In order to see the church or know the church, you cannot remain in your mind. To use your mind is to use the wrong organ to see the church, and you cannot see it. As long as you remain in your mind, you are through with the revelation of the church. Your spirit must be a spirit of revelation. You could never understand the church simply by using your mind. The more you try to figure it out, the more you will be confused. Although you may listen to different people and read different books, yet you find yourself more and more confused. However, if you would simply close your eyes from all the books, close your mind from all the teachings, close your ears from the voices of the different teachers, and turn yourself to your spirit and remain there, you will be clear concerning the church.
However, many times we Christians are foolish in that we fail to use the wonderful spirit we have within us. We have a spirit, and this spirit is a spirit of revelation, but when it comes to the matter of the church, the matter of the local church, we do not even realize that we should use our spirit. Instead of turning to our spirit to be clear concerning the church, we go to teachers or to the writings of the great teachers of the past. But some of the writings may be a veil over our eyes that would keep us from the vision of the church in our spirit. To be clear concerning the matter of the church, we need to use the proper organ. Only in the spirit can we see the church.
To use our mind to try to understand the matter of the church instead of turning to our spirit to see the revelation of the church can be compared to trying to see a particular color with our eyes closed instead of opening our eyes to see that color. With your eyes closed, without the faculty of vision, you cannot see any of the colors. The faculty of understanding does not work for the colors. But if you open your eyes, all the doubts are gone, all the questions are gone, and you do know what the particular color is. You may not be able to explain what you see, but your eyes can substantiate the colors and can distinguish one color from another. To see the colors, we need to open our eyes. To see the church, we need to turn to our spirit.
We need to turn to our spirit and respect the fact that our spirit is a spirit of revelation. To see the church is simple when you use the proper organ. In the spirit the matter of the church is very clear. The local church is different from all the denominations. You may not be able to explain the difference, but when you turn to the spirit and see the church, you will know the difference, and you will know that you have seen the church.
We may talk about Ephesians 1:18-23, but neglect the spirit of revelation in verse 17. The spirit of revelation is not something that descends on you from the heavens after you have prayed for three nights. The spirit of revelation is within you already, but you need to take away all the veils that you might see. In order to know what a particular color is, it would be foolish for you to fast and pray, to cry out and weep, and to wait for the Lord to give you a vision. You have eyes to see; you simply need to take away all the veils and open your eyes. In the same way, if you take away all the veils from your spiritual eyes and turn to your spirit, you will see the church. Within you is the spirit of revelation, created by God and regenerated by the Holy Spirit. From my own experience and the experience of many others, I can tell you that our need is to turn to this spirit and take away all the veils that hinder our vision.
Many of our concepts and the teachings we have received in the past have become layers of veils that frustrate our vision and confuse us. In the matter of seeing the Body, it is as if we all see it through colored glasses. Our vision is colored by some of our particular experiences, or by the teachings of those who brought us to the Lord. Sometimes it seems as if this influence is in our very blood, and it is hard to get rid of those concepts and that influence in order that we may come to the Word with a pure spirit, with nothing coloring our vision and nothing veiling our sight. If we come to the pure Word with a transparent spirit, without any concepts from our background, it will be very easy for us to be clear about the Body. I can testify that it took me nearly twenty years to get rid of the influence of all the concepts and teachings from my background. May the Lord grant us all such a spirit to see the Body.
The matter of the Body is a matter in the spirit, not a matter in the mind or the emotions. It is natural for the brothers to be in their mind, and for the sisters to be in their emotions. Many believing sisters are hindered from being clear about the church because of their emotions. They make a decision about meeting with Christians based on their emotions, on their feelings. Unless these sisters would turn themselves to the spirit and forget their emotions, they cannot be clear about the local church. Their decision concerning the church is not based upon the spirit, but upon the emotion. We can never be clear about the church as long as we are not in the spirit.
The brothers need to turn themselves to the spirit, forgetting about the mind, and the sisters need to turn themselves to the spirit, forgetting about their emotion. In addition, there are some who are so strong in their will, so stubborn in their will, that they could not be clear about the Body either. When they make a decision, when their will is set, they would not be willing to be changed forever. It may seem that even the Lord could not change them. Such a person is so strong in the will that he could never be persuaded even by the clear word of God. Those who are stubborn in their will in this way could never be clear about the Body. All of us need to forget about what we feel, what we think, and what we decide, and turn ourselves to the spirit without any veils. If we turn to the spirit, if we turn to the Lord in such a way, then we come to the Word, right away we will be clear about the Body.