Being Transformed, Inscribed with Christ, and Built up to be Living Letters of Christ

When we are inscribed with Christ in our heart, we become living letters of Christ with Him as the content, and He can shine through us for others to read Christ and see Christ lived out and expressed in us; this is a practical application of the breastplate of judgment.

On the breastplate, the high priest wore there were twelve precious stones set in gold, and on the stones, the names of the twelve tribes of Israel were inscribed; the Urim was shining, and the Thummim was completing, in such a way that God had a way to speak to His people through this breastplate.

In order for us to have God’s leading and His up-to-date speaking, we need to be transformed in our nature from clay into precious stones, and we need to be built together in the divine nature (the reality of the gold) to become one entity, the church as the Body of Christ.

We were created from dust, but through regeneration, we have entered the process of transformation into precious stones for God’s eternal building, through the working of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:3, 18). Daily, the Lord seeks to mingle Himself with us and transform us into precious stones suitable for His building.

The more we open to the Lord, pray, read and pray over His word, and give Him the ground in our being, the more we are transformed through the work of the Spirit in our being so that our human nature would be filled and transformed with the divine nature for us to be a God-man, shining out and expressing Christ.

We need to remain in this process of transformation and mingling, and we need to seek to be built up by the Lord with the saints in the divine nature of Christ for His building; then, the Lord will have a way to gain the reality of the breastplate in the church life for His fresh speaking and leading.

Hallelujah, we as the church are borne on Christ’s heart (just as the breastplate was borne on the high priests’ heart) and held in the span of His loving care (the dimensions of the breastplate was the span of a hand) until we are fully transformed, mingled, and built up together to be God’s building.

The New Testament Ministry and our Experience of Christ Inscribes Christ into us

The way God spoke to the children of Israel through the breastplate was by shining over the letters inscribed on the precious stones; the engraving of the names of the twelve tribes on the precious stones corresponds to the inscribing of Christ into the believers’ hearts, making them living letters of Christ with Christ as the content (2 Cor. 3:3).

How is Christ inscribed into our hearts? It is in two main ways: through the inscribing of the ministry of the New Testament, and through our experience of Christ (see 2 Cor. 3:2-6). First, we hear the speaking of the ministry, the word of God, which is inscribed in us; as a result, we begin to experience the Christ ministered to us.

Through the inscribing of the New Testament ministry and the experience of Christ, Christ Himself is inscribed into our being and we become a letter of Christ.

When the New Testament ministers speak and minister to us, they minister the Spirit, and Christ is inscribed into our being so that we become their letter, a letter of Christ.

The letters engraved on the twelve stones typify Christ as the letters of the heavenly alphabet; Christ is the Alpha and the Omega (the first and last letters of the alphabet) and all the letters in between (Rev. 22:13). Every letter in God’s alphabet is Christ; when God speaks to us, He speaks the language of Christ, and when He has a message or a leading for us, it is a message of Christ, a leading of Christ.

We must have Christ inscribed into us in an adequate way, or else when the Lord wants to speak to us and lead us, when He wants to give us a message, there will be no alphabet for Him to use for His speaking.

The Lord may shine as the reality of the Urim, but if we do not have enough Christ inscribed into our being as the many letters of the alphabet, it will be difficult for us or others to receive God’s message.

The content of God’s speaking to us depends on the Christ inscribed in our being; He shines, but He also needs us to cooperate with Him and allow Christ to be inscribed into our being through the ministry of the New Testament and through our experience of Him.

The Lord speaks through His redeemed people: He speaks not only through their words but through their being, through the Christ which has been inscribed in them; therefore, we need to have Christ inscribed in our being so that God’s message would be complete and we would be living letters of Christ read by all men.

Lord Jesus, we open to You to be inscribed with Christ as all the letters of the heavenly alphabet. Make us living letters of Christ inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God in hearts of flesh, so that all men may see and read God’s message through us. Lord, enlighten us and inscribe Yourself in our hearts all throughout the day. We want to remain under the ministry of the new covenant and experience You further so that we may have Christ inscribed into our being and be living letters of Christ!

