As believers in Christ we are not meant to live in an individualistic way – we are members of the Body of Christ. However, do we have the realization that we are members of the Body? Do we live in the Body of Christ? Do we depend on the Lord as the Head and on the other members of the Body the Lord put us with?
We need to allow the Lord to shine on us and cooperate with His light so that we may see the Body of Christ and live in the reality of the Body in our daily life. The first thing we need to see is that the self is the enemy of the Body. It is not that brother or that sister that cause problems in the Body – our very self is the greatest enemy of the Body.
In our personal and private time with the Lord and in the church life corporately we need to be open to the Lord so that He may open our eyes to see our self, the enemy of the Body. Where there’s the self, there’s no Body of Christ; where is the Body of Christ, there is no self. Since the self is the independent soul doing things apart from God, there’s no place for the self in the Body.
Lord Jesus, bring us in Your light and keep shining on us to see that our SELF is the enemy of the Body of Christ! Lord, show us a vision of the self so that we may reject it, deny it, and renounce it for the sake of the Body!
Seeing the Body of Christ and the Mingled Spirit in Ephesians
The book of Ephesians is on the church as the Body of Christ, and in each chapter, we have a particular of the church.
Also, in each chapter we see our mingled spirit – the only way we can be in the Body of Christ is by being in our mingled spirit! If we are going to know the Body of Christ, we need to know our spirit, use our spirit, and exercise our spirit! Let’s see the Body of Christ in each chapter of Ephesians:
- Ephesians 1: the church as the Body of Christ is the issue of the dispensing of the processed Trinity and the transmitting of the transcending Christ. The Father chose us (to be holy) and predestinated us (unto sonship). The Son redeemed us so that we may be brought under the headship of Christ. The Spirit seals us and is the pledge of the divine inheritance. Now we belong to the Triune God, and His resurrecting, ascending, subjecting, and heading up power is to the church – it is being transmitted into our being right now!
- Ephesians 2: the church as the Body of Christ is God’s masterpiece as the new man. We may feel that in the church life we are a “mess-terpiece” and not a masterpiece, but the Bible says that we are God’s masterpiece. God is actively working Himself into us and on us to make us His masterpiece in reality. We are in “the divine and mystical art gallery”, where the new man is the masterpiece!
- Ephesians 3: the church as the Body of Christ is supplied with the riches of Christ unto the fullness of God. We are daily being strengthened with power through God’s Spirit into the inner man, so that Christ may make His home in our heart and we may apprehend with all the saints the universal dimensions of Christ.
- Ephesians 4: the church as the One Body of Christ is built up by one ministry. The ministry of the age builds up the Body of Christ.
- Ephesians 5: the church as the Body of Christ is composed of the children of light for the preparation of the Bride of Christ. This mystery is great – Christ and the church.
- Ephesians 6: the church as the Body of Christ is the corporate warrior of the Triune God. It is not an individual who can bear all the armor of God, but the church as the Body of Christ corporately.
How can we experience all these aspects of the church as the Body of Christ? We need to love the Lord in incorruptibility (see Eph. 6:24)! This means that we need to love Him in the new creation, in our regenerated, renewed, and indwelt spirit, and according to all the things revealed in the book of Ephesians. We need to be the “Lord Jesus I love You” people, and then God in Christ as our enjoyment is to us!
Each chapter of Ephesians reveals our mingled spirit:
- Eph. 1:17 – we need a spirit of wisdom and revelation of Christ and His Body in the full knowledge of Christ.
- Eph. 2:22 – we are being built together as a dwelling place of God in spirit.
- Eph. 3:16 – we need to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into our spirit mingled with the divine Spirit (our inner man).
- Eph. 4:23 – we are being renewed in the spirit of our mind (the Spirit with our spirit spreads into our mind to renew it).
- Eph. 5:18 – we need to be filled in spirit and speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, giving thanks to the Lord!
- Eph. 6:18 – we are those who pray at every time in spirit!
To Know the Body of Christ We Need to Renounce the Self
In Matt. 16 Peter received a revelation from God the Father Himself that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. But just a few minutes later, after the Lord spoke of going to the cross to die and then resurrect, Peter in his “good self” tried to stop that from happening – he rebuked the Lord.
Peter didn’t know it, but it was Satan mingled with Peter’s self that spoke that to the Lord. Ever since Adam fell, Satan injected his nature into us, in our soul, and so our soul is independent from God – it is the self. The enemy of the Body of Christ is the self, and for us to know the Body and be in the Body we need to reject, repudiate, and deny our self.
