Learning to be Blended in the Local Churches for the Reality of the Body of Christ

The purpose of the blending is to usher us all into the reality of the Body of Christ, and today we are learning to be blended in the local churches for the reality of the Body.

Hallelujah, the local churches are a procedure for us to be brought into the reality of the Body of Christ as the goal. The goal is the Body of Christ – the goal of our regeneration, transformation, and conformation to the image of Christ, and the goal of the local churches is the Body of Christ.

If we only have the local churches but we don’t have the reality of the Body, we only have something outward with no inward reality.

As we practice the church life in the locality where the Lord has placed us, we need to be in the reality of the Body of Christ as the inward reality of the church life.

For this we need to realise our need for blending, for through blending we are being brought into the life of the Body, the reality of the Body of Christ.

It is so wonderful to read Rom. 16 and see how Paul not only greeted the saints, the churches, and the homes in the church, but by his epistle he brought all the saints in that area into the blending life of the Body of Christ.

We need to follow in the footsteps of the apostle Paul to enter into the blending life of the Body and also bring the saints into this.

When we are built up together by having fellowship and being blended together, any divisions are being removed, and any individualistic life is being exposed and dealt with. But if we don’t blend, if we don’t pay the price to be practically in the blending life of the Body of Christ, it will be easy to tend to be divided and be individualistic.

Our natural life has the tendency and propensity to be individualistic and divisive, so we need to live by another life – the divine life of Christ in resurrection, by allowing the death of Christ to operate in us as we blend together, fight for the blending, and enter into the blending life.

When we enter into the blending life of the Body of Christ, we will prevent divisions.

A lot of divisions take place not because there are major problems but because there is no blending between the churches and the saints for a long time, and this gives ground to the enemy…Oh Lord Jesus!

When we allow the Lord to inconvenience us by paying the price to blend with the saints, we will deal a death-blow to the enemy, for the God of peace will soon crush Satan under our feet.

When the Lord gains the reality of the Body of Christ by our being blended together, He will crush Satan under the feet of the built-up church.

We are in the Local Churches as a Procedure being Blended for Reality of the Body of Christ

What is the purpose for us being blended? Why does the Lord want to blend the members of the Body? It is so that He may gain the reality of the Body of Christ.

The church is the Body of Christ, the fulness of the One who fills all and in all; the church is only one, but because the believers in Christ live in different localities on earth, there are many local churches.

We cannot all live in the same locality; rather, we all are scattered around the world, living in different localities, and the Lord has arranged that we all meet in the local church where He has placed us.

We may be separated by the limits of the locality, but we are still one Body in Christ. The local churches are the procedure and outward structure for us to know and enter into the reality of the Body of Christ.

We may think that the local churches are the goal of God’s economy, but actually, they are not the goal but the procedure that God takes to reach the gospel of His economy.

If we are merely in the local churches but do not go on to know the Body and live in the reality of the Body of Christ, we are far off from God’s goal. We all need to be in the local churches as the procedure to be brought into the reality of the Body of Christ as the goal.

We should not give up the church life saying that we are for the Body of Christ, neither should we be a “rolling stone” or a “shooting star”; we need the local churches, but they are just a procedure, a gateway, a bridge to bring us into the reality of the Body.

The highest peak of the Lord’s recovery that can really, practically, and actually carry out God’s economy is for God to produce not merely many local churches in a physical or outward way, but for He to gain an organic Body to be His organism.

We praise the Lord for the many local churches, and we thank Him for bringing us into the church life in the locality where He has placed us; at the same time, however, we are here practicing the church life being blended for the reality of the Body of Christ.

God doesn’t want merely many local churches outwardly, for even if the whole earth is filled with local churches but there’s no reality of the Body, He still can’t return.

What God desires to gain is the organic Body to be His organism, and for this He uses the local churches as the procedure to obtain His Body.

Some may say that, since the church is the Body of Christ and we are in the church, we also are in the Body of Christ; however, merely being in the local churches doesn’t guarantee that we are in the reality of the Body of Christ.

We may have the term “Body of Christ” as a doctrine, but where is the practicality and reality of the Body of Christ?

We need to be blended to be ushered into the reality of the Body of Christ. We need to meet in the church life and enjoy the Lord with the saints in many kinds of meeting so that we may enter into the reality of the Body.

