Transformation involves the Spirit’s working both inwardly and outwardly. The Spirit works outwardly in our circumstances for the sake of His inward working. For example, the Spirit may use our children to help transform us. We may expect that our children will be submissive and obedient. But a certain child may be stubborn or even rebellious. Such a child can cause us to be pressed for the sake of our transformation. As an elderly person with many children and grandchildren, I can testify that the Spirit often uses our children to press us and “burn us” as part of His work of transformation. When I first began to experience this in my family life, I was troubled and could not explain what was going on. Gradually I came to know that I needed the heat and pressure caused by my children. I also came to see that I need other pressures as well. It takes a great deal of intensified heat and pressure for clay to become precious stones. According to Romans 8:28, God causes all things to work together for good on our behalf. We need all things to work for us. Therefore, we should not be surprised when even our children are used to press us and burn us so that we may become precious stones.
Many Christians are under the influence of the teaching that if we believe in the Lord Jesus and behave ourselves properly for the glory of God, we shall be blessed and prospered in every way. According to this teaching, we shall be successful and prosperous. Furthermore, supposedly our children will become successful in their chosen professions. If this teaching is accurate, then Paul must be the most pitiful believer who ever lived. Listen to what he says in 4:11-13: “Until the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked and beaten and wander without a home; and we labor, working with our own hands; being reviled we bless, being persecuted we bear it, being defamed we appeal; we have become as the offscouring of the world, as the scum of all things until now.” Is this the description of one who is successful and prosperous? Paul’s situation was very different from that promised by the teaching that those who believe in the Lord and live properly will be blessed materially. However, Paul was in fact the most blessed of Christians, for he was truly constituted of the Triune God.
We in the Lord’s recovery should not be frightened by the process of transformation. We should not desire to turn from the recovery and seek an easier way, to go to a religious gathering where we can be comforted psychologically. We praise the Lord that we are receiving the Lord’s nourishment and are also undergoing the process of transformation. We are receiving more of the divine gold into our being. I can strongly testify that I do not regret taking the way of the Lord’s recovery. Yes, I have lost a lot, but I have gained much more. If there is no loss, there can be no gain. What I have lost has been material things, but I have gained the nature of God my Father. I have gained the gold of the divine nature, something that never changes or decays. Hallelujah for the divine nature that has been added into us! We also praise the Lord for the wonderful redemption we are experiencing daily to be terminated, brought back to God, and replaced by Christ Himself. We are also thankful for the heat and pressure which are transforming us from clay into precious stones.
As we become gold, silver, and precious stones, we are built up. Building is a matter of growth and transformation. The more we grow, the more we are rescued from our natural being. Then wherever we may be, we can easily be one with the saints. This is building.
If we have been built up in a genuine way, there will be no opinions, disputations, strifes, comparisons, preferences, or choices. We shall simply be for the Lord’s Body and desire to be part of the Body. No matter where we may go, we shall be one with every saint. This is what it means to be built with gold, silver, and precious stones.
The majority of today’s Christians are divided. It is difficult even to find two who have been built together in a proper way. The reason for the division and the lack of building is that the believers remain in their natural life, in their natural being, and in their worldly aspirations. Many still have their own preferences, desires, and choices. As a result, it is impossible for them to be truly one. Therefore there cannot be the practical Body life among them.
We cannot have the real Body life until, at least to a certain extent, we grow by being transformed. We praise the Lord that, to some degree at least, the churches in the Lord’s recovery are being built up in this way. The saints are becoming one and are not so much in their opinions, preferences, and choices. Furthermore, we have one goal—the central vision of God’s eternal purpose, which is to have Christ ministered into the saints so that they may all be constituted into one Body. Although we may not be fully one in this goal, we are in the process of entering into this oneness. The situation today is greatly improved over that of ten years ago. We praise the Lord for what He has done in the last ten years. However, we want to experience more transformation so that we may have more building.
First, we ourselves must become gold, silver, and precious stones. Then, spontaneously, we build ourselves into the Body. In this way we build ourselves up upon Christ as the unique foundation. The more we are transformed, the more we build upon Christ as the foundation. Furthermore, as we minister the Triune God to others—the Father as the golden element, the Son with His practical redemption, and the Spirit with the work of transformation—they will be infused and nourished. Then gradually one by one they will become the same category of precious materials. They will be in the same condition and situation, receive the same nourishment, and have the same destiny. Eventually, the Lord will get the church He desires—the Body as the corporate expression of Christ.
Do not expect that this work of transformation and building will be carried out on a large scale involving a very large number of Christians. On the contrary, it will be accomplished among a rather small number according to the principle of the overcomers. The Lord addressed the seven epistles in Revelation to all the churches and to all the saints in the churches. However, He did not expect that everyone in the churches would be according to what He is. For this reason, at the end of each epistle He says a word about the one who overcomes. Eventually, the Lord will gain a small number of believers, the overcomers, to satisfy the desire of His heart and accomplish His eternal purpose.
Do you know by what way the Lord will gain these overcoming believers? It will be through the way of feeding, drinking, eating, planting, watering, and growing. It will be by having a farm and a building with Christ as the unique foundation and constructed of the precious materials of gold, silver, and precious stones. Eventually, this building will become God’s temple.