We Take Christ as our Lord by being Constrained by His Love to Live to the Lord

We need to take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our Lord by being people who live to the Lord (not merely for the Lord), being constrained by the love of Christ to live to Him and thus be under His control, direction, and governing. Amen! Hallelujah, Jesus Christ is our Lord and our King!

For us to take Christ as our King is to have a clear sky with a throne above it; as long as we take care of our conscience to make sure it is clear, clean, pure, and good, spontaneously there is the throne of God set up in the center of our being.

In Dan. 5:18-31 we see how Belshazzar, the descendant of Nebuchadnezzar, did not heed the warning of God to his forefather but rather, not being humbled in his heart, he exalted himself against the Lord of the heavens.

Therefore, God has numbered his kingdom and brought it to an end, he has been weighed in the scales and found to be lacking, and his kingdom was divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

Our very breath is in the hands of God, and we should honor Him; this means that we need to humble ourselves and allow Him to rule and reign within us.

When we are in subjection to God’s authority, we have spiritual weight; the greater the submission to His authority, the greater our spiritual weight.

May we enthrone Christ in our being and deal with anything that He shines on in our conscience and in our being, so that we would spontaneously be under the ruling and reigning of the throne of God.

As believers in Christ, the throne of God is not merely in the center of the universe, from which God rules and reigns; even more, the throne of grace is in our spirit, and the very place where God meets with man is in our spirit joined to the divine Spirit.

In Rom. 3:25 we see that God met with His people on the lid of the Ark in the Holy of Holies, under the cherubim of gold.

God is enthroned between the cherubim (Psa. 80:1); His throne is the expiation cover – the place of propitiation. This place, this cover, is Christ Himself, and Christ is in our spirit. Hallelujah!

When we turn to our spirit and contact the Lord, we enthrone Him, and He as grace reigns and rules in us.

May we learn to deal with anything that would hinder the Lord’s shining in us and on us; may we confess our sins and agree with His light on whatever it shines to expose.

Amen, may we come forward to the throne of grace in our spirit to receive mercy and find grace, and may we enthrone the Lord in the center of our being day by day!

We must Take, Experience, and Enjoy Christ as our Lord by being People who Live to the Lord, being Constrained by His Love

We need to take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our Lord; what does this mean in our practical daily experience, in our daily life?

In 2 Cor. 5:9, 14-15 we see that we need to be people who live to the Lord, and not merely for the Lord. It is good to live for the Lord, but to live to Him is even better and higher.

The love of Christ constrains us like a tidal wave that flows in and carries us away.

We may not want to go in a certain direction, but when we see the Lord’s love, we are constrained to no longer live to ourselves but to Him, who died for us and has been raised.

In Gal. 2:19 Paul said that we through law have died to the law that we may live to God; to live to God here is difficult to define but rich in its implications.

To live to the law is to be under the law, being directed by the law, governed by the law, and bearing the responsibility of fulfilling the law.

But to live to the Lord means that we’re under the Lord’s direction and control; it means that we want to fulfill His requirements and satisfy His desires, and we want to do and complete what He intends.

For us to be people who live to the Lord, we need the love of Christ to constrain us, even as it constrained the apostles, so that we would no longer live to ourselves but to the Lord.

For the love of Christ to constrain us means that it forcibly limits us and shuts us up to one line and purpose, as in a narrow, walled road.

Thank the Lord that His love forcibly limits us, for when we see His love, we can’t do what we want anymore but rather, we live to the Lord!

Every day we need to tell the Lord, Lord, constrain me with Your love today!

He will not forget that prayer; it may come a day when you want to “retire” from the church life or “take a break” from being a Christian, and then the Lord will come in to constrain us with His love, for we prayed for this.

His love constrains us and shuts us up unto His purpose; it is like a narrow road that walls us.

To live to ourselves means that we’re under our own control, direction, and governing; it means that we care for our own aims and goals.

But when we’re constrained by the Lord’s love, we will simply be determined to gain the honor of being well-pleasing to the Lord by living to Him (Col. 1:10; Heb. 11:5-6).

We seek to please the Lord not by doing a great work for Him but by living to Him in every aspect of our daily life.

May we take Christ as our Lord by being people who live to the Lord, not just for the Lord, but living to Him in all things.

Enoch was such a one; he was the first man who was raptured, translated, and before his translation, he obtained the testimony of being well-pleasing to God.

How can we be like him? Without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing to God, for he who comes forward to God must believe that He is, and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

We must believe that God is – He is and we are not. He is the unique One in everything, the only One in all things, and we are nothing in everything.

The love of Christ constrains us to live to the Lord; to live to the Lord means that we are absolutely under His control, His direction, and His governing, and that we want to fulfill His requirements, satisfy His desires and complete what He intends. Amen!

Living for the Lord is good, but it is still possible to live for the Lord and not to the Lord.

It’s possible to live for the Lord but still have our own goals, our own aims, and our own direction.

But when we live to the Lord, we are under His control and governing, and we do what He prefers not what we want.

