We need to see and arrive at the goal of reigning in life; when we’re reigning in life, living under the ruling of the divine life, the issue is the real and practical Body life expressed in the church life consummating in the New Jerusalem, the totality of the eternal life. Hallelujah!
May we be the believers in Christ who do not set their mind on the things which are below, the things of the flesh, or the things of this world, but on the things which are above, the things of the Lord, the things of the New Jerusalem.
May we come to the Lord and use the “divine telescope” of God’s economy to see through time and space and behold the New Jerusalem!
Though today some may revile and persecute us, in that day in the New Jerusalem all will be sheaves full of life and stars full of light.
Today we are still in the process of maturation, the process of growing in life unto maturity to reign in life with Christ and in Christ.
The more mature in life we become, the less we will speak negatively concerning the saints and the church, and the more we will pray for them and shepherd them.
Some people revile others habitually; they not only speak evil things about others but habitually do this.
Such ones have no place in the kingdom of God. As believers in Christ, we need to learn to not respond to evil with evil, nor avenge ourselves on those who revile us or persecute us.
Rather, instead of reacting by reviling, we should turn to the Lord and enjoy His divine life and nature, and we should live in the divine and mystical realm, reigning in life over anything negative.
This is what Joseph did; his brothers did evil to him and meant him harm, but he lived under the rulership of the Spirit and accepted God’s sovereign arrangement in his life.
He may have not been happy with what happened to him, but he learned the lesson of accepting what God has measured to him, and he cooperated with God by forgiving his brothers from his heart.
He not only forgave them; he also dealt with them one with the Lord, and he comforted them that they should not feel upset for what they have done to him.
We may forgive someone but we may remind them of what they did to us; our forgiveness is like burying a dead dog with the tail still sticking out – we remember what they have done to us.
But real forgiveness, God’s forgiveness, is the kind of forgiveness that forgets and helps others not remember what they have done, for such a life reigns in life over anything bad or evil.
May the Lord grow in us unto maturity so that we may reign in life in Christ and with Christ, and may we see, enter in, and become the New Jerusalem today, reigning in life with Christ and being full of life and light.
The Issue of our Reigning in Life is the Real and Practical Body Life expressed in the Church Life
![Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Love one another warmly in brotherly love; take the lead in showing honor one to another. Do not be slothful in zeal, [but] be burning in spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoice in hope; endure in tribulation; persevere in prayer. Rom. 12:9-1](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Let-love-be-without-hypocrisy-683x1024.webp?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Love one another warmly in brotherly love; take the lead in showing honor one to another. Do not be slothful in zeal, [but] be burning in spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoice in hope; endure in tribulation; persevere in prayer. Rom. 12:9-1")
As those who have believed into Christ, we have been transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, the church life (Col. 1:12-13).
In the church life as the kingdom of God, love prevails, and the Body builds itself up in love (1 Cor. 8:1; Eph. 1:4; 3:17; 4:2, 15-16; 5:12).
We need to see and arrive at the goal of reigning in life in the church life.
When we reign in life by being mature in life, living under the ruling of the divine life, the spontaneous issue is that we have the real and practical Body life expressed in the church life (Rom. 12:1-4, 9-12, 15-18; 14:1-9; 15:1-13).
The church life as the expression of Christ is not merely a collection of believers in Christ living corporately; it is the issue of our reigning in life.
In the church life, love is the most excellent way for us to do anything or be anything for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:31; 13:4-8).
The most excellent way for us to do anything or be anything in the church life is love; the Body builds itself up in love, and love must prevail in the church life.
Without love, anything we do, is like a hollow sound, like sounding brass or clanging cymbal.
When we speak something in the church meetings, we need to be full of love; we need to enjoy the Lord as our love, remain in His love, and receive the abundant dispensing of love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
When we speak to others, we need to speak words of spirit and life, so that we may infuse God as love into others.
The church life is not a police station or a law court; the church life is a loving home to raise up spiritual children and a hospital to help and recover the sick ones (Matt. 9:12; 2 Cor. 11:29a; John 8:7, 10-11; 1 Cor. 9:22; Luke 15:1-7).
Furthermore, the church life is a school to teach others.
