THE TRANSMITTING OF THE TRANSCENDING
CHRIST TO BRING FORTH THE BODY
OF CHRIST AND THE FINE DISPENSING
TO CONSTITUTE THE BODY OF CHRIST
Now we need to see the transmitting of the transcending Christ. The power plant does not dispense a little electricity in a gentle and fine way. It transmits the electricity strongly. If more power is needed, the amperage can be turned up. This is not dispensing but transmitting. The ascended Christ, the transcending Christ, not only dispenses but also transmits. Seemingly He is hiding Himself. But actually Christ is very active. The power plant does not need propaganda to tell people that it is acting. The power plant is very quiet, but the transmission is going on.
The church is now spreading over the whole earth because of the transmission of the transcending Christ. He is transmitting His great power to us. This is the power that raised Him up from the dead and that caused Him to transcend above all human beings and above all the angelic race, including all their leaders, rulers, authorities, power, and lordship. This is the power that seated Him at the height of the universe, the power that subdued and subjected all things under His feet, and the great power that gave Him to be the Head over all things. In the transmission of this power, He builds up the church.
On the day of Pentecost, that was not a dispensing. That was a transmission. The coming of the Lord’s recovery to this country and our being caught for the Lord’s recovery were due to the transmission of the transcending Christ. The divine dispensing is to constitute the Body of Christ, and the divine transmission is to form the Body of Christ. Day by day, we enjoy the fine, gradual, mild, gentle dispensing in the Lord’s dealings with us. The Lord in His dispensing tells a brother not to talk to his wife in a certain way. In His dispensing He tells a sister not to spend twenty-five minutes to comb her hair in a certain way, when she says she does not have even five minutes to pray. Through His dispensing He impresses a brother not to wear a certain tie that is too loud. A pursuer of Christ should be so proper in what he wears to bear a proper testimony. This fine dispensing in the Lord’s dealings with us constitutes the Body of Christ, whereas His transmitting brings forth the Body of Christ.
On the day of Pentecost, a rushing wind came (Acts 2:2). That was the transmission to form the Body of Christ. But that Body formed by the transmission of the transcending Christ needs much dispensing. After the church was formed in Acts 2, problems came in. In Acts 5 there was a couple deceiving God the Spirit (vv. 1-11). In Acts 6 there was murmuring among the saints (v. 1). The divine dispensing was needed to clear up all of these things. The church is here, but it may not be so peaceful. Transmission transpired, but dispensing still needs to continue, to go on.
I am speaking something which I have learned. I learned these things mostly from listening to Brother Watchman Nee. He helped me a lot. I worked directly with him for eighteen years. Before those eighteen years, I corresponded with him for seven years. Thus, my relationship with him was for twenty-five years. He was only two years older than I. What could keep us for such a long time without one bit of dissenting? Just before Brother Nee died in prison, he told his prison roommate who was saved through him, "When you get out, find a brother by the name of Witness Lee, and let him know that I never gave up my faith...When you see him, you see me. And his word is my word." What kept Brother Nee and me in such a oneness? The continuous dispensing. We experienced the transmission of the transcending Christ, but day after day for many years we were kept in one accord by the finer dispensing of the sealing Spirit. The consummation of the Triune God as the life-giving Spirit is all the time sealing us with His fine dispensing to transform us. We are here in one accord by His gracious dispensing of grace.
(The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)
