The Lord urgently needs the Reality of the Body of Christ Expressed in the Local Churches

The Lord urgently needs the reality of the Body of Christ expressed in the local churches so that He can return to rapture His bride.

Today the Lord is recovering the building up of the Body of Christ, and for us to be in the proper recovery of the Lord is to know the Body, to know that the Body is the intrinsic significance of the church, so that the Lord may gain the reality of the Body of Christ expressed in the local churches.

The present recovery of the Lord is to recover the reality of the Body of Christ expressed in the local churches; when He gains this, when there’s a corporate expression of the Triune God in the local churches, the bride is prepared, and the Lord can return.

We need to see that the intrinsic significance of the church is the Body of Christ; for us to be in the Body in actuality, we need to remain in the organic union with the Lord.

We may meet as the local church, we may call ourselves the Body of Christ, and we may read the Bible and pursue the Lord diligently, but unless we remain in the organic union with the Lord, we are not the Body in reality.

In John 15 the Lord said that we are branches in Him as the vine, and we should simply abide in Him; when we abide in Him, we can ask whatever we want, and He will do it for us.

When we abide in the Lord, the riches of His divine life, all that He is, is flowing into us to reconstitute us with Himself.

When we abide in Christ, He abides in us, and we live in an organic union with Him; our whole Christian life needs to be in this organic union with the Lord.

Apart from this organic union with the Lord, we are just like the rest of the people in the world, but when we are in the organic union with Christ, we are the Body of Christ to express Him.

May we see that the Lord came into us not just to save us from eternal perdition but even more, to make Himself one with us and to make us one with Him.

May we abide in the Lord, seeking to remain in the organic union with Him, so that we may be the Body of Christ in actuality.

The Body of Christ is an organic entity; we need to be organic persons, those who enjoy the divine life, grow in the divine life, and live by the divine life.

If we do not remain in the divine transmission of life, then practically we are not the Body of Christ, for the Body of Christ is something in the organic union with the Lord.

The secret of turning and remaining in the organic union with the Lord is to call on His name and pray unceasingly; when we call on the Lord, we enthrone Him in our being, and when we unceasingly pray, conversing with the Lord about everything, we maintain our abiding in Christ.

The Body of Christ is the Organic Factor and Intrinsic Significance of the Church

What the Lord is after today is the building up of the Body of Christ; the Lord’s recovery is for the building up of the Body, and for us to know the Body is the proper recovery of the Lord (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 4:16; Col. 3:15).

The Body of Christ is still at an infant stage; it needs to be built up.

The Body doesn’t just come about in its full stature; the Lord said in Matt. 16:18 that He will build His church, but the church needs to be built up practically today, that is, the Body of Christ needs to be built up.

If we consider church history, in the last two thousand years, how many believers cared for the Body, paid attention to the Body, and did everything for the Body?

Especially since the time of Martin Luther and the Reformation, who has seen the Body, worked for the Body, and cared for the Body?

It seems that the Body of Christ was neglected, ignored, buried, until the time of John Nelson Darby, who began to speak concerning the Body, the brother Watchman Nee expanded further, and brother Lee spoke even more.

The unique element in the Body must be Christ, and the ground of the Body must be that of oneness, which we practice.

We practice the Body life in the local churches on the ground of oneness, and we learn to coordinate with the saints.

The church takes the Body of Christ as its organic factor, for without the Body of Christ, the church is lifeless and is a mere human organization (1 Cor. 1:2; 12:12-13, 27).

The church is the outward framework, and the Body is the intrinsic content. We practice the local churches as a framework, but the Body is the organic factor.

Without the Body of Christ, the church is lifeless, a mere human organization. If all we have is the local church without the reality of the Body of Christ, we only have a human organization or a man-made religious entity.

The Body of Christ is the intrinsic significance of the church; without the Body, the church makes no sense and has no meaning (Rom. 12:4-5; 16:1, 4, 16).

Without the life of Christ flowing through the Body of Christ, there cannot be the house of God (which is constituted with the children born of God the Father) and the kingdom of God (which is the realm of God’s life).

Without the life of Christ as the essence and reality, there cannot be the bride of Christ who – as His counterpart – must match Christ to be a couple with Him.

The church is “His Body” (Eph. 1:23); the intrinsic significance of the church is the Body.

God raised up Christ, seated Him in the heavens above all things, subjected all things under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church.

When Paul wrote this, he immediately said, “the church, which is His Body”. Without the Body, the church is merely a gathering of the called-out ones; with the Body as the intrinsic significance, the church is the Body of Christ.

As we practice the church life in the local churches, we should not consider ourselves as individual churches or as individual believers, for there are no such things as individual members in the Body.

Just as in our human body there are no individual members separated, detached, and independent from the other members, so in the Body of Christ there’s no individual churches and believers that are separated, detached, and independent from others.

In everything we do, say, and work, we need to take the Body as our goal, doing all things not merely for the local church to be built up but for the Body to come into being and be built up.

What we are part of is not an organization with layers of hierarchy and a solid constitution and awesome rules; we are part of an organic entity, the Body of Christ, and we practice the local church life with the Body in view.

We could say that the church is like the apple tree with all its trunk, branches, and leaves, and the Body of Christ is the very organic essence of the church, like the apples, are the organic essence of the apple tree.

These two are one, but one is the frame while the other is the organic essence.

