May the Lord Recover the Church Meetings in Mutuality with All the Saints Functioning!

The Lord today desires to recover the church meetings in mutuality with all the members functioning for the building up of the Body of Christ.

It is not only some particular members who are more gifted or trained that should function; rather, all the members of the Body of Christ should function in their measure, even function in mutuality, for the building up of the organic Body of Christ.

According to the Lord’s mind, the recovery is to bring His believers – ALL His believers – out of the clergy-laity system and to replace this system with the scriptural way to meet and to serve for the building up of the Body of Christ.

We may say that in the church life we don’t have a system of clergy-laity, but unconsciously we have been affected by the system in Christianity, for we may think that the elders or the co-workers are a bit higher than others, and we the rest should silently listen to them. Oh Lord!

In our human body there is no member that stands out; the only member that stands out and that everyone looks at and speaks with is the head, and the head directs all the members.

If, however, any of the members is not functioning properly, or if a member doesn’t function at all, that member stands out, and the whole body suffers.

Similarly in the Body of Christ only the Head, Christ, stands out, and He has appointed some to be joints of the rich supply not to replace the saints but for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry unto the building up of the Body of Christ.

However, too many times when someone is manifested to be a joint of the rich supply and functions in a particular capacity, all the other members encourage him to function more and more, while they listen quietly. Oh Lord!

The Lord doesn’t want a few gifted ones to do all the work while the other members do nothing; rather, He wants that all the members of the Body would be perfected in their organic function for them to build up the Body of Christ by their function in their measure.

And one of the main ways we function in the church for the building up of the church is by speaking; when we come to the meeting we shouldn’t sit down quietly and wait for the more mature ones to speak or lead or do something – rather, we should exercise our spirit and enjoy the Lord!

May the Lord recover the church meetings in mutuality with all members functioning for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ!

When we come to the Meetings, Each One Has something to Share for the Building up of the Church

Paul speaks concerning the meetings of the church, encouraging us to have church meetings in mutuality with each one functioning – see 1 Cor. 14.

If the whole church comes together in one place, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation, and all things should be done for building up.

When the church comes together, each member needs to exercise his function and offer his portion for the building up of the Body; such a gathering should be in mutuality, for all to learn, all to function, and all to build up the Body.

1 Cor. 14:26 emphasizes that “each one has”; this word, “has” which is used five times in this verse, has many meanings, three of which are the main ones.

First, it is to hold, to possess, to keep a certain thing; then, it is to have a certain thing for enjoyment. This applies mainly to having a psalm, a teaching, and a revelation.

Thirdly, “has” is to have the means or power to do a thing; this applies mainly to having a tongue and an interpretation of a tongue.

This means that when we come to the church meetings, we should all have something from the Lord to share with others; we should not come to the meeting empty-handed but bring something of what we have enjoyed and experienced of Christ to enjoy together with the saints.

We may have a psalm to praise the Lord, a teaching (of the teacher) to minister the riches of Christ to edify and nourish others, or a revelation (of the prophet, v. 30) to give visions of God’s eternal purpose concerning Christ as God’s mystery and the church as the mystery of Christ.

Furthermore, we may have a tongue as a sign to the unbelievers (v. 22) so that they may know and accept Christ, or an interpretation to make a tongue concerning Christ and His Body understandable.

Before we come to the meetings of the church we need to prepare ourselves for the meeting with such things before the Lord and of the Lord; we should fellowship with Him, read His word, spend time in prayer before Him to enjoy Him and receive a word from Him, and be saturated with the Lord in His word.

Then, when we come to the meeting, we shouldn’t wait for others to start or lead the meeting, neither should we wait for inspiration.

There’s no need to wait: we simply need to exercise our spirit and use our trained mind to function in presenting what we have already prepared with the Lord for His glory and to the saints for their benefit!

Each member of the Body of Christ has a particular portion of Christ, and when we come together each one has something to share of the Christ he has enjoyed for the Body.

When we exercise our spirit and use our renewed mind to function in presenting what we have been enjoying and what we prepared, the Lord will gain the glory and will be satisfied, and the saints will be enlightened, nourished, and built up.

We all need to practice this in the church meetings, rejecting the clergy-laity system and denying ourselves, losing our face, and exercising our spirit to release what the Lord has put in us and what He has impressed us with.

This means that we need to labor on Christ day by day and bring the surplus of Christ to the church for the building up of the church.

Each one has; hallelujah, each member of the Body has a portion of Christ for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ!

