A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Table of Contents

The Crystallization-study of the Bible
The Crystallized Significances of the Steps of God’s Economy
The Crystallized Significance of the Body of Christ
One Bible and One God
The Old Testament—a Figurative Portrait of God’s Eternal Economy
The New Testament—the Practical Fulfillment of God’s Eternal Economy
The Teaching and the Fellowship of the Apostles
An Extract of the Basic Divine Revelation in the Holy Scriptures
Being Constituted with the Divine Truths
The Divine Economy and the Satanic Chaos (1)
The Divine Economy and the Satanic Chaos (2)
A Prophecy concerning the Seed of David Being Called the Son of God
The Unique Work of the Processed Triune God—Building Himself into Our Being
The High Peak of the Vision
Man Becoming God in Life and Nature but Not in the Godhead
God Becoming Man to Make Man the Same as He Is, to Be His Highest Testimony
The Reality of the Body of Christ (1)
The Reality of the Body of Christ (2)
The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ
The Full Ministry of Christ in Three Stages—Incarnation, Inclusion, and Intensification (1)
The Full Ministry of Christ in Three Stages—Incarnation, Inclusion, and Intensification (2)
God’s Complete Salvation—Judicial Redemption plus Organic Salvation
The Secret of God’s Organic Salvation
The Divine and Mystical Realm
The Issue of Christ’s Glorification—the Incorporation of the Consummated God with the Regenerated Believers
The Incorporation of the Consummated God with the Regenerated Believers (1)—the House of the Father
The Incorporation of the Consummated God with the Regenerated Believers (2)—the True Vine
The Incorporation of the Consummated God with the Regenerated Believers (3)—the Newborn Child
The Blueprint of the God-man Living
The Reproduction of the God-man Living
Being Conformed to the Death of Christ by the Power of His Resurrection
Living Christ to Magnify Him through the Bountiful Supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ
A New Revival
The Experience of God’s Organic Salvation Equaling Reigning in Christ’s Life
God’s Economy and the Overcomers
The Final Consummation of the Overcomers
The Vital Groups
Becoming Vital and Going to Vitalize Others
Abiding in the Lord and Walking According to the Spirit to Flow Rivers of Living Water
Shepherding and Teaching—the Obligation of the Vital Groups
Love Prevailing
Shepherding People According to the Lord’s Heart
The Blending of the Saints Bringing into the Reality of the Body of Christ
The Local Church Being the Procedure, the Body of Christ Being the Goal
The Need of the Spreading of the Divine Truths for the Lord’s Recovery and Restoration
The Consummation of the High Peak of the Divine Revelation
The New Jerusalem—Its Significance and Its Base
The New Jerusalem—Its Gates, Its Wall, and Its Foundations
The New Jerusalem—Its Furnishings and Its Supply
The New Jerusalem—an Eternal Couple
The New Jerusalem—Divinity and Humanity Being Mutual Dwelling Place
Becoming the New Jerusalem

Week One
The Crystallization-study of the Bible

Hymns, #380

Scripture Reading:

Rom. 16:25-26 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel, that is, the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which has been kept in silence in the times of the ages But has now been manifested, and through the prophetic writings, according to the command of the eternal God, has been made known to all the Gentiles for the obedience of faith.

The Crystallization-study of the Bible

The crystallization-study of the Bible is a study which goes even deeper than the life-study of the Bible. The life-study opens the entire Bible to us in a general way, but we still need to touch the depths, the crystals, of the holy Scriptures. By such a crystallization-study, the Lord can reveal to us the intrinsic essence of the divine revelation, item by item. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “The Governing and Controlling Vision in the Bible,” ch. 1)

Crystallization Being Based upon the Essence

Crystallization, in our usage, is based upon the essence. To know the essence of an orange, you have to open the skin to see the contents. First, you can see the element, then within the element, there is the essence. It is the very essence of the orange that nourishes us.

The Essence of Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is famous today on this earth. Everywhere nearly every person knows something about Jesus Christ. But who knows Jesus Christ’s essence? Some have said that Jesus Christ is God becoming a man, so He is a God-man. This is good, but do we know the essence of this God-man? He first was God and now He is both God and man, so He is called the God-man. Over sixty years ago, I read a book which used the term God-man. That was very fresh to me. I was with the Brethren for a number of years, and I heard hundreds of messages from them. They told me that Jesus Christ is our God and that one day He became a man. But they never told me that this Jesus Christ, who is God become a man, is the God-man.

But now we need to ask, “What is the essence of Christ being God? What is the essence of Christ being a man?” Let us read Romans 1:3-4: “Concerning His Son, who came out of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” When I was young, I read through these verses again and again, but I could not understand them. I could realize something about the seed of David and the Son of God, but I did not know what the rest of these verses were about. I learned, bit by bit, year after year. Eventually, twenty years ago, I had a life-study on Romans in the summer training. I defined all the phrases and the terms in these verses. The Recovery Version is full of notes on these verses. But even if you read these verses with their accompanying notes a number of times, I am still concerned that you will not get anything. These two verses touch the essence of the person of Christ. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-Study of the Epistle to the Romans,” msg. 1)

The Intrinsic Essence of the Body Being the Spirit

The intrinsic essence of the Body is the Spirit. Ephesians 4:4 says, “One Body and one Spirit.” There is one Body, one framework, and one essence, one Spirit. Ephesians 4:4-6 mentions the one Spirit, the one Lord, and the one God and Father of all. The Father is the source, the Son is the element, and the Spirit is the essence of the one Body. The three in the Godhead are distinct but They are never separated. Instead, according to the New Testament teaching, wherever the Spirit is, the Son and the Father are also there. The Father is over all, through all, and in all (v. 6). The Trinity is implied even here. Over all refers mainly to the Father, through all to the Son, and in all to the Spirit. The Triune God eventually enters into us all by reaching us as the Spirit. This is the mingling, and this mingling is a constitution of the Triune God as the essence, the element, and the source and of the uplifted, transformed humanity as the framework. Such a divine-human constitution is the Body of Christ. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “1993 Blending Conference Messages Concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need,” msg. 3)

The Intrinsic Essence of God’s Building
Being Actually the Triune God as Life to Us

Although in the New Jerusalem revealed in the book of Revelation we see the precious materials of gold, pearl, and precious stones, with these materials we cannot see the intrinsic essence of the divine building specifically. The intrinsic essence of God’s building is actually the Triune God as life to us.

We may use the petrification of wood as an illustration of how the flow of the Triune God imparts the divine essence to us. The flowing of water causes wood to be petrified. The flowing water saturates the wood with the element of certain minerals. As the wood is saturated with the essence of these minerals, it is transformed into stone. This is a picture of the flow of the Spirit bringing the divine essence into our being. This essence accomplishes the work of transforming us, people of dust, into precious stones. This picture helps us to see that the intrinsic essence of the composition of God’s building, the New Jerusalem, is the Triune God Himself as life and life supply to us. (Life-study of Mark, msg. 70)

We All Need to Learn to Speak the Crystallization of God’s Economy

My greatest concern is that you may only have some terminology, and that you may not necessarily have entered into the intrinsic essence and the crystallization of these matters. Even after you have entered in, when you try to speak these things, your speaking may be improper or distorted. When we learn the new and profound things, to understand them is one thing and to speak them clearly and properly is another thing. Some consider themselves as knowing the economy of God, but their speaking is altogether a deviation. All the brothers and sisters among us, particularly the elders and co-workers, need to learn to speak the crystallization of God’s economy. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “The Governing and Controlling Vision in the Bible,” ch. 3)

Questions:

1. The crystallization-study of the Bible is a study which goes even deeper than the life-study of the Bible. In our usage, what is crystallization based upon?
We may know something about Jesus Christ. But do we know Jesus Christ’s essence? Which two verses in the Bible touch the essence of the person of Christ?
We need to learn, to enter into the crystallization of God’s economy, then, what do we also need to do?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Two
The Crystallized Significances of the Steps of God’s Economy

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

Eph. 3:9 And to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us…full of grace and reality.

Rev. 21:2 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

The Crystallized Significances of the Steps of God’s Economy

The first step in God’s economy is God’s becoming flesh; after this there are the steps of Christ’s passing through human living, death on the cross, and resurrection; eventually, there will be the New Jerusalem.

The Crystallized Significance of God’s Becoming Flesh

The crystallized significance of incarnation is not only that divinity was brought into humanity but also that God was brought into man that He might be mingled with man to be a God-man.

Ordinary Christians know only the event mentioned in Luke 2, where on the night of the birth of Christ, an angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds who spent their nights in the fields and announced to them the good news of great joy for all people that a Savior was born to them in David’s city (vv. 8-14). Any reader of the Bible can see this and understand it without any need of explanation. Christ indeed was born to be a Savior, but this is still not the crystallized significance of His birth. The crystallized significance of Christ’s birth is that God became flesh in Christ; that is, God Himself entered into man to be mingled with man.

The Crystallized Significance
of Christ’s Passing through Human Living

God becoming flesh was His bringing Himself into man. When God passed through human living in the human life, this was God living the God-man life in the flesh to live out the divine attributes in human virtues. The Lord Jesus expressed God on the earth by becoming a man to live a human life in which He lived out all that God is in His divine attributes to be His human virtues. This is the crystallized significance of Christ’s passing through human living.

The Crystallized Significance of Christ’s Crucifixion

After He experienced human living, Christ went to the cross and was crucified. In general, most Christians would say that because Jesus loved us, He bore our sins and died on our behalf to redeem us. This is correct but very shallow. The crystallized significance of Christ’s crucifixion is that He accomplished an all-inclusive death. On the negative side, His death terminated the old creation (Rom. 6:6), including all persons and things related to the old creation: Satan (Heb. 2:14), sin (Rom. 8:3b; John 1:29; Heb. 9:26b, 28a), the world, (John 12:31; Gal. 6:14b), man’s flesh (Gal. 5:24; Rom. 8:3b), the law of the commandments in ordinances (Eph. 2:15a), and everything outside of God. Thus, Christ’s death completely removed and thoroughly terminated all defilement and corruption in the universe brought in through Satan’s rebellion and man’s fall.

On the positive side, Christ’s death released the divine life in Him as a basic factor of God’s new creation. Christ’s death not only terminated the old creation but also released the divine life. His death was the death of a grain of wheat, as mentioned in John 12:24. Apparently, Christ as a grain of wheat fell into the ground and died; actually, that death was His being made alive. The riches of life contained in a seed can be released only through death. In the same way, when Christ as a grain of wheat fell into the ground and died, the life element within Him became intensely active to release the divine life—the very God Himself—that was concealed in Him and to impart it into the many grains. This is the crystallized significance of Christ’s death.

The Crystallized Significance of Christ’s Resurrection

Christ’s resurrection, the beginning of the new creation, has a threefold crystallized significance. In this resurrection the firstborn Son of God was produced, the many sons of God were simultaneously produced, and Christ Himself was made the life-giving Spirit. Acts 13:33 says, “You are My Son; today I have begotten You.” Today refers to the day of Christ’s resurrection (Psa. 2:7). Christ’s resurrection was His being begotten by God as the firstborn Son (Rom. 1:4). First Peter 1:3 says, “God…has regenerated us…through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Hence, God also regenerated all His chosen people to be His many sons through Christ’s resurrection. Thus, God’s firstborn Son and His many sons constitute a universal, corporate new man with the firstborn Son as the Head and the many sons as the Body.

Furthermore, in this resurrection as a great delivery, the incarnated Christ passed through resurrection and became the life-giving Spirit. This Spirit enters into the many sons to be their bountiful supply (Phil. 1:19). This is God entering into the believers to regenerate them, sanctify them, renew them, transform them, conform them to the image of God’s firstborn Son, and eventually glorify them. All these things are carried out by Christ as the firstborn Son who has become the life-giving Spirit and has entered into us.

The Four Steps in God’s Economy Issuing in the Body of Christ

Through these four steps of God’s economy the many sons of God were produced. Corporately, the many sons of God are the church; organically, they are the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is the church, the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the bride, the counterpart, of Christ. In each aspect, the church takes the Body of Christ as its organic factor. Eve came out of Adam and was a match to Adam, so she could be Adam’s counterpart. Likewise, the church must also have the life of Christ that she may be Christ’s counterpart. The church as the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the bride of Christ takes the Body of Christ as its organic factor.

Learning to Speak the Crystallized Significance

We have seen that the vision in the Bible which governs and controls us is the economy of God. We have also seen the crystallized significances of the various steps of God’s economy. I hope the brothers and sisters will be able to see that our expressions are absolutely different from the traditional expressions used in Christianity. We have been enlightened by the Lord to have the new expressions; we must learn all these new expressions and new utterances. Even when we knock on doors to visit people, we should begin our speaking with God’s economy. Whether one receives it or not, it is up to him; but the speaking is up to us. We should not speak the same old things which people have already heard; we need to speak the crystallized significances of God’s economy. Only these things can thoroughly save people; so we need to learn to speak them. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “The Governing and Controlling Vision in the Bible,” ch. 2)

Questions:

1. Through the four steps of God’s economy the many sons of God were produced. Corporately, the many sons of God are the church. What are the four steps?
Christ’s resurrection, the beginning of the new creation, has a threefold crystallized significance. What are they?
We have seen the crystallized significances of the various steps of God’s economy. What should we do?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Three
The Crystallized Significance of the Body of Christ

Hymns, #1107

Scripture Reading:

Eph. 4:4-6 One Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism; One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

The Crystallized Significance of the Body of Christ

Now, we would like to see the crystallized significance of the Body of Christ. In the entire Bible, only the apostle Paul spoke concerning the Body of Christ. In Matthew 16 and 18 the Lord Jesus clearly referred to the church, but He only spoke of His Body in a hidden, implied way without explicitly using the expression the Body of Christ. The writers of the other Epistles, including the apostles Peter and John, never used this expression; it was used only by Paul.

Every one of the fourteen Epistles of Paul refers to the church, but only four are concerned with the Body of Christ: Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians. Among them, Ephesians touches the most central, basic, and fundamental matters. Ephesians 4:4-6 is the crystallized speaking of the apostle Paul concerning the Body of Christ. These three verses show us that the Triune God and we, the redeemed, are mingled into a constitution, and this constitution is the Body of Christ.

“One Body and One Spirit,
Even as Also You Were Called in One Hope of Your Calling”

Verse 4a says, “One Body and one Spirit.” The Body of Christ takes God’s chosen and redeemed people as its framework and the Spirit as its constituting essence. Just as our body has a framework and also has blood and flesh, so the Body of Christ has its framework and constituting essence. The framework of the Body of Christ is the God-chosen and Christ-redeemed people, with whom the consummated Spirit of the Triune God mingles Himself to constitute the Body of Christ.

Verse 4b says, “Even as also you were called in one hope of your calling.” Here, hope refers to the transformation of the redeemed. Since the day we were called, we have had the hope that we will be transformed. The Old Testament portrays us as maggots and worms (Job 25:6). Paul also said that he was the foremost among sinners (1 Tim. 1:15b). The Lord has saved us, and what is our hope? Our hope is that we will be transformed! Who will transform us? The Spirit. The Spirit comes first to regenerate us; then He sanctifies us, renews us, transforms us, conforms us to the image of God’s Firstborn, and eventually glorifies us that our body may be saturated with glory, thus shining forth the divine glory. This is our hope. The process from regeneration to glorification is a process of transformation; this transformation is our hope.

One Lord, One Faith, and One Baptism

“One Lord, one faith, one baptism.” This verse does not say “one Son,” but “one Lord.” In the Gospel of John it is the Son into whom we believe (3:16); the Son is mainly for us to have life (1 John 5:12). Here in Ephesians, the Son is referred to as the Lord, as also in the book of Acts (2:36); the Lord is for His exercising of authority, for His headship. As the Son, He is our life; as the Lord, He is the Head exercising His authority in the Body. The Body’s relationship with Him is one of faith and baptism. Through faith we believe into the Lord (John 3:36), and through baptism we are baptized into Him (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3) and terminated in Adam (v. 4).

Both faith and baptism imply an entering in and a coming out. We came out of Adam and have entered into Christ. Hence, through one faith and one baptism we were baptized out of Adam; that is, we were buried and severed from Adam. At the same time, in one Spirit we have entered into Christ to be joined with Him.

As a result, Christ has become the transforming element in us. The transforming Spirit transforms us gradually from within with Christ as the element that we, the redeemed, may become one with Christ and be mingled with Christ as one.

One God and Father of All

Ephesians 4:6 says, “One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” In the Body of Christ we have not only the transforming Spirit and Christ as the transforming element but also one God and Father. As God, He created us; as the Father, He regenerated us. Both in creation and in regeneration God is our source. In the old creation we came from God and were created by Him. In the new creation we were regenerated by the Father. Therefore, both “God” and “Father” imply the source.

This one God and Father as the source involves three aspects—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. He is over all—this refers to the Father, the source; He is through all—this refers to the Son, Christ; and He is in all—this refers to the Spirit. The Father is over all; the Son, Christ, is through all; and the Spirit dwells in all. These are not three but one. When the source comes, the element also comes; this is the Son who is through all. Furthermore, the life-giving Spirit comes to dwell in all. Thus, we see that the Triune God and His chosen and redeemed people are constituted into one unit, one entity, which is the Body of Christ. This is the crystallized significance of the Body of Christ.

We All Must See the Body and Do the Work of the Body

In the New Testament it is not a matter of the oneness of the church; oneness is not something of the church but of the Body. The Lord’s prayer for the believers in John 17 was concerning the Body. He prayed, “Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given to Me, that they may be one even as We are….That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us” (vv. 11b, 21). The believers can have this oneness only by being in the Holy Father, in the Holy Son, and in the Holy Trinity. The real oneness is the organic oneness of the Body. In a locality, this oneness is called one accord. Without the oneness of the Body, there is no possibility to have one accord in the church.

We all must see the Body and do the work of the Body. All our problems, whether in the church or in our personal life, are due to our lack of seeing the Body. Even our wrong attitude toward our wife is due to our not knowing the Body. Knowing the Body changes not only our church life but also our attitude toward our spouse. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “The Governing and Controlling Vision in the Bible,” ch. 2)

Questions:

1. From Ephesians 4:4-6, what is the crystallized speaking of the apostle Paul concerning the Body of Christ?
Ephesians 4:4b says, “as also you were called in one hope of your calling.” Here, what does hope refer to?
All our problems, whether in the church or in our personal life, are due to our lack of seeing the Body. So, what would change if we could see the Body and do the work of the Body?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Four
One Bible and One God

Hymns, #799

Scripture Reading:

2 Tim. 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

Matt. 28:19 Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

One Bible—One Revelation

Upon this earth, everyone knows there is one Bible, but this one Bible is in the hands of different people. What kind of Bible people have depends upon what kind of people they are. All the divisions among the Christians came out of different interpretations of the Bible. We should not have more than one Bible in the recovery. To have a proper Bible, which is really according to God’s revelation, depends upon the way we understand it. If we understand the Bible properly, we will have a proper Bible. The Bible itself is never wrong, but with us it can be wrong.

In 2 Timothy 2:15 Paul said, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, an unashamed workman, cutting straight the word of the truth.” We have to cut the word straightly as in carpentry. We have to interpret the written Word of God as a carpenter cutting wood. This means to unfold the word of God in its various parts rightly and straightly without distortion. Second Timothy 2:15 is very meaningful and should control us to the uttermost. There are different ways of understanding the same Bible. When the apostle Paul was on earth, he was contending with the unbelieving Jews and correcting them by cutting the word rightly, straightly. Now we need to see how to cut the word in a straight way.

The Bible Should Not Be Interpreted
According to Man’s Own Concepts

The Bible should not be interpreted according to man’s own concepts—understandings, logic, philosophies, views, and fanciful imaginations. These concepts should be altogether abandoned. Peter indicates that we do not have the freedom to interpret the prophecy of the Bible by our natural concept, because it is revealed by God (2 Pet. 1:20-21). We have to pray for God to help us know His original meaning in speaking such a prophecy.

The Bible Should Also Be Interpreted by Discerning the Differences
in the Dispensational Progress of the Divine Revelation

The Bible should also be interpreted by discerning the differences in the dispensational progress of the divine revelation. This is a big principle. The dispensations in the Bible are important. There are the Old Testament dispensation and the New Testament dispensation. In the Old Testament dispensation the seventh day was ordained by God as the Sabbath, but in the New Testament, the Sabbath was put aside and is over. The Seventh-Day Adventists did not discern this dispensational difference, so they insist on keeping the Sabbath. They charge the New Testament saints to keep something in the Old Testament, and their way to keep the Sabbath is also according to the Old Testament way.

We have to see the dispensational progress in the divine revelation. Abraham’s time was different from Noah’s time. At Noah’s time God did not tell His chosen people where to go and where to stay. But God told Abraham to leave his idolatrous country and go to the good land. He also told him to circumcise all of his young males. Such things were not revealed to Noah. The time of Moses was the age, the dispensation, of the law. Then when the Lord Jesus came, that was a big change of dispensation. His coming ushered in the age of grace.

In our interpretation of the Bible, we must learn one principle—to know the dispensations in God’s revelation. This is because God’s revelation is progressive from one stage to another stage, from one dispensation to another dispensation.

Any Interpretation of the Unique Bible
Should Not Have Any Minor Revelations Interpreted against
the Major Revelation

Also, any interpretation of the unique Bible should not have any minor revelations interpreted against, not in line or in harmony with, the major revelation of this unique and consistent Bible. First Corinthians 11 speaks of a revelation concerning the headship in which all the sisters should cover their head, but head covering is not the Bible’s central revelation. We should not neglect this branch revelation, but we should not be legalistic about it either. Some people argue about what color or what shape of head covering the sisters should wear. These arguments are nonsense. Head covering reminds us that we all have to be under the headship of our Head, as Christ is under the headship of God the Father. We must have the reality of the branch revelations.

One God—One Economy

God is self-existing and ever-existing (Exo. 3:14), and God is triune—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14). The Triune God has one heart’s desire (Eph. 1:5, 9). According to His heart’s desire, God made His eternal economy (1 Tim. 1:4b; Eph. 1:10; 3:9) to make man the same as He is in life and nature but not in His Godhead and to make Himself one with man and man one with Him, thus to be enlarged and expanded in His expression, that all His divine attributes may be expressed in human virtues.

God carries out His eternal economy through a number of steps. First, He created man in His image and after His likeness (Gen. 1:26-27). Then God became a man in His image and after His likeness. He became a man in His incarnation to partake of the human nature (Heb. 2:14a). He lived a human life to express His attributes through man’s virtues. He died an all-inclusive death and resurrected to produce the firstborn Son of God and become the life-giving Spirit (Rom. 8:29; Acts 13:33; 1 Cor. 15:45). This was all for Him to dispense Himself into His chosen people to regenerate them with Himself as their life for producing many sons—many God-men (1 Pet. 1:3)—for the forming of the churches with His many sons and for the building up of the Body of Christ with His brothers as the members to be the organism of the processed and consummated Triune God, consummating in the New Jerusalem as His eternal enlargement and expression.

We Should Speak the Things of God’s Economy

We may say that we have already heard the truth concerning God’s economy, but to hear is not sufficient. We have to present this truth to others, to give messages to them. Paul exhorted Timothy to stay in Ephesus to charge some there not to speak things other than God’s economy (1 Tim. 1:3-4). We have to be controlled by the vision of God’s economy. We should not speak anything other than God’s economy. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Ten Great Critical “Ones” for the Building Up of the Body of Christ,” msg. 1)

Questions:

1. Upon this earth, everyone knows there is one Bible. How can we have a proper Bible, which is really according to God’s revelation?
God is self-existing and ever-existing, God also is Triune. This Triune God has one heart’s desire, what is it?
We may say that we have already heard the truth concerning God’s economy, but to hear is not sufficient. What should we also do?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Five
The Old Testament—a Figurative Portrait
of God’s Eternal Economy

Hymns, #189

Scripture Reading:

Eph. 3:9 And to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things,

Col. 2:17 Which are a shadow of the things to come, but the body is of Christ.

The Old Testament Being a Figurative Portrait
of God’s Eternal Economy

The Bible is of two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament, but why is this so? We may say that the first part of the Bible, the Old Testament, presents a shadow, and the New Testament presents the reality. A person is the reality of his shadow. Now I would like to use a new term to describe the entire Old Testament. This new term is figurative portrait. The Old Testament is a figurative portrait of God’s eternal economy. A portrait, a picture, is a shadow. The Old Testament is a portrait but in figure.

The Bible unveils that the Triune God has a desire. He has a purpose, so He made a plan, an economy. He made this economy in Himself and in His Son, Christ. His economy concerns His coming to be born through incarnation, to live on this earth, and eventually to die an all-inclusive death on the cross. Then He entered into resurrection to release Himself as the divine life so that this life can be dispensed into many people chosen by Him before the foundation of the world to make these ones God-men. He is the unique God in His Divine Trinity, but through His incarnation, living on earth, death, and resurrection, He has made the many thousands of His chosen people the same as He is in life and in nature but not in His Godhead. They are the many God-men to be the members of the Body of Christ, and this Body is the organism of the processed, consummated Triune God to consummate in the New Jerusalem for His enlargement, expansion, and expression forever. This is a brief definition of God’s economy.

The figurative portrait of God’s eternal economy presented in the Old Testament spans thirty-nine books, but it is only in four sections—in types, in history, in poetry, and in prophecy. The section of types is of five books, from Genesis to Deuteronomy. The section of history is of twelve books, from Joshua to Esther. The section of poetry is of five books, from Job to Song of Songs. The section of prophecy is of seventeen books, from Isaiah to Malachi. There are five major prophets and twelve minor ones. Thus, the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament can be divided into three “fives” and two “twelves.” There are five books of types, twelve of history, five of poetry, five of the major prophets, and twelve of the minor prophets. The twelve minor prophets are from Hosea to Malachi. We want to see the intrinsic significance of these four sections of the Old Testament.

In Types—Genesis to Deuteronomy

The types from Genesis to Deuteronomy unveil the Triune God embodied in Christ as the center and circumference of His eternal economy. They also unveil this Christ as the blessing and everything to the Triune God’s chosen people.

In History—Joshua to Esther

The twelve books of history from Joshua to Esther unveil the Triune God’s move in His chosen people to possess, inherit, and enjoy His promised all-inclusive Christ as the good land. They also unveil the failures of God’s chosen people as a warning to His New Testament chosen people. God’s chosen people in the Old Testament became altogether a failure in God’s move. The record of this in the Bible is a warning to us, the church people today in the New Testament.

In Poetry—Job to Song of Songs

The poetry in the Old Testament is only of five books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. They unveil that the Triune God Himself, not ethics or morality, should be man’s pursuit as his perfection. This one sentence covers the central, intrinsic revelation of Job. The Psalms unveil that this God was incarnated to be a man in the flesh to be His Anointed, who is His delight, who has been exalted by Him, and who should be received, treasured, and exalted by His chosen people. Ecclesiastes unveils that all things in the human life under the sun are vanity of vanities, and Song of Songs shows that Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God is the unique satisfaction to God’s chosen people. Thus, we should pursue God as our perfection, and we should pursue after Christ as our satisfaction. God should be our perfection, and Christ can be our satisfaction.

In Prophecy—Isaiah to Malachi

The seventeen books of prophecy from Isaiah to Malachi unveil that the Triune God embodied in Christ will come to be the God-man (Isa. 7:14; 9:6) to accomplish redemption (ch. 53) for the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy according to the preceding three categories of the books in the Old Testament. They also unveil that the accomplishment of the processed and consummated Triune God in Christ will consummate in the new heaven and new earth (Isa. 65:17; 66:22; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1).

A Vivid Portrait of the All-inclusive Christ
in and for God’s Eternal Economy in The Old Testament

All the above points present us a vivid portrait of the all-inclusive Christ in and for God’s eternal economy in the Old Testament. In types, we see that Christ is the centrality and universality of God’s eternal economy and the divine blessing to all God’s chosen people. In history, we see that the all-inclusive Christ is the God-promised good land which all God’s chosen people should take, possess, inherit, and enjoy to the uttermost, even to the level of kingship. In poetry, we see that Christ is the unique perfection for God’s chosen people to pursue after and the unique satisfaction for God’s chosen people to obtain and enjoy. Then in prophecy we see that the Triune God has become a God-man to accomplish His full redemption for the fulfillment of His eternal economy which will consummate in the new heaven and new earth. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Triune God’s Revelation and His Move,” ch. 2)

Questions:

1. The figurative portrait of God’s eternal economy presented in the Old Testament spans thirty-nine books, but it is only in four sections. What are these four sections?
The poetry in the Old Testament is only of five books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. What do these five books unveil?
The Old Testament presents us a vivid portrait of Christ. What is He like?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Six
The New Testament—the Practical Fulfillment
of God’s Eternal Economy

Hymns, #980

Scripture Reading:

Eph. 1:10 Unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him;

Rev. 21:2 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

The New Testament Being the Practical Fulfillment
of God’s Eternal Economy

We have seen that the Old Testament is a figurative portrait of God’s eternal economy. The New Testament is the practical fulfillment of God’s eternal economy. The Old Testament is a portrait, and the New Testament is a fulfillment. A portrait is a picture, a photo. People may say that they have seen someone on a videotape, but actually they have not seen that person. They have seen his photo, his portrait. Later they may be glad to see the real person whom they saw on the video. The Old Testament is like a video. The New Testament is the real thing. It is not a portrait, but a fulfillment. The person in the fulfillment is exactly the same as his photo. There are twenty-seven books in the New Testament in three sections: the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles. The Gospels are of four books; the Acts is one book; and the Epistles are of twenty-two books.

