Crystallization-Study Outlines

Ephesians
Message One
The Dispensing of Christ
for the Gradual Building Up of His Body
and the Transmitting of Christ
for the Sudden Raising Up of God’s Churches
Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:4-23
1. The dispensing of Christ to dispense all the riches of the
embodied Divine Trinity (Col. 2:9) into His believers is for the
gradual building up of the Body of Christ—Eph. 1:4-14:
1. The church as the Body of Christ is the issue of God the
Father’s dispensing, speaking forth God’s eternal purpose:
1. We were chosen by God the Father to be holy—v. 4:
1. This is for us to partake of God the Father’s holy
nature to be made the same as God in nature—
2 Pet. 1:4; Rom. 15:16; cf. Rev. 21:2.
2. This is to be sanctified, separated from all things
as God is and saturated with God—Rom. 15:16;
cf. Rev. 21:2:
1. 1) We need to love God and not love the
world (1 John 2:15), being separated from
the world by God’s word of truth (John
17:14-19; Eph. 5:26), not being fashioned
according to this age (Rom. 12:2a).
2. 2) We need to present ourselves to God
to be saturated by God with the element
of His holy nature (Rom. 6:19) unto the
eternal life (v. 22) to be renewed by the
Spirit for our transformation into the
 image of Christ (Titus 3:5b; Rom. 12:2b; 2
Cor. 3:18).
2. We were predestinated by God the Father unto
sonship—Eph. 1:5:
1. This is to have God the Father’s life (John 3:16),
being made God’s children, the same as God in
life by being born of God after God’s kind
through regeneration (1:12-13; 1 Pet. 1:3).
2. This is for our being “sonized” with God the
Father’s life in our entire tripartite being— 1
John 5:11-12; Rom. 8:10, 6, 11; 1 John 3:2.
3. God the Father chose us to be holy by predestinating
us unto sonship—Eph. 1:4-5:
1. This is the divine sanctification for the divine
sonship as the center of the divine economy
and the central thought of the revelation in the
New Testament—Heb. 2:10-11; 1 Thes. 5:23;
Rev. 21:2, 7.
2. In order to be sanctified for sonship, we must
care for the sanctifying Spirit speaking and
working in our spirit—Rom. 8:4, 6; 15:16.
2. The church as the Body of Christ is the issue of God the
Son’s dispensing, speaking forth the accomplishment of
God’s eternal purpose—Eph. 1:7-12:
1. We were redeemed by God in and unto Christ, who is
the element of the Divine Trinity; Christ’s being the
element means that He is for dispensing to
accomplish God’s economy to head up all things in
Christ—vv. 7, 10.
2. This heading up takes place by Him, as the element of
the entire Divine Trinity, dispensing Himself into us
 for the building up of His Body; when the Body is built
up, Christ is the Head in actuality— vv. 10, 22-23.
3. The Son’s dispensing in His redemption transforms
God’s chosen people with Christ as the element of life
into a treasure for them to become God’s inheritance,
His private and personal possession—v. 11.
3. The church as the Body of Christ is the issue of God the
Spirit’s dispensing, speaking forth the application of God’s
accomplished purpose—vv. 13-14:
1. The Spirit’s sealing saturates us continuously unto the
redemption of our body—v. 13; 4:30:
1. This sealing transforms us into a treasure to
God as His inheritance—1:18; cf. 2 Cor. 4:7;
Eph. 3:8.
2. The more we are sealed, the more we bear the
image of God—2 Cor. 3:18b; Col. 3:10; cf. 2 Cor.
3:3.
2. The Spirit’s pledging guarantees that God is our
inheritance—Eph. 1:14:
1. The Spirit is the pledge, the foretaste, the
sample, of what we will inherit of God in full— 1
Pet. 2:3; Psa. 34:8.
2. This pledging is unto the redemption of our
body as God’s acquired possession—Rom. 8:23.
2. The transmitting of Christ is for the sudden raising up of God’s
churches—Eph. 1:19-23:
1. Paul prayed that we would have a spirit of wisdom and
revelation to see the fourfold surpassing greatness of God’s
power—resurrecting power, ascending power, subjecting
power, and heading-up power—v. 17:
 1. Christ overcame four layers of opposition by
transcending through Hades, the earth, the air, and
even the third heaven—Matt. 16:18; Acts 2:24; Eph.
1:21; Heb. 4:14; 7:26.
2. Christ transcended far above all the layers of trouble
to transmit not only His authority but also His
transcending power to the church that the church
may be formed—Eph. 1:19, 22-23.
2. The sudden raising up of God’s churches over the whole
earth is because of the transmission of the transcending
Christ:
1. The fine dispensing in the Lord’s dealings with us
constitutes the Body of Christ, whereas His
transmitting brings forth the Body of Christ:
1. Christ as the Spirit of life is gradually dispensing
Himself as the element of God’s riches for the
growth, the building up, of the Body.
2. Christ as the Spirit of power is striking suddenly
to raise up the churches of God for the spread,
the increase, of the Body.
2. His transmission is like that of a rushing violent wind
to set up the churches, which are the Body of Christ—
Acts 2:2:
1. On the day of Pentecost, such a step was taken
by the ascended Christ to have a sudden
“strike” among the human race—vv. 1-11, 16-
21, 41-47.
2. This sudden “striking” brings the churches into
being and makes them transcendent over all
the four layers of persons, matters, and things
which oppose the raising up of God’s churches
 — cf. 4:19-31.
3. Since the transcending Christ is the embodiment of the
Triune God, His transcending transmission includes all the
rich threefold dispensing of the Triune God—Eph. 3:20-21;
Phil. 4:13.
Message Two
The Economy of the Fullness of the Times
to Head Up All Things in Christ through the Church
Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:3-10, 22-23;
Rev. 21:1-2, 23-25; 22:1-2a
1. God’s eternal intention is to head up all things in Christ, who has
been appointed to be the universal Head—Eph. 1:10, 22:
1. It is God’s eternal purpose that in the economy of the
fullness of the times, He might head up all things in Christ—
v. 10.
2. Through the dispensations of God in all the ages, all things
will be headed up in Christ in the new heaven and new
earth; this will be God’s eternal administration and
economy—Rev. 21:1-2.
3. God has blessed us, chosen us, predestinated us, redeemed
us, forgiven us, and graced us for the purpose of heading up
all things in Christ—Eph. 1:3-10.
2. Satan’s goal is to corrupt God’s creation and to cause confusion—
Rom. 8:19-23:
1. When Satan injected himself into man, Satan became death
and darkness to man; sin brings in death, death brings in
darkness, and darkness brings in confusion.
2. The entire universe is a heap of collapse caused by Satan
injecting himself as the factor of death into God’s creation
 —Heb. 2:14; Rom. 8:20-21.
3. God is working to liberate His creation from bondage and to
bring it into liberty by heading up all things in Christ—Eph.
1:22, 10.
3. We all need to be delivered from the heap of collapse and to be
headed up in Christ—Col. 1:12-13:
1. The collapse of the universe caused by the rebellion of
Satan and the fall of man gives God an excellent
opportunity to manifest His wisdom—Eph. 1:8; 3:10; Rom.
11:33.
2. According to the Bible, God’s salvation is to save us not only
from our fallen, sinful condition but also from the heap of
collapse—Eph. 2:1-8, 21-22.
4. God is heading up His chosen ones to be the Body of Christ with
Christ as the Head—1:4, 22-23:
1. The first step in the heading up of all things in Christ is for
God to bring His chosen ones, His sons, out of the universal
collapse and to place them under the headship of Christ—
1:22; 4:15; 5:23; Col. 1:18; 2:10, 19.
