In the whole universe and throughout history God has been doing only one work, to work Himself into man that He may obtain a corporate expression of Himself.
There are many things that God has done, and there are many things that we as God’s people need to do, like preaching the gospel, gaining people for the Lord, establishing churches, perfecting the saints, being in trainings and conferences, etc – but we need to do all these things having God’s Unique Work in view.
The unique work of God involves something that is central in God’s operation, and it involves the intrinsic element of the work upon which all our activities and all our serve needs to be based.
We need to know God’s unique work and have a clear vision of what God desires to do today.
Knowing God’s Unique Work
In the whole universe and in every age, God’s unique work is the same in principle. All the work that God does in every age is for the same goal, that is to work Himself into man for His eternal corporate expression.
Paul the Apostle yearned and travailed until Christ was formed in the believers (Gal. 4:19) and in Revelation 21:10-11 we see how God will obtain a building, the New Jerusalem, a composition of the mingling of God and man.
We need to know God’s unique work – we need to more than just have an objective understanding in our thought which we can then repeat in word.
We need to have a revelation, allowing the light to shine, having a strong vision with clear sight, being continually under God’s dispensing that we may experience the central work of God and we would be constituted with this.
How we need to have a rich and deep and full understanding of God’s unique work!
We need to pray as Paul did in Col. 1:9 that we may be filled with all spiritual understanding, with the full knowledge of God’s will!
Lord, fill us with spiritual understanding! Lord, shine on us! Remove all the veils and concepts. Remove even any religious concepts and good opinions about the Bible. Lord, cause us to see and have a vision of God’s unique work! May this principle be also our principle in our living!
The Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery
It is the Lord’s mercy that He has brought us into His recovery. The Lord has been recovering His people back to Himself to love Him, know Him, experience Him, and live Him out corporately.
We are so blessed to be under the ministry of brother Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. If you read their writings, especially the resumption messages by W. Nee and all brother Lee’s writings / speaking from the early 1950’s to the time he went to be with the Lord you will see that they spoke the same thing concerning God’s central work.
Both brother Nee and brother Lee were governed by the vision of God’s unique work, which is to work Himself into man, to dispense Himself into man, that man may become His corporate expression on earth today.
We need to allow the Lord to deal with any obstacles in our being and to add Himself to us more every day that we may see God’s unique work and do nothing apart from it. We need to pray to the Lord and honestly ask Him,
Lord, how do You feel about my knowing of Your work? Do I really know what’s the intrinsic element of Your work? Does this govern all that I do? Lord, teach me to minister You in this way! Teach us, Lord, and show us how to minister into others the processed and consummated Triune God which has been constituted into our being!
The work in the Lord’s recovery is absolutely different than the work in Christianity. Certain activities may be similar, but the essence is different. If we do not have the vision of God’s unique work, we will lose the intrinsic element of the work.
Do we care about the core, the essence, the intrinsic element, and the central work of God which He intends to do in all of His children?
The Lord Jesus and the apostles did the same work in life, nature, element, purpose, and goal.
It is the Lord’s mercy that His light may shine on us and we would be delivered from any theological system or doctrines and be trained and reconstituted with God’s thought, His desire, His aspiration to work Himself into man to be man’s everything that man may be His corporate expression!
God’s Unique Work is to Work Himself into Man
“The matter of God working Himself into us is beyond what we could even dream of…” (brother Lee) We may think we understand this, but do we really see that both in the Old and the New Testament this is the only thing that God is doing?
God’s work may seem to be different outwardly in every age and even in every country, but inwardly and intrinsically the principle is the same. Intrinsically, in every age we have the same God doing the same work for the same goal, even though the way His works are manifested outwardly is different.
We shouldn’t pay attention to the outward manifestations of God’s work but pay more attention and focus on knowing God’s way and God Himself inwardly.
What God desires to do is to Work Himself into man that He may obtain a God-man, one who is man yet God, God yet man. God desires that man would become God in life and nature but not in Godhead.
