THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE

God’s Building

Message Nine
Fulfilling the Economy of God in the History of God for the Building of God

Scripture Reading: Zech. 1:7-21; 3:9; 4:6-7, 12-14; 5:5-11; 12:1, 10, Micah 5:2, Matt. 16:18, John 1:1, 14, 1 Cor. 15:45b, Rev. 4:5; 5:6; 21:2

I. Man was created according to God’s kind, in God’s image and according to God’s likeness, so that man can receive, contain, and express God to fulfill the economy of God—Gen. 1:26; 2:7; Isa. 43:7; Eph. 3:2, 8-11:

A. The image of God is Christ, so man was created as a vessel according to Christ to contain Christ; if man does not contain Christ as his treasure, he is a senseless contradiction—Col. 1:15; Rom. 9:21, 23; 2 Cor. 4:4, 7; Eccl. 1:2, 14.

B. Because man was created for God’s original intention, he unconsciously desires Christ, the Desire of all the nations—Hag. 2:7.

C. God put eternity in man’s heart; eternity is “a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun, but only God, can satisfy”—Eccl. 3:11 (The Amplified Bible); cf. 2 Cor. 4:18.

D. God created man with a human spirit to contact God and to see God’s economy; “there is a spirit in man”—Job 32:8; 12:10; 10:13; cf. Eph. 1:17; 3:9.

II. The all-inclusive Christ is the history of God working within the history of man to gain the building of God for the manifestation of God—Micah 5:2; Zech. 6:12-15; Matt. 16:18; John 1:1, 14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 4:5; 5:6; 21:2:

A. While Christ is skillfully working to sovereignly control the world situation in human history, He is skillfully working Himself into us in the divine history to make us the masterpiece of His work, the poem of God, a new invention of God, expressing His infinite wisdom and divine design—Acts 5:31; Eph. 2:10.

B. Christ in His humanity is the Angel of Jehovah, Jehovah Himself as the Triune God, standing with God’s people in the lowest part of the valley in their humiliation to care for them, intercede for them, and bring them swiftly out of Babylonian captivity—Zech. 1:7-17; Exo. 3:2, 4-6, 13-15; Isa. 63:9; Deut. 33:27:

1. Babylon is characterized by the wickedness of business, or commerce, involving covetousness, deceit, and love of money; our Christian life should be without the love of money, and our Christian work should not be a money-making trade—Zech. 5:5-11; 1 Tim. 3:3, 8; 6:5-10; Acts 11:29-30; 20:33-34; 2 Tim. 3:2-4; Heb. 13:5; 2 Cor. 2:17; 12:15; cf. 2 Kings 5:15-27.

2. Of the cargo sold by Babylon, the first item is gold and the last is the souls of men; souls of men refer to men who sell themselves for employment—Rev. 18:12-13; cf. 2 Pet. 2:3, 15.

3. This depicts not only the coming Babylon but also today’s world; people sell their soul, their life, themselves, to their occupation, neglecting God and their eternal destiny—cf. Luke 12:13-21.

4. God’s sovereignty will cause the wickedness in business, which the people of Israel learned from the Babylonians in their captivity, to go back to Babylon (the land of Shinar) —Zech. 5:10-11; Gen. 11:2, 9.

C. Christ is the last Craftsman used by God to break the four horns; the four horns are the four kingdoms with their kings—Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and the Roman Empire—also signified by the great human image with four sections in Daniel 2:31-33, the four stages of locusts in Joel 1:4, and the four beasts in Daniel 7:3-8 that damaged and destroyed the chosen people of God—Zech. 1:18-21; Dan. 7:12; Joel 2:25:

1. The four craftsmen are the skills used by God to destroy these kingdoms with their kings; each of the first three kingdoms (Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece) was taken over in a skillful way by the kingdom that followed it—Dan. 5; 8:3-7.

2. The fourth Craftsman will be Christ as the stone cut out without hands, who will crush the restored Roman Empire and thereby crush the great human image as the totality of human government at His coming back—2:31-35.

3. This stone signifies not only the individual Christ but also the corporate Christ, Christ with His “mighty ones”—Joel 3:11.

D. At the time of Christ’s coming back, there will be a meeting of two figures—Antichrist, a figure in the outward, human history, and Christ, the Figure in the intrinsic divine history—2 Thes. 2:2-8; cf. 1 Tim. 3:15-16:

1. Christ will come back, descending with His overcomers as His army to defeat Antichrist and his army—Joel 3:11; Rev. 19:11-21.

