Being One with the Lord to Live Christ for God’s Manifestation unto New Jerusalem

We believers in Christ can live in the principle of incarnation, being so one with the Lord and permeated with Him that even our opinion expresses His mind to be His manifestation in the flesh; the consummation of this manifestation is the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth. Amen!

The Bible shows us that God wants to be expressed, and manifested, and He chose to be expressed not through His angels but through man.

Even though man fell and was corrupted by the enemy, the Lord still came in to redeem man and bring man to the point where man can cooperate with the Lord for His manifestation. Hallelujah!

The manifestation of God in the flesh began with the Lord Jesus when He was on the earth.

When Christ came, He was the individual manifestation of God in the flesh.

After His death and resurrection, as He prophesied in John 12:24, the Lord was multiplied in His many believers, the many grains of wheat coming out of the one grain of wheat.

The manifestation of God in the flesh continues with us, the church, for we are the continuation of Christ, the enlargement of Christ, and the multiplication of Christ.

1 Tim. 3:15-16 is a wonderful yet mysterious portion of God’s word where we see that, if the church is taken care of according to what is written in chs. 1-3, the church will be the manifestation of God in the flesh.

When a church is taken care according to Paul’s word in 1 Tim. 1-4, the church will function as the house of the living God for His move on earth and as the pillar and base of the truth, bearing the reality of Christ and His Body. Wow!

The church today needs to come up to God’s standard so that the church can function as the house of God and the pillar and base of the truth. Amen!

Great is the mystery of godliness – God manifested in the flesh. God was manifested in Christ, and now God is manifested in the church.

When others see us, they need to see Christ living in us. When Christ lives in us, the many members of the Body of Christ, God gains a corporate expression on the earth.

Actually, all those around us are expecting that, since we’re believers in Christ and we have Christ living in us, we should live Christ and express Christ.

May the Lord impress us with this matter and cause us to realize that the mystery of godliness is in our spirit, for Christ is in our spirit.

This is the key: our mingled spirit. It is when we exercise our spirit and live in the spirit that we express Christ, and it is when we live in spirit that we manifest God.

May we be those who contact the Lord daily so that it may be no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us!

Exercise our Spirit to be One with the Lord and Live Christ for His Manifestation

The manifestation of God in the flesh began with Christ and continues with the church. Today the churches are the continuation of Christ.

When Christ came to the earth to become flesh, He tabernacled among us and manifested God in a wonderful way.

He did not manifest God in a spectacular way but simply lived God in many common situations.

For example, He entered the synagogue and, since it was His turn to read, He read a portion from Isaiah, and then sat down; He did not necessarily expound it, but simply said, Today this word is being fulfilled among you.

The others we just in awe: what kind of person was this? He didn’t speak like their scribes and teachers, but there was something in His reading, for He allowed God to be lived out.

Christ exercised His spirit to be one with God and to live out God for His manifestation.

He is the Head of the Body, and we as His Body are His continuation and reproduction.

Our function as the church is not just to take care of many practical matters that are so needed for the existence and going on of the church but even more, to manifest God.

For this, we need to exercise our spirit to be one with the Lord and live Christ for His manifestation in us.

We need to take time to be in the Lord’s word with much prayer and consideration.

George Muller was a pattern in this matter; after he became a believer, he became a godly man, and one of the first things he did every morning was to read the Bible and mix it with prayer.

He read and prayed the Bible; he practiced mingling his prayer with his reading of the word of God, which no doubt contributed to his long life.

When we exercise our spirit to read the word of God, the word of God washes away our worries and anxieties and brings us joy.

Exercising our spirit to read and pray the word of God will help us to be healthy both spiritually and physically.

Then, when we come together, we will simply manifest God. We see in Acts 11:23 that, when Barnabas went to visit Antioch, he saw the grace of God with the saints.

How did Barnabas see God’s grace in the church? The grace of God is not something physical, but it can be sensed, seen, and manifested.

When we exercise our spirit to be one with the Lord and live Christ, God is manifested in us, and the grace of God is seen among us.

What is manifested through us today?

When we come together with the saints, who or what do we manifest?

Do we argue with the saints? Do we hang out only with those whom we like?

