Remaining in Christ’s Death by the Power and Riches of His Resurrection in our Spirit

My dove, in the clefts of the rock, In the covert of the precipice, Let me see your countenance, Let me hear your voice; For your voice is sweet, And your countenance is lovely (Song of Songs 2:14). Source: Christian Pictures Blog

A practical application of living in the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection is seen in Song of Songs chapter 2. Here the lover is in introspection, imprisoned in her self, caring for her self-perfection and losing sight of her beloved – she sees Him through the windows, through the lattice, and He is behind the wall (v. 9).

In this chapter we see how we as Christ’s loving seekers can get locked up in our pursuit for self-perfection, over-caring for our self, and being wrapped up in our self. The way to get out of this is the death of Christ, and for us to experience the death of Christ (the covert of the precipice and the clefts of the rock) we need to experience the resurrection of Christ.

In order for us to be delivered from our self-absorbed and self-centred self we need Christ to show us the riches of His resurrection and the power of His resurrection so that we can be conformed to His death (Phil. 3:10).

Christ calls all His seekers to rise up for behold the winter is gone (be no longer dormant!), the rain has stopped (the trials are over), the flowers appear on the earth, the singing time has come, the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land, the figs are ripened, and the vine trees are in blossom. This is such a rich picture of resurrection!

We may get into a situation where we are overly preoccupied with the self – not the “ambitious self” or the “sinful self” but the spirituality-seeking self, the self-seeking for spiritual perfection. In our seeking for spiritual progress, we can become self-conscious, and in pursuing the spiritual pursuit we may be filled with self-attention, having self-consciousness, self-attention, self-boasting, self-exultation, and self-glorification.

When we become self-conscious of our spiritual progress, when we pay too much attention to our spiritual pursuit, when we have self-boasting of our spiritual achievement, when we get engrossed with the self-exultation of our spiritual stature, and when we have self-glorification of our spiritual expression we get STUCK.

When we are aware and conscious of our spiritual progress and we focus on it, we are down, locked inside the walls, and the Lord is outside.

At such a time we need to experience the resurrection power of Christ – He is not down but He is like a gazelle and a young hart, leaping and skipping over the hills. Let us turn away from our self, our self-consciousness, and remain the covert of the precipice.

Our Christian life is NOT a life of pursuing self-spirituality but a life of remaining in the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection. As the Lord Jesus lived when He was on the earth, our Christian life is a living in the reality of our baptism, a living in the reality of the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection.

Remaining in the Cross, in the Clefts of the Rock and in the Covert of the Precipice

It is by the power of Christ’s resurrection, not by our natural life, that we, the lovers of Christ, determine to take the cross by denying our self and we are enabled to be conformed to His death by being one with His cross (Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs, by Witness Lee).

The record in Song of Songs 2 shows us that Christ is calling His loving seekers to remain in the cross, that is, to stay in the clefts of the rock and in the covert of the precipice (Song of Songs 2:14).

In our spiritual pursuit we may get stuck by being occupied with our spiritual progress and our self-achievement, and the Lord arranges and assigns some situations and troubling environments to cause us to get out of our self and remain in the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection.

In His way, God arranges circumstances and people, and He speaks to us in many ways to call us out of our self and introspection – out of there and, through the riches of His resurrection, stay in His death. We need to learn to turn our mind to our spirit so that we may receive the strengthening of the Spirit as the power of resurrection to remain in His death.

It is not easy to remain in Christ’s death – it’s like getting into the clefts of the rock (a very narrow place) and in the covert of the precipice by a rugged road. How can we willingly choose to be constrained and restricted in such a way? The only way this can happen is only by the power of Christ’s resurrection shown in the leaping of the gazelle upon the mountains and the skipping of the young hart upon the hills.

When we experience the power of Christ’s resurrection, we can deny our self (Matt. 16:24) and we are being conformed to the death of Christ (Phil. 3:10). Our self frustrates the Lord very much, but through the experience of Christ’s resurrection we are conformed to Christ’s death and we are delivered from the self.

Christ comes to us and shows us the power of His resurrection, and He encourages us by the flourishing riches of His resurrection (see Song of Songs 2:8-13); this encourages us to rise up and come away from our low situation in our introspection of the self.

