students testimony – Apprehending with all the Saints in the practical church life

Though there are many things I feel that I could share about my first semester of college, I feel that throughout this year, I have been continually impressed with the Lord’s plan and His move.

If you had told me a year ago what I thought about moving 3,000 miles away from my sunny Californian hometown to a small school that enrolls only females in Massachusetts, where bitter winters abound, I would have positively said ‘no’. Little did I know that the Lord thought otherwise. My final decision weighed between a school near home, where I knew the church life would be abundant, and this other tiny school in Massachusetts. I had been told many times to pray about this decision, and so I did. Many times, I was unsure if I had even received an answer from the Lord, or if I was going along with my own natural concept of what felt right. After contacting some saints from the area, there was a tiny voice within me, barely audible, saying that this school needed a testimony of the Lord. I knew that such a thought could not have come from myself. In high school, I may have been loud about many things, but the gospel was not one of them. When it came to choosing colleges, I wanted to know which school had good professors, a pretty campus, etc. With regards of being around sisters and the church life, I was at most lukewarm. Still, I knew that this is what the Lord wanted, and took a leap of faith, and He has provided for me every step of the way. Eph. 3:17-18 says,

That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, May be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are.

I enjoyed that this semester the Lord has given me the way to enter into the practical Christian life—allowing Him to make His home in our hearts personally, and apprehending with all the saints the vast dimensions of our rich Christ. Many times, when I began worrying about the next four years of my life at school, and the decisions I would make concerning my major, the Lord would tell me just to stop, and take time to behold Him. Hallelujah! God just wants man to stop and enjoy Him.

I am glad to say that the church life is so precious. From the first day, I was showered with the outpouring love of the saints. They invited us into their homes for meals and gave us a home away from home where we could pursue Christ together. He also placed me with a vital group of sisters that could pray with and sing with during the week. I’m also continually amazed at the number of open and seeking students around me and to see the seeds of life begin to grow in them. Without the supply of the saints, my enjoyment of Christ would have been much drier. It is only in the Body that we can receive the abundance of life John 10:10 speaks of. Only the Body of Christ is truly pleasing to the Lord. Praise the Lord! May He gain His full expression on the earth today! [sister Diana’s testimony about her first semester in college]

may the gospel not stop with us, but we would be seeds of the gospel

This morning I was enjoying the verses in Hebrews 11:8-9:

8. By faith Abraham, being called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.
9. By faith he dwelt as a foreigner in the land of promise as in a foreign land, making his home in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the fellow heirs of the same promise;

We are not people who dwell on the earth, but we are travelers and sojourners on this earth, which is not our country. The same is true when we receive the divine life – this life that we have received is a flowing life, a moving life, a “living” life, that doesn’t just come to us and stays with us, but wants to flow out, reach others, flow into others… and even fill the entire earth! The fulfillment of Genesis 1:26 is that the divine life would fill all the human beings on the earth –  at least a sufficient number of them – so that God would have a solid corporate expression! This is the reason we should not be set in some rituals or places, settled in a certain place, or occupied with so many other things than the main thing: God’s purpose(which is related to the divine life and is accomplished in and by the divine life).

Since we received the divine life in us, we have the “divine germs” – wherever we go, we bring the gospel with us, so that the gospel “spreads like a contagion” – this is a normal Christian life with a normal Christian living. We don’t build a city where we live, but we “pitch our tent“, ready to move when the Lord calls us. May we not be rooted into the earth / the situations we’re in, but be ready to go! Once the Lord has grown and spread in a Christian to a certain level, he needs to go and move for the Lord’s interest to spread the gospel! The gospel does not spread by planning, organizing, or having an idea to do it – no, it is the seed of life in us growing, maturing, and then bearing fruit when it is ready! Many times the Lord calls us to go somewhere, just like He called Abraham – we just need to go, even without knowing what we’ll be doing there – we have the divine life in us, and Christ is our living map!

This is what we are: seeds of the gospel. The gospel seed came into us, germinated us and regenerated us, and made us, in turn, a seed of the gospel: persons full of life and overflowing with the riches of life. This is why we enjoy the Lord in the morning and continue to touch Him throughout the day – for His increase, for His spread. The churches should help all the believers to grow in life, mature in life, and also to prepare themselves for the Lord’s leading to “take up their occupation, families, and even more, the gospel, to migrate to” where the Lord leads them. May the gospel not stop with us(not have an outflow), but may we be seeds of the gospel bringing the good news & the high gospel(the gospel of the kingdom) to all the inhabited earth!