When we give the Lord Jesus the preeminence in all things and recover the loss of the first love, we enjoy Him as the tree of life and shine with Him to be the lampstand, the testimony of Jesus. Amen!
Eating the tree of life, that is, enjoying Christ as our life and life supply, should be the primary matter in the church life.
Before we do anything, before we work something for the Lord, and even before we speak or decide things, we need to eat Christ as the tree of life.
We need to take the way of enjoying the Lord day by day as the tree of life, the life-giving One.
We may have seen a vision of the tree of life, and we may have eaten of the Lord as the tree of life, but we may not be eating the tree of life right now.
There may have been a certain point in our Christian life when we left the tree of life and simply jumped or leapt onto the other tree.
Now our decisions and life may be guided by doing what is right and making sure we don’t do what’s wrong or evil. Oh, Lord.
May we never be complacent with our situation or content with what we see and where we are.
May we always be willing to turn to the Lord, enjoy Him, and not repeat the same mistake of living according to the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
The way of the tree of knowledge may seem safe, for we have the knowledge, but it leads to death.
We shouldn’t even be content with just singing a song and feeling better.
We need to break through in the matter of taking Christ as the tree of life.
We need to come to the Lord and implore Him to shine on us and expose our dependence on knowledge and not on Him.
May we be adjusted in our concept so that we no longer rely merely on knowledge but contact the Lord in a fresh way so that He may be our life and enjoyment, and we live because of Him and in Him.
We need to take the way of enjoying Christ as the tree of life, and this must govern our daily living.
We need to heed the warning that it is possible to be a Christian for many years and do many great things for the Lord yet still be on the line of the tree of knowledge.
May the Lord have mercy on us so that we may not pass through an accident or a disease before we realize that He wants us to take Him as life and not rely on knowledge. Oh, Lord.
May we simply come to the Lord and eat Him as the tree of life, give Him the preeminence in all things and love Him with the first love, and be His shining testimony as the golden lampstand where He has placed us.
When we Love the Lord and Enjoy Him as the Tree of Life, we Shine as His Testimony
In Rev. 2:1-7 there are four main points or thoughts: love, life, light, and lampstand.
Here we are told that the Lord wants the church in Ephesus to recover their first love for the Lord, that He will give the overcomers to eat of the tree of life, and that He shines and they shine as the golden lampstand.
First, there is love, then comes life, and this is followed by light.
We must give the Lord Jesus the preeminence in every way and in everything to recover the first love; then, we will enjoy Him as the tree of life, and this life will become the light of life (John 8:12; Eph. 5:8-9, 13).
This is what happens in our fellowship with the Lord.
First, we love Him; we give ourselves to love the Lord with the first and best love.
![Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8:12 For you were once darkness but are now light in the Lord; walk as children of light (For the fruit of the light [consists] in all goodness and righteousness and truth),...But all things which are reproved are made manifest by the light; for everything that makes manifest is light. Eph. 5:8-9, 13](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Again-therefore-Jesus-spoke-to-them-saying-I-am-the-light-of-the-world-683x1024.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. John 8:12 For you were once darkness but are now light in the Lord; walk as children of light (For the fruit of the light [consists] in all goodness and righteousness and truth),...But all things which are reproved are made manifest by the light; for everything that makes manifest is light. Eph. 5:8-9, 13")
As we love the Lord and keep His word, the Father and the Son come and make an abode with us; this is life, for He imparts the riches of His life into our being.
The more we love the Lord, the more we enjoy His life and depend on His life. The result is that we shine with Him as light.
First, He shines on us and exposes anything that doesn’t match His nature, and then He shines through us and makes us the golden lampstand, the shining testimony of Jesus.
As we love the Lord and enjoy Him as the tree of life, there will be a shining – we will be part of the golden lampstand, the testimony of Jesus.
However, if we don’t repent and return to the first love, the best love for the Lord, to do the first works coming out of the first love, the Lord will come and remove the lampstand from us both personally and corporately (Rev. 1:9-12, 20).
