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Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:17, 1:22-23; 2:6, 2:22; 3:16; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18; Acts 2:32-33, 36
In this chapter we come to six crucial points in the book of Ephesians, which is a book on the church, the Body of Christ. We have seen that the building up of the Body of Christ is the foundation of all genuine Christian service, and we have been emphasizing our deep need to see the Body. May the Lord be merciful to all of us that we may see the Body in order that we may serve Him in a proper way.
The Body of Christ is not a small thing, and the Christian service is a matter in the Body. Eventually, we will see that Christ and the church, the Head and the Body, are the administration of the whole universe. Our service to the Lord is based upon this fact.
First of all, we need to see that the Body is a matter absolutely in the spirit, in our human spirit. Our regenerated spirit is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but the emphasis with the Body of Christ today is on our human spirit rather than on the Holy Spirit. Therefore, in every chapter of the book of Ephesians, there is something mentioned about our regenerated human spirit. Ephesians is a book on the Body, and every chapter contains a verse concerning the human spirit. We need to pray-read these verses again and again.
In Ephesians 1:17 Paul spoke of God as “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.” Such a title is different from all the titles the Jewish people used for God. Paul referred to God not as the God of the Hebrews but as the God of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father of glory. Such a word is meaningful and profound. In incarnation the Lord Jesus Christ, God Himself (Phil. 2:6), became a man. As a man He is related to God’s creation; therefore, God the Creator is His God. His incarnation brought God the Creator into man, God’s creature. He is a man with God incarnated in Him. Moreover, because glory is God expressed, the Father of glory is God expressed through His many sons.
Paul prayed that the Father of glory “may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation” (Eph. 1:17). The spirit here is our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Spirit of God. It is necessary for you to see the Body, but you could never see the Body unless you are in the spirit. If you do not have the vision in your spirit, if you do not have a spirit of revelation, a seeing spirit, you could not see the Body. If your eyes do not have sight, you could not distinguish one color from another, and you could not view the scenery. The Body of Christ is something different from all the scenes we could see, something different from all the colors we could see naturally. It is a heavenly vision. Therefore, we need a spirit of revelation, a spirit of seeing, a seeing spirit, to see the Body. I do not mean that we need a clever mind to understand. What we need is a spirit transparent to see, a spirit of revelation, a seeing spirit to see the Body. The spirit of revelation to see the Body is the first point concerning our spirit in this book on the church.
Many expositions of the book of Ephesians have been written by different Christian teachers. However, I have not been able to find any that stress this one point, that the Body is something in our spirit. Although you may talk about certain sights or certain views, if you do not have eyes to see, how could you see? The church is something too profound, too high, too mysterious, far, far beyond our human understanding!
In the following verses Paul speaks of the surpassing greatness of the power that God caused to operate in Christ in raising Him from the dead and seating Him at the right hand of God, in subjecting all things under His feet, and in giving Him to be Head over all things to the church (vv. 19-22). You need to pay special attention to the word to in the phrase to the church in verse 22. It is not an insignificant word here but one of the most important words in the whole chapter. Paul did not say “for the church,” but he said “to the church.” The church is the Body of this One (vv. 22-23). This is the Body. The Body is the Body of such a One who has been enthroned and made Head over all things to the church. This matter is profound and mysterious, and it cannot be seen by our physical eyes or understood by our natural understanding. To see this mysterious thing we need another organ; we need a spirit of revelation. Our spirit must be a spirit of revelation.
In order to see the church or know the church, you cannot remain in your mind. To use your mind is to use the wrong organ to see the church, and you cannot see it. As long as you remain in your mind, you are through with the revelation of the church. Your spirit must be a spirit of revelation. You could never understand the church simply by using your mind. The more you try to figure it out, the more you will be confused. Although you may listen to different people and read different books, you find yourself more and more confused. However, if you would simply close your eyes from all the books, close your mind from all the teachings, close your ears from the voices of the different teachers, and turn yourself to your spirit and remain there, you will be clear concerning the church.
