Search
In previous chapters we have seen that our disposition is our inward being, what we are inwardly, and our character is the outward expression of what we are inwardly. In a recent conference we saw four intrinsic matters of the church—its intrinsic essence, intrinsic growth, intrinsic building up, and intrinsic fellowship (see The Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ to Bethe Organism of the Processed and Dispensing Triune God). These four intrinsic matters are versus our disposition and character. They are versus our inward being and our outward expression. Without our inward being and our outward expression, there is nothing left in the church but God as the intrinsic element.
The four intrinsic matters of the church are God Himself. The intrinsic essence of the church is the divine life, and the divine life is God Himself. God is the intrinsic essence, the intrinsic growth, the intrinsic building up, and the intrinsic fellowship of the church. The intrinsic element of the church is simply God. This God is not the “raw” God but the processed and now-dispensing Triune God who is embodied in Jesus Christ (Col. 2:9). God, who is the intrinsic element of the church, is Christ. Christ is the Head of the church (Eph. 1:22), the universal new man, and Christ is also the Body (1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:11). First Corinthians 12:12 says, “Even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ.” Christ is not only the Head but also the Body. Therefore, Christ as the embodiment of the processed and now-dispensing Triune God is the totality of the church.
Colossians 3:11 says, “Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.” Whatever is in the new man is Christ. In the new man there is no Greek, no Jew, no barbarian, no Scythian, no slave, and no free man, but Christ is all. Christ is you, and Christ is me. Christ is everything. In the new man Christ is all, and He is also in all. In Colossians 3:11 all refers to all the members who comprise the new man. All the members are Christ. None of the members are Chinese, none are British, none are black or white, and none are male or female. If verse 11 ended with “Christ is all,” we might feel that Christ has replaced the members in the church. However, Paul adds, “and in all.” All the members are still in the church, but Christ is in all the members, and Christ even is all the members. The all-inclusive Christ is the church as a corporate entity because the intrinsic essence, intrinsic growth, intrinsic building up, and intrinsic fellowship of the church are the dispensing, processed Triune God who is embodied in Christ.
Christ is the embodiment of God. He is the complete God in His Divine Trinity, and He is also a perfect man. Through His death and resurrection Christ, who is the complete God and the perfect man, became the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17). This very all-inclusive Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. In eternity past the Triune God was not consummated, but by passing through the processes of incarnation, human living, the all-inclusive death, and resurrection, He was consummated to be the all-inclusive Spirit. Revelation 22:17 says, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come!” The Bible ends with the divine, all-inclusive title—the Spirit.
Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God, and the Spirit is the realization of Christ. Ephesians 4:4 says there is “one Body and one Spirit.” This verse indicates that the Spirit and the Body are not two entities but one. The essence, growth, building up, and fellowship of the church are the processed and now-dispensing Triune God who is embodied in Christ, who is realized as the all-inclusive Spirit, the consummation of the processed Triune God.
Originally, in God’s creation there was only one man, Adam. Eve was not present in God’s original creation. God took one of Adam’s ribs and built it into a woman to be Adam’s counterpart (Gen. 2:21-22). As Adam’s counterpart, Eve was his mate to match him. No other creature could be a mate to man to match him. God only needed a short time to build Adam’s rib into Eve, but to build the believers into the church He has needed almost two thousand years. God has been building and is still building, and the building up of the church has required a long period of time.
Because the building has lasted for so long, the believers, who are the building materials, have had the opportunity to fight with each other and create turmoils in the process of its being built up. All these turmoils are for the building up of the church. The building up of a woman from Adam’s rib is a type. The fulfillment of the type is the building up of the church, and the building of the church has passed through many turmoils. The turmoils in the church have been siftings. In Paul’s time there was a sifting. Paul says, “All who are in Asia turned away from me” (2 Tim. 1:15). The churches in Asia forsook his ministry. However, this does not mean that no one in Asia remained faithful to the Lord’s ministry. In Revelation 1 and 2 the seven churches in Asia were still remaining under the Lord’s ministry. The turmoil portrayed in Numbers 16 was also a sifting. In Numbers 16 Korah and all his household were swallowed up by the earth (v. 32). However, certain psalms were written by the descendants of Korah (Psa. 42, 44—49; 84—85; 87—88). There were still some left of Korah’s family who became holy people and psalmists.
Those who cause the turmoils may not want to do so. However, their disposition causes them to do it. They may not be happy to make trouble, but they cannot help it. In the same way we may not like to lose our temper with our husband or wife. When we lose our temper, we eventually regret it and may resolve never to do it again. However, after half an hour we may lose our temper once more because it is our disposition to do so. On the other hand, we may have been born with another kind of disposition. We may be those who can be very mad inwardly but are able to “swallow” our anger and not express it. We may be well spoken of for our behavior, but within we are the same as those who lose their temper. Moreover, because of our disposition, it is difficult for us to be angry in a proper way as the Lord Jesus was with the moneychangers in the temple (John 2:14-17). We live too much by our disposition in the church life. Therefore, the church is not purely and absolutely a constitution of God, Christ, and the Spirit.
