Seeing the Intrinsic Significance of Living in the Church as the Father’s House

Knowing that we as believers in Christ are the many abodes in the church as the Father’s house, we need to see the intrinsic significance of living in the church as the Father’s house today in our daily life.

First, we need to see what is the Father’s house, then we need to realize that we are in the Father’s house – we are the many abodes in this house as the many members of the Body of Christ.

Now that we are in the Father’s house, how should we live in the church as the Father’s house?

What is the intrinsic significance of living in the church as the Father’s house?

There are ten main points that help us to live in the church as the Father’s house, based on the Word of God.

We have seen that the central thought of John 14 is that we must believe into God and thereby enter into God, and that the Father’s house is a matter of the Triune God working Himself into the believers in Christ to be fully mingled with them.

God doesn’t just want to gain a group of people who read the Bible and agree with it, then come together to praise God and wait for Jesus to return.

God wants to work Himself into man and build man into God so that God is mingled with man and man is mingled with God, the two of them being built up as an organism, the Body of Christ as the mutual dwelling place of God and man.

For such a dwelling place to come into existence, God became a man, and He went through death to prepare a place for us, then in His resurrection He returned to us so that we may be where He is.

Where is Christ? He is in God the Father.

Through His going in His death and His coming in His resurrection, Christ builds the church as the Father’s house.

The Father’s house today is the church, and the church is God the Father.

We all as the many believers in Christ are the abodes in the Father’s house, and we enjoy the fresh, sweet, and instant visitation of the Father and the Son with the Spirit, for we love the Lord and abide in His word.

As those who are in the Father’s house, we take God as the source, for He is the originator and initiator of all things.

We love Him as our Father, we worship Him and thank Him for regenerating us and giving us His life and nature, and we take Him as our source in all things.

Seeing the Intrinsic Significance of Living in the Church as the Father’s House

As a concluding word to the matter of the Father’s house – living in the place prepared for us through the death and resurrection of Christ – we need to see what kind of living we should have today.

We need to see what is the intrinsic significance of living in the church as the Father’s house.

There are at least ten points related to the kind of living we should have today in the church life so that we may live in the church as the Father’s house.

1. To Live in the Church as the Father’s House is to Live in the Triune God as Life

First of all, to live in the church as the Father’s house is for us to live in the Triune God as life (John 1:4; 5:26; 6:53; 11:25; 14:6).

It is not a deliberate living, an inward checking to see what would Jesus do, or a living according to a set of rules and regulations.

It is a living in the Triune God as life.

The Father is the source of life, and the Father has life in Himself. Our Father God is the source of life, and we have life and live because of Him.

Day by day we need to exercise our spirit to live in the realm of life

. Where is the divine life today? The divine life is not just in God; it is also in our spirit, for we are mingled with the Lord as one spirit.

We have to live in the Triune God as life by exercising our spirit to live according to the divine life in our spirit.

We have to live in the Father as life, in the Lord Jesus Christ as life, and in the Spirit as life.

The environment we live in today is life. We do things not according to right or wrong but according to the sense of the divine life in our spirit.

May we enjoy Christ as life, take Him as life, live because of Him, and even take Him as our way, for He is the way, the reality, and the life.

Lord Jesus, we want to live in the Father’s house today by living in the Triune God as life! Hallelujah, our God is our Father, and He is the source of life! Praise the Lord, Christ is in us as our life! Thank You, Lord, for being the life-giving Spirit in our spirit! Amen, Lord, we want to live in You as life today. We take You as the realm for our living and we want to do all things according to the sense of life in our spirit!

2. To live in the Church as the Father’s house is to Live in the Light

Secondly, for us to live in the Church as the Father’s house is for us to live in the light (John 1:4; 8:12).

God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. To live in the Father’s house, we need to live in the light.

When Christ came, in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. Hallelujah, in Him was life, and this life was light for us!

When we live in the Church as the Father’s house, we live in the light.

Sometimes things may happen, we may commit transgressions or we may sin, so we come to the Lord again to confess our sins.

