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Ephesians 4:12-13 says, “For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ, until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” These two verses put two matters together. Verse 12 speaks of the building up of the Body of Christ, and verse 13 speaks of the growth of the Body unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The building up in verse 12 refers to the growth in verse 13. Revelation 19:7 says, “The marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” We need to pay attention to the phrase His wife has made herself ready. Matthew 25:1-13 speaks of the parable of the ten virgins. This shows that God’s work throughout the generations is to build Himself into man. He is the God of heaven, possessing not only the nature of God but also the element of heaven. When He builds Himself into us, He constitutes the nature of God and the element of heaven into us. The more we allow Him to work Himself into us, the more we will have the element of God and the element of heaven. We all have had this experience. When we submit to the Holy Spirit, allowing God to work Himself into us, we have the presence of God and the taste of heaven within us.
God, heaven, and man are mingled as one, and the mingling of the three is the church today. What is the church? The church is God and heaven mingled together with man. This surely is a mystery. Those who have not received God’s salvation cannot comprehend this matter. The unbelievers are merely human, but we who are saved have the all-inclusive Christ living in us. We are something mystical because we have God and heaven inside of us. This is the church today.
The church is a miniature, similar to a fetus in a mother’s womb, which is conceived as a miniature of a complete person. Gradually, the fetus grows and eventually is born as a complete person. The church, which is something mystical, is a miniature, and when it is completed, it will be the New Jerusalem.
A newborn child actually begins as a fetus in the mother’s womb, and this fetus grows bit by bit until it is born. The church today is a miniature of the glorious New Jerusalem in the future, and it will continually grow until the day that it is fully grown. How can the church or the saved ones grow continuously? We grow through God’s continuous building work in us. The more God builds, the more we grow. Without God’s building work we cannot grow. Do not think that you can grow by yourself. Our growing is actually God’s building. Ephesians 4:12-13 clearly shows that the building is the growing.
We cannot grow if we do not have God within us building Himself into us. We should all spend time to find out how God builds and how we can grow. God’s building and our growth are for the preparation of the bride. Revelation 19:7 says that the wife has made herself ready. What does it mean to say that the wife has made herself ready? It means that the church has been built up. The wife signifies the church in its ultimate state. The wife having made herself ready means that the church has been completely built up and has grown unto maturity. Therefore, if we find out how God builds, we will see how we can grow and make ourselves ready.
The parable of the virgins in Matthew 25 shows the way to get ready. Simply speaking, this parable reveals that when the Lord comes back, those who are ready will sit with Him at the wedding feast. To be ready here means that the wife has made herself ready, that God has completed His building work in man, and that we have grown and matured in the Lord’s life. These three matters—God’s building in us, our growth in the Lord’s life, and our getting ready before the Lord—are all linked together. God’s building work in us is our growth in the Lord’s life and is also our getting ready before the Lord. These three matters—God’s building, our growth, and our getting ready—are actually one matter. How does the Lord carry out the building work in us? When we were saved, He not only forgave our sins, but through His Spirit He entered into us with His life to be our life. That was the beginning of His building work.
An unsaved person is merely a human being. But we who are genuinely saved have God’s Holy Spirit and God’s life within us. We are not merely humans but humans with the life of God and the Holy Spirit mingled within. When the Holy Spirit of God and the life of God entered into us, that was the beginning of God’s building work in us.
From the time that God begins His building work in us onward, the Spirit of God continuously moves us and motivates us within, and the life of God continuously operates and works within us. Both the moving of the Spirit of God and the operating of the life of God are God’s building work within us. This kind of building work requires our cooperation, mainly in the matter of the breaking of our self. If the self is not broken, it is impossible for God to build Himself into us. How much God can build Himself into us depends on how much we allow God to break us. Those who do not allow God to break them cannot have God Himself built into them.
It may be difficult for some to understand how God breaks us or how God builds Himself into us. To illustrate, when we are sick, the doctor often must give us an injection and a prescription. Because we may lack the proper nutrients or vitamins, the doctor must inject the nutrients or vitamins into us. What is his first step in doing this? He must first “‘break” our body. He must insert a needle into our flesh in order to inject the nutrients into our body. If there is no opening in our body, the nutrients cannot be injected into us. Likewise, if we do not allow God to break us or to make an opening in us, then God Himself cannot enter into us. Perhaps some people may say that they understand this. However, what is it that God wants to break in us? The injection given by the doctor breaks our physical flesh. Similarly, in order for God to build Himself into us and to enter into us, He needs to break our “flesh”—our soul-life, our self. God has to break our self so that He can enter into us and build Himself into us.
What is the soul-life or the self? Practically, the self refers to our thoughts, preferences, and opinions. All the activities in our mind are actions of the soul, our self. Our thoughts, views, preferences, choices, opinions, and decisions all represent our self and are all part of our self. When God comes to break our self, He comes to break all these things. What has to be broken? Our views, thoughts, preferences, choices, opinions, and decisions all need to be broken. If we allow God to break all these things, then God will have an opening in us, and then He will be able to inject Himself into us.
