Oneness is a matter of Sinking Deeply into the Triune God until We’re Mingled with Him

It is quite interesting to see how the oneness in the Triune God is typified by the oneness as seen in the tabernacle in Exodus 26, especially in the gold overlaying the standing boards and causing them to be one – this shows us that oneness is nothing else but sinking deeply into the Triune God until we are fully overlaid and mingled with Him as gold.

The only way that the forty-eight standing boards could be one was not in the acacia wood but in the gold that overlaid them, and in the uniting bars that joined them.

Spiritually speaking, the Lord’s aspiration and prayer for oneness in John 17 is fulfilled when we as believers in Christ are overlaid with a thick layer of God as gold; we are one not in our humanity but in the Triune God whom we experience.

It is imperative for us to realize that God doesn’t want a good man but a God-man, a man that is filled with God and saturated with God; His heart’s desire, which was hidden throughout the ages but today has been revealed in His economy, is to dispense Himself into man and make man one with God and filled with God.

We need to take care of our humanity and have the highest education, the best character, and live a life according to the highest standard of ethics and morality – but all these need to be done in the process of our being mingled with God as gold.

As seen in the picture in the tabernacle, the two basic materials used in the furnishings and the outer court was acacia wood (signifying our humanity) and gold (signifying divinity, God’s divine nature, the Spirit).

The reason we go through things that sometimes may be puzzling and even rough is that God wants to rebuild us and make us His new creation by adding His divine element to our being.

God is not angry with us, He doesn’t want to punish us – He simply wants to mingle Himself with us, and His desire is for us to be sinking deeply into the Triune God so that we may be overlaid with Him as gold for the oneness of the Body of Christ.

We need to repent for being merely gilded with God as gold and realize our desperate need for more of God as gold!

For us to keep the oneness, we need to gain more God, experience Him more, and seek to obtain Him more so that an adequate amount of God would be added to us and mingled with us for the keeping of the oneness.

The Lord’s Recovery Consists of God Overlaying His Recovered People with Himself

The word of God shows us what God desires to gain: from Genesis to Revelation we see that He desires to gain a group of people who are open to Him to receive His dispensing, have God wrought into them, and become His corporate expression and representation on earth.

However, even though on the day of Pentecost He gained the church, a spiritual people that have His life and nature, throughout the ages God’s purpose has been lost.

Therefore, today the Lord has a recovery, a process of recovering us back to what is in His heart; in the Lord’s recovery God is overlaying us with Himself as gold so that we may keep the oneness of the Body and become His corporate expression.

However, there may be some dissenting ones, some who have seen the ground of oneness and were for the Lord’s recovery but, for one reason or another, have left and caused division. The reason for dissension is the lack of an adequate amount of God as gold added to our being.

Not having an adequate amount of God can create a serious problem with the oneness. The Lord’s recovery is not a movement. We do not desire to gain a large number of people. In the recovery we are concerned for the genuine weight of gold. The important question is this: How much of God do you have? The Lord’s recovery consists of God overlaying His recovered people with Himself. (Witness Lee, Truth Messages, p. 84)

We may not cause dissension today, but the question remains: how much God do we have in our being? We may enjoy the Lord today, we may take His word in by means of all prayers, and we may love to call on the name of the Lord together with the saints, but how much God as gold have we gained?

Whenever there’s a dissension or turmoil, the Lord exposes how much we need of Him as gold. We all need to gain more of God; we need to come to the Lord again and again and cooperate with Him so that He may overlay us with Himself as gold.

If we are short of God as gold, we may become dissenting; it is not sufficient only to have a good heart, to know the truth, and to care for the Lord’s recovery – we need to gain more God as gold every day!

We need to come to Him, confess our need for more God, and pay the price to buy gold refined through fire. Our oneness in the church life as the reality of the Body of Christ is not in our agreeing on some good doctrines, having certain life practices, caring the truth in the ministry, or loving the saints; our oneness is in the Triune God who is constantly overlaying us with Himself as gold.

