As believers in Christ and the people of God, we need to bear a sign that we rest with God, enjoy God, and are filled with God first, and then we work with the One who fills us; the work of the Lord to build up the church should begin with our enjoyment of God.
God first worked and then He rested; we first rest with Him and enjoy Him, and then we work with Him and for Him, even work together with Him by Him as our strength and supply.
God’s intention is not that we primarily work for Him and do something for Him; rather, as seen in man’s first day being the Sabbath, the rest day, we need to first rest with God, enjoy God, and be satisfied with God, being filled with the enjoyment of God, and then we can work together with God and for God.
We were not created to work first; we were created to be satisfied with God and rest with God, and then – out of this enjoyment of God and satisfaction with God – something issues out, which is a work together with God.
So if we don’t know how to enjoy God, how to be filled with God, and how to rest with God, we will not know how to work with Him and be one with Him in His divine work.
Look at the disciples of Christ and their first work after the Lord has ascended; they didn’t plan, make a committee, and do a lot of research of the situation, and then they worked for God, but rather, they were first filled with God and then they could work for God.
They gave themselves to just enjoy God; they prayed and prayed and prayed for ten days, and they remained in the one accord, and the outpouring of the Spirit came; then, after they were filled with the Spirit inwardly and clothed with the Spirit outwardly, they could do a work with God and work for God.
This is the principle in our Christian life and church life: we first need to be filled with Christ as the new wine, being filled with Christ as our vigorous, exciting, and stirring up life within, and then we can work with God and for God.
May we give ourselves to the Lord to spend time with Him, enjoy Him, be filled with Him, and rest with Him FIRST, and then out of this enjoyment and satisfaction with God something will issue out, which is the work for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
In ourselves, by ourselves, and out of the goodness of our heart we may be able to do something for God, and our flesh may be zealous in doing this or that for God.
However, whatever we do in our natural strength, with our natural zeal, and in the self, all these amount to nothing in God’s eyes; rather, they may be used by the enemy to tear down and mar the building of God.
Bearing a Sign that we Rest with God, Enjoy God, and are Filled with God First, then we Work with Him who Fills us
In Exodus, after God gave the revelation concerning the tabernacle and its furniture, after He selected the builders for the tabernacle and gave Moses a charge regarding them, He went on and spoke again of the Sabbath (see Exo. 31:12-17).
It’s almost as if God was reminding His people that, yes, they have to do the building work of the tabernacle, but before and while they do this work, they should bear the sign to indicate that they are His people by enjoying Him first.
The Sabbath is a sign between God and His people throughout their generations, that they may know that He is Jehovah who sanctifies them.
In six days God made the heaven and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed (v. 17).
As believers in Christ we shouldn’t just “work for God” when we see that there’s a need here and there, when we are assigned the work in the Body, or when we feel inspired and encouraged to do something for God.
The first order of business is not work: it is enjoyment; it is an insult for God if we do the work of God in ourselves, of ourselves, and by not enjoying God.
We must do the building up of God’s dwelling place in Christ, by Christ, and in oneness with Christ; for this, we need to enjoy Christ, be filled with Christ, and have a full enjoyment of God.
Only after we enjoy God and are filled with God can we be enabled and empowered to work with God for the building up of His house, the church.
We all need to learn the basic lesson regarding the Sabbath; the Lord Jesus in the New Testament never encouraged us to keep a calendaristic day as Sabbath but rather, He told us, Come to Me, all who toil and labor, and I will give you rest.
Amen, may we come to the Lord again and again to just enjoy Him, be filled with Him, and have a full enjoyment of God.
If we enjoy God and are filled with God, we can work with God; our work will not be in and of ourselves but in God, with God, and by God, for He Himself is our strength to work and our energy to labor.
We must bear a sign that we belong to God, that we are His; the sign is that we first rest with God, we enjoy God, and we are filled up with God, and then we work with the very One who fills us.
Even more, we not only work with God but work by being one with God, having Him as our strength for the work and as our energy for the labor in the work.
In ourselves we are either full of energy for God of we are completely unable to do it; the flesh is either very willing or very weak in doing the work of God. Or we may have a physical condition that has no strength and energy.
In all these we need to come to the Lord to enjoy Him, spend time with Him, and be filled with Him, for only when we’re filled with the enjoyment of God and rest with God, only then we can work with God by being one with God.
The Apostle Paul was a pattern in this matter; in 2 Cor. 2:17 he said, We speak in Christ, and in 3:13 he said, the Christ who is speaking in me.
On one hand we speak in Christ, and on the other, He speaks in us. We need to be so one with the Lord by enjoying Him to the uttermost that, whenever we speak, He speaks in us, and whenever He speaks in us, we speak in Christ.
He dwells in us, we dwell in Him, we abide in Him, and He abides in us; we mutually indwell one another.
In all our service to the Lord in the church life we need to first enjoy God and be filled with Him, and then we can work with God by being one with Him, having Him as our strength and energy for our labor and work.
If in the church life we do things without first enjoying the Lord and without serving Him by being one with Him, such a service may result in spiritual death and the loss of fellowship in the Body (Exo. 31:14-15).
