This year, we hope the Lord will grant us in whatever we do — whether taking care of practical tasks with or for the saints — that we take care of Christ. When you try to serve the saints, serve the saints in that reigning sphere. Don’t look for repayment or approval — you serve. In the meantime, you don’t have to overdo anything either. Whatever the Lord asks you to do, you do. If you were not asked to do certain things, then you don’t do it. That is how you keep yourself within that boundary — hide yourself in Christ. Let people discover you in Christ. Don’t let people discover you. Even if you’re the most creative person, you need to hide yourself in Christ. Only Christ can redeem your shame and take away your sin and deal with your flesh—this is the only way we can be justified. We are justified by life so that we can reign in life.
If your heart and your condition are right, the Lord will “open the door that no one can shut [cf. Rev. 3:8].” The Lord will give you a key to unlock every sphere—and that power is not found in doing, obligation, or religion. I assure you, if you are able to let the reigning in your own sphere happen—His sovereign arrangement in your life today—you will see the new creation. You will be conceiving, hosting, brooding the nature of creation that you can then bring back to Christ, to offer to Him.
Time is proving many, many realities. What we do, perform, or say won’t change us. I hope that you can be changed not because you want to change or that you need to change. You cannot be forced to change—you cannot squeeze out something that you don’t have. I think we are changing today because the truth is saying so—the Lord is reading our hearts and the fruit will show. We just need to come to the reality of our life, to conceive, to labor and to offer something cultivated.
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 4/12/2020, not reviewed by the speaker.)