May love prevail in the church life.
May we all see the goal of reigning in life and arrive at maturity so that we may reign in life and spontaneously live the church life.
The spontaneous issue of our reigning in life is that we live the real and practical Body life in the local churches.
![But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and [through] the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love. Eph. 4:15-16](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/But-holding-to-truth-in-love-we-may-grow-up-into-Him-in-all-things-who-is-the-Head-Christ-1-683x1024.webp?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and [through] the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love. Eph. 4:15-16")
When we all live Christ, allowing the Lord to reign in us and therefore reigning in life through Christ, we will love the Lord and love the saints.
Our living will be in love, our expression will be in love, and our church life in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.
The church life is a loving home raising up the believers, a hospital for the healing of the sick ones, and a school to teach the unlearned ones.
In today’s hospitals the doctor may not behave in a shepherding way or with tender care, but Christ as the real Physician is among us today caring for us, the sick patients, to heal us in love.
In schools these days the teachers may not be attentive and full of care for the difficult students, but in the church life as a school, the Lord as the unique teacher is expressed through His many saints in the way of home teaching to perfect the unlearned saints.
In today’s homes with so many broken families, there may not be love and care with no arguments and preferences, but in the church life as a home, the saints are being raised in love and with care, for the Lord cares for all His saints and He shepherds them through those who cooperate with Him.
May we see and arrive at the goal of reigning in life, living under the ruling of the divine life, so that we may have the real and practical Body life expressed in the church life today.
Lord Jesus, may we see and arrive at the goal of reigning in life so that we may live under the ruling of the divine life in the church life today. Amen, Lord, may we all live under the ruling of the divine life daily so that there may be the real and practical Body life expressed in the church life today. Hallelujah, we have been transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, and in the church life, love prevails! Praise the Lord, the Body of Christ builds itself up in love! Lord, we want to take this most excellent way in the church life: love, God as love, God in us expressed through us as love! May love prevail among us. May the church life be a loving home to raise up spiritual children, a hospital to heal and recover the sick ones, and a school to teach others in love!
When we Reign in Life, we let the Indwelling Christ as Grace Reign within us Unto Eternal Life to become the City of Life!
When we as believers in Christ are reigning in life, we are allowing the indwelling Christ as grace to reign within us “unto eternal life” (John 4:13-14). This is the consummation of reigning in life (Heb. 4:16; Rom. 5:17, 21).
The Lord Jesus said that the water He gives us to drink becomes in us a fountain of water springing up into eternal life (John 4:14).
The preposition “into” in this verse and “unto” in Rom. 5:21 speaks of destination. Eternal life is the destination of the flowing Triune God.
God the Father is the fountain of life, Christ the Son is the spring of life, and God the Spirit is the river of water of life.
By enjoying the flowing Triune God, we are receiving the abundance of grace to become the New Jerusalem as the totality of the life of God – the city of life!
As we drink the Triune God in Christ as the Spirit, the river of water of life, the living water flows in us and out of us to flow us into the New Jerusalem, the city of life.
The entire Bible is needed to interpret John 4:14; the Father is the fountain as the source, the Son is the spring as the course of the Father, and the Spirit is the flowing river as the fellowship or transmission of the Father with the Son.
This flowing issues in the eternal life, which is the New Jerusalem.
The New Jerusalem is the totality of God joined with man and man mingled with God.
No matter where we are and who we are, the Triune God is flowing toward us; we simply need to drink Him and be mingled with Him.
The Father is the fountain, the source; when He emerges or springs up, He does so in the Son. Then, the Son flows into a river, that is, the Spirit.
This flow is into eternal life, that is, into the New Jerusalem.
The issue of the flowing of the Triune God being enjoyed by man in John 4 is the feasts in chs. 6 and 7; at these feasts, the hunger and thirst of man are satisfied by God Himself.
When we drink the living water in our time with the Lord, this water becomes a fountain in us.
This fountain emerges as a spring, and the spring flows out as a river for the New Jerusalem.
In this way, we have something of the New Jerusalem and are flowing into the New Jerusalem by remaining in the river of water of life that flows from and with the Triune God and has its destination the New Jerusalem.
