Our Natural Man needs to be Dealt with for us to have the Fellowship of the Body

As members of the Body of Christ, our relationship with the Head is that of obedience, and our relationship with the Body is that of fellowship, for we need the fellowship of the Body.

On one hand we obey Christ, the Head, as the unique authority in the Body, and in the other, we need the fellowship with the members of the Body, for we are just a fellow member that is limited in function and supply, being in great need of the function and supply from the other members.

We need to allow the cross of Christ to deepen our fellowship with the Lord and obedience to Him, and to deepen and enlarge our fellowship with the saints in the Body. We need to maintain our fellowship, which is both vertical with the Lord and horizontal with the saints.

Having a proper vertical fellowship with the Lord implies and results in having proper horizontal fellowship with the saints.

But merely understanding this mentally doesn’t mean we entered into this reality or that we see our need for fellowship. We need the experience of the cross to deepen our experience of the divine fellowship.

There are many obstacles in our being to the fellowship. Our preferences for certain people is an obstacle, and so is our living in the flesh, the self, and the natural man. Focusing on knowledge and gifts without focusing on Christ as the center can frustrate our fellowship with the Lord and with the saints.

When we experience the cross – both inwardly by the Spirit with our spirit, and outwardly by allowing the Lord to operate through the environment – we will no longer be superficial in understanding and practicing the fellowship, but we will have fellowship deepened in our being.

Fellowship frees us from our sinful self through the cross, for without the cross there’s no freedom or liberty from the self, and there is no genuine fellowship.

We need to let the cross operate in our being to release us from our self, our natural man, and our flesh, and we will know fellowship in a deeper way. We will realize our need for fellowship with the saints and we will clearly see that our relationship with the Head, Christ, is that of obedience.

This will be a normal feeling in us – toward the Head we obey and submit, and toward the fellow members we fellowship, for we need their portion and supply in the Body. May the Lord shine on us to show us our need for the fellowship of the Body, and may we be those who live in fellowship constantly.

Our Natural Man needs to be Dealt with for us to have the Fellowship of the Body

Christ is the Head of the Body, and our relationship with Him is that of obedience and submission, for He is the unique authority in the Body given to us by God.

As members of the Body, however, we need to realize our need for the fellowship of the Body, our need to fellowship with the fellow members of the Body. If we still live in the natural man, living out our natural life according to the flesh and in the self, we will not see our need for fellowship, but rather we will stay away from fellowship.

But when we have our natural man, our flesh, and our self dealt with by the cross, we will realize our need for fellowship with the Lord and with the fellow members of the Body.

We will realize that we need the help and assistance of the other saints, for we are just a member have one function, and we depend on others for their function in the Body.

Submission and obedience to the Head is automatic and spontaneous; if we need to talk about it, there’s a problem with our consciousness of the Body of Christ. If we live in the reality of the Body, we will know that there’s only one Head, and we will submit to Him; no one has to remind us to fellowship, for it is an innate feeling.

As we enjoy the flow of the Spirit in the Body we will know that we need the fellowship of the Body – not just that it’s a good principle to fellowship and we may get a lot of help when we fellowship, but we will realize that without fellowship we may get a spiritual stroke or heart attack.

Fellowship implies the fact that we are limited and inadequate, and that we are willing to accept what comes from others and take it as our own.

Fellowship is to acknowledge that we need the Body – we are members, and just as the ear needs the function of the nose to smell, the legs to walk, and the mouth to eat and speak, so we need the function of all the members of the Body – we need the fellowship of the Body.

Some Christians want to seek spirituality by themselves, pray by themselves, and do everything by themselves, as if they are an all-inclusive member in the Body, without the need for the function of the other members.

But those who know the Lord are not so: they need the fellowship of the Body, for they are limited, inadequate, and they are willing to accept what comes from others and take it as their own.

For this to happen, our natural life needs to be dealt with, our self needs to be crossed out, and our flesh needs to be eliminated. There cannot be fellowship between us and the other members of the Body if we still live in the flesh, the self, or the natural man, for we will be individualistic.

If we truly see the Body of Christ, we will allow the cross to operate in our being to free us from individualism; we will no longer trust in ourselves but we will realize that we’re weak and in great need for the fellowship of the Body.

