Having a Proper Discernment and Walking in the Singleness and Sincerity of God

As believers in Christ we are living creatures with the face of a man (we are proper human beings in likeness like a man), the wings of an eagle (we live by the grace of God and are empowered by Him), the hands of a man (we work and do things with a proper humanity, being Jesusly human), and the feet of a calf (we have a straight, sincere, frank walk, with a proper discernment).

The four living creatures in Ezekiel 1 with all their features and characteristics are such a rich type of what we as believers are and should be as living creatures, regenerated beings.

These living creatures are not super-creatures but rather they have the face of a man and also the hands of a man. This means that we need to have a proper humanity, and Christian humanity is simply Christ living in us and out of us.

The real and proper and genuine humanity is Jesus living again in us; He lived as a proper and excellent man to express God in a normal, human, and regular way, at the same time doing everything by the grace of God.

We all need to learn to be human Christians; we need to live not in a human way but in a Jesusly human way, that is, having a living according to the humanity of Jesus, which is His human life in resurrection. Because we have the Lord Jesus living in us, we can allow Him to live in us day by day.

For us to live Christ we need to learn to be human in a genuine way; on the one hand we have the divine life and nature, and on the other hand we are normal human beings.

The fact that we have God’s life in us doesn’t mean that we no longer need to be human or that we need to “behave like an angel”; rather, the more spiritual we become, the more Jesusly human we will be.

All genuine believers in Christ have Jesus living in them; He lives, moves, acts, and works as life within us in a normal way to live in us and express God in us. We simply need to follow His inner leading, listen to the Spirit’s speaking, and obey the inner sense of life and peace.

How wonderful it is that the Lord is mingled with us and we are one spirit with Him! Now we can talk to Him, open to Him, and consult with Him about everything, and He will lead us by the inner sense of life and peace in all things.

Drinking the Humanity of Jesus in the Spirit of Jesus to Live as a Proper Man

When we read the gospels and realize how wonderful the Lord Jesus was, especially in His human living, we aspire to be like Him; the question is, How can we be like Jesus, and how can we live the same kind of life that He lived? The answer is simple: we need to drink His humanity and experience it, letting the Lord live in us.

Before His resurrection, the Lord had divinity and humanity but He couldn’t be experienced by man; now after His resurrection, the Spirit is compounded with the humanity of Jesus, and when we drink Him, His humanity is infused into us (Luke 24:26; John 7:37-39).

The Lord sounded out a call which still resounds today: if anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink! – and this He spoke of the Spirit, which Spirit has His humanity. In order for God to be the flowing Spirit today, he needed the human element, the human nature of Jesus.

The Spirit of Jesus came forth from the very resurrected and ascended Jesus, and this Spirit has not only the divine essence but also the human essence of Jesus.

When we turn to the Lord, call on His name, pray-read His word, and drink of Him, what we drink is not only divinity but also humanity, the glorified humanity of Jesus. This is the way for us to be proper human beings with a proper humanity – it is by drinking the humanity of Jesus in the Spirit of Jesus so that we may live as a proper man.

We need to experience the Spirit of God as the Spirit of Jesus; as we drink Him and constantly contact Him, He will speak to us, lead us, and even interdict us to do certain things or go certain places (Acts 16:7).

The Spirit of Jesus refers to the Spirit of the incarnated Savior who, as Jesus in His humanity, passed through human living and death on the cross. In this Spirit we have not only the divine element of God but also the human element of Jesus and the elements of His human living and His suffering of death as well.

How can we live out in the same way that Jesus lived? It is by drinking His humanity, which is in the Spirit of Jesus. How can we be Jesusly human, living out the highest humanity to express the Lord daily?

It is by drinking the humanity of Jesus in spirit. Jesus’ humanity is drinkable in the Spirit of the glorified Jesus; when we contact the Lord and drink the Spirit by opening to the Lord and coming to Him, we drink His humanity, and He will have a way to live in us.

