The Ministry of Life for the Body, Message 4

My Great Delight in God's Word

The Experience, Growth, and Ministry of Life for the Body, Message 4

Dealing with Life by Dealing with the Spirit

We have been through a few dealings in the last 2 messages. We have dealt with our national constitution, and then our heart. And in this message, we are going to deal with the other important component in our life - our spirit. Hopefully, it is the last dealing in this series.

I have to admit that the messages in this series are very difficult for me. I cannot grasp all the things taught in the book. And if I had said that I really enjoy reading the last few messages, I would have been a liar. They can be anything but fun stories. But I realise that I should not eat too much sweets (even though I really like them ), because they are not good for health. Barb Stuckey, an author and a food developer, says that "for healthy eating, bitter is better." Likewise, even though encouraging words are good and helpful to our spiritual journey, we also need some bitter words of exhortation and warning to mould and shape our life to be more like Jesus. Yes, it is usually painful to expose our life to God's word. But it is better to take it to the light rather than keeping it in the dark, is it not? Are you ready for another dish of bitter, but healthy, food?

Right thing, right way and right spirit

The value system of this world is based upon one's performance and success. If one is very productive with remarkable performance, he will be highly regarded and valued by the people in the society. For instance, in the science circle, a successful scientist is the one who has published a lot of papers in the very top journals.

Should God's value system be the same? By no means! God's value system is totally different. Our true value depends upon who and whose we are in Christ. We are His beloved children, adopted by grace through faith in His only begotten Son, and we are His. And as His children, He cares more about how we do things rather than how much we can achieve. In His eyes, the process is more important than the result.

Moreover, according to God's standard, doing the right thing is not good enough. Brother Watchman Nee says that we should "do the right thing in the right way and in the right spirit." That is very strict, is that not? The king Solomon writes about this in one of his proverbs, "All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the spirits." (Proverbs 16:2)

In my life, I've done good things for many times. But honestly, only a proportion of them was done in right ways, and much less, if any, were done in right spirit. Only the things that fulfil all the 3 criteria really count, and they are really needed for the building up of the Church.

Dealing with our spirit

Since we accepted Christ as our Saviour, we have had the life that we did not have from our birth. At our biological birth, we received only bios life (body) and psuche life (soul). But when we accepted Christ at our second birth, we received the other life, the zoe life (spirit), which is the innermost part of our life in which God dwells. It is well protected, eternal, and pure. It cannot be defiled or destroyed by the enemies, which consist of world, flesh, and devils.

Why then do we need to deal with our spirit? As brother Watchman Nee suggests, we need to do the right things in the right spirit. Therefore we do need to make sure that we have got a proper spirit when we are doing anything for building up of the Body.

However, our spirit itself is not the problem. Brother Nee compares our spirit as pure water. When it is expressed, it passes through other parts of our life - our soul and our body. It takes some dirt and gets contaminated from the passage, thereby manifesting itself as dirty water. Therefore the problem is with the passage. Dealing with our spirit is actually dealing with the passage. And the most common source of contamination is our motive or intention.

Therefore when we are speaking or acting, we need to thoroughly examine it, assuring that it is the right thing driven by the right motive and intention. If not, we then need to stop, and ask God for His power to purify the passage, so that the release of our spirit may not defiled.

A case study

One good case study concerning this topic appears in Luke 9.

⁵¹ Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem,
⁵² and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him.
⁵³ But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.
⁵⁴ And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?"
⁵⁵ But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.
⁵⁶ For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them." And they went to another village. (Luke 9:51-56 NKJV)

Why is the Lord not really happy with the request of the sons of thunder, who are among His closest disciples? What is wrong with the request? Perhaps what they are asking may not be quite wrong, because those who deny Him deserve punishment, and they will surely get that when Christ comes back to judge all men. But the Lord immediately rebukes them that they are of a wrong spirit. They ask out of the hatred in their heart, not love. And they do not know His heart at all, do they? The Lord comes to this world to save men, not to destroy them.

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV)

To go a little further, even when we pray, our prayer cannot be effective and accomplished unless our request comes out of a right motive. As James says clearly that, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures." (James 4:5 NASB)

Moreover, when the Lord comes, He will reveal our motive, and He will evaluate and praise us accordingly.

Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God. (1 Corinthians 4:5 NASB)

A steadfast spirit

The message lists many characteristics of a good spirit according to many passages from the bible. But may I select only one of them, which appears in psalm 51.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10 NKJV)

This is a part of the well-known psalm of repentance, which is written by the king David when the prophet Nathan confronts him after David's affair with Bathsheba. He immediately repents and sincerely confesses his sins towards God. And he asks God for a clean heart and a steadfast spirit.

Parenthetically, the word "steadfast spirit" here is rendered as "right spirit" in many reliable bible translations, including King James version. However, it actually means "upright spirit" that is "immovable, unshakable, standing constantly as something firm and steady." We do need this kind of spirit so that we will be extremely useful to God. How can our spirit be steadfast? We need to exercise our spirit, by contacting Him more and more. If our spirit is strong, it will always be firm, steady, immovable, unshakable, and constantly standing.

From the request for a clean heart and a steadfast spirit, it is like David is asking God to clean the passage of his life, making sure that the release will not be contaminated, and to strengthening his spirit, preventing the source from running dry. Both of them should come together, so that all the members of the Body shall mutually supply one another, and the Church will be rich! Would you like to have them now? Let's pray together, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10 NKJV)

Further reading

• The Holy Word for Morning Revival: The Experience, Growth, and Ministry of Life for the Body, week 4.

The Ministry of Life for the Body, Message 3

My Great Delight in God's Word

The Experience, Growth, and Ministry of Life for the Body, Message 3

The Urgent Need of the Growth of Life and Growing in Life by Dealing with the Heart

How have you found the messages in this series? Personally, I admit that they are so heavy and rich. The biblical truth has exposed me a lot. I hope that you have benefited and will continue benefiting from this series. I encourage you to persevere until the last message. Perhaps your life may be radically transformed by the Lord through these messages.

Last week, we surveyed through the issue of natural constitution in association of growth in life. We learned how the bible teaches us about it, and how the apostle Paul deals with his. This week, we are going to learn more about growing in life. I'm going to start with the importance of the growth of life, continue with the key of the growth of life, and end with the process of growing in life by dealing with the heart.

Importance of the growth of life

How do you distinguish between an alive person and a dead person? It is not difficult, is it? We just have to look at signs of life. Medically, the vital signs (body temperature, respiratory rate, blood pressure and heart rate) are important, because they indicate that one is alive or not. Moreover, they can tell us how healthy a person is, and, for an sick person, how severe or life-threatening the disease is.

Similarly, as the Church is an organism and not an organisation, it must have signs of life. One of the most important signs of life for a local church is the growth of life. If we would like to determine how healthy a local church is, we have to see the growth of life as the key indicator.

To my experience, all kids are lovely, and the parents (who do not have severe psychological illness) should really love them and may even be crazy about them. But what if they remain the same forever, without any growth, both physically and mentally? Would the parents be happy with that? I don't think so. They would quickly bring their children to see the doctors for appropriate intervention.

Likewise, our heavenly Father desires us to grow in life. He does not want us to be a spiritually dwarf. As a healthy person must grow, a healthy church must grow as well!

The meaning of the growth in life

A part of the Scripture that very well explains about growing in life appears in Ephesians 3, which is one of the 4 Paul's prison prayers (the prayers that he writes from the prison in his epistles).

14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height ---
19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:14-21 NKJV)

With love, the apostle Paul prays this prayer for the saints in Ephesian church. Perhaps you may not really want to get what the apostle Paul asks God for you in this prayer. But believe me, these things are what we desperately need for our spiritual pilgrimage!

From the prayer, we can see a wonderful consequence of spiritual transformation. God transforms us from inside out. God is dealing with our inner man first, by the work of His Spirit (v. 16), so that Christ may dwell in our heart (v. 17). As a result, we will be able to comprehend the amazing love of Christ, and ultimately, be filled with the fullness of God (v. 19). As a result, God will be glorified in the church by Christ Jesus (v. 21).

Brother Witness Lee gives us quite a few definitions of the growth of life in the outline of this chapter. One of the definitions is "the increase of the element of God within us until we are filled unto all the fullness of God." Yes, it simply is to be filled with all the fullness of the Triune God!

