For us to be in the reality of the Body of Christ we need to be absolutely in the resurrection life of Christ, having a living in resurrection in our daily life and in the church life.
We need to realise that resurrection means everything is of God and not of us, for God is able and we are not able.
Many times living in the resurrection life of Christ means that we don’t say anything but are one spirit with the Lord to be quiet. We see this in John 11 where Christ as resurrection life itself came, and all the people around Him had an opinion about Lazarus, his death, the way to do this and that, etc.
Our opinions many times obstruct and hinder the resurrection life being manifested.
In Philippians Paul exposes the matter of murmurings and reasonings, pointing out that these two items are obstacles to the Lord’s going on in us in the church life. Having murmurings and reasonings is a sign that we are short of resurrection.
We are so used to live in the natural man and in the natural realm that by default we live in this realm. But the Lord Jesus has come into us as resurrection life, and He wants us to be absolutely in the resurrection life of Christ and live in resurrection for the reality of the Body of Christ.
What we can do by ourselves and in ourselves belongs to the natural realm, but living in the resurrection life of Christ is in a different realm, and it seems to be impossible to us. But hallelujah, what is impossible to man is possible with God, as long as we come to Him, open to Him, and allow Him to work in us.
With the natural man it is impossible to live in the reality of the Body of Christ, but whenever we live in the resurrection life of Christ, all things are possible.
This is like the case of Abraham and Sarah, who didn’t have a child until their old age, until they thought that it is impossible to have a child.
When the Lord told Abraham that he will have a son, Sarah laughed, because she thought that this is impossible. Then later when she had Isaac, as the Lord promised, she laughed again, and she even called his name, laughter. Her first laughter was, It is impossible with man, and her second laughter was, It is possible with God.
When we realise our own inability and come to the Lord as we are to experience Him and His resurrection life, we will enter into the reality of the resurrection life of Christ, and this brings us into the reality of the Body of Christ. We cannot do this with and in our natural man, but in the resurrection life we can do it.
The Church is Absolutely Christly, Resurrectionly, and Heavenly
All believers in Christ were regenerated in the resurrection of Christ from the dead (1 Pet. 1:3), therefore, the church is in resurrection.
The church is a new creation created in Christ’s resurrection and by the resurrected Christ. This means that the church is in resurrection, that is, the church is resurrectionly.
Furthermore, the church is in the heavens, for in Eph. 2:6 we see that the church has been resurrected with Christ and also ascended with Him in the heavenlies. Today the church is with Christ in ascension, in the heavens. Therefore, the church is not only resurrectionly but also heavenly.
Just as Eve came out of Adam and was built with his element, having no other element besides Adam’s element, so the church was produced out of Christ, she is built with Christ as her unique element, and is fully Christ in resurrection.
Therefore, the church is absolutely in resurrection, absolutely in the heavens, and absolutely in Christ and of Christ. The church is absolutely and purely of the element of Christ, having no other element besides Christ’s element.
The church is absolutely in resurrection, and the reality of the Body of Christ is living in the resurrection life of Christ.
When we see this vision, when we realise that the church is absolutely heavenly, resurrectionly, and Christly, this will govern us and control our daily living.
We will then check with our living of the church life, in our coordination with the saints in our group, whether we are resurrectionly, Christly, and heavenly. We may have a good coordination, or we may simply go along with one of the saints who has a stronger personality, but either way, we may not be fully in resurrection.
We need to pass through the tunnel of death and enter into resurrection to produce nourishing food for the saints unto the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
We may have a “homey church life”, loving one another and meeting in homes, and we may be quite satisfied, but is this love and care in resurrection, in the heavenlies, and in Christ? As we see in 2 John 1, it is possible that we love one another in reality, in truthfulness.
We need to be encouraged and not discouraged, for our God is the God of possibility, and He is the Spirit of reality guiding us into the reality of His resurrection in the church life today.
Lord Jesus, grant us to see the vision of the church as something absolutely of the element of Christ, absolutely in resurrection, and absolutely in the heavenlies. May such a vision guide us and govern us in the church life today. May all our fellowship, coordination, meetings, activities, and interactions in the church life be absolutely resurrectionly, absolutely Christly, and absolutely heavenly.
Christ as the Resurrection Life Grows and Shines forth Light, and He as the Lampstand is Reproduced in the Church
The golden lampstand in Exo. 25:31-40 is a type of the church as the Body of Christ, and it portrays Christ as the resurrection life growing, budding, branching, and blossoming to shine the light (Num. 17:8; Rev. 1:11-12).
The lampstand is made of gold, but its shape and design gives us an impression that it is a tree, for it has branches, buds, blossoms, flowers, leaves, and calyxes.
The central stalk seems to grow out of the base, and then from the central stalk there are six branches, three on each side, and each branch has calyxes, leaves, buds, and blossoms, and the “fruit” is the light itself.
This indicates that Christ is growing, first in Himself, and then in His branches, which are the believers in Christ as the church. Christ grows in us little by little, and He grows with us in the church, for Him to shine forth His resurrection life.
