Resist Satan’s Attack of Death and Build the Church in Christ’s Resurrection Life

After the wall has been built in the church, we will be able to resist Satan’s attack of death upon the church and build up the church in the resurrection life of Christ. Amen!

As believers in Christ who meet in the church life and enjoy the teaching of the apostles, meeting on the genuine ground of oneness and partaking of the riches of Christ with all the saints, we need to build the wall.

Nehemiah was greatly used by God to build the wall in the Old Testament, and today in the church life there’s the need for building a great and high wall.

The church needs to be not only the house of God where we enjoy Christ as life and partake of Him as our life supply but also the kingdom of God, the city of God, where we take Christ as our Head.

The enemy of God, Satan, attacks the church again and again; he attacks the church not only from without but also from within.

He attacks the church through those who persecute it and seek to damage it, and he attacks it from without through the world, the philosophy of the age, and the trends in the world today.

But even more, Satan attacks the church by using some who are in the church to cause division, preach and teach heresy, and be factious and divisive.

Throughout the ages, more damage has been done to the church as the building work of God by the enemy attacking from within the church than any attack from outside.

There were and still are many believers in Christ who love the Lord and love the church, but they are used by Satan to make division in the church.

God hates division. He hates when the Body of Christ is divided, for He is one, and the Body partakes of the enlarged oneness of the Triune God.

Therefore, all those who cause division are abominable in the eyes of God, and divisions are hated by Him.

Both in the Old and in the New Testament we see that God hates division in His people. In the New Testament, the apostles clearly say that all those who make division should be set aside and we should stay away from such ones.

It doesn’t say that we should try to bring them to see the light and understand what the situation is; we need to remove such ones.

This means that we need to build a great and high wall around the church and in the church life so that the enemy would be put to shame and cast out, and all those who are one with him need to be put aside.

May the Lord have mercy on so many believers in Christ who are in the divisions and denominations in Christianity today.

May He call out His sheep from all the folds in Christianity and bring them under Himself as one Shepherd having one flock.

And may we stand one with the Lord and one with one another, enjoying the teaching of the apostles and focusing on nothing else but the healthy teaching of God’s New Testament economy in the church life today.

After the Wall is Built, we are able to Resist Satan’s Attack of Death upon the Church

The characteristic of Satan’s work is death; what he wants to do especially in the church is to bring in death.

This is why the Lord Jesus, after unveiling the church which He Himself is building, mentioned that the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18).

Satan has two main co-workers: sin and death. Sin is in our flesh, and death is brought in by sin and by those who cooperate with Satan to bring in sin.

The people who spread death collaborate with Satan, doing his work. Satan’s main attack upon the church is his attack of death.

Satan doesn’t want man only to sin and fall but also to bring man into the bondage of death.

The ultimate goal that Satan has is to saturate man with death, even as God wants to saturate man with life.

Because Satan is the enemy of God and God is life, Satan’s main work is to bring in death while God’s main work is to bring in life.

Many times we can testify that we may be in the meeting with the saints and we sense death.

We may not know why and how, but some saints may say something and death comes in.

Other saints, however, may cooperate with the Lord to bring in life, but Satan keeps attacking the church with death.

This is why we need to build a great and high wall in the church life today.

When the wall is built up, we will be able to resist Satan’s attack of death upon the church.

We need to overcome death in our meetings. We need to reject Satan’s attack of death, stand against any death, and release the divine life in the meeting.

Whenever and wherever there is the building up of the church, Satan will be there to attack the church with death.

The characteristic of Satan’s work is death, for the ultimate work of his work is to saturate man with death (Heb. 2:15).

The Lord revealed what is the main source of attack upon the church – “the gates of Hades”, that is, death.

Satan’s special object is to spread death within the church, and his greatest fear with regard to the church is her resistance to his power of death (Rev. 2:8, 10-11).

Christ has overcome death. He is life, even resurrection life, and we can take Him as our life and our everything in our daily life.

When we do this, when we take Christ as our life and minister HIm as life, life spreads in the church, and the church as the Body of Christ is built up.

But if we do not exercise to be under the headship of Christ and take Christ as life to minister Him to others, death is present.

May we learn to build up our resistance to death, to the virus of death.

May we reject death in all its forms, and we may we not allow death to have any room in the church life.

Death may be sudden, quick, or slow, long-term, and subtle; we need to build the wall and detect death, standing in the life of Christ and ministering life for the building up of the church.

When there is a great and high wall built in the church today, we will be able to resist Satan’s attack of death upon the church.

The church that is built upon “this rock” can discern between death and life, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Hallelujah!

Satan’s attack of death in many ways and by many means, but nothing is as subtle and dangerous as the attack of death.

When Satan attacks the church with sin, worldliness, and the flesh, we can detect it, for these things are more obvious.

But when Satan attacks the church with death, we need to make sure we have a great and high wall built up, otherwise, death will come in and spread in the church.

May we know Christ as the First and the Last, the One who is ever-existing and unchanging One (Rev. 2:8, 10-11).

May we know Him as the One who became dead and lives again, the One who is resurrection itself.

And may we be filled with the divine life so that His life would flow out of us to be ministered to others and swallow up any death!

