* The organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ

1. Second Samuel 7:12-14a is the unveiling of a prophecy through typology showing us that we need God to build Christ into our intrinsic constitution so that our entire being will be reconstituted with Christ—2 Sam. 7:12-14 footnote; Matt. 16:18:
1. God’s eternal economy according to His heart’s desire is to build Himself into man and to build man into Him; this mutual abode is the reality of the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem—Eph. 3:16-17a; John 15:4-5a; 1 John 2:27; Rev. 21:3.
2. God’s intention in His economy is to build Himself in Christ into our being—2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Eph. 3:17a; John 14:20; Gal. 4:19:
1. God desires to work Himself in Christ into us; everything that Christ is and everything that Christ has accomplished are for this one thing—Phil. 2:13; Col. 3:10-11.
2. We need God to build Himself in Christ into our humanity, working Himself in Christ into us as our life, our nature, and our person—Eph 3:17a.

* Through the process of spiritual metabolism

2. The building of the Body of Christ is through a spiritual metabolic transformation process, which is illustrated by the parable of the sower in Matthew 13

Ephesians 3:16-21 reveals that the Triune God has come into us to do a building work with Himself as the element and also with something from us as the material; this is illustrated by the parable of the sower in Matthew 13—Matt. 13:3-23:

1. The Lord sows Himself as the seed of life into men’s hearts, the soil, so that He might grow and live in them and be expressed from within them.
2. The seed is sown into the soil to grow with the nutrients of the soil; as a result, the produce is a composition of elements from both the seed and the soil—Matt. 13:23.
3. We have within us certain nutrients created by God as a preparation for His coming into us to grow in us; God has created the human spirit with the human nutrients along with the human heart as the soil for the growth of the divine seed within us—1 John 3:9; 1 Pet. 1:23; Col. 2:19:
1. The rate at which we grow in life depends not on the divine seed but on how many nutrients we afford this seed; the more nutrients we supply, the faster the seed will grow and the more it will flourish—Psa. 78:8; Matt. 5:3, 8:
1. If we remain in our soul, in our natural man, there will not be any nutrients for the growth of the divine seed; but if we are strengthened into our inner man and if we pay attention to our spirit and exercise our spirit, the nutrients will be supplied and Christ will make His home in our heart—Eph. 3:16-17; Rom. 8:6; 1 Tim. 4:7.
2. If we are going to have the Lord as the seed of life grow within us to be our full enjoyment, we have to open to the Lord absolutely and cooperate with Him to deal thoroughly with our heart—Matt. 13:3-9, 19-23.
1. On the one hand, God strengthens us with Himself as the element, and on the other hand, we afford the nutrients; through these two God in Christ carries out His intrinsic building—the building of His home—in our entire being.
4. According to the Bible, growth equals building; the Lord Jesus declared, “I will build My church”; this building takes place by the growth of the divine seed within us—Matt. 16:18; Col. 2:19; Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Cor. 3:1, 6-9, 12; 16:13.
5. For growth is a metabolic transformation, and this transformation is the building—2 Cor. 3:18; John 6:51, 57, 7:37-39, 20:22:

God’s economy is to work Himself into us so that we may experience a metabolic process of spiritual digestion and assimilation that produces transformation as a gradual and intrinsic metabolic change in our natural life:

• In order for God’s building to take place, we need to receive, digest, and assimilate the organic, pneumatic Christ, who is the life-giving Spirit, as our spiritual food, drink, and breath—John 6:51, 57; 7:37-39; 20:22.
• When we enjoy Christ by eating, drinking, and breathing Him, a metabolic process, a spiritual digestion and metabolism, takes place within us, and Christ is constituted into our being; this inner metabolism is transformation, and transformation is the building—Rom. 12:2; Phil. 1:20-21.
• Hence the Body of Christ is the organic building up through the process of spiritual metabolism—2 Sam. 7:12-14a:

The organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ through the process of spiritual metabolism is actually what Jehovah prophesied to David in the way of typology in 2 Samuel 7:12-14a.