2. When the church takes the lead to be headed up in Christ,
God has a way to head up all other things— Eph. 1:22-23,
10:
1. The church is the vessel used by God to solve His
problems and to fulfill His purpose, which is to
manifest Himself through man by mingling Himself
with man—3:9-11.
2. Eventually, the Body with Christ as the Head will be
the universal Head over all things—1:22-23.
3. The church life is a life of being headed up—4:15.
5. God’s economy is to dispense Himself into man and to work
Himself into man—3:9, 16-17a:
1. In Christ God has come to work Himself into man—not into
man as originally created by Him but into the man into
whom Satan has injected himself.
2. God’s purpose with the church is to work Himself into us as
life that we may be full of light—5:8-9.
3. We need the element of God to be wrought into our being
—3:16-17a.
6. God is working Himself into His chosen ones through an
administration which is a sweet dispensing, an intimate
stewardship, a comfortable household arrangement—1:10; 3:2; 1
Tim. 1:4; 3:15:
1. The heading up of all things in Christ does not take place by
a governmental administration; rather, it comes about by
an intimate stewardship, by a comfortable household
arrangement—Eph. 3:2.
2. The way to behave in God’s house is to have a pleasant
household administration, an intimate stewardship, and to
dispense Christ to all the members of God’s household—1
Tim. 3:15; 1:4.
3. God’s abounding grace will accomplish the heading up of all
things in Christ; this abounding grace is working on us so
that all things might be headed up in Christ— Eph. 1:7-8,
10.
4. The more we, God’s inheritance, are saturated with the
Spirit as a living seal, the more heading up there will be in
the universe—vv. 11, 13.
7. The heading up in the church life is by life and light—John 1:4;
8:12:
 1. God’s way of recovery is Christ versus Satan, life versus
death, light versus darkness, and order versus confusion.
2. God’s way to recover the oneness among His creation is to
impart Himself into us as life—Rom. 8:6, 10-11, 19-21.
3. In order to be delivered from the heap of collapse in a
practical way, we need to grow in life; the more we grow in
life, the more we will be headed up and the more we will be
rescued from the universal collapse— Eph. 4:15; Col. 2:19.
4. When God comes into us as life, the light of life shines
within us—John 1:4:
1. This life swallows death, and this light dispels the
darkness—8:12.
2. If we are in the life and under the light, we will be
delivered out of confusion and brought into order,
harmony, and oneness.
3. When we are full of Christ as life, we are under the
light and are controlled by the power of light.
8. In the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem as the
center, all things will be headed up in Christ; this will be the
complete fulfillment of Ephesians 1:10—Rev. 21:2-3, 23-25; 22:1-
2a:
1. In the New Jerusalem everything will be saturated with life
and will be under light—22:1; 21:23.
2. In Revelation 21 we see the Head, the Body surrounding the
Head, and all the nations walking in the light of the city; the
whole universe will be headed up in the light shown
through the transparent city—v. 18.
Message Three
The Vision of the New Man as the Masterpiece of God
Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26; Eph. 2:14-16; 4:22-24
1. God’s intention in His creation of man was to have a corporate
man to express Him and to represent Him—Gen. 1:26; Eph. 2:15:
1. God created man in His own image for His expression and
gave man His dominion that man would represent Him to
deal with His enemy—Gen. 1:26.
2. The church as the new man in the new creation bears God’s
image for God’s expression and fights against God’s enemy
for God’s kingdom—Col. 3:10-11; Eph. 2:15; 4:24; 6:10-20.
3. What was divided and scattered in the old man is recovered
in the new man—Gen. 11:5-9; Acts 2:5-12; Col. 3:10-11.
2. The new man as the poem, the masterpiece, of God was created
through Christ’s death on the cross— Eph. 2:10, 15-16:
1. We need to pay careful attention to two phrases in verse
15: in His flesh and in Himself:
1. “In His flesh” Christ terminated all the negative things
in the universe (Satan, the devil, the enemy of God—
Heb. 2:14; sin—Rom. 8:3; John 1:29; the flesh of
fallen man—Gal. 5:24; the world, the cosmos, the evil
system of Satan—John 12:31; the old creation
represented by the old man—Rom. 6:6; and the
separating ordinances of the law—Eph. 2:15).
2. “In Himself” as the sphere, element, and essence,
Christ created the Jews and the Gentiles into one new
man:
1. Christ is not only the Creator of the one new
man, the church, but also the sphere in which
and the element and essence with which the
new man was created.
2. He is the very element and essence of the one
 new man, making God’s divine nature one
entity with humanity—cf. Col. 3:10-11.
2. In the creating of the new man, first our natural man was
crucified by Christ, and then through the crossing out of the
old man, Christ imparted the divine element into us,
causing us to become a new entity, a new invention of God
—Rom. 6:6; 2 Cor. 5:17.
3. On the cross Christ created the new man in Himself by abolishing
in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, the
middle wall of partition— Eph. 2:14-15:
1. The law spoken of in 2:15 is not the law of the moral
commandments but the law of the ritual commandments,
such as the ordinances of circumcision, keeping the
Sabbath, and eating certain foods.
2. Ordinances are the forms or ways of living and worship,
which create enmity and division:
1. On the cross Christ abolished all the regulations
regarding living and worship, regulations that have
divided the nations—v. 15; Col. 2:14.
2. From the time of Babel, mankind has been divided by
ordinances concerning the ways of living and worship;
in God’s economy in the church life, we must
overcome Babel—Gen. 11:1-9:
1. Christ should be our only source; we should not
allow anything of our background, culture, or
nationality to be our source—cf. Col. 3:10-11.
2. The worldly people regard cultural differences
as a source of prestige, but in Christ we have
lost this prestige; now our only prestige is Christ
and the genuine oneness.
3. If we are willing to let go of our cultural pride, it
 will be possible for the Lord to have the proper
church life.
4. In the one new man, Christ is all the members and is in all the
members—Col. 3:10-11:
1. The Christ who dwells in us is the constituent of the one
new man—1:27; 3:11:
1. Because Christ is all the members of the new man,
there is no possibility, no room, for any natural
person (for any race, nationality, culture, or social
status) in the new man—vv. 10-11.
2. No matter what kind of person we may be, as far as
the one new man is concerned, we all are nobodies.
3. In the one new man there is only one person—the all-
inclusive Christ—2:17; 3:4, 11.
2. For the new man we all need to take Christ as our person—
Eph. 2:15; 3:17a:
1. As the Body of Christ, the church needs Christ as its
life; as the one new man, the church needs Christ as
its person.
2. Christ is in all of us as one person; therefore, we all
have only one person—Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:17a.
3. For the practical existence of the one new man, the
total person of the old man must be put away, and
we must live by our new person—Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20;
Eph. 4:22, 24; 3:17a:
1. We need to live a life in the new man by taking
Christ as our person, with Him as the One
making all the decisions in us.
2. Once we see that we are a part of the one new
 man, we will not be able to decide things
merely by ourselves.
3. We need to see that we are a corporate Body
and a corporate new man and that both our
living (person) and our moving (life) are
corporate—1 Cor. 12:12; Rom. 12:4-5.
4. We need to consider one new man in Ephesians 2:15
together with one mouth in Romans 15:6 and speak
the same thing in 1 Corinthians 1:10:
1. In the past there were too many mouths
because there were too many persons.
2. With one accord and with one mouth (Rom.
15:6) mean that even though we are many and
all are speaking, we all speak the same thing (1
Cor. 1:10).
3. Although we are many and come from many
places, we all have one mouth and we all speak
the same thing; this is because we all are the
one new man having only one person—Eph.
2:15; 4:22-24; 3:17a; Rom. 15:6; 1 Cor. 1:10.

