Search
Scripture Reading: Acts 13:52; 6:5a; 11:24; 2:17; 1:8; 2:4; 4:8, 31; 13:9; 5:20; 6:7; 12:24; 19:20; 6:2; 8:4; 13:46, 44
In these days the Lord has been leading us into the vision and realization of the organic Body of Christ. The church as the Body of Christ is organic. The New Testament shows us that God’s intention is to gain an organic Body for Christ. The church as the organic Body of Christ should be built up.
To build up our physical body is different from building up a house because a house is lifeless, inorganic, whereas our physical body is altogether organic. Anything that is organic is born of life and grows with life. We were born of our parents with life, and then we began to grow. The growth of our organic physical body is the real building up of our body. A newborn babe’s growth into a husky man is his being built up. This husky man was not built up organizationally but organically. He grew by eating organic food. His growing up gradually was his being built up gradually. The procedure, or process, of such an organic building is hard to explain. For the growth, the building up, of our physical body, we need to eat and to drink. Without eating and drinking, our body cannot grow. This means that for our body to be built up, we need food and drink. We need the eating and the drinking to take in something organic into our being. Then we can grow.
Now we need to consider how the church as the organic Body of Christ is built up. We may not be clear about this because we may consider the church merely as a congregation, an assembly, or a gathering, but we need to see that the church is the Body of Christ. Since it is the Body, it is organic. The building up of the church is not a lifeless building but an organic building. This building is the growth of life, and for the growth of life there is the need of the supply of life. We need to be supplied with Christ as our food and drink. In the New Testament our spiritual food is the divine Word, and our spiritual drink is the Spirit. In the organic building up of the Body of Christ, we need the Spirit as our spiritual drink and the Word as our spiritual food. God has ordained a way to give Himself to us according to His economy. He gives Himself to us in two forms—in the form of the Spirit and in the form of the Word. This is why the New Testament stresses the Spirit and the Word.
God wants to have a Body for Christ, but how can He do it? The only way this Body can be produced is by God dispensing Himself into us, His chosen ones. God’s intention is to have all of us built up together as the Body of Christ by the dispensing of Himself into our being. Not many Christians realize that God has been dispensed into them and that He wants to continue dispensing Himself into them. Now we need to consider how God can be dispensed into our being.
The Bible tells us that God was incarnated (John 1:14). He lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. Then He went to the cross and accomplished an all-inclusive death, a death that solves all our problems and takes care of all our needs. We have the problems of sin, sins, the world, the flesh, the old man, the natural man, and the old creation. In addition to these things, the enemy of God, Satan, is indwelling our flesh. But Christ died on the cross, and His unique, all-inclusive death dealt with all these negative things. After three days He rose up and entered into resurrection. In resurrection He changed into another form by becoming the life-giving Spirit.
First Corinthians 15:45b says that the last Adam, Christ in the flesh, became a life-giving Spirit. The Savior, who died on the cross in His physical body, became a life-giving Spirit in His resurrection. He is the all-inclusive One. As the One who died on the cross, He took away all our problems, and as the One who is the life-giving Spirit, He is qualified and capable of imparting Himself into us as our life. Today this One is within us. The very God in whom we believe and whom we worship is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit (2 Cor. 3:17; 2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16). We all need to declare, “Jesus Christ is in me!” (2 Cor. 13:5). Jesus Christ is the very God embodied in man. This man died on the cross for the accomplishment of an all-inclusive redemption, and He has entered into resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit. Today He is the all-inclusive Spirit in our spirit.
According to the divine revelation in the Bible, our God is triune. Our God is one, yet He is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. God is one, yet He is three. He is three-one. The Spirit of Jesus Christ, who is Christ Himself as the life-giving Spirit, is the consummation of the Triune God. He is God reaching us. At one time God dwelt far away from us in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16), but then He came to us in incarnation. He went to the cross to die for us, and in resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit to enter into us. Now in us He is the consummation of God, the reaching of God to us. The Spirit is God reaching us. Because we have the Spirit within us (Rom. 8:9), we have the Son and the Father within us (John 14:20; Eph. 4:6). The Spirit of the Triune God is His consummation, His reaching us. This Spirit is infusing us and dispensing Himself into us. He is infusing His riches into our being.
Since we have believed in the Lord Jesus, we have been changed inwardly. The Lord is within us changing our disposition and our character. This change is called transformation. We are being transformed from our natural image to the glorious image of the Divine Trinity by God’s dispensing of His essence and riches into our being to change us dispositionally (2 Cor. 3:18). We are being transformed inwardly, not corrected outwardly. We have been and are still being transformed by God with His essence, and His essence is the Spirit.
