MEETING GOD'S NEED AND PRESENT NEEDS IN THE LORD'S RECOVERY
Message Eight
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
Scripture Reading: Ezek. 1:22, 26-28; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Rom. 14:7-9; Col. 2:19; S. S. 1:1-4; 2 Cor. 11:2-3
I. We must take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our King:
A. The highest point in our spiritual experience is having a clear sky with the throne above it—Ezek. 1:22, 26-28:
1. The kind of sky we have as Christians depends on our conscience; our conscience is connected to our sky—Rom. 9:1; 2 Cor. 1:12.
2. When there is nothing between us and the Lord and nothing between us and one another, our sky will be crystal clear, and we will have not only a good conscience but also a pure conscience—Acts 24:16; 1 Tim. 1:5, 19; 3:9; 2 Tim. 1:3; cf. Matt. 5:8; Prov. 22:11; 2 Tim. 2:22.
B. The throne is the center of the universe, and it is the Lord's ruling presence; the throne in our spirit is actually Christ Himself—Isa. 22:23; Heb. 4:16; Rom. 5:21; Rev. 22:1:
1. If we have a clear sky, the throne will be present, and we will spontaneously be under the ruling and reigning of the throne; for God to have the throne in us means that He has the position to reign in us—cf. Dan. 4:17, 25-26; 5:18-31; Isa. 6:1-8.
2. To have the throne above a clear sky is to allow God to have the highest and most prominent position in our Christian life; in our spiritual experience, to reach the point of having the throne above a clear sky means that in everything we are completely submissive to God's authority and administration.
C. In Ezekiel 1:26 "the likeness of the throne" is "like the appearance of a sapphire stone"; a sapphire stone is blue in color, which is a heavenly color, indicating the heavenly situation, atmosphere, and condition of God's ruling presence—Exo. 24:10.
D. God desires to manifest Himself through man and to reign through man; He wants man to express Him and to exercise His authority; God's complete salvation is for us to be saved in life and to reign in life by the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness—Gen. 1:26; Rev. 11:15; 3:21; 22:3-5; Rom. 5:17, 21.
II. We must take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our Lord:
A. We must be people who live to the Lord, not merely for the Lord—2 Cor. 5:9, 14-15:
1. 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; in such a way the apostles were constrained to no longer live to themselves but to the Lord—vv. 14-15.
2. To live to ourselves means that we are under our own control, direction, and governing and that we care for our own aims and goals; but the apostles were determined to gain the honor of being well pleasing to the Lord by living to Him—vv. 9, 14-15; Col. 1:10; Heb. 11:5-6.
3. The love of Christ constrains us to live to the Lord; to live to the Lord means that we are absolutely under the Lord's control, direction, and governing and that we want to fulfill His requirements, satisfy His desires, and complete what He intends.
4. Paul sought to please the Lord not by doing a work but by living to Him in every aspect of his daily life; likewise, 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.
B. "Whether we live, we live to the Lord, and whether we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore whether we live or we die, we are the Lord's. For Christ died and lived again for this, that He might be Lord…"—Rom. 14:8-9:
1. 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, the Lord Spirit in our spirit, as the One who rules within us.
2. Because we have been bought with the price of the precious blood of Christ, "we are the Lord's" (v. 8), and we should continually exalt Him as Lord, giving Him the first place in our life and in our work; we are those who labor in the Lord for the work of the Lord, which is the work of the ministry to build up the organic Body of Christ—1 Cor. 6:19-20; 15:58; 16:10; Eph. 4:11-12.
C. "We do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake" (2 Cor. 4:5); among the believers, besides Christ there should be no other lord; all should be servants, even slaves (1 Pet. 5:3; Matt. 20:26-27; 23:10-11).
III. We must take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our Head:
A. Our being headed up in Christ rescues us from the heap of the universal collapse in death and darkness, which was caused by the rebellion of the angels and the rebellion of man; the believers participate in Christ's heading up by being willing to be headed up in the church life, by growing in life, and by living under Christ's light—Eph. 1:10; John 1:4; Rev. 21:23-25; Eph. 5:8-9.
B. To hold Christ as the Head is not only to take Him as our unique authority but also to stay intimately connected to Him so that His riches and life supply are dispensed into our being to cause us to grow with the growth of God, growing up into Him in all things and functioning out from Him so that all the Body causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love—Col. 2:19; Eph. 4:15-16.
C. God's surpassingly great power that is presently being transmitted into us is the transcending Christ Himself as the fourfold power of the Triune God (1 Cor. 1:24); the normal, genuine, proper, and real church comes out of this great fourfold power—resurrecting power, ascending power, subjecting power, and heading-up power—for the building up of the church as His Body (Eph. 1:19-23):
1. To the church (v. 22) indicates that the divine power, which includes all that the Triune God has passed through, has been installed into us once for all and is being transmitted into us continually, causing us to enjoy Christ richly and to have the proper church life with the reality of the Body of Christ.
2. The transmitting of the transcending Christ is to transfuse into the church, the Body of Christ, what the Triune God has accomplished, attained, and obtained in Christ; this is not only for producing the church but also for growing, establishing, and building up the church.
