Enjoy Christ in His Full Ministry in 3 Stages: Incarnation, Inclusion, and Intensification

The unique teaching of God’s New Testament economy is the teaching concerning the full ministry of Christ in three stages: incarnation, inclusion, and intensification; we need to know, experience, and gain Christ in His full ministry in our experience today. Amen!

This week we come to the topic of, The Full Ministry of Christ in Three Stages.

This is part of the high peak of the divine revelation, and it is revealed in the Word of God in detail.

The Lord Jesus came as God becoming man, and He went through some processes in order to accomplish God’s eternal economy.

First, He became a man through incarnation; the Word which was with God in the beginning became flesh, and He tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality. Hallelujah!

His incarnation was wonderful, for He did not only become a man and live a perfect human life on earth, but He also united, mingled, and incorporated God with man, and He brought the infinite God into the finite man.

The more we look at the matter of Christ’s incarnation, the more we are amazed, for somehow the infinite God who created all things and who cannot be contained by the ever-expanding universe, this One became a man to be finite and live a human life on earth. Hallelujah!

Then, He went through the process of death and resurrection, and in resurrection, He became a life-giving Spirit. Amazing!

As the life-giving Spirit, the Lord contains and includes all that He has achieved, obtained, and gone through; everything is included in the Spirit.

This is why we call the second stage, inclusion, for everything that God is, everything He went through with His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, were included in the Spirit.

This Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the all-inclusive, life-giving, bountifully supplying Spirit with our spirit. Wow, Hallelujah!

However, this is not all; as seen in Revelation, the Spirit became sevenfold intensified to counteract the degradation of the church, to produce the overcomers, and to consummate the New Jerusalem. Wow!

Due to the degradation of the church, which became worse and worse, the Spirit became the seven Spirits of God going to and fro all over the earth to accomplish God’s economy and carry out His administration with the purpose of producing the overcomers who will end this age and consummate the New Jerusalem as the ultimate goal of God’s eternal economy. Hallelujah!

May we come to the Lord and ask Him to guide us, as the Spirit of reality, into the reality of what He is, what He has done, and what He is doing in His full ministry in three stages, and may we know, experience, and again Christ in His full ministry in three stages in our experience today.

Know, Enjoy, and Experience Christ in His Full Ministry in Three Stages: Incarnation, Inclusion, and Intensification

What is the central revelation of God in the Bible?

The central revelation of God is God becoming flesh, the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit becoming intensified sevenfold to build up the church to issue in the Body of Christ and to consummate the New Jerusalem. Wow!

This is a crystallized view of the entire revelation of the New Testament economy of God.

The unique teaching of God’s New Testament economy is the teaching concerning the full ministry of Christ in three stages – incarnation, inclusion, and intensification (1 Tim. 1:3-4).

The first stage is the stage of incarnation, which is mainly seen in the Gospels; then, the second stage of inclusion is seen in the Epistles.

Finally, the stage of intensification is unveiled in the book of Revelation. We need to see this unique teaching of God’s New Testament economy and focus only on this; we cannot focus or over-emphasize any other teaching in the New Testament besides this.

What the Lord’s recovery will be and how it will be depends upon how we handle this teaching; if we pay attention to it and focus on it, making sure everything we do and say is according to God’s New Testament economy, the Lord’s recovery will remain pure. Amen!

What is the Lord’s recovery?

One definition of the Lord’s recovery is that the Lord’s recovery is God becoming flesh, the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit becoming the sevenfold intensified Spirit to build up the church that becomes the Body of Christ and that consummates the New Jerusalem (see Witness Lee, The Divine and Mystical Realm, pp. 17-18).

The Lord’s recovery is to recover the truth, practice and building up of the church as the Body of Christ, but in its essence, the Lord’s recovery is the unique teaching of God’s New Testament economy.

We need to see and realize that the Triune God became flesh through incarnation, and as the flesh, He became the life-giving Spirit in resurrection (John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45).

Then, the life-giving Spirit has been intensified sevenfold to build up the church which becomes the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem as the final goal of God’s economy. Hallelujah!

