When we have been fully reconciled to God and have been enlarged in heart, we can represent God rightly in His economy, for we are qualified to be an ambassador of Christ. As believers in Christ we have been reconciled to God from sin because of the death of Christ on the cross.
Whenever we confess our sins under the Lord’s shining, He cleanses us from our sins, He forgives our sins, and peace between God and us is restored. This is so wonderful! But there’s yet another step of reconciliation, that is, we as believers in Christ need to be further reconciled to God from our flesh, from living in the flesh and the natural man.
What God wants is not a group of saved and redeemed Christians whom He will “whisk away” to heaven to be with Him forever. He wants to gain people who live in God’s presence, people who live in God and are fully one with God, in full harmony with God.
But our daily living can testify that in so many things we are not one with God, we are outside of God, and we don’t live Christ, so we need to be further reconciled to God.
Our heart is still so narrow and small, and we receive only those whom we like, we fellowship only with those whom we have a good relationship, and we don’t love all men. How large our heart depends on the degree of our reconciliation to God.
The more we cooperate with Christ to allow His cross to operate in us to cross our out natural man and our flesh in His shining light, the more our heart is enlarged and we have largeness of heart.
But if we don’t cooperate with the Lord subjectively for the application of the cross, we have a narrow heart, we are reconciled to God only partially, and the percentage of our salvation in life is quite low. Oh Lord Jesus, how much we need to be more reconciled to God!
Paul saw this need, and he beseeches the believers in Corinth, who were already reconciled to God from sin, to be further reconciled to God. Day by day there’s an ongoing process of reconciliation in our being, in which we are being reconciled to God again and again in more aspects and situations.
We are learning to be strict with ourselves but not strict with others, and thus our heart is being enlarged.
The Lord needs many who have a higher degree of reconciliation with God, many who would enter through the riven veil into the Holy of Holies, so that such ones would become an entrance for the rest of the believers for them to enter into God and be fully reconciled to God.
May we be those who cooperate with the Lord in prayer and in our daily life to allow Him to reconcile us further with God, so that our very being would be an entrance for many saints into the Triune God, into deeper fellowship with God, into the Holy of Holies.
May we allow the Lord to enlarge our heart and reconcile us further to God day by day! As we do this, as we are being fully reconciled to God and as we’re having our heart enlarged, we represent God rightly in His economy, for we are qualified to be an ambassador of Christ, representing God before men.
When we are Fully Reconciled to God and are Enlarged in Heart, we are Qualified to be an Ambassador of Christ, Representing God
As we progress daily in the process of being fully reconciled to God and having our heart enlarged, we are being qualified to be an ambassador of Christ to represent God rightly in His economy.
However, if we don’t continually cooperate with the Lord to be fully reconciled to Him and enlarged in heart, we may misrepresent God by being angry with the saints, speaking harshly to them, and even our words and face may be fierce toward them. Sometimes we may have a right spirit with a good heart, but our words may still be strong toward the saints.
We need to humble ourselves under the Lord’s hand and receive grace from Him. The Lord may take us through certain things to discipline us and deal with us, and we simply need to be humbled under His mighty hand and receive His grace and supply.
The Lord wants to train us to represent Him all over the earth, wherever we are. He wants to boast to the enemy in the air that He has gained some people who properly express Him and represent Him on earth.
We all have our situations which we need to face and take care of, but we need to realise that He’s interceding for us, He is ministering heaven into us, He is shepherding us, He is for us, and He knows our need, so He does everything for us to be qualified to be an ambassador of Christ, representing God.
The apostle Paul was one who has been fully reconciled to God and enlarged in heart, so he was qualified to be an ambassador of Christ, representing God on earth (2 Cor. 5:20).
When we live in spirit, having the only goal to please the Lord by living to Him, we will be reconciled to God, and we will be able to bring others also thoroughly back to God as ambassadors of Christ.
As ministers of the new covenant, we need to be those who are constituted with the processed Triune God and who are mature in life, living a life in the Holy of Holies. Our living needs to be in the mingled spirit, not in the flesh or the natural man; our only goal should be to please the Lord by living to Him.
When we are such persons, we are able to bring others thoroughly back to God. But if we are honest with ourselves, we are not yet such persons, so we need others like the apostle Paul to bring us back to God.