Hymns: 837, 1134

Message 9: The Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ through the Process of Spiritual Metabolism according to the Believers’ Inner Experience of the Indwelling Christ

2021 DST 9e

The parable of the growing of the seed

The organic building up

* According to the believers’ inner experience of the indwelling Christ

3. We should pray the prayer in Ephesians 3:16-21, that we may have the inner experience of the indwelling Christ

In Ephesians 3:16-21 Paul prayed concerning the believers’ inner experience of the indwelling Christ for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ—Eph. 3.16-21, 4:12, 16, 2:21-22:

1. Paul prayed to the Father that we would be strengthened through His Spirit into the inner man with the result that Christ could make His home in our heart and thereby occupy, possess, permeate, and saturate our whole inner being with Himself—Eph. 3:16-17a.
2. The Triune God may be likened to a big machine, of which Paul was the operator; we have to learn one lesson, that is, that there is a high principle in the entire universe; this principle is that God wants to do something, but He will only be the “machine,” and He needs someone to be the operator. When we pray this prayer as the operator, the Father works through His Spirit as a channel to strengthen every part of our inner being into the inner man so that the goal, the aim, the Son, might make His home within all the parts of our heart.
3. To say that we need to be strengthened with power into the inner man indicates that we are not in the inner man, that we live mostly in the outer man—Eph. 3:16.
4. Christ has the desire to occupy every room of our heart—Eph. 3:17:
1. The phrase make His home basically means to settle down in a dwelling, to make a dwelling place.
2. As He makes His home in our hearts, we will be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints the immeasurable Christ, whose dimensions are the dimensions of the universe:
1. Our experience of Christ in the church must be three-dimensional, like a cube (the breadth, length, height, and depth), and must not be one-dimensional, like a line.
2. Both in the tabernacle and the temple, the Holy of Holies was a cube.
3. Eventually, the New Jerusalem, God’s building, will be an eternal cube, the Holy of Holies, twelve thousand stadia in three dimensions.
5. God’s glory will be expressed in the church when Christ spreads Himself into our entire being—Eph. 3:16-21:

Christ builds the church by building Himself into us, that is, by entering into our spirit and spreading Himself from our spirit into our mind, emotion, and will to occupy our entire being:

• Since our heart is the totality of our inward parts, the center of our inward being, and our representative with regard to our inclination, affection, delight, and desire, when Christ makes His home in our heart, He controls our entire inward being and supplies and strengthens every inward part with Himself.
• The more Christ spreads within us, the more He settles down in us and makes His home in us, occupying every part of our inner being, possessing all these parts, and saturating them with Himself.
• In order for Christ’s word in Matthew 16:18 concerning the building up of the church to be fulfilled, the church must enter into a state where many saints will allow Christ to make His home deep in their heart, possessing, occupying, and saturating their entire inner being.
• The more Christ occupies our inner being, the more we will be able to be built up with others in the Body—Eph. 2:21-22; 4:12, 16.
• Ephesians 3:17 speaks of being rooted and grounded in love; our being rooted indicates that we are plants that need to grow, and our being grounded means that we need to be built up.
• We are eventually full of strength to apprehend the universal dimensions of Christ—the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth, but “with all the saints,” that is, corporately and jointly; this reveals that we need to be built together.
• When Christ makes His home in our hearts, we will be filled unto all the fullness of God; this fullness is the church, the Body of Christ, as the corporate expression of the Triune God—Eph. 3: 19.
• God's glory is wrought into the church, and is expressed through the church; hence, God is glorified in the church.
• Ephesians 3:16-21 shows Paul’s spirit, attitude, prayer, and faith:
• By revelation the mystery of Christ was made known to Paul (vv. 3-6); he was obsessed with this vision, and it became his spirit and attitude; therefore, he had such a prayer (in the sphere and element of faith) recorded in Ephesians 3:16-21; if we have seen the vision of how Christ builds up the church as the Body of Christ through the inner experience of the indwelling Christ, we will have Paul's spirit, attitude, prayer, and faith when we serve God in the church.

Message 9 (Cont.)

2021 DST 9e

The burden

* The organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ

1. Second Samuel 7:12-14a is the unveiling of a prophecy through typology showing us that we need God to build Christ into our intrinsic constitution so that our entire being will be reconstituted with Christ

[2 Sam. 7:12-14] … I will raise up your seed after you … I will be his Father, and he will be My son…

• God’s eternal economy according to His heart’s desire is to build Himself into man and to build man into Him; this mutual abode is the reality of the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem. [1 John 4:13] In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit.
• God’s intention in His economy is to build Himself in Christ into our being. [Col. 3:11] …but Christ is all and in all.

[Eph. 1:10] Unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him.

