The genuine ministry of the New Testament always stirs us up to love the Lord Jesus with the first love, strengthening us in the simplicity of eating and enjoying Christ as the tree of life for our life supply; to love Him is to give Him preeminence in all things, being constrained by His love. Amen!
This week we come to a new topic in our morning revival, Loving the Lord with the First Love, Enjoying the Lord as the Tree of life, and being the Golden Lampstand as the Testimony of Jesus for the Building up of the New Jerusalem as the Goal of God’s Eternal Economy.
The primary matter in our Christian life and church life should be taking Christ as our life supply, that is, eating Christ as the tree of life.
We need to eat this tree all the time and in many ways. If we miss this, if we fall from this, that is the beginning of degradation.
The two trees in Gen. 2:9 – the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil – represent two principles of living, the principle of life and the principle of right and wrong.
After God created man, he put him not only in the garden of Eden but in front of two trees, indicating that a choice must be made.
Our whole life is about us making a choice: whether it is for our entire existence or on a daily basis, even on a moment-by-moment basis, we are faced with a decision to either partake of the tree of life or take in the tree of knowledge.
God will never twist our arms to choose the tree of life; He will not force us but will give us a choice.
As believers in Christ, we have the choice of enjoying Christ as the tree of life in our Christian life and church life.
A very practical and sweet way for us to enjoy the tree of life is to be recovered to loving the Lord with our first love, the best love; when we love Him, we are open to Him and eat Him as the tree of life.
We need to be recovered to enjoying Christ as the tree of life to become the reproduction of Christ as the tree of life.
As believers in Christ and children of God, we not only have eternal life and may experience eternal life, but we can also minister this life to the other members of the Body of Christ.
The principle of the tree of life is dependence; the source of the tree of life is God Himself, and the principle is dependence.
If we take the way of depending on God, this will cause us to be a tree of life people who minister life to others.
However, if we choose to be dependent on God by partaking of the tree of knowledge, we will have an autonomous living or even worse, a rebellious living.
God is the source of the tree of life, and our not eating the tree of life is our declaration that we take something else besides God as our source.
This is why the Bible shows that many times our God is full of wrath and jealousy; He gives Himself to us to be our source, but we dig some cisterns, broken cisterns which hold no water, and we reject Him as the fountain of living waters.
May we be those who depend on the Lord, trust in the Lord, and rely on Him even in the smallest things.
And may we love the Lord Jesus with our first love, giving Him the preeminence in all things by faith.
The Genuine Ministry of the New Testament Stirs us up to Love the Lord Jesus with the First Love
![For I am jealous over you with a jealousy of God; for I betrothed you to one husband to present [you as] a pure virgin to Christ. But I fear lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your thoughts would be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity toward Christ. 2 Cor. 11:2-3](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/For-I-am-jealous-over-you-with-a-jealousy-of-God-for-I-betrothed-you-to-one-husband-to-present-683x1024.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "For I am jealous over you with a jealousy of God; for I betrothed you to one husband to present [you as] a pure virgin to Christ. But I fear lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your thoughts would be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity toward Christ. 2 Cor. 11:2-3")
In 2 Tim. 1:15 Paul made a very sad statement, that all the churches in Asia had turned away from him.
He had the betrothing ministry, for through his speaking of the gospel, he betrothed people to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2-3), but all in Asia (including the church in Ephesus) turned away from his ministry.
Approximately twenty-six years later, when the apostle John wrote the epistle to the church in Ephesus, we see that they left their first love and lost the genuine enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life (Rev. 2:4-5, 7).
There are more than one epistles to Ephesians in the New Testament; yes, there is the epistle to the Ephesians, but Paul’s epistles to Timothy were also written to Ephesus, for Timothy was taking the lead there in this strategic church in Asia.
And the third epistle is the Lord’s speaking through John in Rev. 2.
When Paul preached the gospel, he was the minister of the New Testament betrothing people to Christ; when later he heard of the Judaizers coming to preach another gospel, he was jealous over the saints with the jealousy of God.
Through his speaking and ministry, Paul was like a middle man betrothing the sinners who were saved to Christ, the one Husband.
This is what happens to us when we read the Bible and are under the speaking of the genuine ministry of the New Testament: we are stirred up to love the Lord Jesus with the first love.
The true ministers of the New Testament want to present the saved sinners as full-grown in Christ, and they get the listeners engaged to Christ – they are the virgin, He’s the unique husband.
