THE FOURTH PART: THE PATHWAY OF THE LORD’S RECOVERY
The Course of the Church
Message Fourteen—The Truths Recovered by the Ministry of Brother Witness Lee (3)
Scripture Reading: Col. 3:10-11; Gen. 1:26; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:8-10; John. 3:34; Acts. 5:42; 8:4; 2 Tim. 4:2; Rev. 21:2, 9-10; 22:17a
I. Concerning the church:
A. The church is the new man:
1. God’s will is to have the church as the new man；God’s intention is to have a corporate man to express Him and to represent Him—Col. 3:10-11; Gen. 1:26.
2. The church as the new man is the corporate man in God’s intention—Eph. 2:15; 4:24; 6:10-20:
a. The church, the Body of Christ, is the one new man to accomplish God’s eternal purpose—2:15; 4:24; 3:9.
b. As the new man, the church needs Christ as its person—Col. 1:18; 3:4; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:17a.
3. For the practical existence and living of the one new man, we all need to take Christ as our person—v. 17a; Gal. 2:20:
a. The church is the one new man, and in this one new man there is only one person—Christ—Col. 3:10-11.
b. For the one new man, the person of the old man must be put away, and we must live by our new person—Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 4:22, 24; 3:17a.
B. The nullification of regulations:
1. On the cross Christ created the new man in Himself by abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, the middle wall of partition—Eph. 2:14-15a:
2. On the cross Christ abolished all the regulations regarding living and worship, regulations that have divided the nations—v. 15; Col. 2:14.
3. Christ’s death was not only for our salvation, liberation, sanctification, and victory but also to abolish the ordinances in order to create the church as the one new man.
4. From the time of Babel, mankind has been divided by ordinances concerning the ways of living and worship; in God’s economy in the church life, we must overcome Babel—Gen. 11:1-9:
5. Christ should be our only source; we should not allow anything of our background, culture, or nationality to be our source—cf. Col. 3:10-11.
6. The worldly people regard cultural differences as a mark of prestige, but in Christ we have lost this prestige:
7. The more we are in the mingled spirit, in the mingling of the divine Spirit with the human spirit, the more we shall be set free from ordinances— Eph. 2:18, 22:
C. The saints enjoy the riches of Christ thus becoming Christ’s fullness, being His expression:
1. The church as the Body of Christ is the fullness of Christ, the expression of Christ, the overflow of Christ; and the immeasurable and overflowing riches of Christ are the content of the church as the fullness of the all-filling Christ— 1:22-23; 4:8-10; John 3:34.
2. Just as Christ is the overflow of God, the expression and fullness of God, so the church is the overflow of Christ, the expression and fullness of Christ— 1:16; 4:10, 14; 7:38-39; cf. Eph. 5:18-20.
3. We need to be constituted with the riches of Christ by enjoying these riches until we become the fullness of Christ, the expression and overflow of the riches of Christ; the contents of the fullness of Christ revealed in the writings of John are grace, reality, life, resurrection, light, the way, food, drink, satisfaction, freedom, glory, and love—John 1:16, 14; 11:25; 8:12; 14:6; 6:48, 57; 4:13-14; 7:37-39a; 8:32, 36; 17:22; 21:15-17; 1 John 4:8.
4. The fullness of God is the issue of our enjoyment of the unsearchably rich Christ as the embodiment of God dispensed into our being; through His indwelling, Christ imparts the riches of all that God is into our being to make us the fullness of God, the corporate expression of God; actually, the fullness of Christ in Ephesians 1:23 is the very fullness of God in 3:19.
D. The church as the Body of Christ is the organism of the Triune God:
1. The church as the Body of Christ is the organism of the Triune God, and the building up of the church is by our being mingled with God to grow with the growth of God and to be transformed by God to minister God for us to be perfected into one for the building of God—Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4, 16; Lev. 2:4-5; Col. 2:19; Acts 6:4; John 17:23; cf. Eph. 4:11-13:
2. Real building is the growth in life (1 Cor. 3:6-12a; Eph. 2:21-22), real building is the transformation in life (Rom. 12:2), and real building is the oneness of the Body, the oneness in the Triune God (Eph. 4:4-6, 12-13; John 17:21, 23).
3. The mingling of God with man and the oneness of the Body are the central matters in the Bible and in our Christian life; the oneness is like a thermometer—it can tell us how much we are in the mingling; the result of being mingled with God is the oneness of the Body—1 Cor. 6:17; 12:13, and footnote 1.
4. The mingling of God and man causes the growth and transformation in life, and this mingling takes place by our eating, drinking, digesting, and assimilating Christ as our spiritual food and drink—John 6:57, 63; 1 Cor. 10:3-4.
5. The more we enjoy Christ by eating and drinking Him, the more we experience the inner spiritual metabolism of transformation, which is both the growth and the building up of the church—Jer. 15:16; John 4:10, 14; Rom. 12:2; Matt. 16:18.
6. God’s economy is to work Himself into us so that we may experience the meta-bolic process of spiritual digestion and assimilation for our transformation by giving Him the thoroughfare in our whole being for God’s building—Eph. 3:16-19; Matt. 5:3, 8; Isa. 66:1-2; Psa. 51:10-12.
7. The organic building up of the church through the process of spiritual metabolism is actually what Jehovah prophesied to David in 2 Samuel 7:12-14a; it is only through this process that something human—the human seed—can become divine—the sons of God.
E. The church as the bride of Christ is His expansion and multiplication:
1. According to type, the position of the church before God is that of a counterpart; in the entire Bible God likens Himself to a man, and He likens the totality of His created and redeemed people to a woman as His counterpart—Isa. 54:5; John 3:29; Rev. 19:7-9; 21:2, 9-10.
2. As the Body of Christ, the church receives His life for His expression; as the counterpart of Christ, the church receives His love for the satisfaction of His heart’s desire—Eph. 1:22-23; 5:30; John 3:15-16, 29.
3. The church as the counterpart of Christ implies satisfaction and rest in love— Eph. 5:25; Zeph. 3:17.
4. When God said that it was not good for man to be alone, He was indicating that God Himself, although absolutely and eternally perfect, was incomplete and that it was not good for Him to be alone—Gen. 2:18.
