Endeavor to Reach the Out-resurrection in our Lifetime by Living in Resurrection

We need to endeavor to reach the out-resurrection in our lifetime by living in resurrection day by day.

When many believers hear of the out-resurrection being the prize to the overcomers, they may think that it is only in the next age that this is possible; however, we can live in the out-resurrection today and arrive at the goal of the out-resurrection in our lifetime so that we may be rewarded with the out-resurrection in the next age. Amen!

Today we are in the process of resurrection; we are in the process of going through death and resurrection so that anything that is natural in us would be put to death and brought up in resurrection to express God and be useful to God.

However, this is not the concept of many believers in Christ.

Rather, many Christians today think that, as long as they have certain natural capabilities in their natural man, they can “use them” for God in the church to “glorify God.”

What we have in Christianity in many places is just a show, a spectacle, the display of the natural man with the pretense that it is for God.

This is not what God is after. What God desires to gain is a corporate group of people who live Christ and express Christ in all that they speak, do and live out.

This group of people are the church, and they experience Christ in His death in order to put everything that comes from their natural man to death, and they live in resurrection to express God by living out the life of God.

On one hand, this group of people is the overcomers corporately; on the other hand, each one of us has our own Christian race before God.

We all have a particular course we must run, a race we must finish; this is very personal, and we need to finish our course.

Paul ran his race, and it was only at the end, in 2 Timothy, that he was assured that he finished his course and the crown of righteousness was waiting for him on that day.

We are still running the race toward the goal.

We are still learning to enjoy Christ, experience Christ, live Christ, and express Christ.

And the Lord is faithful to bring about all kinds of people, things, circumstances, and matters that help us be pressed into the mold of Christ’s death so that the power of His resurrection may be manifested in us and we would arrive at the out-resurrection from the dead.

As we remain in this process, we should not be anxious concerning whether we will arrive at the goal of out-resurrection; rather, we should be full of hope that the Lord who called us and saved us will also do it in us, and we should just cooperate with Him in this process.

May we realize that all things are sovereignly arranged by God – and are not here by accident – to help us be conformed to Christ’s death so that we may arrive at the out-resurrection and even live the out-resurrection today to be rewarded with this prize when the Lord returns.

Can we Reach the Out-Resurrection in this Age or just Run the Race and Hope to Reach the Goal in the Next Age?

Concerning the matter of attaining to the out-resurrection, we need to ask an important question: Can we reach the goal of the out-resurrection in this age?

Or can we just run the race in this age and hope to reach the goal in the next age?

It is a valid question, but if we ask it with doubt and anxiety in our heart, it can be used to discourage us and dishearten us.

Actually, this question is something that God wants to ask us.

He called us, He saved us, He is operating in us and He has done everything for us and in us.

Now He wants to ask, Will you reach the goal of the out-resurrection in this age? Or will you choose to run the race now and hope to reach this goal in the coming age?

May we resist the enemy with his doubts and anxious thoughts and may we look away unto Jesus, the One who went before us, cut the way into glory and who is now perfecting us to arrive where He is.

May we apply the blood of the Lamb to any sin or trespass, declare the word of our testimony, and not love our soul-life in this age so that we may overcome the enemy (Rev. 12:11).

We run the race in this age, but we are full of hope that we can reach the out-resurrection in this age.

If we think that we must wait until the coming age to reach the goal of the out-resurrection but do not arrive at this goal in this age, we will not attain to it in the next age.

We cannot just live a regular, normal Christian life without living Christ and attaining to the out-resurrection in this age and then, suddenly, be rewarded with the out-resurrection in the next age.

We will rather end up just being an ordinary believer who was resurrected after a thousand years in outer darkness.

We do not want to know what is going to happen there, in the thousand years of outer darkness, and we do not want to find out experientially, nor do we want to hear it from anyone.

What we want is to take the Lord seriously and ask Him to bring us on with Him, even pay the price today to be conformed to the Lord’s death so that we may live in the out-resurrection today to be rewarded with the out-resurrection as a prize when the Lord returns.

