The Ministry, Vol. 11, No. 09

Book excerpt: This issue of The Ministry contains the first nine messages given during the 2006 spring term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is "Knowing and Experiencing the Intrinsic Constitution of the Building of God." The building of God is the corporate expression of the processed and consummated Triune God in and through His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, renewed, sanctified, transformed, and glorified people. It is the corporate expression of the Triune God produced by the mingling of God and man and by the building of God into man and man into God. God's goal is to build up the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem, which is the consummate building of God. This glorious, consummate building has a number of outstanding characteristics. However, the highest characteristic of the building of God is that it is a personal building, that is, a person, the corporate God-man. When our Lord Jesus Christ came through incarnation to be a man, the God-man, He Himself was a building (John 1:14; 2:19, 21). The Lord Jesus Himself, as the mingling of God and man, was God's building in miniature. As an individual man, He was both the tabernacle and the temple. However, God's goal is to enlarge this individual building by multiplying Christ through death and resurrection and then working this Christ into our whole being until we are the same as He is in every way except in the Godhead. The result will be a corporate building, which is a corporate person--the bride of Christ and the wife of the Lamb. God's goal in the whole universe is to gain such a spiritual, organic, and personal building. Last of all, we include a report concerning a recent international blending conference in Accra, Ghana, West Africa.