Our Coordination as Living Creatures is not in Ourselves but in God and by His Grace

Last week we have seen who the four living creatures are and how this applies to our Christian experience; this week we want to see the coordination of the four living creatures, which is the key to understanding the vision in Ezekiel 1.

Chapter one of Ezekiel is the deepest chapter in the Bibles, and in it we see wonderful signs and symbols that show us what the heart desire of God is; since God created man until the end of time, His heart’s desire is to gain a corporate man that will express Him and represent Him.

For this, He created man in His image and gave him authority over everything. The first man, however, failed God, and therefore God Himself became a man, which the Bible calls, the second man, and this man Jesus Christ fulfilled God’s purpose individually.

Through His death He redeemed us, and in His resurrection He regenerated millions of believers for His Body, so that the first proper man who expressed and represented God would be expanded and enlarged to be a great corporate man who fulfills God’s purpose.

This corporate man today is the Body of Christ and will be the New Jerusalem for eternity. In Ezekiel 1 we see a man, Ezekiel, who was fully one with God; to him the heavens were opened, he saw visions of God, he received the express word of God, and the hand of God followed His word.

One of the first visions Ezekiel saw was of four living creatures who were before the throne of God; the One on the throne had the likeness of a man, and the four living creatures had the appearance of a man.

These four living creatures each had four faces: the face of a man at the front, the face of an eagle at the back, the face of a lion at the right, and the face of an ox on the left.

As believers in Christ we are living creatures: we are regenerated with God’s life, and we need to have the appearance of a proper man by being Jesusly human, that is, living not by our human natural life but the humanity of Jesus in our spirit.

We need to be one with the victorious and bold Christ toward sin, the world, and Satan, and stand on God’s side (the face of a lion). We need to be willing to serve, labor, and even sacrifice our life for others (the face of an ox). Finally, we need to live by God’s life within us to be transcendent and buoyant, soaring above any problems and situations.

This week we want to go on and see more concerning the four living creatures, especially concerning the coordination of these living creatures.

Coordination is the Key to Understanding the Vision in Ezekiel 1

The central point in Ezekiel 1 is the revelation that God needs a group of living creatures who can coordinate together as one corporate entity – which is the corporate Christ – for God’s expression, move, and administration.

God wants to gain a corporate expression, He wants to move, and He wants to administrate the universe; for this He needs to gain a group of people who have His life and nature and who are coordinated together to be the corporate Christ for His expression, move, and administration.

The key to understanding the vision in Ezekiel 1 is coordination, for the four living creatures are fully coordinated for God’s move, expression, and administration.

What the Lord desires to gain among His people is not only four living creatures in reality but a coordinated group of living creatures that express God, move one with God, and are for His administration.

If we don’t have this kind of coordination together, we can’t have God’s move, expression, and administration. The key to the deepest chapter in the Bible – Ezekiel 1 – is coordination.

Based on what we see in Ezekiel 1 concerning the four living creatures, they express God, they move one with God for His move on earth, and they are under the throne, expressing God’s throne for His administration. Even though they are four, these living creatures are moving together in a beautiful coordination.

We need to see what coordination is, and we need to pray that the Lord would bring us into coordination with many other living creatures for the sake of the corporate expression of Christ, the move of God, and the administration of God.

Lord Jesus, grant us to see the key to understanding the vision in Ezekiel chapter one. May we see the need for coordination among the living creatures for God’s expression, move, and administration. Lord Jesus, bring us into coordination with many other living creatures for the sake of the corporate expression of Christ, God’s move, and God’s administration. Gain a coordinated group of living creatures on earth that corresponds to the heavens to execute the heaven’s rule on earth and to express God!

Our Coordination as Living Creatures is not in Ourselves but in God and by His Grace

How do the four living creatures coordinate with one another? As seen in Ezek. 1:9, 11, they coordinate by means of their wings; each has four wings, two of which cover their body, and the other two are joined to the others.

The wings of an eagle in the Bible signify the grace and power of God; the four living creatures are not arranged in a line but in a square, being joined by the wings, showing us that our coordination as living creatures should be not in ourselves but in the Lord and by the grace of God.

How can we coordinate together? It is by denying ourselves, rejecting ourselves, and even regarding ourselves as nothing, so that we may trust in the grace of God and His power to work in everything and for everything.

