The Way of the Lord’s Recovery is the Way of the Eternal Life; Life is God Himself

The Lord’s recovery is not only a recovery of the truth but also of life. This week we are getting into the matter of the eternal life in a deeper way to see some important principles related to the application and experience of this life in our Christian life and service today.

The Lord’s recovery is a recovery of life, and the way of the Lord’s recovery is the way of the eternal life. God is life, His economy is in life, His salvation is of life, and when we receive Christ we receive the eternal life, the divine life of God.

What the Eternal Life is and what the Eternal Life is Not

When Christians mention “the eternal life” they mainly understand it to be the life that is timeless, endless, forever, immortal, and perpetual. All this is true, because the eternal life is the divine life, the life of God, and God Himself is self-existing and ever-existing, and so His life is also eternal – without beginning and without end. But today many Christians dwell only on this. There is so much more concerning this eternal life!

The eternal life refers not only to the permanence or agelessness of this life but to the quality of this life, which means that this life is God’s life, the superior life, the excellent unsurpassed life of God. God is light, love, holiness, righteousness, and glory, and so His life is a life that is love, light, holiness, righteousness, and glory. Only the eternal life is holy, uncommon, full of the divine glory, and heavenly.

This life is actually the Triune God Himself. Life is the Father in the Son as the Spirit being dispensed into us with all His attributes and riches to be our life and everything, to become our very constitution.

What is life? Life is God Himself – the Triune God, the Father, Son, and Spirit – being dispensed into us to be our life and constitution, our supply and everything. In order for us to appreciate what life is, we need to see what life is not.

First of all, the eternal life is not the human life, because the eternal life is uncreated – it is the life of God. Here are some things that are legitimate and good, having a place in God’s economy, but they may not be life:

• Life is not any kind of piousness or devotion. Some people are extremely devoted; they practice piousness, living in a godly way….This is not necessarily bad, but it may not be life.
• Life is not ethics or morality. Some people may be very ethical and moral, but this may not be the eternal life. Of course, it is not wrong to be moral or ethical: Christ had the highest morality! But morality is not life, and being moral may not mean that you express the divine life.
• Life is not good behavior. Good and excellent behavior may be the issue of life, and when the divine life is expressed in us we have a good behavior, but merely having a good behavior may not be life.
• Life is not gift. Many Christians pay attention to spiritual abilities and gifts, but if you read 1 and 2 Corinthians you see how gifted they were yet how infants and even fleshly they were. Having gifts doesn’t mean you have life.
• Life is not power. The eternal life is powerful, cannot be held by death, and is the most powerful life in the universe, but having power may not mean that you have or express the divine life.
• Knowledge is not life. Merely having a great knowledge of the Bible and spiritual things may not be life. We may know the Bible front to back but we may not be a man in life and of life.
• Life is not miracles. Many Christians seek miracles, even true miracles, but miracles are not life.
• Life is not liveliness; yes, life is vital, it animates us, and is full of energy, but simply being lively may not be life. Energetic activity may not be life.
• Life is not zeal or fervency. Being zealous for the Lord may not be life, and being fervent may not be of life.
• Life is not a practice. We may have some life-practices such as calling on the name of the Lord, praying over His word, and singing, but we may practice these things and yet not be in life.

We need to know life and realize that life is not a thing: life is the Triune God being dispensed into us to be our life and everything so that this life may be expressed through us for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.

Lord Jesus, cause us to see what life is. May we realize that the eternal life we received at the time of our regeneration is not morality, ethics, gifts, power, knowledge, miracles, good behavior, or piousness, but the Triune God in Christ as the Spirit to be our life! Lord, dispense Yourself into us as life more, and cause us to be beings of life filled with life and living the divine life for the fulfillment of God’s purpose!

The Way of the Lord’s Recovery is the Way of the Eternal Life; Life is God Himself

In the Lord’s recovery we don’t take the way of knowledge, skills, abilities, power, gift, zeal, piousness, ethics, morality, or good behavior; the way of the Lord’s recovery is the way of the eternal, divine life.

