As those who have been regenerated and made ambassadors of God, we need to be one with Christ to be “the acting God” in expressing Him and representing Him, and we should not misrepresent God in front of His people.
An ambassador is one who represents a higher authority and expresses the feeling and thoughts of someone else, thus having authority and being dignified.
When we as believers in Christ have been fully reconciled to God and have been enlarged in heart, we can represent God rightly in His economy as His ambassadors. The Lord wants to train us to represent Him rightly in front of His people, and He wants to live in us so that He may be expressed and represented on earth.
In the book of Acts and in the epistles of Paul we can see that Paul has been fully reconciled to God and enlarged in heart, so he was fully qualified to be an ambassador of Christ, representing God.
We need to be further reconciled to God until we are fully reconciled to Him so that we may be qualified to be ambassadors of Christ, those who not only express Him but also represent Him on earth.
God has given Christ all authority in heaven and on earth, and He has made Christ Lord of all, King of kings, and the Ruler over all things in heaven and on earth.
Jesus Christ is the highest authority on earth and in heaven, and we as believers in Christ have the authority and responsibility to represent Him as His ambassadors on earth.
The Lord needs some ambassadors on earth who are qualified to represent Him. He needs some who are fully reconciled to God and who have an enlarged heart so that they may not misrepresent God but be His ambassadors, His proper expression and representation on earth.
He has gained Paul and the apostles to do this, but He wants to gain us today to be His ambassadors, those who are one with Christ to be “the acting God”, doing everything in oneness with Him and even as Him.
A new covenant minister is one who has been authorised with the heavenly authority to represent the highest authority.
This authority is not to subdue others with an iron rod but to give life to them, as seen in Numbers 11 with Aaron and his budding rod. The authority that we represent today is God’s authority, and we need to be under His throne to allow the river of water of life to flow in us and through us to others.
All the members of the Body of Christ are representatives of the Head, His ambassadors. Just as every member of our body expresses us and represents us, so all the members of the Body, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem, represent God to be His ambassadors.
May we see this and may we be this. We all have a unique and indispensable portion in the Body, and we all are here to represent God by being the ambassadors of Christ.
We must be one with Christ as His Ambassadors to be the Acting God Representing Him
As an ambassador of Christ, the apostle Paul was “the acting God”, representing God in a proper way.
He behaved in the sincerity and singleness of God, and he conducted himself in the grace of God both in the world and before the saints (2 Cor. 1:12). He was one with Christ to be the acting God in comforting the believers (1:3-4).
The Lord may take us through things and situations, through difficulties and hardships, so that we may experience Him as the comforting God, and we would be the acting God in comforting others with the comforting that God has comforted us with.
We need all kinds of experiences so that we may experience the comforting God, and then in turn we would also comfort others with this comforting.
We need to conduct ourselves in the singleness of God, being an imitator of the simple God, and we need to live God. Then, our coming to others will be the coming of God as grace, and we will be the acting God to them to minister Christ as grace as their all-sufficient supply.
Paul forgave a particular matter in the person of Christ (2 Cor. 2:10); even in his forgiving something, he checked with Christ as a person, and His face was in his spirit.
We need to live in the closest and most intimate contact with the Lord, acting according to the index of His eyes, and doing everything in oneness with Christ.
We need to be persons full of Christ, one with Christ, saturated with Christ, to the extent that our living is His living, and our conduct is His expression.
![In [2 Corinthians] we see a person who lived Christ according to what he wrote concerning Him in his first Epistle, in the closest and most intimate contact with Him, acting according to the index of His eyes; a person who was one with Christ, full of Christ, and saturated with Christ; a person who was broken and even terminated in his natural life, softened and flexible in his will, affectionate yet restricted in his emotion, considerate and sober in his mind, and pure and genuine in his spirit toward the believers for their benefit, that they might experience and enjoy Christ as he did for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose in the building up of Christ’s Body. 2 Cor. 2:10, footnote 3, RcV Bible](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/In-2-Corinthians-we-see-a-person-who-lived-Christ-according-to-what-he-wrote2.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "In [2 Corinthians] we see a person who lived Christ according to what he wrote concerning Him in his first Epistle, in the closest and most intimate contact with Him, acting according to the index of His eyes; a person who was one with Christ, full of Christ, and saturated with Christ; a person who was broken and even terminated in his natural life, softened and flexible in his will, affectionate yet restricted in his emotion, considerate and sober in his mind, and pure and genuine in his spirit toward the believers for their benefit, that they might experience and enjoy Christ as he did for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose in the building up of Christ’s Body. 2 Cor. 2:10, footnote 3, RcV Bible")
We need to be persons who are broken and even terminated in our natural life, softened and flexible in our will, affectionate yet restricted in our emotion, and considerate yet sober in our mind, so that we may be the acting God and represent God rightly in front of His people.
We need to be pure and genuine in our spirit toward the saints for their benefit, so that they may experience and enjoy Christ even as we do for the fulfilment of God’s eternal purpose in the building up of Christ’s Body.
Even in forgiving others, we need to look to the Lord, gaze at the index of His eyes, be filled with Him, and be fully one with Christ, and forgive others in the index of the Lord’s eyes.
