Our one God has only one work, and His work is to dispense Himself into man, to work Himself into man, so that man may become His collective expression, His corporate testimony. We see this everywhere in the Bible when we read the Scriptures with God’s economy glasses on.
But what is the work in the Lord’s recovery today? There are many activities in the church life today, but what is the unique work?
If we don’t see that the unique work of God is also the unique work we do in the Lord’s recovery, it is very easy to be dissenting, to criticize, and even to leave.
By His mercy, the Lord has brought us into His up-to-date move, in His recovery, where He is recovering Christ as everything to us, the church life as our living, the high peak truths as our constitution, and the reality of the Body of Christ as our reality day-by-day.
We are being in the process of “being recovered” back to God’s original intention, and we need to be open to Him that, even while we work for the Lord and with the Lord in the church life, we would do everything with God’s Unique Work in view.
The unique work in the Lord’s recovery is the ministry of the Spirit who gives life (2 Cor. 3:8).
Taking Heed with What We Build
In 1 Cor. 3:12 we see that we can build with two kinds of materials: wood, grass, and stubble, or with gold, silver, and precious stones.
We can build with human and worldly activities and endeavors, with the attainments which come from our natural background, with our good intentions, with our natural and good way of living, and with all kinds of good and natural things. All these are wood, grass and stubble, and they will not withstand the fire in that day.
But what Paul was encouraging us to build with is gold, silver, and precious stones, which are precious treasures and transformed materials, typifying the processed and consummated Triune God.
How do we build the church? We need to build the church with God Himself by ministering the processed and consummated Triune God into people.
Gold, silver, and precious stones are processed materials, signifying that we build not with “the raw God” but with the all-inclusive life-giving consummated Spirit, which contains Christ’s incarnation, His perfect human living, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension.
We build up the church by allowing this Christ to work Himself into us and then by ministering this One into others to be their life and life supply for the building up of the church.
The Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery
If we look at the history of the Lord’s recovery, there were some saints who came, stayed, enjoyed the church life, functioned, had a part in the ministry, spoke, traveled, and then, at one point, they left.
What keeps us in the Lord’s recovery is a vision of what the Lord is doing today. What keeps us in the Lord’s work in the Lord’s recovery is a vision of the unique work God is doing today.
If we want to do our own work with our own flavor according to our own good concept, we will cause yet another division in the Body. But if we come to the Lord and honestly pray to Him,
Lord, as we are learning to bear responsibility and as we learn to work with You for the Body, teach us how to be one with You in Your unique work! Lord, we want our life to contribute to the carrying out of Your purpose. We open to You. May we minister life to those we serve. Lord, work Yourself into us that we may minister You to the ones we serve!
First of all, we need Christ to minister to us – this is why we need to open to Him and pray such prayers again and again. He will teach us not by “lecturing us” or giving us a sermon, but by working in our being.
We will then learn how to minister life for the benefit of others who have spiritual illnesses because we ourselves have been a patient and the Lord came in to shepherd us, restore us, heal us, mend us, perfect us, and work Himself into us!
As we open to the Lord to deal with our being and to work Himself into us, we will become a channel of life to others.
We will realize that we are not doing a “spiritual work” but we rather work together with the Lord to minister the Spirit to others. Our work is the Spirit, and our ministry is a ministry of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:8).
Our Work is The Spirit
When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He spoke the words of life – and His words are spirit and are life (John 6:63).
Today what we need to do is to be ministers of the new covenant with the ministry of the Spirit. Remember: the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life!
We have been given a more excellent ministry than the ministry in the Old Testament, and we have been entrusted with God’s dispensing. Our ministry is the Spirit – we just need to minister the Spirit (as the consummation of the processed God) into others!
When we become those who are filled with the Spirit, the words that we speak will be spirit, and the work that we do will also be spirit (see Acts 2:4; Eph. 5:18).
Doctrines, spiritual knowledge without life, and good teachings profit nothing – what profits in the ministry of the Spirit is the Spirit, which is the Word of God!
We need to live a life of denying our self, putting the self aside, and receive Christ in His word as life. This is the genuine way to follow Jesus!
Also, we need to pray over the words of the Bible, taking them into us in a living way through much prayer, so that we may receive the Spirit! These living words become to us the Spirit, and what we minister to others will be the words of life becoming the Spirit in them!
We just need to put ourselves aside, deny ourselves, and receive the pneumatic Christ inwardly, allow Him to be our life, and let Him grow in us day by day.
The most practical and simple way to do this is to take in the word of God by means of all prayers (Eph. 6:17) so that the word would become the Spirit in us! In this way, what we minister to others will be the Spirit who will give life!
Our ministry is Spirit! Our work is the Spirit!
Lord, keep us coming to Your word in a living way, taking in the Word in the way of life. May we really see that the Bible is our prayer-book. Strengthen our pray-reading of the word of God. Lord, may we really see that there’s only one unique work of God, and this is the unique work in the Lord’s recovery. Work Yourself into us, Lord, and make us ministers of life, ministers of the new covenant! We want to minister the Spirit! Lord, our ministry is Spirit!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother Ron Kangas’ sharing in this message and portions in, Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel (msg. 24) and, Bearing Remaining Fruit (vol. 2, ch. 24), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery, week 1 (entitled, Knowing the Work of God—the Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery).
- Hymns on this topic:
# For the Church should be our service, / Not our aims to satisfy; / This, the perfect will of God is, / And with it we must comply.
# The new covenant ministry—a ministry of God — / is the ministry of the Spirit who gives life / and of righteousness as the expression of God.
# As I read, I pray, as I pray, I read, / Mingling both as one spontaneously. / You respond within with words so sweet, / I repeat these words to Thee. - Pictures credit: the first one here and the second one here.
In 1 Corinthians 3:12 Paul said that there are two categories of building material—wood, grass, and stubble, which are human and worldly, and gold, silver, and precious stones, which are precious treasures and transformed materials. If we build the church with wood, grass, and stubble—with the attainments that come from our natural background or with the natural way of living—we will mar the church (v. 17). We should build the church with gold, silver, and precious stones, signifying respectively God, Christ, and the Spirit. To build the church with these materials is to build the church with the processed and consummated Triune God. When we build the church with the processed and consummated Triune God, it is not actually we who are building. Rather, God is building through us, using us as a means to dispense and transmit Himself into people. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, p. 162)