The Nicene Creed is also short in its revelation of the Body. It uses the term church, but it does not use the word Body. I was born, educated, and raised up in Christianity, but I did not realize the full significance of the Body of Christ until I came into the Lord’s recovery. Many people in today’s Christianity refer to the physical building that they meet in as the “church” because they do not see that the church is the organic Body of Christ. According to the Bible, the church is not a building or an organization. The church is a living organism, the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23; 1 Cor. 12:27).
Twenty years ago there was not much talk in the United States about the Body. People have only recently started to talk about the Body ministry, the Body service, or the Body of Christ. Despite their talk, they may not realize the full significance of the Body. The Nicene Creed does not mention the seven Spirits, the life-giving Spirit, or the Body. We have to take the entire Word of God in the Bible. The Bible is not short of anything. I hope that we will see more and more from the divine revelation in the holy Word as we go on with the Lord. Praise Him! He has shown us the seven Spirits, the life-giving Spirit, and the Body.
Now we need to cover the experience of the Spirit and the Body. The revelation of the Spirit and the Body should be for our experience of the Spirit and the Body. When I was young, I heard many doctrines about the Spirit, but I did not hear that the Spirit is for the Body (Eph. 4:4). The Brethren teachers were good on the doctrine of the Spirit. They even saw the two aspects of the Spirit-the aspect “within” and the aspect “upon.” They pointed out that the New Testament reveals the Spirit indwelling us and the Spirit upon us, but they did not see that both aspects of the Spirit are for the Body.
God regenerates us for the Body, God sanctifies us for the Body, and God transforms us for the Body. The Spirit is the Spirit of regeneration, the Spirit of sanctification, and the Spirit of transformation. Regeneration, sanctification, and transformation are all for the Body. The Bible also says that we all have been baptized in one Spirit into one Body (1 Cor. 12:13). In the Pentecostal movement, they talk about the Spirit and the baptism of the Spirit, but they do not stress that the baptism in the Spirit is for the Body. We all have been baptized into one Body in one Spirit. The Bible also says, “One Body and one Spirit” (Eph. 4:4).
When we go to the campuses, we have to go by the Spirit. In the book of Acts, the early believers did everything by the Spirit. We have to exercise our faith to believe that, according to the New Testament revelation, we are in the Spirit. First Corinthians 12:13 says that “in one Spirit we were all baptized.” The verb in this verse is in the past tense. The resurrected and ascended Christ as the Head of the church has already baptized all His believing members in the Spirit. He did this in two steps. The first step was on the day of Pentecost, when the Jewish believers were baptized in the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5; 2:4). The second step was in the house of Cornelius, when the Gentile believers were baptized in the Spirit (10:44-47; 11:15-17). In these two steps, all genuine believers in Christ have been baptized in the Holy Spirit into one Body once for all universally. The power to preach the gospel is in the Spirit, and we all have been baptized in the Spirit. We should not be concerned about failing. Because we have the Spirit, we have the power to boldly preach the gospel.
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