The Church is the Heart’s Desire of God and the Hidden Mystery in God’s Economy

The church is the heart’s desire of God; the desire of God in this age is to have the church.

What is the church? The church is a colossal subject, the content of which is enormous and the thought profound. As human beings we think we know or understand but we’re actually small, helpless, and incapable of apprehending in full what the church is.

In the New Testament we see two great mysteries: Christ as the mystery of God (Col. 2:2) and the church as the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4). In Colossians we see Christ as the mystery of God, and in Ephesians the church as the mystery of Christ.

Christ as the Head of the Body is a mystery, and we need to study the entire epistle to Colossians under the divine light in order to see this mystery. The church as the mystery of Christ is revealed in Ephesians, and we need the shining of the Spirit that we may see what the church is.

These two, Christ and the church, are the great mystery (Eph. 5:32). God is mysterious, and He has hidden a mystery within Himself from times eternal and from eternity past. God has something very precious and dear to His heart that is hidden within Himself, and not even the prophets and the priests in the Old Testament saw what this secret mystery is.

Not until the coming of the Lord Jesus was this mystery revealed. When Jesus came, He explained, revealed, disclosed, and expressed God through His living, and the Gospels are full of what Christ is, has done, has spoken, and has accomplished.

At one point He asked His disciples the question of questions, Who am I? Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am? The unique vision that God wants man to see is Who is Christ? God has no other vision or revelation to show man except the vision of Christ as the Only Begotten of the Father becoming the Firstborn among many brothers, the church.

By the revelation of the Father, Peter saw who this Jesus was: He is the Messiah, the Christ of God, the anointed One, everything in God’s great plan and dispensation. He is the Christ (referring to His office), the Son of the Living God (referring to His person).

Such a vision is not received because of our intelligence or smartness; only the Father can reveal this to us. As soon as we see the vision of Christ, He continues to speak to us and unveil us the vision of the church, which is built upon the revelation of Christ (see Matt. 16:12-18).

What is the Church?

The church is the mystery of Christ, who is the mystery of God; the church is mystery within a mystery. What the Lord Jesus is working on today is to build up His church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:16-18).

So, what is the church? Satan has been working tirelessly throughout the ages to dilute the meaning of the church and to confuse people concerning what the church is. The church is not a building with a steeple and a cross on top, neither is it an organized group of pious people who read the Bible all the time.

The church is ekklesia, the assembly of the called out ones. The Lord today is building His assembly, His called out ones, and the enemy Satan will be defeated under the feet of the church.

The Apostle Paul saw a lot concerning the church even from the moment of his miraculous conversion (see Acts 9). The incarnated, resurrected, ascended, and descended Christ came to Paul, the chiefest of all sinners and the persecutor of the church, and he was struck with blindness outwardly.

He asked, Who are You, Lord? This is the question the Lord wants us to ask Him time and time again. Lord, who are You? The response Jesus gave to Paul was, I am Jesus, the One whom you persecute. This is Jesus Christ, the Head (in the heavens) one with His Body (on the earth).

Paul saw this initially and he continued to see more with the Lord. He then wrote epistles such as Ephesians, Colossians, and Romans, where he admitted, This mystery was hidden from the ages, but it has now been made know to His holy prophets and apostles in spirit. At the right time God has revealed what was on His heart throughout the ages: the church.

The church is not a small thing. The Lord Jesus wanted to speak about it when He was on the earth but He couldn’t; however, He promised that the Spirit of reality would come and tell us more things, guiding us into all the reality (see John 14-15). We need to see a vision of the church as the Body of Christ, the desire of God’s heart.

Throughout all the centuries Christ has been replaced by many substitutes, and many believe that He was a great person who lived a long time ago. Where can we see the real Christ, the Christ of God who is revealed in the Bible both in the types in the Old Testament and in the fulfillment in the New Testament?

The church has been degraded, defiled, and deformed into something that you hardly know what it is anymore. When one looks at the church today he sees a mix of something from the Bible being institutionalized in a worldly way, something organized, packaged, commercialized, and monetized. This is definitely NOT what God has in His heart.

The church is special to God; nothing is more important to Him than the church. Along with Christ, the church is everything to God. Christ and the church are God’s heart beat, the good pleasure of His will, His heart’s desire.

How dare the natural man come along and mix it up with all kinds of natural things, philosophies, ideas, additions, teachings, opinions, traditions, etc to make it into something so awful?

