As believers in Christ, we are learning to live our human life by the divine life in our spirit; as we do the things we need to do in our daily living, we practice to daily live in the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit so that Christ may be expressed through us.
We live our daily life in the physical realm where we do many things and where our physical senses operate, but at the same time, we exercise our spirit and inwardly live in the spirit to touch God, abide in the Lord, and live according to the Spirit with our spirit.
Our being a Christian, a Christ-man, is not mere doctrine or outward practice; we are God-men, those who have God as life in our spirit, and we are learning to live more and more in the spirit so that God may live in us and be expressed through us.
Just as in the human life we don’t need to struggle and try really hard to be a man – simply because we were born of our human parents and we express our human nature, so in the spiritual realm we should not struggle to express God and do our best to represent Him but we should simply live by the divine life in our spirit and live in spirit so that spontaneously and effortlessly Christ would be expressed through us.
We have to confess, however, that many of our experiences are failures: we still live in the natural man, we still express our self, and our flesh is still manifested, and the Lord keeps exposing us of how natural, fleshly, and selfish we are.
At the same time, however, we see something of God’s economy, and we realize that God desires to work Himself into us and build us into Himself so that we would abide in Him, He would abide in us, and God would gain a mutual dwelling place on earth with man.
Oh, how we need to enter, become part of, and live in the divine and mystical realm, in the kingdom of God! As children of God we should daily practice living in the kingdom of God, the realm of the divine life, so that Christ would live in us and be expressed through us!
Living in the Divine and Mystical Realm for the Building of the Temple of God
As believers in Christ, we are divine and mystical persons who live in the divine and mystical realm for the building of the divine and mystical temple of God (John 2:19-22).
First, we enter into this realm by being regenerated, and we live in the kingdom of God by living in the spirit and walking according to the Spirit. In the divine and mystical realm the Triune God is dispensing Himself into us to make us His dwelling place; this dwelling place also becomes our dwelling place (see John 14:1-31).
John 14 is a chapter that has been very much misinterpreted and misused by traditional Christian theology, and many believers think that Christ is preparing their “heavenly mansion” as they live a good Christian life on earth. But what the gospel of John reveals is the Triune God dispensing Himself into His people to make them His dwelling place so that God and man would dwell together as a mutual dwelling place.
In John 15:4 the Lord says, Abide in Me and I in you. He wants us to dwell in Him so that He may dwell in us. This is a mutual dwelling for a mutual abode. The many abodes in the Father’s house in John 14 are the many believers in Christ who are built up through Christ’s death and resurrection.
The more we love the Lord, enjoy Him, and allow His words to abide in us, the more the Father and the Son come to us to dwell with us and make their abode with us, and we become the mutual dwelling place of God and man. The Father’s house in John 14:2, 20, 23 signifies the mingling of the Triune God with His redeemed people to be a dwelling place for both God and His people.
The more we are divine and mystical persons living in the divine and mystical realm, the more we are built into the divine and mystical temple of God, and eventually, the glory of God is manifested in the church.
God wants to gain the fulfillment of the Lord’s highest prayer in John 17: a mutual dwelling place of God and man where there’s no self-expression and no peculiarity, and the glory of God fills the temple of God! Amen!
Today God is dispensing Himself into us, His people, to mingle Himself with us and make us a mutual dwelling place of God and man; we simply need to receive God’s dispensing and let Him mingle Himself with us until God and us, we and God, are mingled together to become one abode – a mutual abode! This mutual abode is the church as the divine and mystical temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16-17; Eph. 2:21-22).
Lord Jesus, we want to be divine and mystical persons who live in the divine and mystical realm for the building of the divine and mystical temple of God. Dispense Yourself into us, Lord, to make us Your dwelling place. Lord, we love You, we open to Your dispensing, and we allow your words to dwell in us, so that we may have more union, mingling and incorporation of God with man for the mutual dwelling place of God and man! Lord, amen, mingle Yourself more with us for the producing and building up of the dwelling place of God and man, the temple of God!
Seeing, Praying for, and Becoming the Temple of God in the Divine and Mystical Realm
These past six weeks we have been enjoying the Lord’s speaking in a wonderful way concerning the church as the temple of God, and at the end of the last message brother Ron K. shared ten main points that would summarize and conclude this topic, ending with a prayer and a consecration to the Lord for Him to give us the experiences we need for us to see and become the temple of God in the divine and mystical realm.
1. We need to see a vision and see a clear view of the temple of God and of the divine and mystical realm. Any veils of religion, concepts, and opinions needs to be removed, and we need to have the Lord’s shining that we may see what is the temple of God and what is the divine and mystical realm.
2. We need to have the real experiences of Christ as the materials of the temple. Our enjoyment of Christ follows and is based on our experience of Christ. We need to experience Christ and pray for the experience of Christ as the building materials of the temple of God so that we may be those who build up the church as the temple of God with our experience of Christ.
3. We need to experience Christ building Himself into our being. We need to pray for this and let this happen. When we pray, Lord, build Yourself into my being! – He may go for the parts of our being that we have closed to Him for a long time, touching things that we protect for ourselves. Just let Him build Himself into you for the temple of God!
