We need to Exercise our Spirit and Turn our Heart to the Lord to Stay on the Way of Life

In the matter of the intrinsic essence of the church for its organic existence, we need to continuously exercise our spirit and turn our heart to the Lord in order to stay on the way of life, and this involves having proper thoughts toward the Lord in order to love Him to the uttermost. Amen!

We thank the Lord that He has regenerated us and made us members of His organic Body, the organism of the Triune God.

The Bible clearly shows us that there is only one God and this one God is Christ, who has only one church, the Body of Christ.

Universally, the church is one, and locally, the church is expressed in many local churches, and all the local churches are one as the one church.

Because the church is one, we all as believers in Christ are one; we are members of the one Body of Christ, and together we are built up and headed up in Christ, the unique Head of the Body.

It does not matter where we live, what state, what country, what region, or what city – we are just one church.

Satan, however, has worked throughout the ages to divide the church, and he has achieved so much in this respect, for everywhere we look there’s a “church” by this or that name; in God’s eyes, however, there is only one church.

And the Bible tells us that we have a sevenfold oneness, a practical oneness, for us all to be one in teaching, in practice, in thinking, in speaking, in essence, in appearance, and in expression.

The Lord has done everything for us, He has become the source of an eternal salvation, and He has come as the Spirit to mingle Himself with our spirit; in our spirit, we are one with the Lord and also one with all the believers in Christ to be the church of God.

Just as in a human body there cannot be division, for no member can do what it wants on its own without the other members and without the direction of the head, so in the Body of Christ there cannot be anything but oneness, for the Head is the One directing all the members, and we all are enjoying the divine flow of life from the Head and through the members.

The church of God is not an organisation; it is not a unificational organisation of all believers in Christ.

There is and there cannot be a man who controls the churches, neither there can be a “head church” that controls all others and is above others.

There is no religion in the Body of Christ, there are no denominations, there are no independent groups, and there are no sects, cults, or organisations, neither are there any movements.

In its intrinsic essence for its organic existence, the church is one in its very essence, which is the processed and dispensing Triune God.

When we all as believers in Christ exercise our spirit and turn our heart to the Lord to walk on the way of life, we are simply one with the Lord and one with one another organically to be the one church, the Body of Christ.

May the Lord recover this among us, and may we turn from anything outward, anything in our mind, and anything of doctrine, to the essential and organic aspect of the church.

We must Exercise our Spirit and Turn our Heart to the Lord to Stay on the Way of Life in the Church Life

Knowing and returning to the intrinsic essence of the church for its organic existence doesn’t mean that we now hold a higher and more intrinsic doctrine or set of truths.

Rather, in our experience we must first exercise our spirit; we must continuously exercise our spirit (1 Tim. 4:7) and turn our heart to the Lord (2 Cor. 3:16-18).

This is our need, and this is very practical. We do not divide ourselves from all other Christians because we have the pure revelation in the word of God and that’s it; no, we as believers in Christ come to the Lord daily to exercise our spirit and turn our heart to Him so that we may stay on the way of life in the church life.

When we exercise our spirit and turn our heart to the Lord continually, we will stay on the way of life in the reality of the intrinsic essence of the church for its organic existence.

No matter how much we speak of the intrinsic essence of the church and the organic existence of the church, when we apply this in practice, we come back to our spirit to exercise our spirit.

Our spirit is joined to the Lord and mingled to the Spirit as one (1 Cor. 6:17), and His Spirit of life dwells in our spirit.

We need to always turn our whole being to the Lord, starting from our heart; we need to turn away from the world, turn away from the philosophies and opinions and all the things in the world, and always turn our heart to the Lord in order to stay on the way of life.

We have been brought on the way of life through regeneration, and we simply need to stay on the way of life by continuously practicing to exercise our spirit and turn our heart to the Lord.

In the Lord’s recovery, we are not here arguing with people in knowledge, doctrines, and teaching; we don’t argue and fight with people but rather, we want to stay on the way of life by exercising our spirit and turning our heart to the Lord. Amen!

We need to be warned by the history of the Brethren, who started very well and recovered so much of the truth in the Bible and the practice among the believers, but who were divided so much based on their doctrines.

Brother Watchman Nee said that the Brethren were typified by the church in Philadelphia, for they had the brotherly love, they held to the Lord’s name and His word, and they were in the truth walking in love.

However, even though they had such a good beginning and recovered so many truths in love, they departed from what was organic, intrinsic, and essential, so they fell into the line of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, deviating from the tree of life, and they were divided again and again. Oh, Lord!

May we walk in the way of life to live by the tree of life according to the spirit!

May we not walk in the way of death to live by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil according to the self (Gen. 2:9; Rom. 8:4, 6; 2 Cor. 2:13; Matt. 16:24).

We need to be those who stay on the way of life and walk on the way of life, never departing from this way but live according to the spirit by the tree of life.

