We need to Live the Body Life and Keep every Principle of the Body in the Church Life

If we cannot pass the test of the Body life, our spirituality is not genuine, for the Body life is the greatest test of our spirituality, and we as members of the Body need to live in the Body and keep every principle of the Body.

As those living in the church age, we need to be measured by God’s house and keep the law of the house of God. What is the law of God’s house? According to Ezek. 43:12, the law of the house is first being in resurrection and ascension, and being sanctified and holy for God.

The church is in resurrection and ascension, and the church is holy, sanctified from anything worldly. Our God is a God of height – He is in resurrection and ascension; He is also a God who is holy. Just like Him, the position of the church is high, and the nature of the church is most holy.

Our living in the church should be in resurrection and ascension, and we need to be God’s holy people, those sanctified unto God to be the holy church of the holy God. We need to learn to open to the Lord and even open to older, more mature brothers or sisters concerning the way that we function and we behave ourselves in the house of God.

If we allow the Lord to touch us through His Body concerning our demeanor, attitude, function, and measure in the meetings, we may have a way to go on with Him. We need to come to the Lord personally and let His light – in His time and in His way – shine on us concerning our living in the church life and our function in the Body.

We need to allow the house of God measure us, and our daily living needs to be fashioned according to the church. God’s concern today is not spirituality – it is the house of God, the church.

Today the Lord is doing one thing: He is building up the church, and He cares for one thing – the church, the place of His throne, the place of the soles of His feet. The church is the place where God can dwell for rest and satisfaction.

It is in the church that God is at home, for here He can be expressed in a corporate way. May we realize that the Lord cares so much for the church, and therefore we also should care for the church as His house, and even fashion ourselves according to it.

The Body Life is the Greatest Test of our Spirituality, and Everything we Have is for the Body

The greatest test of our spirituality is not how well we can speak, how much we can do for God, or how much we read the Bible; the Body life is the greatest test of our spirituality, and if we can’t pass the test of the Body life, our spirituality is not genuine (1 Cor. 12:23-27).

Our spirituality is not something individualistic but a Body matter; everything that we have is in the Body, through the Body, and for the Body (Eph. 4:16). Our sweetest and deepest experiences are all for the Body, for we are members of the Body.

God wants us to learn the lessons that we need to learn for the Body. He wants to deliver us from individualism and cause us to be dependent on the Body.

God doesn’t want “spiritual butterflies”, spiritual saints who look very good and colourful but are independent and individualistic; He wants to gain “spiritual bees”, saints who are corporate, who have a body-consciousness. We need to have the consciousness of the Body so that we can live together with other members in the Body of Christ.

When we have a revelation of the Body, we will have the consciousness of the Body, and automatically any individual thought and action are ruled out.

The greatest test of our spirituality is the Body life; if our life with the Lord with our experience and enjoyment of Christ doesn’t fit in the Body life, we need to be adjusted by the Lord.

When we see the Body, our life and work as individuals will cease; we will live in the Body life, and our whole life and work will be in the realm of the Body. In the Body of Christ there cannot be independence or individualism (see 1 Cor. 12:21-22, 27; Rom. 12:5; Eph. 5:30).

In the Body life, any individualistic thought and action are ruled out. God hates individualism, for the enemy of the Body is the self, the independent “I” (see Matt. 16:21-26).

For us to live the Body life and thus be truly spiritual and useful for the building up of the Body, we need to deny the independent self and learn to do everything through the cross and by the Spirit so that we may minister Christ for the building up of the Body.

We must keep the oneness of the Body and practice blending, which is most helpful in keeping the oneness of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:3-4; 1 Cor. 12:24).

What the Lord wants to gain is the reality of the Body of Christ, which is a corporate living of conformity to the death of Christ through the power of resurrection (Phil. 3:10).

We need to be conformed to the death of Christ, entering into the corporate living of conformity to the death of Christ not by our will but by the power of resurrection.

The reality of the Body of Christ is in the resurrection life of Christ; the Body of Christ requires us, the believers in Christ to be absolutely in the resurrection life of Christ (see John 11:25; Acts 2:24; Rev. 1:18; 2:8; Phil. 3:10).

The whole building of God is resurrection; when we are measured by the building, anything natural will be identified and will be eliminated by the immune system in the Body.

The cross brings us to the Body, which is the realm of resurrection; then, in the realm of resurrection, the cross is constantly working to being our entire being into resurrection, so that we may live the Body life.