We need to be reconciled to God entirely, and our heart needs to be enlarged, so that we may be qualified to be an ambassador of Christ, representing God in bringing many back to God to be reconciled to Him. The ministry of the new covenant is to bring people back to God in a full and thorough way; it is to reconcile us to God entirely and completely.
Lord Jesus, reconcile us further with God and enlarge of our heart so that we may be qualified to be an ambassador of Christ, representing God rightly in His economy. Train us to represent You on earth, so that we may both express You with Your image and represent You with Your authority. Lord Jesus, may we remain under the ministry of reconciliation until we are fully reconciled to God and have an enlarged heart, and may we be qualified as Your ambassadors to reconcile others to God fully!
An Ambassador of Christ is one who Represents God, who has the Highest Authority
God is and has the highest authority in the universe, and He has given all authority in heaven and on earth to Christ (Matt. 28:18).
Jesus is the Christ – He is the Lord of all, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords; He is the highest authority on earth and in heaven (Acts 2:36; 10:36; 1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 17:14; 19:16). This Christ, who is the Lord of lords and King of kings, needs some ambassadors on earth who are qualified to represent Him.
He first comes to us as the Savior and Redeemer, and as we believe into Him, we are captured and even captivated by Him to become His servants, His disciples, and His believers.
An ambassador has no authority in himself, but because he represents a higher authority – like a certain country or president – he has authority and his words and actions express the desire and feeling of the ones whom he represents.
For example, the United States of America has many ambassadors sent out to many different countries, and these ones represent the government of the USA. If we apply this to us, we as believers in Christ represent the highest authority in heaven and on earth – Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of lords and King of kings.
As we are being reconciled to Him and enlarged in heart, we are being qualified to be an ambassador of Christ, representing Him.
The Lord’s ministry is not a mater of merely being a preacher or a teacher, but of being one who is authorized with the heavenly authority, and the new covenant ministers represent the highest authority in the universe.
In ourselves as ambassadors of Christ we have no authority, but when we are fully reconciled to God and enlarged in heart, authority is represented by us and it may flow through us as a river of water of life from the throne of God, but we do not become conscious or aware of it, but we simply enjoy the flowing river.
The apostles were commissioned to represent Christ to accomplish God’s purpose (see Matt. 10:40; John 13:20; Gal. 4:14b). Also, we as members of the Body are representatives of the Head, His ambassadors.
As seen in Acts 9:6-17 and 22:12-16, after Paul was met by the Lord, he was told to go into the city and it will be told to him what he must do; then, Ananias – a member of the Body – came to speak to him.
Ananias was not a great apostle or a gifted member, but a simple member of the Body, and it was this one who baptised Paul as he called on the name of the Lord, and he dolt Paul that God chose him to know His will, see the righteous One, and hear the voice of His mouth, and God will show him what he must suffer for Him.
Every member of the Body is important, and every member is qualified to be an ambassador of Christ, representing God.
When we speak for God, even though someone else has already shared the same thing we wanted to share, we need to realize that we have a unique portion in the Body, which is indispensable.
Each member has a certain measure, and if we know the Body, any member of the Body can represent God to us.
Thank You Lord for qualifying us to be ambassadors of Christ, those who represent God, the highest authority in heaven and on earth! Praise the Lord, all believers in Christ who are fully reconciled to God and enlarged in heart are official representatives of the Lord of lords and King of kings, Jesus Christ! Thank You Lord for this high honor. Lord, for the carrying out of Your economy, make us ambassadors of Christ according to the measure You have assigned to us in the Body, so that we may show the living and true God to the unbelievers and we may help the believers know who and what God really is.
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, An Autobiography of a Person in the Spirit, ch. 6 (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:
# The new covenant ministers are ambassadors of Christ / Carrying out the ministry of reconciliation / To bring us into God and to make us one with God. (Song on, The new covenant ministry — a ministry of God)
# Oh, what a name to me is given— / A son of God, by second birth! / I represent Him on the earth, / He represents me now in heaven. (Hymns #485)
# God’s children, we’re born to be kings with His Son, / And we need to be trained that we may overcome / And to know how to rule in His kingdom as kings, / That His kingship thru us be expressed o’er all things. (Hymns #947)
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