When the Samaritan woman asked about the place of worship, the Lord clearly indicated that the hour has come to worship the Father in spirit. That the hour has come means that the age has changed. The former age was the age of typology; now is the age of reality. When Christ came, the age was changed from type to reality. In the age of reality it is no longer a matter of a material place, but of the human spirit in which all true worshippers of God may contact Him. Jerusalem today is not a place—it is our regenerated spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit and mingled together with the Holy Spirit as one spirit. This is the place God desires. Nothing is more desirable to our God than our mingled spirit. Here we have oneness, the church life, and here we enjoy the top portion of Christ.
Since today’s Jerusalem is not a material site, but our human spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit, some may wonder why there is still a difference between our enjoyment of Christ in our private life and our enjoyment of Him in the church life. In our private life we do enjoy Christ by our spirit, and in the church life we also enjoy Him by our spirit. The difference is that in our private life we enjoy Christ by our own spirit, but in the church life we enjoy Him by our spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit in a corporate way. Your individual spirit can only bear a limited amount of the enjoyment of Christ. To use an example from electricity, our spirit is like a transformer that can only bear a limited amperage. Your spirit cannot bear the unlimited amperage of the divine electrical current. In order to bear a higher amperage, that is, a greater enjoyment of Christ, you need the church. But if the church is very small, composed only of thirty-five people, the capacity of the church to bear the divine current will still be quite limited. Certainly the enjoyment of Christ is higher and richer in a church of five hundred than in a church of thirty-five. If all these five hundred saints are in the spirit, what great amperage of divine electricity there will be! Praise the Lord for the riches of Christ in the church life.
If you have seen the vision of the church, you will never be turned aside or cheated. This is not a matter of doctrine; it is absolutely a matter of the spirit and of enjoyment.
Where the church is, what the church is, and who the church is all depend upon the spirit and the real experience and enjoyment of Christ. We did not come to the church because we were drawn by doctrine, dead letters, or dogma, and we are not held in the church by such things. We are kept in the church by the spirit and by the enjoyment of our Christ in the mingled spirit.