The Church is a Corporate Thornbush Burning with the Triune God of Resurrection

The God who called Moses and the God who calls us is the Triune God of resurrection. This means that the church today is the corporate thornbush burning with the Triune God of resurrection.

The God who called Moses was the God of his fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. These three men have already died before Moses was born, but God is the God of the living; so the Lord Jesus said in Mark 12:18-27 that this shows that our God is the God of resurrection.

The God who calls us is the God of resurrection, the Triune God. God is not dead and He is not the God of the dead but of the living; our God is the Triune God of resurrection. This means that we as the church are a corporate thornbush, a redeemed humanity, indwelt by the Triune God of resurrection.

Because our God is the God of resurrection, we are also in resurrection. We are not in the flesh, in the self, or in our natural man; we are in resurrection!

In God’s eyes, the church is resurrectionly, that is, an entity in resurrection. Whether we feel this or not, whether we see this happening in the church life today, we need to be one with the Lord and say that the church is heavenly, Christly, and resurrectionly!

The church is in the heavens, bringing God to man and man to God; in the church we have the gate of heavens, and people are brought into God and God is brought into people as they enter the church. The church has been produced in the resurrection of Christ and the church is a being in resurrection.

Also, the church is of Christ: Christ enlarged is the church, so the church is Christly. Hallelujah for the church as the corporate thornbush burning with the God of resurrection!

Today in the church life we need to labor for the Lord in His resurrection life with His resurrection power, and our labor will not be in vain but will result in the fulfilling of God’s eternal purpose.

As we preach the gospel, minister life to one another, and seek to build up the Body with our experiences of the processed Triune God, we need to do so in resurrection and by the resurrection power for the building up of the Body of Christ.

The Church is a Corporate Thornbush as God’s Dwelling Place – this is a Matter Altogether in Resurrection

When he was 80 years old Moses was called by God from the midst of the burning thornbush; he then realized that it was he himself who was the real thornbush, having God burning in him yet without consuming him.

Later, when he was 120 years old, Moses realized that not just him but the entire people of Israel are a corporate thornbush as the dwelling place of God, and God dwells among His people and burns in them without consuming them.

As individual Christians we are a redeemed thornbush burning with the Triune God as the fire, and He does not consume us. As the church we are a corporate thornbush burning with the Triune God.

This matter of being a corporate thornbush as God’s dwelling place today is a matter altogether in resurrection. The God who called Moses and who calls us is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; He is the Triune God.

Furthermore, as the Lord Jesus expounds this matter in Mark 12:18-27, the God who calls us is not the God of the dead but of the living; our God is the Triune God of resurrection!

How can God come and dwell in us today? In resurrection. The church has been produced in Christ’s resurrection; all believers were regenerated when Christ was resurrected (1 Pet. 1:3), therefore the church is of resurrection and in resurrection; the church is resurrectionly.

The church comes out of Christ to be His enlargement, duplication, and reproduction; the church is Christ Himself in all His believers; just as Eve was taken out of Adam and built with the element of Adam, so the church was taken out of Christ and is built with the element of Christ – the church is Christly (see Gen. 2:22; Eph. 2:6).

Furthermore, all believers in Christ are one with Christ, seated with Him in the heavenlies; therefore, the church is heavenly (Eph. 1:19-23). The church is Christly, resurrectionly, and heavenly; resurrection is the life pulse and lifeline of the divine economy (1 Cor. 15:12).

In the church life today we need to live a life in resurrection by being one with the Lord so that we would do everything not in ourselves or by ourselves but in Christ and by Christ as the resurrected One. As the church, we are the corporate thornbush as the dwelling place of God, and this is altogether a matter in resurrection.

Lord Jesus, thank You for choosing us and calling us to be the church, Your dwelling place. Lord, impress us with the fact that the church is a corporate thornbush as the dwelling place of the Triune God, and this is a matter altogether in resurrection! Hallelujah, the church is Christly, resurrectionly, and heavenly! In the church we are in Christ, in resurrection, and in the heavens! Lord, we want to live in Christ, in resurrection, and in the heavens for the church as Your dwelling place!

The Church is a Corporate Thornbush Burning with the Triune God of Resurrection

Based on the revelation in the Bible, the church is a corporate thornbush burning with the Triune God of resurrection. Individually, we are a thornbush, and together we are a corporate thornbush burning with the Triune God of resurrection; this is a picture of the church life today.

As believers in Christ we need to exercise their our and NOT stand or believe what we see but what the word of God says. The Bible tells us that we are in resurrection, one with the resurrected Christ. Where are we? We are in resurrection.

If we look at our present condition and situation, we may say that we are in the flesh or in our natural man most of the time; but if we look to the Lord in His word we realize that our God is the God of resurrection, and we are in resurrection one with Him.

We need to exercise our spirit of faith to declare the facts in the Word of God. We are the church of God, the dwelling place of God, and we are in resurrection! In resurrection we are blessed with the presence of the Triune God of resurrection, and we are the dwelling place of God!

Whenever we exercise our spirit, we are in resurrection and we experience the God of resurrection dwelling in us and among us.

In resurrection, our labor for the Lord with His resurrection power will never be in vain, but will result in the fulfilling of God’s eternal purpose through the preaching of Christ to sinners, the ministering of life to the saints, and the building up of the church with the experiences of the processed Triune God as gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Cor. 15:58; 3:12).

Today this fire, this resurrection life with His resurrection power cast into us, will work out so many things: God’s purpose, the preaching of Christ, the ministering of life, and the building up of the church as we experience Him. All these things issue forth from the God of resurrection being experienced by us.

What we see in the church as the apparent situation is a lie; the reality is what God sees and speaks in the word of God. We need to believe God and be one with God to experience Him as the God of resurrection today, living by the resurrection life (not by the natural life) and doing everything by the resurrection power (not by our natural power) to be the corporate thornbush as the dwelling place of God today.

Lord Jesus, thank You for casting the resurrection life with the resurrection power into us as the divine fire to work out Your purpose in us! Lord, we want to experience You and know You as the Triune God of resurrection dwelling in the corporate thornbush. May our labor for the Lord in His resurrection life with His resurrection power be not in vain but result in the fulfilling of God’s eternal purpose, the building up of the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Minoru Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus (pp. 80-84), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (1), week 4 / msg 4, The Corporate Thornbush
• Hymns on this topic:
  # If there is no resurrection, / God would be God of the dead; / Christ Himself would not be living, / N’er have been raised from the dead. / But there is a resurrection / Which is the vitality, / Both the life pulse and the life-line / Within God’s economy. (Song on Resurrection)
  # In our Brother’s resurrection / Resurrected we must meet, / Never in our natural standing— / This will make His joy complete! (Hymns #1280)
  # Trials may come and discouragements, too. / You must go on, go on in the Lord. / Yesterday’s gone and His mercies are new. / You must go on, go on in the Lord. / Press on, press on, press on in the Lord. / Be strengthened, press on in the Lord. / Your labor is not in vain in the Lord. / You must press on, press on in the Lord. (Song on Pressing on in the Lord)