LIVING TO GOD
First, we are living to die; then we are dying to live. If we die to ourselves, we will surely live to God. Dying to self is dying in order to live to God. In the past I shared with the saints that to live to the Lord is a deeper experience than to live for the Lord. In order to live to God, we must first die to our self. Dying to self issues in living to God.
God is eternal, perfect, and complete as the source of life with all of its organic attributes (Rom. 16:26; Psa. 36:9a). He is rich with such organic attributes as love, kindness, and mercy. This eternal God is embodied in Christ (Col. 2:9). God Himself is the substance, Christ is the embodiment of this substance, and the Spirit is the realization of this substance. The Three are one. The Spirit imparts the eternal life of God to us and lives in our spirit as our life (2 Cor. 3:6b). God as the divine substance, Christ as the embodiment of this substance, the Spirit as the realization and consummation of this substance, and we as the receivers of the divine life are one. Now we and the Triune God are one.
Living to God is living to the processed Triune God as the consummated Spirit with all of His organic attributes, which will become our virtues to express Christ as our living in resurrection (Phil. 1:19b, 20b-21a; 4:8). Dying to self is the cross, and living to God is resurrection. Dying to self is the death of Christ, and living to God is the resurrection of Christ. The death of Christ leads to His resurrection. He died with the intention of being resurrected. His death was the entrance into His resurrection. Our dying to self is also the entrance which leads us into His resurrection. When we enter into His resurrection, we live to God. We live to God who is embodied in Christ and realized as the Spirit, who is the consummation of the Triune God to impart the Triune God as life to us and to live in us as our life to express Christ as our living in resurrection.
The consummated Spirit is the reality of dying to self and living to God. This experience is altogether wrapped up with the consummated Spirit. This is the reason that we have to pray. To pray is to contact God and to breathe in God. To pray is to take God into us as our air for our spiritual breathing. By prayer we breathe in the consummated Spirit. When the consummated Spirit is breathed into you, He is the reality of dying to self, and He is also the reality of living to God. This means that He is the reality of the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ.
(The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, Chapter 13, by Witness Lee)
