The Stewardship of the Mystery # 94

1. Judas - The Indwelling of satan In Its Outworking

2. The Heavenly Man - The Indwelling of God (continued)

The Glorifying of the Corporate Heavenly Man

Now, of course, we come to feel the benefit and the power of this, when it is transferred from the personal Heavenly Man to the corporate Heavenly Man. So the Apostle says: "That Christ may dwell in your  hearts through faith ..." (Ephesians 3:17); "... Christ in you, the hope of glory ..." (Colossians 1:27). We read at the beginning of the Letter to the Ephesians that we are "...a habitation of God in the Spirit" (2:22). What does this mean in its value and outworking? This Body, so created and living upon that fact, is as indestructible as Christ Himself, is as certain of victory as was Christ. On the principle that Christ dwells in the heart of faith, this Body can enter into wrestling with principalities and powers, world rulers of this darkness, spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies, and come out victor on the field.

What is the secret of the glorifying of the Church, His Body, the corporate Man, and what is the nature of the glorifying? It is the same thing. It is the manifestation of the secret, the coming out from secrecy into open display of that which is true, of Christ within. During the course of this dispensation, the secret is in the Church, in the members of Christ, but "...the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not" (1 John 3:1). Looked from the outside we are very little different from any other people in the world. Yet the secret is there, and this secret means that if you touch that one, or that church, you touch God. "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" said the Lord, when Saul was touching His members. He is in His members. You have to reckon with Him. They re indestructible, they cannot be destroyed. We are not talking about the destroying of the body. The true Church is an indestructible entity. When satan has done his worst, that Church will stand triumphant, and will abide for ever, when he and all his shall have been banished from the universe.

At the end of this dispensation which has held this hidden secret, there will be an unveiling of the glory, and it will be glorified on the same principle as that on which He was glorified.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 95 - (The Essential Basis of the Believer's Everyday Life)