We will realize that our function in the Body is not unlimited; rather, there’s a limitation to the supply we can receive or have and to the function we perform, and we will realize the need for fellowship.

When we realize we have the life of the Body of Christ, we will treasure the fellowship of the Body and not consider it as a burden. We will honor other saints and render them their due respect and praise, considering their function very necessary to us and to the Body.

If our natural life has been dealt with and we know what the life of the Body means, we will learn to treasure the other saints with their portion, and we will touch life and receive help from the other members in the Body.

But if we are not dealt with in our flesh, we can’t know the life of the Body of Christ; we may understand the doctrine of the Body and may be able to expound it clearly, but unless our flesh is dealt with by the cross and our natural man is crossed out, we will not know the life of the Body of Christ.

God must bring us to the point where we can’t go on without fellowship (see 1 Cor. 12:14-27; John 15:4-6; 1 Thes. 3:8).

He needs to bring us into the feeling and consciousness of the body of Christ to realize that we can’t go on, we can’t live, we can’t exist without the fellowship of the Body, without the circulation of life in the Body of Christ.

Lord Jesus, bring us to the point where we cannot go on without fellowship. We open to You, Lord, as the Head of the Body, and we submit to Your authority. We open to the saints, our fellow members in the Body, for we desperately need their portion in fellowship. Lord Jesus, we need the fellowship of the Body of Christ, and we cannot live or even exist without this fellowship. May our flesh, our self, and our natural man be dealt with by the cross so that we know the life of the Body, see the importance of fellowship, and not be able to live apart from this fellowship!

The Fellowship among the Churches is the Fellowship of the Body of Christ

As believers in Christ we are members of the Body of Christ, and we need the fellowship of the Body of Christ, which is the unique fellowship – the circulation of the divine life in the Body of Christ.

As local churches, we need to fellowship with other churches in the Body of Christ so that we may be in the fellowship of the Body of Christ (see 1 Cor. 10:16).

Even though it is impossible at this moment in time for the whole Body to be together in one place, when we have fellowship among the churches, we have the fellowship of the Body of Christ.

The Lord’s recovery is based upon the truth that Christ has only one Body, which is expressed as the local churches (see Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4; Rev. 1:11). Every local church is a local expression of the universal Body of Christ, and when we add together all the local churches, we have the expression of the Body of Christ at that time on the earth.

Of course, the Body of Christ is universal, unlimited in time and space, but today we can participate in the fellowship of the Body by having fellowship among the churches.

Because there is one Spirit, there is only one Body, and there is only one circulation of life in the Body – this circulation is the fellowship of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:4; 1 John 1:3, 7).

In our physical body there is only one circulation of blood, which blends the body together, supplies the body, and brings the body in oneness.

How many fellowships are there in the Body of Christ? We need to be adjusted in our concept to realize that in the Body of Christ there is only one circulation of life, and all the members of the Body have the divine life flowing in them – this is the unique fellowship of the Body.

We need to be recovered to the divine revelation in the Bible concerning the fellowship of the Body of Christ, and we need to both inwardly enjoy this fellowship and outwardly practice having fellowship among the churches so that we may be in the fellowship of the Body of Christ!

Lord Jesus, we love the fellowship among the churches, for this is the fellowship of the Body of Christ! Hallelujah, in the Body of Christ there is only one circulation of life, one fellowship, and we all are in this unique fellowship! There is one Body in this universe and we express it here on earth as many local churches, and as we fellowship among the churches, we enjoy the fellowship of the Body of Christ!

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 Watchman Nee, vol. 35, pp. 35-37, 151-152, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Genuine Church Life (2017 Thanksgiving Conference), week 4, Fellowship — the Reality of the Church Life.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # When we receive Thee as our life, / Thy nature we thru grace possess; / Mingled together, we with Thee / One Body glorious will express. / Break all the natural life for us, / Deal Thou with each peculiar way, / That we no more independent be / But with all saints are one for aye. (Hymns #837)
  # 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)
  # Oh, how we need the churches, / All of them, great or small! / We need their many portions / To profit us withal. / Yes, Lord, enlarge the churches; / We love their needs to bear. / Enlarge our hearts, Lord Jesus, / In fellowship and prayer. (Hymns #1265)