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Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:5, 3:16-19; 1:17, 19; 2:22; 4:22-24; 5:18-19; 6:18-19
We have seen that the reality and substance of the church is the Spirit. In order to clarify this, we may use the three sections of the tabernacle in the Old Testament as an illustration. The outer court, which was outside of the tabernacle itself, denotes the earth, while the Holy Place typifies God’s dwelling place in the heavens. The lampstand mentioned in Zechariah 4 denotes the Spirit on the earth, while the lampstand mentioned in Exodus 25 was in the Holy Place and signifies Christ in the heavens. Actually, these lampstands are not two lampstands but two aspects, or two ends, of the one, unique lampstand in the universe. According to the lampstand’s position in the heavens, it is in the Holy Place, but according to its position on the earth, it was outside the Holy Place. The lampstand in the heavens is Christ, and the lampstand on the earth is the Spirit. The Spirit and Christ are not two separate persons. Rather, They are one entity with two aspects. As the One who is with God the Father, He is Christ, but as the One who comes into us, He is the Spirit. We should never separate Christ and the Spirit into two separate persons, because Christ is the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17).
As the lampstand He operates on the earth and enters into us, His believers, thus producing the churches, which are also lampstands (Rev. 1:20). In a sense, we may say that there are now seven golden lampstands in the “outer court.” The seven golden lampstands in Revelation 1 are the product, expression, and embodiment of the unique golden lampstand. Thus, the church is Christ and the product, embodiment, expression, and manifestation of the Spirit. We must be clear that the substance and reality of the church is the Spirit.
All the lampstands in the Bible are actually one lampstand with three aspects. In one aspect the lampstand is Christ, in another aspect it is the Spirit, and in still another aspect it is the church. Although its aspects are different, its reality or substance is one. The reality and substance of the lampstand is Christ and the Spirit. When we say that the reality of the lampstand is Christ, the emphasis is on the fact, and when we say that the reality of the lampstand is the Spirit, the emphasis is on our experience. According to the fact, the church is Christ, but according to our experience, the church is the embodiment of the Spirit.
We must see that we cannot set up or produce the church by our own effort. Regardless of how much we bear the cross, we cannot produce the church. Regardless of how much we allow ourselves to be crucified on the cross, we cannot produce the church. Regardless of how much we are dealt with, broken, and carved, we are still ourselves and not the church. We do not say this to disparage other Christians. Rather, in saying this we also include ourselves, for we are all God’s children. Throughout the centuries God has given His saints vision after vision. Some saw the need to bear the cross, to be broken, and to be dealt with. These matters, however, miss the central point. Strictly speaking, the church is neither a matter of being dealt with nor a matter of bearing the cross and being broken. Rather, it is a matter of the Spirit having a place in us. This is because the essence and reality of the church is the Spirit. For example, the essence or substance of this stand is wood. If the substance of this stand was not wood, then no matter what color you painted it or however you disguised it, it would not be wood. The essence of this stand is wood, and the essence of the church is the Spirit, that is, the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is God Himself reaching us. However, it was not so simple for God to reach us. He had to go through the process of incarnation, thirty-three and a half years of human living, death, and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit.
The golden lampstand in Zechariah 4 signifies the Spirit of Jehovah. This golden lampstand signifies Jehovah God who became the life-giving Spirit through incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection. This life-giving Spirit is God Himself. It includes the Father, the Son, and the Spirit and also includes humanity, human living, Christ’s mysterious death on the cross, resurrection, and ascension. This is the Triune God who passed through a process to become the all-inclusive Spirit. We may use the making of bread as an illustration. After the wheat in a field ripens and is harvested, it has to be ground into powder, mixed with water, and baked in fire in order to become bread. During the mixing, milk, raisins, and other ingredients may also be added. Consequently, this loaf of bread becomes an all-inclusive loaf of bread. When you eat this bread, you receive all the different kinds of ingredients.
The all-inclusive Spirit includes the Spirit of God in Zechariah 4. This is signified by the lampstand in Zechariah 4, which is for God’s building, the church. Hence, the Spirit, signified by the lampstand, is for the producing of the church, which is the reprint of the Spirit. Originally, there was only one Spirit, one lampstand, but eventually, seven lampstands were produced. The seven golden lampstands in Revelation 1 and the one golden lampstand in Zechariah 4 are exactly the same. The golden lampstand in Zechariah is the original copy, and the golden lampstands in Revelation are the reprints. The original copy was reprinted, producing seven copies that are exactly like the original. Therefore, the church is the reprint of the Spirit.