We all can testify that sometimes we were inspired to do this or that for the Lord, but we didn’t enjoy Him first; the result was that at one point we stopped our work simply because we didn’t have the supply, and we may have even been disappointed and discouraged. Oh Lord Jesus!
May we come to the Lord again and again and enjoy Him, and may whatever we do be in the oneness with the Lord, allowing Him to work and speak in us and through us!
Lord Jesus, may we bear a sign that we are Your people, the sign of first resting with God, enjoying God, and being filled up with God, and then working with the very One who fills us! Amen, Lord, fill us to the brim! We come to You to enjoy You, rest with You, and be satisfied with You. May our work for Your issue not merely out of inspiration or zeal, not merely of trying to meet the need or out of duty, but out of our oneness with you! Amen, Lord, we take You as our strength to work and our energy to labor. Save us from doing things in the church life without first enjoying You and not in oneness with You! Save us from serving You in a way that results in spiritual death and the loss of fellowship in the Body!
The Work of the Lord to Build up the Church should Begin with the Enjoyment of God, for we Work with God by being One with Him!
A crucial principle we all need to learn in the church life is the matter of our work for the Lord, that is, doing the work of the Lord; all our work for and with the Lord should begin with the enjoyment of God.
When we first enjoy the Lord and are one with Him, we keep the principle of the Sabbath with Christ as the inner rest in our spirit (1 Cor. 3:9; 15:58; 16:10; 2 Cor. 6:1a).
Our first duty is not to work for God but to enjoy God; if we don’t enjoy Him, how can we minister Him to His people?
We were all given a stewardship; on His side, God has an economy, and on our side, as we enjoy God and receive His dispensing, we enjoy and receive a stewardship.
As Paul said in Eph. 3:2, the stewardship of the grace of God was given to me for you; we were given a stewardship of the enjoyment of God for others.
This is how Paul labored; he said, I am what I am by the grace of God, and I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me (1 Cor. 15:10).
On one hand we are what we are by the grace of God; we are what we are and we have what we have by the enjoyment of God in Christ as the Spirit to be our supply.
On the other hand, we can labor in an abundant way not in and of ourselves but because of the grace which is with us.
When we enjoy God, when we enjoy all the riches of God in Christ, something issues out: we minister Christ to others for them also to enjoy God.
In Gal. 2:20 Paul said, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.
The grace who is with us is the Christ who lives in us; when we enjoy Christ, we can live Christ and also minister Christ to others.
It is such a shame to the Lord when a believer – no matter how gifted he is and how much knowledge of the Bible he has – does a work “for God” yet without enjoying God and without being one with God!
May we all be those who bear a sign that we belong to God by enjoying God, resting with God, and doing the work in the enjoyment of God!
May all our work for the Lord and with the Lord in the church life begin with and be in the enjoyment of God.
Whenever we speak to others, when we visit the saints, shepherd the new ones, and care for others, we need to seek to be one with the Lord.
In our speaking, our attitude, our words, and even in the things we don’t say but express on our face, in all things we need to be one with the Lord and remain in the enjoyment of God.
In our work with the Lord we need to be one with Him, and we need to take Him as our rest, our refreshment, our energy, our strength, and our everything.
If we speak for the Lord yet we speak out of the self, that is an insult to the Lord.
We should always seek to bear a sign that we belong to God and that we take Him as our Sabbath rest.
The work of the Lord in the church life, the work to build up the church as the Body of Christ, should begin with our enjoyment of God; if we first enjoy God and then work one with God, this indicates that we don’t work for God by our own strength but by enjoying Him and being one with Him.
Dear Lord Jesus, we love You and we come to enjoy You and be filled with You! Amen, Lord, may the work of the Lord to build up the church always begin with enjoying God and being filled with God! Save us from working for God by our own strength; save us from just using our own power and ability to serve God. We come to You, Lord, to enjoy You, be filled with You, and rest in You to be satisfied with You! We want to practice in our speaking to be one spirit with You so that our speaking may be Your speaking! Oh Lord, may You be speaking in our speaking! Be the One living in us and doing the work in us!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, 1827-1830 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations, week 8, God’s Economy with His Dispensing in the Book of Jeremiah.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Every day there is much work to be done, / We are entrusted with the work of the Lord! / We need to do business until He comes, / Bringing in more men and feeding them with His word. / Yet each day before we start, / He brings this word up in our hearts: / First we need to rest, just to lay down, / This is what God wants, before the work abounds. / First enjoy the Lord! Just drink Him in. / Once we’re filled with Him—let the work begin. (Song on, First Enjoy the Lord!)
– Paul the Apostle counted all as dung, / ’Twas only God in Christ he counted grace; / ’Tis by this grace-the Lord experienced- / That he surpassed the others in the race. / It is this grace-Christ as our inward strength- / Which with His all-sufficiency doth fill; / It is this grace which in our spirit is, / There energizing, working out God’s will. (Hymns #497)
– Lord, I believe a rest remains / To all Thy people known; / A rest where pure enjoyment reigns, / And Thou art loved alone. (Hymns #424)
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