Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:22-23; 2:10, 15; 4:20-24; Phil. 1:8, 19-21a; 4:11-13; John 16:13
Ⅰ
The reality of the Body of Christ is "the reality…in Jesus" (Eph. 4:21), the actual condition of the life of Jesus, as recorded in the four Gospels, duplicated in His many members as the corporate living of the perfected God-men—John 14:6a; Eph. 4:20-24; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:8, 19-21a; 2:19-30:
A
Jesus lived a life in which He did everything in God, with God, and for God; God was in His living, and He was one with God—this is the reality in Jesus:
１
The Lord Jesus did not do anything out of Himself (John 5:19), He did not do His own work (4:34; 17:4), He did not speak His own word (14:10, 24), He did everything not by His own will (5:30), and He did not seek His own glory (7:18); He was never disappointed because He was satisfied only with God (Isa. 42:4; 50:4-5; 53:2a; cf. John 4:13-14; 6:15; Mark 9:7-8).
２
The Lord Jesus was a man of prayer, being one with God, living in the presence of God without ceasing, trusting in God and not in Himself under any kind of suffering and persecution, and being One in whom Satan, the ruler of the world, had nothing (no ground, no hope, no chance, no possibility in anything)—John 10:30; 8:29; 14:30b; 16:32-33; 1 Pet. 2:23:
ａ
He was a man in the flesh praying to the mysterious God in the divine and mystical realm; He often went to the mountain or withdrew to a private place to pray—Matt. 14:23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:28.
ｂ
He was never alone, for the Father was with Him; every moment He saw His Father's face—John 5:19; 16:32; Psa. 16:7-8.
B
The Lord Jesus came to serve us with Himself as life; He served us in the past, serves us in the present, and will serve us in the future—Mark 10:45; Luke 22:26-27; Mark 6:45-51; John 10:10; 6:48; 8:12; 13:4-8; 18:7-9; Luke 12:37.
C
The only life that is a delight to God is the life that is a repetition of the life Christ lived on earth; we are being perfected by the Lord to be God-men, living the divine life by denying our natural life according to the model of Christ as the first God-man—Matt. 11:29a; 17:5b; 1 Pet. 2:21.
D
The living of the Body of Christ as the new man should be exactly the same as the living of Jesus; the way Jesus lived on earth is the way the Body of Christ as the new man should live today—Eph. 1:22-23; 2:10, 15; 4:20-24.
E
We need to become a corporate model, the reality of the Body, a people who live the life of a God-man; such a model will be the greatest revival in the history of the church to bring the Lord back—Matt. 16:18; Rev. 19:7-8.
Ⅱ
The reality of the Body of Christ, as the highest peak in God's economy, is the Spirit of reality—Eph. 4:4a; John 14:17; 16:13; 1 John 5:6:
A
This Spirit of reality makes everything of the processed Triune God a reality in the Body of Christ; the Spirit of reality in us guides us into the reality of the life of the Body of Christ, the reality of living a God-man life by the divine life— John 16:13-15; Phil. 1:19; cf. Exo. 30:22-25.
B
The All-sufficient God (Gen. 17:1; Phil. 1:19), as the Spirit of reality dwelling in our spirit to be joined as one mingled spirit (Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17), is the secret to all that the processed Triune God is to the Body of Christ; in order to live in the reality of the Body of Christ, we must know, we must use, and we must exercise our spirit (Eph. 1:17; 2:22; 3:5, 16; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18).
Ⅲ
We must learn to take Christ as our secret of sufficiency, as our every-thing, enjoying Him as the unsearchably rich Spirit of reality, the reality of the Body of Christ—Phil. 4:11-13; 1:19:
A
We only have today; we do not have tomorrow; to rest in the Lord today and leave tomorrow with Him is to set our mind on the spirit (Rom. 8:6); our pneu-matic Christ is the "I Am," the "now" Christ, the "today" Christ, the present presence of God, to meet our present need (Heb. 3:7, 13, 15; John 8:58; Exo. 33:11, 14).
