The Lord Desires to Recover the Body Testimony: All Members of the Body Functioning

God’s good pleasure, His heart’s desire, is to meet the demand of this age, which is God’s need in this age; what He desires to gain is the Body testimony, all members functioning, so that every member of the Body would function in its measure for the building up of the Body. Amen!

This week we come to a new topic in the morning revival entitled, God’s Good Pleasure. Have you ever considered that God has a good pleasure, a heart’s desire?

We have a heart’s desire, we have a good pleasure, and there are particular things or activities that we like, we delight in, and we just love to do or spend time in. Even more, God Himself has a good pleasure, a heart’s desire, which is to meet the demand of this age, that is, to meet God’s need in this age.

We have seen that God has a need – He needs man to cooperate with Him, for His need is to subdue the enemy, recover the earth, end the age, and for this, He needs the man-child, His dispensational instrument.

The man-child, however, is not an individual person; rather, it is the Body of Christ being built up by all the members functioning in their measure to become the bride of Christ who will bring Him back.

We believers in Christ realized that we have a need: we need salvation; through hearing the gospel, we were convicted by the Lord, we confessed our sins, we repented, and we believed into the Lord.

When we believe into the Lord, our sins are forgiven, we are reconciled to God, we are justified, and we are organically joined to the Lord to be one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17).

The more we spend time with the Lord in His word, the more we realize that we are here on earth not for our need but for God’s need.

God has a need. He has a heart’s desire, a good pleasure, and when His heart’s desire is fulfilled, He is satisfied and we are satisfied. In every age, God has a particular need; today, at the end of the age of the church, God’s need is to recover the Body testimony, the functioning of all the members of the Body of Christ.

If we are intrinsically involved in God’s need, we will be the most joyful persons on earth. When we take care of ourselves and take things into our own hands, we have no idea what to do and what our real need is.

We think we meet our own needs by doing this and that, but it is only when we care for God’s need that our need is met, and only when God is satisfied are we also satisfied.

We need to be involved in the fulfillment of God’s need, for we are joined to Him; when His need is met, we are satisfied, and when He gains His heart’s desire, we are happy because He in us is happy.

The Lord’s Heart’s Desire is to Recover the Body Testimony, the Functioning of Every Member of the Body

If we look at church history, we will see that God has raised some “spiritual giants”, some “five-talented” ones, who did a great work for God.

Today, however, it seems that there are not too many such ones; there are not many “spiritual giants” today because the age of such giants is gone.

We are now in the age of the Body of Christ, and what God needs today is the Body testimony, which is the reality of the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem.

This fulfills the Lord’s heart’s desire according to His word concerning the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:1-16; Matt. 16:18).

The Lord prophesied that He will build up the church; He has been doing this little by little, and He wants to gain a built-up church to be His Body as His bride to bring Him back.

What the Lord needs today is that all the members of the Body would function in their measure so that there would be the Body testimony, the testimony of a group of people living in the reality of the Body of Christ.

No member of the Body can do what the whole Body does, and no member is the whole Body; rather, all the individual members are needed to function in their measure so that the Body would be built up in love (Eph. 4:15-16).

Today the Lord is doing the work of recovering the Body testimony; yes, He does give gifts to the Body, but these gifts are for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry.

The gifts given by the Head to the Body are not to replace the function of the saints but rather to perfect them so that every member would function in its measure in a perfected way for the building up of the Body.

The age of big preachers and big teachers is gone; we are now in the age of the Body of Christ, not of brother So-and-so but of brother “we”.

We cannot have one or two brothers who do everything in the church; the whole church needs to rise up and function and every member of the Body needs to be perfected by the Lord through the members to function in its measure.

It is not only some specific gifted individuals who should preach the gospel, edify the saints, shepherd the saints, and save the lost; it is the whole church who needs to do this.

The church needs to beget new believers, establish the believers, edify the new believers, and serve as one man, with all members functioning.

May we cooperate with the Lord today so that the Body testimony would be recovered and manifested.

May we cooperate with the Lord in prayer and in our service so that all the members would enjoy the Lord, hold Him as the Head, open to Him to be supplied, and be perfected to function in their measure for the building up of the Body of Christ.

When we preach the gospel, it should not be merely some individual gifted saints who should speak, while the others help by putting up posters and passing out gospel invitation flyers.

Rather, all the saints can invite their friends, neighbours, and relatives to the gospel meeting, and even though a person may speak, the whole Body speaks, for all members function in their measure.

The whole church needs to rise up to serve; this kind of service will be the whole Body serving together.

It is not likely that the Lord will no longer raise great spiritual giants who preach the gospel powerfully or great teachers who speak eloquently; He is perfecting each individual member of the Body to function in their measure.

And He is gaining the proper fellowship and coordination among the saints so that each one functions not individualistically but in the Body, in coordination, in fellowship, for the Body testimony to be brought forth.