Parenthetically, if you would remember, our life consists of 3 compartments: spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Once we believe Jesus Christ and accept Him as our Lord and our Saviour, we are made right with God, and our spirit is made alive again. We are now justified, and our salvation is guaranteed. It may be generally called "justification." However, this is only the first step of salvation. We then need to be gradually transformed by His Spirit in our inner man. This transformation is mainly dealing with our soul, that is our mind, will and emotion, so that it will be conformed to the image of our Lord Jesus. This is when the growth of life happens. It is a lifelong process, and is generally called "sanctification." Ultimately, when Christ comes back again, we will be resurrected and our body will be transfigured, so that we will be exactly as He is. This is the step of "glorification."

Brothers and sisters, the best is yet to come. Don't stop at the step of justification. Continue growing through the process of sanctification with joy, because we will experience God and gain Him much more during the process. And one day, when the battle is finished, we will be before His throne, and be glorified by Him. That wonderful moment is awaiting us!

The means by which we can grow in life

How can we gain more life? The key is that we use the right organ for the right function! Use your spirit to contact God, and use your heart (all the three parts of our soul plus conscience) to love God!

1. Use your spirit to contact God

The most important thing for the growth of life is contacting God more and more. The bible says that "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." (2 Corinthians 3:6 NKJV) Only when we use our spirit to contact God's Spirit within us, we will gain the life from Him, because He is life and the source of life.

One of the most shocking things I have read from the book is that, memorising the Scripture and obeying it may not promote our growth of life. Even worse, it may hinder our growth. How can it be like that? Don't get me wrong. I'm not intending to discourage you to memorise the Scripture. It is a good thing to do, and His word is precious and essential to our spiritual growth. However, just reading it as a textbook, and treating it as a recipe to solve the problem in life are not the way to grow in life. One may know the Scripture very well, and can quote many verses by heart. When he faces a problem, he may automatically respond to that situation according to the instruction from the bible, without consulting Him what or how he should do. It is just the exercise of his mind, as he will learn a lot both intellectually and experientially how wonderful His holy word is, and how faithful God is. But what God wants the most from us is that we contact Him more and more. He wants to have an intimate relationship with us.

Parenthetically (again), there are 2 Greek words used for the word of God, the written constant word (logos) and the instant applied word (rhema). Jesus says that, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word (rhema) that proceeds from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4 NKJV) The spiritual bread that nourishes our spiritual life is the "rhema" word. We can eat it only when we contact the Author of the logos word to guide us how to apply it and change it to be the "rhema" word. This is consistent with what 2 Corinthians 3:6 says. "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." (2 Corinthians 3:6 NKJV)

2. Use your heart to love God

And what will happen next? We are to allow Him to transform and purify our heart. Only those who have purified heart can be used by God!

There are many types of congenital heart diseases that can be so severe that ultimately cause end-stage heart failure. One example is cardiomyopathy, or heart muscle disease. The patients may be treated with medications, or other interventions. However, a proportion of the patients cannot survive without heart transplantation.

Brothers and sisters, as a son of Adam, we all are born with a severe end-stage heart disease. Our heart is so sick that God cannot use us at all. It is incurable by any remedy. Throughout history, man has tried very hard to deal with it by employing religions and philosophies, but none has worked. Even God sees that it is hopeless, saying that "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9 NKJV) The only way He can help us from this detrimental disease is to do the heart transplantation!

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26 NKJV)

This procedure is extremely costly for God, even though it is absolutely free for us. To perform the operation, God needs to send His only beloved Son to be born as the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45) and die for us all, in order to terminate the wicked generation of the first Adam. Moreover, He raises Christ from the dead, so that He would become the second Man, the Lord from heaven, to start a new generation of heavenly man. We are no more having borne of the image of the man of dust, but bearing the image of the heavenly Man (1 Corinthians 15:47-49).

