Denying the Self and Walking by the Spirit to Coordinate with Others in the Body

This week we have been prayerfully considering the coordination among the four living creatures in Ezek. 1; in a practical way, for us to coordinate with others we need to deny our self, live and act by God’s grace, walk by the Spirit and according to the spirit, and be one with the coordinating Triune God.

The four living creatures afforded God a way to express Himself, move on earth, and administrate the universe by being coordinated and by being fully one with God to the extent that the One on the throne was expressed through the four living creatures on earth.

When the Spirit led them to go one way, they all followed – one of them was walking forward, while the others were walking sideways or backwards, not turning as they went.

They were not just walking but running, and there were burning coals and burning torches among them.

As we learn to coordinate in spirit by denying the self and following the Lord’s leading in His Body, the fire of God burns among us, removes anything impure from within us, and purifies us; the result is that we are burned and burning, and we are enlightened, able to enlighten others also in what the Lord has shown to us.

He burns in us and among us as we coordinate in spirit, and He purges anything that is not of Him, to the extent that we will be full of light and fire, and our move will be like the lightning.

The sanctifying God is sanctifying us and is making us in His likeness – we have the appearance of the sanctifying God!

And at special times, in emergencies or crisis, the Lord will speak like a flash of light, giving us light in a sudden way, causing us and others to be astonished. When we have such a coordination, we will have the impact and the power, and we will run and be fast like lightning, running to and fro in coordination, for God to fulfill His purpose through us.

Denying the Self, Experiencing the Cross, and Living by God’s Grace and Power to Coordinate with Others

In order for us to coordinate with others, we need to deny the self, experience the dealing of the cross, and live and act by God’s grace and His power (as signified by the eagle’s wings in Ezek. 1:9, 11; Isa. 40:31).

If we live in the self and express our flesh, we cannot coordinate with others; we may be in the meeting and the saints may touch their spirit, but if we’re in the self, we are not in the coordination.

We must not act or do anything to express our self, but we must rather do things in the Father’s life and with the Father’s nature to express the Father. When we exercise our spirit, the self is denied, the cross is applied, and we will live by the life of the Father in our spirit.

When we do things not by ourselves but by the divine life in us, we will express Him, and it is in this glory that we are all one (John 17:22-24). In order to coordinate with the saints, we need to take the forgiving Lord as our forgiving life to forgive others and seek to be forgiven, letting the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts (see Col. 3:12-15).

When we received the Lord Jesus, we received a forgiving life; His life is in our spirit, and we can forgive others and seek to be forgiven by living out this forgiving life in our spirit.

We need to let the peace of Christ be the Ruler and the Decider of everything in our hearts, and then we will forgive others and seek to be forgiven by them.

At the same time, as we learn to coordinate with others, we need to deal with the idols in our heart, counting all things as loss on account of Christ, and counting them as refuse that we may gain Christ (Phil. 3:7-8, 12-14).

We may not have idols outwardly, but we may have idols set up in our heart (Ezek. 14:3-5); anything in us that we love more than the Lord Jesus, that is, anything that replaces the Lord in our life. In our coordination with the saints the idols in our heart are exposed, and we deal with them; the Lord will then become so precious and real, that on account of Him we will count all other things as loss, so that we may gain Christ.

The best way for us to coordinate is to abide in God, rely on God, dwell in God, and express God; then, we will coordinate by being in God (see John 15:5, 7; 8:31; Psa. 90:1; 26:1; 31:20; 91:1, 9, 14; Phil. 1:20; 1 Cor. 10:31).

We need to habitually abide in the Lord, take Him as our dwelling place, rely on Him, and we will express Him; the result will be that we will spontaneously coordinate with the saints who also abide in God and are one with God.

Lord Jesus, we want to learn to coordinate with others by denying the self, experiencing the dealing of the cross, and living and acting by God’s grace and His power. Save us from acting or doing things in ourselves to express the self; remind us to turn to You in spirit and live by the Father’s life with the Father’s nature to express the Father! Oh Lord, we want to take the forgiving Lord as our forgiving life to forgive others and to seek to be forgiven, thus allowing the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our heart! Amen! May any idol in our heart be dealt with, and may we consider all things as loss on account of gaining Christ!

Walking by the Spirit and According to the spirit to Coordinate with Others in the Body

The four living creatures were coordinated together, and they followed the Spirit; this shows us that, in order for us to be coordinated with the saints in the Body of Christ, we need to walk by the Spirit and according to the spirit (see Ezek. 1:12; Gal. 5:16, 25; Rom. 8:4).

Hallelujah for our mingled spirit, a universally spacious place! God dwells in our spirit, and our spirit is today’s Jerusalem, the place where we can contact God and worship Him (Eph. 2:22; Num. 16:22; Heb. 12:9).

Our God is Spirit; even more, He is the God of the spirits of all flesh, and He is the Father of spirits. And we as believers in Christ have a spirit which has been regenerated and is now being indwelt by the Spirit of God.

When the Bible speaks of “your spirit” (see Gal. 4:18; Phil. 4:23; 2 Tim. 4:22; 1 Cor. 6:17), it includes the spirits of all the saints. “Your spirit” – refers not just to my mingled spirit but to the mingled spirit of all the saints.

