Christ Is Our Life

Introduction to The Supplied Life Devotional

The very nature of the Christian life requires that we live a life of being daily supplied. We begin this life by receiving, and we go on by receiving. The Christian life is a supplied life. It is a life that has already been lived out and preserved for us in the Holy Spirit. Now, that "lived out life" is received and supplied to us. The Christian life is not dependent on our own resources or any potential in ourselves. It has everything to do with the rich resources of Another life. Indeed, The Supplied Life is Christ Himself. He has been prepared by God for us and is now being supplied and furnished to us. The way God does this is by organically joining us as branches to Christ, the true Vine (John 15:1, 4-5). Thus, the supplied life comes by abiding as a branch in the Vine. Our daily need is to spend time with the Lord cultivating our life of abiding in Him so as to receive all the riches of His Person and work.
Our understanding of the Christian life needs to be renewed to see that our one unique need is to learn how to receive from the Lord. Paul's statement to the Corinthians sums up this spiritual principle: "What do you have that you did not receive?" This shows us that everything in the Christian life is supplied to us. It is for this reason that we need to spend time cultivating such a life. For Christ to be everything to us in our daily life, we need daily supply.
In our time with the Lord, a number of things may take place. To begin, we may need to cast all our preoccupations and anxieties upon Him (1 Pet. 5:7). Then we may spend time just feeding upon the Word by praying over a verse or part of a verse. We can take the very words of Scripture themselves and make them our prayer, as the apostle Paul tells us: "Take . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit." Following this we may sense the need to wait upon the Lord quietly, allowing the love-life of the Father and the Son to be cultivated within our hearts (Gal. 4:6; Rom. 5:5). We may find ourselves making melody in our heart to the Lord by singing a hymn or chorus. Paul and Silas blended their praying with singing: "Now, about midnight Paul and Silas while they were praying were also singing praises to God, mingling petition with songs of praise . . ." Our time with the Lord may include a blend of several ways of contacting Him. However we spend our time with the Lord and whatever we do during that time should usher us into God Himself. It is a time to have direct contact with Him in spirit, where nothing is mere routine. It is this contact that nourishes, supplies, and furnishes Christ to us as The Supplied Life.
The selections here have been taken from spoken messages that are now published in various books. May these daily selections be an added stimulus to feed upon the Lord Himself, in order that His eternal purpose would be fulfilled through a daily supply of His life.
— Bill FreemanNovember 1995