The Growing of Christ within us for the Body is the Coming of the Kingdom of God

We need to see that the growing of Christ within us for the Body and in the Body is the coming of the kingdom of God in us in a practical way today.

As believers in Christ, we have the divine life in the organic union with the Lord, and we need to let the Lord spread in us for the coming of the kingdom of God in us; the issue will be the breaking of the natural life, the increase of the element of God, and the living of a corporate life, the life of the Body of Christ. Amen!

Day by day, as we enjoy the Lord and partake of His riches, we realize that we are part of the kingdom of God.

On the one hand, we enjoy Christ as our life and everything, and He is our supply. On the other hand, we live in the kingdom of God and are under His rule, and He rules and reigns in us.

How does God rule in us? It is not in the way of us fearing Him and being afraid of His punishment; it is by means of the sense of life.

The divine life we have received at the time of our regeneration has a sense, a consciousness.

There’s another life in us, a life that is very different from the human life.

Just as the human life – the highest created life – has its sense, and we live our human life according to this sense of the human life, so the divine life has a sense, the sense of the divine life, and we live the Christian life according to this inner sense.

On the one hand, we come to the Lord in His word to enjoy Him, know Him, and be infused with Him.

On the other hand, as the Lord writes His laws upon our heart, we know Him inwardly and subjectively, and there’s an inner anointing that guides us in all things.

There’s a sense in the divine life in our spirit; in our organic union with the Lord, as we abide in Him and He abides in us, there’s a keen sense concerning all things.

Just as the human life has a sense concerning all things, both good and bad, both positive and negative, so the divine life within us has a sense concerning all things.

We believers in Christ should be people full of feelings and have an inner sense of life concerning all things.

However, due to the fact that we do not cultivate our personal relationship with the Lord and we do not contact the Lord again and again, it is easy for us to have a sense of life that is not so keen; rather, it is quite dull. Oh, Lord!

We may behave according to the principle of right and wrong, trying to do the good rather than the evil, but this is not good enough.

The divine life in our spirit has a particular sense, and when we set our mind on the spirit, we live according to the sense of life and peace.

However, when our mind is not set on the things above, the inner life lets us know by giving us a sense of death. Oh, Lord Jesus!

The Growing of Christ within us is the Coming of the Kingdom of God in us

We believers in Christ are citizens of the kingdom of God, which is a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom within us; the Lord as the Sower sowed Himself as the seed of the kingdom in us, and now He is growing in us.

The believers in Christ receive the divine life by believing into the Son, in whom the divine life is; Christ the Son of God is life, and when we believe into Him, we are born of God, born of the Spirit (John 3:6).

Now that Christ as the kingdom of God is in us, He wants to grow in us; as the Lord told us in Matt. 6, we need to pray, Your kingdom come!

The growing of Christ within us is the coming of the kingdom. When we pray, Your kingdom come, we actually say, Lord Jesus, grow in us.

Millions of Christians repeated this prayer, Your kingdom come, but how many allow the Lord to grow in them?

It has been two thousand years since the Lord told us to pray this prayer, but His kingdom has still not come.

One of the reasons is that we did not allow the Lord to grow in us.

We need to be poor in spirit and pure in heart (Matt. 5:8) so that the Lord may have the ground to grow within us, and the growing of Christ within us is the real coming of the kingdom

. The more we allow the Lord to grow in us, the quicker He grows and spreads in our being, the more we hasten the coming of the kingdom.

Our heart is not that pure and we are not poor in spirit; we have many goals besides God and we may be loaded with so many things other than Him.

We need to be purified in our heart and emptied in our spirit so that we may have a fresh capacity to be filled with the Lord.

We need to ask the Lord to grant us a pure heart and purify our motives until we have a single goal. Our whole being needs to be zeroed in on the Lord.

We may care a lot for peace, joy, spiritual or physical blessings, and spirituality, but what we should set our heart on is Christ Himself.

God should be our unique goal; He should be our only motive.

May the Lord have mercy on us and deal with our heart until our heart is single and simplified, being absolutely focused on the Lord and seeking nothing else.

We have received Christ initially, but we need to gain more of Christ day by day, for the growing of Christ is the coming of the kingdom of God in us.

How can we receive more of Christ? It is by asking the Lord to make us poor in our spirit and pure in our heart.

We need to ask the Lord, Lord Jesus, make me poor in my spirit and poor in my heart. Empty my spirit and purify my heart. Grant me to have a single heart for You!

