Seek the Things Above by being in Spirit to Enjoy our Hidden Life with Christ in God

Since we were raised together with Christ, we need to seek the things above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God; when we call on the name of the Lord and pray, we are in spirit, and in spirit we’re one spirit with the Lord, enjoying the reality of all that He is to us. Hallelujah!

The book of Colossians was written by Paul to the saints in Colosse to deal with many of the problems that he saw in that church.

The unique solution offered by Paul was the all-inclusive, extensive Christ. Christ is the mystery of God, and in Him, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.

Philosophies and Gnosticism, culture and the elements of the world, and all the other things are quite interesting and many of them are moral and ethical, but they do not compare to Christ.

If we read and pray over the book of Colossians we will be very much encouraged, for on the negative side, the Lord has a way of exposing the many replacements of Christ in our being and, on the positive side, Christ is our rich, all-inclusive portion.

What a Christ we have!

This Christ is not someone objective to us, someone outside of us that we know about and appreciate.

He is a subjective Christ, and He is right in us as the hope of glory.

We are growing into Him to be full-grown in Christ, and we have been rooted into Christ so that we may walk in Christ.

We do all things according to Christ, for we died with Christ and we were made alive together with Him.

We hold to Him as the Head, and out from Him flows the rich supply for us as members of the Body to function in a normal way and to build up the Body in love.

What a Christ we have! He is the mystery of God, and in Him, all the treasures of genuine wisdom and knowledge are hidden.

Paul’s life was a quest to know Christ, enjoy Christ, experience Christ, explore Christ, obtain Christ, and gain Christ.

He was laid hold of by Christ, and now he was laying hold of Christ.

The Christ whom we worship is not a distant, cold, almighty, and outside-of-us Christ; He has come into us to be our very life, He lives in us, and He mingles Himself with us to make us the same as He is.

Christ became the same as we are – He became a man, so that He may make us the same as He is.

In Christ, we are a new man, and we are becoming the Body of Christ, the corporate expression of Christ.

This is what we are in the spiritual realm, and we can understand, apprehend, and become what the Bible tells us we are only by exercising our spirit and by being in the mingled spirit.

May we be those who seek the things above, where Christ is, so that we enjoy our hidden life with Christ in God.

Being Saved from Introspection by Contacting the Lord and Enjoying Him in Spirit

The enemy is very subtle; if he cannot defeat us or hinder us from pursuing Christ by bringing in problems, troubles, suffering, and persecution, he will use something in our own being to stop our going on with the Lord.

Many times we may read the Bible and see all the wonderful truths concerning how much Christ is to us, what He is for us, and what He wants to do in us, but we may look at ourselves, check with our own condition, and may be quite disappointed and discouraged.

We may be introspective, looking at what we are by nature and focusing on our condition and realizing that we’re not up to what the Bible says.

Actually, the more we know concerning God’s economy, the more we remain in the church life, and the more we love the Lord, the more there’s the danger of introspection.

We read and enjoy about the all-inclusive Christ and we may turn in on ourselves and consider how poor our experience of Christ is, and how high these matters to us, compared to our experience.

Instead of taking this to our advantage and open to the Lord to tell Him to grow in us and take us on with Him, we may be introspective and analyze ourselves. Oh, Lord.

In Song of Songs 2:9, there is a reference to a wall between the loving seeker and Christ, the Beloved.

There’s a wall there; this refers to something that plagues many of us, especially if we love the Lord and pursue Him in the church life with the saints.

We may even have attended the full-time training and may have served for a few years, achieving a certain level of experience, but now we may work full-time, we may have a family with children and many responsibilities, and our experience and enjoyment may not be as high as we used to.

It seems that, according to our introspection, we are not that useful, we did not go on so much with the Lord, and we may even stop in our going on with the Lord. Oh, Lord!

This is something we should be aware of, the danger of introspection.

According to our own perception, it seems that we stopped and did not advance with the Lord.

But according to the Lord, He’s leaping and skipping on the hills, not being held back by any introspection; He’s in resurrection and ascension, calling us to Himself.

