God’s will is in Christ – it is concentrated in Christ and is for Christ, and Christ is everything in the will of God; therefore, we do God’s will as we exhibit Christ in the meetings. Amen!
On one hand in the meetings of the church we receive a personal benefit by contacting the Lord, having revelation from Him, and receiving the answers to our problems and troubles.
On the other hand, when we come together each one has something, for we all enjoy and experience Christ, and we exhibit Christ in the meetings. Hallelujah!
We should not abandon our gathering together but rather, even as we see that the day of the Lord’s return is drawing near, we should seek the saints, meet with the saints, and even incite one another to love and good works.
Sometimes we may not feel like going to the meeting because we are so tired, our spiritual condition is not that good, and we may simply not have anything to bring to the meeting.
But as long as we pay the price and offer our body as a sacrifice to be in the meetings of the church, we will have God’s revelation, we will know God’s will, and we will be one with the Lord and with the saints to carry out God’s will.
We all can testify that many times we dragged our tired body to the meeting and, even though at the beginning of the meeting we were exhausted, worn out, and tired, at the end of the meeting we were vitalized, refreshed, and nourished.
Even more, we all can testify that we have questions, troubles, problems, and puzzling situations that in our time with the Lord we didn’t get the answer; but when we come together, even though the subject of the meeting has nothing to do with our questions, God reveals to us the answer to our question.
Many times we may ask God things, we may wonder concerning certain persons or situations, and we may even be stumbled because of certain people or certain things; but when we come to the meeting, we taste the Lord’s grace, God works in us, we see what the will of God is, and all our questions are answered.
When we enter into the sanctuary of God – our mingled spirit and the meetings of the church – we get the divine revelation, we are at peace concerning all things, and God infuses Himself into us more and more; the result is that we carry out the will of God.
May we practice exercising our spirit and going to the meetings of the church so that we may receive God’s view of things, we may know God’s will, and we may be one with God and with the saints to carry out God’s will.
We need to Enjoy the All-inclusive Christ and Exhibit Christ in the Meetings
The will of God is in Christ – it is concentrated in Christ – and it is for Christ; Christ is everything in the will of God, so for us to do the will of God is to exhibit Christ in the meetings (Col. 1:9, 15-18, 12; 3:4, 11; 1 Cor. 14:26).
On one hand in the meetings we receive the benefit of having God’s revelation and receiving a vision from God concerning all things; on the other hand, in the meetings we exhibit Christ.
We do God’s will by exhibiting Christ in the meeting; God’s will is that in the meetings of the church we would exhibit Christ.
For us to exhibit Christ in the meetings, however, we need to first experience and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ in our daily life and live Him as our life.
The will of God is that we would daily experience and enjoy His all-inclusive Christ and live Him as our life, and as we meet we will spontaneously exhibit Christ.
In a personal way day by day we need to experience and enjoy Christ; the way we function in the meetings depends on the way we live our life, so we daily need to experience and enjoy Christ!
Christ is all-inclusive: He is the portion given to us by God (1 Cor. 1:2), the power of wisdom of God who became righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to us (vv. 24, 30).
Christ is the First and the Last; He’s the first raised One from among the dead and He is also the last Adam (15:20, 45).
Christ is the second man (v. 47) who, after accomplishing redemption for us, became the life-giving Spirit to be joined to us as one spirit (v. 45; 6:17).
We need to daily live in the mingled spirit, learning to experience and enjoy Christ in our spirit day by day.
When we daily enjoy Christ, experience Christ, and learn to live in the mingled spirit, we will have something of Christ to bring to the meetings so that we may exhibit Christ in the meetings, thus fulfilling God’s will.
To exhibit is to put something on display; we do not exhibit ourselves or our experiences in the meeting but rather, we exhibit Christ, that is, we exhibit the Christ we have enjoyed and experiences.
We not only declare a stanza from a hymn or we read a verse, but we exercise our spirit to declare an aspect of Christ that we have enjoyed and has become more real to us.
Our meetings are to exhibit Christ, so when we come to a meeting, we need to bring with us the Christ whom we have enjoyed (1 Cor. 14:26).
May the Lord recover such meetings of exhibiting Christ for the fulfillment of God’s will!
May we all experience and enjoy Christ to the extent that we spontaneously bring Him to the meeting for a corporate exhibition of the all-inclusive Christ that we have enjoyed!
The proper church life depends upon the church meetings where all the saints exhibit Christ with all His unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8).
The goal of our meeting is to exhibit Christ, and the Christian meeting is nothing else but an exhibition of our Christian daily life (see Deut. 12:5-7, 13-14).
If in our daily life there’s little or no experience of Christ, we can only sit in the meetings and listen to others with nothing to share…but the Lord in us may bother us, inspire us, motivate us, and encourage us to enjoy and experience Christ so that we may exhibit Christ in the meetings! Amen!
May we daily enjoy Christ as the reality of all the offerings, enjoying Christ with God, and may we bring the Christ we enjoyed and experienced to the meetings to exhibit Christ (Heb. 10:8-10, 25; 13:20-21).
May we begin our daily with taking Christ as our sin offering and trespass offering, and may we lay our hands on Him as the only One absolute for God, thus taking Him as our burnt offering.
We should take Christ as the meal offering, the One who is the real God-man living a perfect human life.
