In the church life today we need to bear the ultimate responsibility related to God’s ultimate move on earth to first be saturated and permeated with Christ for the church as the Body of Christ, and second to bear the testimony of Jesus.
God’s move today is toward Europe, and He wants to gain many Europeans to be part of His corporate expression on earth. The way God moves is inwardly – He doesn’t move by “sweeping the nations” or doing miraculous things (though He may choose to do something like this…); He moves in man by saturating man and permeating man with Himself.
Our ultimate responsibility as those who have seen something of the world’s ultimate situation and God’s ultimate move is that we need to be saturated and permeate with Christ for the church as the Body of Christ, the one new man.
We need to realize the great responsibility that we have in preaching the complete gospel, teaching the divine truths – especially the completing ministry of Paul and the mending ministry of John, and meeting according to the way ordained by God – in life.
Furthermore, we need to daily seek the Lord, enjoy Him, open to Him, and consecrate ourselves to Him, opening every part of our inner being to Him for Him to make His home in our heart for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
The degree to which Christ saturates and permeates our inner being is the degree to which we can cooperate with the Lord in His ultimate move. The way for us to fulfill the desire of God’s heart is by daily seeking to be saturated and permeated with Christ until we live Him corporately.
This has to burn in our heart every day and every night, realizing that, if the Lord doesn’t get a built-up Body so that the bride is prepared, He will not return.
Every member of the Body of Christ has the responsibility to be filled and saturated with Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, for God to gain a corporate expression in Christ through His Body on earth.
How can we be saturated with Christ? We can spend time with Him in His word, fellowship with Him throughout the day, open our inner being to Him, and cooperate with His inner speaking all throughout the day.
Most of all, we cooperate with Him by many prayers throughout the day to open our being to Him and let Him infuse us and saturate us with Himself.
God’s Desire is for us to Live Christ and have Him as the Reality of our Church Life
God delights in Christ; He wants His Christ – the all-inclusive, all-extensive, all-filling One – to be everything to us in our experience.
God’s desire – His good pleasure – is for us to live Christ and have Christ as the reality, the real contents, of our church life, so that every local church would be a golden lampstand bearing His testimony (Eph. 1:5; Phil. 1:21; 2:13; Rev. 1:11-12).
The Lord has opened His heart to us in His word and through the ministry; we are so blessed to not only know God’s will and purpose but also the desire of His heart, His good pleasure, what brings delight to Him.
God wants that His Christ would be our living and reality, being wrought into our being, so that we may have a church life in reality and thus become the expression of the processed and consummated Triune God.
If this is our reality, the Body life will reach the reality of Rom. 12, and this will be the spontaneous preparation of the bride for the Lord’s coming back.
Where is the reality of the Body of Christ lived out in the local churches today? We need to be awakened from any drugging of religion or the stupor in the world with its trend today, realizing that the Lord must have the reality of the Body lived out in the local churches today.
When the Body of Christ is built up in reality, the bride is prepared, and the Lord as the Bridegroom can return. Everything hinges on the reality of the Body being lived out by the saints who are being personally saturated and permeated little by little, day by day, with the all-inclusive Christ.
This is the goal of the Lord’s recovery, and the entire world situation has been prepared for this purpose (Matt. 16:18; Eph. 4:16; Rev. 1:5; Acts 17:26). God is arranging all things in this ultimate world situation so that we in His ultimate recovery would consummate His ultimate move.
Our ultimate responsibility, therefore, is to be a living witness of Christ in our daily life, and to meet in our locality in such a way that we may be the Body, the new man, the lampstand, and the bride (Eph. 4:16, 24; Rev. 1:12; 19:7).
First we need to preach the gospel properly, adequately, and genuinely. Second, we must teach people the Bible, bringing them into the full knowledge of the truth. Third, we must drop all kinds of religion and practices and meet according to the way ordained by the Lord in the word of God.
We are genuine, biblical, bona-fide, regenerated, saved, blood-washed Christians who come together in the name of the Lord to meet according to the way revealed in His word.
Finally, we need to live Christ and be a witness of Christ in our daily life for the church life as the reality of the Body of Christ. Our daily life in pursuing the Lord and being saturated with Him causes us to gain Christ as the reality for the church life, the Body of Christ.
Lord Jesus, thank You for revealing to us God’s heart’s desire, His good pleasure, for us to live Christ and have Him as the reality and contents of the church life. Lord, we long to be persons of reality, having the divine reality wrought into our being, so that we may have a church life in the reality of the Body of Christ and thus be the expression of the processed and consummated Triune God. Lord, make us living witnesses of Christ in our daily life who meet in our locality in such a way that we may be the Body, the new man, the lampstand, and the bride!
Our Ultimate Responsibility is to Bear the Testimony of Jesus – God’s Corporate Expression
According to Rev. 1:2 and 9, our ultimate responsibility is to bear the testimony of Jesus by being the corporate expression of Christ. In his nineties, our elder brother John was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
The book of Revelation presents to us the testimony of Jesus, which is the church as the corporate expression of Christ (Rev. 1:2, 9, 20; 19:10).
How can we be the corporate expression of Christ? Our soul has the function of enjoying the Lord and expressing Him. For the church to be the corporate expression of God, there has to be an expression of the Christ of glory from our spirit through our soul as a result of transformation.
We need to pray for this, linking our personal longing with God’s desire, that we would be the testimony of Jesus, the corporate expression of God. This expression is corporate: there’s no individualism here, no independence.
