God’s Will is to have the Church as the Body of Christ: Live Corporately in the Body

God’s will is to have the church as the Body of Christ for His fullness, His expression, with Christ as the Head of the Body and the believers as the members of the Body who grow in life with the growth of God for the building up of the Body of Christ.

Lord Jesus, may we see and realise that the will of God is the church, the Body of Christ. Save us from living an individualistic life. Save us from not being properly built up and coordinated in the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord, we want to live one spirit with You in all things and in fellowship and coordination with the members of the Body! May we all live in the reality of the Body of Christ for the building up of the Body, God’s corporate expression! Amen!

Everything exists today and even we ourselves were created for the will of God. We are here not for our own will, desire, and purpose, but according to God’s will, for His desire, and for the fulfilment of His purpose.

We believers in Christ need to see what is the will of God and we need to live a life for the fulfilment of the will of God.

Many will come to the Lord on the day of judgment and tell Him, Lord, we have done this and that great work in Your name! And the Lord will tell them, Depart from Me, workers of lawlessness, I never knew you; you did not do the will of the Father.

We can do many things for God, yet not do the will of God the Father. According to Colossians, the will of God is Christ; the will of God is concentrated in Christ and is related to Christ.

We need to see Christ, enjoy Christ, and experience Christ. If we pay attention to anything or anyone else besides Christ, the Father is not satisfied, for He delights in Christ.

He only wants Christ; He wants His Christ to become our everything, our all in all. He has given us Christ as our allotted portion with the saints in the light, and now we need to enjoy, experience, know, and be saturated with Christ.

Day by day, starting from the morning, we need to contact the Lord in His word to enjoy Him. In all things, we need give Christ the preeminence, and we need to take Him as our person and as our life.

May we be Christ-centered Christians, those who pay attention to Christ and give Him the first place in all things! Amen!

Both personally, in our personal time with the Lord, and corporately, when we come together with the saints, we need to focus on Christ and give Him the first place in all things.

God’s Will is to have the Church as the Body of Christ to be His Fullness, His Expression

God’s will is to have the church as the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:9; Col. 1:18; 2:19; 3:15). In other words, the will of God is Christ and the church.

First, we need to see Christ and enjoy Christ, and this Christ will lead us to the church.

In Matthew 16 the Lord Jesus unveiled to us the church; after the revelation of Christ as the Head of the Body, we see the church as the Body of Christ.

When we receive the revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we will also see that He is the Head and we are the Body, for God’s will is to have the church as the Body of Christ.

The Father reveals the Son and the Son reveals the church. The Father reveals the Head, and the Head reveals the Body.

The will of God is to obtain a Body for Christ to be His fullness, His expression (Rom. 12:2, 5; Eph. 1:5, 9, 11, 22-23; 4:16).

In Romans 12:2 we are told that we can prove what is the will of God, that which is good and well-pleasing and perfect; in the context of this chapter, the will of God is the church as the Body of Christ.

When we live the Body life, we prove what the will of God is (Rom. 12:2, 4-5).

On the personal side, we need to not be fashioned according to this age but be transformed by the renewing of the mind; this is for the corporate side, which is the church as the Body of Christ.

Just as in one body we have many members and all the members of the Body do not have the same function, so we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

May we present our physical body (v. 1) for the mystical Body of Christ (v. 5).

When we consecrate our whole being, spirit, soul, and body, for the Body life, we will see, discern, and prove by testing that the will of God is to obtain a Body for Christ to be His fullness and expression.

God has only one will, not many; His will is nothing less than to have the church, a Body for His Son.

If we see this, if we realise that God’s will is to have the church as the Body of Christ, we will give up everything for the will of God.

We will realise that, if we want to be proper persons in God’s economy, proper believers in Christ who live a life for God’s purpose, we need to be members in the Body and do all things in the Body.

If we are proper members of the Body, acting and functioning in the church life, we will be persons in the will of God (1 Cor. 1:1-2; Eph. 1:1; 5:17; Rom. 12:2, 4-5).

It is our desire and it is the desire in all the Lord’s genuine children to do the will of God. But the will of God is not related merely to what we should do in a difficult situation, who we should marry, what job we should take, and where we should move and live.

Even though these things seem to be quite life-changing and important to us, the will of God is Christ and the church, that is, our enjoying Christ for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

The revelation of God’s will has been progressive throughout the ages.

Today, we are in the twenty-first century, and we cannot live and serve before God as if we are in the sixteenth or eighteenth century.

For us to be faithful to God in His word, according to His up-to-date revelation, is to be someone for Christ and the church.

We are called by Christ Jesus through the will of God. We want to be persons in the will of God, doing the will of God, and being through the will of God.

In our living and service, we want to be persons in the will of God. The church is the Body of Christ, which is an entity constituted with the Triune God and His chosen and redeemed ones (Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4-6).

The church is not just the gathering of the believers; the church is the Body of Christ, a constitution of God and man.

May we come to the Lord regarding the will of God so that He may enlighten us concerning our daily living.

May we practice the church life today as the reality of the Body of Christ so that we may be persons in the will of God.

May we be proper members of the Body and in the Body, living in the Body, doing all things in the Body, and working and functioning for the building up of the Body.

