Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ As the Tree of Life
Message Four
Grafted into Christ
to Become Part of the Tree of Life
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Rom. 11:17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and became a fellow partaker of the root of fatness of the olive tree,
Rom. 6:5 For if we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death, indeed we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection.
John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Word of Appetizer
Christ as the tree of life, how can we be part of the tree of life?
Christ as the tree of life is the embodiment of God as life to us, and having been grafted into Christ, we are united to Him organically, and thus we are part of the tree of life. We not only eat Christ as the tree of life—we are united to Him and are part of Him. as we, the branches, abide in the vine, we receive the dispensing of life from the tree of life and live as part of the tree of life.
Spiritual Burden
The relationship God desires to have with man is that He and man be grafted together and thus become one in an organic union. As regenerated ones who have been grafted into Christ, we should live a grafted life, a life in which two parties are joined to grow organically. To abide in Christ as the vine is to take Him as our dwelling place, which is the highest and fullest experience of God; if we live as part of the tree of life, we will care not for good and evil but for life, and we will discern matters not according to right and wrong but according to life and death.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
The Bible reveals that the relationship God desires to have with man is that He and man become one.
The relationship God desires to have with man is that He and man be grafted together and thus become one in an organic union.
Christ as the tree of life is the embodiment of God as life to us, and having been grafted into Christ, we are united to Him organically, and thus we are part of the tree of life.
The Experience of Life
In the grafted life the divine life works within us to discharge the negative elements. The divine life swallows up our defects and infirmities. The negative element of our disposition is killed, and then, instead of casting away our disposition, the Lord uplifts and uses it. In the grafted life the divine life supplies the riches of Christ to our inward parts and saturates our whole being.
Practice and Application
As regenerated ones who have been grafted into Christ, we should live a grafted life, a life in which two parties are joined to grow organically. Since we have been grafted into Christ, we should no longer live by ourselves; rather, we should allow the pneumatic Christ to live in us; We should no longer live by our flesh or by our natural being; rather, we should live a grafted life by the mingled spirit—the divine Spirit mingled with the regenerated human spirit.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 God planned in His economy to make Himself one with man (John 15:4-5; 1 Cor. 6:17)
(Please illustrate that the basic principle of Christ’s birth is that God came to join Himself to man, and to be one with man.)
T2 God decided in His Economy to gain an organism for Himself (1 Cor. 6:17; Eph. 4:3-6)
(Please illustrate that the central line of God’s economy is to make God and man, man and God, one entity, with the two having one living by one life with one nature.)
Day 2
T1 Our Christian life is altogether a matter of the divine life dispensed, infused, into our human life (Rom. 11:17-18)
(Please illustrate why our Christian life is not an exchanged life.)
T2 In Romans Paul uses the illustrations of vessels, married life, and grafting (Rom. 9:23; 11:17)
(Please illustrate that the inner significance of these three examples.)
Day 3
T1 Christ and His believers are a tree (John 15:4-5)
(Please illustrate that the relationship between the branches and the vine portrays the relationship between us and the Lord Jesus.)
T2 In order to have a successful grafting, both of the grafting parts need to be cut and die (John 1:14; 1 Cor. 2:2; 15:45b)
(How can we be grafted into Him?)
Day 4
T1 In the grafted life the branch still retains its same essential characteristics (John 15:4-5; Rom. 11:17)
(Please illustrate what are the results of the grafting.)
T2 As the divine life works within us to transform and conform us, (Rom. 6:5; 11:17)
(Please illustrate that how the divine life works in us to transform and conform us.)
Day 5
T1 We have been grafted into Christ by this all-inclusive Spirit (John 1:12-13; 4:14; 6:57)
(Please illustrate with experiences that we have to learn not only to feed on Him, to eat of Him, but also to abide in Him.)
T2 God’s intention is to present Himself to us as the tree of life (John 15:1, 4-5)
(Please illustrate that not only do we take something of the tree into us, but we also have become a part of the tree.)
Day 6
T1 God’s life grafted into the human life, thus living a mingled living of a God-man (Gal. 2:20)
(God has no intention for us to change for the better; God wants us to be God-men, those into whom God has been “grafted.”)
T2 God’s goal is to work Himself into us. (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 8:6)
(Please illustrate that the highest standard of living for a Christian is to live the mingled life of a God-man.)
