the church: believers who are on the ground of oneness to be the testimony of the Body of Christ

The crucial elements of the Bible are Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church. This morning in the Morning Revival we were enjoying the church – which is produced by the life of God, which is the Spirit, who is Christ.

Christ is the Spirit, the Spirit is life, and life issues in and produces the church! For us to have a proper and good church life, we need to have a normal Christian life personally.

What is the church? The church IS NOT a religious gathering, the church is not a building on the corner of the street with a cross on top, and the church is not just the PEOPLE in that church. In Greek the word for the church is ekklesia – the called-out ones, the assembly.

All the believers in Christ are the church, the assembly of the called out ones, to express Him! God has called us out of the world, out of every nation, tribe, people, and tongue (Rev. 7:9) and has gathered us together in the church! This is why we have so many nationalities in the church life – all kinds of colours, races, tribes, tongues, and cultures!

Regardless of our nationality, race, background, or colour – we the believers in the Lord have been called by God (Eph. 4:3-6) to be the people of the kingdom of the heavens and the members of the family of God!

On the one hand, we have been CALLED to be the people of the kingdom of the heavens / the kingdom of God; on the other hand, we have been born of God, regenerated with His divine life, to be part of God’s family. We were not adopted by God – we were begotten by God and now we are brothers and sisters in the Lord with the same divine life and nature!

This is the church.

The church is not an organization – it is the organism of the Triune God as expressed through the believers who are on the ground of oneness to be the testimony of the Body of Christ.

As we see in Eph. 1:22-23, the church is the Body of Christ, the expression of Christ, the expansion of Christ, and the reproduction of Christ. Also, according to Eph. 4:3-6, we need to be diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit – which implies that our oneness is not of ourselves, but our oneness is the Triune God!

The element of the oneness in the church is the Triune God – we all believers have Christ as our life and our person, and nothing can divide us! We stand on the ground of oneness by enjoying Christ and drinking of the Spirit to be mingled with the Triune God!

This is the way to become the expression of the Body of Christ. As believers in Christ and part of the church, we have the Triune God in us as our life and person – and we are learning to live and walk by Him in our daily life (Gal. 5:25) and grow up in all things into Him, who is the Head (Eph. 4:15).

We are learning – as men in the flesh with the divine life in our spirit and spreading into our soul – to pay attention to and exercise our mingled spirit, to listen to the Lord as the living Person in us!

If the Lord is not happy with something we are about to do or say, we learn to listen to Him and don’t do / say what we were about to – in this way, we can enjoy a deeper and sweeter fellowship with the Lord.

Instead of arguing or quarreling, we can pray – we can be one with the Lord. This is the reality of the church – us as believers in Christ living in our spirit and according to our spirit! This is how we keep the oneness of the Body and are the testimony of the Body of Christ – by exercising to live according to our spirit!

[sharing inspired from, The Four Crucial Elements of the Bible, Christ, the Spirit, Life, and the Church (by brother Witness Lee)]

Lord, thank You for regenerating us with Your divine life! We are born of God with His life and nature to express the Triune God! Thank You for calling us out of the world and out of anything of our background. We are called out to be a part of the church! Lord, we want to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace by simply exercising our mingled spirit! We love our spirit, Lord! Keep us turning to our spirit and listening to the Lord’s speaking within!