Allow the Crucified and Resurrected Christ as the Spirit to Build Himself into us for the Church

In order for us to become suitable materials for God’s building, we need to experience Christ in His death (signified by cypress), Christ in His resurrection (signified by cedar), and Christ as the Spirit (signified by olive wood), being filled with the Holy Spirit and being in spirit for God’s building. Amen!

This week in our crystallization study of 1 and 2 Kings we’re in week 7 with the title, The Intrinsic Significance of the materials of the Temple. This is the second of four crystals on the matter of the temple, as seen in 1 and 2 Chronicles.

The Lord within us aspires that we all as believers in Christ and members of the Body of Christ would go on, advance, and proceed from merely having a tabernacle church life to having a temple church life.

We need to be brought on to maturity and have a more solid, enlarged, and renewed church life, living not only in the realm of the Body of Christ but even more, living in the reality of the Body of Christ.

We are happy to be here in the church life, enjoying the Lord with the saints, being in the home meetings, praying with the saints, and having all kinds of activities in spirit with the saints.

We are so thankful that the Lord brought us into the church life. Thank the Lord He brought us here.

But at the same time, we still have a kind of dissatisfaction with where we are, and we are not content with where we are and what we have; we want something more.

We long for something richer, something that is higher and deeper; we long for God’s heart’s desire to be satisfied so that He would gain the temple church life for His glorious expression.

The Lord Jesus came as God incarnated to be a man; He came and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality, and we all beheld His glory (John 1:14).

Through death, the tabernacle of His flesh was broken and destroyed, but in resurrection, He raised, enlarged, strengthened, renewed, and expanded the temple of His Body, and now He has the Body of Christ composed of millions of members. Hallelujah!

He was devoured by the zeal of the house of God. He lived for God’s house, He wanted God’s house to be built up and enlarged.

May we advance with the Lord and be consumed by the zeal of His house.

We need to pray that the Lord would give us the same zeal for His house, serving Him with the fire that comes from heaven, the fire from the altar, for the building up of the church.

In the tabernacle, the bronze altar was five cubits by five cubits, which is quite big; however, in the temple, this altar was twenty by twenty, and ten cubits high.

The dimensions of all the items in the tabernacle have been enlarged and their number has increased.

Our experience of Christ in the church and for the church needs to grow, increase, and expand.

The Lord needs to gain the reality of the Body of Christ for the overcomers to be produced, for the age to end, and for Him to bring in the age of the kingdom.

Allow the Crucified and Resurrected Christ as the Spirit to Build Himself into us for the Church

The reality of all the materials for the building up of the church is the crucified and resurrected Christ, who is the all-inclusive Spirit of Jesus Christ and the presence of the processed Triune God (Phil. 1:19-21a; 1 Cor. 3:9, 12a, 16-17).

The only One suitable for the building up of the church is Christ Himself, and this Christ went through a process to be the crucified and resurrected Christ who is now the all-inclusive Spirit in resurrection.

The reality of all the materials for the building up of the church as the temple of God, the enlargement and expansion of Christ, is Christ who is now the Spirit.

The Body of Christ is Christ, every member of the Body is Christ, and Christ is in all the members and is all the members.

When we look at the materials used for the building up of the temple in Jerusalem, we need to realize that the reality of all these materials is Christ.

We need to look at the typology of these materials as they point to Christ, who is the reality.

The temple is a type of Christ and also a type of the church.

On one hand, the temple is Christ Himself, and on the other hand, the temple is the church.

As individual believers, we are the temple of God (2 Cor. 6:6); as members of the Body of Christ, we are His Body as His temple, and Christ Himself is the temple of God.

How can we become proper and suitable materials for God’s building?

We need to allow the crucified and resurrected Christ as the Spirit to build Himself into our being for the building up of the church.

We need to allow Him to build Himself into our being so that we can have the fullest enjoyment of Christ in order to be good stewards of the varied grace of God (the rich supply of life) for the building up of the church as the temple of God (Eph. 3:2, 16-17; 1 Pet. 4:10-11).

We are the temple of the living God, and God in Christ as the Spirit is working Himself into us to make us the materials for His building.

We need to take heed of how we build; we cannot try to build the church with wood, grass, and stubble, but build with gold, silver, and precious stones.

The only way we can build the church with the proper materials and not mar God’s building is by allowing the crucified and resurrected Christ as the Spirit to build Himself into our being for the church.

Day by day we are building up the church; we are building up the church not only in the meetings of the church but even more, in our daily experience.

In our subjective experience, we can allow the Lord to build Himself into us for the building up of the church.

The more we enjoy and experience the crucified and resurrected Christ as the Spirit building Himself into our being, the more we are equipped and prepared to build others also by ministering Christ to them.

We can minister the gift that has been given to us through our experience and enjoyment of Christ for the building up of the church.

May we realize that, in our natural man, we are not suitable for God’s building.

May we give ourselves to the Lord for the building up of the church and therefore allow the crucified and resurrected Christ as the Spirit to build Himself into our being day by day.

Only the amount of Christ that has been built into us is the material for God’s building.

May we bring this to the Lord and ask Him in prayer,

Lord Jesus, work Yourself into us more today for the building up of the church. We want to enjoy and experience You as the crucified and resurrected Christ as the Spirit building Himself into our being. We allow You, Lord, to build Yourself into us so that we can have the fullest enjoyment of Christ! Amen, bring us on with You in our enjoyment and experience of Christ. Make us the good stewards of God’s varied grace, those filled with the rich supply of life, for the building up of the church as the temple of God. Lord, we want to be proper and suitable materials for Your building. We acknowledge that, in ourselves, we’re not suitable for the building; we allow You, Lord, to build Yourself into us for the building up of the church!

