In order for us to have the proper church life as the corporate expression of Christ we need to have certain crucial experiences, the first of which is having our soul subdued and saturated with Christ.
If we still live in and according to our soul, deciding things by ourselves as we always do, having our own opinions and concepts, and living according to our feelings, we cannot have the church life.
The church life is Christ being realized, enjoyed, experienced by, and expressed through the saints. We need to be open to the Lord’s working to subdue our soul so that He may have a way to come in and saturate all our inward parts with Himself.
God wants to fill us with Himself and saturate us with His reality; He wants to spread from our spirit into our mind, emotion, and will. In order for us to have the proper church life as the corporate expression of the Christ we enjoy and experience, we need to have our soul subdued and saturated with Christ as the Spirit.
May we be those who cooperate with the Lord today and allow Him to subdue our soul so that He would have a way to saturate all our inward parts with Himself as the Spirit and make us His corporate expression.
In order for us to have the church life to express Christ according to God’s eternal purpose, Christ needs to be released from the imprisonment of our soul through the breaking of the outer man for the release of the Spirit.
Even though Christ willingly came into our spirit as we opened to Him, called on His name, and repented, too many times He is not at home in us but as in a prison: He is imprisoned in our spirit by our soul.
We don’t allow Christ to have room in us, and many times we keep Him in “solitary confinement”, allowing Him to come out when we meet with other believers or when we are in trouble and we call on His name.
How can we have the church life as the corporate expression of Christ if we all keep Christ in prison in our being and He has no way to be released from within us? May the Lord shine on us and show us our real situation so that we may realize how much Christ is limited in us and imprisoned in our being.
Is Christ at Home in us or is He Imprisoned in our Spirit?
The church life is the corporate expression and the coming out of the Christ we have enjoyed and experienced daily. But if we don’t enjoy Christ or experience Him, how can we have the proper church life?
Even more: if we don’t allow Christ to make His home in all our heart, giving Him the full ground in our mind, emotion, will, and conscience, how can we have a proper church life?
We stand on the ground of oneness, we are in fellowship with other saints and churches around the world, and we thus are a genuine local church; but how much Christ do we have coming out of for the building up of the Body?
When we received the Lord Jesus as our Savior, He as the Spirit came into our spirit and regenerated us with His life (John 3:6; 1:12-13); there is no doubt that all genuine believers have Christ in their spirit (2 Tim. 4:22).
But what about our soul? Does Christ have the ground to spread from our spirit into our soul? Do we allow Christ to re-arrange us, reconstitute us, change us within, and saturate us as He sees fit in our mind, emotion, and will?
We have Christ as the Spirit in our spirit, but is He still imprisoned in our spirit by our soul? We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have received Him in us, but does He have the liberty to change the way we think, alter the way we feel, and influence the way we choose and decide things? Are we the Lord’s home or are we a prison for Him?
The Apostle Paul, after speaking of the high vision of the Body of Christ, knelt down before the Father imploring Him to strengthen all His believers with power (the same power that raised Christ from the dead, ascended Him to the heavens, and seated Him on the throne above all things) into their inner man so that Christ would have a way to make His home in their heart (see Eph. 3:16).
Yes, Christ is in our spirit, and our spirit is His home and dwelling place (Eph. 2:22), but He may not have a way to spread into and saturate our mind, emotion, and will, because we don’t allow Him to.
We may be like a prison guard who keeps Christ in the “solitary confinement” of our spirit, allowing Him to get out for an hour or two here-and-there as we go to meetings or read the Bible – but what about the rest of the time?
We have done this so many times – even though we don’t do this intentionally; we may not realize what we are doing, but through our attitude and actions we limit the Lord’s working and spreading within us.
As the Lord shines on us and exposes us of how much we keep the Lord in the prison in our spirit it is good to tell Him,
O Father, strengthen us with power through Your Spirit into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith. Lord Jesus, we open to You as wide as we can. We want to enjoy You, experience You, and open to You all the parts of our inward being so that You may spread in us. Lord, save us from keeping You in the prison in our spirit; spread into our soul and make Your home in all our heart. Lord, be at home in us, in all the parts of our inner being!
If Christ Remains Imprisoned Within us, We Cannot have the Proper Church Life
Many believers love the Lord, praise Him, worship Him, read the Bible, go to church, and meet with other believers during the week. This is all very good, but what about having the proper church life that is the corporate expression of Christ through the saints who enjoy Him and experience Him?
The church life is Christ coming out of the saints for His corporate expression; however, if Christ remains imprisoned within us, we cannot have the church life (see Eph. 3:16-17, 21).
We may love the Lord, but our mind is not renewed but still natural since we delight in reading the news, watching TV and movies, following sports and movie actors’ lives and achievements, spending time on social media websites, etc.
