The Lord’s Recovery is to Build up Zion as the Reality of the Body of Christ Today

The Lord’s recovery is to build up Zion as the reality of the Body of Christ by living out and working out the New Jerusalem. Wow!

This last week on the matter of, The Reality of the Body of Christ, we want to see how we can be those, Living Out and Working Out the New Jerusalem to Build Up Zion as the Reality of the Body of Christ.

In Rev. 1:1 we see that this book is the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ, and He made known this revelation by signs (symbols with spiritual significance).

The greatest symbol in the Bible is the New Jerusalem, which is not a “place” but a person – we are not “going to the New Jerusalem but we are becoming the New Jerusalem.

Even more, we want to be those who are living out and working out the New Jerusalem today so that we may build up Zion as the reality of the Body of Christ.

In Rev. 21:2 we see that the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; Christ is our Husband, and we are being prepared to be the bride, the wife of the Lamb.

In Rev. 21:9-10 John was told, Come here, and I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb…and He carried me away in spirit unto a great and high mountain, and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem…Amen, may the Lord carry us in spirit on a great and high mountain and show us the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God!

And may we be those who cooperate with Christ to be beautified by Him with Himself as our beauty to become the New Jerusalem. The beauty of the bride is the beauty of Christ wrought into us and expressed through us; we want Christ to be wrought into us and expressed through us.

The way for us to beautified is to enjoy Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God realised as the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of reality. The content of the church life depends on the enjoyment of Christ; the more we enjoy Christ, the richer the content of the church life will be.

As we give ourselves to enjoy the Lord, we are being prepared to be the bride of Christ by living out the New Jerusalem! Amen!

Also, we are working out the New Jerusalem; we need to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Cor. 15:58).

The work of the Lord is to work Himself into our being for us to minister the building God and the builded God into people.

The builded God is the god who is built into our being; we need to learn and pray that the Lord would teach us how to minister the building God (the God who builds up His church) and the builded God (the God who is built into our being) into others.

When we do this, every believer will be a little New Jerusalem, and every local church will be a miniature of the New Jerusalem.

The beauty of the New Jerusalem is wrought into us to be expressed through us so that we may become the bride of Christ, and all the features of the New Jerusalem need to become our features today.

The Lord’s Recovery is to Build up Zion as the Reality of the Body of Christ Today

The Lord has raised up His recovery today not only to recover the truths that were lost and misunderstood, and not only to bring us back to the Scriptural way of meeting and serving, but for the Lord to gain Zion as the reality of the Body of Christ.

What is this “Zion” and why does God want to gain it? In the Old Testament we see that there was the city of Jerusalem, and Zion was the center; mount Zion was one of the mountains on which Jerusalem was built.

Zion is the center, where God put His name and where He dwells, and Jerusalem is the circumference. In the spiritual realm today the city of Jerusalem is the church life today, and within the church life the Lord wants to gain a group of overcomers, which are today’s Zion.

In Rev. 14:1-5 the overcomers are standing on Mount Zion with the Lord; in typology, the overcomers are today’s Zion. Without Zion, Jerusalem can’t be kept and maintained; without the overcomers in the church life today, the church life cannot be kept and maintained.

Zion is the peak, the center, the uplifting, the strengthening, the enriching, and the reality of the church, the holy city. The overcomers today are the uplifting of the local church; they are the center, the high peak, the strengthening, the enriching, and the reality of the local church.

When we speak of the reality of the Body of Christ, therefore, even though we all want to be in this reality and even be this reality, it is actually the overcomers in the churches that are the reality of the Body today.

The overcomers today in the local churches are Zion to be the highlight, the center, and the reality of the church. The Lord wants to gain and build up Zion as the reality of the Body of Christ today.

Zion is actually the place chosen by David to build the house of God, and it was also the place chosen by God to dwell; according to the verses in Psa. 48:2, 11-12; 50:2; 20:2; 53:6a; 87:2 we see that Zion is the uplifting, strengthening, enriching, beauty, and reality of Jerusalem.

In the church life today, in order for God to consummate the building up of the local church, He must gain the overcomers as today’s Zion. The overcomers in the local churches are to consummate, to finish, the building up of the local church and to bring in the consummated New Jerusalem in eternity (Rev. 21:1-2).

In the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, the Lord calls for the overcomers, those who cooperate with Him to be the reality of the Body of Christ in the local churches, those who receive mercy from the Lord to be vitalised to build up the church as the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem.

