How Spending Time with the Lord in the Morning Refreshes Him and Supplies Us

In Psalm 110 there’s a marvelous record of the drinking Christ, the fighting Christ, the Victorious Christ, and the Christ who is both the High Priest (according to the order of Melchizedek) and the King (the scepter is between His legs).

What is more striking in this chapter is that there’s a call for being those who refresh Christ by being the morning dew to Him. We need to be the young men who are willingly offering ourselves to Him for His purpose – specifically, those who are “in the womb of the dawn” to be refreshing to Him.

If we do not rise up early in the morning, we will miss the opportunity to enter into the womb of the morning to be made dew for Christ’s watering. Instead of being watered, He will be dry and we also will be dry. I hope that we all, especially the young people, will see that here Christ likens Himself to a plant that needs the mild, soft, gentle dew. May we respond to Him by saying, “Lord Jesus, I want to be the dew conceived and produced by the womb of the morning for You to be watered.” (Witness Lee, Life-study of the Psalms, msg. 38).

In the Bible and in our Christian experience there’s the principle of waking up a bit earlier in the morning so that we may spend time with the Lord. Many Christians love the Lord, and they pay the price to “overcome the love for their bed” by waking up earlier to spend time with the Lord they love.

But have you ever thought that our spending time with the Lord in the morning is not merely for our nourishment, supply, and satisfaction, but it is also for Him to be refreshed, supplied, and watered?

As we touch the Lord and fellowship with Him, as we open our whole being to Him in our time with Him, we drink from Him as the fountain of living waters and our thirst is quenched, our inner man is nourished, and our mind is reconstituted with His living words. At the same time, Christ drinks from us and He is refreshed and watered.

Our time with the Lord early in the morning, our spiritual morning watch, can be something that both supplies us and waters Him! As He is fighting the spiritual warfare to defeat God’s enemies and bring in the kingdom of God, Christ needs us to spend time with Him: He needs us to “enter into the womb of the dawn” and be produced as the dew that is so gentle, fresh, and watering to Him. How wonderful!

Read more on this topic via today’s blog post at agodman.com entitled, Offering Ourselves Willingly to the Lord and Becoming the Morning Dew to Refresh Him

The Need for the Mending Ministry of John

Paul’s ministry was to complete the word of God (see Col. 1:25), Peter’s ministry was to “catch men alive” (through his gospel preaching), and John’s ministry was to mend the holes in the church. It is impressive to see how John, who was an impetuous young man ready to call fire from heaven over the unbelieving cities, became a person full of life, love, and light.

He went through a long process and at the end of his life, most likely when he was in his 90’s, he wrote his gospel (the gospel of life), his epistles (closing the epistles), and the book of Revelation (as a conclusion and last work of the New Testament and the entire Bible).

Why do we Need the Mending?

To mend doesn’t mean merely to put together or fix what has been broken, but it also means to perfect, complete, fix, and make whole. John’s mending ministry is very much needed in the church today. All the genuine Christians need mending – they need to be restored, attuned, perfected, and completed, so that they would be framed and built up together into God’s building.

The Lord wants us to open to Him and allow Him to mend us inwardly through the other members of the Body who have already been mended by Him, so that we would be buildable materials for His church, His Body. It is recommended to read the following articles for more on this topic,

• John’s Ministry was a Mending Ministry (from a Son of Thunder to a Person of Life)
• The Mending Ministry is More than Fixing a Hole; it Makes us Suitable for God’s Building

What is the real growth in the divine life?

The increase of the element of God means that more of God Himself has been mingled with us and received by us to become our element. Therefore, the real growth of life is the increase of God’s life within us. Life is God Himself. When life grows in us, God is increased in us. Life grows and increases to an extent that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God. This is the final word of Ephesians 3:19….

Colossians 3:4 says that Christ is our life. Thus, growth of life is the increase of Christ within us. The more we love Christ and pursue Christ, the more the measure of the stature of Christ will increase within us. This is the real growth of life. (Witness Lee, Further Talks on the Knowledge of Life, pp. 180-181).

More online at agodman.com.

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Our Christian Life is a Life of Grace, so Just Enjoy the Lord!

Our Christian life and our Christian living are a of grace and by grace. Grace is simply the Triune God as our enjoyment to be our supply and everything. There are a few verses in the Bible that show us how much grace is to us – from the beginning to the end of our Christian life.

This article is a continuation and a supplement to the article on agodman.com entitled,

How the Priesthood and the Kingship Fulfill God’s Purpose in Creating Man.

John 1:16 – we receive grace upon grace! For us to reign in life, we need to receive grace upon grace by opening to the Lord. Just tell Him, Lord, I open my entire being to You without reservations. Take away any insulations, any barriers, and any reservations. I want to receive You right now as grace upon grace!

Gal. 6:18 – the grace of our Lord be with your spirit, brothers! Hallelujah, grace is with our spirit! This means grace abides with us in our spirit, and our mingled spirit is a country of grace. Our mind is a terrible place, a country of quarreling and doubting, so we need to turn from our mind to our spirit, where grace is!

Acts 20:32 – the words of His grace. In order for us to receive grace, get grace, and give grace, we need to be in the word of God and in the words of the ministry.