God is performing this operation in our heart today. He gradually changes our heart day by day. He is purifying our heart today, because we cannot be useful to Him unless our heart is purified. One of the characteristics of the man of God's kingdom is to have a pure heart (Matthew 5:8). A pure heart is a single heart with only one goal of life, that is God Himself! All we need for the purification of our heart is God's grace! (Hebrews 13:9)

This reminds me of the story of David. When Samuel searches for the next king as a replacement of the king Saul, he goes to Jesse's house according to God's direction (1 Samuel 16). Jesse brings 7 sons of his to meet with Samuel. They are well-grown and strong. The three oldest ones are even soldiers of the king Saul (1 Samuel 17:13). But none is selected by God. The one that God can use and will use is the other one whom were totally ignored and despised by his own father. He is just a young boy who is working as a shepherd, which is a very humble job in the society. What is the criterion of the one whom God can use?

When Samuel first sees Eliab, the oldest son of Jesse, he is so sure that this must be the chosen one, according to his outward appearance. But God clearly answers to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7) What David has, and his brothers do not, is the single heart for God! Even though he stumbles for many times in his life, his heart is still dedicated to His faithful God. Consequently, he is greatly used by God to deliver His people from the enemies, and to write most of the psalms worshiping Him in the bible. And the best of all, our Lord Jesus, the true great King, comes through his line!

It is so amazing, isn't it? God can use all of us regardless of our weaknesses and flaws, only if we have a single heart for Him. I really like the saying that "God does not call the equipped. He equips the called."

St Augustine rightly says that, "without God, we cannot; without us, God will not." Even though God does not need our ability for His move on earth, as He is the all-powerful God, He graciously chooses to use us as His vessel of honour. He will not move on this earth unless we allow Him to move through us! And God cannot use us unless we allow Him to deal with our heart by contacting Him more and more, so that it becomes single to Him!

Are you ready to have your heart exposed to Him so that He can do the heart transplantation today?

Further reading

• The Holy Word for Morning Revival: The Experience, Growth, and Ministry of Life for the Body, week 3.

Thirayost Nimmanon (Tony)

The Ministry of Life for the Body, Message 2

My Great Delight in God's Word

The Experience, Growth, and Ministry of Life for the Body, Message 2

Dealing with the Natural Constitution in Order to Be in Resurrection

In the last message, we learned how important the "fellowship" is for our spiritual growth. The vertical fellowship (our relationship with God) and horizontal fellowship (our relationship with our brethren in Christ) are inseparably interwoven, and one axis promotes the other. For the corporate growth of Christ's body, each of us, therefore, needs both of them.
Now we are moving to another topic. It is about dealing with our "self." In order to be transformed to the image of His Son, we need to deal with our natural constitution by crucifying it, so that we may gain more resurrected life and be useful to the Lord. I'm going to talk a little about the differences between natural ability and resurrected ability, hoping that it may be a useful information to examine ourselves if we are using our natural ability or resurrected one to serve the Lord. Lastly, I would like to demonstrate you how the apostle Paul thinks about his own natural constitution.

Natural constitution

This is not a biblical term. So don't attempt to search it in the bible. But it is based on the concept that we can find in the bible. It means "the aggregate of man's physical and mental powers," which expresses the living out of our old man. It includes human ability, capability, wisdom, cleverness, schemes, and skills.
Graciously, God has given each of us much of the natural constitution. Indeed, in order for an organisation to be successful, it needs the capable ones with strong natural constitution, especially those who are also ambitious. And can this principle be applied to the Church? Does the Church need the ones with strong natural constitution in order to be truly successful? If you think so, I would like to say, "I'm sorry." Why? Simply because the Church is not an organisation. It is an organism. It is the Body of the living Christ, not a non-living organisation. Her growth depends upon the growth of resurrected life of all the members. And the resurrected life actually is the life of God within us. Ironically, those who have strong natural constitution, particularly those with strong ambition, are the ones who usually cause problems and conflicts within the local churches, resulting in hindrance to the growth of the Body and, even worse, frequently causing divisions. Natural constitution is therefore considered "useless," if not "detrimental," to the Church.
So what can we do to turn the useless natural constitution to be useful to God's move on earth? It needs to pass through the process of "crucifixion and resurrection." Unless we put an end to our natural constitution, God cannot use it for His glory. And paradoxically, if we kill it, it will become even much more fruitful. The Lord teaches us in John 12:24-25 that unless a corn of wheat dies, there will be only one corn. But when it falls into the earth and dies, it can produce much fruit.

