Ephesians 1:10 reveals
that in the economy
of the fullness of the times,
God will head up all things in Christ
through the church;
this aspect of God’s purpose for the church
involves building:
The building is
in the divine life
and under the headship of Christ
to bring us all
into proper order;
in life
we are built up
under the headship of Christ,
and through this
God has the ground
to make His multifarious wisdom known
to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies
so that He may put His enemy to shame.
The Head and the Body
are a great corporate man,
and within this man
is the Triune God:
Christ is the Head,
and by being life to us
He saturates, transforms, and transfigures us
to bring us
into the proper order
under His headship.
It is through this Body
that the Head, Christ,
will head up all things;
this requires
the building up of the church
as the Body of Christ
according to the revelation
in the book of Ephesians.
If we would participate in
the work of the divine building,
we need to know
the economy of God and the central work of God
and allow God in Christ
to build Himself into us:
God’s New Testament economy
is for the processed and consummated Triune God
to be wrought into us
to become our life and our very being:
The most crucial and mysterious matter
revealed in the Bible
is that God’s ultimate intention
is to work Himself
into His chosen people.
God’s eternal purpose
is to work Himself into us
as our life and our everything
so that we may
take Him as our person,
live Him,
and express Him;
this is
the desire of God’s heart
and the focal point of the Bible.
God’s economy and goal
according to His heart’s desire
are to build Himself into man
and to build man into Him.
God’s central work, His unique work
in the universe
and throughout all the ages and generations,
is to work Himself in Christ
into His chosen people,
making Himself one with them.
God’s intention in His economy
is to build Himself in Christ
into our being:
God desires
to work Himself in Christ into us;
everything that Christ is
and everything that Christ has accomplished
are for this one thing.
We need God
to build Himself in Christ
into our humanity,
working Himself in Christ
into us
as our life, our nature, and our person.
The building up of the church
as the Body of Christ
is through the inner experience
of the indwelling Christ:
Ephesians is
a book on the church, the Body of Christ,
and this book speaks about
the unsearchable riches of Christ
and how this Christ as the Spirit
is making His home in us.
The key to the building up of the church
is the inner experience
of Christ as our life.
Christ builds the church
by building Himself into us,
that is,
by entering into our spirit
and spreading Himself
from our spirit
into our mind, emotion, and will
to occupy our entire being.
In Ephesians 3:16-21
Paul prayed
concerning the believers’ inner experience
of the indwelling Christ
for the building up of the church
as the Body of Christ:
Paul prayed
that we would be strengthened
into the inner man
with the result
that Christ could make His home in our hearts
and thereby occupy, possess, permeate, and saturate
our whole inner being
with Himself.
Since our heart is
the totality of our inward parts,
the center of our inward being,
and our representative with regard to
our inclination, affection, delight, and desire,
when Christ makes His home in our hearts,
He controls our entire inward being
and supplies and strengthens every inward part
with Himself.
The more Christ spreads within us,
the more He settles down in us
and makes His home in us,
occupying every part of our inner being,
possessing all these parts,
and saturating them with Himself.
When Christ
is able to make His home in our hearts,
occupying all the inward parts of our being,
we will be able to be built up
with all the saints:
In order for Christ’s word in Matthew 16:18
concerning the building up of the church
to be fulfilled,
the church must enter into a state
where many saints will allow Christ
to make His home deep in their heart,
possessing, occupying, and saturating
their entire inner being.
The more Christ occupies our inner being,
the more we will be able to be built up
with others
in the Body.
Ephesians 3:17 speaks of
being rooted and grounded in love:
That we are rooted
indicates that we are plants,
and our being grounded
means that we are a building.
Together the two aspects,
rooted and grounded,
indicate that we need to grow
and be built up.
According to verse 18,
we are able to apprehend
the dimensions of Christ
—the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth—
not by ourselves individually
but “with all the saints,”
that is,
corporately and jointly;
this reveals
that we need to be built together.
When Christ makes His home in our hearts,
we will be filled
unto all the fullness of God;
this fullness is
the church, the Body of Christ,
as the corporate expression of the Triune God.
We should focus on this prayer
to the extent
that we do not know
what to pray other than this.
