«　WEEK 2　DAY 1　»

　　Phil. 1:20-21 According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

　　The central thought of the Bible is that God desires us to live Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ. The main point of our Christian life is to live Christ. To live Christ should be our primary goal; all the troubles in our Christian life come because of our not living Christ. We need to practice to live Christ, realizing that He is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit, until we live Christ habitually.

　　The climax, the highest point, of the divine revelation in the entire Bible is to live Christ. In order to live Christ, we must practice being one spirit with Him, and in order to practice being one spirit with Him, we must exercise our spirit to pray unceasingly. If we pray unceasingly from our spirit, “Lord, live in me; Lord, live through me, ” we will build up a habit of not living our self but Christ; then we will live Christ habitually. The habit of living Christ is the habit of prayer. Apart from unceasingly praying, we cannot live Christ. It is only by such continual prayer, such breathing prayer, that we can live Christ spontaneously. In order to have such a prayer life, we must watch and pray, praying at every time in spirit, watching unto prayer in all petition, and persevering in prayer (Matt. 26:41; Eph. 6:18; Col. 4:2). Moreover, the foundation for us to pray is our love for the Lord. Because we love the Lord and seek Him, we like to contact Him, pray to Him, and call upon Him. Part of the secret of living Christ is telling the Lord again and again that we love Him. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3485-3486)

　　To live Christ is not merely to have a holy life or to live holiness. To live Christ is to live a person. We should simply live Christ. We should live a life which is Christ Himself. In our Christian life, quite often we are still the ones living our natural life. We are not living Christ. To live Christ is to let Christ Himself live from within us.

　　In order to live Christ, we must take Him as our person and as our life. Every morning we should pray, “Lord, I thank You for another day to practice living You. Lord, in myself I cannot do this. I ask You to remind me to live You and grant me the grace that I need for this.” God does not care for how holy, spiritual, or victorious we are in ourselves. Actually, to live in this way by self-effort is to strive to keep the law. What counts in the eyes of God is Christ and the living of Christ. We all must fight and struggle to enter into the genuine living of Christ in a practical way. God wants His people to live Christ. We should not care for holiness, spirituality, or victory as things in themselves, and we should not care for our natural virtues or attributes. Instead, we should focus our whole attention on living Christ and care only to live Christ so that He might be magnified in us.

　　If we would be found in Christ, we must live Christ. Only when we live Christ will we be found in Him by others and by the angels and demons. However, if we are law-keepers, we will be found in the law instead of in Christ. We are not here to express the law or magnify the law; our goal is to express Christ and magnify Him. We all need to pray, “Lord, have mercy on me and rescue me not only from sinful things but also from good things, even spiritual things, that replace You in my daily life. Lord, rescue me from everything back to Yourself. I ask You to grant me the grace each day so that I may truly live You and be found in You.” May we all seek the one thing and pursue the one thing—to live Christ. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3483-3484)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 346