We need to take, experience and enjoy Christ as our King by having a clear sky between us and Him with a throne above it, and this has to do with having a good and pure conscience, void of any offense toward God and man. Amen!
This week we come to the last week in the morning revival on the 2021 fall ITERO, and the title for this week is, Taking, Experiencing, and Enjoying Christ as Our King, Our Lord, Our Head, and Our Husband for the Building Up of the Body of Christ to Consummate the New Jerusalem.
We may think that we know what it is to take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our King, Lord, Head, and Husband, but we need to bring this before the Lord again and again that we would practice this daily.
It is a great wickedness for us not to take Christ as our King, our Lord, our Head, and our Husband; if we don’t take, experience, and enjoy Christ as such a One, we do what is right in our own eyes.
The throne of God is the center of the universe, and it has to be the center of our Christian life also; we need to take Christ as our King and experience His ruling inwardly by receiving the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness.
In Isa. 6:1-8 we see that, no matter how bad the situation is outwardly, the Lord is still on the throne.
The Lord Jesus is sitting on a high and lofty throne, and we need to see a vision of this enthrone Christ and give Him the preeminence.
When we see Him as such a One, we realize what we are in our natural condition in our flesh. It is then that we can experience the burning, purifying effectiveness of Christ’s redemption, and our iniquity is purged.
When the Lord purifies by His redemption as we see Him on the throne, we become sendable, for all our uncleanness is purified and we can be sent by Him with His message to His people.
May we be those who have a clear sky between us and the Lord with His throne above it so that we may take Christ as our King and experience Him as our Lord in our daily Christian life.
Taking Christ as our King by having a Clear Sky with the Throne Above it, a Good and Pure Conscience
We must take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our King; the best way to do this is by having a clear sky between us and Him and the throne of God above it. The highest point in our spiritual experience is having a clear sky with the throne above it (Ezek. 1:22-28).
Over the living creatures in Ezek. 1, there was the likeness of an expanse like awesome crystal stretched forth over their heads; above this expanse, there was the likeness of a throne, a sapphire throne, and there was one in appearance like a man above it.
Ezekiel not only saw a vision of God’s move: he was looking into eternity, with no time element, and he saw Christ as the God-man on the throne.
What does it mean for us to have a clear sky with God’s throne above it in our inner being?
The kind of sky that we have as Christian depends on our conscience; our conscience is connected to our sky (Rom. 9:1; 2 Cor. 1:12).
For us to have a clear sky between us and the Lord and between one another, we need to have a good and pure conscience.
In the singleness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we need to conduct ourselves in the world and toward the saints.
Our conscience is governed by the way we conduct ourselves, and we conduct ourselves by the grace of God, that is, by enjoying God in Christ as the Spirit.
We need to maintain our fellowship with the Lord and with one another by having a clear sky, a good and pure conscience; what governs us is not only not doing the wrong thing but the right thing, but having a clear sky between us and God and having no problem between us and the saints.
When there is nothing between us and the Lord and nothing between us and one another, our sky will be crystal clear, and we will have not only a good conscience but also a pure conscience (Acts 24:16; 1 Tim. 1:5, 19; 3:9; 2 Tim. 1:3; cf. Matt. 5:8; Prov. 22:11; 2 Tim. 2:22).
We need to maintain a good conscience and a pure conscience in the Lord’s presence.
We need to have an aspiration that the Lord would be the goodness and purity of our conscience, for He is the unique good and pure one in the universe.
In Acts 24:16 Paul was defending himself before the governor, and he testified that he was exercising himself to have a conscience without offense toward God and man.
The real exercise of our spirit is to have a conscience without offense before God and man, for the conscience is a part of our spirit.
Christ as the divine light is in our spirit, and He wants to shine out from our spirit into our mind, emotion, and will so that we are full of light and remove any darkness.
Our conscience is the window into our soul, so we need to always keep the conscience clear and clean.
We need to continually apply the blood of Christ to cleanse our conscience from any mistakes, wrongdoings, trespasses, and faults.
1 John 1:9 says that the Lord is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us when we confess our sins, for the blood of Jesus God’s Son cleanses us from every sin (v. 7).
We need to keep the window of our spirit clean by the application of the blood of Christ through our taking Him not only as our sin offering for our sinful nature but also as our trespass offering for the sins in our deeds, in our conduct.
When we confess our sins, the blood cleanses them, and our sky is crystal clear between us and the Lord; the result is that we have a good and pure conscience.
Lord Jesus, we take You and enjoy You as our King; we enthrone You in the center of our being. May there be nothing between us and You – may there be a clear sky between us and You, with the throne of God above it. Amen, Lord, bring us to the highest point in our spiritual experience to have a clear sky with the throne of God above it! Be the goodness and purity of our conscience. We want to confess our sins and apply Your precious blood so that our conscience may be good and pure toward God and man. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to maintain a good fellowship between us and You; we exercise ourselves to have a conscience without offense before God and man.
Having the Throne above a Clear Sky by being under the Lord’s Ruling Presence in our Spirit
The center of the universe is the throne of God, the Lord’s ruling presence in our spirit; on one hand, the throne is the center of the universe, and on the other hand, Christ is the throne in our spirit (Isa. 22:23; Heb. 4:16; Rom. 5:21; Rev. 22:1).