2. After the Figure in the divine history defeats the figure in the human history, the thousand-year kingdom will come, and this kingdom will consummate in the New Jerusalem—the ultimate and consummate step of the divine history—20:4, 6; 21:10.

III. The way to fulfill God’s economy in the divine history is by Christ as the sevenfold intensified Spirit in our spirit—Zech. 4:6; 12:1:

A. Zechariah reveals that the building of the church will be consummated by Christ as the sevenfold intensified Spirit of grace to be the topstone of grace—4:6-7, 12-14; 3:9; 12:10; Rev. 4:5; 5:6.

B. Zechariah charges us to pay full attention to our human spirit, that we may receive and understand the Christ revealed in this book for God’s building—cf. Col. 2:19; Rom. 8:16; Eph. 1:17; 2:22; 3:5, 16; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18.

IV. In order to live in the divine history within the human history, we need to apply the cleansing blood of Christ, live in the divine Spirit of Christ, and abide in the beautifying and killing word of Christ to flow out Christ for the unique expression of Christ—Zech. 3:3-4; 1 John 1:9; Zech. 4:6; 12:1; Rev. 19:13-15; Eph. 5:26; 6:17; 1 Cor. 10:16; Zech. 4:12-14; John 7:37-39a.

 

Ministry Excerpts:

THE IMAGE OF GOD BEING HIS BELOVED SON—CHRIST

Let us now consider several verses from the New Testament. Second Corinthians 4:4 says, “Christ, who is the image of God.” Philippians 2:6 says, “[Christ] existing in the form of God.” Colossians 1:15 says that Christ, the Son of God’s love, “is the image of the invisible God.” And Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Christ is “the impress of His [God’s] substance.” All these verses clearly show us that Christ is the image of God. Therefore, for man to be created in the image of God means that man was created according to Christ. In other words, what the created man is inwardly is altogether created according to Christ. The principle for the proper exposition of the Bible is to interpret the Bible both according to biblical facts and according to the biblical text itself. According to the fact, God created man in His image; that is, He created man according to His mind, emotion, and will and also according to love, light, holiness, and righteousness. According to the biblical text, the New Testament says that Christ, God’s beloved Son, is the image of God. hence, God also created man according to Christ. God created us in this way, expecting that one day we would receive and contain Christ.

MAN BEING CREATED ACCORDING TO THE IMAGE OF CHRIST
FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONTAINING CHRIST

The way that man would be created was determined through the council of the Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” The image here is neither the Father nor the Spirit but the Son. God created man in the image of the Son. In this respect, we are containers of Christ; we were created to contain Christ. If Christ is “square” and we are “round,” we will never be able to contain Him. thus, God had to make us “square” just like Christ. Before we were saved, and even at birth, we were already created in the image of Christ to be exactly the same as Christ, so that we would be fit to receive Him. For this reason, once we received Christ and were saved, we felt so comfortable and at ease within. Let me use an illustration. When you purchase something, the salesperson often puts it in a box. The box that the salesperson uses is just right, being neither too large nor too small. This is not a coincidence, because the box was made precisely according to the shape of that particular item. Everyone who has received Christ has experienced this indescribable sense of comfort, because we were created in His image, and we were created for Him. (The Economy of God and the Mystery of the Transmission of the Divine Trinity, msg. 3)

SISTER VERSES IN ZECHARIAH AND ISAIAH

In the books of Zechariah and Isaiah, both of which have much to say about Christ, there are sister verses that speak clearly regarding the human spirit. Zechariah 12:1 says, “Thus declares Jehovah, who stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him.” This reveals that the heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, and man was created by God with a spirit that he may contact God, receive God, live God, fulfill God’s purpose for God, and be one with God.

Isaiah 42:5 is a sister verse to Zechariah 12:1. “Thus says God Jehovah, / Who created the heavens and stretched them out, / Who spread forth the earth and what springs up from it, / Who gives breath to the people upon it / And spirit to those who walk on it.” The Hebrew word translated breath here can also be rendered spirit (cf. Prov. 20:27). These sister verses both mention three matters: the heavens, the earth, and the human spirit. Whereas Zechariah 12:1 speaks of God’s forming the human spirit, Isaiah 42:5 simply speaks of God’s giving a spirit to man.