We want to walk in the light as He is in the light, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from every sin (1 John 1:7-9).

If we sense we are in darkness, we simply need to come to the Lord and apply His precious blood. Let Him shine on us.

The church as the Father’s house is a realm full of light. When we come together with the saints, we can testify that we are in the light, and light shines everywhere!

Lord Jesus, we want to live in the Church as the Father’s house by living in the light! Hallelujah, God is light and in Him is no darkness at all! Praise the Lord, Christ came as the light of the world! Amen, Lord, thank You for being the Spirit shining on us to expose and eliminate all our darkness. We do not want to walk in darkness but rather, walk in the light, even as You are in the light! We come to the light today. We apply Your precious blood to be cleansed from any darkness, and we want to walk in the light! Hallelujah, the church life is a realm full of life and light!

3. To live in the Church as the Father’s house is to Live in Resurrection

Third, to live in the church as the Father’s house is for us to live in resurrection, for Christ is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25).

Christ today is in resurrection; He is no longer merely in the flesh but in resurrection, and He Himself is the resurrection and the life.

Because Christ is in resurrection and He is resurrection itself, we all need to be in the realm of resurrection as we live our daily life and our church life.

Paul aspired to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, even to attain to the out-resurrection from the dead.

We need to live in a different realm, not in the natural realm.

By default, if we believers in Christ do not exercise our spirit to be one spirit with the Lord, we are in the natural realm.

But when we exercise our spirit and deny the self, put our natural man aside, and allow the cross to operate in us, we live in another realm, the realm of resurrection, where Christ is everything to us and in us. Hallelujah!

When others see us and speak with us, they need to sense that we are not living in the natural man, but that there’s the aroma of resurrection, the fragrance of the resurrected Christ.

The resurrected Christ lives in us, and for us to live in the church as the Father’s house is to live in resurrection.

Lord Jesus, we want to live in the church as the Father’s house by living in resurrection. Thank You, Lord, You are the resurrection and the life. We give ourselves to You. We love You. We open to You. We do not want to live in our natural man. Oh Lord, we exercise our spirit right now. We want to be in our mingled spirit so that we may live in resurrection. We simply want to be one with You, dear Lord Jesus, so that You may operate in us as resurrection life. Oh, may Your resurrection life swallow any death in us, and may we live in and by the resurrection life in our spirit!

4. To Live in the Church as the Father’s House is to Live in Grace and Reality

For us to live in the church as the Father’s house is for us to live in grace and reality (John 1:14, 16-17; 14:6; 16:13).

Christ came full of grace and reality, and of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

Day by day we need to come to the Lord to receive grace upon grace.

The Lord is full of grace for us; when we turn to our spirit, Christ as grace is with our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; 2:22).

When we turn to our spirit, we enjoy grace. Grace is nothing else but God in Christ to be our life and life supply for our enjoyment.

God wants to be enjoyed by us! The law was given through Moses, but grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.

Christ is reality, He is grace, and today He is the Spirit of reality with our spirit to impart life and grace to us.

Thank the Lord that He has come into us as the Spirit of reality to guide us into the reality of all that God is and give us grace upon grace.

May we come forward to the throne of grace day by day to receive mercy and find grace, and may we exercise our spirit to enjoy grace and reality with our spirit!

Lord Jesus, we want to live in the church as the Father’s house by living in grace and reality. Thank You, dear Lord, for being grace with our spirit. We come forward to You, Lord, in our spirit; we come to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace. We come to just enjoy You. We open to You as the Spirit of reality to guide us into all the reality. Guide us into the reality of all that You are. Amen, Lord Jesus, we just want to enjoy You today! We want to live in grace and reality, one spirit with You!

5. To Live in the Church as the Father’s House is to Live in the Divine Glory

For us to live in the church as the Father’s house is for us to live in the divine glory (John 17:22-23).

One of God’s main attributes is glory, and through repentance and faith in Christ, we who are short of God’s glory can be reconciled to God and brought into God.

Today our Christian life is a life not only that pleases God but even more, a life in the divine glory. Wow!