However, many times we Christians are foolish in that we fail to use the wonderful spirit we have within us. We have a spirit, and this spirit is a spirit of revelation, but when it comes to the matter of the church, the matter of the local church, we do not even realize that we should use our spirit. Instead of turning to our spirit to be clear concerning the church, we go to teachers or to the writings of the great teachers of the past. But some of the writings may be a veil over our eyes that would keep us from the vision of the church in our spirit. To be clear concerning the matter of the church, we need to use the proper organ. Only in the spirit can we see the church.
To use our mind to try to understand the matter of the church instead of turning to our spirit to see the revelation of the church can be compared to trying to see a particular color with our eyes closed instead of opening our eyes to see that color. With your eyes closed, without the faculty of vision, you cannot see any of the colors. The faculty of understanding does not work for the colors. But if you open your eyes, all the doubts are gone, all the questions are gone, and you know what the particular color is. You may not be able to explain what you see, but your eyes can substantiate the colors and can distinguish one color from another. To see the colors we need to open our eyes. To see the church we need to turn to our spirit.
We need to turn to our spirit and respect the fact that our spirit is a spirit of revelation. To see the church is simple when you use the proper organ. In the spirit the matter of the church is very clear. The local church is different from all the denominations. You may not be able to explain the difference, but when you turn to the spirit and see the church, you will know the difference, and you will know that you have seen the church.
We may talk about Ephesians 1:18-23 but neglect the spirit of revelation in verse 17. The spirit of revelation is not something that descends on you from the heavens after you have prayed for three nights. The spirit of revelation is within you already, but you need to take away all the veils that you might see. In order to know what a particular color is, it would be foolish for you to fast and pray, to cry out and weep, and to wait for the Lord to give you a vision. You have eyes to see; you simply need to take away all the veils and open your eyes. In the same way, if you take away all the veils from your spiritual eyes and turn to your spirit, you will see the church. Within you is the spirit of revelation, created by God and regenerated by the Holy Spirit. From my own experience and the experience of many others, I can tell you that our need is to turn to this spirit and take away all the veils that hinder our vision.
Many of our concepts and the teachings we have received in the past have become layers of veils that frustrate our vision and confuse us. In the matter of seeing the Body, it is as if we all see it through colored glasses. Our vision is colored by some of our particular experiences or by the teachings of those who brought us to the Lord. Sometimes it seems as if this influence is in our very blood, and it is hard to get rid of those concepts and that influence in order that we may come to the Word with a pure spirit, with nothing coloring our vision and nothing veiling our sight. If we come to the pure Word with a transparent spirit, without any concepts from our background, it will be very easy for us to be clear about the Body. I can testify that it took me nearly twenty years to get rid of the influence of all the concepts and teachings from my background. May the Lord grant us all such a spirit to see the Body.
The matter of the Body is a matter in the spirit, not a matter in the mind or the emotions. It is natural for the brothers to be in their mind and for the sisters to be in their emotions. Many believing sisters are hindered from being clear about the church because of their emotions. They make a decision about meeting with Christians based on their emotions, on their feelings. Unless these sisters would turn themselves to the spirit and forget their emotions, they cannot be clear about the local church. Their decision concerning the church is not based upon the spirit but upon the emotion. We can never be clear about the church as long as we are not in the spirit.
The brothers need to turn themselves to the spirit, forgetting about the mind, and the sisters need to turn themselves to the spirit, forgetting about their emotion. In addition, there are some who are so strong in their will, so stubborn in their will, that they could not be clear about the Body either. When they make a decision, when their will is set, they would not be willing to be changed forever. It may seem that even the Lord could not change them. Such a person is so strong in the will that he could never be persuaded even by the clear word of God. Those who are stubborn in their will in this way could never be clear about the Body. All of us need to forget about what we feel, what we think, and what we decide, and turn ourselves to the spirit without any veils. If we turn to the spirit, if we turn to the Lord in such a way, when we come to the Word, right away we will be clear about the Body.