D. We must ask the Father to strengthen us into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in our hearts through faith with the power that raised Christ from the dead, that seated Christ at the right hand of God in the heavenlies, that subjected all things under His feet, and that gave Him to be Head over all things to the church—3:16-17; 1:19-23.
E. God is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think concerning the church as the Body of Christ, according to this fourfold power that operates in us, so that God is glorified in the church—3:20-21.
IV. We must take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our Husband:
A. The romance in Song of Songs portrays that our relationship with the Lord must be personal—1:4a:
1. We must follow the pattern of Abraham, who was the friend of God for the desire of God (2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8; James 2:23; Gen. 18:1-33), and the pattern of Moses, who was a companion of God for the interests of God (Exo. 33:11).
2. We must follow the pattern of David and Asaph, who sought the shining face of God in and for the house of God—Psa. 27:4, 8; 80:3, 7, 14-19.
3. We must follow the pattern of the Lord Jesus, who lived in the presence of God without ceasing—Acts 10:38c; John 8:29; 16:32.
4. We must follow the pattern of Peter, whose love for the Lord was restored for him to shepherd the Lord's sheep and follow the Lord unto martyrdom without any confidence in his natural strength—21:15-19; Mark 16:7.
5. We must follow the pattern of Paul, who was constrained by the love of Christ to live in the person of Christ as an ambassador of Christ to be well pleasing to Christ—2 Cor. 2:10; 5:9, 14, 20.
B. The romance in Song of Songs portrays that our relationship with the Lord must be affectionate—1:1-2:
1. The Lord who indwells us is our Father, and grace is our mother—Rom. 8:15-16; Gal. 4:24-26; Isa. 66:12-13.
2. The Lord who indwells us is our Husband (Matt. 9:15; 2 Cor. 11:2-3) and our Brother (John 20:17; Rom. 8:29).
3. The Lord who indwells us is our Friend (Matt. 11:19; John 15:12-17) and our Counselor (Isa. 9:6).
4. The Lord who indwells us is our Advocate (1 John 2:1), our Comforter (John 14:16; 16:7, 13), and our Shepherd (Psa. 23:1; 1 Pet. 2:25).
C. The romance in Song of Songs portrays that our relationship with the Lord must be private—1:3-4:
1. We must contact the Lord and spend time with Him privately in a secret, definite, and prevailing way, opening our entire being to Him for His enlightening and infusing, so that we can glow with God and shine forth God—Matt. 6:6; Exo. 33:11; 2 Cor. 3:16-18; Isa. 60:1, 5a; Matt. 14:22-23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:28.
2. We must experience and enjoy Christ as our hiding place, our dwelling place, and our secret of sufficiency—Psa. 90:1; 91:1; 31:20; 18:1-5; Phil. 4:7-13.
3. We must ask for the counsel of the Lord related to every problem that we encounter; we must bring every matter to the Lord and consider, examine, and determine things before Him and in fellowship with Him—cf. Josh. 9:14.
4. In this respect every believer needs to be weak to the extent that he does not have his own ideas, make his own decisions, or take any action related to what he encounters without contacting the Lord and consulting with Him, allowing Him to make the decisions; this is the sweetest living of a Christian—2 Cor. 12:9-10.
5. We have no alternative but to fellowship with God in all things, discuss all things with Him, and allow Him to handle all things, speak in all things, and make every decision; it is glorious for a Christian to be dependent on another One—God—at every moment and in every matter—Phil. 4:5-7; Prov. 3:5-6; 2 Cor. 1:8-9.
D. The romance in Song of Songs portrays that our relationship with the Lord must be spiritual—1:4b:
1. Christ visits us spiritually because He is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit; our spirit is the Holy of Holies, the chambers of the pneumatic Christ as the Lord of lords and the King of kings—1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17; 2 Tim. 4:22; Rev. 17:14; 19:16.
2. In the book of Ephesians, Paul shows that in order to contact Christ and enjoy Christ for the Body of Christ, we must exercise our spirit—1:17; 2:22; 3:5, 16; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18.
3. In the book of Romans, Paul stresses that whatever we are (2:29; 8:5-6, 9), whatever we have (vv. 10, 16), and whatever we do toward God (1:9; 7:6; 8:4, 13; 12:11) must be in our spirit.
4. The Father is seeking true worshippers, those who will exercise their spirit to contact God the Spirit by drinking of the living water; to drink of the living water is to render real worship to God—John 4:23-24, 10, 14; 7:37-38; Isa. 12:1-6.
5. We must build up the habit of continually exercising our spirit by praying in the Holy Spirit to keep ourselves in the love of God (the Father), awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Son at His second coming—2 Tim. 1:16-18) unto eternal life (to become the totality of the eternal life—the New Jerusalem)—Jude 19-21.
V. Taking, experiencing, and enjoying Christ as our King, our Lord, our Head, and our Husband is for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem—Matt. 16:18; Eph. 4:11-12, 16; Rev. 19:7; 21:2.