SEPARATION:
The true Christian life requires a proper separation in the heart from
this “present evil world” (Gal. 1:4). This separation is
not according to legalistic, man-made rules; it is according to the
life and nature of the holy One who dwells within us. We are separated
to God by the redemptive work of Christ, by the Holy Spirit, and in
the name of the Lord Jesus. In order to live a proper Christian life,
we must maintain such a separated position. We are to live our life
with our hearts separated from the love of things in this world and
separated to God and the love of His will (Col 3:1-3). Back to the top
CONSECRATION:
"Consecration" is to give ourselves completely to the Lord
without a divided heart (2 Cor. 11:2-3). The Christian life is a life
of consecration. To be consecrated to the Lord means that we are utterly
given to Him. This is not just for the purpose of doing something for
Him, but to make ourselves available to Him as a “living sacrifice”
(Rom. 12:1-2) so that He may work on us and in us according to His good
pleasure. Consecration is out of joy to the Lord because we love Him
and delight to belong to Him. We are living not for ourselves, but for
God and for the fulfilment of His eternal purpose. Back to the top
LOVING THE LORD:
In our daily Christian life we emphasize loving the Lord with our whole
life. Above all things, God desires that we love Him (Mark 11:29-30).
We testify that our Lord Jesus Christ is the altogether lovely (Song
5:16) and wonderful (Isa. 9:6), that He has won our hearts, and that
we love Him, not with a love of our own, but with the very love with
which He first loved us (1 John 4:10; Rom 5:5). Back to the top
THE WORD OF GOD:
The Bible occupies a very important place in our Christian life and
practice (2 Tim 3:16). We encouraged believer's to read the Word in
a regular way and to make this time a time of genuine fellowship with
the Lord. We believe in reading the Word (Matt. 4:4), studying the Word
(John 8:31,32), meditating on the Word (Psalm 1:2-3) and taking the
Word by prayer as spiritual food (John 6:63). All teachings, inspirations,
and guidance which claim the Holy Spirit as their source must be checked
by God’s revelation in His Word. Although the Bible reveals the
mind of God concerning so many matters, to us the Bible is not primarily
a book of doctrine; instead, it is mainly a book of life. We come to
the Word not merely for knowledge, but, through a prayerful reading
of the Scripture, to contact the Lord Jesus, who is Himself the living
Word (John 5:39,40).
PRAYER:
The Christian life is also a life of prayer. In prayer we enjoy sweet,
intimate personal communion with the Lord. By prayer we express our
dependence on God, our submission to Him, and our desire to cooperate
with Him in the fulfillment of His purposes. Prayer is as essential
to the spiritual life as breathing is to physical life. We encourage
all believers to practice and maintain a regular life of prayer.
FAITH:
We see the Christian life as a life of faith (Rom. 1:17). Since God
and His Word are one, faith is simply believing God at His Word. Faith
is the capacity of our spirit to appropriate the realities of God found
in Christ and make them real in our personal experience. We therefore
encourage believer's to build up their faith by time spent with God
around His Word (Rom. 10:17). We see maturity as the ability of a believer
to exercise personal faith in God and His Word in order to have all
their needs met by God's provisions in Christ. The Bible makes it clear
that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 6).
THE EXPERIENCE OF
CHRIST:
We have seen from God’s revelation in the Bible that the Christian
life is actually Christ Himself living in us (Gal. 2:20). For this reason,
we put great emphasis on the experience of Christ. According to the
New Testament Epistles, Christ is revealed in us, is living in us, is
being formed in us, is making His home in us, is being magnified in
us, and is becoming all in all to us (Col. 3:3-4; 10-11). Instead of
imitating Christ according to an outward pattern or set of rules, we
seek rather to live out this indwelling Christ and to live by Him by
allowing His indwelling Spirit to occupy our whole inward being and
to express Himself through us in our daily living (John 15: 4-5). This
is not a passive activity, but rather a full engagement of our whole
being and all our faculties in union with Him.
A CRUCIFIED LIFE:
As genuine Christians, we are to live a crucified life. This means that
we are willing to die to our own will and embrace the will of God as
a higher standard (Matt 16:24-26). We are not ashamed of the cross of
Christ, and we do not shrink back from following the Lord along the
narrow pathway of the cross. If we would truly experience Christ and
live by Him, we need to experience daily the subjective work of the
cross in our lives. We have seen something of the ugliness of man’s
fallen flesh in the eyes of God, and we agree with God’s judgment
upon it. Moreover, we have seen that both the self and the natural man
are opposed to God. Therefore, we welcome the inward working of the
death of Christ so that by our spirit we may experience Christ and live
by Him in the riches of His resurrection life.
