If we would be in the reality of the Body of Christ today we need to have the Spirit of reality constituted into our being, so that we may intrinsically and organically be in the reality of the Body.
The secret to our Christian life is the Spirit with our spirit, and the secret to enjoying and experiencing all that the Triune God is and has is the Spirit of reality indwelling our spirit. Apart from the Spirit with our spirit, nothing of God and of the divine things is real.
The only way we can know God, touch God, enjoy God, and experience God is by exercising our spirit to live in spirit and have the reality of the Triune God be wrought into us by means of the Spirit of reality.
We need to realize that the reality of the Body of Christ is nothing else but the Spirit of reality. This means that our meetings with the saints, our reading of the Bible, and our prayer and fellowship with the Lord and with the saints, all these are real when we are in spirit, for it is the Spirit of reality that imparts the divine reality into us.
God is all-sufficient, Christ is all-inclusive, and the Spirit is bountiful and rich, but for us to enter into the enjoyment and experience of the Triune God and of the Body of Christ, we need to be those living in spirit and enjoying the Spirit of reality with our spirit.
We may understand the concept of the church, we may agree that there must be a practical and local church life, and we may even be convinced that there should be one church in one city, but unless we touch the Spirit of reality with our spirit, we may have mere outward forms and doctrines and no inward reality.
The spiritual reality is in the Spirit of reality, and it is only when we are in spirit that we touch reality and are in reality.
Many times, however, we are more focused on outward practices, forms, and good doctrines, but we do not freshly and constantly touch the Spirit of reality indwelling our spirit.
We all need to have a turn and realise that we need to touch the Spirit all the time, live in spirit all the time, and even be constituted with the Spirit of reality if we are to enjoy the Triune God and be in the reality of the Body of Christ.
This is what the Bible shows us, and this is what we need to enter into today. May we all enter into the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit with our spirit, and may we live in spirit and be constituted with the Spirit of reality so that we may live in the reality of the Body of Christ today.
The Indwelling Spirit of Reality is the Reality of Christ in the Members of the Body of Christ
When the Lord Jesus was still among His disciples, He told them that it was expedient for Him to go to the Father and send them the Spirit of reality. He promised them that He would not leave them orphans but will be with them, even in them, as the Spirit of reality.
Christ Himself is reality, and through His death and resurrection He changed His form from the flesh to the Spirit; now the Spirit is the Spirit of reality who dwells in the believers.
It was expedient for the Lord to go away (John 14:6) so that He would change His form into that of the Spirit, and He would return to be in His believers as the Spirit of reality.
The Spirit of reality, whom we have received through regeneration, is the reality of Christ and of the Triune God. Because the Spirit of reality has come into us, the reality of Christ abides with us and in us.
The Spirit of reality is the full realisation of the Son, and this Spirit guides us inwardly, subjectively, and intimately in all the reality of what God is and what Christ has done.
Furthermore, the Spirit of reality is the reality of the Body of Christ, for this Spirit makes all that God is and has real to all the members of the Body of Christ. Now that the Spirit of reality has come to indwell us, His goal is to constitute us with the reality of Christ and make everything of Christ real to us.
Because He lives now we also live, because He is continually living, we also live because of Him, in Him, and by Him.
Because of the indwelling of the Spirit of reality in us, Christ and us share the same living, and we have an inward, subjective knowledge that God the Father is in the Son, Christ the Son is in us, and we are in God the Father and in Christ the Son (see John 14:16-20). Praise the Lord!
The all-inclusive Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God, is fully realised as the Spirit of reality who dwells within us, and the indwelling Spirit of reality is the reality of Christ (see John 14:10-11, 16-20).
And this Spirit is also the essence of the Body and the reality of the Body of Christ.
The Spirit of reality is not just in individual Christians but in the members of the Body of Christ, and He guides us inwardly in all the reality of what God and Christ are and have accomplished, and together we are entering into the enjoyment and experience of the Triune God. Hallelujah!
How we praise the Lord that He has not left us orphans but has come to dwell within us as the Spirit of reality to bring the reality of God and Christ and all the divine things into our being for us to live in the reality of the Body of Christ!