We need to experience Christ in His Death, His Resurrection and Christ as the Spirit to become Materials for God’s Building

There were three kinds of wood used in the construction of the temple, and these signify three different aspects of Christ’s humanity.

First, we see cypress wood; in ancient times the Jews planted cypress trees above their graves, so cypres (1 Kings 6:15, 34) signify Christ’s humanity in His death, the crucified Christ.

Second, we see cedar wood; the walls of the house within were all covered with wood, and the wood was cedar wood, and the floor was overlaid with boards of cypress (1 Kings 6:15).

Cedar trees grow on the mountains of Lebanon (Psa. 104:16), and in spiritual significance, they typify Christ’s humanity in resurrection, the resurrected Christ (see Song of Songs 4:8).

The third kind of wood was olive tree wood; olive oil typifies the Spirit of God, and olive wood (1 Kings 6:23, 31-33) signifies Christ’s humanity in the Spirit of God, the anointed Christ (Heb. 1:9).

In other words, the materials that are suitable for God’s building are related to the experience of Christ in His death, His resurrection, and Christ as the Spirit.

We need to enjoy and experience the crucified and resurrected Christ as the Spirit to become proper and suitable materials for the building of God.

The cypress tree signifies the death of Christ and the death of those who have died with Christ.

The doors of the temple were made of cypress wood; this signifies that the death of the Lord Jesus is the great entrance into the church.

Cedar wood signifies the resurrected Christ and those who have been resurrected in Christ.

Everything in the temple from the ground up was constructed with cedar wood; the church is built upward in the resurrection with Christ.

Olive wood was used for the doors on which were carvings of cherubim.

Olive wood signifies the Christ who is in the Holy Spirit and those who are filled with the Holy Spirit.

The result of being filled with the Holy Spirit is that we express God’s glory, just as the doors were carved with cherubim which expresses the glory of God.

The doors of olive wood with carvings of cherubim signify that the Holy Spirit is the entrance to spiritual matters.

We need to experience Christ in His death, Christ in His resurrection, and Christ as the Holy Spirit in order to become materials for God’s building.

We need to realize that we have been crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20), we have been raised with Him, and we are now in Spirit and we should be filled with the Holy Spirit.

It is only when we experience the crucified and resurrected Christ as the Spirit building Himself into us that we can be proper materials for God’s building.

All those who want to be built together must first be those who have died with Christ (signified by cypress), resurrected with Christ (signified by cedar), and be in the Holy Spirit (signified by olive wood).

When we experience such a Christ, we become part of the new man in resurrection and in the Holy Spirit, for we no longer live in and by our natural man but in Christ and by the Spirit, and everything we do will be for God’s building.

The church is not composed of natural persons but of those who passed through death and resurrection and who are filled with the Spirit.

Our natural ability has no place in the church, for God doesn’t need it; only that which passes through death and resurrection and is mingled and filled with the Spirit can be used for God’s building.

May we allow the Lord to shine on us in this matter so that He would have a way to work Himself into us more, and may we say Amen to His working both within us and around us when He brings us through the experiences of Christ in His death and resurrection.

He really wants to gain the reality of the one new man where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free man, but Christ is all and in all!

All our distinctions have been buried with Christ in His death, and now we live in resurrection and are filled with the Spirit to build up the church as the temple of God.

Amen, may we bring this to the Lord in prayer and open up to Him about it,

Lord Jesus, grant us the experiences we need for us to be proper materials for God’s building. Save us from trying to bring our natural man with his natural ability into the service for the building up of the church. Grant us to be those who experience Christ in His death and resurrection and who are filled with the Holy Spirit. We allow You, Lord, to build Yourself into us as the crucified and resurrected Christ who is now the Spirit. Thank You, Lord, we have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer we who live. Hallelujah, we have been raised with Christ, and He lives in us! Amen, Lord, fill us with the Holy Spirit! Gain the church as the one new man in resurrection where Christ is all and in all!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ricky Acosta in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1961-1962, vol. 2, “The Vision of the Building of the Church“, chs. 3, 5-6, 9, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Kings (2022 summer training), week 7, entitled, The Intrinsic Significance of the Materials of the Temple.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Freed from self and Adam’s nature, / Lord, I would be built by Thee / With the saints into Thy temple, / Where Thy glory we shall see. / From peculiar traits deliver, / From my independent ways, / That a dwelling place for Thee, Lord, / We will be thru all our days. (Hymns #840 stanza 1)
  – Christ is her one foundation, / None other man may lay; / All that she has, as Christ, is / Divine in every way; / Her members through the Spirit / Their death on Calv’ry own; / They’re built in resurrection- / Gold, silver, precious stone. (Hymns #824, stanza 3)
  – This God-man, Christ, went to the cross and died, / By death He ended knowledge, the old man. / Things negative forever crucified, / Death He subdued, a new life He began! / From death He resurrected and became / The living Spirit to give life to us. / When we believe and call upon His name; / This living Spirit comes to dwell in us. / By this the very Triune God is now / The living Spirit mingling deep within. / Our spirit joins in oneness; this is how / We are one spirit evermore with Him. (Hymns #1195, stanzas 5-7)