The Lord urgently needs the overcomers who have a corporate God-man living to be the reality of the Body of Christ expressed in the local churches; such ones live a crucified life by the resurrection life of Christ, and they express Christ for the building up of the Body.
God needs a small number of believers, a group of overcomers, who pass on the flow of life to the church and revive it.
The church as a whole has become degraded, so the Lord is calling His overcomers; these are not super-Christians but rather, they are normal believers in Christ who answer the Lord’s call and live Christ for the Body.
If we look around the world today, there’s no other institution that is so divided and scattered as the church is.
There are divisions upon divisions, sects and cults, independent groups and mega-churches, and all kinds of denominations.
Where can we see the reality of the Body of Christ, and where can Christ be expressed? Where can Christ put His foot when He returns?
Where in the realm of Christianity can we see people who give themselves to the Lord for His purpose?
Even among us, in the church life, who is not only enjoying the Lord but also one with Him to end this age and bring in the age of the kingdom?
Who among us in the church life lives a crucified life by the power of Christ’s resurrection so that the church as the Body of Christ may be built up?
Who today stands in Christ’s victory in the midst of sufferings, and who declares the victory of Christ in their living?
Who among us allows the Lord to defeat him, conquer him, and not let him win? The Lord wants to gain His overcomers – He even desperately and urgently needs a group of overcomers who have a corporate God-man living, a living not by their natural life but by the divine life in their spirit.
We need to take the lead to be such ones; as we see the Lord’s desire, His intention, and His economy, and as we realize what He has already accomplished, what is there to still accomplish, and what He is doing today, we need to give ourselves to Him to be His overcomers in this age today.
We cannot be content with where we are and what we know; we cannot be “at ease in Zion” but rather, we should be those aspiring to be the overcomers, the ones who overcome to live Christ for the building up of the church.
In the Old Testament, the Lord set His name and His pleasure in Zion, and from Zion, He blessed His people, announced the word, and did good to Israel.
In the New Testament, the Lord still wants to gain Zion, the overcomers, those who cooperate with Christ to be produced as the overcoming ones, the perfected and mature God-men. Amen, Lord, make us such ones!
The Overcomers are the Perfected and Matured God-men living in the Reality of the Body of Christ
In typology, the overcomers today – the perfected and matured God-men – are today’s Zion within today’s Jerusalem (the church life) – see Heb. 12:22 and Rev. 14:1-5.
We thank and praise the Lord that He has brought us into the church life in the Lord’s recovery; however, we need to realize that, even though we may be in the realm of the church life, we still need to be the overcomers who answer the Lord’s call today.
Within the church life, there must be a group of overcomers, and these overcomers are today’s Zion. Amen!
They are the vital groups; the vital groups are actually the overcomer groups, for they are living, alive, vital, and active for the church.
We need to be the overcomers in the church life today, the perfected and mature God-men, to be the Zion within today’s church life.
Without the overcomers, the church life can’t be kept and maintained; this means that, if there are no overcomers in a local church, that church is like Jerusalem without Zion – it will become like a flat tire.
The city of Jerusalem was built on a mountain range, and Mount Zion was one of the mountains on which it was built.
Zion is the center, while Jerusalem is the circumference.
The church life is today’s Jerusalem; within the church life, however, there has to be some overcomers, a group of overcoming ones, who are today’s Zion.
The Lord’s recovery is to build up Zion – to build up and gain a group of overcomers who are the reality of the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem (Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16; 1 Cor. 1:2; 12:27; Rev. 14:1; 21:2; Psa. 84:5).
Therefore, in the church life, we need to endeavor to reach today’s Zion.
We are here in the church life not only to build Jerusalem but to gain Zion.
In principle, the Lord’s recovery should be the Zion in Jerusalem – and we need to endeavor to have this not only in name or position, but have the reality of the Body of Christ.
Without having the overcomers in the church life, without us being the overcomers in the church, the church life cannot be maintained or kept.
But if there are overcomers in the church, if there’s a corporate living by the perfected God-men (the overcomers) by the divine life and not their human life, then the church life is maintained, the reality of the Body is seen among us.
May we give ourselves to the Lord in prayer so that He may produce us as His overcomers. May we bring all these matters in prayer and ask the Lord to do this in us, for it is He who operates in us both the willing and the working according to His good pleasure.
Lord Jesus, gain the overcomers as today’s Zion in the church life! Gain the vital groups, the overcomer groups, who are living and active for the church! Amen, Lord Jesus, we are here for You to gain Your overcoming ones, the overcomers as the reality of the Body of Christ, consummating in the New Jerusalem! May we endeavor to reach today’s Zion in the church life for You to gain the reality of the Body of Christ among us! Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You to be produced as Your overcomers as the reality of the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem!
The Reality of the Body is the Corporate Living by the Overcomers who Live by God’s Life to Express Christ
What is the reality of the Body of Christ? It is a kind of corporate living; it is not a living by an individual but a corporate living, a collective living.
It is a corporate living as the aggregate of the many saints who have been redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, and transformed by the processed and consummated God within them.
The genuine believers in Christ have the indwelling consummated God to be made actual God-men.