Every spiritual person falls into introspection, an over-caring for their spiritual condition before the Lord.

We need to learn to go to the Lord and contact Him afresh, opening to Him.

We may hear so much about enjoying the all-inclusive Christ, growing with the growth of God, turning the age, and being those who bring the Lord back, the overcoming ones.

But as we hear about these matters, it’s easy to turn in on ourselves, be overly preoccupied with our own condition, and consider we’re so poor, lacking in experience, and having a lack of enjoyment of Christ.

Oh, may the Lord have mercy on us that we forget about ourselves.

Our condition is always poor, but the Lord is always rich, all-inclusive, and vast!

We need to look away from ourselves and unto Jesus, contacting the Lord in spirit and in the word!

Whenever the enemy uses this way of trying to stop us contacting the Lord by luring us into introspection, may we use this to even more desperately turn to the Lord and enjoy Him!

May we lose sight of our condition and focus only on Christ; He is the Author and perfecter of our faith – He started this, He is perfecting us, and He will take us all the way through (Heb. 12:2-3)!

Instead of being occupied with our own condition, may we focus on Christ, turn away from anything else unto Him, and enjoy Him afresh by exercising our spirit.

And all the rich and high truths we enjoy in the Word and in the ministry need to become our prayer, focusing not on our condition but on the Lord’s work in us and in the church.

Lord Jesus, we love You. Save us from overcaring for our spiritual condition to the point that we’re discouraged with where we are. Oh Lord, may we learn to turn away from anything else and look away unto Jesus. We want to focus not on our condition but on Jesus Christ, the Author and Perfecter of our faith! Oh, what a Christ we have! He is all-inclusive and rich, and we all have been allotted a portion of Christ. Amen, Lord, we refuse to be overconcerned with our spiritual condition and we focus on Christ, for He is the worthy One, the most lovely One, and the all-inclusive One. We look away into Your face, Lord, to be infused with You. Work Yourself into us a little more today. We turn from ourselves to You. We want to lose sight of ourselves and just focus on You. You are what matters. Amen, Lord, the indwelling Christ is what we care for. Grow in us. Bring us to maturity. Build Yourself into us. Build us into You and build us up with the saints!

Seek the Things Above by being in Spirit to Enjoy our Hidden Life with Christ in God

Col. 3:1-4 is a wonderful portion of God’s word showing us what is our position, reality, and destiny.

We believers in Christ were raised together with Christ, and we are now at the right hand of God, one with Christ.

We died with Christ, our life is hidden with Christ in God, and when He as our life is manifested, we will also be manifested with Him in glory. Amen!

This is what the Lord prayed for in John 17:24 when He said, Father, concerning that which You have given Me, I desire that they also may be with Me where I am.

To be with the Lord where He is means that we are in Him, in the Father. Our real position is to be in Christ.

How can this be our reality, and how can we experience this? Merely understanding the facts and thanking the Lord for the fact is not enough: the reality of this is in our spirit.

What makes this real is that we are one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17).

We need to exercise our spirit and set our mind on the things which are above, for our life is hidden with Christ in God.

Simply seek the things above, where Christ is.

Our spirit, our human spirit, is connected to the heavens; there is a divine transmission going on in our spirit from the Lord in the heavens to our spirit.

When we turn to our spirit, when we contact the Lord in spirit, we are in God and God is in us.

There’s a heavenly transmission going on all the time, even when we’re sleeping, from the throne of God in the heavens and our spirit on the earth; we can come forward to the throne of grace in our spirit by calling on the name of the Lord and fellowshipping with the Lord in spirit (Heb. 4:16).

When we are in our spirit, we experience the divine transmission fo what God is into our being.

We need to ask ourselves where are we: in heaven or on earth.

We shouldn’t be introspective and over-consider our condition, concluding that we’re on earth and there’s not much we do about it.

Rather, we need to turn to our spirit, for when we’re in spirit, we’re in the heavens.

When we’re focusing on our condition or on the things of the earth, we are on the earth and even under the earth.

But when we seek the things above and are in spirit, we enjoy our hidden life with God, and we’re in the heavens. This should be our daily experience.