May this light shine thoroughly and brightly so that we who are in this age would see more clearly than the Christians twenty years ago. Twenty years ago I spoke concerning the church, but my speaking was not so thorough because I myself did not see the church so clearly. It was only recently that I saw how indispensable the Spirit is. To say that the church is Christ is only to state a fact. If you do not have the dispensing of the Spirit, and if you do not allow the seven Spirits to shine in you thoroughly, transfusing God into you richly so that you may become His reproduction, then you are not in the reality of the church. All you have is a Christian organization or society. There is no reprint of the Spirit and no golden lampstand. The church as the reprint of the Spirit is a lampstand of pure gold.
When this light clearly shines on us, then many of my previous messages and words may become unnecessary. Today we should board the 747 airplane instead of riding on the old oxcart. We must see that the church is the reprint, the expression, and the product of the Spirit. The Spirit is the seven Spirits as the consummation of Jehovah God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—who passed through incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection. This Spirit is for the producing of the church.
To print a book or a newspaper, one needs not only a printing plate but also good paper. Suppose you have made a printing plate. If you then try to print something on a piece of glass or on a piece of marble, it will be very difficult. Only when you use a proper sheet of paper will the ink be immediately absorbed and the print will come out clearly. What kind of “paper” is used for the reprint of the Spirit? The “paper” is our spirit! Our mind is like a piece of marble. If you try to understand the spiritual things and the things pertaining to the church with your mind, it is like trying to print a newspaper on marble. It is very difficult, and there is no absorption. Neither can you use your emotion, cleverness, zeal, or good intention to understand spiritual matters. None of these ways will do. For more than forty years I have been observing a group of zealous people. The more zealous they are, the more God has no way in them. Their heart for the church is so good that it is beyond reproach, yet their understanding of the church is so darkened that they hardly know the church. In short, to allow the Spirit to reprint Himself in us, we must be in spirit.
There are several passages in Ephesians that mention the phrase in spirit. Ephesians 3:5 says that the church as the mystery of Christ has now been revealed in spirit. Within you and me is a mystery that is not known to others. What is this mystery? This mystery is that the Spirit is doing a work of reprinting in our spirit. The Spirit is reprinting the rich Christ and the mysterious God. Such a reprint cannot be touched by the human mind, human wisdom, or human emotion. Only when we are in our spirit can the church as a mystery be revealed to us. This mystery is something altogether in spirit. Thus, we must be in spirit to receive this revelation.
Ephesians 1:17 says that we need a spirit of wisdom and revelation. A spirit of revelation is for seeing, whereas a spirit of wisdom is for understanding. For example, suppose there is a machine that had been covered and kept secret but has now been unveiled and exhibited. This is revelation. However, one may examine it for a long time and still be puzzled as to its use or purpose. One may have the revelation but not the wisdom, and one may have the seeing but not the understanding. Hence, we all need to pray, “O Lord, give us a spirit that can both see and understand.” To be in spirit is to be in a spirit of wisdom and revelation. You and I have a spirit within, but this spirit needs to be strengthened and enlightened by the Spirit of God so that it may be able to see and understand.
The church as God’s building, God’s house, and God’s dwelling place is in our spirit. Ephesians 2:22 says, “In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” We may say that God dwells in us, but strictly speaking, He does not dwell in our mind or in our emotions but in our spirit. We may say that we are being built together in the church. However, the building is not in our mind but in our spirit. Our mind is wild, like an unbridled horse. Perhaps someone would say to me, “Brother Lee, I am absolutely one with you.” Regardless of who he might be, I would not believe him or listen to him, because it is useless for someone to merely say that he is one with me. Being in the mind is not useful, but being in the spirit is useful. If you were truly in spirit, you would be one with me without having to say it. Therefore, our being built together as God’s dwelling place can take place only in our spirit. We all have some amount of experience of this. Many times we have opinions, but once we are in spirit, the opinions are gone, and there is no problem. Once we are in spirit, there is the building and the oneness.