Matthew to John

Some Christians would say in general that the four Gospels tell us the detailed history of Christ, including His being born of a virgin, His death on the cross, and His resurrection. Others may say that the Gospels reveal Christ in a fourfold way: in Matthew as a king, in Mark as a slave, in Luke as a man, and in John as God. Although this thought is very high, we want to go further to see the central, intrinsic revelation of the four Gospels. This revelation from Matthew to John is that the Triune God has been processed and consummated to be the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. The Triune God has been processed through incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection. He was also consummated to be a life-giving Spirit. At the end of the four Gospels, on the day of His resurrection, He came back to His disciples, breathed into them, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). After His resurrection, Christ is in us as the Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 15:45, Paul said that the last Adam, the embodied God, God embodied in a man, became the life-giving Spirit. Some opposers have argued that this does not mean that Jesus Christ is the Spirit. They said that 1 Corinthians 15:45 says that the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit, not the life-giving Spirit. But whether the article is definite or indefinite does not matter. If I say, “Here is a man,” or, “Here is the man,” a man is still a man. There is no difference. There is not another Spirit who gives life besides the Holy Spirit.

The Triune God has been processed through His incarnation to become the God-man, through His human living to live the God-man’s life, through His all-inclusive death to redeem His lost creation and to release His divine life, and through His resurrection to dispense Himself into His redeemed chosen people as their life and everything. Thus, the processed, consummated Triune God as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit is dispensed into His chosen, redeemed people to be their life and everything. The general teaching in today’s Christianity says only that Christ is the Redeemer, not that Christ is our life and everything.

Acts: the Propagation of the Resurrected Christ in His Ascension,
by the Spirit, through the Disciples,
for the Producing of the Churches—the Kingdom of God

Acts unveils the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit spreading Himself as the reality of Christ, who is the embodiment of God, for the producing of the churches of God. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we received Him into us as the Spirit. Actually that Spirit is Christ, the reality of Christ.

Romans to Revelation

Now we come to the last section of the New Testament, the twenty-two Epistles from Romans to Revelation.

In the four Gospels the church is mentioned only twice, in Matthew 16:18 and 18:17, but the Body of Christ is not mentioned. Acts speaks of the churches, but also does not mention the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is mentioned only in the Epistles. Actually, the first twenty-one Epistles unveil the Body of Christ, whereas Revelation reveals the New Jerusalem as the consummation of the Body of Christ. Romans 12:5 is the first verse in the entire New Testament that mentions the Body of Christ. This indicates that all the Epistles are for the Body of Christ. Other Epistles that speak of the Body of Christ are 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians. These four books—Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians—are the master books of the New Testament. If these books were taken away, the New Testament would become empty.

Romans to Revelation unveil the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit building up the churches into the organism of the consummated Triune God as the Body of Christ, by transforming them into the image of Christ as the firstborn Son of God, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the eternal enlargement and expression of the consummated Triune God.

Telling People Three Sections as the Practical Fulfillment
of God’s Eternal Economy

When we tell people what the New Testament unveils we should tell them what we have spoken of above concerning its three sections as the practical fulfillment of God’s eternal economy. It would be very good if we were able to recite the three definitions of these three sections. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Triune God’s Revelation and His Move,” ch. 2)

Questions:

1. We should go further to see the central, intrinsic revelation of the four Gospels. What is this revelation?
The Body of Christ is mentioned only in the Epistles from Romans to Revelation. What is the consummation of the Body of Christ?
What should we do after we know three sections as the practical fulfillment of God’s eternal economy?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Seven
The Teaching and the Fellowship of the Apostles

Hymns, #183

Scripture Reading:

1 John 1:3 That which we have seen and heard we report also to you that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Acts 2:42 And they continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Continuing in the Teaching of the Apostles
and in the Fellowship of the Apostles

Beginning from the 1820s, the Brethren stressed the apostles’ teaching very much. John Nelson Darby and other Brethren teachers stressed that we must continue in the apostles’ teaching and in the apostles’ fellowship…. We must continue in these two things—in the teaching of the apostles and in the fellowship of the apostles. If we intend to continue in the fellowship of the apostles, we must first continue in the teaching of the apostles. Teaching must come first; then fellowship follows. Very few Christians are able to tell us what the apostles’ teaching and the apostles’ fellowship are. Because these two things have been altogether neglected, all of Christianity is confused and divided. Today Christianity is characterized by confusion and division.

The Teaching of the Apostles Being
the Entire Speaking of God in the New Testament

The apostles’ teaching is the teaching of the apostles. It is not the teaching only of Peter, of John, or of Paul, but of others as well…. The teaching of the apostles is the entire speaking of God in the New Testament, first in the Son as a man, then in the Son as the Spirit through the apostles. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 1, “The Apostles’ Teaching,” msg. 1)

The apostles’ teaching consists of, first, the teachings of the Lord Jesus in the four Gospels. In Matthew 28:19-20 the Lord charged the earlier disciples to teach the new believers all the things that He had commanded them in the four Gospels. Thus, it is clear that the teaching of the apostles includes the teachings of the Lord Jesus in the four Gospels.

The teaching of the apostles also includes the teachings of the apostles in the book of Acts (Heb. 2:3). Hebrews 1:1-2a says, “God…has at the last of these days spoken to us in the Son.” Here it says that in the last days God speaks in the Son, that is, in the person of the Son. From this we can realize that even the speaking of the apostles in the Acts is God’s speaking in the Son.

The teaching of the apostles also includes the teachings of the apostles in the Epistles, from Romans through Revelation (John 16:12-15; Col. 1:25-28; Rev. 22:18-19). Revelation should be considered not merely as a book but actually as a long epistle, within which are seven epistles (2:1-3:22). The New Testament has twenty-seven books. The first five are the four Gospels and the Acts. The remainder of the books of the New Testament are the twenty-two Epistles from Romans through Revelation. All these Epistles are the apostles’ writings. They are the divine speaking concerning God’s mysteries in His economy.

The Fellowship of the Apostles

Acts 2:42 mentions not only the teaching of the apostles but also the fellowship of the apostles. Any kind of teaching will bring in a certain kind of fellowship. The kind of fellowship we enter into corresponds to the kind of teaching we are under. Fellowship is always based on teaching.

The Fellowship of the Divine Life,
between the Apostles and the Believers

The fellowship of the apostles is, first, the fellowship of the divine life, between the apostles and the believers (1 John 1:1-3a). According to the New Testament the fellowship of Christians is a divine matter. It is a matter of the divine life…. The apostles’ teaching brings the divine life to us. When we receive the divine life through the apostles’ teaching, in that life we immediately have fellowship. Regardless of our race or nationality, as long as we are saved, when we come together there is spontaneously a fellowship among us.

The Fellowship of the Divine Life,
between the Apostles and God

In 1 John 1:1-3 the apostle John told the believers that he brought in the fellowship through the divine life. Thus, between the apostles and the believers there is something that is called fellowship. Then the apostle said that this fellowship is not only a fellowship between the believers and the apostles but also a fellowship between the apostles and God (v. 3b).

The Fellowship of the Divine Life,
between the Believers among Themselves in Their Spirit

The fellowship of the apostles is also the fellowship of the divine life, between the believers among themselves in their spirit (vv. 2-3, 7; Phil. 2:1). Among the believers there is a wonderful thing called fellowship. This fellowship is carried on by the Spirit in the believers’ regenerated spirit. Hence, in Philippians 2:1 it is called “fellowship of [our] spirit.”

The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit in All the Believers

The fellowship of the apostles is also the fellowship of the Holy Spirit in all the believers. Second Corinthians 13:14 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” These three—love, grace, and fellowship—are not three separate things; rather, they are three aspects of one thing. The fellowship of the Spirit carries with it the grace of Christ, and within the grace of Christ is the love of God. Thus, these three items are just one divine gift as a portion to us, that is, the Triune God Himself in three aspects: in the Father as love, in the Son as grace, and in the Spirit as the fellowship, the application.

The Fellowship of the Body of Christ
in the Oneness of the Spirit

This fellowship is the fellowship of the Body of Christ in the oneness of the Spirit. Ephesians 4:3 tells us to be diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit, and then verse 4 follows immediately to say, “One Body and one Spirit.” These two verses indicate that the oneness of the Spirit is just the fellowship of the Body of Christ. This fellowship of the Body is in the oneness of the Spirit. If we do not have the oneness of the Spirit, we are not enjoying the fellowship of the Body.

Keeping the Truths and Studying Them Carefully

When we were raised up by the Lord in His recovery, we were in a situation of mixture. Nearly everything that we received from Christianity was a mixture. That was a very difficult situation. We spent a great deal of time to clear up all the different terms and complex items of the truth. In order to clear up the mixture, we spent many years to find the proper way to classify the different items of the truth in the Bible. Therefore, we need to regard the truths concerning the New Testament ministry, the teaching of the apostles, and the fellowship of the apostles…as a treasure. We need to keep these matters and study them carefully. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 1, “The Ministry of the New Testament and the Teaching and Fellowship of the Apostles,” msg.2)

Questions:

1. Is the teaching of the apostles merely the teaching of Peter or Paul? If not, how should we understand the teaching of the apostles?
Acts 2:42 also mentions the teaching of the apostles. What is the teaching of the apostles in detail?
What attitude should we have toward the truths concerning the New Testament ministry, the teaching of the apostles, and the fellowship of the apostles?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Eight
An Extract of the Basic Divine Revelation in the Holy Scriptures

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

Matt. 28:19 Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Rev. 21:2 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

An Extract of the Basic Divine Revelation
in the Holy Scriptures

In this message I would like to present an extract of the basic divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures. The seven points of this extract may be regarded as an extract of our theology.

Knowing the Processed and Consummated Triune God

The Triune God was incarnated to be the flesh (John 1:14). Through incarnation He became the first God-man, the Lord Jesus, and as such He expressed God in His humanity.

The Triune God has been consummated to be the life-giving Spirit to apply what Christ has accomplished (1 Cor. 15:45b). God the Father planned; God the Son accomplished what God the Father planned; and God the Spirit applies what God the Son has accomplished according to God the Father’s plan.

Knowing the All-inclusive Christ as the Mystery Of God

We need to know the all-inclusive Christ as the mystery of God to be the reality of the Triune God (Col. 2:2). Christ is both the mystery of God and the reality of God. Embodied in Christ is all that God is and has. All that God intends to do is related to Christ. If we do not know this Christ, we do not know God. We may say that Christ is the key that opens up the way into God. When we have Christ, God is open to us. Through Him we know God and even are brought into God.

The Consummated Spirit Being the Transfiguration
of Christ in Resurrection

The consummated Spirit is the transfiguration of Christ in resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45b). Christ is the embodiment of God, and the Spirit is the transfiguration of Christ. In resurrection Christ, the last Adam in the flesh, became the life-giving Spirit. Christ’s resurrection was His transfiguration into the life-giving Spirit. He was the Christ in the flesh, but through resurrection He was transfigured into the Christ who is the life-giving Spirit.

The Church Being the Universal House of God
to Be God’s Manifestation in Humanity

The church is the universal house of God to be God’s manifestation in humanity (1 Tim. 3:15-16). In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul speaks of “the house of God, which is the church of the living God.” As God’s dwelling place, the church is both God’s house and His household, His family….God is manifested in the church, the Body of Christ and the house of the living God, as the enlarged, corporate expression in the flesh, that is, in humanity.

The Body of Christ Being the Mystery of Christ

The Body of Christ is the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:4). The mystery of God in Colossians 2:2 is Christ; the mystery of Christ in Ephesians 3:4 is the church. God is a mystery, and Christ, as the embodiment of God to express Him, is the mystery of God. Christ also is a mystery, and the church, as the Body of Christ, is the mystery of Christ. This mystery is God’s economy, which is to dispense Christ, as the embodiment of God, into God’s chosen people in order to produce a Body to be the increase of God’s embodiment in Christ so that God may have a corporate expression.

Knowing the Ultimate Consummation—the New Jerusalem

We need to advance from knowing the Body of Christ to knowing the ultimate consummation—the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21).

The New Jerusalem is a mystical constitution constituted with the processed and consummated Triune God with His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, built-up, conformed, and glorified people.

Knowing the Self

In addition to knowing the six foregoing matters, we need to know the self.

In Romans 6:6 the old man refers to the natural life in our soul. The old man is our very being, which was created by God but became fallen through sin…. The self needs to be denied, condemned, and rejected all the time. In Matthew 16:24 the Lord Jesus said, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” We, the believers in Christ, were crucified with Him, and now we need to bear the cross. For us to bear the cross means that we remain under the killing of the death of Christ for the terminating of our self, our natural life, and our old man. In so doing we deny our self that we may follow the Lord.

Needing to Spend Much Time to Study All These Matters

In this message we have covered, as an extract of the basic revelation in the Holy Scriptures, seven main matters in our theology: the Triune God, the all-inclusive Christ, the consummated Spirit, the church, the Body, the ultimate consummation (the New Jerusalem), and the self. We need to spend much time to study all these matters. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Incarnation, Inclusion, and Intensification,” msg. 3)

Questions:

1. We have covered, as an extract of the basic revelation in the Holy Scriptures, seven main matters in our theology. What are these seven matters?
The New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation. What is its constitution?
We need to know the self. According to Matthew 16:24, what should do to follow the Lord?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Nine
The Centrality and Universality of Christ

Hymns, #806

Scripture Reading:

Col. 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.

Eph. 6:17-18 And receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, By means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints.

Needing to Be Constituted

I saw much opposition to the Lord’s recovery for twenty years in mainland China. Later, I was sent out from Taiwan to southeast Asia and then to the United States. I personally have confronted opposition even from saints among us. Over the years, though, I must testify that I have never had a bit of doubt about the Lord’s recovery. Before I came out of mainland China, the New Testament ministry had been thoroughly constituted into my being. I know many doctrines, but I cannot teach those doctrines. My person has become a constitution of the New Testament ministry. Whenever you ask me to speak and wherever you ask me to speak, whether it is at a wedding, at your dining table, to your family, to the old, to the young, to the brothers, or to the sisters, what I can speak and what I will speak is the New Testament ministry. How do we carry out this ministry? We need to be a person constituted with God’s New Testament ministry. If you mean business with the Lord and if you love the Lord for His recovery and you love His recovery for the Lord you must get yourself constituted with this New Testament ministry.

Our constitution should not be something gilded. It must be something inwrought into our being. The Great Babylon is gilded with gold (Rev. 17:4), but the lampstand is golden by its intrinsic essence. It is golden practically, basically, and essentially. With many of us, our being golden is somewhat by gilding. Something that is gilded with gold cannot pass the test of “scratching.” A little scratch exposes the real nature of the thing. If we are really gold, “scratching” will expose that we are gold. Even if someone were to “break us up” and “grind us into powder,” it would show that we are not only golden but gold. If our intrinsic nature is golden, this can stand any kind of test. The Lord’s recovery does not treasure any gilded thing. We treasure the basic things, the practical things, the essential things. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision,” ch. 5)

Needing to Pray-read and Then Study
in Order to Be Constituted with the Truth

In order to be constituted with the truth, we need to pray-read and then study. Pray-reading verses such as John 1:1 and 14 lays a good foundation. Then we can study the crucial points of these verses with the help of the life-studies. With this help we can find out what grace and reality are. We have to study the truths word by word, term by term, and phrase by phrase. Spontaneously, we will be able to recite what we have pray-read and studied. In addition to our personal study, we also need to study with others. This kind of study cannot be carried out in big meetings. It can be carried out mutually in vital group meetings of six to not more than ten saints.

Prophesying with What We Can Recite

Romans 5:10 says, “For if we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled.” We should pray-read this verse and then study it. The subject we refers to the believers. At one time we were God’s enemies, but we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. The death of God’s Son was for our judicial redemption. The salvation in Christ’s life is for our organic salvation. We have to study these points and then recite them. Then we will be equipped to prophesy.

Practice PSR (Pray-reading, Studying, and Reciting) Each Day

If we do not pray-read, study, or recite, we cannot prophesy. I have encouraged people to prophesy in the Lord’s Day meeting, but they still claim that they do not know what to say. Now we have a new way. If we pray-read, study, and recite the points of the outlines released in our crystallization-study of the Word, we will surely prophesy. Who cannot prophesy? Those who do not pray-read the outline, who do not study the outline, and who do not recite the outline. If we practice PSR (pray-reading, studying, and reciting) each day, from Monday through Saturday, we will surely prophesy in the Lord’s Day meeting of the church.

This account in Acts 8 shows that the practice of PSRP is not our new way. It was in the Bible already, in Acts 8. The way Philip answered the eunuch and preached Christ to him as the gospel surely indicates that Philip had studied that portion of Isaiah 53, which the eunuch quoted to him, and that he had remembered that portion so that he could preach Christ as the gospel as a kind of prophesying. If he were not familiar with that portion of the holy Word, how could he have preached Christ as the gospel according to that portion? His preaching was a real prophesying of the holy Word with which he had become familiar.

If anyone comes to the Lord’s Day morning meeting without being prepared to prophesy, this indicates he was lazy for the whole week. Throughout the week, he did not pray-read, study, or recite. If he had practiced this, he would be able to prophesy on the Lord’s Day. All of the members of Christ’s Body should be functioning members who speak for the Lord. This is why we need to practice PSRP. We have to pray-read, study, and recite the points we have studied. Then spontaneously our pray-reading, studying, and reciting will become our prophesying. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” msg. 16)

Helping the Saints to Build up a Practice or a Habit

We should help the saints to build up a practice or a habit that every day they would spend a least thirty minutes in the Word. The saints do not need to pray-read the Life-study Messages, but they have to pray-read the biblical verses in order to get the help to enter into the truth conveyed in these few verses. They also need the help of the notes and the Life-study Messages to enter into the truth. The saints need to take this way every day to get into the truth. We do not encourage the saints to be greedy and attempt to finish one book in one day. Then “their stomach will burst.” We should not encourage them in this way. Rather, we should slow them down. It is not a matter of quantity but a matter of endurance. You must endure this kind of Bible study. I think we need to remind them week after week, and sometimes the elders need to give the saints some direction, some encouragement, and some incentive. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision,” ch. 10)

Questions:

1. In the Lord’s recovery, we all need to become persons who is constituted with the divine truth. For this, what do we need to do?
Every saint should prophesy in the Lord’s Day meeting. What kind of exercise do we need for this?
For the saints to be constituted with the truth, what kind of practice or habit should we help the saints to build up?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Ten
The Divine Economy and the Satanic Chaos (1)

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

Gen. 1:1-2a In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. But the earth became waste and emptiness, and darkness was on the surface of the deep.

26 And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

The Satanic Chaos Always Going along with the Divine Economy

We need to realize that, both in the Bible and in our experience, the satanic chaos always goes along with the divine economy. It seems that we alternate between economy and chaos, between chaos and economy. Where there is the divine economy, there is the satanic chaos. Where God is, Satan is also. Satan is not behind God, following Him; rather, Satan is at God’s side. We may say that God is in the “central lane” and Satan is in the “side lane.”

In the Preadamic Age

There was an age before Adam. In that age, the preadamic age, there were the divine economy and the satanic chaos.

In the preadamic age, the creation of the heavens and the earth was a matter of the divine economy (Gen. 1:1; Job 38:4-6). Out of nothing God created the heavens and the earth. God’s orderly creation stirred up the angels to sing and shout for joy.

Satan, the archangel, rebelled against God, and one third of the angels joined him in his rebellion (Isa. 14:12-15; Ezek. 28:13-18; Rev. 12:4).

After Satan’s rebellion God came in to judge. The universe became a chaos under God’s judgment: the heavens became dark, and the earth became waste and void (Job 9:5-7; Gen. 1:2a). Because Satan’s rebellion polluted not only the earth but also the heavens, both the earth and the heavens were judged by God. The heavens became dark, and the earth became waste and void. That was chaos.

In the Restored Universe

After the satanic chaos in the preadamic age, God came in to restore the universe. In the restored universe we also see the divine economy and the satanic chaos. Genesis 1:2b speaks not of God’s creation but of His restoration of the chaotic universe.

First, God restored the heavens, particularly in its lights, and the earth, specifically in its land (Gen. 1:2b-19). The light was for the producing of life and for the preservation and growth of life. The land was also for the producing of life.

In the restored universe, God then created man to express Him in His image and to represent Him in His dominion (Gen. 1:26-28). God created man in His image so that man could express Him, and He gave man dominion so that man could represent Him.

God put man in front of the tree of life (Gen. 2:8-17). The tree of life is a figure of Christ as the embodiment of the divine life. Thus, when God put man in front of the tree of life, He was indicating that man should take God in Christ as life for the carrying out of the divine economy.

After the divine economy in the restored universe, we again have the satanic chaos. The satanic chaos in the old creation began with Satan as the serpent tempting man to take of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3:1-5). Both good and evil belong to the same tree, and now with the same person we can see good and also evil. Genesis 3:6 and 7 show us that man was deceived and became fallen. This was the chaos in the restored universe.

In the Raising up of a New Race of Mankind

Let us now go on to see the divine economy and the satanic chaos in the raising up of a new race of mankind. The old race had become chaotic, so out of chaotic mankind God raised up a new race with Abraham as the head.

Genesis 11:31 and 12:4 tell us that God called Abraham out of the land of idolatry and brought him into the land of His promise. The land of God’s promise is the good land.

God also promised Abraham His blessing of the gospel to the nations in the seed of Abraham—Christ as the centrality and universality of the divine economy (Gen. 12:2-3; 18:18; 22:18). Just as the seed of woman is Christ, so the seed of Abraham also is Christ.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob built an altar for the offerings (typifying Christ) to Jehovah and lived in a tent as pilgrims, looking forward to the consummation of the divine economy (Gen. 12:7-8; 26:25; 33:18-20; Heb. 11:9). They built an altar to offer what God wanted—the offerings as types of Christ. Their erecting a tent indicates that they never became settled on earth but instead were a traveling people, strangers to the earth. They looked forward to the New Jerusalem, a city with foundations, the consummation of God’s economy.

Abraham married Hagar (Gen. 16:1-5). This issued in the negative story of Hagar and her son Ishmael (Gen. 21:8-10). Ishmael was cast out by God, and Hagar was set aside, for she was a concubine and not a proper wife. Jacob with his entire family went down to Egypt. This resulted in the enslavement and tyranny of Egypt over the race of Israel (Exo. 1:8-14). The blessing is not with going down to Egypt (the world) but with going out of Egypt and going on and on until we reach the consummation of God’s economy—the New Jerusalem.

We Should Not Be Discouraged;
Whereas the Satanic Chaos Will Come to an End,
the Divine Economy Will Reach a Consummation

The Christian life involves both the divine economy and the satanic chaos. The Christian life is a history of economy and chaos, of chaos and economy. During our time with the Lord in the morning, we experience economy, but later in the day we may experience chaos.

Today the earth is filled with chaos. Chaos is everywhere. Every part of society is chaotic. However, we should not be discouraged. In addition to the satanic chaos, there is the divine economy. Whereas the satanic chaos will come to an end, the divine economy will reach a consummation. The end of the satanic chaos will be the lake of fire, and the consummation of the divine economy will be the New Jerusalem. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 3, “The Satanic Chaos in the Old Creation and the Divine Economy for the New Creation,” ch. 1)

Questions:

1. In the preadamic age, there were the divine economy and the satanic chaos. Please explain it Specifically.
The Christian life is a history of economy and chaos, of chaos and economy. Please share this week’s experience on both sides?
Today the earth is filled with chaos. Every part of society is chaotic. What should our attitude be?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Eleven
The Divine Economy and the Satanic Chaos (2)

Hymns, #626

Scripture Reading:

Matt. 4:23 And Jesus went about in all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every sickness among the people.

Acts 5:17-18 And the high priest and all those with him, the local sect of the Sadducees, rose up and were filled with jealousy; And they laid their hands on the apostles and put them in public custody.

The Divine Economy and the Satanic Chaos in the New Testament

The New Testament is full not only of the divine economy but also of the satanic chaos. Let us now consider the record in the New Testament concerning the divine economy and the satanic chaos.

Concerning Christ and His Ministry

Concerning Christ and His ministry, the New Testament reveals that there were both the divine economy and the satanic chaos.

The divine economy, the ministry of Christ, and the New Testament go together. If there were no divine economy, there would have been no ministry of Christ and no New Testament. In the divine economy Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God became incarnated to be a God-man (John 1:1, 14; Luke 1:26-38; Matt. 1:18-23). We all need to see this marvelous fact and praise the Lord for it.

In His ministry Christ taught the kingdom, proclaimed the gospel, and healed all kinds of diseases, attracting a great crowd to follow Him (Matt. 4:23-25). This teaching, proclaiming, and healing were all aspects of the divine economy.

All these wonderful things in the divine economy were accompanied by something evil, the satanic chaos.

According to Matthew 2:1-22 Herod sought to kill Christ in His babyhood. As Christ was carrying out His ministry in the divine economy, the Pharisees criticized and blasphemed Him (Matt. 9:10-13, 33-34; 12:22-35).

Satan moved in Peter to frustrate Christ from carrying out His crucifixion (Matt. 16:21-26). When the Lord Jesus revealed to His disciples that He would be crucified, Peter, showing his love for the Lord, “took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, God be merciful to You, Lord! This shall by no means happen to You!” (v. 22). When Peter said this, the Lord Jesus turned and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men” (v. 23). Apparently Peter was being very loving toward the Lord; actually he was motivated by Satan.

The Jews collaborated with the Roman government to sentence Christ to death and crucify Him (Luke 23:1-43). That certainly was something of the satanic chaos, but eventually the outcome of that chaos was something very good.

In the Ministry of the Apostles

The divine economy can also be seen in the ministry of the apostles. Peter and about one hundred twenty disciples gathered together and prayed in one accord for ten days (Acts 1:12-15). That one accord was a wonderful thing. It is difficult for believers to pray in one accord even for an hour, much less for ten days. In Acts 1 the disciples were burdened to continue steadfastly with one accord in prayer.

The Spirit was poured out upon the one hundred twenty disciples of Christ on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4, 17-18). That was a great matter. The outpoured Spirit was actually the pneumatic Christ. The pneumatic Christ poured out Himself as the all-inclusive, compound, consummated Spirit upon His disciples so that they could be constituted and built up to be His Body, the organism of the Triune God.

Peter preached at Pentecost, and three thousand repented, believed, and were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:14-41). Then the church was established. In Acts 9:32-43 we see that the gospel spread under Peter’s ministry. Through Paul’s ministry the gospel spread to the Gentile world, and many churches were raised up (Acts 13-28). The Epistles of 1, 2, and 3 John and the book of Revelation show us that the churches raised up through Paul’s ministry were strengthened and corrected under John’s ministry.

Again the satanic chaos was unavoidable and went along with the divine economy in the ministry of the apostles.

The Jewish religion and the Roman government persecuted the apostles and the church (Acts 4:1-3, 5-6; 7:57-8:3; 12:1-4; 16:22-24). Religion and politics often collaborate to persecute and damage the Lord’s interest on earth.

The church in Corinth had divisions, fornication, and lawsuits (1 Cor. 1:10-13; 11:18-19; 5:1; 6:1, 6-8). They also questioned the apostleship of Paul (9:1-3) and even accused Paul of being crafty, saying that through Titus he took advantage of them by guile (2 Cor. 12:16-18). In principle, the situation is the same today.

We Should Not Be Troubled by Any Kind of Chaos
as We Are in the Church Life

We have seen that the ministry both of the Lord Jesus and of the apostles was accompanied by chaos. No other apostle suffered as much as Paul did. He suffered persecution from the Jewish religion and also from the Roman government. Wherever he went chaos was waiting for him. The last time he went to Jerusalem was for the interest of the church there; he was deeply concerned about the Judaic situation in the church in Jerusalem. After he arrived, he followed the advice of James and the elders to offer sacrifices in the temple. We have pointed out that the Lord did not allow him to complete the ceremony. There was turmoil, and that caused Paul to be put into prison. Although that ended his traveling ministry, it did not end his writing ministry. On the contrary, his writing ministry became higher, deeper, and richer, and the epistles written from prison have been a great benefit to the believers throughout the centuries. Eventually the chaos that went along with Paul’s ministry benefited the church.

We praise the Lord that we are in the church. In the church life we experience the divine economy with the help of the satanic chaos. The satanic chaos helps our Christian life and also our church life.

