Praise the Lord for the all-inclusive Christ as the good land, a land of olive trees! Here we enjoy and experience Christ as the One who was filled and anointed with the Spirit and we become sons of fresh oil, those who honor God and man by ministering Christ to others. Hallelujah!
Our good land – the all-inclusive Christ – is so rich, so vast, so extensive, and so all-inclusive!
Such a small portion Deut. 8:7-10 shows us so many rich aspects of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land, and when we take these items and see them in the whole Bible, our Christ becomes so rich to us!
For example, the good land is a land of fig trees, which signify the sweetness and satisfaction of Christ as our supply.
The figs are sweet and satisfying; Christ is the reality of the figs, and we can experience Him as the sweet and satisfying One to be our supply.
Paul was a pattern in this matter; even while in prison he enjoyed and experienced the sweetness and satisfaction of Christ as his supply.
Though he was in a very confining, limiting, and unpleasant place, Paul could rejoice in the Lord and he also encouraged others to rejoice with him!
Even in confining situations and limiting circumstances, we can experience Christ and enjoy Him as the sweet and satisfying One, and we can become a channel of supply to others.
There’s an urgent need today all over the earth in all the local churches for channels of supply, for the Lord has a free way to flow out His supply through such ones.
Another aspect of the good land is that it is a land of pomegranates; they have a lot of seeds, and they typify the fullness of life, even the expression of the riches of life.
We see the pomegranates in quite a few places in the Bible, especially in Exo. 28 on the bottom part of the high priest’s robe, which signifies the church.
The church has, on one hand, the expression of the riches of life, the full abundance of life, and on the other hand, the church has these “golden bells” warning us, which is the voice of warning expressed in the church’s divinity. Wow, this is so rich!
Even more, we see the pomegranates in the temple, where two hundred of them surrounded the capitals at the top of the pillars and signified the riches of life.
Even though we may live in an intermixed and complicated situation, we can judge ourselves and regard ourselves as nothing, and we can live not by ourselves but by faith in God, to express the riches of life.
On one hand we put to death and renounce our natural being, our natural life, and our self; on the other, we live in the mingled spirit and we have the rich expression of the life of Christ in the church. Praise the Lord!
Enjoying Christ as the Son of Oil anointed with the Holy Spirit, the Reality of the Olive Tree
The good land is a land of olive trees; these trees produce the olive oil. We see the olive tree and the olive oil not only in Deut. 8 but also in Zech. 4:12-14, where there are two olive trees before the Lord, which are the two sons of oil.
Christ is the Son of oil; He is the man anointed by God with the Holy Spirit of God, and He gives the Spirit without measure. Christ is God’s anointed One; God poured upon Him the oil of gladness.
Christ is a man who is full of the Holy Spirit – He’s the olive tree, the Son of oil. And He is such a One to be enjoyed and experienced by us!
The good land is a land of olive trees, which means that in this land we richly enjoy Christ as the Son of oil, the One who is anointed with the Holy Spirit.
In the sequence of the foodstuffs of the good land, the olive tree is the last one, right after the wheat, the barley, the vine, the fig tree, and the pomegranate.
This means that if we enjoy Christ as the wheat, as the barley, as the vine, as the fig tree, and as the pomegranate, we will certainly enjoy Him as the olive tree!
This means that, as we enjoy and experience the all-inclusive Christ as all these items, we will be filled with the Spirit – we will be full of oil, and we will become an olive tree to give oil to others also!
The oil of the olive tree, typifying the Holy Spirit, is used to honor God and man (Judges 9:9; cf. 1 Sam. 2:30).
Christ as the Son of oil is the reality of the olive tree; He has been crushed and something flowed out from Him – the Holy Spirit, which honors God and man.
We can’t serve the Lord and neither can we help others without the Holy Spirit (Acts 6:3).
For us to serve the Lord and also to help others, we need not merely to have a good knowledge of the Scriptures but even more, to be filled with the Spirit, for only when we’re filled with the Spirit can we honor God and also honor others.
May we seek to be filled with the Spirit of God so that we may become a reproduction of Christ, a son of oil. We must be men filled with the Spirit, olive trees, sons of oil. As we serve the Lord or seek to help others, we must do it by the Holy Spirit.
This means that we need to come to the Lord to enjoy Him and experience Him as the wheat, the barley, the vine, the fig tree, and the pomegranates, and the result will be that we will be filled with oil, filled with the Holy Spirit!
It is when we are filled with the Holy Spirit that we are able to honor God and others.
May we not try to please God out of our own efforts or try to help others merely with our Bible knowledge and our good heart; may we honor them by being filled with the Spirit so that we may minister the Holy Spirit to others!