In order for us to be one in the divine and mystical coordination for God’s move, expression, and administration, we must be in our spirit.

The words “our spirit” in Rom. 8:16 (the Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit) include Paul’s spirit, Martin Luther’s spirit, John Wesley’s spirit, Watchman Nee’s spirit, your spirit, and my spirit! Hallelujah!

Let us stay in the mingled spirit, and whenever we find ourselves wandering away from our spirit, let us tell the Lord,

Lord, bring me back to my mingled spirit! Lord, keep me in my mingled spirit! Preserve me in our spirit the whole day today!

We see the mingled spirit in the book of Ephesians; here we are shown that we need to be in the mingled spirit to be in the blending for the reality of the Body of Christ.

As seen in Eph. 1:17; 2:22; 3:5, 16; 4:23; 5:18; and 6:18, we have a spirit of wisdom and revelation, we are built together in spirit as God’s habitation, the mystery of Christ is revealed in spirit, we are strengthened into our inner man (which is our spirit with God’s life in it), we are renewed in the spirit of our mind, we are filled in spirit, and we need to pray at every time in spirit.

We need to pray over these verses and the Lord will make them our reality! When we live in spirit and walk according to the spirit, we become the reality of the Body of Christ, which is the meal offering church life – fine flour mingled with oil, a life of humanity mingled with the Holy Spirit (see Lev. 2:4).

Lord Jesus, thank You for our mingled spirit, our human spirit mingled with the divine Spirit, a universally vast and spacious spirit! Praise the Lord, we have a spirit, and our spirit is mingled with God as Spirit to be one spirit! Lord, we want to be in the mingled spirit to be in the blending for the reality of the Body of Christ. We want to learn to follow the leading of the Spirit both personally and in the Body in our coordination by walking by the Spirit and according to the mingled spirit!

Being One with the Coordinating Triune God in order to Coordinate with Others

Our God is Triune: He is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the Three-in-One. He is One yet Three, and He is the coordinating Triune God. In the Triune God there’s such a beautiful coordination, that they are One yet three, and whatever they do is in this coordination!

We see a beautiful example of the coordination of the Triune God in Matt. 12:28, where the Lord Jesus said that He casts out demons by the Holy Spirit so that the kingdom of God (the Father) would come in.

The Lord Jesus as the Head of the Body set up a good pattern for our coordination as members of His Body. He didn’t just cast out demons; He cast out demons by another One (the Spirit) for another One (for the Father’s kingdom to come in).

Even though the Lord Himself is the center of the Divine Trinity, He didn’t just do things in and by Himself; He did things by the Spirit and for the Father’s kingdom to come in.

The Son as the center of the Divine Trinity was altogether not by Himself, for Himself, or to Himself; whatever He did was by the Spirit of God and for the kingdom of God the Father. This wonderful coordination shows us the beauty, harmony, and excellency in the Divine Trinity.

Today in the church life, the Body of Christ has not been built up in an adequate way because of the shortage of the proper coordination. Because believers do things in themselves, for themselves, and for their ministry, the Body is not built up, and the Lord cannot return.

We may do something according to the will of God, but is it by ourselves and for ourselves? We need to do things according to God’s will – but it should be not by ourselves but by some others, and not for ourselves but for the interest, the right, of God on earth.

How can we, self-centered people, do anything for God’s kingdom and by means of others in the Body? It is only by moving out of ourselves and into the coinhering and coordinating Triune God that we can do anything to coordinate with others, as the Triune God is in a sweet coordination (see 2 Thes. 3:5; Jude 1:19-21; John 17:17).

Every day we need to make a move out of ourselves and into the Triune God; our self is composed of worldliness, ambition, self-exaltation, opinions, and concepts.

How can we move out of ourselves? It is by the Lord’s sanctifying truth; His word is the truth. The practical way for us to move out of ourselves and into the coordinating Triune God is by means of His word.

We need to pray over His word until His word becomes living, the rhema word, and we will move out of our rotten self into the coinhering and coordinating Triune God. May the Lord grant us the experiences we need for us to be in the enlarged sweet coordination of the Triune God – in His Body on earth!

Lord Jesus, grant us that every day we would move out of ourselves and into the coinhering and coordinating Triune God. Save us from remaining in our rotten self and thus delaying the building up of Your Body. Sanctify us in Your truth by immersing us in Your life-giving rhema word. Lord Jesus, speak to us words which are spirit and life so that we may no longer do things in ourselves and for ourselves but be in coordination with the saints and doing everything for the interest and right of God on this earth!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Living in and with the Divine Trinity, ch. 5 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (1), msg. 4 (week 4), The Coordination of the Four Living Creatures.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Lord, teach us to discern the spirit, / The soul-life ever to deny, / And ever follow Thee in spirit, / Thyself, the Spirit, to apply. (Hymns #746)
  # Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, / Holy and beloved, / Inward parts of compassion, / Kindness, lowliness, / Meekness, long-suffering; / Bearing one another and forgiving one another, / If anyone should have a complaint against anyone; / Even as the Lord forgave you, / So also should you forgive. (Scripture song)
  # Savior, lead me, this I pray, / In the Spirit all the day; / Walking in the light of life, / I would cease from all my strife. (Hymns #390)