Message Four
The Renewing, the Perfecting, and
the Living of the New Man
Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:13, 15, 20-32; Rom. 12:2; Col. 3:10-11
1. Christ created the one new man on the cross, but the believers
need to partake of this creation by putting off the old man and
putting on the new man through renewing—Eph. 2:15-16; 4:22-
24:
1. Because the new man was created with us who belong to
 the old creation, he needs to be renewed; this renewing
takes place mainly in our mind—Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:23.
2. When the new creation took place in our spirit at the time
of regeneration, the Holy Spirit with the divine life was
added into our being—2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; John 3:6:
1. This addition of the Spirit and the divine life produced
a new being, a new man—Eph. 2:15; 4:24.
2. The regeneration of our spirit was actually the
creation of the new man; therefore, in our spirit the
new man has already been created.
3. Although our spirit has been regenerated, our soul with its
faculties of mind, will, and emotion remains in the old
creation and still needs to be renewed—Rom. 12:2; Eph.
4:23:
1. Newness is God; thus, to become new is to become
God—2 Cor. 5:17.
2. The renewing Spirit imparts the divine essence of the
new man into our being to make us a new creation—
Titus 3:5.
4. When the life-giving Spirit, who is mingled with our
regenerated human spirit, spreads into our mind, this
mingled spirit becomes the spirit of our mind; it is by this
mingled spirit that our mind is renewed—1 Cor. 6:17; Eph.
4:23:
1. By the spirit of the mind, we are renewed to fulfill in
experience what was accomplished in the putting off
of the old man and the putting on of the new man—
vv. 22, 24.
2. To be renewed in the spirit of our mind is inward and
intrinsic; this renewing revolutionizes our logic,
philosophy, thought, concept, and psychology—Rom.
 12:2.
3. In order for the one new man to come into full
existence, we must experience a thorough renewal of
our mind, which has been built up according to our
nationality and culture.
4. When our mind has been renewed, the one new man
will come into existence in a practical way, and Christ
will be all and in all—Col. 3:10-11.
2. Ephesians 4 is a chapter that speaks of the perfecting of the new
man through the growth of life:
1. The new man created by Christ must be perfected in order
to function.
2. In Ephesians 2:15 we see the creation of the new man
organically; in 4:13-16 we see the perfecting of the new
man in relation to his function.
3. The organically perfect new man needs to be perfected
through the growth of life in order to function in a proper
way—vv. 13, 15, 24:
1. It is through the growth in life that the new man
comes into function.
2. The more the new man grows through receiving the
proper nourishment, the more he will function
normally.
3. The growth into Christ in verse 15 equals the putting
on of the new man in verse 24; the more we grow
into Christ, the more we put on the new man.
4. If we would be perfected for the practical existence of the
one new man, we need to be constituted with Christ—
3:17a.
 5. In order for the new man to grow, we need to experience
the crucified, resurrected, ascended, and descending Christ
so that the all-inclusive Christ is wrought into us to be our
everything; then the organically perfect new man will
become perfect functionally.
3. The living of the new man should be exactly the same as the living
of Jesus; the way Jesus lived on earth is the way the new man
should live today— 4:20-21:
1. When we are renewed in the spirit of our mind to execute
the fact of having put off the old man and having put on the
new man, we live a life that corresponds to the life of Jesus,
a life according to the reality that is in Jesus:
1. Jesus lived a life in which He did everything in God,
with God, and for God; God was in His living, and He
was one with God.
2. For us to live a life according to the reality that is in
Jesus means that we learn Christ and are taught in
Him to live a life of reality, a life in the shining of light
and in the expression of God—vv. 20-21; Matt. 11:29.
3. The life of the new man must be that of the reality in
Jesus; as a corporate person, the new man should live
a life as Jesus did, a life of reality expressing God and
causing God to be realized by man.
4. Our standard of living must be according to the reality
in Jesus, the reality lived out by Jesus when He was on
earth; hence, the life of Jesus should be our life today
in the church.
2. The church life is the daily living of the new man in the new
nature and in the new manner of life—Eph. 4:24:
1. The new man is the practical church life, which is
Christ as the life-giving Spirit mingled with our spirit in
 a corporate way:
1. To put on the church life as the new man is to
put on a corporate entity produced by the
mingling of the divine Spirit with our human
spirit.
2. In this marvelous corporate entity, there is only
Christ Himself as the all-inclusive, life-giving
Spirit mingled with our spirit—Col. 3:10-11.
2. Ephesians 4:17-32 was written in relation to the
corporate living of the one new man; the new man
must become our daily living in the divine life.
3. The church life is the daily life of the corporate new
man with a new nature and a new manner;
everything related to the new man is new.
4. If we walk according to the spirit of our mind, we will
live the corporate life of the new man, living a
community life in which everything is new.
5. Living according to the spirit of the mind is the key to
the daily living of the corporate new man.

Message Five
God’s Eternal Purpose,
His Eternal Economy
Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:3-5, 8-11; 1 Cor. 1:30
1. God’s eternal purpose is His eternal economy, His administrative
plan, to distribute Himself into His chosen people to make them
the same as He is in life and nature but not in the Godhead for His
enlarged and expanded expression—Eph. 3:2, 8-11:
1. The forty-two chapters of the book of Job leave us with a
twofold question concerning the purpose of God in creating
 man and the purpose of God in dealing with His chosen
people—1:1; 10:13; 13:3-4:
1. The great answer to this great question is the eternal
economy of God, which is God’s eternal intention
with His heart’s desire to dispense Himself in His
Divine Trinity as the Father in the Son by the Spirit
into His chosen people to be their life and nature that
they may become the same as He is for His fullness,
His expression—Eph. 3:9; Gen. 1:26; 1 Tim. 1:3-4;
Eph. 1:22-23; 3:19.
2. God’s purpose in dealing with His lovers, even in the
way of loss, is that they may gain Him to the fullest
extent, that He might be expressed through them for
the fulfillment of His eternal purpose in His creation
of man—Rom. 8:28-29; 2 Cor. 4:16; cf. Jer. 48:11.
2. God’s intention in His creation of all things, including man,
was that man would be mingled with God to produce the
church as the Body of Christ to consummate the New
Jerusalem for His glorious expression—Zech. 12:1; Rev.
4:11; 19:7; 21:2:
1. The church as the mystery of Christ was hidden in
God, who created all things, throughout the ages—
Eph. 3:4, 9; Col. 2:2; 1:27; 1 Tim. 3:16.
2. The church, something particular hidden in God as a
mystery, which was not made known to men in other
generations, has been revealed to the apostles and
prophets in their spirit by revelation in the New
Testament age—Eph. 3:3-5; 1:17.
2. By the dispensing of Christ, as wisdom to us from God, into our
entire tripartite being, we become constituted with Him to be the
church as the wise exhibition of all that Christ is—1 Cor. 1:24, 30;
Eph. 3:10:
 1. Christ became wisdom to us from God as three vital things
in our salvation:
1. Christ is our righteousness (for our past), by which we
have been justified by God, that we might be reborn
in our spirit to receive the divine life—Rom. 5:18;
8:10.
2. Christ is our sanctification (for our present), by which
we are being sanctified in our soul, that is,
transformed in our mind, emotion, and will, with His
divine life—6:19, 22; 8:6.
3. Christ is our redemption (for our future), that is, the
redemption of our body, by which we will be
transfigured in our body with His divine life to have
His glorious likeness—v. 23; Phil. 3:21.
4. It is of God that we participate in such a complete and
perfect salvation, which makes our entire being—
spirit, soul, and body—organically one with Christ and
makes Christ everything to us—1 John 3:2.
2. When God’s chosen people partake of and enjoy the
unsearchable riches of Christ, they are constituted with
those riches to be the church, through which God’s
multifarious wisdom is made known to the angelic rulers
and authorities in the heavenlies—Eph. 3:8, 10.