NOURISHMENT:
If we would live a normal Christian life, we need to be nourished daily
with spiritual food and spiritual drink. This is a daily occurrence
just as eating physical food is a daily occurrence. For this reason,
we emphasize the partaking of Christ as our spiritual food and drink.
In the Spirit and through the Word, we enjoy Him as our spiritual life-supply.
As He Himself said, “the one who feeds on me will live because
of Me."” (John 6:57). The Lord is the living bread, the bread
of life, and the bread of God who came down from heaven to give life
to the world (John 6:33, 35, 51), and we are nourished by Him day by
day.
THE GROWTH IN LIFE:
We believe spiritual growth is a maturing process just as is physical
maturation. Every Christian should seek to grow up in their salvation
( 1 Peter 2:2) and learn how to live in a mature way out of their regenerated
spirit (Gal 6:25), which is where all the works of God towards us lay.
We are not content to remain spiritual infants. The divine life, much
like the human life, must have a normal development leading to maturity
(Heb. 5:13-14). Therefore, as seekers of the Lord, we pursue growth
in the life of our spirit (Luke 1:80). We desire to become full-grown
men and women of faith to express the Lord, to obtain His promises,
to represent Him with His authority, and to engage in spiritual works
to establish His kingdom.
HUMAN LIVING:
As Christians, we also live a normal human life that expresses our spirit's
life. A part of living in Christ means expressing His humanity as well
as His divine nature. We want to live free from extremes and balanced
in every way. We desire that our entire being, spirit, soul, and body,
be maintained for the glory of God (1 Thess 4:23). We seek to express
the humanity of Jesus in all our relationships and bear a worthy testimony
of Him in all walks of human life: at home, at school, in our neighborhoods,
and at our places of employment. To us, the Christian life cannot be
divorced from our daily human life. We find that the more we grow in
Christ, the more truly human and compassionate we become -- and the
more we enjoy in a practical way the uplifted, transformed humanity
of Jesus.
THE SPIRIT:
The Christian life is a life of walking according to the Spirit of Christ
who lives in our human spirit (Rom 8:16). To walk in the Spirit is to
have our living and our being regulated according to the Spirit. Therefore,
we need to set our mind on the Spirit and put to death the sinful practices
of the body (Rom. 8:6, 13). When we walk according to the Spirit, all
the righteous requirements of God are fulfilled in us spontaneously
(Rom. 8:2,4). Only by living in the Spirit and walking according to
the Spirit will the divine things revealed in the Scriptures become
real to us. Hence, to be a normal Christian we must know the Spirit
(Rom. 8:5b), live in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16), and walk according to the
Spirit (Gal 5:25).
TRANSFORMATION:
We believe God wants to transform our soul by the new life He imparts
to us (2 Cor.3:17-18). Many Christians know of the regeneration of the
spirit (new birth) and the transfiguration of the body at Christ's return,
but many neglect this crucial matter of the transformation of the soul
(1 Peter 1:9). From day to day, this matter is of great importance to
the Lord's work in us. The Bible says, “Be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). Therefore, we recognize the
need to be transformed in our souls by the inward working of the Spirit
of life. As we are transformed, an inward change takes place in our
very being. As our soul becomes permeated with the life of God, it is
purified, sanctified and transformed (James 1:21). It can thereby fulfill
its God-created function to express the Lord who dwells in our regenerated
spirit. This transformation of the soul is intimately related to our
readiness to meet the Lord at His coming. Those who would dwell in fellowship
with Him must know both positional salvation and subjective transformation.
This transformation requires the operation of the cross negatively and
the working of the Spirit of life positively.
TRANSFIGURATION:
Finally, at the culmination of the Christian experience in life, our
body will be transfigured and made like the Lord’s glorious body
(Phil. 3:21). In the Bible this is called the redemption of the body,
the fullness of sonship (Rom. 8:23). Therefore, the Christian life begins
with regeneration, passes through transformation, and consummates with
the transfiguration of the body. On all three levels we will become
like Christ in spirit, soul and body.