In the New Testament the consummated Spirit of God, who is in us, is likened to the air (John 20:22). When we have air in a room we may not sense it, but if the room is short of air, we will surely sense it. The Spirit is like the air that we cannot see but sense. We can sense that there is something within us that we did not have in the past. This is a person, the Spirit of God. Sometimes we may be happy, and at other times we may be low, but we have the sense that there is another One within us who is dear, near, and precious. Sometimes when we are weak, this One strengthens us. We need to experience the many aspects of the dear, precious presence of the one all-inclusive Spirit. When we offend Him or grieve Him, it is hard for us to be happy, because He is not happy within us.
We can enjoy this Spirit by praying, and we pray by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus (Rom. 10:12). We need to call “O Lord Jesus.” We must learn to pray by inserting “O Lord Jesus.” If we call on the Lord for five minutes, we will be happy. If we continue to call for another five minutes, we will be excited and out of ourselves. Whenever we turn our prayer into calling on the Lord, we will be enlivened. Calling on the Lord makes us alive. We all need to find a time to call on the Lord. We can even call silently and inwardly when others are around. This is the way to exercise ourselves to enjoy God’s essence, and God’s essence is the Spirit in our spirit.
The way to exercise our spirit to touch the Spirit is to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. When we call “O Lord Jesus,” the very Spirit who indwells our spirit will be stirred up to anoint us with Himself as the ointment. By this inward anointing, the Spirit dispenses the riches of God’s divine essence into our being. By this anointing, we are fed, nourished, satisfied, supplied, and supported, and we grow with the divine essence of God. In order to grow, a young child must eat and drink. We must take in the divine essence of God so that we can grow with the growth of God (Col. 2:19).
To grow with the divine essence of God, we need to be filled with the Spirit essentially and economically. The essential Spirit dwells in us as our life and person (Acts 13:52; 6:5a; 11:24), and the economical Spirit has been poured out upon us as our power and authority (2:17; 1:8; 2:4; 4:8, 31; 13:9). How can we be full of the Spirit inwardly and filled with the Spirit outwardly in our experience? We have to pray by always inserting “O Lord Jesus.” Sometimes I am very busy, but even while I am putting on my shoes, I can call “O Lord Jesus.” Whenever we call on the Lord Jesus, we are fed, nourished, and supplied. This is the way to gain the divine essence for our enjoyment. When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, our spirit is exercised, and the divine Spirit within our spirit anoints us with all the riches of the divine essence. Then we will grow, and this growth is the building up of the Body of Christ. When we are built up in the Spirit, that means that a part of the Body of Christ is built up. As we all exercise to call on the Lord, the entire Body of Christ is built up by the growth in life through the enjoyment of the rich essence of God in our spirit.
Now we want to go on to see the position of the Word in the organic building up of the church. The Bible tells us that the Spirit is God and that the Word is God. In other words, God is the Spirit and the Word. We have seen that God as the Spirit is our supply. John 4:24 tells us that God is Spirit, and John 1:1 says that the Word was God. God, the Spirit, and the Word are one. We have one wonderful Savior, who is God, the Spirit, and the Word to us. Furthermore, the Word is the Spirit. In John 6:63 the Lord Jesus said, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” Ephesians 6:17 speaks of the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God. The Word is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the Word.
When I call on the name of the Lord and pray, I have the deep sensation that the Spirit is within me. Although I have this inward, divine sensation, I may not understand much. When I come to the Word, the Word speaks to me and explains something to me. The Word explains to me what I have sensed. The Word gives me the definition of the sensations of the Spirit within me. Then I speak the word to the saints according to my sensation of the Spirit within me. When we receive the Word, it becomes the Spirit within us. Then the Spirit within us becomes the word uttered by us. When some receive this word, it enters into them and becomes the Spirit. The Spirit and the Word are one.
We must pray by calling on the name of the Lord, and we must read the Bible so that we can have both the Spirit and the Word. If we merely read the Word without much prayer by calling on the Lord, we will have only the Word without the Spirit. Then the Word will be very dry and empty. Our reading of the Word will be empty, mental stimulus. While we are reading, we need to pray, and while we are praying, we should call on the name of the Lord. We should make praying, calling, and reading one thing. Calling on the Lord’s name is for praying, and praying is for reading. Eventually, our reading of the Bible becomes pray-reading by calling.
In the Bible we are told that we have to feed on the divine Word, that we have to eat the Word (Jer. 15:16; Matt. 4:4; John 6:57, 63). We should not just read, understand, and receive the Word in a doctrinal way, but we have to take the Word in by eating it. The best way to get into the Word in this way is to pray-read the Word. We should not merely exercise our eyes to read the Word and exercise our mind to understand and receive the Word in a doctrinal way. After reading, understanding, and receiving the Word, we have to exercise our spirit, because the Word is not just knowledge, but it is composed of the divine essence. In the word of the Bible is the divine essence. Surely we have to read, understand, and receive the Word by exercising our eyes, mind, and heart. Many of us, though, may stop here, thinking that we understand a certain verse or a part of the Word. We may understand it, but it has not been assimilated into our spiritual being. This is why we all have to learn to pray-read the Word by exercising our spirit.
