Scripture Reading: Job 42:1-6; 2 Cor. 4:10-12, 16-18
Ⅰ
In God's appearing to him, Job saw God, gaining God in his personal experience and abhorring himself—Job 38:1-3; 42:1-6:
A
In all God's dealing with Job, God's intention was to reduce Job to nothing, yet to maintain his existence (2:6) so that He might have time to impart Himself into Job; God cares for only one thing—for being worked into us.
B
God's purpose in dealing with His people is that He wants His people to gain Him, to partake of Him, to possess Him, and to enjoy Him more and more, rather than all other things, until their enjoyment reaches the fullest extent for them to become the New Jerusalem—Phil. 3:8-9; Rev. 21:2.
Ⅱ
Seeing God equals gaining God to be transformed by God; to gain God is to receive God in His element, His life, and His nature—2 Cor. 3:16, 18:
A
In order to see God, we must exercise our spirit—Eph. 1:17-18; 3:16-17; 1 Cor. 2:9-16; 2 Cor. 4:13:
１
The more we look at Him in our spirit, the more we receive all of His ingredients into our being as our inner supply—vv. 16-18.
２
In the midst of our afflictions, we must take heed to our spirit, taking the Lord as our dwelling place, our secret of sufficiency—2:13; 7:5-6; Mal. 2:15-16; Psa. 91:1; Phil. 4:11-13; Psa. 90:1-11; 31:20; Isa. 32:2.
B
In order to see God, we must deal with our heart—Matt. 5:8; 13:18-23:
１
We must be renewed in the spirit of our mind by being reconstituted with the holy word of God to be instructed, governed, ruled, and controlled by God's word—Eph. 4:23; Deut. 17:18-20.
２
We must be on fire with the Lord's love, having an emotion filled with Him as our zeal for His house—2 Cor. 5:14; 2 Tim. 1:6-7; John 2:17; Mark 12:30.
３
We must have our will subdued by Christ and transformed with Christ through sufferings so that it is submitted to the headship of Christ—Phil. 2:13; cf. S. S. 4:1, 4; 7:4a, 5.
４
We must maintain a good and pure conscience by the priceless, cleansing, and purifying blood of Christ—Acts 24:16; 1 Tim. 3:9; Heb. 9:14; 10:22.
Ⅲ
Transformation transfers us from one form, the form of the old man, to another form, the form of the new man; the Lord accomplishes this by the killing of Christ's death—2 Cor. 4:10-12, 16-18:
A
In 2 Corinthians 4:10 Paul says that we are always bearing about in our body the putting to death of Jesus; putting to death means killing; the death of Christ kills us—1 Cor. 15:31, 36; John 12:24-26; 2 Cor. 1:8-9.
B
The death of Christ is in the compound Spirit; the Spirit is the application of the death of Christ and its effectiveness—Exo. 30:22-25; Rom. 8:13.
C
The Christian life is a life that is all the time under the killing by the compound Spirit; this daily killing is carried out by the indwelling Spirit with the environment as the killing weapon:
１
The work of the Spirit within us is to constitute a new being for us, but the work of the Spirit without is to tear down every aspect of our natural being through our environment.
２
What we are by nature means nothing; only what the Spirit constitutes within our being counts—cf. Jer. 48:11.
３
We should cooperate with the operating Spirit and accept the environment which God has arranged for us—Phil. 4:12; Eph. 3:1; 4:1; 6:20; 1 Cor. 7:24.
D
Under God's divine and sovereign arrangement, everything works for our good, for our transformation, through the killing of Christ's death—Rom. 8:28-29; cf. Psa. 31:15a:
１
We may complain to God, but our complaining may be the best prayer, the most pleasant prayer to God; while we are complaining, God is rejoicing because He is causing all things to work together for good that we may be conformed to the image of His firstborn Son—cf. Psa. 18, title.
２
We do not know the kind of prayer God desires, and we are not clear about how to pray, according to the burden we feel, for our being conformed to the image of God's Son; hence, we groan, and in our groaning the Spirit intercedes for us—Rom. 8:23, 26; cf. 2 Chron. 20:12; 1 Kings 8:48.
Ⅳ
Ministry is the issue of revelation plus suffering—what we see is wrought into us through suffering; hence, what we minister is what we are:
A
Tribulation is the sweet visitation and incarnation of grace with all the riches of Christ; grace visits us mainly in the form of tribulation—2 Cor. 12:7-10.
B
Through tribulations the killing effect of the cross of Christ on our natural being is applied to us by the Holy Spirit, making the way for the God of resurrection to add Himself into us—1:8-9; 4:16-18.
C
Tribulation produces endurance, which brings forth the quality of approvedness—an approved quality or attribute resulting from the enduring and experiencing of tribulation and testing—Rom. 5:3-4.
Ⅴ
God poured out Himself as love in our hearts with the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us, as the motivating power within us, that we may more than conquer in all our tribulations; therefore, when we endure any kind of tribulation, we are not put to shame but live Christ for His magnification—v. 5; 8:31-39; Phil. 1:19-21a.