We have seen that many crucial seeds of the truth are sown in the book of Genesis. The house of God, Bethel, is one of these seeds. However, not many Christians know what the experience of the house of God is. Undoubtedly, many know that, according to the New Testament, the house of God denotes the church (1 Tim. 3:15). But where is the practical and proper church life? Although there are millions of Christians on earth, very few of them have the genuine church life. Many merely sit in the congregation for the Sunday morning service and listen to a minister or pastor. But this is not the practical and proper church life revealed in the Bible. According to the Bible, in the genuine church life every saved one must be a living, functioning member. Every member of the Body of Christ must function. Not only do the members function, but they also live together to express God in Christ in a living, daily way. This is the practical church life revealed in the Bible. The truths regarding this practical church life are sown as seeds in Genesis.
Prior to chapter thirty-five, God was called the God of a certain person, for example, the God of Abraham or the God of Isaac. He was the God of individual persons. But in 35:7 we have "El-Beth-el," the God of the house of God. He is no longer simply the God of individuals; He is now the God of a corporate body, the house of God. Many Christians only experience God as their individual God. Not many have the experience of God as the God of the house of God. How much experience do you have of God as the God of a corporate body? We all must experience God in such a way that He is not only God to us individually, but also the God of the house of God. There is a great difference between the two.
In Genesis 35 we see a crucial and radical turn. However, not many children of God appreciate this. They read this chapter again and again without recognizing the radical turn contained in it. Before this chapter, God was the God of individuals. He was the God of Abel, the God of Enosh, the God of Enoch, the God of Noah, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac. But here He is no longer just the God of individuals, but El-Bethel, the God of the house of God. In Hebrew, "El" means God. In the title El-Bethel this Hebrew word for God is used twice, at both the beginning and the ending of this title. In a sense, the God of the house of God is double. We must admit that we do not yet have much experience of this. But we thank the Lord that after coming into the church life, we have had some experience of God's being God to us as a corporate body. In the church life, we do experience God corporately and not only individually. We all can testify that the God we experience in the church life is much richer and sweeter than the God we experience in our individual life. This is why we like to spend more time in the church life. Individually, we can experience the God of Abraham or the God of Isaac, but we cannot experience God as the God of Bethel. We can only experience the God of the house of God in the church life. If many years ago you had been told about the God of the corporate body, it would have sounded like a foreign language to you. But today this is not foreign to us. We are familiar with this experience and we appreciate it much more than our individual experience of God.
This does not mean, however, that there is not the aspect of experiencing God in an individual way. Even today, there is still this aspect. Never forget that the truths in the Bible have two aspects. This is also true of the experience of God, for the experience of God has a corporate aspect as well as an individual aspect. Many Christians today either have no experience of God or have just the individual experience of God. They lack the experience of God in a corporate way. But in meeting after meeting of the church life, we experience God in a corporate way.
At this point, I need to speak an honest word to some of you. Although you meet with us week after week, you do not have the corporate experience of God. For instance, you pray daily in your private life, but you never pray in the church meetings. In the meetings, you are observers, like a spectator at a ball game. You watch others play, but you yourselves do not play. You never participate in the meetings. Furthermore, some of you criticize those who do participate, saying that they are too bold or too quick. But what about you? Are you here to be critics, spectators, or to participate in the church life? This indicates that some among us do not appreciate the experience of God in a corporate way. Some of us still do not pray in the meetings. If you were asked to pray, you would always excuse yourselves. This reveals that you consider others as the priests and yourselves as the common people. By doing this you establish a clergy-laity hierarchy. In the eyes of God, this is heretical. We all must pray to overthrow this clergy-laity system.
According to my registration, the prayer meeting in Anaheim is better than that in any other church. I have visited nearly all the churches and I can testify that the prayer meeting in Anaheim is the best. The reason is that there is no clergy or laity in our prayer meeting. Although many pray, no one completes a prayer by himself. Rather, it may take many of us to finish one prayer. In the old, traditional way, when someone prayed, he not only finished one prayer but perhaps two or three other prayers at the same time. Either people did not pray at all, or they would pray several prayers in succession. But in Anaheim after someone prays a short sentence, someone else will follow him. In this way, many function together to offer one prayer. This is the experience of El-Bethel, the corporate experience of God.
Genesis 35 is a radical turn from the individual experience of God to the corporate experience of God. Before this chapter, El-Bethel is not mentioned. Elohim was revealed in chapter one, and Jehovah was revealed in chapter two. Later, God told Jacob that He was the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac. But, as we have pointed out, in chapter thirty-five we see a new divine title—El-Bethel, God of the house of God.
Elsewhere in this message we shall see the significance of God's telling Jacob that his name was no longer Jacob but Israel. God said to Jacob, "Israel shall be thy name" (v. 10), and Jacob seemed to say to God, "Your name is El-Bethel." Who are you today—Jacob or Israel? What does Israel mean? To answer that it means a wrestler of God is too doctrinal. Israel is the church people, and El-Bethel is the church life. We are the church people in the church life. This is not doctrine; it is experience. The church people are a people filled with God, and the church life is a corporate life of God. The church people are a people filled with God living together to enjoy God and to express Him. This is Israel in El-Bethel.