The renewing of the new man depends on our seeking the things which are above; we need to seek the things above so that we may respond to and reflect Christ’s activities by receiving the divine transmission in our organic union with Him.
As believers in Christ, we need to be renewed day by day with the fresh supply of the resurrection life; day by day we need to open to the Lord’s renewing from within us, allowing Him to supply us inwardly and renew us.
In this way, we put on the new man. We put on the new man not only when we are saved; putting on the new man is not something we do once for all but rather, it is a continual matter.
Starting from the morning, we need to put on the new man by seeking to be revived every morning and seeking to be renewed every day.
We need to pray and ask the Lord to renew us every day; we need to ask Him to supply us with His resurrection life every day so that we may be renewed and become as new as the New Jerusalem.
When we are inwardly supplied with the fresh supply of the resurrection life, our culture is replaced with Christ Himself, and we become the one new man in reality.
May we remain in this continual, gradual process of being renewed, a process that goes on throughout our Christian life.
Being renewed has much to do not only with our spirit but also with our heart – our mind, emotion, will, and conscience, for our spirit is new, but our soul also needs to be renewed.
When we set our mind on the spirit to seek the things which are above, we are renewed in our mind; when we turn to the Lord and contact Him when we pray over His word, the spirit spreads into our mind to become the spirit of our mind.
We need to put on the new man by being renewed in the spirit of our mind; our spirit needs to seep into, spread into, and even invade and occupy our mind, so that our mind – the leading part of our soul – would be governed by and directed by our mingled spirit.
When our mind is renewed, our emotion and will follow it in this renewing process.
When we set our mind on the things above and enjoy the all-inclusive, extensive Christ, our emotions will be full of appreciation for Him, and our will chooses Him.
Even though we may pass through sufferings and hardships, we still need to turn to the Lord and remain in the process of being renewed.
In the midst of suffering, we need to receive the renewing, otherwise, we are like the rest – going through suffering without knowing why and without gaining more of God.
May we be open to the Lord to gain more of Him in our daily living, even when we pass through hardships, sufferings, and unpleasant things.
May we be daily supplied with the fresh supply of the resurrection life so that we may be renewed in the spirit of our mind for the renewing of the new man!
The Renewing of the New Man depends on our Seeking the Things which are Above and Responding to Christ’s Heavenly Ministry
When our mind is set on the things on the earth, we live in the old man, for the mind as the leading part of our soul is not being renewed.
For the renewing of the new man, we need to seek the things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of the throne of God (Col. 3:1-2; Eph. 2:5-6).
The renewing of the new man depends on our seeking the things which are above.
How can we seek the things which are above? The way is to turn to the spirit and call on the hame of the Lord.
This is the most simple way to turn to Him – simply by calling on the name of the Lord. Christ is right now living to intercede for us, and when we seek the things which are above, we respond to and reflect His activities in His heavenly ministry.
In His heavenly ministry, Christ is very busy, for He is the heavenly High Priest interceding for us, He is the heavenly Minister constantly ministering to us what He is and has accomplished, He is the Administrator of the universe to carry out God’s economy and administrate the universe, and He is the Great Shepherd cherishing us and nourishing us so that we may grow in life unto maturity (Heb. 2:17; 4:14; 7:26; 8:1-2; Rev. 5:6; Col. 3:1-2).
When we seek the things which are above, we respond to His activities in His heavenly ministry and reflect them on the earth as His Body, the one new man.
We are so grateful to the Lord for all that He is doing right now in the heavens, and we want to set our mind on the things which are above, where Christ is in His heavenly ministry, so that we may be renewed for the one new man.
Simply by calling on the name of the Lord, we are connected to the heavens in our spirit.
There is a transmission taking place from Christ in heaven to us on earth by means of the all-inclusive Spirit in our spirit (Eph. 1:19, 22-23; 2:22).
The fourfold power of Christ is toward us who believe, and the Lord is the Head over all things to the church.
Right now, there’s a fourfold power – a resurrecting power, an ascending power, an all-things-subjecting power, and a heading up power – that is being transmitted continually into our being.
As we turn to the Lord in our spirit and remain in the spirit, setting our mind on the things which are above, we experience the divine transmission in our spirit.
Our spirit is the receiving end of the divine transmission, whereas the throne of God in heaven is the transmitting end (Rev. 5:6).
The more we turn to our mingled spirit, we are lifted into heaven; because of the transmission from the throne of God in heaven into our spirit, when we experience and enjoy Christ here on earth, we are simultaneously in heaven (Rev. 4:1-2).
We shouldn’t “wait to go to heaven”; rather, we should simply turn to our spirit, and we will be in the divine transmission, thus being in heavens.
When we turn to our spirit, we’re lifted up in the heaven, and even though we’re on earth, we are at the same time in the heavens! Amen!
May we set our mind on the things which are above and not on the things which are on the earth!
In His heavenly ministry Christ is shepherding people; when we set our mind on the things above, we are renewed and we cooperate with Him by shepherding people (see 1 Pet. 5:1-4; cf. Matt. 9:36; 10:1-6; John 21:15-17; 1 Pet. 2:25; Heb. 13:20).
If we receive such a fellowship and practice it, if we cooperate with Christ’s heavenly ministry by shepherding others according to God, there will be a big revival on the earth to bring the Lord back. Amen!
He has entrusted us His people to shepherd them even as He shepherds them; when we set our mind on the things which are above, we enjoy the heavenly shepherding of Christ, and we cherish and nourish others according to him. Amen!
