by calling on His name.

In ourselves, in our natural strength, it is indeed not possible.

But in the Lord, by His resurrection power, it is possible.

The power that raised Christ from the dead and made Him the Head over all things is in us, and this power is being transmitted into us through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

May we realize that we don’t have tomorrow – we only have today. Today we need to die to ourselves, and today we need to enjoy the Lord.

If we have an evil heart of unbelief and we remain in it, if we allow unbelief to take root in our heart, we may fail to reach the goal of God’s salvation and be strewn away like the unbelieving Jews in the wilderness.

2 Cor. 4:13 says that we have a spirit of faith. Doubts are in our mind, but faith is in our spirit.

May we open to the Lord, exercise our spirit of faith, and enjoy the living God.

And may we keep turning our heart to the Lord so that we may see Him, be infused with Him as faith. Amen!

Lord Jesus, we turn our heart to You. We refuse to have an evil heart of unbelief – we choose to exercise our spirit and turn our heart to You! Amen, Lord, even though the enemy tries to tell us that we can’t make it because of our weakness and because the enemies are so strong, we believe into You! Faithful is He who called us, for He will also do it! Praise the Lord, the power of Christ’s resurrection is now in us, and by this power, we can enter into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ! Hallelujah, the power that raised Christ from the dead and made Him the Head over all things can bring us into the experience of the all-inclusive Christ for us to be the kingdom of God and the corporate expression of Christ! Praise the Lord, this power is in us, and it is continually being transmitted into us through the indwelling Holy Spirit! Amen, Lord, we choose to turn our heart to You to be saved from an evil heart of unbelief and be filled with faith in Your promise that You will bring us into the good land!

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 brother Ed Marks in the message for this week, and portions from, the Life-study of 1 Corinthians (msgs. 47-48), by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good land for the Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, for the Reality and the Manifestation of the Kingdom, and for the Bride to make Herself Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 Winter Training), week 2, entitled, Inheriting the All-inclusive Christ as the Good Land by Taking Heed to His Words of Advice and Warnings and by Receiving His Renewed Training to Have Our Inner Man Renewed Day by Day.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – What is God’s Selection and Predestination and Its Goal? via, Holing to Truth in Love.
  – Unbelief being the greatest sin, a portion from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 2) Vol. 24: The Overcoming Life, Chapter 8, by Watchman Nee.
  – God’s Government and God’s Grace, article via, Shepherding Words.
  – Recommending the Life-study on Radio on Hebrews, via, LSM Radio broadcast.
  – God’s Eternal Goal is New Jerusalem, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The heart being corrupted first, a portion from, The Renewing of the Mind, Chapter 1, by Watchman Nee.
  – God’s calling being His personal revelation to us, a portion from, The Glorious Vision and the Way of the Cross, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Remove this hardness from my heart, / This unbelief remove; / To me the rest of faith impart, / The Sabbath of Thy love. / I would be Thine, Thou know’st I would, / And have Thee all my own; / Thee, O my all-sufficient Good, / I want, and Thee alone. (Hymns #424 stanzas 4-5)
  – Begone, unbelief, / My Savior is near, / And for my relief / Will surely appear; / By prayer let me wrestle, / And He will perform; / With Christ in the vessel, / I smile at the storm. / Though dark be my way, / Since He is my Guide, / ’Tis mine to obey, / ’Tis His to provide; / Though cisterns be broken, / And creatures all fail, / The word He hath spoken / Shall surely prevail. (Hymns #716 stanzas 1-2)
  – Nothing between, Lord, nothing between; / Unbelief disappear, / Vanish each doubt and fear, / Fading when Thou art near—Nothing between. / Nothing between, Lord, nothing between; / Shine with unclouded ray, / Chasing each mist away, / O’er my whole heart bear sway—Nothing between. (Hymns #373 stanza 4-5)