Today we complete two weeks of reading the Life-Study! How wonderful that we can all endeavor together to enter into the ministry of the age. May the Lord work all that He is into us through this ministry.
The verses covered in this message are: 1 Thes. 1:1; 2:12; 3:12; 4:7; 5:23-24; 2 Thes. 1:3, 5, 10; 2:13-14, 16; Col. 3:10-11; Rev. 1:11-12
The sections of this message are:
I. BROUGHT INTO THE FATHER
II. THE RESURRECTED CHRIST IDENTICAL TO THE SPIRIT
III. WALKING ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT
IV. WALKING WORTHILY OF GOD
Lord, as we read this messages, may we be in You!
All are encouraged to post their enjoyment below.
I always asked myself:How can I walk worthily of God? It’s hard. What can match Him? After reading this message I realize only God Himself can match Him.Praise the Lord!To walk worthily of God means to live God.Our daily life must be God Himself. We have God’s life so we can live God!
“Therefore, we should simply walk according to the Spirit. There is no need for us to do anything else.”
Oh how we need to walk by the Spirit!! Not by our emotions! If we are walking by the Spirit we can not be offended. Our living will be full of the expression of Christ: loving, patient, humble, enduring, Power, strength, might, authority, the throne, holiness, righteousness!!! How glorious!
What touches me in this message is the growth of the ressurection-life instead of our self-improvement. Praise the Lord
I really enjoyed footnote 6 of 1 Thes 5:23 about being sanctified wholly and complete.
”God not only sanctifies us wholly but also preserves our spirit, soul, and body complete. Wholly is quantitative; complete is qualitative. Quantitatively, God sanctifies us wholly; qualitatively, God preserves us complete, i.e., He keeps our spirit, soul, and body perfect. Through the fall our body was ruined, our soul was contaminated, and our spirit was deadened. In God’s full salvation our entire being is saved and made complete and perfect. For this, God is preserving our spirit from any deadening element, our soul from remaining natural and old, and our body from the ruin of sin. Such a preservation by God and His thorough sanctification sustain us to live a holy life unto maturity that we may meet the Lord in His parousia (presence).”
Hallelujah we are being thouroughly Sanctified!
What can compare with God? What can match Him? The answer to these questions is that only God Himself can compare with God or match Him. This indicates that to walk worthily of God actually means to live God. Our daily life must actually be God Himself, since only God can be worthy of God, match God, or compare with God. Therefore, in our living we must express God.
This portion supply me…live God is being death so Christ can live through us.
I appreciated the example that in the church meetings we may sing according to our hot or cold emotion, but when we care for the all-inclusive Spirit the effectiveness of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus is applied to us and we shall function in the meeting according to the life-giving Spirit – the reality of the resurrected Christ.
I appreciated that too. I also enjoyed, “…this Spirit contains the effectiveness of Christ’s death.” Thank you Lord for this and all that You are!
This message also showed the condition of Christianity. It is commonly believed that the Lord has not come back yet because He is still building His Heavenly Mansion. This is superstition. John 14 has nothing to do with a heavenly mansion, besides there are no other verses to my knowledge that back up the belief of a heavenly mansion. The Lord was speaking in John 14:2 of abodes, through His death He prepared a place for us in the Father! This is glorious. We do not have to wait until we die! Today we have God as our habitation as our dwelling place! It is worth speak this truth even if it means that many preachers get upset for no longer having a “heavenly mansion” speech for funerals.
Also, the matter of waking by the Spirit impressed me afresh. Why worry about this or that, let us simply walk according to the Spirit.
🙂 This question is very living too “Of the approximately sixteen walking hours of each day, how much do you walk according to the Spirit?”
Saints let us declare “Because I have God’s life, I can live Him.”
Its such a joy to see all the heavenly mansions being torn down and instead of this have our being in God and Gods being in us today!
I was touched about how we (I) may consider the matter of the Lord’s return. Sometimes we may just be waiting for something in the future merely. But when the Lord died and resurrected He prepared a place for us in the Father. “Praise the Lord that in this sense the Lord Jesus has already returned! He has already come back, and He has brought us into the Father”. That’s amazing!
I recently speed-read through the 4 gospels and I saw that the Lord is a beautiful person. How can I compare to Him? Only God can compare to God.
It seems impossible for me to live Him, but praise the Lord, it is God’s life that enables us to live Him! When we consider the illustration of the dog: “a dog has a dog’s life and spontaneously lives dog”, we are clear that we who have God’s life can spontaneously live God!
Hallelujah! His life has made it possible for us to live Him! All we need is the growth of this resurrection life within us! Lord, grow in us today!
I find it impossible in myself to walk worthily of God, But the Lord Jesus made a way. Hallelujah, because we are children of God we can live God! We all should declare boldly, “Because I have God’s life, I can live Him.”
Praise Him
I really enjoyed this point too, “…we should simply walk according to the spirit. There is no need for us to do anything else.”