Ephesians 3:16-21 shows
Paul’s spirit, attitude, prayer, and faith:
By revelation
the mystery of Christ
was made known to Paul;
thus,
his spirit and attitude
—what he saw,
what he said,
and what he cared about in his heart—
were related to the vision
of the building up of the church
as the Body of Christ
through the inner experience
of the indwelling Christ:
This matter filled
Paul’s entire being;
hence,
what he saw,
what he spoke,
and what he cared about
were related to
the building up of the church
through Christ’s being wrought into us.
Paul was obsessed with this vision,
and it became
his spirit and attitude;
therefore,
he had such a prayer
as recorded in Ephesians 3:16-21.
We need to have
this spirit, attitude, prayer, and faith
when we serve God in the church.
If we have seen the vision
of the building up of the church
as the Body of Christ
and of how Christ builds the church
by building Himself into us,
we will have
this kind of spirit and attitude,
and we will also have
this kind of prayer and faith.
Hits: 1
7 replies on “The Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ (2) Through the Inner Experience of the Indwelling Christ”
Prophecy note, 15 February 2015
Ephesians 3:19 says,
“And to know
the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ,”
the result of which
is “that you may be filled
unto all the fullness of God.”
Paul was entirely captivated
by this matter,
and it became
his spirit and attitude.
When Christ has made His home in our hearts,
we can apprehend His immeasurableness,
and the result is
that we are filled
unto all the fullness of God.
We who serve in the church
should have this attitude,
and our thoughts and prayers
should be for this.
In administrating the church,
all the responsible brothers
must take this
as their spirit, their attitude, and their hope.
The responsible brothers
should be clear
as to what they take
as their goal:
is it
an increase in numbers
or an increase in Christ?
They should be
like Paul,
who was totally “obsessed”
with this matter.
We need to receive mercy
not to think
that it is sufficient
for the brothers and sisters
only to be zealous
and come to the meetings.
Even if all the people in Taiwan
came to the meetings
and were zealous,
it would mean nothing
if they did not know Christ inwardly.
We should hope
that Christ will make His home
in the believers
through faith,
that they will be rooted and grounded
in the Lord’s love,
and that they will come out of
their small and finite beings
and see
the immeasurableness of the Lord.
Our hope also is
that the believers will know the Lord
as the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth
so that they may be filled
unto all the fullness of God.
Then
they will reach
the glorious and rich goal of
God to be glorified and expressed in the church.
This is
the apostle’s prayer,
which represents his spirit and attitude.
We should focus on this matter
to the extent
that we do not know
what to pray
other than this.
We all
need a further time
to kneel
by ourselves
in our room
to pray over these verses
until the heavenly vision
is revealed into our spirit.
This will revolutionize us,
and our whole concept
will be changed.
What we absolutely need
is the inner experience
of the indwelling Christ.
Day 6
Eph. 3:3-4
That by revelation
the mystery was made known to me,
as I have written previously in brief,
by which, in reading it,
you can perceive
my understanding in the mystery of Christ.
Eph. 3:21
To Him
be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
unto all the generations
forever and ever.
Amen.
Ephesians 3:16-21
helps us know
how to serve God in the church
and shows
Paul’s spirit, attitude, prayer, and faith.
We should have
this spirit, attitude, prayer, and faith
when we serve God in the church.
If we have truly seen
the church
and the materials that build the church,
we will have
this kind of spirit and attitude,
and we will also have
this kind of prayer and faith.
Ephesians 3 shows
that Paul saw the mystery of Christ.
Thus,
his spirit and attitude
—what he saw,
what he was filled with,
what he said,
and what he cared about in his heart—
were related to the vision of
God being manifested in the flesh
and being mingled with man
in order to build the church with Christ
so that the church
would be filled with Christ.
The most precious point
in this portion of the Scriptures
is not Paul’s prayer and faith
but his spirit and attitude.
After attending several meetings
and seeing the church
and the building material of the church,
we should become so captivated and enthralled
that we are eager to return to our locality.
We should return
so that we can work Christ into others
and build Christ as the material into others
so that they may become a spiritual temple
for the expression of the fullness of the One
who fills all in all.
This should be
our spirit and attitude.