OUR SPIRIT AND THE SEVENFOLD INTENSIFIED SPIRIT

Our regenerated human spirit matches Christ, who is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). Regarding this, Zechariah 3:9 says, “This is the stone that I have set before Joshua: upon one stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its engraving, declares Jehovah of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.” This stone which has been engraved with God’s engraving to take away the sin of God’s people is Christ. The seven eyes of the stone are “the eyes of Jehovah running to and fro on the whole earth” (4:10). In order to understand the significance of the seven eyes, we need to consider Revelation 5:6. “I saw…a Lamb standing as having just been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.” The Lamb here, who is the stone in Zechariah 3:9, is Christ, and the seven eyes are the sevenfold intensified Spirit. Thus, the Christ who has been engraved by God to take away our sin bears the sevenfold intensified Spirit. Actually, He, the last Adam, has become a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), even the sevenfold intensified Spirit. Christ today is the Spirit, and we have a spirit particularly formed by God to match Christ. (Life-study of Zechariah, msg. 15)

Paying Attention to Our Human Spirit

…By the sovereignty of the Lord we have a willing spirit, but our flesh is still troublesome. We need to forget about the flesh and never pity it or show mercy to it. We should tell the flesh, “I forget about you. I will never go along with you. I have a willing spirit, and I am going along with my spirit.” In this way we can watch and pray. To be poor in spirit, to call on the name of the Lord Jesus in spirit, and to follow our spirit is what we need in order to contact, experience, and deal with the Lord.

All the matters that we have fellowshipped here are among the deeper principles found in the Gospel of Matthew. However, we may never have noticed the above crucial verses. It is easy to see the outward frame of the Bible, but it is not easy to see the spirit within it. The reason for this is that many of us have not known how to turn to our spirit. If we do not pay attention to our human spirit, we may behave like the animals, who do not have a spirit (2 Pet. 2:12; Jude 10, 19). We, however, are living persons who have a spirit (Job 32:8). Therefore, we must forsake our natural mentality with its old knowledge, turn to our spirit, and pay our full attention to our Spirit. Then when we come to Matthew, we will apprehend the deeper things in this book related to our spirit. (CWWL, 1970, vol. 1, “The Enjoyment of Christ in Our Spirit for the Building up of the Church as Revealed in the Gospel of Matthew”, ch. 2)

Visions Concerning Christ

Let us now go on to consider the Christ who is unveiled in the book of Zechariah. In the first part of this book (chs. 1—6), there are five visions concerning Christ, and in the last part (chs. 9—14), many details concerning Christ.

In the first of the five visions concerning Christ, Christ is unveiled as the Man as the Angel of Jehovah riding on a red horse and standing among the myrtle trees (1:7-17). The myrtle trees signify the humiliated yet precious people of Israel in their captivity. Christ’s riding on a red horse indicates that He was the redeeming One. His being the Angel of Jehovah indicates that He was the One sent by God to take care of His people with much expectation while they were in captivity.

In the second vision (vv. 20-21) Christ is the last Craftsman used by God to break the four horns—Babylon, Persia, Greece, and the Roman Empire—which damaged and destroyed the chosen people of God (vv. 18-19). Christ will be the unique One not only to break the four horns but also to smash the entire human government from the toes to the head, as signified by the great human image in Daniel 2.

In the next vision Christ is the One who measures Jerusalem in order to possess it (Zech. 2:1-2). This One not only possesses Jerusalem but also becomes the center of Jerusalem as the glory within her and the circumference of Jerusalem as the wall of fire round about her (v. 5). Furthermore, He is both the sending One and the sent One. He, Jehovah of hosts, has sent Himself as the Angel of Jehovah (vv. 8-9, 11).

In the fourth vision Christ is unveiled as the topstone of grace (4:7). As indicated in 3:9, upon this stone are seven eyes, signifying the seven Spirits, that is, the sevenfold intensified Spirit. Christ is therefore the topstone of grace to consummate God’s building with the sevenfold intensified Spirit.

The fifth vision involving Christ is the vision of the lampstand of gold and the two olive trees (4:2-3, 11-14). The lampstand here signifies the nation of Israel as the collective testimony of God shining out all His virtues. We may say that this lampstand is also a type of Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God. In Zechariah’s time the two olive trees were Joshua and Zerubbabel, but during the three and a half years of the great tribulation, the two olive trees will be Moses and Elijah.

