Being Renewed by the Cross, the Spirit, and the Word of God to Live in Resurrection

For us to live in resurrection for the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to be renewed day by day by being nourished with the fresh supply of the resurrection life.

Our Christian life is a life of being renewed by God with His new element day by day, and the consummation of our Christian life is that we become the New Jerusalem, the new city of God with His new element added to it. Hallelujah!

For us to be renewed doesn’t mean that we merely get a new knowledge of God; it means that we need to experience Christ in His death and resurrection so that our old natural element may be removed and the new element of God would be added to our being.

This means that we need to know God not only as the living God who can do many acts for His people to help them and save them, but even more as the God of resurrection, the God who is resurrection life to us for us to live a life in resurrection for the reality of the Body of Christ.

It may seem that our situation is not that positive, the situation in our family is not that sweet, and the situation in the church life is not that bright, but we are those with whom the Lord wants to work, and as we open to Him and exercise our spirit, He will bring in the fresh supply of resurrection life for us to be renewed day by day.

May the Lord have mercy on us that we would not merely want to experience Him as the living God whom I can ask to do this and that for us, but that we would enter into the experience of the God of resurrection in our daily life so that we may live in the reality of the Body of Christ.

Our natural thought is that, if we have the leading of the anointing to go somewhere or buy a certain product, everything will turn out positive, and the item we buy will never break down or get stolen.

But God’s mind is that we would be renewed day by day by having the fresh supply of the resurrection life added to us so that we may live in resurrection for the reality of the Body of Christ.

So God uses the environment and all the situations and people around us to work His life and nature into us, and He may even allow sufferings and hardships from which He may not momentarily rescue us, so that our natural man would be torn down, our trust in ourselves would be destroyed, and we would become open and willing to receive the fresh supply of the resurrection life to be renewed day by day.

We should not be surprised or discouraged by suffering, for the primary purpose of suffering – especially as it relates to us as God’s children – is that through it the very nature of God would be wrought into the nature of man so that man may gain God to the fullest extent. Hallelujah!

Receiving the Renewing Capacity of the Divine Life in Resurrection by Contacting God and Opening to Him

The real Christian life is for us to have the God of resurrection added into us morning and evening, day by day (Col. 2:19; Rom. 8:10, 6, 11).

Day by day we need to enjoy a fresh supply of the resurrection life of Christ so that the renewing element of God would be wrought into us and operate in us to renew us day by day.

Practically speaking, God doesn’t increase in us when we don’t contact Him, so for us to be renewed we need to contact the Lord day by day, opening ourselves to Him and allowing Him to work Himself into us.

God’s intention is to renew us day by day, for in our natural being we are old, dead, and stale. How can we be renewed day by day? It is only by the addition of the element of God to us.

We need to have a new addition of God into us daily by contacting God, opening ourselves to Him and letting Him come into us to be a new addition into us day-by-day.

When God comes into us with His new element, He doesn’t just remain there doing nothing; rather, He operates in us (Phil. 2:13) both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.

When God’s element is added to us, we have the renewing capacity of the resurrection life, and this capacity will enable us to be renewed.

We cannot be renewed merely by reading the word or being in the meetings – we need to contact the Lord in spirit and receive the renewing capacity of the resurrection life, and then our whole being will be renewed.

For this we need to contact the Lord, learn to die to ourselves, confess our sins, and reject ourselves. When we contact the Lord and reject ourselves, we pass through the death of Christ, and His death kills us, that is, it eliminates the negative and natural elements in our being.

Paul bore in his body the putting to death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus would also be manifested in his mortal body (2 Cor. 4:10-12).

On His side, God is faithful to give us the environment, situations, people, and things necessary for our renewing, and on our side, we need to cooperate with His renewing work by allowing Him to work in us and add His element into us.

It is a sad thing to go through suffering and remain the same, not being renewed. It is a terrible thing to be in the church life for twenty years and not change or be renewed at all.

May we have the grace from the Lord to open to His discipling work, to His inner guiding as the Spirit of reality, so that we may be daily renewed.