3. God’s eternal purpose, the purpose of eternity, according
to the desire of His heart, is to have the church to be the
organic Body of Christ for the manifestation of His
multifarious wisdom—1:9-11, 22-23; 3:9-11.
3. The church as the Body of Christ is the center of God’s eternal
purpose, His eternal economy; the church is the goal of God and
the target of the enemy—vv. 4, 9-11; Matt. 16:18:
1. The Body is the intrinsic significance of the church— Eph.
 1:22-23:
1. The Body of Christ is the organic essence of the
church, just as apples are the organic essence of an
apple tree as the frame.
2. The Body of Christ is the divine constitution of the
Triune God with the believers in Christ—4:4-6.
2. The church as the Body of Christ is the unique means used
by God to fulfill His purpose and settle all His problems—cf.
Gen. 1:26:
1. The church in the economy of God is for the
expression, the glory, of God the Father in the divine
sonship with the Father’s life and nature—Eph. 1:4-5;
John 17:22-24:
1. The Father imparts His holy nature into us to
make us as holy as He is to be the holy city— 2
Pet. 1:4; 1 Pet. 1:15-16; Heb. 2:10-11; Rev. 21:2.
2. The Father imparts His divine life into us to
make us His sons, having Christ as our life, that
we may grow in this life unto the maturity of
life to be the city of life—Eph. 4:15-16; Heb. 6:1;
Rev. 22:1-2.
2. The church in the economy of God is God’s greatest
boast in making known to the angelic rulers and
authorities His multifarious wisdom for the shame
and defeat of His enemy to bring in His kingdom—
Eph. 3:10; Rom. 16:20:
1. Only through problems can all the aspects of
God’s wisdom be manifested—cf. Gen. 1:1-3; 2
Cor. 4:6; Rom. 11:30-36.
2. Even our failures, mistakes, defeats, and
wrongdoings have given God opportunities to
 display His wisdom—cf. Psa. 51; John 18:17, 25,
27.
3. The church in the economy of God is for the heading
up of all things in Christ through the working of
Himself into us as life that we may be full of light—
Eph. 1:10, 22-23:
1. When we enjoy Christ as life, the church is built
up by this life, and we are under the control of
the light of life for our oneness under Christ’s
headship—4:15; John 8:12; Col. 1:13.
2. When everything is headed up in Christ, there
will be absolute peace and harmony (Isa. 2:4;
11:6; 55:12; Psa. 96:12-13), a full rescue out of
the heap of the universal collapse.

Message Six
Christ Making His Home in Our Hearts
Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:14-21
1. God’s eternal purpose is to work Himself into us as our life and
our everything so that we may take Him as our person, live Him,
and express Him; this is the desire of God’s heart and the focal
point of the Bible—Eph. 1:9; 3:11; Phil. 1:20-21a:
1. God’s economy according to His heart’s desire is to build
Himself into man and to build man into Himself—2 Sam.
7:12-14a; Eph. 3:17a.
2. God’s unique work, His central work, is to work Himself in
Christ into His chosen people, making Himself one with
them—Gal. 4:19.
3. We need God to build Himself in Christ into our humanity,
working Himself into us as our life, our nature, and our
 person—Eph. 3:17a.
4. God’s intention is to work Christ into us as the Spirit, that
Christ may be expressed through His Body and head up the
whole universe under His headship— vv. 16-19; 1:22-23, 10.
2. In 1:15-23 Paul’s prayer is for the saints to receive revelation
concerning the church; in 3:14-21 his prayer is for the saints to
experience Christ for the church:
1. The spirit in 1:17 is for revelation, whereas the inner man in
3:16 is for experience.
2. In 3:16 our spirit is a person, the inner man, for us to
experience Christ for the church; by this person we can
experience Christ that the church may be built up.
3. As a person, our spirit is for us to live by and experience
what we have seen.
3. In order to experience Christ in a subjective way, we need to be
strengthened with power into the inner man—v. 16:
1. The inner man is our regenerated spirit with God’s life as its
life.
2. We need to be strengthened into the inner man with the
power that raised Christ from the dead, that seated Him in
the heavenlies, that subjected all things under His feet, and
that gave Him to be Head over all things to the church—
1:19-22.
3. The more we are strengthened into the inner man, the
more the parts of our inner being are brought back into our
inner man.
4. Paul prayed that we would be strengthened into the inner man
with the result that Christ could make His home in our hearts and
thereby occupy, possess, permeate, and saturate our whole inner
being with Himself—3:17a:
 1. Since our heart is the totality of our inward parts, the
center of our inward being, and our representative with
regard to our inclination, affection, delight, and desire,
when Christ makes His home in our hearts, He controls our
entire inward being and supplies and strengthens every
inward part with Himself.
2. The more Christ spreads within us, the more He settles
down in us and makes His home in us, occupying every part
of our inner being, possessing all these parts, and saturating
them with Himself.
3. In order for the revelation in Ephesians 2 concerning the
new man to be practical in our daily life, we need to let
Christ make His home in our hearts.
4. For Christ to make His home in our hearts means that He is
transmitted into us in a full way—1:22.
5. When Christ spreads into our hearts, He becomes our person—
3:17a:
1. We need to take Christ not only as life in our spirit but also
as the person in our hearts.
2. The only way for Christ to be our person is for Him to make
His home in our hearts.
3. If we take Christ as our person, allowing Him to spread into
our hearts, the person living in our hearts will not be the
self but Christ—Gal. 2:20.
6. The Christ who is making His home in our hearts is an unlimited,
immeasurable Christ—Eph. 3:18:
1. As Christ makes His home in our hearts, we apprehend with
all the saints the breadth, the length, the height, and the
depth; these are the dimensions of the universe, the
dimensions of the immeasurable Christ.
 2. Although Christ is immeasurable, He is nevertheless making
His home in our hearts.
3. Christ is the universal cube, and our experience of Him in
the Body must be “cubical,” three-dimensional.
7. When Christ makes His home in our hearts, we will be filled unto
all the fullness of God—v. 19:
1. The fullness of God is the Body of Christ as the expression
of the Triune God to the uttermost, the ultimate
consummation of the corporate expression of the Triune
God.
2. The Body of Christ is the unlimited expression of the
unlimited Christ.
3. If we let Christ make His home in our hearts, we will be
filled with the Triune God to such an extent that we will
become His full expression.
8. The genuine church life is the issue of the unlimited and
immeasurable Christ personally making His home in our hearts—
v. 17a; 4:16:
1. The content of the church is the Christ whom we take as
our person, the Christ who is wrought into our being.
2. If we would have the reality of the Body of Christ, we must
allow Christ to make His home in our hearts.
3. In order for Christ’s word in Matthew 16:18 concerning the
building up of the church to be fulfilled, the church must
enter into a state where many saints allow Christ to make
His home in their hearts, possessing, occupying, and
saturating their entire inner being.
4. The more Christ occupies our inner being, the more we will
be able to be built up with others in the Body— Eph. 2:21-
22; 4:16.
Message Seven
The Intrinsic Constitution and
the Genuine Oneness of the Body of Christ
Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:1-6
1. Ephesians 4:4-6 reveals the intrinsic constitution of the Body of
Christ:
1. The intrinsic constitution of the Body of Christ is the union,
mingling, and incorporation of the processed and
consummated Triune God with a group of tripartite men
whom He has redeemed judicially and saved organically—
vv. 4-6; Rom. 5:10:
1. The believers who are redeemed, regenerated,
sanctified, renewed, and transformed by God are this
divine-human constitution’s outward framework.