When we pray in this way and open to the Lord, He will come into us.

First, He comes in our spirit, and then He begins to spread Himself from our spirit into our heart.

As the Lord grows in us, His kingdom increases in us! The growing of the kingdom is the growing of Christ in us.

As the Lord grows in us, His kingdom gradually comes in us.

Matt. 7:16 says, Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?

In ourselves, in our natural man, we are like thorns and thistles, and there’s nothing good for food that comes from us.

But the life of Christ in our spirit is a fig-producing life and a grape-producing life. His life needs to grow in us. His life needs to increase in us.

Our life needs to decrease, that is, our natural life and the self needs to decrease, and the Lord needs to increase (John 3:30).

The growing of Christ within us is the coming of the kingdom of God in us.

May we pray for the Lord’s mercy that we may be poor in spirit and pure in heart.

May we pray that we would be right in all that we do, and that we may be right according to God’s will.

As we pray and open to the Lord, the Lord Jesus will increase in us, spread in our inner being, and He will take over little by little until He fills up every part.

He will grow in us to the extent that we will no longer produce thorns and thistles but grapes and figs, something that is sweet and nourishing for others.

This is not something that we produce in a deliberate way by our striving; this is an expression of the divine life within us.

To grow in the divine life is to have the increase of the element of God, the increase of the stature of Christ, and the expanding of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:15-16).

When we have the growing of Christ within us, the kingdom of God is coming in us.

The growth in the divine life is the decrease of the human element, the breaking of the natural life, and the subduing of every part of the soul (1 Pet. 2:2; 2 Pet. 3:18; Col. 2:19).

On the positive side, the coming of the kingdom of God in us is the growing of Christ within us.

On the negative side, there needs to be the breaking of the natural life and the subduing of every part of the soul.

May we open to the Lord in our daily living and allow Him to break the natural life and subdue every part of our soul.

We may wrestle with God again and again, but at one point we need to let Him touch us, break us, and win; then, we will gain the growing of Christ within us.

May the Lord have mercy on us and grant us to have the breaking of the outer man so that the inner man may be released and Christ may grow in us.

The Lord may allow things to happen in our environment to break us, constrain us, and deal with our natural man to the extent that we feel we are sentenced to death; when we let the Lord break the natural man and subdue every part of our soul, He has a way to grow in us.

May we open to the Lord regarding this and just ask Him,

Lord Jesus, may there be the growing of Christ within us so that Your kingdom may come in us. Make us poor in our spirit and pure in our heart. Amen, Lord, empty our spirit and purify our heart. Grant us to have a heart that is single and pure for You. We open to You. Spread from our spirit into our mind, emotion, and will. Grow in us. We want to zero in our whole being on You so that You may grow in us and bring in Your kingdom into every part of our being and in every aspect of our daily life. Lord Jesus, may there be the increase of the element of God, the increase of the stature of Christ, and the expanding of the Holy Spirit in our being! Amen, Lord, may there be the growth of the divine life in us. Have Your way, Lord, to cause the natural element to decrease so that the divine element may increase. May there be the breaking of the natural life and the subduing of every part of our soul so that Your kingdom may come in us!

The Divine Life in us is the Life of the Body, a Corporate Life: Christ as the Life of the Body of Christ

When we personally allow the Lord to spread into every part of our being so that we have the growing of Christ within us, the result will be that we live the life of the Body of Christ, for the life in us is the life of the Body of Christ.

First of all, we believers in Christ do not have life in ourselves apart from God; the divine life we have in our spirit is only in the organic union with the Lord (John 15:4-5; Rom. 8:2).

Only when we’re in our spirit, one spirit with the Lord, do we have the divine life.

If we want to have the divine life and enjoy the divine life, we need to be in our spirit, in the organic union with the Lord.

We have life only in Christ, for Christ is our life. Secondly, the divine life we have in our spirit in our organic union with the Lord is not an individualistic life, a life that is apart from other members in the Body.

Rather, the divine life in the believers in Christ is the life of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:26-27; Col. 3:4).

Yes, Christ is our life, but at the same time, this Christ is the Head of the Body, and He is life in all the members of the Body.

We do not have an individualistic life but a corporate life; not an individual life but a corporate life.

Christ is the life of the Body of Christ to be experienced and enjoyed in the Body.

This means that, whatever we do in our daily living, we need to realize that we are members of the Body of Christ.

One of the hardest verses in the Bible to be fulfilled among us today is Eph. 4:16; here it says that the Body builds itself up in love.