Our concept when we preach the gospel is not just to get sinners saved but to bring them into a love relationship with the Lord so that they would be ready for marriage to Christ.
We need to be those under and in the genuine ministry of the New Testament who not only speak the truth and preach the gospel but stir up others to love the Lord Jesus with the first love.
It is easy to do things for God without loving Him, and it can happen that, as time goes by, our love for the Lord grows cold.
We need to remain under the ministry of the New Testament to be stirred up in our love for the Lord Jesus.
The genuine ministry of the New Testament always stirs us up to love the Lord Jesus with the first love, strengthening us in the simplicity of eating and enjoying Christ as the tree of life for our life supply (2 Cor. 11:2-3; 3:3-6).
If we listen to something, a preaching or a sermon or a sharing, and our love for the Lord Jesus is not stirred up, we are not listening to the genuine ministry of the New Testament.
![Since you are being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone but in tablets of hearts of flesh. And such confidence we have through Christ toward God, Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God, Who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, [ministers] not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 2 Cor. 3:3-6 This you know, that all who are in Asia turned away from me...2 Tim. 1:15](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Since-you-are-being-manifested-that-you-are-a-letter-of-Christ-ministered-by-us-inscribed-not-with-ink-683x1024.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "Since you are being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone but in tablets of hearts of flesh. And such confidence we have through Christ toward God, Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God, Who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, [ministers] not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 2 Cor. 3:3-6 This you know, that all who are in Asia turned away from me...2 Tim. 1:15")
The genuine ministry always stirs up to love the Lord Jesus with the best love, the first love, and it keeps us in the simplicity of eating Christ as the tree of life.
We are not here to merely gain more knowledge and accumulate more doctrines; we are here to love the Lord Jesus in a deeper way, even love Him with the best, the highest, the first love.
May we remain in the simplicity of loving the Lord with the first love and enjoying Him as the tree of life.
Satan came in to deceive Eve by his craftiness, and he is coming in today to corrupt the believers’ thoughts from the simplicity and purity toward Christ.
When we listen to the enemy’s doubts, we are no longer simple in our love for the Lord Jesus; we may still love the Lord, but not with the first and best love. Oh, Lord!
May we be those who remain in simplicity and purity, loving the Lord Jesus with the best love and eating Him as the tree of life for our life and life supply.
May we not be distracted from the enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life but give ourselves to be under the genuine ministry of the New Testament and love the Lord Jesus with the first love, the best love.
Yes, we do need to have a job, have a family, take care of so many practical things, and fulfil our human responsibilities, but we need to remain in the simplicity and pure toward Christ.
We need to simply love the Lord every day and love the Lord Jesus with the best love, the first love.
Lord Jesus, we love You! We give ourselves to just love You and enjoy You as the tree of life. Save us from being deceived by the enemy and from having our thoughts corrupted from the simplicity and purity toward Christ. Purify our thoughts. Make us so simple in loving the Lord and eating Him as the tree of life. Amen, Lord Jesus, keep us under the genuine ministry of the New Testament to be stirred up in our love for the Lord Jesus and be simplified in our eating Him as the tree of life. May we not be distracted from loving the Lord and eating Him as the tree of life by the things we need to do outwardly in our family life or church life. Lord, keep our heart loving You and pursuing after You to enjoy You as the tree of life!
Being Recovered to Loving Christ with the First Love by Giving Him the Preeminence and being Constrained by His Love
Many times as we read the Bible and the life-study messages, our reaction is simply that we love the Lord Jesus with the best love.
We simply pray in simplicity thanking the Lord for what He is, for His loveliness and sweetness, and we give ourselves to love this most pleasant One.
The Lord today is recovering us to loving Christ with the first love by giving Him the first place, the preeminence, in all things (Rev. 2:4-5; Col. 1:18b; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Mark 12:30; Psa. 73:25-26).
In His recovery, the Lord is recovering Christ Himself as the unique Husband for us to love; we are being recovered to loving the Lord Jesus with the best love.
As we fellowship with the Lord personally and get into the word of God and the genuine ministry of the New Testament, we are stirred up in our love for the Lord Jesus and we simply give ourselves to love Him.
