Laboring on Christ

God has given us the all-inclusive Christ as our allotted portion of the good land. The land is rich, besides, He has provided rain and sunshine. Yet man must labor on the land to get the produce out of the land. God's rich provision does not mean man need not do anything, he still must labor lest he will be like a mouse dying of starvation in a grain house. The land is for cultivation. Laboring on the land is a must for man to enjoy its riches of it. 

The Israelites were fed with the manna for forty years until they entered the good land. The day they crossed the river Jordan and stepped into the good land, the manna stopped. Since then they had to labor on the land and produce the riches of the land for themselves and even bring the surplus to the temple for the corporate enjoyment and feasting together with others. This was a type in the Old Testament. Today, the same principle runs with our Christian life today. The land has been given, and we must labor on the good land.

Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light; Colossians 1:12 

The practical question today is how to labor on the good land. The best way to labor is to exercise our spirit. In exercising our spirit, the first thing is not to pay attention to our soul; the thoughts in our mind, the feelings in our emotion, and the preferences in our will. These are the most distracting things in exercising our spirit. When Peter expressed his own about the Lord's crucifixion, the Lord called him Satan. Meaning, when we are not in the spirit, we express ourselves or even Satan who subtly has been working through the fallen flesh. Besides, we must also not pay attention to the environment. Many distracting things will happen as Satan does not want us to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. So having avoided these two things, our soul and our environment, then can we pay attention to the deep sense in our inner being. Discerning the Lord's speaking and leading in our spirit and following it faithfully is the key to labor on the good land. Only by such an exercise of the spirit, we can experience and enjoy Christ. The result of which will be, Christ will be produced.

On the one hand, we labor but actually, it was the Lord who produces Himself. Because the laboring is not out of ourselves, so is the produce.

For it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13

These days, I have been laboring on Christ my good land through the very many situations in my Christian life, family life, work life, and the church life. In dealing with matters, persons, and things, I have been laboring on Christ. At times, I failed and at times I was able to gain something of Christ. 

Last week, we had a video training for the churches in North India where about 350 saints gathered together in a basement. The auditorium did not have proper ventilation and there was no AC installed. When many people were gathered together, the hall was very humid and caused sleepiness during the meeting. In this regard, I expressed my opinion to the brothers for AC. But I realized I should not have done it. Though I expressed my opinion, I turned to the Lord and asked for forgiveness for paying too much attention to my own feeling, though good it may sound.  They were also helpless as it was not our own facility, it was a hired facility with no AC. In this regard, I experienced the Lord's perfecting training in learning to accept whatever He has arranged. Besides, I have been financially tight. In fact, very tight this month. I looked to the Lord on how to meet the family transportation expenses to attend the video training in Delhi. The Lord opened a way for us and the financial need for transportation was met without my spending anything.  

These are a few cases of my laboring on the good land. The result of such labor that produces Christ is for the building up of the Body of Christ. Therefore, whenever we meet together, I must share my portion of the gaining of Christ to others for their benefit as well. In this way, we build up the Body together.

What then, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. 1 Corinthians 14:26

This is the way to labor on the good land to produce Christ to offer it as a corporate worship to God for the genuine church. This same burden, I released on the Lord's Day as the concluding word of the meeting in the church in Gurugram.  The summary of these experiences is Christ, our allotted position, upon which as Christians we have to labor and bring the produce to the church for the building up of the church and for the corporate worship to God.