5. God has been longing to find a counterpart for Christ, His Son; this counterpart is the church, the bride of Christ to match Christ—Matt. 22:2.
6. As Eve was Adam’s multiplication, increase, fullness, and expression, the church as the counterpart of Christ is Christ’s multiplication, increase, fullness, and expression—v. 24; 3:3-6, 15-16, 29-30; Eph. 1:23; 3:21.
7. Ultimately, Eve as the counterpart of Adam typifies the New Jerusalem, the universal bride, constituted with the saints throughout the generations, who have been chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified by God, to be the bride of Christ in the millennium and the wife of the Lamb for His satisfaction and rest in love for eternity—Rev. 21:2, 9-10.
F. The organic building of the church:
1. To build up the Body of Christ, the church of God, is to minister Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, essentially to people for their growth into Christ—Eph. 4:15-16; 1 Cor. 3:2a, 6, 12a; 2 Cor. 3:3, 6, 8.
2. In our work and service of administrating the church, our central concern, our spirit and attitude, should be to work Christ into the believers so that Christ would increase in them—Eph. 3:16-21; Gal. 1:15-16a; 2:20; 4:19.
3. The increase of the essence of Christ within the saints of a local church is the growth of this local church, and this is also the organic building up of this local church for the building up of the Body of Christ—Eph. 2:21-22; 4:15-16.
4. Love is the most excellent way for God’s fellow workers to live and do everything in the church life for the organic building up of the church—1 Cor. 8:1; 12:31:
a. God is love; we love because He loves us first—1 John 4:8, 19.
b. Love is not jealous; it is not provoked and does not take account of evil; it covers all things; it endures all things; it never falls away; it is also the greatest—1 Cor. 13:4-8, 13.
5. Prophesying is the excellent gift given to God’s fellow workers that they may build up the church organically by dispensing the riches of Christ into others—Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 14:4b, 12, 26, 31.
6. We need to help the saints to arrive at the goal of the practice of the church life according to the God-ordained way—prophesying in the district meetings for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ—1 Cor. 14:1, 3-5,12, 31.
G. The church is the result of the dispensing of the processed divine Trinity and the transmission and supply of the surpassing Christ:
1. The economy of God (His household administration according to His heart’s desire) revealed in the book of Ephesians is accomplished by the exercise of our mingled spirit for the dispensing of the Triune God into us unto the building up of the church as the Body of Christ—1 Tim. 1:3-6; Eph. 1:5; 3:8-10; 1:10; 3:2, 8; cf. 1 Tim. 3:9; Col. 2:2; Eph. 3:4; 5:32.
2. Ephesians 1 reveals that the Body of Christ is the issue of the dispensing of the processed Trinity and the transmitting of the transcending Christ.
3. The Father’s dispensing in His choosing and predestinating issues in His many sons as His house in sanctification—vv. 3-6.
4. The Son’s dispensing in His redeeming and saving issues in the believers as God’s inheritance in His transformation—vv. 7-12.
5. The Spirit’s dispensing in His sealing and pledging issues in God as the believers’ inheritance unto their perfection—vv. 13-14.
6. The transcending Christ’s transmitting in His rising and ascending issues in His Body as His expression unto the believers’ consummation—vv. 19-23.
H. The local church is the procedure; the Body of Christ is the goal:
1. Anyone who wants to live in the Body in a practical way must be in the local churches—4:16; 2:21-22; 1 Cor. 12:27; 1:2.
2. The local church is a procedure and not the goal; the goal of a local church is the building up of the Body of Christ—Matt. 16:18; 18:17.
3. The practice of the God-ordained way in the church life delivers the believers from hierarchy, the papal system, and the clergy-laity system for the building up of the Body of Christ—Rev. 2:6, 15; Rom. 12:4-6.
4. As members of the Body, we need to have the consciousness of the Body and have a feeling for the Body—1 Cor. 12:25-26; Rom. 12:15; Phil. 1:8.
5. The blending of all the local churches should be as much as practicality allows, without boundaries of states or nations—1 Cor. 12:23-27.
6. One of the tests of a genuine local church is that it should have fellowship with all the other local churches—Acts 2:42; 1 John 1:3.
II. Concerning the practice of the church:
A. All prophesying:
1. To prophesy is to speak for the Lord, speak forth the Lord, and speak the Lord into others, ministering (dispensing) the Lord to others—1 Cor. 14:3-5.
2. All the believers have the capacity to prophesy; this capacity is in the divine life, which the believers possess and enjoy and which needs to increase within them so that this capacity may be developed—v. 31; John 3:15.
3. When the saints prophesy in the district meetings, supplying Christ to others, the riches in the Body of Christ are expressed—Eph. 3:8; 4:12, 16.
4. The constituting elements of prophesying:
a. Through the knowledge of the holy Word of God, gaining a proper knowledge concerning God and matters of God—the human element of learning.
b. Having the instant inspiration of the Spirit—the divine element of inspiration.
c. Having a clear vision concerning God’s interest and economy, concerning the church as the Body of Christ, concerning the local churches, concerning the world, concerning the individual saints, and even concerning ourselves—the view through the enlightening of the divine light.
d. To prophesy is to speak what we have seen with the living words of this life under the inspiration of the Spirit and with His enlightenment—Acts 5:20; 6:4.
5. Living a prophesying life:
a. Being revived every morning and living an overcoming life every day—Prov. 4:18; Lam. 3:22-24; Psa. 119:147-148.
b. Loving the Lord; having the closest and most intimate fellowship with Him moment by moment—1 Cor. 2:9-10; 1 John 1:6.
c. Walking according to the mingled spirit—Rom. 8:4.
d. Storing up the experience of Christ—Phil. 3:8-10, 12-14.
e. Holding a rich store of the word of the Lord—Col. 3:16; John 15:7; 1 John 2:14.
f. In season and out of season, speaking Christ to different kinds of people every day—Acts 5:42; 8:4; 2 Tim. 4:2.
