The Experience and Enjoyment of Christ in the Local Churches

Enjoying Christ in the Local Church

6. The One who Makes Us Immovable and Helps Us in the Morning

Commenting further on Psalm 46, Witness Lee speaks of the local church’s enjoyment of the immovable God and of His help in the morning:

Then verse 5 says, “God is in the midst of her”—in the midst of the enlarged church. “She shall not be moved.” The earth will be moved and the mountains will be carried away, but the city will never be moved. Why? Because the immovable God is within her. God is immovable; so she is immovable. “God shall help her at the dawn of the morning.” If we are in the local church, we are in the morning; if we are outside the local church, we are simply in the night. In the church there is always the dawn of the morning, and when you are in the morning, God is your help. “God shall help her at the dawn of the morning,” after the night of trial.

(Witness Lee, Christ and the Church, 84)

7. Enjoying the Shelter of God’s Wings

In his exposition of Psalms 36 and 61, Witness Lee expresses the preciousness and sweetness of being sheltered beneath God’s wings in the local church:

In God’s house the saints are under the shadow of God’s wings, enjoying His precious lovingkindness: “How precious is thy lovingkindness, O God!” (Ps. 36:7).

(Witness Lee, Christ and the Church, 63)

Witness Lee, commenting further, notes:

Moreover, the saints long to abide in God’s tabernacle for ever and enjoy the shelter of God’s wings (Ps. 61:4). When we abide in the house of God, we are sheltered beneath God’s wings. What an enjoyment this is! God is like a great hen, and we are like little chicks abiding under His wings. We are sheltered by His wings, and we are also sheltered by His house. We are doubly sheltered. How safe it is! How sweet it is! I do believe many of you have this feeling when you are in the local church.

(Witness Lee, Christ and the Church, 95)

8. Looking upon God in His Sanctuary and Seeing His Power and His Glory

In his interpretation of Psalm 63, Witness Lee mentions several other aspects of our enjoyment of Christ in the local church:

In Psalm 63 we see a further aspect of the saints’ enjoyment of the house: They looked upon God in his sanctuary to see his power and his glory. “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is” (v. 1)….Perhaps you are in the local church now, and you sense that it is good, but you do not sense how wonderfully good it is. If, however, you are cut off from the local church and brought to a place where there is no church, at that time you will pray the words of the Psalmist in these verses. You will long to be where you have been in the past; you will thirst for God and yearn to see His power and glory as you have looked upon Him in the sanctuary. The sanctuary is not a dry and thirsty place; the house of God is not a place without water. In the sanctuary there is a river. Once you have looked upon the Lord in the sanctuary, once you have drunk of the river of God in the sanctuary and then are brought away to a dry place, at that time you will realize the difference. How grateful we all should be to be in the local church, where we may enjoy Him in the sanctuary. What enjoyment this is! Both these verses and our experience prove that the local churches are the places with water, places where we may look upon the Lord and see the power and glory of God.

(Witness Lee, Christ and the Church, 95-96)

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Described in OT

Revealed in OT

Revealed in NT

Portrayed in NT

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