On one hand, we need to know this and commit this to our memory to such an extent that this is the unique thing that we focus on in our Christian life and church life.

On the other hand, we need to enjoy and experience the all-inclusive Christ in His full ministry in three stages – incarnation, inclusion, and intensification.

We need to not only understand and agree with this as a teaching; we need to ask the Spirit of reality – who is here to guide us into all the reality of what God in Christ is (John 15:16) – to lead us and guide us experientially into the reality of what Christ is to us in His full ministry of three stages.

If we tell the Lord to do this, He will lead us into the experiences that we need for us to enjoy and gain Christ in His full ministry in three stages.

In order for us to work together with God as His co-workers (2 Cor. 6:1; 1 Cor. 3:9), we need to know, experience, and enjoy Christ in His full ministry in His three divine and mystical stages (Phil. 3:8-14).

We are those who work together with God as His co-workers; as believers in Christ, we are part of a universally great enterprise, the business of dispensing God into man for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem.

For us to participate in this and work together with Christ, we need to know Christ, experience Christ, and enjoy Christ in His full ministry in His three divine and mystical stages.

We need to not only know Christ in His full ministry in His three stages but even more, gain Him and experience Him.

Paul did this by forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which were before so that he may gain Christ and lay hold of that which has laid hold of him.

We need to forget all things which are behind and stretch forward toward the goal, the fullest enjoyment of Christ.

We want to gain the prize, which is the uttermost enjoyment of Christ in the millennial kingdom; for this, today we want to know Christ, enjoy Christ, experience Christ, and gain Christ.

This One is in us as an all-fitting life for us to live the Christian life and work together with God.

May we be those who know Christ and experience and enjoy Christ, that is, gain Christ, in His full ministry.

May we pursue Him to gain Him, forgetting what is behind and stretching forward to the things which are before.

Lord Jesus, we want to know, enjoy, and experience Christ in His full ministry in three stages – incarnation, inclusion, and intensification. We open to You, dear Lord, that we may know You in Your full ministry. May we gain the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus in all that He is, has done, and is doing. Amen, Lord, we forget what is behind and stretch forward to what is before so that we may gain Christ! We want not only to know Christ but even more, experience Christ and gain Christ in His full ministry! Oh Lord, lead us and guide us as the Spirit of reality into the reality of what You are, what You have done, and what You are doing today. We want to gain Christ by experiencing and enjoying Him in His full ministry! Hallelujah, we have Christ in us as our life, and we can enjoy this all-inclusive One in His full ministry in His three divine and mystical stages!

Know and Gain Christ in His Incarnation: He brought the Infinite God into the Finite Man and United, Mingled, and Incorporated the Triune God with the Tripartite Man

We need to know, experience, and enjoy Christ in His full ministry in three stages; the first stage is incarnation.

In the first stage of Christ’s full ministry, the stage of His incarnation from His human birth to His death, Christ accomplished many wonderful matters.

The stage of incarnation began with His human birth and ended with His death, and it includes the entire course of His human life.

His human birth, His human living, and His death form the stage of His incarnation. We all know that, through incarnation, God was brought into man; this is a simple and basic way of speaking about it.

In the highest way of describing incarnation, Christ brought the infinite God into the finite man, making the infinite God and the finite man one in every possible way. Wow!

God is infinite but man is finite: how can these become one?

How can the infinite God who the ever-expanding, infinitely wide universe cannot contain, become one with man and “fit” in a finite man?

This is one of the things that Christ did through incarnation. He brought the infinite God into the finite man.

Although Christ came forth from Bethlehem, His goings forth were from ancient times, from the days of eternity (Micah 5:2).

This refers to Christ’s eternal origin and indicates that the Triune God was preparing to come forth out of eternity into time, to come with His divinity into humanity by being born in Bethlehem as a man.

Furthermore, in His full ministry in the stage of incarnation, Christ united and mingled the Triune God with the tripartite man (Luke 1:35; 2:40, 52; John 14:10-11; 1:14).

He didn’t just join and mingle God with man; even more, he united and mingled the Triune God with the tripartite man. God is Triune – the Father is the source, the Son is the expression, and the Spirit is the entering in.

