Acting and Working in the Body and for the Body in the One Divine Stream of God

In the book of Acts we see a group of people who live by Christ as their life, who act by Christ as their power and authority, and who realize that they are the Body and thus are working in the Body and for the Body in the one divine stream.

First of all, the book of Acts is not part of the four Gospels neither is it part of the remaining Epistles and Revelation; it is a book of transition, where we see how the Lord’s disciples, His followers, are learning to live in His invisible presence and be one with Him in everything they do for Him to be propagated on earth.

In Acts we see a group of people who are resurrected and ascended with Christ; they have Christ as the Spirit within them as their life, and they have Christ upon them as their power and authority.

The people that Acts speak of are the continuation and reproduction of Jesus, and they are living, moving, and working in oneness with the resurrected and ascended Christ to be His testimony on earth for His propagation.

We as the Lord’s disciples today live in the continuation of the book of Acts, Acts chapter 29; we are a group of people who have not only the human life but also the divine life – within us we have Christ as the Spirit to be our life, and without we have Christ as the Holy Spirit of power covering us for our work.

Our life today is by the Triune God within us as our life, and our work and actions are by the Triune God upon us as our power and authority and strength.

At the time of the Lord’s ascension, He was inaugurated by God to be the Head over all things to the church, the Lord of all, the Christ, and the Leader and the Savior; at the same time, we also were inaugurated as those one with Christ.

We have been inaugurated and authorized – by virtue of being the members of the Body of Christ – to be those who spread the gospel to propagate the resurrected and ascended Christ for the producing of the churches, the kingdom of God.

Christ, the Head of the Body, has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, and we have been sent out, commissioned, and authorized by Him to propagate Him to all the nations. Our boldness is not in ourselves but in the Lord, the One who sent us and who has all the authority!

Being those Acting and Working in the Body, Through the Body, and For the Body

The book of Acts is a record of a group of people who are fully one with the Lord, the ascended Head of the Body, and they act and work in the Body, through the Body, and for the Body (see Acts. 1:14; 13:1-4).

On the day of Pentecost, after the outpouring of the Spirit, Peter stood up with the eleven and spoke; it wasn’t by himself that he stood up and spoke, but he stood in the Body. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not upon us as individuals – we experience it individually, but it is upon the Body of Christ.

There are only two cases called the outpouring of the Spirit in Acts: one upon the Jewish believers (in ch. 2) and the other on the Gentile believers (in ch. 10); through these the entire Body of Christ was baptised once for all into the Triune God, the economical Spirit.

We experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit by being joined to the Body of Christ; we see this in Acts in the laying on of hands.

For example, Saul (before he became Paul) received the Holy Spirit after Ananias laid his hands on him, and the Samaritan believers received it through the laying on of the hands of Peter and John.

The way for us to enter into the experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is to pray ourselves into the Spirit and be in a proper relationship with the Body of Christ. The Spirit is like a uniform which we put on to carry out God’s work; just as we can’t “impersonate a policeman”, so we can’t impersonate the Spirit.

For us to share in the authority of the ascended Christ and in His power to propagate Himself, we need to be in the Spirit and in the Body, coordinated in the Body to carry out His propagation.

The book of Acts reveals the move and activity of the Body, not of individual actions unrelated to the Body (Acts 8:1-17). In the Lord’s move and in the church life today we should not have separate moves by separate gifted individuals; everything we do should be in the Body, through the Body, and for the Body.

For example, in Acts we see Philip serving food, being full of the Holy Spirit, and being manifested as an evangelist; he preached the gospel in Samaria, and then brought the ones who believed into the fellowship of the Body by having Peter and John come to lay their hands on them.

Our function, work, and activity should be in the Body, through the Body, and for the Body.

We need to be in one accord with the saints under the Lord as the Head; in Acts we see a beautiful picture of the one accord in the activities and work of the believers who move in the Body, through the Body, and for the Body (see Acts 2:44-47; 4:24, 32; 13:1-4; 16:1-5).

