We Acknowledge the Headship of Christ and Allow Him to Grow in us to Grow up into the Head

We grow up into the Head as we acknowledge the authority of the headship of Christ and by allowing Christ to grow and increase in all the parts of our inner being.

For us to hold Christ as the Head means that we acknowledge that He is the Head and we come absolutely under His authority; to hold Christ as the Head is to have our entire being and all the things related to us under Christ as the Head.

To hold the Head means there’s direct and intimate communication between us and Him; we as the Body are intimately connected and related to the Head in our experience.

In this close communication between the Head and the members, all His riches are ministered into the members of the Body, and all the negative things are swallowed up by the supply of life from the Head.

God gave Christ to be Head over all things to the church (Eph. 1:21-22); there’s a divine transmission taking place from the Head to the Body, and as long as we remain in the Body and are properly related to the Head, we’re under this transmission.

Our mingled spirit is a spirit of faith; doubts are in our mind, but faith is in our spirit.

When we exercise our spirit, the surpassing greatness of the Triune God’s power can be dispensed and transmitted into our being.

When we exercise our spirit, we are joined to the Lord as the Head, and there’s a transmission of the fourfold power going on.

The power that raised Christ from the dead, the power that ascended Him above all things, the power that subjected all things under His feet, and the power that heads Him up over all things – this fourfold power is being transmitted into us as the church when we acknowledge the headship of Christ and thus hold Him as the Head.

So we need to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man for us to apprehend with all the saints what the universally vast dimensions of Christ are.

We need to be strengthened with the fourfold power into the inner man so that this divine and mystical dynamite would blast us out of ourselves and into the inner man!

As we are strengthened into our inner man with the resurrecting, ascending, subjecting, and heading up power, Christ can make His home in our hearts through faith.

When this happens, the fourfold power is transmitted to us, and we are headed up in Christ; furthermore, we participate in Christ’s heading up of all things in Himself.

We Grow up into the Head when we Acknowledge the Authority of the Headship of Christ

What does it mean for us to hold the Head, as Col. 2:19 says? It is to grow into the Head by acknowledging the authority of the headship of Christ.

When we acknowledge the authority of the headship of Christ, we grow up into the Head, we hold Him as the Head, and we put ourselves under Him as the Head.

This means that in big things and small things, we take Him as our Head.

In a very simple way, in our shopping, in the way we dress, in going out to eat at some fast-food or restaurant, in the things we purchase that no one knows, and in the way we behave ourselves, in all things we need to acknowledge the authority of the headship of Christ, taking Christ as the Lord.

The problem is that, even though we call on the name of the Lord and verbally acknowledge Him as being the Lord, in our daily life it is still us who is the Lord.

Because we lack the practice of acknowledging Christ as Lord in our daily life, we cannot properly grow in life and our function is not manifested in the meetings.

How can we prophesy for the Lord in the meeting if we don’t acknowledge the authority of the headship of Christ in our daily life?

We need to practice opening to the Lord about all things we are doing or about to do, and we need to take Him as the Head. The key to prophesying in the church meetings is allowing Jesus to be the Lord.

And the only way we can do this is by being joined to the Lord as one spirit and living in the mingled spirit. Christ came and learned obedience through the things which He suffered; He created real and genuine obedience, and such an obedience to God is in our spirit.

The Christ who is obedient and submissive to God lives in us; we need to live Christ by living one with Him in all the aspects of our daily life, and the result will be that we take Christ as our Head.

We should acknowledge the authority of the headship of Christ in our Christian life, in our church life, and in everything; in this way we will grow up into the Head in all things.

We grow up into the Head through acknowledging the authority of the headship of Christ (Col. 2:19; cf. Josh. 9:14; 1 Pet. 5:3; Matt. 20:25-27; 23:10-11).

In Joshua 9 we see how Joshua and the leaders of Israel were tricked by the Gibbeonites, who were a Hivite tribe who was to be destroyed, because they did not ask for the counsel of Jehovah but listened to their story and believed them.

If we don’t ask for the counsel of the Lord, if we don’t check with the Lord about all things, we’re not under His authority nor do we acknowledge His headship.

In everything we do, in everything we are, in every way we serve, we need to ask for the counsel of the Lord.

When we buy a car, we need to check not only the price and what is our preference, but check with the Lord, Lord, what car are You buying through me? What car would You like me to buy? What kind of car should I have that would express You properly?

When others come to us to tell us their problems and situations, we should not take the Lord’s place and tell them what to do; rather, we should bring them to the Lord so that they may take the Lord as their Head and have His guidance in what to do.

Christ is the Head of everyone (1 Cor. 11:3); God is the Head of Christ, Christ is the head of the man, and man is the head of the woman – this is God’s ordination.

However, due to the darkened philosophy in the world today, our understanding concerning the headship of Christ is tainted, and we need to be in the word of God so that we may be renewed in the spirit of our mind.

According to Eph. 5:23, the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the Head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the Body.

The “woman’s liberation and emancipation” completely rejects such a thought; but the way God created us, there’s something in a woman’s created nature to submit to her husband, and there’s something in man’s created nature to submit to Christ.

As a wife, we should submit to our husband as God’s representative authority. As a husband, we should submit to Christ as our Head. Christ is the Head of the church, and He is the Head of all things.

