God’s Economy: recovered by Witness Lee, enjoyed by local churches

The Experience of God’s Economy

The Result of Enjoying Christ: Growth and Transformation

Our enjoyment of Christ is not aimless. Rather, it produces a specific result—growth in the divine life. At regeneration we receive the divine life, which is just Christ Himself with all of His marvelous virtues (1 John 5:12; John 14:6; Colossians 3:4). However, this life needs to grow in us. The more we enjoy Christ, the more we grow in the divine life.

First Peter 2:2 indicates that the believers should long for the guileless milk of the word in order that they may grow by it.
The apostle Paul said that the believers are God’s cultivated land, or farm, to grow Christ (1 Corinthians 3:9).
Paul told the Galatian believers that he travailed as in birth until Christ was formed, or fully developed, in them (Galatians 4:19).
Every Christian should aspire to be “full-grown in Christ” (Colossians 1:28).

The more we enjoy Christ, the more we grow in the divine life.

Transformation is not an improvement in outward behavior. Instead, it is an inward, metabolic change in life.

With growth comes transformation (2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 12:2). Transformation is not an improvement in outward behavior. Instead, it is an inward, metabolic change in life. Transformation can be likened to the physical process of petrification. When a tree falls into a river and is buried in silt, the minerals in the water gradually displace the original elements in the wood. The wood is thus gradually transformed into stone. Likewise, the more we eat and drink Christ, the more His divine life will displace our natural life, transforming us from clay into living stones for God’s building (1 Peter 2:5).

Regeneration | Breathing, Drinking, Eating
Our Human Spirit | Growth and Transformation