NOURISHING PEOPLE WITH THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST IN HIS FULL MINISTRY IN THE THREE STAGES (4)
The apostle Paul said that we are God’s farm to grow Christ, and we are God’s building ( 1 Cor. 3:9 ). As we grow in the divine life, we are transformed into precious material for God’s building: gold, silver, and precious stones ( v. 12 ). The New Jerusalem is constituted with transformed precious material: gold as the base, pearls as the gates, and precious stones for the city’s wall. If we build up the church with ourselves, with the world, or with earthly things, we are building with wood, grass, and stubble, which are fit only to be burned ( vv. 12b-13 ). But if we build the church with the Triune God—the Father as the gold, the Son as the pearl or silver, and the Spirit as the precious stone—our building work will be a part of the New Jerusalem. In other words, our work will go into eternal life. The New Jerusalem as the totality of the eternal life is God’s goal. The chorus of Hymns,#976, a hymn concerning the New Jerusalem, says, “Lo, the holy city, / Full of God’s bright glory! / It is God’s complete expression / In humanity.” Christ has become the sevenfold intensified Spirit to intensify His organic salvation and to produce the overcomers for the consummating of the New Jerusalem.
For His ministry in the stage of His inclusion, Christ became the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ, to carry out His organic salvation for the producing of the church and the building up of His Body to consummate the New Jerusalem. On the way of Christ’s ministry in the stage of His inclusion, the church became degraded to frustrate the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy. Hence, Christ as the one life-giving Spirit became the seven Spirits of God ( Rev. 1:4 ; 4:5 ; 5:6 ; 3:1 ). These are not seven individual Spirits but the one Spirit who is intensified sevenfold. This is to intensify the organic salvation of Christ sevenfold for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate God’s eternal goal—the New Jerusalem.
Through the degradation of the church nearly all the believers in Christ became defeated in their old man by Satan, sin, the world, and their flesh. In His seven epistles to the degraded churches, Christ calls the defeated believers to be His overcomers by Himself as the sevenfold intensified Spirit for their experience of His organic salvation in His sevenfold intensification.
According to the entire revelation of the New Testament, the unique goal of the Christian work should be the New Jerusalem, which is the ultimate goal of God’s eternal economy. The degradation of the church is mainly due to the fact that nearly all the Christian workers are distracted to take many things other than the New Jerusalem as their goal. Hence, under the degradation of the church, to be an overcomer answering the Lord’s call needs us to overcome not only the negative things but even more the positive things that replace the New Jerusalem as the goal. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups”, ch. 14, pp. 173-179)
The church in Zamboanga 