For the building of the church, we need precious and crucial experiences of Christ

Allow me to share some riches with you from our review of “Crystallization-Study of Daniel and Zechariah” in The Holy Word for Morning Revival. I trust you, too, will be fed and enriched by the sharing.

The burden of the word of Jehovah concerning Israel. Thus declares Jehovah, who stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him…. – Zech. 12:1

Of one thing we may be assured: our God is full of INTENT—that is to say, He is never purposeless in any action He undertakes. Therefore, we may know that Jehovah had great purpose in His actions described in Zechariah 12:1. All the heavens—all the rest of the universe—were created for and exist for the earth; the earth was created for and exists for man; and the spirit of man—formed by Jehovah within man—is what gives all the rest of creation meaning and purpose.

Man was created for God, and it is man’s spirit that is the organ by which God and man, man and God, may be joined into one (1 Cor. 6:17) for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy.

It is not enough simply to read the scriptures and agree with them. It is not even enough to simply agree with the Lord Jesus, or simply to be obedient to Him (as after the Law). Rather, we must touch our human spirit learn to EXPERIENCE and ENJOY Christ by exercising our spirit.

• We need to experience Christ as the MAN with a measuring line (Zech. 2:1, 2; Ezek. 40:3; 47:1-5; Psa. 139:23f). Zechariah inquires of the Man as to His purpose and he is told that it is the Man’s intention to “measure Jerusalem,” but not to discover how short it is of God’s intention—not in a negative judgmental way. Rather, the Man says, “To measure… to see how great its breadth is and how great its length is.”
  
  Our Christ comes to us as the people and city of God to test us, judge us, examine us and wholly possess us, but not in a negative way. Instead, He comes to encourage us unto greatness in our growth and spreading in life.

• We need to experience Christ as a wall of fire round about us and the glory within us (Zech. 2:5). We must experience Him as our centrality and universality. He must become to us—in our experience—our center and our defender (Rev. 21:23; 22:1, 5; 21:11, 18a, 24). We must find all our glory in Him dwelling within us, and we must trust Him to defend us from every distraction, every wile of the enemy, and every working of death and deadness in our members.
   
• We need to experience Christ as the pupil of His eye—knowing our preciousness to Him and His desire to protect us from every harmful thing.
   
• We need to experience Christ as the shepherding One, shepherding us day by with is rods of FAVOR and BONDS (Zech. 11:7; 2:1f, 5, 8f, 11; John 21:15-17). By His precious shepherding we find GRACE to be mingled more and more with the Spirit in our spirit and thereby increase in oneness and one accord with all the saints.
   
• We need to experience Christ as the One who sends rain as we pray (Zech. 10:1; 12:10; Ezek. 34:26). The Lord is so full of favor toward us and full of rich supply. Nevertheless, we need to call upon His Name for more grace—more “rain”—time and time again.
   
• We need to experience Christ as the One who has the power to transform us as we trust Him and turn to Him day by day. He, and only He, is able to transform us from our weakness as sheep and cause us to become “horses of majesty” for His Name’s sake (Zech. 10:3; cf. 9:13, 16; Dan. 11:32b).
   
• We need to experience Christ as the One who gathers us with His gentle whistling if we will but hear and respond (Zech. 10:8).
   
• We need to experience Christ as the One who strengthens us in Himself by His transfusing and infusing so that we become those who “walk about in His Name (Zech. 14:9).
   
• We also need crucial experiences of Christ for the building up of the church as the temple of God:

o    As the foundation stone—the One who holds and supports the entire church (1 Cor. 3:11)

o    As the cornerstone—the One who joins us to one another and cancels out all our natural distinctions (Acts 4:11; Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:6)

o    As the precious building materials—gold, silver and precious stones (1 Cor. 3:12a)

o    As wisdom to us from God (1 Cor. 1:30)

o    In the power of resurrection (and not in our natural life and power) (Phil. 3:10f)

o    In His death (not attempting to accomplish our own crucifixion and death) (Phil. 3:10; S.S. 4:6)

o    In His love (2 Cor. 5:14; Eph. 3:17-19; 4:16)

Dear brothers and sisters, we need so many precious experiences of Christ to rescue us from what may be only head-knowledge and agreement with God in the scriptures.

