Scripture Reading: Matt. 16:18; 18:19-20; Eph. 1:16-18; 3:14-17a; 4:16; Col. 1:9; 2:19; 4:12
Ⅰ
The Lord's recovery is to build up Zion—the reality of the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem—Eph. 4:16; Rev. 14:1; 21:2:
A
The highest peak of God's economy is the reality of the Body of Christ:
１
The issue of God becoming man and man becoming God is an organism— the Body of Christ—which is the issue of the mingling of God with man— Eph. 1:22-23.
２
Christ, the first God-man, was enlarged in His resurrection to be the first-born Son with the many sons; this enlargement is an organism—the Body of Christ—Rom. 1:3-4; 8:14, 29; 12:4-5.
３
The highest peak of the Lord's recovery that can carry out God's economy is for God to produce an organic Body to be His organism—Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16.
B
The reality of the Body of Christ is the union and mingling of God with man to live out a corporate God-man—vv. 4-6, 16, 21, 23-24:
１
The reality of the Body of Christ is the living of a God-man life by a group of God-redeemed people together with the God-man Christ—Phil. 1:19-21a:
ａ
In His resurrection the Lord Jesus produced many brothers who, with Him as the eldest Brother, become a great, corporate God-man; this universal man is God yet man and man yet God—Rom. 8:29; Eph. 2:15.
ｂ
After regenerating us, the life-giving Spirit dwells in us and is mingled with our spirit to live a God-man life with us—1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17.
ｃ
This kind of life issues in a universal man who is exactly the same as the Lord Jesus—a man living a God-man life by the divine life—Eph. 4:21, 24; 1 John 2:6; 3:1-2; 4:17.
２
The reality of the Body of Christ is a living by the God-men, who are united, joined, and constituted together with God by the mingling of humanity with divinity and divinity with humanity—John 14:20; 15:4; Eph. 4:4-6, 16, 24; Phil. 1:21a.
３
The reality of the Body of Christ is the corporate living by the perfected God-men, who are not living by their life but by the life of the processed God, whose attributes are expressed through their virtues—Gal. 2:20.
４
The reality of the Body of Christ is a corporate living of the conformity to the death of Christ through the power of the resurrection of Christ—Phil. 3:10; 1 Cor. 12:12-13; 2 Cor. 4:10-12; Rom. 8:13-14; 12:4-5.
５
This mingling living will close this age and bring Christ back to rule over the earth with the overcomers in the kingdom age—Rev. 11:15.
Ⅱ
In the church life we need to endeavor to reach the highest peak—today's Zion, the reality of the Body of Christ—1 Cor. 1:2; 12:13, 27; Eph. 1:22-23:
A
"There is no other way to reach this high peak except by praying" (The Prac-tical Points concerning Blending, p. 46).
B
"We surely need to be desperate to pray at any cost" (p. 46).
Ⅲ
In order to reach the high peak of Zion, we need to know the significance of prayer for the carrying out of God's economy—1 Tim. 1:4; 2:8:
A
Prayer is the mutual contact between man and God—1 John 5:14-15.
B
Prayer is man breathing God, obtaining God, and being obtained by God; real prayer is an exhaling and inhaling before God, causing us and God to contact each other and to gain each other—1 Thes. 5:17.
C
The more we pray, the more we are filled with the Triune God—Eph. 3:14-19.
D
The real significance of prayer is to contact God in our spirit and to absorb God Himself—6:18; Jude 20.
E
Prayer is man cooperating and co-working with God, allowing God to express Himself through man and thus accomplish His purpose—James 5:17.
F
A praying person cooperates with God, works together with God, and allows God to express Himself and His desire from within him and through him— Rom. 8:26-27; James 5:17; Eph. 1:16-23; 3:14-21.
G
The kind of prayer we have depends on the kind of person we are; our prayers reveal who we are, what we are, and where we are—Luke 9:54-55; 1 Tim. 2:8.
H
The governing principle of our prayer should be that prayer brings us into God—Luke 11:1-13.
I
A life of genuine prayer stops our natural being; such a prayer life revolts and rebels against our natural being—Matt. 16:24; Luke 21:36.
J
Prayer is the real denial of the self; to pray is to deny ourselves, realizing that we are nothing and that we are not able to do anything—Mark 8:34; 9:29.
K
Genuine prayer causes us to be mingled with God—Jude 20; Eph. 6:18.
L
We need to pray in the spirit with the prayer of Christ; there must be a prayer in our prayer like the wheel within the wheel in Ezekiel 1:16—James 5:17.
M
Genuine prayer is not merely spiritual but also divine, for the Triune God is praying in us, and we are praying in the Triune God—Rom. 8:26-27; Jude 20.
N
To pray without ceasing by calling on the Lord's name is to live Christ— 1 Thes. 5:17; Rom. 10:12-13; Phil. 1:21a.
O
The way to experience the indwelling Christ and to be constituted with Christ is to pray in a genuine way—Col. 1:3, 9, 27; 4:2-3, 12.
P
When we pray, Christ, the Head, has a way to carry out His administration through His Body—1:18; 2:19; 3:1-2; 4:2; Heb. 2:17; 4:14; 7:26; 8:1-2; Rev. 5:6.
Q
In genuine prayer we touch the reality of the one new man—Col. 1:9; 3:10-11.
R
The organic practice of the God-ordained way in the vital groups to build up the church can be carried out only by thorough prayer—Matt. 16:18; 18:19-20.
S
To be blended together in the vital groups into one accord to become a cor-porate meal offering, we need to exercise our spirit by much and thorough prayer—1 Cor. 12:24; 10:17; Lev. 2:1-13; Acts 1:14; 2:42.