2. The processed and consummated Triune God is this
divine-human constitution’s inward source, element,
and essence—Eph. 4:4-6:
1. The Father of the Triune God is the source of
the inward element—v. 6.
2. The Son of the Triune God is the inward
element itself—v. 5.
3. The Spirit of the Triune God is the essence of
the inward element—v. 4.
4. All three are dispensed, transfused, and built
into God’s redeemed, regenerated, sanctified,
renewed, and transformed believers.
5. These believers and the redeeming and
transforming Triune God are constituted into
one entity as the organic Body of Christ, being
 God yet man and man yet God—vv. 3-4a.
6. These four—the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and
man—blended and built together become the
Body of Christ.
2. The intrinsic constitution of the Body of Christ is a hybrid
entity of divinity united, mingled, and incorporated with
humanity:
1. The Triune God, who possesses divinity with
humanity, is united, mingled, and incorporated with
the tripartite man, who possesses humanity with
divinity—Rom. 8:6, 10-11.
2. Divinity is begotten in humanity, living in humanity,
expressed in humanity, and constituted into humanity
to be man’s dwelling place; humanity is begotten of
divinity, living by divinity, expressing divinity, and
built into divinity to be God’s dwelling place—1 Tim.
3:15b-16; John 15:5; Rev. 21:3, 22.
3. The Spirit as the essence of the Triune God is the essence of
the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:4:
1. The essence of the Body of Christ, containing the
divinity of the Triune God, has the capacity to supply
the divine life—Phil. 1:19.
2. The essence of the Body of Christ, containing the
excelling humanity of Jesus, has the capacity to
supply this excelling humanity—Acts 16:7.
3. The essence of the Body of Christ, containing the all-
inclusive death of Christ, has the capacity to put to
death the negative things—Rom. 8:13b.
4. The essence of the Body of Christ, containing the
surpassing resurrection of Christ, has the surpassing
capacity of resurrection—Phil. 3:10.
 4. The Spirit as the reality of the Triune God is the reality of
the Body of Christ:
1. The reality of the processed Triune God is the
consummated Spirit of reality—John 14:17; 15:26;
16:13; 1 John 5:6.
2. The Spirit of reality makes everything of the
processed Triune God a reality in the Body of Christ—
John 16:13-15.
3. Without the Spirit there is no Body of Christ, no
church—Eph. 4:4.
2. Ephesians 4:4-6 reveals the genuine oneness of the Body of
Christ:
1. The aspiration of the Lord’s desire for this genuine oneness
became His specific prayer before He went to the cross—
John 17:2, 6, 11b, 14-23:
1. This prayer reveals that the Triune God is one, and
that oneness of coinherence is a model of the
oneness of the Body of Christ—vv. 11, 21.
2. The oneness of the Body of Christ is the enlarged
oneness of the Divine Trinity—vv. 22-23; 14:20; 1 Cor.
12:12.
2. The processed and consummated Triune God mingles
Himself with His chosen people in their humanity, and this
mingling is the genuine oneness; because it is such a
mingling, the Body itself is the oneness—Eph. 4:4; Rom.
12:5.
3. This oneness is composed of four factors by two means
with one goal:
1. The three of the Triune God—the Father, the Son,
and the Spirit—are three divine factors of this
 oneness, and these three divine factors are mingled
with one human factor, consummating in the Body:
1. The oneness is composed of one Body, one
Spirit, one Lord, and one God as its four factors
—Eph. 4:4-6.
2. The mingling of these four factors is the
oneness of the Spirit—v. 3.
2. The one faith and one baptism are the two means to
accomplish this oneness—v. 5:
1. Faith is the means for the Body to be joined to
Christ the Head.
2. Baptism is the means for the Body to be
separated from Adam, the old head.
3. The oneness of the Spirit has the one hope of our
calling as the goal; this goal is for the Body to be
brought into the divine glory of the processed Triune
God, who is mingled with the Body—v. 4; Col. 1:27;
Phil. 3:21.
3. This oneness, the oneness of the Spirit, must be kept diligently by
all the believers in Christ with the transformed human virtues
strengthened and enriched by and with the divine attributes—
Eph. 4:1-3:
1. The oneness of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself who is in our
spirit—v. 3:
1. In the uniting Spirit there is the humanity of Jesus, in
whom these transformed virtues are found— Rom.
12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18.
2. In the church life, what is required is virtue, which is
much higher than the morality in human society—cf.
Gen. 2:9; Matt. 5:40-42, 48; 6:6.
 3. If we act apart from the Spirit, we are divisive and
lose the oneness—cf. 1 Cor. 1:10; 2:14-15; 3:1.
4. If we stay in the life-giving Spirit, we keep the oneness
of the Spirit—cf. John 4:24; 1 Cor. 6:17.
2. The keeping of the oneness of the Spirit, the oneness in
actuality, is the one accord; this is so that we may arrive at
the oneness in practicality, the oneness of the faith and of
the full knowledge of the Son of God— Psa. 133; Eph. 4:13.

Message Eight
The Intrinsic Building Up
of the Organic Body of Christ
Scripture Reading: Eph. 4:7-16
1. The intrinsic building up of the organic Body of Christ is by the
giving, the dispensing, of the divine grace according to the
measure of the gift of Christ— Eph. 4:7:
1. Every member of the Body of Christ is an indispensable gift
to the Body—1 Cor. 12:14-22; Rom. 12:4-5.
2. The gift of Christ is a person constituted with Christ’s life
and element dispensed into him by the Divine Trinity—cf. 2
Cor. 1:15.
3. Each gifted person has a measure, and the divine grace is
given, dispensed, into him according to that measure—Eph.
4:16; cf. Rom. 12:3.
2. The intrinsic building up of the organic Body of Christ is by the
giving of the gifted persons, such as apostles, prophets,
evangelists, and shepherds and teachers, who are constituted in
the dispensing of the Divine Trinity, by Christ as the Head in His
ascension (including His resurrection), to the Body of Christ—Eph.
4:8-12; Acts 2:24, 27; 1:9:
1. Ephesians 4:8 says, “Having ascended to the height, He led
captive those taken captive and gave gifts to men”:
1. “Height” in the quotation from Psalm 68:18 refers to
Mount Zion (vv. 15-16), symbolizing the third heaven,
where God dwells (1 Kings 8:30).
2. Psalm 68 implies that it was in the ark that God
ascended to Mount Zion after the ark had won the
victory (Num. 10:35); this portrays how Christ has
won the victory and ascended triumphantly to the
heavens.
3. Through His universal traffic and in His ascension,
Christ led as captives those who had been taken
captive by Satan and made them gifts to His Body—
Eph. 4:8-11:
1. The redeemed saints had been taken captive by
Satan before they were saved by Christ’s death
and resurrection—cf. Luke 4:18.
2. In His ascension Christ led them captive; that is,
He rescued them from Satan’s captivity and
took them to Himself—Psa. 68:18.
3. In His ascension Christ led them to the heavens
as His captives in His train of vanquished foes
and made them gifts to His Body.
4. Now Christ is celebrating His triumph over
them, His vanquished foes, and leading them as
His captives in a triumphal procession in His
move for His ministry to build up His Body— 2
Cor. 2:14.
2. The more Christ ascends and descends within us, capturing
and vanquishing us, the more He fills us with Himself to
constitute us as gifts to His Body— cf. Eph. 4:8-10.
3. The intrinsic building up of the organic Body of Christ is by the
gifted persons’ perfecting of the saints in the divine dispensing,
that all the saints may be able to do the work of the New
Testament ministry, that is, to build up the Body of Christ— vv.
11-12:
1. The gifted persons perfect the saints by nourishing them
according to the tree of life with the life supply for their
growth in life—Gen. 2:9; 1 Cor. 3:2, 6.
