In the Name of our KING LORD JESUS may Peace be with you ALL... THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH DEPENDING ON THE MINGLING OF GOD WITH MAN The building of the church is accomplished by building God into man. We should not think that the builded church is composed of only human beings. The church is built by building God into man and building man into God. When God is built into man and man is built into God, those who are many become one Body in one Spirit. The Body being one depends not only on man but also on God. When God is in all of us and we are in God, we are one Body. This is the way that we are built together. In the New Testament age, the age of grace, God is doing a specific work in His Son and through the Holy Spirit. He is entering into people to become their constitution so that they may be filled with the element of God. God is also bringing these people, who are filled with His element, into Himself. This is the mingling of God with man; this is God entering into man and being mingled with man. The believers who have been mingled with God are built up together in God. When we are in ourselves instead of in God, we are scattered and torn down. There is oneness and building only when we enter into God. The building up of the church is not a matter of being united because we have the same opinions, the same views, or even the same feelings toward one another. At the most, such a group would be a pleasant organization. The church is not built on having the same opinions or feelings; the church is built on Christ (Matt. 16:18). God is building Himself into man in order to be man’s constituent. God is also bringing man into the Spirit so that man can be full of God’s element. All those who are in God are spontaneously one Body. This one Body is the building. The building of the church is not a matter of human organization, nor is it based on having the same views or feelings. Rather, the building of the church is a matter of being mingled with God and being saturated with the Spirit. Those who are mingled with God and submerged in the Spirit are in the God of glory and are being built up together as one Body to be God’s dwelling place, His glorious family. GOD IN HIS SON BEING EVERYTHING TO MAN God had to take some definite steps in order to reach the goal of being mingled with man. First, God put all His elements, all the fullness of the Godhead, all His glory, in His Son, Christ (Col. 2:9). God wants His Son to have the first place in all things (1:18). Therefore, a person who does not know Christ does not have a way to know God, and if he does not contact Christ, he does not have a way to contact God. If he does not have a relationship with the Son, he will be alienated from God, because it is impossible to touch God outside of Christ, the Son of God (John 14:6). God is in His Son, and He wants to glorify His Son, our Lord Jesus (v. 11; 17:5). Any person who is willing to contact the Lord Jesus, no matter the time or the place, will immediately touch God. As long as he believes in the Lord Jesus, he will have a relationship with God. Human beings cannot obtain God apart from the Son of God. All God’s glory, all the fullness of the Godhead, and all God’s elements are in His Son bodily so that the Son can be everything to man for man’s enjoyment and possession. The Lord Jesus is everything to us. He is our life, our light, our way, and our wisdom. He is our bread of life and our living water, and He is our power, our joy, our peace, and our comfort. All that we need is in the glorious Son of God, because all the fullness of God dwells in the Son for us to enjoy, possess, and experience. For this reason, we need a deeper and more thorough knowledge of the Son. The Bible says that we need to know God (Col. 1:9-10; 1 John 4:7; Rom. 1:28), and it repeatedly says that we need to know Christ, the Son of God (Eph. 4:13; 2 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 3:19; Phil. 3:10; Col. 2:2; 2 Pet. 1:2). The apostle Paul wrote the Epistle to the Philippians while he was in prison. In 3:10 he says, “To know Him.” This word does not refer to Paul’s knowing Christ in the past but to his knowing Christ in an ongoing way. When Paul wrote this Epistle, he had been an apostle for many years with many considerably deep experiences of the Lord, yet he still said, “To know Him.” Christ is boundless and limitless. In Ephesians 3:18 the apostle says that Christ is the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth of the universe. There is no way to describe how wide is the breadth, or how long is the length, or how high is the height, or how deep is the depth. The breadth, the length, the height, and the depth are immeasurable. The apostle could not find suitable words to describe the infiniteness of Christ; therefore, he simply spoke of “the breadth and length and height and depth,” which are immeasurable. Paul knew Christ to such an extent that he could describe Him as the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth of the universe. Christ is boundless; His breadth, length, height, and depth are all limitless. Christ the glorious Lord is so boundless because He is the embodiment of God. The infinite God, the God who exists from eternity to eternity and whose years will never fail, is embodied in this glorious Christ. Hence, we can never fully know Christ or exhaust our experiences of Him. Such an infinite Christ has become everything to us. THE SON OF GOD BEING TRANSFIGURED TO BECOME THE SPIRIT The Son of God was transfigured to become the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). It is not easy to find the phrase the Son of God in the Old Testament. Although this phrase is in the Old Testament, it is not given as much emphasis as in the New Testament. For example, the Gospels speak of the Word of God, who was incarnated as a man, as the Son (John 1:1, 14). Even the Lord referred to Himself as the Son, saying, “He who believes into the