The essence of the church as the Body of Christ is nothing else but the divine life; the more Christ grows in us by our holding Him as the Head and receiving His divine dispensing, the more we grow with the growth of God for the building up of the Body of Christ. Amen!
This week in our morning revival we come to the topic of, The Intrinsic Growth of the Church for Its Organic Increase.
The general topic for this HWMR is The Intrinsic and Organic Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ.
How is the church built up? How is the church as the Body of Christ being built up intrinsically and organically?
The church is not merely a gathering of the called-out ones (as the literal translation indicates for ekklesia); the church is the organism of the Triune God, the Body of Christ.
This means that the church is an organic entity, it is not an organisation but something organic, something of life.
What is the intrinsic essence of this organic entity called, the church, the Body of Christ? It is simply the divine life, for when the divine life comes into man, this man becomes a child of God and a member of the Body of Christ.
Just as being born of a man makes you part of mankind and causes you to be built up and be around other men, so being born of God causes us to be part of the God-man kind, the children of God, and we desire to be around other believers in Christ.
The Bible has much to say concerning the church as the Body of Christ; in its intrinsic essence and organic existence, the church needs more of the divine life.
Yes, there are many things that need to be taken care of outwardly, there are many arrangements to be made regarding meetings and taking care of the needs of the saints and preaching the gospel, but all these have an intrinsic essence for the church’s organic existence.
The intrinsic essence of the church as the Body of Christ is nothing else but the divine life; our need today is for this divine life to grow in us, increase in us, and mature in us, so that we may be built up as the members of the Body of Christ to be the corporate expression of God.
In Col. 1:28 Paul said that he announces the rich Christ as the gospel, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom so that he may present every man full-grown in Christ.
We need to receive the divine dispensing coming out of Christ, the Head, as we hold Him; this dispensing will increase the divine element of God in us, and we will grow with the growth of God for the building up of the Body of Christ.
The Intrinsic Growth of the Church is the Growth in the Divine Life of all the Members of the Body of Christ
The intrinsic growth of the church as the Body of Christ is the growth in the divine life of all the members of the Body of Christ; the organic growth of the church is simply the growth of the divine life in all the saints (Eph. 4:15-16; 3:16-17; 2 Cor. 13:14).
The church is not an organisation; an organisation has something called an expansion, a reaching out, but an organism has something of life, the growth and increase.
The church as the Body of Christ is something organic; the way the church grows intrinsically and organically is by the growth in the divine life of all the members of the Body of Christ.
And this life in which we need to grow is not merely the human life or the soulish life; it is the divine life, that is, the processed and dispensing Triune God.
Life is not something objective, illusive, or indescribable; it is the very element that enables an organism to live, and it is the divine life of God that produces and builds up the church.
We may think of the life of God as being something objective, but this life is the processed and dispensing Triune God. God went through a process to become a life-dispensing Spirit, a Spirit that gives life.
This life is the Triune God who has gone through a process and who is now dispensing His life into us; this is the processed and dispensing Triune God.
The church grows in this life, by this life, with this life, and through this life; we believers in Christ were born of the divine life, and now God is causing us to grow in life (John 1:12-13; 1 Cor. 3:6).
We were begotten of God when we received the divine life into our spirit; now this life is growing in us, and as we grow in the divine life, the church as the Body of Christ is built up.
The church needs to grow in this life, in this dispensing Triune God, by this dispensing Triune God, with this dispensing Triune God, and through this dispensing Triune God.
As Christ is increasing in us, as the divine life grows in all the members of the Body of Christ, the church as the Body of Christ grows and is built up.
We simply need to hold the head, Christ, and grow with the growth of God, with the increase of God as life. God in Himself doesn’t need to grow; He is perfect and complete, and there’s no room for growth in Him.
However, God needs to grow in us, the members of the Body of Christ, until we become a full-grown man, those who arrive at the measure of the stature of the fullness of God.
To grow is to have Christ added into us, and as Christ is added into us, we grow with the growth of God (1 Cor. 3:6-7; Gal. 4:19).
As all the members of the Body of Christ grow in the divine life by the increase of the element of God in them, the Body of Christ is built up and grows, and this growth is the growth of God in all the members.
We need to have more God added to us; God needs to grow in us. As we hold Christ as the Head, as we are intimately attached to Him and enjoy Him, we receive the growth from the Head, and Christ grows in us.
When the Body is supplied by holding the Head, the Body grows with the growth of God (Col. 2:19).
