The intrinsic essence of the church as the Body of Christ is the true vine, for all believers are grafted in Christ and enjoy the flow of life, partaking of the processed and dispensing Triune God and thus being one in Him! Hallelujah!
We need to turn our view from anything outward related to the church to the intrinsic essence of the church, for it is the essence of the church and its organic existence that make us one.
What is the essence of the church? What produces the church, and what builds up the church? According to the New Testament, the essence of the church is Christ Himself.
He came as the grain of wheat (John 12:24) and within Him, there was the divine life, which was concealed within the shell of His humanity.
He desired so much to release this divine life into others, and this very thing He did through His death.
Through His death, the shell of His humanity was broken, and the divine life was released.
Furthermore, through His resurrection, His released divine life was imparted into everyone who believes into Christ.
We all were regenerated at different times, each one on his own, but in God’s eyes, all believers in Christ were regenerated in the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:3).
When Christ released and imparted His divine life, the believers in Christ were produced to be the many members of the Body of Christ, the many sons of God; these compose the church to be the organism of the Triune God.
So the essence of the church is nothing but Christ, the One who continually dispenses His divine life into us.
He became the intrinsic essence of the church through the impartation of His divine life so that God may have many sons as the many brothers of Christ.
If we see this, if we realize that all believers in Christ have the divine life of God in them and that they are our brothers and sisters in the Lord, we will forget about everything else and just be one with them for God’s corporate expression.
What we are as the church is simply the increase of Christ, as Eve was the increase of Adam; in His death, His life was released, in His resurrection, His life was imparted, and we are produced and generated to be the many members of Christ, the sons of God. How glorious!
May we see one another as such ones, realizing that the intrinsic essence of the church is not this practice or that doctrine but simply Christ Himself as the One who dispenses His divine life into us all.
And He today is the processed and dispensing Triune God, while we as His many believers abide in Him to constantly receive and enjoy His divine dispensing and be built up organically to be the church, the Body of Christ.
We are Branches in Christ the Vine and Members of the Organic Body of Christ enjoying the Processed and Dispensing Triune God!
![I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. John 15:1 Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither [can] you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/I-am-the-true-vine-and-My-Father-is-the-husbandman.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. John 15:1 Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither [can] you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5")
As believers in Christ, we are the many brothers of Christ, those who were regenerated with the divine life of God to be the sons of God and the many brothers of the Firstborn Son of God.
Christ is our Elder Brother, and we are all His twins, for we were begotten at the same time, in His resurrection.
As the many brothers of Christ, we are His many branches grafted into Him; He is the true vine in the universe, and we have been grafted into Him to be His many branches for His spreading and multiplication (John 15:1, 4-5, 16, 8; Rom. 11:17, 24).
Some say that after resurrection and ascension Christ went back to heaven and that’s it; but actually, He is like a universal vine tree spreading everywhere on earth by means of HIs many believers, who are the branches in the vine.
Today we are part of the greatest vine in the world, Christ Himself, to be members of the universal Body of Christ for His spread and increase on the earth.
We have been cut off from the old man with its old manner of life and old source, and we have been grafted into Christ.
This universal vine tree, Christ Himself, is our essence; God is our essence, Christ is our essence, and the vine tree is also our essence.
If you see a vine tree and know how it grows and spreads, you will be amazed at the fact that Christ likened Himself to such a tree.
God wants to spread, so He went through a process and became a life-giving Spirit to dispense Himself into us; when we believe into Christ, we are grafted into Christ to become part of His increase, His spreading, His enlargement.
Today we as believers in Christ are the many branches grafted into Christ, and we bear much fruit for His enlargement in His spreading so that we may express the Triune God as His organism.
When we as the many branches in Christ the vine receive a sufficient supply of the life-giving Spirit as the life-juice of Christ, we bear fruit as the overflow of the inner life supply.
We simply need to abide in Christ and receive His dispensing, His life-juice flowing in the Body of Christ as the universal vine tree; the more we abide in Him and receive His dispensing, the more we bear fruit for His expression and glorification.
May there be a flow within us, no matter what we do, so that we may bear fruit for Christ’s increase and multiplication as the great vine tree.
This organism of the Triune God, the universal vine tree, is nothing else but the organic Body of Christ.
The Body of Christ is constituted with His many brothers as the many members of His organic Body (Eph. 1:22-23; Rom. 12:5).
This is not merely a doctrine – this is the intrinsic essence of the church for its organic existence.
We need to see this and know it in the depth of our being, paying attention in a serious way to this matter so that this would affect our living and our church life.
How wonderful it is that all believers in Christ are part of the duplication of Christ, the branches of the true vine, and through them, God spreads, increases, is enlarged, and reaches to the uttermost parts of the earth!
In our essence as the church, what we are is the Body of Christ, the organism of the Triune God; we are the many brothers of Christ and the many members of the organic Body of Christ. Hallelujah!
Our oneness is not in agreeing with one another’s doctrines or practising the same thing; our oneness is simply the processed and dispensing Triune God.
And problems arise among the believers whenever they depart from the intrinsic essence of the church, the processed and dispensing Triune God.