In Ephesians 3:16 the apostle prayed, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man.” We need to be strengthened, not in our mind or in our joy, anger, sorrow, or delight but in our spirit, in our inner man. Do not be strong in your mind, will, and emotion. Rather, be strong in spirit. We all need to be strengthened in spirit.
Ephesians 4:23 says, “That you be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” What is the spirit of the mind? The mind is the mind, and the spirit is the spirit, but what is the spirit of the mind? This phrase indicates that our spirit has become the spirit of our mind. This means that our spirit is able to control our mind, occupy our mind, and take over our mind. It is good to turn to our spirit, but we need to progress until our spirit controls our mind, that is, until our mind and our spirit are one. It is good to turn to our spirit, but unless our mind is one with our spirit and is under the control of our spirit, our spirit is merely our spirit and not yet the spirit of our mind.
The old man in our conduct is our old manner of life. The new man is the church life. If we allow our spirit to control and direct our mind, our mind and our spirit will become one, and our mind will be subject to our spirit. Spontaneously, we will put off our old manner of life—the old man—and we will put on the new man—the church life. In this way the reality of the church will be expressed through us.
Ephesians 5:18 says, “Do not be drunk with wine.” Wine refers to earthly pleasures. Anything that influences us, drugs us, or affects us is wine. We should not be filled and drunk with earthly pleasures. Verse 18 also says, “Be filled in spirit,” that is, be filled unto all the fullness of God (3:19). Wine fills us up physically, causing us to be filled in our body. We should not, however, be filled with wine in our body. Rather, we should be filled unto all the fullness of God in our spirit. This means that we must let go of all the desires of our soul, including our mind, emotion, and will. We should only be filled in spirit unto the fullness of God. The result of this is shown in 5:19, which says, “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord.” This is what it means to be filled in our whole being with God. This is what it means when we sing, “And everywhere be Thee and God” (Hymns, #489, stanza 8).
Ephesians 6:18 says, “Praying at every time in spirit.” We should not pray in the mind or in the emotion. Sometimes when others falsely accuse us, we go before God, praying with tears coming down our cheeks. This is not to pray in spirit. If we pray in spirit, we will not shed tears in this way. When we are not in spirit, we feel mistreated and hurt. However, when we turn to our spirit, the Lord does not need to wipe away our tears, because our spirit will turn back our tears. We may complain to others about being mistreated, but we cannot go and complain in this way to God. Once we get into the presence of the Lord, that is, once we turn to our spirit, the grievances, insults, suffering, and pain are gone. Nothing matters anymore. Have you had this kind of experience? In the church the sisters often complain that the brothers treat them unfairly. At home the wife often complains that her husband treats her unfairly. However, the moment we turn to our spirit, we can no longer complain or argue. Once we turn to our spirit, we are able to accept others’ mistreatment. Then we are truly bearing the cross. When Paul wrote Ephesians, he did not become long-winded, writing sixty chapters. He wrote only six chapters, which was sufficient. The key is praying “in spirit.” Paul knew that if we would pray in spirit, that would be sufficient.
By reading through the six chapters of Ephesians, we may realize that the reality of the church is entirely in spirit and that the church life should be entirely in spirit. Ephesians, which is a book on the church, mentions one matter again and again in every chapter—in spirit. Only in spirit can the church be brought forth. The church cannot be produced through our learning to be broken unless we are in spirit. Perhaps some may say, “If our flesh is broken, then our spirit will be released.” However, the problem is that we always focus on the breaking of the outer man instead of focusing on the release of the spirit.
Ephesians does not focus on the negative side of being broken. Instead, it focuses only on the positive side of being in spirit. Our spirit needs to receive the revelation and the wisdom of the Spirit. Our inner man needs to be strengthened. We need to be strengthened to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation. It is in such a spirit that the church life is brought forth. In the previous chapter we paid attention to the seven Spirits. In this chapter we are focusing on our spirit. The seven Spirits are the essence and reality of the church, and our spirit is the best “paper” for the reprinting of the seven Spirits. To be the best reprint of the Spirit, we must have a strengthened spirit of wisdom and revelation. In such a spirit, the Spirit will be able to produce the church as His reprint.