On the one hand, each member needs to have the growing of Christ within him by allowing Him to spread in their being and subdue every part of their soul.

On the other hand, our growth in life with the growth of God is for the Body and in the Body.

This means that wherever we are, there the Body is, and whatever we are doing, we are members in the Body.

We may go to work and take care of many things, learning to live by the divine life in our spirit; in all this, we need to realize that we’re members in the Body, and we live as members of Christ.

The life we enjoy in the Body is the life of the Body of Christ.

The governing principle of the church, the ministry, and the work is the Body of Christ.

Do we have the Body consciousness? Do we realize that day by day and in every situation, we are living in the Body?

Do we have the consciousness that, whatever we do, whatever we say, and wherever we are, we are a member in the Body of Christ, and we cannot live without the Body?

We may have a health problem which requires surgery; though we go through this individually in an outward way, inwardly we need to realize that we are a member of the Body, and our suffering is in the Body and for the Body.

Everything that we go through is a Body matter.

We need to be saved much more in life and gain the growing of Christ within us until we have the realization that we’re members in the Body and we live the life of Christ in the Body and for the Body.

On the one hand, we have a personal relationship with the Lord, and we will stand before Him personally and individually to give an account of what we have done.

On the other hand, we are members of the Body, and as members, we share in the corporate Christ and live with the consciousness of the Body.

Praise the Lord, for eternity we as believers in Christ will experience and enjoy the life of God together in and as the New Jerusalem (Rev. 22:2)!

Lord Jesus, thank You for imparting Your life in us so that we may have life in the organic union with Christ! Hallelujah, we believers in Christ have life in the organic union with the Lord, for we have life only in Christ! Amen, Lord, may we realize that we are members of the Body of Christ and our life is the life of the Body of Christ. May we live a daily life with the consciousness of the Body. May we realize we don’t have an individual life but a corporate life, Christ as the life of the Body experienced and enjoyed in the Body! Amen, Lord, grant us to have this consciousness in our daily life. May we realize that, no matter what we do, where we are, and what happens to us, we are members of the Body of Christ, and we enjoy Christ as the life of the Body in the Body and for the Body. Grow in us, Lord. Keep us holding You as the Head so that we may grow with the growth of God, that is, allow Christ to grow within us in the Body and for the Body!

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 Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1972, vol. 2, “The Kingdom,” pp. 51-55, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living in the Reality of the Kingdom of God (2024 October ITERO), week 1, The Kingdom of God – the Realm of the Divine Life and of the Divine Species.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – What is the kingdom of God? More via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Christ as the seed of life sown into us to grow within us for God’s building, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Confess our Sins and Come back to the Intimate Fellowship with the Lord, via, 21st Century Nazarites.
  – Pure in heart, a portion from, The Kingdom, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee.
  – How to Have a Pure, Loving, and Soft Heart toward God, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Poor in spirit, a portion from, The Kingdom, Chapter 32, by Witness Lee.
  – Magnifying Christ in the Midst of Turmoil, via, Shepherding Words.
  – The corporate living by the perfected God-men, a portion from, Practical Points Concerning Blending, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee.
  – God’s Mercy Brings His Grace to Us, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The prayer and the subjective experience of Christ that we must have for God’s building, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – The living of the divine life through the human life, a portion from, General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, A – Part 1: The Gospels and the Acts, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Yes, Lord, impress our heart / That we must take You in each day; / The seed will have its way; / Your growing brings the kingdom here to stay— / Lord Jesus, grow in us. / Amen!—The growth in life! / There’s nothing that Your life can’t do; / Our every part renew. / We’ll make it, we’ll make it just by You. / Lord Jesus, grow in us. (Hymns #1132 stanzas 7-8)
  – 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. / We need a fervent, loving heart, / A heart on fire with love, / With an emotion filled with zeal / For Him, all else above. (Hymns #744 stanzas 1-3)
  – Lord, to know Thee as the Body, / Is my desperate need today, / Oh, to see Thee in Thy members, / ’Tis for this I long and pray. / No more just to know Thy headship / In an individual way, / But to see Thee incarnated, / As the Body-Christ, I pray. / Through the years, Thy saints have sought Thee, / Longing for reality; / Gazing upward, searching inward, / Thirsting for the sight of Thee. / Now reveal that Christ in heaven, / Is the Body manifest; / And the Christ who dwells within us / As the Body is expressed. (Hymns #1225 stanzas 1-2)