Life is the Essence of Oneness: we Keep the Oneness by Life, in Life, and with Life

The ground of the church, the genuine ground of oneness, is not merely something outward, that is, the ground of locality in which we live and meet; we need to see that the ground of the church is intrinsically related to life. The Lord doesn’t want us to keep certain forms or outward practices; everything in God’s economy is a matter of life and in life, since we as God’s people have His divine life and are growing in this life unto maturity to express Him corporately.

On the one hand, we need to personally touch the Lord and enjoy Him as life, and on the other hand, the Lord has ordained certain restrictions such as the ground of the church, the ground of locality, in which a church should meet in oneness with the Body of Christ; such restrictions, however, are also a matter of life.

We see this clearly in Psa. 133: there is a certain place where God commands the blessing, and this place is the ground of oneness, when brothers dwell together in oneness; there, the dew descends and the ointment flows.

Hallelujah, when we are one with the saints and meet on the genuine ground of oneness in a local church as a local representation of the universal Body of Christ, we enjoy life, we enjoy God as grace, and we enjoy the dispensing of the consummated Spirit as our all-inclusive portion!

The ground of the church is not merely a proper practice according to the New Testament revelation but something of life. We can all testify that, when we touch the local church on a proper ground, we touch life. Life is contained in the proper expression of the church.

The divine eternal life of God has a container, which is the church; this church is not only the universal church but also the local churches. When we touch the local church on the genuine ground of oneness, we touch life, we enjoy life, and we receive life to grow in life! Hallelujah!

Life is Commanded by God to those who Dwell Together in Oneness in the Church Life

Psa. 133 is a short but very wonderful Psalm showing us that the eternal life of God is commanded by God as a blessing to those who dwell together in oneness in the church life.

1. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell in unity!
2. It is like the fine oil upon the head That ran down upon the beard, Upon Aaron’s beard, That ran down upon the hem of his garments;
3. Like the dew of Hermon That came down upon the mountains of Zion. For there Jehovah commanded the blessing: Life forever.

The oneness is likened to the oil poured on Aaron and the dew of Hermon, and there the Lord commands the blessing: life forever! The church here is typified by Aaron with the head and the body – the church is a person with Christ as the Head and all of us as the members of His Body.

The oneness we have is like the oil: the consummated Spirit poured out upon the church to be the reality of our oneness. This compound Spirit who is the oil is saturating the church to be our oneness.

The church is also a place: the mountains of Zion, which signify both the universal church (the highest peak) and the local churches (the many peaks of Zion). The church is a place, God’s dwelling place, where there’s the dew of Hermon – signifying the grace of life.

Grace is the enjoyment of the processed and consummated Triune God. We all can testify that we never knew grace until we got into this “place”, which is the local church. In the local church in oneness we enjoy the descending dew (the grace of life) and the flowing oil (the consummated Spirit)!

In Psa. 133 we see a picture of the genuine oneness, which is the mingling of the consummated Triune God as the Spirit with us, a corporate person, and it is the enjoyment of this person.

Hallelujah, God’s Spirit with His bountiful supply and its enjoyment can be found in one place today – the church life in oneness, and it is here that the Lord commands the blessing – even life forever!

The more we meet together, fellowship with each other, and love one another, there is spontaneously within us a sweet flow of the Spirit, so gracious, so good, and so pleasant. At the same time we sense the strengthening within, the watering, the refreshing, the comforting and empowering. This is the grace. We have the fellowship of the Holy Spirit in the oneness, and we also have the grace of the Lord Jesus. As the Body we need the oil, and as the dwelling place we need the grace. Without the grace we are very dry. But with the grace we are watered and refreshed. (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1968, vol. 1, “The Practical Expression of the Church,” p. 422)

In the local church on the proper ground of oneness we daily enjoy being watered with grace as the dew, and every time we meet with the saints in oneness we enjoy the anointing of the compound Spirit to both supply us, lead us, and fill us.

Here, on the ground of oneness in a genuine local church the Lord not only gives the blessing – He commands the blessing! The Lord on the throne commands the blessing upon those who are on the ground of oneness. In the church life we can testify that we enjoy the commanded blessing as we remain on the genuine ground of oneness with all the saints.

Here we don’t merely talk about the oneness but we enjoy the commanded blessing of life because we exercise our spirit, stand on the local ground, keep the oneness of the Spirit, and enjoy the Triune God as grace together with all the saints in oneness!