Throughout the history of the church, many godly saints did not have the term pray-read, but they had the reality of pray-reading. They read the Word prayerfully, with prayer and by prayer. Whenever we pray, our spirit is exercised. To understand the Word is to exercise our mind, to receive the Word is to exercise our heart, and to pray is to exercise our spirit. Just as we walk by exercising our feet, we pray by exercising our spirit. We have to learn to exercise our spirit to eat the word of the Bible. After eating the word in our spirit, spontaneously something of God’s essence will be assimilated into our spiritual being. This is similar to the physical food that we eat being digested and assimilated into our blood to become the cells and tissues of our physical being. Our physical being has been built up with food that we have eaten, digested, and assimilated. For the Body of Christ to be built up organically, we need the Word as our spiritual food.
If we only exercise our mind to read a verse like John 1:1 without exercising our spirit, it may be very dry and empty to us. We need to turn our reading into prayer. We need to read, pray, and call, “Lord, thank You that in the beginning was the Word. Thank You that You are the Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was You, Lord. Amen! Hallelujah! O Lord Jesus, You were in the beginning as the Word.” By reading, praying, and calling with such a verse, we are watered, stirred up, enlightened, and made alive. We should combine reading, praying, and calling together. We need to read by praying and pray by calling on the name of the Lord. In this way we can receive God as the Spirit and the Word. When we receive God as the Spirit, we are drinking, and when we receive God as the Word, we are eating. Thus, we enjoy God as our drink and food, and we are nourished, satisfied, supplied, saturated, and enlivened.
Sometimes people ask me why I am so fresh, living, and active. The key is to contact the very God by the Spirit. He is the Spirit within us. He is so close to us. He is in our spirit, but we have to be positive and aggressive all the time to contact Him. It is good to call on the Lord ten times before we pray. This calling makes our prayer so living. We may have prayed ourselves to sleep in the past because we did not touch God in our prayer. God is not only near us but also in us as the Spirit, so we must exercise our spirit. When we call “O Lord Jesus,” we are enlivened in our prayer. We need to exercise our spirit to touch the Spirit. Then we can open up the Word to read by praying and to pray by calling on the name of the Lord. We can blend and mix our reading, praying, and calling into one. Then we will touch God, touch the Spirit, and touch the Word.
God is not only the Spirit and the Word but also the light. When we contact God in the way of pray-reading and calling, we will touch God’s life, be brought into God’s life, and in this life, we will see the light. We will be enlightened and exposed to realize our real condition and situation. Spontaneously, we will be like Isaiah who said to the Lord, “I am a man of unclean lips, / And in the midst of a people of unclean lips I dwell” (Isa. 6:5).
God is the Spirit, the Word, the light, and also the divine love. When we touch God as the Spirit and the Word, we are nourished, saturated, and enlightened. Furthermore, He ministers Himself into us as love so that we can love even our enemies (Matt. 5:44; Rom. 12:20). Sometimes we will be enlightened to see that we need to apologize to someone or make restitution. When we stay with God for a time, He will be love to us. God as love will be dispensed into our being, and this love enables us to apologize to people. We can enjoy God as the Spirit and the Word. Then we enjoy God as light and love. By this we are altogether enlightened, exposed, and supplied, being ministered to by God to enjoy Him as our bountiful supply. This is the way to be built up, to grow. If we all take this way, the entire Body of Christ will be built up with the Spirit and with the Word.
God’s word is the constant word of God (Acts 4:31) and the instant word of life (5:20). Because the word is a matter of life, it can grow (6:7), multiply (12:24), and be strong (19:20). The word is strong, so it is prevailing. It can overcome all the enemies. Because the word prevailed to grow and multiply in Acts, the number of the disciples in Jerusalem multiplied exceedingly (6:7). For the number of the church to increase, we all have to learn not only to enjoy the word but also to speak the word. The apostles did not forsake the word (v. 2), the believers announced the word of the gospel (8:4), the apostles spoke the word (13:46), and people listened to the word (v. 44).
We have to stick ourselves to the word and speak the word with the Spirit. When we speak, we need to call on the Lord inwardly. When we speak the word, we need the Spirit. The way to get the Spirit is to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. Then when we speak, the Spirit speaks, and we have the divine speaking in our speaking. Then the very Lord who is one spirit with us speaks in our speaking. This makes our speaking God’s oracle because not only are we speaking but also God is speaking in our speaking. Thank the Lord for the Spirit and the Word in the organic building up of the church.