As we are in the church life as the process of Christ’s coming, we should not be troubled by any kind of chaos. We should not be bothered or disappointed by chaos, because chaos actually helps us. Every kind of chaos is a help to God’s chosen people and to Christ’s Body, the organism of the Triune God. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 3, “The Satanic Chaos in the Old Creation and the Divine Economy for the New Creation,” ch. 2)

Questions:

1. In Christ’s ministry, what do all aspects of the divine economy include? By what evil thing were accompanied?
The satanic chaos went along with the divine economy in the ministry of the apostles. What other chaotic items can you speak of?
All these wonderful things in the divine economy were accompanied by something evil, the satanic chaos. What lessons can we learn from the Apostle Paul?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Twelve
A Prophecy concerning the Seed of David Being Called the Son of God

Hymns, #132

Scripture Reading:

2 Sam. 7:12-14a When your days are fulfilled and you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, which will come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. It is he who will build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he will be My son.

The Seed of David and the Son of God

Second Samuel 7:12 refers to the seed of David. Eventually, this human seed becomes the Son of God (v. 14). Concerning this, the Lord Jesus asked a question of the Pharisees (Matt. 22:41-45). First, He asked them, “What do you think concerning the Christ? Whose son is He?” (v. 42). When they said that Christ was David’s son, the Lord Jesus went on to ask how David could call Him Lord (v. 43). Finally, He said, “If then David calls Him Lord, how is He his son?” (v. 45). This is the greatest question in the universe. How could Christ be the seed of a man and also the Son of God? How could He be the son of David and also David’s Lord? The Pharisees knew the Bible very well, but when the Lord Jesus questioned them concerning the two aspects of His person, their mouths were shut. The Pharisees realized that Christ was the seed of David, and they answered without any hesitation. But when the Lord Jesus asked why David, a forefather of Christ, called Christ the Lord, they could not answer. On the one hand, He was a man; on the other hand, He was God. No one can reconcile these two.

The Root and the Offspring of David

Revelation 22:16 says that Jesus is “the Root and the Offspring of David.” Christ is God; thus, He can be the source, the Root, of David. This refers to His divinity. At the same time, He is also a man; hence He is the Offspring, the issue, of David. This refers to His humanity. David came out of Him as the Root, and as the Offspring He came out of David.

Isaiah 11:1 says, “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.” All knowledgeable teachers of the Bible agree that this verse refers to Christ. At Solomon’s time the house of David was a flourishing tree, but a short time later that tree began to be cut down. Eventually, it became a stump consisting mainly of two persons — Joseph and Mary. Out of that stump a rod, a sprout, came out — the little child Jesus. That was God’s building a house for David and giving David a seed.

The Creator and a Creature

Colossians 1:12 tells us that Christ is God’s allotted portion to us, and verse 15 says that this Christ is “the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation.” God is the Creator, and Christ is the image of the Creator. As such a One, He is surely divine. He is also the Firstborn of all creation. This indicates that He is also a creature. Since He became a man with blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14), surely He is a creature. Therefore, He is both divine and human. He is God and He is also a man. He is the Creator and He is also a creature.

Christ as the Son of Man Sitting on the Throne in Heaven

Many do not know that after His resurrection and ascension Christ still has His humanity, and others would strongly disagree, saying that Christ is no longer a man. However, Matthew 26:63-64 reveals clearly that He is still a man. When He was being judged by the Sanhedrin, they charged Him: “Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God.” In answering Jesus said, “You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Today Christ as the Son of Man is sitting on the throne in heaven, and He will come again also as the Son of Man. Christ’s being a man is altogether related to God’s economy. His humanity, therefore, means a great deal. He has been exalted by God as a man, and as a glorified man He is now sitting in the heavens.

Being Resurrected with a Body

Both John 20 and Luke 24 provide evidence that Christ was resurrected with a body. On the night of His resurrection, the disciples were gathered together in a closed room. There was no opening, yet the Lord Jesus was suddenly in their midst (John 20:19-22). Some of the disciples could not believe that it was Jesus with a physical body, so the Lord Jesus asked His disciples to touch His hands and feet (Luke 24:36-43). He had a real body that could be touched, yet He entered a closed room without any opening. This is a mystery.

Christ is human and divine; He is the Creator and He is also a creature; He still has a physical body, yet He dwells in our spirit. We simply do not have the capacity to reconcile these things. Even in the physical realm there are many things that we cannot understand. How can we understand all the divine things? We can understand the reality of everything only through the Bible, a book of revelation. Apart from the Bible, we cannot know God, man, or the universe.

What We Need Being for This One Who Is Divine as Well as Human,
Human as Well as Divine, to Be Wrought into Us
through the Metabolic Process of Transformation

God’s dynamic salvation is just the Triune God Himself passing through the processes to become the condensed, consummated, life-giving, all-inclusive Spirit. As such a One He can be contacted through our prayer from our spirit. When we pray even a little from our spirit, we contact this all-inclusive Spirit. He is real, genuine, living, fresh, and moving. He is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. He is the Redeemer and the Savior. He is life and everything to us. He is even us. He has become us in order to make us Him. This is God’s dynamic salvation.

God’s intention from eternity to eternity is to make Himself us, that we might become Him in life, in nature, and in constitution (but not in the Godhead). This is actually the prophecy in 2 Samuel 7 concerning the seed of David who is called the Son of God. He is divine as well as human; He is human as well as divine. He, the firstborn Son of God, is our elder Brother, and we, His many brothers, are the many sons of God. In God’s dynamic salvation there is no need for us to adjust ourselves or improve ourselves. What we need is for this One to be wrought into us through the metabolic process of transformation. Through this process He will move in us and gradually transform us into His image (2 Cor. 3:18) until we are fully the same as He in life, in nature, and in constitution. This is God’s salvation, and this is the revelation in the Bible. (Life-study of 1&2 Samuel, msg. 27)

Questions:

1. Revelation 22:16 says that Jesus is “the Root and the Offspring of David.” How to understand this sentence?
How do both John 20 and Luke 24 provide evidence that Christ was resurrected with a body?
According to God’s dynamic salvation, how can we become Him in life, in nature, and in constitution but not in the Godhead?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Thirteen
The Unique Work of the Processed Triune God—
Building Himself into Our Being

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

Eph. 3:16-17 That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love.

God’s Unique Work

God’s economy is centered on one thing — God’s unique work. God’s unique work in the universe and throughout all the ages and generations is to work Himself in Christ into His chosen people, making Himself one with them. This involves the mingling of divinity with humanity.

In order to work Himself into us, God became a man and lived a human life on earth. Then He passed through death and entered into resurrection and ascension, becoming the consummated, life-giving Spirit ready to come into us. When He came into us, He regenerated our spirit. Now He is working in us to increase Himself in us and to build Himself into us.

Christ Making His Home in Our Hearts

In Ephesians 3:16-17 Paul prayed to the Father, saying, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith.” To be sure, Christ’s making His home in our hearts involves building. If we would make a home, we must first build a house. To make a home implies being settled in a particular place. However, if we would be settled, we must have a house. The words “that Christ may make His home” are a strong indication that He is doing a work of building in us. Christ is building a home in our inner being.

In building a house, it is necessary to have the proper material. When God created the universe, He did not use any material; He created simply by His speaking. For instance, He said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. However, in order to build a home in us, Christ must have the material. On the one hand, this material is Christ Himself as the element; on the other hand, this material includes something from us with our humanity.

Another verse that speaks of the Triune God doing a building work in us is John 14:23. Here the Lord Jesus says, “If anyone loves Me,..My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” The words “make an abode” in this verse equal “make His home” in Ephesians 3:17. The Triune God has come into us to do a building work with Himself as the element and also with something from us as the material. The word concerning building in these verses implies that God’s building Himself in Christ into us has very much to do with what we are.

Our Need to Be Strengthened into Our Inner Man

Since God’s building Himself in Christ into us depends not only on Himself as the element but also on the nutrients supplied by us, we need to be strengthened into our inner man. If we remain in our soul, in our natural man, there will not be any nutrients for the growth of the divine seed. But if we are strengthened into our inner man and if we pay attention to our spirit and exercise our spirit, the nutrients will be supplied. Then Christ will make His home in our inner being.

If Christ’s making His home in our hearts did not need something from us, Paul would not have prayed for us as he did in Ephesians 3. Here Paul prayed that the Father would strengthen us with power through His Spirit into our inner man. This power, referred to in Ephesians 1:19-22, is the power that raised Christ from the dead, seated Christ at the right hand of God in the heavenlies, subjected all things under Christ’s feet, and gave Christ to be Head over all things to the church. Such power operates in us (3:20), and with it God strengthens us for His building. The Spirit through whom God strengthens us is the consummation of the processed Triune God. On the one hand, God strengthens us with Himself as the element and, on the other hand, we afford the nutrients. Through these two God in Christ carries out His intrinsic building — the building of His home — in our entire being.

Not Trying to Help Others to Be More Humble or Gentle
If We See God’s Building

The vision of God’s building will affect our work today. If we see God’s building, we will not try to help others to be more humble or gentle. That is merely something of human virtue, and that is not what God wants. Concerning this, I would ask you to consider the case of Job, a person who had the highest attainment in building up himself in integrity, uprightness, and perfection. Eventually, God stripped Job of all his attainments in order to show him that his only need was God Himself.

We Ministering God to Others

The fall of David illustrates the fact that even if we are a person according to God, if we do not have God wrought into us, we are no better than others. What is the value of being according to the heart of God if we do not have God wrought into our hearts? If we realize that God desires to work Himself into His chosen people and if we realize that this is what we all need, then the goal of our work will be to minister Christ to others so that the Triune God may build Himself into their being.

Our work in the recovery today is to minister God to people. Yes, we need to save sinners and to feed the saints and perfect them. The crucial matter, however, is that we minister God to others. The God whom we minister is not just the building God — He is also the builded God. If we fail to minister God in this way, our work will be wood, grass, and stubble (1 Cor. 3:12).

I would ask you to reconsider the work you are doing for the Lord. Perhaps you have opened up a region or have brought many people to God. But I ask you this question: How much of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God has been wrought into those whom you have brought to God? If we are sincere and genuine, we will humble ourselves and confess that not very much of the Triune God has been wrought into the ones we have brought to God. Therefore, we need to practice one thin—to minister the processed Triune God into others so that He may build Himself into their inner man. In every aspect of our work — preaching the gospel, feeding the believers, perfecting the saints—the intrinsic element must be that we minister the building and builded God to others. I would urge you to pray that the Lord would teach you to work in this way. (Life-study of 1&2 Samuel, msg. 30)

Questions:

1. God’s economy is centered on one thing—God’s unique work. What is God’s unique work in the universe and throughout all the ages and generations?
God’s building Himself in Christ into us has very much to do with what we are.
What should we do for Christ making His home in our inner being?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Fourteen
The High Peak of the Vision

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

2 Cor. 3:18b are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.

Gen. 1:26 And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

God Becoming Man So That Man May Become God in Life
and Nature but Not in the Godhead

All the saints should be motivated by the Triune God’s revelations and visions to join with Him for His move to accomplish His New Testament economy on the earth. What are our revelation and our vision today? Our revelation and vision have been greatly uplifted in the last three years because we have seen the high peaks of God’s revelation. These are mainly concerning God becoming a man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead. This is the center of the high peaks of the divine revelation among us. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Triune God’s Revelation and His Move,” msg. 12)

God Becoming Man

Going through the Creation of Man
and His Coming Personally to Become Man

For God to become man, first He had to create man. God created man according to His image and likeness; this is the shell. This is the first step. In the next step, God personally came to be a man. How did He come to be a man? He did this by entering into humanity. Physically, this means that He entered into a human virgin to be conceived in her. Matthew 1 says that God was begotten in Mary. According to the law in God’s creation, He was conceived in Mary’s womb and remained there for nine months. Then He was born out of humanity with divinity. The man who was born was One who is God yet man and who is also man yet God. As such a God-man He passed through human living on the earth and lived a human life. How did He live such a life? He did it by depending on His divine life within and by rejecting His human life without and thus living the life of a God-man. The inner reality of such a God-man living was the divine attributes, and the outward living that was lived out of such a God-man living was the human virtues. By thus living the life of a God-man He became a typical example.

Passing through Crucifixion and Resurrection

However, it is not enough for God to have just one man as a typical example, a model. God needs a mass manifestation. Therefore, eventually, He went to the cross. When He went to the cross, He brought with Him the man whom He had become; that is, He put on this man and thus crucified this man. This death of His was an all-inclusive death. However, His crucifixion was not the end; rather, He was resurrected from death. How was He resurrected? He was resurrected through the power of His divine life with the humanity that He had put on, the part created by God. In His resurrection He brought humanity into divinity.

In this resurrection He brought the humanity which He had put on into divinity and thus became God’s firstborn Son. His becoming the Firstborn was His birth in His resurrection. To use our ordinary language, we may say that we and the Lord as God’s firstborn Son were born in the same delivery. We all were born together in Christ’s resurrection. This birth of His was the first step as a foundation for man to become God. Now in His resurrection, we as God’s chosen ones have been brought into divinity.

Becoming the Life-giving Spirit

Not only so, He as the last Adam, who in His resurrection brought humanity into divinity, became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Who is this life-giving Spirit? He is the consummation of the processed Triune God. This is just like brewing a cup of tea. When you brew a cup of tea, first you need to have some water, then you put the tea in, and finally you add some lemon and maybe some sugar. At this point, the tea has been consummated. Christ as God’s only begotten Son may be likened to plain water. At a certain time human nature was added to Him. Then, when He was put to death on the cross, the element of the effectiveness of His death was also added. Furthermore, He entered into resurrection, so the element of resurrection with its power was also added. Now, as God’s only begotten Son He has become God’s firstborn Son, and the many sons of God were born together with Him.

Besides the element of His divinity, Christ had the elements of His humanity, His experience of human living, and His death and resurrection added into Him. Thus, He became a life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. This Spirit is also the pneumatic Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God. Hence, this Spirit is the very Christ, the very Triune God. Eventually, our God has become such a One.

Man Becoming God—Going through Regeneration, Sanctification,
Renewing, Transformation, Conformation, and Glorification

After God regenerates us with Himself as life, He continues to carry out the work of sanctification, renewing, and transformation in us by His Spirit of life. God became man through incarnation; man becomes God through transformation. When the Lord Jesus lived as a man on this earth, once He went up on the mountain and was transfigured. That transfiguration was a sudden occurrence. Our transformation into God, however, is not something that happens unexpectedly. Rather, it is a lifetime transformation until we are conformed to His image. Eventually, we will enter with Him into glory; that is, we will be redeemed in our body. That will be the final step of the redemption of our whole being that brings us into glory. Therefore, it is through regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification that we may become God. When we reach this point, 1 John 3:2 says that when “He is manifested, we will be like Him because we will see Him even as He is.”

The issue of this process is an organism. Among the Divine Trinity, as far as the Father is concerned, this organism is the house of the Father, the house of God; as far as the Son is concerned, it is the Body of Christ. The house is for God to have a dwelling place, whereas the Body is for God to have an expression. The ultimate issue is the New Jerusalem. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ,” ch. 2)

We All Have to Endeavor to Reach This High Peak

We all have to endeavor to reach this high peak. If you think it is too hard to reach this high peak and that the price to pay is too high, be prepared. In the next age, the price will be higher. Sooner or later, you have to be made God, either in the church age or in the coming kingdom age. All of God’s redeemed people will eventually become gods as the very God in life, in nature, and in appearance but not in the Godhead.

We surely need to be desperate to pray at any cost and to pay the cost just as the apostle Paul did. We should not have the attitude that we are safe in the Lord because we have sacrificed our future and do not love the world. That is not adequate. You must know the intrinsic scene of all the spiritual things. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” ch. 5)

Questions:

1. All the saints should be motivated by the Triune God’s revelations and visions. What is the center of the high peaks of the divine revelation among us?
After God regenerates us with Himself as life, what works does He continue to carry out in us by His Spirit of life?
If we see that God’s redeemed people will eventually be the same as God in life and nature but not in the Godhead, what should we do?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Fifteen
Man Becoming God in Life and Nature but Not in the Godhead

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

Eph. 3:9 And to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things.

John 12:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

The Triune God Having One Heart’s Desire to Make Man the Same as He Is
in Life and Nature but Not in His Godhead

The Triune God has one heart’s desire (Eph. 1:5, 9). According to His heart’s desire, God made His eternal economy (1 Tim. 1:4b; Eph. 1:10; 3:9) to make man the same as He is in life and nature but not in His Godhead and to make Himself one with man and man one with Him, thus to be enlarged and expanded in His expression, that all His divine attributes may be expressed in human virtues. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Ten Great Critical “Ones” for the Building Up of the Body of Christ,” msg. 1)

God Becoming a Man, Having Made a Mass Reproduction of Himself
through His Death and Resurrection

Two thousand years after Abraham, the choosing God became a man. This God-man, through His death and resurrection, has made a mass reproduction of Himself. He as the one grain became many grains (John 12:24). The many grains are ground into fine flour and blended together to become one loaf (1 Cor. 10:17). The Lord Jesus as the only begotten Son of God was the one grain, and He made us the many grains, His many “twins,” His many brothers (Rom. 8:29), to be blended into one loaf, one Body. Among us there is no difference in nationality, race, or social rank (Col. 3:11). We are a new kind, “God-man kind.”

Just as there are new words to describe new developments in human culture, so we need new terms and expressions to describe matters in our spiritual culture. God-man kind is such an expression. In Christ God and man have become one entity, the God-man. In God’s creation there was no mankind; there was only man as God’s kind. It was through man’s fall that mankind came into existence. Eventually God became a man to have a mass reproduction of Himself and thereby to produce a new kind. This new kind is neither God’s kind nor mankind — it is God-man kind. Today as believers in Christ, we are God-man kind; we are God-men.

We need to understand that to be a part of mankind is to be something negative. In God’s view mankind is a negative term referring to fallen man. As believers in Christ and children of God, we are not mankind — we are God-man kind. To realize this is to be changed, even revolutionized. When we realize that we are God-men, we will say, “Lord, You are the first God-man, and we are the many God-men following You. You lived a human life, not by Your human life but by God’s divine life to express Him. His attributes became Your virtues. You were here on this earth dying every day. You were crucified to live. Lord, You are my life today and You are my person. You are just me. I therefore must die. I need to be conformed to Your death. I have to be crucified to die every day to live a God-man’s life, a human life yet not by my human life but by the divine life, with Your life and Your nature as my constitution to express You in Your divine attributes, which become my human virtues.” This makes us not just a Christian or a believer in Christ but a God-man, one kind with God. This is the highest point of God’s gospel. (Life-study of 1&2 Chronicles, msg. 4)

Our Teaching, Absolutely According to the Bible,
Being to Raise up God-men

My burden in the Lord’s ministry is not to build you up to be a nice man, a good man, or a gentle man, but to be a God-man. I have given thousands of messages on how to be a Christ-man, a God-man. In the Lord’s recovery our teaching is not to raise up good men. Our teaching, absolutely according to the Bible, is to raise up God-men.

Eventually, the Bible builds up a corporate man. Ultimately, this corporate man will be enlarged to be its consummation, the New Jerusalem. The issue of the Bible’s teaching is just one entity, the New Jerusalem as the aggregate of all the God-men. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “The God-Men,” ch. 1)

Absorbing the Divine Substance in Our Spiritual Breathing
Causing Us to Be Made God in Life and in Nature but Not in the Godhead

We need to learn to exercise our spirit. Exercising our spirit is like breathing. Even when we are resting we are still breathing. We may say that breathing signifies our exercising of our spirit. Just as we breathe without ceasing, we need to pray unceasingly (1 Thes. 5:17). Every time we pray we need to pray in our spirit (Eph. 6:18). This is spiritual breathing.

In our spiritual breathing by the exercise of our spirit, we enjoy, receive, and absorb the divine substance with the divine essence, the divine element, and the divine expression. This will cause us to be deified, that is, to be constituted with the processed Triune God to be made God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. In this sense we may speak of the deification of the believers, a process that will consummate in the New Jerusalem.

Do you know what the New Jerusalem is? The New Jerusalem is a composition of God’s chosen, redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, transformed, and glorified people who have been deified. On God’s side, the Triune God has been incarnated to be a man; on our side, we are being deified, constituted with the processed and consummated Triune God so that we may be made God in life and in nature to be His corporate expression for eternity. This is the highest truth, and this is the highest gospel. (Life-study of Job, msg. 22)

Questions:

1. The Triune God has one heart’s desire. According to His heart’s desire, God made His eternal economy. What is this heart’s desire?
When we realize that as believers in Christ and children of God, we are not mankind—we are God-man kind, how will we change?
For us to be made God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead, we need to have spiritual breathing. What is spiritual breathing?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Sixteen
God Becoming Man to Make Man the Same as He Is, to Be His Highest Testimony

Hymns, #30

Scripture Reading:

Heb. 2:10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in leading many sons into glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Psa. 48:2 Beautiful in elevation, The joy of the whole earth, Is Mount Zion, the sides of the north, The city of the great King.

Christ Being God in Eternity, Becoming Man in Time,
Passing through Death, Entering into Resurrection,
and Being Begotten to Be the Firstborn Son of God

Hebrews 1 tells us that Christ was God in eternity and that He became man in time, went to the cross to pass through death, and entered into resurrection, in which He was begotten to be the firstborn Son of God to exult in God in His glory (vv. 2-9). When Christ was on the earth in the flesh, He was not yet in glory; that is, His human flesh was not the same as God. When in resurrection He entered into glory, He in His humanity became the same as God. He has completed all the processes of His journey to enter into God’s glory, that is, to be made the same as God in His humanity, and He is now exulting in this condition.

Christ as the Firstborn Being Leading Many Sons into Glory,
Which Is to Make His Believers as God’s Many Sons the Same as He Is

Following this, chapter 2 tells us that Christ as the Firstborn is leading many sons into glory (v. 10), which is to make His believers as God’s many sons the same as He is. Christ as God became a man, passed through death, and entered into resurrection to become the firstborn Son of God in glory. As such, He is God and man mingled together, bringing humanity into God’s glory to make man the same as God in glory. This firstborn Son of God is now doing a work to bring us all, the many sons of God, into this glory, making us the same as He is. This is the deepest, intrinsic significance of the book of Hebrews. The many sons of God are being brought into the same glory as the firstborn Son of God. This is accomplished by Christ imparting and dispensing Himself as the firstborn Son of God into all His believers, the many sons of God, by regulating, shaping, forming, and transforming them into the image of the glorious God. This will make us, the many sons of God, the same as God in glory.

We Enjoying God Himself as the Law of Life to Regulate Us,
Shape Us, and Brings Us into the Glorious Image of God

The book of Hebrews portrays how this is accomplished. As sinners, we come to Christ at His cross, confess our sins, and believe into Him, and we are washed at the laver (Titus 3:5). Then we enter into Christ to enjoy Him as our life supply and enlightenment and to pray in an intimate way. This brings us into our spirit, where we enjoy Christ as the hidden manna and the budding rod. Eventually, we enjoy God Himself as the law of life to regulate and shape us. Life shapes. We know what kind a tree is by allowing it to grow, because as it grows, its life shapes it. The peach life shapes a peach tree to bring forth peaches. This is not accomplished by outward regulation. No one needs to teach a peach tree not to bring forth apples. Rather, as the tree grows, it is shaped and conformed by its life.

The law of life is God Himself as the shaping, forming, transforming, and conforming life that brings us into the glorious image of God. In this way we become the same as God. This is the goal of God’s economy, which will ultimately consummate in the New Jerusalem. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “God Becoming Man to Make Man the Same as He Is for His Highest Testimony,” ch. 2)

Today We Need to Live the Life of a God-man

Today we need to live the life of a God-man. Because God became flesh, His humanity needed to be transformed through crucifixion and resurrection to be designated the firstborn Son of God. Now we too are being transformed to be the many sons of God, making Christ and us brothers (Rom. 8:29).

To turn to the mingled spirit is to live the life of a God-man. Jesus Christ was the prototype God-man, and we are the mass reproduction. We need to live not by ourselves but by another life, the life of the processed and consummated Triune God, the pneumatic Christ, and the compound Spirit. This is the living of a God-man. To be sure, if we live such a life, we are overcomers, overcoming everything other than the Triune God, the pneumatic Christ, and the compound Spirit. This is what God desires today. Such a living makes us today’s Zion as the highest peak of God’s dwelling place on earth (Psa. 48:2; 50:2; 87:2; Heb. 12:22; Rev. 14:1), which will consummate in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (21:1-22:5).

We Must Endeavor to Dive into the Realm
in the Heavens and in Resurrection to Be Today’s Zion,
Which Is God’s Highest Testimony

All the truths that we have discovered are in a new realm, a realm in the heavens and in resurrection. The God-man living is in the heavenlies, in resurrection, in the processed and consummated Triune God, and in the pneumatic Christ as the compound all-inclusive Spirit. This is absolutely different from the traditional teachings of Christianity. We must endeavor to dive into this new realm to be the overcomers as today’s Zion, which is God’s highest testimony. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “God Becoming Man to Make Man the Same as He Is for His Highest Testimony,” ch. 3)

Questions:

1. The deepest, intrinsic significance of the book of Hebrews is that the many sons of God are being brought into the same glory as the firstborn Son of God. What is this accomplished by?
What is the life of a God-man? By living in such a way, what goal will we reach?
If we know that all the truths that we have discovered are in a realm in the heavens and in resurrection, what will be our attitude?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Seventeen
The Reality of the Body of Christ (1)

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

John 16:13a But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality.

Rom. 12:4-5 For just as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, So we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

The Highest Peak in God’s Economy—the Reality of the Body of Christ

We come to the highest peak in God’s economy—the reality of the Body of Christ. We know the term the Body of Christ. We may even have seen the revelation of the Body of Christ. Yet we have to admit that thus far, over the past seventy-two years, through such a long time, we can see very little of the reality of the Body of Christ within us and among us. I am speaking not of the revelation, not even of the vision, but of the reality of the Body of Christ.

This reality has nothing to do with any kind of organization or with anything which remains in the nature of organization. Also, the reality of the Body of Christ is not a system in any way, because no system is organic. The reality of the Body of Christ is absolutely and altogether organic.

The Reality of the Body of Christ
Being the Corporate Living by the Perfected God-men

Now, what is the reality of the Body of Christ? In brief, the reality of the Body of Christ is a kind of corporate living, not a living by any individual. This corporate living is the aggregate of many saints who have been redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, and transformed by the processed and consummated God within them. By this indwelling consummated God, these redeemed saints have been made actual God-men.

In regeneration a person is made a God-man, but he is not a matured God-man. When some babes are born, they are so small and weak that they have to be put in an incubator. But after much growth these little ones can become tall and husky. We have been regenerated, but many of us are still like these little babes. We need to be nourished and perfected so that we can grow in life and become mature. The procedure in the church work is to beget, to nourish, and then to teach and perfect so that the saints may be mature to be built in the local churches for the building up of the Body of Christ. Thank the Lord that in His recovery a number of seeking ones have been perfected.

What is it to be perfected? It is to be matured by continually exercising to reject the self and live by another life. This is according to what Paul said: “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20a). Paul lived by dying to live. He was dying to his natural man and living by his new man with the divine life. So he said that by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, he lived and magnified Christ (Phil. 1:19-21a).

We should not live by ourselves. According to God’s design in His economy we were already put on the cross. We should not call ourselves back off the cross. To remain on the cross is to bear the cross and be under the cross. I have been crucified. There is no more I. I am finished. I am through. But there is a new man with me. That is the resurrected God-created man uplifted with God’s divinity in him. That man is actually God Himself. Now I live by that man. But if I do not practice to keep my old man on the cross, I can never live the new man. This is why in the first chapter of Philippians, Paul told us he lived such a life by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

A Corporate Living of the Conformity to the Death of Christ
through the Power of the Resurrection of Christ

In Philippians 3 Paul said that he lived a life conformed to the death of Christ (v. 10). The death of Christ is a mold, and Paul put himself into that death-mold to be conformed there. On this man, Paul, all men could see the mark and the image of the cross (Gal. 6:14, 17—see note 171). His old life was conformed to the image of the death of Christ by the power of Christ’s resurrection. The power of resurrection strengthened him to live the life of a God-man. The Lord expects that many of us would be such ones.

I do believe that among us there should be some like this, maybe not constantly but at least instantly like this. I can testify to you that I am like this. I dare not say constantly, but at least instantly. Many times when I was trying to talk to my wife, something within said, “This is not from your spirit. This is from your old man.” Right away I stopped. Sometimes I would go to her, and then right away I returned. This is because my going was by my natural man. While I was doing that, something within turned me. That was the very life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ. The processed Triune God turned me, and that was in resurrection. Such a corporate living is the reality of the Body of Christ, dear saints. This is a corporate living of the conformity to the death of Christ through the power of the resurrection of Christ.

