The Experience and Enjoyment of Christ in the Local Churches

Experiencing Christ in the Local Church

9. Experiencing Christ for the Oneness of the Body

To be genuinely one with the other members of the Body of Christ both locally and universally, it is imperative that we experience Christ. Concerning our experience of Christ for this oneness, Witness Lee says:

This practical building is also universally in the oneness of the Divine Trinity, prayed for by the Lord (John 17) and accomplished by His lovers (John 17:26b) for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy according to His good pleasure (Eph. 3:9-10; 1:9). There is the possibility of having the one accord in the local church and of enjoying the oneness universally in the Body of Christ. This all depends upon how much we love the Lord, how much we receive the Lord, how much we love His cross, and how much we live not by our energy, power, strength, and might, but by the power of His resurrection. The death of His cross and the power of His resurrection both are compounded in the compound Spirit (cf. Exo. 30:23-25). When we live by the Spirit and follow the Spirit, we have the cross and the power of Christ’s resurrection.

(Witness Lee, Constitution, 99)

To have this genuine oneness of the Body, we must take Christ as our center. Witness Lee points out this unifying principle in 1 Corinthians 1:10:

In the epistles, through the conditions manifested in the various local churches, the Lord shows us further what the one accord is. First Corinthians 1:10 says that we have to speak the same thing and to be attuned in the same mind and the same opinion. How can we speak the same thing and have the same mind and the same opinion? The whole book of 1 Corinthians shows us that this same speaking is Christ, and the same mind and same opinion are also Christ. In our daily life, if we take Christ as our center and everything, what we speak, think, and understand will all be Christ. This is the one accord, which is the practice of oneness. Some among the Corinthian believers said they were of Paul. Others said they were of Apollos. Still others said that they were of Cephas. Then some were smart enough to say that they were of Christ. They were of four things. In other words, there were four minds and four speakings with four results, which end in division. The oneness is gone, the Body of Christ is lost, and the building is no more. Hence, 1 Corinthians 1:10 deals with this matter so that we would be captured by the Lord and that there would no longer be Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, but only Christ. Everyone would be thinking about Christ and speaking about Christ, having Christ as his view, Christ as his way of speaking, and Christ as his opinion and judgment. Everything would be Christ. This Christ has become the life-giving Spirit in His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45b) and has become our enjoyment within. The practice of our oneness depends on Him. When we speak Him, consider Him, enjoy Him, and express Him, we will be harmonious and one.

(Witness Lee, Oneness and the One Accord, 16-17)

10. Experiencing Christ as our Rest at Home in the Church

The church is a real home, and thus a place of rest. The following is Witness Lee’s description of the local church life as a home and a place of rest to the believers:

Many of us can testify that we have found such enjoyment in the church life. We have enjoyed so many feasts. Also, when we came into the church life, we realized that we had come home. What is home? It is the place of rest. Many Christians who were seeking the Lord very much were simply wandering aimlessly before they came into the church life. However, once they came into the church life, they had the feeling that they were home…. In the local church we have the feast and we have the rest because the local church is the reality of the kingdom.

(Witness Lee, Kingdom, 222)

11. Experiencing the One who Makes us Gates for Entering into the Realities of the Holy City

Witness Lee explains how Christ’s death and resurrection produces us as gates through which others may enter the realities of the New Jerusalem:

The twelve gates of the city are twelve pearls, signifying that regeneration through the death-overcoming and life-secreting Christ is the entrance into the city. This also indicates that Christ’s death plus His resurrection will produce us to be the very entrance for people to come into the holy city. Today in the local churches there are some brothers who are like gates, through which people can enter into the realities of the holy city.

(Witness Lee, Constitution, 100)

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Described in OT

Revealed in OT

Revealed in NT

Portrayed in NT

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