It is absolutely amazing and stupendous to realize that God’s desire is to enlarge Himself in humanity to gain the Body of Christ, the organism of the Triune God, and we are members of this Body – we are the continuation of Christ, the reproduction of this wonderful One who is the mingling of God with man.
God doesn’t want merely some good Christians who follow the rules He sets in the good book, neither is He after merely “fellowship with man” or “being friends with man”. God’s intention is to enlarge Himself in humanity so that humanity and divinity would be mingled together to become the organism of the Triune God, the Body of Christ, to express God for eternity.
The Gospels show us the Head of this universal Body of Christ – Christ as the mingling of God with man; this One is a new kind of man, a God-man, one who is not just man but also God, and not just God but man. In Acts, we see the Body of Christ, the continuation and reproduction of Christ, the enlargement of the mingling of God and man. Whatever the disciples did, that’s what Jesus did through them, and wherever they went, Jesus went with them and through them.
Today we are in the continuation of the book of Acts, and all believers in Christ are God-men, the enlargement of the mingling of God with man. All we have to do daily is pay attention to our mingled spirit, exercise our spirit, and live in the spirit because the reality of the Body of Christ is in the mingled spirit!
What is the Body of Christ? It is not merely a group of people who have God’s life and call themselves the church, but it is a group of people who ALLOW Christ to mingle Himself with them and who are mingled with God.
Think about it: day by day, as we go about doing the daily things we need to do and taking care of our work, travel, family, and things, we do all things in a different way than anyone else because we are different from them – we are men mingled with God, and whatever we do is in the mingled spirit! Oh, may the Lord shine on us to show us the importance of being in the mingled spirit for the producing of the reality of the Body of Christ!
In the Church Life we Focus on the Mingled Spirit to Become God’s Expression
What we desire today as believers in Christ is not to be “better people” or to live a “highest standard of life” but we want to express Christ. We are not here for our “personal edification” or “individual spirituality”; we are here for the corporate building up of the Body of Christ, so that we all may be built up together into a dwelling place of God in spirit (Eph. 2:22).
In order for us to be built up together in spirit, our only focus in the church life should be the mingled spirit; we should drop all our rules, ordinances, and preferences, and we should simply focus on our spirit. No matter how different our background is, we have one life – the divine life in our spirit – and one Spirit – which is mingled with our spirit! If we focus on our mingled spirit in the church life we will realize that the church is not a matter of a name, a position, a stand, a belief, or an organization; the church is a group of people who allow God to be mingled with them and who are mingled with God to express God corporately.
Look at the situation with the early disciples after the Pentecost: they were Galileans, unlearned persons, but they were mingled with God to the point that they expressed God in everything they did. When Peter spoke, God’s power accompanied his words, and the God of glory was manifested through men of flesh. The ignorance of the common people disappeared, and a glorious and great God – who was mingled with man – was manifested and expressed through them. Thus, the church had the image of God and the authority of God.
Throughout the ages, however, the believers have emphasized many other things besides being mingled with God by being in the mingled spirit, and thus God’s authority and expression were lost. Today we need to return and be recovered to being in our mingled spirit, paying attention and focusing on the mingled spirit to live in spirit, walk by the spirit, minister the spirit, and do everything in the spirit, so that we may corporately express God.
All the problems in the church will be eliminated if we simply pay attention to the mingled spirit and exercise our spirit, live in spirit, and walk according to the spirit. But if we don’t pay attention to the mingled spirit, we will bring in ordinances, rules, and regulations to “maintain the church life”, and these will rather kill than build up the church. Oh, may the Lord bring us back to our spirit and may we be those who pay attention only to the mingled spirit!
Lord Jesus, we praise You that no matter how different our background in the church life may be, we have one life and one Spirit! Hallelujah! We don’t care for ordinances, rules, or regulations: we care only for the mingled spirit! Lord, we want our focus to be the mingled spirit so that we may live in spirit, walk by the spirit, and do everything in the spirit. Amen, Lord, we want to take the mingled way: mingle Yourself more with us today as we learn to do all things in spirit one with the Lord to express Christ!
The Triune God and Redeemed Humanity will be Mingled and Built up as the New Jerusalem
Eventually, the Triune God and the redeemed humanity will be fully mingled together and built up together as one entity – the New Jerusalem (see Rev. 21:2, 10). Wow! The conclusion of the Bible is a building, the New Jerusalem, which is a blending and mingling of divinity with humanity. The New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God for God to dwell in, and in the New Jerusalem, the Father and the Lamb are the temple of God’s people to dwell in.
The New Jerusalem is a mutual dwelling place of God and man, where God indwells man and man dwells in God. The gates of the New Jerusalem are pearls inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel (v. 12), and on the twelve foundations are the twelve names of the twelve apostles (v. 14); the New Jerusalem is a composition of divinity with humanity, a composition of the Triune God and His redeemed people.
The New Jerusalem is a composition of divinity and humanity blended and mingled together as one entity. All the components have the same life, nature, and constitution and thus are a corporate person. This is a matter of God becoming man and man becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. These two, God and man, man and God, are built up together by being blended and mingled together. This is the completion, the consummation, of God’s building. We all need to see this vision. (Witness Lee, Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, pp. 198-199)
This is truly amazing. How is the New Jerusalem being built today? The New Jerusalem is built by God’s constituting of Himself into man to make man the same as God in life, nature, and constitution, so that God and man may become one corporate entity (Rev. 22:18-21). Wow! All I can say is WOW!
It is amazing enough that God is mingled with us today and we are in a process of being mingled with God, but how much more amazing will it be when in the New Jerusalem God and man are built up together, blended together, and mingled together so that the Triune God shines through man and rules through man in the entire universe!
This all is possible because God became man so that man may become God, and thus God (who became man) is being mingled with man (who is becoming God) to be one entity, and all the components have the same life, nature, and constitution to be a corporate person. Hallelujah!
Today we are in the process of becoming the New Jerusalem, and our real need is to have more God in Christ built into our being to be mingled with us. We don’t need to be “more patient”, “more kind”, or “more holy”; we need to have more God in Christ to be built up into our being today! Our need is for God to carry out His building work within us.
The more we are mingled with God, the more our problems disappear, and more we become the New Jerusalem. Our being mingled with God today is for the Body of Christ so that we may become the New Jerusalem, the consummation of the mingling of God with man!
Lord Jesus, we need more mingling! Our real need is not this or that but more God! We need more God in Christ built into our being! We open to You, Lord, that You may carry out Your building work within us. Mingle Yourself more with us for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem. Lord, mingle us more with Yourself for the producing and building up of the New Jerusalem! How we long to be mingled with God more every day for the New Jerusalem!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, bro. Minoru Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, msgs. 29-30 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Church as the Temple of God – The Goal of God’s Eternal Economy (2015 Thanksgiving Conference), week 5 / msg. 5, The Way Christ Builds the Church as the Temple of God.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Now within the Lord’s recov’ry, we’re so glad to find the way / To experience the Triune God and live by Him today— / Get into the mingled spirit, and within the spirit stay; / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199)
# And now I’m walking by the Spirit / Step by step, day by day, / O Lord, I love You. / You’re the precious One to me. / As I do this and that / Lord, remind me where You’re at; / You’re in my spirit, / Dispensing grace to me. (Song on walking in spirit)
# From the fruit of daily living, New Jerusalem we’ll see, / It’s the ultimate in mingling—it’s divine humanity. / And what joy that we can share it all, and share it corporately. / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199)
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