The Reality of the Body of Christ Being Also a Mingling Living

The reality of the Body of Christ is not just a corporate living, but a mingling living. If we use the word mingled, this means that this living is consummated, completed. Instead, we use the word mingling because this living is not completed; it is still going on. It is the mingling living in the eternal union of the regenerated, transformed, glorified tripartite God-men with the Triune God in the resurrection of Christ. This Triune God is the very pneumatic Christ as the embodiment of the processed and consummated Triune God, who is the all-inclusive Spirit as the reality of the pneumatic Christ and as the consummation of the processed Triune God. Such a mingling living is in the resurrection of Christ, and the reality of this resurrection is the Spirit. This resurrection imparts the consummated God and releases the death-overcoming life into the believers.

We Need to Live Such a Mingling Living
to Partake of the Reality of the Body of Christ

Dear saints, such a mingling living is the reality of the Body of Christ. If among us there is, if not in full at least in part, such a living, the reality of the Body of Christ is among us. This is the high peak of the recovery in the local churches like Mount Zion in the city of Jerusalem. Such a mingling living as the reality of the Body of Christ will consummate ultimately in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth as God’s increase and expression for eternity.

Anyone who lives such a mingling life would never be a trouble to anyone. They have been delivered out of themselves and have been transformed and perfected. They would not despise or condemn anyone nor would they be bothered by others. They would not have anything to do with dissension, rebellion, or division. Instead they would be here in the recovery as the high peak, Mount Zion, in Jerusalem. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” ch. 4)

Questions:

1. The reality of the Body of Christ is absolutely and altogether organic. So, what is the reality of the Body of Christ?
In the Lord’s recovery a number of seeking ones have been perfected. What is it to be perfected?
If we could live a mingling living with the Triune God in the resurrection of Christ, how will we change?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Eighteen
The Reality of the Body of Christ (2)

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

John 16:13a But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality.

14:20 In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

Gal. 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

For Us to Reach the Reality of the Body of Christ,
We Must Firstly See the Divine Indwelling within Us

In John 14:17-20 the Lord told us that by the Spirit of reality coming into us the Lord would live. Where would He live? He would live in us. And who is He? He is not just Jesus Christ, but the Spirit of reality. So no doubt, this means that when the Spirit of reality comes, the Lord Himself would dwell in us in order to live in us. He said, “Because I live, you also shall live” (v. 19b). He lives and we live.

If you read this portion of the Word carefully, you can see that this is not a kind of individual living. This is a corporate living that we live with the Lord since He lives within us. We live together a corporate living. John 14:20 says, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” These three ins indicate a strong fact which is very, very glorious. The eternal God, after His creation and after passing through the necessary processes, eventually became the Spirit of reality. As such a Spirit, He lives in us that we may live together with Him. So this living is a mingling. These three ins—I am in My Father, you in Me, and I in you—indicate not only a corporate living but also a mingling.

For us to reach the high peak of God’s economy, that is, the reality of the Body of Christ, we must firstly see this divine indwelling within us. We may know this already, but we have not paid sufficient attention to it. In other words, I do not believe anyone among us, including me, is constantly and instantly living with the indwelling Lord.

A Mutual Living with Christ Who Lives in Us

How could we live with Christ? Not by ourselves, but by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and by being conformed to His death through the power of His resurrection. I can live a life that is seemingly a human life, but not by my natural life. My natural life is left on the cross, and my daily life is being conformed to the image of Christ’s death. Christ’s death is a mold, and my living is a piece of dough put into the mold to be conformed to the image of the mold. Day by day I am dying to live. I am dying by the cross to live in the power of resurrection.

Paul said that such a person has his being in this marvelous Spirit and does everything according to such a Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25; Rom. 8:4). David was a man according to God’s heart, but that is far away from what we have. We are God-men who are doing things and having our being not only according to God’s heart but also according to the Spirit who has been processed and consummated through death and resurrection. We need to check whether or not we are doing everything in the Spirit and having our being according to such a Spirit.

This Kind of a Living, Which Is the Reality of the Body of Christ,
Will Close This Age, and Will Bring Christ Back

The reality of the Body of Christ is the aggregate, the totality, of such a living by a group of God-men. This kind of a living, which is the reality of the Body of Christ, will close this age, the age of the church, and will bring Christ back to take, possess, and rule over this earth with these God-men in the kingdom age. They were perfected, completed, and consummated in the church age. So in the next age, the kingdom age, they will reign with Christ for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4-6).

The Believers Who Were Not Perfected in the Church Age
Will Be Perfected and Matured in the Kingdom Age
by God’s Disciplinary Dealing

The many believers who were not perfected and matured in the church age will be perfected and matured in the kingdom age by God’s disciplinary dealing. God has a way. Not one believer can participate in the New Jerusalem without being perfected and matured. So in the thousand years of the kingdom age, God exercises His sovereignty to discipline these dear ones, to deal with them in many ways, in order that He could perfect them to make them mature. At the end of the thousand years, they will be ready to join the ones who were matured earlier in participating in the New Jerusalem.

By that time all the God-redeemed people will be transformed, not only to be the same as God in life and nature, but also to be the same in God’s appearance. Revelation 4 tells us that God looks like jasper (v. 3). Then Revelation 21 says that the entire New Jerusalem has the appearance of jasper (v. 11). Thus, God’s redeemed people have become absolutely the very God in life, in nature, and in appearance, but not in His Godhead.

We Should Run in Such a Way to Receive the Reward

What shall we do in the light of this revelation? There is no other way to reach this high peak except by praying. It is more than evident that Jerusalem is here as a big realm of Christians, but where is Zion, the overcomers? In the book of Revelation what the Lord wants and what the Lord will build up is Zion, the overcomers. The overcomers are the very Zion, where God is. This is the intrinsic reality of the spiritual revelation in the holy Word of God. We have to realize what the Lord’s recovery is. The Lord’s recovery is to build up Zion. Paul’s writings unveil this to the uttermost, but not many saw this in the past.

I do ask you to reverently consider this matter. Paul said that all run in the race, but only one receives the prize. Then he said that we should run in such a way to receive the reward (1 Cor. 9:24). At the end of Paul’s life he said that he had fought the good fight, finished the course, and kept the faith. He testified that there was a crown of righteousness prepared for him (2 Tim. 4:7-8). I hope that when we end this life, we could say that we have done the same thing. Otherwise, we will be a dropout in the school of the church life. But the Lord will still pick us up in the school of the kingdom age. If we are not perfected in this age, the Lord will spend one thousand years to perfect us. The Lord would even use the second death, which is the fire of the lake of fire, to discipline us (Rev. 2:11). I am thankful to the Lord for the spreading of His recovery, but on the other hand, in these few years my heart is very heavy not only concerning you but also concerning myself. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” ch. 5)

Questions:

1. For us to reach the high peak of God’s economy, that is, the reality of the Body of Christ, what is the first condition?
We all need to live with the indwelling Lord. But how can we live with Him? By ourself?
The believers who were not perfected and matured in the church age will be perfected and matured in the kingdom age by God’s disciplinary dealing. If we see this, what shall we do today?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Nineteen
The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity
and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ

Hymns, #203

Scripture Reading:

Eph. 1:19 And what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the operation of the might of His strength.

22-23 And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, Which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.

The Church Being the Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity
and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ

I have spoken on the church many times throughout the past sixty years. When I first began to speak on the church, the standard was too low, but thank God that my speaking on the church has been all the time going up. We need to see what the church is. These messages in this book are of the highest standard because they reveal that the church is the issue of the dispensing of the processed Trinity and the transmitting of the transcending Christ. The church is the issue of God. When God issues out, He becomes the church. The church is the surplus of God.

The Brethren strongly pointed out that the church is not a physical building but the gathering of God’s called-out ones. This is according to the denotation of the Greek word ekklesia. But this still is not the intrinsic significance of the church. The intrinsic significance of the church, from the entire New Testament, is that the church is God’s total reproduction, God’s continuation, God’s increase, God’s full growth, and God’s rich surplus.

By, through, and with the Threefold, Triune Dispensing
the Materials Being Produced to Constitute the Body of Christ

How could the church be the reproduction of God, the continuation of God? How could the church be the full growth, increase, and surplus of God? The church can be all these things by the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity and by the heavenly transmitting of the transcending Christ. We should not say that the transmitting equals the dispensing. That is not right. But we can say that the transmitting comprises, includes, the dispensing. We have to be impressed that the transmitting is crucial but it is not as basic as dispensing. The Father’s dispensing, the Son’s dispensing, and the Spirit’s dispensing are very basic. By, through, and with this threefold, triune dispensing many regenerated sons of God are produced and transformed into a treasure, becoming the heritage to God as God’s personal, private possession. Also, the consummation of the processed Triune God as the compound, all-inclusive, indwelling Spirit seals this heritage of God. This sealing is not once for all but is still going on with its spreading effect to saturate and soak the regenerated sons and transformed treasures to make them God in life and nature but not in the Godhead.

But thus far, there has been only the producing of the materials, the components, the constituents, to constitute the Body of Christ. The materials are here, but the formation has not yet taken place. So there is the need of the transmitting of the transcending Christ from the heavens, in the heavens, and with the heavens. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ,” ch. 5)

The Transmitting of the Transcending Christ
Being Not to Produce the Church but to Form the Church

The transmitting of the transcending Christ is not to produce the church but to form the church. We may use the formation of a nation as an illustration of this. First, the nation needs the people. Over three hundred years ago, many people immigrated to the United States. But these people were not yet a nation. For people to immigrate here was somewhat hard, but for these immigrated people to be formed into a nation was very hard. This needs ability.

In the four Gospels, through three and a half years, Christ gathered a group of people. He touched many thousands of people, even feeding five thousand at one time. But eventually He gained only one hundred twenty (Acts 1:15). These one hundred twenty were the produce of the Father’s choosing, of the Son’s redeeming, and of the Spirit’s sealing. In the book of Acts, they were ready to be something, but even they themselves did not know what to be. They waited for seven weeks, from the day of resurrection to the day of Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost, the transcending Christ transmitted His transcending power to these one hundred twenty and they became the church. So in Acts 2 it was not Peter standing alone to speak; it was Peter standing with the eleven (v. 14). The eleven spoke with him. That indicated it was not one person speaking but the church speaking, so the power was there.

Transmission Having Transpired,
but Dispensing Still Needing to Continue, to Go on

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. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ,” ch. 4)

The Need of a Recovery of the Proper Church Life
According to God’s Economy

We need to have a church life, so we need to be clear about today’s situation. Our constitution is the Bible. We must come back to our constitution and check everything of today’s situation with what the Bible says. We must come back to the Bible and see what the Bible says about the church. God’s economy is not for the purpose of having only individual believers to be saved, to be spiritual, and then to go to heaven. This is not God’s economy. This is the teaching of fallen Christianity. The Bible tells us God has a desire, and He has made an economy to dispense Himself into His chosen people and make His chosen people His many sons. Then He transforms them into His treasure and seals them with His life element unto the redemption of their body. Through the transcending Christ’s transmitting, He brings them together to make them one church. This is why we say that there is the need of a recovery of the proper church life according to God’s economy. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ,” ch. 5)

Questions:

1. The intrinsic significance of the church is that the church is God’s total reproduction, God’s continuation, God’s increase, God’s full growth, and God’s rich surplus. how can the church be these items?
On the day of Pentecost, the church was formed by the transmitting of the transcending Christ. At this point, do we still need the divine dispensing? Why?
If we see that God’s desire is to have many sons constituted through transformation into one Body, which is the church, what should we do?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Twenty
The Full Ministry of Christ in Three Stages—Incarnation,
Inclusion, and Intensification (1)

Hymns, #1122

Scripture Reading:

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.

1 Cor. 15:45b the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.

Rev. 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne.

The Three Periods of the History of What Christ Is—Incarnation,
Inclusion, and Intensification

In this message we will begin to consider the three stages of Christ, that is, the three periods of the history of what Christ is—incarnation, inclusion, and intensification. Many believers in Christ know something about the first stage of Christ’s history, the stage of incarnation, but they know very little, if anything, about the second and third stages, the stages of inclusion and intensification.

Incarnation

Christians have paid a great deal of attention to the matter of incarnation. Every year at Christmas so many believers celebrate the Lord’s incarnation; however, not many realize what the intrinsic significance of the incarnation is. Through incarnation Christ as God became flesh. John 1:14 tells us that the Word, who is the very God, became flesh.

Inclusion

In His resurrection the Christ who had become flesh through incarnation became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Christ, therefore, has had two becomings. The first becoming is seen in John 1:14—the Word became flesh. The second becoming is seen in 1 Corinthians 15:45b—the last Adam (Christ in the flesh) became the life-giving Spirit. From our study of the Bible we have found out that Christ’s second becoming in resurrection is no less important than His first becoming in incarnation. Christ’s becoming the life-giving Spirit in resurrection involves something that we may designate by the word inclusion.

The Compounding of the Spirit Being a Matter of Inclusion

What we have in Exodus 30 is the compound ointment as a type of the compound life-giving Spirit. The actual compounding of the Spirit took place in Christ’s resurrection. It was in resurrection that the very God embodied in Christ and mingled with His humanity was compounded with Christ’s death, the effectiveness of Christ’s death, Christ’s resurrection, and the power of His resurrection to produce the compound Spirit. This compounding was a matter of inclusion, for in the compound life-giving Spirit six items are included. Hence, the life-giving Spirit may be called the all-inclusive Spirit, the Spirit who includes divinity, humanity, the death of Christ and its effectiveness, and the resurrection of Christ and its power.

The Spirit Being Breathed into the Disciples

Whereas the incarnation was an objective matter, this inclusion is subjective to us and applicable to us in our experience. According to John 20:22 in the evening of the day of His resurrection, the Lord Jesus came as the compound Spirit and breathed into the disciples, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Because the disciples were the representatives of the Body, we all were present when the Spirit was breathed into them. At that time the Spirit was breathed into the whole Body. Just as the arm may receive an injection for the benefit of our physical body, so the disciples in John 20 received the Spirit for the whole Body of Christ. As a part of the Body, those disciples represented the Body in receiving the inclusion, in receiving the compound Spirit. Because we can experience Christ in the stage of inclusion in such a subjective way, in this stage He is more applicable to us than He was in the stage of incarnation.

Intensification

Not too long after the church was formed, it became degraded. The church should issue in the Body of Christ, but regrettably, as the Epistles reveal, the church gradually became degraded, even at Paul’s time. Because of this degradation, the compound life-giving Spirit was intensified sevenfold to become the sevenfold intensified Spirit (Rev. 1:4; 5:6). This sevenfold intensified Spirit is for the overcoming of the degradation of the church and the producing of the overcomers so that the Body of Christ can be built up in a practical way to consummate the New Jerusalem, which is the unique and eternal goal of God’s heart’s desire.

We need to know Christ in all three stages. If we know the three stages of incarnation, inclusion, and intensification, we will truly know the Bible. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Incarnation, Inclusion, and Intensification,” ch. 1)

Advancing from Inclusion to Intensification

As we have pointed out, inclusion involves many complications. In the stage of inclusion, many things are included in the pneumatic Christ, in the Christ who is the life-giving Spirit. Now we need to see that the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit has been intensified sevenfold.

I would urge you to consider this matter of intensification and to pray desperately, saying, “Lord, I must advance. I need Your grace to bring me onward. I do not want to remain in the work of incarnation nor even in the work of inclusion. I want to advance from inclusion to intensification. Lord, You have been intensified sevenfold, and I pray that I also will be intensified sevenfold to overcome the degradation of the church that the Body may be built up to consummate the New Jerusalem.” (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Incarnation, Inclusion, and Intensification,” ch. 2)

Questions:

1. In Exodus 30 the compound ointment is a type of the compound life-giving Spirit. What items are included in the compound life-giving Spirit?
Why was the compound life-giving Spirit intensified sevenfold to become the sevenfold intensified Spirit?
If we see that the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit has been intensified sevenfold, what should we do?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Twenty-one
The Full Ministry of Christ in Three Stages—Incarnation,
Inclusion, and Intensification (2)

Hymns, #1107

Scripture Reading:

Eph. 1:23 Which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.

Rev. 21:2 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Christ in the First Stage Producing a Group of Redeemed Persons
and Christ in the Second Stage Producing the Church

In the previous message we began to consider the three stages of Christ. In this message I have the burden to give a particular and up-to-date message on Christ in the three stages of incarnation, inclusion, and intensification.

In the first stage, the stage of Christ in the flesh, Christ produced a group of redeemed persons, such as Peter and all the other disciples. Although a redeemed people had been produced, the church had not yet been produced. The church was produced by Christ in the second stage. In this stage Christ is the pneumatic Christ, the compound, life-giving Spirit who produced the church on the day of Pentecost. The redeemed saints, who were produced by Christ in the flesh, became the church produced by Christ as the life-giving Spirit.

The Third Stage—Intensification—
the Stage of Christ as the Sevenfold Intensified Spirit
Producing the Overcomers to Build up the Body of Christ

Shortly after the church was produced, it began to become degraded. This is clearly seen in Acts. In chapter five Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit; in chapter six there was a murmuring of the Hellenists against the Hebrews regarding the daily dispensing; and in chapter fifteen there was trouble concerning circumcision. The separation of Barnabas from Paul (15:35-39) should also be regarded as a part of the degradation. Eventually the church degraded to such an extent that the Lord could no longer tolerate it, and He reacted by intensifying Himself sevenfold to become the sevenfold intensified Spirit (Rev. 1:4; 5:6). He became intensified sevenfold to deal with the degradation of the church.

In his Epistles Paul spoke about the Body (Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12, 27; Eph. 1:23; 4:4, 16; Col. 2:19), but I do not believe that Paul saw the actual building up of the Body. Paul could see the church expressed in various localities, but he could not see, in actuality, the church as the Body in a perfect and complete way. In order for the Body to be produced in a full and complete way, there is the need of the third stage of Christ, the stage of intensification in which Christ becomes the sevenfold intensified Spirit.

The issue of Christ in the flesh was a group of redeemed persons, and the issue of Christ as the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit was the churches. For the Body to be produced there is the need for the compound, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit to be intensified sevenfold.

All the Co-workers in the Lord’s Recovery Would Realize That
We Need to Do a Work of Three Sections

I am burdened that all the co-workers in the Lord’s recovery would realize that we need to do a work of three sections. We should not only be able to do the work of the first section, the section of incarnation, to produce redeemed people, but we should also be able to do a work that can serve the purpose of the second section, the section of inclusion, to produce churches. Furthermore, we should be able to do a work to build up the Body of Christ consummating the New Jerusalem. This is the work of the stage of intensification.

If We Are Carrying out This Threefold Work,
We Will Work Not Only to Produce Redeemed Ones
and Work to Establish Churches but Will Also Work
to Build up the Body Consummating the New Jerusalem

In releasing this message, I am concerned that the co-workers are not carrying out a threefold work: the work in the stage of incarnation, the work in the stage of inclusion, and the work in the stage of intensification. If we are carrying out this threefold work, we will work not only to produce redeemed ones and work to establish churches but will also work to build up the Body consummating the New Jerusalem.

I would ask the co-workers to consider what kind of work they have done in the past and ask themselves if they have been doing a work of three sections. Regarding my own work I can say that the work which I did in mainland China was mainly to produce redeemed people. Only a small part of my work there was for the producing of churches. This indicates that my work in China was mainly a work in the first stage. However, when I came to Taiwan, I began to do a work in the stage of inclusion, and many churches were raised up. Now I am burdened to carry out a work in the stage of intensification. Therefore, I pray to the Lord, saying, “Lord, I am endeavoring to do my best to be an overcomer for the building up of Your Body to consummate the New Jerusalem.”

We Should Be Doing a Work of All Three Sections

I hope that all the co-workers will see the three stages, the three sections, of Christ: incarnation—the stage of Christ in the flesh; inclusion—the stage of Christ as the life-giving Spirit; and intensification—the stage of Christ as the sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit. These three stages are the three sections of Christ’s history. This means that Christ’s history is divided into the section of His incarnation, the section of His inclusion, and the section of His intensification. Therefore we emphasize these three words—incarnation, inclusion, and intensification—and stress the facts that incarnation produces redeemed people, that inclusion produces the churches, and that intensification produces the overcomers to build up the Body, which consummates in the New Jerusalem as the unique goal of God’s economy. This is the revelation in the New Testament.

What kind of work should we be doing today? We should be doing a work of all three sections. I am concerned that many of the co-workers are still working only in the first section, the section of incarnation. If this is your situation, you need to improve and to advance. What you have learned and what you have done in the past are not adequate. Of course, you should not discard the things of the first stage, for those things are the foundation. Now you need to begin building on this foundation and eventually have the completion of the building. The foundation is the work in the stage of incarnation; the building up is the work in the stage of inclusion; and the completion of the building is the work in the stage of intensification. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Incarnation, Inclusion, and Intensification,” ch. 2)

Questions:

1. What have Christ done in the first stage, the stage of Christ in the flesh, and in the second stage, the stage of inclusion?
For the church to be the Body of Christ in actuality in a perfect and complete way, what is needed?
If we see Christ’s work in the stage of intensification, what kind of change will we have?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Twenty-two
God’s Complete Salvation—Judicial Redemption plus Organic Salvation

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

Col. 1:13-14 Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins

Rom. 5:11 And not only so, but also boasting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

The Complete Salvation of God Having Two Aspects—
the Judicial Aspect and the Organic Aspect

The complete salvation of God has two aspects: the judicial aspect and the organic aspect. It is not that easy to understand what organic is and what judicial is. However, by the word judicial we know it has something to do with the law, and by the word organic we know it has something to do with life. Therefore, God’s complete salvation has both the judicial aspect, an aspect related to the law, and the organic aspect, an aspect related to life.

According to His love, God wants to make man the same as He is. However, man sinned and violated God’s righteousness. God’s righteousness is strict; whatever God wants to do for man must meet the requirement of His righteousness. Whatever is required by righteousness becomes the law. Therefore, the Bible shows us that after God’s creation of man and man’s fall, after a period of time, God came to give man the law. Since God is righteous, every item of the law enacted by Him is righteous, and every item is a righteous requirement; hence, the law becomes the law of righteousness (Rom. 8:4a; 9:31).

Therefore, concerning all that God wants to do for man according to His heart’s desire, there is a great need judicially. All that God wants to do for man organically according to His life requires that God redeem the fallen sinners back judicially according to His righteous requirement. God’s righteousness requires that God redeem the sinners. It is as if God’s righteousness says to God, “O God, it is good that You love them, and it is also good that You desire to carry out many things in them organically. But You must first redeem them to satisfy the requirements of Your righteous law.” This is redemption. Because of His redemption, today our God may do as He pleases. If He wants to save a robber, He may do so; if He wants to save a prostitute, He may also do so. We need to distinguish between these three things: God’s redemption, which is judicial; God’s salvation, which is organic; and God’s complete salvation, which is the totality of God’s redemption and God’s salvation.

What God Does in the Judicial Aspect Is the Procedure
and What He Does in the Organic Aspect Is the Purpose

That Which God Has Fulfilled According to His Judicial Requirement
Being Redemption, Including Forgiveness of Sins, Washing away of Sins,
Justification, Reconciliation to God, and Positional Sanctification

In the complete salvation of God, what He does in the judicial aspect is the procedure, and what He does in the organic aspect is the purpose. In the aspect of procedure, that which God has fulfilled according to His judicial requirement is redemption, including forgiveness of sins, washing away of sins, justification, reconciliation to God, and positional sanctification. We were sinners under God’s condemnation and also enemies of God, but now we have been forgiven, washed from our sins, justified by God, reconciled to God, and sanctified unto God positionally. This is to be redeemed. However, the complete salvation of God is not just this much. If you have received only these five items of redemption, what you have received is but a one-sided salvation and not the complete salvation. The first aspect of God’s complete salvation is the judicial aspect, and what it accomplished is for us to be forgiven of our sins, washed from our sins, justified, reconciled to God, and sanctified positionally. These five items qualify and position us to enter into the grace of God. Romans 5:2 says, “We have obtained access into this grace in which we stand.” How can a sinner obtain access into the grace of God? There must be the fulfillment of the judicial aspect so that the sinner may receive forgiveness of sins, washing away of sins, justification by God, reconciliation to God, and positional sanctification. All of these items are a matter of procedure, qualification, and position. The judicial aspect qualifies and positions us sinners to enter into the grace of God to enjoy the salvation which God has accomplished for us according to His life organically in the aspect of purpose (Rom. 5:10).

That Which God Has Carried out by His Life Organically
Being Salvation, Including Regeneration, Shepherding, Sanctification,
Renewing, Transformation, Building, Conformation, And Glorification

The second aspect of God’s complete salvation is the aspect of purpose. In the aspect of purpose, that which God has carried out by His life organically is salvation, including (1) regeneration for us to receive the eternal life of God, (2) shepherding for us to grow and exist in the divine life, (3) sanctification in our disposition, (4) renewing in our mind, (5) transformation in our image, issuing in (6) God’s building, (7) conformation to the image of God’s firstborn Son, that is, maturity in the divine life, and (8) glorification, which is the consummation of God’s eternal economy (Rom. 8:30). Whereas that which is accomplished judicially is the initial step as redemption with five items, that which is carried out organically is a further step as salvation, which is different from redemption and includes eight items. Redemption is accomplished judicially, whereas salvation is carried out organically. The eight items in the organic aspect issue in the church of God to constitute the Body of Christ which will consummate the New Jerusalem, which is the ultimate goal of God’s eternal economy, that is, an organism constituted with the processed Triune God and His regenerated, sanctified, transformed, and glorified elect joined and mingled as one to be the enlargement and expression of God in eternity.

We Should Not Remain in the Aspect of Procedure, the Judicial Aspect;
Rather, We Should Go on to the Aspect of Purpose, the Organic Aspect

Most of the believers through the generations have considered the redemption which God accomplished for us in procedure as the purpose of God’s salvation, stressing the five items which God has accomplished for us in the aspect of redemption according to His righteousness judicially, while neglecting the eight items which God will do for us in the aspect of salvation through His life organically. This is a great shortcoming of the majority of believers today in the salvation in God’s life. As a result, they neglect the pursuing and growing unto full growth in God’s life and hardly see anything concerning the building of the Body of Christ, much less the consummation of the ultimate goal of God’s eternal economy, which is the New Jerusalem. We need to be clear that redemption as the judicial aspect cannot carry out the purpose of God’s salvation, because it is merely the procedure, not the purpose. For example, a cook spends a great amount of time cooking in the kitchen to prepare a feast. However, the cooking is not his purpose but merely a procedure. Later when the guests are invited to enjoy the feast, that is the purpose of the cooking. Likewise, in the salvation of God we should not remain in the aspect of procedure, the judicial aspect; rather, we should go on to the aspect of purpose, the organic aspect. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Organic Aspect of God’s Salvation,” ch. 1)

Questions:

1. The complete salvation of God has two aspects: the judicial aspect and the organic aspect. How can we literally understand organic and judicial?
That which God has fulfilled according to His judicial requirement is redemption, what five items does it include? That which God has carried out by His life organically is salvation, what eight items does it include?
If we see that redemption as the judicial aspect is merely the procedure and cannot carry out the purpose of God’s salvation, what change should we have?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Twenty-three
The Secret of God’s Organic Salvation

Hymns, #493

Scripture Reading:

Rom. 8:16 The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.

1 Cor. 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.

The Spirit with Our Spirit Being the Secret of God’s Organic Salvation

The secret of these eight sections of God’s organic salvation is the Spirit with our spirit. These two spirits working together is the skillfulness, the secret, of all spiritual things, especially of all the aspects of God’s organic salvation.

Here the term the Spirit does not refer merely to the Spirit of God but to the consummated Spirit—the Spirit who has passed through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. This is the Spirit who, in John 7:39, was ‘not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.’ After Christ was glorified in resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This life-giving Spirit is the Spirit, that is, the consummated Spirit.

The Spirit of God has passed through a process, and our spirit also has passed through a process. Our spirit was created by God, but through Adam it became fallen and deadened. However, our deadened spirit was redeemed by Christ and, having been redeemed, it has been quickened, enlivened, by the Spirit, who regenerated us. The consummated Spirit is in our regenerated spirit. When we speak of the Spirit with our spirit, we mean that the consummated Spirit is with the believers’ created and regenerated spirit. Now we need to see that the Spirit with our spirit is the secret of all the experiences of God’s organic salvation. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Secret of God’s Organic Salvation—“The Spirit Himself with Our Spirit”,” ch. 1)

In Regenerating the Believers

The union and blending of the Spirit of God and the spirit of man has altogether six big steps. The first step is the regenerating of the believers. The Spirit of God regenerates the believers in their receiving spirit with the life of God that they may become children of God (John 3:5-6; 1:12-13). Regeneration is to have God as life in addition to our original, human life. Hence, we should not live by our original life, our first life; rather, we must deny our first life and live by our second life.

In Sanctifying the Believers

The union of the Spirit of God and the spirit of man is seen also in the sanctifying of the believers. The Spirit of God dispenses God’s holy nature into the inward parts of the believers to gradually sanctify every inward part with the element of God’s holy nature. What God is doing is first to sanctify us by separation, and then to sanctify us by transformation. God not only sets us apart but also sanctifies us by transforming us.