Son has eternal life” (3:36). Concerning being sent by the Father, the Son said, “The Son can do nothing from Himself except what He sees the Father doing, for whatever that One does, these things the Son also does in like manner” (5:19), and “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (14:9). However, at the end of His ministry on earth, the Son said, “If I go..., I am coming again and will receive you to Myself” (v. 3). In this verse the word coming does not refer to the Lord’s second coming at the end of this age; it refers to His coming after His resurrection from the dead. His going was to die on the cross so that He could come after His resurrection as the Spirit (vv. 16-18). He was transfigured to become the Spirit, and He came back as the Spirit. Hence, the Acts and the Epistles are altogether a story of the Spirit. All that the Father is, is in the Son; and all that the Son is, is in the Spirit. The Son is the expression of the Father, and the Spirit is the realization of the Son. Where the Spirit is, there the Son is also, and all that the Son has obtained has been added to the Spirit. A person cannot receive the Lord Jesus without being moved by the Holy Spirit and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in him. We believe in the Lord Jesus, but it is the Spirit who moves within us. We have received the Lord Jesus, but we received Him when the Holy Spirit entered into us. When a person repents and believes in the Lord, he does not pray to the Holy Spirit, but he feels the moving of the Holy Spirit. He is moved by the Holy Spirit, but he prays, “Lord Jesus, I receive You as my Savior.” When a person is saved, he receives the Lord Jesus, not the Holy Spirit, as his Savior. It is amazing that when a person prays to the Lord Jesus and receives the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit enters into him. It is the Holy Spirit who touches us when we pray to the Lord Jesus. This is a mystery. THE THREE OF THE TRIUNE GOD BEING INSEPARABLE There are many mysterious things in the universe, but the most mysterious is the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. It is not possible for our limited minds to comprehend the mystery of the Divine Trinity. How is it possible for the Son to be the Father and for the Son to become the Spirit (Isa. 9:6; 1 Cor. 15:45)? I have no way to explain these matters. But I know that when I am moved by the Spirit, I call, “Lord Jesus!” and when I call on the Lord, the Spirit moves in me. There is no way for us to separate the Lord Jesus from the Spirit in our experience. The Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17); hence, when we touch the Spirit, we touch the Lord Jesus, and when we draw near to the Lord Jesus, we are filled with the Spirit. We should not say that we do not know how to pray. At least we can call, “O Lord, O Lord.” There is no need to compose many sentences. We can close our eyes and say, “Lord, Lord, O Lord.” If we would call in this way for five minutes, we would be filled with the Spirit. 1Corinthians 12:3 says, “No one can say, Jesus is Lord! except in the Holy Spirit.” This means that a person only needs to say, “Jesus is Lord!” and he will be in the Holy Spirit. How marvelous it is that once a person prays to the Lord Jesus, something happens within him! Someone might pray, “Lord Jesus, I do not believe that You exist,” but eventually, he will be saved, because his turning to the Lord allows the Spirit to move. Hence, it is risky to pray to the Lord Jesus. Once we call on Him as the Lord, we have the Holy Spirit. I cannot explain this. Just as there are many things in the universe that scientists cannot explain, there are many spiritual matters that we cannot explain. We should not try to understand them. We simply need to know that God has put all that He is in the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that the Lord Jesus is realized as the Holy Spirit, who is everywhere just like breath and wind. The Spirit is available for us to touch and enjoy in any place and at any time. We need only to open our mouth and call on the name of the Lord Jesus. We should try to experience Him in this way. Suppose a newly saved brother, who has not been taught how to pray and who is under some pressure, calls, “Lord, Lord.” After a while, he will be comforted and strengthened within. Not only so, when he continues to call on the Lord, he will be enlightened. Before he called, he was confused and did not know what to do, but after calling on the Lord’s name, he will be clear and have a way to go on because he has experienced the Lord Jesus as the Spirit being everything to him. If we call on the Lord when we are depressed, in difficulty, or have a heavy burden, we will be strengthened inwardly. We will feel that someone is bearing the burden for us. The Lord not only bears our burdens; He even carries us. When we come to a dead end and are unclear concerning our future, we should call on His name to be enlightened. This is not a psychological exercise. If anyone has doubts about calling on the Lord, he should call on the name of any idol. The more he calls on an idol, the more miserable, darkened, and confused he will be. However, if he calls on the Lord a few times, he will experience the Lord being his everything. Such experiences prove that God is embodied in the Lord Jesus and that the Lord Jesus is realized as the Spirit. When we call on the Lord, the Spirit touches our spirit, and we touch reality. Something that we cannot explain happens within us, and we are comforted, strengthened, and enlightened. In the past we did not understand this experience; we only knew that by calling on the Lord Jesus, we were saved from discouragement and confusion. We did not realize that we were exercising our spirit to touch the reality of comfort, strength, light, and the way.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 17:14:08 +0000
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