reaching the high peak of living in the reality of the Body of Christ by praying

What will bring the Lord back is a group of overcomers who live in the reality of the Body of Christ – they live a reproduction and a duplication of the life that the Lord Jesus lived when He was on earth.

But where is such a living today on the earth? We can safely say that we can have “Jerusalem” here, with a lot of Christians living a general Christian life, but what about those who are the overcomers, those who care for the building up of the Body of Christ to bring Him back?

We need to be those who pray to breathe God in and exhale ourselves out so that He may have a way to live in us and fulfill His heart’s desire in us.

The overcomers build up the Body of Christ

In this age of the degradation of the church Christ is intensifying His organic salvation so that He would produce the overcomers, those who build up the Body of Christ for the bringing in of the kingdom age (Rev. 2:7, the initial consummation of the New Jerusalem) and the full consummation of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:2).

But how can the Body of Christ be built up if there are not some who are produced as overcomers? Christ needs His Bride to be prepared, He needs His Body to be built up, before He returns. Lord, gain the overcomers today! Make us Your overcoming ones in this age!

The history of Israel and the history of the church shows us time and time again that as God’s people fall into degradation, God is looking for some overcomers who are one with Him to turn that age into the next age.

Today in the age of the church God is looking for some overcomers who would cooperate with Him to close this age and bring in the age of the kingdom, where Christ and His overcomers will reign for 1000 years.

These overcomers are those who deeply care for and are genuinely concerned for the building up of the Body of Christ. Lord, make us those who care for the building up of the Body!

The reality of the Body of Christ

What is the reality of the Body of Christ? Simply put, the reality of the Body of Christ is the totality of the living by the spirit by a group of transformed and perfected God-men. We need to do everything in our spirit and by our spirit.

When we have such a living according to our mingled spirit, together we will close this age and we will bring Christ back to take over, rule, and possess the earth together with His overcomers (see Rev. 20:4-6)!

How we desire to be His overcomers, and how we need to endeavour to reach this high peak of living in the reality of the Body of Christ as the God-men!

The Lord Jesus lived such a life when He was on the earth – He lived not by His own life but by the Father, taking Him as His source and life.

Today He wants to repeat, reproduce, and duplicate His life in a group of many believers who have been redeemed and regenerated, and who now possess His life! We are those who have the divine life and are now nourished, sanctified, transformed, and perfected to be God-men!

This kind of corporate living not by our natural life but by the divine life in us is the reality of the Body of Christ. We are genuine men living not by our human life but by the divine life!

“The reality of the Body of Christ is the corporate living by the perfected God-men, who are genuine men but are not living by their life, but by the life of the processed God, whose attributes have been expressed through their virtues” (Witness Lee, The Practical Points concerning Blending)

Reaching the high peak by praying

How can we reach such a high peak? How can we have such an uplifted living and experience? There is no other way except by praying. We are part of Jerusalem in the church life, but we want to be Zion, the overcomers, the place where God desires to dwell and move.

What is prayer? It is breathing God in and breathing ourselves out; obtaining God and letting go of more of ourselves; and it is being obtained and gained intrinsically by God.

Just as we breathe in air, we can breathe in God by exercising our spirit to pray – even pray His heart’s desire back to Him.

Real prayer is exhaling and inhaling before God – and it makes us and God to be one, to gain and obtain one another.

The way for us to cooperate with God and gain God, allowing God to gain us intrinsically, is to pray. We may hear and be impressed and even aspire to fulfill God’s desire for overcomers – but it is only by prayer that we can take Him in with His desire and His intentions, and He can have a way to be expressed through us.

As we pray, we breathe Him in, and God expresses Himself and His desire through us, accomplishing His purpose in us. We need to offer our best cooperation to the Lord to produce us as His overcomers for His need by praying!

Lord, make us men of prayer – those who lay the tracks for You by praying Your heart’s desire back to You! We don’t want to do and initiate things in ourselves to try to accomplish Your purpose. Lord, Your desire is to obtain the overcomers – make us Your overcomers! We are not qualified and we are not matured yet – but Lord, transform us and mature us to be those who close this age! Whatever is in Your heart concerning us, Lord, do it! Produce us and many others as the overcoming ones!

References and Further Reading 

• Sharing inspired from, The Practical Points concerning Blending (chs. 4-5), and, Lessons on Prayer, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization-Study of Psalms (2), week 21;
• Hymns on this topic:
  # God needs men who pray; / Those who lay the tracks for Him; / God’s economy is carried out through men of prayer.
  # Glorious vision, I have seen it: My life is meant for God’s economy! / Earthly bondage, I have left it: My heart outpours for the Lord’s recovery!
  # Now we’re overcomers on the sea of glass; / This final crossing will forever last.