When we speak of a new revival, many believers yearn to have a spiritual revival and awakening, and their concept is that there has to be an emotional stir, an excitement, or something big, but what the Lord desires to gain and what we need today is the inward energizing and revitalisation as a result of our seeing of God’s economy in which He became man to make man God in life and nature but not in the Godhead for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem.
When we see a clear vision of God’s economy and realize that God doesn’t want us to merely “obey His word” or “fulfill all the commandments” but even more, to have His word be fulfilled in us as we are in the process of being made God in life and nature but not in the Godhead, we will give ourselves to the Lord for His heart’s desire, for Him to gain the reality of the Body of Christ.
The high peak of the divine revelation is that God Himself became a man so that He might make man God in life, nature, and expression for the gaining of the corporate God-man living as the reality of the Body of Christ.
God doesn’t want us to merely be spiritually stirred and awakened for a short period of time, and then go back to the way we lived before; He wants to gain a new revival that will last and will consummate this age to bring Him back, and the first thing we need is a clear vision of the high peak of the divine revelation.
Without seeing a vision of God’s economy, we will only have something temporary, something of excitement; what we want to have is a clear, definite, and solid seeing of a vision of the highest peak of the divine revelation that will cause us to be strengthened into our inner man to gain Christ, pursue Christ, and allow Christ to make His home in our heart for the building up of the Body of Christ.
The result and issue of God becoming a man to make man God in life and nature is the corporate God-man living, the collective living of the many God-men who live not by their human life but by the divine life to express Christ.
The Reality of the Body is the Corporate Living of the God-men who Live by the Divine Life
God’s highest purpose regarding man is to make man God in life, nature, and expression (but not in the Godhead) for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ so that God would have a corporate expression on earth, the reality of the Body of Christ.
What is the reality of the Body of Christ? It is a corporate living of the many believers in Christ, the many God-men, who live not by their natural life in their old man but by the divine life in their spirit. What God is after today is the reality of the Body of Christ, the corporate living of the many saints who have been redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, and transformed by the processed and consummated Triune God within them.
The Lord Jesus as the first God-man lived a God-man life – He didn’t live by His human life (even though it was sinless and perfect) but by the Father’s life.
Today we as the many God-men are the reproduction, duplication, and continuation of the first God-man (who is the prototype); we possess the divine life and nature and are in the process of being nourished by God, sanctified in our soul, transformed in God’s image, and perfected to be not only mature believers but God-men who have a God-man living, the same kind of living that Jesus had when He was on earth.
Paul was such a one: he was a man who had God in him as life, and he cooperated with the Lord to such an extent that to him to live was Christ (Phil. 1:19-21), and it wasn’t him who lived but Christ lived in him (Gal. 2:20). Paul lived in the reality of the Body of Christ; he was part of the corporate living by a group of God’s redeemed who have been made God by God and who do not live by themselves but by the divine life.
The Body of Christ is not an organization or some kind of a system or an arrangement; the Body of Christ is the corporate living of the many God-men, the believers in Christ, who live not by themselves but by another life, which is the processed and consummated Triune God.
We today are in the process of being perfected to live not by our own good natural human life but learn to live by another life. We are in the local churches as the local expressions of the Body of Christ, and we have the highest truth, but do we have the reality of the Body of Christ among us? Do we have a corporate God-man living in all the local churches today?
We have to admit that even among us, though we see so much concerning God’s intention, His economy, and His highest purpose, we do not yet have that much of a corporate living of the God-men – the reality of the Body of Christ. We may have a revelation of the Body and even a vision of the Body, but what about the corporate God-man living? Do we live by another life, the divine life in our spirit? Do we walk by the spirit, live according to the spirit, and do everything in spirit?
If we don’t live by the divine life in our spirit but still live by our old man in our natural life, we are not in the reality of the Body of Christ. We have been redeemed by God and are in the process of being made God by Him through His daily working of Himself into our being to unite, mingle, and incorporate us with Himself, and we need to live by the spirit and walk by the spirit so that we may be in reality the Body of Christ.
Lord Jesus, gain the corporate God-man living in all the local churches in Your recovery today! Thank You for keeping us in the process of being made God in life, nature, and expression; Lord, we want to cooperate with You by putting aside our natural human life and learning to live by the divine life in our spirit. Live again Your God-man life in us today, Lord Jesus! Gain the reality of the Body of Christ among us by having the corporate living of the many God-men who live by God’s life in their spirit just as Jesus did when He was on earth!