If we remain in the divine dispensing, if we enjoy the life-juice coming from Christ as the vine, we will simply be one, and all problems are removed.
Our oneness is intrinsic, of the essence; our oneness is simply the processed and dispensing Triune God!
Thank You, Lord, for grafting us into Yourself as the true vine to make us branches in Christ, the universal vine tree! Hallelujah, we are branches in Christ to bear much fruit for His enlargement in His spreading! We open to You, dear Lord, and we simply want to abide in You as branches in the vine. Keep us receiving Your divine dispensing so that we may bear fruit as the overflow of the inner life supply. Amen, Lord, may we receive a sufficient supply of the life-giving Spirit as the life-juice of Christ to bear fruit! Grow in us, Lord. Spread through us. Fill us with Yourself. Keep us enjoying and experiencing You as the processed and dispensing Triune God for Your Body!
The Organic Existence of the Church: there is one Church in the Universe and many Local Churches as its Local Expressions
![And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him [to be] Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. Eph. 1:22-23 And to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God. Eph. 3:19](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/And-He-subjected-all-things-under-His-feet-and-gave-Him-to-be-Head-over-all-things-to-the-church.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him [to be] Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. Eph. 1:22-23 And to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God. Eph. 3:19")
The essence of the church is organic, for it is the divine life of God that produces the church.
The existence of the church is also organic, for where the Triune God is, this living and organic church is; the church is now one with the processed and dispensing Triune God.
We need to see and experience the organic existence of the church (Eph. 1:17); we need to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation to see this and have such a vision of the church.
The church exists in the universe as the one universal church of God for His universal expression, the fullness of God (1 Cor. 10:32; 12:38; Eph. 3:19).
There is one God and there is only one church; the one church is the one expression of God. The one church is for the one expression of God in this universe, and it is also God’s fulness.
The church is one with the processed and dispensing Triune God; these are not two different entities but one, and it is impossible for such a church to be divided.
This one church is spreading in time and space in many localities on earth as the many local churches to be His local expressions (Rev. 1:4, 11).
There is only one church in the universe, one universal Body of Christ; when this Body is manifested and spreading on earth, there are many local expressions of this one Body.
The many local churches – one church in each locality – are one church universally.
We need to see these two aspects of the church: universally, the church is one in the universe, and locally, the church is expressed in many localities as local churches.
However, the local churches should not be different from one another; to seek to be different from other local churches is wrong, for we all have the same one essence, the processed and dispensing Triune God.
All the local churches on the earth today have only ONE intrinsic essence; the church cannot be divided or split.
The universal church is one, and all the local churches are one. Our oneness is intrinsic, for we are one in the processed and dispensing Triune God.
If we limit ourselves to the intrinsic essence of the church for its organic existence, all problems will be solved and we will simply be one.
But if we try to be different from other believers or churches, if we still think and teach that the local churches should be different, we are walking in darkness.
In the New Testament there were many local churches in the region around the Mediterranean Sea, and today all over the earth there are hundreds and hundreds of local churches.
However, all the local churches are just one church intrinsically and organically, and our oneness is in the processed and dispensing Triune God!
May the Lord open our eyes to see that, even though there are many local churches, each church is a golden lampstand, and in nature and expression we are all the same!
In Rev. 1 we see seven golden lampstands; the seven local churches in Asia Minor were each like a golden lampstand, the same in nature, expression, and function, having as difference only the negative things which were addressed by the Lord.
May we realize that there is one church universally and many local churches as the many local expressions and that we all are one in the processed and dispensing Triune God!
Hallelujah, there is one Body in this universe – there is only one church as the organism of the Triune God in the universe! Praise the Lord, the one universal church is spreading in many localities as the many local churches! Thank You, Lord, for the local churches – one church in one city – which are the spreading of the one universal church. Hallelujah, we are one in Christ – we are one in the essence of the church for its organic existence. We are one in the processed and dispensing Triune God. Grant us to see this, Lord, and to live in such a reality, realizing that we are one in the processed and dispensing Triune God for His corporate expression on earth!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1989, vol. 4, “The Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ to be the Organism of the Processed and Dispensing Triune God”, pp. 274-275, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Intrinsic and Organic Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ (2021 International Chinese-Speaking Conference), week 1, The Intrinsic Essence of the Church for Its Organic Existence.
- Hymns on this topic:
– There are seven golden lampstands in the nature all divine— / Nothing natural does the Body life allow. / When we’re one and share God’s nature, / how the lampstand then does shine— / Hallelujah, it is brightly shining now! / Hallelujah for the Body! / For the lampstands of the Body! / For the golden, shining Body! / Hallelujah, it is brightly shining now! (Hymns #1226)
– The unity of Church is but / The saints in oneness living; / The Spirit which indwelleth them / This oneness ever giving. / Thus it is realized and called / The unity of Spirit; / ’Tis based upon the common faith / Which all the saints inherit. (Hymns #831)
– There is one Body in this universe, / And we express it here on earth; / We stand as one in each locality / For all to see, for all to see. (Hymns #1107)