We should enjoy Christ as the One who came and made peace, brought in the gospel of peace, and He Himself is our peace; this is Christ as the peace offering.
May we enjoy Him as the resurrected One (the wave offering) and the ascended One (the heave offering), being one with Him in His resurrection and ascension.
If we daily experience Christ as the reality of all the offerings, we will have something of Christ to bring to the meetings to exhibit Christ in the meetings.
Lord Jesus, we come to enjoy You and experience You as the all-inclusive Christ so that we may live You as our life and exhibit Christ in the church meetings. Hallelujah, our meetings are to exhibit Christ, and when we come to the meetings we can bring with us the Christ whom we have enjoyed for Him to be manifested, displayed, and exhibited. Amen, Lord, may we and all the saints have a normal experience and enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ in our daily living, and may we come together to exhibit Him with His unsearchable riches. May we daily experience Christ by offering Him to God as the reality of the offerings, thus enjoying Christ together with God. Lord, recover meetings that exhibit Christ, meetings that overflow with the saints’ surplus of the enjoyment of Christ!
As Members of Christ, we need to Exhibit Christ in the Meetings and thus Do the Will of God
As believers in Christ, we are members of the Body of Christ, and our need is to function in the meetings to exhibit Christ; He is our allotted portion for our enjoyment (Col. 1:12), and when we come together each one has a portion of Christ to share with the saints for their edification (1 Cor. 14:26).
The God-ordained way for us to meet and to serve is to recover the function of all the saints and overthrow the clergy-laity system in any of its forms.
The elders in the church are not the clergy, and the co-workers or serving saints are not the clergy; they simply are saints with a certain function.
Due to the influence of Christianity, many believers do not bear responsibility in the meetings.
We may have the concept that we come to the meeting and sit quietly, for our function is not to teach; we may expect that the elders and responsible brothers need to take the lead in the meeting and take care of all the things necessary.
The concept that we may attend a meeting but are not responsible for the meeting is a fundamental error – it is a ploy of Satan to render us, the members of the Body of Christ, useless, so that we may not function.
We may come together and feel we’re not responsible for the meeting, so we may wait for the elders and more mature saints to function; this is a scheme of the enemy to trap us, for he lies to us and deceives us.
The enemy may point out our failures and our lack of experience of Christ, and he may tell us we have nothing to say; but praise the Lord, we overcome the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony, and we do not love our soul life even unto death (Rev. 12:11).
Each one of the saints has a portion of Christ that no one else has; each member of the Body of Christ is necessary, each member is vitally needed with its function for the building up of the Body.
We are irreplaceable in the Body – we are necessary as a member, and the way we can enjoy the portion and function of a member is when they share in the meetings or when they pray and release their spirit.
The Lord in His heavenly ministry is still praying and fighting and waiting for the day when 1 Cor. 14:26 is really fulfilled in the meetings of the church!
May we stop comparing ourselves to someone else; may we stop caring for losing our face when we share, and may we not put ourselves down for having a seemingly smaller portion than others.
Oh, may we escape the barricade of the self and the blockage of the flesh and release our spirit to function in the meetings, so that we may exhibit Christ in the meetings!
As Christians, we are members of Christ, and our most important service is to meeting (1 Cor. 12:4-11, 14-27; Heb. 10:25).
The church meetings are the best opportunity for us to exhibit Christ (Col. 3:11), so we need to come to the meeting already prepared and ready to minister Christ.
As Christians, we are commissioned to exhibit Christ in the meetings and thus do the will of God (Matt. 7:21; 16:18; Eph. 3:8; Col. 1:12).
Some may think that their portion is not to speak in the meeting but to clean the floor or help with the food preparation, but this is a lie of the enemy; our portion is that we would exhibit Christ in the meetings of the church to do the will of God!
Hallelujah, every regenerated person – even a 2-3 days old believer – has something of Christ, a portion of Christ to share for the exhibition of Christ!
Hallelujah, all believers in Christ have a portion of Christ to share in the meetings of the church for Christ to be exhibited! Amen, Lord, we want to learn to function in the meetings to exhibit Christ. May we be saved from any influence of old concepts in Christianity that only the elders can function and speak in the meetings. May we see Satan’s ploy to render the members of the Body useless so that they don’t function. Amen, Lord, may we realize that we are commissioned to exhibit Christ in the meetings and thus do the will of God! May we glorify the Father and exalt the Son by releasing our portion of Christ in the meetings for Christ to be exhibited through us and through all the saints! Hallelujah, each one has!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, CWWL, 1970, vol. 3, “Being Delivered from Religious Rituals and Walking according to the Spirit,” pp. 412-413, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Will of God (2020 spring ITERO), week 8, Meeting to Know and Do the will of God.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Whene’er we meet with Christ endued, / The surplus of His plenitude / We offer unto God as food, / And thus exhibit Christ…. / The Father we would glorify, / Exalting Christ the Son, thereby / The meeting’s purpose satisfy / That we exhibit Christ. (Hymns #864)
– As members of the Body / Christ we would manifest, / Each learning how to function / His fulness to express; / We would not be spectators / But each as members move, / None bringing death or damage / But each our profit prove. (Hymns #867)
– Exercise the spirit! / All the forms forsake; / Share with one another, / Each of Christ partake. / Exercise the spirit! / Natural sense renounce; / Serve with one another, / Christ the Lord announce. (Hymns #866)
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