The Church Life is a life of being Headed up in Christ, the Unique Head of the Body

Due to the rebellion of Satan and of man, the whole universe is in a heap of collapse and in rebellion against God, but in the church life we are being headed up in Christ so that, through the church, God would have a way to head up all things in the universe in Christ.

The church is composed of believers who are God’s pioneers of being headed up in Christ so that all things would be headed up in Him. The church is what’s in God’s heart, and what God wants to gain is the church, for through the church He can fulfil His purpose and accomplish His heart’s desire.

The church is the living of Christ through all His believers, it is the corporate living out and expression of Christ in His Body.

Christ is not here on earth physically, but He is here being expressed through the church, which is His Body. Therefore, we in the church life today need to be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that we may express the Lord.

In our natural man we cannot express Christ, and no matter how much we work on improving ourselves, we cannot become His expression on our own. We need go experience Christ inwardly and be transformed by Him as the Spirit, and then we will simply let Christ live in us for His expression.

We all need to learn to be inward Christians who are being transformed for the practice of the church life (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2-21). As He transforms us from within, we let Christ live in us, and He is expressed through us.

As the Lord as the Spirit transforms us, we are saturated and permeated with Christ, and He in us will live a life for the expression of God. Actually, the living, moving, saturating, and working Christ within us desires, requires, and even becomes the church life.

The church life is the living Christ within being expressed and lived out without. He is our inner life for our daily life, and when we genuinely experience Him, He becomes the church life, and He in us builds up the church.

We are daily under the divine dispensing of the Triune God and we experience Christ for the church life, for God to have a corporate expression on earth in all the local churches.

When we take Christ as our life, our person, and our everything, this Christ within us will require the proper church life; in fact, the Christ in us will become the church life. Hallelujah!

We just need to cooperate with Him by enjoying Him, experiencing Him, and allowing the Spirit to apply the cross to our being, so that the Christ in us would live out the proper church life.

The Church Life is a Life of being Headed up in Christ, the Unique Head of the Body

Eph. 1:10 is a very important verse in the Bible, containing the unique thought of the need of all things to be headed up in Christ through the church. The Greek word for “headed up” is the verbal form for the noun “head”.

According to Strong’s word study, it means to strike on the head, to wound on the head. In this universe there was an attack on the universal headship of God – there was a satanic rebellion that struck a blow to the headship of God. Lucifer and his angels rebelled against the headship of God, and then man also joined Satan’s rebellion.

Through these two rebellions, the headship of God was damaged. In this universe there’s no such thing as hierarchy, but there’s a headship, and there’s an organic order.

The Head over all things is God; He is the source and Creator, and He has given Christ to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body. Furthermore, when a husband is under Christ as the Head, he becomes the head of the wife.

The universal order is God and Christ – this is the headship, which was attacked. God has also ordained the human authorities to be part of the universal order; whether we like it or not, the president, prime minister, and chancellor are ordained by God, and he who resists the human authorities opposes God’s ordination.

In the USA and in Europe there’s an ugly spirit of rebellion and anarchy that operates among men, which you can call is the zeitgeist of this age; people simply rebel against the authorities, and there’s a spirit of anarchy.

But in the church life we are being headed up in Christ, who is the Head over all things. We are being rescued from the heap of collapse and recovered to be in the organic order, the universal headship.

We need to be willing to be headed up by Christ, and not be involved with anything of the rebellious and anarchy spirit operating today. If we look around us at home, at school, in the society, in the government, in politics, among people, at work – everywhere there’s a heap of collapse, there’s rebellion, and nothing is headed up.

But in the proper church life we are being headed up in Christ, and this heading up is the beginning of God’s heading up all things in Christ.

When we as believers in Christ are willing to be headed up in Christ, taking Christ as the Head and being under His authority, God has a way to head up all things in Christ through the church.

This is the mystery of God’s will: under Christ and through the church, God will head up all things in the universe. And today in the church life we are being headed up in Christ – we are willing to be headed up, and we take the lead to be headed up in Christ.

We refuse to be part of the universal heap of collapse, we refuse to be rebellious or led by a spirit of anarchy, and we take Christ as our Head to be headed up in Christ.

