It’s not Impossible to be a Christian: the Resurrected Christ as the Spirit can do it!

Christ, the resurrected One, should be our life, our living, and the resurrection life within us to live in us and express God through us; though it is impossible to be a Christian and an overcomer in ourselves, it is possible with God, for the Spirit living in us can be a Christian and an overcomer. Hallelujah!

How wonderful it is to realize that in ourselves we are nothing and can do nothing, but in Christ, in our mingled spirit, we can do all things!

Even as the Lord Jesus lived on the earth a life to express the Father and do the Father’s will, we today can live Christ and live with Christ to have Christ live in us for the expression of God.

As the Lord’s disciples, we need to allow the Lord to disciple us so that we may live the divine life in our human life, thus magnifying Christ.

The Lord Jesus and Paul were our patterns in this; the Lord didn’t live by His perfect human life but by the Father’s life, and He spoke the Father’s words, did the Father’s work, expressed the Father, and sought the Father’s glory.

Similarly, Paul said that he was crucified with Christ and it wasn’t he who lived but it was Christ who lived in him, and the life that he lived (he still lived!) was in faith, the faith of the Son of God who loved him and gave Himself up for him (Gal. 2:20).

What kind of life is that? What kind of life do we believers have: is it an “exchanged life” in which we give up our old life to take His new life, or is it a grafted life, in which His life grows in our life and is expressed through our life?

According to the divine revelation in the Word of God, we believers have a grafted life, for the divine life is in us and grows in us, and He wants to express Himself in us and through us – with our willing cooperation.

This means that all believers in Christ need to be discipled by the Lord to no longer live in and by themselves but in Christ and by Christ, in Christ and with Christ.

We need to live no longer by our human life, our natural life, no matter how good and kind it is, but by the divine life, the life of God in our spirit.

So we need to turn; we just need to turn to our spirit, again and again, taking Christ as our life and person, and living with Christ by having Him live in us.

Amen, though it may seem to be impossible to be a Christian and an overcomer, the all-inclusive Spirit in our spirit can do it!

The Resurrected Christ should be our Life and Living, and Everything needs to be done by God and not by Ourselves

Living with the Divine Trinity is living with the resurrected Christ; when speaking of the resurrected Christ, we need to take a look at the type in Num. 17:8, the budding rod.

The budding rod signifies that Christ, the resurrected One, should be our life, our living, and the resurrection life within us, and that this life should bud, blossom, and bear fruit to maturity. Amen!

Humanly speaking, a rod is for authority and even for discipline, but in God’s view, a rod is for feeding people, for out of the rod of Aaron came forth almonds for feeding.

When we live with the resurrected Christ, we can feed people with the resurrected Christ, and this is authority.

Our authority is the resurrected Christ that we feed people with.

After the children of Israel rebelled (see Num. 16), God commanded the twelve leaders of the tribes of Israel to take twelve rods, each leader a rod and put them in the Tent of Meeting before the Testimony.

Then the Lord said that the rod of the man who He shall choose shall bud (Num. 17:4-5).

All these rods were dry, dead, with no leaves, and with no root; whichever one budded was the one chosen by God.

Here we see that resurrection is the basis of God’s selection and that the basis of service is something apart from our natural life; God doesn’t need our natural life or effort – He wants to do something by His resurrection life.

The budding rod signifies our experience of Christ in His resurrection as our acceptance by God for authority in the God-given ministry.

As we serve the Lord and live the church life, we need to realize that the principle to every service lies in the budding rod, that is, the principle of resurrection.

God returned all the eleven rods to the leaders, but He kept Aaron’s rod inside the Ark as an eternal memorial, for resurrection is an eternal principle in our service to God (Num. 17:9-10).

It was Aaron’s rod that budded, but he had no ground whatsoever to be proud, for it wasn’t he who made it bud but God.

