Living Christ for the Body by Letting Christ’s Word Dwell in us and being Open Vessels

We can live Christ for the reality of the Body of Christ by being filled with the Spirit, by letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly, by praying unceasingly, and by being open vessels to the Lord.

May we really be open vessels to the Lord, those who are not filled with their opinions and thoughts and preoccupations but who allow the Lord to deliver us from anything that hinders His word to bear fruit and be lived out in us.

The Lord has to gain a group of people who live Christ for the reality of the Body of Christ; such ones realise that they are members of the Body, their life is the life of Christ – which is the life in the Body of Christ, and they live and walk not in their natural man but in the mingled spirit.

Hallelujah for our mingled spirit, the key to God’s economy, the key to knowing God’s purpose and cooperating with Him for the fulfillment of His purpose!

When we turn to our spirit, we enjoy life and peace; when we set our troublesome and wondering mind on our spirit, our mind becomes life and peace, for the spirit spreads into our mind.

How do we turn to our spirit? How can we live Christ? How can our living be for the reality of the Body of Christ? In our daily life we may not have time or opportunity to read the Bible every moment of the day, and we may not be able to meet with the saints again and again throughout the day.

There are some keys, some secrets, which Paul reveals to us concerning living Christ; the first such secret is praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance (Eph. 6:18). The reason we do not live Christ is because we don’t breathe spiritually, that is, we don’t pray at every time.

And to pray doesn’t mean that we stop everything and kneel down and pray… – this is one kind of prayer; to pray at every time in spirit means that we are open vessels to the Lord, and we constantly speak with Him about everything.

The Lord Jesus was such a One; He constantly “answered and said” – nobody asked Him anything before this, but He answered and said because He was in a constant conversation and communication with the Father.

As we go to school or to work, we need to speak with the Lord, telling Him to come with us, be with us, be the One living in us, and be the One who is expressed through us.

As we study or work, we need to inwardly call on the name of the Lord; the most simple prayer, our spiritual breathing, is to simply say, Oh Lord Jesus! We need to learn to pray unceasingly by building up a habit or prayer in our daily life.

Living Christ for the Body by Praying at Every time in Spirit to be Filled with the Spirit

We can live Christ for the reality of the Body of Christ according to the law of the Spirit of life by being filled with the Spirit in our spirit and by praying unceasingly (see Eph. 5:18-20).

Living Christ is different from experiencing Christ; we may experience Christ from time to time, and we may contact Christ time and time again, but living is a constant and continual matter, something spontaneous, and something that comes natural.

For us to live Christ for the Body we must be constantly connected to Christ, “plugged into” Christ. How can we be constantly connected to Christ? How can we keep ourselves plugged into the heavenly current?

1 Thes. 5:17 says, Unceasingly pray; Col. 4:2 says, Persevere in prayer, and Eph. 6:18 says, Praying at every time in spirit. The way we can live Christ is by praying at every time in spirit.

Praying at every time doesn’t mean praying every day or every hour; it means praying every minute and even every second. Praying can be likened to breathing; breathing has to happen unceasingly, for when we stop breathing, we die.

Our spiritual breathing is our prayer life; if we pray unceasingly, we are living Christ for the Body, but if we don’t, we don’t live Christ, and we don’t live spiritually.

We Christians tend to be quite abnormal in this, for we may contact the Lord in the morning, then we may remember Him before lunchtime or at lunch, and then in the evening we may say another prayer, just before going to bed, and we think this is good enough. Can we breathe only three times a day and live?

And even if we were to pray every hour, setting up a system of reminding ourselves to pray every waking hour, can we live by breathing once every hour? We need to realise that we need to pray unceasingly, pray continually, and pray at every time in spirit.

This means we need to constantly speak with the Lord, opening to Him about everything. As we travel to work and are on the bus, we need to tell Him,

Lord, thank You, I am sitting in You; You take me to God’s destination, and You are my means of transportation. Lord, I breathe You in. You are the fresh breath of spiritual air. I rest in You; I take You as my rest. Lord, You live in me today for the reality of the Body. You are everything to me!

Simply by telling the Lord again and again all things, and by calling on His name, we build up a habit of praying unceasingly, and in this way we build up a habit of living Christ. And when we pray unceasingly, we are filled with the Spirit (Col. 3:17).

As we practice to pray by conversing with the Lord and unceasingly breathe ourselves out and breathe Him in, we are inwardly emptied of ourselves and we breathe the Lord in to be filled and saturated with the Spirit; then, spontaneously, we will live Christ.

