As the sheep in the Lord’s flock, being the same as all the other believers in Christ, we want to learn to take the lead to love the Lord with the first love, to experience life, and to minister life. We need to present ourselves to the Lord personally that we would become a particular kind of a person, one who advances in the Lord and is serious with Him. Spontaneously, what we are and do will become a pattern to others.
Our responsibility is to present ourselves to the Lord in one matter after another and pray to Him that, for the sake of His Body, He would work in us and shepherd us that we would advance in Him, so that this would become a pattern, an example, and even an inspiration to the seeking saints.
taking the lead to minister life
We need to not only enjoy and experience life, but also minister life (see 1 John 5:16). What is life? According to the revelation in the Holy Scriptures, life is the processed and consummated Triune God in the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit dispensed into us to become our very being, our life subjectively.
Life is not some kind of a substance, an element, or a thing – life is a Person, the Triune God in Christ who has been processed and consummated, who now in His resurrection is the Spirit of life, working Himself into our being to make Himself our life and to make us the same as He is in life!
To minister life is to enjoy and experience life in a deep way until life flows out of our being as rivers of living water (John 7:38). To minister life is to impart the divine life into others, dispense life into them, and supply life into those around us. We not only need to enjoy the divine life and experience life, but we need to flow this life into those around us to feed them and to nourish them.
As we grow in life and as the Lord deepens His work in us, as soon as we touch life, it will flow into the Body even without our saying or doing anything! We want to be persons of life, those who enjoy life and experience life to minister life to others!
a fountain of water springing up
When we believed into the Lord, we were connected to the Triune God as the fountain of life (Psa. 36:8-9) – we drank of the living water, and this water became in us a fountain of water springing up into eternal life (John 4:14). Every believer now has the fountain of life in his spirit ready to spring up and flow out, and there are rivers of living water flowing out of his innermost being!
Just as God is not satisfied with His life flowing in the Triune God but He wants to flow this life out and into humanity, so we are not satisfied until we exercise our spirit to flow out the divine life into others to minister them life! The flowing life within us satisfies our thirst and quenches others thirst also!
The Lord needs such channels of life today, those who are filled with His life, those saturated and permeated with life, so that when you touch these ones, life comes out. Today God is seeking those into whom He can dispense Christ’s life more and more, so that they can also supply others with His life. May the Lord gain each one of us to be this kind of people, channels of life through which His life can flow out to others.
We are satisfied and God is satisfied when we minister life to others, when we supply others with life (see 1 John 1:1-2). The greatest need in the church life is that we would focus on nothing else but minister life to one another so that we may grow in life and the Body would be built up.
life overcomers death in us and in others
1 John 5:16 says, If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask and he will give life to him… The divine life in us overcomes death, is stronger than death, and can flow in and out of us to overcome death in others. The supreme necessity in the church life is the ministering of life – without this, we may have doctrines, arrangements, and forms, but life will be missing.
The intrinsic nature of the church life in the Lord’s recovery is life. We need to be called by the Lord, motivated by Him, and visited by Him to be encouraged to take the costly way that will produce in us the ministry of life.
Without fully knowing what is happening and what will be our future, we want to open to the Lord and give ourselves to Him to choose the way of life in the church life. We want to allow the Lord to shine on us, enlighten us, and inspire us to choose the way of ministering life to others for the building up of the Body of Christ.
If problems arise in the church life, we need the eternal life to overcome and swallow up any death. If other members are weaker or are stumbled, we need to be those who supply life to them. Life swallows up death and life overcomes any problem – don’t give people teachings but minister life to them!
Lord, make us persons of life! We want to be those who enjoy life and experience life so that we may minister life. Thank You for the fountain of life in our spirit, ready to spring up with living water and flow out to others. Oh, Lord, we choose to take the way of life in the church life. Break through any barriers, Lord, and deepen our experience and enjoyment of life, that life may flow in us and out of us!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from, the Life-study of 1 John (by Witness Lee, msgs. 37-38), and brother Ron K’s sharing, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Lead as Elders and Responsible Ones, week 3.
- Buy the morning revival book online via LSM.
- Hymns on this topic:
# I’ve got rivers of life flowing out of my innermost being!
# Oh, may my spirit flow, / Oh, may it flow! / Now I beseech Thee, Lord / Oh, may it flow!
# Life is God the Father in Christ Jesus / As the Spirit flowing into us. - Picture source: big waterfall.
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