²⁴ Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
²⁵ Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:24-25 NKJV)

The verse 25 is quite confusing, isn't it? How can I hate my own life in order to gain it? And when I want to have life, is it possible that I can hate it at the same time? It is not logical at all, is it?
I really admire the really literally-translated Recovery Version, which clearly distinguishes the life that we should hate and the life that we will have as a result. The former is the psuche life, or soul life, while the latter is the zoe life, or spiritual life. (I explained about the 3 parts of human life in the crystallization study of the book of Zechariah, message 4. You can read it here, http://www.followhissteps.com/web_christianstories/thingsienjoy/MR_zechariah04.html.) Yes, we should hate our soul life, which consists of mind, will, and emotion, to the extent that we want to put it to an end on the cross, so that we will gain more spiritual life. Similarly, as the natural constitution is the product of our natural soul-life, we need to crucify it, so that it will be resurrected, becoming useful to the Lord. Our loss will be merely temporary, but the harvest of resurrection will last forever and will give us an exceeding joy.
Brothers and sisters, would you like to be useful to Him? Would you like to be used by Him for His move on this earth? If so, be open to Him. Allow Him to get rid of our natural constitution and terminate it on the cross, so that He can bring it into resurrection. We then will be able to use it for His glory. Consequently, if you have this mindset, you are not going to trust your own natural constitution anymore, because it is useless. Instead, we are going to trust in the God of resurrection who can transform it to be something extremely useful!

Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead (2 Corinthians 1:9 NKJV)

Natural ability VS resurrected ability

Now, let's examine ourselves if we are serving God with our natural ability or our resurrected ability. They are absolutely different. One is totally useless, while the other is extremely useful.
I would like to start with some questions for you to answer. You don't need to reply me. But please consider about them, and honestly answer to yourself. They are yes-no questions, so they should not be too difficult to answer.

• Is your work mixed with the elements of flesh and temper?
• Does your work aim to benefit yourself?
• Does your work involve craftiness and manoeuvring?
• Does your work rely wholly upon self?
• Is your work out of the control of the Holy Spirit?
• Does your work act entirely according to self-will?
• Does your work result in pride, boasting and self-glorification?

If at least one of the answers is "yes," you fail the test. I want you to stop to think about it. It is not a good idea to continue serving the Lord like this, because it will never promote your spiritual growth. You will just waste your time serving Him in an inappropriate way. A true service, which employs the resurrected ability, should bring you to a closer relationship with the Lord. You will do it with joyfully and wholeheartedly, not grudgingly, and you will grow spiritually while serving Him.
What does the resurrected ability look like? It is devoid of the flesh and temper elements. It is selfless with no element of self. It does not scheme, but absolutely relies upon God under the control of the Holy Spirit and acts according to God's perfect will. It does not give rise to self-glorification, but it glorifies God.
How are you serving God today? Are you using your natural ability or resurrected ability to serve Him? Which area of your natural constitution remains natural that you would like Him to terminate and bring it into resurrection? Life is too short to waste a single second. Redeem the time by serving Him joyfully and wholeheartedly with your resurrected ability!

Paul's attitude towards his natural constitution

Everyone has something that he wants to keep as his pride. It can be remarkable success in career, high level of education, or millions of pounds in bank account. Sometimes people can be proud when they do something good, such as donating a great amount of money. Ironically, they may be proud that they have donated anonymously, and may even boast about it. Some people may not have one yet, while others may have some already but they are not content with what they have. As a result, they ambitiously pursue their dreams to gain the worldly success.
I have got a few humble things to be proud of. But should I keep them as my little pride, so that I can feel happy every time I think about them or whenever people mention about them? Or should I even pursue the things that the world defines as success, such as, as a scientist, winning a Nobel prize (which I'm really sure I cannot get it)?
I have to say that all of my successes cannot be compared with the apostle Paul's, according to his short CV (résumé) in Philippians 3:4-6 and Acts 22:3.

