There are many children of God who desire to serve the Lord but they do it in a wrong way, not according to the divine revelation in the Bible; they may not be wrong in their doctrine or heart for the Lord, but they are wrong in their way of serving God. We need to be adjusted in our way of serving the Lord so that all our service to God would originate not merely from our mind or from our heart but from our spirit!
Paul testified that he served God in his spirit in the gospel of His Son (Rom. 1:9) – our spirit and the gospel are the means by which we serve God and the realm in which we serve God. We serve God by our spirit and in our spirit; we serve God in the realm of the gospel.
A good example of serving God in a wrong way is Paul who, before he was saved, served God in a natural way and thus put to death or into prison the people of God. Saul – who later became Paul – spent his whole life serving God in two very different ways – his original way of serving God was 100% natural, serving God in his flesh, in his soul, and in the confidence that he had in the flesh (see Phil 3, where he says he had a race, nationality, learning, zeal, self-righteousness, and confidence of serving God) – with the result of persecuting Christ and His believers.
We could repeat this same mistake that Paul did if we serve God in a natural way. Eventually, Paul’s service was revolutionised: he learned to serve God in his mingled spirit, and he testified that he served God in his spirit and in the gospel.
We need to know our spirit, treasure our spirit, learn to live in the mingled spirit, and learn the lesson of serving God in our spirit.
For All the Requirements related to the Believers we need the Divine Dispensing!
How can we serve God? Before we can serve God, we need the divine supply through the divine dispensing of the processed Triune God.
Especially in announcing the gospel, we need to receive the divine dispensing, because our preaching of the gospel is actually our flowing out the Triune God to others, flowing out the surplus of the Triune God whom we have enjoyed.
No one can dispense the Triune God into others without first receiving the supply; first we drink God and then we can flow Him out. For all the requirements related to the believers revealed in the New Testament, especially that of announcing the gospel of God, we need to receive the divine supply of the Body through the dispensing of the processed Triune God (see Eph. 3:2; Heb. 4:16; Rom. 5:17, 21; John 7:37-38; Acts 6:4; Phil. 1:5-6, 19-25).
How can we worship God, serve God, labor for God, and work for God if we are not under the divine dispensing? The only way we can serve God, not love the world, overcome Satan, fight the good fight, be profited by all things in all our circumstances, have the best attitude toward others, and watch and pray is by constantly receiving the divine supply through the divine dispensing of the Triune God.
If we don’t enjoy the divine dispensing moment-by-moment, we cannot live the Christian life. Only the dispensed processed Triune God in us can live the Christian life and can serve God; only Christ being revealed in us, living in us, and being formed in us can live the Christian life and can serve God.
As seen in John 4 with the Samaritan woman who had some sort of religious opinions while yet living in sin, before we can truly worship God we need the dispensing of God into us. The woman at the well received the divine dispensing from the Lord, she drank, and then she flowed to all those in her city.
To worship God, we need to receive the life supply. The most important thing in our service to God is to serve by the Lord’s supply; the greatest danger in our service is to serve by something other than the divine dispensing.
After a period of time we may get busy, we may be occupied with many necessary and proper things in caring for the saints and the church, but we may neglect the receiving of the divine supply; this may lead to being dried up and not being able to continue to serve the Lord.
The first thing we need to do, even early when we wake up in the morning, is to open to the Lord and receive the divine dispensing so that we may be filled with Him and flow Him out to others; this is our service to God.
Lord Jesus, we open to You to receive the divine supply through Your divine dispensing. Save us from neglecting to receive the divine supply as we live the Christian life and serve you! Oh Lord, cause us to realize that, for all the requirements related to us as believers revealed in the New Testament, we need to constantly receive the divine dispensing of the processed Triune God! Dispense Yourself into us today! May we be under the divine dispensing, constantly receiving the supply, so that all things may work out unto salvation!
Serving God is Worshipping God, and our God must be Living to us in our Daily Life
We need to see that our service to God in the gospel is our worship to God; in the New Testament, serving God is actually the same as worshipping God.
When the Lord Jesus was tempted by Satan to worship him, He clearly told him, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve (see Matt. 4:9-10); here the Lord uses serving God and worshipping God interchangeably.
If we see that our service to God is our worship to God, we will be revolutionised in our service to God.
What does it mean to worship God? If we put together Song of Songs 1:2 and Psa. 2:11-12 we will see that worshipping God involves kissing Him, being in an intimate fellowship with Him. The basic Greek word for worship in the New Testament is used 56 times and is proskineos, pros – toward, and kineos – kiss; to worship God is to move toward Him and have a personal and intimate contact with Him!
First we need to draw near to God, eliminate any distance between us and Him, and then we need to contact Him in a most personal, affectionate, and intimate way; this is serving God. To serve God is to worship Him, to minister to Him, and this is to draw near to Him and contact Him.
Receiving the divine supply is the prerequisite for our service – this is not just the source of our service, but enjoying God as our supply is our service, and it is our worship to Him!