DETAILS CONCERNING CHRIST

The last six chapters of Zechariah are divided into two groups: chapters nine through eleven, which speak of Christ’s lowly first coming, and chapters twelve through fourteen, which speak of Christ’s victorious second coming.

In His First Coming

In His first coming, Christ came as a lowly King and was temporarily welcomed as the King into Jerusalem in a lowly form. Regarding this, 9:9 says, “Exult greatly, O daughter of Zion; / Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! / Now your King comes to you. / He is righteous and bears salvation; / Lowly and riding upon a donkey, / Even upon a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Christ came also as a Shepherd (11:7-11), shepherding in Favor (grace) and Bonds (binding). However, He, the proper Shepherd of Israel, was detested, attacked, rejected, and sold for thirty pieces of silver (vv. 12-13). The children of Israel were thus left to false, useless, and worthless shepherds—the elders, the priests, and the scribes—who would not take care of them (v. 17).

In His Second Coming

In chapters twelve through fourteen, we see Christ in His second coming. In His coming back, He will be the King not only over Israel but also over all the peoples on earth. “Jehovah will be King over all the earth; and in that day Jehovah will be the one God and His name the one name” (14:9). He will reign over the entire earth, and all the peoples of the earth will go up to Jerusalem from year to year to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles (v. 16). Upon those who refuse to go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, there will be no rain (v. 17).

Christ and the Temple of God

The book of Zechariah clearly reveals that God desires the rebuilding of the temple (4:9; 6:12-15). However, without Christ everything, including the temple, is empty. We need Christ, yet Christ needs a Body. This Body is the temple of God, the house of God, the expression of God, the satisfaction of God. Hence, today we should emphasize both Christ and the church. Concerning Christ, we need to pay attention both to the crucial aspects unveiled in chapters one through six and to the details unveiled in chapters nine through fourteen.

Christ’s Judgement upon Three Categories of Things

Finally, I would like to point out that in the book of Zechariah we can see Christ’s judgment. The vision of the flying scroll (5:1-4), the vision of the ephah vessel (vv. 5-11), and the vision of the four chariots (6:1-8) are visions of judgment. Christ’s judgment will be carried out by the four chariots which come forth from between two mountains of brass (v. 1). Brass here signifies judgment. Although the two mountains of brass do not signify Christ, they are nevertheless closely related to Christ, for He has been appointed by God to carry out the judgment upon the living and the dead (John 5:22; Acts 10:42; 17:31; 2 Tim. 4:1). On the one hand, Christ is the Redeemer and the Savior; on the other hand, He is the Judge. As the Judge, He will carry out God’s judgment.

According to Zechariah, Christ’s judgment over the earth will be upon three categories of negative things. First, He will judge stealing (5:3b, 4b). Stealing signifies sins toward man, which are the issue of greed and covetousness. Second, Christ will judge the matter of swearing falsely by Jehovah’s name (vv.3c, 4c). Swearing falsely by Jehovah’s name signifies sins toward God, which are the issue of a wrong relationship with God. Those who swear falsely in this way do not deal with God in faithfulness and honesty. Third, Christ will judge the entire human government signified by the great human image in Daniel 2. He, the last Craftsman, will come as the stone cut out without hands and smash this great image from the toes to the head. Thus, He will clear away from the earth all stealing, all false swearing by Jehovah’s name, and all of human government.

We need to see how Christ’s judgment is related to us today. We should be careful not to steal from others in any way, and we should also be careful to be honest and faithful with God. Then we will be right with man and also right with God. Finally, we need to see that Christ will come as the stone cut out without hands and will smash the entire human government and thereby bring in the eternal kingdom of God. (Life-study of Zechariah, msg. 15)

BEING BORN IN HUMAN HISTORY AND BEING REBORN IN DIVINE HISTORY, IN ORDER TO LIVE IN THE CHURCH LIFE,
THE DIVINE HISTORY

At the end of this part of the divine history, Christ will come back, descending with His overcomers as His army (Joel 3:11) to defeat Antichrist and his army. There will be the meeting of two figures — Antichrist, a figure in the outward, human history, and Christ with His overcomers, the Figure in the intrinsic, divine history. The Figure in the divine history will defeat the figure in the human history and then cast him into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20). Following this, the thousand-year kingdom will come. Eventually, this kingdom will consummate in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. The New Jerusalem will be the ultimate, the consummate, step of God’s history.