Hallelujah, each member of the Body of Christ has a portion of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ! May we all enjoy the Lord, experience Him, seek Him in His word, and prepare something to bring to the meeting for the building up of the church. Save us, Lord, from any clergy-laity system – save us from the degradation of the church! May we all enjoy the Lord in His word, pray, fellowship with the Lord, and labor on the rich, all-inclusive Christ to have some riches to bring to the church for the building up of the Body! Hallelujah, each member of the Body has the equal right and opportunity to speak Christ and to speak forth Christ for the building up of the church!

May the Lord Recover the Church Meetings in Mutuality with All Functioning for the Building up of the Body of Christ!

It has been more than two thousand years since the Lord uttered the greatest prophecy in the Bible, I will build My church (Matt. 16:18), but where is the built-up church on earth today?

The church has existed on the earth for at least two thousand years, but can we say that the Lord has a built-up Body that expresses Him and represents Him on earth?

The Lord today desires to recover the church meetings in mutuality with all functioning for the building up of the Body; when all the members function, the Body is built up.

On one hand the Lord is the One who builds up the church; on the other hand, He is in us, and He in us wants to build up the church as the Body of Christ.

We shouldn’t compare ourselves with this or that person, neither should we covet others’ portion; we should simply learn to function in our measure and realize that all the members of the Body have a portion and a function in the Body, and they need our function even as we need theirs.

May the day come when all the saints realize that each have something for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ; may we all be saved from the enemy’s robbing us and may we have church meetings in mutuality with all the saints functioning! Amen!

When we come to the church meetings, we all should have something of the Lord to share with others; we should even pray for this all throughout the week, asking the Lord to give us something to share with the saints for the building up of the church.

Daily we need to labor on Christ by pray-reading His word, allowing Him to shine on us, and cooperating with Him to enjoy Him and experiencing Him in our daily life.

We must labor on Christ – our good land – so that we may reap some produce of His riches to bring to the church meetings and offer to the Lord and to the saints (Col. 1:12; Eph. 3:8).

What does it mean to labor on Christ? To labor means to have an intense work, even a struggle with the exercise of our whole being for an extended period of time.

We are not just “working on Christ”; rather, we are laboring, concentrating, exercising our strength and energy.

To labor on Christ is to exercise our spirit to be one with Him to experience Him, to live Him, in every situation we’re in.

There are many situations in which we are not one with the Lord and we do not experience Him; we may know that a situation is coming and the outcome will not be good, so we need to exercise our spirit!

We shouldn’t remain in our mind, we should not repeat the history in the past, we should not remain in our mood or sink in our feelings, but rather, as we know that our soul is going through some things, we should contact the Lord by exercising our spirit!

As we contact the Lord in this situation and in that situation, in this environment and in that matter, we labor on Him, we gain Him, and we experience Him; little by little, we will live Christ.

When we come together, we will have something of the Christ we have enjoyed and experienced to share with others in the church meetings in mutuality.

The Lord wants to gain mutuality in the church meetings; not just some saints who always function, not just the same ones who prophesy, but many more members to rise up and exercise their spirit to be one with the Lord and share their portion with the saints!

Whatever we do in the church meetings should be for the building up of the saints and the church; for this, we need to have church meetings in mutuality, meetings in which each one releases their portion for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

Lord Jesus, recover the church meetings in mutuality with all the saints functioning for the building up of the Body of Christ! Amen, Lord, may we all learn to labor on Christ by contacting Him all throughout the day so that we may experience Christ and live Christ. May we daily choose to turn to our spirit, touch the Lord, and gain something of Christ day by day. Oh Lord, may we no longer waste our time by living in the self and in the flesh – may we redeem the time by turning to our spirit, contacting the Lord, experiencing Christ, and gaining something of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ! Amen, Lord Jesus, it is Your desire to recover the church meetings in mutuality – do it among us in the church life today!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 2205-2207 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Will of God (2020 spring ITERO), week 8, Meeting to Know and Do the will of God.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – In meetings Christ to God we bear / And Christ with one another share, / And Christ with God enjoying there, / We thus exhibit Christ. (Hymns #864)
  – Exercise the spirit / Thus to touch the Lord; / Ever by the spirit / Take Him thru His Word. / It is by the spirit / Christ is testified; / It is by the spirit / Man is satisfied. (Hymns #866)
  – Laboring on Jesus this practical way— / Praying His Word in the spirit each day, / Foll’wing His living anointing within, / Built up with others, the church life to win. / Laboring on Jesus yields reality, / Meetings of fullness for all men to see; / There God and man are indeed satisfied, / And there God’s presence cannot be denied. (Hymns #1168)