It is the Lord’s mercy that we would see what real oneness in the Body of Christ is. The real oneness among the believers is not according to preference, taste, disposition, or culture, but it is the mingling of the processed Triune God with the believers. The oneness revealed in the whole New Testament is simply the mingling of God with man – it is intrinsic and organic, cannot be manufactured, and it simply IS!
We need to keep this oneness daily by enjoying more mingling every day – just enjoy the Lord and allow Him to anoint you with all the elements of the compound Spirit! “For I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:19).
The compound Spirit “paints” us by anointing us
In the New Testament, we see the reality of the oneness, but the practice of the oneness can be seen in the Old Testament, especially in Exodus 30 and Psalm 133. In Psalm 133 we see that the brothers dwell together in oneness and there’s an ointment that spreads from the Head (Christ) to the whole Body. This ointment is nothing else but the compound Spirit as typified by the compounded ointment in Exo. 30:23-25.
The Spirit today is compounded with all the processes that Christ went through: in the Spirit we have Christ’s humanity, Christ’s divinity, the effectiveness of His death, and the power of His resurrection! This is the Spirit who daily anoints us.
In the church life we are daily being “painted” with this compound Spirit who anoints us. Just as you need to apply coat after coat of paint to a certain item, so the Spirit is being applied to our being in coat after coat as we meet with the saints to enjoy the Lord again and again!
When we focus only on Christ and we exercise our spirit to enjoy Him, the humanity of Jesus is being applied to us, and so is the effectiveness of His death and the power of His resurrection. This is the proper church life – a life in the oneness which is the mingling of the processed Triune God with the believers. All we have to do is remain in this oneness, and we are painted!
The church life is a life in the oneness, in the mingling
What is the church life in the Lord’s recovery today? Is it a “group of believers who hold to Watchman Nee and Witness Lee‘s teachings and read nothing else” – as the opposers say? Is there a “supreme authority which imposes his strong will to maintain control and thus keep a certain oneness manufactured by human efforts”?
NO! As we all know and experience, when we come into the church life and live daily in the church life all we have here is just the enjoyment of Christ with the saints. It is hard to have division and dissension here because all we eat, drink, talk about, breathe, sing, pray, and enjoy is just Christ! This enjoyment of Christ paints us with God Himself!
If you really consider this, the more you meet with the saints the more you are painted with God and the more your natural constitution and disposition is being eliminated. In the church life, we live a life in the oneness, a life in the mingling of God and man.
Coat after coat in meeting after meeting, the Spirit applies to us more of God’s riches and attributes, and we become one not because “we strongly decide we need to be one” but because we are organically one as God is one! The anointing teaches us all things (1 John 2:27) by painting us and anointing us with all that God is – and the element of God is being infused into us, saturating us and permeating us, becoming even the fiber of our being! This is oneness!
It is not a feeling – the anointing is just spreading!
Many Christians think that “when the anointing comes, you can feel it – it is a great emotion which will make you different”, but according to what the Bible says and according to our experience, the anointing spreads slowly and adds the element of God to our being WITHOUT us having much feeling of it. We go to a prayer meeting or to a home meeting, and as we are enjoying the food, the prayer, the fellowship, the reading, the singing, etc – the Lord is adding another coat or two of “divine and heavenly paint” to our being.
The ingredients in the compound Spirit are applied to our being in a spontaneous way – and we don’t necessarily feel it! What we notice – or, more precisely, what others notice about us later – is that we are different, we just love the Lord more!
I have to say from the bottom of my heart that I love the Lord and I love the church life. Here we all are a bunch of “nobodies”, and even if there’s someone with a “gift”, he is not being “uplifted” or “praised” but rather we all function according to our measure. Here we learn to minister Christ to one another and just exercise our spirit to enjoy the Lord together.
As we enjoy the Lord, we are being painted with God – and the dissenting elements, the divisive element, is being removed. Rather, we are being made one – spontaneously – in the mingling of God and man! How lovely and enjoyable is the oneness in the church life as we are painted with the divine and heavenly paint!
Thank You Lord for Your continual painting and anointing. Keep us open to Your daily and even moment-by-moment inward painting with all the elements of the compound Spirit. O, Lord, we would like to humble ourselves and confess that we are nothing and we can do nothing without You. You need to come in, Lord, and use all the meetings with the saints to paint us more with what You are. Perfect our oneness and make us fully one with You and with one another!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from portions in, The Genuine Ground of Oneness (pages 79-81), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization-Study of Psalms (2), week 22.
- Recommended: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in oneness!
- Hymns on this topic:
# Divine anointing in me dwelleth, / And it teaches me all things; / It ever leads me in the Lord to live / And to me His presence brings.
# How pleasant and how good it is / When brethren in the Lord / In one another’s joy delight / And dwell in sweet accord
# The Church of God—we are the church, / So important to God’s great plan; / Organic, full of God’s rich life, / We’re born into the living church.
# We love the church life, eating, / drinking, breathing Jesus. / We love the church life, taking / in God’s Word. - Picture source: Blue paint on a wall.
