The Universal Body of Christ is the Fullness of the Universal, All-inclusive Christ

This week our focus has been the first item of the direction of the Lord’s move today, which is the intrinsic building up of the organic Body of Christ; today need to be governed by a vision of the universal Body of Christ as the goal of God’s economy.

What the Lord is after today and what He’s working to accomplish in this age is the building up of the Body of Christ as the organism of the processed and consummated Triune God. The Body of Christ is the reality of the church and the intrinsic significance and meaning of the church.

The organic Body of Christ is a divine constitution of the Triune God with the believers in Christ; the Triune God in Christ as the Spirit is the essence of the Body, and the believers in Christ are the frame and expression of the Body of Christ on earth.

In His economy God is doing one thing: He wants to produce and build up a Body of His Son, Jesus Christ; this Body, the church as the Body of Christ, fulfills God’s desire for His expression and the destruction of Satan.

If we in the church life don’t see the Body, know the Body, care for the Body, or honor the Body, we will have all kinds of problems; but if we see a vision of the Body and care for, honor, and know the Body, we will live a life and have a work that builds up the organic Body of Christ.

May we see the Lord’s urgent need to obtain the reality of the Body of Christ expressed in the local churches, so that there would be a substantial expression of the Body and the bride would be prepared, thus bringing the Lord back!

May we allow the vision of the Body to govern our life and work daily, and may our living, work, and ministry all be in the Body and for the Body! Amen!

May the Lord recover us back to His word and His desire so that we may realize that there’s only ONE Body of Christ in the universe, and we all are the members of the Body.

As we live the church life in the local churches, enjoying the Lord, eating Him, and being in a sweet fellowship with the saints in spirit, we need to take the Body as our goal and the building up of the Body as our aim.

We need to have an Enlarged Heart and View to see the Universal Body of Christ

In the spiritual realm, a vision denotes something that we human beings cannot see with our natural eyes, apprehend with our capacity and thinking, feel with our emotions, or imagine with our heart.

A vision is something real according to God that is unveiled to us (this is revelation) and is accompanied by the divine light, and the eyes of our heart are being enlightened to see a spiritual reality.

A vision involves a marvelous and extraordinary spiritual scene which is unveiled to us, our veils are lifted, the divine light shines into us, and our inner eyes are opened to see.

We need to have an enlarged heart and view to see a vision of the universal Body of Christ; we are not just believers in Christ but universal Christians with a universal view of the universal Body of Christ (Eph. 1:17-23; 4:16; Rev. 21:10).

Our view needs to be enlarged and broadened; we need to lift up our eyes from our needs, our family’s situation, and our local church’s condition, and see a vision of the universal Body of Christ. For this, we need to have the eyes of our heart enlightened, and the Spirit needs to work in us with the shining of the divine light by the opening of the word of God.

On our part, we need to have certain kind of experiences to enlarge our inner being and bring us out of our narrowness and smallness. We are self-centered, and even in pursuing the Lord and meeting with the saints our view is so limited, small, and narrow.

Paul was telling the Corinthians that his heart is enlarged toward them, but they were constricted in their heart for him and the Body. We need to be fully reconciled to God in the second stage so that our flesh and natural man would be broken, and the Lord will have a way to enlarge us.

We can’t “enlarge ourselves” – we need to cooperate with the Lord’s inner working to release us from the confinement of the self, so that we may see a vision of the universal Body of Christ.

We need to be enlarged concerning our view and feeling to see that the Body of Christ is something measureless, infinite, and transcendent.

For this, we need to be willing to be brought out of the prison of the self. We need to be willing to care not only for our own things but also for the things of Christ Jesus and of the church.

We need to be willing to be saved from preoccupation for our own things, so that our heart would be enlarged and our view would be uplifted to see a vision of the universal Body of Christ.