B
As members of the Body, which is "resurrectionly," we must look to the Lord for His mercy in the Body, through the Body, and for the Body by the supply of the Body to be like the resurrection-enjoying Lazarus, who became a silent testimony of the Lord's power, a proof of the Lord's love, and a manifestation of the Lord's grace—Gen. 2:22; Rom. 9:16; John 12:1-3, 9-11; cf. Eccl. 9:4:
１
We may have been dead, stinking, cold, and far away from the Lord, but we are still here; while we are sitting here, though we may not be doing any-thing or saying anything, we are reminders and a living testimony that the Lord Jesus has resurrected us; by this alone, God gains the glory—John 11:38-45; 12:9-11.
２
Resurrection means that everything is of God and not of us, that God alone is able and we are not able, and that everything is done by God and not by ourselves; whatever is impossible for us to do belongs in the realm of resur-rection—2 Cor. 1:8-9; Jer. 29:11; Col. 1:27; cf. Eph. 2:1-6, 12-13.
３
Resurrection means that we cannot do anything by ourselves, but that we can do it only in God and through God; resurrection means that we cannot make it and that God is the One who is everything to us and who does everything in us, through us, and for us—1 Pet. 1:13; Prov. 13:12; Jer. 17:7-8; cf. 2:13; Isa. 57:20.
C
We must learn to daily contact the Lord in our spirit in order to enjoy Him as the "heavenly butter," typifying the richest grace, and to enjoy Him as the "heavenly honey," typifying the sweetest love, so that He may supply us with Himself as the resurrection power for us to choose the perfect will of God, saying "yes" to God and "no" to Satan—7:14-15; Deut. 32:11-14; Exo. 3:8; 1 Pet. 2:2; Psa. 119:103; cf. 1 Tim. 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Acts 6:15:
１
We must take and enjoy Christ as our continual burnt offering to be our absoluteness and to be reduced to ashes so that He is the only One, the unique One, in everything, and we are nothing in everything—Lev. 1:16; 6:10-13; Heb. 11:5-6.
２
Instead of dwelling on our excellent past (Job 29) and sighing over our miserable present (ch. 30), we must maintain our joy in the transforming Spirit, exercising our spirit to thank and praise the Lord—Rom. 14:16-17; Heb. 13:15; Psa. 100:4; 119:164; 116:12-13.
３
"I maintain my joy, so please do not worry. I hope you will also take care of yourself and be filled with joy in your heart" (from a letter written in prison by Watchman Nee to his sister-in-law on April 22, 1972).
４
We must contact the Lord as the compassionate One to be renewed every morning, saying, "Lord Jesus, I love You"; then we can talk to Him and eat Him by eating His words to enjoy Him, live Him, and be what He is— Lam. 3:22-24, 55-56; Rev. 2:4; 7; John 6:57, 63; Jer. 15:16; Eph. 6:17-18.
D
We must humble ourselves before God to be saved from the way of Laodicea, the way of lukewarmness and spiritual pride, forsaking the way of life and neglecting reality—Rev. 3:15, 17, 19-20; Matt. 5:3; Isa. 66:1-2; Luke 10:38-42:
１
Laodicea means to know everything but in reality to be fervent about noth-ing; in name it has everything, but it cannot sacrifice its life for anything; we must ask the Lord to save us from being wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—Rev. 3:14-17; cf. Rom. 13:11-14.
２
We must pay the price every day to buy the gold of the Father in His divine nature so that we may be rich toward God, white garments so that we may be clothed with Christ by living out Christ, and eyesalve as the anointing Spirit to heal our blindness—Rev. 3:18.
３
May the Lord be merciful to us and cause us to live Him in humbling our-selves to love all the brothers, to keep His word, and to not deny His name, taking the way of Philadelphia to satisfy His unique purpose to make us His duplication for His glory and His kingdom—vv. 7-13.