Christ’s resurrection is so rich – the vine is blossoming, trees are bringing forth fruit, birds are singing, and there’s a sweet fragrance! When we see the power of Christ’s resurrection and we realize the riches of His resurrection, we are inwardly strengthened and encouraged to get out of our self and be conformed to Christ’s death, staying in the covert of the precipice and the clefts of the rock to be like a dove to the Lord.

Here, in the clefts of the rock and the covert of the precipice, as we remain in Christ’s death, He wants to see our lovely countenance and hear our sweet voice. Wow!

The Key to Experiencing Death and Resurrection: our Mingled Spirit

What is the key to experiencing Christ’s resurrection so that we may be conformed to His death? According to the entire revelation in the Bible, the reality of Christ’s resurrection is the Spirit, the life-giving, compound, consummated Spirit which Christ became after His resurrection (John 11:25, 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17).

Brother Witness Lee speaks on this in his, Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs (msg. 6),

In order to experience the life-giving Spirit as the reality of resurrection in our spirit, we have to discern our spirit from our soul. In our soul we are the old man (Eph. 4:22), the soulish man, the natural man (1 Cor. 2:14). In our spirit we are the new man (Eph. 4:24), the spiritual man (1 Cor. 2:14-15), that lives and walks in our spirit as God’s Holiest of all, indwelt by and mingled with the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ. It is in such a mingled spirit that we participate in and experience the resurrection of Christ, the reality of which is the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit, the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God.

We spend most of our day either in the flesh or in the soul, but through the living and sharp word of God taken into us by means of all prayer and petition (Heb. 4:12; Eph. 6:17) our soul is divided from our spirit and we can choose to set our mind on our spirit.

We need to experience the Triune God as the life-giving Spirit who is with our spirit. Christ’s resurrection is in our mingled spirit, and His death is also in our spirit, because the wonderful compound life-giving Spirit is with our spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

When we turn to our spirit and contact the Lord, the resurrection life enables us to be one with the cross of Christ and be delivered from the self in order to be transformed into a new man for God’s economy. In this process of transformation, we become pearls, something that welcomes others into the New Jerusalem.

First, we enter into the New Jerusalem through regeneration, then we learn to be conformed to the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection and we are produced as pearls, gates into the New Jerusalem, and eventually, we will perfect others with the Triune God by helping them to deny themselves so that they can be with the Lord in a new way to be renewed and transformed to become pearls for the New Jerusalem! Hallelujah, all this is for the building of God, for the New Jerusalem, God’s eternal habitation.

Lord, call us out of our introspective and self-absorbed self! Show us the power and riches of Your resurrection. You are like a gazelle leaping upon the mountains and like a young hart skipping on the hills, not being touched or constrained by death. Cause us to experience the power and riches of Your resurrection so that we may be strengthened and encouraged to remain in Your death. Lord, may we be those who discern our spirit from our soul, those who experience the power of resurrection by constantly turning to our spirit and remaining in our spirit to be conformed to the death of Christ.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Crystallization-study of Song of Songs (msgs. 5-6), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Aspects of the Christian Life and Church Life Seen in the New Jerusalem, week 3 / msg 3, The Pearl Gates and the Golden Street.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # In the clefts of the rock / I delight to be. / In the covert of the precipice / You would find me. / Lord, conform me now, / Daily to Your death. / Let me see Your countenance, / I am a dove, / In the clefts of the rock. (Hymn on Song of Songs 2)
  # Freed from self and Adam’s nature, / Lord, I would be built by Thee / With the saints into Thy temple, / Where Thy glory we shall see. / From peculiar traits deliver, / From my independent ways, / That a dwelling place for Thee, Lord, / We will be thru all our days. (Hymns #840)
  # Make me, Lord, a fragrance true, / As a garden filled, with Your spices new. / Transform me, Your Bride to be, / For Your heart’s desire, through eternity. / As Your lover in the veil, I long to be, / Be conformed to Your sweet death continually, / ’Til Your city we become eternally. (New song on ch. 2 in Song of Songs)
  # Heav’n and earth shall have one living: God and man in organic union live, / Resurrection power supplying, Conformed to Christ’s death, no longer I live! (New song)