I was touched by the point, “is God only the Almighty, or is He [my] Father?” Hallelujah, I am born of God and He is now my Father, I have now a life relationship with Him, and I am in Him. Now “because we are children of God we can live God! We all should declare boldly, ‘Because I have God’s life, I can live Him.'”
“Praise the Lord that we have God’s life and that we can walk worthily of Him by living Him!”
I was very shepherded by this message. It’s amazing how this portion from 1 Thessalonians 1:1 on the church being in the Triune God matches the revelation in John 14 of the believers being brought into the Father through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, as we love the Lord and keep His word, the Father in turn loves us and He comes with the Son to us and makes an abode with us (a dwelling place in the Triune God Himself). May this be our experience as we “keep” the Lord’s word as He speaks to us in these Life-Study messages.
I also appreciated how the church’s being in the Triune God is linked to 1 Thes. 2:12, that the believers can now walk in a manner worthy of God. Because we are in God the Father (who has begotten us and brought us into a life relationship with Him) and in the Lord Jesus Christ (i.e. in the reality of the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit), we human beings – even “Thessalonians” – can now walk in a manner worthy of God!!! Praise the Lord for His word and for the Life-Studies, which wash away our natural concepts and cause us to see these awesome truths!
(Sorry for such a long comment!)
Praise the Lord that we have His life so we can live God! Dog’life automatically express dog. So we have God’s life to live and express God! Hallelujah! We are children of God. He is no longer just God the Almighty but our intimate Father!
I also enjoyed that we will not be offended if we are walking according to the Spirit! We should not function according to our emotion but we need to function according to the Spirit! I enjoy this portion very much. The Lord expose me of not being a “dead” person because I am still being offended.
Also, He is everything! We just need to live God and walk according to the Spirit, then endurance, power, love, etc are all ours!
I enjoy a stanza of this song:
O what a riches, what a glory
In the spirit shine!
when I exercise my spirit,
All are ours!
(Hymn 613)
This message is sooo precious…
What we need is growth of the resurrection life within us and living, walking according to the Spirit.
I am also touched that to walk worthily of God is to live God.
Praise the Lord that we have God’s life and that we can walk worthily of Him by living Him!
Lord Jesus, bless us more and more such a living in our daily life!
i enjoyed that The Lord Jesus is in the Father (John 14:10-11). He wanted His disciples also to be in the Father, as revealed in John 17:21. Through His death and resurrection, He brought His disciples into Himself. Since He is in the Father, they are also in the Father by being in Him. Hence, where the Lord Jesus is, there the disciples are also. Where is the Lord Jesus? He is in the Father. Therefore, for us to be where He is means that we also are in the Father.
I enjoyed also that we just have to walk in the spirit in our married lives, and that a dead person can’t be offended. 🙂 We have to be buried in Christ. Amen!
In this message, I appreciated that only God is worthy of God! Paul charges us to live a life that is worthy of God. Therefore, we need the life of God in order to live a life that is worthy of God! This means that we should be living by our human spirit, because we have God in our spirit. The wonderful God-man Jesus, who was God incarnate, has died, resurrected, and ascended! Moreover, He has become the life-giving Spirit so that He can dwell in our spirit, and so that we can dwell in God. May the Lord remind us to turn away from ourselves and to our mingled spirit and Himself!
If only I can be in my spirit for one and half hours….
A dead person does not feel hurt, anger, annoyed…
‘It is no longer I that live but Christ who lives in me… Lord by your mercies, let this mind be in Me (us)to express the holy life for the church life..Amen!
Hallelujah! We don’t need to do anything, all we need to do is walk according to the Spirit! Lord we give you our daily walk, that we would walk according to the Spirit!
I was so exposed that sometimes in the meetings I’m not so hot for the Lord or when I’m hot for the Lord it’s because I’m happy or good things have happened. It’s during these times that it is most important to turn to the Spirit! Hallelujah the Lord is in us and dwelling in us and it just takes the realization that I’m not walking according to the Spirit but Lord, I turn to the Spirit right now! In my experience it’s so easy to turn just by calling “Lord Jesus” I am in the Spirit! Although this message was exposing, I felt so encouraged that the Lord has made it so easy for us to turn! Praise the Lord, once we turn to our mingled spirit, no matter the situation we will be in the Spirit enjoying the Lord!
Only God can be worthy of Himself, and only God can match Himself or be compared with Himself. Therefore, to walk worthily of God is to live God. Praise the Lord that we have God?s life and that we can walk worthily of Him by living Him!
Lord, only you are worthy!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah ~~~ Hallelujah!!
