Deny the Self for the Oneness in the Divine Glory for the Corporate Expression of God

Regarding the matter of glory and glorification, the Lord Jesus prayed that the Father would glorify Him, and He also prayed that we would enter into the highest stage of oneness – the oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of the Triune God by the self-being denied for Christ to be expressed in a corporate way in us. Amen!

The Gospel of John shows us the glory and glorification of the Lord Jesus. When He came on the earth, the Lord Jesus was the Word incarnated in the flesh, and God tabernacled among us in the flesh in the person of Christ.

He expressed God, and those around Him beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father (John 1:14).

The glory of God was concealed within the shell of His flesh, and He desires to have it released.

We may never be able to understand this, but the almighty God who created all things and who holds all things by the word of His power was willing to be finite, limited, and confined in a man, in the flesh of the man Jesus.

At one point during His work on earth, He “unzipped Himself” and gave a glimpse of His glory to three of His disciples on the mountain of transfiguration.

He yearned to release the fire of His divine life, the glory of His life, so that many would receive it and become part of His increase and duplication.

In John 12:23 the Lord Jesus said that it’s time for the Son of Man to be glorified; then in v. 24 He said that unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Wow!

The way the Lord took to be glorified was not the human, natural, outward way, by gaining many followers and then marching to Jerusalem to take over the kingdom of Israel.

Rather, the Lord took the way of death and resurrection so that, in His resurrection, He may be glorified by God the Father.

First of all, in His human life, He did not seek His own glory but the glory of God.

He denied Himself to the uttermost, He humbled Himself to the uttermost, and He wanted only the glory that God gives Him.

He even ran away and stayed away from the crowds that wanted to make Him king.

He only wanted God to gain the glory, and He denied Himself and did the Father’s work, spoke the Father’s word, and did the Father’s will in all things.

Then, in His resurrection He was glorified, for the divine life was released from within Him and He was transfigured to be the life-giving Spirit, and He was begotten to be God’s Firstborn Son. Praise the Lord!

Christ gave us His Life (the Father’s Name), His Word, and His Glory that we may be One in the Triune God

In John 17 we see the Lord’s prayer for His glorification. He prayed not just that we may be one but even more, for Him to be glorified. He is glorified when we are one, and we are one because of three things that He gives us.

First, the Lord gives us His Father’s name, that is, His Father’s life, that we may be one (John 17:6, 11-12).

God is not just our Creator and God but even more, our Father; this means that we are sons of God, having His life and nature.

God is our Father and the source of life, and He has propagated His life into us; we are the many sons born of the Father, and we have the authority to be called children of God (John 1:12-13).

We need to be kept in the Father’s name by being kept by His life.

We believers in Christ share in the Father’s name by being kept in it, and we are one in it.

We believers in Christ, born of the Father’s life, enjoy the Father’s name as the factor of our oneness.

We are one in His life; this is the first ground of our oneness.

The second ground of our oneness is the Father’s word (17:14, 17). The Fahter’s word is both constant (v. 6) and instant (v. 8), both logos and rhema.

When the Lord speaks to us His word, His word carries the reality of God with it. We are kept in the Father’s word, the sanctifying word of the Father; in His word, we are one (v. 21).

Our oneness in the Triune God is through sanctification for us to be separated unto the Lord and enjoy the Triune God with His sanctifying word as the factor of our oneness.

The third factor of our oneness is the glory of God; in John 17:22-23 the Lord Jesus said that He gave us His glory that we may be one even as the Triune God is one.

In this aspect of our oneness in the Triune God, our self is fully denied and we enjoy the glory of the Father as the factor of our perfected oneness so that we may express God in a corporate way.

This is the highest aspect of our oneness in the Triune God.

The Lord gave us the Father’s name (the Father’s life), the sanctifying word, and the glory of God that we may be one.

The oneness in the divine glory fulfils the Lord’s prayer that He would be fully expressed, that is, glorified; He is expressed in the building up of the believers in the Father’s glory, and the Father is fully expressed in the Son’s glorification! Hallelujah!

Our ultimate oneness as believers in Christ is in the eternal life of God (in the Father’s name), by the holy word of God, and in the divine glory to express the Triune God for eternity.

