The Reality of the Body is a Corporate Living of Conformity to the Death of Christ

Being one spirit with the Lord means that we are organically united and blended with Him to become one in life, and we live a life in conformity to the death of Christ for the life of Christ to be lived out in us.

As believers in Christ, we are the many members of the Body of Christ, and we have been organically joined with Him in spirit.

The church as the Body of Christ is a group of people who allow God to be mingled with them and who are mingled with God. They are those who pray like Paul did, that the Father would strengthen them through His spirit into their inner man so that Christ may make His home in their heart through faith (Eph. 3:16-22).

However, our problem is that many times we forget about the Lord and we don’t live in the organic union with Him in the mingled spirit. The key to experiencing the organic union with the Lord is our mingled spirit, the divine Spirit mingled with our spirit.

This mingled spirit is such a mysterious yet wonderful and real matter, for whenever we turn to the Lord, pray, fellowship with Him, and pray over God’s word, we touch the mingled spirit, and we touch the reality of the Body of Christ.

All that is of God is real to us in the mingled spirit, and the reality of the Body of Christ can be touched and lived out only when we exercise our spirit and live according to the spirit.

This is why Paul said in Rom. 8:4 that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us when we walk according to the spirit. It is when we touch the Lord in the mingled spirit and spend time with Him by remaining in this organic union in spirit that we are inwardly led by Him as the Spirit of reality into all the reality of the Body of Christ.

This matter of the divine Spirit mingled with our spirit to make us one spirit with the Lord is very deep and mysterious, and we can enter into the understanding and experience of this reality only when we exercise our spirit.

We cannot merely mentally understand the concept of the mingled spirit – as the need to call on the name of the Lord, turn our heart to Him, confess what His light exposes in us, and we will touch something of the divine reality.

Without touching the Lord in the mingled spirit and without living according to the spirit, we cannot know God, we cannot live in the reality of the Body of Christ, and the spiritual things are mere doctrine and good thoughts to us.

When we turn on the switch, the lights come on, but when we turn it off, the lights go off. Similarly, when we switch on to our mingled spirit, we can experience God, Christ, the church, and the Body of Christ, but when we switch off, we are cut off from such an experience. Oh Lord Jesus!

Enjoying the deep and Far-reaching Implications of being Joined to the Lord as one Spirit

The implications of 1 Cor. 6:17 are deep and far-reaching. This verse tells us that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. This means not only that God is in us and one with us, but that we are joined to Him in spirit, and we are one with Him in the organic union.

Being joined to the Lord as one spirit implies that He is in us and we are in Him, and that He is mingled with us and we are mingled with Him. The union of the two spirits – the divine Spirit and the human spirit – is the deepest mystery in the Bible, and it is our reality today.

All those regenerated by the Lord have a mingled spirit, that is, they are joined to the Lord as one spirit. One spirit. Hallelujah, we are one spirit with the Lord!

He not only guides us outwardly and arranges the environment for all things to work together for good, so that we may be conformed to the image of Christ, but He is joined to us as one spirit!

If we look at the context of this verse, here Paul was speaking of not being joined to a prostitute, so that we don’t make our body one with members of sin, thus being joined to sin. Our union with the Lord in spirit is more intimate and deep than such a union in the flesh.

The Lord became a life-giving Spirit to be joined to us in spirit, and in our mingled spirit we are in Him and He is in us. He dwells in us and we dwell in Him by exercising and living in the mingled spirit. We and Him have become one in life organically, and we are mingled and blended together.

Just as He lived a life of a God-man, a life by denying Himself and living by the divine life, so we, by being joined to Him, live the life of a God-man today by denying our natural life and living by the divine life.

He is the Head of the Body and the Body of the Head; He is both the Head and the life of the Body, and we as His members are not separate from Him but one with Him, even Him (1 Cor. 12:12). Hallelujah!

The divine Spirit and the human spirit are mingled as one within us so that we can live the life of a God-man, a life that is God yet man and man yet God; such a living with such a reality is the reality of the Body of Christ.

Paul aspired to this and said that he was crucified with Christ and it is no longer him who lives but Christ who lives in him, and the life he lived in the flesh he lived in faith, the faith of the Son of God (Gal. 2:20).

We have been crucified with Christ, and He lives in us; we live, yet He lives, and our living is a mingling of God and man – the living of God yet in man, the living of a man, yet with God.

Furthermore, no matter what happens, what environment we may be in, and what our situation is, we enjoy the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and for us to live is Christ (Phil. 1:19-21).

