The True Church: Prophetic Essentially
By Seeley D. Kinne
(The Prophetic State: Chapter XXVII)
Prophetic gifts and
powers were set in the Church permanently by God, and are essential parts of the body, necessary to its construction, perpetuation
and activities. The true Church is supernatural and prophetic in nature and foundation.
The Church, ecclesia
or assembly of God is a Divine institution. It did not originate in the mind
of man, nor was made by man. Its origin was in the mind and purposes of God. Its object in His purposes is the revelation of His wisdom and glory and power. Its nature, formation and existence is revealed by the Spirit. It is filled with the fullness of Christ its head.
“The mystery which
from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God.” “To the intent
that now unto the principalities and powers in the Heavenlies, might be known the manifold wisdom of God.” “The mystery of Christ which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now
revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” “Gave
Him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.” “He is the head of the body the Church.”
“Christ is the head of the Church.” Eph. 3:10,4,5; 1:22,23; Col. 1:18; Eph. 5:23.
The Church was bought
by Jesus Christ with His own blood. He is the door of the Church. It is built by Him. It is His Church, built for a Divine habitation. He and His prophets and apostles are its foundation.
“The Church of
God, which He hath purchased with His own blood.” “Christ also loved
the church and gave Himself for it.” “Redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” “I
am the door, by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” “Upon
this rock I will build My Church.” “Ye are the household of God,
and are built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone: In whom all
the building fitly framed together growth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye are builded together for an habitation
of God through the Spirit.” Acts 20:23; Eph. 5:25; 1 Peter 1:19; John 10:9;
Matt. 16: 18,19; Eph. 2:22.
The members of the Church
of Christ are members of one another and of Him. They are bone of His bone and
flesh of His flesh. They are united to Him in a most intimate spiritual union. The life that flows through and actuates them is His own life, as actually as the
natural life by which we live is our own.
“Know ye not that
your bodies are the members of Christ?” “Now ye are the body of Christ,
and members in particular.” “for we are members of His body, of His
flesh, and of His bones.” “So we being many, are one body in Christ.” “For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of
that one bread.” “I am the bread of life.” “For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
He that eateth my flesh , and drinketh my blood dwelleth in Me, and I in Him.”
1 Cor. 6:15; 12:27; 10:17; Eph. 5:30; Rom. 12:5; John 6:48, 54-58.
The members of the true
church of Christ are not made such by any act of man. This mystery church of
Christ can only be entered by a supernatural miraculous act of God. Its members
are set in, added, baptized into or joined to the Lord by the operation of the Holy Spirit.
“The Lord added
to the church daily such as should be saved.” “And believers were
the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.” “For
as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many are one body: so also is Christ. For in one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.” “God hath set the members every one of them in the body, as it pleased Him.” “But God hath tempered the body together.” “Buried
with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God.” “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” “So many of us as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” “So many of us as were baptized into Christ.” 1.
Cor. 12:12-14,18,24; Acts 2:47; 5:14; Col. 2:12; Gal. 3:27.
These abundant quotations
show that the church of Christ is supernatural and Divine in its origin, nature and construction. It is a divine organism not a human organization. Its members
are set in and set in order, built up and builded together, built by, operated or worked by God by Christ and by the Holy
Spirit. This church of Christ described by these Scriptures is so entirely different
from the modern so-called churches for one is made by God, and the other by man. One
is by the power of God, the other by man.
“For to one is
given by the Spirit the word of wisdom: to another the word of knowledge BY the same Spirit.” “But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will.” 1 Cor. 12:8,9,11.
So intimate is the relation
between Jesus Christ and His church that the church is said to be “bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.” He is the head and the church is the body.
“Know ye not that
your bodies are the members of Christ?” “Now ye are the body of Christ,
and members in particular.” “The epistle of Christ ministered by
us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.” “He
that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit.” 1 Cor. 6:15,17; 12:27; 2 Cor.
3:3.
Seeing this church is
so clearly of God in its foundation and formation, its perpetuation and growth must be by the same power, operation and working
as that which brought it into existence. It is a Divine law of creation that
everything shall bring forth after its kind. There could therefore be no such
thing as grafting on to this heavenly vine a natural church. They would not knit
together. The life of the Spirit will not flow through an earthly vine. So we read of its growth.
“And are built
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone; In Whom all the building
fitly framed together growth unto an holy temple in the Lord.” “May
grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.” “Therefore
leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us go on unto perfection.” “As
newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby.”
Eph. 2:20,21; 4:15; Heb. 6:1; 1 Peter 2:2.