Lord Jesus, we open to You as the Spirit who dwells in us – guide us into all the reality of what the Triune God is and has, and bring us fully into the reality of the Body of Christ. Thank You Lord for not leaving us orphans but coming to us as the Spirit of reality. Hallelujah, the all-inclusive Christ is fully realised as the Spirit of reality who dwells within us, the members of the Body of Christ! Lord, may we be fully brought into the reality of the Body of Christ and into the reality of the Triune God by the indwelling Spirit of reality!
The Spirit of Reality Constituted into our being brings us in the Reality of the Body
In Acts 15 we see a record of the Body life, as practiced in the early days; there was a gathering in Jerusalem to discuss the question of circumcision for the Gentiles, and it seemed to be James who made the decision but it was of the Holy Spirit.
When the brothers wrote a letter to the Gentile believers they said, For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us (Acts 15:28), showing that as a result of fellowship, the feeling of the Spirit and of the saints was put in writing.
The words were of James, the feeling was of the Holy Spirit and all the saints, and the ones carrying it out was the apostles and the elders with the whole church (v. 22).
This is the Body life – touching the spiritual reality of the Body in the Spirit of reality, and not following any outward procedures or decisions but caring more for the feeling of the Spirit.
For us to be in the Body life in reality we need to touch the Spirit of reality, the Holy Spirit, who is in our spirit.
For us to be in the reality of the Body of Christ is to have the Spirit of reality wrought into us and constituted into our being.
As seen in Paul’s prayer in Eph. 3:16-21, the Father as the source strengthens us into our inner man, the Spirit is the means by which we’re strengthened, and Christ makes His home in our heart; the result is that we are filled unto all the fulness of God, and there’s glory to God in the church.
The glory which was once in the Father and then expressed in the Son is now, through the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity, being constituted into the church to be returned back to the Father with the church.
In Eph. 4:4-6 we see how the Father, the Lord, and the Spirit are mingled together with the believers, and the Body of Christ issues from this reality.
The reality which was the Triune God has been enlarged to include all the believers in Christ as the Body of Christ; the reality of the Triune God is being wrought into us, and we become the church for the glory of the Triune God!
For us to be in the reality of the Body of Christ we need to have the Spirit of reality constituted into our being day by day.
A very simple way for this to take place is seen in 1 Cor. 12:13 – the one Spirit is wrought into our being and constituted into us so that we may become the Body of Christ.
We are immersed in the Spirit in the Body, and we are given to drink of the one Spirit; on one hand we have the Spirit as the realm into which we are immersed, and on the other, we drink the Spirit to have the Spirit of reality constituted into our being.
We need to drink the Spirit and live in the reality of the baptism by being in the realm of the Spirit through the exercise of our spirit.
Without the Spirit, the Body is empty and lifeless; without the Spirit, the church life is empty and formal; without the Spirit, there is no supply.
But praise the Lord, we have a way to drink the Spirit through the exercise of our spirit for the Spirit of reality to be wrought into our being, so that we may live in the reality of the Body of Christ!
Lord Jesus, we want to be in the reality of the Body of Christ today. We give ourselves to You, Lord, to have the Spirit of reality wrought into us and constituted into our being so that we may be and live in the reality of the Body. Amen, Lord, may our inner man be strengthened with power through the Spirit for Christ may make His home in our heart, so that God would gain all the glory in the church. Amen, Lord, mingle Yourself more with us today for the Body. May we have the Spirit of reality constituted into our being for us to be 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 James Lee for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1420-1421, 3403 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 1, The Spirit of Reality Being the Reality of the Body of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Oh in the Son the Father is, / And now the Spirit is the Son; / The Father with the Son is joined, / The Spirit with the Son is one. / ‘Tis when the Spirit strengthens us / And Christ His home makes in our hearts, / The Father’s fulness with His love / Will fill us in our inward parts. (Hymns #243)
# 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. (Song on, He’s the Spirit of reality)
# Jesus is the living Spirit / Who among us flows; / Fellowship of life in spirit / Unity bestows. / Jesus is the living Spirit, / He is our rich feast; / As the Body now enjoys Him, / Praises are released. (Hymns #1142)
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