![But I have [one thing] against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore where you have fallen from and repent and do the first works; but if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent. Rev. 2:4-5](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/But-I-have-one-thing-against-you-that-you-have-left-your-first-love-2-683x1024.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "But I have [one thing] against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore where you have fallen from and repent and do the first works; but if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent. Rev. 2:4-5")
We believers in Christ were not only redeemed through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, reconciled to God through the death of Jesus, and brought back to God as our portion.
We were also betrothed to Christ as our Husband, and we love the Lord, appreciate Him, and belong to Him.
The more we give ourselves to love the Lord by being in the meetings with the saints and under the ministry of the New Testament, the more we’re kept, sanctified, saturated and filled with Christ; the result is that we love the Lord Jesus with the best love.
We are here for the Lord, so we are attracted to Him, love Him, appreciate Him, and treasure Him.
What does our love for the Lord have to do with eating the tree of life?
We can eat the tree of life only when we are open to the Lord, and loving the Lord causes us to be open to Him.
Our appetite for the Lord is increased as we love Him. If we have a problem with our appetite, if we have a problem with our digestion spiritually, we need to check the condition of our heart: do we love the Lord Jesus with the best love?
Where is our heart? What does our heart love right now? Is our love toward the Lord mixed with alloy?
Or is our love for the Lord still pure and single? The Lord doesn’t just want us to love Him; He wants us to love Him with all of our heart, all of our mind, and all of our strength.
When we love the Lord Jesus with the first love, we give Him preeminence in all things, and eating Him as the tree of life will become the most important order of business for us.
We may think that we love the Lord, but we actually don’t give Him the first place in a particular matter.
Until the Lord gets rid of that broken cistern, we have not given Him the first place.
We need to be constrained by the Lord’s love to regard Him and take Him as everything in our life.
He really wants to become everything to us so that we may exclaim like the Psalmist, Who do I have in heaven but You, and there’s nothing I desire on earth but You.
A lot of times we argue with the Lord, we fight with Him, and we negotiate with Him here and there.
We simply refuse to be subdued, for we have our own mind, and our own plans and we try to make our own future and make our decision. In so many things we still do not give the Lord the first place in our life.
So He is faithful to draw us to Himself, show us His beauty, and even constrain us with His love until we yield to Him, love the Lord Jesus with the best love, and give up any other sources besides Him. This is not something that we grit our teeth and do it; it doesn’t work like this.
Sometimes our heart is hardened and we debate with the Lord, we argue with Him, and we are not willing to do His will.
But we can still pray that the Lord would constrain us with His love and not let us win but cause us to love the Lord Jesus with the best love.
May we be saved from being distracted from the Lord to the other tree, the tree of knowledge.
God’s goal is life, signified by the tree of life; but the enemy, Satan, is trying to distract us from loving the Lord and enjoying Him as our life.
Satan wants us to gain more knowledge, teachings, and doctrines, as long as these distract us from loving the Lord and enjoying Him as the tree of life.
Any kind of teaching that causes our enjoyment of Christ to cease is something of death, no matter how good that teaching may be. Oh, Lord.
May we remain in the enjoyment of Christ under the genuine ministry of the New Testament, and may we love the Lord with the best love!
Dear Lord Jesus, our Bridegroom, we love You! Thank You for Your word and for Your love toward us. We give ourselves to just love You. We are part of Your virgin, and You are the most pleasant and wonderful One. We love You, Lord. Constrain us with Your love. Constrain us to give You the first place in all things. Amen, Lord, we give You the preeminence in all things by faith. Soften our heart and keep our heart pure toward You. Have a way to subdue us and make us submissive to You in love. Amen, Lord, soften our hardened heart and make it soft toward You. Draw us with Your love. Show us Your beauty. Keep our heart loving You. Keep us enjoying You as the tree of life. We belong to You, dear Lord Jesus. We focus on You only.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chen in the message, and portions from, Life-study of 2 Corinthians, pp. 462-470 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life (2022 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 3, entitled, Loving the Lord with the First Love, Enjoying the Lord as the Tree of Life, and Being the Golden Lampstand as the Testimony of Jesus for the Building up of the New Jerusalem as the Goal of God’s Eternal Economy.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Something every heart is loving: / If not Jesus, none can rest; / Lord, my heart to Thee is given; / Take it, for it loves Thee best. / Thus I cast the world behind me; / Jesus most beloved shall be; / Beauteous more than all things beauteous, / He alone is joy to me. (Hymns #547)
