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the Body of Christ is the central focus of the whole Bible. God's economy is concerning God's eternal plan to dispense Himself into His chosen people to be their life, to be their everything, so that God can be one with them, and they can be one with God, for His expression in this unverse. God desires to carry out His economy by coming to become a man in the flesh, living a human life for 33 and half years. then He wento to cross to be crucified and resurrected, and He became the life-giving Spirit, in order to enter into His believers, God's chosen people, beginning to make them God in life and nature, but not in the Godhead. the result of all these is an organism, a divine and human constitution, which we call the Body of Christ. God became a man through incarnation, and became the life-giving Spirit through death and resurrection. the highest peak in the divine truth is the Body of Christ. 

what does "organic" mean? "organic" means something of life, and something in life. it does not really mean that we are flexible, not rigid. organic means to be full of life. this life is not the human life, but the eternal, divine, uncreated life of God. the Body of Christ is absolutely organic in this divine eternal life. 

the apostle Paul was given the ministry to complete the word of God, which was called the completing ministry of Paul. in his completing ministry, his focus was not on the salvation, not about being spiritual, but to reveal to God's children the matter of the Body of Christ. the Body is the ultimate item of God's continual working, so the Body is the top point of God's entire revelation. 

Ephesians 2:15 Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace,

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her

Christ's redemptive work on the cross did not just stop at redeeming us, but He created the one new man. so the ultimate item of His redemptive work is to produce the church, which is His Body. at the end of the Bible, we see the final issue of God's redeeming and building work, is the New Jerusalem. 

God's move in and among His people in the past two thousand years after the age of the early apostles, recovered several items in the divine truth, e.g. justification by faith, the inner life, etc. particularly starting from J.N.Darby, God began to recover the matter of the church as the Body of Christ. this surely is the vital matter which needs to be fully recovered. the reality of the life of the Body of Christ must be the top point, not only in revelation, but also in our practice, in our seeing, in our knowing, and in our practice this must be the foremost in our Christian life and church life today. 

Romans 12: 5 So we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Romans 12 speaks of the Body from the angle of the organic union. the two words "in Christ" indicate the organic union, needed for the constitution and living out of the Body of Christ. we are one Body, not because we sign some documents to enroll a certain organization, but we are one Body in Christ, having an organi union with Christ; this union makes us one in life with Him and with all the other members of His Body; when we remain in this organic union, we are actually living in the Body of Christ. one best illustration is the grafting of two trees. one tree got cut and grafted into the other tree, with the life of the other tree flowing into the grafted tree. in John chapter 15, the Lord used the example of vine and its branches. the Lord is the true vine and we are all the branches of this true vine. as the branches of the vine, we must abide in Christ, which means to remain in our organic union with Christ.  since the matter of this organic union is a matter of life, if we are not enjoying this life, if we are not connected receiving the dispensing and transmission of this life, in practical, we are not the Body of Christ. so we must know what this eternal life is, and we must abide in and enjoy this eternal life continually. when we, all the branches, abide in the vine, when the life of the vine flows into all the branches, and flows among each other, the reality of the vine with all the branches can be realised only in this way. this requires us to constantly abide in Him and remain in Him. 

the Body does not just come out in the full statute. the Body needs to be built up. this matter was neglected in the history until the Lord raised up J.N. Darby and the brothers later to begin to recover the building up of the Body. now today, who will care for the Body? who will build up the Body? 

the blueprint of the building up of the Body:

1. the element of this building up must be uniquely Christ Himself. this building cannot be built up with anything of man. 

2. this building must be on the proper ground, the ground of oneness. this building must be practically today on the earth, on the ground of oneness in localities.

3. this bulding must be carried out through coordination. 

we need to see how important this matter of the Body is, and how there is the great need for us to build up the Body according to the blueprint. 

the church takes the Body of Christ as its organic factor; without the Body of Christ, the church is lifeless and is a mere human organization. the Body is the intrinsic significance of the church; without the Body, the church makes no sense and has no meaning. 

1 Corinthians 8: 1 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

1 Corinthians 13:13 Now there abide faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

love covers and builds up, so love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and to do anything for the building up of the Body of Christ. if we only give some doctrines or knowledge without love, we will not be able to build up the Body. this love is not our human love, but the love from God as the source of our love. if we do not have this love, we will never build up the Body of Christ. we need to practice this love among the members. 

Ephesians 3:16 That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man,

Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

love is the expression of this life. how do we experience and enjoy this life? it is by experiencing this indwelling Christ within us. we need to pray that the Father will stregthen us into our inner man that Christ may make His home in our hearts. if we would have the reality of the Body of Christ, we must allow Christ to make His home in our hearts; the reality of the Body is the inner experience of the indwelling Christ. 

Revelation 19: 7 Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.

the Lord urgently needs the reaity of the Body of Christ to be expressed in the local churches; unless there is a substantial expression of the Body, the Lord Jesus will not return. the Lord's coming is iminent. the governing factor of the Lord's return is that the Bride has made herself ready. the Lord is not coming back to a messy and divided situation. there must be something that is worthwhile for the Lord to come back, which is the substantial expression of the Body, which the Lord can call as His Bride, His counterpart. there is the urgent need among us to have the reality of the Body of Christ to be expressed in the local churches. we have to think about this crucial matter. how much of the reality of the Body has been built up among us? 

Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they loved not their soul-life even unto death.

the Lord needs the overcomers to carry out the economy of God to have the Body of Christ and to destroy His enemy; without the overcomers the Body of Christ cannot be built up, and unless the Body of Christ is built up, Christ cannot come back for His bride. who are the overcomers? the overcomers are not the superior or powerful ones. they are, in this lif age, those who know the Body, who live and work for the Body. the Lord needs a special group of Christians, a special group of workers today, who are the overcomers, who are not living for themselves, not for their spiritual life, not for their church work, who live for the Body, who live to bring forth the reality of the Body. these overcomers are not individual spiritual giants, but those who know the Body, live for the Body, sacrifice themselves for the Body. 

Psalms  48:2 Beautiful in elevation, / The joy of the whole earth, / Is Mount Zion, the sides of the north, / The city of the great King.

As the highlight and beauty of the holy city, Jerusalem, Zion typifies the overcomers as the high peak, the center, the uplifting, the stregthening, the enriching, the beauty, and the reality of the church. the characteristics, the life, the blessing, and the establishment of Jerusalem comes from Zion. 

the New Jerusalem will come in two stages:

1. as a reward in the milennial age to the early overcomers. 

2. in the new heaven and new earth, as a common portion to all the believers who are also considered as overcomers. 

all believers will be overcomers. but whether we will become an overcomer in this age, or wait until we enter into the new heaven and new earth. every believer will participate in the eternity in the New Jerusalem. but to participate in the New Jerusalem during the one thousand years of milennial age is only a remnant of the Lord's belivers, who will be the Bride of Christ for thousand years, who are early overcomers, who take care of the Lord's heart desire to care for the reality of the Body of Christ. 

Psalms 84:3 At Your two altars even the sparrow has found a home; / And the swallow, a nest for herself, / Where she may lay her young, / O Jehovah of hosts, my King and my God.

Psalms 84:4 Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; / They will yet be praising You. Selah

Psalms 84:5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, / In whose heart are the highways to Zion.

the earlier overcomers, as the reality of Zion within Jerusalem, the reality of the Body of Christ within the church, have highways to Zion in their heart; they take the way of the church internally b being incorporated into God as their dwelling place through the crucified Christ, typified by the bronze altar as their nest for their refuge, and through the resurrected Christ in ascension, typified by the incense altar as their home for their rest. they do not just care for the church in a general way, but they have the highways to Zion in their heart. the way we take the church life should not be an outward way, but internally. we need to see what God is doing intrinsically in each of us. the Lord is waiting for a group of overcomers to live out the reality of the Body of Christ in resurrection to become the bride of Christ to bring Him back and to usher in His kingdom age; for this we need to pray: "Lord, may I receive Your mercy and grace to be one of Your overcomers."

if we are going to be blended, we must lose our own distinctions. the more we are blended genuinly, the more we will lose our distinctions. in order to be blended for the reality of the Body of Christ, we have to go through the cross and be by the Spirit to dispense Christ to others for the building up of the Body of Christ. blending means that we should always stop in order to fellowship with others; we should not do anything without fellowshipping with the other saints who are coordinating with us, because fellowship adjusts us, harmonizes us, tempers us, and mingles us. how many times have we stopped ourselves to seek fellowship from other saints, to seek how does the Body feel? to be blended means that we are touched by others and that we are touching others by going through the cross, doing things by the Spirit, and doing everything to dispense Christ for His Body's sake. no one can do this for us. we have to be touched by the Lord ourselves first. 

Ephesians 4:21 If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him as the reality is in Jesus,

when God became a man to live a God-man life on the earth for 33 and half years, He perfected a model to be a prototype for reproduction. the human living of Jesus is what Paul refered to as "the reality is in Jesus". when Jesus lived that 33 and half years of human living, He lived a life of reality in contrast of vanity lived by the people in the world, and He was the first God-man living in the reality. at the end of His life, He went to the cross to be cruficified, and in resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit, who is the Spirit of reality in order to enter into all His believers to begin His duplicating work, to mass reproduce Himself in many believers. 

the reality of the Body of Christ is the Spirit of reality, who is the Spirit of Jesus, mingled with our spirit; the Spirit of Jesus includes the reality in Jesus, the God-man living of Jesus. the reality of the Body of Christ is the corporate living by the perfected God-men, who are genuine men but are not living by their life but by the life of the processed God, whose attributes have been expressed through their virtues. 

the Spirit of reality is within us. now in order to apply this, we need to live in our mingled spirit, which is our spirit mingled with the Spirit of Jesus, which contains the reality of Jesus with His God-man living on this earth. only when we are living in this mingled spirit, we are organic, and we become His duplication. it is here in this duplication of Christ, we see the matter of the reality of the Body of Christ, the blending come together.  

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