We need to learn to release our spirit to minister life to others in our service in the church life.
The service in the church life is a life-ministering service, a service of supplying others with the divine life by the release of our spirit, where the divine life resides, dwells, and grows.
Amen, may we have a turn from merely getting things done in the best possible way to learning to minister life to one another as we serve the Lord in the church!
As believers in Christ, we are becoming the reproduction of Christ, the tree of life; little by little, day by day, as we enjoy the Lord as the tree of life, we ourselves become a little tree of life.
We not only eat Christ as the tree of life but even more, we are grafted into Him as the tree of life and we become His reproduction, His increase.
Our God is not merely up in the heaven, sending us His message in His book, the Bible, and we are down here obeying Him and doing our best to keep His word.
No, our God wants to be one with us. The relationship God wants to have with us is one of oneness; He became the same as we are to make us the same as He is.
When the Lord Jesus came as God incarnated, He came as life; He didn’t come to judge, criticize, or condemn, but to save and impart life.
Today we are His continuation, His reproduction on earth; if others want to see God, they need to come to the church, the believers in Christ.
As the reproduction of Christ on earth today, we also have the ministry of life.
We have a ministry of imparting life into others. Each one of us, the believers in Christ, has a portion in the ministry of life.
We have Christ as the tree of life growing in us, we are grafted into Him, and as we enjoy the riches of His life, there’s an overflow of His riches through us. Amen!
And no matter how old or young we are, no matter how advanced we are with the Lord or how young in Him we are, each one of us has a unique portion of Christ as part of the ministry of life.
Not only in the meetings, but even outside the meetings of the church, as we meet with both unbelievers and believers, we have the ministry of life, and the divine life can flow through us to others.
May we be encouraged to enjoy the Lord, partake of His riches, and be constituted with Him, and may we have the boldness to minister life to the other members in the Body of Christ.
We are all members of the Body, and we all need both the bountiful supply of the Head and the rich supply of the joints and the function in the measure of each one part, that is, the function of all the saints.
The Service in the Church is a Life-ministering Service, a Service of Supplying others with the Divine Life
![Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither [can] you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Abide-in-Me-and-I-in-you-4-683x1024.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither [can] you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5")
As believers in Christ, we are members of the Body of Christ, and our gathering together in the meetings of the church should be something organic, in life, and full of life.
Our service in the church should not be merely to take care of things, to get things done, and to meet the needs of the saints and of the church.
Our service in the church should be a life-ministering service, for the church is a matter of life.
When we take care of the children, we not only want to teach them the lesson and help them do some activities; we want to be with them in the way of life and minister life to them at their level.
As we clean the meeting hall, arrange the chairs, give rides to saints to the meeting, and take care of so many practical things, we want not only to do things in the best possible way but to minister life.
We need to realize that, no matter what our service in the church may be, our service should be a means to supply life to others.
We need to not only be adequate in our service by doing the best we can as we contact the Lord; we need to focus on supplying life, not merely on accomplishing something.
May the Lord impress us that the church is not a society or a social gathering that needs many practical things to be taken care of.
The church is the Body of Christ, and our main focus as we come together is to be through the cross and by the Spirit, seeking to minister Christ to one another for the building up of the church.
Even in the service of packing the Bibles or trimming the hedge, our focus should still be on supplying life.
If we only do things in the best possible way according to our means and ability, though the job is well done, the church in its nature of life is not there.
If we don’t supply life to others through our service, the church loses its nature and becomes a society.
This doesn’t mean that we should be sloppy in our service, neglecting to do this or that and not caring for the time, just because we want to fellowship more.
Rather, our service must be in fear and trembling before the Lord so that we may be faithful and prudent slaves.
However, we shouldn’t be content with only serving, that is, with only doing what we are supposed to do.
May we look to the Lord that our service would become an outlet for His life (John 11:25; 1 John 1:2).
May we see the Lord, witness Him, and testify of Him, ministering life to one another as we serve together in the church and as the church.
May we allow the Lord to rearrange us inwardly and remove any old concepts, desires, and ambitions, so that we may serve one with Him and one with the saints, supplying others with the divine life as we serve.
No matter what we do, no matter what we serve practically with, and no matter what our area of service is, the primary matter should be enjoying Christ as the tree of life and ministering Christ to others as life and life supply.
May we look to the Lord that our service to Him in the church would become an outlet for His life.
On one hand, we need to be delivered from mistakes, but on the other hand, being delivered from making mistakes is not so that we do a successful job but to flow out Christ as life.
The service in the church is a life-ministering service, a service of supplying others with the divine life.