Heb. 10:29 and Zech. 12:10 – the Spirit of grace. The Spirit with our spirit is grace. The way to get more grace is through prayer and supplications. When we have a prayer life before the Lord, we enjoy Him as the Spirit of Grace.

Eph. 6:24 – To be those who enjoy the Lord, we need to love Him. Whenever we say, Lord Jesus, I love You!, you feel a sweet enjoyment of the Lord. We need to love Him in the new creation, in incorruptibility!

Acts 4:33 – great grace was upon them all! Acts 11:23 – Barnabas saw the grace of God among the saints. Wow, the grace of God can be visible in the church life! In our salvation, in our change of life, in our holy living, and in the gifts exercised in the meeting, grace is visible!

1 Cor. 15:10 – I am what I am by the grace of God. Paul was what he was not in or by himself but by the grace of God. By the enjoyment of Christ, Paul labored more abundantly than any other apostles, and yet not him but the grace!

1 Cor. 12:7-19 – “My grace is sufficient for you”. Paul had a thorn in the flesh, but God is not in the “thorn-removing business”; He is in the increasing-the-level-of-grace business. Grace as a river flows and is increased in times of suffering to override the thorns.

Eph. 3:2 speaks of the stewardship of the grace of God. To each one of us God gave a stewardship, a certain measure of enjoyment of God, which is “to me for you”. Our enjoyment of God is not merely for our sake and edifying; it is for all the saints.

Rev. 22:21, the last verse in the Bible, says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.” Our entire Christian life is of and by grace, and grace is with us and will be with us until the consummation of the age, making us God’s house and His city in full, for His corporate expression!

Hallelujah for grace! God Himself wants to be our enjoyment, being with us wherever we are, filling us, overflowing from us, and being increased as the situations become more difficult. God simply gives us grace – grace upon grace!

We need to enjoy God as grace for our growth in life in Christ, and we need to speak with grace to one another for the building up of the Body of Christ. In conclusion, Just Enjoy the Lord – Enjoy Grace!

Note: the above verses are inspired from a recent sharing by a dear brother in the Lord, who encouraged us so much concerning enjoying God as grace in our daily living!

How can a Christian Overcome the Love of Money and of Riches?

This is not a self-help article, neither is it something with “step one, step two”, etc. I recently enjoyed something recently based on the Lord’s word in the Gospels concerning, You cannot serve two masters.

As human beings and as Christians, we have something in us called, “the love of money”. If you don’t believe me, just ask yourself this: from how much the Lord blessed you with this past week (not month!), how much did you give back to Him – in a hidden way, so that only you and the Lord would know it? – I thought so!

We don’t have our priorities set straight. We treasure, love, pursue, and desire after things that “seem precious” and yet they entice us, lure us, drug us, and leave us with a bitter taste – they are nothing! These things are NOT real; rather, they drain us, consume us, and usurp us…

The Love of Money is in Each on of Us

Last week I was really touched with the matter of the pure commerce and the love of money – which both are in all of us.

We need to see further that commerce is not only something outside of us but it is part of our being – it is inside of us! We may not be outwardly involved in commerce in any way, but by our fallen human nature we have “a commercial mind”. God saved us by grace, and He gives us the kingdom of God as a reward. The kingdom of God is priceless, and we cannot buy it with anything. We cannot “buy our way into the kingdom”, nor can we get a higher reward than others by paying a higher price.

Read more via, Being Exposed of and Delivered from the Commercial Mind, “What’s In It For Me?” 

If we focus on riches, if we focus on getting more and more money, if we serve mammon, we are robbed of serving God. The Lord wants us to serve Him, that is, to love Him by giving our whole heart to Him, and cleave to Him by giving our whole being to Him (see Matt. 16:19-21). If we love the Lord and cleave to Him, we will be released from being occupied and usurped by mammon (Aramaic for wealth, riches) and we will serve the Lord wholly and fully (see Matt. 4:10). God is versus mammon, and loving God is versus loving riches – this is very serious in God’s sight.

Read more via, Being Saved from the Love of Money and Riches by Loving God and Serving Him Only.

How Can We Overcome the Love of Money?

How can we overcome the love of money and of riches?

What caused so many lovers of Christ to drop everything and go somewhere for the Lord and live the Christian life among unknown and even evil people? What caused Paul to go all around Asia Minor and even into Europe to speak to people about Christ? We have an urgent need of the revelation of Christ’s preciousness and His excellence. When Christ is recovered to us as the preeminent and excellent One, we will become one with Him and we will pay any price to speak Him forth, live Him, express Him, and do anything for Him.

Read more via, Knowing and Appreciating Christ in His Excellency and Supreme Preciousness. We need to love the Lord and treasure Him to the uttermost, and this is possible when we have a revelation of His person.

To God the church is precious, since He bought it through His own blood – but what about us? In our meeting with the other believers in the church, in our shepherding the new ones and the saints, do we consider the church as precious as God does? We need to have the same feeling about the church as God has. We need to see God’s precious love for the church; we need to see the preciousness and the exceeding worth of the church in the eyes of God. God’s valuation of the church is that He shed His blood for the church.

Read more via, Appreciating the Exceeding Worth of the Church, Obtained Through God’s Own Blood. We spontaneously give up everything for the church when we see a clear vision of the preciousness and exceeding worth of the church in God’s eyes.