When we are filled with the Lord’s life, this life emanates out of us and becomes the light of life.
First of all, we enjoy Him as the light because He shines on us as the light of the world, making us those who walk in the light.
The result is that He makes us as shining as He is, shining out the light of life. However, if we lose the first love for the Lord and do not eat Him as the tree of life, we lose our shining, and the Lord will remove the lampstand.
The church as an outward frame or shell will still be there, but the shining is gone, and the lampstand is gone. Oh, Lord.
This is such a warning to us, for we could be outwardly the local church on the ground of oneness, and we keep the truth, we keep the position, and we speak for the Lord, but we might have lost the testimony of Jesus, the shining of the lampstand!
May this not happen to us in the local churches; rather, may we shine forth Christ to be the testimony of Jesus.
The golden lampstand symbolizes the Triune God – the Father as the substance is embodied in the Son, the Son as the embodiment is expressed through the Spirit, the Spirit is fully realized and expressed as the churches, and the churches are the testimony of Jesus (Exo. 25:31-40; Zech. 4:2-10; Rev. 1:10-12). Hallelujah!
![Saying, What you see write in a scroll and send [it] to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamos and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me; and when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands...The mystery of the seven stars which you saw upon My right hand and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Rev. 1:11-12, 20](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Saying-What-you-see-write-in-a-scroll-and-send-it-to-the-seven-churches-683x1024.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "Saying, What you see write in a scroll and send [it] to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamos and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me; and when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands...The mystery of the seven stars which you saw upon My right hand and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Rev. 1:11-12, 20")
The local churches are the testimony of Jesus, the reproduction of Christ (who is the embodiment of the Triune God) and the reprint of the Spirit (which is the ultimate consummation of the processed and consummated Triune G0d). Amen!
In the divine thought, the golden lampstand is actually a living and growing tree, for it has calyxes and almond blossoms.
The lampstand, therefore, portrays the Triune God embodied in Christ as a living, golden tree of resurrection.
Such a tree grows, branches out, buds, and blossoms in us, with us, by us and out of us as the fruit of the light (the fruit of the Spirit), which is good in nature, righteous in procedure, and real in expression (Exo. 25:31, 35; Eph. 5:8-9; Gal. 5:22-23; John 12:36). Hallelujah!
In this way, God is expressed as reality in our daily walk.
This is what the Lord wants to gain; He wants not only one tree of life, which is Christ, but many reproductions of the tree of life, the many local churches, where people can see Christ, be shined on by the light of life and eat Christ as the tree of life.
As we eat Christ as the tree of life, we live the same kind of life as He did, and we become part of the golden lampstand, the expression of the Triune God and the testimony of Jesus.
This is all done by our loving the Lord with our first love and eating Him as the tree of life day by day.
Lord Jesus, we give You the preeminence in every way and in everything and we love You with the first love. We come to You day by day and even moment by moment to enjoy You as the tree of life. Shine on us and in us as the light of life and remove anything that doesn’t match Your nature. Amen, Lord, we love You and we eat You as the tree of life to be part of Your testimony, Your corporate expression, the golden lampstand. We want to be Your testimony and have Your shining. May we eat You and drink You every day, and may we depend on You for everything so that we may shine forth with You and express You as the golden lampstand. Praise You, Lord Jesus, for being the One shining in us and through us to impart the light of life to others!
Enjoying Christ as our Life Supply should be the Primary Matter in the Church Life so that we may be the Testimony of Jesus
May the Lord shine on us and enlighten us regarding the tree of life so that we may realize that eating the tree of life is the primary matter in the church life.
Enjoying Christ as our life and life supply should be the primary matter in the church life.
Christ as the tree of life is good for us to eat – He is good for food (Gen. 2:9) so that we may eat Him for our enjoyment and be constituted with Him for God’s expression (1:26; John 6:57, 63).
Some local churches may be devoid of content because they do not enjoy Christ as the tree of life, and the emphasis in that local church is not taking Christ as the life supply.