Lord Jesus, may we be those who are being headed up in Christ in the church life, so that You may have a way to head up all things in the universe through the church. Expose the spirit of rebellion and anarchy operating in society today, and keep us in the universal order under Christ as the Head, enjoying the divine transmission from the Head to the Body. Lord, rescue us out of the heap of collapse and bring us under Yourself as the Head. We are willing to be headed up in Christ, so that through the church God will head up all things in Christ!

Growing up into the Head, Christ, in all Things, to be Headed up in Christ in the Church Life

Today God is heading up His chosen ones to be the Body of Christ, where Christ is the Head and all the members of the Body take Christ as their Head (Eph. 1:4, 22-23, 10).

The first step in the heading up of all things in Christ is for God to place His sons – the believers in Christ – under the unique headship of Christ (Eph. 1:5, 10). We as sons of God need to grow in life into Christ, the Head, and as we mature in life, we take Him as the Head and are being headed up in Christ for the heading up of all things.

Our growth in the divine life is into the Head, Christ, and it issues in the heading up of Christ – first in the church, and then in the entire universe.

However, if we are not willing to be headed up in the church life, we will delay the heading up of all things; God is waiting for us, His believers, to be under Christ as the Head, upholding the supremacy of Christ and taking Him as our person, so that He may head up all things through the church.

If we don’t know what it is to be headed up in Christ, we cannot know what the church is. The church is not a heap of fallen people who are still in the collapse of all things; rather, the church is the heading up of God’s chosen ones under the headship of Christ.

Oh, if only all believers on earth would take Christ as their head and would be headed up in Christ, what a testimony God would have on earth! But sadly to say, if you look at Christianity today with all the denominations and independent Christian groups, there’s no heading up. Oh Lord Jesus!

May we in the proper church life be willing to be headed up in Christ (1 Cor. 11:3), and even take the lead to be those being headed up in Christ, so that God would have a way to head up all other things.

In the church life we are taking the lead to be headed up in Christ; for this, we need to grow up into the Head, Christ, in all things (Eph. 4:15-16).

There are many aspects of being headed up in Christ, and one of the most simple and enjoyable ones is to grow up into Christ in all things.

We need to grow in life, that is, allow God’s life to grow and spread in our being, so that Christ may grow in us in all things. In our family life, work life, personal life, and in all aspects of our life, Christ wants to grow in us.

When we allow Christ to grow and be expressed through us in all the aspects of our life, we are being headed up in Christ. Our growth in the divine life is not for us to become someone great or special; our growth is into the Head, Christ, for the heading up of all things in Christ.

May we as believers in Christ grow in life every day, growing into the Head, Christ, so that we may be headed up in Him, and through us – through the church – God would have a way to head up all things!

Lord, we are willing to be headed up in Christ by growing into Him as the Head in all things. Grow in us, Lord, for the building up of the Body and for the heading up of all things in Christ. Give us today’s portion of grace that we may grow into the Head, Christ. Amen, Lord, may You gain the church that You are after, the church that is being headed up in Christ so that, through the church, You may head up all things! May there be the growth in life in all the saints, and may we all enjoy the light of life!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 8-10 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Church (2017 fall ITERO), week 5, The Recovery of the Church Life.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # In His Christ to head up all things / Is our God’s economy; / Taking Christ as Head and Center, / All is one in harmony… / Thru the Church which is His Body / Christ as Head will sum up all; / All will fitly join together, / All things either great or small. (Hymns #981)
  # But holding to truth in love / We may grow up in all things / Into Him who is the Head / Christ is the Head / Out from Whom all the Body / Being joined together and / Being knit together through / Ev’ry joint of the rich supply / And through the operation / In the measure of each one part / of each one part / Causes the growth of the Body unto the / building up of itself in love, / in love, in love. (Scripture song)
  # In fulness of the seasons / God’s Christ will head up all. / Then all will own His reigning / And worship, great and small. / Such reign in life and glory / The Church e’en now foretastes / And to His rule submitting / Unto His kingdom hastes. (Hymns #941)