B. The priesthood of the Gospel in New Testament:
1. “That I might be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, a laboring priest of the gospel of God, in order that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, having been sanctified in the Holy Spirit” —Rom. 15:16:
a. Paul’s being a priest of the gospel of God to minister Christ to the Gentiles was a priestly service to God, and the Gentiles whom he gained through his gospel preaching were an offering presented to God.
b. By this priestly service many Gentiles, who were unclean and defiled, were sanctified in the Holy Spirit and became such an offering, acceptable to God; they were set apart from things common and were saturated with God’s nature and element, and were thus sanctified both positionally and dispositionally.
c. Such a sanctification is in the Holy Spirit; this means that, based on Christ’s redemption, the Holy Spirit renews, transforms, and separates unto holiness those who have been regenerated by believing into Christ.
2. The spiritual sacrifices that the believers offer in the New Testament age are: (1) Christ as the reality of all the sacrifices of the Old Testament types, such as the burnt offering, meal offering, peace offering, sin offering, and trespass offering (Lev. 1-5); (2) the sinners saved by our gospel preaching, offered as members of Christ (Rom. 15:16); and (3) our body, our praises, and the things that we do for God (12:1; Heb. 13:15-16; Phil. 4:18).
C. Begetting, nourishing, teaching, building:
1. God’s eternal purpose is to have the Body of Christ, and the steps to arrive at this purpose are the begetting through the preaching of the gospel, our nourishing through the home meetings, our teaching through the small group meetings, and our building up through the church meetings.
2. To preach the gospel is to practice the New Testament priesthood for the saving of sinners that they may become the members of the Body of Christ；we need to sow Christ into people, not just occasionally, but regularly according to a schedule; we need to make a schedule, giving the Lord at least three hours once a week for contacting sinners—Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Mark 4:3.
3. After someone gets saved through us, we should consider that he is our spiritual child; we need to feed the young believers as a nursing mother that they may grow in the spiritual life—John 21:15; 1 Thes. 2:7; 1 Pet. 2:2.
4. Our group meetings also need to be carried out in an organic way；the group meetings are for mutual fellowship, mutual intercession, mutual care, mutual shepherding, mutual asking of questions, and mutual answering for teaching—Heb. 10:25.
5. To teach the saints to prophesy, that is, to speak for the Lord and to speak forth the Lord, in the church meetings for the building up of the church; if we want to be prophets, we must have a foundation in God’s word; moreover, our person must be right—1 Cor. 14:1, 3-5, 12, 23-26, 31, 39a.
D. The vital groups:
1. The practice of the vital group is to be recovered to the meetings of early Christians in homes recorded in Acts; this kind of practice which is fitting to God’s New Testament economy became a continual and general practice in the churches—cf. Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Philem. 2.
2. The vital groups cannot be formed by organization; it could come into being only by a saint who is desperate and absolute for the increase of the Lord’s recovery:
a. Such vital persons are the overcomers, overcoming the deadness of Sardis, overcoming the lukewarmness of Laodicea, and overcoming aging and barrenness—Rev. 3:1-2, 14-16; John 15:2, 5.
b. Such vital persons are the believers in Christ, the disciples of Christ, the witnesses of Christ, the members of Christ, the brothers of Christ, and the prophets of God—John 3:14-16; Matt. 5:1; Acts 1:8; Rom. 12:5; 8:29; 1 Cor. 14:1, 31.
3. Such a desperate saint would, spontaneously by the Lord’s leading, find vital companions organically to have a vital group.
a. Without a companion, there is no way for us to start the vital group; we need to fellowship with our companion through desperate prayers.
b. The gathering of the early Christians in Acts took place from house to house; experientially speaking, if there is a vital family among the vital companions, the practice of the vital group will be more solid and continuous—Acts 2:46-47; 5:42.
E. The Blending of the saints brings in the reality of the body of Christ:
1. We need to imitate the apostle to bring the local churches into the fellowship of the Body of Christ (Rom. 14:3; 15:7-9, 25-33), and follow the apostle’s footsteps to bring all the saints into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ (ch. 16):
a. The last three chapters of Romans show us the blending and fellowship of the Body life brought forth through the apostle’s receiving the believers according to God and Christ in order to demonstrate, show forth, and maintain the oneness of the Body of Christ—14:3; 15:7.
b. We need to follow the apostle’s excellent pattern of bringing all the saints into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ through his recommendations and greetings, which show both the mutual concern among the saints and the mutual fellowship among the churches—16:1-16, 20-25.
c. Among us we should have the blending of all the individual members of the Body of Christ, the blending of all the churches in certain districts, the blending of all the co-workers, and the blending of all the elders—1 Cor. 12:24.
d. We must have the reality of the fellowship and blending of the Body of Christ; otherwise, regardless of how much we pursue and how simple and humble we are, sooner or later there will be problems, even divisions, among us.
2. “The purpose of the blending is to usher us all into the reality of the Body of Christ. I treasure the local churches, as you do. But I treasure the local churches because of a purpose. The local churches are the procedure to bring me into the Body of Christ. The churches are the Body, but the churches may not have the reality of the Body of Christ. Thus, we need to be in the local churches so that we can be ushered or brought, into the reality of the Body of Christ” (The Practical Points concerning Blending, p. 10).
III. Concerning the New Jerusalem:
A. The ultimate consummation of the divine revelation of the Bible:
1. The New Jerusalem is the conclusion of the entire divine revelation and the central and ultimate consummated significance of the entire divine revelation—Rev. 21:2, 9-10.
2. The New Jerusalem is not a physical city but an organic constitution constituted with the redeeming processed and consummated Triune God with the redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite man as an organism of the consummated Triune God for His eternal enlargement and expression through the glorified tripartite man.
3. The New Jerusalem is a sign—the greatest and ultimate sign in the Scriptures (Rev. 1:1)—of the aggregate of God’s work of the new creation in all the dispensations within the old creation.
4. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate goal of God’s economy; God has only one ultimate goal—the New Jerusalem, God’s enlargement, expansion, and expression.