Just as the tea is water mingled with the tea essence and is inseparable, so God adds Himself to our being to mingle Himself to us to the point that we are inseparable: people see man, yet they see God being expressed in man!
This mingling is going on every day and it will reach the point where we become fully God-men (yet not sharing the Godhead).
How we need to be released from our concepts, our theological understandings, our doctrines, and our desire to improve ourselves! God doesn’t want a group of improved Christians or a bunch of believers who are “becoming better every day” – God wants to work Himself into us!
From eternity past He predestinated us to be holy (share God’s holy nature and be partakers of His nature, 2 Pet. 1:4) and unto sonship (be partakers of God’s life, be children of God, and have the authority and privilege to express God in His life, John 1:12-13; 3:15).
Our Honest Response: Lord, Do It In Us!
What should our honest response be when we see God’s unique work? We shouldn’t try to do this or that, but we should just open to the Lord in specific prayers that He may do it in us!
When David received God’s word in 2 Sam. 7 that God will build him a house and will raise him up a seed that will rule forever, he prayed these very words back to God that God may do them!
Don’t just acknowledge the facts, don’t just have a mental apprehension, and don’t just be touched with what God’s unique work is. Just go to the Lord and pray for this!
Paul the Apostle had to kneel down before God, even though he was in chains, that he would pray for the believers to be mingled with God for God’s corporate expression (see Eph. 3:14-21).
Lord, bring us to the point where what matters to You also matters to us! Lord, cause this to be our prayer daily! Lord, make us a God-man. Lord, deify us. Work Yourself into us. Cristify us, Lord, and make us more divinely-human. Make us those who do this and only this. We want to cooperate with You to serve others by ministering You to them and dispensing You as life into them.
Lord, deify and Cristify the ones we get in touch with. Do whatever You need to do in us, to us, and around us that You may Work Yourself Into Us! Mingle Yourself with every inward part of our being and reconsitute us with Yourself. Lord, Do what You desire! Do whatever You need to do in all Your believers for You to thoroughly accomplish Your unique work!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother Ron Kangas’ sharing in this message and portions in, The Bridge and Channel of God (by Witness Lee, ch. 1), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery, week 1 (entitled, Knowing the Work of God—the Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery).
- Further reading on the ministry of bro. Nee and Lee via, Watchman Nee and Witness Lee—Two Ministers with One Ministry (via holdingtotruth.com);
- Hymns on this topic:
# God eternal has a purpose, / Formed in His eternal past, / Spreading to eternal future.
# Into our innermost / Intrinsic constitution, / Come, Lord, Yourself dispense / By constant, fresh infusion; / Transform us, Lord, and work Yourself, / As God’s embodiment, / Into our heart, and life each part, / With Your reality.
# It is God’s intent and pleasure / To have Christ revealed in me, / Nothing outward as religion, / But His Christ within to be.
About aGodMan
The matter of God working Himself into us is beyond what we could even dream of….Even the brothers and sisters who have been saved for many years and have heard numerous messages in the church may still desire to improve themselves before God every time they think of Him. We need the Holy Spirit within to open our eyes to see that improvement is not what God desires from us. Even if we were to become a million times better today, God would not want this. What God desires is to work Himself into us. This is what God has been doing in every age.
The nature of God’s work is the same in every age; the design, measure, and plan of God’s work has not changed at all—He desires to work Himself into us. The outward form, the outward manifestation, of this work is different in every person. If we would all cooperate with God, only God knows what will happen on this earth in the next five years. (The Bridge and Channel of God, pp. 7-11)
Amen! [MP3 Audio Messages ITERO Fall 2012 available at http://taiwanenglishmeeting.weebly.com/%5D
Amen! 🙂
I really enjoyed the matter of going to pray for this.
How we need to spend more time to pray, open ourselves to the Lord that He can work Himself into us! May the Lord cause us to see and have a clear vision of His unique work. Amen!
AMEN..IT IS THE NOURISHING OF THE spirit TO BE FULLY APPREHEND the enjoyment within..we can experience the divine dispensing of the LORD thru us…..HALLELUJAH…