Some people may say that they understand this doctrine well but that it is still very troublesome to them and unclear in their practice. For example, you may be a genuinely saved person with the Spirit of God and the life of God in you. However, your views, insight, thoughts, opinions, preferences, choices, ideas, and decisions may be intact and altogether yours. Thus, not one bit of God’s element can be injected into you. Though you are saved and the Spirit of God and the life of God are in you, your thoughts and views do not have the element of God in them. God has no access to your thoughts and views and has no ground in your preferences and choices. In your ideas and decisions you keep God outside the door.
Although we have the life of God and the Spirit of God in us, we may handle things as if we do not have God in us. Though we have God’s life and God’s Spirit dwelling within us, God may not have the ground in us when we make choices or decisions.
In other words, although all those who are saved have the Spirit of God and the life of God within them, God may not have the ground in their thoughts, preferences, and views, that is, in their soul. This is the main reason why there is no growth in life in many saved ones and why God cannot build Himself into them.
How does God build Himself into each part of our being? God first needs to break our thoughts, ideas, preferences, views, choices, and opinions. How much God can build Himself into us depends on how much God has broken us. For example, suppose a brother would like to arrange his children’s marriages. The brother is indeed a saved person, having God’s Spirit and God’s life within. But when he is dealing with his children regarding the matter of marriage, he does not give any ground to God in his thoughts and views. When he worships God, God has the ground, but when he considers his children’s marriages, he puts God aside. In the matter of his children’s marriages, his thoughts and insight do not have God’s element. Therefore, in this matter he does not have God.
This brother may have very little of God’s element in him, so God’s desire is to build more of His element into him. In the brother’s insight, thinking, and determination, he still may lack the element of God. Therefore, God has no ground in his view of his children’s marriages. What can God do in such a situation? If God has mercy on him and is gracious to him, He will continue His building work within him. How will God do this building work in him? He will do it by breaking his insight and thinking. First, God must move him through the Spirit like a doctor giving an injection. While he is being punctured, he may have a sense of pain, which may remind him that his thinking and determination for his children’s marriages have all been from himself and without God. The Spirit then may move and pierce him a little more so that he will feel sorry, mournful, and regretful. During this time if he humbles himself and receives the piercing and moving of the Spirit, God’s element will be built up in him more and more.
On the day of Pentecost the Spirit moved in men, and many of them felt their hearts being pricked (Acts 2:37). When a doctor gives injections to people, they feel the pricking of the needle. The work of the Spirit inside us is very often like the piercing of a needle. His particular moving pierces our thoughts and preferences. One day the Spirit will pierce our view concerning our children’s marriages and our plans for our career and our future. He will be like a doctor giving an injection, piercing our skin and flesh, so that we will have a sense of pain and feel mournful. If we are willing to humble ourselves and receive the moving of the Spirit, then the Spirit will inject God’s intention into our thinking, determination, and preferences. Then our thoughts and views toward our children’s marriages will give more ground to God and have more of God’s element. Thus, God will do a further building work in us. With the increase of God’s element within us, God’s life will then expand and grow.
However, sometimes when the Spirit moves and pierces the heart of a brother, he is unwilling to comply. He still behaves and thinks according to his own insight and views and handles his children’s marriages according to his own thinking. One day, if God has mercy on him and is gracious to him, God will stretch out His hand and raise up an environment to smite him. This smiting is God’s dealing in order to deal with his insight and views, which are devoid of God. This brother may encounter trouble at work, his health may begin to deteriorate, or his daughter-in-law may cause trouble in the family. At this moment this brother, having been inwardly pierced by God, may awaken and realize that in the matter of his children’s marriages he did not give any ground to God or let God in and that he acted altogether according to his own insights, views, preferences, and opinions. This painful realization will be God’s dealing in order to break his thinking, opinions, preferences, and ideas.
Once this brother is broken, God will be able to come in and gain ground. This person’s insight and thinking will then have God’s element. God will expand outward in him and will go a step further in the work of building. Simultaneously, he will grow more, become more mature, and become more ready. If all the saints continually allow God to build in them, grow in them, and prepare them in this way, then they would be on the way to arrive at full maturity and to become the New Jerusalem.
Matthew 25:4 shows that the prudent virgins not only carried their lamps but also prepared their vessels with oil. They were those who paid the price to buy oil and to make themselves ready. What is the meaning of paying the price to buy oil and to make ourselves ready? In the Bible oil signifies the Spirit who is God Himself. To buy oil is to pay the price to gain God. No matter what we wish to gain, we must pay a price in order to gain it. In order to make ourselves ready, we have to gain more of the Spirit and more of God. To gain more of God and more of the Spirit requires that we pay a price. For example, the brother in our previous example needed to pay the price of letting go of his insight and views in the matter of his children’s marriages. To put it more directly, his insight and views had to be broken so that God could come into his insight and views. This is to pay the price and to buy the oil. If we pay the price and let God have the ground and the freedom in us in every single matter, then we will be filled with God and possessed by God. Inwardly, we will be full of oil, full of the Holy Spirit, that is, full of God Himself. When we are filled to the uttermost, then we will be matured, and God’s building will be completed.