Much God as gold is needed to overlay us, His recovered people to make us one; the Lord’s recovery consists of God overlaying His recovered people with Himself. We need to realize that genuine oneness is possible only in the Triune God, and we need to tell the Lord,

Lord Jesus, for the sake of the oneness, overlay us with an adequate amount of Yourself as gold today. Keep us under Your divine dispensing, gaining God and experiencing God day by day. We confess that we are short of God and that our need is to gain more God as gold. Lord, our oneness is in the Triune God and not in anything in our humanity, therefore do overlay us with more of Yourself today! Add more gold to our being for the keeping of the oneness! We want to pay the price to buy the gold from You so that we may all be one!

Oneness is a matter of Sinking Deeply into the Triune God until We’re Mingled with Him

The reason the Apostle Paul was one with the Lord in all he did and one with the saints in the Body of Christ was that he always pursued to know Christ, experience Him, gain Him, obtain Him, and be found in Him (Col. 2:19; Phil. 3:8).

The only way we can be one with the Lord and with the saints in the Body of Christ is when we are sinking deeply into the Triune God until we are fully overlaid and mingled with Him as gold.

Everything depends upon how much God as gold we have; we all can become dissenting if we are short of God. Today the Lord needs to recover the genuine oneness; if we don’t have this oneness, we can’t go on in the recovery.

The only way for us to be kept in the solid and real oneness is to have an adequate amount of the experienced God (Phil. 3:10). All other things are as dung, rubbish, trash, compared to Christ; we need to count all things to be loss on the account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, so that we may gain Him and be found in Him!

We shouldn’t be complacent or content, thinking that, since we love the Lord today we will be alright in the future; we should seek to be mingled with God more and be those sinking deeply into the Triune God to be fully mingled with Him.

If we consider the picture in Exo. 26 in the light of John 17 and Eph. 4 we will realize how short of God we are. There’s no method or “how to” guide on gaining God, and there’s no manual on how to be one; our need is to sink into the Triune God and gain more of Him.

God Himself in Christ as the Spirit is our truth, our way, our life, and our everything; without Him we have nothing, and we daily need to gain more of Him.

We shouldn’t trust our sharp mind, our loving emotions, or our deciding will but trust in the Lord, come to Him, and rely on Him, seeking to be filled with Him all the time. Only one thing is dependable for oneness, and that is the adequate amount of God as gold.

We need to be those sinking deeply into God to be fully overlaid with Him and gain an adequate amount of the experienced God for the keeping of the oneness of the Body of Christ.

Just as the standing boards in the tabernacle in Exodus 26 were one in the gold that overlaid them and in the rings of gold with the gold bars that joined them, so we can rely only on the experienced and enjoyed God that has become part of our being for us to be one in the Body of Christ.

Our need is to be mingled with God, gain more God, and be overlaid with Him as gold. We don’t need more teachings, doctrines, or improvement; we need to gain an adequate amount of God by sinking deeply into the Triune God until we are mingled with Him.

How do we do this? How can we “sink deeply into God” to be “overlaid with Him”? It is good to come to the Lord and ask Him concerning this, saying,

Lord, we want to be those who sink deeply into the Triune God until we are fully overlaid with Him as gold for the keeping of the oneness in the Body of Christ. We don’t trust our self, our will, or our mind; our trust is on You! Overlay us more with Yourself as gold today for the genuine oneness. We want to pursue You so that we may gain You, obtain You, experience You, and be filled with You. Lord, keep us in the solid and real oneness. Cause us to have an adequate amount of the experienced God.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Ed M. for this week, and Truth Messages, ch. 9 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (part 4, 2016 Summer Training), week 42 / msg. 6, The Oneness in the Triune God Typified by the Tabernacle.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # I have learned the wondrous secret / Of abiding in the Lord; / I have tasted life’s pure fountain, / I am drinking of His word; / I have found the strength and sweetness / Of abiding ’neath the blood; / I have lost myself in Jesus, / I am sinking into God. (Hymns #564)
  # Pursue Him and know Him; be found in Him. / Count all things loss for Him. / Just gain Him, obtain Him; lay hold of Him. / It’s Christ the central vision. / Forgetting the things which are behind, / Press on, pursue with this mind. / By any means each hour now redeem; / Stretch forth, lay hold of Him. (Song on pursuing Christ)
  # What things were gains to me, / These I now count as loss. / Jesus has set me free / From what I was! / All of the things I had; / Everything, good or bad, / I count as refuse / That I may gain Christ! (Song on gaining Christ)