The prayer in Ephesians 3
shows that Paul was fully captured by Christ.
This matter, this vision, this revelation, this seeing,
became his spirit and attitude.
Consequently,
in Ephesians 3
he had such a prayer.
Paul prayed in chapter 1
because he was concerned
that the saints in Ephesus
might not understand his words;
therefore,
he asked God to grant them
a spirit of wisdom and revelation.
This is understandable.
However,
when he came to chapter 3,
he offered another prayer.
Paul knelt down to pray
because he was so burdened;
something heavy within
forced him to bow his knees
unto the Father.
His vision, his revelation, and his seeing
became his spirit, his attitude, and his inner mood.
We all need a further time
to kneel by ourselves in our room
to pray over these verses
until the heavenly vision
is revealed into our spirit.
This will revolutionize us,
and our whole concept
will be changed.
What we absolutely need
is the inner experience
of the indwelling Christ.
Ephesians 3 says
that we are strengthened into the inner man,
that Christ makes His home in our heart,
and that we are filled
(not covered or clothed)
unto all the fullness of God,
that is,
the very being, essence, and element of God.
The riches of Christ
and His immeasurable dimensions
include so much
that we would need many days
to explain
even a little of our experience.
It is through this inner experience
of the indwelling Christ
that we apprehend with all the saints
the unlimited measure of Christ,
and it is by this
that we are built up.
If we have seen this vision,
we will be obsessed with it,
and we will bow our knees
unto the Father.
Hence,
every elder, deacon, co-worker,
and everyone who serves the Lord
must see a vision, a revelation,
to the point
that he is absolutely obsessed with it
and has
the same spirit, attitude, and mood of Paul.
Because Paul had
such a spirit, attitude, and mood,
he spontaneously had
this kind of prayer;
he also believed
that God is able to do superabundantly.
All those who serve God in the church
must have
this kind of spirit and attitude
and this kind of prayer.
All of our prayers
must take this kind of prayer
as the center,
and we should have the faith
for such prayer.
Day 5
Ephesians 3:17b and 18 say,
“That you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be full of strength
to apprehend
with all the saints
what the breadth and length and height and depth are.”
That we are rooted indicates
that we are plants,
and our being grounded
means that we are a building.
Together these two aspects
mean that we need to grow
and be built up.
We are able to apprehend
the breadth, length, height, and depth
not by ourselves individually
but corporately and jointly.
This means
that we must be built together.
It is
when Christ makes His home in our hearts,
occupying and taking over
every inward part of our being,
that we are able to apprehend
the unlimited Christ
with all the saints.
This means
that we are able to be built together
with all the saints,
that we are
no more individual
but rather corporate.
In this way
we realize
that Christ is
immeasurable and without limit.
No one can tell
what the measure of
the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth are.
These are
the dimensions of Christ.
Christ is the length, the breadth, the height, the depth.
He is immeasurable and unlimited.
Together with all the saints
we will realize
the unsearchable riches of Christ
in the spirit.
When Christ makes His home in our hearts,
and when we are full of strength
to apprehend
with all the saints
the dimensions of Christ
and to know
by experience
His knowledge-surpassing love,
we will be filled
unto all the fullness of God,
which is
the church, the corporate expression of God
for the fulfillment of His intention.
Through His indwelling,
Christ imparts the fullness of God
into our being
that we may be filled
even unto the fullness of God
to be
the practical manifestation of the church,
in which God may be glorified
in His expression.
Ephesians 3:19 says,
“And to know
the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ,”
the result of which
is “that you may be filled
unto all the fullness of God.”
Paul was entirely captivated
by this matter,
and it became
his spirit and attitude.
When Christ has made His home in our hearts,
we can apprehend His immeasurableness,
and the result is
that we are filled
unto all the fullness of God.
We who serve in the church
should have this attitude,
and our thoughts and prayers
should be for this.
In administrating the church,
all the responsible brothers
must take this
as their spirit, their attitude, and their hope.
They should not hope
merely that all the saints
will come to the meetings,
be zealous,
preach the gospel,
and bring people to salvation.
The responsible brothers
should be clear
as to what they take
as their goal:
is it
an increase in numbers
or an increase in Christ?