We want to live one spirit with the Lord to the extent that we are self from our self-expression.

We no longer want to express ourselves, for we are crucified with Christ and it is Christ who lives in us.

Christ lives in each and every believer in Christ, and His living in us is for the magnification and expression of God, for God to gain the glory. Hallelujah!

For us to live Christ is for us to live in the divine glory.

May we daily come to the Lord and enjoy His shining, let His shining expose and remove anything that does not match Him, and let Him shine in us and through us.

May we be Christians who live in the divine glory, being daily transformed into His image from glory to glory as we behold and reflect the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18)!

Lord Jesus, we want to live in the church as the Father’s house by living in the divine glory. Amen, Lord, we repent and come back to You. We do not want to express ourselves; we want to express the Triune God in glory! Save us to the uttermost until we express God in His glory! Amen, Lord, we open to You; unveil us to see You face to face. We want to behold You and reflect You. Make us one in the divine glory. Perfect us in Your glory so that we may express You in a glorious way together with all the saints!

6. To Live in the Church as the Father’s House is to Live in a House of Prayer and Worship

One particular aspect of living in the church as the Father’s house is that we live in a house of prayer and worship (see John 14:13; 15:7, 16; 16:23-24; 4:23-24).

On the negative side, there should be no merchandise or commerce in the Father’s house; this is abominable in the Lord’s eyes.

On the positive side, we need to live in the church as the Father’s house by asking in the Lord’s name in oneness with Him.

Again and again the Lord said that, if we abide in Him and are one with Him, we will ask in His name, and He will do it for us.

Such asking is in prayer, and this prayer comes out of our abiding in the Lord.

He chose us, He set us to go forth and bear fruit, and that our fruit should remain, so that whatever we ask the Father in the Lord’s name, He will do it for us.

This is so wonderful. As we live in the church as the Father’s house, we ask in the Father’s name, being one with Him, and He does it for us.

We worship the Father in spirit and in truthfulness, and we ask Him in oneness with the Son, and He does it for us.

May we be those who abide in the Lord and let Him abide in us so that we may ask whatever we will – in oneness with Him, and He will do it for us!

Actually, our prayer is the Lord’s prayer being expressed through our prayer, and in this is the Father glorified!

Lord Jesus, we want to live in the church as the Father’s house by living in a house of prayer and worship! Hallelujah, the church is a house of prayer. Amen, Lord, we want to be cleansed from any concept of commerce or gain from God by our worship of God; we simply want to worship You in spirit and in truthfulness. We exercise our spirit, dear Lord, to be one with You. We choose to abide in You so that You may abide in us. Oh Lord Jesus, thank You for choosing us and setting us to go forth and bear fruit and that our fruit should remain, so that whatever we ask the Father in Your name, You may give us. We are one with You, Lord. We live in the Father’s house as a house of prayer and worship, and we’re one with You to pray the prayers You need for You to release what is on Your heart today!

7. To Live in the Church as the Father’s house is to Live a Life of Shepherding

Living in the Father’s house is something all-inclusive and all-encompassing, and it has many aspects. One such aspect is that we live a life of shepherding.

As seen in John 10, the Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd; He calls His sheep, He gives them life, He lays His life down for them, and He leads them out to pasture (John 10:10-11, 15-17).

What a wonderful Shepherd we have!

In the church as the Father’s house, we enjoy the Lord’s shepherding both personally and corporately, for He cares for each one of us individually and for the church corporately, shepherding us according to God.

In John 21:15-17 we see that the Lord Jesus commissioned Peter to shepherd the flock of God.

On the one hand, we enjoy the Lord’s shepherding; on the other hand, we also shepherd others by being shepherded by the Lord and learning to shepherd them according to God.

Each and every one of us is a sheep that needs shepherding, and each and every one of us can be one with the Lord to shepherd others.

No matter how low we have failed, no matter how much we have betrayed the Lord, He still comes to us to shepherd us, recover our love for Him, and entrust us with shepherding others.

To live in the church as the Father’s house is to live a life of shepherding.

May we be those who open to the Lord and to others to be shepherded, and may we shepherd others according to God.

