We reign in life not only in dying with Adam, living with Christ, and being overcoming in all circumstances but also in living a grafted life with Christ (Rom. 11:17-24).
We reign in life to live the life of the new creation in our being grafted with Christ. This means that we become a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17), walking by the Spirit according to the rule of being a new creation (Gal. 6:15-16; 5:25) that we may put on the new man (Eph. 2:15; 4:23-24) and experience the renewing of the new man (Col. 3:10).
We reign in life not only to live the life of the new creation but also to reign in eternity in our being grafted with Christ (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:4, 6; 22:5).
This word concerning our being grafted with Christ may be simple, yet what is involved includes the heaven, the earth, and many other things. Here it says that we have been grafted into Christ, yet this Christ is the God who dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16). Since we cannot touch Him, how can we be grafted into Him? This is why Christ needed to pass through various processes. The first process that He went through was His becoming flesh (John 1:14) to be the seed of David (Matt. 1:1), the branch of David (Zech. 3:8; Jer. 23:5; 33:15), that we might be grafted together with Him. As human beings we are branches, pieces of wood; in like manner, Christ came as the branch of David, as a piece of wood. He is exactly the same as we are; hence, He and we can be grafted together.
The process by which Christ became a piece of wood was not simple. And His becoming a piece of wood did not by itself mean that He could be grafted with us. A grafter knows that in order to have a successful grafting, both of the grafting parts need to be cut and die. First, the part to be grafted has to die, and second, the part to be grafted into has to die also. Only when both sides die can the grafting be accomplished. On Christ’s side, one day, as the branch of David, He died on the cross; however, although He died in the flesh, He was resurrected in the Spirit (1 Pet. 3:18b). Through death and resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). By becoming such a Spirit, Christ was ready for the grafting. On our side, as sinners, we need to repent and receive the Lord. Once we repent and receive Him, He as the life-giving Spirit enters into our spirit and puts the divine life in us. This life is a life of death and resurrection. Hence, He brings the key to death and resurrection into us who have believed in Him and have died and resurrected with Him. Thus, in this death and resurrection we are grafted together with Christ.
After we have been grafted together with Christ, we should no longer live by ourselves; rather, we should allow the pneumatic Christ to live in us. Furthermore, we should no longer live by our flesh or our natural being; rather, we should live by our mingled spirit, a spirit grafted with Christ. Thus, first, we are united with Him; this is a union. Then we are mingled with Him; this is a mingling. Eventually, we are incorporated with Him into an incorporation. This incorporation is the New Jerusalem, the great universal incorporation of the mingling of God and man for us to reign in eternity.
Brothers and sisters, I hope that you not only get these words into you but also repeat them like tape recorders. I often pray for you at my home. I have been a slave of the Lord speaking for Him for over sixty years. I am like a tape recorder speaking for the Lord again and again. I truly hope that when I speak, others will be tape recorders. This is my prayer. The Lord answered my prayer, saying, “With men it is impossible, but with Me everything is possible. With all these believers who are under your leading, I can make every one of them such a tape recorder.” I hope that all the brothers and sisters can enter into such a word, be constituted with such a word, and clearly speak such a word.