May we be those who live an overcoming life by reigning in life to become the New Jerusalem as the city of life.
May we enjoy the flowing Triune God today and allow Him to rule and reign in us as life so that we may receive the abundance of grace and become the New Jerusalem as the totality of the life of God, the city of life.
When we are reigning in life, we are allowing the indwelling Christ to reign within us, and His reigning is unto eternal life – unto the New Jerusalem.
May we be those who drink the living water, allow the Lord to reign in us as grace, and reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
As we enjoy the flowing Triune God, we are receiving the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness to become the New Jerusalem as the totality of the life of God, the city of life.
This is what we are becoming: the city of life.
The issue and consummation of our reigning in life should be uniquely and ultimately the goal of God’s eternal economy – the New Jerusalem!
Lord Jesus, we love You! We allow You as the indwelling Christ as grace to reign within us unto eternal life, unto the New Jerusalem! Rule and reign in us. Keep us under Your rule today. We open to receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness so that we may reign in life. Amen, Lord, keep us enjoying You as grace in abundance until we become the New Jerusalem as the totality of the life of God! Flow into us and flow out of us. Flow in and flow out, Lord, and flow us into the New Jerusalem as the totality of the eternal life! May the issue and consummation of our reigning in life be uniquely and ultimately the goal of God’s eternal economy – the New Jerusalem!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” pp. 455-457, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Kings (2022 summer training), week 12, entitled, Living an Overcoming Life by Reigning in Life to Become the New Jerusalem as the City of Life.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Through God’s dispensing, abundance of grace, / Christ’s saving life will reign and death displace; / God’s holy nature, our life sanctifies, / His saving life soon, our life glorifies, / His saving life soon, our life glorifies… / (our life, glorifies.) (Song on, Being Saved in His Life, stanza 1)
– In fulness of the seasons / God’s Christ will head up all. / Then all will own His reigning / And worship, great and small. / Such reign in life and glory / The Church e’en now foretastes / And to His rule submitting / Unto His kingdom hastes. (Hymns #941 stanza 6)
– Thou art the living water too / Which full revival doth bestow; / I wish to pray and drink e’en more / That through me living rivers flow… / I long to have such fellowship / To read and pray and blend with Thee; / I long that Thou wouldst saturate / Till Thou may overflow from me. (Hymns #813 stanzas 8 and 11)
About aGodMan
Eventually, the Triune God becomes the living water, which the Lord Jesus presented to the Samaritan woman in John 4. Jacob’s well in John 4 is physical, but Jacob’s dream is divine and mystical. In this divine, mystical realm there is a real fountain. This fountain is the Father. When this fountain emerges, or springs up, that is the Son. When the spring flows into a river, that is the Spirit. This is into, or for, the New Jerusalem. The first four chapters of John present the Triune God as the flowing water. In chapters 6 and 7 there are two feasts. These two feasts are the issue of the flowing. We fell men become hungry and thirsty. At the feast we have something to eat to satisfy our hunger and something to drink to quench our thirst. The food is Christ, and the water is also Christ. Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” pp. 455-457
We need to see and arrive at the goal of reigning in life; when we are reigning in life, living under the ruling of the divine life, the issue is the real and practical Body life expressed in the church life.
And we do this by drinking and flowing the Triune God as the living water.
For the real and practical body life in the church life we need to be reigning in life, with every joint and each member of the Body functioning according to their measure, with the Body building itself up in love.
For this we need the flowing Triune God – the Father as the source, the Son as the Spring and the Spirit as the river.
Such a flow is the dispensing of the divine Trinity and as we drink Him as the flowing water our thirst is quenched and we become the New Jerusalem – the goal of God’s economy and our destination!
Amen Lord! May we be those who receive the abundance of grace and of gift of righteousness to reign in life for the church life and the building of the Body of Christ!
amen brother triune God has flowed out as living water this was first shown with Jacob at the well but today we have this reality where we can enjoy the triune God as living water when we enjoy this one as the living water this will issue into eternal life which consummates in us reigning with God in the New Jerusalem
Amen brother!
Eph 4:16 note 1 Out To grow in life is to grow into the Head, Christ, but to operate in the Body of Christ is to operate out from Him. First, we grow up into the Head; then we have something that is out from the Head for the building up of the Body.
