Having the Subjective Experience of Christ as Life for the Building up of the Body of Christ

The Gospel of John, which is a book on the subjective truths, reveals that we should have subjective experiences of Christ; in this Gospel, we see so many ways for us to have the subjective experience of Christ as life.

This gospel is not on objective truths that have nothing to do with our daily living; rather, it is full of Christ presenting Himself as our life, life supply, the bread of life, the light of life, food, drink, living water, and everything for us to experience and enjoy.

It is a book entirely about subjective truths; we do need the objective truth and the doctrines, but all of this is so that we would have the subjective experience of Christ as the reality of all the truths.

For example, there’s a power plant that produces a lot of energy, it is so powerful and full of electricity, but in our house, we need to experience the electrical power, so there needs to be a transmission of this great power to us to become our experience.

The Gospel of John is a book on subjective truths; it reveals that we should have a subjective experience of Christ.

In this book, we see that Christ came as the embodiment of the Word of God to express, define, explain, and make God known to us.

He came that we may have life and may have it abundantly, and He willingly lays down His soul life for us to have the divine life.

Again and again in the Gospel of John we see how the Lord Jesus says that He is the bread of life, the living bread, the bread that came out of heaven from God for us to eat.

There’s nothing objective about the food; food is something very subjective, for it enters our system and even becomes us.

Similarly, He calls all those who are thirsty to come to Him and drinking, promising that He will give us rest, He will quench our thirst, and when we drink of Him we will never thirst again.

What is this? This is a subjective experience of Christ as the life and life supply for us to enjoy Him, partake of Him, digest Him, be constituted with Him, and have Him as our organic constituent.

He Himself said that, as He lived because of the Father who sent Him, so we who eat Him will also live because of Him (John 6:57). Amen!

When we read this gospel, we are impressed with how much God in Christ is to us for us to experience and enjoy.

We need to exercise our spirit over the Word of God and convert the objective truth into subjective truths; when the Lord shines on us through His Word, we will not only see more of Him but we will enter into the subjective experience of Christ.

And this experience of Christ that is so subjective, real, and organic, is for the building up of the organic Body of Christ, the church, for Him to have a corporate expression on earth today.

Having the Subjective Experience of Christ as Life for the Building up of the Body of Christ

The Gospel of John is a book on the subjective experience of Christ as life (see John 1:4; 3:15-16; 10:10; 11:25; 14:6a).

This book doesn’t emphasize doctrines but the subjective experience of Christ as life.

He came as the Word of God incarnated to be a man, and in Him was life, and this life was the light of men.

Those who believe into Him have eternal life; all those who receive Him by believing into Him receive the divine life to become children of God, those born not of the will of man but of God (John 1:12-13).

Christ came so that we may have life (the divine life) and may have it abundantly (10:10); He came so that all those who believe into Him may receive life, enjoy life, experience life, and be filled with life in an abundant way.

Christ is the resurrection and the life; He is both life and resurrection – He is the life that continues to live even after death (11:25).

Christ is the way, the reality, and the life; He is the life, the real life, and this life is for us to receive, enjoy, experience, and live by today (14:6).

Regarding life, the Father is the source of life, the Son is the embodiment of life, and the Spirit is the Giver of life (John 5:26; 1:4; 6:63).

The source of life is the Father; He is the source of the divine life.

The embodiment of the divine life is Christ, the Son; in Him was life, and life is embodied in Him.

The Giver of life is the Spirit; the flesh profits nothing – it is the Spirit who gives life, and the words that the Lord is speaking to us in an active and living way, these are Spirit and are life (John 6:63).

The result of our receiving the divine life, enjoying the divine life, and living by the divine life is that we grow in life and overflow with life for the building up and increase of the Body of Christ (John 7:37-39; 15:1-8).

Without the subjective experience of Christ as life and without the growth of life within us, we cannot build up the church.

Without the growth in life and the overflow of the divine life, the church will not have an increase; it all has to do with this life – it all has to do with our subjective experience of Christ as life.

We need to be the overcomers of today who receive life, enjoy life, and dispense Christ as life into others; we need to enter into the enjoyment and experience of Christ, and we need to bring others into this enjoyment also (John 1:12-13, 16; 10:9-10; 21:15-17).

Christ Himself is the door into the green pasture for His sheep to come and enjoy; He is the pasture for us to partake of and live because of Him.

We can come to Him, have access to the riches of the Triune God, enjoy and experience Christ as life, and even dispense Him as life into others.

All these truths are in the Gospel of John, indicating that we need to have the subjective experience of Christ as life for the building up of the church.

It’s not about mere doctrine; it’s not about merely knowing the truth concerning God and salvation – it’s all about our having a subjective experience of Christ as life, taking Him as our life and life supply, and ministering Him as life to others.

May we be the overcomers of today, those who receive, enjoy and dispense Christ as life for the church to have an increase, so that God may gain His corporate expression, the spreading universal vine tree.