2. The gifted persons perfect the saints to do what they do for
the direct building up of the Body of Christ— Matt. 16:18;
Eph. 4:11-12; cf. 1 Tim. 1:16; 4:12:
1. The apostles perfect the saints by visiting the
churches (Acts 15:36, 40-41; 20:20, 31), by writing
epistles to the churches (Col. 4:16; 1 Cor. 1:2), and by
assigning their co-workers to stay in certain places to
perfect the saints (1 Tim. 1:3-4; 3:15; Titus 1:5).
2. The prophets perfect the saints by teaching them to
speak the Lord into people, by speaking in the
meetings to set up a model, and by helping the saints
to live a prophesying life by being revived every
morning and overcoming every day—Acts 13:1; 1 Cor.
14:31; Prov. 4:18.
3. The evangelists perfect the saints by stirring them up
to be burning in the gospel-preaching spirit, by
teaching them with the gospel truths, by training
them to preach the gospel, by helping the saints to be
equipped with the power of the economical Spirit,
and by setting an example of loving the sinners and
praying for them—2 Tim. 4:5.
4. The shepherd-teachers perfect the saints by
shepherding—feeding and nourishing the young
saints and teaching the growing saints—Acts 11:25-
 26; 13:1.
3. The result of this perfecting is that we will all arrive at the
oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of
God, at a full-grown man, and at the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ—Eph. 4:13; cf. John 17:23.
4. This perfecting will cause us to be no longer little children
tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of
teaching in the sleight of men, in craftiness with a view to a
satanic system of error—Eph. 4:14.
4. The intrinsic building up of the organic Body of Christ is by the
direct building by all the members— into the Head and out from
the Head—vv. 15-16:
1. In order to be built up, we must hold to truth in love,
growing up into the Head, Christ, in all things—v. 15:
1. We must “truth it” by holding to the divine truth of
God’s eternal economy, of the all-inclusive Christ, and
of the church as the Body of Christ.
2. We must be subject to the Head, Christ (1 Cor. 11:3;
Eph. 5:23; 1:22, 10), and allow His divine life to
expand and increase into all our inward parts (Rom.
8:10, 6, 11; 2 Cor. 5:4).
2. Out from the Head, in the divine dispensing, all the Body is
joined closely together through every joint of the rich
supply and knit together, interwoven, through the
operation in measure of each one part— Eph. 4:16.
3. The joints supplying and the parts functioning cause the
growth of the Body, in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity,
unto the building up of the Body itself in the divine love—v.
16:
1. All the Body causes the growth of the Body—cf. 1 Cor.
14:4b, 31.
 2. The Body builds itself up in the divine love, with
which God and Christ love us and by which we love
Christ and the fellow members of His Body—John
17:23, 26; 13:34; 15:12-17; 1 John 3:14; 4:8, 19; 1 Cor.
8:1.

Message Nine
The Children of God Walking in Love and Light
Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:5, 9; 5:1-14; 1 John 4:8, 16; 1:5
1. God’s good pleasure is to be one with man and to make man the
same as He is in life and in nature but not in the Godhead—Eph.
1:5, 9.
2. As the children of God, we are God-men, born of God, possessing
the life and nature of God, and belonging to the species of God—
Eph. 5:1; 1 John 3:1; John 1:12-13:
1. God is our real, genuine, Father, and we are His real,
genuine, children—1 John 3:1; Eph. 5:1.
2. The greatest wonder in the universe is that human beings
could be begotten of God and that sinners could be made
children of God—1 John 3:1, 9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18; John 1:12-13:
1. Through such an amazing divine birth we have
received the divine life, the eternal life, as the divine
seed sown into our being—1 John 1:2; 3:9.
2. Since we have been born of the divine life and
possess the divine life, we, the children of God, are
divine persons—5:11-13; 3:1, 10.
3. As those who have been born of God, we have not
only the divine life but also the divine nature— 2 Pet.
1:4.
3. Because we are the children of God with the life and nature
 of God, we can be imitators of God—Eph. 5:1.
4. As the Father’s children, having the Father’s life and nature,
we can be perfect as our Father is perfect— Matt. 5:48.
3. As the children of God, we should walk in love and light—Eph.
5:2, 8:
1. As grace and truth are the basic elements in 4:17-32, so
love and light are the basic elements of Paul’s exhortation
in 5:1-33:
1. Grace is the expression of love, and love is the source
of grace; truth is the revelation of light, and light is
the origin of truth—1 John 4:8; 1:5.
2. Love is the inner substance of God, and light is the
expressed element of God; the inner love of God is
sensible, and the outer light of God is visible.
3. Our daily walk as children of God should be
constituted with both the loving substance of God
and the shining element of God; this should be the
inner source of our walk.
4. Walking in love and light is deeper and more tender
than living according to truth and by grace.
2. “Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself
up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-
smelling savor”—Eph. 5:2:
1. To walk in love is to walk in intimacy with God—cf. 1
John 3:1:
1. In the Father’s presence, we not only enjoy
grace, the expression of love, but we also enjoy
love itself.
2. In our daily walk we should always care for our
 Father’s feeling, for we live intimately in His
tender love.
2. The goal of the book of Ephesians is to bring us into
love as the inner substance of God that we may enjoy
His presence in the sweetness of the divine love and
thereby love others as Christ did—5:25:
1. In the condition and atmosphere of love, we are
saturated with God to be holy and without
blemish before Him—1:4.
2. The love in which we are rooted for growth and
grounded for building is the divine love realized
and experienced by us in a practical way—3:17.
3. The love of Christ, which is Christ Himself, is
immeasurable and knowledge-surpassing, yet
we can know it by experiencing it—v. 19.
4. In the love of God in Christ, we hold to truth,
that is, to Christ with His Body—4:15.
5. The Body of Christ builds itself up in love; love is
the most excellent way for us to be anything
and to do anything for the building up of the
Body of Christ—v. 16; 1 Cor. 12:31.
6. To love the Lord in incorruptibility means to
love Him in the new creation and according to
all the incorruptible things revealed in the book
of Ephesians—6:24.
3. As those who have been regenerated to become
God’s species, we, the children of God, should be love
because God is love; since we become God in life and
in nature, we also should become love— 1 John 4:8,
16.
3. “You were once darkness but are now light in the Lord;
walk as children of light”—Eph. 5:8:
1. As God is light, so we, the children of God, are
children of light—1 John 1:5; Eph. 5:8; John 12:36.
2. We are not only children of light—we are light itself;
we are light because we are one with God in the Lord
—Matt. 5:14; 1 John 1:5.
3. When we are in the light, we are outside the realm of
right and wrong—v. 7.
4. If we walk as children of light, we will bear the fruit
described in Ephesians 5:9:
1. The fruit of the light must be good in nature,
righteous in procedure, and real in expression,
that God may be expressed as the reality of our
daily walk.
2. The fruit of the light in goodness, righteousness,
and truth is related to the Triune God:
1. 1) God the Father as goodness is the
nature of the fruit of the light; therefore,
goodness in verse 9 refers to God the
Father—Matt. 19:17.
2. 2) Righteousness refers to God the Son,
for Christ came to accomplish God’s
purpose according to God’s righteous
procedure— Rom. 5:17-18, 21.
3. 3) Truth, the expression of the fruit of the
light, refers to God the Spirit, for He is the
Spirit of reality—John 14:17; 16:13.
3. The proof that we are walking as children of
light is seen in the bearing of such fruit.
Message Ten
The Great Mystery of Christ and the Church
Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:18-25; Eph. 5:23-32
1. Christ and the church are a great mystery—Eph. 5:32; cf. 1 Tim.
3:15-16a:
1. God is a mystery, and Christ, as the embodiment of God to
express Him, is the mystery of God—Col. 2:2.