We need to endeavor to arrive at the out-resurrection during our lifetime (Phil. 3:11).

This should be our personal prayer every day.

We need to ask the Lord to give us the experiences we need and work in us in this age so that we may arrive at the out-resurrection during our lifetime.

Actually, we should aspire to arrive at the out-resurrection while we are young, so that we may be useful in the Lord’s hand and be able to minister life into other members of the Body.

In His mercy, the Lord may work this out in an octogenarian brother or sister, right at the end of their life; they may have consecrated when they were young, but they did not allow the Lord to break through in their youth, so the Lord waits until they are older.

Our God is faithful, and in just several months, He can break through everything and accomplish all the work of the out-resurrection.

He is our faithful God. He operates in us.

But we want to cooperate with Him today, the earlier the better, so that we may be useful to Him in resurrection for the perfecting of the saints and the producing of the overcomers.

May the Lord release our prayers and the prayers of all the saints, both personal prayers and prayers in the vital groups and in the prayer meeting of the church, that our growth in life may be accelerated and we would arrive at the out-resurrection in our lifetime.

Lord Jesus, we want to go on with You and advance in our growth in life so that we may reach the goal of the out-resurrection in our lifetime! Amen, Lord, we pray for the out-resurrection to work in us and in all the saints so that we may arrive at the out-resurrection while we are still here on earth! We stand one with You, Lord, and we stand against the enemy with all his lies and doubts. We apply the blood of the Lamb to anything that our conscience is pointing out, we declare the truth in God’s word as the word of our testimony, and we refuse to love our soul-life today. Amen, Lord, we endeavor to arrive at the out-resurrection during our lifetime. Do this in us, Lord, so that You may gain many saints who are useful to You in resurrection! Do this in all the saints, Lord, so that You may gain Your overcomers who will hasten Your return!

Endeavor to Reach the Out-resurrection in our Lifetime by Living in Resurrection Daily

For Paul to live was Christ (Phil. 1:21); for him to live was Christ, who is the out-resurrection from the dead.

For us to reach the out-resurrection in our lifetime, we need to live in resurrection day by day.

May the Lord have mercy on us and shine on us and cause us to realize how natural we are.

When we love our spouse, we love him or her by our natural love; we may either love them to the extreme or we may be quite cold toward them, based on how we are in our natural man.

It is easy for us to be natural; it comes naturally, for by default we live, speak, and do all things.

Even non-Christian husbands love their wives in their natural man; when we do not live in resurrection, we do the same.

In order for us to reach the out-resurrection in our lifetime, we need to live absolutely out of the old creation and in God, in resurrection.

We may read Paul’s epistles and wonder why it took him so long to reach the goal; in Philippians, he still said that he did not arrive but was pursuing Christ to attain to the goal, but in 2 Timothy he was assured that he has arrived.

Why did it take him so long? Was it the persecution, suffering, and outward opposition from others?

It seemed that it was the opposition was hindering him in running the Christian race, but actually, it is only by living in resurrection daily that we can arrive at the goal (John 11:25).

It is not too difficult for us to endure persecution for the Lord, but it is very difficult for us to live in resurrection in our daily Christian life with all its mundane activities and things.

The greatest hindrance is the natural life with its thoughts and habits, with all its manifestations and expressions.

The more we live in the natural life, the more we are hindered from reaching the goal.

For example, we may not slander others nor may we gossip when we speak to others, but we may simply be in our natural man and speak in our natural man.

We may speak positive things, even moral and ethical things, but our speaking may be in a natural way, not in resurrection.

We need to live in resurrection in the way we speak; if something is of resurrection, we should speak it, but if it is of the natural man, we should not speak it.

Similarly in the matter of anxiety; we may get sick or a member of our family may get sick, and we may be quite anxious.

We may even take Phil. 4:6-7 and pray over it, stand on the Lord’s promise, and believe it; however, anxiety may still not leave us.

