The church as the Body of Christ is a group of people who allow God to be mingled with them and who are mingled with God, and they live in the mingled spirit.
This is what God wants to gain today, a group of people who would just allow Him to mingle Himself with them, some who allow the Lord to work Himself into them by first tearing them down, breaking the outer man, and having a way to mingle Himself with every part of their being.
Being a Christian and being a member of the Body of Christ doesn’t mean that we join an organisation with a certain code of conduct, neither does it mean that we are now “Bible thumpers”, those who all day long read the Bible.
Rather, being a Christian means that we are organically joined to Christ in spirit, and now our life is no longer in the natural man or by the natural effort, but in the mingled spirit and by the Spirit.
The Body of Christ is not a society for people to join or an organisation for Christians to adhere to but an organism produced by the union in life we have with Christ.
By believing into the Lord, we received Him as the Spirit in our spirit, and our spirit with the divine Spirit were mingled together.
Now our daily Christian life and church life is learning to live in the mingled spirit, learning to walk according to the spirit, and learning to do everything in the organic union with the Lord.
However, just as a baby has almost no realisation of what the human life is but, as he grows in life he learns about being a man, so we as children of God need to grow in the divine life by the addition of the divine element and the removal of the old element, so that we may know what it means to be a Christian and how to live in the reality of the Body of Christ.
As we grow in life and open to the Lord again and again, we realise that we are organically joined to the Lord; He is not merely in the third heaven but he as the Spirit is joined to us in spirit, and we can simply turn to Him, receive His supply, be inwardly guided by Him, and even live in the mingled spirit.
For us to live the Christian life is to live in the organic union with the Lord, and the proper Body life is possible only when we live in the organic union with the Lord in our mingled spirit. Our organic union with the Lord is in the mingled spirit.
We need to ask the Lord to unveil us to see that, as believers in Christ, we have a mingled spirit, and in our human spirit we are joined to the Lord who is the Spirit.
This is something wonderful yet very mysterious, so we need much revelation from the Lord and exercise from our side to know our mingled spirit, exercise our mingled spirit, live in the mingled spirit, and walk according to the mingled spirit.
The Church as the Body of Christ is a Group of People who Allow God to be Mingled with them
The church has many aspects, many characteristics, and many definitions. One of the most intrinsic definition is that the church as the Body of Christ is a group of people who allow God to be mingled with them and who are mingled with God.
The church is not a matter of a name of who we are, a position on which we stand, or a stand we take in front of everyone; the church is not merely a matter of belief or organisation.
The church is a group of people regenerated by God who allow Him to be mingled with them and who are mingled with God. They are still men living in the human life, but they are mingled with God.
This is what the disciples were in the book of Acts: outwardly they had the appearance of Galileans, but inwardly they were filled with God and mingled with God and so God was expressed through them.
Their background was that of uneducated, common people, but the God of glory came into them and mingled Himself with them, so their ignorance disappeared, the common people were broken, and God was shining through them.
Our glorious and great God wants to be mingled with us, men, so that He would be expressed through us in a corporate way for His glory, so that He may gain a corporate expression that bears His image and exercises His authority on earth. This is wonderful!
For such a thing to happen, however, we need to be willing to allow God to mingle Himself with us and for us to be mingled with God. This is a lifelong process that involves our person being broken, defeated, and torn down by God, so that God would have the opportunity to mingle Himself with us and shine forth from us.
When this happens, Jesus is living again in us and among us – its like Jesus being born again in the world, that is, there’s a duplication and a continuation of Christ on the earth.
When there is a group of people on earth who allow God to mingle Himself with them and shine forth from them, some who cooperate with His breaking work and His building work, such ones spontaneously live the church life as the reality of the Body of Christ, and the church is present with God’s expression and His authority. Hallelujah!
If we really see that God’s desire is to mingle Himself with us, we will open to Him from within and offer Him prayers of cooperation with His mingling work.
On His side there’s no problem – God is willing, ready, and always eager to mingle Himself with us, as long as we are willing to allow Him to do this. It’s really out choice, for we can choose to let God mingle Himself with us. We can then offer Him prayers such as,
Lord Jesus, we choose to be mingled with You today. We allow You to mingle Yourself with us today, and we let You mingle us with Yourself. Lord, we choose to be mingled with You in our thoughts, our decisions, and our desires. We do not want to live outside of the mingling. Keep us in the process of being mingled with You, Lord. May our daily life with all our thoughts, decisions, activities, feelings, and doings be in the organic union with you in the mingled spirit. Amen, do it in us, Lord. Mingle Yourself with us for the building up of the Body of Christ!