Lord Jesus, we want to be persons in the will of God, those who fulfill the will of God. Unveil us to see what the will of God is. We open to You, Lord, and we want to be transformed by the renewing of the mind so that we may prove what the will of God is! Amen, the will of God is good and well-pleasing and perfect, and we can prove it by living in the church life today! Unveil us, Lord, to see that God’s will is to have the church as the Body of Christ. May we see the church, love the church, and do all things for the church. May we realise that the church is not just the gathering of the believers but even more, an entity constituted with the Triune God and His chosen and redeemed ones! Amen, Lord, may we be persons in the will of God who give up everything for the church, do everything for the church, and live in the church! We offer up our bodies as a living sacrifice for the building up of the Body of Christ! Amen, Lord, gain the church as the Body of Christ!

Live Corporately with the Members of the Body under the Head to Express Christ in an Organic and Coordinated Way

What does it mean for us practically that the church as the Body of Christ is the will of God? How does this affect our daily living, our Christian life, and our church life?

We need to see that we are not just Christians who are individual believers in Christ but even more, that we are members of the Body of Christ.

Christ is our Head, He is the head of the Body, and we are the members of His Body (Col. 1:18a; 2:19; Eph. 4:15-16). We are members of the Body of Christ, and we need to live corporately with the members under the Head.

We should no longer live in an individualistic way. When we see that the will of God is the church as the Body of Christ, we will no longer do anything in and for ourselves but in the Body and for the Body.

We are members of the Body, and we cannot live without the Body.

The reality is that all genuine Christians are members of the Body; the sad reality, however, is that we all live an abnormal life, for we do not live corporately with the members of the Body under the Head of the Body.

We may think that, as long as we read the Bible, do not love the world, and do not sin or lust, we are all right; in fact, this is not enough.

What matters most to God is whether we live in the Body.

We may be spiritual, loving the Lord, and overcoming in many situations, and our family life may be quite positive and good, having elements of the Lord in it as we read the Bible together; however, unless we live in the Body as we do all these things, this is not enough.

From the point of view of God’s eternal economy, unless we are in the Body, whether or not we are spiritual or whether or not we do not sin are not worth much.

We may even preach the gospel and do a great work, and our work blesses so many; unless we are built up with the saints in the Body, it is not good enough.

At the end of the day, we need to live in the Body corporate with the other members under Christ as the Head.

Our living and service needs to be in the Body. Christ is our Head (Col. 1:18) and we are the members of the Body, taking Him as our Head, our life, and our center (Eph. 4:15-16).

We need to let Christ as the Head control us, direct us, and supply us; we also need to be coordinated with the fellow members in the Body so that together we may express Christ.

To live in the Body life, we must be under the Head and take the Head as our life, the principal object, and the center of our being.

We take Him as our Head and our source, and we grow with the growth of God. Our growth in life as members of the Body depends on the growth of God, the addition of God within us.

We do not only read the Bible and some portions of the ministry; rather, we build up a habit to have personal, private, and intimate time with the Lord to enjoy Him and obtain secret growth from Him.

And we build up the habit of having fellowship with the saints, being open to the members of the Body so that we may be built up together in the Body.

May we learn to live in the Body and submit to the Head all the time, caring for the feeling of the Head and the feeling of the Body, as we live corporately as members of the Body of Christ.

May we not take our own spirituality or spiritual victory as the center; may we take the church as the center, and may we do all things for the building up of the church.

We do this not in a legalistic way, in the way of keeping some rules and ordinances; rather, we live in the Spirit to express Christ in an organic and coordinated way.

Lord Jesus, we want to live corporately with the members of the Body under the Head today. Amen, Lord, Your will is to gain the church as the Body of Christ; we give ourselves to You to live one spirit with You for the building up of the church! May we see that Christ is the Head of the Body and we are all members in His Body! May we learn to not only enjoy Christ personally and privately but also be built up together corporately. May we live corporately with the members under the Head. Thank You, Lord, we are members in the Body under Christ as the Head! We want to live the Body life today. We take You as our Head. We take You as our life. We spend time with You to obtain the growth from You. Grow in us, Lord. May we grow with the growth of God. May there be the addition of God, the increase of God in us. We love You, Lord, and we open to You and to the members of the Body. May we live in the Spirit to express Christ in an organic and coordinated way!

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 on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1990, vol. 2, “The Oneness and the One Accord according to the Lord’s Aspiration and the Body Life and Service according to His Pleasure,” ch. 3, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crucial Aspects of Matthew 5 through 7 (2025 September ITERO), week 9, Doing the Will of the Father So That We May Enter into His Kingdom on “That Day,” the Day of the Judgment Seat of Christ – day 3.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – All things are but a shadow / Which unto us reveal / Thyself, in whom we’re rooted, / The only One that’s real. / Enjoying all Thy riches, / Thy fulness we will be; / We’ll hold Thee, as Thy Body, / And grow with God in Thee. (Hymns #189 stanza 5)
  – As the product, the fulfillment, / Will the church in glory stand, / Consummation of the purpose / In eternal ages planned. / God will have His corporate vessel, / All His glory to contain; / Lord, we’re wholly for Thy purpose / All Thy goal in us attain. (Hymns #1325 stanza 6)
  – For the Church should be our service, / ’Tis the perfect will of God; / ’Tis the only way of working / Which the Lord’s apostles trod. / For the Church should be our service, / Not our aims to satisfy; / This, the perfect will of God is, / And with it we must comply. (Hymns #914 stanza 1 and chorus)