The Lord’s recovery is to build up Zion as the reality of the Body of Christ today, and our prayer before the Lord should be,

Lord Jesus, produce us as Your overcomers, those who are the Zion in the local churches, the reality of the Body of Christ! Amen, Lord Jesus, put in us such an aspiration that we would be Your overcomers, the Zion of today, so that You may gain the reality of the Body of Christ. Lord, may we be a little New Jerusalem, and may every local church be a miniature of the New Jerusalem. Amen, Lord Jesus, may we realise that the Lord’s recovery is to build up Zion as the reality of the Body of Christ!

The Overcomers as Zion are the Reality of the Body to Build up the Body and Consummate the New Jerusalem

The overcomers as the Zion in the churches are the reality of the Body of Christ to build up the Body of Christ and consummate the New Jerusalem.

The Lord has called His people Israel to express Him and represent Him, but because His people failed Him, He chose Zion, His overcoming ones, where He dwells, where He shines from, and from where He blesses is people.

The Lord has called His church out of all the nations to express Him and represent Him, but the church as a whole became degraded and failed God; therefore, in Revelation He calls His overcomers to build up the church and be the reality of the Body of Christ in the churches and on behalf of the church.

The overcomers are not a special class of people; rather, they are those who overcome anything that replaces Christ or that is against Christ, those who are vitalised to be the overcomers of today.

We today live in the age of the church, and more precisely, we live in the age of the overcomers, for what the Lord is after today is His overcomers, those who cooperate with Him to be the reality of the Body of Christ in the church and on behalf of the church.

The church life in the Lord’s recovery must go on and on until at least some of us, if not all, reach Zion.

If we look at the Old Testament we see that Jerusalem had a stronghold, which was Zion, where God’s heart’s desire was. God has allowed Jerusalem to be trodden down, but He always protected Zion.

There will be a New Jerusalem, but there will not need to be a new Zion because Zion never got old. Every time that the Bible speaks of Zion in relation to Jerusalem we see that the characteristics, the life, the blessing, and the establishment of Jerusalem come from Zion.

The elders were in Jerusalem, and the Ark of the Covenant was in Zion (1 Kings 8:1). God did good to Zion and built the walls of Jerusalem (Psa. 51:18). The name of the Lord was in Zion and His praise was in Jerusalem (Psa. 102:21).

The Lord blessed out of Zion and the good was seen in Jerusalem (Psa. 128:5). The Lord dwelt in Jerusalem and He was to be blessed out of Zion (Psa. 135:21). When God dwelt in Zion, Jerusalem would be holy (Joel 3:17).

Whenever the Bible spoke of the failures or sins of the Jews, Jerusalem was mentioned, but whenever there was something related to God’s desire, Zion is mentioned. Today God is looking for the one hundred and forty-four thousand overcomers who stand on Mount Zion (Rev. 4:2).

God always uses a small number of believers to flow as life to the church and to revive the church. The overcomers as Zion are the reality of the Body to build up the Body and consummate the New Jerusalem.

The overcomers give up what they consider as their right, and they pay the price to allow the cross to cut off the old creation and deal with the gates of Hades.

The overcomers as Zion are the reality of the Body of Christ and consummate the building up of the Body of Christ in the local churches to bring in the consummated holy city, New Jerusalem, the Holy of Holies as God’s dwelling place, in eternity (Rev. 21:1-3, 16, 22).

In the new heaven and new earth the entire New Jerusalem will become Zion, with all the believers as the overcomers (v. 7).

Lord Jesus, may our goal be Your goal – the producing of the overcomers as the Zion in the churches today, the reality of the Body of Christ! Amen, Lord, may the church life in Your recovery go on and on until at least some of us, if not all, reach Zion. Lord, we give ourselves to You that we may be produced by You as those who live in the reality of the Body of Christ today. We are to build up Zion, the overcomers, for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ which will consummate in the New Jerusalem!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 2, “The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups,” p. 275, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 6, Living Out and Working Out the New Jerusalem to Build Up Zion as the Reality of the Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Now we’re living in the Body, / Every day we’re overcoming, / Striving for the peak of Zion, / Watching for our Lord’s appearing. (Songs on, God has called us for His purpose)
  # Lord we pray, preserve us faithful in the way / All our days, never to fall away. / By Your grace, keep us pursuing You, / Taking up the cross to follow You. / Consecrate we unreservedly, / Absolute for You entirely. / In our hearts, Lord, let the highways be / Unto Zion single-heartedly. (Songs on, I Want to Follow Him)
  # This is My rest forever; / Here will I dwell, / For the Lord hath chosen Zion, / He hath desired it for His habitation. / He will abundantly bless her provision: / He will satisfy her poor with bread. / He will clothe her priests with salvation, / And her saints shall shout aloud for joy. (Hymns #1338)