We have the Lord in our spirit, but our emotions are so earthly: we love the ones we naturally prefer, we are attached to physical things, we love entertainment and worldly things, and we love spending time doing all kinds of things – yet having no time for the Lord.
We are genuine Christians, but we still choose things according to our preference, we are so selfish, and we are so natural in our decisions; we are stubborn toward the Lord and yet so willing to do things in the world and enjoy what it has to offer.
How can Christ come out of us as the One we enjoy and experience when He has no ground to spread in us and saturate our mind, emotion, and will?
When believers get together, even though they have Christ in their spirit, what do they talk about? What do we talk about when we meet another brother? Do we touch the Lord together, or do we talk about this or that for hours?
When we meet to fellowship with other believers, one may have an opinion, the other may have even a stronger opinion, while another may not say anything but inside may think differently.
We are so strong in our mind, emotion, and will, yet we are not yet so strong in our inner man. Witness Lee wrote a hymn that applies so much to our situation and condition many times,
The Spirit of the triune God / Within our spirit now doth rest; / He ever seeks thru us to flow, / That God in Christ may be expressed.
But by the outward, natural man / The Spirit is confined within; / Instead of giving Him a home, / A prison we’ve become to Him. (stanzas 1-2 of Hymns #749)
We need to pray daily that the Lord would strengthen us into our inner man so that in everything we do and say it would be the mingled spirit that takes the lead and not our soul.
We need to realize that if Christ still remains imprisoned within us, we cannot have the church life. We can have an outward church life, a church-going life, even a well-organized and well-run church life outwardly, but the reality is not there.
How can Christ come out of us if we are still so whole? What kind of church life do we have if we don’t allow Christ to break through any barriers and walls in our soul?
In the next blog post we will see more concerning the breaking of the outer man for the mingled spirit to be released for the building up of the church – which is the key to having the proper church life; but today we need to come to the Lord both personally and corporately and tell Him,
Lord Jesus, deliver us from being whole. May we not remain untouched and whole as we grow in the human life in the church life. May Your divine life grow and spread from our spirit into our mind, emotion, and will to affect, change, and saturate our thinking, feelings, and decisions. Lord Jesus, we open every part of our heart to You; come in, make Your home in us, and occupy all our inward parts. Strengthen our spirit and have Your way to make Your home in our heart for the church life! Lord, break through from the prison of our spirit into all our soul for the church!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1965, vol. 1, “The Vision, Practice, and Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ,” ch. 6, as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision, Practice, and Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, week 4 / msg 4, Crucial Experiences in the Practice of the Church Life (1) – Our Soul Being Subdued and Saturated with Christ as the Spirit and Christ Being Released from the Imprisonment of the Soul.
- Picture credit for Eph. 3:16 and more spiritual quotes on this topic via, Christian Pictures blog.
- Hymns on this topic:
# He’s like a treasure of great worth / Contained in vessels earthen-made; / The vessel must be broken through / And thus the treasure be displayed. (Hymns #749)
# Make home in my heart, O Lord Jesus, / Make home in my heart, I pray; / That we may be filled with Your fullness, / Make home in my heart today. / To Him who is able to do it / Above all we think or say, / We open our hearts wide and welcome / Him into our heart today. (Song on the Lord making His home in our heart)
# Make the prayer that Paul had in Ephesians / The prayer in our daily plan. / Father strengthen us with power through Your Spirit, / Deep into the inner man. [Eph. 3:16] / Lord, keep spreading into every corner, / Lord, keep gaining each part. / We allow you to have the room within us. / Make Your home in all our heart. [Eph. 3:17] (Song on Eph. 3:16-17)
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What a warning! What an inward check and a cause for much prayer before the Lord concerning our church life! I was touched by brother Lee’s sharing concerning this,
“There is no doubt that Christ is in us, but our soul is too strong, natural, earthly, and human. Therefore, eventually, whether intentionally or unintentionally, we imprison Christ by our soul. It is the same with all of us. We all have Christ, but our Christ has been imprisoned within us….If Christ is imprisoned by the soulish life in you, and He is imprisoned by the soulish life in me, how can we have the church life? Christ is within us, but He cannot be expressed, and He cannot be realized by us because of our soul. One person’s soul is strong, and another person’s soul is even stronger. One person exercises his mind, and another exercises his mind even more. Yes, we are brothers, and we are the members of the Body, but all these members are covered and concealed with a layer of soulish “wax.” This soulish “wax” is very strong. We are too strong in our mind, in our emotion, and in our will. This is why we need to be strengthened into our inner man. Then Christ will fill us and spread from within to take over our heart.” (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1965, vol. 1, pp. 99-101)