Read part 1 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒. Read part 2 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒.
Today, our church life needs vitality—and vital serving ones. Any servant of the Lord needs to be under the administration of the headship by having the true experience of entering into Ephesians—into the condition of the heavenlies. It has to be an experience, not just a teaching or a beautiful concept. Ephesians begins not from our perspective, but from a very high vantage point: in the heavenlies. Yet we see that we are also chosen to be mingled with and enlightened by this very condition of the heavenlies. Each morning when we awaken, we need to seek the dawn—this light—through the twilight. Today, we are in the book of Ephesians, talking about the revealing of the highest mystery—we cannot be sleepy! We need to have the attitude of seeking through the dawn until the day breaks. Indeed, to live and to serve the church with vitality, we need this condition.
But how can we enter into such a condition? As in Ephesians 1:18, the Greek word photizo—this absolute, perfect, “done-deal” experiential shining—is used in chapter 3, verse 9:
“And to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things…”
To many people, “the economy of the mystery” is only a term. Yet in order to actually receive, and be a part of, what the economy of the mystery is, we all first need to be brought to this shining—this experiential light. We may know the doctrine of the economy of the mystery of God, but we also know that knowledge alone will not help us. Without subjective, true experiences of this light, we have no way to change; we have no way to be in the heavenlies. Without this light, we always feel defeated and that we are not good enough. We find ourselves stuck in religion, our flesh, or our sin, and we cannot praise. Why? It is not that we don’t know how to praise or that we don’t know how to open our mouths, but that something has silenced us. We are dwelling in our own unbelief, not trusting the Lord in our everyday life. We are not seeking and we are not living in this shining of the heavenly light; when we do our daily earthen walk, we don’t have a heavenly sphere.
How can human beings live in this heavenly sphere? Everything earthen is heavy—how can what is earthen be heavenly? We need another agent to make it possible, which is the Spirit. The Spirit is key in the enlightening process—in the fulfillment of “the economy of the mystery” “hidden in God, who created all things.” Only the Spirit can transform flesh and blood. God Himself, through His Triune dispensing, very purposely and specifically put Himself into us for transformation unto His ultimate purpose and for His own pleasure.
“To the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He graced us in the Beloved…” (1:6)
We are not qualified because of ourselves, but because of the beloved One who lives in us! The true Beloved is the One who is qualified, who is well pleasing to God! He is the One who is worthy to be praised, and not just verbally—He is worthy to be praised by our transformation. Today, when we walk in the Spirit, everything we experience will lead us to a pleasure to come—toward the satisfaction of His heart’s desire. It is an open testimony of the Spirit witnessing in our spirit. Each day, we don’t need to look to our own way to live, because today we can live out Christ in the new creation as God’s kind. We can say, “We are Your beloved, bringing You pleasure. You are not complete without us or happy without us! You are satisfied by us!” When we find ourselves well pleasing to Him, we also find ourselves in a full satisfaction, gushing out unto eternity. All we need to do is receive.
When we are in this heavenly nature and condition, having been transformed by the Spirit and replaced by Christ—when we find ourselves right in His eyes—the Bible says that “…He will cause [our] righteousness to go forth like light” (Psalm 37:6) and that “…the righteous will shine forth like the sun” (Matt. 13:43). When we have the heavenly condition, we spontaneously develop the character of the heavenlies; serving the Lord is all about the manifestation of the character of the heavenlies. This powerful character and living has nothing to do with our self or even our deeds; but when we find ourselves in the condition of ascension, we can truly live a life that serves Him and His heart’s desire, bringing heaven to the earth. Peter lived in such a way, so that when he walked, even his shadow could heal (Acts 5:15); that’s the character of the heavenlies—bringing heaven to the earth.
The church exists in ascension; in the book of Acts, we see the church in ascension. Before the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of reality was not yet (John 7:39). But now the Spirit of reality has already come, and descends upon His church, the manifestation of the heavenlies on the earth today. And so we see that, from the beginning, the church happened in the new creation. Only in this righteous, vital condition can the church come into being, because the church exists in the new creation—holy and without blemish, nothing of the old creation; it is heavenly in condition and character, and able to administer accordingly on the earth. When we read the book of Ephesians and the book of Acts in parallel, it is like reading a heavenly vision matching an earthen journey. And there is no contradiction; when Peter’s shadow could heal the ill, that was not spiritual only, but also physical. What we need today is this photizo, the realization of when the Lord says, “Let there be light,” meaning something comes into being (Gen. 1:3); another meaning of photizo is “to cause something to exist.” We don’t need to try—we simply need to be in the condition of enlightenment, of shining, of transformation, of praise. Only then can the church “come into being.”
We can see how the church came into being in the first two chapters of Ephesians. Ephesians 1:20 tells us that Christ is seated at the “right hand” of God “in the heavenlies.” From that highest position, Christ has transmitted all that He has attained to the church, His Body, “[a]nd raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus” (1:22-23; 2:6). We are the organic recipients, as the Body to the Head, and same as He in life and nature. Actually, Ephesians 1:6 is a verse very specifically given to the church out of His love: “To the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He graced us in the Beloved.” The church has to be in the condition of the praising of the glory of His grace! Yes, “in the Beloved” in this verse includes the Lord’s crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension—but not just that! All the glory, all the manifestation, all the character, all the sphere, all the domain, and all the testimony is grace for us to enjoy, own and mingle with; God is mingled with us. In the organic full salvation from this beloved One, we are transformed into the new creation, entering into the state of being for the church to exist: in the heavenlies. The church as the bride of Christ is the ultimate pleasure to her Husband, Christ! She cannot exist in any other sphere but as new creation that appears in the dawn—and she carries a pleasing, praising, glorious condition unto His own satisfaction.
For believers, there is no sunset; we start with the dawn. In other words, we begin in the new creation, where there is no darkness; the same word photizo in Ephesians is also found twice in Revelation 22:5: “And night will be no more; and they have no need of the light of a lamp and of the light of the sun, for the Lord God will shine upon them; and they will reign forever and ever.” He will be the one shining through eternity! What a secret food that man and God share together! Today, we need the Lord’s shining, and that shining only happens in a specific seeking through the dawn. In the darkness today, we should look for the light rising above the horizon. That is the new life, the new day, the new creation! The sun has to rise in us first—we are the new creation! Today, there is no other way but to be guided by that twilight in this dark age. Dawn of the new creation is coming—and it is coming first in us! Today, we might only see the ambient light on the horizon, but we seek for and await the full, solid light that is to come. Thank You, Lord, that we have the shining—that the book of Ephesians is alive to us and in us today!
(Above is part 3 of a series compiled from notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 9/11/20, not reviewed by the speaker.)