The growth of the Body, the building up of the Body, depends on what comes out of Christ as the Head (Eph. 4:15-16); the more we enjoy the Lord and fellowship with Him, the more we hold Him as the Head, and the more we grow with the growth of God for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Thank You Lord Jesus for coming into us as the divine life to regenerate us and make us members of the organic Body of Christ, the church. Grow in us, Lord, by the addition of the element of God to our whole being. May we grow in life more today for the building up of the Body of Christ. We hold You as the Head and we receive what comes out from You. We open to receive Your divine dispensing, dear Lord, so that we may grow with the growth of God for the building up of the Body of Christ. May there be more of the element of God added to our being today so that the church as the Body of Christ may grow and be built up. Amen, Lord Jesus, keep growing in us!
Spending time with God to Absorb the Riches of Christ and Grow with the Growth of God for the Building up of the Body of Christ
The growth of the Body of Christ depends on the growth of God within us; the more God is added to us, the more God increases in us, and the more the element of God is added to us, the more the Body of Christ grows for its building up.
In Himself, God cannot grow, for He is perfect and complete; in us, however, God needs to grow and increase until He becomes our all in all.
Growth doesn’t come from us; we can’t just “grow” – growth comes from God, and God gives the growth by giving Himself to us in a subjective way.
God is rich in every way; He is full of riches, and His riches and glory and divine attributes are endless and exhaustless.
God is rich in love, kindness, mercy, light, life, power, and strength; He is inexhaustible, He is rich, and He is dispensing Himself into us as much as we open to Him to absorb Him.
How can we enjoy God, receive God, and grow with the growth of God?
This rich God, who is today the processed, all-inclusive, dispensing Spirit, is available and near to us for He is right now mingled with our spirit!
The more we exercise our spirit to stay in His presence, the more we absorb Him.
Absorbing God takes time; we can’t just spend five or ten minutes in the word of God and expect to be filled with God.
We have all experienced absorbing the riches of God, but we still do not have an adequate experience; we need to continue to absorb the Lord in His riches.
We need to no longer spend so much time in our mind, emotion, and will, but spend more time in our spirit to adore the Lord, praise Him, offer thanks to Him, and speak to Him freely. Amen!
As we fellowship with the Lord, open to Him, and call on His name, we will absorb His riches, and little by little He will add HImself to us.
The more God is added to us, the more we absorb the riches of Christ, the more we grow with the growth of God, with the increase of God in us, and this is for the building up and growth of the Body of Christ.
The more the Lord grows in us, the more we build up the church; the church is built up by the growth of God in us, the increase of the element of God in all the members of the Body of Christ.
This is not something objective, something that happens out there in the heavenly or spiritual realm; this is a very practical matter, for we all need to focus on the divine life and allow this life to grow in us.
We may do our service in the church, taking care of practical things or visiting others; our focus, however, is not doing this or that, but the increase of the element of God and the decrease of our natural element.
We may fellowship with some saints in or after the meeting, we may visit some dear new believers in Christ, or we may have a time of prayer with others; in all these, the natural element must continually decrease so that the divine element of God may gradually increase.
We may have a prayer meeting and many prayers may be uttered, but if there’s no element of God, if there’s no increase of Christ, there’s a problem with that meeting.
We may visit someone week after week and month after month, but if that person doesn’t grow in the divine life, there may be a problem there.
In all that we do, we need to learn to reject our natural element and let the element of God increase in us; we need to cooperate with the Lord so that the divine life would grow in us for the building up of the Body of Christ.
When we grow in life, when the element of God increases in us, we will manifest the function that joins us together and knits us together with others for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Lord Jesus, grow in us for the building up of the Body of Christ. We come to You, dear Lord, to spend time with You and absorb Your riches. Amen, Lord, only You can give the growth; we open our being to You to receive more of the element of God. May we grow with the growth of God for the building up of the Body of Christ. May we spend an adequate amount of time with You day by day to absorb Your riches so that the element of God would increase in us! Amen, Lord, we want to learn to reject our natural element and let the element of God increase so that the divine life in us may grow. Grow in us, dear Lord, and grow in all the saints for the building up of the Body of Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by the brothers for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 356, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Intrinsic and Organic Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ (2021 International Chinese-Speaking Conference), week 2, The Intrinsic Growth of the Church for Its Organic Increase.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Holding fast the Head, and growing / With His increase, in His way, / By the joints and bands supplying, / Knit together day by day. (Hymns #840)
– To the Head fast holding ever, / That we may together grow, / From the Head supplies incoming / Thru us to the Body flow. (Hymns #913)
– Holding Christ, as members growing, / Each his function must observe; / Christ receiving, Christ partaking, / To His Body Christ we serve. (Hymns #912)
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