They should be
like Paul,
who was totally “obsessed”
with this matter.
We need to receive mercy
not to think
that it is sufficient
for the brothers and sisters
only to be zealous
and come to the meetings.
Even if all the people in Taiwan
came to the meetings
and were zealous,
it would mean nothing
if they did not know Christ inwardly.
We should hope
that Christ will make His home
in the believers
through faith,
that they will be rooted and grounded
in the Lord’s love,
and that they will come out of
their small and finite beings
and see
the immeasurableness of the Lord.
Our hope also is
that the believers will know the Lord
as the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth
so that they may be filled
unto all the fullness of God.
Then
they will reach
the glorious and rich goal of God
to be glorified and expressed in the church.
This is
the apostle’s prayer,
which represents his spirit and attitude.
We should focus on this matter
to the extent
that we do not know
what to pray
other than this.
Day 4
Our heart is the organ of
our inclination and affection toward things;
it represents us
with regard to
our inclination, affection, delight, and desire
toward things.
All our inclination, affection, delight, and desire
are functions of our heart.
Our heart is composed of
all the parts of our soul
—mind, emotion, and will—
plus our conscience, the main part of our spirit.
These parts
are the inward parts of our being.
Through regeneration
Christ came into our spirit.
After this,
we should allow Him
to spread into every part of our heart.
Since our heart is
the totality of all our inward parts
and the center of our inward being,
when Christ makes His home in our heart,
He controls our entire inward being
and supplies and strengthens
every inward part
with Himself.
When we were saved,
Christ came into our spirit.
Now we must give Him the opportunity
to spread Himself
throughout all the parts of our inner being.
As we are strengthened into the inner man,
the door is opened
for Christ
to spread in us,
to spread from our spirit
to every part of our mind, emotion, and will.
The more Christ spreads within us,
the more He settles down in us
and makes His home in us.
This means that He occupies
every part of our inner being,
possessing all these parts
and saturating them with Himself.
When we have Christ
making His home in our hearts,
we will be joined with
all the saints.
We can never be built together
by knowledge.
The more knowledge we have,
the more arguments and divisions
we will have.
But when we have Christ
making His home in us,
we will forget about
the knowledge, the divisions, and all other things.
We will only say,
“O Lord, be merciful to me;
I am just short of You.
I am filled with knowledge,
but I am short of You.
I may even have
a lot of gifts,
but I lack You.”
It is
when Christ is able to make His home in our hearts,
which means
He will occupy every inward part of our being,
that we will be able to be built up
with all the saints.
We are
no longer individuals,
but we are built up corporately
with all the saints
to realize
how immeasurable Christ is.
We need to pray
for ourselves and for others
to have the reality of
taking Christ as our person
in our daily living.
Everything we do
should be done
not by the self
but by Christ.
His tastes and preferences
need to become ours.
Then
Christ will be
not only our life
but also our person.
The Lord will thus expand in our heart,
take possession of our heart,
and make His home in our heart
in a full way.
Eventually,
He will saturate our whole being
with Himself,
and we will live
no longer by the self
but by Christ.
The genuine church life
is the issue of
Christ personally making His home in our heart
to occupy every corner of our inner being.
The content of the church
is the Christ
whom we take as our person,
the Christ
who is wrought into our being.
In order for Christ’s word in Matthew 16:18
concerning the building up of the church
to be fulfilled,
the church must enter into a state
where many saints allow Christ
to make His home in their heart,
possessing, occupying, and saturating
their entire inner being.
The more Christ occupies our inner being,
the more we will be able to be built up
with others
in the Body.
The reality of the Body life
is such an inner experience
of the indwelling Christ.
The Body of Christ
is the consummation of our enjoyment
of the unsearchable riches of Christ
and the consummation of the experience
of the unlimited Christ
making His home in our entire inward being.
The New Jerusalem
is the ultimate issue
of Christ making His home in our heart.
Day 3
Just as the photograph of a person
does not have
the life and nature of that person,
so David, a photograph of God’s heart,
did not have
the life and nature of God.
Even though he was a man
whose heart was according to God,
he did not have anything
related to God organically.
What David needed
is what we need today.
We need God
to build Himself in Christ
into our humanity.
