THE RECOVERY OF THE REALITY
OF THE BODY OF CHRIST
Messages concerning the Body of Christ
About 1930, Brother T. Austin-Sparks went on further to see the Body. From that time on, he continued to speak on the Body. He released over five or six hundred pages of messages on this subject. Yet what he released was but teachings only; the reality had not yet appeared.
The Body Life
The Lord’s church is one Body because it has only one life. This Body comes out of one life. This life is the life of the Lord, which is the life of the Son of God. Since the Body comes out of one life, there is the need for coordination. We are not merely individuals, but we are parts of a whole. We are like the parts of a car; only when we come together can there be the whole car. We all come from one life. We need to realize today that the life we received is a Body life. What we have received individually is a "partial" life. Hence, we do not receive personal edification first and then become coordinated afterwards. Rather, in and by coordination we grow up to receive everything. If we see this fact, all those who will be saved after us will immediately see the reality of this fact and enter into it. As soon as they are saved, they will become persons who voluntarily hand themselves over to the Body.
The Proper Body Life Not Yet Realized
The gospel is not prevailing today because the proper church is not yet manifested. In a proper church, as soon as a person is saved, he hands himself over to the church and sees the Body. Today, men do not have a proper consecration after they are saved. As a result, we have to go back and help them to make up their consecration. There is no proper church today. Hence, there is no place where you can show a saved person the normal condition of the church. The hindrance today is with us; we have not provided others with the necessary make-up lessons. If enough brothers and sisters would take the ground of God’s absolute salvation and consecrate themselves fully to the Lord right after they are saved, and they would hand themselves over fully, the church will find the power and the authority to testify for the Lord and will bring others to the proper stand from the first day on.
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE RECOVERY TODAY
BEING ON OUR SHOULDERS
Today, the responsibility of the recovery is on our shoulders. All the questions related to the recovery have to do with us. God’s work in the world, and in China in particular, depends entirely on us. The responsibility has fallen on us. We have to see that in the Body there is only one life. If we see this, we will see the need for coordination. The problem that exists among the brothers and sisters reflects the problem that exists with us. If we are not the right kind of persons, we will not be able to preach the right kind of gospel. The gospel not only delivers men from sin, the world, and the self; it also delivers men from individualism, from money, and from everything else, into the Body.
The Last Recovery—
the Coordination in the Body
and the Manifestation of Authority
With each step that the Lord has taken in His recovery, the content of His recovery has become richer and richer. Today, it seems as if there is nothing more to be recovered. The recovery today has reached the stage of the Body. Perhaps this will be the last recovery. There may be other items of recovery, but as far as we know, when we reach the recovery of the coordination of the Body and the manifestation of authority, we have reached the final recovery.
(Messages Given During the Resumption of Watchman Nee's Ministry (2 volume set), Chapter 43, by Watchman Nee/Witness Lee)
