When the Holy Spirit wrought such a Christ into the church, the church lived out Christ. The church testifies that Christ is altogether the mingling of God and man. God is in man, and man lives in God. God is mingled with man, and man is also mingled with God. Sin, death, the world, idols, Satan’s authority, his kingdom, and his own self, have no place in the church. This is the proper condition of the church. This was the situation of the early church in Acts chapters 2 through 4. The church was filled with God’s presence; within it there was nothing of Satan, sin, death, the world, idols, or the authority and kingdom of Satan. Satan and everything of Satan had no place in the church. The early church was a complete and full testimony of Christ, manifesting Christ before the people and completely living out Christ.
John 15:26-27 shows us that the church carries out the testimony concerning Christ by and with the Holy Spirit. Human beings do not have this power. Only when the church gives ground to the Spirit, depends on the Spirit, follows the Spirit, and obeys the ruling of the Spirit can the Spirit testify concerning Christ in the church. Then by the Spirit, the church can also testify concerning Christ to the world.
The testimony of the church concerning Christ is one and corporate. Although there are millions of saints, their testimony is one. It is not that saved ones testify concerning Christ individually in a scattered manner; rather, all the saved ones are constituted into one Body and bear the testimony corporately. Therefore, their testimony is not divided but united; it is not many and scattered but one and corporate. At the time of Pentecost, even though three thousand and later five thousand were added to the church, they were still one. They moved and lived together as one. Their testimony was the testimony of the one Body.
Through the testimony of the church, His Body, Christ is expressed before men, lives before men, and testifies to men concerning Himself. John 13:35 and 17:21 and 23 show that it is easy for men to recognize Christ and to see the kind of person He is when the church testifies of Him, that is, when the church is completely one with Christ and when all the saints are completely one in Him. However, today men see contentions, jealousy, criticisms, and judging in the church instead of Christ because the church has lost its testimony and the presence of Christ. But whenever and wherever a group of Christians live in the Lord and are one with the Lord, having been delivered from individualism and living in the Body of Christ, loving one another and being one with one another, the presence of the Holy Spirit, the presence of Christ, and the presence of God will surely be among them. When we come into the midst of such ones and contact them, we would surely say, “Christ is here! God is here!” This is what it means to be a living testimony of Christ, an expression of Christ. This is the church’s testimony.
May the Lord have mercy on us! If these were merely doctrines, then we would be too pitiful. If the Lord grants us His visitation, we will see that in the last days of this age among the Lord’s children, the Lord’s desire is to recover the church as a living testimony, as a testimony for the expression of Christ and of God, and as a testimony of the complete union of God with man. Not only are believers united to be one, but even more they are united with the Triune God to be one. If the church has such a oneness, people will be able to see Christ in the church. The church in such a condition is the expression of Christ, the testimony of Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, only when we are united with the Lord can we be united with the believers. If we are not living in the Lord and do not let the Lord live in us, then we have no way to be one. If we live in the Lord and let the Lord live in us, then we will all be united into one. When we all live in the Lord, we do not even need to be united, we are already one. When we live in the Lord, there will be a situation of oneness among us; this oneness is Christ and it is also God. Such a oneness is the expression of Christ, which is the testimony of Christ. This is the testimony of the church. May we again hear the Lord’s speaking: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem...and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8); “when the Comforter [that is, the Spirit] comes,...He will testify concerning Me; and you testify also” (John 15:26-27).