The church is the frame for existing, while the Body of Christ is the very organic content for people’s satisfaction.

Lord Jesus, recover the building up of the organic Body of Christ in all the local churches so that You may gain Your corporate expression on earth. Grant us to have a revelation of the fact that the Body of Christ is the organic factor of the church. Save us from merely meeting with and in the local churches in an outward way without having the organic factor of the Body of Christ. May we enter into the intrinsic significance of the church so that our church life would make sense and be full of meaning. Amen, Lord, we are here for the building up of the Body of Christ. We want to do everything having the Body in view, for we care for the Body and want to build up the Body!

The Lord urgently needs the Reality of the Body of Christ Expressed in the Local Churches for Him to Return

If we see a vision of the Body of Christ, we will realize that the Lord urgently needs the reality of the Body of Christ to be expressed in the local churches so that He may return quickly.

A most excellent way for us to build up the Body is love; love covers and builds up, so love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and to do anything for the building up of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 8:1; 12:31; 13:1-8, 13).

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up; we need to love one another with God as our love. Love is the expression of life, the flowing out of God’s life; when we enjoy the Lord as life, we simply love others, even love all men.

Love is the very God Himself being experienced and enjoyed by us; we can build up the church as the Body of Christ with this love, not with organization, skills, abilities, planning, and methods.

The elders should shepherd one another and love one another to be a model of the Body life, and their wives need to love one another, and they need to love one another’s children (John 21:15-17; 1 Cor. 13:4-8).

We need to practice this love; there should be an outflow, an expression of our love for one another.

May we allow the Lord to make His home in our heart through faith, so that, as we experience the indwelling Christ, we would flow Him out and love others.

If we would have the reality of the Body of Christ, we must allow Christ to make His home in our hearts (Eph. 3:16-17; 4:16; 5:27, 30; Rev. 19:7).

The reality of the Body is the inner experience of the indwelling Christ.

The Lord urgently needs the reality of the Body of Christ to be expressed in the local churches so that He may hasten His return, end this age, and bring in the age of the kingdom (Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16; 5:27, 30; Rev. 19:7).

Before He can return, He needs the bride to be prepared and be ready; He needs something worthwhile for Him to come back to.

There must be a substantial expression of the Body of Christ in the local churches, something that He can call, My bride, My counterpart, for Him to return.

There’s an urgent need among us to have the reality of the Body of Christ expressed in the local churches.

There are many local churches all over the earth, and so many thousands of saints practice the church life according to the way ordained by God in His word.

Compared to general Christianity, we are a small drop in the ocean, but we have been commissioned by the Lord and have seen His urgent need to gain the reality of the Body of Christ in the local churches.

What do we practice today in the church life: do we merely build up a congregation, do some kind of Christian work, or do we have the organic Body built up in reality?

Who knows the Body and cares for the Body?

Especially these days it seems that time is running faster and faster, and we are running against time; how much progress has been done in the building up of the Body?

We do carry out things, we work for the Lord, and we do many necessary Christian and church activities, all of which are positive and honourable, but how much of the reality of the Body of Christ is among us?

The Lord needs the overcomers to carry out the economy of God to have the Body of Christ and destroy His enemy.

Without the overcomers, the Body of Christ cannot be built up, and unless the Body of Christ is built up, Christ cannot come back for His bride (Eph. 1:10; 3:10; Rev. 12:11; 19:7-9).

The overcomers are not the elite Christians, the strong ones, but those who know and live and work for the Body and in the Body.

The Lord needs a special group of believers who are the overcomers in this age, those who don’t live for themselves or for their spiritual work, but for the Body, for the bringing forth of the reality of the Body.

These overcomers are in the local churches, practising the church life where the Lord has placed them, but they do all things in the Body, for the Body, and for the bringing in of the reality of the Body.

They are not spiritual giants but simply see God’s desire to gain the reality of the Body expressed in the local churches and give themselves to the Lord for this; only they are able to carry out God’s economy to have the Body and destroy His enemy.

Lord Jesus, impress us with your urgent need to have the reality of the Body of Christ being expressed in the local churches for You to hasten Your return. We give ourselves to You, Lord, to do all things in the Body, for the Body, and for the reality of the Body to be brought in. May You have a way to gain a substantial expression of the Body so that You may return. Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You for the building up of the Body and the preparation of the bride. Grant us to be the overcomers of today, those who carry out the economy of God to have the Body of Christ and to destroy His enemy. Have a way in us and among us, Lord, to gain the overcomers who cooperate with You for the building up of the Body and the destruction of Your enemy!

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, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 2, “The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ,” pp. 548-549, 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:
  – Built up in love together, / Not one would criticize; / To perfect one another, / We all would exercise. / Each one from self delivered, / The natural life forsakes; / In grace each trained in spirit / The Body-life partakes. (Hymns #867)
  – Limit, Lord, my independence, / Let me to Thy Body turn; / Not just seeking light from heaven, / But the church’s sense to learn. / May we be the stones for building / Not the formless, useless clay, / Gain in us Thy heart’s desire / Corporately Thyself display. (Hymns #1225)
  – In God’s house and in Thy Body / Builded up I long to be, / That within this corporate vessel / All shall then Thy glory see; / That Thy Bride, the glorious city, / May appear upon the earth, / As a lampstand brightly beaming / To express to all Thy worth. (Hymns #840)