In Renewing the Believers

The union of the Spirit of God and the spirit of man is also seen in the renewing of the believers (Titus 3:5b; Rom. 12:2a). The Spirit of God renews the believers by infusing the inward parts of the believers with God’s attributes, which are forever new, can never become old, and are everlasting and unfading. All the experienced ones know that in our fellowship with God, there is always an infusion taking place within us; that is, the attributes of God are being infused into our nature, which belongs to the old creation, to renew it.

In Transforming the Believers

The union of the Spirit of God and the spirit of man is also seen in the transforming of the believers. Transformation is the intrinsic and metabolic process of the working of God, which on the one hand is gradually eliminating our old and natural element, and on the other hand is spreading the life and nature of God throughout our entire being to be the new element of our entire being.

In Conforming the Believers

The union of the Spirit of God and the spirit of man is also seen in the conforming of the believers (Rom. 8:29). Conformation is the consummation of the transformation of the believers in the life of Christ as the firstborn Son of God, the first God-man, which is just the consummation of the four steps of regeneration, sanctification, renewing, and transformation. The issue of being conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God is that we are made God-men.

In Glorifying the Believers

The union of the Spirit of God and the spirit of man is seen consummately in the glorifying of the believers (Rom. 8:30, 23; Eph. 4:30; Col. 3:4b; 1 Pet. 5:10a; 2 Tim. 2:10; Heb. 2:10). The work of the Spirit of God in glorifying the believers begins with His regenerating the believers with the life of God’s glory, until the glory of God’s life saturates the believers and is manifested in their body. Thus the work of the Spirit of God in glorifying the believers reaches its ultimate consummation. The consummation of this work is to make man God in life and nature, with no share in His Godhead.

The above six steps are accomplished by the joining of “the Spirit with our spirit” (Rom. 8:16) as “one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “The Issue of the Union of the Consummated Spirit of the Triune God and the Regenerated Spirit of the Believers,” ch. 3)

Turn Our Whole Being to This Joined Spirit and Set Our Mind on It

We must therefore exercise to turn our whole being to this joined spirit and set our mind on it (Rom. 8:6b). Do not place your mind on frivolous matters; set it on the spirit by turning your entire being to this joined spirit. We should also live and walk according to this joined spirit (Rom. 8:4). We must speak, do things, treat others, and deal with matters according to this joined spirit. We should talk to our family members in our home life according to this spirit. When we live in this joined spirit, we will be able to live out the Body of Christ and become His corporate expression (Eph. 1:23). (CWWL, 1990, vol. 2, “A Thorough View of the Body of Christ,” ch. 2)

Questions:

1. What is the skillfulness, the secret, of all spiritual things, especially of all the aspects of God’s organic salvation?
The union and blending of the Spirit of God and the spirit of man has altogether six big steps. What are they?
Regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification are all accomplished by the joining of “the Spirit with our spirit” as “one spirit”. What should be our attitude towards this joined spirit?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Twenty-four
The Divine and Mystical Realm

Hymns, #1113

Scripture Reading:

John 14:10-11 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; but if not, believe because of the works themselves.

The Triune God Himself Being a Divine and Mystical Realm

The Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, is self-existing, ever-existing, and coinhering, with the three of the Divine Trinity dwelling in one another. According to John 14:10 and 11 the Son is in the Father, and the Father is in the Son. This indicates that the Father is embodied in the Son and the Son is the Father’s embodiment, forming a divine and mystical realm, the realm of the Triune God. Therefore, the Triune God Himself is a divine and mystical realm.

The Realm into Which We May Enter Today
Being the Divine and Mystical Realm of the Consummated Spirit
and the Pneumatic Christ

The divine and mystical realm into which we may enter today is actually not simply the divine and mystical realm of the Triune God but the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ. The terms consummated Spirit and pneumatic Christ are very particular.

The Spirit Having Become the Consummated Spirit

Who is the consummated Spirit? The consummated Spirit is the compound Spirit typified by the anointing ointment—a compound of one hin of olive oil with four kinds of spices and their effectiveness (Exo. 30:23-25). The Bible unveils the fact that the Spirit has become the consummated Spirit. Because many Christians have not seen the revelation in the Bible concerning the consummated Spirit, they need to be reeducated. Some may say, “God is the same from eternity; He has never had any change.” However, the Bible clearly reveals that God, who is Spirit, became flesh (John 1:14). Was that not a change? Furthermore, the last Adam in the flesh became the life-giving Spirit. Was that not also a change? First, God changed in that, through incarnation, He became flesh, and then He changed again in that, in resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit, and this Spirit is the consummated Spirit. I hope that those who are under the influence of old, traditional theology will be willing to learn what the Bible, our highest authority, reveals concerning the consummated Spirit.

Christ Becoming the Life-giving Spirit, the Pneumatic Christ

The Bible reveals also that Christ has become the pneumatic Christ. In eternity Christ was God as the Spirit, but then He became flesh. First Peter 3:18, speaking of Christ’s crucifixion, says that He was, on the one hand, “put to death in the flesh, but on the other, made alive in the Spirit.” The crucifixion put Christ to death only in His flesh, not in His Spirit as His divinity. His Spirit as His divinity did not die at the cross when His flesh died; rather, His Spirit as His divinity was made alive, enlivened with new power of life. Thus, while He was dying in His humanity and even after He was buried, His Spirit as His divinity remained active. His Spirit as His divinity was working to resurrect His humanity, to uplift it, and to bring it into divinity so that His humanity could be born of God. According to Acts 13:33 it was in resurrection that God begot Jesus to be the Son of God. He was therefore begotten to be the firstborn Son of God by having His humanity uplifted into divinity and even brought into the divine sonship. Simultaneously, He became the life-giving Spirit and thereby became the pneumatic Christ.

We have seen that the Spirit has been consummated and that Christ has become the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ. Thus, we may now speak of the divine and mystical realm of this consummated Spirit and of this pneumatic Christ. What a marvelous realm this is!

Everything Being in the Divine and Mystical Realm
of the Consummated Spirit and the Pneumatic Christ

We have pointed out that the three of the Divine Trinity are self-existing, ever-existing, and coinhering, and as such the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are a divine and mystical realm. With the Triune God Himself as a mystical realm there are no “complications,” but in the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ there are a number of “complications,” all of which are blessings to us.

God wanted us to be in Him. If He were merely the Triune God without Christ’s humanity, death, and resurrection, and we could enter into Him, we would find the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, but nothing of humanity, death, and resurrection. However, when we enter into the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ, we have not only divinity but also the humanity of Christ, the death of Christ with its effectiveness, and the resurrection of Christ with its repelling power. Everything is here in this wonderful realm.

Although I was born in China and have become a naturalized American citizen, I can testify that I do not have the feeling that I am either Chinese or American. My realm is not China or America—my realm is the complicated and complicating Triune God. I am here with the Father, with the Son, who was crucified and resurrected, and with the consummated Spirit. Since I am in such a Triune God, I have whatever I need. If I need crucifixion, I find that in this realm I have been crucified already. If I need resurrection, in this realm I have been resurrected already. Praise the Lord for such a divine and mystical realm!

We Needing to Consider Highly the Entry into this Realm

The believers must consider highly the entry into this realm, realizing that without Christ becoming the life-giving Spirit, without Christ being the pneumatic Christ, without Christ being the Lord Spirit, and without Christ being the Christ in resurrection and not only in the flesh, there is absolutely no way for the believers to participate in, experience, and enjoy the organic section of God’s complete salvation in Christ. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” ch. 3)

Questions:

1. The realm into which we may enter today is the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ. How to understand the terms consummated Spirit and pneumatic Christ?
What do we have in the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ?
What should be our attitude towards the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ into which we can enter?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Twenty-five
The Issue of Christ’s Glorification—the Incorporation
of the Consummated God with the Regenerated Believers

Hymns, #976

Scripture Reading:

John 14:20 In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

17:21 That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me.

The Issue of Christ’s Glorification Being the Incorporation
of the Consummated God with the Regenerated Believers

In considering the issue of Christ’s glorification, we will use a very particular word—incorporation. This word is often used in business, but according to my knowledge it has not previously been used in interpreting the holy Word. In this message we need to see that the issue of Christ’s glorification is the incorporation of the consummated God with the regenerated believers. An incorporation usually involves a number of parties. What God plans to do in His economy is to incorporate all His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified people with Himself as the consummated God into a great incorporation.

This Incorporation Being Fully Unveiled in the Gospel of John

The Gospel of John, a book in which this incorporation is fully unveiled, is composed of three sections. John 1:1 through 12:16 is the first section. Although 7:39 says that “the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified,” glorification is not covered in this section. The second section, which begins with 12:17 and ends at 17:26, is concerned with Christ’s glorification. The issue, the outcome, of this glorification is an incorporation, which is revealed in chapter fourteen. The third section, chapters eighteen through twenty-one, covers Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.

Chapter Twelve Unveiling Christ’s Glorification in a Particular Way

Chapter twelve unveils Christ’s glorification in a particular way. The Lord Jesus said that He was a grain of wheat (v. 24), and His intrinsic content—the glory of His divinity—was concealed within the shell of His flesh. As the unique grain of wheat He needed to be put into death so that His intrinsic content could be released. The issue of this release, this glorification, was the producing of a universal incorporation. This incorporation is revealed in a full and detailed way in chapter fourteen. This means that the incorporation revealed in chapter fourteen is the issue of the glorification unveiled in chapter twelve. If we see this, we will realize that we cannot know chapter fourteen without understanding the glorification in chapter twelve. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Issue of Christ Being Glorified by the Father with the Divine Glory,” ch. 3)

Chapter Fourteen Explaining the Issue of His Glorification,
the Universal Incorporation

The Gospel of John explains the issue of His glorification in chapter fourteen. This issue is the universal incorporation. First, the three of the Triune God were incorporated from eternity. In John 14:10 the Lord told Philip, “I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” This reveals that the three of the Divine Trinity are incorporated into one incorporation by Their mutual coinhering. Verse 10 of John 14 unveils to us the beginning of this universal incorporation in eternity. Verse 11 shows that the three are also an incorporation by Their mutual work. They work together as one.

In John 14:20 the Lord told them (the disciples) that on the day of resurrection they would know that He is in the Father, that they are in Him, and that He is in them. These three ins reveal that the consummated Triune God and the regenerated believers became an incorporation in the resurrection of Christ. Verse 17 says that this Spirit of reality would be in the disciples. The in of verse 17 as a general statement is the totality of the three ins in verse 20 as a detailed statement. When the Spirit of reality is in us, the totality of the Triune God is in us to incorporate us into the universal incorporation. In eternity it was a divine incorporation. By being enlarged, this incorporation became a divine and human incorporation. This incorporation is the house of the Father, the universal vine tree of the Son, and the new man of the Spirit.

The Final Consummation of This Universal Incorporation
Being the New Jerusalem

The goal of God’s economy is the enlarged, universal, divine-human incorporation of the consummated God with the regenerated believers. The unbelievers will go into the lake of fire. They have nothing to do with this universal incorporation. But all of the believers will eventually be incorporated into this one great incorporation. The final consummation of this universal incorporation is the New Jerusalem. Mainly three apostles—Paul, Peter, and John—present this revelation to us in their Epistles piece by piece and bit by bit. By the Lord’s mercy, we have put these pieces together to see a full and complete vision of this universal incorporation.

We All Needing to See a Vision That There Is Only One Thing
That God Wants, That Is, the Universal Incorporation of Himself
as the Consummated God with the Regenerated Believers

I feel that we all need to see a vision, not just learn the doctrine. We have to see that in the entire universe, there is only one thing that God wants, that is, the universal incorporation of Himself as the consummated God with the regenerated believers. In these days, this great universal incorporation is before me moment by moment. The entire world will go into the lake of fire. The only thing left will be this great universal incorporation. Although the word incorporation is not used in the New Testament, what is actually unveiled in the New Testament in the way of a vision is this universal incorporation. This incorporation started from God. The Triune God does have three parties—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The three in the Divine Trinity were incorporated already in eternity past. Through His incarnation, this incorporated One came into time. Whatever He does in time is to incorporate all His chosen ones into His incorporation to make a great universal incorporation. The way to be incorporated into this unique incorporation is to enjoy Christ, to eat Him, to partake of Him. When we eat Him, we live by Him in this great incorporation, which today is the corporate Body of Christ and which eventually consummates the New Jerusalem. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Issue of Christ Being Glorified by the Father with the Divine Glory,” ch. 5)

Questions:

1. The issue of Christ’s glorification is an incorporation. Who is involved in this incorporation?
The Gospel of John, a book in which the universal incorporation as the issue of Christ’s glorification is fully unveiled. From what verses can we derive this conclusion?
Whatever God does in time is to make a great universal incorporation. What is the way to be incorporated into this unique incorporation today?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Twenty-six
The Incorporation of the Consummated God
with the Regenerated Believers (1)—the House of the Father

Hymns, #974

Scripture Reading:

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.

The First Aspect of the Incorporation of the Consummated God
with the Regenerated Believers Being the House of the Father

The first aspect of the incorporation of the consummated God with the regenerated believers is the house of the Father (John 14:2). Chapters fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen of John are a long message given by the Lord Jesus shortly before He was arrested. Each of these three chapters covers one of three aspects of the universal incorporation. In John 14 we have the Father’s house; in John 15, the Son’s vine; and in John 16, the child born of the Spirit. The house of the Father, the true vine of the Son, and the child of the Spirit are the three different aspects of the universal incorporation as the issue of Christ’s glorification.

The Father’s House Being a Divine and Human Incorporation

The Father’s house is a divine and human incorporation of the processed and consummated God constituted with His redeemed, regenerated, and transformed elect. The Father’s house is not only a constitution—it is an incorporation.

In 14:2a the Lord Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many abodes.” All the believers in Christ, redeemed through His blood, regenerated with His life by His Spirit, and transformed with the divine element by the life-giving Spirit, are the “abodes” in the Father’s house. In our houses we have rooms. As believers in Christ and members of the Body of Christ, we all are rooms, abodes, in the Father’s house.

The Father’s House Being Built up by the Constant Visitation
to the Redeemed Elect of the Father and the Son with the Spirit

The Father’s house is built up by the constant visitation to the redeemed elect of the Father and the Son with the Spirit who indwells the redeemed elect to be the mutual dwelling place of the consummated Triune God and His redeemed elect. In 14:23 the Lord Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” Verse 2 tells us that in the Father’s house there are many abodes, and in verse 23 we see that these abodes are built up by the Father and the Son’s visitation to those who love Him. The Spirit is not explicitly mentioned in verse 23 but rather is implied, for the Spirit dwells in the regenerated spirit of all those who love the Lord Jesus.

From our experience we know that the Father and the Son pay us a constant visitation. In our daily life the Father and the Son often come to visit us. We may be at home, at school, or at work, but wherever we may be the Father and the Son come to visit us to do a building work in us, making an abode which will be a mutual dwelling place for the Triune God and for us. This is the building up of the Father’s house through the constant visitation of the Triune God.

The Kingdom of God

The Father’s house is also the kingdom of God, which is composed of the believers in Christ as the citizens (John 3:3, 5; Rev. 1:4, 6; Eph. 2:19; Matt. 16:18-19; Acts 1:3; 28:31), in two aspects.

The first aspect of the Father’s house as the kingdom of God is the kingdom of God as the church life in this age (Rom. 14:17). The church life today is the kingdom of God for the believers’ exercise and equipping in the divine authority through the endurance of sufferings (Rev. 1:9; Acts 14:22; Matt. 18:18) and for the believers to learn how to reign in life (Rom. 5:17).

The second aspect of the Father’s house as the kingdom of God is the kingdom of Christ in the kingdom age, that is, in the millennium, the thousand-year kingdom (Rev. 11:15; 2 Pet. 1:11). This aspect of the kingdom is for the overcoming saints to reign with Christ (Rev. 20:4, 6; 2 Tim. 2:12) and to rule over all the nations (Rev. 2:26; 12:5).

The Purpose of the Father’s House

The purpose of the Father’s house is first for the invisible and mysterious Triune God to have a visible and solid manifestation—the church—among men on the earth (1 Tim. 3:15-16.) Second, the purpose of the Father’s house is for the satisfaction and rest of the processed and consummated Triune God.

The purpose of the Father’s house is also for the eternal and purposeful Triune God to carry out His eternal economy to consummate the New Jerusalem as His eternal goal for His eternal expansion and expression. The house of God, which is God’s dwelling place, eventually will be the New Jerusalem, God’s eternal goal for His eternal expansion and expression. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Issue of Christ Being Glorified by the Father with the Divine Glory,” ch. 4)

We Being Taken to the Father by Calling on the Name of the Lord

John 14:4-6 reveals that Christ is the way for man to enter into the Father’s house, that is, for man to get into the Father. In verse 4 the Lord Jesus said to the disciples, “And where I am going you know the way.” In verse 5 Thomas said to the Lord, “Lord, we do not know where You are going; how can we know the way?” We should note that these two verses speak of the words where and way. According to verse 6, Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” This verse reveals that Christ the Son is the way and that the Father is the “where” (destination). Therefore, both the way and the where are living persons; Christ the Son, the living person, is the way, and the Father, the living person, is the destination. Through Christ the Son we get into the Father.

If we want to contact God, we simply need to say, “O Lord Jesus.” By calling on the name of the Lord, we are immediately taken to the Father and brought into Him to enjoy Him. We also know that God is in us, that we are in Him, and that we are one with God. This is a fact, and this is our experience. As Christians we can testify that we have God, that we enjoy God, and God enjoys us. We can enjoy God so much through the Lord Jesus as the way. The Lord has taken away sin, He has judged the world, He has destroyed Satan, and He has terminated the old creation. Now everything is clear, and there are no longer any obstacles between us and God. When we call on the Lord, we are immediately in the presence of God. We experience the fact that God is in us and that we are one with God. Then God becomes our enjoyment. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 284)

Questions:

1. In John 14:2 the Lord said, “In My Father’s house are many abodes.” What are the many abodes?
The Father’s house is also the kingdom of God, which is composed of the believers in Christ as the citizens, in two aspects. What are the two aspects?
According to the revelation in John 14:4-6, what is the way for man to enter into the Father’s house?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Twenty-seven
The Incorporation of the Consummated God
with the Regenerated Believers (2)—the True Vine

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.

The Second Aspect of the Incorporation of the Consummated God
with the Regenerated Believers Being the True Vine

The Lord is not a tall pine tree but a spreading vine tree (John 15:1-8, 16). The fruit of a vine tree is easy to reach and eat. This is a picture of today’s Christ. Today’s Christ is spreading Himself everywhere throughout the globe. In 1958 I was invited to speak in London to a group of people who were considered the most spiritual people on this earth. I considered them the last group of saints in the line of the inner life. I stayed with them for four weeks. One day they took me to see a big vine tree, which is the vine of the queen. The British people are proud of this vine. When they asked me what I thought of it, I said that I had seen a vine tree which is much bigger. The vine tree I have seen is Christ as the true vine. This vine needs the entire globe for its spreading. In John 15 the Lord said, “I am the true vine” (v. 1). This means that actually all of the other vine trees are false, including the queen’s vine. Only one vine is uniquely true. This is Christ spreading around the globe. Christ as the true vine has spread Himself from America to places such as Russia, Poland, Romania, South Africa, South America, New Zealand, and Australia.

The True Vine Being a Sign of the All-inclusive Christ
as the Organism of the Processed and Consummated Triune God

The true vine is a sign of the all-inclusive Christ as the organism of the processed and consummated Triune God.

Its branches are the believers of Christ, who by nature were branches of the wild olive tree and have been grafted into the cultivated olive tree (Rom. 11:17, 24) through their believing into Christ (John 3:15). Both the cultivated olive tree and the true vine signify Christ. Hence, to be grafted into the cultivated olive tree is to be grafted into the true vine.

Its grafted branches have been regenerated with the divine life, brought into the life-union with the crucified and resurrected Christ, and incorporated with the processed and consummated Triune God. This is for the unlimited Triune God’s multiplication as the increase of the immeasurable Christ, the embodiment of the processed and consummated Triune God (John 3:29-30), for His universal spreading through the fruit-bearing of the believers of Christ as the branches by their faithful abiding in Christ (15:4-5, 16) for the glorification of the Father (v. 8). (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Issue of Christ Being Glorified by the Father with the Divine Glory,” ch. 5)

As Believers, We Being Branches of the Vine
and Being Good for Nothing Except to Express the Vine

Christ, the infinite God, is the vine, and we are His branches. We are actually branches of the infinite God, organically one with Him. This means that we have been organically joined to the Triune God. Now we are part of God, even as the members of our bodies are parts of us. If we are in the light, we shall see that we are members of Christ, that we are part of Him.

As believers, we are branches of the vine and are good for nothing except to express the vine. All that the vine is and has is expressed through the branches. Individually, the branches are the regenerated ones. Corporately, they are the church, the Body of Christ. The branches, the believers in Christ the Son, are for the expression of the Son with the Father through fruit-bearing.

As branches of the vine, we need to abide in the vine, the Christ of God. The Lord Jesus said, “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (vv. 4-5). Only when the branches abide in the vine can the vine be everything to them. This is the reason the Lord said concerning Himself as the vine and us as the branches, “Abide in Me and I in you.” Our life and enjoyment are to abide in the vine. Our destiny as branches is to remain in the vine.

We, the Branches, Can Do Nothing Apart from the Vine

Apart from the vine, we, the branches, can do nothing. A branch of a vine cannot live by itself, for it will wither and die apart from the vine. The relationship between the branches and the vine portrays the relationship between us and the Lord Jesus. We are nothing, we have nothing, and we can do nothing apart from Him. What we are, what we have, and what we do must be in the Lord and by the Lord in us. Therefore, it is crucial for us to abide in the Lord and for the Lord to abide in us. We should not do anything in ourselves; we should do everything by abiding in the vine. Christ as the vine is an all-inclusive portion for our daily enjoyment. Because we are branches to the Lord and the Lord is the vine to us, we must abide in Him and let Him abide in us. Then in our experience Christ will be everything to us for our enjoyment.

We Needing to See the Fact That We Are Branches in the Vine
and to Maintain the Fellowship between Us and Christ as the Vine

Once we see the fact that we are branches in the vine, we need to maintain the fellowship between us and Christ as the vine. Any insulation will separate us from the rich supply of the vine. A little disobedience, a sin, or even a sinful thought can be the insulation that separates us from the riches of the vine. First, we must see that we are branches. Then we need to maintain the fellowship between us and the Lord. Nothing should be between Him and us. From experience we know that even a small thing can separate us from the rich supply of the vine. Hence, we need to pray, “Lord Jesus, let there be nothing between You and me separating me from Your rich supply.” (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 286)

Questions:

1. According to John 15, we know that only one vine is uniquely true. What is the true vine?
The Lord says that He is the true vine, we are the branches. What is our destiny as the branches?
As branches of the vine, how can we continue to enjoy the abundant supply of the vine?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Twenty-eight
The Incorporation of the Consummated God
with the Regenerated Believers (3)—the Newborn Child

Hymns, #840

Scripture Reading:

John 16:21 A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her hour has come; but when she brings forth the little child, she no longer remembers the affliction because of the joy that a man has been born into the world.

Eph. 2:15 Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace.

The Third Aspect of the Incorporation of the Consummated God
with the Regenerated Believers Being the Child of the Spirit

The Father needs a house for His dwelling, the Son needs a vine for His spreading, and the Spirit needs a child for His moving (16:20-22). This child is the new babe growing up into the new man. The new man is Christ. He is all the members of the new man and in all the members (Col. 3:10-11).

This New Child Being Created by Christ on the Cross
by Abolishing in His Flesh the Law of the Commandments in Ordinances

This new child was created by Christ on the cross by abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances (Eph. 2:15). Christ abolished the ordinances of the law that separated people from one another. Through that He created the Jews and the Gentiles together into one new man. In one sense, the one new man was created; in another sense, he was born by the Spirit as a new child. His members were regenerated by the Father in Christ’s resurrection to be God’s children, who are the constituents of the house of God (1 Pet. 1:3; John 1:12-13). First Peter 1:3 says that we all were regenerated by God the Father through the resurrection of Christ.

The New Child Being Also Born by the Spirit in the Believers’ Spirit

The new child was also born by the Spirit in the believers’ spirit (John 3:6b). God’s elect are the suffering, delivering woman (16:20-21). On the one hand, we are the child born; on the other hand, we are the delivering woman. We are the mother and the child as well. This is a mystery. Furthermore, this child as the returning Christ left the disciples by His death. In John 16:22 the Lord told the disciples, “Therefore you also now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you.” That newborn child was Christ coming back. Thus, God’s elect are the mother as well as the child, and the child is Christ. Now He is the new man (Col. 3:10-11). In the new man there is no room for any natural person. There is only room for Christ. He is all the members, and He is in all the members. This new man is put on by the believers through the renewing in the spirit of their mind (Eph. 4:23-24) and consummates the Body of Christ. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” msg. 11)

We, All the Believers, Being Part of the New Man

The Christ who returned in His resurrection was the newborn child to be the new man (Col. 3:10-11). The old man was created by God in Genesis 1 and 2, but the new man was born through the death and resurrection of Christ referred to in John 16. We were born into the old man, but we were regenerated into the new man. We should remember that before we were born into the old man, we had been already regenerated into the new man, since we had been regenerated before we were born according to 1 Peter 1:3. We do not need to try, struggle, or endeavor to be a new man. We are already a new man. We were a new man two thousand years ago. We should not look at ourselves. When we look at ourselves, we will see the old man and be disappointed. Rather, all of us should declare, “I am a part of the new man through the wonderful death and resurrection of the Son of God.” Through His resurrection He as the only begotten Son of God became the firstborn Son of God, and through His resurrection His many brothers were brought forth. Also, through His resurrection a new child was born, comprised of Christ and all His believers. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 287)

We Still Needing to Put Him on the New Man
Although He Has Already Been Created

Although the new man has already been created, we still need to put him on. Hardly any Christians know how to put off the old man, much less how to put on the new man. Most Christians think that to put off the old man is to put off the old nature or the old self and that to put on the new man is to put on the new nature. Those who hold this concept are utterly mistaken. Since the new man in 2:15 is a corporate man, the new man in 4:24 must also be corporate. According to 4:24, we need to put on the very new man that has already been created in Christ.

The way to put on the new man is found in 4:23: “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” This word indicates that to be renewed in the spirit of our mind is to put on the new man. For the spirit to become the spirit of our mind means that the spirit directs, controls, dominates, and possesses our mind. Instead of our mind being the mind of our spirit, our spirit should be the spirit of our mind. If the mind is the mind of our spirit, it means that our mind dominates, controls, and directs our spirit. But if our spirit is the spirit of our mind, it means that our spirit dominates, controls, and directs our mind. When the spirit directs our mind, it governs our whole being. When this is the case, our being is under the control of our spirit, in which are found God, the dwelling place of God, and the new man. It is in this spirit of our mind that we are renewed. By means of this spirit we put on the new man.

Day By Day We Needing to Put on This New Man
by Permitting the Spirit to Control Our Being and Renew Our Mind

Putting on the new man does not take place once for all. On the contrary, it is a lifelong matter, a gradual process that goes on throughout our Christian life. We have pointed out again and again that the new man has been created in Christ and with Christ. When we were regenerated, this new man was put into our spirit. Now day by day we need to put on this new man by permitting the spirit to control our being and renew our mind. Every time part of our being is renewed, we put on a little more of the new man. Hence, the more we are renewed through the spirit controlling our mind, the more of the new man we put on. Eventually, this process of putting on the new man will be completed. (Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 24)

Questions:

1. The third aspect of the incorporation of the consummated God with the regenerated believers is the child of the Spirit. How did the new child come into being?
Although the new man has already been created, we still need to put him on. What is the way to put on the new man?
If we realize that putting on the new man does not take place once for all, it is a gradual process that goes on throughout our Christian life. What shall we do?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Twenty-nine
The Blueprint of the God-man Living

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

Phil. 2:6-7 Who, existing in the form of God…But emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming in the likeness of men.

Rom. 8:29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.

The Triune God’s Blueprint Showing That He Wants to Be One with Man

The Triune God has gone through a wonderful process. In eternity past He was God, having only divinity, but one day according to His economy, He became a man. This is because His economy, His blueprint, shows that He wants to be one with man.

God has the divine life, the uncreated life, and man has the human life, the created life. How could these two lives be together as one, and how could there be a living of these two lives as one living? This is why God entered into man. He was divine yet He was born human. No one can exhaust the study of this wonderful One. Who is He? He is God, but He is more than God. He is also man. He is the complete God and the perfect man. We have to call Him the God-man. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 4, “The Overcomers,” ch. 6)

The God-man Jesus Christ Being the Model God-man,
the Prototype for the Producing of Many God-men

Today this God-man has become the God-men. The God-man is Jesus Christ. He is the model God-man, the prototype for the producing of many God-men (Rom. 1:3-4; 8:29), including all the dear saints throughout the world. Regardless of our nationality, and regardless of whether we are male or female, young or old, we all must believe that we are God-men. We are all God-men, and each one of us is a God-man.

