One of the most central matters in our Christian life and the desire of God’s heart is the church as the Body of Christ.
These following weeks on the blog we will enjoy and dive into the matter of the Vision, Practice, and Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ (based on the word of, the 2014 Fall International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones, and the ministry of the age opening up the deeper matters in the Bible).
Many of us believers know what the church is, and we grasp concepts such as the practice of the church, the vision of the church, and the building up of the church.
In order for the Lord to speak something fresh to us concerning what the church is to Him, we need to be emptied in spirit, not be laden or preoccupied with concepts or doctrines, and not be presumptuous that we know and have no need of getting into this matter again.
We need the Lord’s speaking again and again; we need to get into the word of God and be open to the Lord so that He may come to us and speak to us concerning the church as the Body of Christ, the most central matter in God’s heart.
The first and foremost qualification of being an elder is that we must know what the church is to God (see, Elders’ Management of the Church, ch. 1). Regardless how much we love the Lord and how zealous or spiritual we are, if we don’t see what the church is to God, we are not qualified to care for others, and we will rather damage the Body of Christ than help building it up.
We need to focus not mainly on the outward things like the practices we have in the church life, the way we do things, etc, but focus on the essence of the church, what the church is in God’s heart, and be governed by a clear vision of the church in God’s economy.
Then, we need to apply this vision to our daily living so that we may live Christ for the church and become a pattern to those around us.
In regards to the church, there are three main items in the economy of God: the church must have the full sonship for God to be expressed, through the church God’s multifarious wisdom is made known to the enemy, and God wants to head up all things in Christ through the church.
Three Main Items of God’s Purpose for the Church
There are many aspects of the church; there are many practical things about the church; there are many statuses of the church; and there are many characteristics of what the church is.
But today we want to see the three main items concerning the church in the economy of God. These items are colossal, and they will be developed throughout the weeks; today I just want to mention them and overflow with something of my enjoyment concerning them.
1. The Church must have the Full Sonship to Express God Corporately
God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love, and He predestinated us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will (Eph. 1:4-5).
This word, sonship, is not “adoption”; we were not adopted by God as “His adopted sons”, but we were regenerated by God with His divine life and nature to be sons of God (John 1:12-13).
The sonship includes the birth, the growth, and the birthright. First of all, only those born of God can have the sonship; only through regeneration can we receive the sonship. By having the life of God we receive the sonship.
However, we need to go on and grow in life so that we may have the birthright and enjoy the sonship. There’s a difference between being a child and being an heir: children need an overseer, a child-conductor, but heirs enjoy all the benefits of the sonship (see Rom. 8:14-17).
In order for us to enjoy the sonship and express God corporately, we need to be born of God and grow in the divine life unto maturity. God can be fully expressed through His sons who are fully mature in the divine life.
Through regeneration we have received the divine life and nature, and through growth in life unto maturity we partake of all that God is, has, and has planned and accomplished, so that God can gain a corporate expression.
Just as a son is the expression of his father, so we as the many sons of God, the sonship, are becoming the corporate expression of the Triune God by regeneration and growth in life unto maturity.
Thank You, o God, for choosing us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before You in love. Thank You for predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Yourself. Lord, we want to grow in life unto maturity day by day so that we may not only have the life of God but be mature heirs to express God corporately. Lord Jesus, gain Your corporate expression on the earth through the the church having the full sonship!
2. Through the Church God’s Multifarious Wisdom is made know to the Enemy
Positively, the church in God’s economy has the sonship to express God in His image through the growth in life of all the believers in Christ. Negatively, it is through the church that God can deal with His enemy and can show His multifarious wisdom to Satan.
In Eph. 3 we see how God wants to subdue His enemy through the church and to express His multifarious wisdom through the church. Satan is so troublesome, but God is not bothered by him; it is because of such a one that God can show forth His wisdom.
If we have a car and have no problems with it, we merely enjoy driving it here and there; but if the car has some problems, our wisdom is being displayed in our doing our best to repair it and take care of the problem.
God’s multifarious wisdom is displayed to the enemy through the church, and God deals with His enemy not directly but through the church. Thus, the church becomes God’s poem, His wise exhibition of all that Christ is (Eph. 3:10; 2:10; 1 Cor. 1:30) on the positive side, and on the negative side the church deals with God’s enemy and displays His multifarious wisdom.