This means
that we need God
to work Himself in Christ
into us
as our life, our nature, and our constitution.
As a result,
we are
not simply a man
according to God’s heart
—we are
God in life and in nature
but not in the Godhead.
We today are
not outwardly as high as David was,
but we can declare
that we have
God’s life, nature, and constitution.
The book of Ephesians
does not talk about
the material things,
and it does not contain
mere knowledge.
There are not
even many Old Testament quotations
in this book.
Moreover,
it does not mention
the miraculous gifts.
In this book
the gifts are persons,
such as the apostles, prophets, evangelists,
and shepherds and teachers,
not the gifts of healing
and other miraculous things.
The book of Ephesians
is a book on the church, the Body of Christ.
This book speaks about
the unsearchable riches of Christ
and how this Christ as the Spirit is in us.
This is
not an outward Christ
but an inward Christ,
because He
is making His home in us.
In the book of Ephesians
the experience of Christ
is very prominent.
Although some Christians
realize that Ephesians is about the church,
many still neglect the key
to the building up of the church.
The key is
the inner experience of Christ.
Without the inner experience of Christ
we can never have
the reality of the church.
Ephesians 3:17 tells us
that Christ is now within us
doing the work of building Himself into us
to produce this mutual abode.
We often say
that Christ is living in us
and working in us.
Now we need to ask this question:
What is Christ wanting to accomplish
by His working in us?
The answer is
that Christ is working in us
to build up God’s habitation
by building Himself into us.
David wanted to build God
a house of cedar,
but God wanted to build Himself in Christ
into David.
What God would build into David
would be
both God’s house and David’s house.
This mutual abode
is also unveiled in John 14:23:
“If anyone loves Me,…
My Father will love him,
and We will come to him
and make an abode with him.”
This abode will be
not only for the Triune God
but also for us.
What God builds up in us
is both God’s habitation and our habitation.
We need to realize
that God will have a habitation
not by our doing or working
but by His building.
Christ builds the church
by coming into our spirit
and spreading Himself
from our spirit
into our mind, emotion, and will
to occupy our entire soul.
This church will become
His habitation and our habitation.
Paul prayed
that we might be strengthened
into our inner man
with the result
that Christ could make His home in our heart
and thereby occupy, possess, permeate, and saturate
our whole inner being
with Himself.
In this way
we are filled with Christ,
and we become strong
to apprehend the dimensions of Christ
and to know
the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ.
Eventually,
we shall be filled with Christ
to such an extent
that we become the fullness of God.
Day 2
God’s economy
is not that we try to keep the law
in the strength of our flesh;
His economy
is to work Himself into us.
The Triune God
has become the processed God.
Through incarnation,
Christ came in the flesh
to fulfill the law
and then to set it aside.
Through His resurrection,
Christ has become the life-giving Spirit,
ready to enter into us.
Whenever we call on His name
out of our appreciation of Him,
He comes into us
and becomes the living faith
which operates in us
and brings us into an organic union with Him.
God’s New Testament economy
is for the processed Triune God
to be wrought into us
to become our life and our being.
The most crucial and mysterious matter
revealed in the Bible
is that God’s ultimate intention
is to work Himself
into His chosen people.
God’s desire to work Himself into our being
is the focal point
of the divine revelation in the Scriptures.
Because this matter is so mysterious,
it is hidden in the Scriptures,
although it is not altogether hidden.
On the one hand,
it is indeed a mystery;
on the other hand,
it is a mystery
that has been revealed in the Bible.
God’s eternal purpose
is to work Himself into us
as our life
so that we may
take Him as our person,
live Him,
and express Him.
This is
the desire of God’s heart.
God’s intention in creating man
was that man would receive God into him
and take Him as his life and everything to him.
For this reason,
after God created man,
He placed him
in front of the tree of life.
This indicates
that God wanted man to eat of this tree,
which is a symbol of God Himself as life.
To eat of the tree of life
is to take God into us
as our life and life supply.
Christ came into us as the Spirit
to be life to us.
On the one hand,
He is working within us
to transform us
into precious stones;
on the other hand,
He is building
with Himself (divinity)
and with us (humanity)
to produce a home, a dwelling place.