It may seem that the more we declare the word, the more we are anxious, for anxiety is still with us. Oh, Lord.

The reason we are anxious is that we are not fully in resurrection. In the out-resurrection there is no anxiety or worry; anxiety belongs to the old creation.

We need to live in resurrection day by day, in all the details of our daily living, so that we may reach the out-resurrection in our lifetime.

We may be able to declare with Paul, To me to live is Christ!

But what about our daily living? What about our daily life, our speaking, our activities, our doing, and everything that we do and say?

We need to live Christ by living in resurrection, and we need to bring all the matters in our daily living to the Lord in prayer that they would be brought through death and resurrection.

Our deeds, our words, our actions, and our reactions need to be in resurrection.

When we live in resurrection day by day, even moment by moment, we will arrive at the out-resurrection in our lifetime.

It is not about doing the right thing versus doing the wrong thing; it is whether we do it in resurrection or in the natural man, part of the natural life.

Our love for our spouse and children needs to be in resurrection.

Our speaking to our siblings and our spouse needs to be in resurrection.

Our work at the office needs to be in resurrection.

Everything we do and say needs to be in resurrection.

May we cooperate with the Lord today, while we are still on earth, to live and do all things in resurrection, so that we may reach the out-resurrection in our lifetime.

May we choose to be in resurrection and do everything in resurrection, endeavoring to live in resurrection day by day so that we may reach the out-resurrection while we are still here on earth.

May the desperation that was in Paul concerning this matter also be in us so that we may run the race with endurance, looking away unto Jesus, to be perfected in our faith and be conformed to the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection for us to live in resurrection and reach the out-resurrection from the dead in our lifetime.

Lord Jesus, we want to live in resurrection today. Save us from living in the natural man. We come to You concerning all things; we give You all the manifestations of our natural man. Have Your way in our being, Lord. Grant us to be fully in resurrection so that we may live in resurrection and reach the out-resurrection in our lifetime. Amen, Lord, may we enter into the realm of resurrection and remain in the sphere of the new creation. We give You our speaking, our reactions, our daily living, and all the things we have to do. Bring us fully in resurrection. Lord, what about our love for our spouse? What about our words toward our children, co-workers, and the saints? Save us from speaking in our natural man. May our speaking and living be in resurrection, not in anything of the natural man. Oh Lord, we look away unto You so that You may perfect us, infuse faith into us, and make us the same as You are, even bring us to where You are, in the out-resurrection from the dead!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Philippians, pp. 476-477 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing, Experiencing, and Enjoying Christ as Revealed in Philippians (2023 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 6, entitled, Attaining to the Out-Resurrection.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Attaining to the Out-resurrection, an outline via, LSM.
  – How Can I Be Useful to God? Read more via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Attaining to the Out resurrection, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas, video via youtube.
  – The Way Christ is Building the Church, article via, Living to Him.
  – To obtain Christ by attaining to the out-resurrection, a portion from, Life-Study of Philippians, Chapter 53.
  – Live in Christ’s Death and Resurrection to be Constituted into New Jerusalem, article via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The meaning of the out-resurrection, a portion from, The Experience of Christ, Chapter 19, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Buried with Christ, and raised with Him too; / What is there left for me to do? / Simply to cease from struggling and strife, / Simply to walk in newness of life. / Glory be to God! / Risen with Christ, my glorious Head, / Holiness now the pathway I tread, / Beautiful thought, while walking therein: / He that is dead is freed from sin. / Glory be to God! (Hymns #483 stanzas 1-2)
  – Oh, may I know this resurrection life, / In every kind of death its pow’r outpoured, / In my experience ever realize / This life is nought but Christ my living Lord. (Hymns #639 stanza 6)
  – One with Thee in crucifixion, / On the cross I died in Thee; / I am dead unto the world, Lord, / And the world is dead to me. / One with Thee in resurrection, / Risen now to live in Thee, / With that life which is Thyself, Lord, / Now in me, Lord, even me. (Hymns #474 stanzas 3-4)