The churches are the Body, but the churches may not have the reality of the Body of Christ; therefore, we need to be blended together and realise that what God wants to gain is the reality of the Body of Christ.

For example, if we look at our physical body, the reality of our being is not merely our body but the person, ourselves; similarly, the reality of the Body of Christ is not merely the outward structure of the Body (the many local churches) but the reality of the Body of Christ seen in the blending.

We may be in the local churches outwardly, but inwardly we may not be in the reality of the Body of Christ.

Lord Jesus, may we all be ushered into the reality of the Body of Christ through our being blended together. Amen, Lord, may we realise that the local churches are not the goal but the procedure for us to be brought into the reality of the Body of Christ. May You gain the organic Body as Your organism on earth, and may we be one with You for Your Body! Yes, Lord, we want to practice the church life in the local church where You placed us for the reality of the Body of Christ!

Just as the Fine Flour is Mingled with Oil, so we are Blended for the Reality of the Body of Christ!

The thought of blending is clearly found in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament. When God ordained the offerings, especially for the meal offering what He desired to eat is a mingling and a blending of fine flour with oil, baked together with salt, for Him to enjoy.

Then in the New Testament Paul referred to it in 1 Cor. 10:17 where he said that, seeing that there’s one bread, we who are many are one Body, for we all partake of the one bread.

This thought was not Paul’s own invention; rather, it was taken from the Old Testament, in particular from Lev. 2:4 where we see the cakes of fine flour mingled with oil. Every part of the flour was mixed, mingled, and blended with the oil; this shows what blending is.

Paul tells us that the church is a bread, a cake, made of fine flour mingled with oil; we as believers are the fine flour, and the oil is the Spirit.

The fine flour comes from the grains of wheat, which we are; Christ as the unique grain of wheat was multiplied through death and resurrection to become many grains of wheat, which is us.

We are the many grains of wheat produced in Christ’s resurrection, and we are passing through a process to be broken, grounded, and made into fine flour, so that we may be blended with other saints and mingled with the Spirit to be one bread, the Body of Christ.

This is quite something. All the believers in Christ are grains of wheat who not only contain the divine life within them, but are being grounded and blended together for the Lord to obtain one bread, the Body of Christ, for His satisfaction.

At the Lord’s Table we can see a picture of the blending of the Body of Christ and of the mingling of God with man; we are being blended together and the Spirit as the oil is poured out to mingle Himself with us.

The result of our being blended together is the reality of the Body of Christ. The truth concerning blending is in the holy Word of God, but not many speak about it because it is a very high, deep, and mysterious truth; it is a physical sign but it has a spiritual significance.

According to the revelation in the holy Word of God, the significance of our blending is the reality of the Body of Christ.

We need to exercise our spirit and contact the Lord concerning this matter, asking the Lord to lead us as the Spirit of reality in the reality of the blending of the Body of Christ, so that we may touch the reality of the Body.

As the Spirit leads us inwardly in this reality, we realise that the purpose of blending is to usher us into the reality of the Body of Christ for the Lord to gain what He is after, a corporate expression on the earth.

Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with You to be blended together for the reality of the Body of Christ. Save us from remaining in our individualism, seeking to live a secret life that is not in the fellowship. Have a way in us, dear Lord, and deal with anything that hinders us from being blended with the other saints in the Body. Lord, we open to You to be guided by the Spirit of reality into the reality of the blending, so that we may be ushered into the reality of the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord Jesus, grant us to see that the significance of our blending is the reality of the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• 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, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” chs. 1-3, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 4, Blending for the Reality of the Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # The churches are the Body / Of Christ on earth today. / They are His testimony, / That He may have a way. (Hymns #1265)
  # Build us up, build us up, as with one another sup’. / Hallelujah—the riches of Christ! / Build us up, build us up, as with You we all rise up. / Hallelujah—the living Body! / As blended members / Of His one Body, / We, the Lord do glorify! (Song on, Blend us, Lord, Blend us, Lord)
  # Churches, churches, in the local churches / We all find the flow: / Deeper, higher, Christ as all our living, / For the church we grow. / The churches are today / Just Christ in every way. / For this, from self we cease, / For Thy Body, Thine increase. (Hymns #1240)