B. The consummation of the mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified elect—a universal pair eternally.
1. The subject of the Bible is a divine romance of a universal couple; the male is God Himself, and the female is God’s chosen and redeemed people—Gen. 2:21-24; Isa. 54:5; Jer. 2:2; 3:1, 14; 31:32; Ezek. 16:8; 23:5; Hosea 2:7, 19; Matt. 9:15; John 3:29; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:25-32; Rev. 19:7.
2. According to its humanity the New Jerusalem is the human wife (with the divine life and nature) of the Lamb, and according to its divinity the New Jerusalem is the divine Husband (the redeeming God in His consummated embodiment, Christ, with His human life and nature) of God’s redeemed elect.
3. Revelation 22:17 indicates that Christ and the New Jerusalem as His wife will be a universal couple for eternity:
a. The Spirit, who is the totality of the processed and consummated Triune God, becomes one with the believers, who are now fully matured to be the bride—21:2, 9-10.
b. The consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God and the consummation of God’s regenerated, transformed, and glorified people will be a universal couple expressing the Triune God for eternity—vv. 11, 23.
C. The universal incorporation of the union and mingling of divinity and humanity:
1. The New Jerusalem is the consummate incorporation of God and man—the processed and consummated Triune God incorporated into an incorporation with His redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified elect.
2. God’s intention is that all the believers in Christ would be incorporated into Himself as an incorporation to be an enlarged, divine and human incorporation.
3. The Bible unveils to us that God’s economy is to have God and man incorporated into an incorporation, which is first the Body of Christ and then the New Jerusalem.
4. The union, mingling, and incorporation of the processed and consummated Triune God with the regenerated believers consummates as the New Jerusalem.
5. In the beginning of the Bible there is the single God, and at the end there is a great, corporate God, the New Jerusalem, a corporate God-man—the enlarged, universal, divine-human incorporation of the processed and consummated Triune God with the regenerated, transformed, and glorified believers—Gen.1:1; Rev. 21:3, 22; 22:17a.
6. “The processed and consummated Triune God, according to the good pleasure of His desire and for the highest intention in His economy, is building Himself into His chosen people and His chosen people into Himself, that He may have a constitution in Christ as a mingling of divinity with humanity to be His organism and the Body of Christ, as His eternal expression and the mutual abode for the redeeming God and the redeemed man. The ultimate consummation of this miraculous structure of treasure will be the New Jerusalem for eternity”—inscription on Witness Lee’s tomb.
Ministry Excerpts:
The book of Ephesians reveals that the church is not only the Body, but also the new man. As the new man, the church must have Christ both as the life and as the person. Only in recent years has the aspect of the church as the new man been recovered. We thank the Lord that He has shown us clearly through the book of Ephesians that the church is the new man.
During the past two centuries, many Christians have seen that the church is the Body of Christ. In particular, the Brethren speak of this aspect of the church. Furthermore, since the end of World War II, many in this country have begun to talk about the Body. Today it is common to hear terms such as Body ministry. However, although the church is the Body of Christ, this is not the highest revelation of the church. We must go on to see the church as the new man.
ABOLISHING THE ORDINANCES
FOR THE CREATION OF THE NEW MAN
Ephesians 2:15 says that Christ abolished in His flesh the law of commandments in ordinances in order to create the Jews and the Gentiles into one new man. Through His death on the cross, not only did Christ deal with sin, the old man, the flesh, the world, and the Devil; He also dealt with the law of the commandments in ordinances. Many good messages have been given on how the cross of Christ has dealt with sin, the old man, the flesh, the world, and the Devil. But have you ever heard that on the cross Christ abolished the law of commandments in ordinances? Christ did this not for salvation, sanctification, or even victory. He abolished the ordinances in order to create the new man. We freely admit that sin, the old man, the flesh, the world, and the Devil all needed the dealing of the cross, and we praise the Lord that all these negative things have been crucified. But we must go on to see the crucial importance of Christ’s abolishing the law of the commandments in ordinances in order to create us into one new man.
The fact that the Jews and the Gentiles have been created into one new man indicates that the new man is an entity that is corporate and universal. There are many believers, but there is just one new man. All the believers are part of this one corporate and universal new man. The highest revelation of the church given in the book of Ephesians is that of the new man.
To be regenerated is not only to be saved; it is also to be created anew. On the cross Christ abolished the ordinances so that a re-creation could take place. The Jews and the Gentiles were separated by ordinances. But the two peoples have been created in Christ with the divine essence into one new entity, the corporate new man.
Ordinances are the various forms or ways of living and worship. For example, the Jews have their particular way of worshipping God. Based upon this way of worship, they have ordinances that govern their daily living. Other peoples also have their own ways of living and worship. This is true among the denominations in today’s Christianity. The Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, and Episcopalians all have different ways of worship. How widespread is this matter of ordinances, and how all-pervading!
God’s intention is not to have a certain kind of worship. His desire is to have the one new man. However, in his subtlety, Satan, the enemy of God, uses ordinances to damage the new man and to keep believers from realizing the new man in a practical way. Satan’s goal is not to keep Christians from heaven or from pursuing spirituality; it is to keep them from seeing and experiencing the church as the one new man.
We thank the Lord that He has made us very clear regarding the ground of the church. But it is not adequate simply to know the church ground. Although the ground of the church is necessary, God’s desire is not merely to have the church ground. He desires to have the church as the new man. Ordinances are the main obstacles to the fulfillment of this desire of God. If we would have the church in the aspect of the new man, we need to lay aside our ways of living. On the cross, Christ abolished all the ordinances. However, He did so not merely for the purpose of eliminating ordinances; He abolished the ordinances in order to create the one new man.
