God's heart's desire for us to be sanctified

This is to respond to message five in ITEROS-HWMR
Topic: The Will of God—Our Sanctification

In this message, I got some reminders that both God and human need this mutual cooperation in order to make the sanctification to take place in us. 

 (1 Thes. 5:23-24)

“The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it". 

In these two verses, it is quite clear that it is really God's heart's desire to sanctify us completely, and from the message throughout the week, we also see God's multifold procedure to sanctify us and make us as holy as He is. And once He calls us, He "ALSO WILL DO IT". However, I am reminded that although God is faithful in His work to sanctify us, we also have to play a part in this process, that is, our cooperation. 

I think a lot of times I simply cast the responsibility to the Lord for Him to renew and sanctify me. Well, it is true that He will do it as He is faithful in His Word. But I realise I also have a role to play so that the Lord can gain my tripartite being. 

(1 Tim 4:7) But the profane and old-womanish myths refuse, and exercise yourself unto
godliness.

I have to cooperate with the Lord by keeping my spirit in a living condition. In order to do it, I have to exercise my spirit in order to preserve my spirit. 

(Jer 15:16) Your words were found and I ate them, / And Your word became to me / The
gladness and joy of my heart, / For I am called by Your name, / O Jehovah, God
of hosts.

I also need to exercise my soul to be filled with Him. I can contact the Word and muse upon Him. This will create a way for Him to permeate my soul. Then I will find joy in Him and my soul will be able to praise Him and worship Him.

(1 Thes 4:4) That each one of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and
honor,

I also need to exercise to live a holy life for the church life. Sometimes, I am quite careless in taking care of my physical environment, and I might be defiled by many things passively instead of exercising myself to run away from the worldly things. Then this can affect the enjoyment of the Lord in my soul and even stop me exercising my spirit to touch the Lord. 

So, it's a good reminder to me again. The Lord is faithful to sanctify us, and this is also His heart's desire to do so. But without my cooperation, whatever He tries to do in me will be in vain. I shouldn't be passive in preserving myself but to be proactive and exercise my entire being to live a life that can let the Lord sanctify us wholly. 

Concerning vows

Num. 30:2 When a man vows a vow to Jehovah or swears an oath to bind himself by pledge, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

Num. 30:7 And her husband hears of it and is silent with respect to her on the day he hears it, then her vows will stand and her pledges by which she has bound herself will stand.

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Lord, although we do not have the right over our vows as You are the One who made the final decisions, I still ask You to bless my heart over the vows.

Through our fellowship, You will eventually find favour of my vows and establish them.
Through the process, may I be infused with You, and You will be moved by my desires to serve You and find favour of my vows. 

We experience Christ for the church by having a proper heart and a strong spirit so that Christ can make home in our heart to know Him!

Recently, the Lord exposed me that my heart is busy paying too much attention and considering too many things. And because our heart is a loving organ, I realised that I've been sharing my love on too many other things other than Christ. I had a real repentance. Therefore, my enjoyment in the previous weeks was that I needed to have an open heart that loves the Lord so that whatever befalls, I can still be for the Lord and not be led astray.

However, this week I realised that simply having an open heart and loving the Lord is good but not enough. We also need a strong spirit to advance our experience of Christ for the church.

Eph 3:16 That He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man,

Eph 3:17 Thay Christ may make His home in your heart through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 

When we have a strong spirit, we are strengthed into our inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith. Christ can only make His home in a strengthened, supplied, and fully possessed heart through faith, and by this, we can be rooted and grounded in love. Such faith and love are necessary for our experiencing Christ. In verse 17 ft 4, Faith enables to apprehend Christ, and love enables us to enjoy Him. Both faith and love are not ours but His. However, Christ making home in our heart to apprehend and enjoy Christ.

Eph 3:18 May be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are

This not only proves that Christ makes His home in our heart allows us to apprehend and enjoy Christ, but such apprehension and enjoyment of Christ also leads us toward a particular purpose- A genuine and prevailing recovery of God's people!

