In the whole universe only the Triune God is reality, and the Spirit of reality is the reality of all that the Triune God is and has, for the Spirit is the reality.
This week we start a new series based on the 2018 Thanksgiving Weekend Conference on the topic of, The Reality of the Body of Christ, and this week in particular we are enjoying the matter of, The Spirit of Reality Being the Reality of the Body of Christ.
When we speak of the reality of the Body of Christ and even of the Spirit of reality in the church life we may be very familiar with this, for we have talked about it so many times.
But what really is the reality of the Body of Christ, and how can we say that the Spirit of reality is the reality of the Body of Christ? What is real in this universe, and what is reality? The Lord Jesus testified before Pilate that He came to testify of the truth, to reality. What is reality?
Brother Watchman Nee was raised up by the Lord in 1922 in China, and not long after that he began to minister concerning the practice of the church life according to the Scriptures, that is, one church in one city, standing on the local ground, the proper ground of the church.
Many received help from his ministry, left the denominations and any divisive ground and came to meet on the local ground.
Later in 1939 after his visit to Europe and seeing the many divisions among the Brethren assemblies in England especially, brother Nee had much reconsideration.
He studied the word again and received further light about the church, and he saw that the church is not just something local – the church is the Body of Christ. All the local churches are just local, practical expressions of the one Body of Christ universally. This was a great revelation to him, and this permeated the Lord’s recovery.
Later brother Witness Lee was sent by the work out to Taiwan, and then went to the USA in 1962, and he faithfully followed what he received from brother Nee on this line of the ministry; he spoke of the same thing – Christ and the church as the Body of Christ.
Then, brother Lee further developed this matter, and in 1994 he brought this matter to the highest peak, telling us that God became man to make man God in order to produce an organism, which is the Body of Christ, who will consummate in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth.
The reality of the Body of Christ is the highest peak in God’s economy.
God became man to make man God in life and nature but not in the Godhead with the result of producing an organism, the Body of Christ, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem; this is the highest peak in God’s economy, and this is the reality of the Body of Christ.
Later after brother Lee died, a note was found in one of his notebooks, in which he testified that, after his illness, it seemed that the Lord wanted him to stress two things: 1. The Body of Christ and the life of the Body, and 2. The reality of the life of the Body of Christ.
What is this reality of the Body of Christ? He has been ministering much on the Body of Christ, the vision, practice, and building up of the Body, but what is this reality of the Body of Christ?
Without the reality of the Body of Christ, there’s no full-grown man, no bride of Christ, and no kingdom of God.
We need to arrive to seeing not just many churches on earth, seeing the vision of the Body, and living in the church life, but endeavor to climb up the mountain to see what the reality of the Body of Christ is, so that the one new man may be fully matured, the bride of Christ may be prepared to end this age, and the kingdom of God would be brought in and the Lord Jesus would return.
This is not a small thing! We need to tell the Lord,
Lord Jesus, we open our heart to You and we exercise our spirit before You to see what is the reality of the Body of Christ. Thank You for leading us and guiding us to see the completion of Your economy. Oh Lord, we are so short in this; we are full of failures and shortcomings, but You are the faithful One, and You are still speaking to us. Help us understand what is in Your mind concerning the reality of the Body of Christ. We long to see what the reality of the Body is. Lord, we are not content with what we are; open the heavens to us, remove the veils from our eyes, and grant us to see what You see concerning the reality of the Body of Christ!
In the Whole Universe only the Triune God is Reality, and the Spirit is the Reality of God
What is reality? According to the more common definition, reality is the state of being real, being true, being correct; for example, a table is reality because we can see it, touch it, and feel it.
If we were to give a more philosophical definition of reality, Reality refers to something that exists independently from all other things and from which all other things derive.
But what does the Bible say that reality is? The Bible is simple in this regard, for Christ said, I am the reality (John 14:6). Reality is a person. The table which we can see or touch is not reality, and even our human life is not reality; these don’t pass the test of time and space, but Jesus Christ is reality!
And in 1 John 5:6 we see that the Spirit is reality. The reality according to the divine revelation in the Bible is not just the quality of existence but a Person, the Triune God Himself.
When we speak of the reality of the Body of Christ, we refer to the Body as being the church; the church is not just gatherings, meetings, services, activities, etc but the Body of Christ, and the Body has a reality.
What is the reality of the Body of Christ? This reality is just the Spirit of reality, for the Spirit is reality.
Reality is nothing less than the very person of the Triune God.
If we look at ourselves, human beings, we have a certain reality – we feel our flesh, our human senses, our mind, emotion, thinking, etc, but the human being has its reality in the human spirit (1 Cor. 2), for the spirit of man knows the things of man.
The spirit within man is the deepest part of man, the most genuine part of man, the reality of man. Our body may last for up to 100 years, and we do need to take care of our body, but reality lies in our human spirit, deep within.
The Body of Christ also has a reality – this reality is nothing less than the person of the Triune God, particularly the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God as the Spirit – the Spirit of reality.