No one cares for turmoils. According to our feeling, they are not good. However, the turmoils are necessary to deal with our disposition. Apparently, our disposition is a part of us that nothing can break and nothing can change. For us to have a dispositional change is like changing our very bone structure. Therefore, because of our disposition, the turmoils, in a sense, are needed for the building up of the church. In the past certain saints were strongly in their disposition. However, they have suffered much because of the turmoils and have cried to the Lord. Their tears have been the best “detergent” to wash away their disposition. Today they are less in their disposition than they were before.
When we first came into the recovery, we thought the church was marvelous. That was the time of our “honeymoon.” We may have expected that the honeymoon would last for our whole life. Eventually, however, the honeymoon became a “vinegar” moon. We may have asked ourselves, “Is this the wonderful church life?” Quite often the turmoils in the church life are like vinegar to us. The wonderful church life is a life not only with “honey” but also and more often with “vinegar.” Many times it seems that this “vinegar” is everywhere in the church life. However, at other times there is a sweetness in the church life. The Lord is the best Physician. He knows how much “honey” and how much “vinegar” to prescribe for us. I recently had a skin problem, and the dermatologist told me to wash the affected area with vinegar water twice a day. The vinegar was effective in killing the germs. Eventually, because of the purging through the turmoils in the church life, which are like the vinegar, the Lord will declare that the “germs” in the church have been washed away.
Now we want to go on to see that the building up of the church as the Body of Christ is by our growth in life, and our growth in life is by the growth of God in us. Colossians 2:19 says that all the Body grows with the growth of God. This means that our growth in the divine life needs God growing in us. When God grows in us, we grow with the growth of God.
This is quite deep and very mysterious. We may wonder how God could grow, but Colossians 2:19 tells us that if we are going to grow, we have to grow with some growth. We grow with God’s growth. We can grow only with the growth of God. God is perfect and complete, so how can One who is perfect and complete grow? Growth is for maturity, but we know that God is ancient. He is not old, but He is ancient. The Old Testament calls Him “the Ancient of Days” (Dan. 7:9, 13, 22). Does such an ancient One need to grow? The answer is this: in Himself God does not grow, but in you and me, He needs to grow.
God is in us, but how much is God in us? We Christians are the children of God, and we have God in us. God and we are mingled together as one person, but we have to check our real situation. Is there more of us and less of God, or more of God and less of us? We may declare that we have God and that God and we are one, but what about the fact of our case presently? Many of us have to admit that with us there is more of us and less of God.
We are more and God is less because we do not give Him the room in us. We do not give Him the cooperation. To give Him the room within us is to let Him grow. Any organic matter needs room to grow properly. In Matthew 13 the seed typifies the word with the divine life in it (vv. 3-23). This seed has been sown into our heart. It needs the adequate room to grow properly and fully. According to Matthew 13, in some cases the seed can hardly grow because many things in our heart leave no room for it to grow. There are many things other than God that occupy our heart. The Lord tells us that the thorns are the anxiety of the age and the deceitfulness of riches that choke the word (v. 22). All things other than God are choking things. These things choke the divine life, which is God, within us. Because of the occupying things in our heart, the seed of life within us does not have the room; it does not have the possibility to grow. In order for us to grow with the growth of God, we have to give God the room within us.
In every meeting we attend, we should give God the room within us. We should cooperate with Him. The Christian meeting is a realm for God to speak. If God cannot speak, He cannot gain anything. Most of the human race will not allow God to speak. God saves people and gathers them together in meetings so that He can speak in their speaking. Who will let God speak on this earth? God saves, rescues, separates us from the world, and gathers us together so that He can speak, but He cannot speak by Himself. In the New Testament age God does everything in the principle of incarnation. He does not do anything by Himself alone. He always does things with man, in man, and through man by being one with man and by man being one with Him. For Him to speak today, He cannot speak by Himself. He has to speak through us.
God desires to speak, but do we speak? The practice of Christianity is that of one man speaking and the rest listening. Because not many of the Lord’s children will speak, some professionals are trained to speak for the congregation. Surely God does not like this, so we are trying our best to put this practice aside and give God the opportunity to speak. God is in us, and He wants to speak. He wants us to speak so that He may speak in our speaking. But why do we not speak? We do not speak because with us there is too much of us and very little of the Triune God. If we cooperate with God to speak, He will gain the room within us to grow.
Many times and in many things, we do not give God the room in us. He is waiting within us for the opportunity to grow. He wants to grow in us. We need to give Him the room within us all the time. When we give Him the room within us, He grows, and His growth within us becomes our growth. Today within many Christians there is hardly any room for the indwelling God to grow. Even within us, according to my realization, there is not much room for Him to grow. On the Lord’s Day morning many of us come to the meeting and do not speak. God is in us, but we would not give Him room to grow. We can give Him a little bit of room by speaking. We need to speak for the Lord and speak the Lord forth. The more we speak, the more we will have to speak. The more we speak, the more we will be able to speak. The more we speak, the more we will learn how to speak. And the more we speak, the more we receive God’s supply. The more we speak, the more we give God the room within us. Then He grows in us.
The reason we have endeavored and paid such a great price to change our way from one man speaking to all speaking is so that God may grow within us. The principle of letting God grow is not only in speaking in the meetings but also in all things in our daily life. In John 3:30 John the Baptist said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” This is God’s way. He increases, and we decrease. The word increase and the word grow are the same word in Greek. To grow is to increase. We must let God grow, which means that we must give Him the room within us to increase. Then He has the way to grow in us in everything.