The matter of seeing the church is in the spirit, and the building up of the church is also in the spirit. In Ephesians 2:22 Paul says that “you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” As long as we stay outside the spirit, we are divided, and we are also divisive. As long as we are not in the spirit, we are individualistic. It is not at all hard to be divisive or to be individualistic. Simply by staying away from our spirit, simply by lingering in our mind to consider or by lingering in our emotion, we are divisive, we are individualistic, and we are not willing to be blended. We have our likes and dislikes, our tastes and preferences, our opinions about the brothers and sisters, and we would rather stay at home than be in the meetings with the saints. As long as we stay away from our spirit, we see no need to be blended together, and we feel it is necessary for each of us to maintain a distinctiveness from others, to take care of our individual personality created by God, and to hold on to our own prestige. It is impossible for us to be blended together as long as we stay outside the spirit with such concepts. However, if we would turn ourselves to the spirit, right away we would see that we need to be blended, we would be willing to be blended, and we would even cry out to the Lord for His mercy that He would blend us together.
Nevertheless, within a few hours after praying such a prayer, we may come back to our understanding, to our mind, and to our emotion, and it will seem that we are another person. In the morning watch, we were a person in the spirit fully for the building up together, but after five hours we are outside the spirit, and there is no building. If we are going to be built up together, we need to be in our spirit.
Furthermore, we need to be strengthened into the inner man, into our regenerated human spirit. In chapter 3 of Ephesians Paul 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” (v. 16). Not only is the seeing of the Body in the spirit, not only is the building up together of the Body in the spirit, but the strengthening into the inner man is also in the spirit. In order to be strengthened into the inner man, we need to be in the spirit. We are too strong in the emotion, in the will, and in the mind, but we are not strong enough in the inner man, in the spirit. We need to be strengthened into the inner man. The strengthening of God is in our spirit.
Then in chapter 4 of Ephesians, after the strengthening into the inner man, there is the renewing in the spirit of the mind (v. 23). Every part of your mind needs to be completely renewed, renewed in the spirit that takes over, occupies, and possesses your mind and becomes the spirit of your mind. You may not realize how much your mind controls your spirit and even controls the Holy Spirit. Without the cooperation of your mind, the Holy Spirit could not get through in you. In this sense, the Holy Spirit is under the control of your mind. However, this is not the proper order. Both the Holy Spirit and our human spirit should be over our mind and should take full control of our mind. The mind should be set on the spirit (Rom. 8:6), and the mind should be governed, possessed, occupied, taken over, controlled, and subdued by the spirit. Then this spirit is the renewing spirit.
All of us need to be renewed again and again, daily, hourly, moment by moment, all the time, in, with, and by such a renewing spirit. If such is the case, the local church life will be real and precious to us, and we will realize that there is no other way for us to go on, no other way for us to take.
In the first four chapters of Ephesians there is the seeing in the spirit (1:17), building up in the spirit (2:22), being strengthened into the spirit (3:16), and being renewed in the spirit (4:23). In chapter 5 Paul indicates that we need to be filled in spirit. According to 3:19, to be filled in spirit means to be filled unto all the fullness of God. When Christ makes His home in our heart, and when we are strong to apprehend with all the saints the dimensions of Christ and to know by experience His knowledge-surpassing love, we will be filled unto all the fullness of God. All this fullness dwells in Christ (Col. 1:19; 2:9). Through His indwelling, Christ imparts what God is into our being. We can be filled with God to such a measure and standard, even unto all the fullness of God.
Paul says in Ephesians 5:18 that we should not be drunk with wine, as the unbelievers, filled with wine in their body, but we Christians need to be filled with God in our spirit. It is a matter of not only seeing the church in our spirit, not only being built up in the spirit, not only being strengthened into the spirit, not only being renewed in spirit, but also being filled with all that God is in Christ in our spirit.
It seems that we often are full in our mind but empty in our spirit. Our spirit seems somewhat like a flat tire, but our mind and emotion are both filled up. We need to pray that we would be emptied in the mind and emptied in the emotion but filled unto the fullness of God in our spirit. Then the church life will be very valuable to us. We will treasure the church life.
