In order for us to live Christ for the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to be open vessels to the Lord; we need to open our entire being to the Lord absolutely so that the law of the Spirit of Life would operate in us and cause us to live God and even become God life and nature.
There are many ways for us to practice and live so that we may live Christ, the essence of all these ways is that we need to be open vessels to the divine dispensing, so that the Lord may work Himself into us and work in our being to make us the same as He is and live in us.
We need to seek to be filled with the Spirit by letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly; as we read the Bible, we need to seek to be saturated with the word not only by having the knowledge of the Bible but even more by singing the word, praying the word, and psalming the word.
The word of God has to become our prayer, our song, our psalm, and even our very thinking and singing. When the word of God saturates us inwardly, the Lord can speak to us and regulate us from within, and our living will be uplifted so that we may live Christ.
We can live Christ for the reality of the Body of Christ according to the law of the Spirit of life by being filled with the Spirit and by letting Christ’s word dwell in us richly! Furthermore, we can live Christ for the reality of the Body of Christ by being empty and open vessels.
Many times we are full of so many other things; we are full of knowledge, opinions, desires, and even zeal – and we may think that these things may be good, for they are “for the Lord”. However, what the Lord wants is to come and fill our vessel with Himself.
From the very beginning, when God created man, His intention was not that man would work for God or do things for God, but that man would eat the tree of life and take God in as life, so that he may live out the life of God.
God’s intention has never changed; He doesn’t want us to have a determination to do things for Him and to work for Him – He wants to work in us first, even to work Himself into our being, so that He in us can do what He wants to do.
The apostle Paul was an open vessel, and we also need to be such ones; we need to be empty and open vessels for the Lord to come in and do what He wants to do in us.
The Law of the Spirit of Life has the Capacity to cause us to Live Christ, be Filled with God, and be Members of the Body
In the Old Testament God promised that there will be a new covenant – both in Jeremiah and in Ezekiel He promised that He will make a new covenant with His people.
This new covenant is not like the old one, set in stone for people to obey and do things outwardly to please God and come close to God; rather, this one has to do with our inner being.
God promised that He will put His law in our inward parts and write it upon our hearts, and He will be our God and we will be His people (see Jer. 31:33).
Furthermore, He will put His Spirit within us and cause us to walk in His statutes, and His ordinances we will keep and do (Ezek. 36:27).
This has been fulfilled in the New Testament with us, the believers in Christ; when we receive the Lord as our Savior, He comes into us as the divine life, and the law of the Spirit of life is “installed” in our spirit (Rom. 8:2).
This means that all believers in Christ have the law of God in our inward parts, and God is writing it upon our hearts; He spreads from our spirit to saturate our heart with His life (Rom. 8:6), and eventually He will even saturate our body with His life.
According to its life, the law of the new covenant is the Triune God, and according to its function, it is the almighty divine capacity. The Triune God is in our spirit to be life to us, and this life has the divine capacity to do everything in us.
As long as we switch on the law of life, we can know God, we can live God, and we can be constituted with God in His life and nature so that we may become His increase, His enlargement, to be His fulness for His eternal expression (see Eph. 1:22-23; 3:19-21).
The way for us to live Christ is not by doing our best to deliberately do things for God according to the Bible; living is something spontaneous and automatic, not something deliberate, so we need to simply activate or switch on the law of the Spirit of life.
When we turn to our spirit, the law of the Spirit of life causes us to live Christ, be filled with God, and be members of the Body of Christ.
The capacity of the inner law of life constitutes us the members of the Body of Christ (see 1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 5:30) with all kinds of functions (see Rom. 12:4-8; Eph. 4:11, 16).
The secret is turning to our spirit, exercising our spirit, and walking according to the spirit, so that the law of life would operate in us to spontaneously cause us to live Christ for the Body.
Thank You Lord for the law of the Spirit of life who has the capacity to do everything in us for the carrying out of God’s economy! Hallelujah, the law of life in us enables us to know God, live Christ, and be constituted with God in His life and nature so that we may become His increase and enlargement for His expression! Lord, keep us turning to our spirit until we live in the mingled spirit! We stop our striving and trying; we stop all our natural and fleshly effort to please God – and we turn to You so that You may do everything in us!