In His wisdom God has chosen us out of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation (Rev. 5:9). In the local churches today there are believers from many races and nationalities. Surely the greatest test of whether or not we take Christ as our life and as our person is related to ordinances. For example, it is difficult for the Chinese who have moved to this country from the Far East to realize the church as the new man because it is not easy to set aside their Chinese way of living. When certain Chinese brothers and sisters were in the Far East, they were more useful in the church life than they are now because now they hold on to their Chinese ordinances. To be fair, we need to point out that all of us have the problem of holding on to our ordinances. In the new man there is no room for Jew, Greek, barbarian, Scythian, circumcision or uncircumcision. This means that in the church as the new man there can be no Chinese, American, British, German, or any other nationality. There is room only for Christ. It is crucial for us all to see that more than nineteen hundred years ago all our ordinances were abolished by Christ on the cross. (Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 78)
THE THREEFOLD DISPENSING OF THE DIVINE TRINITY
TO PRODUCE THE MATERIALS AND THE UNIQUE TRANSMISSION OF THE TRANSCENDING CHRIST
TO FORM THESE MATERIALS INTO THE CHURCH
Ephesians 1 is on the church as the issue of two matters. The first matter is the threefold dispensing of the Divine Trinity. This matter is deep and fine, but it is not very hard for us to get into it. The second matter is the onefold unique transmission of the transcending Christ. This matter is very difficult to see. This is why after the mentioning of the first matter, Paul did not go on directly to the second matter. Instead, he prayed. He realized that we are short of the capacity to understand and to see, because the transmitting of the transcending Christ is so high, far above all.
In order for the church to come into existence, two steps are necessary. First, the materials must be produced, and then these materials need to be formed into a constitution. The transmitting of the transcending Christ is not to produce the church but to form the church. We may use the formation of a nation as an illustration of this. First, the nation needs the people. Over three hundred years ago, many people immigrated to the United States. But these people were not yet a nation. For people to immigrate here was somewhat hard, but for these immigrated people to be formed into a nation was very hard. This needs ability.
Throughout the history of the church, many lovers of the Lord stopped at the first matter, at the producing of the saints, the constituents, but they would not care for the second matter, the constitution and the formation of the church. Today it is the same. Many spiritual giants would not care for the church. They say that if you care for the church, you will have trouble. This is really true. If you only bring people to Christ, everybody will welcome you and highly appraise you. But when you do something to follow the transcending Christ to form the church through His transmitting, you will have trouble.
In the four Gospels, through three and a half years, Christ gathered a group of people. He touched many thousands of people, even feeding five thousand at one time. But eventually He gained only one hundred twenty (Acts 1:15). These one hundred twenty were the produce of the Father’s choosing, of the Son’s redeeming, and of the Spirit’s sealing. In the book of Acts, they were ready to be something, but even they themselves did not know what to be. They waited for seven weeks, from the day of resurrection to the day of Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost, the transcending Christ transmitted His transcending power to these one hundred twenty.
On the day of Pentecost, Peter became different from the way he had his being in the four Gospels. In Matthew 16, he spoke something very high (v. 16), but he spoke mostly in a nonsensical way in the Gospels (Matt. 16:22-23; 17:4-5, 24-27; John 13:6-10). But in Acts, Peter became right-side up. On the day of Pentecost, the transcending Christ transmitted His transcending power into the one hundred twenty and they became the church. So in Acts 2 it was not Peter standing alone to speak; it was Peter standing with the eleven (v. 14). The eleven spoke with him. That indicated it was not one person speaking but the church speaking, so the power was there.
Throughout the history of the church and even today, not many would care for the church. Christ said that He would come quickly, but He does not come quickly according to the way that many Christians think. Without the church being built up, how could Christ come back? This is why seventy years ago, the Lord did something with Brother Nee to take care of the church. This is what is called “the recovery.” The taking care of the church had been lost and missed for centuries. But on this earth a young man named Watchman Nee was raised up by the transcending Christ. When he stood up in China, all things rose up against him. Today it is the same. We are still encountering Hades, the earth, the air, and the evil one, who would even go to the third heaven.
All of us need to see this. This is why we need Paul’s prayer for the Father to give us a spirit of wisdom with the capacity to understand, to comprehend, and a spirit of revelation with the view. In order to have the view, we need the light. The eyes of our heart need to be enlightened that we may see three things: God’s calling, God’s inheritance, and God’s power. We need to see not only the power but also the surpassing greatness of the power that operated in Christ to raise Him from Hades through the earth, through the air, and through the third heaven to the top of the universe, in order that He might transmit there all that He has obtained and attained to His chosen, redeemed, transformed, prepared people to form them into the church. (Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ, msg. 4)
THE GOD-ORDAINED WAY
The Organic Way of Life
Now we want to fellowship concerning the God-ordained way, the fifth emphasis in the Lord’s recovery. Today in the Lord’s recovery we are taking a new way, which is God-ordained. The God-ordained way to build up the Body of Christ is purely a matter of life. According to the record of Genesis 1, God created the plant life, the animal life, and the human life. Eventually, in Genesis 2 the highest life is revealed, and that life is God Himself as the tree of life (v. 9).
Genesis 1 is a record of life. It shows how the organic God of life created the earth in an organic way by producing life. First, He created the plant life, the lowest life. After creating the plant life, God created the animal life. This earth is beautiful in life, in the plant life and in the animal life. Last, God created man and told man to replenish the earth. Today the earth has been replenished by the Adamic race. That one man, Adam, eventually became a race of billions. Man’s replenishing of the earth took place in a gradual way. This is the organic way of life.
The artificial way is a quick way. Artificial things can be made quickly, but a child cannot be produced overnight. After a child is conceived, it takes nine months for it to be born. This is God’s way of life. In the Lord’s recovery we should not do anything in an artificial way by our art. We have to do everything in the organic way.
The Lord Jesus, of course, did many things in His ministry. He performed miracles and taught, but whatever He did was a kind of sowing. Sowing is organic. The Lord said that the kingdom of God was like a man who casts seed on the earth (Mark 4:26-29). After the seed is sown, it grows in a spontaneous way. Whatever the Lord did was not by His art. Whatever He did was a sowing. Mark 4 reveals that He actually sowed Himself. Eventually, Christ as the seed became a kingdom. Therefore, the kingdom is Christ. Christ sowed Himself as the seed, and this seed grows up to be the kingdom. This kingdom is still growing. When Christ comes back, He will become a great mountain (Dan. 2:35, 44). This great mountain is the eternal kingdom, which is Christ. Christ is the kingdom today, and Christ will be the enlarged, eternal kingdom in the next age. Christ has sown Himself into mankind so that He can grow up into the eternal kingdom.