The first God-man was the Lord Jesus Christ; He was a genuine man who lived not by His perfect human life but by the divine life, the life of God in His spirit.
He lived a crucified life daily for thirty-three and a half years. He had a perfect human life, a perfect humanity, but He didn’t live by His human life; rather, He denied Himself and lived by the life of the Father.
Even before He was crucified physically on the wooden cross on Mount Calvary, Christ was being crucified every day for thirty-three and a half years.
He kept the genuine man on the cross, and He lived by the divine life; in this way, He expressed God’s life with all its attributes through His human virtues.
The reality of the Body of Christ is such a living as the Lord’s, a corporate living by the overcomers who live not by their human life but by the divine life to express Christ.
Such a life was originally just in Christ as an individual man; through regeneration, this life has been repeated, reproduced, in us as those who have been redeemed and regenerated, and who now possess the divine life within us.
We all have been nourished, sanctified, transformed, and perfected to be not only matured Christians but God-men.
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 own life but by the life of the processed God, whose attributes have been expressed through their virtues.
The apostle Paul was such a one; he realized that he cannot live by his human life with his achievements and abilities, and he took the death of Christ as his mold.
Paul put himself into the death-mold and was conformed to the death of Christ (Phil. 3:10); when others saw him, they saw the mark and the image of the cross (Gal. 6:14, 17).
His old life was conformed to the death of Christ by the power of Christ’s resurrection, and he magnified Christ in his human living; it was not him who was living anymore, but Christ lived in him, and the life he lived in the flesh he lived in the organic union with Christ (Gal. 2:20).
This is the kind of life that the Lord desires to see lived out among us today; He wants to gain a corporate living of the perfected God-men who live not by their life but by the divine life.
We may think that this is impossible, but the Lord Jesus lived such a life, the Apostle Paul lived such a life, and we ourselves can live such a life.
We may not be able to live such a life constantly, but at least we can live it instantly.
Many times when we’re about to speak to our spouse, something within us says, Don’t speak now – what you’re about to speak is not from your spirit but from the old man.
If we stop when the Lord within us tells us to stop, or if we go ahead and speak when He tells us to speak, we live by the divine life.
When something within us tells us to stop, and we do stop, we gain the Lord, and He can be expressed through us.
The processed Triune God lives in us and He turns us; as He turns us, we pass through death and resurrection, and Christ is expressed through us.
Such a corporate living is the reality of the Body of Christ, for it is a corporate living of the conformity to the death of Christ through the power of His resurrection.
The overcomers who live such a life are not “angels” but genuine men who live not by their life but by the life of God.
The Lord urgently needs the overcomers with their God-man living as the reality of the Body of Christ to be expressed in the local churches, for unless there’s a substantial expression of the Body, the Lord Jesus will not return.
Only He knows what is this substantial expression; we need to endeavor to be part of this expression today.
The Lord needs the overcomers to carry out the economy of God in order to have the Body of Christ and to destroy His enemy.
Without His overcomers, the Body of Christ cannot be built up, and unless the Body of Christ is built up, Christ can’t come back for His bride (Eph. 1:10; 3:10; Rev. 12:11; 19:7-9).
Without the reality of the Body of Christ, the bride of Christ cannot be prepared, for the bride is that reality, and the living out of that reality issues in the bride, the one new man, and the corporate warrior.
When we live in the reality of the Body of Christ as the overcomers of today, we will not pay attention to culture, background, racial element, or anything else, for we will be the one new man.
Thank You Lord Jesus for coming into us to repeat the same kind of God-man life that You lived while on the earth! Hallelujah, Jesus Christ the God-man has come into us to make us His reproduction, His multiplication! Amen, Lord, we open to You to live no longer by our own life but by the divine life. Make us Your overcomers, those who have a God-man living as the reality of the Body of Christ. It is Your need, Lord, to gain overcomers who carry out Your economy and destroy Your enemy; gain us as such ones, and gain many brothers and sisters to enter into this corporate living by the perfected God-men! Yes, Lord, gain the overcomers, the genuine men who live not by their life but by the life of the processed God! Gain those who live in the mold of Christ’s death by the power of His resurrection so that Christ may be magnified in them for the Body!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” ch. 4, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Christian Life, the Church Life, the Consummation of the Age, and the Coming of the Lord (2020 fall ITERO), week 6, Entering into the Intrinsic Significance of the Reality of the Body of Christ — the Highest Peak in God’s Economy and the Top Revelation of the Bible.
- Hymns on this topic:
– The Church is Christ’s own Body, / The Father’s dwelling-place, / The gathering of the called ones, / God blended with man’s race; / Elect before creation, / Redeemed by Calv’ry’s death, / Her character and standing / Of heaven, not of earth. (Hymns #824)
– Living out His resurrection, / Dying to the flesh and soul-life. / Living by the mingled spirit, / Natural man we will deny. / Now we’re living in the Body, / Every day we’re overcoming, / Striving for the peak of Zion, / Watching for our Lord’s appearing. (Song on, God has called us for His purpose)
– From the fruit of daily living, New Jerusalem we’ll see, / It’s the ultimate in mingling—it’s divine humanity. / And what joy that we can share it all, and share it corporately. / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199)
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