He in us is an all-inclusive dose who, on one hand, imparts the fresh supply of the resurrection life, and on the other, eliminates any negative element in our being. If we don’t know how to cooperate with Him for the renewing work to take place, it is good to tell the Lord,

Lord Jesus, we need the fresh supply of the resurrection life so that we may be renewed today. Save us from remaining the same day after day and year after year. Oh Lord, grant us the grace to cooperate with Your renewing work within us. Do it in us Lord. Renew us day by day by the addition of the element of God to our being. Oh Lord, we need the fresh supply of the resurrection life with its renewing capacity! We open to You, Lord, and we come to You in spirit to just contact You and let You work Yourself into our being a little more today!

Living in Resurrection by being Renewed by the Cross, the Holy Spirit, our Mingled Spirit, and the Word of God

The Lord in His sovereignty has provided us with many provisions for us to be renewed; God has the best provisions to help us receive the renewing.

The first provision is the cross of Christ, the putting to death of Jesus; when we accept and take the cross, we are being renewed. When we are like Paul, allowing the death of Christ to operate in us so that life may operate in others, we are being renewed.

The cross is the greatest help to accomplish the renewing for us, and the cross is in the Spirit. The killing of the cross results in the manifestation of the resurrection life; this daily killing is for the release of the divine life in resurrection (2 Cor. 4:10-12).

The second provision for being renewed is the Holy Spirit. In Titus 3:5 we see the renewing of the Holy Spirit; the Spirit is within us, and after regenerating us, He constantly renews us day by day. As long as we turn to our spirit and contact the Lord, the Spirit renews us a little more.

The third provision is our mingled spirit; this is a great key to being renewed day by day. Renewing takes place in our spirit, for the Spirit of God dwells in our spirit, and only when we are in the spirit can we be renewed.

When we exercise our spirit, turn to our spirit, and live in the spirit, we are being renewed by the Holy Spirit who dwells in our spirit (Eph. 4:23). This mingled spirit spreads into our mind, becoming the spirit of the mind, and in such a spirit we are renewed for our transformation.

The fourth provision is the word of God, for Christ as the Head of the Body cleanses the church, His Body, by the washing of the water in the word (Eph. 5:26). As we get into the word of God and pray over it, exercising our spirit, the word washes us, for there’s fresh renewing water in the word.

Furthermore, as we commit the Word of God to our memory and we spend time pondering over God’s word with much prayer, the word renews us and washes us daily. Hallelujah!

We need to daily open to the Lord, contact Him afresh every morning, and confess our sins, enjoy the Spirit in the word, and reject ourselves throughout the day.

The result of such a living will be a kind of renewing, for the cross is applied to us and the nourishing elements are added to us; the issue will be the Body of Christ. Such a process of renewing takes place; we need to learn to be those living in resurrection by being renewed every day for many years, and the Lord will have a way in us.

When we come to the Lord’s table we should come in the principle of newness by forgiving others and by seeking to be forgiven (see Matt. 26:29; 5:23-24; 18:21-22, 35).

When the Lord established His Table, He did it in a new way, and He also said that He will drink it anew in the kingdom; the principle of the Lord’s table is newness. Anything that is negative causes us to be old and stale, and offenses make us old. Oh Lord Jesus!

We need to learn to confess our sins to the Lord and also confess to those whom we have offended, seeking to be forgiven and forgiving others, so that we may partake of the Lord’s table in newness.

Lord Jesus, make us those living in resurrection by being renewed by the cross, by the Holy Spirit, by our mingled spirit, and by the Word of God. We exercise our spirit, Lord, to contact You, confess our sins, enjoy the Spirit in the word, and reject ourselves all throughout the day so that we may be renewed day by day. Lord, keep us touching You, contacting You, and keeping short accounts with You. May Your cross operate in us by the Spirit, and may our being be renewed day by day so that we may live in resurrection for the reality of the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ricky Acosta for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1989, vol. 2, “Being Renewed Day by Day,” chs. 1-2, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 2, Living in Resurrection for the Reality of the Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # By the cross discern the spirit, / With the mind by light renewed, / All emotion consecrated, / And the will in love subdued. (Hymns #748)
  # The practicality / Of passing through the cross / Is in the mingling that blends / God’s essence into us. / The key is be renewed! / We have the mind of Christ! / The newness of God’s life, imbued, / Renews and rectifies. (Song on, One Person and One Way)
  # Day by day, / Our inward parts are being renewed by the Lord; / Every day, / Fresh and rich supply to us He does afford. / It is our destiny, / To live a normal life in the divine dispensing, / It is a blessing, / To be satisfied with ordinary days / in the divine dispensing. (Song on, Ordinary Days)