Lord Jesus, we come to You to drink: we want to drink the humanity of Jesus in the Spirit of the glorified Jesus! Hallelujah, the Spirit today contains the proper, uplifted, resurrected humanity of Jesus, and we can now drink the Spirit to receive, enjoy, and experience the Lord’s humanity! Amen, Lord, make us the living creatures who live in a Jesusly human way by daily and constantly drinking the humanity of Jesus in spirit! We want to eat and drink Jesus every day, eating and drinking His humanity until we express Him in His humanity!

Having a Proper Discernment and Walking in the Singleness and Sincerity of God

The four living creatures had the feet of a calf; the spiritual significance of the feet of a calf is that we should walk like a calf, having straight feet, having discernment of what is right or wrong in God’s eyes (Ezek. 1:7; 2 Cor. 1:12).

The four living creatures have the wings of an eagle, but not the feet of an eagle; if we were to have the claws of an eagle, we would hurt others. They have the hands of a man, but not the legs of a man; man’s legs are good, but they are somewhat crooked, which indicates that human cleverness and wisdom is somewhat crooked.

Paul said that he didn’t conduct himself in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, in singleness and sincerity of God (2 Cor. 1:12). When we speak the word of God, we should not adulterate it so as to please man; our yes should be a yes, and our no, a no (2 Cor. 2:17).

Our exhortation should not be out of deception nor out of uncleanness nor in guile, but even as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, we should speak as pleasing God and not men (1 Thes 2:3-4).

The calf’s feet are not only straight but also cloven, divided; the people of God were not allowed by Him to eat any animals without a divided hoof, which signifies that in our Christian walk we need discernment of what is right and what is wrong in the eyes of God (Lev. 11:4-6).

We need to love all men, but we need to love them not in a foolish way but with all knowledge and in all discernment (Phil. 1:9). We need to be spiritual men, those with a keen discernment, discerning things spiritually and receiving the things of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:14-15).

As we go on with the Lord, preach the gospel, and seek to increase the kingdom of God in the church life and on earth, people will get saved, many will come in the church life, and there will be an increase; however, we need to exercise proper discernment, knowing how to divide what is of God and what is not of God, otherwise we will open the door to allow mixture to come in.

Righteousness has nothing to do with lawlessness, and we should reject and stay away from anything that the Lord within considers as being unlawful, wrong, or evil.

We should be able to discern what God approves and what He doesn’t.

Our move as living creatures should be with discernment. The development of the ability to discern is not something we gain overnight; our ability to discern is based upon our learning and experience.

We need to allow the word of God to pierce and cut and divide the soul and the spirit in our being through our prayerful consideration of the word (Heb. 4:12), and we need to eat not only milk but solid food, exercising our faculties to discern between both good and evil.

We obtain discernment through our experience and learning in the word of God and in our daily life; the degree of the learning and experience we have before God is the degree of the discernment we will have.

The most profound discernment comes from the most profound dealings; as we allow the Lord to deal with us in His word and through circumstances, we will have a keep discernment, a proper discernment, of what is of God and what is not of God.

Lord Jesus, may our living and walking be straight, in the sincerity and singleness of God, and not in fleshly wisdom or crookedness. May the testimony of our conscience be that, in the singleness and sincerity of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward the saints. Give us the experiences we need for us to be dealt with and have a keen and proper discernment. Lord, save us from being immature and inexperienced; may we have a proper discernment in our Christian walk so that we may know what is right and what is wrong in the eyes of God.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother James Lee’s for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ezekiel, pp. 62-64 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (1), msg. 5 (week 5), The Wings of an Eagle, the Hands of a Man, and the Feet of a Calf.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Let us drink Jesus till we see / That we are human, Jesusly! / Till rivers flood the barren ground / And quench the thirst of all around. / Drink, drink more of Jesus! / Drink, drink more of Jesus! / Why should we ever thirsty be / When we have His humanity? (Hymns #1146)
  # For the word of God, word of God, / Is living and operative, operative, / And sharper than any two-edged sword, / And piercing even to the / Dividing of soul and spirit / And of joints and marrow, / And able to discern / The thoughts and intentions of the heart, / The thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Scripture song)
  # By the cross discern the spirit, / Through the living Word of God, / Separating soul from spirit, / That the right path may be trod. (Hymns #748)