The new way, the God-ordained way, is not to do anything by art, but to sow Christ as the seed organically. The new way is organic. The old way is artificial. The old way of gospel preaching is not organic. There are two ways to have flowers. One way is by sowing a seed; then the seed grows. It takes time for the seed to blossom into a flower. Another way to have flowers is by art. Many beautiful artificial flowers can be made within a short period of time. These artificial flowers may seem very genuine. Even some genuine flowers may not look as nice as the artificial flowers do. Today many Christians preach the gospel to sinners mostly by art with no life. Artificial things cannot produce anything. However, if we sow a seed and one flower grows up, many more seeds will fall into the ground. Then the next year there may be thirty more flowers. Organic things produce life.
We must take the organic way in our preaching of the gospel. When we go to people, we do not need to talk much. We need to exercise our spirit. Before going to contact people, we should have a time of prayer to call on the Lord until we are filled with the Spirit essentially within and economically without. When we are full of the Spirit, we can sow Christ as the seed into others with just a few words spoken by the Spirit. Because people have been enlivened by us, they will have the desire to enliven others. They will become a producing and begetting factor.
The old way of preaching the gospel is to make people Christians by our art. Then they become something artificial. We should not preach the gospel by art, but by the Spirit. Then we do not “make” a Christian, but we produce a Christian; we beget a spiritual child. They have the same life, the same Spirit, as we do, and they will go to beget others. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:15 that we may have a thousand teachers but not many fathers. Paul told the Corinthians that he had begotten them in Christ and by Christ. Begetting others organically in Christ and by Christ is what we have to learn to do. The God-ordained way is the organic way of life.
For the Believers to Preach the Gospel, to Serve and Worship God, to Meet, and to Build Up the Church, God Has Ordained in His Holy Word the Following Items as the Proper Way:
Practicing the New Testament Priesthood for the Saving of Sinners That They May Become the Members of the Body of Christ
To preach the gospel is to practice the New Testament priesthood for the saving of sinners that they may become the members of the Body of Christ (Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9). We all are priests, but we may not be clear that the New Testament priesthood is to offer sinners to God. Without preaching the gospel, we could not gain sinners, and we would have no sacrifices to offer to God. Sinners are redeemed by receiving our preaching. When they are redeemed, they become acceptable sacrifices to God. In the Old Testament, all the priests offered sacrifices to God, and all those sacrifices typify Christ. Today in the New Testament, we offer the members of Christ to God. By receiving our preaching, the sinners become members of Christ, whom we offer as sacrifices to God.
If a person has been saved for a long time without having brought one person to the Lord, this is poor. This means that he is a priest without any sacrifices offered to God. Right after being saved, we should realize that we are New Testament priests who need to offer New Testament sacrifices to God. The New Testament sacrifices are the saved, redeemed sinners, who have become the members of Christ. Christ wants to have more members that He may be increased and enlarged. We need to preach the gospel in an organic way as the priests of the gospel.
The practice of traditional Christianity is not organic. Christianity teaches people to be so-called professional teachers and preachers. Many of them preach by their art. This is similar to making artificial flowers. Many false Christians can be produced by an artificial work. We should not do an artificial work. We should not go to serve the Lord with our art. Instead, we should go with the living Christ, the organic Christ, the Christ who is the Spirit. When we are filled with Christ as the Spirit, anyone who touches us will be enlivened because we will sow Christ into them.
To sow Christ into others needs much prayer. Even when we do pray, however, we may pray in an inadequate way. In order to preach the gospel effectively, we should take down the names of our relatives, cousins, in-laws, and acquaintances. We may have twenty-five cousins and in-laws. We should not pray in a general way for them by saying, “Lord, save my cousins and my in-laws.” The Lord needs to hear a definite name from us. We should pray, “Lord, in these three months, to whom should I go to enliven?” The Lord will lead us. We should not take too many names. We can concentrate on two or three, and we can pray for them day and night. Sometimes we may have to fast and pray for them with tears.
All mothers know the labor and toil involved in delivering a child. In order to bring forth spiritual children, we have to labor by praying and fasting with tears. Maybe after one month of praying, we would go to see someone. Our going should not be a kind of following our own thought. Our going must be a following of the Spirit. The Spirit will give us the right time to go. If we go two days too early, our cousin may not have an ear to hear us. But two days later something may happen to him. God will do something to sovereignly prepare him to be a good listener. Then we can say a few words to sow Christ as the seed into him. This is the organic way we need to learn.
Today we must have a turn from our skill, our art, to life. The way to turn is to pray, call on the Lord’s name, and confess our sins, our defects, and even all the mistakes we have made toward our relatives, neighbors, and all the ones whom we know and may have offended. We need to make a thorough restitution that we may enjoy the Lord as the life-giving Spirit. Then we can practice the New Testament priesthood by going to people to minister Christ.
We need to sow Christ into people, not just occasionally, but regularly according to a schedule. We need to make a schedule, giving the Lord at least three hours once a week for contacting sinners. We do not necessarily need to knock on “cold” doors, on the doors of people whom we do not know. We have relatives, neighbors, colleagues, classmates, and friends. We can even ask the brothers to recommend their acquaintances and make arrangements to meet them two weeks in advance. During those two weeks we need to pray every day. This is organic, not something religious. I have been speaking about the God-ordained way for about seven years, and I still have not yet seen a proper start in this way.
Feeding the Young Believers as a Nursing Mother
That They May Grow in the Spiritual Life
After someone gets saved through us, we should consider that he is our spiritual child. After a child is born, he needs to be fed in a regular way. We need to feed the young believers as a nursing mother that they may grow in the spiritual life (John 21:15; 1 Thes. 2:7; 1 Pet. 2:2). We can shepherd the new ones by calling them on the phone. A new one needs a lot of help. At the beginning, we should go to be with him at least three times a week to keep him, to retain him, to sustain him, to feed him, to strengthen him, and to comfort him. Then we can protect him, preserve him, and rescue him from many distractions because the devil is very busy.