I, myself, am so short of these experiences. I freely confess that I need more and more real, precious and sweet experiences of Christ as I spend time with Him and in His presence.

Join me in this prayer:

Lord Jesus, come. We are open to You! We open every avenue of our being to You. Lord, again we say, we are open to you. Come and shine upon us and shine from within us and enlighten every avenue and every corner of our being. We would like to be exposed, purged, and purified.

Here is a wonderful hymn we enjoyed recently:

1.    "Seven Spirits" of our God —
Lo, the age has now been turned
To the Spirit with the Son.
For the churches He's concerned.

Chorus:

Come, O seven Spirits, come,
Thy recovery work be done!
Burn and search us thoroughly,
All the churches are for Thee.
Burn us, search us,
All the churches are for Thee!

2.    Sevenfold the Spirit is
For the deadness of the church,
That the saints may turn and live,
That the Lord may burn and search.

3.    Now the Spirit of our God
Has become intensified:
'Tis not one but sevenfold
That the church may be supplied!

4.    Now the seven Spirits are
Seven lamps of burning fire,
Not to teach us, but to burn,
Satisfying God's desire.

5.    See the seven Spirits now —
Seven piercing, searching eyes.
In the church exposing us,
All the church He purifies.

6.    Seven Spirits doth the Lord
For the churches now employ;
All those in the local church
May this Spirit now enjoy.

Gaining the Christ unveiled in the Book of Zechariah

I thought it might be worthwhile to share with you some of the riches our dear Lord dispensed to the saints in the meeting on last Lord’s Day (14 April 2013). We were covering the portion “A Word concerning the Human Spirit and Aspects of Christ Unveiled in Zechariah for His Move on Earth” from the HWMR Crystallization-Study of Daniel and Zechariah – Volume Two.

Scripture reading: Zech. 2:1f, 5, 8f, 11; 10:1, 3; 11:7; 12:1, 10

The burden of the word of Jehovah concerning Israel. Thus declares Jehovah, who stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him. – Zech. 12:1

In His creation, God made three crucial items—the heavens, the earth, and the spirit of man. The heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, and God put a spirit within man so that man may contact God, receive God, worship God, live God, fulfill God’s purpose for God, and be one with God.

For this reason, God intends that man should be governed by his spirit—and not his soul (i.e., his mind, his will and his emotions). A man who is under the governing of his spirit is a spiritual man (1 Cor. 2:14f; 3:1; 14:32; John 3:6; Eph. 3:16; 1 Pet. 3:4; Dan. 6:3, 10).

Properly understood, Zechariah charges us to pay full attention to our human spirit so that we may receive the Christ revealed in this wonderful book and may comprehend all that is revealed therein concerning Christ (Eph. 3:17-18a; 3:5; Gen. 2:7; Isa. 42:5; John 4:24; Phil. 4:23).

The way to fulfill God’s economy is by Christ as the sevenfold intensified Spirit in our human spirit. Zechariah reveals that the building of the church will be consummated by Christ as the sevenfold intensified Spirit of grace to be the topstone of grace (Zech. 4:6f, 12-14; 3:9; 12:1, 10’ Rev. 4:5; 5:6).

Much of Christianity today remains ignorant of the fact that man has a spirit. Many believe that man has only a body and a soul. Seeing that God formed the spirit in man as the organ by which man receives God, joins with God and mingles with God is crucial to our dwelling in Christ and Christ dwelling in us—the mutual “abiding in the Vine.”

But, once we realize that we have a spirit by which to contact God, we must also learn to exercise our spirit. It is by the exercise of our spirit—our spiritual “muscle”—that we experience and enjoy Christ as the sevenfold intensified Spirit in many different aspects.

We must exercise our spirit to experience and enjoy Christ as a man with a measuring line in His hand, measuring God’s people in order test them, judge them, examine them and make them His possession for His kingdom. When we agree to buy something, we test it, judge it, and examine it before we make it our possession.
When Christ comes as the man with a measuring line in Zechariah 2:1 and 2, He is not coming to judge and examine us in a negative way. The scriptures plainly say that He is coming to measure the greatness of Jerusalem, His city; He is not coming to measure to see how short we are—how we do not “measure up” to His expectations of us.