Lord Jesus, we want to build the wall in the church life so that we may be able to resist Satan’s attack of death upon the church. Amen, Lord, fill us with Your life. Keep us enjoying You as life and ministering You as life to others. Save us from receiving death, listening to the words of death, or spreading death in the church life. Oh Lord, may there be a great and high wall in the church so that the church may withstand and resist the attack of death from Satan! Amen, Lord, gain a built-up church as the city of God, the kingdom of God, so that the gates of Hades would not prevail against it! Build up Your church! Gain the built-up church that You desire! May the church become more and more resistant to Satan’s power of death!

We need to Build up the Church in the Resurrection Life of Christ

On one hand, we need to be aware of the enemy’s attack of death upon the church; on the other hand, we need to build up the church in the resurection life of Christ.

May we know and experience Christ as the One who is resurrection life itself (Rev. 1:17-18; 2:8; John 11:25; Acts 2:24).

The Body of Christ is not merely a gathering of Christians or a social group of those who follow the teachings of Jesus but an entity completely in the resurrection life of Christ (Acts 2:24; Eph. 1:19-23).

The church is a new creation created in the resurrection of Christ and by the resurrected Christ (1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 2:6; Gal. 6:15).

The main goal of the Lord coming to the earth is for us to have life, the divine life of God, and may have it abundantly (John 10:10).

The enemy comes as a thief to kill, steal, and destroy, and his goal is to bring in and spread death in the church life.

But the Lord came to impart life and minister life so that we may have life and have it abundantly.

All the riches of God are embodied in Christ, and Christ is in us to be our life.

The church is the testimony of the riches of God who have become our enjoyment and constitution.

Christ is the resurrection and the life, and the church is a vessel to contain this Christ as resurrection and life.

Because the church is in the resurrection life of Christ, we can build up the church in the resurrection life of Christ.

The church must be the resurection life of Christ.

As we meet with the saints, we need to exercise our spirit to enjoy Christ as life and minister Him as life so that His life would build up the church.

Through the church – the vessel of Christ as life and resurrection – God has a way to dispense His life and riches to man.

Satan’s ultimate weapon to attack the church is death, and the Lord’s unique element to build the church is life.

Satan attacks us not only with sin, the world, and the works of the flesh, but with death.

Christ, on the other hand, ministers life to the saints, and He flows as life through the saints so that the church, an entity completely in the life of Christ, may be built up and prevail against Satan’s attack of death.

What the church needs today is not more doctrines or theologies, nor does it need more expositions of the word of God with outward activities that are good and charitable.

What the church needs is more resurrection life.

What we need to do is build the wall so that we may resist Satan’s attack of death, and we need to minister life to others as we meet with the saints to enjoy Christ.

No doctrine, activity, theology, or exposition can replace the resurrection life of Christ.

One the life of Christ, which is the resurrection life, enjoyed by us and ministered among us can cause the church to prevail and withstand Satan’s attack of death upon the church.

Whenever we sense death in the meeting or around us, we need to exercise our spirit and be filled with the resurection life of Christ so that the gates of Hades would not prevail against the builded church.

Praise the Lord, we have the best vaccination and booster: it is called resurrection life!

Every day we need to get this booster: we need to be boosted by taking a fresh new portion of life.

May we daily take a solid dosage of resurrection life.

May we take shot after shot of life in resurrection.

May we not take in any death but take in great amounts of resurection life.

Lord Jesus, fill us with life! We want to enjoy life, experience life, and minister life! Fill the church life with the resurrection life of Christ. May the church life be filled with Christ as life. Hallelujah, Christ came so that we may have life and may have it abundantly! Amen, Lord, keep us in the realm of life. May we not rely on anything natural in the church life. May we be fully brought into the realm of resurrection. May we live not in the natural life but in the resurrection life of Christ for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to receive a fresh boost of resurrection life. We want to receive shot after shot of life until we are filled with life!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by Minoru Chen in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 44, pp. 871-876, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (2022 winter training), week 8, entitled, Building the Wall of the City for the Protection of the Church as the House of God.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – The exposing of the enemy’s wiles, a portion from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 1) Vol. 01: The Christian Life and Warfare, Chapter 19, by Watchman Nee.
  – Fighting against the enemy, a portion via, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 1) Vol. 13: The Spiritual Man (2), Chapter 16, by Watchman Nee.
  – The church built up in resurrection, a portion from, The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, Chapter 37, by Witness Lee.
  – Being joined to the resurrection life of Christ, a portion from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 1) Vol. 11: The Present Testimony (4), Chapter 13, by Watchman Nee.
  – The two trees: the way of life versus the religion of death, an article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Death cannot hold the resurrection life, / The life of God eternal manifest. / ‘Tis uncreated, indestructible; / ‘Tis Christ Himself, unconqu’rable, expressed. / Death cannot hold the resurrection life, / Though all its force against it may combine; / Death only gives it opportunity / To show the boundless pow’r of life divine. (Hymns #639 stanzas 1-2)
  – Thou art all my life, Lord, / In me Thou dost live; / With Thee all God’s fulness / Thou to me dost give. / By Thy holy nature / I am sanctified, / By Thy resurrection, / Vict’ry is supplied. (Hymns #841 stanza 1)
  – Satan hath himself injected / Into man all things to spoil, / Bringing darkness and corruption / God’s eternal plan to foil. / Christ has come, Himself imparting / Into man as life to save, / That the pow’r of death and darkness / May no more all things enslave. (Hymns #981 stanzas 4-5)