4. We need to be constituted with the truth. The Bible is our food, our nourishment, and the living letter from God to us; we need to get into God’s word, pray over the verses in the Bible, and diligently read the footnotes and the life-studies that open up the word of God for us to have spiritual understanding and discernment of God and His economy.
5. We need to advance in the experience and growth in life. Our growth in the divine life equals the building. The more we grow in life, the more the temple of God is growing. We need to open to the Lord, let Him grow in us, and pray for a normal daily growth in life for the building up of the church as the temple of God.
6. We need to be stones that are cut in silence and fitted together. By nature we all have sharp points and unfitted portions; many of us know from experience how our disposition and peculiarity can really hurt the saints. We need to have a hidden history with the Lord in silence – we don’t talk about it but we allow the Lord to cut us, build us up, and fit us together with the saints in the temple of God.
7. We need to be brought fully into resurrection. The temple of God is an entity fully in the resurrection life of Christ, and therefore our whole being and living need to be in resurrection. In the temple of God nothing natural can remain or be used; only what passed through death into resurrection can remain in the church as God’s temple.
8. We need to be willing to learn to come to the incense altar, lay aside our personal interest, and pray for the saints’ growth in life, the experience of Christ, the building up of the church as the temple of God, and the formation of the army. We need to give ourselves to the Lord to pray one with Christ in the divine and mystical realm, echoing Christ’s heavenly ministry on earth in our prayer.
9. We need to be those like Paul who travail for the saints, struggling for the saints’ maturation in Christ. We need to do many outward things and even bring others into service, but we need to struggle for the saints’ growth in life unto maturity according to God’s operation which operates in us in power. Paul served the saints with tears, admonishing them publicly and from house to house. There needs to be a desperation in the ministry and the work that matches the desperation in God.
10. We need to respond to the Lord’s word in prayer and consecration in a simple way. It is good to simply tell the Lord, Lord, give me the experiences I need to be built up into the church as the temple of God. As we open to the Lord concerning all these matters, He will give us the experiences we need for the building up of the church. We need to have a genuine consecration – not a promise that we can’t keep, but giving the Lord the consent to work in us and on us. It is good to tell the Lord, Lord, I don’t know where I am and what to do, but I give myself to You again: work in me according to Your heart’s desire for the building up of the church as the temple of God! Amen!
Lord Jesus, we want to be a holy priesthood and bear one another before You in love: look upon us, gain us, and cause us to grow in life and experience Christ for the building of the temple of God. Lord, we come to You as open vessels ready to receive Your dispensing. Make us the same as You are in life, nature, and expression. Make us divine and mystical persons for the divine and mystical temple of God. Amen! Lord, thank You for Your gracious mercy to us that we can be in Your recovery today! Amen, Lord, build up the church as the temple of God!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, chs. 38-39 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Church as the Temple of God – The Goal of God’s Eternal Economy (2015 Thanksgiving Conference), week 6 / msg. 6, Becoming Divine and Mystical Persons Living in the Divine and Mystical Realm for the Building of the Divine and Mystical Temple of God.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# He’s the Spirit of Reality. / He’s the secret. He is one with me; / He’s in my spirit. God dispensed in me / From my spirit, soul and then, body, / Producing reality. / Don’t be fooled by outward circumstance. / Lord, do grant us visions and a trance: / The New Jerusalem, a mingling / A mutual dwelling place of God and man. / Lord, You’re reality! (Song on a mutual dwelling place)
# Little by little, / The Lord is cutting off all our natural life; / As we grow in Him, / He replaces us with more of His life divine. (Song on growing in Christ)
# Minding just the spirit, we the cross will know, / And His resurrection pow’r thru us will flow; / Minding just the spirit, Christ will live thru me, / And His life within will reach maturity. (Hymns #593)
About aGodMan
The Gospel of John reveals the Triune God dispensing Himself into His people and thereby making them His dwelling place. Eventually, God’s dwelling place also becomes the dwelling place of God’s people. Hence, it is a mutual dwelling place or mutual abode. John 15:4 says, “Abide in Me and I in you.” This can also be translated, “Dwell in Me and I in you.” In this verse we see the mutual dwelling. Since there is a mutual dwelling, there must certainly be a mutual abode. This mutual abode is the center and reality of the Gospel of John.
The Father’s house is a mutual abode, an abode for both God and us. But if we would not be built up through Christ’s death and resurrection so that God can dwell in us, we will be short of the experience of God as our dwelling place. We need to be built up through Christ’s death and resurrection so that God can dwell in us. When we are built up in this way, we become an abode to God. When God dwells in us, He becomes our dwelling place. This is our abode. Furthermore, this means that we and God, God and we, are mingled together to become one abode, a mutual abode. God abides in us, and we abide in God—a mutual abiding. This is the thought of the Gospel of John. Therefore, the Father’s house is a sign signifying the mingling of God with His people. (Witness Lee, The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, pp. 328-329, 339)