We need to follow in the apostle Paul’s footsteps to bring all the saints into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ.
On the one hand, we ourselves need to enter into the fellowship and blending life of the Body, and on the other, we need to cooperate with the Lord to bring others, even all the saints, into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ.
This word, blending, comes from the Old Testament picture with the meal offering, where the fine flour is mingled with oil, and there’s a cake being presented to God for His satisfaction.
The Lord Jesus came as a grain of wheat, and in Himself He had life – the divine life, the eternal life of God. Through death His human shell was broken and in resurrection His divine life was released and imparted into millions of believers in Christ, into us, to produce us as the many grains of wheat, the seeds of life.
Through regeneration we became children of God with the divine life added to our human life, and this life is located in our mingled spirit.
In God’s eyes all believers in Christ are like grains of wheat, just as the Lord Jesus was, and He wants to eat a corporate meal offering for His satisfaction.
The Lord Jesus as the first grain of wheat was crushed and made into powder through His death and resurrection, and now we also go through the process of being grounded, tempered, and adjusted, so that, by being mingled with the divine Spirit, we would become a new lump, a corporate meal offering for God’s enjoyment.
Therefore, we need to enter into the blending life of the Body, living a life in the mingled spirit so that the death of Christ would be applied to us and the Spirit would be added to us, for God to gain His food.
For us to be blended means that we stop and fellowship, that is, we do not live an individual life without fellowship in the Body of Christ.
When we stop and fellowship, we are being adjusted in our being, we are being tempered in our inner being, and we are being harmonised with the saints so that we would live a life through the cross and by the Spirit for the ministering of Christ to others.
We may think that we don’t need to fellowship about literally everything in our life, but the reality is that, the more we fellowship in spirit, the more we are being adjusted and tempered to be suitable materials for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
However, the danger is that we would label certain meetings as “blending meetings” and “coordination meetings” but we may get together without being blended.
To be blended means that we are touched by others and that we are touching others not in our natural life but by going through the cross, doing things by the Spirit, and the result is that we do everything to dispense Christ for the sake of the Body.
Bringing the Saints into the Blending Life of the Entire Body of Christ for God to Crush Satan under our feet
The last chapter of the book of Romans contains a lot of greetings from Paul to individual saints, particular homes, and to the church in general.
Many think that this is a good way to end this epistle – by greeting the saints, but actually what Paul did here is to bring the saints into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ.
Paul was a pattern of one who, through his writings and his living, he brought all the saints into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ; we must follow in his footsteps and cooperate with the Lord for this.
In Rom. 16 Paul greeted the saints one by one, mentioning at least twenty-seven names, including Phoebe, a deaconess of the church in Cenchrea, and Prisca and Aquila.
Moreover, he greeted the saints generally, not just individually. This shows that Paul not only knew the saints but he also had a considerable amount of understanding and care regarding them both personally and corporately.
Actually, these greetings show that there was a mutual care and concern among the saints, and there was mutual fellowship among the churches. We need to follow the pattern of Paul to bring all the saints into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ.
It is by this blending life that God will crush Satan under our feet shortly. On the one hand we ourselves need to enter into the fellowship and blending life of the Body, and on the other hand, we need to cooperate with the Lord to bring the saints into this.
Our blending should not just be regional, state-wide, or even country-wide. We need to aim to blend with all the saints on the whole earth, so that we may enter into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ.
Especially these days with the technology available to us and the advanced means of transportation, we need to let the Lord “inconvenience us” and thus pay the price to blend with the saints both in our region, in our country, on our continent, and on the whole earth.
When we touch the blending life of the Body, when we realise our need to blend with the saints in the Body for the Lord to gain the reality of the Body of Christ, we will pay the price and blend.
Furthermore, we will follow the pattern of Paul to help the saints enter into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ. This will cause us to enjoy the grace of God in abundance, and the God of peace will crush Satan under our feet shortly.
When we are blended together, when we enter into the fellowship and blending life of the Body, we will be built up together, we will live in the reality of the Body of Christ, and God will crush Satan under our feet.
When we enter into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ, we will enjoy the grace of God, the Triune God will dispense Himself into us and through us richly, and our enemy will be crushed under the feet of the builded Church.
