The reality of the Body of Christ is the Spirit of reality who is mingled with our spirit, and whenever we turn to our spirit and live in spirit, we live out the Body life in reality.
Everything related to God, Christ, and the spiritual and divine things are in the Spirit, for the Spirit is the Spirit of reality, and this Spirit makes everything of God, Christ, and the divine things real to us in our experience.
We may think we understand that God is reality, Christ is reality, and the Spirit is the Spirit of reality making God and Christ real to us, but we need to have a fresh vision, with a humbled heart and open spirit, of how the Spirit of reality is the reality of the Body of Christ.
Without the Spirit of reality, there is no church, no Body of Christ – there may be a congregation and a social gathering, but without the Spirit of reality indwelling us and being lived in us, we have no real Body life, no real church life.
And without the reality of the Body, there is no full-grown man to express Him, no bride of Christ to match Him and bring Him back, and no kingdom of God to come and fill the earth.
Everything depends on the reality of the Body of Christ, which is the Spirit of reality indwelling us and making real to us all that God the Father is and has, all the Son is, has, and has accomplished, and all the divine things related to God.
Actually, everything related to God and Christ is a realm, a divine and mystical realm, which is the consummated Spirit, the consummation of the processed Triune God.
God went through a process – incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection, and in His resurrection He became enlarged to be a realm where all that is of God and of Christ is made real to the believers in the Spirit of reality.
The Spirit as the reality of the Triune God is the reality of the Body of Christ, and for us to touch the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to touch and live in the mingled spirit, where the Spirit of reality resides.
The Body has been baptised in one Spirit, and we all were given to drink of the one Spirit to be in reality the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). When we are in the spirit, immersed in the Spirit and drinking the Spirit, we are in the reality of the Body of Christ.
There is one Body and one Spirit, even as we were called in one hope of our calling (Eph. 4:4).
The essence and reality of the Body of Christ is the Spirit of reality, and for us to be in the Body in reality, we need to exercise our spirit, be in spirit, and live according to the spirit, for our spirit is mingled with the divine Spirit.
The Reality of the Body of Christ is the Spirit of Reality Making the Triune God Real to us in Spirit
What is the reality of the Body of Christ? As seen in Eph. 4:4, there is one Body and one Spirit; the Spirit is the essence and reality of the Body of Christ. The reality of the Body of Christ is the Spirit whom we have received, experienced, and enjoyed in many aspects.
Today Christ is the Spirit of reality – He passed through the process of death and resurrection and became the Spirit who makes God real to us.
Even more, the Spirit of reality is within us – He’s the indwelling Spirit, and we enjoy Him and experience Him in many aspects.
The Spirit of reality is the reality of the Body of Christ, for He makes everything of the processed and consummated Triune God real to us in the Body of Christ (2 Cor. 13:14; 1 Cor. 12:13, 27).
The reality of the Triune God with all that He is, has, and has accomplished is in the Spirit of reality.
The Spirit of reality has come into all the believers in Christ to guide them into all the reality, not by merely helping them to understand the things of God but by bringing them into the enjoyment and experience of all that God and Christ are and have subjectively.
The Spirit of reality makes everything of the processed Triune God real to the Body of Christ, and He makes all the riches of the Triune God – which actually are His reality – possible and real in the Body of Christ.
Everything that God is, including righteousness, holiness, life, light, power, grace, and all the divine attributes, are realised by us in the Spirit of reality who indwells us as members of the Body of Christ.
The church possesses the reality of the divine attributes and all the riches of the Triune God by means of the Spirit of reality.
By enjoying and experiencing the Spirit of reality, we can live a proper and normal human life, a life that expresses God in His divine attributes expressed through our human virtues, just as the Lord Jesus did, because the Spirit of reality makes this a reality to us.
The all-sufficient God (see Gen. 17:1 and Phil. 1:19) as the Spirit of reality dwelling in our spirit to be joined as one mingled spirit (Rom. 8:10; 1 Cor. 6:17) is the secret to all that the processed and consummated Triune God is to the Body of Christ. Wow!
The secret to knowing the Body and to knowing God is one thing: the Spirit of reality dwelling in our spirit to make God real and experiential to us in the Body.
The indwelling of Christ as the Spirit of reality in the believers is the secret for us to enter into all that the processed and consummated Triune God has and is, for us to become the reality of the Body of Christ.
