THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
The God-man Living
Message Three—The God-man Living—a Man of Prayer
Scripture Reading: John 10:30; 8:29; 16:32b; 14:30; 17:1; Matt. 14:23
I. Although in the Lord’s recovery we have so much vision, every brother and sister still needs to ask the Lord for a new revival; this revival is the God-man life—Hab. 3:2a; Hosea 6:2:
A. When we think of ourselves as God-men, this thinking, this realization, revolutionizes us in our daily experience—Gal. 2:20.
B. The living of a God-man is the living of a man who lives God and expresses God—John 6:57a; 14:9-10.
C. The Lord Jesus is the first God-man, and we are the many God-men—Rom. 8:29:
1. Christ lived a human life not by His human life but by the divine life to express the divine attributes in the human virtues—Luke 1:35; 10:25-37.
2. Because Christ is our life and our person, we should live a human life by the divine life for the expression of divinity in humanity—Col. 3:4.
3. To live the life of a God-man is to deny the self, take up the cross, and live Christ for the expression of God—Matt. 16:24; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21a.
D. The divine Spirit and the human spirit are mingled within us so that we can live the life of a God-man, a life that is God yet man and man yet God—1 Cor. 6:17.
E. Eventually, the God-men will be the overcomers, the Zion within Jerusalem; this will bring in a new revival—a revival that has never occurred in history—and this will end this age—Rev. 14:1; 11:15.
II. The first God-man, the Lord Jesus, lived as a man of prayer—Luke 5:16:
A. In describing the first God-man as a man of prayer, we may use the words divine and mystical; divine is on God’s side, and mystical is on man’s side—1 Tim. 3:16:
1. In His living as the first God-man, all that the Lord Jesus did was divine and mystical; God was manifested in a mystical human way—1 Tim. 3:16.
2. The Lord’s mystical human life was a divine realm, and this realm is the kingdom of God—John 3:13, 3.
B. A critical part of the history of the first God-man was His prayer—John 17:
1. The prayers of the first God-man were in the divine and mystical realm.
2. The Lord Jesus was a man in the flesh, yet He prayed to the mysterious God in a divine and mystical way and realm—Matt. 14:23.
3. His prayers were divine, yet they were in a human life, making that human life mystical—Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; 6:12.
4. Christ’s prayers were divine facts in His mystical human life—John 17:
a. Whatever God does is a divine fact, and in the Lord Jesus the divine facts were lived out in a human life, making His human life mystical.
b. The Lord Jesus was a God-man, and all that He said and did were divine facts accomplished in His human life mystically.
C. With the Lord Jesus, we see the pure pattern of the man of prayer revealed in the Gospels—John 10:30; Acts 10:38c; John 8:29; 16:32; 1 Pet. 2:23b; Luke 23:46; John 14:30:
1. As a man of prayer, the Lord Jesus was a man who was always one with God—John 10:30.
2. As a man of prayer, the Lord Jesus was a man who lived in the presence of God without ceasing—Acts 10:38c; John 8:29; 16:32b.
3. As a man of prayer, the Lord Jesus trusted in God and not in Himself under any kind of suffering or persecution—1 Pet. 2:23b; Luke 23:46.
4. As a man of prayer, the Lord Jesus was a man in whom Satan, the ruler of the world, had nothing—no ground, no chance, no hope, and no possibility in anything; Satan had no ground in Him because His submission to the Father cut off Satan—John 14:30.
III. Prayer is man cooperating and co-working with God, allowing God to express Himself through man and thus accomplish His purpose—Rom. 8:26-27; James 5:17:
A. Prayer is man breathing God, obtaining God, and being obtained by God; real prayer is an exhaling and inhaling before God, causing us and God to contact each other and to gain each other—1 Thes. 5:17.
B. A praying person cooperates with God, works together with God, and allows God to express Himself and His desire from within him and through him—Rom. 8:26-27; James 5:17; Eph. 1:17-23; 3:14-21.
C. Genuine prayers cause our being to be wholly mingled with God, causing us to pray as a man mingled with God, a God-man—Jude 20; Eph. 6:18.
IV. The Bible teaches us, the believers in Christ, the God-men, to live as divine and mystical persons—Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 4:1-6:
A. We have been separated from being common; we have been sanctified and separated unto God, who is holy, and now we are in the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit—John 17:17, 19; Heb. 2:11; 1 Thes. 5:23.
B. Our life should be divine yet human—not merely human but mystically human; everything in our living should be divine and mystical—John 14:16-20.
C. Every believer should be a divine and mystical person, one who is human yet lives divinely—Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 10:1.
D. The New Testament teaches us, the members of the Body of Christ, to do everything with God, in God, by God, and through God; this is what it means to be divine—1 Cor. 10:31; Col. 3:17.
E. A genuine and proper prayer is not merely spiritual but also divine; this means that the Triune God prays with us and that we pray by living in the Triune God—Rom. 8:26-27; Jude 20.
