We need God to Build Christ into our Intrinsic Constitution for the Building up of the Church

As believers in Christ, we need God to build Christ into our intrinsic constitution so that our entire being will be reconstituted with Christ; only in this way can we build up the church and can we be built up as the church.

This week in our morning revival on the crystallization study of 1&2 Samuel we come to the topic of, The Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ through the Process of Spiritual Metabolism according to the Believers’ Inner Experience of the Indwelling Christ.

We are still on 2 Sam. 7:12-14a, but this time we want to see not only the individual side of us as human beings becoming sons of God but how this is for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

We saw a marvelous revelation concerning the intrinsic significance of this portion of the word, and we realized how deep and profound the revelation is, for here we see Christ, the God-man, the One who is both divine and human.

He was the seed of David becoming the Son of God, and like Him, we are also becoming sons of God.

Now we want to see the application of this high revelation. Though this promise was made to David individually, the background or emphasis, even the gospel, of that portion of the word is the building of God; it was in the context of David wanting to build a house for God.

David desired to build a house for God, but Nathan the prophet conveyed to him the word of God, that it wasn’t actually David who will build a house for God but that God would build him a house, and out of this house God builds for David, there will be a seed that will come forth, and that seed will build a house for God.

This involves a very profound and rich revelation concerning the person of Christ, concerning how He was a seed of man in His humanity and the Son of God in His divinity, and how He brought divinity into humanity and humanity into divinity.

Such a One is qualified to build God’s house.

Throughout the centuries the matter of the building up of the church has been very much neglected, misunderstood and misinterpreted by Christians; they either ignored it or practised it in an improper way.

For example, many pastors and leaders in the denominations, many religious workers and even theologians, their view of the building of the church as actually a way of organization, an arrangement, for them to do something to carry out some activities in the church.

May the Lord unveil us to realize what is it, according to the divine revelation, for us to build up the church, and how we can cooperate with Christ, the One who builds up the church, in this age today.

May we be those who build up the church with Christ and nothing else; may we let God build Christ into our intrinsic constitution, so that our entire being would be constituted with Christ, and this Christ will become the unique element constituting the church as the Body of Christ.

We need God to Build Christ into our Intrinsic Constitution for the Building up of the Church

2 Sam. 7:12-14 is the unveiling of a prophecy through typology; what this portion shows us is that we as God’s people are not qualified to build His house but rather, we need God to build Christ into our intrinsic constitution.

It is Christ who is qualified to build up the church, and we can cooperate with this building work by opening to Him so that our entire being would be reconstituted with Christ.

On one hand, the seed of David literally refers to Solomon, his son; on the other hand, Solomon is a type of Christ.

It is Christ who is the Son of Man and the Son of God, and it is Christ who builds up the church (Matt. 16:18).

Many Christian workers take this verse in Matt. 16:18 and do their best to build up the church; unfortunately, it is them who try to build up the church, and not Christ.

According to the Lord’s word, no human beings are qualified, able, or even allowed to build the church; only Christ is able to build the church.

The One who can build up the church is uniquely Christ. David was a man according to the heart of God, but even he was not qualified to build up the temple; it was only the seed of David, who will be the Son of God, that will build up the church.

This shows that God doesn’t want or need us to do anything for Him; He doesn’t need our help, our human effort, and our good ideas and desires to build the church.

Rather, God wants to build Christ into our intrinsic constitution so that we may be reconstituted with Christ; the result is that we’re not just changed or outwardly perfected but we are transformed into a different person – a person constituted with Christ.

God doesn’t need us to build anything for Him; rather, we need God to build Christ into us so that we may become part of the church and our very being is part of the building up of the church.

David was according to the heart of God – his heart reflected God’s heart; he was like a photograph of God but without the life and nature of God.

He was not constituted with God, and God told him that it is this intrinsic constitution, the building of God into man, that can result in the building up of His house.

As believers in Christ who love Him and pursue Him, we desire to build up the church, and we may strive and serve so much to help the church be built up.

But what we need is not to try to build the church but rather, we need God to build Christ into our intrinsic constitution for the building up of the church.

We need God to work Himself in Christ into our humanity; He needs to work Himself in Christ into us as our life, our nature, and our very constitution.

In ourselves as natural human beings with a good desire for God we are not qualified; as believers in Christ, we need God to build Christ into our intrinsic constitution, and the result will be the building up of the church.

We need to be not only men according to God’s heart but even become the same as God in life, in nature, in constitution, in function, and in expression, but not in the Godhead.

It is only Christ who can build up the church as His organic Body, and it is only the measure to which God builds Christ into our intrinsic constitution that we can also participate in His building work.

May we drop our good intentions and zealous desires to build up the church in and by ourselves, and may we just come to the Lord and allow God to build Christ into our intrinsic constitution for the building up of the church.

Lord Jesus, we love You. We open to You. Build Yourself into us a little more today. We come to You as we are, Lord, and we turn our heart to You. Reconstitute us with Yourself. Work Yourself into us and constitute us with Your element. Save us from trying to help You to build up the church; may there be an intrinsic work of reconstitution going on in our being. Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You for the building up of the church, the Body of Christ. We allow God to build Christ into our intrinsic constitution for the building up of the church!