The throne is not a thing or an item; the throne is a person, Christ Himself – it is the Lord’s ruling presence within us. Christ Himself is a throne of glory for His Father’s house, and He is the throne of glory within us.
We can come forward to the throne of grace in our spirit (Heb. 4:16) so that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.
Amen, grace upon grace flows in our spirit, and we can continually receive the Lord as grace!
As we enjoy the abundance o grace (Rom. 5:17), being filled with the enjoyment of the Triune God, we reign in life, for Christ as grace reigns in us.
Grace reigns in our being by our receiving grace upon grace until grace is enthroned in us; grace becomes a throne in us, and Christ as grace reigns in us.
Hallelujah, there is the throne of grace in our spirit, for the very place where God meets with His people – the throne of grace, the propitiation place – is in our spirit!
If we have a clear sky between us and the Lord, there will be the throne of God set up in our being, and we will spontaneously be under the ruling and reigning of the throne of God.
For God to have the throne in us means that He has the position to reign in us (see Dan. 4:17, 25-26; 6:18-31; Isa. 6:1-8).
In Daniel 4 we see Nebuchadnezzar the king, the ruler of the known world at that time; he had a dream, and Daniel interpreted it saying that the king needs to realize that God, the most high, is the ruler over the kingdom of men, and He gives it to whomever He wills.
God raises the lowest among men and gives him the kingdom so that he comes to know that the heavens rule. The king, however, did not learn the lesson, and he was disciplined by God, until he blessed, praised, honoured, and exalted God as the Most High.
May we be those who have the throne above a clear sky in our experience, allowing God to have the highest and most prominent position in our Christian life.
In experience, for us to reach the point of having the throne above a clear sky means that in everything we are completely submissive to God’s authority and submission.
May we be saved from being lukewarm Christians; may we be hot on fire for the Lord, having the holy fire burning in our being for His economy.
The only way we can submit to God’s throne and authority is by realizing that Christ’s life of submission is in us; His life was of total submission to the Father, and He dispensed His life into us.
When we exercise our spirit to contact Christ as life, we have His life of submission.
Ezekiel 1 is quite amazing; it is a very deep chapter in the Bible.
In Ezek. 1:26 “the likeness of the throne” is “like the appearance of a sapphire stone”; a sapphire stone is blue in color, which is a heavenly color.
This means that, when we have a clear sky with a throne above it, we have the heavenly situation, atmosphere, and condition of God’s ruling presence.
May we ask the Lord to fill us with the heavenly condition, situation, and atmosphere of His ruling presence, so that we may live in fellowship with the Lord and under His authority as the King.
God desires to manifest Himself through man and to reign through man (Gen. 1:26; Rev. 11:15; 3:21; 22:3-5; Rom. 5:17, 21).
God wants man to express Him and to exercise His authority. God’s complete salvation is for us to be saved in life and to reign in life by the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness.
For us to experience, enjoy, and take Christ as our King, we need to let Him rule in us by maintaining a clear sky with a throne above it.
The result of Christ ruling in us is that He can reign through us, for He saves us in His life so that we may reign with Him in life.
We need to receive the abundance of the gift of righteousness to be covered with Christ as a robe of righteousness for our judicial redemption.
May we enjoy Christ as the abundance of grace so that grace becomes a throne in us, for we enjoy Him as grace and we enthrone Him in our being to cause us to reign in life over Satan, sin and death.
When we enthrone the Lord in our being by enjoying Him as grace and as righteousness, we cannot be careless in our daily living, for we are under God’s authority, and we are restricted and restrained in our speaking or display of anger.
Lord Jesus, fill us with Yourself as the throne of grace. Hallelujah, the throne is the center of the universe, and the Lord’s ruling presence is in our spirit today! Amen, Lord, we come forward to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace. We come to receive and enjoy You as grace upon grace! Lord Jesus, keep us enjoying You as grace until grace reigns in us. May we have a clear sky with a throne above it so that we may spontaneously be under the ruling and reigning of the throne of God! Yes, Lord, have the position to reign in us. We allow You to have the highest and most prominent position in our Chrisitan life. Fill us with the heavenly condition, situation, and atmosphere of Your ruling presence.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a message given by Ed Marks on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of Ezekiel, msgs. 10-12, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Meeting God’s Need and Present needs in the Lord’s Recovery, week 8, entitled, Taking, Experiencing, and Enjoying Christ as Our King, Our Lord, Our Head, and Our Husband for the Building Up of the Body of Christ to Consummate the New Jerusalem.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Nothing between, Lord, nothing between; / Let me Thy glory see, / Draw my soul close to Thee, / Then speak in love to me—Nothing between. / Nothing between, Lord, nothing between; / Let not earth’s din and noise / Stifle Thy still small voice; / In it let me rejoice—Nothing between. (Hymns #373)
– Shining One—how clear the sky above me! / Son of Man, I see Thee on the throne! / Holy One, the flames of God consume me, / Till my being glows with Thee alone. / Lord, when first I saw Thee in Thy splendor, / All self-love and glory sank in shame; / Now my heart its love and praises render, / Tasting all the sweetness of Thy name. (Hymns #1159)
– Yet, Lord, Thou camest not just to atone, / But Thou didst come and bear our sins away. / We, with a conscience purged, approach the throne, / For all our sins were laid on Thee that day. / Thou, separated from the Father’s face, / Didst pay the awful price for us in grace. (Hymns #1091)
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