We need to be perfected into one by not only living by the Father’s life and being in the Lord’s fresh, instant, sanctifying word but even more, by denying the self so that we may express Christ corporately.

The third factor of our oneness, the oneness in the divine glory, is the highest aspect of our oneness; when we are one in the divine glory, we are not only separated from the world but even more, we deny ourselves and live by Christ as our life who is the hope of glory within us (Col. 1:27).

May we daily come to the Lord by exercising our spirit to call on His name so that we may be filled with His life.

May we daily come to the Lord’s word so that we may be sanctified in His word, separated from the world and constituted with the divine element of God.

And may we daily deny the self and live Christ so that He may be expressed through us for the oneness in the divine glory.

Lord Jesus, thank You for giving us the Father’s life, the Father’s word, and Your divine glory for us to be one! Amen, Lord, we are one by being born of God the Father to be the many children of God. Hallelujah, we have oneness in the divine life, for in the divine life we all are one! Amen, Lord, we come to Your sanctifying word day by day to be separated from the world and saturated with Your holy element. Sanctify us in Your word a little more today so that we may be one in the holy word of God. Bring us on with You, Lord Jesus, to reach the highest and deepest level of oneness, the oneness in the divine glory for us to express the Triune God corporately. Save us from expressing ourselves. We want to deny ourselves and live Christ for Him to be expressed through us. Oh Lord Jesus, may the self be fully denied so that we may enjoy the glory of the Father as the factor of our perfected oneness and thus express God in a corporate, built-up way!

Deny the Self to Enter into the Oneness in the Divine Glory for the Corporate Expression of the Triune God

The subject of the Lord’s prayer in John 17 was that the Father would glorify Christ so that the Father may be glorified in the glorification of Christ.

Before this prayer, the Lord Jesus predicted that He would be glorified and that the Father would be glorified in Him (12:23; 13:31-32).

Christ would resurrect so that He might uplift His humanity into the divine element and that His divine element might be expressed, with the result that His entire being – His divinity and His humanity – would be glorified; thus the Father would be glorified in the Son.

In John 17:22 the Lord Jesus prayed that we would enter into the highest stage of oneness – the oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of the Triune God.

He said, The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.

Have we arrived at this stage of oneness? We may be one in the Lord’s life and in His word, but did we arrive at the stage in which we are one in the divine glory for the corporate expression of God?

We all have to admit that we are still being perfected to enter into this oneness; this oneness is developing in us in the church life today.

God the Father gave God the Son the glory, and in this glory, They are one.

To enter into the oneness of the divine glory for the corporate expression of God is the believers’ deepest oneness.

The time will come when the Lord will put it in the heart of the saints praying in the vital groups that they may pray for this highest degree of oneness to be worked out in the church life today.

We do have the oneness in the Lord’s life and in His word, but we need to deal with everything that prevents us from having the deepest oneness, the oneness in the divine glory.

If we look at our expression in our daily life and even in the church life we realize that we still express ourselves and not the Lord.

Sometimes we’re in the meetings of the church and a particular saint speaks for the Lord, and all the words are correct and good, but this saint expresses himself or herself, not the Lord.

We may think we do this or that on behalf of the Lord, but we still express ourselves; it is self-expression and not the expression of Christ.

We need to ask the Lord to show us this deepest oneness in the divine glory.

The more the divine glory saturates us, the more we can be a corporate expression of God.

In this aspect of oneness the believers in Christ have their self fully denied and they enjoy the glory of the Father as the factor of their perfected oneness to express God in a corporate, built-up way.

How sad it is for someone to be in the church life for many years but not have his self denied but rather, for him to express himself even more after all these years (Matt. 16:24-25)!

We all need to go through the third stage of the experience of life so that we may have the inward experience of Christ and the cross applied to the self, the flesh, and the natural constitution until we no longer express ourselves but the Lord.

When the self is fully denied by the application of the cross, we will know the Body and we will live in the reality of the Body.

We need to not only know how to deal with our sins, with the past, with our conscience, with the world, and with degradation; we need to learn to deal with the self and its expression so that the Lord may be expressed through us.

May we come to the Lord in an honest way and ask Him to shine on us and show us where we are so that we may go on with Him.

