«　WEEK 2　DAY 3　»

　　Eph. 2:6 And raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

　　Phil. 3:10-11 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if perhaps I may attain to the out-resurrection from the dead.

　　The church is a new creation created in Christ's resurrection and by the resurrected Christ. We must see this vision.... We must also see where the church is. The church today is in Christ in ascension. Ephesians 2:6 tells us that the church has been resurrected with Christ, and now the church is seated in the heavenlies with Christ. Therefore, the church is absolutely and purely of the element of Christ, absolutely in resurrection, and absolutely remaining in the heavenlies with Christ.... With the church there is no element other than Christ. Such a vision will govern you to the uttermost and will rule out everything that is not Christly (of Christ), resurrectionly (of resurrection), or heavenly (of the heavens)....The church is a matter in Christ, in resurrection, and in Christ's ascension in the heavenlies. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, "Elders' Training, Book 2: The Vision of the Lord's Recovery," pp. 115-116)

　　As a type of Christ, the lampstand portrays Christ as the resurrection life, growing, branching, budding, and blossoming to shine the light....Since the lampstand typifies Christ, it indicates that Christ is the One who is growing....The lampstand is not made up of only one branch and one lamp. On the contrary, as the central stalk grows, it produces three pairs of branches. Moreover, all the branches are growing and have knobs, buds, and blossoms. As the stalk of the lampstand begins to grow, it produces the first pair of branches. Then as it continues to grow, it produces the second pair and finally the third. Eventually, the stalk itself grows to its full measure. All this indicates that Christ is growing.

　　Christ grows first in Himself and then also in us as the branches. Apparently, it is the branches that are growing. Actually, it is the stand that is growing through the branches and within them. This indicates Christ's growth in us.... As the central stalk, Christ grows in Himself, by Himself, and with Himself. But in the six branches He grows in us, by us, and with us. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1097-1098)

　　In John 11:25...the Lord revealed that resurrection is not a matter of time but a matter of His person, because He is the resurrection....The One who created Adam came to be a man and lived a human life in resurrection. He denied His natural humanity. He never did anything out of Himself (5:19, 30). He did everything in Himself but not of Himself. We also should not do anything in our natural life but in Christ's resurrection life. Jesus was living and walking on this earth in His flesh, but He rejected this flesh. He rejected His natural life....The Lord's charming and cherishing are not natural but are by His resurrection life in humanity.

　　He was a divine and mystical person living in the divine and mystical realm, doing everything in a divine and mystical way. We should be such persons. If we are working in an office, those around us should have the feeling that there is something extraordinary about us. This extraordinary thing is divine and mystical. We all need to be discipled by the Lord to be divine and mystical persons.

　　We are being discipled from being a natural man to being a God-man, living the divine life by denying our natural life according to the model of Christ as the first God-man (Matt. 28:19).... The church life is a discipling life to disciple us from being a natural man to being a God-man. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, "The Vital Groups," pp. 142-143, 75, 88-89)

　　Anything that is carried out even scripturally but in the natural life is not the reality of the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is absolutely something in the resurrection life of Christ. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, "The Practical Points concerning Blending," p. 113)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 92-94; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, "The Practical Points concerning Blending," chs. 2-4; vol. 5, "The Vital Groups," chs. 2-5,10-11