We need to be brought back to the word of God under the shining light of God to see what is the church, what is in God’s heart.

The church is what was in God’s heart from eternity, and for the church Christ came and died by laying down His life, and now He is busily working to sanctify and cleans the church, and one day He will present the church to Himself as a glorious bride, spotless, without any blemish or wrinkle. This is what is in God’s heart.

But today the church is a despised thing among people, even a joke in many so-called “Christian countries.” It became a political thing, something of philosophy, so mixed up with things other than God. Where is the pure church of God? Where are those who believe that God will gain His heart’s desire?

Lord Jesus, unveil us to see the church. Remove any natural and religious veil from our eyes that we may see what is in Your heart. Lord, may we see the preciousness of the church in Your eyes. May we see Your heart’s desire, Your heart’s beat, the church! We want to come back to Your word that we may receive the pure divine revelation concerning the mystery within a mystery, the church as the Body of Christ! Have mercy on us, Lord, and purify our heart as we come to Your word so that we may see the church!

The Church is the Hidden Mystery in God’s Eternal Economy

Eph. 1:9 Making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself.

The church is the heart’s desire of God; the desire of God in this age is to have the church (see Eph. 1:5, 9, 22-23). The good pleasure of God’s will is to have the church, and God’s deep longing is to obtain the church. The church is the hidden mystery in God’s eternal economy (see Eph. 1:11, 22-23; 3:4, 9-11; Col. 2:2).

God has a heart’s desire, based on which He had a counsel among the Trinity, and out of that counsel a will was made; that will turned into a purpose (an unchangeable determined will), and based on this purpose, God designed an economy, an arrangement, a plan. God’s economy is to carry out His purpose and satisfy His heart’s desire.

God’s intention in creating all things in this universe (including man) is that man would be mingled with God to produce the church. All things were created for God’s will (Rev. 4:11), which is the church (Rom. 12:2).

The entire universe – of which we can hardly begin to fathom through science and telescopes and words – is created for the church. God created all things with something in mind: He wanted to gain the church! Man was made as the top of His creation to replace the leader of the past creatures (Satan) to fulfill His purpose.

For this, God made an arrangement, an economy, which is to dispense Himself as the Father in the Son through the Spirit into man with all that He is, has, has planned and willed, and all He accomplished.

God desires to be dispensed into man so that He would be man’s life, sustenance, life supply, and man’s everything so that He would be mingled with man, permeating and saturating man with Himself. This is the church. This is something mysterious, yet something revealed to us in spirit.

The outcome of man being saturated, permeated, and mingled with God is that he is built up, related, framed, knit together, and this would be the church, the corporate mingling of the Triune God with the tripartite man.

Everything from God’s predestination and selection to glorification is for the church. Our being predestinated by God, selected by Him, redeemed by Christ, and the whole organic process of salvation with regeneration, renewing, sanctification, transformation, building up, conformation, and glorification – is for the church.

We are here for the church. We live on earth for the church; we breathe for the church; we get married for the church; we have children for the church. We have a job for the church, we have the things we have for the church, and everything is for the church. We grow in life unto maturity for the church.

What God desires to gain is the church, and we are here for God’s heart’s desire. Outwardly this is a mystery, but when we turn to our spirit and see God’s economy, we realize: it is all for the church. The church is a hidden mystery in God’s economy, and He does everything in us and through us for the church.

Lord Jesus, we humble ourselves before You and come to You empty, unloaded, and unveiled to see the church, Your heart’s desire. Lord, make know to us the mystery of Your will. Enlighten the eyes of our heart to see the church. Cause us to see the church as the desire of God’s heart. We open to You to receive a vision of the hidden mystery in God’s eternal economy. We are here for the church. Lord, may everything we have and we do be for the church, Your heart’s desire!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Minor Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament (msgs. 189-194), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Heavenly Vision, week 3 / msg 3, The Vision of the Church – the Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # As for the church, I need / Thy revelation more, / The Body-life to know, / Thy wisdom to explore. (Hymns #426)
  # Remove the veils, Lord, from my heart; / True revelation grant to me; / A vision clear, O Lord, impart / Of Thy recovery. / By revelation I perceive / The power that raised Christ from the dead; / When I by faith this power receive, / I to the church am led. (Hymns #1220)
  # The church is Christ’s deep longing / And His good pleasure too. / His every word and action / Is made with her in view. / His heart’s love is established, / And nought can Him deter; / Before the earth’s foundation / His thoughts were filled with her. (Hymns #1229)