Don’t be bothered too much by the problems and sufferings that Satan brings about; simply enjoy the Lord, grow in life, be built up with the saints, and be assured that, through the church, God will deal with Satan.
Hallelujah, it is through us, the sinners who were redeemed and regenerated by Him, that God is doing an amazing work in the universe: He is obtaining a masterpiece, a poem, to display His wisdom and infinite design!
Lord Jesus, thank You for the church, Your wise exhibition of all that Christ is. Keep us enjoying all that You are, all You have done, and all You have accomplished so that we as the church may become Your poem, Your wise exhibition of all that Christ is. Lord, may Your multifarious wisdom be made known to Your enemy through the built up church. Build up Your church so that all may know Your multifarious wisdom and infinite design!
3. Through the Church God will Head up all Things in Christ
The church has the sonship to express God corporately (positively) and it is through the church that God deals with His enemy and makes know His multifarious wisdom (negatively). Also, God’s purpose is to head up all things in Christ through the church.
On the one hand, God wants to be expressed – and He does so through the church having the sonship. On the other hand, God wants to deal with His enemy – and He does so through the church expressing God’s multifarious wisdom and dealing with Satan.
Toward the creation, however, God wants to head up ALL things in Christ – the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him (see Eph. 1:10, 19-23). It is through the church that God can head up all things in Christ.
When the believers in Christ take the lead to be headed up in Christ by taking Him as their Head, Lord, and Master, they give God a way to head up all things in Christ.
Man was the head of all creation; due to the fall of man, the entire universe is right now in a state of collapse. The earth, the nature, the animals, and all things are subjected to the corruption of slavery until the head of creation, man, is being recovered back to be under God completely.
The whole creation is eagerly waiting and expecting the revelation of the sons of God so that it may be released from the bondage of corruption. Through our growth in life unto maturity and through being headed up in Christ, God has a way to head up all things in Christ through the church.
God’s intention to head up all things universally in Christ is fulfilled through the church in God’s economy.
Lord Jesus, head us up in You in all things. We take You as our Lord, King, and Master, and we enthrone You in our being. Lord, we want to take the lead as the head of creation to be headed up in You as the church so that the whole creation may be headed up in Christ. Lord, head us up in You today. Head up all Your believers and head up the church for the purpose of heading up all things in Christ through the church!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Minoru Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, God’s Purpose for the Church (by Witness Lee), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision, Practice, and Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, week 1 / msg 1, God’s Purpose for the Church (1) To Have the Divine Sonship in Full through Sanctification for the Corporate Expression of God.
- Picture credit for Ephesians 2:10 and more spiritual quotes via, Christian Pictures Blog.
- Hymns on this topic:
# By divine regeneration / We the sons of God became, / But we must mature to fullness, / Thus the birthright to obtain. (Hymns #741)
# The Lord chose you to be a part / Of His great plan, His work of art. / What wonder! What a privilege! / To satisfy / His yearning to share all He is— / Divine, unsearchable riches! / What wisdom, multifarious expressed! (Song on the Church)
# In His Christ to head up all things / Is our God’s economy; / Taking Christ as Head and Center, / All is one in harmony. (Hymns #981)
About aGodMan
What an amazing and sweet song on the church as the desire of God’s heart, the goal of God’s purpose, and the Bride!
Here’s the youtube song with lyrics
1. Don’t you want to know your God?
What’s hidden in His heart for you?
How much He longs for you to come
And open up—
To let Him in to every part
Let Him reveal what’s on His heart
What was the joy set before Him?
Chorus: It was for her, the church — His Bride
It was for her, willingly He died
She is the joy deep in His heart
His masterpiece—
His counterpart.
2. The Lord chose you to be a part
Of His great plan, His work of art.
What wonder! What a privilege—
To satisfy—
His yearning to share all He is—
Divine, unsearchable riches!
What wisdom, multifarious expressed?
3. As we enjoy and enter in—
To all He is then well begin—
To understand the feeling in
His heart toward us.
What love that motivated Him!
To come to us, despite our sin
Why did He go and sell all that He had?
And here’s more singing from many other saints. Praise the Lord! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGPDauehnG8
God is waiting for you!
I was nourished and encouraged this week by reading the articles from the morning revival messages. Especially to see in Ephesians 1:4-5 that,” He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love, predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will”.
