It is crucial for us in the church life to keep the oneness of the Spirit by practicing the one accord. In John 17:21 the Lord prayed and aspired that all His believers would be one; He then later became the Spirit in His resurrection and breathed Himself into the disciples and then poured Himself out upon them to be the reality of the oneness, as they prayed in one accord.
The one accord is the landmark that divides the Gospels and the book of Acts; when the one hundred twenty prayed in one accord, the Lord poured out the Spirit and a great increase of Christ ensued. When we have a prevailing one accord, there will be a wonderful increase of Christ.
If we mean business with the Lord in His recovery and move, we must take care of the one accord. If we read the book of Acts we see that the disciples had the one accord in the beginning, but then later this one accord was lost; the one accord as the master key to all of God’s blessings in the New Testament needs to be practiced among us today.
How can we have the one accord? It is by paying attention to one thing: God’s economy with Christ as its centrality and universality! And this Christ is in our spirit today!
When we exercise our spirit, turn to the Lord, and touch Him, we draw from the deposit of oneness, and we have a way to experience the one accord. We already have the oneness of the Spirit; we simply need to keep it by practicing the one accord.
The impact and the prevailing increase of Christ is present when the saints are in one accord by focusing on the eternal economy of God and pursuing Christ as everything.
The content of God’s eternal economy is Christ; God’s economy is concerning Christ in the stage of incarnation (to bring God into man, express God, and accomplish redemption), inclusion (to become a life-giving Spirit who is compounded with all His accomplishments, to regenerate the believers and produce the churches), and intensification (to become sevenfold intensified as the seven Spirits for the producing of the overcomers and the consummation of the New Jerusalem).
God’s desire is to have a recovery purely and wholly of the person of Christ!
Thinking and Speaking the One Thing: Pursuing, Gaining, and Possessing Christ!
In Phil. 2:2 Paul encouraged the believers to make his joy full that they would think the same thing, having the same love, being joined in soul, thinking the ONE thing; this “one thing” he speaks of refers to the subjective knowledge and experience of Christ.
The one thing we should think, speak, and pursue is the pursuing of Christ to gain Him, lay hold of Him, and possess Him (Phil. 1:20-21; 2:5; 3:7-14; 4:13).
In order for us to have the one accord we simply need to pursue Christ, be subjectively involved with Him in every instance and in all things, taking care of the subjective experience of Christ so that the one accord would rise up and be practiced among us.
Christ and Christ alone should be the centrality and universality of our entire being (see Col. 1:17-18); He is the first One, He’s the preeminent One, and He is everything to us. As we take care of Christ as the One who is everything in God’s economy, he becomes everything to us as our centrality and universality, and we have the one accord.
Paul pursued this one thing, and he wanted the believers to also think and pursue this one thing; when Paul and the believers pursued this same thing, the one accord was evident and demonstrable.
We have not obtained nor are we perfected already, but we pursue, so that we may lay hold of that for which we have been laid of by Christ Jesus; we do not account of ourselves to have laid hold, but ONE THING: we forget the things behind and we stretch to the things which are before to pursue toward the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called us upward (Phil. 3:12-14).
By caring for the subjective experience of Christ and the excellent knowledge of this wonderful indwelling person, we reach the goal and gain the prize individually, and we practice the one accord corporately.
May we be those like Mary, choosing the good part by taking care of one thing: sitting at the Lord’s feet, listening to Him, being infused with His intention and feeling, and partaking of Him (see Luke 10:41-42). As we position ourselves at the Lord’s feet, partaking of Hi gaze, we have Him infuse us with revelation and the impartation of Himself; the result is that we are in one accord with Him and with others.
Like the Psalmist, we need to ask and seek for ONE THING from the Lord: to dwell in His house all the days of our life to behold the beauty of Jehovah and to enquire in His temple (Psa. 27:4).
We need to be the group of loving seekers who lovingly pursue the Lord to gain Him, lay hold of Him, and possess Him; when we are in this way, the Lord will have the one accord practiced among us.
May we no longer neglect our spirit but contact the Lord, pay attention to the excellent knowledge of Christ, and participate in the one accord so that the new man would come forth on the earth!
Lord Jesus, we want to think, speak, and pursue the one thing: the pursuing of Christ to gain Him, lay hold of Him, and possess Him! We want to pay attention to the subjective knowledge and experience of Christ, having Him as the centrality and universality of our entire being. Oh Lord, may our thinking be focused on the excellency of the knowledge and experience of Christ so that we may have the one accord! We are not perfected neither did we obtain it, but we want to forget all things that are behind and stretch forward to pursue and gain Christ to the uttermost!
