AN OVERVIEW OF THE CENTRAL BURDEN AND PRESENT TRUTH OF THE LORD'S RECOVERY BEFORE HIS APPEARING
Message Two
The Divine and Mystical Realm
Scripture Reading: John 14:10-11, 16-20; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; 13:14; Gal. 3:14
I. All the saints in the Lord's recovery need to have a clear view, a vision, concerning the physical realm and the divine and mystical realm—Prov. 29:18a; Acts 26:19:
A. We need to appreciate the divine and mystical realm by being impressed with a sharp contrast: earthly versus heavenly, judicial versus organic, objective versus subjective, physical versus mystical—Rom. 5:10; Heb. 8:1.
B. We need to enter into a realm, a sphere, a kingdom, which is much higher than the realm that we are in now; this higher realm is the divine and mystical realm.
C. We enter into the divine and mystical realm by seeing this realm; in spiritual things to see is to enter— John 3:3, 5.
II. The Triune God Himself is a divine and mystical realm— 14:10-11:
A. The Triune God—the three of the Divine Trinity—is self-existing, ever-existing, coexisting, and coinhering, and as such, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are a divine and mystical realm, with the three of the Divine Trinity dwelling in one another—Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14.
B. According to John 14:10 and 11, the Son is in the Father, and the Father is in the Son; this indicates that the Father is embodied in the Son and the Son is the Father's embodiment, forming a divine and mystical realm, the realm of the Triune God.
III. The divine and mystical realm into which we may enter today and in which we may live is actually not simply the divine and mystical realm of the Triune God; it is the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ— Phil. 1:19; Rom. 8:9; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; Gal. 3:14:
A. The Bible reveals that the Spirit has become the consummated, all-inclusive, and compound Spirit— John 7:39; 14:16-17; 20:22; Rom. 8:9; Phil. 1:19:
1. The term consummated Spirit implies that the Spirit has been processed and thus has become the consummated Spirit— John 7:39.
2. The consummated Spirit is the compound Spirit typified by the anointing oil—Exo. 30:23-25:
a. In Christ's resurrection the Spirit of God was mingled with Christ's humanity, with His death and its effectiveness, and with His resurrection and its power—Phil. 3:10.
b. The issue of this mingling is the compound, consummated Spirit—1:19.
3. The consummated Spirit is the Triune God who in Christ has passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection— John 7:39.
B. The Bible reveals that Christ has become the pneumatic Christ— 1 Cor. 15:45b:
1. Through His death and resurrection Christ became the life- giving Spirit and thereby became the pneumatic Christ— v. 45b; 2 Cor. 3:17-18.
2. Thus, we may speak of the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and of this pneumatic Christ—John 7:39; Gal. 3:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b.
IV. In our experience we actually become part of the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ— John 14:16-20; 17:21-23:
A. We become part of the divine and mystical realm through the divine birth; through regeneration we were born into the divine and mystical realm—3:5-6.
B. We become part of the divine and mystical realm by participating in God's life (v. 15), nature (Eph. 1:4; 2 Pet. 1:4), mind (Eph. 4:23; Phil. 2:5), being (2 Cor. 3:18b; Eph. 3:8), image (2 Cor. 3:18a; Rom. 8:29), glory (v. 30; Heb. 2:10), sonship (Eph. 1:5; Rom. 8:23), manifestation (v. 19), and likeness (1 John 3:2).
C. We become part of the divine and mystical realm by being built up in the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:16:
1. The Body of Christ is the divine and mystical realm, and the more we are in the reality of the Body of Christ, the more we are in the divine and mystical realm—Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:12-13, 27; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16.
2. The believers are blended into one entity to be the mystical Body of Christ—1 Cor. 12:24, 27.
V. As believers in Christ, children of God, we should live in the divine and mystical realm—Rom. 8:16; John 14:2-3, 20; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Gal. 3:14; 2 Cor. 3:17-18:
A. The divine and mystical realm into which we may enter and in which we may live is the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ; we need to learn to live in this wonderful realm—Phil. 1:19; 2 Cor. 13:14; Gal. 3:14.
B. In the divine and mystical realm, we receive the Spirit as the unique, all-inclusive blessing—vv. 2, 5.
C. In the divine and mystical realm, we receive the transmission of the ascended Christ and the supply of His heavenly ministry— Eph. 1:22; Heb. 8:1-2.
D. In the divine and mystical realm, we experience God's organic salvation—Rom. 5:10.
E. In the divine and mystical realm, we live in the kingdom of God as the realm of the divine species— John 3:3, 5.
F. In the divine and mystical realm, we live in the fellowship of the divine life—1 John 1:3, 7; Acts 2:42.
G. In the divine and mystical realm, we live a spontaneous and effortless Christian life according to the automatic function of the law of life—Rom. 8:2.
H. In the divine and mystical realm, we live a life of truthfulness as the expression of the revealed divine reality—2 John 1; 3 John 1; John 4:23-24.
I. In the divine and mystical realm, we are mingled with the processed Triune God for the keeping of oneness—17:21, 23:
1. The real oneness is in the Triune God—Matt. 28:19; John 17:21, 23.
2. The genuine oneness is the mingling of the believers with the Triune God—2 Cor. 13:14:
a. To have such oneness, the believers must be in the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ as the divine and mystical realm.
b. The believers are one with the Triune God in the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ.
VI. Every believer should live in the divine and mystical realm and be a divine and mystical person, one who is human yet lives divinely—Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 10:1; 13:14:
A. We need to be divine yet human—not merely human but mystically human; everything in our living should be divine and mystical— John 14:16-20.
B. To be divine means doing everything with God, in God, by God, and through God—1 Cor. 10:31; Col. 3:17.
C. Like the Lord Jesus, we should be apparently physical yet invisibly divine and mystical, living simultaneously in the physical realm and in the divine and mystical realm— John 3:13; Eph. 4:20-21; Heb. 4:16; 13:13.
VII. "At that time two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left"—Matt. 24:40-41:
A. The two men and the two women represent the living believers at the time of the Lord's second coming—Rev. 14:1, 4b.
B. To be taken is to be raptured before the great tribulation—Matt. 24:21; Rev. 3:10:
1. Matthew 24:40-41 refers to the secret rapture, the rapture of the ready ones, the mature ones—Rev. 14:4b.
2. The difference between the one who is taken and the one who is left is in the maturity of life; one is living in the divine and mystical realm, and the other is not—Matt. 24:40-41.
C. The Lord's word in Matthew 24:40-42 shows us that as we are waiting for His coming and expect to be raptured, we need to be faithful in our daily duties, living a properly balanced human life while simultaneously living in the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ—cf. 2 Thes. 3:6-15.