Eventually,
this dwelling place,
which is a mutual abode,
will issue in the New Jerusalem.
This view of God’s building in the Bible
indicates that God’s economy and goal
according to His heart’s desire
are just to build Himself into man
and to build man into Him.
God in Christ is within us
to build Himself into our being
and to build us into His being.
He builds His divinity into our humanity
and builds our humanity into His divinity
in order to mingle and blend
His divinity with our humanity
into one entity.
God’s unique work
in the universe
and throughout all the ages and generations
is to work Himself in Christ
into His chosen people,
making Himself one with them.
This involves
the mingling of divinity with humanity.
According to
the common understanding and view
among Christians,
God gave Christ
to be our Redeemer and our Savior.
He died for our sins,
accomplishing redemption;
He rose up from among the dead;
and He has become our life.
However,
this does not tell us
what God wants to do.
God wants
to work Himself in Christ into us.
Redemption and salvation
are for this.
Christ’s incarnation,
Christ’s human living,
Christ’s death and resurrection
—they all are for God’s desire
to work Himself in Christ into us.
Everything that Christ is
and everything that Christ has accomplished
are for this one thing.
All the steps, big and small,
that God takes in our daily life
are to fulfill His intention
of building Himself in Christ into our being.
Day 1
An aspect of
God’s purpose concerning the church
is seen in Ephesians 1:10:
“To head up all things in Christ.”
God created the heavens and the earth
as the universe,
and within this sphere, or realm,
He created millions of creatures.
At the center of His creation
God created man
as a vessel
to contain Him.
Satan injected himself
into the human body.
This brought in death,
death brought in darkness,
and confusion followed darkness.
Sin, death, darkness, and confusion
influenced the whole universe.
When Christ comes into us as life,
we have the light.
Light brings in regulation,
and under this regulation
we have order,
which is the building up
under the headship of Christ.
Through this life
and under the headship of Christ,
all things will be headed up
by Christ the Head
through the church.
This aspect of God’s purpose
involves the building up of the church.
First
there is life,
and then
there is building.
The building
is something
in life
and under the headship of Christ
to bring us all
into the proper order.
Another item of God’s purpose
is that in life
the church will be built up
so that Satan, the enemy of God,
will be defeated
and put to shame.
In life
we are built up
under the headship of Christ,
and through this
God has the ground
to make His multifarious wisdom known
to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies
so that He can challenge His enemy
and put him to shame.
The Triune God
—God in Christ
as the Spirit—
spreads through us
not from without
but from within.
God first comes into our spirit
and fills our spirit.
Then
constantly from our spirit
He spreads outward.
By this spreading
God permeates and saturates
all our inward parts,
our whole heart
—our conscience, mind, emotion, and will.
When God came into our spirit,
we received the birth of life.
Now
by His spreading from our spirit
throughout our whole being,
we have the growth of life
and eventually the maturity, the fullness, of life.
Ultimately,
even our body will be transfigured;
that is,
it will be redeemed.
This will be
our full sonship.
In this way
we all will be one
in being headed up
under the headship of Christ.
The Head and the Body
are a great corporate man.
Within this man
is the Triune God.
Christ is the Head,
and by being life to us
He saturates, transforms, and transfigures us
to bring us
into the proper order
under His headship.
It is through this Body
that the Head, Christ,
will head up all things.
In Ephesians 1
there is
the sealing of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit
as a seal in us
is inward,
not outward.
In chapter 2
there is
the new man
created by Christ
and in Christ.
This also is
something apart from
material things,
mere scriptural knowledge,
and gifts.
The new man
created in Christ and by Christ
is fully of Christ,
and it is
even Christ Himself.
In Genesis 3
Eve was a part of Adam
and came entirely out of Adam.
In the same way,
the new man
is a part of Christ
and was taken from Christ.
Then in Ephesians 3
we realize
the unsearchable riches of Christ,
and Christ makes His home
in our hearts.
In chapter 4
we grow
and arrive at
the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ.
We are
no more carried away
by every wind of teaching,
even good teaching,
but we grow up into Christ
in all things.
We receive something
from Christ
as the Head,
and we minister it
to others.
In this way
the church is built up.