The Reality of the Body of Christ is to Live in the Mingled Spirit, the Divine Spirit mingled with our spirit
The reality of the Body of Christ is a living by the God-men who are united, mingled, and constituted together with God by the mingling of humanity and divinity and divinity with humanity (see Eph. 4:1-6, 15-16).
Practically speaking, the Body of Christ is the mingled spirit; it is only when we are in the mingled spirit that we see the Body and live in the reality of the Body, and the Body is real and practical when we live in the mingled spirit.
What is this “mingled spirit”, and how can we be in such a realm? The union of God with man, in which we allow God to mingle Himself with us and we are mingled with Him, is altogether a matter of the divine Spirit with our human spirit.
God is Spirit and man has a spirit; these two spirits are united and joined as one at the time of regeneration.
When we believed into the Lord, the divine Spirit entered our human spirit and was joined to our spirit. How does the union of these two spirits occur? This is the deepest mystery in the Bible and it is quite difficult for us to understand.
The Body of Christ is absolutely a matter in the mingled spirit, and for us to be in the reality of the Body we need to live in the mingled spirit (see Rom. 8:4; 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 6:17; 12:12-13, 27; Eph. 2:22; 4:16, 23).
All genuine believers in Christ have a mingled spirit, but many times we use our spirit as a “rechargeable battery” for the “car” of our Christian life.
We think that in the morning we spend time with God to read His word so that we “recharge our battery”, and then the battery will last us until the next morning…or until the next meeting. However, this is not how the mingled spirit is.
Rather, the mingled spirit is like a continual current flowing from the Triune God. When we turn to our spirit, we “switch on” the divine electricity, and we have everything of the Triune God flowing into us.
But when we switch off, we are disconnected from the flow of God immediately, just as when we switch off the light, the lights turn off automatically and darkness comes in. In our spirit we are connected to God – we are joined to the Lord as one spirit, and when we turn to our spirit, exercise our spirit, and live in the spirit, we remain in the divine flow in our inner being.
This union between us and God in the mingled spirit is something deep, something mysterious, yet something so real.
Actually, the more we know the Lord in our spirit, the more we realise that our organic union with the Lord is stronger and deeper than any other relationship, because we are mingled with the Lord in spirit.
The focus of God’s economy is the mingled spirit, that is, the divine Spirit mingled with our human spirit. Whatever God intends to do or accomplish is related to this focus – our mingled spirit (see Eph. 3:9, 5; 1:17; 2:22; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18).
For us to participate in God’s economy and for us to live in the reality of the Body of Christ we need to live in the mingled spirit.
Thank You Lord Jesus, the reality of the Body of Christ is right within us – it is in our mingled spirit! Thank You for indwelling our spirit and making God real, available, and near to us. Amen, Lord, we turn to You and we choose to walk according to the spirit so that we may live in the reality of the Body of Christ. Lord, deepen our organic union with You. Uplift our appreciation for our mingled spirit so that we may live more and more in the spirit. Amen, Lord, may we persons in the mingled spirit!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “The Issue of the Union of the Consummated Spirit of the Triune God and the Regenerated Spirit of the Believers,” chs. 2-4, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 3, Being in the Reality of the Body of Christ by Living in the Organic Union and in the Mingled Spirit and by Being Conformed to Christ’s Death.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Now the Triune God has come to dwell within / As the wonderful Spirit in us. / We are mingled with the Lord, we’re one with Him / As the life-giving Spirit in us. (Hymns #1113)
# Living out His resurrection, / Dying to the flesh and soul-life. / Living by the mingled spirit, / Natural man we will deny. / Now we’re living in the Body, / Every day we’re overcoming, / Striving for the peak of Zion, / Watching for our Lord’s appearing. (Song on, God has called us for His purpose)
# In our daily life and all we are and do and think and say, / How we need a deeper mingling just to gain the Lord each day; / Lord, we give ourselves completely just to take the mingled way. / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199)
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