⁴ though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:
⁵ circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;
⁶ concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. (Philippians 3:4-6 NKJV)
I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers' law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today. (Acts 22:3 NKJV)

His CV (résumé) is really impressive. He was circumcised when he was eight days old, exactly as the law prescribes. He was born in the chosen nation from which the Messiah would come and thereby the world would be blessed. He was descended from the tribe of Benjamen, from which the king Saul, the first king of the Israel, came. He is truly Hebrew, probably born of Hebrew parents. He has observed the law so strictly, as he is one of the Pharisees. And within the Pharisees' society, he is among the top ones, as he is a student of Gamaliel, who was famous at that time, and was "a teacher of the law held in respect by all the people." (Acts 5:34) He is so zealous, since he used to persecute Christians. He has observed the law so perfectly that his record is spotless. So his future seems to be so bright if he just continues what he has pursued.
But what has happened in his life after he encountered the Lord Jesus? His life has completely changed since then. The direction of his life has turned upside down. He eventually comes to a remarkable conclusion, written in Philippians 3:7-8.

⁷ But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
⁸ Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
⁹ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; (Philippians 3:7-9 NKJV)

All the honourable things that he has succeeded and has considered as valuable are eventually counted as worthless or nothing. Why does he think like that? Because he has found something far greater. Actually, he has found the excellent One, even only intellectual knowledge of whom is enough to throw all other things in his life into the trash (and empty the recycle bin too). He sees the supremacy of our Lord and the infinite value of knowing Him. He responds to this by giving his whole life to Him and throwing anything else aside, considering it as nothing but rubbish or a pile of waste. He does this so that he may gain Christ and be found in Him.
But is he satisfied to just know him intellectually? Definitely not. He continues with this.

¹⁰ that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
¹¹ if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10-11 NKJV)

Not only does he wants to know Christ intellectually, but he also desires to know Him personally and experientially. Moreover, he also wants to experience the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering. He longs to be conformed to His death. And his ultimate goal is that he may attain the outstanding or extra-resurrection (different original word from the resurrection in verse 10) from the dead when Christ is coming back.
Interestingly, the apostle Paul mentions about knowing the power of Christ's resurrection before knowing the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. He did not make a mistake. For Christ, He suffered and died first, and then He was raised from the dead. But the apostle realises that we are too weak to join the fellowship of His sufferings and be conformed to His death, unless we experience the power of His resurrection first.
Additionally, the power of His resurrection in verse 10 is a continual and gradual experience. It means that our life needs to be continually and gradually resurrected. The apostle does not say, "power in His resurrection," which occurred only once in the history, but he says "power of His resurrection," which can be experienced by us everyday. The more we know the power of His resurrection, the more we will be able to join the fellowship of His sufferings and be conformed to His death, which will further increase the power of resurrection in us. This is the process whereby our life will be saturated with the resurrected life of Christ and be transformed to be more like Him everyday. And this process continues until it consummates at our outstanding or extra-resurrection from the dead when Christ comes back, which is very soon. At that time, our life - the body, the soul and the spirit - will wholly be transformed. This should be our goal and destination.
Brothers and sisters, do you consider anything more valuable than knowing Christ both intellectually and experientially? What is preventing you from allowing God to terminate your natural life? Would you ask God for more power of Christ resurrection, so that we can die with Him and gain more resurrected life each day? Is your goal and destination set to the right thing as Paul does - the special resurrection from the dead? Let's learn from Paul, and imitate Him, just as he imitates Christ!

Further reading

• The Holy Word for Morning Revival: The Experience, Growth, and Ministry of Life for the Body, week 2.

• Footnotes of Philippians 3:7-11

  • The Holy Bible Recovery Version.

  • NKJV Study Bible

Thirayost Nimmanon (Tony)

