As believers in Christ we received the gospel of grace and believed in Jesus Christ, and we daily under a marvelous divine transmission of grace: God is supplying the Spirit of grace bountifully, and we should be receiving and dispensing the Spirit of grace continually.
We need to daily come to the throne of grace by turning to our spirit and calling on the name of the Lord; when we turn to our spirit and exercise our spirit, we should enthrone the Lord by giving Him the headship, the kingship, and the lordship within us, and out of His throne will flow a river of water of life as grace to us.
On the one hand we have received the gospel of grace and are daily enjoying Christ as grace, and on the other hand we have been entrusted with the stewardship of grace: grace is God in Christ as the Spirit to be gained by us and enjoyed by us so that we may dispense Christ as grace into others.
Grace is simply God coming to us to visit us, stay in us, be born in us, and be one with us, so that God in Christ as the Spirit would be our enjoyment, our life, our person, and our everything. Our Christian life today should be a living of grace; we should live in our mingled spirit – which is the country of grace – and we be filled with grace to the point that we overflow with grace, speak the words of grace, and even have grace manifested among us visibly.
When in our daily life we enjoy grace and minister grace, the Lord has a way to gain a built-up church where His grace – His enjoyment – is seen in our way of life, manifestation of gifts, holy living, and in everything.
May we be those who have a proper and normal Christian living in which we enjoy grace, we live by grace, we experience grace, and we carry out our stewardship of grace by dispensing grace to others.
May we really be open to the Lord to know what grace is and to really enjoy grace: God in Christ as the Spirit as our enjoyment and life supply, so that we may become building members of the Body of Christ.
The Practical Life and Building up of the Body come from the Enjoyment of Christ
Our God is faithful: He has called us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, so that we may partake of all that He is and enjoy Him in a sweet communion (1 Cor. 1:9).
After becoming a Christian and starting to live the Christian life we realized that it’s not so easy: it is not that simple to be a Christian, and there are many problems in our daily life and in the church life. What is the way to deal with all these problems?
In 1 Corinthians Paul exposes the many problems in Corinth and at the same time presents the solution: the way that all the problems can be solved is by enjoying Christ! How can we build up the church? By enjoying Christ! How can we manifest our gifts and function in the Body? By enjoying Christ.
The Enjoyment of Christ solves All the Problems in the Church through the Work of the Cross
We thank our faithful God for calling us and bringing us into the sweet fellowship and participation of Jesus Christ our Lord so that we may enjoy Christ as grace. The enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ solves all the problems in the church through the work of the cross (see 1 Cor. 1:13a, 18, 23-24; 2:2).
There are many problems in our personal life, family life, work life, and church life; how can we deal with these problems? It is not by trying to solve them ourselves but simply by enjoying Christ as grace. The Christ we enjoy today is the all-inclusive One, and as we enjoy Him, His death is applied to our being; the problems are killed within us, and anything negative is eliminated.
We may be offended with someone at work or in the church life, but when we enjoy the Lord, our offense is killed and we are at peace. The germs of hatred, offense, lust, and all the negative things in us – even the things we don’t know are in us – are killed by the death of Christ found in the all-inclusive Christ as grace whom we enjoy.
The reason we have problems in the church life is because we lack in the enjoyment of Christ; if we don’t enjoy Christ enough, we have a lot of opinions, preferences, and gossip, and we may separate ourselves from the saints. But when we enjoy Christ as grace, we experience the work of the cross, and all the problems in the church are solved.
Thank You Lord for calling us into the fellowship, the joint participation and communion, of Jesus Christ our Lord! Oh Lord, keep us enjoying You as grace so that anything that is negative in us would be killed and removed through the work of the cross. Save us from trying to solve the problems with our own ability and mind; keep us turning to You so that anything negative would be terminated through the cross! Lord, show us that the enjoyment of CHrist solves all the problems in the church through the work of the cross!
The Enjoyment of Christ Issues in the Growth in Life for the Building up of the Church
When we enjoy Christ as grace, not only do we have the negative elements killed and removed, but the element of Christ grows in us and we grow in the divine life.
Physically, our health problems many times are due to our lack of proper nourishment; when we eat properly, the physical food we eat takes care of our problems and causes us to grow in life.
