KNOWING, EXPERIENCING, AND LIVING THE ALL-INCLUSIVE CHRIST FOR THE GENUINE CHURCH LIFE
Message Six
Allowing the Peace of Christ to Arbitrate in Our Hearts, Letting the Word of Christ Dwell in Us Richly, and Persevering in Prayer for the Genuine Church Life
Scripture Reading: Col. 3:15-16; 4:2
I. We need to allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts—Col. 3:12-15; Eph. 2:14-18; Rom. 5:1; Matt. 18:21-35:
A. The Greek term for arbitrate can also be rendered "umpire," "preside," or "be enthroned as a ruler and decider of everything"; the arbitrating peace of Christ dissolves our complaint against anyone—Col. 3:13.
B. Often we are conscious of three parties within us: a positive party, a negative party, and a neutral party; hence, there is the need for inward arbitration to settle the dispute within us:
1. Whenever we sense that different parties within our being are arguing or quarreling, we need to give place to the presiding peace of Christ and allow this peace, which is the oneness of the new man, to rule within us and have the final word.
2. We need to set aside our opinion, our concept, and listen to the word of the indwelling referee.
C. If we allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts, this peace will settle all the disputes among us; we will have peace with God vertically and with the saints horizontally:
1. Through the arbitration of the peace of Christ, our problems are solved, and the friction between the saints disappears; then the church life is preserved in sweetness, and the new man is maintained in a practical way.
2. The arbitrating of the peace of Christ is Christ working within us to exercise His rule over us, to speak the last word, and to make the final decision—cf. Isa. 9:6-7.
3. If we stay under the ruling of the enthroned peace of Christ, we will not offend others or damage them; rather, by the Lord's grace and with His peace, we will minister life to others.
4. This peace should bind all the believers together and become the uniting bond—Eph. 4:3.
II. We need to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly—Col. 3:16:
A. We need to allow the word of the Lord to have the first place in us and to inhabit us so that we may experience the functions of the word of God operating within us and ministering the riches of Christ into our being:
1. The word of God enlightens us (Psa. 119:105, 130), nourishes us (Matt. 4:4; 1 Tim. 4:6), and waters us to quench our thirst (Isa. 55:1, 8-11).
2. The word of God strengthens us (1 John 2:14b; Prov. 4:20-22), washes us (Eph. 5:26), and builds us up (Acts 20:32).
3. The word of God completes, perfects (2 Tim. 3:15-17), and sanctifies us to bring us into the oneness in the Triune God (John 17:14-21).
B. Colossians 3:16 speaks of letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly, "teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace" in our hearts to God:
1. One way to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly is by singing it; in addition to pray-reading the Word, we need to learn to sing-read and psalm the word of God—Psa. 119:54.
2. Psalming the word of God includes dwelling upon it, musing on it, and enjoying it, thereby giving more opportunity for the word to saturate us (v. 15); singing and psalming the word are excellent ways to exercise our spirit and to be ushered into the Spirit (1 Cor. 14:15; Psa. 47:6-7).
3. In singing and psalming God's word, we may use any kind of melody, even a spontaneous one of our own composition; we need to build up the habit of singing and psalming the word day by day.
4. The more we sing and psalm the Lord's word, the more we give opportunity to the word to dwell in us, sink into us, and permeate us with the divine element; then spontaneously, we will live Christ—cf. John 6:57, 63.
C. Daily we need to practice coming to Christ as the living word in God's written word so that He may speak to us personally as the applied word of the Spirit for Him to be infused into us according to the following life principles—Rev. 19:13; Matt. 4:4; John 5:39-40; 6:63; 8:31-32; 15:7; Deut. 17:18-19:
1. We must open our entire being to the Lord for the inner shining of the divine light and the supplying of the divine life; the one who experiences the greatest amount of transformation is the one who is absolutely open to the Lord—Psa. 119:105; Prov. 20:27; Psa. 139:23-24.
2. We must seek the Lord with all our heart—119:2; Mark 12:30.
3. We must deal with anything that separates us from the Lord—Acts 24:16; 2 Tim. 1:3a; 1 John 1:9; cf. Ezek. 1:22, 26.
4. We must humble ourselves before the Lord, putting aside our self-confidence and self-assurance and looking to Him for His mercy and grace—Isa. 66:1-2; 1 Pet. 5:5.
5. We must exercise our spirit to pray over and with God's word and exercise our whole being to sing, psalm, and muse on His word—Eph. 6:17-18; Psa. 119:15-16; cf. Lev. 11:3.
D. By allowing the word of God to inhabit us, we can become a man of God filled with the breath of God so that we can be fully equipped with God's word as the divine antidote against the decline of the church—2 Tim. 3:14-17.
III. We need to persevere in prayer—Col. 4:2-3:
A. We need to allow adequate time for prayer, which will enable us to absorb more of the riches of Christ as the all-inclusive land—1:12; 2:6-7; 4:2:
1. We need to take time to absorb the Lord, contacting Him in a definite and prevailing way—Luke 8:13; Matt. 14:22-23; 6:6.
2. To meet with God in the morning is not only to meet with Him early in the day; it is also to meet with God in a situation that is full of light; we should go to God alone, without any persons, matters, or things to distract or occupy us—Prov. 4:18; Exo. 33:11a; 34:3-4; Mark 1:35.
3. When we pray, coming forward to the throne of grace, grace will become a river flowing in us and supplying us—Heb. 4:16; cf. Rev. 22:1.
B. In order to fight on God's side against Satan, we need to persevere in prayer— Dan. 6:10:
1. As those who take sides with God, we find that the whole fallen universe is against us and, in particular, against our prayer; resistance to prayer lies not only outside of us but even within us—Matt. 26:41.
2. To pray is to go against the current, the trend, in the fallen universe—Luke 18:1-8.
C. We need to set aside definite times for prayer; our attitude should be that prayer is our most important business and that nothing should be allowed to interfere with it—Dan. 6:10; Acts 12:5, 12.
D. We need to remain in an atmosphere of prayer by continually exercising our spirit—Eph. 6:18; 1 Tim. 4:7; 2 Tim. 1:7; Col. 1:3, 9:
1. We need to pray without ceasing, to persevere in prayer, keeping ourselves intimately connected to the Lord—1 Thes. 5:17; Matt. 26:41; Col. 2:19.
2. Even in the smallest details we need to inquire of the Lord; to do this is to persevere in prayer and thereby to live Christ—cf. Josh. 9:14; Phil. 4:7-8.
IV. As we are ruled by the peace of Christ and inhabited by the word of Christ through persevering in prayer, He permeates and replaces us with Himself until all our natural distinctions have been eliminated for us to have the genuine church life—Col. 3:15-16; 4:2; 3:10-11.