The Bible tells us that when someone is saved, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God (Luke 15:10). Besides these positive angels, there are also the fallen angels and the demons. They surely are not happy about this person being saved, and they will work on him. The demons may cause this one to have a car accident. Then they would cause one of his friends to say, “You see, this is because you believed in Jesus. If you had not believed in this Jesus, you would never have had a car accident.” This shows how crucial it is for us to take care of the new ones, especially at the beginning of their salvation.
The Lord charged us in John 15 to go to bear remaining fruit (v. 16). In order to bear remaining fruit, we have to go to care for the new ones by shepherding and feeding them in a regular way. We cannot raise up a child in only three months. It requires much labor to raise up a new believer. We should exercise to always have two or three new ones under our care year-round.
We should not think that only some among us are full-timers. All the saints are full-timers. We should be full- timers who work for Christ, who go to our jobs for Christ, and who do everything for Christ. If we labor in the way of always having two or three new ones under our care, we can have two as remaining fruit each year. We will bring them not only to the Lord but also to the church.
Having Group Meetings for the Perfecting of the Saints
Our group meetings also need to be carried out in an organic way. Perhaps a certain brother has been a Christian for twenty-five years and an elder for twelve years. He may go to a group meeting, considering that he is somewhat superior. Many in the meeting may be new ones. They do not know Genesis and do not understand Revelation. Since this brother considers that he is superior, he may take the opportunity to teach the Bible. However, this is not organic; this is this brother’s art.
This was the way of our group meetings in the past. This is wrong. A formal religious service void of life does not produce anything. When we come to the group meetings, we should just consider ourselves as living members of Christ. We may look to the new ones to get the help. We should have the attitude that we do not know anything. We only know one thing—to exercise our spirit. In the meetings we should exercise our spirit constantly. Then when the opportune time comes, we can speak something. Our speaking is the sowing, and whatever we say is the seed, Christ. We should minister Christ and sow Christ into the attendants. The Christ whom they receive will grow within them. This is the new way ordained by God.
Anything we do apart from Christ as the Spirit is vain religion. To go to a group meeting without any Christ, without any Spirit, is religion. We should be burdened for the group meeting. We may be so burdened that we would fast by not eating dinner. Instead, we would go to our bedroom and pray in a thorough way. Then we will go to the meeting with Christ, with the Spirit, with a living burden, and with a living word. We will not go with any pretense, and we will not try to show others that we are superior. We will go as a common member, waiting and looking for the proper time that the Lord would assign to us. When that time comes and we speak, Christ will come out, and the living word will enter into people as the seed and the Spirit. Such speaking will enliven and beget others. This is the proper group meeting.
Many of our group meetings today are old. We may say that we take the new way, but we walk the new way by the old steps. This does not work. To my observation, there are not many real starts of the new way in our group meetings. Some think that the group meetings are just a matter of dividing the large congregation into many groups. Although we can talk more freely in the smaller meetings, these meetings may be dead. The attendants may not have anything to say that is full of Christ as the Spirit. This is the old way.
We need to feed the new ones and also help them to practice the group meetings. The group meetings are for mutual fellowship, mutual intercession, mutual care, mutual shepherding, mutual asking of questions, and mutual answering for teaching. This is for the perfecting of the saints that they may participate in the work of the ministry, that is, to build up the organic Body of Christ (Heb. 10:24-25; Eph. 4:12). We need to lead the new ones into this kind of organic group meeting.
Teaching the Saints to Prophesy in the Church Meetings
for the Building Up of the Church
When we lead the new ones into the organic group meetings, they will spontaneously be educated and will be initiated into prophesying. We need to teach the saints to prophesy, that is, to speak for the Lord and to speak forth the Lord, in the church meetings for the building up of the church (1 Cor. 14:1, 3-5, 12, 23-26, 31, 39a). Then the new ones will be living and functioning members in the Body of Christ.
In our labor with and for the Lord in His ordained way, we need to be like farmers who have the expectation of a yearly harvest. However, today many churches have very little increase. If we would receive this fellowship and practice the God-ordained way, we will definitely bring new ones to the Lord. We should not expect all the saints to take this way. This is impossible because some are too weak or unable. At least one-third of the saints can practice this way. If each gains two new ones a year, there will be a sixty percent increase.
In Christianity’s statistics there is not a record of a church that has a sixty percent increase every year. The most might be twenty percent. But today many churches have not had a twenty percent increase. We should pray in a desperate way for the increase of the church. Then we should practice the God-ordained way, the way the Lord has ordained for us.
The Three Means for the Success of the God-ordained Way
—by Prayer, by the Spirit, and by Constant and Regular Contact with People
I have given three means for the success of the God-ordained way: by prayer (Acts 6:4), by the Spirit (Acts 4:31), and by constant and regular contact with people. It is only by these three means that we can be prevailing. We must budget our time to contact people and pray for them. We need to pray for two or three and labor on them for about one year. Then we will gain some definite fruit.
We may contact people by personal visiting, by telephone, and by written correspondence. There are many ways to contact people. In principle every contact is “door-knocking.” When we contact people in the Lord, we are knocking on the door of their heart. We should not think that the practice of door-knocking is merely a physical thing. To visit people is door-knocking, to call people is door-knocking, to write a letter is door-knocking, and to send some booklets is door-knocking. Anything that reaches people to touch them with Christ, is a kind of door-knocking.
While we are carrying out the God-ordained way to gain the increase, we should not neglect the church meetings. To carry out this way, we must budget our time and give the Lord certain hours every week to go to contact people to save them, feed them, shepherd them, teach them, perfect them, and eventually bring them up so that they can speak for the Lord. Then the church will receive the building up. (Five Emphases in the Lord’s Recovery, msg. 5)
THE LOCAL CHURCHES
In addition to this, God desires to build all these regenerated children of God together as one in Christ. Thus, these dear ones should not be individual, separated, and scattered, but should be gathered together in their localities to be the local churches (Rev. 1:11).
We may think that the local churches are the goal of God’s economy. However, they are not the goal, but the procedure God takes to reach the goal of His economy. We should not forget that the local churches are not God’s goal. Many of those who have been brought into the recovery love the local church to the uttermost, and they stress the local church very much. However, we should not think that when we enter into the local church life we reach the goal of God’s eternal economy. No, we are still far away from God’s goal. Since the time of Brother Nee the local churches have become a very precious item in our Christian life. Some of the saints may be disappointed when they hear that the local churches are not God’s goal. Nevertheless, if we are just in the local churches and do not go on, we are far off from God’s goal.