Being Transformed, Inscribed with Christ, Transparent, and Built up to be Living Letters of Christ

Few [Christians today] have truly been inscribed with Christ. Even with these few, the amount of Christ inscribed may not be very great. Moreover, many Christians are not transparent….If the stones placed in the breastplate had been opaque, the illuminators of the Urim may have enlightened them, but they would not have been able to shine through such opaque stones. Likewise, because so many Christians are opaque, Christ does not have a way to shine through them. We need to be transformed, and we need to be transparent, and we need to have Christ inscribed into us. Then when the light shines through us, others will be able to read the letters, the content of Christ, inscribed into us. But if we are not transformed and transparent and if we have not been inscribed with Christ, but are merely opaque stones without any letters inscribed into us, it will not be possible for God to speak through us. Witness Lee, msg. 126

How much have we been inscribed with Christ, how much have we been transformed, how transparent are we for Christ to shine through us, and how much have we been built up as the Body of Christ determines how much the Lord can speak through us.

If we are not transformed and transparent, and if we have not been inscribed with the Spirit of the living God along with Christ as the content but we are merely opaque stones without any letters inscribed into us, it will be impossible for God to speak through us.

If we have no Christ inscribed into us, or if we have a short amount of Christ written on us, the Lord cannot speak in a complete way through us. But if we have Christ inscribed in us and yet we are opaque, not allowing the Lord to shine through us, He cannot speak to us or to others.

Furthermore, if we are inscribed with Christ and transparent for Him to shine through us, yet we are not built up with other precious stones in God’s building, the Lord’s speaking and shining through us will be incomplete.

We need to allow the Lord to transform us into precious stones, let Him inscribe us with the Spirit of the living God, become transparent for Him to shine through us, and be built up together so that the Lord may speak through us in the church.

Many times, however, the Lord wants to lead us, speak to us, and give us a message, but there’s not enough letters of Christ; we need Christ as the Thummim, the One who has all the letters, so that we may have more Christ written into us and read by others in us, in our living and our speaking.

Wherever we are – whether in the meetings or at home, at work, while shopping, or on the street, others should be able to read and hear Christ in us.

We need to pursue the knowledge of the truth in the ministry and experience Christ, entering into a full experience of Christ so that He may be inscribed in our being. We need to be built up together with God’s redeemed people into one entity, the church, so that the Lord can speak through us in the church.

The more we are transformed, inscribed with Christ, made transparent, and built up, the more the Lord can speak through us for the building up of the church.

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to be transformed in our nature into precious stones, inscribed with Christ as the content, made transparent, and built up with the saints into the church so that we may be living letters of Christ read by all men. Save us from not having Christ inscribed in us day by day. Save us from being opaque precious stones. Save us from not being transformed and not being built up. Lord, transform us in Your image. Make us transparent so that others would see You in us. Inscribe us with the Spirit of the living God as the ink and Christ as the content. Build us up with the saints into the reality of the breastplate, the church as the building of God!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Mark R. for this week, and Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 126 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (part 4, 2016 Summer Training), msg. 9 (week 45 in the HWMR), The Breastplate — the Central and Ultimate Point of the Priesthood.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # The new covenant ministers / Are Christ’s own living letters / Inscribed with the Spirit of God, / To express the rich Christ to others. / Lord, write Yourself in me. / Inscribe in my heart / That I may write on others. / Lord, make home in me. (Song on the new covenant ministry)
  # You are a letter of Christ, / Inscribed with the Spirit; / In the fleshly tablets of the hearts. / We are the ministers / Of a new covenant, / Not the letter which kills, / But the life-giving Spirit. (Song on being letters of Christ)
  # May Thou in life transform our souls / That we as precious stones may be, / Meet for Thy house to build and in / Thy Kingdom’s full reality. (Hymns #945)