Prayer: Lord, we worship You that You have set us up as a particular people, a particular possession of Yours. We thank You, Lord, that You have chosen us and have even appointed us with a commission to carry out Your eternal economy. Oh, what a career! By ourselves we are absolutely not qualified, but You have commissioned us. What shall we say? We just look unto You. Lord, open Your heart to us again and unveil what is hidden in the depths of Your good pleasure. Lord, we like to be open to You. We do not want to have anything covering us. Lord, we ask You to take away all the veils, all the logic, theologies, philosophies, and traditional teachings. Lord, remove layer after layer of veils from us. Lord, we long to be released, to be freed, from all these bondages. We do not want to be held back or to be short in carrying out Your economy. Thank You, Lord, for treating us as Your loving followers. We believe that You are here, sitting with us, wanting to have an intimate, face-to-face talk about Your career, according to Your eternal economy. Lord, speak to us. We ask that we may hear Your voice and see Your vision. Amen, Lord.

The title of this message is “To Enter into the Mystical Realm of Christ’s Heavenly Ministry.” Here the word realm is of great significance. Instead of realm we may use the word kingdom and thus speak of the mystical kingdom of Christ’s heavenly ministry. If we would enter into the realm of Christ’s heavenly ministry, a realm which is altogether mystical, we need to know the mystical Christ.

In His person Christ is mystical. Concerning Christ’s incarnation, there are two kinds of records in the New Testament-a physical record and a mystical record. In the synoptic Gospels, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the record of the Lord’s incarnation is altogether physical. We are told that He was born of a virgin, that He was laid in a manger, that shepherds came to worship Him, that He was taken from Israel to Egypt, and that He grew up in Nazareth. All this is a physical record. The record in the Gospel of John is absolutely different. Chapter one, for instance, is not a physical record but a mystical record. Verses 1 and 14 say, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us...full of grace and reality.” This way of speaking about the incarnation is mystical and mysterious. “Of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace” (v. 16). This also is mystical. John’s account of Christ’s incarnation is altogether mystical.

Actually, the entire Gospel of John is mystical. “All things came into being through Him [the Word]....In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (1:3, 4). This is mystical. This One is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” and upon Him the Spirit descended “as a dove out of heaven, and He abode upon Him” (vv. 29, 32). This, too, is mystical. Those who believe into Him become stones (v. 42). Speaking of Himself as the heavenly ladder, Christ said, “You shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (v. 51). To be sure, all these things are mystical. Christ’s being the temple as the house of God (2:16-21) is mystical, and regeneration also is mystical. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (3:6b). The issue of regeneration is to produce a bride, who is the increase of the Bridegroom (vv. 29-30). Once again, this is a mystical matter. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (v. 14). Christ’s hanging on the cross as a brass serpent is surely mystical. In 4:10 and 14 Christ tells us that if we drink of the living water which He alone can give us, this water will become in us “a spring of water gushing up into eternal life.” Then He goes on to say, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness” (v. 24). All this is mystical.

All the saints in the Lord’s recovery, especially the co-workers and the elders, need to have a clear view concerning the physical realm and the mystical realm. The co-workers and the elders, who take the lead in the Lord’s recovery, must realize that the Lord’s recovery is resting upon their shoulders. What the recovery will be depends upon what they will be. I am heavily burdened about this. Since this is my burden, I cannot give you ordinary teachings. Instead, I must present something particular. You need to know this age and to realize that it is an age of ignorance, a time when Christians are being blinded and held back by traditional theology. Therefore, I am burdened to tell you that you need to enter into a realm, a sphere, a kingdom, which is much higher than the realm you are in now. This higher realm is the mystical realm of Christ’s heavenly ministry.
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