Living in the Mingled Spirit to have a Corporate and Mingling Living for the Reality of the Body

We need to be those living in the mingled spirit to have a corporate and mingling living for the reality of the Body of Christ.

What God desires is that the reality in Jesus – the God-man living of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels – would be duplicated in the many members of the Body of Christ by the Spirit of reality to become the reality of the Body of Christ; for this, blending is absolutely necessary.

This week we have been prayerfully considering the matter of the reality of the Body of Christ and the matter of blending, and how we need to be blended together for the Lord to gain the reality of the Body of Christ on earth.

Actually, the reality of the Body is a corporate living that is the duplication of the living of Christ; when Christ lives again in us, the members of His Body, He is expressed and represented, and God is satisfied.

For this to take place, we need to live in the mingled spirit and learn to be blended; on one hand, we need to live in our spirit mingled with the Spirit of reality to be guided into all the reality of what Christ is and is doing, and on the other hand, we need to be blended with the saints in the Body.

We are not mere individual believers doing their best to live Christ; rather, our living of Christ is for the building up of the Body, for the Lord to gain a corporate God-man living that expresses Him on earth.

So we need to be blended, that is, we need to enter into the blending life of the Body of Christ by learning to fellowship with the saints through the cross, by the Spirit, to minister Christ to others for the building up of the Body.

May the Lord give us a deeper appreciation of our need for blending, and may we be saved from lowering or watering down the meaning of this wonderful word, blending.

The apostle Paul set a pattern of blending all the saints in Rome together with the saints who read the epistle to the Romans, and by his mentioning of so many names, situations, persons, homes, and people in Rom. 16, we see the blending life of the Body in his days.

We need to follow in the apostle Paul’s footsteps to bring all the saints and enter into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ.

When we enter into this blending life, when we not only live Christ by denying the self and living in the mingled spirit by the bountiful supply of the Spirit but we also are blended together in the Body for the building up of the Body, the God of peace has a way to crush Satan under our feet.

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 just many local churches in a physical way (as much as this is needed) but an organic Body to be His organism.

Living in the Mingled Spirit to Learn Christ according to the Reality in Jesus by the Spirit of Reality to become the Reality of the Body of Christ

When God became man to live a God-man life on earth for thirty-three and half years, He perfected a model to be a prototype for reproduction; reality is in Jesus – in the human life of Jesus.

That human living of Jesus was what Paul referred to in Eph. 4:20-24; He as the first God-man lived a God-man life, for He lived a life of reality in contrast to the life of vanity and deceit lived by the people in the world.

Christ had a God-man living in which was reality. He became the prototype ready for reproduction at the end of His life; He went to the cross to be crucified, and in resurrection, He became a life-giving Spirit, who is the Spirit of reality.

He became such a Spirit in order to enter into all His believers to begin His duplicating work to mass-reproduce Himself in them and make them the many God-men.

The life-giving Spirit, who is the Spirit of reality, is the One referred to by Paul in 1 Cor. 12:12; in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, and we were all given to drink of the one Spirit.

We have been put in the Spirit of reality, who is filled with the reality of Jesus; it is here that we are to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus.

Just as the dough put by the baker into the mold learns that mold and takes the shape of that mold when baked, so we have been put into Christ as the mold so that we may become, as the Body, the same as Him to express the reality of the Body of Christ.

The Spirit of reality is absolutely for the Body; reality is in Jesus, and the Spirit wants to replicate this reality in all of us.

Through baptism, we have been put into this Spirit, and today we are drinking of this one Spirit. This Spirit of reality contains the reality in Jesus, and He is conforming us, blending us, making us the reality of the Body of Christ.

The reality of the Body of Christ is the Spirit of reality, who is the Spirit of Jesus, mingled with our spirit; this Spirit includes the reality in Jesus, the God-man living of Jesus (see John 16:13; Acts 16:7; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17; Phil. 1:19-21a).

The reality of the Body of Christ is simply the mingling of the Spirit of Jesus with our spirit.

When we believers in Christ live in the mingled spirit, we are learning Christ according to the reality in Jesus by the Spirit of reality according to His model in the four Gospels so that His biography becomes our history (Eph. 1:17; 2:22; 3:5, 16; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18; Gal. 6:17-18; Rom. 1:1, 9; Phil. 2:5).

The living of the Body of Christ should actually be exactly the same as the living of Jesus revealed in the four Gospels.

We have been put into Christ, the mold; the Spirit of reality is in us to guide us into all the reality of what Christ is and Jesus has done, and when we live in the mingled spirit, we live out the reality of the Body of Christ corporately.

We are now in the process of being conformed to Christ and become His reproduction, his continuation, and His duplication; His biography is becoming our history.

The reality of the Body of Christ is a corporate living by the saints being the perfected God-men; these are genuine men who do not live by their life but by the life of the processed God, whose attributes have been expressed through their virtues (4:5-9).

This is the kind of living that Jesus lived: He denied Himself constantly to live by the life of God, and He experienced the cross daily in order to live by the divine life.

He didn’t just die on the cross at the end of His ministry on earth: His whole life was a constant dying to Himself to live by the life of God, and He lived the divine life to express the divine attributes through His human virtues.

God’s life with all its attributes was lived within Jesus, the God-man, and it was expressed as His virtues.