The Lord's recovery depends upon our renewed, purified heart and our renewed, strengthened spirit is thoroughly saturated with the Spirit, God will have a way, and the recovery will be prevailing. (2018 ITEROS HWMR- Week 4 The Heart and Spirit of a leading One- Outline point VIII)

Oh Christ!

I've heard a lot that Christ is the reality and He is the answer to many things that we're experiencing. But recently I realised that my praises to Christ and my cooperation in living Christ are much to do with whether I have difficulties or not. When the outward environment is somewhat okay for me to endure, I can still praise Christ and endeavour to live Christ. 

So recently (over a couple of months) I felt that I've been suppressed by some troubles in my heart, and I had been praying a lot and spending a lot more time with the Lord. Talk to Him all the time. But somehow the things I was concerned just wouldn't let me go. It just kept coming back again and again and again. And I told the Lord, I've been telling people around me that I'm a Christian. it will not be a good testimony if I go crazy. I told the Lord the potential solutions that He can do for me. I'm not trying to interfere, but in order to get me out of the troublesome mind, perhaps You can talk to me, comfort me, and blah blah blah. 

But then the messages on day 1 and 2 (week three) really supply me. In John 14:19 Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live you also shall live. Somehow my heart just melted when I saw this verse. I realised that Lord, I cannot live a life like worldly people do. The people in the world do not care about Christ. They behold Christ no longer, but I have to be the one who beholds Christ. And also it is my lifeline to behold Christ because it says 'I live you also shall live'. 

So then connecting to the message on day 1, the Lord just exposed me that I've been putting my love and attention to so many other things. They might be seemingly good, but they are not Christ. Lord, am I going to stumble people if I do this? Lord, shall I go to Germany for Your move. I think I should. Hum, maybe I need to publish papers like this and do research like that and I will find a job in Germany. And many many other things. But I forgot to behold and live Christ.  

'Living Christ requires that we love Him to the uttermost. As we are engaged in our daily activities, our living should not be those activities but Christ. Our mind should be concentrated on Christ, but the concentration of our mind on Christ depends upon our love for Christ. This is the reason that the New Testament charges us to love Christ. If we do not love Christ, we cannot live Him; loving Him is the best way to concentrate our entire being on Him...We need Christ to captivate us to an extent that even in our dreams we would live Christ' (The conclusion of the new testament pp.3486). 

So praise the Lord, He intentionally got me into these concerns so that I could learn that even my loving the Lord still pretty much fluctuates with the environment, and my living Christ has been shallow. I really really need to practise this. Loving the Lord with my full attention so that I can live Christ. 

The hungry ones

Yesterday I just listened the message concerning "open vessels", and this morning the Lord again reinforced this point through my morning revival.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Matt. 5:6)

The hungry He has filled with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. (Luke 1:53)

Just as the message I listened yesterday, the message I read this morning talks about the first condition for spiritual growth in a Christian is hunger. We have to learn to be hungry so that the Lord has a way to fill us and bless us. This is God's principle. There must be an empty and open vessel so He's able to fill.

Hunger is the drive for us to search for food. As the Lord said in Luke 11:9.

Repent, be in reality, and produce many Timothys

This is basically a recap of what I had enjoyed yesterday.

A. Repent 

Yesterday morning when I woke up, I had a sense of uneasiness. I felt that it was kinda stress concerning my dissertation. I called upon the Lord's name, and this thought shone on me. I'm not a person who's able to suffer, and that's why when I'm busy with my assignments or other work, I always feel stressed out and not happy. I'm also reminded that we Christians should have a mind of being willing to suffer. This has been revealed in 1 Peter 4:1,

"Since Christ therefore has suffered in the flesh, you also arm yourselves with the same mind (because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin),"

A fresh view concerning the things we ask

In most occations, we would think that prayers should be sheer in spirit because prayers are spiritual matters. However, this morning a fresh idea came in. Prayers should also involve our whole beings.