Lord Jesus, we want to experience and enjoy You as the One who was filled and anointed with the Spirit! Amen, Lord, we come to You to enjoy and experience You as the wheat, the barley, the vine, the figs, and the pomegranates, so that we may be filled with the Holy Spirit! We give ourselves to You to be filled with the Spirit until we become Your reproduction, the sons of oil! Amen, Lord, may we be filled with the Holy Spirit in our service to God and in our interaction with man so that we may honor God and man by ministering the Spirit!
We Honor God and Honor Others by being Filled with the Spirit and Ministering the Spirit
When we contact God and contact others, we can honor God and also honor others. How can we honor God and others? How can we honor the brothers and sisters, and how can we honor the Lord?
When we contact a brother or a sister, how can we honor them? We do not honor others when we are in the self, in the natural life, in the old man, and in our worldly knowledge.
We honor others only by the Holy Spirit. This means that we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and be a son of oil; then, when we contact God we honor God, and when we contact man we honor man.
But when we contact others without being filled in Spirit, we may defile them and they may defile us. We need to experience Christ as the olive tree; when we are filled with oil, that is, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we will spontaneously honor God and honor man.
When someone comes to us and we have fellowship in the Holy Spirit, we are truly honored by that person, for that person bestows true honor upon us through the Holy Spirit.
When we go to visit someone or we simply say hello to someone – and we are in the Holy Spirit, we honor them.
But when we express ourselves, when we live in the natural man, and the self is lived out, whatever we do and say will dishonor others.
We need to confess that we have dishonored God and others so many times, and we need to come to the Lord to enjoy Him as the olive tree so that we may be filled with the Holy Spirit.
When we meet others and we merely talk about the world situation, politics, sports, or even the coronavirus, but we are not in the mingled spirit, we dishonor others.
In all things, with all people, and in all situations, we need to honor God and honor others by being filled with the Holy Spirit and ministering the Spirit to others.
For example, these days there’s a pandemic spreading around the world, the coronavirus – the covid-19 as it is officially called – and in country after country people are infected with this virus.
When we meet others, however, do we merely talk about it and share information on what we hear in the news? Or do we seek to be filled in spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, and honor others as we talk to them or fellowship with them?
We may not speak to others about spiritual things but may say some simple things, but if we are filled with the Holy Spirit as the olive oil, we honor them and we also honor God.
Whether or not we are filled with the Spirit to honor God and others depends very much upon how we enjoy and experience Christ day by day as the wheat, the barley, the vine tree, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and then the olive tree.
We need to enjoy and experience the all-inclusive Christ in all these aspects, and we will be a son of oil, a brother or sister full of the Holy Spirit; then, we will truly honor God and others as we contact them, for we will minister Christ to them.
When we minister Christ to others, we supply them with oil, that is, we supply them with God (who is the real oil, the real gold) – see Zech. 4:11-12.
May we all be olive trees emptying God from ourselves into others; first we need to be filled with God and then minister Him to others. In this way oil will be provided to the needy ones by those who are olive trees out of which God is flowing; we become a channel of supply.
As Christians, we are olive trees; we are not separate trees from Christ but rather we are branches of Christ, the unique olive tree.
Although Christ is the unique olive tree, out from Him many branches, many shoots, have issued forth; these branches, or shoots, are the many olive trees on earth today.
As branches of Christ – the unique olive tree – we need to supply others with oil, that is, with the Spirit, so that they may be enlivened for God’s unique testimony.
Lord Jesus, fill us with the Holy Spirit and flow through us into others! Hallelujah, we are branches of Christ, the unique olive tree, and we can flow God into others for their supply! May we honor God and honor others by putting ourselves aside, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and ministering the Spirit to others! Amen, Lord Jesus, make us sons of oil, those who are freshly filled with the Holy Spirit by experiencing and enjoying Christ, so that we may flow You out into others and honor them by giving God to them!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, The All-inclusive Christ, ch. 6 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Deuteronomy, week 3, The Goodness of the Land – Its Food.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Oh, by Thy Spirit, fill me, Lord, / The Spirit of Thy life divine, / And saturate me thoroughly / Till all my life is filled with Thine. (Hymns #244)
– We have oil in our lamps—we are burning! / We have oil in our lamps today!… / But our vessels need oil for Thy coming; / We must gain a reserve supply. / So our vessels we give for the filling / That our lamps may never, never die. (Hymns #1308)
– It is with the oil of gladness / Thy God hath anointed Thee; / From the palaces of ivory / Praise shall ever rise to Thee. (Hymns #170)
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