Paul says in 1 Thes. 1:9 that the believers in Thessalonica turned from the idols to serve a living and true God; this service of God involves a total living – their total living was to serve idols, but now their total living is to serve a living and true God.
We as believers in Christ used to serve idols as slaves, having our total living toward Satan, but now we serve God as slaves, having a total living toward God. What does it mean that our God is a living and true God?
By our daily life we prove that God is living. If God were not living, our daily life would be very different from what it is. Our present living is a testimony that the God whom we serve is living. He is living in us, and He controls us, directs us, and deals with us. He will not let us go. Rather, in many matters He corrects us and adjusts us. The fact that God controls us and directs us, even in such small things as our thoughts and motives, is a proof that He is living. We live under the control, direction, and correction of a living God. As believers in Christ we must live a life which bears the testimony that the God we worship and serve is living in the details of our life. The proper Christian life should bear a testimony that God is living. The reason we do not do or say certain things should be that God is living in us. The God whom we worship and serve is living not only in the heavens but also in us. We have turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God. No doubt, when God is living to us in our experience, He is also true. (Witness Lee, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1827-1830)
Our God must be living to us and in us in every aspect of our daily life; we need to contact Him, talk to Him, and let Him speak to us concerning all the things in our being, family life, church life, and work life.
To serve a living and true God means that God controls us, directs us, corrects us, and adjusts us even in such small things as our thoughts and motives (Phil. 1:8; 2:5, 13; 1:20).
When we let the Lord correct us and adjust us in everything, we will be inwardly supplied to live the Christian life and to serve God, and our living will be a pattern of the glad tidings that we spread (see 1 Thes. 1:5-8; 2:10; 2 Thes. 3:5).
Paul was a pattern to those in Thessalonica, reminding them of what kind of living and behavior he had among them; when we live under the control, direction, and correction of a living God, we will be a pattern, a living out of the gospel that we preach. Amen!
As believers in Christ, we must live a life in our spirit, a life which bears the testimony that the God whom we worship and serve is living in the details of our daily life. This means that the reason we don’t do something or say something or go to a certain place is not because it’s wrong or bad (so we have to say something good) but because God is living in us.
Others may be governed by the principle of doing good vs doing bad, but we are governed and controlled by the living God who is in us!
Hallelujah, our God is living, and we serve a living and true God in our spirit in the gospel of His Son! Lord, we want to draw near to You, eliminate any distance between us and You, and just have an intimate and personal contact with You. Praise the Lord, our service to God is our worship to God! And our God is living: He lives in us and inwardly supplies us, waters us, nourishes us, and at the same time adjusts us, controls us, corrects us, and directs us in everything. Lord, we want to live a life in the mingled spirit to bear the testimony that the God whom we worship and serve is living in the details of our life!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message for this week, and The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 168 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Service for the Building up of the Church (2016 Spring ITERO), week 3 / msg. 3, Serving God in our Spirit in the Gospel of His Son.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# In spirit and in truth, O Lord, / We meet to worship here; / As taught by Christ, the Son of God, / We now in Him draw near. (Hymns #865)
# We can eat, we can drink, / We can enjoy God, / By loving His priceless presence; / We can eat, we can drink, / We can enjoy God / By calling His precious name. / We need to love the Lord / And keep His pure Word, / And wear Christ as our clothes; / We need to call His name, / In Him remain, / In Him, our soul-life lose. (Song on Enjoying God)
# By the spirit I can walk, / Spiritual in spirit be; / By the spirit I can serve, / And in spirit worship Thee. (Hymns #782)
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The believers experience the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity in various…aspects, including serving and worshipping God, working and laboring for the Lord, not loving the world, overcoming Satan, fighting the good fight, running the course of the race, being profited by all things in their circumstances and environments, having the best attitude toward others, and watching and praying. For all of these matters we surely need the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. However, few Christians realize this. We need to see that in order to carry out these matters, we need God’s divine supply, which comes to us through His divine dispensing. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 1827, by Witness Lee)
“In ourselves we cannot meet any of the divine requirements. But through the divine dispensing we can worship God in a way that satisfies Him…. Serving God is actually the same as worshipping God. You cannot serve God without worshipping Him, neither you can worship Him without serving Him…..”
Amen…. Yes the first thing we need to do early in the morning is to open to the Lord, come to the Lord and received the divine dispensing so that we may be filled,flow and Grow with Him….
It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. And sing praises unto our God!!! Psalm 75:1, Best done in the morning, when the gears are still in neutral, and the cares and anxieties of life hasn’t started rolling!!! In the mind is unbelief, but in the spirit is righteousness which leads to life in order to live by faith(the book of Romans is condensced in these three words—the RIGHTEOUS shall have LIFE and live by FAITH! This word should be a banner for God’s New Testament economy, which is altogether a matter of faith(1Tim 1:4), Witness Lee. We need the Body(like it or not, cause that is how God designed it). We are not little clay figurines in our little cubby holes, preoccupied with our personal spiritualities. The Lord is after a blending, an mingling, a co-inhering, He is after His corporate expression consummating in the New Jerusalem!