On March 10 through 11, 2012, Brother Ron Kangas shared three messages with the church in Fullerton, California, on the way Christ is building the church. For the sake of time and space, each of these messages will be split into two summaries for posts on the Living to Him website (Faithful Word section). Audio recording of the messages are posted here.
Opening Word
Brother Ron opened the first message by pointing out that Revelation 4:11 reveals the reason why all things exist—God’s will. Revelation further indicates that this will is to have the holy city, New Jerusalem, which is God’s building. In brief, God’s building is the corporate expression of the Triune God. Thus, the building of the church is our being built into the Triune God for His corporate expression. This is typified in the Old Testament when glory filled the tabernacle and the temple at the completion of their building. The New Testament clearly indicated that the church and the kingdom are for God’s glory, which is His expression. The situation on the entire earth today is a deviation from God’s goal of building, even among Christians, many of whom wrongly think that the Father’s house mentioned in John 14 is a physical edifice in heaven. Building is the believers in oneness with God becoming His corporate expression.
Introduction
The greatest prophecy is in Matthew 16:18—that Christ will build His church. This is what He is doing today. Everything in our personal situation and on the whole earth is for this. The Lord has His eyes set on the church. The following points on the way Christ is building the church are not methods but a person as the Spirit operating in us.
Christ is Building the Church by Mingling Himself with Us
The first way Christ is building the church is by mingling Himself with us—by working Himself into our humanity and bringing us into Himself. Christ Himself is a mingling as a person who is both a genuine man and the infinite God. As such He is the first real building—He is referred to as the tabernacle and the temple (John 1:14; 2:19).
According to chapter 8 of Brother Witness Lee’s book The Experience of Life, the will of God is the mingling of God with man (http://www.ministrybooks.org/witness-lee-books.cfm, #159). God’s will for each us personally is whatever will produce the greatest mingling in us. God orchestrates every detail of our situations for this. In order to be built, we must open to the Lord so that He can mingle with us. This requires many experiences. We should not assume that we are open to Him but should aspire to be open to Him when something difficult happens so that He can gain what He wants in us. We need to pray, “Lord, mingle Yourself with me more today.”
Mingling is the primary way Christ is building—by entering into us and our entering into Him. For the Lord to enter into us is the principle of incarnation. For us to get into God is by death and resurrection. We need to go through cycle after cycle our whole life to be brought fully in to Him. The essence of what the Lord is trying to do in every situation is to mingle with us. We need to pray for this daily.
The high peak of the divine revelation is God’s eternal economy, which is to make man the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead that all His divine attributes may be expressed in human virtues. The paradox of the high peak of the divine revelation is that the more divine we become, the more human we become—Jesusly human. Building is something so human and yet divine. It is difficult to explain because it is divine and mystical.
Christ is Building the Church by Making Us Organic
The second way Christ is building the church is by making us organic. The nature of building is versus the way humans build. The Lord’s way of building is absolutely organic, which is versus human organization. The human body is an organism—not an organization—but there is an order and systems.
The enemy attacks God’s building by killing the Body. At first, he did this by persecuting, imprisoning, and killing the saints, but this only released resurrection life. In Acts 12 an apostle was killed, and there was a great persecution. Then in Acts 13 there was a great flow out of Antioch while Jerusalem was paying price. Death cannot hold the resurrection life. As a result, the enemy changed his strategy when he married the church through the Roman Empire and changed its nature, making it an organization. Every time organization comes in, it is an attack on the Body.
Organic does not mean chaos. In 1 Timothy 5:9 Paul talks about widows being “enrolled.” There needs to be order in the church life, as there is in a family, but not in an inorganic, organizational way.
To keep ourselves organically related to the Lord, we need to be revived every morning. We should pay attention to inner being when contacting the Lord. If we wake with a song in our spirit, this is not an accident—we should enjoy the Lord with this song before using the Holy Word for Morning Revival. We should not lapse into a routine.
Building is organic and vital, not in an impersonal way like an amoeba, but in a personal and affectionate way. It is a real loss when anything with the Lord becomes impersonal. We need to pray, “Lord, teach me how to be with You.” To be with Him in a personal way involves telling Him whatever is on our heart.
Awesome! Lord Jesus, thank You for this ministry. Build Yourself into the members of Your Body and build us into You. May it spread throughout the earth to reach all the “sons of peace.”