Experience Christ Together and Enter into the Corporate Building

Today’s Key Verses for Pray-reading

1. Built together

Ephesians 2:22

In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.

2. Grow up into Christ, the Head

Ephesians 4:15

But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ.

3. Apprehend the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ with strength

Ephesians 3:17-18

That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
May be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are

Matthew 18:18-20

Truly I say to you, Whatever you bind on the earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on the earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again, truly I say to you that if two of you are in harmony on earth concerning any matter for which they ask, it will be done for them from My Father who is in the heavens. For where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst.

4. Have access to the Father in one Spirit

Ephesians 2:18

For through Him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father.

5. Bring forth, nourish, teach, and build in the reality of the Body so that the Body grows

Ephesians 4:12

For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ,

Ephesians 4:16

Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.

Matthew 28:19-20

Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age.

6. Hear the Spirit’s sending together and go forth to spread God’s kingdom

Acts 13:2-4

And as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for Me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. They then, having been sent out by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed away to Cyprus.

This passage especially highlights the Spirit’s speaking and sending in the corporate service. As the saints ministered, fasted, and prayed together, the Spirit made His work known among them.

7. Know Christ’s knowledge-surpassing love and be filled unto God’s corporate fullness

Ephesians 3:19-21

And to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God. But to Him who is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power which operates in us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all the generations forever and ever. Amen.

Today’s Prayer Burden

The most precious thing about the burden and the vital groups is not merely our individual experience of Christ, nor simply our supplying one another from our personal experience. It is that the companions practice and share the “seven togethers” in experiencing Christ: being built together; growing up into Christ, the Head; apprehending the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ with strength; having access to the Father in one Spirit; bringing forth, nourishing, teaching, and building in the reality of the Body so that the Body grows; hearing the Spirit’s sending to spread God’s kingdom; and knowing the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ so that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God.

Today’s Prayer

Lord Jesus, show us that we may enjoy the Lord individually, but we cannot live out the Body by ourselves. To be two or three together is to experience and build up the Body and to experience the corporate Christ for the fulfillment of God’s economy. The building up of the Body is crucial!

Lord, show us that the most precious thing about the vital groups is not merely our individual experience of Christ, nor simply our supplying one another from our personal experience. It is that the companions practice and share the “seven togethers” in experiencing Christ: being built together; growing up into Christ, the Head; apprehending the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ with strength; having access to the Father in one Spirit; bringing forth, nourishing, teaching, and building in the reality of the Body so that the Body grows; hearing the Spirit’s sending to spread God’s kingdom; and knowing the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ so that we may be filled unto all the fullness of God!

Ministry Fellowship

The measure of the stature of Christ is a matter of the Body

His spiritual life was entirely in the Body, and all his spiritual experience was also in the Body. Therefore, his attaining to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ was an experience in the Body.

A person cannot experience the measure of the stature of Christ outside the Body. In fact, even in the Body he cannot attain this measure by himself. The measure of the stature of Christ is a matter of the Body. Therefore, only the Body can attain it.

The Bible mentions a full-grown man only once, in Ephesians 4:13. This does not refer to the saints individually but to the Body of Christ, the church, which will one day reach this condition. Ephesians 3:18 also says that we apprehend the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ together with all the saints. These two passages show us that neither the measure of Christ’s stature nor His unsearchable fullness can be experienced by one person alone. We experience them together with the saints as we are joined in the Body. (The Experience of Life, message 19)

The saints are built together by growing together

The saints’ being built together depends on their advancing and growing together. This building grows out of life and continues to grow. Your spirit and the spirits of the saints are blended and interwoven as one in the Holy Spirit; this is the building of the church. When everyone’s spirit comes forth and is joined as one in the Spirit of God, we can touch God’s feeling together in fellowship. (The Priesthood and God’s Building, message 1)

The Spirit and our spirit: a corporate spirit, today’s Jerusalem

The phrase “in spirit” can be found in every chapter of Ephesians except the first. What is in our spirit? You may say that the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of God are in our spirit. That is certainly right. But now we must see that the new man is also in our spirit. God’s dwelling place, His abode, is in our spirit (2:22). Our problem is that we are too individualistic and think only of our own spirit. Yet whenever the Bible says “your spirit,” it includes the spirits of all the saints. We know that God dwells in the third heaven, but He also dwells in our spirit. This makes our spirit today’s Jerusalem. Hallelujah! There is a marvelous entity in the universe called our spirit. The Spirit witnesses with our spirit (Rom. 8:16). “Our spirit” includes the spirits of Paul, Martin Luther, John Wesley, Watchman Nee, you, and me. How broad our spirit is! (Life-study of Ephesians, message 24)

To enter into my spirit is to enter into “our spirit”; the Body is in “our spirit”

We may think that I am in my spirit and you are in your spirit, that we are separate units in our own spirits. But those who have been dealt with, broken, reconstituted, and built realize that when they enter into their spirit, they enter into “our spirit.” The Body is in “our spirit,” and this Body transcends space and time. The spirits of Paul, John, Watchman Nee, and Brother Lee are here. (Crystallization-study of the Building of God, message 9)

The genuine building is not merely a matter of everyone getting along; that is only on the surface and is not deep enough. The genuine building requires everyone to be blended in one spirit and to act in one spirit. This is the real meaning of not being spiritual individually: your spirit can be blended with another’s spirit.

In Acts 13 the spirits of five were blended as one in the Spirit of God

Acts 13:1-2 says, “Now there were in Antioch, in the local church, prophets and teachers: Barnabas and Simeon, who was called Niger, and Lucius the Cyrenian, and Manaen, the foster brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. And as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for Me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Here we see the five prophets and teachers in Antioch serving God with one accord. Their ministry did not refer to doing some work or carrying out some activity; it referred to their fasting and praying there. In their ministry, I believe each one’s spirit came forth, and the spirits of the five were blended as one in the Spirit of God. (The Blueprint and the Ground for the Building Up of the Church, message 6)

Practice the vital groups to enliven people and bring in the genuine building

Most people throughout the earth are asleep today. People are asleep and cannot be awakened. We can become vital only by turning our church life into vital groups. (Shepherding the Church through the Practice of the Vital Groups, ch. 1)

To move from an ordinary or merely apparent building to the genuine building, we must practice the vital groups.

Those who serve need to realize that their inward work is to enliven the saints one by one. If a full-time serving one can enliven two people in this way, these three believers can have intimate fellowship and be built together. Without the vital groups, we may have only an ordinary building. If we would have the genuine building among us, we must practice the vital groups. Without the vital groups, the church life in a locality may largely be a performance, lacking the genuine building. I also urge the saints in every church to establish many vital groups in their locality. The more vital groups a church has, the more living that church will be. (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 1, ch. 7)

Become the corporate Holy of Holies, the corporate Zion, the New Jerusalem

Whenever we shepherd people, we need to reconcile them to God and reconcile them into God. Our goal is to make them persons in spirit, persons in the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies is the reality of Zion, and Zion is the overcomers. Eventually, through the ministry of reconciliation—the ministry in which we participate—we will become the corporate Holy of Holies, the corporate Zion, the New Jerusalem. (2007 Memorial Day Conference, message 6 transcript)

Enter into the current of the Body of Christ

The day of the Lord’s return is near. Since His return is so near, we should not waste time seeking spirituality individually. Rather, we should enter into the current of the Body of Christ; it is worthwhile to enter into this current. When we enter into the Lord’s current, we gain Christ as everything. Everything depends on His current. We should not worry about our future, because it is in the Lord’s hand. If we enter into His current, He will take care of our future. (The Lord’s Recovery of the Church Life, ch. 6)