We need to ask Him to take us on to maturity so that we may be not only the consecrated ones but even more, reach the goal and be rapture-ready.

May the Lord save us from being in the church life yet being in degradation by not being one in the divine glory.

If we still argue with our spouse and then apologise, this is not good enough; this shows that we still live in the self and by the natural man.

We all have our opinions, thoughts, and ideas; how can we be one if we live in the self, even in the good self?

We all need to learn to live not by our own life but by the life of glory, the divine life. In the glory of the divine life, we will be one (Mark 8:34).

When the self is crucified on the cross and we live by the life of the divine glory, we will be perfected into one.

We will no longer be able to quarrel or debate but rather, we will have the oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of the Triune God (Gal. 2:20).

May the Lord bring us to this highest point, the highest level of oneness, having been perfected into one by the divine glory given to the believers to express the Triune God in a corporate way.

When the Lord gain such a oneness among us, He is satisfied, and the world will know that the Father has sent the Son and that the Father loves us even as He has loved the Son (John 17:23).

May we open to the Lord in prayer concerning the matter of the oneness in the divine glory and ask Him,

Lord Jesus, please show us what is the deepest oneness. Bring us into the deepest oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of the Triune God in the church life today. We open to You. We exercise our spirit to deny the self so that we may no longer express ourselves. Amen, Lord, may we daily learn to deny the self so that we can experience the divine life to such a degree that we are perfected into one. Please shine in us, Lord! Let us know where we are. Let us know what we need. Oh Lord, at any cost, we want to be one with You and with one another to the fullest extent! Perfect us into one by the divine glory given to us to express the Triune God in a corporate way! Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to deal with the self, the natural man, and the natural constitution by the cross in the Spirit. May we realize in full that we have been crucified on the cross and may we live by the life of the divine glory so that we all may be perfected into one! Amen, Lord, gain what You are after in us! Gain the oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of the Triune God! Gain Your corporate expression among us today!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of John, pp. 467-471, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2024 July Semi-annual Training), week 10, Glory and Glorification as Revealed in the Gospel of John.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Oneness in the divine glory, a portion from, The Genuine Ground of Oneness, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee.
  – Three Aspects of Oneness in John 17 (1): Oneness In the Father’s Name By the Eternal Life, via, Living to Him.
  – Oneness in the Triune God, a portion from, The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, Chapter 54, by Witness Lee.
  – Clarifying the Ground Of Oneness, via, Shepherding Words.
  – One in the Triune God, a portion via, The Church in New York City.
  – Being Sanctified by the Truth to Move Out of Ourselves for the Oneness, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Life’s prayer for oneness, Nuggets and Gems from the Bible, a PDF file.
  – The Goal of Oneness, Now & New Jerusalem, is to Express the One Unique God, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – A type of the genuine oneness, a portion from, The Genuine Ground of Oneness, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee.
  – Vital factors for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose, article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – The Triune God: A Testimony of Our Belief and Experience, via, Contending for the faith.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Father God, Thou art the source of life. / We, Thy sons, are Thine expression; / In Thy name, our dear possession. / Father God, Thou art the source of life. / How we thank Thee that Thy holy Word / With Thy nature, saturates us; / From the world it separates us. / Thank Thee, Father, for Thy holy Word. / Oh, the glory of the Triune God! / We’re His sons, oh, what a blessing! / We His glory are expressing— / Oh, the glory of the Triune God! (Hymns #1081 stanzas 1-3)
  – That cross of Thine is also mine, / Into my life its light doth shine; / When I believe I’m dead with Thee, / The world has lost its pow’r o’er me. / Since I am crucified with Thee, / From sin and self I am set free; / How can I still enjoy the world / Or seek its vanities unfurled? / I take my place, dear Lord, with Thee / Upon the cross of Calvary. / Thy life and power then are mine, / Since Thou and I in oneness twine. (Hymns #488 stanzas 2-4)
  – Christ, only Christ, ere long will fill my vision, / Glory excelling soon, full soon I’ll see; / Christ, only Christ, my every wish fulfilling, / Christ, only Christ, my all in all to be. / Oh, to be saved from myself, dear Lord, / Oh, to be lost in Thee, / Oh, that it may be no more I, / But Christ that lives in me. (Hymns #591 stanza 5 and chorus)