The Ministry of Life for the Body, Message 1

My Great Delight in God's Word

The Experience, Growth, and Ministry of Life for the Body, Message 1

Living in the Fellowship of the Divine Life

Welcome to the first message of the new 8-message series, "The Experience, Growth, and Ministry of Life for the Body," which seems to be really practical and may be helpful for your spiritual growth. As always, the messages are so rich. I can share only some parts that I enjoyed the most.
Please note that I'm going to share the messages out of my own understanding, based on the topics in the book of Morning Revival (published by Living Stream Ministry). I'm not a theologian, and have no degree in theology at all. I'm just a God-lover who enjoys studying and sharing the Word. If you doubt anything you find in any message, please refer back to the references at the end of each message, because you will find plenty of references to the bible passages. I will try my best to quote the key verses to you, because they definitely are God's Word, the truth that can never fail. Never believe me or any imperfect man. Only believe in God's Holy Word.
I have a kind warning to you. If you don't want to experience spiritual growth, don't like to study the truth, or don't desire to be transformed by God's word, this article is not for you. You can close the page right now. (Please don't actually do it. I'm just using psychology to attract you to read it.)
Are you ready to experience the richness of the treasure hidden in the Word of God? Let's come to enjoy it together!

The first message is focusing on "fellowship," which we received from God the Holy Spirit. It consists of 2 axes, vertical and horizontal, which are inseparably interwoven. Before discussing about that, I'm going to start with one of the best-known benedictions of the apostle Paul, which appears in the last verse of 2 Corinthians. Then I'm going to move to the discussion of the 2 axes of the divine fellowship, based on some verses in 1 John chapter 1.

Trinitarian benediction of 2 Corinthians 13:14

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. (2 Corinthians 13:14 NKJV)

I'm quite familiar with this verse, because many pastors often use it for benediction in the dismissing of assemblies. And I love it because it tells us a lot of truth.
Firstly, it teaches us about the Triunity of our God. Yes, we have only one God. Yet there are 3 distinct Persons within the Godhead: the Father, the Son (the Lord Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father. Nevertheless, all these three are One. (Don't try to fully comprehend it. It is one of the mysteries that no man can ever fully understand, because of limitation of our brain. But we will see it clearly when we will meet Him face to face.)
Secondly, it indirectly suggests the co-equality of all the three Persons in the Godhead. The apostle Paul mentions the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, even before the love of God the Father. Unless Jesus had been co-equal in authority with the Father, the apostle would have done a big mistake as blasphemy. This implies the divine co-equality of each member within the Godhead. Even though the Son willingly and humbly submits to the Father's authority, and the Holy Spirit submits to the Father and the Son, They are basically co-equal in the Divine essence, nature, attribute and authority.
Thirdly, it tells us 3 important things that the Church, as the body of Christ, needs the most. In order for the Church to grow, it needs grace, love and fellowship (communion), which we have from God in Christ through the Spirit. The Church needs all of them. Among these three, the love of God is the source of grace and fellowship. Because of God's love, He reveals His grace to us and we can have fellowship with Him. The grace of Christ is the course of the love of God, as we can clearly see God's love only through Christ. And the fellowship of the Spirit is the impartation of both the grace of Christ and the love of God, since through the Spirit, we can experience both of them and can enjoy the Triune God. All the three things come as a package. They are not separable, just as all the three Persons in the Godhead are not separable.
How can we attain these three things? It may be said that to attain these three characteristics, we need to have the Triune God Himself with us and within us as our life. We cannot achieve them by ourselves. We cannot have grace of Christ without having Christ Himself, as He is full of grace and truth (John 1:14). We cannot have God's love without having God Himself, because God is agape love (true love that is unconditional and selfless, 1 John 4:8). And we cannot have fellowship of the Spirit, without having the Spirit Himself moving within us (2 Corinthians 13:14). If we are open to the Triune God and have a close relationship with Him, we will then experience true grace, love and fellowship, and will automatically express them.
I like the way brother Witness Lee defines these three things that "the grace of Christ is Christ Himself enjoyed by us, the love of God is God Himself tasted by us, and the fellowship of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself moving within us." According to this definition of the fellowship of the Spirit, we can notice that fellowship is not a static process. It is a dynamic process. During fellowshipping, the Spirit is moving within us. (We are going to learn more about fellowship in the next section.)
From the benediction of the apostle to the Corinthian church, we have learned that the Church needs to have grace, love and fellowship from God in Christ through the Spirit. If one brother comes to visit your church, would he clearly see grace, love and fellowship, or would he rather see a lot of selfishness, hatred, and conflict instead? Would you like to be the one who builds up the Church by demonstrating true "grace, love, and fellowship" to this dark world? Would you like to fully co-ordinate and co-operate with God in His building project of His glorious Church? May we come to God and experience more grace, more love and more fellowship from Him today! Let Him shine through us by expressing more of them to the world.

