The Word of God is Still Growing for the Increase of Christ, God’s Corporate Vessel

Today we believers in Christ live in the continuation of the book of Acts, for God is working, Christ is working, and the Holy Spirit is working in the believers in Christ; the word of God is still growing and being multiplied for the increase of Christ so that God may gain a corporate expression, the Body of Christ. Amen!

How blessed we are to see that we are now living not only in the outward human history but even more, we are one with the Lord to live in the inward divine history!

Yes, there are many events and things happening outwardly, but we seek the Lord, we love Him, and we want to be one with Him to write His history today by enjoying Christ and expressing Christ. Amen!

We don’t want to merely live in what others also see, the situation in the society we are in, the flood of dissoluteness that all men are caught in, and even the degradation in the church that is so prevailing today.

We want to be the vessels that God uses today for His work so that He may advance His economy.

We believers in Christ have been caught by the Lord through the gospel; we saw something of the most wonderful One, Jesus Christ, and now we are captured by Him.

We simply love Him. Everything in our Christian life is related to Christ, and He is involved in everything. As we do this and that, we talk to the Lord, we open to Him, and we allow Him to make His home in our heart.

This divine history is the history of God in man and with man; it is an inward history.

The divine history within the human history is the continuation of the book of Acts, for Christ now lives not merely in the flesh as He did in the Gospels but even more, He lives in all His believers!

We all are the mystery of God today, the mystery of the Triune God in humanity.

God wants to be intimately related to man; in the Old Testament, the divine history was the history of God with man, but in the New Testament it is the history of God in man.

In the Old Testament God could move only with man, for He could not enter man; however, we today as believers in Christ can receive Christ, be filled with Christ, and be one with Christ to continue the history of God in man!

The Father is working, Christ is working, and the Holy Spirit is working to accomplish God’s economy; we today are in the process of being one with God to be His vessels for Him to carry out His work.

We open our vessel to the Lord to be filled with Him, and we allow Him to move in us, work in us, and gain in us what He is after.

In the Continuation of Acts, the Word of God is Still Growing and being Multiplied for the Increase of Christ

May the Lord grant us light to see the truth concerning what God is doing today. May we realise that God today is after a corporate expression of Himself, the Triune God, wrought into man to be one with man and expressed through man. Amen!

And He obtains this vessel by means of His divine spreading, dispensing, and propagation.

Just as in the book of Acts, the work of the Holy Spirit today is to preach Christ for His propagation, multiplication and spread through the believers in Christ.

Today Christ as the Spirit preaches the gospel in and through the believers in Christ, the many disciples of Christ, so that God would gain a corporate expression of Himself, the increase of Christ.

This work of the Holy Spirit was not yet completed, and needs to be continued for a long period of time.

Thank the Lord that today the word of God is still growing and being multiplied for the increase of Christ (Acts 6:7; 12:24; 19:20). The Word of God grows. The word of God is multiplied.

Christ is increased and multiplied today. This means that the gospel is preached and even more, we believers in Christ grow in life.

The word of God is a matter of life that grows in us, for the word of God as a seed is sown into man’s heart for the increase of Christ, the growth of God within us (Mark 4:14; Col. 2:19).

On the one hand, the work of the Holy Spirit in and through the believers is to preach Christ as the gospel to propagate, multiply, and increase Christ so that many sons of God may be produced (Rom. 8:29) to be the many members of the Body of Christ to constitute His Body (12:5) for the carrying out of God’s eternal plan and the fulfillment of His eternal will.

This is revealed in detail in the twenty-one Epistles and the book of Revelation, the books following Acts.

On the other hand, the work of the Holy Spirit is not only to preach the gospel but also to produce the church as the Body of Christ, the increase of Christ, the multiplication of Christ, for God to obtain a corporate expression of Himself.

The gospel preached in the book of Acts is Christ as the gospel (Acts 5:42), the gospel of Christ; it is also the kingdom of God as the gospel (8:12), the gospel of the kingdom of God.

This gospel needs to be preached in the whole inhabited earth until the consummation of this age (Matt. 24:14), and it will continue and advance until the whole earth becomes the kingdom of Christ (Rev. 11:15).

This gospel is preached for a testimony, and many believe into the Lord to become sons of God and members of the Body of Christ.

Thank the Lord that the word of God grows and is multiplied today; this refers to the increase of Christ in numbers.

Christ as the gospel is preached, and He increases in many human beings, and many are added to the church.

The multiplication of the disciples depends on the growth of the word. The word of God needs to grow and multiply among us! God doesn’t grow in Himself, but He grows in us; we need to grow with the growth of God day by day.

Today there are new disciples added to the Lord to become parts of Christ, the members of Christ (Acts 5:14; 11:24; Rom. 15:16). As the word grows, new believers are added to the church; they become parts of Christ, members of the Body of Christ.

We all are labouring priests of the gospel, offering to God the newly saved believers as acceptable spiritual sacrifices to God for Him to be satisfied. Praise the Lord!

Not only is the Spirit working but we also cooperate with the Spirit, for the Spirit works in us and through us.

We are being built together into a holy priesthood (1 Pet. 2:5) to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God; the sinners saved by our gospel preaching are these spiritual sacrifices, and they become members of the Body of Christ.

As priests, our function doesn’t stop with preaching the gospel; we also need to care for those whom we help believe into the Lord.