Many times, this means that we ourselves remain in a place of death, allowing the death of Christ to operate in us so that His life may flow and operate in others (2 Cor. 4:12).
Lord Jesus, cause us to realize that the service in the church is a life-ministering service. May we focus not merely on getting things done or doing a good job in the practical things we serve in but on supplying others with the divine life. Amen, Lord, may our service in the church life be full of the supply of life for others to enjoy! We look to You, dear Lord, that our service would become an outlet for Your life. Fill us with Yourself. Keep us enjoying You with all Your riches. We open to You, dear Lord, and we allow You to work Yourself into us a little more today. Flow into us and flow out of us. May even our service be a means for the flowing of Your life in us!
Abiding in the Lord and Releasing our Spirit to Minister Life to others in our Service
The life that we supply to others in our service in the church is in our spirit, which is mingled with the divine Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 8:16).
The Spirit is of life, the Spirit gives life, and the Spirit is a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 5:45); this Spirit is now mingled with our spirit.
The Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2) not only delivers us from sin and death but also imparts the divine life into our being.
As those regenerated by the Lord, we have His divine life in our spirit, and God as life lives, dwells, and grows in our mingled spirit.
For us to minister life to others in our service in the church doesn’t mean that we should tell them something from the Bible or impart our views, opinions, and thoughts.
![...the last Adam [became] a life-giving Spirit. 1 Cor. 15:45b That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. Rom. 8:4](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/the-last-Adam-became-a-life-giving-Spirit-1-683x1024.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "...the last Adam [became] a life-giving Spirit. 1 Cor. 15:45b That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit. Rom. 8:4")
The life of God is not in our human thoughts or views or opinions but in our regenerated human spirit.
The divine Spirit is mingled with our spirit, and in this mingling, there is the divine life; the divine life is not only in God, in Christ, and in the Spirit but also in our spirit, for in our spirit we’re mingled with the Lord.
The Spirit is mingled with our spirit, and the life of God is located in our spirit, dwells in our spirit, abides in our spirit, and grows in our spirit.
For us to supply life to the saints, we need to release our spirit.
We need to exercise our spirit and live in the mingled spirit, for our spirit is life.
The mind set on the spirit is life (Rom. 8:6); when we set our mind on our mingled spirit in our service, our mind becomes life, and we can also minister life to others.
Hallelujah, all we need to do is abide in the Lord by calling on His name, praying, fellowshipping with Him, and contacting Him, and He will have a way to flow out of us as life!
When we release our spirit, the divine life in our spirit flows out for others to receive and enjoy (Rom. 7:6; 1:9).
But if our spirit cannot be released, the divine life has no way to be released (8:10).
May we realize that we are a duplication of Christ as the tree of life, and may we see the necessity of being able to minister life (1 John 5:11-16).
His life is in our spirit, and as our spirit is released, His life flows out to others.
As we abide in the Lord and are filled with Him as life, we will be able to release and flow out His life.
Just as the branches receive the rich supply of the vine and flow it out by means of growing and bearing fruit, so we as branches in Christ, the vine, need to be filled with His life and flow it out by bearing fruit.
Our service in the church is not a great work or large enterprise with huge accomplishments but the ministering and flowing out of the life of Christ.
The life that has been born into us is a flowing life, a life that flows in all the parts of our inner being and fills us, and then flows out of us to others to supply them with life.
On one hand, we go through a process of being inwardly renewed, transformed, and conformed to the image of Christ, and there are a lot of dealings with the Lord.
On the other hand, Christ as life wants to flow out of us, and we all have the ministry of life to give life to those around us.
The service that God wants from us doesn’t focus on doing work but on ministering life.
For us to minister life to others, we need to be joined to Christ, abide in Christ, and give Him the ground in us to fill us so that His life, nature, likes, and inclination become our life, nature, likes, and inclination (1 John 2:27; Eph. 3:16-17).
May we daily abide in the Lord and give Him the ground in us to fill us with Himself and all that He is, and may we allow Him to remove and discharge anything that does not match Him in our being.
May He become our all to the extent that He fills our inner being and has a way to flow out of us to others.
And may we learn to exercise our spirit and release our spirit so that the divine life from our spirit may be released to supply others with God as life. Hallelujah for our mingled spirit!
No matter how much we fail, we can still come back to the Lord in our spirit.
Actually, even after a failure, the Lord still wants us to apply the blood, come to Him, be in the light, and enjoy Him, so that He may have a way to flow through us.
He is not focused on our failures; He is focused on ministering life to those around us by our enjoyment and experience of Christ and by our life-ministering service in the church.