Lord Jesus, we want to have the subjective experience of Christ as life for the growth, increase, and building up of the church as the Body of Christ. We come to You and take You as our life and life supply; dispense Yourself as life into us more today. We open our being to You, Lord, to drink of You as the living water. Flow in us as the living water. Grow in us as life. Make us part of the increase of God in man. Fill us with life until we overflow with life. We want to be the overcomers of today who receive life, enjoy life, and minister life to others for the increase of Christ in man, for Him to gain the corporate expression of Himself.

The Father is the Source, the Son is the Spring, and the Spirit as the River is Flowing into us and Flowing us into the New Jerusalem, the Totality of Eternal Life

John 4:14b is a mysterious verse that speaks of our subjective experience of Christ as life.

The water that Christ gives us becomes in us a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.

This means that the water the Lord gives us when we come to Him is not something static but something living; it becomes in us a fountain that springs up and flows into eternal life.

The Father is the fountain as the source of life, the Son is the spring as the gushing and springing up of life, and the Spirit is the river as the flowing out of the divine life.

This is the flowing Triune God that comes into us, is installed in us, and flows out of us, even flowing us “into eternal life”.

The preposition “into” in Greek is rich in meaning, denoting the destination. The eternal life is the destination of the flowing Triune God.

The totality of the divine, eternal life, is the New Jerusalem; the flowing Triune God flows into the New Jerusalem, and He flows us into the New Jerusalem. Into eternal life in John 4:14 refers to into the New Jerusalem.

Christ as the Word of God incarnated and embodied to express God, speak God, and explain God has come into us, flowing the Triune God into our very being.

God’s speaking is Christ; through Christ, God is flowing, spreading, and dispensing Himself into us.

The Lord Jesus presented to the Samaritan woman in John 4 the living water, which is Himself; even today, He presents Himself as the living water to us for us to drink and flow.

The issue of our drinking of the living water is that there’s a springing up, a gushing up, and a flow of the divine life.

When we drink the Lord as the living water, He in us becomes a fountain of life, which emerges as a spring, and this spring flows out as a river for the New Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord, the Father is the fountain to be the source of life, the Son is the spring to be the gushing up of life, and the Spirit is the river to be the flowing out of the divine life!

This Triune God flows from eternity into time, and He flows into us when we hear and receive the gospel, being under the hearing of the truth.

When the flowing Triune God comes into us, He becomes the fountain emerging, springing up, gushing up, and flowing out with the living water.

When He flows into us, He flows with us, and He flows us into the New Jerusalem to be the New Jerusalem!

He flows in us, He flows with us, and He flows us into the New Jerusalem, for us to become the New Jerusalem!

And we can have the subjective experience of Christ as life simply by opening to the Lord and drinking of Him as the living water.

By drinking this living water, by flowing with this wonderful processed and consummated Triune God as the Spirit, by experiencing the Triune God in an abundant way, we are unto eternal life – we are becoming the New Jerusalem!

The result of our enjoyment and experience of Christ as life in a subjective way is that we are becoming the New Jerusalem, the city of life!

The flowing Triune God is into eternal life, which is our becoming the New Jerusalem as the totality of the eternal life.

The New Jerusalem has God as the glory of life, the Father as the light of life, the Son as the tree of life, and the Spirit as the river of life (Rev. 21:9b-11, 23; 22:1-2, 5).

By our drinking of the flowing Triune God, we have the subjective experience of Christ as life and we are becoming the New Jerusalem, the city of life. Hallelujah!

Lord Jesus, give us to drink of the living water so that we may no longer thirst! Amen, Lord, we want to subjectively experience You as life, drinking You and flowing You out. Thank You for coming into us as the flowing Triune God to supply us with life, flow in all the inner parts of our being, and gush out of us to flow us into the New Jerusalem! Amen, Lord, may we have the subjective experience of Christ as life day by day as we open to drink the living water and flow this water to others also. Keep us drinking of You, dear Lord, until we become the New Jerusalem, the totality of eternal life, as Your corporate expression for eternity!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” ch. 14, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing the Truth, being Absolute for the Truth, and Proclaiming the Truth in this Present Evil Age (2021 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 4, The Recovery of the Subjective Truths in the Gospel of John.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – O Lord, Thou art in me as life / And everything to me! / Subjective and available, / Thus I experience Thee. (Hymns #539)
  – Christ to me is so subjective, / Life imparting all the way; / As the Spirit He revives me / And refreshes day by day. (Hymns #537)
  – Once I thirsted for a fountain, / Something deep that would satisfy, / But the fountain that I’d drink from, / Left me searching and still so dry. / Then one day I found Him, / He satisfied my thirst, / Became in me a deeper source / Whence living waters burst. / Now I drink Him! / Jesus, Jesus is my life now, / Jesus, Jesus is my life; / I’m fully satisfied now, / Jesus, Jesus is my life. (Hymns #1327https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/1327)