I.　We need to maintain our joy—2 Cor. 5:9; Heb. 11:5-6; Phil. 4:4:

A.　We must exercise our spirit to praise the Lord and rejoice always—Heb. 13:15; Psa. 119:164; Rom. 14:17-18; cf. 1 Cor. 12:13; Psa. 116:12-13.

B.　"I maintain my joy, so please do not worry. I hope you will also take care of yourself and be filled with joy in your heart" (from a letter written in prison by Watchman Nee to his sister-in-law on April 22, 1972)—cf. Lev. 1:9; 6:10.

II.　We need to experience Christ in His inward parts—Phil. 1:8:

A.　Christ's inner being, His inward affection, is absolutely focused on His believers, who are the members of His Body, the church—Eph. 5:25, 30.

B.　We need to be one with Christ in His inward parts, His inward affection, toward the church with all the believers—2 Cor. 12:15; Phil. 2:19-21.

III.　We need to take Christ as our living for His expression by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ—Phil. 1:19-21, 24-25:

A.　Christ lived in Paul to be his life, and Paul lived Christ for Christ to be his living—Gal. 2:20; 6:17.

B.　The compound Spirit is for the Body and for God's priestly service—Psa. 133.

IV.　We need to take the mind of Christ as our mind—Phil. 2:5:

A.　The way to set our mind on the spirit is to set our mind on God's Word—1 Cor. 2:16; Eph. 4:23; Rom. 8:6; Psa. 119:105, 130.

B.　The more we allow the light of the Scriptures to penetrate our mind, the more the thinking of Christ as the Slave-Savior will be our thinking, and we will have the mind of Christ for the Body of Christ—Rom. 12:2-3; Mark 10:45.

V.　We need to experience Christ as the inner operating God to hold Him forth as the word of life—Phil. 2:12-16:

A.　God operates in us both the inner willing and the outer working for His good pleasure.

B.　To hold forth Christ as the word of life is to apply, present, and offer Him to others by living Him out—Acts 5:20; Matt. 5:16.

VI.　We need to aspire to gain Christ, be found in Him, and know Him subjectively—Phil. 3:7-10:

A.　We should be one with Paul to count all things as refuse that we may gain, win, the Christ whom we have received.

B.　Paul aspired to have his whole being immersed in and saturated with Christ that all who observed him might find him fully in Christ.

VII.　We need to take Christ as our lived-out righteousness—Phil. 3:9:

A.　Paul wanted to live not in his own righteousness but in the righteousness of God, and to be found in such a transcendent condition, expressing God by living Christ, not by keeping the law.

B.　The overcomers who live out Christ as their righteousness in this age will become His bride at His marriage dinner, and they will be "clothed in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints"—Rev. 19:8; 3:18.

VIII.　We need to take Christ as our goal—Phil. 3:13-14:

A.　We must continually exercise to forget the things which are behind and stretch forward day by day to gain more of the vast unexplored territory of the Christ before us.

B.　We must pursue toward our goal—the fullest enjoyment and gaining of Christ.

IX.　We need to experience Christ as our virtues—Phil. 4:8:

A.　Christ is true, dignified, righteous, pure, lovely, and well spoken of; He is the reality of these praiseworthy virtues.

B.　When we pursue Him to experience Him as our content, He will become the reality of our virtues—2 Cor. 2:15; 3:3.

X.　We need to learn Christ as our secret—Phil. 4:11-12:

A.　We must learn the secret of how to take Christ as life, how to live Christ, how to magnify Christ, and how to gain Christ in any environment and in any matter—cf. S. S. 4:16.

B.　We need to tell the Lord, talk to the Lord, to enjoy Christ as our secret of sufficiency—Phil. 4:6-7.

XI.　We need to take Christ as our power—Phil. 4:13:

A.　On the one hand, we are able to do all things in Christ who empowers us; on the other hand, we can do nothing apart from Him—John 15:5.

B.　As the dynamo within us, Christ empowers us to live Him, magnify Him, and press on toward Him as the goal—1 Cor. 1:24; Eph. 1:19-23.

XII.　We need to take Christ as our expectation—Phil. 3:20-21:

A.　The evil slave says in his heart that his master delays his coming—Matt. 24:45-51.

B.　The ones who love Christ's appearing will be rewarded with Him as the crown of righteousness and as the morning star—2 Tim. 4:8; Rev. 2:28.