Lord Jesus, thank You for coming into us as life. Thank You for Your life dwelling, abiding, and growing in our mingled spirit. We open to You, Lord, and we turn to You. Flow into all the parts of our inner being. Richly supply us with Yourself. Renew us, transform us, and conform us to Your image. Fill us, Lord, with Your riches! Saturate us with Your life! Flow in and flow out. Flow into all our being and flow out of our being to others also. Make us those who minister life to others in the church life. May we do all things in our spirit so that our spirit may be released for the ministering of life to others. Amen, Lord, keep us abiding in You, being joined to You, and giving You the ground to fill us so that Your life, nature, likes, and inclination become our life, nature, likes, and inclination! Become everything to us and flow out of us in our daily living and in our life-ministering service in the church!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1954, vol. 3, “The Service for Building Up the House of God,” pp. 92-93, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life (2022 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 6, entitled, Becoming a Reproduction of Christ as the Tree of Life for the Ministry of Life.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Lord, I treasure the sweet flow of life, / And my soul-life at last I lay down; / O Lord, deepen the pure flow of life; / At Your coming may life be my crown. (Hymns #1191)
– The work must be the fruit of life, / Born thru the Spirit’s flowing; / As branches of the Lord, the vine, / Fruit bearing, life bestowing. / ’Tis Christ Himself thru us to work, / Himself as life expressing, / And all the riches of His life / To others manifesting. (Hymns #910)
– Release my spirit! ‘Tis for this I yearn, / That self may bind my spirit nevermore; / With all the saints I’d mingle in Thy life, / And all Thou art enjoy forevermore. (Hymns #845)
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No matter what our service may be, we should be clear that our service is a means to supply life to others. Whether or not we are adequate in our service, our focus is on supplying life, not on accomplishing something. The church is different from a society… In the church the point is not whether we do a good job but whether life is supplied. If the church were only for taking care of matters, not supplying life, the church would lose its nature and would be a society. The saints must uphold this point. I am not saying that we can be sloppy in our service… We must serve in fear and trembling before the Lord lest our service be haphazard. However, we cannot be content with doing a service. We must serve in such a way that others may receive the supply of life. We need to… look to the Lord so that our service becomes an outlet for His life. We want to be delivered from mistakes, but the focus of such deliverance is not on doing a successful job but on the flowing out of life. Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1954, vol. 3, “The Service for Building Up the House of God,” p. 92
Wow, our service in the church life not merely to take care of the practical needs or get things done in the best possible way; rather, it is a service of supplying others with the divine life! Amen!
For this, we need to abide in the Lord, be joined to Him, and give Him the ground to flow into all the parts of our inner being and flow out of us to others.
May our spirit be released in our service in the church life so that life be ministered to the saints!
Brother, our service in the Church is to minister life, and we need to see as the branches in the vine we need to abide in the vine, we need to realise that our human Spirit can be joined to the Spirit of God as mentioned in Romans 8 and when we exercise and join ourselves to the Lord we get filled with his life and riches and then we need to release this life and riches by ministering life to others this is our bearing fruit, and we we may be those who stay on this way of life
The focus of our service in the church is on the supplying of life, the ministering of life not on merely accomplishing something.
For this we must exercise our mingled spirit!
Although we do not want our service be sloppy or a haphazard, the main thing is that we will supply life to others when we serve.
In order to do this we must be joined to Christ, abiding him so that His life, nature, likes and inclinations become our life, nature, likes and inclinations.
Amen brother. Our Jesus was a perfect pattern of one who always focused on ministering life.
We need to follow the same path, focusing on supplying life, not on accomplishing something.
The life of God is not in our human thoughts, concepts or opinions.
The life of God is in our regenerated human spirit.
We must release our spirit. This is our real service: the ministering and flowing out of the life of Christ
Aaaaameeen! May our service be an outlet for His life, not focused on doing a work but on ministering life! Amen Lord!
Amen. Oh Lord Jesus! Keep releasing and exercising our spirit!
Amen yes Lord flow into us for growth in life and flow out for ministering life to all the saints
Its the life life life that makes us want to shout hallelujah! Praise the Lord! We are full of joy how glorious that we have Jesus Christ in us!!!!
Brother He who has the Son has the life…
Amen. Our service in the church should be a life-ministering service, for the church is a matter of life. The service that God wants from us doesn’t focus on doing work but on ministering life.
Amen Lord, keep us abiding in You today as You in us to receive much more Your life for our service to minister life to our contracts! May our Church life be in resurrection and in spirit to supply all the Saints with life for the blinding up of Your Body!