As the testimony of Jesus, we can’t move somewhere on our own but are in a coordinated group, fellowshipping with the saints in the Body and being built up together.
Our destiny is to be part of the millions of glorified sons of God in the New Jerusalem, and God will gain a corporate and glorious expression – so glorious that it will require a new universe to contain it!
God created man with the purpose that man would express God; this is why man was made in the image of God, bearing His likeness (Gen. 1:26).
From the very beginning God wanted man to be His testimony and expression; man is the living photograph of God, and when man is filled with God’s life and lives by this life, he expresses God.
However, man failed God, and so Jesus came as the second man (1 Cor. 15:47) to take the position and function of Adam; Jesus expressed God – He was the expression, image, and testimony of God (Col. 1:15).
Today we as believers in Christ are the reproduction and duplication of Christ to be the many photographs of God; our job is not to do many things for God but to express God by having Him as our life and living Him out.
Jesus Christ, the original photograph of God, is now being reproduced in many believers to make them the many photographs of Jesus to be the testimony of Jesus.
The book of Revelation is an unveiling of Christ, and Christ is expressed through the church; therefore, the church is the testimony of Jesus revealed in this book (Rev. 1:1, 13, 20; 19:10).
The living person of Jesus is the image, expression, and testimony of God, and the church today is the testimony of Jesus, His corporate expression (see 2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15, 18; 3:10-11, 15). Amen!
Praise the Lord, we as believers in Christ are the reproduction of Jesus, the many “photographs of Jesus” – we are the testimony of Jesus! Now God has a corporate expression, which is the church, the testimony of Jesus, who is the expression of God!
Our ultimate responsibility today in the Lord’s ultimate move is to bear the testimony of Jesus as the local churches which will consummate in the New Jerusalem!
Lord Jesus, transform us into Your image for Your corporate expression! Don’t let us go on expressing ourselves day and night, but transform us into Your image from glory to glory to make us the testimony of Jesus! We want to be those who bear the testimony of Jesus, being part of the corporate expression of Christ on earth. Amen, Lord, be expressed through us. Gain Your corporate expression all over the earth. Gain a reproduction of Christ in man for the corporate expression of God in man, the testimony of Jesus!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron K. for this week, and portions from, The Testimony of Jesus, chs. 1, 5 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Special Fellowship concerning the World Situation and the Lord’s Move, msg. 4 (week 4), Bearing the Ultimate Responsibility in God’s Ultimate Move.
- Hymns on this topic:
# God in Christ, embodied, / As God’s lampstand, He / Has become the Spirit, / The reality. / Spirit as the lampstand / Has been multiplied; / Many local churches, / Now are realized! / See the local churches, / ’Midst the earth’s dark night; / Burning in the Spirit, / Shining forth with Christ. (Hymns #1259)
# The churches are the Body / Of Christ on earth today. / They are His testimony, / That He may have a way. / They are the golden lampstands / In cities far and wide. / They are His fighting army, / And His beloved Bride. (Hymns #1265)
# God of glory, we bow the knee, / Grant us today / Spir’t of wisdom, revelation, / The mystery to see, / I’d outpour all my life for Thine economy, / Just for Thine eternal pleasure, / The Body of Christ, / In my mingled spirit lead me / To the Body’s reality, / In Thine intensification / Make us the testimony of Jesus / O Lord! For this we yearn! / Quickly come, as once Thou promised! / Lord, our deepest longing / Is Thy return! (Song on being the testimony of Jesus)
About aGodMan
Man was made in the image of God simply to express God. We may compare man as the expression of God to a photograph. A photograph of a person does not worship the person, work for him, or serve him. The destiny of a photograph is simply to express the person. Man is a “photograph” of God. When God created man, He “took a photo” of Himself. Just as the function of a photograph is to express a person, man was made to express God. However, man failed God in this very respect, but Psalm 8 tells us that a second man would come to resume the responsibility of man to express God (vv. 4-6). This is what Jesus accomplished. While Jesus was on this earth, He fully expressed God. He was the real “photograph” of God.
Now this one photograph has been reproduced. We are all the reproduced “photographs” of Jesus. Therefore, today God has a corporate expression—the church—which is the testimony of Jesus, who is the expression of God. The old man Adam was created in God’s image, but Adam failed God. Now the church is the new man, which is created in Christ according to the image of God, having Christ as God’s expression (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10). This expression is the testimony of Jesus, which in Revelation is first the local churches and eventually the New Jerusalem. (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1975-1976, vol. 1, “The Testimony of Jesus,” p. 351)
Amin Aleluia !!!
Amen..
Amen!
Amen! The testimony is in us!
Aleluya!
AMEN!
Amen!!!
Dear Lord Jesus work in us to become Your expression. In eternity past our Father God had a hearts desire. That is that God and man would become one. May the Lord not wait fir another period of time. Lord Jesus gain Your bride in this age. We are willing to give ourselves for this.
Amen PTLORD
Amen! OLJ!
What is God’s desire? It is for us to live Christ,to have Christ as our living, to have Christ as the reality, the real contents of the church life, making every local church a golden lampstand. May the Lord cause us to be sober. May we realize that man was detained to be the expression of God. In the same way,the church today is the testimony of Jesus, that is, His expression.Man was made to express God.
Lord Jesus we humble ourselves before You.Cause us to be sober,that we might realize that we are created to be Your expression only.
HWMR-D2