The believers were in one accord, especially in Acts 2; they had all things in common, many sold their possessions and divided among them all, and no one was lacking. The heart and soul of the believers were one.

We need to be recovered to having the one accord and doing everything in the Body and for the Body. May everything we do be in the Body and through the Body for the building up of the church.

Lord Jesus, we want to be those who act, move, and work in the Body, through the Body, and for the Body, being in one accord with the saints under Christ as the Head. Save us from doing things independently from the Body. May everything we do be in the Body and for the building up of the Body. Keep us in the one according in all our activities, work, and move, so that we may be for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord, recover the one accord among us, and may we all do everything for the building up of the Body!

Being in the Divine Stream – the Unique Flow of God, and Not Leaving the One Stream

The book of Acts, from chapter 2 onwards, shows us the divine stream, the unique flow; throughout the Bible there’s only one stream of the Lord’s work, one current of the Lord’s move, and only one flow (see Gen. 2:8-12; Rev. 22:1-2; Acts 2:33).

From Genesis to Revelation God is doing one thing and moving into one direction, and there is only one unique divine stream. The early disciples moved, acted, and worked in the flow; there were never two currents in the flow but always one.

All those whom the Lord raised up were sooner or later brought into the flow. Believers such as Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Mark, Aquila, Priscilla, Apollos, and others were raised up by the Lord and brought into this one stream (see Acts 18:2, 24-28).

There is only one flow of God from the throne of God, and there is only one stream – the divine stream; we need to make sure that what we do is in that flow. There is a lot of Christian work going on, and much of it may not be in the flow.

In Acts, we see that the flow started from Jerusalem, spread to Samaria, Antioch, Eastern Europe (Macedonia), Western Europe (Rome), and then flowed throughout the earth.

All throughout the ages there has been only one flow of the Lord’s work, which flowed according to the direction of the Lord’s move in that age. For example, in the early 1990s there was a flow toward Russia, and these days the direction of the flow is toward Europe.

Where is the flow of God today – the divine stream – and how do we get in it and stay in it?

We need to be warned by the story of Barnabas; he was in the work before Saul (who later became Paul), serving there, but at one point after a dissension with Paul, he got out of the flow – and we don’t hear from Barnabas again in Acts.

May we be saved from being one of the many people doing many things outside of the flow, outside of the divine stream. May we be those who know the meaning of resurrection and ascension, and live not by ourselves but by Christ as our life.

May we act not according to certain ways or methods but by the living Christ within as our strength, power, method, and way. May we realize that we are the Body of Christ, and may we always act in the Body, through the Body, and for the Body.

May we remain in the one unique flow of God, the divine stream, doing everything in the one accord with the saints under the Headship of Christ. Amen!

May we be clear of the intrinsic significance of the book of Acts, and may we live in resurrection, act in ascension, do everything not by ourselves but in the Body and for the Body, and be in the one flow.

Lord Jesus, we want to know the meaning of resurrection and ascension so that we may live in resurrection and ascension in our daily life. May we be those who live not by themselves but by the Christ within us as our life, acting not by certain methods or ways but by the living Christ as our strength, power, and way. Lord, grant us to realize that we are in the Body and we should do everything for the Body in the unique flow of God. Amen, Lord, keep us in the divine stream, the one flow of God’s move!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Mark R. for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1964, vol. 2, “A General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, Part 1 — the Gospels and the Acts,” chs. 7-8, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Cooperating with the Heavenly Ministry of the Ascended Christ (2017 Spring ITERO), msg. 4 (week 4), Propagating the Resurrected Christ under the Heavenly Ministry of the Ascended Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Serve and work within the Body, / Never independently; / As the members of the Body, / Functioning relatedly. (Hymns #913)
  # Limit, Lord, my independence, / Let me to Thy Body turn; / Not just seeking light from heaven, / But the church’s sense to learn. (Hymns #1225)
  # In the stream! in the stream! let us work / with the Lord / In the flow of the Spirit, as taught by / His Word; / Never working by self, independent and / free, / But in service related in full harmony. (Hymns #909)