Many times, however, we need to admit that one minute we’re in the heavens and the very next minute we’re on the earth, even in death.

We may enjoy the Lord in the morning in our time with Him, but then at breakfast, our spouse may say something or something may happen to pull us down and out of our spirit, even to the lowest pit. Oh, Lord!

This is our situation so many times, and this was the situation with Peter in Matt. 16.

One minute, Peter was in spirit, receiving divine revelation from the Father concerning Christ, the Son of the living God (v. 18); the next minute, he was one with Satan and opened the gates of Hades, trying to frustrate God’s plan by expressing his good opinion and care for the Lord. Oh, Lord Jesus!

May we see and realize that we have been raised together with Christ, and now our life is hidden with Christ in God.

May we choose to set our mind on the things above, not on the things on the earth, for our life is Christ and in Christ.

We died and now our life is hidden in Christ in God. The way for us to seek the things above is to turn to our spirit and call on the name of the Lord.

We may not be able to do this audibly but at least inwardly we can call, Oh Lord Jesus! Looord Jeeesuuus!

When we call on the name of the Lord, we are saved (Acts 2:21) and even more, we enjoy the riches of Christ, for He is rich to all who call on His name (Rom. 10:13).

Our life is hidden with Christ in God; when we contact the Lord by exercising our spirit to call on His name, we are lifted out of ourselves and brought into God.

When others come and speak things to us, the enemy can use these things to draw us out of our spirit; may we remain in spirit, setting our mind on the things above so that we may enjoy our hidden life with Christ.

Since our life is hidden with Christ in God, who is in the heavens, we should no longer care for things on the earth.

Rather, God should be the sphere of our living. We should live in God, with God, and one with God.

When Christ is manifested, we also will be manifested with Him in glory.

Today our life is hidden with Christ in God, but as we enjoy Him as life, partake of Him as life, and live Him out, Christ our life will be manifested, and one day this life will be manifested in glory (Col. 3:4). Hallelujah!

Lord Jesus, we praise You for raising us together with Christ and seating us with Him in the heavenlies. Hallelujah, we are now in Christ and Christ is in us! Amen, Lord, our life is hidden with Christ in God. We set our mind on the things which are above, where Christ is. Our life is not here, nor is our life something of our natural man; our life is God Himself! Amen, Lord, fill us with Yourself! We take You as our life. We seek the things above. We choose not to focus on anything on the earth but on Christ, who is our life! Hallelujah, we have died, and now our life is hidden with Christ in God! We turn to You, Lord, and we want to remain in our spirit! We open to receiving the divine transmission of all that God is to us! Praise the Lord, in our spirit we are connected to Christ, who constantly flows in us to supply us to live a heavenly life on the earth! Hallelujah!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ray Mulligan in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Colossians, msg. 27, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Enjoyment of Christ and our Growth in Life unto Maturity (2023 Thanksgiving Blending Conference), week 4, entitled, Knowing the All-inclusive Christ and Growing with the Growth of God.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – “Christ in you, the hope of glory” – the believers’ union with Christ as revealed in Colossians, article by David Yoon in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – What Hebrews 12:2 Says About the Source of Faith, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – The All-inclusive Christ As the Believers’ Portion, a portion from, The Economy and Dispensing of God, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee.
  – The believers’ union with the Triune God in His organic salvation, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Seek New Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Above, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – By Christ’s resurrection power through His fellowship, a portion from, Life-Study of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs, Chapter 13, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Once by nature we were dead in sin, / In a world of utter discord; / But together God has quickened us, / Raised us up to sit together with the Lord. / Jesus is getting us together, / Come and see the saints in one accord. / His love is knitting us together, / To the stature of the fullness of the Lord. (Hymns #1232 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – 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)
  – Look away! O look away! / Look to Jesus now today! / Look away from everything unto Jesus, / Look away from everything to Him! / Look away from all around—Hallelujah, / Look away from all the strife and din; / Look away where peace is found—Hallelujah, / Look away from everything to Him. (Hymns #1206 stanza 2 and chorus)