We must exercise our spirit to experience and enjoy Christ as the One sent by Jehovah. But He is also the Sender! The Triune God is both the Sender and the Sent One to care for His people, who are so dear to Him. Whoever touches us—His people—touches also the very pupil of His eye (Zech. 2:8f, 11; cf. John 14:26; 15:26).

We must exercise our spirit to experience and enjoy Christ as the good Shepherd, shepherding us in Favor (grace) and Bonds (binding into unity in Him and with the saints). His shepherding grace is for our being joined and mingled with God and His shepherding in Bonds are for our being bound into oneness in His Name and for His purpose (Zech. 11:7; 2:1f, 5, 8f, 11; John 21:15-17).

We must exercise our spirit to experience and enjoy Christ as the One who sends “rain.” The Lord is so full of grace and supply to us. Nevertheless, we should not hesitate to ask Him to send us even more favor; more grace; more “rain” (Zech. 10:1; 12:10; Ezek. 34:26).

We must exercise our spirit to experience and enjoy Christ as the One who shepherds us in such a way that, having been visited by the Lord in His grace, we weak sheep are infused by Him, transfused by Him, and transformed by Him to become horses of majesty (Zech. 10:3; cf. 9:13, 16; Dan. 11:32b).

Finally, we must exercise our spirit to experience and enjoy Christ as the Lord who strengthens us in Himself so that we may “walk about in His name (Zech. 10:12; Col. 3:17). “Jehovah will be King over all the earth; and in that day Jehovah will be the one God and His name the one name” (Zech. 14:9).

As you have already begun to see, dear brother, all of our experience of Christ is not to make us better individual Christians just so we can stand around awaiting our own death or the Lord’s return. Rather, the all-inclusive Christ is working in us as the sevenfold intensified Spirit in our spirit in order to gain the building of God for the manifestation of God and His testimony (witness) in the earth (Zech. 4:9; 6:12-15; Matt. 16:18; John 1:1, 14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 4:5; 5:6; 21:2).

Not only should we conduct ourselves in such a way that we “let all things be done for the building up,” but God Himself has ordered His entire economy so that “all things” are accomplished for the building of His house, His dwellingplace and His expression consummating in the New Jerusalem.

This is so rich! Amen!

Let me end by sharing this wonderful paragraph from The Holy Word for Morning Revival:

Zechariah is a book unveiling Christ as God’s center and circumference, yet this Christ is intimately involved with human history. Not just anyone can know this One, but God’s chosen people who realize that they have a spirit can know Him. In reading the book of Zechariah and in contacting the Christ revealed in this book, we must first know that we have a spirit. Then we need to exercise our spirit to pray, saying, “Lord, I want to gain the Christ who is unveiled in Zechariah.” If we exercise our spirit in this way, we will sense something living touching us deep within. This is why there is in this book such a verse as [Zechariah] 12:1, a verse that charges us to pay full attention to the receiver within us, our human spirit, that we may receive the Christ revealed in the book of Zechariah. [Emphasis added.]

We sang this hymn, also. I think you will enjoy it and it will help you touch your spirit in order that you might contact God in a richer way and gain more of the Christ revealed in Zechariah:

1. God's glorious substance Spirit is,
His essence, holy and divine;
To contact God and Him enjoy,
His Spirit I must touch with mine.

2. The spirit is the innermost,
The part of man most deep and real;
If he would contact God in life,
'Tis with the spirit he must deal.

3. The worship which the Father seeks
Is in the spirit's strength alone;
His Spirit into man's would come,
That His and man's may thus be one.

4. When Spirit unto spirit calls
The two commingle and are one;
Man's spirit is the Spirit's home,
The Spirit doth man's life become.

5. Man's spirit must God's Spirit touch
If in God's fulness he would live;
'Tis only with the spirit thus
That he to God may worship give.

6. In ministry and fellowship
Man to the spirit we must bring;
All ministry should turn to prayer,
Spirit to spirit answering.

7. In spirit we must pray and serve,
In spirit touch the life divine,
In spirit grow, in spirit build,
That Christ thru us may fully shine.

8. Lord, to the spirit I would turn
And learn to truly contact Thee;
Thy Spirit thus will flow with mine
And overflow eternally.

May the Lord Jesus, Who has become the life-giving Spirit, be with your spirit! Amen.