Finally, in chapter 6 of Ephesians, Paul says that we need to pray at every time in spirit (v. 18). This prayer is the prayer of a member of the Body identified with Christ on the throne, all the time claiming, proclaiming, giving command to the Lord, and binding the enemy. This is not the prayer of a beggar, not begging prayer, not the prayer of the poor sinner, not the prayer of the poor, weak saints pleading with the Lord, but the prayer of the Body, the prayer of members of the Body identified with the Head.
These six points in the six chapters of Ephesians are crucial, and we could spend much more time on each of them. We need to see the Body in the spirit, to be built up in the spirit, to be strengthened into the spirit, to be renewed in the spirit, to be filled unto the fullness of God in the spirit, and to pray in spirit as members of the Body identified with the Head. If such is the case, spontaneously we will have the church life. If not, it will be hard to have the church life. We may have a lot of talk about the Body life and a lot of teachings about the church, but we will have no way at all to realize what the church life actually is. I urge you again and again to turn to the spirit because the church life is in your spirit.
You may wonder what this matter has to do with the service. The service is a matter in the Body, and the matter of the Body is not a small thing. The Body is the Body of Christ, the One who has been enthroned and given the lordship and authority in heaven and on earth and even under the earth. He has received all authority, and as the Body we are identified with Him. Therefore, we are in the heavenlies, we have the authority, and we can exercise the authority. If such is the case, as those who are serving the Lord, we will serve not only with power but also with authority.
Look at the situation on the day of Pentecost. Peter and the others served God with authority, not merely with the power that is according to the concept of many Christians today. Peter and the others declared, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you have crucified” (Acts 2:36). He is the Head, and we are the Body. We are one with Him. Therefore, we have not only the power but also the authority over all things.
Authority is much greater than power. We may illustrate in this way. Automobiles are very powerful, and there are many of them on the street. But at the signal of one policeman, all the powerful cars come to a stop. The cars have power, but the policeman has authority.
Are you going to serve the Lord merely with power, or are you going to serve Him with authority, which is in another category? Moreover, how could you have the authority? The authority in all the heavens and on the earth has been given to the Head, and the Head is identified with the Body. If you are not in the Body, how could you have the authority? But if you are in the Body, how could you lack the authority?
If we have seen the Body and we realize that we are members of the Body, we will say, “Hallelujah, there is no need for me to serve merely with power. Authority is in the Body. I have the authority that is greater than power.” In Luke 10:19 the Lord Jesus says, “Behold, I have given you the authority...over all the power of the enemy.” What the enemy has is merely power, but the Lord has given us the authority. The way to preach the gospel is with authority. In Matthew 28:18-19 the Lord Jesus says, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and disciple all the nations.” We need to preach the gospel not only with power but with authority.
How much we need to realize that we are the members of the Body, the Body that is identified with the Head. Whatever the Head has accomplished, whatever the Head has obtained, whatever the Head has attained to, all are to the church, which is the Body. All these are not only for the church but to the church. All these are being transmitted by and in the Holy Spirit to the church, which is the Body. If you realize that you are members of such a Body, which is identified with the Head, you will say, “There is no need for us to beg any longer. We will give the command to the Lord and to the enemy. We are members of the Body that is identified with the Christ who is enthroned as the Head and the Lord of all. There is no need for us to beg. Rather, we give the command. We bind, we loose, we command, we proclaim, and we claim.” This is the authority for the service, the authority that is greater than power, and this is the way for us to serve the Lord. The real service is in the Body.
To be in the Body is not a small thing. We need to realize what kind of administration there is in this whole universe. Christ and the Body, Christ and the church, the Head and the Body, are the administration of the whole universe today. The question is whether or not you are in this administration. How can you say that you are in it? You can say that you are in this administration today because you are in the Body. Have you realized that Christ and His Body today are the administration of the whole universe? It is based upon this fact that we serve. It is based upon this fact that we preach the gospel, and it is based upon this fact that we build the church.