He is complicated and complicating, and it is impossible for our human limited mind to understand or comprehend Him.

The tripartite man is also composed of three parts – the spirit is the innermost part, the soul is in the middle, and the body is on the outside.

Through incarnation, Christ united and mingled the Triune God (the Father, the Son, and the Spirit) with the tripartite man (made of spirit, soul, and body).

Even before His birth, the angel told Mary, His mother, that the Holy Spirit will come upon her, and the power of the Most High will overshadow her, and the holy thing which is born of her will be called the Son of God.

As He grew, He was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.

He advanced in wisdom and stature and in the grace manifested in Him before men.

When He spoke, He was in God and God was in Him, and His words were not His own but the Father’s, for He united and mingled the infinite God with the finite man.

When you saw Jesus, You saw the Father, for He was in the Father and the Father was in Him.

If you didn’t believe this, you would have believed because of the works that He did. Hallelujah!

He was the Word in eternity with God and, as the Word of God, He became a man, even flesh, and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality.

This is mysterious yet so wonderful. It is beyond human comprehension yet we can experience it and enjoy it today.

We need to know, enjoy, and experience Christ in His full ministry in three stages, in particular in the stage of His incarnation.

May we remain in the mingling of God and man, being mingled with God and allowing God to mingle Himself with us today.

May our appreciation for Christ increase and grow, and may our experience and enjoyment of Christ increase in our daily life.

Lord Jesus, we want to know, experience, and enjoy Christ in the stage of His incarnation. Praise the Lord, Christ’s goings forth are from ancient times, for the Triune God was preparing to come forth out of eternity into time! Hallelujah, Christ brought the infinite God into the finite man! Wow, the infinite God was made one with the finite man, and in Christ, the Triune God was united, mingled, and incorporated with the tripartite man. We open to You, dear Lord Jesus, to enjoy You and experience You as the One who united, mingled, and incorporated the Triune God with the tripartite man. Thank You for bringing God into us and for bringing us into God. We open to the mingling today. Mingle Yourself more with us today. Make us fully one with You. May we speak and do all things in Christ, being in Christ, and having our entire being in Christ. Amen, Hallelujah for Christ’s incarnation!

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 Ed Marks in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “How to Be a Coworker and an Elder and How to Fulfill Their Obligations,” chs. 1-3, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, An Overview of the Central Burden and Present Truth of the Lord’s Recovery Before His Appearing (2023 July Semiannual Training), week 9, entitled, The Full Ministry of Christ in Three Stages.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Monographs: The Ministry of Christ in the stage of Intensification, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Ten great things accomplished by Christ in His full ministry in three stages, a portion from, How to Be a Co-worker and an Elder and How to Fulfill Their Obligations, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
  – Incarnation, Inclusion and Intensification (3) – outline via, The Church in Regina.
  – A new hymn on the topic of, The Full Ministry of Christ.
  – Being Intensified in Order to Become the Overcomers who Meet God’s Need in this Age, outline via, Lord’s Move in Canada.
  – The Glory of God (3): Inclusion, article via, Living to Him.
  – The Full Ministry of Christ in Three Stages, Week of November 19, via, Church in Los Angeles.
  – High Peak of the Divine Revelation, outline via, The Church in Hong Kong.
  – The Recovery of the Eternal Economy of God, outline via, New Zealand Training Center.
  – The Factor of Living an Overcoming Life in the Recovered Church to Consummate the Divine Economy and Become the New Jerusalem, a portion via, The Church in New York City.
  – The Vision of the Age, the Ministry of the Age, and the Minister of the Age, article via, A Faithful Word.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – God’s intention in this universe is with humanity, / So the Lord became the Spirit just with man to mingled be. / We rejoice that we can all partake of His economy. / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199 stanza 1)
  – The full ministry of Christ / Is carried out in three stages / For the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy. / In the first stage of incarnation: / To bring God into man, / To express God in humanity, / And to accomplish His judicial redemption. (Song on, The Full Ministry of Christ, stanza 1)
  – Now the Spirit of our God / Has become intensified: / ’Tis not one but sevenfold / That the church may be supplied! (Hymns #1122 stanza 3)