According to the Scriptures, we, the believers in Christ, were all born of God to be His sons. As the sons of God, surely we are God-men. We are the same as the One of whom we were born. It would be impossible to be born of God and not be the sons of God. Since we are the sons of God, we are God-men.

As God-men, We Having the Divine Life

As sons of God and as God-men, we have the divine life (John 3:15, 36a). Our own life is a human life; thus, we are all human. But through regeneration we have received another life, which has been added to our natural life. This life is not only holy and heavenly but also divine. Thus, we have all become divine.

Although we are divine men, we need to ask ourselves whether we live, act, and behave ourselves as divine men. Some of us may feel that we are not qualified to be even a human man, not to mention a divine man. Because of our poor behavior, we may consider ourselves “turtles” and not men. Nevertheless, because we have been born of God and have the divine life, we can say that we are not only higher than the turtles, but we are even much higher than the top human beings. We may feel that we are not qualified to say this, but actually we are more than qualified. My burden in these messages is to help you to see a vision from the heavens. Do not look at yourself. We are not worthwhile to look at. We must look away to the heavens. In the heavens the angels are rejoicing because they see that all the believers are divine. The angels have only the angelic life; they are not divine. What an honor and what a glory that we human beings can be divine!

As God-men, We Also Having the Divine Nature

As those who are born of God, the God-men have not only the divine life but also the divine nature. Thank God that in the Bible, among the sixty-six books, there is one verse, 2 Peter 1:4, that says that we are partakers of the divine nature, which is the nature of God. We should mark such a verse in our Bibles so that whenever we open the Bible, that verse will stand out. We are not turtles, because we do not have the turtle nature. We are men, for we do have the human nature. But we have also been born of God; we are God’s sons, God’s children. Thus, we have God’s nature. Since we have God’s nature, are we not God? In fact, we are God in His life and His nature, but not in His Godhead.

As God-men, We Also Having Two Lives, Human and Divine,
Living Together as One Life

As God-men, we also have two lives, human and divine, living together as one life. We may wonder how two lives could live together as one life. The answer is very simple. In grafting, a branch from one tree is grafted into another tree. The two are joined together, and the two lives live together as one life. In the same principle, we, the believers, have been grafted into Christ (Rom. 11:17-19) and are living in an organic union with Him. In such a union the human life and the divine life are joined as one so that they live together as one mingled life and one living.

Our Teaching Absolutely According to the Bible,
Being to Raise up God-men

Questions:

1. The Triune God has gone through a wonderful process. From His economy, His blueprint, we can see what does this for?
We have been born of God; we are divine persons. What should we do when we feel that we are not qualified to say this?
Is our burden today to build ourself up to be a nice man, a good man, or a gentle man? If not, what kind of person does the Bible intend to build up?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Thirty
The Reproduction of the God-man Living

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

Rom. 8:29 Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.

Gal. 2:20a I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.

The First God-Man Christ Living on Earth
Not by His Human Life, but by His Divine Life

God desired to become a man, and one day He became a man, living on earth as a God-man. Yet when He lived on earth as the God-man, He did not live by His human life, but by His divine life. He was divine. He wanted to become human, and He was human. Yet He lived a human life not by His humanity, but by His divinity. He was a human being that came with divinity. He lived on this earth not only as God but also as man. He lived as a God-man, yet not by the life of man but by the life of God. So His human living was not lived out by the human life but by the divine life. Yet within the divine life, there was the element of humanity, and within the human life, there was the element of divinity. The divine attributes became the human virtues.

Christ was under the cross all the time on the earth, expressing not Himself but the Father. One day Philip asked Him, “Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us” (John 14:8). The Lord responded, “Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how is it that you say, Show us the Father?” (v. 9). The disciples saw the Lord Jesus, but when they saw Him, they saw the Father. This shows that He was the expression of the Father.

Christ lived a life under the cross all the time until He was practically crucified on the cross to accomplish His all-inclusive death for God’s eternal redemption of His chosen people. God’s chosen people became fallen and lost, but He redeemed them back through the wonderful death of that wonderful Person, Christ.

Living a Life Which Is a Copy, a Reproduction, of the Life of Christ

First Peter 2:21 says that Christ as the first God-man was a model for us. We need to live a life which is a copy, a reproduction, of the life of Christ.

I was born in Christianity. From my youth I was taught that we have to follow Jesus. What they meant, however, was this: “Jesus loves people, so we have to follow Him in loving people. Jesus was meek and patient, so we have to follow Jesus in meekness and in patience.” Apparently, this teaching is right, but intrinsically, it is absolutely off. Intrinsically speaking, to follow Jesus is to be a xerox copy of that first God-man. To follow Jesus is to live the life of a God-man, not by the human life but by the divine life, so that God may be expressed or manifested in the flesh in all His divine attributes becoming the human virtues. This is the intrinsic significance of what it is to follow Christ. So the practical way to live a life according to the high peak of the divine revelation is that you must be a God-man. As a God-man you need to live a life not by yourself but by another One, not by your human life but by His divine life, not to express yourself but to express His divinity in His divine attributes which all become your human virtues.

The Christian life is not a matter of outwardly loving people or of being meek or patient in our human ethics. We need to die every day (1 Cor. 15:31). The married saints need to die to their spouse. The students need to die to their classmates and teachers. We need to die to live so that the many God-men can become the building material for the building up of the Body of Christ to carry out God’s eternal economy. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “The Practical Way to Live a Life according to the High Peak of the Divine Revelation in the Holy Scriptures,” ch. 2)

From Today Our Practice Should Be to Live the Life of a God-man

From today our practice should be to live the life of a God-man by realizing the power of the resurrection of Christ to take His cross as He did, to be crucified, to be conformed to His death, every day to live another One’s life (Phil. 3:10; 1:21; Gal. 2:20). Our life, our self, our flesh, our natural man, and our everything were already brought to the cross by Him. Now we are living Him, so we should remain in His crucifixion to be conformed to the mold of His death every moment in every part of our life. That will cause us to spontaneously live Him as the resurrection (John 11:25). This is the living of a God-man.

It is a life in which I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but He who lives in me (Gal. 2:20). Yet when He lives in me, He lives with me, with the result that I live with Him (John 14:19). He lives with me, and I live with Him. We two live together in the way of mingling, a mingling of God and man.

Such a life, like that of Jesus Christ in His thirty-three and a half years on the earth, saves us from all negative things, from small things and big things. In our marriage life it saves us from separation and divorce. In the church it saves us from opinion, division, despising, criticizing, and murmuring. In this life there is no criticism, no despising, no partiality, no division, no dissension, no opinion. In such a life we live the life of a God-man. With Him everything is new, everything is heavenly, and everything is divine, divinity mingled with humanity. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” ch. 5)

Questions:

1. God desired to become a man, and one day He became a man, living on earth as a God-man. What about His life on earth?
Christ as the first God-man was a model for us. For this, what kind of life do we need to live?
If we practice to live the life of a God-man, remain in His crucifixion to be conformed to the mold of His death, how would our living change?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Thirty-one
Being Conformed to the Death of Christ by the Power of His Resurrection

Hymns, #631

Scripture Reading:

Phil. 3:10 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.

Rom. 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.

Being Conformed to the Death of Christ by the Power of His Resurrection

Philippians 3:10 says, “To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” This verse unveils three items which Paul wanted to know. First, Paul wanted to know Him. Second, he wanted to know the power of His resurrection. Third, he wanted to know the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.

The Life of Christ, the First God-man, on the Earth

First, we need to be clear about the life of Christ, the first God-man, on the earth. He was both God and man, having the divine life and the human life. Christ lived a life of humanity, not by His human life, but by His divine life.

He Dying to Live

He died to live. He was dying every day during His whole life of thirty-three and a half years. He died to Himself that He might live to the Father (John 5:19, 30; 8:28).

I like this phrase dying to live. Christ died to Himself in order to live out the divine attributes as His human virtues.

Christ Making Himself, the First God-man,
a Prototype for the Mass Reproduction of Many Brothers—
the Many God-men

Christ made Himself, the first God-man, a prototype for the mass reproduction of many brothers—the many God-men (Rom. 8:29). I have been a Christian for about sixty-nine years. After so many years, I have been made by God to know only one thing—God became man so that man may become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. This is my unique burden, my unique message. God and man will become one entity, and that one entity is the mingling of divinity with humanity. This mingling will consummate in the New Jerusalem, which is the conclusion of the entire Bible.

Christ as the First God-man Being a Model for Us

First Peter 2:21 says that Christ as the first God-man was a model for us. We need to live a life which is a copy, a reproduction, of the life of Christ.

We Having to Put to Death by the Spirit in His Resurrection
Whatever Our Body Does;
This Being to Be Conformed to the Death of Christ
by the Power of His Resurrection

Paul said that he was crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20) to be conformed to His death by the power of His resurrection (Phil. 3:10).

Romans 8:13 says, “For if you live according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.” You have to put to death by the Spirit in His resurrection whatever your body does. This is to be conformed to the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection. No one in his natural life can put everything that his body does to death. But we, the God-men, who are the reproduction of the prototype, can. We can know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.

We Needing to Die to Live So That the Many God-men Can Become
the Building Material for the Building up of the Body of Christ

Such a life of dying to ourselves and living to God is for Christ, the first God-man, to be formed in His many brothers, the many God-men, for the building up of His organic Body that the eternal economy of God might be carried out. The Christian life is not a matter of outwardly loving people or of being meek or patient in our human ethics. We need to die every day (1 Cor. 15:31). The married saints need to die to their spouse. The students need to die to their classmates and teachers. We need to die to live so that the many God-men can become the building material for the building up of the Body of Christ to carry out God’s eternal economy.

Hoping We All Would Be Brought into the Reality of Philippians 3:10

Thus, a number (not all) of His brothers, the many God-men, through His death and in His resurrection may be constituted to be His overcomers to close this age and to bring in His kingdom age. This is the real meaning of our being a Christian. It is a life of dying every day. We must admit that we have not been that absolute or faithful in practicing this dying-to-live life. God has opened up to us the high peak of His divine revelation. He also puts us in an environment of sufferings to force us to die to live. I hope we all would be brought into the reality of Philippians 3:10: “To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “The Practical Way to Live a Life according to the High Peak of the Divine Revelation in the Holy Scriptures,” ch. 2)

Questions:

1. Philippians 3:10 unveils three items which Paul wanted to know. What are the three items?
According to Rom. 8:13, how is to be conformed to the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection?
What kind of life do we need to live so that the many God-men can become the building material for the building up of the Body of Christ?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Thirty-two
Living Christ to Magnify Him through the Bountiful Supply
of the Spirit of Jesus Christ

Hymns, #362

Scripture Reading:

Phil. 1:19-21 For I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Living Christ for His Magnification
by the Bountiful Supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ

We need to live Christ for His magnification by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19b-21a).

The Spirit of Jesus Christ

The Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19b) is not merely the Spirit of God as He was before the resurrection of Christ, but the Spirit of God after passing, along with Christ, through His incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection, becoming the processed and consummated Spirit. This Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus in His incarnation, human living, and death (Acts 16:7b) and the Spirit of Christ in His resurrection (Rom. 8:9). He is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) and the Spirit, who is particularly unveiled in John 7:38-39 and who becomes the ultimate consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God to be the aggregate of the consummated Triune God and marry the church, the organic Body of Christ, as the bride. So at the end, the closing, of the Bible, Revelation 22:17 says, “The Spirit and the bride….” The Spirit is the consummated Triune God, and the bride is the transformed tripartite man. They form a couple in eternity.

The Spirit is also the all-inclusive, compound Spirit compounded with Christ’s divinity, His humanity, His death, the effectiveness of His death, His resurrection, and the power of His resurrection, as typified by the anointing ointment in Exodus 30:23-28. Such a Spirit is eventually the sevenfold intensified Spirit for God’s move in the degradation of the church (Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6).

The Bountiful Supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ

The all-inclusive supply, provided with whatever the processed and consummated Triune God, embodied in the all-inclusive Christ and realized in the all-inclusive Spirit, is, has, has accomplished, obtained, attained, and will do, is considered as the unsearchable riches of Christ to meet, in time, the need of the Christ-seekers. When we mean business to seek after Christ, we will receive this bountiful supply. It is by such a bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ that the seekers of Christ, as His overcomers in the consummation of this age, live Him for His magnification in the New Testament economy of God for the producing and building up of the organic Body of Christ as the counterpart of the consummated Triune God, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem as His eternal enlargement and expression for eternity. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “The Practical Way to Live a Life according to the High Peak of the Divine Revelation in the Holy Scriptures,” ch. 4)

Taking Him as Our Person and Be One Person with Him
If We Would Live Christ

If we allow the bountiful supply of the Spirit to work in us, our daily living will be changed. We shall be burdened to magnify Christ always and with all boldness. Through our magnifying of Christ, others will see His greatness and His unlimitedness. To magnify Christ in such a way surely is to live Him.

If we would live Christ, we must take Him as our person and be one person with Him. He and we must be one in a practical way. In Galatians 2:20 Paul declared, “Christ lives in me.” For Paul, this was not a mere doctrine; it was a fact. It should also be real to us that Christ lives in us. It is sad that some Christians do not believe that Christ actually lives in them. Neither do they believe that we can abide in Christ and have Him abide in us. But the Bible tells us definitely that Christ is in us and lives in us. God wants His people to live Christ. We should not care for holiness, spirituality, or victory as things in themselves, and we should not care for our natural virtues or attributes. Instead, we should focus our whole attention on living Christ and care only to live Christ that He might be magnified in us. (Life-study of Philippians, msg. 6)

We Living Christ for His Magnification

We live Christ for His magnification (Phil. 1:20). If a Roman soldier had asked Paul what he was doing, Paul would have been able to say, “I am living Christ for His magnification. I am not really a prisoner. I am Christ here. I am here to show you Christ and to minister Christ to you.” Christ’s being magnified is so that He may be seen by others in the reality of His resurrection. In prison the apostle Paul, a human being, was Christ. He was living in the resurrection of Christ. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “The Practical Way to Live a Life according to the High Peak of the Divine Revelation in the Holy Scriptures,” ch. 4)

In Our Daily Living We Also Should Magnify Christ,
Making Him Great in the Eyes of Others

In our daily living we also should magnify Christ, making Him great in the eyes of others. Where you work or go to school people may look down on Christ. They may ridicule Him and take His name in vain, in violation of the third commandment. Therefore, you need to let others see Christ not in a small way, but in the way of enlargement, of magnification.

We can magnify Christ even in situations where we have little or no liberty to speak about Him. Although teachers may not be able to preach the gospel to their students, they can magnify Christ in the classroom. They can cause Christ to appear great in the eyes of their students. I do not believe that when Paul was in prison, he was free to do much preaching of Christ. On the contrary, he was very limited and under strict control. However, even in such circumstances, Christ was magnified in his body. With all boldness Paul sought to magnify Him always. (Life-study of Philippians, msg. 6)

Questions:

1. How can we, the seekers of Christ, live Him for His magnification in the New Testament economy of God for the producing and building up of the organic Body of Christ as the counterpart of the consummated Triune God?
How can we live Christ in our daily life? By changing our behavior?
We see that in prison with all boldness the apostle Paul sought to magnify Him always. What lessons can we learn from him?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Thirty-three
A New Revival

Hymns, #797

Scripture Reading:

Hab. 3:2b O Jehovah, revive Your work In the midst of the years.

Gal. 2:20a I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.

We Needing a New Revival,
a Revival That Has Never Occurred in History

My burden in this chapter concerns a new revival. We need a new revival, a revival that has never occurred in history. In the history of the church there have been a number of revivals. The Reformation at the time of Martin Luther can be considered a revival. However, that revival was a mixture. After the Reformation a number of small revivals took place. Out of these revivals the private churches, such as the Baptist church, the Presbyterian church, and the Methodist church, were produced. In the eighteenth century a great revival was brought in by Count Zinzendorf with the Moravian Brothers. This revival included the practice of the proper church life to some extent. A century later the Brethren were raised up in Great Britain. The revival that they brought in was improved and greater than that under Zinzendorf. Watchman Nee considered the Brethren revival as a fulfillment of the church in Philadelphia in Revelation 3. The Brethren revival was nearly like the sun shining at noon, but it lasted only a relatively short time. At the beginning of the twentieth century the Welsh revival took place, which was quite prevailing but only for a short time.

A Revival Always Being the Practice of the Vision We Have Seen

What kind of revival do we have today? In other words, what kind of model has been raised up among us? As a rule a revival should always be the practice of the vision we have seen. However, from the time I came into the recovery I have been watching over the situation. From Brother Nee’s time until today, for seventy-two years, our practice has never come up to the standard of our vision that we have received of the Lord. Brother Nee stressed two things: Christ as life to produce the church and the church as the Body of Christ to express Christ. From the time that I began my ministry until today I have put out many books concerning the vision that we have seen. Through all the years, in mainland China, in Taiwan, in southeast Asia, and in the West today, in our practice we have never come up to the standard of what we have seen.

The Highest Peak of the Divine Revelation—
God’s Economy with Christ as Its Centrality and Universality
and All Its Reality

In the past ten years the Lord has shown us His economy. According to my study of church history and the biographies of many saints, I would say that before 1984 God’s eternal economy as the very reality and the center of the Bible was never seen by God’s people so fully as today among us. To my knowledge, no other book has pointed out that God’s eternal economy has Christ as its center and reality, with His Body, the organic Body of Christ, as the organism to the Triune God.

Today we have come to this high peak of God’s divine revelation. I would even say that we have probably reached the highest peak of the divine revelation in the entire Bible. This is the divine revelation discovered by the believers through the past twenty centuries. However, before us, no one ever discovered God’s economy with Christ as its centrality and universality and all its reality. It was not until the last ten years that we put all these things together to have a full picture of God’s economy. This is the highest peak of the divine revelation.

We Needing to Put into Practice What We Have Seen;
Our Practice Will Have a Success,
and That Success Will Be a New Revival

Since we have seen such a high peak of the divine revelation, we need to put into practice what we have seen. Our practice will have a success, and that success will be a new revival—the highest revival, and probably the last revival before the Lord’s coming back. As I said in the previous chapter, we need a model. I do not mean that only some individuals should become a model. I mean that we need a corporate model, a Body, a people who live the life of a God-man. From today our practice should be to live the life of a God-man by realizing the power of the resurrection of Christ to take His cross as He did, to be crucified, to be conformed to His death, every day to live another One’s life (Phil. 3:10; 1:21; Gal. 2:20). Our life, our self, our flesh, our natural man, and our everything were already brought to the cross by Him. Now we are living Him, so we should remain in His crucifixion to be conformed to the mold of His death every moment in every part of our life. That will cause us to spontaneously live Him as the resurrection (John 11:25). This is the living of a God-man.

We Needing to Try Faithfully to Practice Living a God-man’s Life

This should be and this must be our church practice from today onward. If not, we are practicing something in vain. Our practice is not merely to have a church life in which everything is according to the Bible, a church life in which we baptize people by immersion, forsake the denominations, practice head covering, and have the Lord’s table, absolutely according to the Bible. Some have come into the recovery because of these practices. They appreciate our family life, the church meetings, and the way we train our young people. However, these things should not be the goal of our practice. The goal of our practice should be to live the life of a God-man. This is the goal we should reach.

Dear saints, this is my burden. We all need to live such a life—the older ones and the young ones, the brothers and the sisters, the elders and the common saints. If we live such a life, surely we will go out to contact people for the preaching of the gospel. A vital group is a group of this kind of people. The vital groups should not be practiced as a formality; they should be groups of people who live such a life. Our living the life of a God-man will save people, edify others, and build up the local churches even to the building up of the Body of Christ.

If we practice what we have heard, spontaneously a model will be built up. This model will be the greatest revival in the history of the church. I believe that this revival will bring the Lord back.

In conclusion, I would encourage you to try faithfully to practice living a God-man’s life by contacting Him through calling on His name, pray-reading His living word, praying unceasingly, not quenching the Spirit, and not despising prophesying. May the Lord bless us with Himself as the life-giving Spirit that we may touch Him in the mingled spirit by these life practices. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” ch. 5)

Questions:

1. We need a new revival, a revival that has never occurred in history. How can we understand the meaning of revival in general?
Today we have come to this high peak of God’s divine revelation. What is the highest peak of the divine revelation we have seen?
Since we have seen such a high peak of the divine revelation, we need to put into practice what we have seen. What should be our practice today?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Thirty-four
The Experience of God’s Organic Salvation Equaling Reigning in Christ’s Life

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

Rom. 5:17 For if by the offense of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

21b so also grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Organic Salvation Equaling Reigning in Life
by the Abundance of God’s Grace
and by the Abundance of God’s Gift of Righteousness

Romans 5:10 points out that God’s full salvation revealed in this book consists of two sections: one section is the redemption accomplished for us by Christ’s death, and the other section is the saving afforded us by Christ’s life. The first four chapters of this book discourse comprehensively regarding the redemption accomplished by Christ’s death, whereas the last twelve chapters speak in detail concerning the salvation afforded by Christ’s life. This organic salvation equals reigning in life by the abundance of God’s grace and by the abundance of God’s gift of righteousness. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “Crystallization-study of the Complete Salvation of God in Romans,” msg. 1)

Reigning in life is the full experience of the organic salvation of God. God’s complete salvation is through our receiving grace and righteousness, and this complete salvation issues in our reigning in life as the goal of His complete salvation. Reigning in life in chapter five is the key to open up the rest of the book. We need to see everything in Romans chapters six through sixteen in this light. This is altogether a new way to interpret the book of Romans. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “Crystallization-study of the Complete Salvation of God in Romans,” msg. 4)

To Reign in Life Being to Be under the Ruling of the Divine Life

To reign in life is to be under the ruling of the divine life. If we look at the life of the Lord Jesus as the God-man in His humanity on the earth, He was absolutely under the ruling of the divine life of the Father. Everything He did was under the Father’s ruling. As a man, He rejected His natural humanity and lived a human life under the restriction of the divine life of His heavenly Father. By practically being under the ruling of the divine life of the Father, He was reigning in life. This is the pattern we should follow.

By Living under the Rule of the Divine Life, by Reigning in Life,
We Can Live the Church Life

By living under the rule of the divine life, by reigning in life, we can live the church life. There is no possibility for us to live the church life if we are not under the ruling and control of the divine life. We must reign in life to live the church life.

Romans 14:1-15:13 covers our reigning in life in the church life. The reason why there are so many divisions among Christians today is that their receiving of the believers is not under the restriction, the control, of the divine life. If all Christians would receive one another according to the divine life, all divisions would be gone. Only by reigning in life can we receive all whom God has received.

Our receiving of the believers under the reigning in life is first according to God’s receiving and then according to Christ’s receiving (15:1-13). We should receive one another in the same way that Christ receives us. The strong ones need to bear the weaknesses of the weak, not pleasing themselves but pleasing the brothers and sisters for their building up, even as Christ did not please Himself but bore God’s reproach (vv. 1-4). We should be of the same mind toward one another according to Christ Jesus so that with one accord we may glorify God in receiving one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God (vv. 5-7). Christ has become a minister of both the circumcision and the Gentiles that the God of hope may fill us with all joy and peace for us to abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit (vv. 8-13). (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “Crystallization-study of the Complete Salvation of God in Romans,” msg. 6)

Reigning in Life Bringing in God’s Kingship

Romans 5:21 says, “So also grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” In the end, we the believers will reign in this eternal life through Jesus Christ.

When married brothers and sisters are about to clash and argue with each other, they have to declare that they are reigning through Jesus Christ. They have to declare that they will not argue anymore. This will bring in God’s kingship. In a family, when the parents argue all the time, the children will become disobedient, and the whole family will be in a situation of rebellion. This family will lose the grace and right to God’s blessings. What is true with a family is also true with a church. We should not consider arguments as light matters; arguments are rebellion. Arguments with proper reasons are rebellion. Arguments without proper reasons are also rebellion. What then is obedience? Obedience is to not argue and to be silent. Because I submit to the authority of the head, all my hair, tongue, lips, and teeth submit to me. They do not argue anymore, and I reign. This brings in God’s kingship which expands to become the kingdom of God.

According to Mark 4 and Matthew 13, the kingdom of God is the Lord Jesus as the seed of life sown into the believers. This seed will develop until it becomes a sphere which is the kingdom of God. This kingdom will expand until the end of the age. At the end of the Gentile rule, we will have the condition described in Daniel 2 concerning the great image. The stone cut out without hands is the Lord Jesus (v. 34). He will come down from heaven, smite the image, and break it into pieces (v. 35). The stone will become a great mountain to fill the whole earth (2:31-35). The great mountain is the expansion of the stone.

We Needing to Allow the Lord to Expand His Kingship in Us

We all hope that the Lord Jesus will come back soon. But we need to allow Him to expand His kingship in us. The more He expands in the believers, the sooner He will return. Whether He will come back sooner or not depends on whether we allow Him to expand in us. This is the kingdom of God. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 2, “Salvation in Life in the Book of Romans,” ch. 7)

Questions:

1. From the life of the Lord Jesus as the God-man in His humanity on the earth we can see how does He reign in life?
How can we live the church life, receiving others according to God and Christ?
The kingship is brought in as a result of our reigning in life. Please share your experience of reigning through Jesus Christ in your life.

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Thirty-five
God’s Economy and the Overcomers

Hymns, #894

Scripture Reading:

Rev. 17:14b and they who are with Him, the called and chosen and faithful, will also overcome them.

21:7 He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be God to him, and he will be a son to Me.

God’s Intention in His Eternal Economy
Being for Him to Be One with Man

Our God has an eternal economy (Eph. 1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4). Economy means plan. God has an eternal plan. He planned in eternity past to do something, and this plan was made by Himself according to His heart’s desire, according to His good pleasure, to carry out His intention. God has an intention to be one with man. This may seem very simple, but this most simple thing is the most mysterious thing. Medical doctors have been studying the human body for many years, but they still cannot fully comprehend all of its mysteries. One doctor told me that after studying the human body, one cannot deny that there must be an almighty Being in the universe. Otherwise, the wonderful human body could not have come into existence. The human body seems to be simple, but this simple thing is wonderful. God’s economy to be one with man also may seem simple, but such a simple thing is the most wonderful thing.

God Taking Four Ages to Finish His Project
Because the Human Race Failed God

God’s eternal economy is for Him to be one with man, making man His organism so that He can have a new creation out of the old creation. This is not a simple project. God will take at least seven thousand years to finish His project of gaining the new creation out of the old creation. He takes four ages to do this because the human race failed God.

The Failure of the Race of Adam

God created Adam, which means that He chose Adam with his descendants to be the very means for Him to bring forth the new creation. Eventually, however, the Adamic race became flesh at the time of the deluge (Gen. 6:3a). At the time of the flood, man had become totally sinful and ugly in the sight of God. Later, the Adamic race became one with Satan at Babel (Gen. 11:4-9). Man became satanic. Then God came in to choose Abraham so that He could have a new race, a called race.

The Failure of the Earthly Descendants of the Race of Abraham

But even the new race, the called race, the earthly descendants of the race of Abraham, became a failure. They forsook God with His old covenant (Jer. 2:13; 11:10b), choosing Satan with his kingdom (11:10a).

The Failure of the Heavenly Descendants of the Race of Abraham

The second category of Abraham’s descendants, according to Genesis 15:5, are likened to the stars of heaven. These are the New Testament believers, the spiritual, heavenly descendants of Abraham. Galatians 6:16 says that we, the New Testament believers, are the spiritual Israel of God. The heavenly descendants of Abraham also become a failure. They become defeated in the enjoyment of the processed Triune God (cf. 2 Cor. 13:14) and corrupted by Satan through sin, self, the world, and the religious world (1 John 3:8; Matt. 16:24; 1 John 2:15; Gal. 1:4; 6:14).

God Being Calling Us, the Believers, to Be the Overcomers

The later Epistles of Paul and the epistles to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 show that by the end of the first century, the church had become degraded. Thus, the created race became a failure, the chosen race as the earthly descendants of Abraham became a failure, and the heavenly descendants of Abraham also became a failure. This is why the Lord Jesus came in the book of Revelation to call for overcomers. He calls for the overcomers seven times in His epistles to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 (2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 20-21). He is calling us, the believers, the heavenly stars and the heavenly descendants of Abraham, to be the overcomers.

The Overcomers Eventually Becoming a Big Success to God

With the race of Adam, God suffered a loss. With Abraham’s descendants of dust, God suffered a loss. With Abraham’s heavenly descendants, God also suffered a loss. But with the last group of people, the overcomers, God gains the victory. In the last book of the Bible, Revelation, we see that Christ has gained a group of overcomers, and this group eventually becomes a big success to God.

As Overcomers, We Not Living Ourselves but Living God

Some Christians today are sighing and groaning about the pitiful and defeated situation of the church. Apparently, this is right, but hiddenly throughout the centuries, there have been groups of overcomers. I believe that among us there are some overcomers. I can testify from the depths of my being that some of the saints with whom I served for many years are overcomers. We should not think that the church is wholly defeated. Apparently, it is defeated; actually, it is not. There is a group of saints who are standing with the Caller, Christ, to be His overcomers.