There’s nothing in ourselves that can coordinate with others; our coordination is only in God and by His divine power.

We need to wait on the Lord and we will sprout wings like eagles; we will run and not stumble, and we will be coordinated with others (Isa. 40:31). Paul testified that it was by the grace of God that he labored so much (1 Cor. 15:10), and the grace of God was sufficient to him even in his suffering (2 Cor. 12:9).

The eagles’ wings are the resurrection power of Christ becoming our grace; they are God’s power in life becoming our grace. How can we coordinate? It is by enjoying the Lord. Without enjoying the Lord, we cannot coordinate with others; our coordination is in and by the grace of God, that is, in our enjoyment of God in Christ as grace.

The coordination of the four living creatures is not in ourselves but in God by the divine power, the divine strength, and the divine grace, because the eagle’s wings are the means by which they are coordinated and move as one.

God Himself is the coordinating factor that enables all the parts of the divine building to be one. We see this in Exo. 26:29-30, where the overlaying gold together with the crossing bars overlaid with gold hold the boards together and makes them one in the tabernacle of God.

How can we be one and coordinate together? It is only in God, that is, in love (for God lis love – see 1 John 4:8; 2 Tim. 1:6-7; 1 Cor. 12:31; 13:5, 7). Love is the nature of God’s essence; without God as our coordinating factor, there’s no coordination.

The church is a home to raise us up in love, a hospital to heal and recover us in love, and a school to teach us and edify us in the truth – in love. God didn’t give us a spirit of cowardice but of power and of love and of sobermindedness; we need to exercise our spirit of love so that we may use the most excellent way to do and be anything in the Body.

Whatever we are in ourselves, have in ourselves, and do in ourselves results not in coordination but in division and separation (see Phil. 3:3; Rom. 8:16). Therefore, we should not trust in ourselves or in the flesh but always have the attitude that we could be wrong when we fellowship with others.

God Himself is our power and strength, and it is by this divine power that we coordinate together. The wings of an eagle are not only for moving but also for protection; whatever we do and whatever we are must be by the grace of the Lord and the power of the Lord. Our boasting is in the grace of God, in which we have conducted ourselves in this world.

Even when we are in situations of suffering, we shouldn’t trust ourselves or base our confidence in our natural ability to find a solution; we should trust in the grace of God. We are under the overshadowing, the covering, of God’s grace and the Lord’s power (see Psa. 17:8; 57:1; 63:7; 91:4; 2 Cor. 12:9b).

We need to ask the Lord to guard us as the pupil of His eye, and we need to hide under the shadow of His wings.

As living creatures, we look like a man (Ezek. 1:5) but we move like an eagle: we should always express ourselves like a normal man, but the moving and overshadowing wings should give others an impression of the Divine Being.

We trust in the Lord, we rely on His grace, we enjoy Him, and our coordination is in His grace, by His enjoyment; therefore, others will get an impression that, even though we are normal men in appearance, we have God with us as our power and protection.

Lord Jesus, we admit that in ourselves we can’t coordinate with others. We trust not in ourselves but in You, waiting on You and enjoying You so that we do everything by the divine power, the divine strength, and the divine grace. Oh Lord, You are the coordinating factor among us, and You enable us to be one with all the saints for Your building. Keep us enjoying You together with the saints so that we may be filled with love for the saints and thus be built together in love. Lord, guard us like the pupil of Your eye. Overshadow us with Your grace. Keep us enjoying You. We trust in You and not in our ability to find a solution.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ezekiel, msg. 8 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (1), msg. 4 (week 4), The Coordination of the Four Living Creatures.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # The living creatures joined, / Connected by their wings, / In four directions fly, / And God’s expression bring. / Lord as Your move today / As living creatures, we / Your radiance would express, / And Your authority. (Song on the four living creatures)
  # All the saints of Christ are / Members every one; / All coordinating / Into oneness come. (Hymns #854)
  # Trust Him for the grace sufficient, / Ever equal to thy need; / Trust Him always for the answer, / When in His dear name you plead. / Trust Him for the grace to conquer, / He is able to subdue; / Trust Him for the power for service; / Trust Him for the blessing too. (Hymns #647)