According to Ephesians 1:22-23, the goal of God’s economy is the church, which is Christ’s Body. Some may say that since the church is the Body of Christ and since we are in the church, we should also be in the Body. They are right doctrinally, but not practically. We may speak much about the Body of Christ, but if we are asked what the Body of Christ is, we may be able to answer only that the Body of Christ is the church. We are in the church; that is a fact. But where is the reality of the Body of Christ? We have the term the Body of Christ and we have the doctrine of the Body of Christ, but where is the practicality and reality of the Body of Christ? Have you ever touched the practicality of the Body of Christ? Have you ever been in the reality of the Body of Christ?
We all need to consider this matter. We have the term and we have the doctrine, but practically, we do not have the reality. The purpose of the blending is to usher us all into the reality of the Body of Christ. I treasure the local churches, as you do. But I treasure the local churches because of a purpose. The local churches are the procedure to bring me into the Body of Christ. The churches are the Body, but the churches may not have the reality of the Body of Christ. Thus, we need to be in the local churches so that we can be ushered, or brought, into the reality of the Body of Christ. (Practical Points Concerning Blending, msg. 1)
THE NEW JERUSALEM
The Union and Mingling of All God’s Redeemed
with the Processed and Consummated Triune God
The New Jerusalem is the union and mingling of all God’s redeemed through all the four ages of the forefathers, the law, grace, and the kingdom with the processed and consummated Triune God. It is thus a union and mingling of the redeemed with the redeeming God.
We are not only united to the Triune God—we are mingled with Him. We may use the digestion of food as an illustration of mingling. The food that we eat, digest, and assimilate is eventually mingled with us. Apart from such a mingling, the food could not become our element. It is by being mingled with us that the food becomes us. The Bible tells us that Christ is eatable and that we should eat Him (John 6:51, 57). To eat Him is to have Him mingled with us.
In John 15:4a the Lord Jesus said, “Abide in Me and I in you.” This mutual abiding, this mutual dwelling, is a matter of coinherence. In today‘s Christianity, Bible teachers may use the word coexist but seldom use the word coinhere. To coexist is different from to coinhere. To coexist is to exist together at the same time. To coinhere is to exist in one another, to dwell in one another. Coinherence, being a mutual dwelling or abiding, is therefore a mingling.
The New Jerusalem is a mutual dwelling for God and His redeemed. Actually, the New Jerusalem signifies that God as the temple (Rev. 21:22) is our dwelling and that God’s redeemed as His tabernacle (v. 3) are His dwelling place. From this we can see that the New Jerusalem is not only a union of the redeeming God with His redeemed people but also a mingling of God with His redeemed ones.
The Consummation of God’s New Creation out of His Old Creation
The New Jerusalem is the consummation of God’s new creation out of His old creation in the four ages from the creation of man to the end of time.
An Organic Constitution
The New Jerusalem, like the Body of Christ, is an organic constitution constituted with the redeeming processed and consummated Triune God and the redeemed, transformed, and glorified tripartite men as an organism of the consummated Triune God for His eternal enlargement and expression through the glorified tripartite men.
The Dwelling Place of the Processed and Consummated Triune God
The New Jerusalem is also the dwelling place of the processed and consummated Triune God, signified by the tabernacle (Rev. 21:3). Revelation 21:3 says clearly that the New Jerusalem, the holy city, is the tabernacle of God. This indicates that the New Jerusalem is God’s dwelling place. The tabernacle made by Moses was a type of this tabernacle (Exo. 25:8-9; Lev. 26:11). This type was first fulfilled in Christ as God’s tabernacle among men (John 1:14). He was God’s tabernacle. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, God dwelt in Him as a tabernacle. Eventually, the type of the tabernacle will be fulfilled in the fullest way in the New Jerusalem, which will be the enlargement of Christ as God’s dwelling place.
The Counterpart of Christ as the Embodiment of the Triune God
The book of Revelation shows us that the New Jerusalem is the counterpart of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, indicated by the bride in Christ’s one-thousand-year wedding day and the wife in eternity, the precursor of which is the church as the Body of Christ (21:2, 9; 19:7, 9; Eph. 5:25-32). On the wedding day the New Jerusalem will be only the bride, but in eternity the New Jerusalem will be the wife of the Lamb as the embodied God. Since the New Jerusalem is the wife of the Lamb, it would be ridiculous to say that the New Jerusalem is a material city. It would be impossible for the embodied Triune God to marry a physical city.
The Ultimate Consummation of the Universal Woman in Revelation 12:1
The universal woman in Revelation 21:1 is a “great sign,” signifying all the people of God (note 1, second paragraph) in the first three of the four ages, the age of the forefathers, the age of the law, and the age of grace. She has a crown of twelve stars on her head, signifying God’s people in the age of the forefathers; she stands on the moon, signifying God’s people in the age of the law; and she is clothed with the sun, signifying the people of God in the age of grace. This is a sign of her in the great tribulation at the end of the age of grace.
The New Jerusalem, as the greatest sign, is the ultimate consummation of the universal woman in Revelation 12:1. The New Jerusalem signifies the aggregate of all the chosen and redeemed people of God from all the four ages of the forefathers, the law, grace, and the kingdom (21:12, 14).
The Spreading of the Processed and Consummated Triune God
through His Redeemed, Transformed, and Glorified People
The New Jerusalem is also the spreading of the processed and consummated Triune God through His redeemed, transformed, and glorified people as His increase for His eternal purpose. This spreading is illustrated by the vine with its branches in John 15. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches” (v. 5a). The branching out of the vine is the spreading of the vine. In this chapter the Lord Jesus charged us as His branches to bear fruit, that is, to produce new believers as the further spreading of the vine tree. For the spreading of the vine, we all must endeavor to help others to be regenerated to become members of Christ. Such a work is not merely a matter of winning souls but of spreading the Triune God. (The God-Men, msg. 4)