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According to His plan, God wants to work Himself into us so that we can become a corporate vessel—the church, the Body of Christ. We have heard many messages concerning God’s plan, but we still need to see His plan.
Throughout the ages God has had one desire, which is to work Himself into us. We have given many messages concerning God’s desire, but to hear a message is one thing and to touch the reality of the message is still another thing. Only when we touch the reality will we realize the importance of this desire.
God wants to work Himself into us in order to make us a corporate vessel to be the church, the Body of Christ. The infinite and mighty God desires to do one thing in the universe: He desires to work Himself into us so that we would be a universal vessel. Only then can God’s plan in creation and redemption be accomplished.
The Bible shows that God is doing only one thing in the universe: He is working Himself into man. Healing the sick, casting out demons, and performing miracles are not His ultimate purpose. Even creating the heavens and the earth was not His ultimate purpose. These things are merely a part of His great work. God has only one desire in the universe, which is to work Himself into a great corporate vessel so that He can be expressed through this vessel.
Every problem in the universe, including darkness and death, will be resolved through God’s working Himself into this vessel. Even the problem of God’s enemy with the authority of darkness will be resolved. When God’s work is accomplished, light will come, life will swallow up death, and Satan and his angels will all be cast into the lake of fire. Thus, every problem in the universe will be solved. At the same time, every positive thing, that is, everything concerning the divine life, will be accomplished. We often feel weak, dry, incompetent, and incapable, but we have no way to solve these problems. The more God mingles Himself with us to be our life, thereby making us a corporate vessel, the more these problems are resolved.
I have been a Christian for many years, but it seems that the more I pursued, the less I was satisfied. I always felt that my living was not up to the standard of a Christian. Neither was I satisfied with the condition of the church. There were times when I had a sense of accomplishment and thought that I had ground to boast. I now realize that when I felt satisfied, the Lord had loosened His hold on me.
When God holds us tightly in His hand, we are desperate. Our being desperate proves that God is holding us. The tighter He holds us, the more desperate we feel. When God loosens His hold, we feel that we have seen something, experienced something, or gained something. Only then do we feel that the work is in our hand and that there are reasonable results. Without God’s measure we cannot see our true situation. When God loosens His hold on us, we fall down. However, He has mercy on us and holds us tightly.
The tighter God holds a brother, the more he will feel that he is incapable and dry. When he is dry, he cannot condemn the other saints. For example, suppose a brother criticizes the brothers who give the messages and says that they are incapable. God will let the brother see that even if the other brothers are incapable, his condition is even poorer. Such an experience shows that God is holding him.
Only those who are held tightly and led by the Lord realize that what they are and what they achieve are not of themselves but of God. We cannot do anything nor can we be something in ourselves. Everything is of God. God does not want us to have hope in ourselves. Hence, we sense that the world is dark. God does not want us to be in darkness or to feel dry or weak. All our strength and our abilities are of Him, not of ourselves.
Second Corinthians 3:5-6 says, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God, who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” The sufficiency, the competency, of the Lord’s serving ones is from God. God Himself is our sufficiency. In these verses the apostle Paul seemed to be saying, “We are ministers of a new covenant because of God, not because of ourselves. I am not sufficient to be a minister of the new covenant, and I will never be sufficient. My sufficiency is God.”
Paul also says, “I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God which was given to me according to the operation of His power” (Eph. 3:7). The operating power here refers to God. I have been observing and considering our condition for many years. God has revealed His heart’s desire to us. He wants to enter into us to be our sufficiency, that is, to be our life, our power, our light, and our everything. This sufficiency enables us to be ministers of the new covenant. When we are mingled with God, we become sufficient. Without God we lack sufficiency; we are insufficient.
In 2 Corinthians 4:7 the apostle Paul says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us.” This shows that chapters 3 and 4 of 2 Corinthians are related. God desires to enter into us in order to be our sufficiency, that is, to be our life, our power, and our light. We want to be enlightened and strengthened, that is, to be sufficient, for the work. God, however, comes in to tear down our “sufficiency.” We want to be enlightened and strong, but when He comes, we are in darkness, and our strength is broken. We want to move, but He does not allow us to move. God wants to train us and guide us so that we realize that our sufficiency does not lie in ourselves but in Him. God is our brightness, our strength, and our move.