The overcomers consummate God’s economy and eventually bring in God’s kingdom. As overcomers, we do not live ourselves. We are living God. While we are living God, we are conquering all kinds of circumstances. In 1 Corinthians, Paul charged the saints to be full-grown men and to be strong (16:13). Paul’s word was given not only to the brothers but also to the sisters at Corinth. We all need to be such strong, full-grown men. We should forget about ourselves because God is in us. We have to overcome, to conquer, all our circumstances. Then we have to subdue our environment. This is to bring in and spread God’s dominion, which is to bring in God’s kingdom. It is wrong to wait passively for God’s kingdom to come. God needs a number of overcomers to conquer the circumstances and to subdue the environment so that His dominion will be brought in and spread for the bringing in of His kingdom. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 4, “The Overcomers,” ch. 1)

Questions:

1. God planned in eternity past to do something to carry out His intention. What is this intention?
God takes four ages to finish His project because the human race failed God. Eventually, who accomplished God’s plan?
The overcomers consummate God’s economy and eventually bring in God’s kingdom. What should we do in order to be overcomers?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Thirty-six
The Final Consummation of the Overcomers

Hymns, #894

Scripture Reading:

Rev. 19:7 Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.

What the Overcomers Consummate and Accomplish

Now we want to see the final consummation of the overcomers. We need to see what the overcomers consummate and accomplish.

All of the Overcomers Being Manifested as a Corporate Overcomer
after Their Raptures

All of the overcomers will be manifested as a corporate overcomer after their raptures. After they are raptured, they all become one entity. They are really built together. This can be proved by two things. First, all the overcomers become one bride to Christ (Rev. 19:7-9). Christ will not have many brides, but only one bride, who is constituted with all the overcomers. This is proof that all the overcomers will become one. Second, they become the heavenly army to follow Christ to defeat Antichrist and those who follow him (vv. 11-21). All the overcomers first become the bride, and after her marriage to Christ, the bride becomes the army. All the overcomers are really one.

This means that today, in this age before the rapture, we have to learn the lesson of how to be one and of how to coordinate with one another with no opinion. We should reject our opinion and care only for our growth in Christ, transformation in Christ, and building up in Christ. If we are such persons, the church life will be pleasant to us. When we are right persons, everything is right and pleasant to us. But when we are wrong persons, we are unhappy and everything is wrong and unpleasant to us. When we are right in an overcoming situation, we love everything and everyone, and every situation is no problem to us. Today in the church life, those who condemn and criticize others are the wrong persons. If someone comes to us to say something negative about the church, about the elders, about the ministry, about the brothers, or about the sisters, we have to realize that this person is a wrong person. We should stay away from such persons (Rom. 16:17). Otherwise, we will be contaminated. In this age we have to learn the lesson to coordinate with all the lovers of Christ. Then after our rapture, we will be ready to go along with one another, and we will be one entity as Christ’s bride and Christ’s army.

The Overcomers Inheriting the Kingdom of God and of Christ
in the Fuller Enjoyment of the Eternal Life

The overcomers will inherit the kingdom of God and of Christ in the fuller enjoyment of the eternal life (Matt. 5:20; 19:23-30; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-5; 2 Pet. 1:11). First, they bring in the kingdom, and then they inherit it. They will be the co-kings with Christ (Rev. 20:4, 6; Matt. 19:28). Christ will be the leader of the kings, and the overcomers will be the co-kings to co-reign with Christ. The overcomers will also be priests of God and of Christ in the millennium (Rev. 20:6; 22:3b) to enjoy the ruling authority over the nations (Rev. 2:26-27; 12:5). To man, the overcomers will be the kings. To God and to Christ, they will be the priests. What a blessing!

All the Overcomers Being the New Jerusalem,
as the Bride of Christ for One Thousand Years,
in Its Initial and Fresh Stage

What God wants is the New Jerusalem, which will be the totality of what the overcomers are. Eventually, all the overcomers will be the New Jerusalem, as the bride of Christ for one thousand years, in its initial and fresh stage. These one thousand years will be counted as one day (2 Pet. 3:8), the wedding day. This will be the initial and fresh stage of the New Jerusalem as the bride of Christ.

The New Jerusalem Being Consummated and Completed in Full,
as the Tabernacle of God and the Wife of Christ
in the New Heaven and New Earth for Eternity

Eventually, the New Jerusalem will be consummated and completed in full, as the tabernacle of God and the wife of Christ in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:1-3, 9-10). In the kingdom of one thousand years, the New Jerusalem will be composed only of the overcomers. Besides the overcomers there will be a great number of immature saints, but after the thousand-year kingdom, all the believers will be matured. The Lord has a way to cause all the believers to be matured. If we do not get matured in this age, we will be matured in the next age. The process of being matured in the next age, however, will be very severe. Eventually, all of the believers will join the overcomers to make the New Jerusalem larger than it was in the thousand-year kingdom. That will consummate and complete the New Jerusalem in full, as the tabernacle of God and the wife of Christ in the new heaven and new earth for eternity. In eternity the New Jerusalem will be the wife of Christ. On the wedding day, the wife is the bride, but after the wedding day she is no longer the bride but simply the wife. The believers who do not overcome in this age will participate in the New Jerusalem as the wife, but they will have no share in her as the bride because they will mature too late. The New Jerusalem in eternity future will be with the addition of all the saints perfected for their maturity in the divine life through the discipline in the kingdom age (Rev. 21:2, 12, 14). This will be for the eternal expression, to its fullest extent, of the processed Triune God in, with, and through all the regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite saints in eternity (Rev. 21:10-11).

We Becoming the New Jerusalem
as the Final Consummation of the Overcomers

In this chapter we have seen the New Jerusalem. Our “dream” is to become the New Jerusalem as the final consummation of the overcomers and the consummation of God’s economy. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 4, “The Overcomers,” ch. 6)

Questions:

1. All of the overcomers become one entity after their raptures. They are really built together. By what two things can this be proved?
In the initial and fresh stage, the New Jerusalem is the bride of Christ; the Consummated and perfect New Jerusalem is the wife of Christ. What is the difference in composition between the two?
Today we have to learn the lesson of how to be one and of how to coordinate with one another. How should we do specifically?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Thirty-seven
The Vital Groups

Hymns, #1234

Scripture Reading:

Acts 2:46-47 And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart, Praising God and having grace with all the people. And the Lord added together day by day those who were being saved.

A Vital Group Can Come into Being Only by a Saint
Who Is Desperate and Absolute for the Increase of the Lord’s Recovery

A vital group can come into being only by a saint who is desperate and absolute for the increase of the Lord’s recovery. A vital group begins with one person. It does not begin with nine or ten persons; it begins with one vital saint.

According to our experience, when we are desperate and absolute for the increase of the church, we have a burden to be vital. If we do not care for the increase but rather are content to see the number in the church remain the same year after year, there is no reason to be vital. We desire to be vital for a purpose, for a goal, and that is for the increase of the Lord’s recovery. For this we need to be desperate and we need to be absolute. If we take anything as life or death, we are vital in that thing. We need to be desperate and absolute for the increase of the Lord’s recovery; then we will be vital.

Such a desperate saint would spontaneously contact others by the Lord’s leading and gain some companion or companions for him to have a vital group. A vital group cannot be formed by promoting or by giving a message or by exhorting the saints to form vital groups. A vital group can be formed only by a saint who is vital. By the Lord’s leading such a vital saint will find some others to be his companions. These will then come together to have intimate and thorough fellowship and begin to vitalize one another. In this way the genuine vital groups will be formed and produced in the church life from within. May the Lord give us this kind of desperation and this kind of absoluteness. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” msg. 7)

The First Way of the Members of the Vital Group to Contact People
Being by Cherishing Them

The first way of the members of the vital group to contact people is by cherishing them. To cherish people is to make them happy, to comfort them, to make them feel that you are pleasant to them, easy to be contacted in everything and in every way. Our contact with people must be so genuine. Genuineness can be produced only by the cross plus resurrection. Only a crossed-out, resurrected person can be genuine in everything.

We should cherish people, not by our natural man, but by our regenerated man that has been conformed to the death of Christ. We have two men within us. Ephesians 4:22-24 reveals that we must put off the old man and put on the new man by being renewed in the spirit of our mind. The mingled spirit must invade, take over, occupy, and saturate our mind with divinity; then our mind becomes a renewed mind. Romans 12:2 says that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. That renewing is to put off the old man and put on the new man. We must be a new man living not by our natural man but by our regenerated man with God Himself. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” msg. 10)

The Members of the Vital Groups
Having to Learn How to Nourish People

The members of the vital groups have to learn how to nourish people to continue their cherishing of people. Cherishing without nourishing is in vain. We do not nourish people when we speak to them about marriage, courtship, politics, the world situation, or education. To nourish people is to feed them with the all-inclusive Christ in His full ministry in three stages. When we speak to people about Christ, we should not speak to them in an incomprehensible way in a kind of language which they do not understand. We have to find a way to present the all-inclusive Christ to everyone. If a person wants people to eat beef, he must find a way to cook it to make them desire to eat it. Similarly, we have to “cook” the all-inclusive Christ.

In order to nourish people with Christ, we first have to seek Christ, experience Christ, gain Christ, enjoy Christ, and participate in Christ. In Philippians, especially in chapters two and three, Paul used different expressions and utterances to portray how he was seeking and pursuing Christ in order to gain Christ. He told us that we should do all things without murmurings and reasonings. The sisters who are seeking Christ should learn not to murmur, and the brothers should learn not to reason. If you murmur and reason, you will offend the indwelling Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God, because this God is working in you that you may work out your salvation (2:12-14). Our salvation is our gaining and experiencing Christ. To gain Christ is to work out our own daily organic salvation. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” msg. 11)

Doing Everything We Can to Strengthen the Vital Groups
to Make the Vital Groups So Beautiful, So High, and So Attractive

Our groups should not be dormant, lifeless, and cold. If our groups are like this, no one will want to attend them. We have to keep our group meetings so interesting, so living, and so attractive.

Everyone should bear a burden for the vital groups. Do not despise your burden and your portion. If a new one comes into a group meeting and all the members of the group meeting speak, he will be surprised and attracted. Our group meetings must be living and active, with all the members in the group speaking.

According to my experience, the most attractive thing is the thorough fellowship. In your vital groups, you must always practice the thorough, intimate fellowship. This brings in the mutual care in love. If a new one comes to our group and sees this kind of intimate, open, thorough fellowship and mutual care, he will be inspired. He would say that he has never seen people who are so one and who love, open to, and care for one another so much. He would say, “This is the place where I should be. I have to be among these people.” This kind of intimate fellowship and care for one another attracts people, so we have to practice this.

We must do everything we can to strengthen the vital groups. We should spend every drop of our blood, every bit of our strength, and every minute of our time to strengthen the vital groups, making the vital groups so beautiful, so high, and so attractive. This is the only thing we should stress to get people. A number of things can attract people, but not so effectively as the vital groups. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 3, “Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups,” msg. 24)

Questions:

1. Does a vital group begin with many people coming together? If not, how does a vital group come into being?
We need to cherish and nourish others in the vital groups. How can we cherish others? How can we nourish others?
If we see that Nothing can attract people so effectively as the vital groups, what should we do?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Thirty-eight
Becoming Vital and Going to Vitalize Others

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

1 Thes. 5:16-17 Always rejoice, Unceasingly pray.

2 Tim. 1:6 For which cause I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

A Vital Group Being Living and Full of Activities

Recently I felt burdened to use the term vital groups. My understanding in using the word vital is that a vital group is living and full of activities. You may be a living person, but if you do not know how to take any action, you are not vital. Children from the ages of five to seven are vital because they are not only living but full of activities. Spiritually speaking, we may be living but we are not vital because we are not living and full of activities. To be vital is to be living and very active, full of activities. The vital groups are groups which are living and full of activities. If the saints who have the burden to be in the vital groups do not move, do not act, in any kind of meeting, the church is finished.

Must Pass through the Stages of a Thorough Fellowship with the Lord,
the Confession of Our Sins, Re-consecration, a Prayer Life,
the Filling of the Spirit, and a Thorough and Intimate Fellowship
with One Another in Order to Be Vital

We have made it clear that the way to produce the vital groups is that each of us must take the lead to be vital. In order to be vital, we first must have a thorough fellowship with the Lord. Then that fellowship will bring us into a kind of realization that we are totally sinful. Then we will be brought into a thorough confession of our sins. Spontaneously, we will re-consecrate ourselves. We will pray, “Lord, now I would like to consecrate myself to You anew.” Then that will bring us into a prayer life. No one can pray unceasingly without reaching this stage. When we pass through the stages of fellowship, confession, and consecration, we enter into a prayer life. It is in this prayer life that we pray ourselves into the Spirit—the essential Spirit, the economical Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit. Then we learn how to follow this Spirit by exercising our spirit. If this is the case with us, we are really vital. Actually, this is all revealed, unveiled, in the New Testament, especially in Paul’s Epistles.

When we are vital, we will have a burden to contact others. This will not be something done merely because the elders made a decision. The elders may make a decision to divide the saints in the church into groups and call these groups vital groups, but they may be dormant groups. If we merely arrange the saints into groups and call them vital groups, that is something formal. That is just a movement. Eventually, these groups will be the same as the old groups. This is not the way to have the vital groups. We must abandon that way and take the vital way.

We will not be vital if we do not pass through the stages of fellowship, the confession of our sins, re-consecration, a prayer life, and the filling of the Spirit. Also, we need to have a thorough and intimate fellowship with one another. We may come together as groups, and yet not have this kind of fellowship. Instead, we are all very reserved. We open up ourselves to a certain extent and no more. We like to cover and hide many things concerning our situation. As a result, there is no thorough fellowship. When there is no thorough fellowship, there is no thorough blending. Then we cannot see the proper mutual intercession, the proper mutual care, and the proper mutual shepherding. This shows that we are not that vital.

Contacting the Saints Who Are Not in the Groups
and Who Are Not Yet Vital to Vitalize them

In the entire time of my ministry, I have not been as burdened as I am in these days concerning how the church should go on. Recently, I became clear that we must begin to take action, regardless of whether or not we feel that we have been adequately prepared. Without any burden of work, it is difficult to have a burden of prayer. The first step we need to take is to contact the saints who are not in the groups which we have. A number of the saints may be weaker and older, and they do not have the capacity to act that much and be in the vital groups. We should not go to contact them first, but go to contact the ones whom we feel can be made vital and whom we can bring into our vital groups. The first step in our action is not to contact the unbelieving sinners or our relatives and neighbors, but to contact the meeting members who are not yet vital. We need to pray and choose someone whom we can contact.

We may also feel led by the Lord to recover certain backsliding ones. Some of us should pick up the burden to recover them and make them vital. In recovering a backsliding one, we should not talk too much. Instead, we should go to visit him again and again. We should be prepared to take one year to recover one person. In these days we need to go to contact the ones who can be made vital, including certain ones who have backslidden. When they become vital, they may be more vital than we are.

Not Being Idle, Having to Pray,
and Asking the Lord to Give Us Someone to Labor on

I believe that the way to help us be more vital is for us to contact others. If we wait any longer to contact others, we will never be vital. Every week we should set apart one day in which we contact others. If we have the burden to recover someone who has not been in the meetings for a long time, we need to pray for him. We may even need to fast and pray. Then we will receive the Lord’s leading to contact him, either by phoning him or going to visit him. If there is a will to gain people, there is a way to gain them. We believe this. We must ask the Lord to give us someone to gain for Him. We cannot be idle. We must gain someone who is not yet vitalized. We must bear a burden to vitalize that one, to make that one vital. Then we will realize that we first need to be vitalized.

After we have finished contacting all the non-vital members, including the backsliding ones, we can begin to contact the sinners, including our relatives, neighbors, and colleagues. We have to pray and ask the Lord to give us someone to labor on. If we have such a desire, the Lord will give us the proper persons. We need to pray desperately as we take action with the Lord to contact others. We should tell the Lord that we do not want to be dormant and that we do not want others in the church to be dormant. We need to be vitalized by the Lord and then go to vitalize others. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 3, “Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups,” msg. 24)

Questions:

1. The way to produce the vital groups is that each of us must take the lead to be vital. How can we be vital?
How should we recover certain backsliding ones and make them vital? What is the secret?
What should we do as we take action with the Lord to contact others?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Thirty-nine
Abiding in the Lord and Walking According to the Spirit
to Flow Rivers of Living Water

Hymns, #770

Scripture Reading:

John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Rom. 8:4 That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, …but according to the spirit.

John 7:38 He who believes into Me, …out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.

Abiding in the Lord and Walking According to the Spirit
to Flow Christ as Rivers of Living Water

I have been speaking for a number of years concerning the God-ordained way with its four steps: 1) begetting; 2) nourishing; 3) teaching; and 4) prophesying. We may have adopted all of these terms, but we may also have become complicated and even confused. I have a burden to tell you not to be confused and not to be complicated. Just be simple. Just realize that you are a branch of Christ, abiding in Him, walking, living, and having your being according to the spirit. Surely you will be a praising person; you will be a thanking person, a person thanking God all the time; and you will be a person praying and rejoicing. Then you will have the fullness of the Spirit. You will pour out by speaking to others. Do not care about whether they will be saved or not. Only the Lord knows. You just carry out your commission. Your function is to bear the fruit, and to bear the fruit is not just a kind of doing, but a kind of living. We all should say, “I am just a branch abiding in Christ and walking according to the spirit to flow Christ as rivers of living water.”

As the Branches of the Vine, We Must Abide in Him
and Remain in the Union of Life in Him to Bear Fruit

To be a Christian, a believer in Christ, and to be a follower of Christ, what kind of persons should we be? The Lord says that our status in Him is to be a branch of Him, a part of Him to branch Him out (v. 5).

Here we can see our function and our commission on this earth. A branch of a vine tree is there for nothing else except to bear fruit. Bearing fruit is an issue of the flow of life. In order to bear fruit, we must abide in Christ. In John 15:5 the Lord said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” In order to bear fruit, we must abide in Him, remain in the union of life in Him, keep ourselves always one with Him, and never be separated from Him. If we are apart from Him, we have lost our status, we have annulled our function, and we can do nothing.

What we expect to see is that in the Lord’s recovery all the dear saints who love the Lord, who are pursuing after Him, would see their status as the members of the living Christ. These members of the living Christ are the branches of the vine tree. We are branches of the vine tree to bear fruit, to flow Him out, to branch Him out. This is our function. This is our commission. This can take place only by our constant abiding in the vine.

Normal Christians Should Walk According to the Spirit

Romans 8:4b shows that normal Christians should walk according to the spirit. This spirit can be spelled with either a small s or a capital S. This is because the human spirit and the divine Spirit are mingled as one spirit. There is a person today in this universe, even on this earth, who is called the Spirit, and we are one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). The normal Christians, the vital group people, should be those who live, act, walk, and have their being according to the spirit. In other words, they would not do anything that is not according to the spirit. Even good things and things that are according to the highest standard of morality they would not do, unless they do them according to the spirit.

We Will Flow out by Speaking When We Are Filled with the Spirit,
We Are Full of Christ

Our walking according to the spirit will spontaneously have an issue, and that issue is to flow out Christ to bear fruit, and to bear fruit is to transmit Christ into others. According to the revelation given to us in the New Testament, a person who abides in Christ, who walks according to the spirit, always flows by speaking. If there is no speaking, there is no flowing. Our flowing is to speak. If from the first day of the year to the last day of the year you never speak to anybody concerning Christ, you do not flow Him. Regardless of how much you feel you are enjoying Christ, participating in His riches, the flow of life within you has been stopped.

To flow is to speak. The Lord said in John 7:38, “He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” When a branch is full of life, spontaneously that life will flow out. When we are filled with the Spirit, we are full of Christ, and our uttering organ will be open to speak forth Christ. When I was young, I spoke even when people were not around. When you are so full, you have to flow out, to speak.

We Should Just Be the Branches of Christ

We should forget all of our questions. We should simply realize that we are branches of the vine tree. No matter what your earthly profession is, you are really just a branch, a part, of Christ to branch Him out, to live Him, to express Him, and to impart Him to others. Stay with Him, abide in Him, to live in the organic union with Him. Then spontaneously you will do everything according to the spirit. You will be a person praying, thanking, and rejoicing all the time. You will never quench the Spirit, but you will always fan the spirit into flame. Then you will be so full of Christ that you have to overflow with Christ by speaking.

To speak is the only way to flow. We should care only for this. Then there is no problem. The only problem is that we forsake our status. We do not want to be branches. We want to be something more. People used to ask me, “How can I be spiritual?” We should not be bothered and complicated with such questions. Instead, we should just be the branches of Christ. This is so simple. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups,” msg. 11)

Questions:

1. Our status in Him is to be a branch of the vine, Christ, to branch Him out. How can we do to bear fruit to branch Him out?
When we are filled with the Spirit, we are full of Christ, we will spontaneously have an issue. What is it?
Should we try to find ways to be spiritual? If not, what should we do?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Forty
Shepherding and Teaching—the Obligation of the Vital Groups

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

John 21:16 He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You. He said to him, Shepherd My sheep.

Acts 20:20 How I did not withhold any of those things that are profitable by not declaring them to you and by not teaching you publicly and from house to house.

Shepherding and Teaching Being the Obligation of the Vital Groups

Shepherding and teaching are the obligation of the vital groups. If we do not do this, we owe something to the Lord, to the saints, and to all the sinners on this earth (Rom. 1:14). Shepherding and teaching are our obligation as a charge given to us by the Lord. This is the basic way ordained by God in the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate His eternal goal—the New Jerusalem. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” msg. 6)

Shepherding

The Ministry of the Apostles, Prophets, and Evangelists,
Depending upon Shepherding

Among the four kinds of gifted persons, the ministry of the first three, that is, of the apostles, prophets, and evangelists, depends upon shepherding. This is confirmed by the Lord’s charge to Peter in John 21:15-17. The functions of these leading gifted persons depend upon shepherding. Without shepherding, the apostles, prophets, and evangelists cannot function.

The Pattern of the Apostle Paul in Shepherding

We need to contact and take care of others, sinners and believers, as the apostle Paul, the top apostle, did in contacting people and taking care of people’s need (2 Cor. 1:23-2:14). In 2 Corinthians 11:28-29 Paul said, “Apart from the things which have not been mentioned, there is this: the crowd of cares pressing upon me daily, the anxious concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is stumbled, and I myself do not burn?” This unveils the care of a proper shepherd.

Our attitude may be that everyone is weak but we are not weak. We may have the feeling that we are strong ones. In 1 Corinthians 9:22 Paul said, “To the weak I became weak that I might gain the weak.” This means that we should come down to the weak one’s level. To a sick person we come down to the level of a sick person. This is the way to shepherd people by visiting them. Paul also said, “Who is stumbled, and I myself do not burn?” This is to burn in sorrow and indignation over the cause of the stumbling of all the fallen ones. This shows the pattern of Paul as a good shepherd, taking care of God’s flock.

Acts 20 says that while Paul was on his way to Jerusalem, he sent word to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. He told them that they should shepherd God’s flock, which God purchased with His own blood (v. 28). The shepherding of God’s flock was on Paul’s heart. Many think that Paul was a great apostle doing a great work as a great career. But Paul considered what he did as shepherding the flock of God. We have to be revolutionized in our logic and consideration. We should not think that we are going to do a great work for Christ like certain spiritual giants. These so-called giants actually did not accomplish much for God’s interest. Instead, they only made a name for themselves with little result for the building up of the Body of Christ.

Both Christ and Paul Teaching the Contents of God’s Eternal Economy;
in Our Vital Groups We Having to Learn to Teach These Thing

The apostle Paul taught in his personal visits to the churches (1 Cor. 4:17b; 7:17b).

Paul also wrote fourteen Epistles to the churches and individuals concerning God’s eternal economy with Christ as its centrality and universality and the Body of Christ as its central line to consummate the New Jerusalem. What Paul taught was the same as what the Lord Jesus taught. Many teachings today are in the realm of ethics. They are not up to the standard of what Christ and Paul taught. Both Christ and Paul taught the contents of God’s eternal economy. In our vital groups we have to learn to teach these things.

If we are going to teach the Gospel of Matthew, we need to know its three main sections: the constitution of the kingdom (chs. 5-7), the mysteries of the kingdom (ch. 13), and the manifestation of the kingdom (chs. 24-25). In the constitution of the kingdom, we have to be poor in spirit and pure in heart and to have a righteousness which exceeds that of the Pharisees. If we teach the mysteries of the kingdom, we have to stress that we need to be the good ground, into which Christ sows Himself as the seed. Today we have to grow Christ and be transformed into a great pearl. We should also teach from John that God is the flowing God. The Father is the fountain emerging to be the spring in the Son and gushing up to be the river as the Spirit unto a great consummation, the New Jerusalem. These are the teachings we should learn and minister to others. When we teach these things, people will be surprised and attracted. They will also receive the supply and the ministry of life. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” msg. 7)

Needing to Practice These Things to Bring in a Real Revival
in the Lord’s Recovery

On the one hand, we should shepherd people by dispensing the divine life into them. On the other hand, we should teach them the divine truths in the divine, mystical realm. This is my burden.

If we practice these things, there will be a real revival in the Lord’s recovery. We must be shepherds with the loving and forgiving heart of our Father God in His divinity and the shepherding and finding spirit of our Savior Christ in His humanity. We also must have the heavenly vision of all the divine and mystical teachings of Christ. Shepherding and teaching are the obligation of the vital groups and the basic way ordained by God to build up the Body of Christ consummating the New Jerusalem. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” msg. 6)

Questions:

1. From what the apostle Paul, the top apostle, did, how should we contact people and taking care of people?
Many teachings today are in the realm of ethics. They are not up to the standard of what Christ and Paul taught. What things must we learn to teach in our vital groups?
Shepherding and teaching are the obligation of the vital groups and the basic way ordained by God. What is the ultimate goal?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Forty-one
Love Prevailing

Hymns, #1278

Scripture Reading:

1 Cor. 13:4 Love suffers long. Love is kind; it is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not puffed up.

1 John 4:8 He who does not love has not known God, because God is love.

1 Cor. 12:31 But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And moreover I show to you a most excellent way.

Love Prevailing

In this message we want to see that love prevails. Regardless of how much we shepherd and teach others, without love everything is in vain. First Corinthians 13 is a chapter covering one unique thing, that is, love. This chapter tells us that even if we prophesy in the highest way and give everything for others, without love they mean nothing (vv. 2-3). Both shepherding and teaching need love, not our natural love but His divine love.

God Being Love

We are God’s species because we have been born of Him to have His life and nature (John 1:12-13). We have been regenerated to be God’s species, God’s kind, and God is love. Since we become God in His life and nature, we also should be love. This means that we do not merely love others but that we are love itself. As His species we should be love because He is love. Whoever is love is God’s species, God’s kind.

God is love; we love because He first loved us (1 John 4:8, 19). God does not want us to love with our natural love but with Him as our love. God created man in His image (Gen. 1:26), which means that He created man according to what He is. God’s image is what God is, and His attributes are what He is. According to the revelation in the holy Scriptures, God’s first attribute is love. God created man according to His attributes, the first of which is love. Although created man does not have the reality of love, there is something in his created being that wants to love others. Even fallen man has the desire to love within him. But that is just a human virtue, the very expression of the divine attribute of love. When we were regenerated, God infused us with Himself as love. We love Him because He first loved us. He initiated this love.

We Should Be Like God in Our Love for Others

God’s love motivates us, His children, to love our enemies that we may be perfect as He is; He loves the fallen human race, who became His enemies, by causing His sun (signifying Christ) to rise on the evil and the good indiscriminately and sending rain (signifying the Spirit) on the just and the unjust equally; thus, we may become the sons of the heavenly Father who are sanctified from the tax collectors and the Gentiles (Matt. 5:43-48). The entire human race became His enemies, but God still loves the human race. If God sent Christ to us with discrimination, we would be disqualified from receiving His salvation. He causes His sun to rise first on the evil and then on the good without discrimination.

We should be like God in our love for others. The tax collectors love only those who love them. The Lord said, “If you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” (v. 46). If we love only those who love us, we are of the same species as the tax collectors. But we are of the super, divine species, so we love the evil ones, our enemies, as well as the good ones. This shows how God as love prevails.

The vital groups should be groups that are prevailing. A proof that our vital group is prevailing is that we love people without any discrimination. Some Christian co-workers may feel that we should let certain persons suffer eternal perdition. They may say that they would not love certain persons, such as bank robbers. But while Christ was being crucified on the cross, two robbers were crucified with Him (Matt. 27:38). One of them said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, Today you shall be with Me in Paradise” (v. 43). The first one saved by Christ through His crucifixion was not a gentleman, but a criminal, a robber, sentenced to death. This is very meaningful.