Lord Jesus, recover the Body testimony among us in the church life today for the fulfillment of Your heart’s desire. Amen, Lord, it is Your desire to build up the church as the Body of Christ – do it among us, do it with us, and do it in and through all the saints as Your many members! May all the members of the Body rise up to function in their measure as they are enjoying the supply from the Head and are being perfected by the gifted members. Amen, Lord Jesus, may the whole Body serve together. May the whole church rise up to serve as one man, each member learning to function in his measure for the building up of the Body!

As one-Talented Members of the Body, we need to be Perfected to Function for the Building up of the Body

The church as the Body of Christ is composed of all the members of the Body; most of these members are one-talented member, not three-talented or five-talented members.

It may be that in twenty years the Lord may raise up one five-talented member, but every day there are one-talented members that can function in their measure.

As ministers of the present age, brother Nee and brother Lee are patterns to us so that we may be perfected unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ (1 Tim. 1:16; 4:12; 1 Cor. 4:16-17).

We all are one-talented members of the Body are being perfected in this age to become functioning members of the Body of Christ for the recovery of the Body testimony.

The work of the ministry is to equip and perfect all the saints to function in the Body. Spiritual giants are a hindrance to the producing of the church ministry; the church is, intrinsically, the Body of Christ, and all members have a particular function.

The church as the Body of Christ is brought forth when all the one-talented members of the Body – that’s you and me – are functioning.

Talents in Matt. 24:14-30 signify spiritual gifts, and each member of the Body has at least one talent (Rom. 12:6; 1 Cor. 12:4, 12-27; 1 Pet. 4:10).

However, due to the fact that the one-talented members of the Body do not use their talent but rather, they consider that the gift they have is too small so they hide it in the earth, many problems come in. Oh, Lord!

For the work of the Lord, we need the talent, the spiritual gift, that we may be equipped as good slaves to accomplish God’s eternal economy.

The Lord as the Head of the Body has given each one of us at least a spiritual gift, and we need to open to the Lord in our time with Him and to the gifted members in the Body in coordination to be perfected and equipped so that we may function in our measure in the Body.

Surely, we must make all the five-talented ones serve and the two-talented ones serve, but even more, we need to help, encourage, perfect, and equip the many one-talented saints to serve.

Think about it: the five-talented members are quite rare, but if you put together five one-talented members, they equal one that has five talents.

If we all as the one-talented members in the Body would bring forth our talent, there would be no need for so many great gifts among us.

Rather, just by the coming forth of the one-talented ones, the whole world will be conquered (see Acts 17:6).

What the Lord wants is not that we would labor day-and-night doing what He has entrusted us to do; rather, in this age of the Body, we need to bring others into their function and help them function in their measure so that their portion would be manifested.

If our work doesn’t bring out the one-talented ones to function for the Body testimony, our work is a failure.

Our way of work today is as outlined in 2 Tim. 2:2 and Eph. 4:11-12, the way of not doing all things in ourselves but of bringing out the function of the other members.

Only those who teach and perfect others to work will succeed in the work.

Today the work of the building up of the church hinges on the perfecting, building up, and raising up of the one-talented ones.

What we today need to do is to be those who lead others into their function in serving the Lord for the church so that He may gain the Body testimony in this age.

We shouldn’t replace others in their service but rather draw out their function and release their portion in the Body.

Lord Jesus, rise up in all the one-talented members of the Body that they would be perfected and encouraged to function in their measure! Save us from replacing others’ function. Save us from doing the work all by ourselves and in ourselves. May we be joined to You and joined to the saints so that, in the Body, we would labor together, drawing out others’ portion and encouraging others to function. Amen, Lord, may all the one-talented members of the Body exercise their spiritual gift and function in the Body according to their measure, in a perfected way, so that You may gain the Body testimony today! May our work for the Lord bring out the function of the one-talented ones. May there be the perfecting and raising up of the one-talented members of the Body so that all the members of the Body would function in coordination for the building up of the Body in love!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a message by bro. Ed Marks on this topic, and portions from, Messages Given during the Resumption of Watchman Nee’s Ministry, 2nd ed., vol. 1, chs. 26, 45-46, 49-50, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Meeting God’s Need and Present needs in the Lord’s Recovery, week 2, God’s Good Pleasure.
• Recommended further reading:
  – As members of the Body / Christ we would manifest, / Each learning how to function / His fulness to express; / We would not be spectators / But each as members move, / None bringing death or damage / But each our profit prove. (Hymns #867)
  – From the Head to the Body flows a rich supply. / Thus as members of Christ we must relate. / Every need in the Body can be met thereby. / Build us up in Your Body, we pray. / Members one of another, the Body will grow, / As we’re knit together in our inward parts. / Open firstly to Christ our Head, then life He will bestow / Through the function in measure of each part. (Song on, From the Head to the Body)
  – All the saints of Christ are / Members every one; / All coordinating / Into oneness come. / Each, the others needing, / Must impartial be; / Each his place possesses / And utility. / By our grace are measured / Gifts both large and small; / Each with sober judgment / Takes his place with all. (Hymns #854)