Halllujah! May the living water flow from our innermost being on to others!
Yes, our move with the Lord is to arrive at our destination, the new Jerusalem. This is the real mingling of God with man so that we can enjoy the triune God, the Fountain, the Spring, and the river, eternally. What a wonderful opportunity it is!
Praise the Lord for His mercy upon us! Amen
Enjoy the flowing Triune God in you today!
The Father as the fountain, the Son as the springing up, and the Spirit as the flowing river! This issues into eternal life, the total aggregate of which is the New Jerusalem!
Christ is both our food & drink.
We need to see that the Triune God is flowing through the Father, Son & Spirit into us.
The Triune God will flow us into the New Jerusalem to be the New Jerusalem.
To be in the New Jerusalem we must become the New Jerusalem.
Eph 4:16 …through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.
Rev. 3:12 He who overcomes, him I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall by no means go out anymore, and I will write upon him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven from My God, and My new name.
Rev. 21:3 And I heard a loud voice out of the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His peoples, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.
RR:
“…The overcomers as Zion are the reality of the Body of Christ and consummate the building up of the Body in the local churches to bring in the consummated holy city, New Jerusalem, the Holy of Holies as God’s dwelling place, in eternity”.
(Rev. 21:1-3, 16, 22). (Psa. 48:2, footnote 1)
“…Although we may have a good church life, among us there is almost no realization, no practicality, no actuality, and no reality of the Body life. This is the need in the recovery today”.
“…We believers are scattered on this earth, so we cannot be in one location. We have to be in many locations, so in a sense, we have to be separated by localities. But we cannot forget that the churches are the Body of Christ. Ephesians 4 says that there is one Body (v. 4). Paul says that though we are many, we are still one bread and one Body (1 Cor. 10:17)”.
“Eventually, the book of Revelation does have a consummation. In this consummation all the seven lampstands disappear. In the first chapter we see the seven lampstands. But in the last two chapters we see only one city. Eventually, the local churches will be over. Only the Body will remain and remain forever, and this Body of Christ is the unique tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on this earth, the unique bride of the Lamb (21:2-3). We all have to see this”.
“…As a person, we have a physical frame. That is our body. But a body by itself is a carcass. A physical body needs an inner life. Today the church is the same. On the one hand, it does have a frame, a body, but this frame is not the nature, the essence, or the element of the church. Ephesians 4 tells us the church is the Body, and within this church is the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father (vv. 4-6). The Father is the source, the Lord is the element, and the Spirit is the essence of the Body. These four entities are built together”.
(CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” pp. 110, 116-118)
We recognize that by ourselves, by one local church, we will never do anything. We belong to His universal Body. Scattered as we are today, we are ONE BODY in ONE SPIRIT, no matter in what locality we gather.
To be able to cooperate with the building up of His Body, we need to, we must become overcomers.
If we ever want to be part of the one hundred forty-four thousand overcomers that are not just in Jerusalem BUT on the peak of Zion, we need to deny completely our own self, we need to lose our soul-life. That is the ONLY way we will forget our race, ethnicity, culture, and traditions that are so embedded in our souls.
Once we are able to overcome our soul-life, it will be easy to love, help, support every single saint no matter who he/she is. Because the life and love of our Christ will be embedded in our whole being automatically.
We have to understand that our Lord needs us in order for Him to come back. We need Him to become overcomers BUT He needs us to consummate God’s economy, “…the local churches will be over. Only the Body will remain and remain forever, and this Body of Christ is the unique tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on this earth, the unique bride of the Lamb (21:2-3). We all have to see this”.
It’s not about Lord’s Day, it’s about the New Jerusalem. Every Lord’s Day we gather, we are supposed to build up each other, to lift up each other, to genuinely love each other, to support each other, so His Body grow strong and can win the battles against satan who never dismissed his meetings, and constantly uses our souls to poison and attack His Body.
If we read His Word everyday, not only the morning watch, individually, we will be transformed, saturated, strengthen, and we will come strong on the Lord’s Day to support His Body through our prophesies, which is the way an overcomer exercise the spirit mingled with His Spirit that is the essence of the Body.
Amen!