Arriving at the Highest Peak in God’s Economy, the Reality of the Body of Christ
May the Lord have mercy on us and remove the veils of spiritual opinions, old doctrines, human philosophy, and even Christianity concepts that cover us when we come to His word. May we be those who exercise their spirit, are enlightened by God’s word, and see a vision of God’s economy.
May we realize that because the Spirit of life is now in our spirit, our spirit is life – our spirit not only contains life but IS LIFE, that is, in our mingled spirit we are the same as God is in life (Rom. 8:2). And whenever we set our mind on our mingled spirit, our mind becomes life and peace (Rom. 8:6); whenever we set our mind on the spirit, our mind becomes life – our mind becomes God’s mind, full of life and peace.
Even more, because the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, eventually this One will impart life to our mortal body through His Spirit who indwells us (Rom. 6:10-11). Our entire tripartite being – spirit, soul, and body – is in the process of being filled with life, that is, we are in the process of being made the same as God in life and nature!
The issue of being made God in life and nature but not in the Godhead is the Body of Christ, the reality of the Body – the corporate living of the God-men (Rom. 12:4-5). The highest peak in God’s economy is the reality of the Body of Christ. Because this is the highest peak, we need to arrive at the high peak of the divine revelation by learning daily to deny ourselves, live not by our human life but by the divine life in our spirit.
The reality of the Body of Christ is the union and mingling of God and man to live out a corporate God-man, the reproduction of the living that Jesus had while on earth. Such reality of the Body of Christ is the house of God with the many abodes the Lord spoke in John 14 and the universal vine tree in John 15 with the many branches organically joined to the vine.
The reality of the Body of Christ is God becoming man to make man God in life and nature for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ that consummates in the New Jerusalem. May the Lord gain the reality of the Body of Christ, the corporate living of the God-men, in all the local churches.
May we not only be in a genuine local church as the local expression of the Body of Christ on the ground of oneness, and may we not only have the doctrine of the Body of Christ. We treasure the local churches as a procedure for the reality of the Body of Christ, and we want to be ushered in and brought into the reality of the Body in all the local churches, so that we may arrive at the highest peak of the divine revelation.
Lord Jesus, we want to arrive to the highest peak of the divine revelation, the reality of the Body of Christ. Lord, we don’t want to only know the doctrine or even only see the vision of the Body: we want to enter into the reality of the Body of Christ in the local churches today! Blend us with the saints and keep working Yourself into us until we no longer live but Christ lives in us! May all the saints in the local churches be ushered into the reality of the Body so that we may end this age and bring You back!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. James Lee’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, The Practical Points concerning Blending, chs. 1, 4-5 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on,The Need for a New Revival, week 2 / msg 2, Reaching the Highest Peak of the Divine Revelation (2) – Becoming God in Life, Nature, and Expression to Produce the Body of Christ Consummating in the New Jerusalem.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# God and man will have one living, / Always in the mingled spirit; / We two are incorporated / One organic entity! / This the vision of the ages / Will control our daily living / That the Lord may have His Body / Shining as the holy city. (Song on the God-man Living)
# Prone to be misled, I know it, / By my lofty thoughts of Thee, / Easy ’tis for self to seek Thee, / Yet not touch reality, / Oh, how much I need to find Thee, / In Thy members here below. / God eternal dwells among us, / Manifest in flesh to know. (Hymns #1225)
# God of glory, we bow the knee, / Grant us today / Spir’t of wisdom, revelation, / The mystery to see, / I’d outpour all my life for Thine economy, / Just for Thine eternal pleasure, / The Body of Christ, / In my mingled spirit lead me / To the Body’s reality, / In Thine intensification / Make us the testimony of Jesus / O Lord! For this we yearn! / Quickly come, as once Thou promised! / Lord, our deepest longing / Is Thy return! (Song on the new revival for the Lord’s return)
About aGodMan
We have the term the Body of Christ and we have the doctrine of the Body of Christ, but where is the practicality and reality of the Body of Christ? Have you ever touched the practicality of the Body of Christ? Have you ever been in the reality of the Body of Christ?
We all need to consider this matter. We have the term and we have the doctrine, but practically, we do not have the reality. The purpose of the blending is to usher us all into the reality of the Body of Christ. I treasure the local churches, as you do. But I treasure the local churches because of a purpose. The local churches are the procedure to bring me into the Body of Christ. The churches are the Body, but the churches may not have the reality of the Body of Christ. Thus, we need to be in the local churches so that we can be ushered, or brought, into the reality of the Body of Christ. (Witness Lee, The Practical Points concerning Blending, p. 10)