2. Christ also is a mystery, and the church, as the Body of
Christ to express Him, is the mystery of Christ—Eph. 3:4.
3. Christ and the church as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), typified by
a husband and wife as one flesh (Eph. 5:29-31), are the
great mystery.
2. Ephesians 5 reveals that the first couple in the Bible, Adam and
Eve, presents a significant and complete picture, a mysterious
type, of Christ and the church—Gen. 2:21-24; Eph. 5:23-32:
1. Adam is a type of God in Christ as our Husband, who is
seeking a wife for Himself—Rom. 5:14; John 3:29; Matt.
9:14-15; 2 Cor. 11:2:
1. Just as it was not good for man to be alone, it was not
good for God to be alone, showing that God needed
to have a complement, a counterpart—Gen. 2:18-20;
Isa. 54:5.
2. A husband and a wife as a complete unit are a
marvelous picture of Christ and the church as one
entity—Gen. 5:2; Eph. 5:28-32.
2. Ephesians 5:25-27 reveals Christ in three stages so that the
church may be produced and built up to become His bride;
this is seen typologically with Adam and Eve in Genesis
2:18-25:
1. In the past, the incarnated Christ, the last Adam, died
on the cross as our loving Redeemer in accomplishing
God’s judicial redemption for the purchasing of the
church—Eph. 5:25; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Heb. 9:22; Acts
20:28:
1. God becoming man, the last Adam, was typified
by the creation of man, the first Adam—Gen.
1:26; John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b.
2. God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam; his
sleep is a type of Christ’s death (Gen. 2:21; 1
Cor. 15:18; 1 Thes. 4:13-16; John 11:11-14) for
producing the church through the
accomplishment of God’s judicial redemption,
which includes:
1. 1) The forgiveness of sins—Luke 24:47.
2. 2) The washing away of sins—Heb. 1:3.
3. 3) Justification by God—Rom. 3:24-25.
4. 4) Reconciliation to God—5:10a.
5. 5) Positional sanctification unto God—
Heb. 13:12.
2. In the present, Christ as the sanctifying life-giving
Spirit is saturating us for our organic salvation with
Himself as the flowing, divine, unbreakable life for the
building of the church as the real Eve— Eph. 5:26; 1
Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 5:10:
1. The Lord’s pierced side was prefigured by
Adam’s opened side, out from which Eve was
produced—Gen. 2:21-22; John 19:34:
1. 1) The blood out of the Lord’s side was for
purchasing the church; the water out of
 His side is the flow of His divine life, which
produces, builds up, and prepares the
church to be His bride—Zech. 13:1.
2. 2) The rib out of Adam’s side typifies the
unbreakable resurrection life that is
signified by the water flowing out of
Christ’s side—Exo. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4; John
19:31-33.
3. 3) Just as God built a woman with the rib
of Adam, God builds up the church with
the resurrection life of Christ—Gen. 2:22;
Matt. 16:18.
4. 4) This life flows within us, transforms us,
and builds us up to be the bride of Christ,
the New Jerusalem as the ultimate Eve—
Rev. 21:2.
2. The church comes out of Christ, as Eve came
out of Adam (Gen. 2:21-22); it has the same life
and nature as Christ and becomes one with Him
as His counterpart, even as Eve became one
flesh with Adam (v. 24):
1. 1) Only that which came out of Adam
could return to Adam as his counterpart;
in like manner, only that which comes out
of Christ can return to Christ to be His
bride—1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11.
2. 2) The church is a pure product out of
Christ; the church is a part of Christ and is
nothing less than Christ Himself—cf. Eph.
5:28-30.
3. The church is being beautified through the
process of sanctification by Christ as the life-
 giving Spirit cleansing us by the washing of the
water as the flowing life of God in the word— v.
26:
1. 1) The cleansing by the washing of the
water of life is in the word of Christ; this
indicates that in the word of Christ is the
water of life.
2. 2) The Greek word rendered “word” in
verse 26 is not logos, the constant word,
but rhema, which denotes the instant
word, the word the Lord presently speaks
to us.
3. 3) Christ’s speaking is the Spirit; it is the
very presence of the life-giving Spirit—
John 6:63; Eph. 6:17.
4. 4) The indwelling Christ as the life-giving
Spirit is always speaking an instant,
present, living word to metabolically
cleanse away the old and replace it with
the new, causing an inward
transformation.
5. 5) Through such a washing process, we
are saturated with Christ and transformed
by Christ to be His holy, beautiful, God-
expressing bride, a bride without blemish
or imperfection—Rev. 19:7; cf. S. S. 6:13;
8:13-14.
3. In the future, Christ as the holy Bridegroom will
present us to Himself as His counterpart for His
marriage just as God presented Eve to Adam as his
counterpart for his marriage—Eph. 5:27, 31-32; Gen.
2:22-24; Rev. 19:7-9:
 1. Ephesians 5:27 reveals the beauty of the bride,
saying that Christ will “present the church to
Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such things, but that she would be holy and
without blemish.”
2. The beauty of the bride comes from the very
Christ who is wrought into the church and who
is then expressed through the church—Rev.
19:7.
3. The Lord’s recovery is for the preparation of the
bride of Christ, who is composed of all His
overcomers—vv. 7-9; Gen. 2:22; Matt. 16:18.
Message Eleven
The Corporate Warrior
Scripture Reading: Eph. 6:10-20
1. Ephesians 6:10-20 reveals that the church as the new man is a
corporate warrior fighting against the enemy of God for God’s
kingdom:
1. The church as the one new man is the corporate man in
God’s intention, and this new man will fulfill the twofold
purpose of expressing God and dealing with God’s enemy—
Gen. 1:26.
2. The spiritual significance of the victory of Israel over Jericho
by their bearing the ark is that it is a picture of a corporate
God-man—God and man as one person— Josh. 6:1-16.
3. Not only must God’s eternal purpose be fulfilled and the
desire of Christ’s heart be satisfied, but God’s enemy must
be defeated; for this, the church must be a warrior.
4. Our walk is for the fulfillment of God’s purpose, our living is
for the satisfaction of Christ, and our warfare is for the
 defeat of God’s enemy—Eph. 4:1; 5:2, 8; 6:10-11.
2. Spiritual warfare is necessary because Satan’s will is in conflict
with God’s will—Eph. 1:5, 9, 11; Matt. 6:10:
1. In addition to God’s intention, God’s will, there is a second
intention, a second will, for the satanic will is set against the
divine will—Isa. 14:12-14.
2. All warfare has its source in the conflict between Satan’s
will and God’s will.
3. Spiritual warfare is the warfare between the kingdom of
God and the kingdom of Satan; in order for the kingdom of
the heavens to be established, there is the need of spiritual
fighting—Matt. 12:26, 28; Rev. 12:11.
4. We walk according to truth and by grace, we live in love
and light, and we fight to subdue the satanic will—Eph. 4:1;
5:2, 8; 6:12.
3. To deal with God’s enemy, we need to be empowered with the
greatness of the power that raised Christ from the dead and
seated Him in the heavenlies, far above all the evil spirits in the
air—v. 10; 1:19-22:
1. The fact that we need to be empowered in the Lord
indicates that in ourselves we cannot fight the spiritual
warfare against Satan and his evil kingdom; we can fight
only in the Lord and in the might of His strength.
2. The charge to be empowered implies the need to exercise
our will; if we would be empowered for spiritual warfare,
our will must be strong and exercised—S. S. 4:4.
4. The warfare between the church and Satan is a battle between us
who love the Lord and who are in His church and the evil powers
in the heavenlies— Eph. 6:12:
1. The principalities, the authorities, and the world-rulers of
 darkness are the rebellious angels who followed Satan in
his rebellion against God and who now rule in the
heavenlies over the nations of the world—Col. 1:13; Dan.