Do we stay away from certain saints because we don’t like them?

Or do we exercise our spirit to be one with the Lord and live Christ for His manifestation?

We need to ask the Lord to help us and strengthen us into our inner man so that we may exercise ourselves unto godliness.

We need to ask Him to empower us and even stand with us so that we may exercise our spirit to be one with the Lord and live Christ for His manifestation in all things.

We should not manifest our flesh; rather, we should manifest God in our flesh.

What do we manifest in the church, even as we serve with different matters and take care of this and that responsibility or area?

We should simply manifest Christ. God needs to be manifested in the flesh as we carry out our service and as we live our daily life.

We are well aware of our being full of limitations and weaknesses, and we do not rely on our flesh; we just give ourselves to the Lord.

We offer Him our little loaves and fish, all we have, and let the Lord break them, bless them, and multiply them for His use and for His manifestation in the church.

We just want to cooperate with the Lord, so we exercise our spirit to be one with the Lord and live Christ for God’s manifestation.

We are the earthen vessels, and within us, we have a priceless treasure that wants to be manifested.

So we exercise our spirit, we open to the Lord, and we depend on Him in all things, for we want Him to be manifested in us.

We come to His word, we take in His word by means of all prayer and petition (Eph. 6:17-18), and we allow the word to operate in us and divide our soul from our spirit (Heb. 4:12).

We let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom by praying and musing on the Word, and we seek the Lord to receive spirit and life from His word (John 6:63).

And we are honest to tell the Lord,

Lord Jesus, we are weak, but You are within us. We are men in the flesh, but we have You as the indwelling One. We are earthen vessels, but You are the treasure within. Help us, Lord, and strengthen us into our inner man so that we would exercise our spirit to live Christ day by day. Stand with us and empower us to exercise ourselves unto godliness in all things. Oh Lord, even in the small things of our daily life, we want to live in such a way that God is manifested. May we be part of the manifestation of God in the flesh on earth. We do not want to live in the flesh or by the flesh; we exercise our spirit to be one spirit with You in all things! We want to live in our mingled spirit to express You in our daily living. Amen, Lord, gain Your corporate expression on earth today. Make us part of Your corporate expression, Your manifestation in the flesh!

The Church is the Living God becoming Flesh and being Manifested in the Flesh Consummating in the New Jerusalem

The church as the house of God is the living God becoming flesh and being manifested in the flesh, and the consummation of this is the New Jerusalem as the city of God, the ultimate manifestation of God in the flesh. Hallelujah!

How is God manifested in the flesh?

We have a simply example in 1 Cor. 7, where Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers in the principle of incarnation, that is, by manifesting God in the flesh.

In this chapter Paul presented different matters related to marriage, and he revealed the highest level of spirituality.

Paul addressed the matter of marriage as it relates to unmarried virgins, married people, and widows; however, as he wrote, he gave his own opinion.

At one point he said, On this matter, I charge, yet not I, but the Lord. This is similar to Gal. 2:20.

But then in v. 12 he said, On this matter I say, not the Lord. Here Paul is bold in saying something, even though he didn’t have this from the Lord.

Then in v. 25, he said, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my own opinion, and in v. 40 he gave his own opinion again, and added, I think I also have the Spirit of God.

His opinion was included in the Bible as God’s word, but it was not something he received from the Lord but something that he felt. Very interesting.

On one hand, he had some things from the Lord, and on the other hand, he didn’t have things from the Lord, but he gave his own opinion, yet he knew he also has the Spirit of God.

This is the principle of incarnation, and this is something we need to live out in the church life.

As we live our Christian life, there must be the glorious and wonderful union of God and man.

We should not be bold and daring, even presumptuous, by giving our opinion and thinking that the Lord will back us up.

Rather, we need to exercise our spirit to be one with the Lord and live Christ for Him to be manifested in us, and He will have a way of speaking things in us and through us.

We need to live in the principle, It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me, and I still live, but I live in faith, the organic union with the Lord (Gal. 2:20).

Inwardly, we have God, and outwardly, he is manifested in the flesh through a proper and normal humanity.

All the saints in the church life, whether young or elderly, need to behave in a way that is befitting to their respective ages, even as the Lord Jesus did.