If we all turn to the heavenly Christ with all His activities and set our mind on these things, the renewing of the new man will take place spontaneously (Heb. 8:1-2; 12:2; Col. 3:2).
This consummates God’s intention in making the believers the new man as the new creation to consummate in the New Jerusalem (Col. 3:10-11; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15-17; Eph. 2:10, 15).
The new man is God’s masterpiece, an absolutely new item in the universe, a new invention of God.
As Christ was dying on the cross, He was inventing something – He was inventing His masterpiece, the one new man! Amen!
God’s goal is to have the one new man that will ultimately consummate in the New Jerusalem, which will be the final consummation of the one new man. Amen!
Lord Jesus, we set our mind on the things which are above, not on the things which are on the earth. We want to seek the things which are above so that we may respond to and reflect Christ’s activities in His heavenly ministry. Amen, Lord Jesus, keep us enjoying the divine transmission taking place from Christ in heaven to us on earth by means of the all-inclusive Spirit in our spirit. We want to remain in this divine transmission to live a heavenly life on earth, responding to and reflecting Christ’s activities in heaven. Amen, Lord, we are one with You to enjoy Your shepherding and shepherd others according to God. We receive Your divine ministering of all that You are so that we may also minister Christ to others. We say Amen to Your intercession, and we pray one with You to carry out Your economy on earth! Amen, Lord, we are one with You, and our mind is set on the things which are above so that we may be renewed for the one new man!
Excelling for the Building up of the Church by Prophesying to Speak for the Lord and Speak Him forth
One way to cooperate with the Lord’s heavenly ministry as we set our mind on the things which are above for the renewing of the new man is for us to prophesy for the building up of the church.
First, we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind and allow the word of Christ to dwell in us richly. We need to enjoy Christ and experience Him, and we need to do this for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
When we come together, we need to learn to speak for the Lord, speak forth the Lord, and speak the Lord into others for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
This is to cooperate with the Lord in His heavenly ministry as the heavenly Minister who ministers the heavens and all the spiritual things into us.
On one hand, we ourselves need to set our mind on the things which are above so that we may be renewed for the renewing of the one new man.
On the other hand, we need to cooperate with Christ’s heavenly ministry to speak for the building up of the church.
When we come together, we need to build up the Body of Christ organically.
If we meet together and have one person speaking and the rest listening, we may gain some spiritual knowledge, but the function of the many believers in the meetings is not released.
However, when we come together and each one of us speaks forth the Lord for just a few minutes, this builds us up.
Even if we speak for two or three minutes with the exercise of our spirit to minister Christ to others, this will build others up, and many will be edified, convicted, corrected, and uplifted.
Our meetings in the church life should be a feast of the riches of Christ, for whenever we come together, each one of us has something of the enjoyment and experience of the riches of Christ.
When we come together, each one of us needs to exercise to speak something of Christ, speak for Christ, and speak Christ into others.
When all the saints in the meeting speak for the Lord, we will have a meeting that is full of nourishing, cherishing, adjusting, and correcting.
There may be someone among us who has a habit that is not so appropriate for the church life or someone who has a hidden sin that no one knows about except him and the Lord.
As we all exercise to speak for the Lord and speak the Lord forth from what we have enjoyed and experienced of Him, the secrets of others’ hearts will be exposed by the Lord’s light, we all will learn, our culture and habits will be touched, and the Lord has to expose the hidden sins and weaknesses. Oh, Lord!
At the same time, the saints are built up, supplied, furnished, and equipped. May we all excel in the building up of the church by prophesying in the church meetings.
When we speak for Christ, all may learn (1 Cor. 14:32) and all are encouraged.
May we all learn to prophesy through experiences, by being equipped with the Word (2 Tim. 3:16-17), by praying unceasingly (1 Thes. 5:17-20), by praying ourselves into the Spirit and walking by the spirit (Gal. 5:16-25), and by practicing.
May we all practice speaking for the Lord and speaking the Lord forth for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Lord Jesus, we want to be those who excel in the building up of the church by prophesying in the church meetings. Amen, Lord, may all our meetings be a feast of the riches of Christ by all the saints exercising to speak for the Lord, speak forth the Lord, and speak the Lord into one another. We give ourselves to You, dear Lord, to enjoy You day by day as we set our mind on the things which are above, where Christ is! Amen, Lord, we want to cooperate in Your heavenly ministry by being one with You to minister Christ to others both personally and in the church meetings. May we all learn to prophesy for the building up of the church as the one new man!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Witness Lee, The Excelling Gift for the Building Up of the Church, Chapter 1, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The All-Inclusive, Extensive Christ Replacing Culture for the One New Man (2020 Thanksgiving Conference), week 4, Being Renewed Day by Day with the Fresh Supply of the Resurrection Life to Replace Our Culture and to Become the One New Man in Reality by Becoming as New as the New Jerusalem.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Set your mind on the things which are above, / Not on the things which are on the earth. / For you died, and your life is / Hidden with Christ in God. (Scripture song)
– To the throne Christ has ascended, / Far above all rule and power; / God has made Him Head o’er all things / To the Church, His Body here. / All in all He ever filleth, / And His fulness is expressed / Through the Church, which is His Body / And His image manifests. (Hymns #823)
– May we be bold and fearless in spirit, / Speaking the Word of God, / Do it in love and do it in power, / While living in the Lord. (Hymns #1295)
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