God’s Final Recovery is the Testimony of the Reality of the Body of Christ Today

The tabernacle and the temple are the center of the Old Testament and the consummation of the New Testament, and both of these typify the church.

First, it was the tabernacle, which was portable, movable, and transient; the tabernacle typifies God’s church on earth – the many local churches which are the expression of the one church. The temple was made of stones and iron, solid, and on a larger scale than the tabernacle; the temple signifies the church as the reality of the Body of Christ.

Today we need to be in the local churches enjoying the Lord with the saints, but as we live the church life we need to realize that God is after the “temple church life”, that is, the reality of the Body of Christ as the glorious goal of God’s economy.

We need to pursue Christ, enjoy Christ, experience Christ, and gain Christ for the Body and in the Body. Christ has gained us so that we may gain Him for Him to be built into us and for us to be built into Him to be a corporate God-man, the church as the temple of the living God, the mutual abode of God and man.

Throughout the day we need to open to the Lord and ask Him to strengthen us into our inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart and we may apprehend with all the saints what the universally vast dimensions of the all-inclusive Christ are.

Christ needs to expand, increase, and be enlarged in us in our experience, and this is something of our daily living: daily, we need to experience Christ, enjoy Christ, contact Christ, and exercise our spirit to live in spirit, worship God in spirit, walk according to the spirit, serve in spirit, and minister Christ to others.

When we walk according to the Spirit and live in spirit, we enter into the reality of the Body of Christ in the local churches and thus have the “temple church life”, the more solid church life as the reality of the temple of God.

May the Lord bring us on with Him from the tabernacle church life to the temple church life so that He may gain what He desires: the building up of the church as the Body of Christ for the reality of the Body of Christ in all the local churches.

The Local Church must be a Testimony Expressing the Reality of the Body of Christ

The local churches today are the procedure used by God to bring us into the reality of the Body of Christ (the “temple church life”), and the unique testimony of God is realized in the local churches. The unique ministry is for God’s unique testimony, and God’s unique testimony (the reality of the Body of Christ) is realized in the local churches (see Exo. 25:22; 38:21; Rev. 1:2, 9; cf. Eph. 4:4; John 16:13).

God wants to meet with us and speak to us on the expiation cover, the propitiation place, where the blood of Christ is sprinkled for our acceptance before God, and where the glory of God is shining (the two cherubim above).

Christ speaks to us in His redeeming humanity and His shining divinity, and He infuses us with grace, speaks to us in His word, and gives us vision, revelation, and instruction so that we may be His unique testimony, the reality of the Body of Christ.

Christ is the testimony of God as God’s definition, explanation, and expression, and by enjoying Christ (the reality of the ark of the testimony) we become the testimony of God (the tabernacle of the testimony) to express God on earth.

In 1 Cor. 12 Paul describes the Body of Christ in its reality, showing us what the testimony of a local church should be. The local church today must be a testimony that expresses the reality of the Body of Christ (see 1 Cor. 12:14-18, 20).

In the Body of Christ there are many members, and the foot can’t say that, because he’s not a hand, he’s not of the Body…if the whole Body were an eye, where would the hearing or smelling be? God has placed the members in the Body even as He willed, and we all have a function that is irreplaceable in the Body.

We should not despise our function in the Body, nor should we covet the function of another member. We have an irreplaceable function in the Body, and we should be satisfied with it. Conversely, we should not be proud of our function in the Body while thinking that we don’t need the function of the other members, because this will cut us off from their function.

When we meet with the saints and function in mutuality, we all receive the supply of the Body by each one’s functioning. As we function in our measure in the Body in the church meetings (and outside of the church meetings), the Body of Christ is built up and we are in the reality of the Body of Christ in the local churches.

The church today exists for the testimony of oneness; when we speak of the “local church” the emphasis is not the “local-ness” but the oneness of the church. The life that the churches possess is a life of oneness! The Lord prayed for the oneness of His believers, and today we are becoming the answer to that prayer.

We are one in the Lord’s life because we have the same life of the Father (John 17:11). We are one in the word of the Father which sanctifies us; when we get into the Word, we get out of ourselves and into the Triune God as the realm of oneness (John 17:21). We are one in the divine glory, the expression of the Triune God (John 17:23).