Lord Jesus, we want to live in the church life as the Father’s house by living a life of shepherding. Amen, Lord, we open to Your shepherding today. We open to being led by You out of anything that holds us and into Yourself as the good pasture. Thank You for giving us life and for laying down Your life for us. Amen, Lord Jesus, we love Your shepherding! We want to cooperate with Your heavenly ministry today to also shepherd others. May You be the One in us who shepherds those around us. Grant us the tender care we need so that we may care for others in the Lord and for the Lord. Amen, Lord, may we all live in the church life a life of shepherding! Fill the church with much shepherding!

8. To Live in the Church as the Father’s House is to Live in and for God’s Building

For us to live in the church life as the Father’s house is for us to live in God’s building and for God’s building (John 2:19-21; 14:23).

When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He lived for God’s building; He was provoked in His spirit when He saw that the Jews used the temple of God for merchandise, and the zeal of God’s house burned in Him.

This One lives in us today. If we open to the Lord today and enjoy Him, if we abide in Him by abiding in His word, we will love Him, and we will live for God’s building.

If we love the Lord and keep His word, the Father and the Son with the Spirit will come and make an abode with us.

If we personally enjoy the Lord, we will yearn to build up the church as the building of God.

If we live in the church as the Father’s house, we will live in God’s building and for God’s building.

We will have a thorough consecration for God’s building, giving Him everything – our life, our future, and everything we have – for God’s building.

Amen, may we be those who see God’s building and live for God’s building today!

Lord Jesus, we want to live in the church life as the Father’s house by living in and for God’s building. May the zeal of Your house burn in us. May we see what is in Your heart: Your building, Your house. Oh Lord, for Your building we give all so that You may be satisfied. We consecrate ourselves to You for Your building. Oh Lord, our life, our future, and our everything is good for nothing else but for God’s building! By Your mercy, Lord, preserve us in Your building. Make an abode with us day by day for God’s building. Grow in us for God’s building. We want to read the word, pray, sing, meet with the saints, and do all things for God’s building!

9. To Live in the Church as the Father’s House is to Live in the Divine and Mystical Realm of the Spirit for the Oneness

For us to live in the church life as the Father’s house today is for us to live in a different realm, the realm of the Spirit. We need to live in the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit for the keeping of oneness (John 7:39; 14:16-20; 16:13; 17:11, 21, 23).

The realm in which we as believers in Christ are is the realm of oneness, and this oneness is the Spirit; the Spirit is the consummated Spirit.

We are in the Son, the Son is in the Father, and the Son is in us; Christ is in us and the Father is in Christ, so that we may be perfected into one.

Our oneness today among the believers in Christ must be the same as the oneness among the three of the Triune God.

Actually, our oneness is the oneness of the Triune God which has been enlarged to include us.

He is perfecting us in this oneness, for He is perfecting us to be one by being in us and by us being in Him.

We need to live in the church life as the Father’s house by living in the Spirit day by day so that we may keep the oneness.

The real oneness is in the Triune God, and we are in God when we’re in our mingled spirit, for the Spirit is with our spirit.

When we exercise our spirit and remain in our spirit, we will realize that we’re in a different realm; we are in a realm in which God is mingling Himself with us and we are one with God and one with all the saints.

Our oneness is the Spirit; as long as we are in our spirit, we are in the realm of the Spirit, and we are one.

In this is the Father glorified, for everyone will see that the Father sent the Son, and He loves us just as He loves the Father.

May we daily live in the divine and mystical realm, which is the consummated Spirit with our spirit, for the keeping of oneness.

Lord Jesus, we want to live in the church life as the Father’s house by living in our spirit today! Hallelujah, the consummated Spirit is with our spirit to be a realm, a divine and mystical realm, in which we can and should live today! Amen, Lord, we want to live in our spirit today. Mingle Yourself more with us today. Keep us in the realm of the consummated Spirit today. We want to live in our spirit, walk in our spirit, and do all things according to our spirit. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to be one with the Triune God in the divine and mystical realm of the pneumatic Christ and the consummated Spirit today! Hallelujah for our spirit, our mingled spirit!