Today we should seek not to please ourselves but to please the Lord by living to Him. We may want to tell the Lord,

Lord Jesus, constrain us with Your love so that we may no longer live to ourselves but to Him who loved us and has died for us. Oh, tide of love, flow in and carry us away! Amen, Lord, constrain us with Your love so that we may be people who live to the Lord and not to ourselves. Dispense into us a divine determination of gaining the honor of being well-pleasing to God by living to Him! Amen, Lord, we believe that You are everything and we are nothing; we are joined to You in spirit, and we live to the Lord! We want to live to the Lord by being absolutely under His control, direction and governing, and by seeking to fulfill His requirements, satisfy His desires, and complete what He intends!

Christ Died and Lived again for This, that He Might be the Indwelling Lord in us

Jesus Christ is our Lord; this is not just a saying, a phrase, or a well-known fact, but something very experiential.

When we realize that Jesus Christ is our Lord, we will no longer live to ourselves but to Him who died and was raised.

Paul writes in Rom. 14:8-9 that, whether we live, we live to the Lord, and whether we die, we die to the Lord; therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.

For Christ died and lived again for this, that He might be Lord.

Hallelujah, Christ died and rose from the dead for this, that He may be the indwelling Lord Jesus in our being, so today we live to the Lord, not to ourselves.

Christ died on the cross for our judicial redemption, and He lives again in resurrection within us for our organic salvation so that He might be our indwelling Lord! Hallelujah!

Christ died for us, and He was raised, so that He may be the Lord Spirit in our spirit (2 Cor. 3:18), the One who rules within us.

And we take Christ as Lord by seeking to live to the Lord – not just live for the Lord but to Him.

Paul sought to please the Lord not by doing a work but by living to Him in every aspect of his daily life.

Similarly today, we today should not seek to please ourselves but seek to please the Lord by living to Him – all that we do must be to Him.

We need to conclude like Paul that, because One died for all, therefore all died, so we should no longer live to ourselves but to Him.

When we see Christ’s loving death, when we are constrained by His dying love, we will no longer live to ourselves but to Him who loved us and gave Himself up for us.

Christ’s loving death is the motivating factor for us being constrained to live a loving life for the Lord, even to live to the Lord in all things of our daily life.

Christ died as our substitute, suffering the sentence of death on behalf of us all, so in God’s eyes, we all have died.

Because we died in Christ and with Christ (Gal. 2:20), we do not need to die in the way it is reserved for men to die and face judgment (Heb. 9:27).

Thank the Lord that He died on behalf of us all so that we may no longer live to ourselves but to Him, thus taking Him as our Lord.

We take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our Lord by being constrained by His dying love and living to Him.

He died and lived again for this, that He might be our Lord – our indwelling Lord, the Lord that dwells in us and rules in us.

He rules in us and over us not merely in an outward way or by imposing His rule on us; rather, we are constrained by His love for us, and we simply do not live to ourselves but to Him who loved us.

He came into us through regeneration to impart the divine life in our spirit and be the indwelling Lord; He lives in us and imparts His life into all the parts of our inner being so that He may rule and reign within us.

And we cooperate with His inner ruling by living to the Lord, for we have concluded that, since He died, we all died, and we no longer live to ourselves but to Him.

Whether we live, we live to the Lord, and whether we die, we die to the Lord, for whether we live or we die, we are the Lord’s.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for dying and living again so that You may be the Lord in us. We take You as our Lord and we want to live to the Lord, no longer living to ourselves. Amen, dear Lord, whether we live, we want to live to the Lord, and whether we die, we die to the Lord, for whether we live of we die, we are the Lord’s. We turn to You, dear Lord; You are the indwelling Lord Spirit, and we take, experience, and enjoy You as our Lord. Thank You for dying on the cross for our judicial redemption. Thank You for living again in resurrection within us for our organic salvation! Hallelujah, Christ is our indwelling Lord, the Lord Spirit in our spirit, the One who rules within us!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a message given by Ed Marks on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of 2 Corinthians, pp. 118-120, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Meeting God’s Need and Present needs in the Lord’s Recovery, week 8, entitled, Taking, Experiencing, and Enjoying Christ as Our King, Our Lord, Our Head, and Our Husband for the Building Up of the Body of Christ to Consummate the New Jerusalem.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Thy mighty love, O God, constraineth me, / As some strong tide it presseth on its way, / Seeking a channel in my self-bound soul, / Yearning to sweep all barriers away. / Shall I not yield to that constraining power? / Shall I not say, O tide of love, flow in? / My God, Thy gentleness hath conquered me, / Life cannot be as it hath hither been. (Hymns #431)
  – Jesus, I live to Thee, / The Loveliest and Best; / My life in Thee, Thy life in me, / In Thy blest love I rest. / Jesus, I die to Thee, / Whenever death shall come; / To die in Thee is life to me, / With Thee I’m ever one! (Hymns #504)
  – Lord Jesus, I long in Thy presence to live, / From morning to evening my one world Thou art; / O let not my heart be contented or rest / When loving or seeking what with Thee doth part. / Each moment, each day, throughout suff’ring and pain, / When nought in the world can give comfort or cheer, / When sighing and weeping encompasses me, / Lord, still all my sighing and wipe every tear. (Hymns #839)