The matter of Christ indwelling us is a tremendous one; it’s one thing to simply say that Christ is in us, but it is another to realise that He’s building His home in us, He’s the Spirit of reality imparting all the riches of God into us, and He makes us a priceless building, the Body of Christ, through His indwelling!
Praise the Lord for the Spirit of reality with our spirit – the mingled spirit, the key to knowing the Body and to knowing God in reality!
Thank You Lord Jesus for coming into us as the Spirit of reality to bring us into the reality of all that God is and to cause us to know the reality of the Body of Christ. Save us, Lord, from mere knowledge and mental understanding of what the Spirit of reality is and does in us. Oh Lord, bring us into the subjective knowledge and experience of the Spirit of reality as the reality of God and of the Body of Christ! May we know and experience the secret to all that the processed and consummated Triune God is to the Body of Christ in the Spirit of reality with our spirit!
Living in the Spirit to Touch the Spirit of Reality as the Reality of the Body of Christ
If we realise that the Spirit of reality is the reality of the Body of Christ, and if we really see that the Spirit of reality is mingled with our spirit as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), we will turn to our spirit and live in the spirit to live the Body life.
All that the processed and consummated Triune God experienced – including His incarnation, His crucifixion, and His resurrection – is realised by the Spirit of reality to be the attributes and experiences of the Body of Christ in reality (see Eph. 4:4-6).
The One who came to be incarnated to be flesh is full of grace and reality (John 1:14), and after living a wonderful human life on earth, He went to the cross, He died and offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit, and His death became effectual.
On one hand, when He was on the cross, Christ was dying in His flesh, and on the other, He was being made alive in the Spirit (1 Pet. 3:18).
Christ’s incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection are something altogether in the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit, the Spirit of reality; this Spirit is mingled with our spirit, and whenever we touch the Lord in spirit, we have all these realities applied to us.
Today our processed and consummated Triune God is consummated to be the Spirit experienced by us, realised by us, and enjoyed by us, to become the attributes and experiences of the Body of Christ in reality.
Only when we touch reality through the Spirit of reality in our spirit can we live out the Body life (see 1 John 5:6; John 16:13-14; Eph. 4:4, 12, 15-16).
When we turn to our spirit and live in the spirit, the death of Christ is realised in us through the Spirit of reality, and we will not lose our temper, neither will we blame or rebuke others.
When we turn to our spirit and live in the mingled spirit, we can live a normal human life on earth today by the Spirit of reality, expressing Christ in such a Jesusly-human way.
When we live in the mingled spirit, the Spirit with the resurrection of Christ works in us to enable us to love others and forgive them.
The reality of living in the Body of Christ is in the Spirit of reality, and the Spirit of reality is mingled with our spirit; the Spirit is the secret to all that the Triune God is to the Body of Christ.
For us to realise the Body life and for us to enjoy and experience what the Triune God is, has, and has accomplished, we need to turn to our spirit, set our mind on the spirit, and walk according to our spirit.
When we live in the mingled spirit, we will live out the Body of Christ and become His corporate expression.
The reality is in the Spirit, the Spirit is of reality, and the Spirit inwardly guides us into all the reality; we can touch the Body life and live in the reality of the Body of Christ only when we turn to our mingled spirit and live in the spirit.
Lord Jesus, we want to be those who touch reality through the Spirit of reality so that we may live out the Body life. Keep us turning to our spirit, setting our mind on our spirit, and living and walking according to the Spirit so that we may enjoy all that the Triune God is and live in the reality of the Body of Christ. Oh Lord, it only when we live in the mingled spirit that we can live out the Body of Christ and be His corporate expression, so keep us in our spirit! We turn to You right now, Lord, and we want to live one spirit with You today!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3425-3428 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 1, The Spirit of Reality Being the Reality of the Body of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# In Christ, the Father we possess, / Receiving Him for all our need; / In Spirit we experience Christ / As life and everything indeed. / With Thy divine reality, / Lord, fill us by Thy Spirit now, / That we may all be full of Thee, / And all Thy riches thus avow. (Hymns #243)
# We will all stir up this gift that’s deep within / As the wonderful Spirit in us. / When we call “Lord Jesus” how our spirits spring / With this life-giving Spirit in us! (Hymns #1113)
# Oh, Lord, grant us revelation, / Grant us light and sight to see / That as life, within our spirit, / Thou art our reality; / And that from within our spirit, / Now You must possess each part / Spreading out to all our being, / Making home in all our heart. (Hymns #1136)
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