Spiritual Understanding of the Church
The Church is Spiritual in Nature
Acts 1:8 says, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
God's plan is divine and must be activated and run on divine power, and that one power is the Holy Spirit who has been sent to glorify Christ and to testify of Him, that Christ in turn might bring all things to God's end purpose: Christ filling all in all. Each of us must come to the place of full surrender and giving of ourselves, or "dying to self," thus receiving life and living in that life which is the expression of Christ. To be filled with the Spirit is to let the Spirit have all, charging every part with His life. This is an indispensable truth of every true, healthy Christian life, and as we all partake of the same Spirit, we will see God's church move in the unity of the Spirit. The body of Christ is one because its members have one life.
Empowered by the Holy Ghost, we will be able to witness unto Christ in our local area, in surrounding areas, and then even unto the uttermost parts of the earth. God has designed for local churches to have a building-up ministry by the ministering gifts (Ephesians 4:11), and He has given apostles to establish other local churches. These men are separated by the Spirit for the work He has called them to. The Lord knows the needs of His body, and He is the one who gives gifts unto the church and works the revelation of Himself into those He has called. God's missionary program is controlled by the Spirit, with the local church being the place of preparation under the authority of the Head.
Many movements today have man as their foundation, but to see the true building of God, we must see Christ as the foundation. We must see that God is building by His Spirit. God has put divine functions and manifestations of Himself by the Spirit into His body, for the fulfillment of His own purpose. As we function and move by the Spirit, in God's time we will see the divine and eternal work done which God has purposed in His heart. The revelation of Christ in His body is from God. It tears down what man is building up, and puts the glory back where it belongs: in Christ Jesus. It takes away from the leadership and authority of man and puts it solely in Christ.
Some today are afraid of the real moving of the Spirit of God because it takes the control out of their hands and puts it into the hands of God where it belongs. When man strives by his own strength to build up his own movements, he can never know the peace of God. But we know there are many throughout the world who desire the word of God spoken to them by the Spirit, that they might move in the Spirit and in the will of God. Here we shall see the fulfillment of the desire God has put in the heart of each believer. We shall have righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Many throughout the world in times past have longed for the real moving of God's Spirit, and many still pray and desire to move in the fullness of God. But many are not willing to receive the word God gives. They question the word because of their own natural understanding, and then try to fulfill a spiritual building by natural means. God has not ordained the fulfillment of the spiritual building by natural means. He has ordained the spiritual to fulfill the spiritual desires of His heart. Through the supernatural He has ordained to bring about the purpose He has spoken in His Son.
Some do not believe that this will take place in our age, but Christ said He came that we might have life now, abundantly (John 10:10). This life is Christ Himself, as the scriptures bear out (Colossians 3:4; John 11:25) Christ came to give us Himself. As we partake of Him, no part of our self-life will be built into that which God has created in the one new man (Ephesians 2:15).
God has designed each member of the body of Christ to receive and to be led by the Spirit of God. By His Spirit He moves to bring about His one purpose through His one plan, the church, and no other. As we move moment by moment in God's plan, the Spirit directs the way we should go and the word He would speak through us. There must be a starting forth in faith, taking a leap into God's unknown (because we have not been this way before), before we will be able to see the glory and the revealing of the real body of Christ, and the movement of the Spirit, which the world has so longed for. Then we shall see the manifestation of the fullness of Christ in reality.