The writings of John reveal to us that the Spirit is the Spirit of reality (see John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 5:6, 20). The Lord Jesus said that the Spirit of reality will abide with us, His disciples, and shall be in us; He is the another Comforter to not only be with us but also in us.
John 14-16 are the Lord’s final discourse with the disciples before He went to the cross; this could be considered His final word, what was on His heart all along, and now He shared it with them.
He revealed that He will go to the Father, but He asked the Father to send another Comforter, the Spirit of reality, who will be with us and in us, guiding us into all the reality.
The result of this indwelling of the Spirit of reality is an organism, the Body of Christ, which is expressed as the Father’s house (John 14), the vine of the Son (John 15), and the newborn child of the Spirit (John 16).
In the whole universe only One is real – the Triune God, and only the Triune God is reality. Everything else is vanity of vanities, chasing after the wind; there’s nothing new under the sun, but everything is going around in cycles and circles – only the Triune God is reality.
We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true – in His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the True One and the eternal life (1 John 5:20).
In God’s New Testament economy the Spirit has the attribute of reality; the Spirit is the Spirit of reality, and the attribute of reality is one of His main attributes. Reality is the all-inclusive attribute of the Spirit of God, for it includes the Father, Christ the Son, and all the divine items and entities (John 1:17).
Lord, unveil us to see that in the whole universe only the Triune God is reality and the Spirit of reality is the reality of the Triune God! Amen, Lord, save us from looking to others or to things for reality; may we realise that only God is real and everything else is vanity of vanities and chasing after the wind. Hallelujah, the Triune God is reality, and the Spirit of reality with our spirit makes the Triune God real to us, thus making us real and genuine! Amen, Lord, open our mind and our understanding to spiritually understand this matter!
The Triune God is Reality and the Spirit of Reality is the Reality of the Triune God
The Spirit of reality is the all-inclusive reality, for He includes and makes real to us that the Father has and is, and all that the Son has, is, and has accomplished. Reality is one of the most attributes of the Spirit (1 John 5:6).
According to the context of this verse, the reality in John 16:13 refers to all that the Triune God is and has. The Spirit receives from the Son, and all that the Son has is from the Father; what the Father has and is belongs to the Son, and whatever the Son is and has and has accomplished is being received by the Spirit and made real to us.
The Spirit of reality is the reality of the Triune God; that is, He is the reality of all that the Triune God is, all He has accomplished, and all that the Triune God has attained and obtained (see John 14:17; 15:26).
Apart from the Spirit of reality, in our experience we cannot have the Triune God or any of His divine attributes, for the reality of the Triune God and of all His attributes is the Spirit of reality (see John 16:13).
If we don’t have the Spirit of reality in our experience, everything that is of God and of Christ is just spiritual terms, theories, and doctrines; it is by the Spirit of reality that God is made real to us and the Son is real to us.
Without the Spirit, God and Christ and all the spiritual things are just empty words, empty knowledge. But when we touch the Spirit, who is reality, God becomes real, and the all-inclusive Christ becomes real to us.
We see this in many ways in picture and in reality in the New Testament; in John 1, for example, the dove (the Holy Spirit) descended upon the Lamb of God (Christ). The Lamb signifies redemption, and the dove signifies the life-giving Spirit; the life-giving Spirit comes to us on the basis of Christ’s redemption.
Who is the Spirit? The Spirit is Christ Himself as the Spirit. Who is Christ? Christ is the embodiment of God, the expression of God. God is the fullness, Christ is His embodiment and expression (Col. 2:9), and the Spirit is the reality of all that Christ is (John 14:17).
In other words, the Spirit of reality is the reality of all that God the Father is and all that the Son is and has accomplished.
We can say that God the Father is the source, God the Son is the expression, and God the Spirit is the transmission (2 Cor. 13:14) of all that the Father is and has and the Son has and has accomplished.
Hallelujah, the Triune God is the unique reality in this universe, and the Spirit of reality is the reality of the Triune God for our enjoyment and experience! Amen, Lord, unveil us to see that the Triune God is the unique reality in the universe. May we know God, enjoy God, and experience God by turning to our spirit and enjoying the Spirit of reality guiding us into all the reality! Lord, we want to enjoy all that the Father is and has, and all that the Son is, has, and has accomplished, simply by turning to our spirit, where the Spirit of reality is! Amen!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 863, 897, 962 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Reality of the Body of Christ (2018 Thanksgiving Conference), week 1, The Spirit of Reality Being the Reality of the Body of Christ.
- Hymns on this topic:
# All things of the Father are Thine; / All Thou art in Spirit is mine; / The Spirit makes Thee real to me, / That Thou experienced might be. (Hymns #501)
# God’s Spirit is of Christ today, / The Spirit of reality, / He dwells in me with Christ as life / To make this Christ so real to me. (Hymns #243)
# Now the Spirit of reality is here / As the wonderful Spirit within. / Now the things of Christ are all so real and clear / By the life-giving Spirit within. (Hymns #1113)
About aGodMan