* Through the process of spiritual metabolism

2. The building of the Body of Christ is through a spiritual metabolic transformation process, which is illustrated by the parable of the sower in Matthew 13

[Matt. 13:3] … Behold, the sower went out to sow

[Matt. 13:23] But the one sown on the good earth, this is he who hears the word and understands, who by all means bears fruit and produces…

• The Lord sows Himself as the seed of life into men’s hearts, the soil, so that He might grow and live in them and be expressed from within them.
• The seed is sown into the soil to grow with the nutrients of the soil.
• God has created the human spirit with the human nutrients along with the human heart as the soil for the growth of the divine seed within us.
• According to the Bible, growth equals building; the Lord Jesus declared, “I will build My church”; this building takes place by the growth of the divine seed within us; for growth is a metabolic transformation, and this transformation is the building.
• Hence the Body of Christ is the organic building up through the process of spiritual metabolism. [Matt. 16:18] … and upon this rock I will build My church…

[2 Cor. 3:18] But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit. [Eph. 4:16] Out from whom … causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.

* According to the believers’ inner experience of the indwelling Christ

3. We should pray the prayer in Ephesians 3:16-21, that we may have the inner experience of the indwelling Christ

[Eph. 3:16-21] That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, May be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are And to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God. But to Him who is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power which operates in us, To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all the generations forever and ever. Amen.

• Paul prayed to the Father that we would be strengthened through His Spirit into the inner man with the result that Christ could make His home in our heart. / We have to learn one lesson, that is, that there is a high principle in the entire universe; this principle is that God wants to do something, but He will only be the “machine,” and He needs someone to be the operator.
• We need to be strengthened with power into the inner man. / Christ has the desire to occupy every room of our heart.
• God’s glory will be expressed in the church when Christ spreads Himself into our entire being.
• When Christ makes His home in our heart, He controls our entire inward being. / The more Christ occupies our inner being, the more we will be able to be built up with others in the Body. / Being rooted indicates that we are plants that need to grow, and our being grounded means that we need to be built up. / When Christ makes His home in our hearts, we will be filled unto all the fullness of God; this fullness is the church, the Body of Christ, as the corporate expression of the Triune God. /
• God's glory is wrought into the church, and is expressed through the church; hence, God is glorified in the church.
• By revelation the mystery of Christ was made known to Paul (Eph. 3:3-6); he was obsessed with this vision, and it became his spirit and attitude; therefore, he had such a prayer (in the sphere and element of faith) recorded in Ephesians 3:16-21; if we have seen the vision of how Christ builds up the church as the Body of Christ through the inner experience of the indwelling Christ, we will have Paul's spirit, attitude, prayer, and faith when we serve God in the church.

Bird’s-eye View for Prophesying, a Sample

Message 9: The Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ through the Process of Spiritual Metabolism according to the Believers’ Inner Experience of the Indwelling Christ

2021 DST 9e Musing Abstract

Message 9: Appendix

Concerning the building up of the church, we do not trust in outward organization; rather, we pay our full attention to the inward transformation, that is, to the inner constituting by the spiritual metabolism. In different kinds of meetings, we

endeavor to minister Christ into the saints as their spiritual food and drink. The more we receive Christ in this way, the more we will experience the inner, spiritual metabolism. This metabolism is transformation, and transformation is the building.

Just as every member of our physical body is organic, so every member of the Body of Christ is organic. The church is a group of transformed people who have grown into one organism, the organic Body of Christ. The way to be built up as this organism is to grow, and the way to grow is to eat, drink, and breathe Christ. No matter what our race or nationality may be, we are all undergoing the same metabolic process that day by day produces transformation, which equals building. This is the spiritual growth and also the spiritual building.

<Excerpts from “Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel”, Message 26,

“God’s Building Himself in Christ into Our Being Through the Metabolic Process of Transformation”>

​

If you read Ephesians 3 and 4 again, kneeling before the Lord and praying, the Lord will give you a vision of these things. This is the way for the church to be built up and the way for each of us as members to be built up in the Body. It is not by knowledge

or gifts. The more knowledge we have, the more divisions we will have, and the more gifts we have, the more fighting we will have. Rather, it is by the inner life, the inner experience of the indwelling Christ, that we are built up. We must pray, “O Father,

strengthen us into the inner man, that Your Son, Christ, may make His home in our heart, to take over and possess our whole being, that we may grow in Him and receive something from Him. Then by what we receive of the Head we will be able to minister to all the members of the Body, and we will be joined and knit together for the building up of the Body.” It is in this way that we will have the reality of the Body.

<Excerpts from “The Vision, Practice and Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ”, Chapter 5,

“The Building up of the Church through the inner Experience of the indwelling Christ”>

2021 DST 9e