Being Open Vessels for God to do Everything in us and Through us for the Body of Christ
Paul’s fourteen Epistles may be summarised by two words: open vessel (Rom. 9:21, 23; 2 Cor. 4:7). God created us as vessels of mercy unto glory, and when we were regenerated, we have this treasure (the face of Jesus Christ in our spirit) in earthen vessels.
Knowing that we are vessels and being open vessels to God is a basic secret to our experience of Christ and the church.
We may know a lot about Christ and the church, but if we don’t realise that we are vessels and that we need to be open to the Lord for Him to do everything in us, for us, and through us, we cannot practically experience Christ for the church.
What does it mean to be an open vessel? It means that we do nothing but keep ourselves open for the Lord to fill us.
The truth is that we human beings are vessels, and the world tries its best to fill us with all kinds of things, from legitimate and good things such as food, education, culture, etc, to illegitimate and immoral things such as fleshly pleasures, drugs, etc.
Our vessel is constantly hungry and thirsty, and we as vessels can never be satisfied unless we are open to God for His dispensing of Himself into us.
We need to love the Lord to the uttermost, keep ourselves entirely, thoroughly, and absolutely open to Him, so that we may allow the Lord to be everything to us and do everything in us, through us, and for us for the sake of the Body of Christ (see 1 Cor. 1:9; 2:9; cf. 16:22).
How much the Lord can enter into us and do in us depends on how much opening we give to Him. God doesn’t want us to do many things for Him, and neither does He wants us to be passive; He wants us to be active-passive.
This means that, on one hand, we stop our doing and our working and our striving, and on the other, we need to love the Lord and be open vessels for Him to dispense Himself into us.
This is like Paul’s word in Phil. 2:13, we need to work out our own salvation (this is us being active), for it is God who operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure (this is being “passive”, being open vessels).
We need to be open vessels for God to come in and do everything in us, for us, and through us for the Body of Christ.
This doesn’t mean that we need to pray that the Lord would help us do this or that for Him; such prayers usually mean that we want to do something for the Lord, we ask for His help, we do the thing, and we “feel better” after we do it (since we prayed for that thing), but it is still us who does that, and we get the glory.
The hardest thing to do is to stop ourselves and just love the Lord, enjoy Him, and be an open vessel to Him; it is easier to do great things “for God” and do many practical outward things “in His name” than to stop our being and just enjoy the Lord and love Him.
May we learn to be enjoyers of Christ, those who enjoy Him and enjoy His doing.
May we learn not to seek to have victory or more spirituality but to enjoy the Lord, pursue to gain Him, and experience the Lord as our victory, our sanctification, and our everything.
This by no means means that we should be lax, indifferent, dumb, or sleepy; rather, we need to be on the alert, keep ourselves sober, love the Lord, and be open vessels for Him to do everything in us and through us for the Body. We may tell the Lord something along this line,
Lord Jesus, we love You; we are here open to You as a vessel to contain You and be filled with You! Lord, have mercy upon us; by Your grace we don’t want to have any part of our being closed to You. We would like to keep our being entirely and thoroughly open to You so that You may do everything in us, for us, and through us for the Body of Christ. Lord, we stop our being with our doing and our working, and we keep our vessel open to You for Your doing, Your speaking, Your dispensing, and Your working in us, for us, and through us for the sake of the Body of Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1980, vol. 1, “Perfecting Training,” pp. 241-246, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living in the Reality of the Body of Christ by Keeping the Principles of the Body (2019 ICSC), week 5, Living Christ for the Reality of the Body of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Flow through me, Lord, a weak and earthly vessel, / Cleansed by Thy blood, and quickened at Thy call. / Flow through me, Lord, all utterly abandoned, / To Thy dear service, great, or high, or small. (Hymns #249)
# For God’s dispensing, we have been, / Made into vessels open to Him; / His element is wrought in us, / Making us living stones, corporately; / Being saved from self, the flesh and its will, / It’s no longer I, but Christ lives in me; / Members of the Body, built up in love, / Joined to be one, for Him corporately. (Songs on, God’s heart’s desire, a house on earth)
# Thou art my Beloved, / The most lovely Beloved, / My heart and my soul are / Seeking after Thee; / Thou art my Beloved, / The most lovely Beloved, / My heart I open wide to Thee. / Come now! Fill me! With Thy Spirit! / Fill up this vessel! I belong to Thee! / Come now! Fill me! With Thy Spirit! / That I Your expression may be! (Song on, Thou art my Beloved, the most lovely Beloved)
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