The day a believer sees that God is his sufficiency, he will experience Peniel. Peniel is where Jacob was enlightened by God to see that he was no longer Jacob; he was Israel (Gen. 32:22-32). At Peniel a believer no longer hopes to be enlightened, strong, or sufficient. Instead, he sees that God is everything and that God is in him. After experiencing Peniel, he will limp before God, just as Jacob limped. He will no longer harbor any hope for himself, and he will not bemoan his condition. On one hand, a believer should not be content with his condition. On the other hand, when he sees the vision of God as his sufficiency, he will be delivered from looking at himself. He will know that his poor condition belongs to Ai (12:8), the heap of ruins.
There is a person who is life and light and who is in us as our sufficiency. We are earthen vessels, but He is the treasure. When we see this, we will understand God’s purpose in working Himself into us. Instead of being concerned about our own condition, we will learn to rely on the Body, to depend on the church, and to serve God. Whether or not we are strong does not matter. What matters is whether or not the Body is strong. It is not a matter of our being enlightened but of the Body being enlightened. Whether or not we are weak, the Body is not weak.
May God open our mind to gradually understand that we are not sufficient but that He is. He is in us to be our life, light, and power. He is our sufficiency. May we also understand that having light and being sufficient are not individual matters. They belong to the Body. Hence, some saints testify that when they fellowship with other saints, they receive the supply. We must see that the Lord is our life, and we must see that He is in the Body. We must not only see that the Lord desires to mingle with us but also that this mingling is to produce the Body. Any desire to have the mingling apart from the Body cannot succeed, because the mingling is for the Body.
The entire Bible speaks of only one thing: God desires to work Himself into His redeemed people to produce a unique corporate vessel. It is not enough to see the first part of God’s desire. We must also see the second part of His desire. From our experience we know that our effort is of no avail. Furthermore, we do not gain anything when we pursue God for ourselves. In order to gain God, we must be in the Body. What we gain in our pursuit of the Lord is to supply the other members. In this way we are joined to the Body. If what we gain is not given to the Body, it will be annulled. What we have gained is multiplied and enriched only in the Body.
We must learn to continually deny the self and to see that the Lord is everything to us. He is life, light, and power; He is our sufficiency. In Him every problem is solved. We must also see that all God’s riches are for the Body. The more we are in the Body, the more we touch and gain His riches. When we deny the self and focus on God, our problems are resolved. The more we enter into God, the more our problems are resolved. Furthermore, we should have more contact with the saints. We should fellowship with the saints concerning our service and the work. We should not do anything as an individual or have confidence in ourselves. Our confidence should be in the all-sufficient God. God is our sufficiency in the Body. When we rely on God and on the brothers and sisters, we will see Christ in the church. The dominion spoken of in Genesis 1:28 belongs to the church.
We must see these two points: God desires to work Himself into us, and God is everything to us in the church, the Body. An individual member cannot enjoy all of God’s riches. When we keep the riches in ourselves, for our personal enjoyment, we become detached members. At the end of the Gospels the Lord appeared to Mary and to Peter, that is, to individual believers. But His purpose in appearing to Mary and to Peter was to enlighten them concerning His corporate Body (John 20:16-18; 21:15-17). The Lord’s appearing is for the saints. If we keep His appearing for ourselves and do not share it with all the saints, His appearing will become blurred. Every spiritual gain is for the Body. When we hold back what we have gained, we will lose its value before God. However, if we bring what we have gained to the Body, what we have gained will be enriched.
Hence, we should not live in self-pity. We simply need to admit that we cannot rise up to the standard nor can we be strong by our own efforts. We should not pretend to be strong or tell others that we are doing well in the Lord. If we are willing to tell the saints with whom we coordinate that we are incapable, we will become living. Instead of giving the saints a word of exhortation, we should learn to commit ourselves to the Lord and place ourselves in the Body by relying on the Body. Then we will receive the supply.