F. All genuine prayers, prayers that can be counted by God, are divine facts, something divine performed in the mystical human life—John 14:13-14; 16:23-24.
Ministry Excerpts:
A MAN OF PRAYER
The Lord lived as a man of prayer. He did not live as a common man praying common prayers to God, as a pious man, a so-called godly man, praying to God in a religious way, or as a God-seeking man praying to God for the divine attainments and obtainments. His being a man of prayer was not even as merely a Christ-seeker praying desperately to gain Christ in His excellency (Phil. 3:12-14, 8). Instead, He was a man in the flesh praying to the mysterious God in the divine, mystical realm. The Gospels tell us that He often went to the mountain or withdrew to a private place to pray (Matt. 14:23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:28).
He was a man of prayer, a man who is one with God (John 10:30). We may be a Christ-seeker, desperately praying to gain Christ, yet we may not be one with God. He was also a man living in the presence of God without ceasing (Acts 10:38c; John 8:29; 16:32). He told us that He was never alone, but the Father was with Him. Every moment He saw His Father’s face. We may seek Christ, yet not live in the presence of God so closely and continuously without ceasing. Also, He trusted in God and not in Himself, under any kind of suffering and persecution. First Peter 2:23b says that in the midst of His suffering He did not speak threatening words but kept committing all to Him who judges righteously. Luke 23:46 says that at the time He was dying on the cross, He prayed, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” In our daily life, do we trust in God when trouble comes? Maybe we do to a small extent, but not absolutely.
In John 14:30 the Lord said, “The ruler of the world is coming, and in Me he has nothing.” This means that in the Lord Jesus, Satan as the ruler of the world had no ground, no chance, no hope, no possibility in anything. If we are enlightened, we will admit that Satan has too many things in us. He has the ground, the chance, the hope, and the possibility in many things. But here is a man of prayer who said that Satan, the ruler of the world, had nothing in Him. This is a particular sentence in the whole Bible. Thus, Christ was a man of prayer, a man who is one with God, lives in the presence of God continuously, trusts in God in His suffering and persecution, and in whom Satan has nothing.
THE DIVINE FACTS IN THE MYSTICAL HUMAN LIFE
OF THE FIRST GOD-MAN
When we consider the Lord’s prayer in John 17, we can see what divine prayer is. We may pray for our need, but we have to pray about it in a divine way. We should pray divine prayers, not human prayers. All the prayers Christ prayed were divine facts in His mystical human life. Although we are human, people should sense that there is something mystical about us. Our classmates, colleagues, or peers should sense that there is something about us that they cannot understand. This is because we are mysterious, mystical. The One who prayed the prayer recorded in John 17 was Jesus of Nazareth, a man in the flesh, yet His prayer was mystical.
We want to see the divine facts in the mystical human life of the first God-man in the record of the synoptic Gospels. After His baptism in the water and God’s anointing from the heavens with the great commission for Him to bring in the kingdom of the heavens to the earth, He, under the leading of the Spirit, went to the wilderness to fast for forty days and forty nights (Matt. 3:13—4:11). He should have felt that His Father’s divine commission to Him concerning the kingdom of the heavens was a great and critical burden to Him. He needed to seek His Father’s counsel concerning how to bring His Father’s kingdom in the heavens to the fallen Adamic race on the earth. According to the common practice of fasting, it is always accompanied by prayer (Matt. 6:5, 16; 17:21; Acts 13:2-3). But there is no mention of prayer accompanying the first God-man’s fasting, not only in forty days but also in forty nights. The Lord’s prayer which obviously accompanied His long period of fasting is not recorded. This is very meaningful. We should believe that there was such an accompanying prayer, but it is kept in secret as a mystery and it is impossible for us to know what the content was. This indicates that the first God-man’s prayer was in the divine, mystical realm.
The pattern of the first God-man being a man of prayer shows that we should do everything in a divine way. Even a husband’s loving his wife should be divine and not human. Our buying a pair of shoes and the way that we cut our hair should be divine. A very critical part of the history of the first God-man was His prayer. All of His prayers were divine, yet they were in a human life, making that human life mystical. He lived a mystical human life. A husband should love his wife divinely, not merely spiritually. This is because he does not love her in his way but in God’s way and not with his love but with God’s love. How could a man in the flesh love his wife in a divine way and with the divine love? This is mystical. We should be persons living a life which is divine yet mystical. Our life should be divine yet human—not merely human, but mystically human. This is what is unveiled in the holy Word.
We have a concept concerning spirituality which blinds us. We need to see that we should not be merely spiritual but divine and mystical. Every believer today should be a divine and a mystical person. We should be divine yet so mysterious. Even those who are close to us should be able to sense that there is something about us which is mysterious and cannot be understood. The key is that although we are human, we live divinely. True spirituality should make us divine. This is higher. (The God-man Living, msg. 10)