Lord Jesus, save us from being individualistic Christians who do not live the Body life. May the Body life be the measure and test of our spirituality, and may everything we do, say, and are be in the Body, for the Body, and through the Body. Oh Lord, may any individualistic thought and action be ruled out as we have a revelation of the Body and live the Body life. We want to keep the oneness of the Body and practice blending, doing everything through the cross and by the Spirit to minister Christ for the building up of the Body.

Living the Body Life and Keeping every Principle of the Body in the Church Life

As members of the Body, we need to realize that there are some principles in the Body of Christ, and we need to keep these principles so that we may live the Body life for the building up of the Body of Christ.

First of all, only Christ is the Head of the Body, and only Christ has the authority to direct the moves of the members of the Body (Col. 1:18; 2:19; Eph. 4:15).

We have no right or standing to direct other members, but we can learn to be one with the Head and let His authority and speaking flow through us in fellowship concerning moving somewhere or doing something.

We need to be those who are conscious of the Body, and we need to care for the feeling of the Body and the peace of the Body (1 Cor. 12:26-27; Rom. 12:15; Col. 3:15; Phil. 1:8). We are not here to cater for the opinions or feelings of others, but we do want to care for the feeling of the Body (which is in our spirit), and the peace of the Body.

When Paul was saved by the Lord and enquired of Him, What shall I do, Lord? He said, go into the city, and it will be told to you; and what happened was that a member of the Body represented the Lord to speak to Paul.

A basic requirement for the growth and development of the Body is that we recognize our measure and not go beyond it in the church life (see Eph. 4:7, 16; 2 Cor. 10:13).

The Lord has put in us the sense of life, and according to this sense and according to the saints of others’ spirits we realize what our function is and how much we can function, what is our measure.

We will realize our need for the Body; what we don’t know, other members know, and what we can’t do, other members can do. The Body of Christ has its proper order; we need to recognize and honor the order in the Body (1 Cor. 12:14-22).

When we come together for the Table meeting, prayer meeting, home meetings, and other kinds of meetings, we sense that there’s an organic order, and we will keep the order in the Body. Mutuality is the characteristic of the Body, and our relationship in the Body is one of mutuality and interdependence.

We all have different portions, different measures, different functions, and we’re at different levels of growth in life, but there is mutuality. The Lord wants to recover our dependence on Him and on the saints; He wants us to avail ourselves constantly of the fellowship of the Body, for it is our very life.

The divine fellowship is the reality of living in the Body of Christ (1 John 1:3); we need to live in the fellowship of the Body, being dependent on the circulation of life in the Body of Christ, and realizing that we as members need to let the Lord flow in and out, and we need the fellowship and help of the other members in the Body.

We need to care for the growth of the body and the Body’s building up of itself in love (Eph. 4:15-16).

Our concern should be not only for our own personal growth in life, but more and more our prayers should be for the growth of the Body all over the earth and for the building up of the Body so that the Lord can have His bride and come to end this age.

We should always consider the Body, care for the Body, and do what is best for the Body.

Apart from the Body we have nothing and we are nothing, for our living and being is in the Body – we are members of the Body, and we need to live the Body life.

We need to see the Body, know the Body, care for the Body, honor the Body, and do the work of the Body; we need to keep every principle of the Body for the full expression of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23; 3:18-19; 4:1-6).

Lord Jesus, we want to live the Body life and keep every principle of the Body, for we realize that we are members of the Body! Grant us to care for the Body, always consider the Body, honor the Body, and do what is best for the Body. Keep us in the divine fellowship, the flow of life in the Body, the circulation of the divine life in the Body of Christ. Lord, we pray for the growth of the Body, the building up of the Body, and the preparation of the Bride, so that You may gain what You are after in this age!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 44, chs. 98-99, 103, 106; as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Ezekiel (2), msg. 8 (week 20 in the HWMR), Being Measured by God’s Building.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Built up in love together, / Not one would criticize; / To perfect one another, / We all would exercise. / Each one from self delivered, / The natural life forsakes; / In grace each trained in spirit / The Body-life partakes. (Hymns #867)
  # I live, if you stand firm in the Lord. / You live, if I stand firm in the Lord. / My going on is for you, / Your going on is for me, / Not sep’rate entities, / I need you saints desp’rately! (Song on being in the Body)
  # In God’s house and in Thy Body / Builded up I long to be, / That within this corporate vessel / All shall then Thy glory see. (Hymns #840)