2014 Memorial Day Conference - The Heavenly Vision Week 3 - The Vision of the Church, the Body of Christ Day 4 - Morning Nourishment Eph. 4:4-6 One Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. After we have seen the vision of Christ and the vision of the church, we need to see the vision of the Body. You may be wondering what the difference is between the vision of the church and the vision of the Body. By the Lord’s mercy many of us have been brought to the ground of the church and are now practicing the church life on the proper ground. Although we have been brought to a realization of the ground of the unique oneness, we still need the realization of the Body. We need to see the vision that we are members of the Body and that we need to be built up together and related to one another. It is not sufficient just to be brought to a realization concerning the church ground, but on this definite ground we need to be built up as the Body. (The Heavenly Vision, p. 31) Today’s Reading The Body is the intrinsic significance of the church. If there were no Body, the church would have no meaning. The church makes no sense without the Body. But hallelujah, there is the Body!...The transcending Christ is far above all. He is above Hades, above the earth, above the air, and even above the third heaven. This One is transmitting Himself to the church, which is the Body of Him who fills all in all. We need to see that the church of God is the frame and the Body of Christ is the organism. We can use an apple tree as an illustration. The tree is the frame, and the apples are the very organic essence of this tree....The tree is for the apples. We do not eat the tree; we eat the apples....The church is the frame, like the apple tree, and the Body of Christ is the very organic essence of the church, just like the apples are the very organic essence of the apple tree. These two are one. The church is the frame for existing. The Body of Christ is the very organic contents for people’s satisfaction. In the recovery today there are over twelve hundred churches around the globe, yet we all are one Body. If we consider ourselves as individual churches or as individual believers, we are through. We should consider ourselves as one Body. If the parts of our physical body would keep their own jurisdiction and be autonomous, our body would be finished. The Body of Christ is the divine constitution of the Triune God with the believers in Christ. Ephesians 4:4-6 shows us the constitution of the three divine persons with all His chosen people. So we have the one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father mingled together. (The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ, pp. 91, 90, 92) Today God has made those whom He redeemed, regenerated, and transformed to be the outward framework. God Himself, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, is the inward element. The Father is the source, the Son is the element, and the Spirit is the essence. These four—the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and man— blended and built together become the Body of Christ. The Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is dispensing, transfusing, and building Himself into the believers whom He has redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, and transformed, so that they and the God who redeemed and transformed them can be constituted into a corporate entity, which is the organic Body of Christ....The building up of the Body of Christ is the constitution of the Triune God and the tripartite man in the Spirit of God and the spirit of man. This constitution is the union and mingling of God and man. It is divinity constituted into humanity to be man’s dwelling place, and it is humanity built into divinity to be God’s dwelling place. (The Issue of the Union of the Consummated Spirit of the Triune God and the Regenerated Spirit of the Believers, pp. 52, 54) Further Reading: CWWL, 1965, vol. 3, “The Heavenly Vision,” ch. 3; Words of Training for the New Way, vol. 1, chs. 5-6 © 2014 Living Stream Ministry. All rights reserved.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 14:53:03 +0000
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