Suppose two brothers who live together in a brothers’ house have a problem with each other. One may contact an elder for help, and another may go to an elderly sister for fellowship. The elder may tell the one brother that in the church life we all must learn patience, whereas the elderly sister may tell the other that the Lord has put him into his situation so he could learn certain lessons. Such advice may he mere religious talk. If these brothers try to follow it, they will have even greater problems. Eventually, they may choose to move out of the brothers’ house and even leave the church life.
In the church life we do not need outward correction. Instead, the church life is a life in which we all take Christ as our life and person. The elders and the elderly sisters need to help the saints to realize that their need is to take the Lord Jesus as their person. The more all the saints do this, the more they will experience the speaking of Christ as the life-giving Spirit. This speaking will be to them the cleansing, purifying water. This water will spread the element of Christ throughout their being, and it will discharge all oldness. Eventually, brothers like those in the illustration above will no longer be bothered by problems with each other, but will grow together and be built up together. This is the proper church life. Oh, how we all need the inward cleansing, the metabolic purification that transforms us!
What I am ministering to you in this message is something I have learned through years of experience in the Christian life as well as in the church life. I am familiar with various teachings concerning the inner life, holiness, and spirituality. Although I put these teachings into practice, most of them were not very effective. Many of us can testify that although we endeavored to practice what we read on holiness and spirituality, what we read did not work very well in our experience. Out of failure and disappointment many have come to believe that it simply is not possible to have the proper church life today. They claim that for this we must wait until the next age. By the Lord’s mercy I can testify that it is possible to have the genuine church life. We have the church life not by trying to carry out teachings in an outward way, but by taking Christ as our life and as our person. Then we enjoy and experience Christ as the life-giving, speaking Spirit. We enjoy the speaking that cleanses us, transforms us, and causes us to grow.
As we grow in life, we are spontaneously built up with others. In such a building there is no place for division or strife concerning opinion and doctrine. We in the church in Los Angeles can testify that we do not care for opinions, suggestions, or proposals. We care only for taking Christ as our life and as our speaking person. We treasure His speaking because His presence as the life-giving Spirit is in His speaking. By His speaking He cleanses us, purifies, and sanctifies us. Eventually, all the spots and wrinkles are swallowed up by life.
Through the Lord’s speaking within us as the life-giving Spirit, we are becoming a glorious church, a church holy and without blemish. Today we are waiting for the Lord’s coming back, knowing that when He comes, He will present us to Himself a glorious church, holy and without blemish. At that time, we shall experience Christ in the third stage as the Bridegroom coming for His Bride. Until then, our need is to daily take Christ as our person and to be cleansed, purified, and sanctified through the speaking of the life-giving Spirit. In this way we shall undergo a metabolic change leading to the transformation in life which is necessary for the church life.