THE BODY NEEDING TO GROW UNTIL IT ARRIVES AT THE PROPER MEASURE OF ITS STATURE
I repeat, the fullness is the Body of Christ. A body has a stature, and a stature has its measure; this body needs to grow. It is quite possible that as we are meeting here at this time, Christ is being experienced from within us, and this Christ experienced from within is the Body of Christ. However, please listen; the measure of the stature of the Body here is still not very large, so the Body needs to grow. Ephesians 4:13 says, “Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” The church in Taipei is the Body of Christ, but has this Body grown and arrived at the measure of the stature? This is still a question. Thus, we still must grow. Thank the Lord that today in all the local churches in the Lord’s recovery, there is a small amount of the fullness of Christ, but the measure of the stature of the fullness is still in question, so there is the need for growth. Furthermore, this growth is not a matter of the increase in knowledge or doctrine; it is a matter of the daily increase in the experience and enjoyment of Christ. If, as the churches in all the localities, you enjoy more of Christ, experience more of Christ, have more Christ constituted into you, and have more Christ experienced from within you day by day, you will cause the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ to increase in all the localities. This is not something that can happen in a year or so; rather, it is a matter of growing continually until we arrive at the measure of the stature which the fullness of Christ should have.
THE WAY TO GROW BEING BY ENJOYING THE PNEUMATIC LORD
How can we grow? There is only one way for you to grow, and there is only one way for the local churches to grow, and that is by enjoying the Lord. Brothers and sisters, we must clearly see that the Lord we enjoy today is not biblical knowledge or doctrine, nor is He a religious form or ordinance; He is none of these. The Lord whom we enjoy today is the Triune God, who was incarnated and who passed through death, resurrection, and ascension to become the all-inclusive, omnipresent Spirit. The Lord whom we experience is just this Spirit.
Looking at Matthew 3, Christianity says that the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit are three separate Persons: the Holy Father is an old man, the Holy Son is a younger man, and the Holy Spirit is a dove. This is the shallow view of many. They are constricted to Matthew 3 on this matter and do not have the knowledge of the entire Bible, which has many more chapters than simply Matthew 3. For example in John 14, Philip said to the Lord, “Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us” (v. 8). The Lord Jesus then said, “Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how is it that you say, Show us the Father?” (v. 9). Then in verses 16 through 20, the Lord said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever….I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you….In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” Furthermore, 1 Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit,” and 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” Eventually, in Revelation, the last book of the Bible, there are seven epistles written to seven churches. At the beginning of each epistle is a description of the Lord Jesus as the One who speaks to the churches, but at the end of each these epistles it says that it is the Spirit who speaks to the churches. This proves that the Lord Jesus who speaks at the beginning of the epistles is the Spirit who speaks at the end. These passages in the New Testament reveal to us that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one God.
Our God is the unique God; this God became flesh, died on the cross for the redemption of our sins, and resurrected with His humanity completely uplifted and mingled with His divinity. Today He is an all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. We must clearly see that today He is such a Spirit. We should constantly open ourselves to Him as such a Spirit through His precious blood. From our experience we know that when we open our spirit to Him, we can touch Him. This is to contact the Spirit by our spirit, fellowship with the Spirit by our spirit, and respond to the Spirit by our spirit. This is what is referred to in 1 Corinthians 6:17: “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” This is truly glorious! Every day by the precious blood we can open our spirit to contact the Lord as the Spirit. In such a contact we breathe Him in, eat Him, drink Him, and enjoy Him so that in our daily life He can saturate every part of our being—our emotion, our mind and thoughts, and our will. When this happens, we do not live by ourselves, but we live by the Lord who has saturated our entire being. What is this? This is Christ experienced out of us, and this Christ who is experienced out of us is the Body, which is the fullness.
(One Body, One Spirit, and One New Man, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)