10:20.
2. We need to realize that our warfare is not against human
beings but against the evil spirits, the evil powers, in the
heavenlies.
5. Spiritual warfare is not an individual matter; it is a matter of the
Body, the new man—Eph. 1:22-23; 4:24; 6:13:
1. The church is a corporate warrior, and the believers
together make up this corporate warrior; after we have
been formed corporately into an army, we will be able to
fight against God’s enemy.
2. God’s strategy is to use the church as His army to fight
against the enemy; Satan’s strategy is to isolate us from the
church as God’s army.
3. The whole armor of God is for the Body, not for individuals;
only the corporate warrior can wear the whole armor of
God.
6. To fight the spiritual warfare, we need to put on the whole armor
of God—vv. 11, 13:
1. God in Christ as the reality in our living is the girdle that
strengthens our whole being for the spiritual warfare—v.
14a.
2. The breastplate of righteousness that covers our conscience
and guards us from Satan’s accusations is Christ as our
righteousness—v. 14b; 1 Cor. 1:30.
3. Christ is the peace for us to be one with God and with the
saints; this peace is the firm foundation that enables us to
stand against the enemy—Eph. 2:15; 6:15.
 4. Faith is a shield against the flaming darts of the enemy;
Christ is the Author and Perfecter of such faith—v. 16; Heb.
12:2.
5. The helmet of salvation that covers our mind is the saving
Christ we experience in our daily life—Eph. 6:17a; John
16:33.
6. The sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, is
our offensive weapon with which we cut the enemy to
pieces—Eph. 6:17b.
7. Prayer is the unique, crucial, and vital means by which we
apply the whole armor of God, making every item of the
armor available to us in a practical way—v. 18.
7. By putting on the whole armor of God, we are able to stand
against the stratagems, the evil plans, of the devil—vv. 11, 13-14:
1. To sit with Christ is to participate in all His
accomplishments, to walk in His Body is to fulfill God’s
eternal purpose, and to stand in His power is to fight
against God’s enemy—2:6; 4:1; 5:2, 8; 6:11, 13-14.
2. In fighting against the enemy, the most important thing is
to stand; having done all, we need to stand to the end.
8. “We all need to see that in the Lord’s recovery today we are on a
battlefield. We should be today’s Joshua and Caleb, fighting
against Satan’s aerial forces so that we can gain more of Christ for
the building up of the Body of Christ, setting up and spreading the
kingdom of God so that Christ can come back to inherit the earth”
(Life-study of Joshua, p. 61).
Message Twelve
The Divine Trinity and the Divine Dispensing
Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:3-14; 2:18; 3:16-19;
4:4-6; 5:19-20; 6:10-11, 17
1. The revelation concerning the Triune God in the holy Word is not
for doctrinal understanding but for the dispensing of God in His
Divine Trinity into His chosen and redeemed people for their
experience and enjoyment—2 Cor. 13:14:
1. It is impossible for us to know the Triune God merely by
doctrine; however, we can know Him by experiencing and
enjoying Him—1 Pet. 1:2; Rev. 1:4-5.
2. The Bible reveals that the Triune God is not merely the
object of our faith; He is subjective to us, dwelling in us to
be our life and life supply—Rom. 8:11.
3. If we would understand the Divine Trinity, we must be in
the process of the growth in life, in the line of life pursuing
the growth in life—1 John 2:12-14.
4. The Bible was written according to the governing principle
of the Triune God working Himself into His chosen and
redeemed people as their life and life supply—Psa. 36:8-9.
2. The Trinity is the framework of the entire Bible; the whole Bible,
especially the book of Ephesians, is constructed with the Trinity:
1. Ephesians is the only book in the Bible in which every
chapter is structured with the Divine Trinity as its basic
element.
2. If we do not know the Triune God, we cannot comprehend
the profoundness of Ephesians, because every chapter of
this book has the Divine Trinity as its framework—1:3-14;
2:18; 3:16-17a; 4:4-6; 5:19-20; 6:10-11, 17.
3. The revelation in Ephesians concerning the producing, existing,
growing, building up, and fighting of the church as the Body of
Christ is composed of the divine economy, the dispensing of the
Triune God into the members of the Body of Christ; thus, the
crucial focus of Ephesians is the divine dispensing of the Divine
Trinity into the believers:
1. Chapter one unveils how God the Father chose and
predestinated the members in eternity, God the Son
redeemed them, and God the Spirit sealed them as a
pledge, thus imparting Himself into His believers for the
formation of the church, which is the Body of Christ, the
fullness of the One who fills all in all— vv. 3-14, 18-23:
1. A fundamental truth in the Lord’s recovery is that the
Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—has
wrought Himself into us through the Father’s
predestination, the Son’s redemption, and the Spirit’s
sealing and pledging.
2. The Body of Christ comes into being by the dispensing
of the Triune God as the life and life supply into the
believers.
3. The threefold mentioning of the praise of God’s glory
signifies the threefold dispensing of the Triune God—
vv. 6, 12, 14.
2. Chapter two shows us that in the Divine Trinity all the
believers, both Jewish and Gentile, have access unto God
the Father through God the Son, in God the Spirit—v. 18:
1. Through God the Son, who is the Accomplisher, the
means, and in God the Spirit, who is the Executor, the
application, we have access unto God the Father, who
is the Originator, the source of our enjoyment.
2. We are a poem written by the dispensing of the
Father as the source, the Son as the course, and the
Spirit as the flow—v. 10.
3. The Father’s dispensing to produce the masterpiece,
the Son’s dispensing to produce the new man, and
the Spirit’s bringing us to the Father in one Body
result in the building up of the church and the
fulfillment of God’s eternal economy—vv. 10, 15-16,
 21-22.
3. In chapter three the apostle prays that God the Father will
grant the believers to be strengthened through God the
Spirit into their inner man so that Christ, God the Son, may
make His home in their hearts, that they might be filled
unto all the fullness of God—vv. 16-19:
1. The Father is the source, the Spirit is the means, the
Son is the object, and the fullness of the Triune God is
the issue.
2. Each of the three does not act for Himself but for the
fullness of the Triune God; this is a beautiful picture
of the Divine Trinity.
4. Chapter four portrays how the processed God as the Spirit,
the Lord, and the Father is mingled with the Body of Christ
so that all the members of the Body may experience the
Divine Trinity—vv. 4-6:
1. The Body of Christ is the sphere for the development
of the Triune God.
2. The divine dispensing of God the Father in His being
over all, of the Son in His being through all, and of the
Spirit in His being in all enables all the members of
the Body of Christ to experience and enjoy the Triune
God.
3. These verses reveal four persons—the one Body, one
Spirit, one Lord, and one God the Father— mingled
together as one entity to be the organic Body of
Christ; thus, the Triune God and the Body are four-in-
one.
5. Chapter five exhorts the believers to praise the Lord, God
the Son, with the songs of God the Spirit, and give thanks in
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, to God the
 Father—vv. 19-20:
1. This is to praise and thank the processed God in His
Divine Trinity for our enjoyment of Him as the Triune
God.
2. Through the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity,
we are constituted as children of God, walking in God
as love and light—vv. 2, 8.
6. Chapter six instructs us to fight the spiritual warfare by
being empowered in the Lord, God the Son, putting on the
whole armor of God the Father, and wielding the sword of
the Spirit—vv. 10-11, 17:
1. God the Son is the power within us, God realized in
the Son is the armor upon us, and God the Spirit is the
sword, who is the word of God.
2. This is the believers’ experience and enjoyment of the
Triune God even in the spiritual warfare.