Now this life is in us to be expressed through us; in our spirit, we have the life of Jesus, and we can live in the mingled spirit to spontaneously live out Christ for the reality of the Body of Christ.

When the believers in Christ live by the divine life, they are being nourished, sanctified, transformed, and perfected to be God-men living a God-man life.

Amen, may we be such ones today – may we be the reproduction of Jesus who live in the reality of the Body of Christ to have the corporate living of the perfected God-men, who are genuine men but are not living by their life but by the divine life!

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming into us as the Spirit of reality to guide us into all the reality of what You are and to conform us to Your image. Amen, Lord, we open to You; we want to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus. Keep us drinking the Spirit until we live no longer in and by ourselves but in the mingled spirit. Amen, Lord, we want to live in the mingled spirit today so that the reality of the Body of Christ may come into being. May there be the corporate living by the perfected God-men today, the living not by their human life but by the divine life so that God may be expressed through them for the reality of the Body of Christ!

Having the Mingling Living in the Eternal Union of the God-men and the Triune God for the Reality of the Body of Christ

What is the reality of the Body of Christ? How can we enter into the reality of the Body of Christ? It is by means of our mingled spirit; it is a mingling living.

Paul said in Gal. 2:20 that he was crucified with Christ and it was no longer he who lived but Christ who lived in him; he was dying to his natural man and living by his new man with the divine life.

He also said that it was by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ he lived and magnified Christ (Phil. 1:19-21).

The reality of the Body of Christ is a mingling living, a living that is continually going on; it is the mingling living in the eternal union of the many God-men with the Triune God in the resurrection of Christ.

God desires to be one with man and be expressed through man; in Christ’s death a way was opened for man to be joined to God, and in His resurrection, we all were grafted into Him to be one with God.

Now in our mingled spirit, we are one spirit with the Lord, and our daily living as believers in Christ is a mingling living, a living in the mingling of God and man.

The word “mingling” and not “mingled” indicates that this living is still going on; such a mingling living is in the resurrection of Christ.

The reality of the resurrection of Christ is the Spirit; this resurrection imparts the consummated God and releases the death-overcoming life into the believers. Amen!

We need to live in the mingled spirit to have the mingling living in the eternal union of God and man – the union of the many God-men and the Triune God – for the reality of the Body of Christ.

When we have such a mingling living, a living in the mingled spirit, we reject the self and live by the life of God, so that it would be christ who is expressed through us.

When we live in the mingled spirit to live a mingling life, we will never be a trouble to anyone because we have been delivered out from ourselves and we have been transformed and perfected.

We will not condemn others, we will not cause any dissension, and we do not rebel or cause division; rather, we will simply care for the building up of the Body.

This corporate and mingling living by the perfected God-men consummates ultimately in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth as God’s increase and expression for eternity (Rev. 21:2-3, 9-11, 22).

May the Lord gain such a corporate and mingling living among us today in the church life so that He may gain the reality of the Body of Christ in us and with us.

May we realize that we are joined to the Lord as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), and our Christian life should be a mingling living, a continual living in the mingling of God and man for the expression of God in man.

May the Lord gain this vital factor of blending and the reality of the Body of Christ among us today in the church life.

The key is the Spirit of reality within us; to apply this, we need to live in the mingled spirit, our spirit mingled with the Spirit of Jesus which contains the reality in Jesus, His God-man living on earth.

Only when we live in the mingled spirit are we are organic to become His duplication, His reproduction, to be the reality of the Body of Christ.

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to live in the mingled spirit today. May we have a continual mingling living, a living in the continual mingling of God and man. Mingle Yourself with us more today. We praise You for making us one spirit with You so that we may live no longer by our human life but by the divine life in our spirit! Amen, Lord, we want to live in the mingled spirit to become Your reproduction, Your duplication. We give You our daily living; live in us, Lord, and mingle Yourself more with us. Impart more of Yourself into us and have a way to be expressed through us. Gain the reality of the Body of Christ in us and among us in the church life, and blend us together for the reality of the Body!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Practical Points concerning Blending, pp. 129-131, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Vital Factors for the Lord’s Recovery of the Church Life (2021 ITERO), week 7, The Factor of Blending for the Reality of the Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Now within the Lord’s recov’ry, we’re so glad to find the way / To experience the Triune God and live by Him today— / Get into the mingled spirit, and within the spirit stay; / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199)
  – By this the very Triune God is now / The living Spirit mingling deep within. / Our spirit joins in oneness; this is how / We are one spirit evermore with Him. / ’Tis by this Spirit that we walk and act, / We have our being, think, and see all things; / We’re now within this Spirit! What a fact! / This Spirit to us all God’s fullness brings! (Hymns #1195)
  – By this Person being formed in me, / I’ll a member of His Body be, / No more acting individually, / But with the saints. / More and more our Person He must be; / That our natural personality / Be eliminated thoroughly / Till Christ is all. / Only Christ, our Person, must remain; / From our aims, our goals we must refrain, / Till the church be only Christ Himself / Built up as the one new man, / Thus fulfilling God’s great plan of— / Mingling fully with the human race / To obtain a proper dwelling place, / ’Stablishing His kingdom’s rule and grace; / Over all the earth. (Hymns #1180)