We should not pretend or have a deliberate way of living and doing things; rather, we should simply exercise our spirit to be one spirit with the Lord and live Christ for God to be manifested in us.

The church today is the house of God, which is the living God becoming flesh and being manifested in the flesh.

In Christ and through Christ, the divine life and nature are mingled with our human life and nature so that we and God may have one life and one living (1 Cor. 6:17). Amen!

We are two persons – Christ and us, but we have one living, for we are fully one.

If we are saturated with the Spirit, what we express will be our thoughts, but it will also be something of the Lord, because we are one with Him. Amen!

This should be our daily living today, both personally and in the church life.

When we come together, we still need to exercise our spirit to live Christ and be one spirit with the Lord so that Christ may be manifested among us.

When the church gathers together in a proper way, there should be the manifestation of God in the flesh.

As 1 Cor. 14:23-25 says, when an unlearned person enter or an unbeliever is there, he is exposed by God, and he will worship God, saying that indeed God is among us.

May this be the reality of our meetings in the church life. May we have a proper church life as the corporate manifestation of God in the flesh!

And may we have such a church life until the church becomes the New Jerusalem, the ultimate manifestation of God in the flesh!

The new Jerusalem will be the city of God – the final and ultimate manifestation of God in the new creation, as the enlargement and consummation of the church to express God in eternity (Rev. 21:2, 11). Hallelujah!

We will forever be part of God’s manifestation!

Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit to be one spirit with You today. We want to live Christ and manifest Christ in our daily living. Amen, Lord, may the church life today be the manifestation of God in the flesh. Keep us in the wonderful and glorious union of God and man. May we not only have God inwardly but also have God manifested in the flesh through a normal and proper humanity. Oh Lord, may all the saints in the church life exercise their spirit to be one spirit with the Lord and live Christ for God to be manifested in them. May there be no pretense or hypocrisy; may there be a genuineness among us that is both human and divine. Amen, Lord, even though we are in the flesh, we exercise our spirit and we allow You to be manifested in us. Be manifested in our flesh. Be manifested in the church. May You gain the church as the corporate expression of God in the flesh! Amen, Lord Jesus, we believe that You will gain the New Jerusalem for eternity to be Your eternal manifestation in the new creation! Praise the Lord!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1978, vol. 3, “The Healthy Word,” ch.5, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living and Serving According to God’s Economy Concerning the Church (2023 fall ITERO), week 9, entitled, The Function of the Church (2) The Corporate Manifestation of God in the Flesh.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Oneness with God for His Manifestation, article via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The New Jerusalem as the consummate corporate expression in the new creation, a portion from, Conclusion of the New Testament, The (Msgs. 001-020), Chapter 13, by Witness Lee.
  – The New Jerusalem: the consummation of God’s work in humanity, article by David Yoon in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Noah—the Life and Work That Can Change the Age, outline via, the Church in London.
  – The New Jerusalem – a corporate person, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Experiencing Christ by exercising our spirit, a portion from, The Ground of the Church and the Meetings of the Church, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
  – The key to experiencing Christ – the human spirit, a portion from, The Key to Experiencing Christ–the Human Spirit, Chapter 1.
  – Choosing to Exercise our Spirit, article via, Living to Him.
  – Do You Know How to Exercise Your Spirit? Read more via, Bibles for America blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – The principle of incarnation / Is but the blend of God and man, / Both acting in cooperation / To thus fulfill th’ eternal plan. / To God, the man is His expression, / And man is of God’s life possessed; / The man is wholly God’s possession, / And God thru man is thus expressed. (Hymns #740 stanzas 1-2)
  – As Christ is God’s true mystery, / God to explain and God express; / So is the Church Christ’s mystery, / Christ to explain and manifest. / The members of the Church of Christ / Are all primarily of clay; / They need to be transformed and made / Transparent, precious day by day. (Hymns #821 stanzas 3-4)
  – As the product, the fulfillment, / Will the church in glory stand, / Consummation of the purpose / In eternal ages planned. / God will have His corporate vessel, / All His glory to contain; / Lord, we’re wholly for Thy purpose / All Thy goal in us attain. (Hymns #1325 stanza 6)