Lord Jesus, save us from our self-confinement and from our narrowness. Give us the experiences we need so that we may be willing to be saved from preoccupation for our own things and have our view enlarged. Amen, Lord, grant us a vision of the universal Body of Christ. May our view be enlarged to see what You see and how You see the Body of Christ. May the eyes of our heart be enlightened so that we may see, under Your light, a divine heavenly vision of the universal Body of Christ, the fulness of the One who fills all in all!

The Universal, All-Extensive Christ has a Universal Body as His Fulness and Expression

The Apostle Paul entered into the full and completed revelation of the mystery of Christ, which is the church as His mystical Body; he said that God subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all (Eph. 1:22-23).

We need to pray for a spirit of wisdom and revelation, having the eyes of our heart enlightened, so that we may see the universal, vast, all-inclusive, and all-extensive Christ. We as the Body of such a Christ are under a constant divine transmission – all of Him is being transmitted to the church, and the Body comes from the transmission of the all-inclusive Christ.

In order for us to enjoy this divine transmission we need to have a sober mind, a fervent emotion, a submissive will, and a pure conscience. The transmission we receive as the Body of Christ from Him as the Head makes us the fulness of the all-filling Christ.

The more we enjoy the riches of Christ, the more we become the fulness of Christ, His Body. The fullness issues from the enjoyment of the riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8).

Christ is the One who is infinite: He fills all time and space, and the entire universe is needed to contain Him; such a great Christ needs a Body as His fulness for His complete expression.

Ephesians 4:10, referring to Christ, says, “He who descended, He is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens that He might fill all things.” The thought here is profound. First, Christ was in the heavens. In His incarnation He came to earth as a man and lived on earth for thirty-three and a half years. Then He died on the cross and descended into Hades, ascended in resurrection from Hades to earth, and then ascended to the third heaven. By means of such a descending and ascending He fills all things. Now Christ is everywhere, on the earth as well as in the heavens. The Body is the fullness, the expression, of such an all-filling Christ. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 2270-2271, by W. Lee)

Our Christ is universally vast, universally extensive, and we as His Body are the fullness of this universally vast and extensive Christ.

This means that, just as Christ is vast, universal, and extensive, so the Body of Christ is universal, vast, and extensive.

The Body of Christ is universal not only in the sense of including all believers in Christ in time and space, but also in the sense of being the universal Body of the universal, extensive, and all-inclusive Christ.

He descended from the heavens, became a man, descended even more to Hades, and then He ascended in resurrection, and further in His ascension; through this descending and ascending, He opened the way to fill all things, the whole universe.

The Body of Christ is the fullness, the full expression, of this universally vast Christ. We need to have our view of the Body uplifted and enlarged to see that the universally vast, rich, and extensive Christ has a universally vast, rich, and extensive Body as His fulness, His overflow, His surplus.

Thank You Lord for descending from heavens to earth and even to Hades, and then ascending in resurrection and to the third heavens in His ascension to fill all things! Hallelujah, Christ as the Head of the Body is universally vast, all-inclusive, and all-extensive! And the Body of Christ is the fullness, surplus, and overflow of the universally vast Christ! Lord, cause us to see and appreciate the universal Body of Christ, and keep us enjoying all Your riches both personally and corporately so that we may become Your fulness, Your expression!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Ron K. for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 211-212 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Direction of the Lord’s Move (2016 Thanksgiving Conference), msg. 1 (week 1), The Intrinsic Building Up of the Organic Body of Christ (1) – Governed by a Vision of the Universal Body of Christ as the Goal of God’s Economy.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # One Body universal, / One in each place expressed; / Locality of dwelling / Her only ground possessed. (Hymns #824)
  # Christ is all-inclusive, / All-inheriting; / Firstborn of creation, / First in everything; / Son of God effulgent, / Bright, extensive, vast, / Christ, High Priest and Builder, / Is the First and Last. (Song on the central line in the Bible)
  # No longer I alone that live, / But God together lives with me. / Built with the saints in the Triune God, / His universal house we’ll be, / And His organic Body we / For His expression corp’rately. (Song on God’s economy)