Paul begins the consideration
of great and mighty spiritual things, in 1 Cor. 12, by telling them that before they were Christians they were led to idol
worship by evil spirits. And now though they are no longer under control of evil
spirits, yet they are not to come into a life without Spirit control and leadings but to come under the control of the Holy
Spirit. So that He will cause them to say Jesus is Lord. And then describing the Life of the church, he tells them these gifts, ministrations and operations or
workings are by the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus, and by God. The activities and
workings in the church are not by man and human wisdom but by the power of God.
“Now there are
diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of ministrations,
but the same Lord. And there are diversities of working, but the same God who
worketh all in all.” 1 Cor. 12:4-6.
We learn from the Scriptures
the nature of the ministry of Jesus Christ, we see that it was not His own ministry , but that which had been given Him by
His Father, a message and a work wrought by the power of the Holy Spirit. Accordingly
we read,
“Jesus of Nazareth,
which was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.” “How
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power.” “The
Son can do nothing of Himself.” “I must work the works of Him that
sent Me.” “I have not spoken of myself.” “I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.” “After that He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments unto the apostles.” Luke 24:19; John 5:19; 7:40; 8:28; 9:4; 12:49,50; Acts 1:2; 10:38.
If Jesus Christ the Son of God and the very Word of God Himself was a Prophet, and spoke prophetically
by the Holy Spirit the commands of His Father, what creatures are we to assay to speak out of our own ability and not wait
for and seek that the Holy Spirit should take us and make us His mouthpieces?
And if Jesus Christ
is the head, and the church is His body, how can the church be other than prophetic, miraculous and supernatural? If His life be in and through us, the church, by and through the operations and indwelling of the Holy
Spirit, how can the church be anything else but a prophetic church in the power of the Spirit?
All its life, nourishment, growth, development and activities are from and by Jesus Christ, the Great Prophet, by the
outpouring and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, bringing in the things of Christ. The
church cannot therefore be anything else but prophetic. As the apostle says,
“May grow up into
Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly framed together and compacted by that which
every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the
edifying of itself in love.” “Holding the head, from which all the
body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.” Eph. 4:15,16; Col. 2:19.
The church which we
are considering is not therefore, an institution made by man, or controlled and run by man in any of its activities or operations,
but is distinctly a Divine institution from beginning to end. And like all things
pertaining to God is superior to man’s ability to institute, promote, or carry on.
Why then should we be
satisfied with a substitute poor and meager, when God has made such rich provision for a church, ample, complete, and glorious,
so described by Himself in these beautiful words:
“Who is she that
looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.” “Thou are beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners. Turn away thine eyes from me for they have overcome me.” Sol. Song. 6:10,14.
The supernatural beauty
and glory of the church of Christ, her garments and ornamentation, the change that is wrought in her by the miracle working
transformation power of Divine glory are thus described,
“The King’s
daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be
brought unto the King in raiment of needlework.” “And the roof of
thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down straitly or sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep
to speak.” I would lead thee and bring thee into my mother’s house,
who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranates. His left hand should be under my head, and His right hand should embrace me.” Psa. 45:13,14; Sol. Song. 7:9; Sol. Song. 8:2,3.
The passage from Song
of Solomon describes in beautiful prophetic imagery a state of being filled with the Holy Spirit, contrasted here and in Eph.
5:19, with being drunk on wine. A state like that produced by the “best
wine,” or “spiced wine of the juice of the pomegranate.” Rapt
in the Spirit, in an ecstacy, or as he says here, lips of those asleep that is under the power of the Spirit, to speak in
prophetic utterance. What a glorious condition, unconscious to or drawn away
from the world up unto God. This is the church embraced in the love of her prophetic
King, under His prophetic touch.
Why should we be ever
thinking to improve on what God has done? Why is it they think they can bring
a better class of Christians than God has produced? There is no need in the Church
of Jesus Christ for any of the impertinent intrusions of men’s methods, work or wisdom.
God knows how to conduct His affairs quite well enough. He asks no aid
from man, but only that he will become yielded and pliable, that God may work in Him, to will and to do of His good pleasure. If the church had remained under the Divine control as at the beginning, this world
would be in a very different state today. But while things have been so far from
what they should have been,
“The times of
this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.”
“For the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God.”
“Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it, until He receive
the early and the latter rain.” Acts 17:30; Rom. 3:25; Jas. 5:7.
In the patience of God
He has borne with a formal and a natural church, but now in this time of outpouring of rain of the Spirit, He calls for a
full return to the glorious New Testament church built upon a foundation miraculous, supernatural and glorious, and He will
not be satisfied with anything less. We may not return to old human ways of churches
of men on a natural foundation of wisdom of man and control of man. The pattern,
the plan, the execution, its functions, and its activities must be in God, in the Spirit.