We need to know the intrinsic essence of life in the Lord’s recovery, and we need to be adjusted by this way so that we may walk on the constricted way that leads to life. May the Lord make known to us the path of life (Psa. 16:11) and may we know the way of life (Jer. 21:8).

When Christ came, in Him was life, and the life was the light of men (John 1:4), and He came that we may have life and may have it abundantly (John 10:10b), He Himself being the way, the reality, and the life (John 14:6). After passing through death and resurrection, Christ became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45).

Everything about God is life: the intrinsic essence of the Triune God is the eternal, divine life. God the Father is the source of life (He has life in Himself, and He is the source of life – see John 5:26). God the Son is the embodiment of life: in Him was life (John 1:4). God the Spirit is the flow of life, the flowing of the divine life from the Father in the Son through the Spirit into all those who receive Him (see John 4:14; 7:38-39).

The source of life is God the Father, the embodiment of life is Christ the Son, and the flow of life is the Spirit. God Himself is life.

The intrinsic essence of the New Jerusalem is the eternal, divine life: the Father is the light of life (see Rev. 21:23; 22:5), the Son is the tree of life (v. 2), and the Spirit is the river of water of life (v. 1).

The consummation of all of God’s work throughout the ages is the New Jerusalem, and this city is full of life: there’s a river of life flowing from the throne in the middle of the street, the tree of life grows on both sides of the river, producing fruit every month, and there’s no need of light in it because God the Father is the light being diffused through Christ the Son as the lamp. Hallelujah!

Today God the Father is light, shining on us through Christ the Son so that we may live in His light. Christ is the tree of life for our food. The Spirit is the river of life to quench our thirst. This is our living and enjoyment today, and it will be our living and enjoyment for eternity; for eternity we will abide in God (John 15:4), eat Christ as the tree of life, and drink the Spirit as the river of water of life.

The consummation of our Christian life is not “going to heaven to live forever” (this sounds very much as the happy ever after, the living happily ever after in the world) but being mingled with God as the true life in the universe so that we may become the city of life, the New Jerusalem, for eternity!

Today God is building up the church to prepare the bride of Christ for the building of the New Jerusalem by the divine, eternal life, the resurrection life; this life is flowing into us, transforming us, and building us up to be the church consummating in the New Jerusalem.

Just as Eve was built by God from the rib taken out of Adam (Gen. 2:22), so the church is built by God with His divine life which flowed out of Christ’s pierced side (John 19:34). The unbreakable flowing divine life of God in Christ builds up the church and transforms us to be precious stones!

The more we drink the water of life, the more we are transformed by God to be precious stones for God’s building, and we are built up in Him to be the church as the Body of Christ, the living organism of the Triune God mingled with man.

Lord Jesus, we want to know the way of the Lord’s recovery, the way of the eternal, divine life. Lord, may we know the intrinsic essence of life in Your recovery and do everything in life and by life. Mingle Yourself with us more and cause Your divine life in us flow and grow. Lord, we want to walk in Your light of life, drink Your flowing life as the Spirit, and eat You as tree of life. Amen, Lord, You are our life and life-supply! You transform us as we enjoy the flow of Your life, and You build us up in life to be Your church, Your Body, Your Bride!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother Minoru Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and Elders’ Training, Book 2: The Vision of the Lord’s Recovery, chs. 5-6 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Crucial Points of the Major Items of the Lord’s Recovery Today (ITERO 2015 fall), week 5 / msg 5, The Eternal Life.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # Life is God the Father / In Christ Jesus as the Spirit / Flowing out and coming into us. / He’s not just a teaching, / Or a creed or a dead doctrine, / But the processed Triune God, glorious! (Song on what life is)
  # Life is God the Father in Christ Jesus / As the Spirit flowing into us. / How enjoyable, this Person wonderful! / He’s our life so rich and bountiful. (Hymns #1193)
  # Eating is man’s destiny / And the Lord’s recovery; / This defeats the enemy— / Overcome! / Come enjoy the tree of life, / Leave the doctrines, leave the strife! / Overcome by eating Christ— / Overcome! (Hymns #1273)