God’s Intention in His Economy is to Build Himself in Christ into our Being and Build us into God for the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem

What a mercy it is to realize that God has an eternal economy, which is according to His heart’s desire!

God’s eternal economy according to His heart’s desire is not to do this or that great Christian work, to perform great works of power, or to “save all men”.

Rather, it is for Him to build Himself into man and to build man into God (Eph. 3:16-17) so that He may obtain a mutual abode of God and man, the reality of the Body of Christ, consummating in the New Jerusalem.

God has an oikonomia, a household administration; He desires to gain a household by dispensing Himself with all that He is into His chosen people to be everything to them.

The result of this dispensing of all that God is into man is that we as His people become one with God and He becomes one with us.

This involves a process of building; God wants to build Christ into our intrinsic constitution for the building up of the church.

The word building implies a kind of construction, the bringing together of different elements to construct something, an entity, a building.

God is not merely moving to impart Himself into us; He is doing a building work in man.

He as the divine God is building Himself in us as human men by imparting His divine element into us, into our human element, to build these two elements together into one entity.

This is what Eph. 3:16-17 speaks about, how Christ makes His home in our heart.

Christ doesn’t come into us to rent a room in us for a while or to use us as a motel. He comes to make His home in us; He wants to settle down in us.

So He is doing a building work – He’s building something, a habitation of Himself in us where He and we can dwell together.

This is what the Lord spoke of in John 15:4-5, Abide in Me and I in you. We can abide in Him and He can abide in us; we can live in and with the Divine Trinity.

This is God’s intention, His economy, to build Christ into our intrinsic constitution and to build us into Himself so that man and God, God and man, become one entity, the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem.

The New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God for God to dwell in and the temple of God for us as His people to dwell in.

The New Jerusalem is the consummation of the building work of God, the fulfillment of the work God is doing to build Himself into us.

God’s intention in His economy is to build Himself in Christ into our being (see 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Eph. 3:17a; John 14:20; Gal. 4:19).

Many Christians only know Christ as their Savior dying for their sins; they know they can be forgiven and justified, but they don’t know that Christ doesn’t just want to redeem them and rescue them from God’s judgment but also to build Himself into them.

He doesn’t want only sinless persons; He wants God-men, those who have God build Christ into their intrinsic constitution and build them into God.

God wants to obtain a solid building, a building in which God is built into man and man is built into God so that we become an integral part of God and God becomes an integral part of us.

Paul was travailing in birth until Christ was formed in the believers. Just like a baby, being conceived in his mother’s womb, growing and being formed with the head, limbs, all the organs, etc, so Christ is being formed in us.

It takes nine months for a baby to be formed and become a fully developed little person to be delivered; it takes a lifetime for God to build Christ into our being and to build us into God.

God desires to work Himself in Christ into us; everything that Christ is and everything He has accomplished are for this one thing – for God’s building (Phil. 2:13; Eph. 3:17a; Col. 3:10-11).

He is all-inclusive and extensive; He has done everything, He has accomplished all things, and He is now the Head over all things, the Lord of all, and the Ruler of the universe.

All this is so that He can get into us and constitute us with Himself. We need God to build Himself in Christ into our humanity; we need to have God wrought in Christ into us as our life, our nature, and our person.

May we open to His building work. May we allow Him to build Himself into us.

May we cooperate with His building work by telling Him,

Lord, build Yourself in Christ into our humanity. Work Yourself in Christ into us as our life, our nature, and our person. It is Your desire to work Yourself in Christ into us – we open to Your building work. Thank You for not only redeeming us and saving us from eternal perdition but also for coming into us to build God in Christ into our intrinsic constitution. Dear Lord, we may not understand how this happens, but we open to Your inner building work. We want to abide in Christ so that Christ may abide in us. We want to have Christ living in us and being formed in us. Amen, Lord, build Yourself into us and build us into You so that we may become an integral part of the building of God and man, the church as the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee, and portions from, Life-study of 1&2 Samuel, msgs. 24-26, 28-29 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of 1 and 2 Samuel (2021 winter training), week 9, entitled, The Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ through the Process of Spiritual Metabolism according to the Believers’ Inner Experience of the Indwelling Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – It is God’s intent and pleasure / To have Christ revealed in me, / Nothing outward as religion, / But His Christ within to be. / It is God’s intent and pleasure / That His Christ be wrought in me; / Nothing outwardly performing, / But His Christ my all to be. (Hymns #538)
  – God’s intention is to have us / All conformed to His dear Son; / Thus a work of transformation / By the Spirit must be done. / Lord, transform us to Thine image / In emotion, mind, and will; / Saturate us with Thy Spirit, / All our being wholly fill. (Hymns #750)
  – Now behold the greatest wonder—New Jerusalem descend! / She’s the building of the Triune God with man—a perfect blend! / She’s the Bride, prepared, adorned for Christ—of all God’s work, the end! / The victory is won! / It’s the tabernacle of our God, His dwelling place with men; / In His holiness and glory He’s expressed through all of them. / “It is done!” O brothers, see it! See the New Jerusalem! / The victory is won! (Hymns #1101)