Apparently we grow in life or in Christ, but actually, Christ grows in us in resurrection, and we grow with the growth of God until the stature of the fulness of Christ. The golden lampstand in Exo. 25 is full of almonds, which are the fruit – it’s like an almond tree having 25 calyxes and 22 blossom buds.
The lampstand as a type of Christ and the church is a resurrection tree; almonds point to resurrection. The lampstand in our place needs to be such a resurrection tree, full of the resurrection life of Christ.
We need to daily grow in the divine life and allow Christ to grow in us until we all arrive at the stature of the fulness of Christ.
As we meet together, care for one another, and help one another to enjoy the Lord, we need to enjoy the resurrection life of Christ and live in resurrection. We need to contact the Spirit of reality so that He may guide us by the divine life within us until we live in resurrection.
Lord Jesus, grow in us day by day until we all arrive at the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ! Amen, Lord Jesus, may the church be a resurrection tree and may our living in the church be a living in the resurrection life of Christ. May our fellowship with others, our care for them, and our service in the church be in resurrection and with the resurrection life of Christ, not in our natural life or with our natural zeal.
Living in the Resurrection Life of Christ to be in the Reality of the Body of Christ
Paul’s aspiration in Phil. 3:10-11 was that he would know Christ’s resurrection, be conformed to His death, and attain to the out-resurrection from the dead. He saw something concerning Christ with His death and resurrection, and he realised that only by living in the resurrection life of Christ can he build up the church.
Resurrection is not a matter of time but of a Person; Christ Himself is resurrection (John 11:25).
This One – who is the Creator of man and of all things – came to become a man, lived a human life, died, and resurrected, and all throughout His living He lived in resurrection.
He didn’t do anything of Himself, He didn’t speak His own words, He didn’t do His own work, and He didn’t seek His own glory – He simply lived in resurrection a life for the Father’s glory.
We should also be the same kind of people today, those who do not do anything in our natural life but in Christ’s resurrection life.
We need to learn to reject our flesh, repudiate our old man, and deny the self so that we may live by the resurrection life of Christ, and our living will be in the reality of the Body of Christ.
The Lord Jesus lived such a life, and this made Him a divine and mystical person living in the divine and mystical realm, doing everything in a divine and mystical way.
When we are in the office at work, at home with our family, at school, or on the street, we need to be such ones; we need to live in the resurrection life of Christ to be divine and mystical persons for the building up of the church.
When we do this, others will see something different about us, something mysterious yet divine, human yet so Christly. When we do not live by our natural life but live by the divine life within us, we are in resurrection; the issue of this is the Body of Christ (Phil. 3:10-11).
Therefore, we all need to be discipled by the Lord to be divine and mystical persons, those living the divine life by denying our natural life (see John 3:8).
If we still live in the natural life and do things in the natural life, no matter what we do – even if we do things in a Scriptural way – we are not in the reality of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 3:12).
Just as the Lord Jesus discipled His followers both through His living on earth before His death and after His death, so we need to be discipled by the Lord to live in the resurrection life of Christ.
We may put on a certain kind of performance or living when we’re with the saints in the meetings, but when the meeting is over, our mask is put aside. The meetings may be over, but the Body life is not over; the Body life with its reality is 24/7, non-stop.
When we are at home with our spouse and children, when we’re by ourselves in our room, early in the morning when we wake up and before we go to bed, all the time, we need to learn to live not in our natural life but in the resurrection life of Christ.
Do we live in the reality of the Body at home, with our spouse and children? When others speak to us or do things, do we just react and then contact the Lord, or do we live by the divine life in our spirit?
The Spirit of reality in us is moving all the time to say, No, don’t do that…Don’t say that….Don’t treat this person this way…Ask for forgiveness…Apologise…
If we listen to the Spirit’s speaking within and deny our self, put aside our natural life, and live in spirit, we will live in the reality of the Body of Christ. We need to be discipled by the Lord from being a natural man to being a God-man, from living in the natural life to living in Christ’s resurrection life.
Lord Jesus, we aspire to live in the resurrection life of Christ so that we may be in the reality of the Body of Christ. We open to Your discipling, Lord, so that we may no longer be natural men living in the natural life but God-men living by the divine life. Oh Lord, bring our whole being with all our speaking, doing, activities, and things fully and absolutely in the resurrection life of Christ. May we live by the divine life in the church life, at home, at school, at work, and wherever we are and whatever we do!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ricky Acosta for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, The Vital Groups, chs. 2-5, 10-11, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 2, Living in Resurrection for the Reality of the Body of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Oh, may I know this resurrection life, / In every kind of death its pow’r outpoured, / In my experience ever realize / This life is nought but Christ my living Lord. (Hymns #639)
# Living out His resurrection, / Dying to the flesh and soul-life. / Living by the mingled spirit, / Natural man we will deny. / Now we’re living in the Body, / Every day we’re overcoming, / Striving for the peak of Zion, / Watching for our Lord’s appearing. (Song on, God has called us for His purpose)
# Minding just the spirit, we the cross will know, / And His resurrection pow’r thru us will flow; / Minding just the spirit, Christ will live thru me, / And His life within will reach maturity. (Hymns #593)
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