Experience of Death

The Christian life is a life of living Christ. Christ's life on the earth has passed through death which paved the way for resurrection. In fact, without death, there will never be a resurrection. The cross was needed for the divine life to be released. Such is the experience one needs as and when the Lord deems best.

These days I have come across a few saints who have gone through the experience of the cross. I do go through the same now and then, but the ones I wrote here are more on an intense level.

A brother who has been praying with me for the burden on the Lord's move in  North East India once a week gradually decided to withdraw himself from all the burdens and responsibilities he had been bearing. He had his own reasons to do so. Though I tried my best to encourage him to stay one, he simply could not bear the burden any longer and just decided to "quit' from all official responsibilities. To the extent that he even decided to stop participating in the weekly prayer.  I still did not give up on him and still tried to include him in the Wednesday morning prayer, but he simply decided not to answer my call for prayer at all. Well then, I took that as a lesson for me and him, to experience the cross for a moment until the season of refreshing would visit him again. I believe the Lord would minister to him and recover him fully one day in his spiritual function in the Body. 

Another brother also is going through a similar situation. Though the reason behind both withdrawing from their assigned burdens may differ, nonetheless, both pertain to the experience of the cross. This one was more serious and we had two days fellowship in this regard. In all the fellowship many new spiritual lessons were learned. The Lord led us all through this experience of the cross to be brought into the resurrection of life. 

I too went through such a process in the past. The only thing I could do at such times was, I simply looked to the Lord, and prayed and prayed, and prayed. In a similar situation, there seems to have been a "lean season" with some of the saints that I know of. A report has come to me of such a situation and the new ones that I am burdened to shepherd simply decided not to answer my call at all, despite my desperate attempt to fellowship with them. I took that as a lesson from the Lord, to commit all things to Him Who knows best, and continue to pray for all these ones who apparently have gone through a lean season of experiencing the death of Christ.

This reminds me of the incident when the Lord led me to read a book by brother Witness Lee, The All-inclusive Christ in 2003, for the first time of any book by Witness Lee. Since the reading of the portion on  "the valleys and the mountains" from chapter 4, I have never ceased receiving life supply from reading the ministry books by the same brother.

For Jehovah your God is bringing you to a good land, a land of waterbrooks, of springs and of fountains, flowing forth in valleys and in mountains; Deuteronomy 8:7

Whenever God ordains sorrow for you, be assured that rejoicing will follow. “As made sorrowful yet always rejoicing.” “As poor yet enriching many.” “As having nothing and yet possessing all things.” All these are the valleys and the mountains. “I know also,” says the apostle Paul, “how to be abased, and I know how to abound” (Phil. 4:12). He learned the secret (v. 11). He knew how to be filled and how to be hungry (v. 12). What is the secret? The secret is that Christ Himself is flowing within. I have learned; I have been instructed; I have been initiated. I know the living Christ who is within me.

All the valleys are the experiences of the cross, the experiences of the death of Christ, and all the mountains are the experiences of the Lord’s resurrection. A valley is the cross; a mountain is the resurrection. We must be one who always has some trouble, some valley, but also one who is always on the mountains, always in the experience of resurrection. Whenever there is a valley, there is a mountain. Whenever you experience the death of the cross, you will experience the resurrection. The living waters flow forth from all these experiences.

Let us look more closely at the passage in Deuteronomy 8:7. It says there that the water is “flowing forth in valleys and in mountains.” It does not say in the mountains and in the valleys but in the valleys and in the mountains. There are first the valleys and then the mountains. Why? It is because the first place that you contact the flowing water is in the valleys. Then if you trace that stream up to its origin, you find that it springs from the mountains. The stream is in the valley, but the spring is in the mountains. If you would have something flowing out from within you to water others, you must be in the valleys.

If you can experience Christ in times of trouble and trial, how much you will have flowing out to others. How blessedly you will water others. It is not in peaceful times or in happy days that you can do this. It is in the days of sorrow, the days of sickness, the days of trouble. It is by your experience of Christ in these times that you may have the living flow to water others. Each situation of death may bring forth a greater outflow of refreshing water—not only the mountains but also the valleys; not only the valleys but also the mountains. We need many experiences of the Lord’s death and many experiences of the Lord’s resurrection; then we will be full of the springs, the fountains, and the streams.

The Lord will lead all my brothers who have been going through a lean season now, experiencing the death of Jesus,  to enjoy the resurrection of Christ very soon. For Jehovah our God is bringing us to a good land, a land of waterbrooks, of springs and of fountains, flowing forth in valleys and in mountains!