– Lord Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine; / For Thee all the pleasures of sin I resign; / My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou, / If ever I loved Thee, Lord Jesus, ’tis now. / I love Thee, because Thou hast first loved me, / And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree; / I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow; / If ever I loved Thee, Lord Jesus, ’tis now. (Hymns #544)
– Thy mighty love, O God, constraineth me, / As some strong tide it presseth on its way, / Seeking a channel in my self-bound soul, / Yearning to sweep all barriers away. / Shall I not yield to that constraining power? / Shall I not say, O tide of love, flow in? / My God, Thy gentleness hath conquered me, / Life cannot be as it hath hither been. (Hymns #431)
About aGodMan
The goal of the Lord’s recovery…is to recover Christ Himself as the only husband we love. We should only belong to Christ. As long as we can dedicate ourselves to this husband as chaste virgins, loving him, appreciating him, and belonging to him, we are preserved. This preserves, sanctifies, saturates, and transforms us. …We are all for Him, and we should all be attracted to Him, love Him, appreciate Him, and treasure Him. In 2 Corinthians 11:3,…the apostle Paul…indicates that the teaching of the Jewish zealots is like the deceitful words the serpent spoke to Eve in Genesis 3…As we read Genesis 3, we know that the serpent distracted Eve from her enjoyment of the tree of life. The serpent pointed Eve to another tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which brought into death, thereby diverting her from the enjoyment of the tree of life. Life-study of 2 Corinthians, pp. 544-546, by Witness Lee
it is so good to be under the genuine ministry of the New Testament which stirs us in loving the Lord with the first love.
The goal of the Lord’s recovery is to recover Christ Himself as the unique Husband for us to love so that we may enjoy Him as the tree of life.
In Revelation 2:7 we see Christ the crucified and resurrected one for us to enjoy as our life and life supply for God’s building.
However, in 2 Corinthians 11 the Apostle Paul reminds us that Satan – the serpent – can deceive us and distract us and separate us from enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life through his craftiness in turning us to the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil.
Therefore we must see that only the genuine ministry can cause us to love and enjoy the Lord as pure virgins as our dear bridegroom, the one husband we are betrothed to.
Praise the Lord brother, we need to love the Lord with our first love. Giving Him the first place in all things. So that we may enjoy Him today as the tree of life in the church as a foretaste. And in the kingdom age in the paradise of God ( the New Jerusalem) as the full taste for eternity! Eph 2:4-5; 7 footnotes (first, love verse 4) (paradise verse 7)
Any kind of teaching that causes your enjoyment of the Lord to cease is something of death, no matter how good that teaching seems to be. However, the genuine ministry of the Lord always strengthens us in the enjoyment of Him as our life supply.
Rev 2:4 but I have one thing against you that you have left your first love.
Rev 2:7…to him who overcomes to him I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God.
Gods goal is to recover Christ Himself as the unique Husband for us to love. … we are for Him and we should be attracted to Him loving Him appreciating Him and treasuring Him…
This is the first love
Really enjoying this marvelous Principle of Life which is a Wondeful Person our Dear Lord Jesus, living dwelling working moving and acting in us so we do not need to do anything but eat Him love Him , enjoy Him learn to drop our opinions learn to forget about right and wrong, learn to not analyse His operating within us and the more we just take heed to our spirit pay attention to our spirit we will have a stronger keener sense of this wonderful person living moving working acting from within. I love it
God’s Economy again and again is training us to simply stop and eat the Tree of Life.
God’s goal is life but Satan seeks to separate us from the enjoyment of God as our life. We need to be saved from the deceiving one who intends to corrupt our thoughts from the simplicity and purity toward Christ.
amen Brother may we be those who under his word and his ministry which wilk stir up. our love for the Lord and may we learn to take the Lord as our first love and enjoy as the tree of life and not be distracted from the enemy tactics to bring us unto knowledge
Amen…draw us, recover us..save us lord Jesus
Amen Lord! Keep us and the saints, under the bethrothing ministry, God’s goal is life and how do we choose life! In loving Jehovah our God!
Amen Lord, thank You for Your bestowing ministry which sters up our first love for You! Keep us enjoying You as the first love for our love for You and the church to be perfected!
Amen! Let’s stay on the line of life brother!
Amen. Lord keep us enjoying you as the tree of life!
Without the condition of love, we cannot be the proper eaters of Christ. Nothing but love can keep us in a proper relationship with the Lord.