The church life is a life of being headed up in Christ by our growing in the divine life; as we hold Christ as the Head, we grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, and through us God can head up all things in Christ.
God’s will is to head up all things in Christ – the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him; for this, He first heads up the believers in Christ, the church, so that through the church He may head up all things in Christ.
The first step in the heading up of all things in Christ is for God to bring His chosen ones – His sons, the believers in Christ – out of the universal collapse, and to place them under the headship of Christ.
We thank God that He has transferred us out of the authority of darkness (which is the universal heap of collapse) and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love (for us to be headed up in Christ).
No matter what situation we’re in, we need to be headed up in Christ.
We have already been brought into Christ to enjoy Him and be headed up in Him; now we need to take the lead every day to take Christ as our Head, Lord, and King, checking everything with Him, and holding Him as the Head.
For this to take place we need to open to the Lord and offer Him many short prayers all throughout the day, taking Him as the Head and letting Him live in us.
We may even pray for the saints, the young people, the elderly ones, and the young adults, that we all may be headed up in Christ.
It is God’s will that we would be headed up in Christ; we need to pray this will back to God and ask Him to head us with all the things related to us in Christ.
When the Lord shines on us we will realize how many things, situations, and matters related to us are still in the heap of collapse.
The way we speak, the way we behave ourselves, and even the way we walk may still be in the flesh or according to the refined and elevated self, but not according to the spirit.
The way we talk to others, the way we relate to our spouse and the fellow family members, the things we watch or read online, and the way we spend our time when we’re by ourselves, all these things need to be headed up in Christ.
Christ needs to fill all things, and we need to be brought out of any darkness into light, and out of any death into life.
When we as the church take the lead to be headed up in Christ, God will have a way to head up all other things through the church.
The Church Life is a Life of being Headed up in Christ to share in His Headship
God has brought us into His church; now, as those who live in the church life, we need to be headed up in Christ. Actually, the church life is a life of being headed up in Christ (Eph. 4:15).
We need to hold to the Head, Christ, out from whom all the Body, being knit and joined together, is building itself up and grows with the growth of God.
It should become part of our personal and corporate history in the church life that we all are advancing in being headed up in Christ.
It is a sorrowful thing to see someone who has been a believer for thirty years and who has not grown but rather, he has remained the same, he has many barriers to the Lord’s life in him, and he is not headed up in Christ.
We love the Lord, we love the church, and we love all the saints, but we need to also cooperate with the Lord in the church life to be headed up in Christ.
God’s will is to head up all things in Christ; for this to take place, we as the church need to take the lead to be headed up in Christ, so that through the church God would have a way to head up all other things.
In Eph. 1:22-23 we see that God has raised and exalted Christ to be the Head over all things to the church.
Christ, the Head of the Body, has been exalted and given the name above every name; He has been given the highest position and the utmost glory, and He has authority over all things.
All that He is and He has, Christ is to the church; this preposition “to” indicates a transmission, that is, all that Christ has attained to, all His accomplishments, and His being the Head over all things is being transmitted to the church.
We as the church are His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all and in all; we enjoy all that He is by taking Him as the Head and holding Him, and we are being headed up in Christ.
However, if we are not willing to be touched by the Lord, if we sense that He wants to get through in us in certain aspects but we don’t cooperate with Him, the Lord has a hindrance in us and He cannot head us up.
When we see this we can honestly tell Him,
Dear Lord Jesus, break through in us! You know what is in us, what are the hindrances in our being, and what stops us from being headed up in You. Head us up in You, Lord, so that You may have a way to head up all things through the church! We don’t want to remain passively in the church life, enjoying the activities and meetings of the church yet not being headed up in You. Oh Lord, it is Your will to head up all things in Christ – head us up in You for the sake of Yourself, for Your will to be done! Break through in us, Lord!
When Christ has a way to break through in us and head us up, His headship is transmitted to the church and, through the church, He can head up all other things.
When we are being headed up, then God can head up all things through us.
This means that we share in His headship; we are not the Head, but we share in the headship.