Lord Jesus, keep us conversing with You and calling on Your name all the time so that we may pray at every time in spirit. Amen, Lord, may our spiritual breathing be never interrupted. Keep us in an atmosphere of prayer, with a spirit of prayer, having a prayer life and a living in prayer before You and with You. We love You, Lord, and we need You. We want to let You live in us and through us so that You may live the Christian life for the church life. Lord, live in us today. Live in us the God-man life for the reality of the Body of Christ!

Living Christ for the Body by Letting Christ’s Word Dwell in us and being Open Vessels

We can live Christ for the reality of the Body of Christ according to the law of the Spirit of life by letting Christ’s word dwell in us richly (Col. 3:16-17) and by being empty and open vessels to the Lord.

On the one hand we have the “antenna wire”, which is the Spirit in our spirit, to whom we turn and with whom we want to be filled; on the other hand, we have the “ground wire”, which is the word of God.

On one hand we need to pray at every time in spirit, and on the other, we need to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly.

How do we let the word of Christ dwell in us? It is in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to God. Then, whatever we do, in word or in deed, we should do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

We need to daily practice this; we must practice continual prayer and continual praying over God’s word so that we may make the word our daily food, drink, praising, psalming, singing, and even speaking.

We need to be filled with the Word of God to the point that we are saturated with God’s word, and whatever we say is based in God’s word, whatever we do is according to His word, and His word speaks to us and regulates us from within.

The Bible is a book like no other, but it all depends on the person and the attitude of the one who reads it.

If we merely read the Bible with our mind, we will get knowledge, and we may understand the doctrines, but if we exercise our spirit and our whole being to breathe in the Word of God by praying it, praising the Lord with the Word, sing-reading the word, and psalm-reading the word, the Bible will become a living book to us.

We have to admit that we lack this very much; many times we may read the Bible just with our mind, and we may pick a verse to chew on with our spirit; but what about singing the word, psalming the word, praying with the Lord, and breathing in the Lord by reading His word?

When we exercise our spirit to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, we will receive the living Word of God and we will be infused with God, transfused with Him, and permeated with His element, making Him everything to us and making us one with Him.

The written word of God has to become the living, spoken, instant word that God speaks to us by our opening to Him and exercising our spirit to pray, muse, and ponder on His word.

Many times we need to take a verse or a few verses and just “chew on them” with prayer so that they would be our supply and operate in us; in this way the written word becomes the living word and even the inward, constant word that supplies us and becomes part of us.

In this way we can live Christ, both by praying at every time in spirit and by allowing His word to dwell in us richly.

It seems that God doesn’t want us to do anything for Him; He wants us to just to love Him, open ourselves up to Him, pray and let His word dwell in us, and allow the Lord to live from within us.

From the very creation of man, God had no intention for man to do anything for Him; He wanted man to take God in as life and let God live through him. We simply need to be emptied and open vessels, opening our vessel to the Lord for Him to fill us, saturate us, and live in us.

If our vessel is open, God can fulfill His purpose, but if our vessel is closed, God’s purpose is frustrated in us.

Paul was an open vessel, and God could fill him and operate in him and through him. We can live Christ for the reality of the Body of Christ according to the law of the Spirit of life by being empty and open vessels (see Matt. 5:3; Luke 1:53; 2 Kings 4:1-6). May we learn to open to the Lord and tell Him,

Lord, we are here for You and for Your purpose; we are not here to do things for You but to be open vessels for You to come in and fill us and live in us. Lord, we are incapable of fulfilling Your purpose; we are not able to do anything, but we can open our vessel to You, receive Your dispensing, and be filled with You so that we can live Christ for the reality of the Body. We want to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our heart to God! Amen, Lord, fill us and live in us, and make us those who are living Christ for the Body in our daily life!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1980, vol. 1, “Perfecting Training,” chs. 15-17, 22, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living in the Reality of the Body of Christ by Keeping the Principles of the Body (2019 ICSC), week 5, Living Christ for the Reality of the Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Let us work together with the Lord through prayer, / Praying every time and everywhere. / He will not accomplish His will on His own; / Seek Him ‘till His purpose is made known. (Song on, Let us work together with the Lord through prayer)
  # We have the Word! The written Word’s our daily food; / We mix this Word with faith and say “Amen!” / Then thro’ the day, the spoken Word will speak to us / And regulate our living from within. (Hymns #1287)
  # My every moment is to live unto You. / In everything dear Lord, / You must now break through. / I’m just a vessel, You’re my treasure within. / O Lord, keep spreading in my entire being / By calling, O Lord Jesus, / That name most precious. / Jesus, Jesus. (Song on, I never thought that God would be enjoyable)