The renewing of the outer man takes place as the inner man is nourished with the fresh supply of the resurrection life of Christ, for the divine element in the divine life and nature is energizing us and renews us, having the renewing capacity in it. Hallelujah!
Though we may pass through suffering today as the cross operates in us with the help of the environment to consume and put to death the old man, our momentary lightness of affliction cannot compare with the eternal weight of glory.
When we are in suffering, when we are in affliction, we may think that it is interminable, for it lasts for such a long time; however, the affliction is momentary and light, and what we gain is an eternal weight of glory.
Whatever suffering the Lord has measured to us is still light compared to the coming glory in which we will be ushered.
Therefore, as we pass through afflictions, as we are in pain, distress, and grief, we need to open to the Lord so that we may be continually renewed.
There needs to be a continual renewal taking place in us day by day so that God can accomplish His heart’s desire.
The Lord may not take us through a giant suffering all at once but rather, there may be many little sufferings that we encounter in our daily life.
We may be able to endure big suffering events, but we may not be able to endure some small afflictions, some disapproval from our spouse, or the fact that our children do not listen to us. Oh, Lord!
We may be able to suffer big crosses and big calamities, and we may be able to endure big sufferings for the Lord, but we may not be able to endure the many little sufferings we encounter in our daily life.
May we learn to open to the Lord and cooperate with Him even as we pass through afflictions and sufferings so that there would be a continual renewal taking place.
May there be more renewing day by day, not just once in a while, but day by day.
Experience the Renewing Capacity in the Divine Life Energizing us to cause us to be Renewed!
The renewing of our inner man takes place as our inner man is nourished with the fresh supply of the resurrection life of Christ (John 11:25; Phil. 3:10).
As our outer man is being consumed by the killing work of death, our inner man is being metabolically renewed day by day with the supply of resurrection life. Hallelujah!
As our outer man is being consumed and decaying under the Lord’s work through the environment, we are inwardly supplied with the resurrection life to be renewed more and more.
Without this life, without the resurrection life inwardly supplying us, we cannot go through the transformation process, which requires the addition of the new element of God in us.
The Spirit of life within us is a law – the law of the Spirit of ife, which operates naturally and spontaneously to renew us.
There is a renewing capacity in the divine life in us which causes us to be renewed day by day.
The divine life in us knows what it should do; we don’t have to design by ourselves or plan what to do when we face suffering, how to react, etc.
We should simply enjoy the divine life, receive the resurrection life, and experience the renewing capacity in the life of Christ so that we may be renewed in our inner man day by day.
The more our inner man is renewed, the more the functions of our soul are also renewed (Rom. 12:2).
The faculties of our soul will be animated, renewed, strengthened, and enriched; our mind, emotion, and will are in the process of being renewed.
Our mingled spreads into our mind and becomes the spirit of the mind; it is in such a spirit that we are being renewed for our transformation (Eph. 4:23; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2).
This renewing requires the cross, it involves suffering, and it is the addition of the new element of God to our being.
Through His work of renewing us, the Spirit who is in our spirit spreads and penetrates our mind to become the spirit of the mind; as we set our mind on our spirit, the Spirit permeates our way of thinking, our thoughts, and our entire mind.
Hallelujah, because we have been born of God to be children of God with His life and nature, we all have the divine element energizing in us – there is the renewing capacity in the divine life in us energizing us and causing us to be renewed (John 1:12-13; 3:15; 1 John 5:11-12; 2 Pet. 1:3-4).
The renewing is not something that we do; it is something done by the Lord as life in our spirit.
In the divine element there is the renewing capacity; this doesn’t mean the measure, volume, and amount, but the renewing ability, the capacity to renew us.
In the resurrection life of Christ, the divine life as the renewing capacity (John 11:25; Phil. 3:10; Rev. 21:5).
The capacity in the divine life is renewing us in all our actions (Rom. 6:4; 7:6); as we set our mind on our spirit, the renewing capacity in the divine life is exercised to renew us in our inner man.
This capacity is part of the law of the Spirit of life within us, and it works spontaneously; it is not by our decision or arrangement, but by the law of the Spirit of life, as we create the necessary condition by turning to our spirit!
We need to daily experience and enjoy the renewing capacity in the resurrection life of Christ so that we may renewed in our inner man day by day (2 Cor. 1:9; 4:16).
This means that we daily need to contact the Lord, especially early in the morning; we need to set our mind on the spirit and contact the Lord, confessing our sins and rejecting ourselves.
We do not know what we need and where we are; we simply need to contact the Lord and allow Him to operate in us.
The divine element in the divine life in us operates in us to kill the bad germs and bacteria within us – it is an all-inclusive dose, our daily antibiotic.
As we turn to our spirit and contact the Lord, rejecting ourselves and confessing anything that He exposes, we are inwardly energised by the divine life, and the renewing capacity in this life operates in us.
If we contact the Lord in this way every morning, we will experience the renewing capacity of the divine life every day.
God’s intention is to make us new, and this is not something He can accomplish overnight; it requires us to contact God, receive God, and get God added into us all day.
It requires that we pray, confess our sins, and reject ourselves to take the cross of Christ.
This will, on the negative side, eliminate and kill anything that is negative and of the old creation, and on the positive side, add the element of God.
All the children of God need to pass through the process of renewing to become the New Jerusalem, and all of us will be in a state of being fully renewed until there’s no longer any element of the old creation.
Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to be renewed in our inner man by being nourished with the fresh supply of the resurrection life of Christ. May there be a metabolic process going on in our being day by day for us to be renewed with the supply of the resurrection life! Amen, Lord, have a way to spread from our spirit into all the inward parts of our being. We open to You again and again, and we want to contact You, put ourselves aside, and confess anything that You shine in us. Energize us with the divine element and cause the renewing capacity of the divine life to operate in us to renew us until we become the New Jerusalem! Amen, Lord, even as we pass through afflictions and sufferings, may we be in the renewing process until we are fully transferred in the new creation!
We need to be Revived, Energized, Vitalized, and Intensified to be Renewed unto the New Jerusalem
The matter of being renewed is very crucial, for the Lord declares in Rev. 12:5 that He makes all things new.
Being renewed speaks not only of our need but also of God’s need; God cannot wait until that moment arrives when He declares that He makes all things new. He hates everything of the oldness, for oldness is just the absence of God.
God wants to see the whole universe become new by having His element wrought into it; He is both the alpha (the One who created all things) and the Omega (the One who is the end of all things), and He’s the all in all.
Everything will be new, for God is working Himself into His people to make them new.
For God to obtain such a group of people who are renewed, He needs to renew us; our urgent need is to be renewed.
We may have been in the church life in the Lord’s recovery for a short time or for a long time, but no matter how long we have been saved or have come into the church life, we need to be renewed.
As we are marching toward the end of this age, we need to realize that Christianity as a whole has already failed God and has become an old, decrepit system with no life and no spirit.
Now God’s hope is with His recovery, and He has been bringing us through a long process, at least for the last one hundred years, to renew us again and again.
There is a possibility, however, that we may slip into a state of oldness, thinking that we know many things, we have the Lord’s rich speaking, and we have learned so many truths.
We may be like the church in Laodicea, trusting in the riches we have once enjoyed and thinking we’re rich, but we may still be so old.
We need to be in the process of being renewed so that we do not become yet another system, another shell that is empty.
We may do all things right, go preach the gospel, have Bible studies, and visit others, but if we’re not in the state of being renewed, all these will just be an empty shell.
Our God who is newness itself yearns to see His people brought into a state where they can truly be the new creation through and through.
Then He can make the declaration that He makes all things new.
May the Lord keep His recovery in a state of being renewed, that we would not be satisfied or content with what we have and thus slip into a state of oldness, unaware that, because of our lack of God, what we have the system, the know-how, the knowledge, but we are short of newness.
For us to continually be in this process of being renewed, we need to be revived, energized, vitalized, and intensified.
We need to be daily revived – revived morning by morning, having a morning revival every day.
May the Lord revive His work and bring us into a new revival, not as a movement in Christianity but daily, morning by morning, as we go to the Lord to enjoy Him.
May we have a daily morning revival with the Lord to be daily revived.
We need to be energized; as Paul said in Rom. 15:16, we need to be the energized priests of the gospel, doing things not in a routine way as gospel preachers but as those who are energized.
As we carry out the church life, as we build up the church, we need to be energized; we don’t carry out a formula or a system, we don’t do things according to a tradition, but we are the energizing priests.
This energy comes from the Spirit in our spirit; we need to cooperate with Him through this energy, and live out the church life and serve God.
We need to be vitalized; Daniel 11:32 says that the people who know their God will show strength and take action.
We should not be passive but active, being vitalized to be strong and take action.
Finally, we need to be intensified; we are no longer in the age of incarnation when the Lord came to the earth for the first time, or in the stage of inclusion where we enjoy Christ as the life-giving Spirit.
We are now in the stage of intensification, for the degradation of the church has been intensified, and the Lord as the Spirit has also been intensified sevenfold to counteract the degradation of the church.
Lord Jesus, keep us in the process of being renewed. Save us from being degraded and in a state of oldness. We exercise ourselves every day to be revived, energized, vitalized, and intensified so that God would be added to us and the Lord’s recovery would become newer and newer! Amen, Lord, we want to walk in newness of life and serve in newness of spirit, and we want to be daily renewed in our inner man! Keep us coming to You every morning to be revived and vitalized. Energize us from within and vitalize us. Amen, Lord, intensify Your organic salvation in us to make us Your overcomers, the new man, the New Jerusalem!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a message by bro. James Lee on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1989, vol. 2, “Being Renewed Day by Day,” pp. 361-363, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Meeting God’s Need and Present needs in the Lord’s Recovery, week 5, entitled, Our Need to Walk in Newness of Life, to Serve in Newness of Spirit, and to Be Renewed in Our Inner Man Day by Day.
- Hymns on this topic:
– And do not be fashioned according to this age, / But be transformed by the renewing of the mind / And do not be fashioned according to this age, / But be transformed by the renewing of the mind. (Scripture song)
– Spreading outward from our spirit / Doth the Lord transform our soul, / By the inward parts renewing, / Till within His full control. / By the power of His Spirit / In His pattern He transforms; / From His glory to His glory / To His image He conforms. (Hymns #750)
– Christ to me is so subjective, / All my being He transforms; / By the mind and will renewing / To His image He conforms. / Christ to me is so subjective, / Liberating pow’r is He, / By the law of life and power / As the Spirit setting free. (Hymns #743)
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