«　WEEK 1　DAY 5　»

　　John 14:18-20 I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

　　The record in Acts 15 shows us what the Body life is. There was a gathering to discuss the question of circumcision for the Gentiles. Finally, James made a decision that was of the Holy Spirit. When they wrote the letter, they said, "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us" (v. 28). The decision was of the Holy Spirit. It touched the spiritual reality. Although the words were by James, "the apostles and the elders with the whole church" (v. 22) could say Amen to them and resolve to carry the matter out. This is the Body life. Only when one touches the reality in the Holy Spirit can he live out the Body life. The right procedure does not bring in the Body life. One must touch the reality before there can be the Body life. (CWWN, vol. 36, "The Holy Spirit and Reality," p. 229)

　　The Spirit has come into the believers to be the reality of Christ within them (John 14:17, 20; 15:26; 16:12-15). The all-inclusive Christ, who is the embodiment of the processed Triune God, is fully realized as the Spirit who dwells within us. The indwelling Spirit is the reality, the very realization, of Christ.

　　In John 14:17; 15:26; and 16:13 the Spirit is called the Spirit of reality. The reason the Spirit is called the Spirit of reality is that whatever the Father in the Son is and whatever the Son is, is realized in the Spirit. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, reality had not yet entered man. The reality was present, for Christ Himself is reality (John 14:6). But this reality was only among the disciples; it had not yet come into them. Therefore, the Lord told them that it was expedient for them that He go away (John 16:7). The purpose of His going was for Him to have a change in form, a change from the form of the flesh to the form of the Spirit. As soon as this change had been accomplished, His reality would become the reality of the Spirit, and the Spirit would become the Spirit of reality. Then this Spirit of reality would come to abide in the disciples to be in them the reality of Christ. Because the Spirit of reality has come into us, the reality of Christ now abides in us.

　　The Spirit of reality is the full realization of the Son. After the Spirit has brought us to salvation and has regenerated us, He will become in us the very reality of the Son Himself.

　　The Spirit is the essence and substance of the Body. Therefore, the church as the Body of Christ must be essentially and substantially the Spirit Himself. If there is no Spirit, there is no Body; apart from the Spirit, all we have is a human congregation. Without the Spirit, there is no substance of the church; without the Spirit, the church is merely a social organization. The church must be one Body with the Spirit as its substance.

　　The Spirit is not only for the Body but also in the Body. The Spirit is in the Body, not just in individual members. First Corinthians 12:13 says, "In one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit." This verse reveals that the one Spirit is not only the essence of the Body but also the life and the life supply of the Body. Without the one Spirit, the Body would be empty and lifeless.

　　Moreover, 1 Corinthians 12:13 indicates that one Spirit is wrought into us and constituted into our being in order that we may be constituted into one Body. The Body is the constitution of the one Spirit, and the one Spirit has been wrought into the being of the one Body. Eventually, because the Body is the constitution of the one Spirit, we can say that the one Body is one with the Spirit. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1420-1421, 3403)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 46