So in a sense, we are even higher than the prime-minister or the president of our country, for we are one with the Head, Christ, and by being headed up in Him we share in His headship and through us He can head up all things.
The church is not under the king, the president, the prime-minister, or the queen; the church is under Christ and no one else, and when the church is headed up in Christ, the church can share in the headship of Christ over all things.
When we as the church are brought out of the collapse by being headed up in Christ, we will be above all things, sharing in Christ’s headship; then, we as the church can pray and cooperate with Christ for the heading up of all things in Christ.
Lord Jesus, we are here to take the lead to be headed up in You in the church life. Head us up in Christ day by day in all our daily situations and activities. We don’t want to remain in the heap of collapse. We want to be rescued from the collapse by being headed up in Christ in all things! We hold You as the Head, Lord, and we allow You to head up our being and all things related to us in You, so that You may have the church under Christ as the Head and You may head up all things in Christ through the church!
We are being Headed up in Christ by Growing in Life – it is an Organic Matter
When many believers hear of the matter of being headed up, immediately they think about organisation.
The human equivalent to being headed up is that there’s a CEO, then there are managers, assistant managers, and employees; there’s a “well-oiled machine” in an organisation that makes things work properly, and this is “being headed up” in human terms.
However, in the church life we are being headed up in Christ not by organisation or hierarchy but in the way of life, by our growing in the divine life.
Being headed up in Christ doesn’t mean that we have a good hierarchy in the church with the elders ruling over the saints and the deacons taking care of practical things under the leadership of the elders.
Rather, as Eph. 4:15 says, we are headed up in Christ by holding Him as the Head and by growing up into Him in all things.
If we are headed up in the church without the growth in life then we simply have an organisation.
But the proper heading up is the growth in the divine life.
As we cooperate with the Lord daily to grow in life by eating Him, drinking Him, and breathing Him in, we are being headed up in Him.
The divine life in us heads us up; the more we grow in life, the more we’re being headed up in Christ in all things.
No human effort can help the heading up in the church life; the only thing that avails is the growth in life. How much we need to grow in life, and how much we need to help one another grow in life!
We help others to grow not by giving them more teachings but by ministering the life supply to them.
If we consider our own physical body: it is being headed up not by organisation or adjustment but by its growth in life, by being supplied, and by growing little by little day by day.
God didn’t “organise our body” by giving us a list of things to do so that our body would be organised and properly function.
Rather, He designed our body to be organic and to grow, and as the body grows, all things are being headed up.
It is the will of God that in the church life we would be headed up in Christ, and our being headed up is an organic matter – it is by the growth in life.
We should therefore refuse to have organisation or hierarchy in the church life, rejecting the worldly ways of authoritarianism, hierarchy, and organisation, and taking the way of life!
If we don’t know what it is to be headed up in Christ, we cannot know the church, for in the proper church life we are being headed up in Christ by our growing in life day by day.
Lord Jesus, may we all grow in life day by day so that we may be headed up in Christ in the church life. Amen, Lord, grow in us today. We open to You and we give You more ground in our being. May we realize that our being headed up in Christ in the church life is altogether dependent upon our growth in the divine life. Give us today’s portion of grace so that we may grow in life in a normal way. Dear Lord Jesus, we hold You as our Head, we receive from You the supply and the riches, and we together want to grow up into You in all things so that we may be headed up in Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 8 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Will of God (2020 spring ITERO), week 1, The Mystery of God’s Will in the Universe Ultimately Being to Head Up All Things in Christ through the Church as the Body of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
– 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. / Under Christ, by His full headship, / All in union will subsist; / In the light the Church expresses / All in oneness will exist. (Hymns #981)
– From the Head to the Body flows a rich supply. / Thus as members of Christ we must relate. / Every need in the Body can be met thereby. / Build us up in Your Body, we pray. / Members one of another, the Body will grow, / As we’re knit together in our inward parts. / Open firstly to Christ our Head, then life He will bestow / Through the function in measure of each part. (Song on, From the Head to the Body)
– Truth we must be holding, which is Christ Himself, / That we be delivered from the sects of self, / That in all things growing into Christ the Head, / Built will be the Body and to fulness led. (Hymns #832)
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