Of course, we cannot and should not “crucify ourselves” so that we may “get rid of the self”. What we need is the Lord’s exposing, cutting, and piercing light to shine on us and expose our self and show us how independent we are from the Lord and from the Body.
We may meet with the saints in the church life, but are we built up together? Are we properly related to one another, depending on the saints? Can the Lord say that we are built up in the Body for His expression in our locality? To a certain degree we are, but when the Lord shows us a vision of the Body of Christ, we will realize that our self is still there as the greatest enemy of the Body of Christ.
Whenever we do things independent from God and from the Body of Christ, we are in our self and we damage the Body. Even if we do good things and spiritual activities, as long as we are independent of God, we are in the self. Whenever we are dependent of God, we are also dependent on the brothers and the sisters the Lord put us with.
To be dependent on the Body is to be dependent on the Lord, and to be dependent on the Lord is to depend on the brothers and the sisters. For us to see the Body of Christ and to be in practicality in the Body as properly functioning members, we need to deal with the self.
Denying the Self and Living by the Divine Life in our Spirit
We need to see a vision of our self. Some have a dominating self – they are not properly related to other brothers and sisters but like to dominate and always take the lead in whatever fellowship they have or service they do. We need to always have the attitude of, Brothers and sisters, here is my suggestion – how do you feel about this? Such an attitude will save us from our dominating self.
We need to receive more grace and light from the Lord so that the self would be exposed under the Lord’s light, and we would renounce the self. God’s light imparts His life as it is exposing us. We need the killing function of the divine light to kill our self so that the Body of Christ may be built up!
This means that as the Lord’s light shines on our self as the enemy of the Body, we would condemn the self, reject it, renounce it, and deny it. And then, we need to live by another life – the divine life in our spirit. We need to continually exercise our spirit to reject the self and live by the divine life in our spirit. When we do this, we are in the Body of Christ in reality, and God’s purpose can be fulfilled in us, Christ can be expressed through us, and the enemy of God will be defeated.
If we are rightly related to the Body of Christ, we will have God’s presence wherever we are. If we depend on the Body of Christ, we will also depend on the Lord. God has more regard for our dependence of Him than for our doing a work for Him. When we depend on God, we are full of peace, but when we are living in the self, we are always agitated and restless. We need to see that the greatest problem and opposition to the Body is the self, the independent “ME”!
Lord Jesus, shine on us and cause Your light to expose our self. We don’t want to live in the self. Make us those who reject the self and repudiate it as soon as Your light exposes it. Lord, we want to live by the divine life in our spirit! Expose the self. Shine on us. Strengthen our inner man to stand with You and reject the self so that the Body of Christ may be built up. Lord, may we depend on You in everything we do. May we depend on the Body of Christ as we depend on You. Give us a vision of the Body of Christ so that we may see the self and deny it!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration (besides the Word of God and my Christian experience): bro. Ed Marks’ speaking in this message and portions from, The Heavenly Vision (chs. 3-4, by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Entering into the Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life to Arrive at a Full-Grown Man for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose, week 2 / msg 2, The Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life (1) – Knowing the Body.
- Hymns on this topic:
# I hardly know myself; / Deceived so much by pride, / I often think I’m right / And am self-satisfied. / As for the church, I need / Thy revelation more, / The Body-life to know, / Thy wisdom to explore.
# Make this poor self grow less and less, / Be Thou my life and aim; / Oh, make me daily through Thy grace / More meet to bear Thy name. / Each day let Thy supporting might / My weakness still embrace; / My darkness vanish in Thy light, / Thy life my death efface
# By the cross discern the spirit, / Put the soul to death alway; / Bear the cross, deny the self-life, / Walk in spirit day by day….By the cross discern the spirit / And within the spirit move; / As good land, on Christ e’er labor, / And His riches thou wilt prove.
Thank God for this lesson and I was struggling with something that I do not know that is the SELF,, God's word is perfect and I thank the Holy Spirit that directs me to read this article this morning in Melbourne Australia,God bless your life and your families.
Brother, praise the Lord for His revelation in His word. In our self we are hopeless and we are even "dangerous" to others, and we cannot change ourselves, our disposition, our self. But God has a way as revealed in His word! Lord, break through in us for the sake of Your Body!