Lord Jesus, thank You for making us members of the Body of Christ, placing us in the Body even as You willed. Lord, we want to daily contact You on the shed blood and under Your shining glory, and we want to enjoy You day by day as grace. Give us Your word, Your vision, Your revelation, and Your instruction so that we may know You, experience You, and express You. Lord, thank You for our function in the Body and thank You for the function of all the saints as members of the Body! May the local church be a testimony expressing the reality of the Body of Christ on earth today!

God’s Final Recovery is the Testimony of the Reality of the Body of Christ Today

What God desires to recover today is Christ being everything to us, the Body of Christ being one, and all the members of the Body functioning in their measure; the testimony of the reality of the Body of Christ is God’s final recovery (see Eph. 1:17; 3:16-21; 4:1-6, 16).

First, Christ wants to be everything to us, and we should have no substitute or replacement for Him. Satan’s strategy against the church, as seen in the New Testament, is to replace Christ with many other things. In Colossae the human philosophy replaced Christ, in Hebrews the Judaism replaced Christ, in Galatians it was the law that replaced Christ and in Corinthians the gifts, signs, and wisdom that replaced Christ.

We say NO to any substitute for Christ: we are here for Christ and for Christ only, and He is our treasure, our center, and our everything for the building up of the Body of Christ! Furthermore, as members of the Body we all have a function, and God’s final recovery is the recovery of the functioning of all the members of the Body.

I was very much helped by a paragraph from brother Nee‘s ministry on this,

The testimony of the Body today has nothing to do with numbers; it is a matter of being in the Body. It is a matter of being willing to submit to the arrangement of the Head, as opposed to being free to make one’s own choices and decisions. As a member of the Body, we cannot make any decision on our own. Christ has an immeasurably vast deposit in the church today. If we are in a receiving position, we will surely become very rich. If we insist on receiving only from God without receiving from the Body, we will become very poor. This is not a doctrine but a fact. Not only is the thing we have our own, but what the brothers and sisters have is also ours. In many matters other brothers and sisters have a clear discernment, but we do not have discernment. As such, we have to accept the discernment of the brothers and sisters. Some people know God’s Word. Some can discern the truth. We should gladly receive their discernment and judgment. What we do not know, someone else will know. If we will not receive from others, probably we will end up fifty years from now having the same as what we have now…. A man has to learn to bow down his head and to receive supply from others. (Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 57, pp. 221, 43-44)

What does it mean to be the reality of the Body of Christ today? It means to have Christ as our everything (with no substitute for Christ), and to function in our measure in the Body.

As 1 Cor. 14:21 says, we all can prophesy one by one, so that all would learn and be encouraged. We all can enjoy Christ personally throughout the day, and when we come together we all can speak for the Lord and speak the Lord forth.

On the one hand, we need to personally enjoy and experience Christ, and on the other, we need to come together with the saints and speak Christ to one another. Also, as we meet with the saints, it is of utmost importance that we receive the saints’ function, allowing them to minister Christ to us and help us.

It is here, in the local churches where we enjoy Christ, minister Christ to one another, and receive others’ function, that God is doing a final recovery – the testimony of the reality of the Body of Christ.

Lord Jesus, keep us in Your final recovery – the testimony of the reality of the Body of Christ today! Amen! We reject any substitutes for Christ and we take Christ as our center, our treasure, our reality, and our everything for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ! Lord, we want to learn to function in our measure in the meetings of the church, and we want to receive others’ function as they minister Christ to us. Amen, Lord, recover the proper function of all the members of the Body so that the Body may be expressed in reality in all the local churches!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, Ed Marks sharing in the message for this week, and Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 57, ch. 20, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Church as the Temple of God – The Goal of God’s Eternal Economy (2015 Thanksgiving Conference), week 1 / msg. 1, Going On with the Lord from the Tabernacle Church Life to the Temple Church Life.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # In all things Thou art foremost, / In everything the best, / In quality the finest, / In quantity boundless. / Superlative in nature, / In form resplendent Thou, / Surpassing e’en the highest, / The peerless One art Thou. (Song on Christ being everything)
  # Lord, Your riches are so unsearchable. / I can never comprehend. / But with all the saints in such a corporate church life / Your dimensions apprehend. [Eph. 3:8, 18-19] / By Your mercy, keep me in Your Body, / Taking the rich supply. / Through each member’s function in their measure / All the Body edify. [Eph. 4:16] (Song on enjoying Christ in the Body)
  # In our ministry and service, / From the Body, our supply; / If detached and isolated, / Out of function we will die. / ’Tis by serving in the Body / Riches of the Head we share; / ’Tis by functioning as members / Christ’s full measure we will bear. (Hymns #913)