We need to have a clear view of these two histories — the physical human history and the mysterious divine history — and I hope that we all will have such a view. The history of man, the history of the world, is outward. The divine history, the history of God in and with humanity, is inward. This history is a matter of the divine mystery of the Triune God in humanity.

We all were born in the human history, but we have been reborn, regenerated, in the divine history. Now we need to ask ourselves this question: Are we living in the divine history, or are we living merely in the human history? If our living is in the world, we are living in the human history. But if we are living in the church, we are living in the divine history. In the church life God’s history is our history. Now two parties — God and we — have one history, the divine history. This is the church life.

With the divine history there is the new creation — the new man with a new heart, a new spirit, a new life, a new nature, a new history, and a new consummation. We praise the Lord that we are in the divine history, experiencing and enjoying the mysterious, divine things. (Life-study of Joel, msg. 6)

THE NEED OF THE CLEANSING OF THE BLOOD

After we were saved, we had the divine life, which is Christ Himself, within us. Out from this life flowed a current, a stream. This flowing is the fellowship of life. We can compare the fellowship of the divine life with the current of electricity that flows in a group of lamps, causing the lamps to shine. We may say that through the current of electricity the lamps are in “fellowship” with the electric generator. If the flow of the electricity is cut off, all the lamps will be out of fellowship with the generator. Although we are human beings on the earth, we have fellowship with God, who is in heaven. This fellowship is in and through the flow, the current, of the wonderful life that is Christ Himself, the Son of the living God, as the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17). In the current, the stream, of the divine life we have fellowship with God; thus, the earth is in fellowship with heaven. How wonderful this is! We are on the earth, yet we can fellowship with the very God who is in heaven through the living Spirit of Christ.

As we enjoy this fellowship, we are in the light, because the very God with whom we are fellowshipping is light. In the light of God, which is God Himself, we are fully exposed. Everything is illuminated. Then we see our mistakes, wrongdoings, sins, and transgressions. Spontaneously, we sense the need to confess that we are wrong with our spouse or that in certain things our motive is not pure. As we confess to God, we realize the cleansing of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. We may pray, “o Father, I thank You for the cleansing blood. When I am not in the light, I do not see my condition, and I do not sense the need of the cleansing of the blood. But now that I am in the light, I am fully exposed; I see my real condition. Oh, how much I need Your cleansing!” When we realize the cleansing of the blood, the blood becomes exceedingly precious to us. Furthermore, after making our confession and after receiving the cleansing of the blood, we sense that we are in Christ and in the divine life to a greater degree. However, this is not the end. The more we are in life, the deeper our fellowship will be; the deeper we are in the fellowship, the more light we will have; and the more light we have, the more we will see concerning ourselves, and the more we will sense the need of the blood. It is through this cycle that we grow in the divine life and enter more deeply into the Triune God. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 1, “Vessels of God”, ch. 5)

THE CENTRAL REVELATION OF THE BIBLE BEING FOR US TO LIVE IN THE SPIRIT AND TO LIVE BY THE LORD

If we live in our spirit, we will not talk about many things. If we do not live in our spirit, however, we will be influenced by many things. When we are in our spirit, there is no need to consider or discuss other things. When we follow the spirit, the church life is good and pleasant. When the Lord is living in us and we are living in the Lord, there is no need for our plans and considerations. According to the Bible, our only focus should be on living by Him as the Spirit. When a couple lives in the spirit, there are no problems. Even if one spouse wants to quarrel with the other, there will be no problem as long as one spouse is living in the spirit. Living in the spirit solves every problem.

The New Testament speaks of our being in our spirit and of our living by the spirit. Since we receive life in the spirit, we must walk in the spirit and do everything according to the spirit. The Lord must open our eyes to see the revelation in the Bible. We may have heard many traditional doctrines, but we need to see a revelation related to life in our spirit. We need to see the revelation in 1 Corinthians 15:45, which says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” Many people know about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but they neglect the matter of the last Adam becoming a life-giving Spirit.

When Christians greet one another, they often say, “The Lord be with you.” However, they do not know what the key is to the Lord’s being with them. Second Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit.” This refers to the Lord being in our spirit. The Bible has sixty-six books and contains many points, but what is the focus? For example, the Bible speaks of our experience of the cross, but this does not mean that we should be focused only on the cross or the altar for eternity. The only thing that God desires for us to do eternally is to live by Him. The altar is for us to live by the Lord, and the experience of the cross is for us to live by the Lord. The altar and the cross are for entering into the Holy of Holies; hence, it is not enough to focus on the altar but fail to see and to enter into the Holy of Holies.

