The high peak of the divine revelation in the Bible is that God became man to make man God in life, nature, expression, and function, so that God would obtain a corporate expression in the universe in man. Through regeneration we receive the divine life with the divine nature, and daily we are growing in life to express God and shepherd others.
In the human life we are born of our parents and have their human life and nature, but we will never have our father’s fatherhood – we will be his son / daughter and we will express him and even look like him, but the fatherhood is his. Similarly, we are born of God with His life and nature to be sons of God, and we are becoming the same as God in life, nature, expression, and function, but not in the Godhead – the Godhead is God’s. We are participating in the divine life and nature so that we can live God in our humanity; when we enjoy the Lord, eat Him, and partake of Him, He increases in our being and He’s expressed in our living.
This week we are focusing mainly on the matter of shepherding according to God; shepherding is our function, but this function issues from our constitution and our living. Before we can shepherd others according to God we have to be one with God, be filled with God, be saturated with God, and be constituted with God so that we may live God and express God.
The only way we can shepherd according to God is by us becoming God in life and nature but not in the Godhead so that we would become the reproduction and continuation of Jesus, the first God-man and the good Shepherd. In shepherding others according to God we shouldn’t focus mainly on techniques or practices outwardly but on the inward constitution and partaking of God so that His attributes would fill and saturate our virtues to be expressed through us.
Participating in the Divine Life and Nature to Live God and Walk Worthy of God
In 2 Pet. 1:4 we see that we are partakers of God’s nature; we can participate in God’s nature because His life is in us. We are participating in the divine life and the divine nature so that we can live God in our humanity. In Gal. 2 we see how Peter ate and drank with the Gentile believers until some from James came, and then he withdrew; Paul rebuked him and basically said, Peter, you are not walking straightforward according to the gospel; you had a vision of the Body of Christ composed both of the Jews and the Gentiles, but you don’t live the God-man living according to the high peak of the divine revelation!
It’s not a matter of eating or not eating with the Gentiles but of Christ living in you and me! As Christians we need to realize that we have God living in us, and our daily life should be the life of a God-man by partaking of God’s life and nature. We can never become God in His Godhead, but it is our portion to become the same as He is in life, nature, and expression. We need to be released from being misled by doctrines and other teachings and brought back to the central line of God’s economy, which is to live Christ.
Our daily life should actually be God Himself and thus be a life of living God; to walk in a manner worthy of God is to live God, that is, to express God in our daily living (1 Thes. 2:12; 1 Cor. 10:31). How can we walk in a manner worthy of God? To walk worthily of God is to have the same kind of life as the Lord Jesus had, that is, to live a God-man life. As the church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thes. 1:1) we need to have a walk worthily of God in a practical way by living God and expressing God in our living (1 Thes. 2:12).
Only God can have a living that is worthy of God; we need to live God in our daily living, since only God can be worthy of God, match God, or compare with God. If we realize that we are God-men, men born of God with His life and nature, we will have a living that is worthy of God, a living of “no longer I but Christ” (Gal. 2:20). When Christ lives in us, we are pleasing to God, and others are being spontaneously shepherded by Him in us. May the Lord impress us with our need to have a daily life of living God so that we may walk in a manner worthy of God and thus become God’s expression in our living!
Lord Jesus, we want to walk in a manner worthy of God by living God to express God in our daily living. Lord, may our daily life be actually God Himself so that we may live a life of living God! We want to enjoy You, partake of Your divine nature, and allow Your divine life to grow in us so that You may be expressed in us and we may live Christ. Lord, may You be the One living in us today. Only You in us can live a life worthy of God. Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through us for God’s expression and for the others’ shepherding according to God!
We Become God’s Expression by Eating, Digesting, and Assimilating God to Live God
According to the entire revelation in the Holy Word of God, God’s intention in His economy is to dispense Himself into us as our life and nature, making us the same as He is in life and nature to express Him (Eph. 3:16-21; 1 John 5:11-12; Col. 3:4; 2 Pet. 1:4). What God desires to gain is a corporate expression in man, and He gets this by dispensing Himself into us as our life and nature to make us the same as He is until we express Him in our humanity.
Our expression comes from our living, and our living is based on our constitution; when we are constituted with God, we will live out God, and we become God’s expression. God’s eternal purpose is to work Himself into us as our life so that we may express Him.