This shows that everything depends upon God’s grace and mercy – not on our effort or struggling; everything depends on His grace and mercy, and we can do nothing in ourselves (2 Cor. 12:7-9; Rom. 9:15-16, 21, 23; Luke 1:78-79).

The Lord may use us in resurrection, and we may feed others with the resurrected Christ we enjoy and experience, but there’s no ground for us to be proud of this, for we depend on God’s mercy and grace.

In ourselves, we cannot do anything and we are nothing, but when we experience and enjoy the God of resurrection, we can be useful to Him in His service, and we can feed others with something in resurrection.

Our sufficiency is from God, and there’s no ground whatsoever for us to be proud; it is only a foolish person that would say that he is better than others (2 Cor. 3:5; Matt. 26:33; John 21:15; cf. Mark 11:9).

May the Lord save us from being proud, that is, from being foolish; may we be humble, realizing that humility saves us from all kinds of destruction and invites God’s grace (2 Cor. 12:7-9; James 4:6; cf. Rom. 12:3; Gal. 5:26; Matt. 18:3-4; 20:20-28; 2 Cor. 4:5).

Pride makes us a top fool; we think we are something when we’re nothing, and we will fall, for pride goes before a fall.

Blessed is the person who is not foolish, who is not proud; blessed is the one who is humble, for he receives grace and mercy from God.

For example, when the Lord Jesus entered into the city of Jerusalem riding on a donkey’s colt, and people were shouting Hosanna and laid their garments on the road before Him, it would have been foolish for the colt to think that it was for him that all these laid their garments, and it was him that they were praising and rejoicing at.

The colt was no different than all other colts, the only difference was that the Lord was riding on this colt.

When others cry, Hosanna, they don’t cry to you but to the Lord; when others praise the Lord for the result of your work, they praise Him and not you, for you are nothing but God is everything.

We do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus, and ourselves as His slaves for Jesus’ sake.

Resurrection is everything that is not out of our natural life, not our ourselves, and not based on our ability; in other words, what we can do in ourselves, what we can still work, and what we can still speak, it is not in resurrection.

Resurrection speaks of the things that are beyond us, the things which cannot do in ourselves (2 Cor. 1:8-9; 4:7).

Resurrection means that everything is of God and not of us; resurrection means that God alone is able and that we are not able.

Furthermore, resurrection means that everything is done by God, not by ourselves.

May we realize this in our service to the Lord and may we open to Him to live with the resurrected Christ, allowing God to do everything and work everything in us and through us.

May we open to the Lord in prayer in our daily living and in serving the Lord to tell Him,

Lord Jesus, we want to live with the resurrected Christ and take Him as our life, our living, and the resurrection life within us. Amen, Lord, may the resurrection life within us bud, blossom, and bear fruit to maturity, so that we may feed others with the resurrected Christ we enjoy and experience! Oh Lord, in ourselves we cannot do it, but we open to You and we give ourselves to You. We want to experience Christ in His resurrection as our acceptance by God for authority in the God-given ministry. Keep us open to You and keep us humble, full of humility, realizing that everything depends upon God’s grace and mercy! Oh Lord, we can do nothing in ourselves: our sufficiency is from God, and only God can do it in us! Live in us today, Lord, and do everything in us!

Though it is Impossible to be a Christian and an Overcomer, the Spirit can do it!

What we can do belongs to the natural realm, and we can take care of things in a natural way and with our natural strength and ability; however, what is impossible for us to do belongs to the realm of resurrection.

We may still think we can do it in ourselves, and we may think that we’re not utterly useless or hopeless, but when the Lord touches us, when we experience failures and mistakes, we will realize what is the real situation.

The Lord told Peter that he will deny Him three times, but Peter said that he will never deny the Lord; he was so strong in himself, so sure that he loves the Lord to the uttermost, that he had strong confidence in himself.

After he failed, however, the Lord came to him and asked him, Peter, do you love Me more than these? Did Peter love the Lord more than the other disciples, as he said he did just a few days ago? Oh, Lord!