Thank You Lord Jesus for our mingled spirit! Thank You for making us one with You in spirit. Hallelujah, we are in Christ and Christ is in us; we abide in Christ and He abides in us, in our mingled spirit! Thank You Lord for organically mingling us and blending us with Yourself so that we may have one life and one living. Hallelujah, now we can live the life of a God-man, a life that is God yet man and man yet God, a life in the reality of the Body of Christ! Lord, keep us one spirit with You today!

The Reality of the Body is a Corporate Living of Conformity to the Death of Christ

The reality of the Body of Christ is a corporate living of conformity to the death of Christ (Phil. 3:10).

What does it mean to be conformed to the death of Christ, and how does this relate to being in the reality of the Body of Christ? The death of Christ is a mold that we as believers need to take for our living.

This mold refers to Christ’s putting to death His human life continuously when he was on earth, so that He might live by the life of God.

For us to be conformed to the death of Christ is for us to be conformed to the image of Christ. When we experience the process of transformation and conformation, we are being conformed to the death of Christ.

When Christ was on earth, He was being put to death daily; He didn’t just die when He was put on the cross, but He daily died to Himself, putting Himself aside, so that He may live by the life of God, do the work of God, speak the word of God, and seek the glory of God.

Christ is the prototype, the firstborn Son of God, and we all are being conformed to His image; this means that our inward essence and nature is being changed, and our outward form is also changed.

Inwardly, we are being conformed to the death of Christ, and outwardly, we are being conformed to His image; the inward and outward change and conformity are the result of the operation of the law of the Spirit of life within us (Rom. 8:2).

We need to realise that we as believers who have an organic union with the Lord need to be conformed to the mold of the death of Christ; Christ’s death is a mold in which we are being shaped into His image as the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29).

Christ is our pattern, our mold, our prototype; as He lived on earth, He was molded by the cross, from His birth to His death – He was crossed out by His mother, bu His brothers, His disciples, the Pharisees, and the people around Him.

The Lord did not reject the conformity to the death of Christ but rather embraced it and allowed death to operate so that He may live by the divine life in resurrection. Day by day Christ died to the old creation in order to live a life in the new creation.

Our daily experience as believers should be one of conformity to the death of Christ, for the more our natural life is put to death, the more the divine life within us will be released.

To be conformed to the death of Christ involves absolutely denying our self and bearing the cross, always crucifying our natural man, and putting to death our disposition by birth, so that we may live by the divine life in our spirit.

When we live a life in conformity to the death of Christ, we live in the reality of the Body of Christ.

Christ was a perfect man: He had a resolute will, abundant emotions, clear logic, and rich thoughts; however, everything that He did and said was not of Himself but of God, for He denied Himself and took God as His source.

For four thousand years mankind has never seen such a man; He was intelligent, wise, loving, and He was truly a noble man, a man above all men.

He always chose God, He was mingled with God, He cared for God’s interest, His will stood with God, and He desired God.

The life of Jesus is a model for us, and we should be the mass reproduction of this model (1 Pet. 2:21; Rom. 8:29). Our life should be conformed to the mold of Christ’s death by our dying daily to our human life to live the divine life (Luke 9:23; John 12:25-26).

Lord Jesus, may our life be conformed to the mold of Christ’s death by our dying daily to our human life to live by the divine life. Thank You for setting up a pattern, a mold, a prototype, of One who continually put to death His human life that He might live by the life of the Father. Lord, may such a life be reproduced in us. Make us those who do not avoid the cross nor seek to save the self. May we be those who absolutely deny the self, bear the cross, crucify the natural man, and put to death our disposition by birth, so that we may live a life in conformity to the death of Christ, a life in the reality 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, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1613-1614 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 3, Being in the Reality of the Body of Christ by Living in the Organic Union and in the Mingled Spirit and by Being Conformed to Christ’s Death.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Now within the Lord’s recov’ry, we’re so glad to find the way / To experience the Triune God and live by Him today— / Get into the mingled spirit, and within the spirit stay; / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199)
  # This Spirit shall transform our natural life, / Save us from self, build us in one new man, / Till we’re conformed to be like Jesus Christ, / Thus finishing our God’s eternal plan. (Hymns #1195)
  # We need to work out our own salvation / By obeying the inner operating God. / We need to be conformed to the mold of Christ’s death / By the power of His resurrection that we may attain / To the out resurrection from the dead. (Song on, the Christian life)