Paul also entreated the believers through the meekness and gentleness of Christ (2 Cor. 10:1). Christ needs to be our very person, and we need to be one with Christ in speaking to others.
Our situations – which are arranged by God in a sovereign way – may force us to be simple, that is, not base our confidence on ourselves or on our natural ability to work out a solution to our difficult situation; then, we will base our confidence and trust in God.
Even in yearning over the saints, our yearning has to be with the jealousy of God, being jealous over the saints that they may love the Lord and be fully reconciled to Him (2 Cor. 10:1).
Lord Jesus, make us fully one with You in our actions, words, and attitude so that we may be the acting God, those who represent God rightly before His people and before all men. May our conduct be in the singleness of God, imitating Christ and living Christ. May we be one with Christ to be the acting God in comforting the believers with the comfort with which God has comforted us. Oh Lord, may our coming to the saints be the coming of God as grace. May our forgiving others be in the person of Christ, and may our entreating them be through the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
Learning from Moses to Not Misrepresent God but sanctify Him in our Attitude and Actions
We need to learn a serious lesson from the one time that Moses failed to represent God (see Num. 20:2-13).
Moses rejected all the wisdom of Egypt and chose to stand with the people of God; he expected that they would recognize him as their deliverer, and he ended up killing an Egyptian and having to run to the wilderness.
After forty years in wilderness, when he was 80 years old and he thought it’s all over, God came to call him, and He made Moses the acting God before Pharaoh. Then, when the people were trapped between Pharaoh’s chariots and the Red Sea, Moses cried to God, and God made him the acting God, and the sea was parted.
Later Moses took the advice from his father-in-law that he would represent God before His people.
Moses was the meekest person, but he had one failure, which was catastrophic to him. The people of Israel murmured against God and against Moses, for they were thirsty; God told Moses to speak to the rock, but Moses lost control of his spirit, and he struck the rock twice, calling people rebels.
In striking the rock twice and in calling the people rebels, Moses did not sanctify God in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses misrepresented God, and because of this one time, he did not enter into the good land; he was allowed to see it from the mountain, but he did not get into it.
To sanctify God is to make Him holy, that is, separate from the false gods; to fail to sanctify God is to make Him common. In being angry with the people and in wrongly striking the rock twice, Moses failed to sanctify God.
He didn’t express God, so he couldn’t represent Him either. In being angry when God was not angry, Moses failed to represent God rightly in His holy nature, and in striking the rock twice, he did not keep God’s word in His economy.
When God is angry, we need to express Him in His anger – we need to be angry yet not sin, not letting the sun go down on our indignation so that we do not give ground to the devil. But when God doesn’t have a feeling about something and yet you have one, and you express it, there is a problem.
Moses offended both God’s holy nature and His divine economy; he condemned the people as rebels, but he was the one who rebelled against God’s word (see vv. 10, 24; 27:14).
Paul was a positive pattern of being the acting God, representing Him rightly; he didn’t have a feeling concerning a certain matter, but he gave his opinion, saying that he believes he also has the Spirit of God.
We need to be reconciled to God and enlarged in heart to be ambassadors of God, the acting God, learning to represent God before others.
In all that we say and do concerning God’s people, our attitude must be according to God’s holy nature, and our actions must be according to His divine economy. If we don’t sanctify God in our attitude and actions, we rebel against Him and offend Him.
May the Lord shine on us in this matter and expose us, and may we realize that He’s not “out there to get us” but He’s for us, He wants us to represent Him as His ambassadors, so we can honestly tell Him,
Lord Jesus, be merciful to us and deal with in us with what needs to be dealt with in this age so that we may be the acting God, those who represent God rightly. Lord, don’t let us misrepresent You again. For the sake of the church as the Body of Christ, may we not express ourselves and thus misrepresent the Lord. We are fully open to You, Lord, that You may clear up in us and deal in our being with anything that causes us to misrepresent You. Make us Your ambassadors on earth, those who sanctify God by having an attitude according to His holy nature and actions according to His divine economy!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Numbers, msg. 29 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking Christ as our Person and Living Him in and for the Church Life (2018 spring ITERO), week 7, Being Fully Reconciled to God and Enlarged in Heart to Represent God Rightly in His Economy.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Lord, we want to live You / In the most intimate / And the closest contact, / Closest contact with You. / Acting according / To the index of Your eyes; / A person one with Christ, / Full of Christ. / And one who is saturated / with Christ / One who is so broken / And even terminated / In his natural life, / Softened and flexible / in his will, / Affectionate, yet restricted / in emotions, / Sober and considerate / in his mind, / And pure, genuine / in his spirit. / This is for the benefit / Of all the believers / That they may experience / And enjoy Christ / For the fulfillment of God’s purpose / In the building up of Christ’s Body, / In the building up of Your Body. (Song on, Lord, we want to live You)
# I am one with Thee, Lord Jesus, / One in spirit now with Thee; / All Thyself I now possess, Lord, / All Thou art now lives in me. (Hymns #474)
# I long for fellowship in spirit, / Long that my spirit forth may come, / Long to be saved from self-deception, / And every hindrance overcome. (Hymns #847)
