Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good Land - 10

Message Title: Governing Principles that We Need to See and Experience in order to Possess Christ as the Good Land

Colossians 2:6 As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him,

as we have received Christ, we should walk in Him; to walk in Him is to live, to act, to vehave, and to have our being in Christ so that we may enjoy His riches, just as the children of Israel lived in the good land, enjoying all its rich produce. 

I. To walk in Christ, that is, to walk according to the spirit and by the Spirit as the reality of the good land, we must see that the key of the spiritual fellowship of the regenerated tripartite believers with the consummated Triune god is 1 Corinthians 6:17 - "He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit"

John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

we were regenerated of God as the Spirit to be a spirit. our spirit is a joined spirit,  because our spirit is joined to the Lord, who is the Spirit, the Lord Spirit. "the Spirit Himself with our spirit" is the secret of God's organic salvation. 

the six major steps of God's organic salvation:

1. regeneration

2. sanctification

3. renewing: we are tranformed by the renewing of the mind

4. transformation

5. conformation

6. glorification

we have the seed of God abiding in us at regeneration. we are sanctified positionally and dispositionally. 

these six steps are accomplished by the joining of the Spirit with our spirit as one spirit. if this were not so, even though the gospel of God is powerful, it still will not have any power or accomplish anything in the believers. the issue of these six matters, which are accomplished by the joining of the Spirit with our spirit to be one mingled spirit, is the building up of the Body of Christ. God's eternal economy is to obatin the Body of Christ. 

II. We need to see that the One in whom we need to walk is the Christ in His full ministry of three stages

The Lord's recovery is the recovery of Christ in His full ministry of three stages - incarnation, inclusion, and intensification; the Lord's recovery is God becoming the flesh, the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit becoming the sevenfold intensified Spirit to build up the church that becomes the Body of Christ and that consummates the New Jerusalem.  

III. the Lord's present recovery is the recovery of the Body-Christ ( "the Christ") in the church life; the Body-Christ is the incorporated God; thus, to wak in Christ is to walk in Him as the Body-Christ, who is the incorporated God

 1 Corinthians 12:12 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.

"the Christ" in this verse is not the individual Christ but the corporate Christ, Christ incorporated with all His members. therefore, we need to treasure one another, the members of the Body. 

To receive and to walk in Christ is to receive and to walk in the Body-Christ, because Christ today is a corporate Body; Christ is no longer only the individual Christ but also the corporate Christ, the Head with the Body; it makes a great difference in our Christian life for us to walk in the corporate Christ. 

1 Corinthians 12:24 But our comely members have no need. But God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked,

1 Corinthians 12:25 That there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same care for one another.

In the Body-Christ we enjoy Christ as everything. In the Body-Christ, there is the function of all the members, and there is the blending together of the members in the oneness of the Triune God.

IV. In order to possess and walk in the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land, we need to see that the presence of the Lord means everything to us in both our life in the Lord and our work in the Lord; in Exodus 33:12-17 Moses bargained with God for His presence to go with him and with God's people; God responded by saying, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest"

the presence, the smile of the Lord, is the governing principle for us to enter into and possess Christ as the reality of the good land; God's presence is the way, the "map" that shows His people the way they should take. our GPS is God's presence. we will never get lost if we have God's presence. 

Exodus 13:21 And Jehovah went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them on the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might go by day and by night.

Exodus 13:22 Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night departed from before the people.

in typology, the cloud signifies the Spirit, and the fire, for enligtening, signifies the Word of God. hence, the instant, living leading from the presence of God comes through either the Spirit or the Word. the two pillars symbolize God Himself, for He is both the Spirit and the Word. furthermore, the Word is also the Spirit. Thus, God, the Word, and the Spirit are one to lead and guid us continually, whether by day or by night.