The Lord Jesus as our pattern told us to learn from Him, for He is meek and lowly in heart; He took the Father as the source of blessing, and we also realize that without God we cannot do anything, and His blessing is everything to us.
We need to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus; to learn Christ is to live the same way that He lived, and this is not by our own efforts or zeal but by the divine life in our spirit.
The pattern seen in the Lord Jesus with His human living in the Gospels is what God is looking for in the new man.
Christ came to do the work of the Father, which is first that He would set up a pattern of a God-man living, a human living by the divine life so that God would be expressed and manifested in humanity.
On one hand, Christ came to accomplish redemption for us, and for this, He went to the cross to die for us; on the other hand, however, for thirty-three and a half years He lived a certain kind of life to establish a model, a pattern.
Now we as the many believers in Christ are members of the church as the one new man, and we should live in the same way that He lived.
How can we live in the same way that Christ lived so that we may have the living of the one new man? It is not in and of ourselves, for in ourselves we can only express what we are, which is our natural man.
We can live Christ only by turning to Christ, opening to Him, and allowing Him to spread little by little from our spirit into our mind, emotion, and will, so that He may renew our whole inner being.
We are the Lord’s increase, His continuation on the earth; He needs to be the One living in us and being manifested through us.
We should live the same kind of life that Christ has lived while on earth.
This doesn’t mean that we should improve our behaviour and have a higher standard of morality or ethics; rather, this means that we need to live a crucified life so that Christ may be expressed through us.
It is only when we with our natural man are put aside and put to death that Christ can be manifested through us.
We should reject any effort to cultivate ourselves or build up our natural man; we should not try to improve ourselves or better ourselves to please God.
It is not by “What would Jesus do?” that we live the same way that He lived.
Rather, it is by turning to Him, spending time with Him, being infused with Him, and being filled and saturated with Him that we spontaneously live out the same kind of life that He lived when on earth.
When we touch Him as the most compassionate One, when we enjoy His fresh and new compassions every morning, and we experience His compassions in our daily life, that we can also be compassionate with others.
Thank the Lord that He has compassion on us; He comes to us where we are, He loves us, He cares for us, and He gives Himself to us.
The more we enjoy Him and partake of what He is, the more we can live Him out, and our living is the living of the one new man.
The Lord is Training us to Learn from Him as He takes the Father as the Source of Blessing
In Matt. 14:14-21 the Lord Jesus performed the miracle of feeding five thousand people with five loaves and two fish; in this, He trained His disciples (Matt. 11:28-30) to learn from Him.
He saw the great crowd following Him and listening to His words, and He was moved with compassion so He healed their sick and taught them.
As evening fell, His disciples asked Him to let them go get some food from the nearby villages, for they are hungry; the Lord then asked them to give them food. They said that all they had is five loaves and two fish, but what are these small things to such a great crowd.
So the Lord asked for these five loaves and two fish to be brought to Him; He took them and, looking up to the heaven, He blessed them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowd.
Matt. 14:19 says that the Lord took the five loaves and the two fish and, when He was going to bless them, He looked up to heaven; this indicates that He took the Father as the source of His blessing.
The Lord looked up to heaven for He looked up to His source, His Father in heaven.
Many people, when they read this account in the Scriptures, pay attention to the amazing miracle the Lord performed to feed five thousand men (besides women and children) with five loaves and two fish; we, however, should pay more attention to the pattern of the Lord than to the miracle.
The Lord Jesus realized that the source of the blessing was not Him but the Father; He was just the sent One, and the Sender is the source of all blessing.
The Lord looked up to the heavens to acknowledge that the Father is the source of blessing.
Rom. 11:36 says that it is out of Him and through Him and unto Him are all things; everything is out of God, through God, and unto God.
The Lord Jesus behaved in this way to set before us a pattern of what a God-man living was like; He was the first God-man who lived a God-man life, and He acknowledged the Father as being the source.
In Matt. 11:28-30 He tells us to come to Him and He will give us rest; we need to take His yoke upon us and learn from Him, for He is meek and lowly in heart, and we will find rest for our souls.
We struggle, strive, and work really hard to obtain some sort of a result, and many times we’re disappointed with the fact that the result of our work does not match the effort we put in.
We truly labour and toil, we are full of burdens, and we are restless in our souls; we need to come to the Lord and learn from Him, and we need to realize that the source of blessing is not us but God the Father.
Just as the Lord Jesus realized that the Father is the source of blessing, so we need to learn from Him and realize that it is God, the Sender, who is the source of blessing, and not us, the sent ones.
May we learn from Him; may we come to Him with all our burdens and toils, and may we just learn from Him by turning to Him and being conformed to Him as the mould into whom we have been placed.
May we take His yoke upon us, doing the will of the Father (which is easy), and bear His burden (which is light).
Lord Jesus, we come to You with all our burdens, toils, efforts, and striving; we are so burdened, Lord, and we toil so much. We receive Your rest, and we take Your yoke upon us and learn from You, for You are meek and lowly in heart. Amen, Lord, we trust not in our labour or toiling but in You, for we are not the source of blessing. Lord, we take You as our source of blessing. We look up to the heavens and acknowledge You as being the source of blessing. Everything is out of You, through You, and unto You. Amen, Lord, we take You as our pattern and we learn from You; conform us to Your image in our daily walk in this way!