Many times we have to come to the end of ourselves to be convinced of our utter uselessness.

Matt. 19:26, Mark 10:27, and Luke 18:27 all tell us that what is impossible with man is possible with God; with man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

For example, it was impossible for Sarah to have a child when she was ninety, but to God it was possible. Her first laughter was one of disbelief, but her second laughter when she had Isaac was the reaction of seeing the impossible being made possible.

Being a Christian is not merely difficult: it is impossible; it is humanly impossible to be a Christian and to be an overcomer.

It is impossible with man that we would be a Christian and an overcomer, but it is possible with God.

It is only the Spirit – the processed and consummated Triune God as the all-inclusive Spirit – who can be a Christian.

What the New Testament requires of us is so high that we cannot do it in ourselves, no matter how much we try, how strong we are in ourselves, and how great a zeal we have.

Praise the Lord, it is not we who need to fulfill the New Testament requirements – it is the Spirit in us who fulfills them!

What is impossible to us, is possible with God; it is impossible to be a Christian and an overcomer, but the Spirit in us can live such a life!

Instead of doing things in ourselves, instead of trying harder, we should simply enjoy His living and His working.

Only the Spirit can be a Christian; only the Spirit can be an overcomer.

And the Spirit is our God, our Father, our Lord, our Redeemer, our Shepherd, and our life and life supply.

In our Christian life, we should stop our trying, our striving, and we should simply contact the Lord in spirit and let the Spirit live in us and do things in us.

In this Spirit, we have the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and we are in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19).

If we have a need, if we cannot do something, if we have a disability, we can just talk to the Lord; we can just remind Him of our needs and weaknesses.

When we face a difficult situation, we can talk to Him about it; then He will come in to face the situation and do whatever is needed.

Christ as the Spirit is the real Christian and the real Overcomer in our spirit; in ourselves, it is difficult and even impossible to be a Christian, but the Spirit can do it in us.

Many of us consider living Christ as a difficult thing; however, the secret to living Christ is simple: speak with the Lord constantly.

When we speak to the Lord about everything, when we speak with the Lord constantly, He will live in us, and we will live Christ (Phil. 4:5-7).

May we learn this secret and may we realize that, though it is impossible to be a Christian and an overcomer, the Spirit can live such a life in us!

Lord Jesus, grant us to come to the end of ourselves so that we may no longer trust ourselves but allow the Spirit to live the Christian life in us. Amen, Lord, in ourselves it is impossible to be a Christian and an overcomer, but the all-inclusive Spirit in our spirit can be a Christian! Hallelujah, we don’t need to strive and struggle to fulfill the New Testament requirements; we simply need to be one with the Lord in spirit and allow the Spirit to do everything in us. Amen, Lord, we turn to You and we want to live one spirit with You today. Keep us conversing with You constantly concerning all things, opening to You both our weaknesses and our joy, our failures and our victories. Be everything to us, dear Lord, and do everything in us. Be the One who lives the Christian life in us and who faces the situation to do whatever is needed in us and through us!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 47, “Authority and Submission,” ch. 15, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living In and With the Divine Trinity (2021 Thanksgiving Day Conference), week 4, entitled, Living with the Divine Trinity (1) Living with Christ as Emmanuel and Having the Resurrected Christ Living in us, by Living Christ for His Magnification, and by the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in Our Spirit.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Lord, teach me each day in Thy presence to live, / From morning to evening my one world Thou art; / O let not my heart be contented or rest / When loving or seeking what with Thee doth part. (Hymns #389)
  – Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me, / For my very life art Thou; / Thee I take to all my problems / As the full solution now. / Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me, / In all things Thy will be done; / I but a transparent vessel / To make visible the Son. (Hymns #403)
  – It is God’s intent and pleasure / That His Christ may live in me; / Nothing as an outward practise, / But Christ working 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)