"Again, truly I say to you that if two of you are in harmony on earth concerning any matter for which they ask, it will be done for them from my Father who is in the heavens" (Matt. 18:19)

"These all continued steadfastly with one accord in prayer..."(Acts 1:14)

Many bible readers have endeavoured in exploring the secrets of our prayers get answered. Of course, the general concepts will be we have to pray the Father's heart and so on. I'm not forsaking this idea, but rather, I would like to add something more concerning our prayers get answered.

Our God is like a mother - the balance of my study, church life, and work

Before reading the morning revival message, I remembered a sister who's doing a full-time job and she has a baby girl. At a point, she felt the need to study post grad so there was one period of time (around 2-3 years) that she was doing a master in a new area and having a full-time job. Although her mother in law will help take care of the child, out of love, she didn't want to miss her baby girl's childhood. Therefore, she was dedicated to her study, her work, and spending time with her baby girl after work. 

In the end, half an year after her graduation, her thesis was awarded the best prize.

I think of this because I'm kinda struggling. I have a heart to take care of the juniors in the church life, but at the same time, I need to study. After September, I'll probably need to work. All these make me think how a Christian sister like me can experience God in all these struggles? I'm sure there are no definite answers because the riches of Christ cannot be exhausted, and only with all the saints can we apprehend the riches of Christ. So, if I experience it right, in the near future, I will be able to share my experience to those who also struggle to find a balance and we can all grow.

What does that mean "the will of God is our food"?

Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work. (John 4:34)

Here is an interesting expression that I just realised. I knew Jesus was sent by God, but I didn't pay attention that you can regard the will of God as food! If we check "food" in wiki, here is the explanation:

"Food is any substance[1] consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as fats,proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is ingested by an organism and assimilated by the organism's cells to provide energy, maintain life, or stimulate growth."

A student and a servant

But if the servant plainly says, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free; Then his master shall bring him to God and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him forever. (Exo. 21:5-6)

The Lord Jehovah has given me the tongue of the instructed, that I should know how to sustain the weary with a word. He awakens me morning by morning; He awakens my ear to hear as an instructed one. The Lord Jehovah has opened my ear; and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn back. (Isaiah 50:4-5)

Before reading this message, I was praying to the Lord there must be a change in my study. I've spent more time in the matter of "study", and if I don't master this, that won't be beneficial to me, to the Lord, and to the church. I must learn how to study with the Lord, so in the near future I might be able to help others gain Christ during study. Therefore, I prayed to Him that may He make my PhD study a service to Him. 

But the question will be, what is service? While I was musing upon this matter, I came across the MR message for today. Several key words in the verses I quote have been identified. The tongue of the instructed; sustain the weary with a word, and awaken. 

Reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ

For if by the offense of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. (Rom 5:17)

This morning in my prayreading, these key words came to me. "Receive" and reign in life "through the One". 

Receive

I'm reminded the fact that I'm a receiver, and I should be open to receive. But what to receive? "the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness". I repent to the Lord, sometimes I don't find His grace abundant or don't find His gift righteousness is realised in me, and that's not God's problem but mine. Simply because I don't open wide enough to receive this abundant grace. I told myself that if next time I complain to the Lord and find His grace short, I shall be reminded to repent and praise. For His grace is abundant, and I shall not fall short of it. All I have to do is to open to Him and receive. 

Reign in life through the One

Still, in my daily life I'm used to apply my own strength in everything. Even read this verse could be my doctrine. I could possibly thinking how to realise the abundant grace and the gift of righteousness in my life. Oh Lord, how much I need to realise this. My reigning in life (zoe) is through You. None of other methods can help me reign in this divine life. I need to come to You, Lord, because the reigning is through You, Jesus Christ. Please remind me to come often to You even though I will be busy writing my essays.