Knowing Life and the Church
Opening Word of the Prophesying Meeting
Message Four
The Nature of the Church
Opening Word of the Prophesying Meeting
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
And raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus—Eph. 2:6.
One Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism; One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all—4:4-6.
Word of Appetizer
We need to be watchful and faithful in preserving the nature of the church. What is the nature of the church?
The church is divine, “Christly,” “resurrectionly,” and heavenly. The church today is in Christ in ascension. Ephesians 2:6 tells us that the church has been resurrected with Christ, and now the church is seated in the heavenlies with Christ. Therefore, the church is absolutely and purely of the element of Christ, absolutely in resurrection, and absolutely remaining in the heavenlies with Christ.
Spiritual Burden
We need to be watchful and faithful in preserving the nature of the church. The church should be like an herb that produces food for the satisfaction of God and man.
The church is divine, “Christly,” “resurrectionly,” and heavenly. The church is the mingling of God and man.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
The church is divine, “Christly,” “resurrectionly,” and heavenly.
We need to be watchful and faithful in preserving the nature of the church.
The church is the mingling of God and man. The Body of Christ is the enlargement of Christ, the enlargement of the One who is the mingling of God and man.
The Experience of Life
1 Cor. 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.
God’s unique purpose is to mingle Himself with us so that He becomes our life, our nature, and our content, and we become His corporate expression.
Practice and Application
We need to be watchful and faithful in preserving the nature of the church. The church should be like an herb that produces food for the satisfaction of God and man. The church, according to its heavenly and spiritual nature, should be like the mustard, sojourning on earth.
For the church life, we need to see a vision of the mingled spirit—the divine Spirit mingled with our regenerated human spirit.
Using Key Verses to Have a Bird’s-Eye View over the Whole Outline
Key Verses (1)
To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, the called saints…—1 Cor. 1:2.
For even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ—12:12.
And raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus—Eph. 2:6.
I. The church is divine, “Christly,” “resurrectionly,” and heavenly
A. The church is of God. A local church must be a church of God, possessing the divine nature of God.
B. The church is “Christly”. Every local church must be a church of Christ, being in the element of Christ. The church is a pure product out of Christ.
C. The church is “resurrectionly”. The church is an entity absolutely in resurrection; it is not natural, nor is it in the old creation.
D. The church is heavenly. The church is in Christ in His ascension; the church has been resurrected with Christ and is now seated in the heavenlies in Christ.
Key Verses (2)
Another parable He set before them, saying, The kingdom of the heavens is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, and which is smaller than all the seeds; but when it has grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of heaven come and roost in its branches—Matt. 13:31-32.
II. We need to be watchful and faithful in preserving the nature of the church
A. The church should be like an herb that produces food for the satisfaction of God and
B. The nature and function of the church were changed, so that it became a “tree,” a lodging place for birds.
C. The church, according to its heavenly and spiritual nature, should be like the mustard, sojourning on earth; but with its nature changed, the church became deeply rooted and settled as a tree in the earth.
Key Verses (3)
One Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism; One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all—Eph. 4:4-6.
But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit—1 Cor. 6:17.
III. The church is the mingling of God and man
A. The mingling of God and man is a deep and central truth in the Scriptures.
B. We must grasp the principle of the church—the church is God mingled with
C. God’s unique purpose is to mingle Himself with us so that He becomes our life, our nature, and our content, and we become His corporate expression.
D. The Body of Christ is the enlargement of Christ, the enlargement of the One who is the mingling of God and man.
E. For the church life, we need to see a vision of the mingled spirit—the divine Spirit mingled with our regenerated human spirit.
Prophesying Topics—Twelve Topics per Week
D1
T1 The church is of God (1 Cor. 1:2; 10:32; 11:16)
(Please explain that the expression the church of God indicates not only that the church belongs to God but also that the church must have the nature of God.)
T2 The church is “Christly” (1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 1:22-23)
(Please explain that the church is a pure product out of Christ.)
D2
T1 The church is “resurrectionly” (John 11:25; Acts 2:24; Rev. 1:18)
(Please explain that the church is an entity absolutely in resurrection; it is not natural, nor is it in the old creation.)
T2 The church is a being that can endure death (Rev. 2:8-11)
(Please use the church in Smyrna to explain that the church has a basic principle: She is able to pass through death; she cannot be buried.)
D3
T1 The church is heavenly (Eph. 1:19-21; 2:6)
(Please explain what the main significance of the church being heavenly is.)
T2 The church is under God’s authority (Matt. 28:18)
(Please use experience to explain that we must continually learn the lesson of submitting to God’s authority.)
D4
T1 Be watchful and faithful in preserving the nature of the church (Matt. 13:31-32)
(According to Matthew 13:32, please explain how the nature of the church changed.)
T2 He has put a governing principle into every type of life (Gen. 1:11-12)
(Please explain that for a mustard seed to become a tree is a violation of the principle ordained by God in His creation for living matter—according to its kind.)
D5
T1 The church is the mingling of God and man (Eph. 3:16-21; 4:4-6, 16)
(Please use the example of on the day of Pentecost to explain when the church is in a normal condition, we can see God and man mingled together.)
T2 Allow the mingling of God with man and man with God to work in us (Eph. 3:17)
(Please use experience to explain when the mingling of God with man and man with God is built up within us, many problems in the church will spontaneously disappear.)
D6
T1 The focus of God’s economy is the mingled spirit (1 Cor. 6:17)
(Whatever God intends to do or accomplish is related to this focus.)
T2 Live according to the mingled spirit (Rom. 8:4)
(Please explain that to live according to the mingled spirit is to have the Christian life and also the church life on the highest level.)