We were created in God’s image and likeness: we have His outward form and appearance, and we have the human virtues to contain His divine attributes – we were created in God’s image and likeness with the capacity to receive and express God (Gen. 1:26). God wants to have His image multiplied, enlarged, and expanded in all the human beings He created, and His purpose is to work Himself into us as our life so that we may express Him (Eph. 1:11; 3:11; 2 Tim. 1:9).
When we look at others we should see not what can be seen outwardly (piercings, tattoos, clothes, hair style, race, etc) but have God’s view of man – man is made to contain and express God!
The God of whom we have been constituted will express Himself from within us. In what way is the God whom we eat and digest and of whom we are constituted expressed from within us? God is expressed in us by means of His attributes. God is love and light, and He is holy and righteous. When we eat and drink of God, we shall live Him as love, light, holiness, and righteousness. These divine attributes will become our virtues as the expression of God. How can we tell that someone has been eating and digesting God? We can tell this by the expression of God from within him. This expression of God is God’s speaking. The human virtues that are produced through assimilating God with His divine attributes become the expression of God, and this expression is actually God’s speaking. (Witness Lee, Life-study of 1 John, p. 29)
How can we express God? Only by eating God, digesting God, and assimilating God so that we may reconstituted with God and live God to express God. Our human virtues need to be filled with God’s divine attributes so that we may express God as the Lord Jesus did. The human virtues that are produced in us through our eating, digesting, and assimilating Good with His attributes become the expression of God.
As human beings, we live among other human beings, and we meet in the church life with other God-men who are also human beings; we can keep the oneness of the Spirit by means of certain virtues such as lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, and bearing one another in love (Eph. 4:1-3). We have a little bit of these virtues, but we need to enjoy God, eat God, digest God, and assimilate God so that He may become the content and reality of our human virtues of lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, and bearing one another in love.
The most important thing related to shepherding is love: we have some love, but it is not that real; real love is unconditional (sets no conditions on others in order to love them), it is indiscriminate (loves every one no matter what or who), and it is unlimited (you can’t reach the end of it). Our human love is limited, discriminating, and conditional; we need to have God dispensed and wrought into our human virtues through our eating Him, digesting Him, and assimilating Him, and then we will have the virtues we need to shepherd others. God’s desire is that we would be one with Him and live Him for His corporate expression (1 Cor. 6:17; Phil. 1:21a; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16), just as Christ expressed God as the individual God-man in His living.
May we be those who live in God’s economy by allowing Him to dispense Himself into us and have Him wrought into our being so that we may be one with Him, reconstituted with Him, and live Him for His expression, the Body of Christ.
Lord, work Yourself into us a little more today so that we may be constituted with You and live You to express You. We come to You, Lord, to eat You, digest You, and assimilate You so that we may be filled with You and have Your divine attributes expressed through our human virtues. Lord, it is Your desire that we would be one with You and live You for Your corporate expression – Amen, make us fully one with You, work Yourself into us, and live in us for Your corporate expression in humanity!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother M.R’s sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, p. 84 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Need for a New Revival, week 6 / msg 6, Shepherding according to God (2) Becoming One with God, Being Constituted with God, Living God, Expressing God, Representing God, and Ministering God to Shepherd according to God.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# It’s no longer I that liveth, / But Christ that liveth in me. / It’s no longer I that liveth, / But Christ that liveth in me. / He lives, He lives, / Jesus is alive in me! / It’s no longer I that liveth, / But Christ that liveth in me. (Song on Christ living in us)
# God’s eternal economy / Is to make man the same as He is / In life and nature, / But not in the Godhead / And to make Himself one with man / And man one with Him / Thus to be enlarged and expanded in His expression / That all His divine, that all His divine / Attributes may be expressed in human virtues. (Song on God’s economy)
# God’s intention is for Christ / To be wrought into His chosen people / That they may become the sons of God / For His corporate expression. (Song on Expressing God)
About aGodMan
God has an economy, and this economy involves a plan with many arrangements. God’s aim in His economy is to have a group of human beings who have His life and nature inwardly and His image and likeness outwardly. This group of people is a corporate entity, the Body of Christ, to be one with Him and live Him for His corporate expression. As God is expressed not only by the Body but also through the Body, He is glorified. When He is glorified, His people are also glorified in His glorification. In this way God and man are one in glory. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Jeremiah, p. 82)