The fellowship of the Spirit

³ that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
⁴ And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. (1 John 1:3-4 NKJV)

In this section, we are going to decipher the truth about "fellowship." Let's start with 1 John 1:3-4.
The apostle John wrote this letter to the believers in his time (and also to us today). He wrote about our Lord Jesus as a first-hand witness. He had heard and had seen by himself. He wrote this letter so that the believers might have fellowship with him and his fellow believers. The apostle further explained that this fellowship actually is also with the Father and the Son. And through the fellowship, the their joy would be full!
We can see that there are 2 aspects of fellowship: vertical and horizontal. We need to have the vertical fellowship, the fellowship with God the Father and God the Son through God the Holy Spirit, who is in us. And we also need to have the horizontal fellowship with other saints. The two axes of fellowship are closely and inseparably interwoven. We cannot be satisfied with only one axis and ignore the other, as the apostle says that the fellowship with saints truly is the fellowship with the Father and the Son.
I think the best analogy for this is the "cross." The cross has 2 axes: vertical one and horizontal one. Only one axis cannot be a cross. The vertical one represents the reconciliation between God and us. While the horizontal one represents the reconciliation between us and others. Because of the finished work of Christ on the cross, we can have fellowship with God. And as Christ has already become the "cornerstone," joining all the believers together, particularly between Jews and Gentiles, now we can also enjoy the fellowship with others.

⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
⁷ But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:6-7 NKJV)

The apostle John continues that when we have fellowship with God, we walk in the light. And invariably, if we are walking in the light, we have fellowship with one another. Both vertical and horizontal axes are important. Neither of them is just an option.
Interestingly, the more we have fellowship with Him, the more we will have fellowship with others. And the more we have fellowship with others, the more we will also have the fellowship with God. But if one axis of the fellowship is non-functioning, the other will be affected as well.
I have met the people at both extremes. At one extreme, one may claim that he has really good fellowship with God. He reads the bible every day, and pray very often. Yet he rarely comes to have fellowship with brothers and sisters. He may appear at the church every Sunday, but he immediately leaves the church as soon as the service finishes. According to 1 John 1:6-7, his claim isn't quite logical, is it? At the other extreme, one may really enjoy the fellowship with others. He joins all the church activities. Yet he rarely has the fellowship with God. This one must be questioned if his fellowship with others is healthy, because the horizontal fellowship should have led that one to a deeper relationship with God.
I really like an analogy given by Watchman Nee. Given that we are created to be a vessel (Romans 9:21), we need to have something flowing within us. In this context, the Holy Spirit is flowing through us when we have fellowship. And a vessel has 2 openings. Likewise, we as a vessel have 2 openings, one towards God, and the other towards others. If the one towards God is blocked, the flow of the Spirit cannot come into our life. In the same way, if the one towards others is obstructed, the Spirit cannot flow in anymore because of the congestion. Therefore do not let the vessel of our life be blocked by anything. Clear the vessel each day. Contact God more so that the flow can come in more. And also let the Spirit flow out from our life by fellowshipping with others more so that the Spirit can flow into your life even more. And the result of the active flowing of the Spirit during the fellowship is that your joy will be full!
Brothers and sisters, how is your vessel status today? Is it patent with the Spirit actively flowing through? Or is it stenosed, or even completely obstructed by anything so that the Spirit cannot flow in or flow out? What is the blockage of the flow in your life today? What would you like God to remove from your life so that you can have a deeper fellowship with Him and with others? What can you do to have more fellowship, both vertically and horizontally? If God has revealed you something today, don't wait. Do according to His instruction now! And you will experience the joy that is so full!
May "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen." (2 Corinthians 13:14 NKJV)

Further reading

• The Holy Word for Morning Revival: The Experience, Growth, and Ministry of Life for the Body, week 1.

• Footnotes of 1 Corinthians 13:14

  • The Holy Bible Recovery Version.

  • KJV Scofield Study System

  • ESV Study Bible

• Watchman Nee, Messages for Building Up New Believers, pp.284-285.

Thirayost Nimmanon (Tony)