In the local church on the proper ground there’s no night: there’s only morning, grace can be seen and enjoyed, and the Spirit anoints us, fills us, and saturates us as it descends from Christ the Head on the Body expressed in all the local churches in oneness.

Lord Jesus, thank You for bringing us into the church life on the proper ground, where we can dwell with others in oneness and enjoy Your commanded blessing – life forever! Lord, we love being here on the genuine ground of oneness fellowshipping with one another, loving one another, and enjoying the sweet flow of the Spirit and the descending grace of life! Oh Lord, how we are watered and refreshed as we meet with the saints in oneness in the church life today! Lord, keep us in oneness on the local ground to enjoy Your commanded blessing: life forever!

Life is the Essence of Oneness: we Keep the Oneness by Life, in Life, and with Life

Our oneness in the Body of Christ is not something outward, something related to “reading the same Book and keeping its principles”; life is the essence of oneness, and with life we cannot be one (John 10:10b, 16b).

Man was created by God in His image and likeness as a vessel to receive God, be filled with God, and be constituted with God as life, so that man would corporately express God and represent God, and man would be built together with others in His life to be His bride for His counterpart (see Gen. 1-2).

But Adam did not partake of the tree of life, even though it was in the middle of the garden – a place filled with life – but rather he partook of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which lead to death and division. The immediate result of not taking in life is death; then, man was divided and scattered at Babel.

When we fail to take God in as life, when we don’t maintain our fellowship in life with God, we are affected by death and division. Life produces oneness, but death results in division.

In our human body all the organs and members work together and dwell together in oneness because we have the human life; once our human life is taken, the members die and are divided. Because of death and lack of life in Christianity today, what we see is division, detachment, and lack of oneness.

The oneness in the church can be preserved only by life and in life. The reason there’s no oneness in Christianity today is because there’s not the proper ground, and the Christians don’t enjoy the commanded blessing – life forever.

God commands life on a particular place: the local church on the ground of oneness in which brothers dwell together in oneness; if we are in this place, life is everywhere! But if we are not on the ground of oneness, there’s death and division.

The oneness in God’s economy, the great oneness revealed in all the Bible, can be preserved ONLY by life. In Eph. 4 in the beginning we have “keeping the oneness of the Spirit”, and the rest of the chapter speaks much concerning growing in life unto maturity so that we may no longer be babes tossed about by waves of teaching but arrive at the full knowledge of the truth.

The way to keep the oneness of the Spirit is by growing in the divine life, maturing in life, and allowing life to saturate us. And this life can be found in abundance in the church life on the proper ground of oneness.

Life is the essence of oneness, and the way we preserve and maintain the oneness is by life, in life, and with life. We need to realize that the only way that oneness can be maintained is by life, in life, and with life (see Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11; 12:4-5; 15:6).

In Rom. 8 we have the dispensing of the Triune God as life into man to make his spirit, soul, and body life, and the result is in ch. 12 and 15: the reality of the Body of Christ expressed in the local churches in oneness!

The dispensing of the Triune God as the divine life into the tripartite man issues in the reality of the Body of Christ in oneness expressed in the local churches. As we enjoy the divine life being dispensed into all the three parts of our being, we live in the reality of the Body of Christ in oneness in the local church.

Lord Jesus, keep us in the place where You command the blessing – the local church on the ground of oneness! Amen! Lord, we want to cooperate with You so that the divine life in us may grow unto maturity so that we may live in the reality of the Body of Christ in oneness in the local church. Fill us with life, saturate us with life, and cause us to grow in life unto maturity so that we may maintain and preserve the oneness of the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother Mark R’s sharing in the message for this week, and The Genuine Ground of Oneness, chs. 2, 6-7 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Crucial Points of the Major Items of the Lord’s Recovery Today (ITERO 2015 fall), week 8 / msg 8, The Local Ground of the Church.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # Behold how good and how pleasant it is, / For brethren to dwell together in unity! / It is like the precious ointment upon the head, / That ran down upon the beard, / Even Aaron’s beard: / That went down to the skirts of his garments. (Hymns #1339)
  # How pleasant and how good it is / When brethren in the Lord / In one another’s joy delight / And dwell in sweet accord. / Such oneness, like anointing oil / On head to body poured; / Such oneness, like the morning dew, / With sweet refreshment stored. (Hymns #865)
  # What a wonderful church life, / All the saints truly are one, / No matter where and who we are, / We are one! / Nothing can set us apart, / For we have the same life, / Although Satan tried and tried, / We are one! (Song on the Oneness)