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)