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The fourth stage of our spiritual experience and spiritual life is the highest stage—Christ's full growth in us—the stage of spiritual warfare, where Christ is fully grown and matured in us—Eph. 4:13-16; 6:10-18:
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At the end of the third stage, we express God with His image, and in the fourth stage, we represent Him with His authority—Gen. 1:26.
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The experience of life in the fourth stage includes knowing the Body, knowing ascension, reigning with Christ, engaging in spiritual warfare, and being full of the stature of Christ—1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 6:10-12.
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In order to know the Body and live in the Body, we must first deal with the flesh, the self, and the natural constitution—Gal. 5:24; Matt. 16:24:
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If we still live according to the flesh, in ourselves, and serve the Lord in our natural ability, there is no way for us to know the Body—1 Cor. 12:12.
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Only when our flesh has been dealt with, the self-opinion has been broken, and the natural life has been smashed will the divine life within us enable us to know the Body and realize that we are simply members of the Body and that the life within us cannot be independent.
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If we want to fight the spiritual warfare and deal with God's enemy, we must first deal with our flesh, self, and soul-life—2 Cor. 10:3-5; Eph. 6:10-12:
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Engaging in spiritual warfare to deal with Satan and recover the earth for God requires that we be wholly and absolutely for God and obey Him completely—Gen. 1:26-28:
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We cannot preserve ourselves or leave one bit for ourselves.
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When we are dealing with Satan, self must be utterly abandoned.
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The church must engage in spiritual warfare, fighting to bring in the kingdom of God—Matt. 12:28; Eph. 6:10-18; Rev. 12:10a; 11:15.
Morning Nourishment
Eph. 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.6:13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Nothing requires us to know the Body so urgently as spiritual warfare, because spiritual warfare is not an individual matter but a Body matter. No individual believer can fight with the enemy; it takes the whole Body. If we wish to learn spiritual warfare, we must first know the Body.
We must wait until the fourth stage [of the experience of life] to speak of knowing the Body, because the Body referred to here is the mystical Body of Christ, the church. This Body is formed by Christ as life in each of us, Christ mingled with us. During the second and third stages of our experience of life, we are still living in our own life; therefore, we cannot know this life that mingles with us to form the Body. Only when our self life has been utterly dealt with and we have the experience of passing through the Jordan and entering into the fourth stage [of our spiritual life] will we be able to touch the reality of this life of the Body and come to know the Body. (CWWL, 1953, vol. 3,”The Experience of Life,” p. 479)
Today's Reading
The Bible and our experience prove that though each one of us is a member of Christ, the life in each one of us is not a member life but a Body life….Each member [of our body] shares in common the same life together with all the other members, that is, the life of the entire body….Similarly, in the Body of Christ, when one member is joined to the Body or having fellowship with the Body, his life is the life of the Body, and the life of the Body is his life. It would not do for him to be separated from the other members, or vice versa, because the life in him and in the other members is of the same Body; it can neither be distinguished nor separated. It is this life that joins us together to become the Body of Christ; or, to say it more precisely and emphatically, it is this life that mingles with us to become the Body of Christ.We cannot, however, experience this before the difficulties of the self have been entirely dealt with. If we are still living according to the flesh, in ourselves, and serving the Lord in our natural ability, the life of the Body, which is Christ Himself in us, has no way of being manifested, and there is no way for us to know the Body. The more we live by the flesh, the less we feel the need for the support of the Body. If we live by our self-opinion, we find no need for the sustaining of the church. If we serve with our natural ability, we sense no need for the coordination of the members. Only when our flesh has been dealt with, the self-opinion has been broken, and the natural life has been smashed, will the life within cause us to realize that we are simply members of the Body and that the life in us cannot be independent. Hence, this life requires us to have fellowship with all other members and be joined to them, and it also brings us into that fellowship and the experience of being joined together. It is at this time that we begin to know a little concerning the Body and become qualified to engage in spiritual warfare.
On one hand, we say that if we want to fight the spiritual warfare and deal with God's difficulty we must first deal with our flesh, self, and soul-life, thus solving our own difficulties; on the other hand, we say that in order to fight the battle, we must first know the Body, and in order to know the Body and live in the Body, we must first deal with our flesh, self, and soul-life. Whether, therefore, we speak from the standpoint of fighting the warfare or knowing the Body, we all must first pass through the preceding three stages—coming out of the flesh, the self, and the soul-life—in order to attain to the fourth stage of the experience of life. (CWWL, 1953, vol. 3,”The Experience of Life,” pp. 479-480)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1953, vol. 3,”The Experience of Life,” chs. 9-11, 15; CWWN, vol. 34,”The Glorious Church,” ch. 1