Keeping the Oneness of the Spirit by Practicing the One Accord in the Church Life
In the Body we need oneness; in the churches and among the churches, we need the one accord. The one accord is for our practice; the oneness is primarily for the actuality, for the fact. In John 17 the Lord Jesus prayed for such a fact, and on the day of Pentecost, by pouring out Himself as the consummated Spirit, He accomplished His prayer. That was the actuality of the oneness. After the accomplishment of the actuality of the oneness, there is the need for the practice of the oneness. When the oneness is practiced, it becomes the one accord. The one accord is the practice of the oneness. (Witness Lee, The Intrinsic Problem in the Lord’s Recovery Today and Its Scriptural Remedy, pp. 23-24)
In John 17 the Lord Jesus uttered His aspiration and prayer for the oneness, then He became the Spirit and poured Himself out as the actuality of the oneness; now all believers in Christ have the oneness in their spirit, and they simply need to keep the oneness.
How do we keep the oneness of the Spirit, the oneness of the Body? It is by practicing the one accord. The Lord prayed concerning the oneness in John 17, and He led us to practice the one accord in Matt. 18:19.
We need to keep the oneness of the Spirit, the oneness of the Body, by practicing the one accord in the church life today. The oneness is of the Body, which is universal, and the one accord is practiced in the local churches.
When we pray with the saints in the prayer meeting, we need to say Amen! to their prayers, agreeing with them in spirit; also, our prayers need to have the Amen! of the saints, so that we may pray in one accord.
If two or three on earth pray in one accord, their prayer will be answered; when we practice the one accord in prayer, we apply the oneness and the Lord has a way to bless and increase. In order for us to keep the oneness, to apply the oneness, to use the oneness, to enjoy the oneness, and to spend the oneness, we need to practice the one accord.
We need to exercise our spirit and pray in oneness with the saints especially in the prayer meeting; if there are no Amens to indicate our one accord, we should not expect that our prayer will be heard. But if we seek to be one with the saints, being joined in spirit and in soul, we will practice the one accord and the Lord will have a way to bless us with the increase of Christ.
We need to practice the one accord among the saints in our locality where the Lord has placed us, and we also need to practice the one accord among all the churches universally in the blending of the Body of Christ.
Personally, we need to pursue Christ, enjoy Him, gain Him, seek Him, and desire to obtain Him and experience Him so that we may be in one accord with Him; corporately, we need to keep the oneness of the Spirit (which we already have) by practicing the one accord in the church life and in the blending of the Body of Christ.
May we be those who practice the oneness of the Spirit in the church life so that we may have the one accord which brings in the Lord’s blessing!
Lord Jesus, we want to keep the oneness, apply the oneness, and enjoy the oneness of the Spirit by practicing the one accord. Thank You for the oneness of the Spirit which we have and we need to keep. Lord, perfect us into one so that our prayer may be in one accord and thus bring in Your blessing for the increase of Christ! We want to take the oneness of the Body as the basis and practice the one accord in the church life and in the blending of the Body so that You may have an increase in man!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother R.S. for this week, and portions from The Intrinsic Problem in the Lord’s Recovery Today and Its Scriptural Remedy, ch. 2 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Increase of Christ for the Building up of the Church (2016 Memorial day Weekend Conference), week 4 / msg. 4, The Increase of Christ for the Increase and Spread of the Church through the One Accord with Prayer, the Spirit, the Word, and the Homes.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# We are one in the spirit, yet it goes deeper still, / For this oneness is spreading to our mind, emotion, will, / As we all stand together that His purpose He fulfill. (Hymns #1243)
# We are one as people of the Lord; / We declare that we are really one! / Not just word, but life in one accord / Testify what God in us hath done. (Hymns #1108)
# Here we will stay, Lord, according to Your plan, / For here in the church life we’re one; / And we will be built up to be the corp’rate man / To consummate the New Jerusalem. (Song on being one)
About aGodMan
According to the context of Philippians, the one thing here must refer to the subjective knowledge and experience of Christ (1:20-21; 2:5; 3:7-9; 4:13). Christ, and Christ alone, should be the centrality and universality of our entire being. Our thinking should be focused on the excellency of the knowledge and experience of Christ. Focusing on anything else causes us to think differently, thus creating dissensions among us. (Phil. 2:2, footnote 6, Recovery Version Bible)