We as believers participate in Christ’s heading up by being willing to be headed up in the church life, that is, by growing in life and by living under Christ’s light (John 1:4; 8:12; Eph. 4:15-16; 5:8-9; Rev. 21:23-25).

May we take Christ as our life and person so that His life of obedience would be lived out in us today!

Lord Jesus, we acknowledge the authority of the headship of Christ and we take Jesus as our Lord. We enthrone You, Lord, and we seek to have the counsel of the Lord in everything we do and say. Amen, Lord Jesus, You are our Head; we come to You with all the situations, decisions, feelings, and things going on in us and around us, and we seek to have Your counsel, Your feeling, Your decision, and Your thought. We allow You, Jesus, to be our Lord in all the big and small things of our daily life. Amen, Jesus is Lord! Christ is the Head!

We Grow up into the Head by Allowing Christ to Increase and Grow in all the Inward Parts of our Being

As we hold Christ, the Head, we grow up into Him in all things; this means that we grow up into the Head by allowing Christ to increase in us and grow into all the parts of our being.

Our common problem today is that we still reserve a big part within us for ourselves; we give the Lord some space in our being, but there’s so much in us that we reserve just for us, and the Lord has no access to it.

When He cannot grow in us, when Christ can’t increase and grow in the inner parts of our being, we cannot grow up into the Head, and we can’t be headed up in Christ.

There are so many Christians on earth today, but how many of them allow the Lord to grow within them?

There are so many genuine believers in Christ who love God and His word, but how much room do they give to the Lord to grow and expand in their being?

We must allow the Lord to increase in us, grow in our whole being, and occupy all the space in our heart part by part. In this way we grow in the Lord and He grows in us.

When you grow in the Lord by allowing Christ to grow in you, and when I grow in the Lord, the sum total of our growing in Christ is the growth of the Body of Christ.

When Christ grows in you and in me, the Body of Christ grows; the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love is the growth of Christ in all its members. Oh, let Him grow!

May we learn to open our inner being to the Lord and give Him many short and sweet prayers of cooperation such as,

Lord, grow in me today for the Body! Grow in my mind: spread from my spirit into my thoughts, my opinions, my preferences, my way of thinking, my philosophy, and all the things in my mind. Amen, Lord, grow in my emotion: I open my feelings to You, I give my desires to You, and I remove all the barriers for You to spread in all the aspects and issues of my emotions. I open to You my will, Lord; You know how stubborn I am toward You and how loose I am toward things in the world – come in, subdue my will, align my will with Your will, and spread in my will! Lord Jesus, I give You my heart; strengthen me with power into the inner man so that You may have a way to make Your home deep down in my heart, making my heart Your home!

When we allow the Lord to grow in us, when Christ increases in all the inner parts of our being, our gift and function in the Body will be manifested; our growth in life will cause our function to be manifested in the Body.

It is not by improving or cultivating ourselves but by denying the self, and knowing the crucified and resurrected Lord as the Spirit abiding in us to be our life.

We should live with the Lord, move with Him, and allow Him to be the Lord in everything; we need to acknowledge the authority of the Headship of Christ and allow Him to grow in our inward parts.

When we turn to the Lord, the Spirit applies the cross to our being to decrease us, and the resurrecting Spirit supplies Christ into us so that we may be equipped for our perfecting unto function.

May our daily life be affected by our practice of exercising our spirit to allow the cross to terminate the self and the flesh and the natural man, and to have the rich supply of life nourishing us as the Lord spreads into all the parts of our inner being!

May we both acknowledge the authority of the headship of Christ and allow the Lord to spread in all the inner parts of our being so that we may grow up into the Head, Christ!

Lord Jesus, grow in us! We open to You all the rooms of our inner being so that You may spread from our spirit into our mind, emotion, will, and heart. We just open to You without reservations, Lord, and we allow You to grow and increase in all our inward parts for the building up of the Body. May there be an increase of Christ and a decrease of our natural element. May Christ grow in our mind, emotion, will, and heart, and may we decrease. Amen, Lord, grow in us and increase in us so that our function in the Body may be manifested for the building up of the church. Save us from improving or cultivating ourselves; we just want to live with You, move with You, and allow You to be Lord in everything!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, CWWL, 1988, vol. 4, “The Perfecting of the Saints and the Building Up of the Body of Christ,” ch. 3, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Will of God (2020 spring ITERO), week 2, Knowing and Participating in God’s Great and Lofty Will to Head Up All Things in Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Upon the throne, the center / Of government divine, / God reigns, and with His purpose / Brings everything in line. / God’s headship and His lordship / He only can maintain / As King within His kingdom, / O’er everything to reign. (Hymns #941)
  – Enjoying all Thy riches, / Thy fulness we will be; / We’ll hold Thee, as Thy Body, / And grow with God in Thee. (Hymns #189)
  – For the sake of Your Body, Lord, unveil our eyes, / Deal with self, all the ground to You we give. / Save us from independence and all natural ties. / Blend us all in Your Body to live. / Members one of another, the Body will grow, / As we’re knit together in our inward parts. / Open firstly to Christ our Head, then life He will bestow / Through the function in measure of each part. (Song on, From the Head to the Body)