Spiritually, the more we enjoy Christ as grace, the more we grow in life as plants in God’s cultivated land, God’s building, and we are being produced as precious materials for the building up of the church (1 Cor. 3:6, 9-14).
When we enjoy Christ as grace, we grow in the divine life, and this growth in life is for producing the precious materials – gold, silver, and precious stones – for the building up of the church.
How can we grow in life and be built up in the church as the Body of Christ? It is by the enjoyment of Christ as grace. The enjoyment of Christ not only kills the negative things in us through the work of the cross, but it causes us to grow in the divine life and be built up in the church.
Lord Jesus, we want to enjoy You so that we may grow in the divine life and be produced as the precious materials needed for the building up of the church. Give us today’s portion of grace so that we may grow in life for the building up of the Body. Lord, give us today’s growth in life. We open to You to be filled with You as grace and grow in You! We open to You to be produced as precious materials for the building up of the church!
The Enjoyment of Christ Develops our Gifts by the Growth in Life
Humanly speaking, by our birth we have received certain gifts, certain talents, which are developed by our growth in life and through training and practice.
Spiritually speaking, by being born of God we have received certain spiritual gifts, certain spiritual talents, which are developed by our growth in the divine life and through spiritual training.
The initial gifts we have received at our spiritual birth, such as the divine Spirit and the divine life (1 Cor. 1:7), but through our growth in life these gifts are developed and manifested for the building up of the church.
We need to enjoy Christ as grace so that we may grow in life, and as we grow, the gifts we received by our spiritual birth are being developed for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
The proper exercise and manifestation of our gifts require our proper growth in the divine life and being in the Body of Christ; the more we grow in life, the more the gifts we have received (such as a word of wisdom, a word of faith, a gift of healing, a gift of tongue and interpretation, etc) will be manifested in the Body and for the Body, so that the Body of Christ may be built up (1 Cor. 12:1-11).
Oh, how much we need to enjoy Christ as grace for our growth in life and for the manifestation of the gifts in the Body!
Lord Jesus, thank You for the spiritual gifts and talents You gave us at the time of our regeneration. We want to grow in life by enjoying Christ as grace so that our spiritual gifts may be manifested and exercised in the Body and for the Body. Lord, save us from not growing in life, and save us from not functioning in the Body. May the spiritual gifts You gave us through our regeneration be manifested and exercised for the building up of the church!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the sharing in the message for this week, and The Excelling Gift for the Building Up of the Church, ch. 1 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Gospel (2016 International Chinese-speaking Conference), week 2 / msg. 2, The Gospel of Grace.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Lord, grant me today’s supply of grace; / May Your divine life grow apace; / Little by little, day by day, to grow / More and more, into You. (Song on enjoying grace to grow)
# The enjoyment of the crucified Christ / as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit, / Solves all the problems in the church, / And issues in the growth in life, / And issues in the growth in life, / For the building up of the church. / For the building up of the church. (Song on enjoying Christ for the church)
# By our grace are measured / Gifts both large and small; / Each with sober judgment / Takes his place with all. (Hymns #854)
About aGodMan
The enjoyment of Christ not only solves our problems and issues in the growth in life, but it also develops our gifts by the growth in life (12:1-11). The word gifts may be considered as a synonym for the word talents. By our physical birth, all of us have received some talents. We have the talent to see, to hear, to speak, to walk, and to think and understand. We have received these talents by our birth, but all of these talents need to be developed. They are developed by the growth of our physical body….It is the same in our spiritual life. The initial gifts were given to the believers at their spiritual birth (1:7). The divine life and the divine Spirit were the two main gifts we received at our spiritual birth. Each one who has been regenerated has received these two great gifts. Within the divine life there are many talents, gifts, which need development. We have to enjoy Christ so that we may grow. As we grow, the gifts that we received by our spiritual birth are developed. (Witness Lee, The Excelling Gift for the Building Up of the Church, pp. 9, 11-12)
Oh Lord Jesus!! Today’s portion made me so happy! I should probably highlight the whole thing! Lord we just want to enjoy you so we can become more golden more precious to you!!! Sometimes we forget to enjoy Christ we come to him and we pray but we forget to eat and enjoy. He is like our favourite meal. Take time sit down and Enjoy!!