The book of Acts is still being written today, for our God is always advancing and the Holy Spirit is working to propagate Christ for God to gain shining golden lampstands, the church as the Body of Christ.
All throughout the Bible we see that there’s a divine history going on within the human history. It is easy to see the human history with its wars, kings, empires, and troubles, but it is not so easy to see the divine history, the history of God in man.
With the coming of the Lord Jesus, the history of God has been mingled with the history of man, for now there’s a God-man, a man who is God and God who is man, and their history are going on at the same time.
After passing through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, Christ became a life-giving Spirit to regenerate many believers for His Body, His corporate expression.
Now there’s an entity on earth called the church, and the church is the Body of Christ, the shining testimony of God on earth. In the church life we experience the divine history within the human history, and we pay more attention to what the Lord is doing inside of us and among us than to outward events and things.
Today we are in the continuation of the book of Acts, for we are learning and practicing to cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit to spread Christ and propagate Him to enlarge Him on earth.
We are here for God to gain many golden shining lampstands, His testimony on earth, for Him to be satisfied as He is expressed and represented in the church.
God the Father is working, Christ the Son is also working, and the work of God has not stopped after the book of Acts. Rather, many vessels have been used by God during the ages to further the work of God.
And today the work of God still continues, for the gospel of the kingdom is being preached, many are being saved, the churches are the Lord’s shining testimony on earth, and the Body of Christ is being built up.
And our aspiration is that we would be the overcomers today who do the work of God on behalf of the church for all the church to gain the benefit.
The overcomers are not special or extraordinary people, they are those who have seen God’s need and His goal, they join themselves to God for His desire to do His work, and the entire Body of Christ gains the benefit. Praise the Lord!
May we daily live in the divine history within the human history by cooperating with the work of God to propagate and spread Christ for God to gain many golden shining lampstands on earth, the testimony of Jesus!
The Continual Work of the Holy Spirit is to Propagate Christ for the Gaining of a Shining Testimony
The book of Acts has an open end – this book didn’t actually end, but it was left open for more to be added.
We don’t know what the reason for this is, but what may be is that the work of the Holy Spirit in preaching Christ for His propagation, multiplication, and spread through the believers in Christ was not yet completed, and it needs to be continued for a long period of time.
From the days of the early disciples until now the gospel has been preached for Christ to be propagated and increased, and there are many shining golden lampstands for Christ’s testimony on the earth.
The evangelistic work for Christ’s propagation multiplication, and spread is according to God’s New Testament economy for the producing of many sons of God (Rom. 8:29) that they may be the members of Christ to constitute His body (Rom. 12:5) for the carrying out of God’s eternal plan and the fulfillment of His eternal will.
The goal of our gospel preaching in cooperation with the work of the Holy Spirit is to spread and propagate Christ for the increase of the kingdom of God, which is the church as the Body of Christ.
All this is for the fulfillment of God’s economy and eternal intention, for Him to have a shining testimony on earth. This is revealed in detail in the twenty-one Epistles and the book of Revelation.
The church produced by Christ’s propagation and multiplication is the kingdom in which God is expressed and in which He reigns in Christ.
The church is the reality of the kingdom of God on earth today.
Where God is and where Christ is spread and propagated, there the kingdom of God is, and there is the church as the shining testimony of Christ.
The kingdom of God is the expansion of Christ, and the gospel that we preach is the gospel of the kingdom for the bringing in of the kingdom of God, the church.
The gospel we preach is also the gospel of Christ, which is the kingdom of God as the gospel (Acts 5:42; 8:12), for God to gain what He’s after on earth, the church as the kingdom of God and the Body of Christ.
As we see in the first chapter of the book of Revelation, there are many golden shining lampstands on earth, and Christ as the Son of Man is walking among them, speaking to them, trimming the wicks, and adding the oil, for their shining to increase in this dark age.
What God desires to gain is the church as the shining testimony of Christ to express Him and represent Him as the Body of Christ and the kingdom of God. God desires to gain this corporate vessel, the church, a vessel of testimony, for Him to be expressed.
This is why today we are still in the continuation of the book of Acts, for God to gain His many shining golden lampstands that express Him and shine Him forth in these dark days.
Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit in preaching Christ for the propagation, multiplication, and spread of Christ on earth through the believers. Amen Lord, may You be increased, multiplied, propagated, and spread through us, Your many members. May there be many sons of God produced and built up as members of the Body of Christ for God to gain a shining testimony in humanity. Lord, strengthen all the local churches and increase them in life and number for the obtaining or many golden shining lampstands, Your testimony on the earth! Amen, Lord, we are here for this, for Your desire to gain Your shining testimony on earth!
The Testimony of the Overcomers is for God’s Shining Testimony, the Church
Since God is after a corporate, shining vessel – the church as a vessel of testimony – we as God’s children must be brought to the awareness of the Body of Christ and we must learn to live the Body life (see Rom. 12:1-5; 1 Cor. 12:12; Rev. 1:10-12).
If we don’t live the Body life in the church today, having an awareness of the Body of Christ, we will be useless in God’s hand and we can never fulfill His goal.
Throughout church history God had many vessels such as Martin Luther, Count Zinzendorf, J. N. Darby, etc, through whom He could work; today, however, God wants to gain a shining testimony – the church as a corporate shining vessel, a vessel of testimony.
For this, we must learn to live the Body life; we are many members but in Christ we’re one Body, and individually we’re members one of another.
And our testimony is that there’s only one Body in this universe, and there’s one church in each locality; one church in one city and one city with one church. God has a unique expression of His Body in one city, and He has many shining golden lampstands all around the world.
During the age of the degradation of the church God desires to gain His overcomers; these are not special or extraordinary people who can work much and do many things for God, but rather they are normal believers who fulfill God’s plan.
Even the testimony of the overcomers is maintained on behalf of the whole church; they do the work, and the whole church receives the benefit (see Rev. 12:5-9; 2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:3, 5, 12, 20-21).
The church exists for God’s testimony; the church is a golden lampstand, organic, full of God’s light and shining for God in this age. God’s work is always advancing; He is seeking to gain His shining testimony, the church, and we need to realize this and give ourselves for this.
The overcomers are not men who consider themselves extraordinary or better than others; they don’t put others aside so that they may over-function out of their zeal for God.
Rather, the overcomers work on behalf of the whole church, for they see God’s need, His economy, and His plan, and the work of the overcomers is for the benefit of the whole church as the shining testimony of God.
The overcomers stand on the ground of the church, and they are there to bring the whole church to perfection. The overcomers stand on the ground of the church and maintain their stand on behalf of the church, and even their victories are not for themselves but for the church – they are corporate victories.
May we be the overcomers of today who answer God’s call and carry out God’s work in oneness with Him for God to gain His shining testimony on earth, the church as the Body of Christ.
Lord Jesus, make us Your overcomers. Make us part of Your overcoming bride. We want to be those who cooperate with You to do the work of God in oneness with God so that all of God’s children may receive the benefit. Lord, show us Your economy, Your heart’s desire, and Your need. We are here for You, Lord, for what You want to gain. May You gain a shining testimony on earth in the church. May You gain Your corporate expression in the church as the kingdom of God. Amen, Lord Jesus, we stand on the ground of the church and we pray that all the saints would be perfected and be made part of Your shining testimony on earth!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 37, pp. 123-124, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Propagating the Resurrected, Ascended, and All-inclusive Christ as the Development of the Kingdom of God (2018 fall ITERO), week 2, The Continuation of the Book of Acts — Living in the Divine History within Human History.
- Hymns on this topic:
# See the local churches, / ’Midst the earth’s dark night; / Jesus’ testimony, / Bearing Him as light. / Formed by Him, unmeasured, / In the Spirit’s mold— / All are one in nature, / One pure work of gold. / See the local churches, / ’Midst the earth’s dark night; / Burning in the Spirit, / Shining forth with Christ. (Hymns #1259)
# Lord Jesus, take me, break me; I’d hold nothing back from Thee; / Fill me till it is no more I that live; / That by Your resurrection life, we would Your testimony be. / We would be the church You long for, testimony of Jesus on the earth. (Song on, The Local Churches as the Testimony of Jesus)
# The churches are the Body / Of Christ on earth today. / They are His testimony, / That He may have a way. / They are the golden lampstands / In cities far and wide. / They are His fighting army, / And His beloved Bride. / The churches, the churches, / Upon the earth today; / Lord, stir our hearts for Thy desire, / And build us, oh, build us, / Lord, we pray. (Hymns #1265)
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