The more I have read the Life-study of 1 Thes. the more I’ve gotten into the Triune God! Owing to the fellowship of brothers and sisters today, I’ve gotten into God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Just like our Lord Jesus said in JOHN chapter14, “There would be lots of abodes in the House of God.” After Jesus departed from disciples, through death and resurrection, we can know that there are numerous abodes in the House of God on earth. What a glorious it is! Hallelujah ~~ ~
Praise the Lord ~ By his becoming man and human living and crucifixion and resurrection, ascension, believers became the abodes in the House of God. Out of Msg10 of 1 Thes, gradual by gradual I can perceive the proceeding of the flow of the Messages from abodes to walking by the Spirit. We believers can abide in the Spirit, that is God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, we can walk by the Spirit, not by our natural emotion. This walking issues from the resurrected Christ, the Christ in resurrection! Oh! Lord Jesus, I don’t want to walk and live not by my natural emotion, mind and will but by the power and the strength, might of Christ, in Christ!! This is the genuine life and holy life for the Church life in God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who entered into the death, passed the death, but resurrected Christ as the Spirit!
For the church to be in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in a practical way is for there to be a company of human beings, who walk worthily of God, by living Him.
Hallelujah because we are children of God we have our Father’s life and we can live Him.
Lord keep us in living to You! Only You are worthy in us to God. Praise the Lord!
“Praise the Lord that in this sense the Lord Jesus has already returned! He has already come back, and He has brought us into the Father. Now as members of the church we can declare that we are in God the Father. The church, including all of us, is where the Lord Jesus is, that is, in God the Father. Hallelujah, where the Lord Jesus Christ is, there we are also! We are in the same abode as the Lord Jesus is. How wonderful!”
“The reality of the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit is far beyond our ability to describe. Power, strength, might, authority, the throne, holiness, righteousness—all the divine virtues are involved with this resurrected Christ. Thus, when we are in Him, we have all these virtues. We have patience, endurance, and all that Christ is. Christ is the reality of the divine attributes and the human virtues. If in our practical living we are in Him, we shall be humble, kind, and enduring. We shall be those in resurrection, in the resurrected Christ.”
“Now we see what it means to walk worthily of God. Only God can be worthy of Himself, and only God can match Himself or be compared with Himself. Therefore, to walk worthily of God is to live God. Praise the Lord that we have God’s life and that we can walk worthily of Him by living Him!”
It’s is so enjoyable and encouraging to see that we Christians can walk according to the Spirit. In our old man and nature we are always puzzled by such questions as how to be a proper so-and-so, but there is really only one answer: walk according to the Spirit! According to this all-inclusive Spirit our natural emotion and self are terminated, and as such it is impossible to be offended or stumbled. The more others give us a difficult time, the more we shall be able to praise the Lord!! The reality of the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit is far beyond our ability to describe. Power, strength, might, authority, the throne, holiness, righteousness—all the divine virtues are involved with this resurrected Christ. Thus, when we are in Him, we have all these virtues. We have patience, endurance, and all that Christ is. Christ is the reality of the divine attributes and the human virtues.
Isn’t this so good? When we are in Christ, we are also in the Father, and we not only partake of the divine virtues to walk according to the Spirit, we actually can walk worthily of God. In the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Father we can be compared and matched to God! We can live God! And this God, who is also our Father, is so lovable as well-He is not only the Almighty, He is also our begetting Father.
Praise the Lord that we have God’s life and that we can walk worthily of Him by living Him!
The reality of the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit is far beyond our ability to describe. Power, strength, might, authority, the throne, holiness, righteousness—all the divine virtues are involved with this resurrected Christ. Thus, when we are in Him, we have all these virtues. We have patience, endurance, and all that Christ is. Christ is the reality of the divine attributes and the human virtues. If in our practical living we are in Him, we shall be humble, kind, and enduring. We shall be those in resurrection, in the resurrected Christ.
Because we have God’s life, we can live God. A dog obviously has a dog’s life and therefore lives a dog. In the same principle, we have God’s life and therefore we can live God. Hallelujah, God is our Father, and we are His children! As God’s children with His life, it is possible for us to live Him.
Saints this is so wonderful, how we thank and praise Him. We can live God. Oh Lord Jesus.
“The reality of the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit is far beyond our ability to describe. All the divine virtues are involved with this resurrected Christ. We have patience, endurance, and all that Christ is. Christ is the reality of the divine attributes and the human virtues. If in our practical living we are in Him, we shall be humble, kind, and enduring. We shall be those in resurrection, in the resurrected Christ.”
I am impressed upon with the Paul’s plea to walk worthily of God. There is nothing in comparison. He supplies us with the resurrected Christ as the life giving Spirit to live Him, to love Him, and walk worthily of Him. Amen.
“We all must see that the church is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We have pointed out that to be in Jesus Christ means that everything negative and everything of the old creation has been terminated. This means that our natural emotion and our self should be terminated. If this is your situation, you will not be offended by others. How can a dead person be offended by anything or anyone? It is impossible. No matter what you may say or do to a dead person, he will not be offended. To be in Jesus Christ is to be terminated and buried, for to be in Christ is to be in His death. If we truly are the church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall not function in the meeting according to our emotion, but we shall function according to the Spirit.”
Thank you Lord Jesus we are in You! Because we are in Christ, we are in God the Father! As the life-giving Spirit Christ becomes our life, power, holiness, love, righteousness, might, strength, wisdom, grace, kindness, and mercy!