When the mind is set on the flesh, we are on the way of death, no matter how much knowledge we have; when our mind is set on the spirit, we enjoy Christ as life, and we have life and peace.

This is not a doctrine: we all need to live such a life daily, a life of being in the mingled spirit, denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and rejecting our flesh.

If we practice this daily, we will not walk in the way of death but in the way of life.

Lord Jesus, we want to stay on the way of life by exercising our spirit and turning our heart to the Lord. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to contact You, receive You, and partake of You. We turn our heart to You to behold You face to face and be transformed into the same image. We choose to set our mind on our spirit to have life and peace continually. Amen, dear Lord Jesus, we want to walk in the way of life to live by the tree of life according to our spirit! We do not want to walk in the way of death to live by the tree of knowledge according to the self. Keep us on the way of life, daily living according to the spirit, denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and rejecting our flesh!

We stay on the Way of Life by Loving the Lord to the Uttermost; this Relates to our Thoughts toward Him

One of the key ways for us to stay on the way of life is to love the Lord to the uttermost; for us to believe in the Lord is to receive Him, but for us to love the Lord is to enjoy Him as life (Mark 12:30; Song of Songs 1:4).

There is no other way for us to experience the Lord as life except for us to love Him; we must first love Him, and we must love Him to the uttermost.

Once we love the Lord to the uttermost, we will spontaneously live in the way of life, experiencing and enjoying Him as our life.

The love between us and the Lord depends on our thoughts; we may think that love is related mainly to our feelings and emotions, but our thoughts toward the Lord are crucial.

Paul said in 2 Cor. 11:2-3 that he betrothed the believers as a virgin to one husband, Christ, but he fears lest somehow their thoughts would be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity toward Christ.

We believers in Christ were betrothed to Christ; through the word of God and the ministry of the apostles, we have been brought into a love relationship with the Lord that will consummate in our being married to Him and live an eternal marriage life together.

Whether we are brothers or sisters, in the Lord’s eyes we are like a virgin betrothed to Him; however, we need to beware of our thoughts being corrupted from the simplicity and purity toward Christ.

Is our love toward the Lord in simplicity and purity? Or are our thoughts spoiled and corrupted by the world, by the tree of knowledge, and by the philosophies and opinions?

We may enjoy the Lord as the tree of life in the morning, but as soon as we leave our time with Him, we may return to eating the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and thus our thoughts are corrupted.

In a marriage relationship, the thoughts of the wife toward her husband are very important (and vice-versa, the thoughts of a husband toward his wife).

If the wife listens to her parents and relatives as they speak evil things about her husband, when she is influenced by her friends in a certain way, her thoughts about her husband will be corrupted, and her love will decrease or even be absent. Oh, Lord!

This is what happens between us and the Lord; we may love Him, we love to spend time with Him, but we may still listen to the evil one’s speaking, to the thoughts in the news and media today, to those around us, and thus our thoughts toward the Lord are corrupted and not in simplicity and purity.

If our thoughts toward the Lord are spoiled and corrupted, the love within us will lose its simplicity and purity toward the Lord.

When we have strongly attached to something or someone apart from the Lord when we have a strong thought and opinion concerning something apart from the Lord, our thoughts can be hardened and our love toward Him is spoiled and damaged.

May we return to our first love toward the Lord by coming to Him in His word to be washed by the water in the Word, and may we learn to turn our heart to the Lord in simplicity and purity toward Him, even asking Him to cleanse, purify, and simplify our heart.

May there be no insulation, veil, or separation between us and the Lord, and may we allow His peace to guard our thoughts and thoughts in Christ Jesus.

We need to bring this matter to the Lord and properly exercise our spirit and turn our heart to Him so that we may stay on the way of life and walk in this way according to the tree of life.

Lord Jesus, we love You! We give ourselves to love You more. May our heart and thoughts be kept in purity and simplicity toward You so that we may love You to the uttermost. Amen, Lord, we want to stay on the way of life by loving You to the uttermost! We turn our heart to You to enjoy You as our life. We open our thoughts to You, dear Lord; shine in us and expose any impure thoughts and anything that the enemy has put in our thoughts. Amen, Lord, may our heart never lose its simplicity and purity toward You. We exercise our heart to simply love You and be saturated with Your word in our mind to be washed, renewed, and purified in our thoughts toward You. Oh Lord, amen, we just love You!

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, 1967, vol. 1, pp. 141-142, 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:
  – In dealings with the Lord as life / We need a proper heart, / That of His riches, in His grace, / We fully may take part. / We need a heart in all things pure, / With mind both sound and clear, / To understand His mind and heart / In trembling and in fear. (Hymns #744)
  – Lord Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine; / For Thee all the pleasures of sin I resign; / My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou, / If ever I loved Thee, Lord Jesus, ’tis now. (Hymns #544)
  – Lord, teach me how to exercise / My spirit now to contact Thee, / That in Thy Spirit I may walk / And live by Thy reality. (Hymns #493)