«　WEEK 2　DAY 5　»

　　John 3:29-30 He who has the bride is the bridegroom….He must increase, but I must decrease.

　　34 For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for He gives the Spirit not by measure.

　　The bride, produced by regeneration and taken by Christ as the Bridegroom, is the increase, the enlargement, of Christ. (Hence, the bride as the increase of Christ is also Christ Himself as 1 Corinthians 12:12 says that the Body of Christ is also Christ.) Christ gives the Spirit not by measure and, as the immeasurable One, gives eternal life (the unlimited life) to His believers (John 3:29-30, 34, 36).…Christ increases by regenerating the redeemed sinners, making them His bride, His wife. This bride is Christ’s increase. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” p. 381)

　　Adam and Eve are a type of Christ with His increase…. Eve was Adam’s increase, and through his wife Adam has billions of descendants, who are also his increase…. Not only the wife but also all the children are the increase of the husband.

　　In order for Christ to increase, we need to contact people individually to get them regenerated. We should not take the way of big speakers gathering big congregations in order to gain people. We have to contact people individually, one by one. Then gradually and steadily with the proper care, we as their parents should feed, nourish, and cherish them day by day through the vital groups. In this way Christ will increase continually. Each of us must be in a small group to produce new spiritual children.

　　John the Baptist said that he should decrease and that Christ should increase. We should all desire to see Christ increasing and ourselves decreasing. For this we need to speak the Lord’s word. The real intrinsic significance of speaking the word of God is to spread God. When we speak the holy Word, the truth, the divine revelation, we spread God. Christ speaks God through us, His members, by defining God, explaining God, and eventually expressing God. To express God is to spread God. Christ is the One who speaks the words of God and who gives the Spirit not by measure (John 3:34). When someone receives His words, the Spirit follows to be the reality of what is spoken. Christ increases Himself by speaking God’s word to spread God and by giving the Spirit of God to be the reality of what He spoke in order to dispense the eternal life into people, making them Godkind, the children of God, the species of God, the family of God, to be Christ’s increase. This is how Christ becomes the increasing Christ. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” pp. 381-382)

　　As the Apostle, God’s sent One and Ambassador, Christ speaks the word of God. The word Christ speaks is the rhema, the word that is spirit and life. Many of us can testify that when we handle the Word of God properly by exercising our spirit, the word that comes into us becomes spirit, and when it becomes spirit, it also becomes life. When the word is spoken, it is still the word. But after it comes into us, the word becomes spirit and life. Then as we speak out [that] word,… it once again becomes the word. After such a word enters into someone else, it again becomes spirit and life. In this way God, who is Himself Spirit and life, is spoken into us. By this means God’s essence is spoken into our being.

　　The word of the Lord Jesus is actually the essence of God. Therefore, when this word enters our being, God’s essence comes into our being. This essence is the Spirit. If we receive the word [rhema] and are filled with the Spirit, we will enjoy eternal life. The result is that we become the bride, the universal increase of the unlimited Christ. (CWWL, 1982, vol. 2, “The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John,” pp. 157, 163)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” msg. 5; Life-study of John, msgs. 8-10