When the saints lack in the enjoyment of Christ as life, there is a shortage of life and love, and the shining of the lampstand is dim.
In our daily life, we need to enjoy Christ; we need to pay attention mainly to enjoy Him as the tree of life so that we may be constituted with Him as life and live because of Him.
Furthermore, when we come together with the saints, when we contact the saints, we need to continue to enjoy Christ.
If we personally enjoy the Lord and then contact others, we have something of Christ to impart to them, for He has been our enjoyment.
Sometimes even without much speaking, simply by being with the saints, we are infused with Christ, for we can sense the enjoyment of Christ.
When we all eat Christ and love Him, our meetings are full of the enjoyment of Christ.
The content of the meetings should be simply Christ, the enjoyment of Christ.
The primary matter in the church life should be eating the tree of life, for the content of the church life depends on our enjoyment of Christ.
What is the content of the church life? Do we only have meetings upon meetings, or do we have Christ as the tree of life is the centre, and all the saints enjoy this One?
The more we enjoy Christ, the richer the content of the church life will be.
But for us to enjoy Christ, we first need to love Him; when we love the Lord, we will enjoy Him.
If we leave our first love toward the Lord, we will miss the enjoyment of Christ and lose the testimony of Jesus.
But if we love the Lord, we will enjoy Him and we will shine with Him as the light of life, being the testimony of Jesus as the golden lampstand in this dark age.
May we not lose our shining; may the Lord have mercy on us that He would not come to take the lampstand from us.
May we give ourselves to love the Lord, enjoy Him, and be the testimony of Jesus, paying attention mainly to eating the tree of life in both our Christian life and our church life.
If we love the Lord Jesus and enjoy Him as the tree of life, the church life will become the paradise of God to us.
But if we neglect the matter of enjoying Christ as the tree of life, the church life may not be that sweet.
May we overcome the leaving of the first love and maintain the eating of Christ as the tree of life so that we may shine forth with Him as the light of life to be the golden lampstand, the testimony of Jesus.
If we do not have Christ as our content, that is, if we do not primarily eat Christ as the tree of life in the church life, we will be an empty church, a Christless church, and there will be no shining.
One of the biggest problems in the church life is emptiness; emptiness, the lack of the enjoyment of Christ, can lead to division. Oh, Lord Jesus!
When we are devoid of the enjoyment of Christ, when we do not love the Lord nor enjoy Him as the tree of life, we are in degradation, and division will come in.
The enjoyment of Christ requires us to love Him with the first love; we cannot lose our first love, for it is only when we love the Lord with the first and best love that we enjoy Him as the tree of life.
May we bring this to the Lord in prayer again and again throughout the day, telling Him,
Lord Jesus, we repent for not loving You and for not enjoying You as the tree of life. We come back to You, Lord, as the tree of life. Rekindle our love for You and grant us to love You with the best love. Amen, Lord, we love You! We come to enjoy You as the tree of life. May the enjoyment of Christ as our life supply be the primary matter in the church life! May we be filled with the enjoyment of Christ so that we may overflow with the rich, all-inclusive, wonderful Christ that we have enjoyed! Oh Lord, save us from leaving our first love for You! Save us from missing our enjoyment of Christ! May we be those who love the Lord with the first love, eat the tree of life, and shine forth with Christ as the light of life to be the golden lampstand, the testimony of Jesus!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chen in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1991-1992, vol. 4, “The Overcomers,” pp. 204-206, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life (2022 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 3, entitled, Loving the Lord with the First Love, Enjoying the Lord as the Tree of Life, and Being the Golden Lampstand as the Testimony of Jesus for the Building up of the New Jerusalem as the Goal of God’s Eternal Economy.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Thus within the church-life garden / There’s a fruit-producing tree / Full of life and so available to eat. / So be simple, don’t be hardened, / Drop your concepts—eat that tree! / Take in Jesus every moment—He’s so sweet! / I’m so happy in this lovely place, / In the garden growing in His grace! / There is no finer pleasure / Than to eat the living tree / And to get the living water into me. (Hymns #1237)