Today we have a simple way; that is, we need only to receive the all-inclusive Spirit. The altar of burnt offering, the laver, the table of the bread of the Presence, the golden lampstand, and the golden incense altar are all in this Spirit. When we receive the all-inclusive Spirit in our spirit, we are in the Holy of Holies. Strictly speaking, we do not pass through the altar of burnt offering by ourselves; we pass through in the Lord. Furthermore, we are not crucified on the cross by ourselves; we are crucified in the Lord. All the Lord’s experiences of becoming flesh, of passing through the cross, of shedding His precious blood, and of accomplishing redemption are in this Spirit. Furthermore, He was buried, and He resurrected from the dead. He is the table of the bread of the Presence, the golden lampstand, and the golden incense altar. He is everything. Today He is the all-inclusive Spirit, and as the all-inclusive Spirit, everything is in Him in order to be received by us. Some people received help and experienced the altar of burnt offering and the golden incense altar in the past. However, when we call them to come forward to the Holy of Holies, they pay attention only to the incense altar. Our experiences at the altar of burnt offering and at the table of the bread of the Presence are for us to enter into the Holy of Holies. Surprisingly, after experiencing these things, some people still have not entered into the Holy of Holies. In other words, they still have not entered into the spirit. All these items—the altar of burnt offering, the laver, the table of the bread of the Presence, the lampstand, and the incense altar—are included in the all-inclusive Spirit. Our need today is to enter into the Holy of Holies and to enjoy the all-inclusive Spirit.

We should simply return to the riches in our spirit. We should not wander in our mind. Even when we give a message, we should not be in our mind; we should simply be in the spirit and speak the word from our spirit. This is the need of the churches today. The co-workers should not speak the same old things in their service to the churches; the churches do not need the old practices. The churches need what can only come from the spirit, genuinely and directly. When we fully look to the Lord and simply live in our spirit by the Spirit, we will be fresh, living, and rich. We should stop the wandering in our mind and simply live in the spirit by the Spirit. This is what the Lord desires. (CWWL, 1975-1976, vol. 2, “The Central Vision for Serving the Church”, msg. 7 )

EXPERIENCING THE KILLING POWER OF THE WORD

We have pointed out that by pray-reading we take the word of God into us. Usually when we speak of taking the word of God into us, we think of the word as nourishment. However, in Ephesians 6 the emphasis is not on the nourishing word, but on the killing word. The nourishing word is for our building up, whereas the killing word deals with the enemy. In this context, we should pray-read the word not mainly to receive nourishment, but primarily to experience the sword as the killing instrument. The more we pray-read the word, the more we should experience the killing power of the word. (Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 97)

BEING FILLED IN SPIRIT TO LIVE A LIFE OF OVERFLOWING CHRIST

We all have Christ in our spirit, but we are short of Him in our heart, that is, in our mind, emotion, will, and conscience. Therefore, Paul says, “Be filled in spirit” (Eph. 5:18). To be filled in spirit is to be filled with Christ as the Spirit in our regenerated human spirit. If we are filled in our spirit, Christ will spread from our spirit and overflow from us in speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, in giving thanks, and in subjecting ourselves to one another (vv. 19-21). Whatever we do in our Christian life must be the overflow of the inward filling. Nevertheless, we still too often confine and restrict the Lord Jesus to our spirit, while doing our best to sing hymns, to do good, to subject ourselves to our husband, or to love our wife. In this case these are mere outward doings that have nothing to do with Jesus.

We need to give up our outward doing and trying and say, “O God the Father, strengthen me into my inner man so that Christ may make His home in my heart, so that I and all the saints may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” After being filled, we will overflow in speaking, singing, thanking, and submitting. This is the genuine Christian life. The Christian life is not an outward doing but the overflow of the inner filling. Such a life is for our maturity and our preparation for the Lord’s coming back. If we are prepared in this way, we will receive a reward at Christ’s coming. This reward is to participate in the wedding feast to enjoy a special portion of the rich Christ. The reward in Matthew 16:27 is the wedding feast in Christ’s kingdom in 25:10. All the foregoing fellowship is related to the kingdom. (CWWL, 1972, vol. 1, “The Growth and Spread of Christ within Us for the Kingdom of God”, ch. 10)