We Realize that God is the Source of Blessing, we Deny ourselves, and we trust in Him for Everything
As we learn from the Lord Jesus, the pattern for our Christian life and living, we realize that God is the source of blessing.
Regardless of how much we can do for the Lord and how much we know what to do, we must realize that we need the Sender’s blessing upon our doing so that we can be channels of supply by trusting in Him and not in ourselves (Matt. 14:19; Num. 6:22-27).
It is so easy for us, as we serve the Lord in something over and over again, that we forget to look up and take God as the source of our blessing.
We may do something once, again, and again, and we may think we know how to do this, so we don’t need to pray; we may even be too busy to pray in the service of the Lord. Oh, Lord!
No matter how much we can do or how much we know what to do, no matter how many times we served the Lord in a particular aspect or area, we still need the Lord’s blessing upon our doing, for only He can make us channels of supply as we trust in Him and not in ourselves.
In Num. 6:22-27, the Lord told Moses to tell Aaron to bless the children of Israel with the Triune God; then He said, So shall they put My name upon the children of Israel, that I Myself may bless them.
It was Aaron who blessed the people at the Lord’s command, and in his blessing, God blessed them.
The blessing comes from God, and we can be a channel of supply, a channel of blessing; we don’t have any blessing of ourselves – we don’t bless people, for we’re not the source, but God is the source.
The Lord Jesus looked up to heaven and blessed the bread and the fish; this indicates that as the Son on earth sent by the Father in heaven, He was one with the Father, trusting in the Father (John 10:30).
Similarly, as those who follow the Lord’s pattern and are conformed to His image, we need to realize that our oneness with Him means everything in our ministry and service (1 Cor. 2:3-4).
What we know and what we can do for the Lord or in the Lord’s work mean nothing; it all depends on our oneness with the Lord, taking Him as the source of blessing.
The blessing comes only by our being one with the Lord and trusting in Him (see 2 Cor. 1:8-9).
No matter what we do, no matter what we can do, no matter what our capacity or ability is, we are not the source of blessing.
If we look back in our history in the church life in the Lord’s recovery, some saints seem to have forgotten this principle as they were used by the Lord for a period of time; the result is that they were set aside, for they didn’t take God as the source of blessing. Oh, Lord.
May we humble ourselves before the Lord, and may we always look up to Him and trust in Him, taking the Lord as our pattern.
Before we speak something for the Lord, we need to look to the Lord; we shouldn’t do anything from ourselves but take the Lord as our source, even as He took the Father as His source (John 5:19; Matt. 16:24).
This means that we need to continually exercise our spirit to reject the self and live by another life by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19-21).
We should not do things in ourselves; we should not initiate anything from ourselves, but rather, we should deny ourselves and not have the intention of doing anything from ourselves but have the intention of doing everything from Him.
The Lord Jesus as our pattern didn’t seek His own will but the will of Him who sent Him (John 5:30b; 6:38; Matt. 26:39, 42).
He rejected His idea, His intention, and His purpose, and He took the Father’s will, intention, and purpose as His.
We all should be on the alert for this one thing – when we’re sent to do some work, we shouldn’t take that chance to seek our own goal.
Rather, when we are assigned to do any work for the Lord, we should seek the idea, purpose, aim, goal, and intention of our sending Lord (see 1 Tim. 5:2).
For this we need to have a pure heart in serving the Lord, not seeking our idea, goal, or intention, but looking to the Lord for everything, taking Him as the source of blessing and depending on Him for everything.
We all need to learn this – we all need to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus.
Lord Jesus, we depend on You for everything. Regardless how much we can do or how much we know what to do, we realize that we need Your blessing upon our doing, for only You can make us channels of supply as we trust in You and not in ourselves. Amen, Lord, we look to You for supply, direction, and everything. We acknowledge that what we know and what we can do mean nothing; rather, being one with the Lord and trusting in Him means everything in our ministry. Lord, the blessing comes only from You; You are the source of blessing, so we trust in You. We want to continually exercise our spirit to reject the self and live by the divine life, being bountifully supplied inwardly by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen, Lord, we want to seek only the idea, purpose, aim, goal, and intention of our sending Lord in everything we do in our work for You!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ricky Acosta for this week, and portions from, The God-man Living, chs. 12-14 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The All-Inclusive, Extensive Christ Replacing Culture for the One New Man (2020 Thanksgiving Conference), week 5, Living the Life of the One New Man instead of Our Culture by Learning Christ as the Reality Is in Jesus.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, / Tune my heart to sing Thy grace; / Streams of mercy, never ceasing, / Call for songs of loudest praise. (Hymns #319)
– All the blessings God hath promised, / With our faith on Thee depend; / Thou art “Yea” and “Amen” for them, / All the content and the end! (Hymns #191)
– Art thou hung’ring for the fulness / Of the blessing Christ doth give? / Longing now to learn the secret / Of the life He bids thee live? / In His word thine answer standeth, / “Christ who is our Life” it saith; / Open now thy heart, and trust Him, / There to dwell, henceforth, by faith. (Hymns #641)
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