It is the Spirit that sanctifies us, making us holy! In Romans 15:16 Paul said that, “I should be a minister of Christ Jesus unto the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit”. Furthermore, 2Corinthians 3:17 says that,” The Lord is the Spirit and were the Lord’s Spirit is here is freedom. I thank the Lord that He came as the Spirit to sanctify us. From the day I accepted Christ into my heart, the Lord as the Spirit came into my being and I was set free from the bondage of the world, the power of sin and death that operated within my being. I entered into another realm of the anointing Spirit and was instantly transferred into the kingdom of God. Unless we are born of the Spirit and water we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. (John 3:5). I knew that from that day onward I was delivered out of the authority of darkness into the kingdom of God. Colossians 1:13 says, “It is God who has delivered us out of the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us into the Kingdom of His dearly-loved Son”.
Furthermore, in 1 Peter 1:1, Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ says that, “We are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure”. Praise the Lord, not only are we saved and transferred positional into the Kingdom of God but the sanctifying work of the Spirit is today is still operating within us to further sanctify us through regeneration, renewing, transformation and conforming us into the image of Christ until eventually we will be completely sanctified by the redemption of our body through transfiguration.
We His chosen ones are made His sons by the sanctifying work of the Spirit. From the day we open our heart to the Lord to receive Him as the Spirit within our human spirit and upon having being regenerated; we begin to experience all these aspects of sanctification. In one of the articles of the morning revival we saw that we are, “being sanctified by the Spirit unto sonship and growing in the life of Christ”. The article said that, “we need to grow in life by the exercising of our spirit and by properly being nourished in the Spirit by reading the Bible, pray reading the bible, listening to messages that minister life and truth and coming to the meetings”. I can truly testify that today the Lord is leading many Saints to practice this on a daily basis. Every day we are being nourished by the sanctifying Spirit and enjoy all the blessings of the Spirit by coming to the meetings, listening to messages, pray-reading, prayer, and reading the bible.
All these activities are life practices that we normally practice every day. As we take in Christ’s word we receive the Spirit and life and we are being sanctified dispositional and experience the aforementioned processes or stages of sanctification. It is such a normal process to be sanctified by the Spirit and grow in life, becoming the many mature sons of God that the Lord is waiting for.
God’s eternal purpose and His intention is to have many sons in a corporate way. Romans 8:19 tells us that,” the whole creation is waiting for the revelation and glorification of the sons of God. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it”.
Today, we, many believers are being sanctified daily by normal Christian practices such as, the exercising of our spirit, contacting the Lord, the anointing Spirit in the word, through prayer, listening to messages that are minister life and truth, and going to the meetings. Every day as we practice this, we are strengthened, enlightened and freed from our old self and Adam’s nature to be transformed and conformed into the image of Christ. He becomes our life and imparts his holy life and nature within our being daily. A daily process through which we’re being sanctified and every part of our being spirit, soul and body is being transformed and conformed to His image.
Romans 8: 4 says, “That …we walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”. And Romans 8:14 says that those who are led by the Spirit are the Sons of God. In Ephesians 5:25 we see that, “Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
In order to recover and maintain such a testimony in our locality we need to continue to walk, live and be led according to the Spirit. In Revelation 2:3-5, we see that, the believers had perseverance and had endured for His name’s sake, and had not grown weary. But the Lord had something against them. They had left their first love and therefore should remember from where they had fallen, and repent and do the deeds they did at first; Otherwise, He would be coming to them and remove their lampstand out of its place! It is tragic to see that in this local church, the believers in Christ, no longer gave the Lord their first love or the preeminence within their hearts.
Ephesians 3:16-17 tells us that, “ He would grant us according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in our hearts through faith so that we can be rooted and grounded in love”. We not only need to grow in life but let Him make Himself at home into all of our hearts. It is by this way that we continually keep on growing up in God and growing up in Christ the Head in all things. Ephesians 4:14 says, ”That we may be no longer children tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching in the sleight of men, in craftiness with a view to a system of error, but holding to truth, in love that we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ. To grow up into Him in all things is to give Him the preeminence in our hearts. Growing up by allowing Him to be leading us daily as the Head and walk according to the Spirit. Only then will we keep the testimony of Jesus wherever we meet with all the overcomers, the sons of God to fulfill God’s desire and purpose here on earth. Amen