Lord Jesus, bring us fully into the fellowship and blending life of the entire Body of Christ. Amen, Lord, it is Your desire to build up the church as the Body of Christ, so do blend us together! We want to pay the price and allow You to inconvenience us by visiting the saints and the churches to be blended together. Oh Lord, show us the pattern of Paul in Rom. 16 to bring all the saints into the blending life of the Body. Amen, Lord Jesus, may You gain a people who enter into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ so that they may enjoy the rich grace of God and have Satan crushed under their feet.
Having the Reality of the Fellowship and Blending of the Body of Christ to be Saved from Division
In Rom. 16 Paul greets many saints, many homes, and even the whole church, and then he says that God will crush Satan under the feet of the church shortly, as the saints enjoy the grace of God.
This shows that, as we enjoy the fellowship of the Body and are blended together, God will crush Satan under our feet, and we enjoy the Triune God as grace.
In this way, we can carry out the mystery kept in silence in the times of the ages concerning the complete salvation of God in the fulfillment of the eternal economy of God for the Gentiles to have the obedience of faith unto glory to the only wise God through Jesus Christ (Rom. 16:25-27).
If we pursue the Lord and enjoy Him in His word, doing our best to be humble and simple before Him, but we do not have the reality of the fellowship and blending of the Body of Christ, sooner or later we will have problems.
Problems and divisions arise when we don’t enter into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ, that is, when we don’t have the reality of the fellowship and blending of the Body of Christ.
Therefore, we must give ourselves to the Lord to not only pursue Him, enjoy Him, and be humble before Him, but see the vision of the Body and follow the footsteps of the apostle by bringing all the saints in all the churches into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ.
May the Lord have mercy on us and save us from our narrowness and individualism, and may He have a way to blend us together with all the saints in the Body.
When we have the reality of the fellowship and blending of the Body of Christ, we will reign in life, and by such reigning, we give glory to God; this glory is actually the New Jerusalem! Hallelujah!
By being blended together and by entering into this blending life of the entire Body of Christ, we actually enter into the universal incorporation of the union and mingling of divinity with humanity, in which God will be completely glorified and His economy will be fully accomplished. Wow, Hallelujah!
How immeasurable and rich our Triune God is, and how He desires to be glorified in man! How we thank the Lord for choosing us and making us organically one with Him so that we may be perfect by Him and be His Body, joined with Him as one.
He has come into our spirit, He is saturating our soul, and He will even fill our body with His life to make us the same as He is, to fully mingle Himself with us.
The focus of God’s wisdom is the working of His Divine Trinity into our spirit, our soul, and our body, so that in His redemption, sanctification, and transformation we would be fully one with Him in life and be mingled with Him completely! Amen, Hallelujah!
Lord Jesus, bring us into the reality of the fellowship and blending of the Body of Christ. We want to not only pursue You and be simple before You, running after You with a pure heart, but also enter into the fellowship and blending life of the Body. Oh Lord, may we be governed by the vision of the Body and follow in the footsteps of the apostle by bringing all the saints in all the churches into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ! Amen, Lord, gain the blending among all the saints in the church life all over the earth for the building up of Your Body!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Experience of God’s Organic Salvation Equaling Reigning in Christ’s Life,” ch. 6, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 4, Blending for the Reality of the Body of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# As the members of one Body, Built up in love, support in spirit each, / Christ dispensing, Spirit minist’ring, Blending until we’re all made one in Him. (The Uniqueness of the Lord’s Recovery)
# Build us up, build us up, as with one another sup’. / Hallelujah—the riches of Christ! / Build us up, build us up, as with You we all rise up. / Hallelujah—the living Body! / As blended members / Of His one Body, / We, the Lord do glorify! / His Light does shine! / Reviving Life does flow! / And we do see that Satan is crushed! (Song on, Blend us, Lord)
# Oh, what a fact! Oh, what a bliss! / That I of Christ a member am. / With all the saints I blend as one / And share the life of the new man. / Joined to our great ascended Head, / We’ll be the Church of His own plan. (Hymns #500)