– How may we express such oneness, / be divine and shining too? / Hallelujah, eating Jesus is the way! / He’s the tree of life, the manna, / and the feast that’s ever new— / Hallelujah, we may eat Him every day! / We are one by eating Jesus! / We’re divine by eating Jesus! / How we shine by eating Jesus! / Hallelujah, eating Jesus is the way! (Hymns #1226)
– To be this testimony pure / ”First love” to Christ the Church must keep; / Then from the “tree of life” she may / The overcomer’s portion reap. (Hymns #822)
About aGodMan
Eating the tree of life, that is, enjoying Christ as our life supply, should be the primary matter in the church life. The content of the church life depends on the enjoyment of Christ. The more we enjoy Him, the richer the content will be. But to enjoy Christ requires us to love Him with the first love. If we leave our first love toward the Lord, we will miss the enjoyment of Christ and lose the testimony of Jesus; consequently, the lampstand will be removed from us. These three things－loving the Lord, enjoying the Lord, and being the testimony of the Lord—go together. (Rev. 2:7, footnote 6, Recovery Version Bible)
We need to overcome the leaving of the first love, to maintain the eating of Christ as the tree of life, and to shine forth the divine light as the lampstand (Rev. 2:5b). Love is related to life, and life is related to light. Love, life, and light are a trinity. If you make Christ the first in everything, you have love. If you have this love, you have life, and you will enjoy the Lord. If you have life, this life becomes light to you. The light of the lampstand, the church, shines forth corporately versus individualistically in the dark night of the church age. If we are enjoying Christ as our love, life, and light, we will keep the testimony of Jesus as the shining of the lampstand in our locality (12:17b). We will testify of Christ’s person as God and as man and of Christ’s human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, descension, and second appearing. The shining of the light is a testimony. In every aspect of our daily life, we should be shining forth Christ. Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1991-1992, vol. 4, “The Overcomers,” pp. 204-206
If we do not love the Lord with the best love, we will not primarily enjoy Him as the Tree of life, and the church life will be devoid of content, and we will not shine Him forth. Oh Lord.
May we love Him with the first love, eat Him as the Tree or life, and shine Him forth in the church as the golden lampstand, the testimony of Jesus.
Aaaaamen. Yes The primary matter in the church life is the eating of the tree of life.
Amen! Our sensation and our attitude toward the church depend upon our situation & condition.
If we love Jesus with the first love and we maintain the eating of Christ as the tree of life, we will shine forth the divine light as life lampstand.
Love, life & light are a trinity.
In every aspect of our daily life, we should be shining forth Christ.
Then, the church becomes a paradise for us.
Loving the Lord, enjoying the Lord, and being the testimony of the Lord go together.
Amen. Love, life, light, lampstand
Amen!
Love Life Light Lampstand!
When we love Christ , we have the Love of God which issues in the life of Christ which shines
The more light we receive the more life we gain and the more love we have to love God!
Oh brother when we love the Lord, we enjoy Him as life, and this life becomes light. Then we become a lampstand, the Lord’s testimony shining Him forth.
OH LORD JESUS!!!
Amen! Eating the Lord is the primary matter in the church life! Lord may we be those who overcome to eat the tree of life in the paradise of God! For the sake of your testimony here on earth!
Amen, brother loving the Lord is all we can do.
Rev. 2:5, 7
We need to take Christ as the first love in everything , and it is only by His love that we can love, one minute we love and the next minute we hate; our own love is like filthy rags.
The Lord love constrain us to love Him back and also to love each other, this love give us peace, we will enjoy Him as life, we will shine forth with Him as light, and we will become the shining lamp stand and the testimony of Jesus.
amen Brother may love the Lord as the first love so that we can enjoy him as life by eating the tree of life and shine forth as light being his testimony as the Church if we have this the Church will be glorious in our eyes
Amen Lord! Make the eating of You as the tree of life be the primary in the church life!