10. To Live in the Church as the Father’s House is to Live in the Divine and Human Incorporation

The highest aspect of living in the church life as the Father’s house is living in the divine and human incorporation.

The Father’s house is not just the church in a general way; it is the divine-human incorporation, the incorporation of the processed and consummated Triune God with the regenerated and transformed tripartite man (John 14:10-11, 20).

The three of the Divine Trinity are incorporated by coinhering mutually; the Father is in the Son, the Son is in the Father, and the Father sends the Spirit in the name of the Son, and when the Spirit comes, the Son comes.

It is truly wonderful yet very mysterious.

This oneness, this incorporation in which the three of the Godhead coinhere mutually by being in one another, dwelling in one another, and doing things as one, has been enlarged to include us, the believers in Christ.

The Father’s house is a divine and human incorporation of God and man; God has been processed and consummated, and man has been redeemed, regenerated, and transformed. Praise the Lord!

Day by day we need to let Christ make His home in our heart as the Father strengthens us into our inner man through His Spirit unto the fullness, the expression, of the consummated Triune God (Eph. 3:16-19).

May we open to Him in prayer and ask Him to do this in us.

May we remain in this divine-human incorporation today and for the rest of our life, living in the church as the Father’s house by living in the divine and human incorporation.

Lord Jesus, we want to live in the church as the Father’s house by living in the divine and human incorporation. Hallelujah, we believers in Christ have been incorporated with the Triune God, for we are in Christ, Christ is in the Father, and Christ is in us! Amen, Father, strengthen us into our inner man according to the riches of Your glory through Your Spirit so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith unto the fullness of God! Amen, Lord we want to remain in the divine-human incorporation today and for the rest of our life so that we may be Your solid manifestation on the earth, live a life for Your satisfaction and rest, and carry out Your eternal economy! Hallelujah for the church as the Father’s house and for our living in this house!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chen in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” pp. 119-120, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2024 July Semiannual Training), week 11, In the Father’s House—Living in the Place Prepared for Us through the Death and Resurrection of Christ.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – The church being the Father’s house and God’s dwelling place, a portion from, The Subjective Truths in the Holy Scriptures, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
  – Three Aspects of Oneness in John 17 (1): Oneness In the Father’s Name By the Eternal Life, via, Living to Him.
  – The many abodes in the Father’s house, a portion from, The Mending Ministry of John, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee.
  – Grace is Christ with Our Human Spirit, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – In My Father’s House – the unleavened truth of John 14, article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – How Psalm 23 Reveals the Organic Shepherding of the Pneumatic Christ, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – What is the New Jerusalem? — Part 1, via, The hearing of faith.
  – The Elders Avoiding Entanglement in Right and Wrong, via, Shepherding Words.
  – The dispensing of the Triune God to produce His abode, Nuggets and gems from the Bible.
  – How Should Christians Respond to the World Situation? More via, Bibles for America blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – As for the church, I need / Thy revelation more, / The Body-life to know, / Thy wisdom to explore. / I long to be unveiled, / In everything made clear, / No more to be deceived / Or to my pride adhere. / Oh, may Thy living light, Lord, / Scatter all my night, Lord, / And everything make bright, Lord, / For this I pray to Thee. (Hymns #426 stanzas 7-8 and chorus)
  – When we receive Thee as our life, / Thy nature we thru grace possess; / Mingled together, we with Thee / One Body glorious will express. / When flows Thy life thru all our souls, / Filling, renewing every part, / We will be pearls and precious stones, / Changed to Thine image, as Thou art. (Hymns #837 stanzas 3-4)
  – How wonderful, the Son is God’s expression / Come in the flesh to dwell with all mankind! / Redemption’s work, how perfectly effective, / That sinners we with God might oneness find. / The Spirit is the Son’s transfiguration / Come into us as life the full supply. / Amazing fact, our spirit with the Spirit / Now mingles and in oneness joins thereby! (Hymns #608 stanzas 3-4)