We need to shepherd them and care for them in love so that they would offer themselves as a living sacrifice to God for the building up of the church in the church life today (Rom. 12:1-2).

We need to feed, cherish, and care for the new believers until we can present them full-grown in Christ (Col. 1:28-29).

May we cooperate with the Lord day by day for Him to gain an increase in man, that is, for Christ to be increased in humanity so that God may gain His corporate expression!

Hallelujah, the word of God is still growing and being multiplied today for the increase of Christ! Amen, Lord, thank You for continuing to work as the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel in and through the believers in Christ. May You gain many vessels who cooperate with You for the gospel preaching so that God may gain an increase. Praise the Lord, the work of the Holy Spirit in preaching Christ is for His propagation, multiplication, and spread through the believers of Christ! Amen, Lord, may this work continue today. Grow in our heart as the Word. Increase in us and grant us to grow with the growth of God. May the word of God be multiplied so that many would be added to the Lord! Amen, Lord, flow in us and through us for the increase of Christ, for Christ to gain a corporate expression of Himself in the church! May many disciples be added to the Lord to become parts of Christ, members of the Body of Christ, for His corporate expression!

God is after a Corporate Vessel to Express and Shine Him forth – we need to See and Live the Body Life Today

In the book of Acts we see a lot of preaching the gospel for the increase of Christ. But this is not the goal; the goal is not to get everyone saved and spared from eternal perdition. The goal is the church as the Body of Christ.

The evangelistic work of the Holy Spirit through the believers in Christ is for Christ’s propagation, multiplication, and spread.

According to His New Testament economy, God desires to produce many sons for God (Rom. 8:29) to be the many members of the Body of Christ for His corporate expression.

This is what He wanted to gain in the book of Acts and in all the Epistles, and this is what He desires to gain today (Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:13). He wants to obtain a corporate vessel that shines Him forth, expressing Him in His glory to the whole universe.

Today this vessel is the church; the church is not an individual person but a corporate person.

For us to be in the continuation of the book of Acts, we need to realise that God is after a corporate vessel to express and shine Him forth; therefore, we need to see the Body and live the Body life today.

Unless we see the Body and give ourselves to the Lord to be in the reality of the Body today, we are useless in the Lord’s hands.

He doesn’t want to merely gain many “churches” based on theologies or doctrines; He wants to gain “the church”, the Body of Christ, the increase of Christ, for His corporate expression.

Since God is after a corporate vessel for His expression, we as the children of God must be brought into the awareness of the Body of Christ and learn to live the Body life today.

The churches don’t only need to be golden; they need to be shining! If there is a church composed of the believers in Christ, that church needs to be shining as the golden lampstand in that locality.

The churches are the golden lampstands because golden lampstands shine and enlighten.

As the word of God grows and is multiplied among us in the church life, as we live one spirit with the Lord and remain in His word with a prayerful attitude, we become shining corporately.

May the Lord gain this among us; may He gain a golden shining lampstand that expresses Him and represents Him.

There must be the shining for God and the testimony for Him before the church can be considered the lampstand.

May we see that God is after this corporate, shining vessel, a vessel of testimony, and may we live in the reality of the Body of Christ today (Rom. 12:1-5; 1 Cor. 12:12; Rev. 1:10-12).

We need to have the consciousness of the Body, the protection of the Body, and the life in the Body in everything that we do and say.

May we live according to the principles of the Body; otherwise, we are useless in the Lord’s hand, and we can never fulfil His goal.

But when we live the Body life, when we are built up with the saints in the Body, the Lord has a way to obtain the vessel of testimony, the shining testimony of Christ, which He is after today.

This is a corporate vessel; therefore, we need to learn to live the Body life. For us to live the life of the Body, we need to deny the natural life and be judged and dealt with by God in a deep way.

We need to learn obedience toward God and our fellow members, and we also need to learn fellowship. May the Lord keep us in the continuation of the book of Acts as we live the Body life in the local churches today.

Lord Jesus, unveil us to see that God is after a corporate, shining vessel for His expression today! Amen, Lord, gain a vessel of testimony today in us and among us. May we all be brought to the awareness of the Body of Christ and learn to live the Body life in the church life. Grow in us, Lord. Grow in us a little more today. May Your word grow and be multiplied among us. Grant us to learn to live in the reality of the Body of Christ today so that You may gain a corporate expression of Yourself. Oh Lord, we are willing to deny the natural life and accept the dealings we need in order to live in the Body life. It is Your desire to gain the church as the Body of Christ in reality; we give ourselves to You for this! Amen, Lord, may we learn obedience and fellowship. May we learn to live in the Body and for the Body, keeping all the principles of the Body. Amen, Lord, gain the reality of the Body of Christ in the local churches today!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers, and portions from, Life-study of Acts, msgs. 55, 70-72 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, One Accord and Crucial Aspects of the Book of Acts (2025 April ITERO), week 1, The Continuation of the Book of Acts— the Corporate Continuation of Christ.
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  – Not the individual Christians, / but a corporate entity— / God must have it for His full expression now; / Not just individual churches but the Body corporately— / Hallelujah, we are in the Body now! / Hallelujah for the Body! / Satan trembles at the Body! / We’re victorious in the Body! / Hallelujah, we are in the Body now! (Hymns #1226 stanza 2 and chorus)