Love Being the Most Excellent Way for Us to Be Anything or Do Anything

The end of 1 Corinthians 12 reveals that love is the most excellent way (v. 31b). How can one be an elder? Love is the most excellent way. How can one be a co-worker? Love is the most excellent way. How do we shepherd people? Love is the most excellent way. Love is the most excellent way for us to prophesy and to teach others. Love is the most excellent way for us to be anything or do anything.

Love prevails. We should love everybody, even our enemies. If the co-workers and elders do not love the bad ones, eventually they will have nothing to do. We must be perfect as our Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48) by loving the evil ones and the good ones without any discrimination. We must be perfect as our Father because we are His sons, His species. This is most crucial. How can we be a co-worker and an elder? It is by love in every way. We must love any kind of person. The Lord Jesus said that He came to be a Physician, not for the healthy ones, but for the sick ones. The Lord said, “Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill” (Matt. 9:12).

Our Church Being a Loving Home, a Hospital, and a School
to Raise up, to Heal, to Cover, and to Teach Others in Love

The church is not a police station to arrest people or a law court to judge people, but a home to raise up the believers. Parents know that the worse their children are, the more they need their raising up. If our children were angels, they would not need our parenting to raise them up. The church is a loving home to raise up the children. The church is also a hospital to heal and to recover the sick ones. Finally, the church is a school to teach and edify the unlearned ones who do not have much understanding. Because the church is a home, a hospital, and a school, the co-workers and elders should be one with the Lord to raise up, to heal, to cover, and to teach others in love. Paul said, “To the weak I became weak that I might gain the weak” (1 Cor. 9:22). This is love. We should not consider that others are weak but we are not. This is not love. Love covers and builds up, so love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and to do anything for the building up of the Body of Christ. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” msg. 8)

Questions:

1. A vital group must be a prevailing group. How can we prove that our vital group is prevailing?
What is the most excellent way for us to be anything or do anything revealed in the end of 1 Corinthians 12?
Since our church is a loving home, a hospital, and a school, what should we do in the church?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Forty-two
Shepherding People According to the Lord’s Heart

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that every one who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.

Matt. 9:13 But go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

Learning of the Lord to Shepherd People According to His Heart

We will fellowship concerning how we should learn of the Lord to shepherd people according to His heart. This fellowship is not merely a teaching, instruction, or rebuke; it is a shepherding to us.

The Lord Not Coming to Call the Righteous but Sinners

Matthew 9:10-13 says, ‘As He was reclining at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and reclined together with Jesus and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, Why does your Teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners? Now when He heard this, He said, Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill. But go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice,” for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’ The house mentioned here is not a corporate-living house; it is a house of sinners and tax collectors. Jesus, though He was the God-man, feasted there with them, reclining at the table. He enjoyed that time, and all the tax collectors and sinners, the ancient ‘gangsters,’ joined together with Him. That offended the Pharisees. The Pharisees here may be compared to the ones who regulate the corporate living homes. The ‘corporate-living Pharisees’ came and asked why Jesus was eating with the ‘gangsters’ and ‘bank robbers.’ The Lord answered that those who are strong have no need of a physician. If one is healthy enough to live properly in corporate living, he does not need a vital group as a ‘health clinic.’ A strong, healthy man does not need to go to a clinic. Jesus, the Son of God, did not come for the strong men; they do not need Him. He came for the ill ones. The vital groups are set up not for those who are healthy and strong and able to live in corporate living, but for those who return to the brothers’ homes after midnight. God desires mercy, not sacrifice. If we sacrifice and offer much to Him without mercy, He does not like it. First Corinthians 13:3 says, ‘If I dole out all my possessions to feed others, and if I deliver up my body that I may boast, but do not have love, I profit nothing.’ To give everything for others without love means nothing. Mercy is the usher of love. To love those who are poor requires that we have mercy on them. The Lord did not come to call the righteous but the sinners. This is His heart.

We Needing to Have a Spirit for the Weaker Ones

To speak truthfully, we have lost this spirit among the co-workers, elders, and vital groups. We do not have such a loving spirit that loves the world, the worst people. We classify people, choosing who are the good ones. Throughout my years I have seen many good ones. Eventually, very few of the good ones remain in the Lord’s recovery. Rather, so many bad ones remain. Do not classify people. Who can tell what they will be?

Do not say that your vital group is only for those in corporate living, and do not label people. We like to rank people, saying that the co-workers are the first rank, while others are the subsequent ranks. This is absolutely wrong. There is no rank. We all are the people in the world and in the flesh. Even today I am very wary that I may do something by my flesh. If I am not wary, I will still live by my old life. The Lord knows that every morning I pray, ‘Lord, thank You for another day. I am still here on this earth. I want to live You, and I want to live with You, walk with You, work with You, and move with You.’ I pray this every morning, but throughout the day, do I live with the Lord? Do I talk to people with the Lord; do I work with the Lord; do I move with the Lord? In a meeting I may speak with the Lord, but after I return home, I may be another person. I may be rebuked when I consider whether I am living and moving with the Lord. This illustrates that we are all far off. Therefore, we should not label people. We should not say that we are the class of people who live with the Lord, walk with the Lord, and work with the Lord. There is not such a class. Some may claim that they are the class of saints who are able to live in corporate living, but in actuality and practicality they are not. Why then do we label people? This kind of labeling offends people, and it indicates that we do not have a spirit for the weaker ones, for the ones who are inferior to us. It also indicates that we do not want them. Once we condemn anyone, we lose the position to take care of that one. Condemnation does not stir up our care for others. Who among the human race is lovable? In the eyes of God, everyone is not lovable in themselves, yet God still loves them; that is, He loves the world. I do not prefer to have this kind of fellowship with you, but I must speak in this way for your sake in order to shepherd you.

We All Must Learn to Shepherd One Another

We must humble ourselves. Pride is the biggest enemy of God. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5). Whenever we criticize others, we miss grace and instead suffer God’s resistance. We all must learn to shepherd one another. This does not mean that since I am shepherding you, I do not need your shepherding. I need your shepherding. We all have defects and shortcomings. Everyone has defects. Therefore, we have to humble ourselves to meet God’s grace. This strengthens our spirit to visit people and to take care of people regardless of whether they are good or bad. Regardless of what they are, we must go to visit them and keep visiting. I am trying my best to help the church to build up the vital groups with such a shepherding spirit full of love and care for others. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “A Word of Love to the Co-workers, Elders, Lovers, and Seekers of the Lord,” ch. 2)

Questions:

1. According to Matthew 9, the Lord answered he Pharisees that those who are strong have no need of a physician. What kind of person are the vital groups set up for?
We should not label people. Because we all are the people in the world and in the flesh. If we label people, what does it indicate?
If we realize that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble; and we all have defects and shortcomings, what change will we have?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Forty-three
The Blending of the Saints Bringing into the Reality of the Body of Christ

Hymns, #1106

Scripture Reading:

1 Cor. 10:17 Seeing that there is one bread, we who are many are one Body; for we all partake of the one bread.

Lev. 2:4 And when you present an offering of a meal offering baked in the oven, it shall be of fine flour, unleavened cakes mingled with oil or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.

1 Cor. 12:24 But our comely members have no need. But God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked.

Needing the Blending to Bring into the Reality of the Body of Christ

My burden in this message concerns the need of the blending. Even among us who are in the recovery, not many have the realization that we need the blending, and we need it desperately. The heavy burden in the ministry that is on my heart and in my spirit is the matter of blending. I receive letters from abroad quite often telling me of the situation in different places around the globe. As I look at the whole situation of the recovery, seemingly it is quite encouraging. Apparently, the churches are going on well and are flourishing, increasing, and growing. But the more I know this and the more I feel encouraged, the deeper I am burdened. It seems that the Lord within me is saying, “Is this all that I want? Do you believe that My Body can be built up in the common situation that is among us today? Is the present situation satisfactory for Me to go on?” I feel deeply that it is not.

In approximately 1980 I began to see the truth of God’s economy. To open up the entire Bible from the first page to the last is needed, but what is the central matter in the Holy Bible? This central matter is the economy of God. The economy of God is for the Body of Christ. After seeing this, I checked with myself, “Where is the Body of Christ? You have opened the Bible book by book to the saints, and there are more than sixteen hundred local churches raised up on this earth, but where is the Body? You have the churches, but where can you see the Body?” Because of this, I became burdened. I said, “Lord, I must confess to You and admit that although I saw the Body of Christ and I preached and taught the Body of Christ for years, even I myself am not very much in the reality of the Body of Christ.” I was confessing my dullness and shortcomings to the Lord concerning this matter. Thus, the present burden has come to me. You should not pay so much attention to the spreading of the recovery, to the increase of the churches, and to the good meetings of the churches. You must realize that there is a great lack, a shortage, that is, the reality of the Body of Christ. It is for this reason that there is a need for the blending.

The Thought of Blending in the Bible

The thought of blending is very strong in the Bible. In the Old Testament, there is a type of the blending for the fulfillment of God’s economy. However, if we read the Old Testament only in letters, we will not be able to see it. This type of the blending was strongly referred to by the apostle Paul. In 1 Corinthians 10:17 Paul said, “Seeing that there is one bread, we who are many are one Body; for we all partake of the one bread.” Paul’s thought of the church being one bread was not his own invention; rather, it was taken from the Old Testament. The meal offering in Leviticus 2:4 consisted of cakes made of fine flour mingled with oil. Every part of the flour was mixed, or mingled, with the oil. That is blending. Paul tells us that the church is a bread, a cake, made of fine flour. This fine flour comes from wheat grains, and the wheat grains come from the one grain of wheat, which is Christ. John 12:24 says that Christ is the one grain of wheat who fell into the earth and died and grew up in resurrection to produce many grains, which are we, His believers. We are the many grains so that we may be ground into fine flour for making the cake, the bread, of the church. Here we can see the thought of blending in the Bible.

Later in 1 Corinthians, in 12:24, Paul wrote, “But God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked.” This verse says clearly that God has blended all the believers together. But where is the blending in the recovery? We may think that the coordination in the church is the reality of the blending. However, I must tell you that even the coordination in the church is not the reality of the Body of Christ.

The Body of Christ Being Absolutely in the Resurrection Life of Christ

A great part of the believers in the local churches are still in the natural man, but to be in the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to be absolutely in the resurrection life of Christ. We do have some good coordination in the local churches. However, I would ask, “Is this kind of coordination carried out by the natural life or in resurrection?” To be in resurrection means that our natural life is crucified, and then the God-created part of our being is uplifted in resurrection to be one with Christ in resurrection. In Philippians 3:10 Paul said that we all need to be conformed to the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection. We all need to ask ourselves whether the coordination among us is by the power of Christ’s resurrection or merely by our natural man.

I do not believe that everything I have done in the past thirty-two years in the United States has been in resurrection. I do not deny, and I cannot deny, that as I was carrying out the Lord’s ministry, especially the ministry of life to establish the churches, some part was in resurrection; but not every part. Anything that is carried out even scripturally but in the natural life is not the reality of the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is absolutely something in the resurrection life of Christ.

Needing to Endeavor to Be Absolutely in the Resurrection Life of Christ

It is common today that in the local churches what we can see is mostly the “church” in its meetings, activities, works, and services. But we cannot see much of the reality of the Body of Christ in resurrection, that is, in the Spirit, in the pneumatic Christ, and in the consummated God. So there is the need for us to endeavor to be absolutely in the resurrection life of Christ. We need to endeavor to reach in the church life the highest peak, today’s Zion, of the reality of the Body of Christ until we consummate in the New Jerusalem, including Zion. Dear saints, this is our need. To have the blending is to meet this need. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” ch. 2)

Questions:

1. The thought of blending is very strong in the Bible. Please find out the verses concerning blending in the Bible and share one another.
Is our coordination in the church the reality of the blending? If not, how can we be in the reality of the Body of Christ?
What is our need today in the church life? How can we meet this need?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Forty-four
The Local Church Being the Procedure, the Body of Christ Being the Goal

Hymns, #1226

Scripture Reading:

Eph. 4:16 Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.

The Local Churches Being the Procedure
to Bring Us into the Body of Christ

The local churches are not the goal, but the procedure God takes to reach the goal of His economy. We should not forget that the local churches are not God’s goal. Many of those who have been brought into the recovery love the local church to the uttermost, and they stress the local church very much. However, we should not think that when we enter into the local church life we reach the goal of God’s eternal economy. No, we are still far away from God’s goal. Since the time of Brother Nee the local churches have become a very precious item in our Christian life. Some of the saints may be disappointed when they hear that the local churches are not God’s goal. Nevertheless, if we are just in the local churches and do not go on, we are far off from God’s goal.

According to Ephesians 1:22-23, the goal of God’s economy is the church, which is Christ’s Body. I treasure the local churches, as you do. But I treasure the local churches because of a purpose. The local churches are the procedure to bring me into the Body of Christ. The churches are the Body, but the churches may not have the reality of the Body of Christ. Thus, we need to be in the local churches so that we can be ushered, or brought, into the reality of the Body of Christ. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” ch. 1)

Paying Much More Attention to the Body of Christ
Than to the Local Churches

In the whole book of Revelation, the Lord showed us that the overcomers are not of different groups. The overcomers always are one unique group. The dead overcomers are signified by the man-child in Revelation 12, and the living overcomers are signified by the firstfruits, the 144,000 standing on Mt. Zion, in Revelation 14. These are not different groups of overcomers but one unique group.

Not only so, eventually, the book of Revelation does have a consummation. In this consummation all the seven lampstands disappear. In the first chapter we see the seven lampstands. But in the last two chapters we see only one city. Eventually, the local churches will be over. Only the Body will remain and remain forever, and this Body of Christ is the unique tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on this earth, the unique Bride of the Lamb (Rev. 21:2-3). We all have to see this.

Therefore, we must pay much more attention to the Body of Christ than to the local churches. This does not mean that I annul the teaching of the local churches. We still need it. As a person we have a physical frame. That is our body. But a body by itself is a carcass. A physical body needs an inner life. Today the church is the same. On the one hand, it does have a frame, a body, but this frame is not the nature, the essence, or the element of the church. Ephesians 4 tells us the church is the Body, and within this church is the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father (vv. 4-6). The Father is the source, the Lord is the element, and the Spirit is the essence of the Body. These four entities are built together.

The Body of Christ is composed first of the redeemed ones who were born by the Spirit to be the children of the Father. They are the God-men, and they are the very Body of Christ, the framework. Built within them are the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father. All three of the Divine Trinity have been built into the redeemed, regenerated believers. So there is such a building, such a structure, constituted with humanity and divinity in the Divine Trinity. Man, the Spirit, the Lord, and the Father are built together. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” ch. 3)

A Body Being Not an Organization but an Organism

What God is after today is not a congregation. What He is after is a Body. A congregation is an organization, but a body is not an organization. Rather, it is an organism. The members in a human body do not come about by organization. Rather, they come about organically. In the same way, the church of God does not come about through organization. Rather, it comes about organically. Today’s Christianity emphasizes the congregation. As such it is surely an organization. As long as a learned and eloquent speaker comes and speaks persuasively, the congregation is kept together. Once the able speaker is gone, the congregation cannot remain. This is a congregation, an organization. What God is after is not a congregation; He is after a Body. Hence, Ephesians 1:20-23 says that Christ resurrected from the dead and transmitted all the riches of ascension to those who believe in Him. Those who believe in Him are the church, the Body of Christ.

We Needing to Have the Gospel Preaching, Nourishing,
Home and Group Meetings, and the prophecy in the Meetings
as Moves of the Body to Produce the Body of Christ

This Body must have new ones. We hope that there will be more and more new ones added to the church. By this the meetings will be higher and richer. To achieve this, every member has to function. Everyone has to go out to preach the gospel. After people are baptized, everyone has to nourish. Do not be afraid that your legs will be tired of going to the home meetings. Every one of us should go out to establish the new ones and bring them to the small group meetings. After this we should bring them to the Lord’s Day morning meetings so that they would be cared for and perfected. After half a year, those who are under your care will be able to do the same thing that you do. By then you can divide the small group and renew the cycle all over again. Go out again to knock on doors and bring people to salvation. Set up more home meetings and group meetings. By going on continuously in this way, the church will have the increase and spread.

The new way is not just a method; it is a matter of nature. The nature of the new way is to bring God into man to be mingled with man that man may become the Body of Christ. To arrive at this point we must gain the new ones, feeding them and leading them to prophesy. Outwardly speaking, all these are methods. But these methods match the inward nature of the new way. Today whether it is preaching the gospel, nourishing others, attending home and group meetings, or prophesying in the meetings, all are moves of the Body. In the end the Body of Christ is produced and God’s New Testament economy will be accomplished. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 2, “The New Testament Priests of the Gospel,” ch. 2)

Questions:

1. We should treasure the local churches only because of a purpose. What is the purpose?
A body by itself is a carcass. A physical body needs an inner life. Today the church is the same. What is the source, the element, and the essence of the church, the Body of Christ?
The nature of the new way is to bring God into man to be mingled with man that man may become the Body of Christ. What must we do to arrive at this point?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Forty-five
The Need of the Spreading of the Divine Truths
for the Lord’s Recovery and Restoration

Hymns, #922

Scripture Reading:

Rom. 10:14b-15 And how shall they hear without one who proclaims Him? And how shall they proclaim Him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who announce the news of good things!”

Isa. 11:9 They will not harm nor destroy In all My holy mountain, For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Jehovah, As water covers the sea.

The Need of the Spreading of the Divine Truths,
the New Testament Economy of God, Which Is the Gospel,
for the Lord’s Recovery and Restoration

We want to see the need of the spreading of the divine truths for the Lord’s recovery and restoration. I hope that our hearts would be touched through this fellowship. Some Christians may refer to the need of the spreading of the gospel, but in this chapter I want to stress the divine truths. The Bible unveils to us not only the gospel in a narrow sense but also the entire divine revelation. Actually, the gospel includes all the divine truths. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are called the four Gospels. They cover many things which are altogether neglected and missed in today’s Christianity. When I say “the divine truths,” I am referring to the New Testament economy of God, which is the gospel.

The Gospel Actually Including the Entire Bible

Paul called his entire sixteen-chapter Epistle to the Romans “the gospel of God” (1:1). The gospel of God in Romans does not include merely the truth concerning justification by faith in the first four chapters. It also includes the Body of Christ in chapter twelve and the local churches in chapter sixteen. Even the local churches are included in the gospel. Without the church, where is the gospel? According to my experience, the gospel would be very deficient and poor without the church. Actually, the entire New Testament is the gospel, from the first page of Matthew through the last page of Revelation. The New Testament as the gospel is typified by the Old Testament. Thus, we may say that the gospel actually includes the entire Bible.

His Speaking in His Servants Being God’s Gospel,
Which Includes All the Divine Truths

God has spoken in the Bible, and He is still speaking today. The Bible is a record of God’s speaking in the past, but God has not stopped speaking. He is still speaking today in His Son (Heb. 1:2), and His Son is speaking in His servants, the members of His Body (cf. 2 Cor. 13:3). His speaking in His servants is God’s gospel, which includes all the divine truths.

God does everything by speaking. Genesis 1 shows that God’s speaking was His work. God said, “Let there be light: and there was light” (v. 3). Speaking is God’s work. In John 5:25 the Lord said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live.” This refers to those who are dead in spirit, according to Ephesians 2:1 and 5 and Colossians 2:13. Hence, to live in this verse means to be alive in spirit. This shows that even salvation is carried out by God’s speaking.

Our preaching comes from God’s speaking. We do not preach our word but His word for Him to speak. When He spoke, the old creation came into being. When He speaks, the new creation, the believers in Christ, comes into being. Hebrews 1:1 says that God has spoken. Furthermore, God is still speaking in every member of the Body of Christ. Every member of the Body is a mouthpiece through whom God can speak. This is why 1 Corinthians 14:31 says that we can all prophesy. The word all in this verse includes the sisters also (1 Cor. 11:5; Acts 2:17-18). As members of the Body of Christ, all of us can speak for the Lord and should speak for the Lord. The Lord’s recovery spreads through those who speak for Him.

The Spreading of the Divine Truths Bringing in the Lord’s Restoration

The spreading of the divine truths will bring in the Lord’s restoration. According to Isaiah 11, the restoration will come because “the earth will be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, / As the waters cover the sea” (v. 9). We have to speak for the Lord to bring in this restoration. How shall people hear without one who spreads the divine truths? How beautiful are the feet of those who spread the interpreted and understood divine truths!

This is why we have to study these truths. We should not go to speak to people in a superficial way. We may be able to speak John 3:16 to people: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” However, if someone asks us what eternal life is, we may not be able to tell them. It is possible to give fifteen messages on John 3:16. The first message can be concerning who God is, the second message can be on love, and the third message can be on the world. Then we can tell people how God gave His Son. God did not drop His Son down from the heavens to the earth. He gave His Son through incarnation. Then another message can be given on the only begotten Son. More can be said about what it means to perish and what it is to have eternal life. Message after message can be given on John 3:16.

We Should Be Burdened to Go and Teach All the Nations

We can borrow Romans 10:14-15 and say, “How shall people hear without one who spreads? How beautiful are the feet of those who announce the news of good things!” If we have a burden to go to Europe, we must spend day and night to study the truths we have published. Then we will know what the Lord’s recovery is, and we will have a real burden to go to Europe to teach people. The Lord charges us in Matthew 28:19 to go and disciple the nations. The Lord’s word here shows us that we should be burdened to go and teach all the nations.

We are not going there to preach to people in the traditional way, but to talk to them about all the divine truths. Through our speaking, some will be solidly saved. May the Lord burden us to learn the divine truths and to spread them everywhere for His recovery and restoration. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 1, “The World Situation and the Direction of the Lord’s Move,” ch. 2)

Questions:

1. We need to spread the divine truths for the Lord’s recovery and restoration. What do the divine truths indicate?
We need to spread the interpreted and understood divine truths. For this, what do we need to do?
According to what the Lord has commanded us in Matthew 28:19, what burden should we have?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Forty-six
The Consummation of the High Peak of the Divine Revelation

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

Rev. 21:2 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

The Center of the High Peaks of the Divine Revelation—
God Becoming a Man So That Man May Become God in Life and Nature
but Not in the Godhead

All the saints should be motivated by the Triune God’s revelations and visions to join with Him for His move to accomplish His New Testament economy on the earth. Today almost all the countries of this world, except the Muslim countries, have been evangelized. Nearly every place is filled with Christians. Since this is the case, what are our revelation and our vision today? Our revelation and vision have been greatly uplifted in the last three years because we have seen the high peaks of God’s revelation. These are mainly concerning God becoming a man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead. This is the center of the high peaks of the divine revelation among us. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Triune God’s Revelation and His Move,” msg. 12)

God Becoming a Man So That Man May Become God in Life and Nature
but Not in the Godhead That He Might Produce a Body for Christ,
the Ultimate Manifestation of Which Is the New Jerusalem

Actually, early in the fourth century Athanasius, at the Nicene Council, said that “He was made man that we might be made God.” At that time he was an unnoticed young theologian. This word of his became a maxim in church history. However, later, gradually people in Christianity not only would not teach this but did not dare to teach this.

God is God, and He Himself has begotten us as His children. Whatever anything is born of, that is what it is. We cannot say that when sheep beget sheep, the old sheep are sheep but the little sheep are not sheep. Since God has begotten us, we are the children of God. Furthermore, 1 John 3 says that God will work on us to such an extent that we will be like Him completely (v. 2). From the day God created man, this has been the purpose of God. Hence, what He created was man, yet He created man with the image of God. Adam was created with God’s image and likeness. Then God set man before the tree of life, meaning that He wanted man, who had God’s image, to receive God as his life. As a result, if a man who has received God as his life is not God, then what is he? But the Lord also shows us clearly that we are God in life and nature. A father begets a son, and this son surely is the same as the father in life and nature. Suppose the father is an emperor. We cannot say that all his children are emperors. The children have only their father’s life and nature but not his status; this is clear. God did this that He might produce a Body for Christ, that is, that He might produce an organism for the Triune God, the ultimate manifestation of which is the New Jerusalem. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ,” ch. 1)

The New Jerusalem Being the Ultimate Consummation of the Bible

The New Jerusalem, the ultimate consummation of the Bible, involves God becoming man and man becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead (Rev. 21:2; 3:12). In Christ, God has become man to make man God in His life and in His nature so that the redeeming God and the redeemed man can be mingled, constituted, together to be one entity—the New Jerusalem (21:3, 22). Eventually, the triune, eternal God becomes the New Jerusalem incorporated with all of us, and we also become the New Jerusalem through the process of God’s organic salvation (Rom. 5:10). The ultimate consummation of God’s organic salvation is the New Jerusalem—the universal incorporation of the union and mingling of God with man, divinity with humanity—the processed and consummated Triune God incorporated with His regenerated, renewed, sanctified, transformed, conformed, and glorified tripartite elect.

The issue of the Bible’s teaching is just one entity, the New Jerusalem, as the aggregate of all the God-men (Rev. 21:7; Heb. 2:10-11; 12:22). God’s New Testament economy is to make the believers God-men for the constitution of the Body of Christ so that the New Jerusalem may be consummated as the eternal enlargement and expression of the processed and consummated Triune God (Gal. 3:26; 4:7, 26, 31). The New Jerusalem is the God-men who have been transformed, glorified, and mingled with the processed and consummated Triune God (John 17:22-23a; Eph. 4:4-6).

The New Jerusalem is a composition of divinity and humanity mingled, blended, and built up together as one entity (John 14:20, 23; Rev. 21:2-3, 9-23). All the components have the same life, nature, and constitution and thus are a corporate person. God and man, man and God, are built up together by being blended and mingled together (John 14:20, 23; 15:4a; 1 Cor. 6:17). This is a matter of God becoming man and man becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 428)

We Must Learn to Speak These High Truths concerning God’s Economy

Since the Lord has released these high peaks of His truths, we have to learn the new language to speak them. Paul and the co-workers around him were different because of what they ministered. Today in the recovery all the co-workers must be different. They must learn to speak these high truths concerning God’s economy—that God became a man that man may become God, with the New Jerusalem as the ultimate consummation. This is a great miracle and a deep mystery.

From now on we must consider that our work is a building work by the growth of the saints in the divine life. The divine life is the Divine Trinity, who is the structure, the furnishings, and the supply of the holy city. As we grow in the divine life and minister the Triune God to others for their growth in the divine life, we are building up the Body of Christ, which will consummate the New Jerusalem. We need to experience and speak these things. The more we speak, the more we will have to speak. The more we speak, the more we will be nourished and satisfied. From now on the co-workers and the elders must know how to speak these things. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Application of the Interpretation of the New Jerusalem to the Seeking Believers,” msg. 5)

Questions:

1. All the saints should be motivated by the Triune God’s revelations and visions. What is the center of the high peaks of the divine revelation among us?
God became a man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead. For what purpose did He do this?
We have known the high truths concerning God’s economy—that God became a man that man may become God, with the New Jerusalem as the ultimate consummation. What should we do?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Forty-seven
The New Jerusalem—Its Significance and Its Base

Hymns, #978

Scripture Reading:

Rev. 21:2 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

18 And the building work of its wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.

The Significance of the New Jerusalem

The New Jerusalem Being the Greatest and the Ultimate Sign
in the Scriptures

In this first message, we want to see and enter into the application of the significance and the base of the New Jerusalem.

Revelation 1:1 says that the Lord Jesus sent His angel to John to make His revelation known by signs, so the New Jerusalem is the greatest and the ultimate sign in the Scriptures (21:2, 9-10). A sign is a symbol with spiritual significance.

Signifying an Organic Constitution of the Processed Triune God
Mingled with His Regenerated, Transformed, and Glorified Tripartite Elect

The New Jerusalem is a city, but this city is not literally physical. It is a sign, a figure, signifying an organic constitution. It is not something organized, but something constituted organically. The holy city is a constitution in life of the processed Triune God mingled with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite elect. It is an organic constitution of two parties: God and man. The first party is divine. The second party is human.

The Base of the New Jerusalem

Pure Gold

The base of the New Jerusalem is pure gold, signifying the divine nature of God as the base for its building (21:18b). The New Jerusalem is a golden mountain. Because we are the constituents of this New Jerusalem, we must be gold. We were made of dust, but when we received Christ as our life, we were regenerated into gold. In regeneration we received the divine life, the golden life. In the old creation, represented by Adam, we were dusty men, but when we were regenerated, we became golden men.

The Solid Foundation of Its Throne for the Divine Administration

The base of the New Jerusalem is the solid foundation of the divine throne for the divine administration (22:1b). The river of water of life, signifying the Spirit, proceeds from this administration in the middle of the New Jerusalem’s street as the supply to the entire city (v. 1a). In the river grows the tree of life, signifying Christ, as the main supply to the entire city through the river (v. 2). The divine and human communication, signified by the street, proceeds from this glorious center to reach all twelve gates of the city, in order to bring the entire city into the submission to the one divine administration and to blend the entire city into the oneness of the one divinity-mingled-with-humanity communication, fellowship (21:21b).

The Gospel Bringing Us Back to God as Our Throne,
to God as Our Administration

In applying this I would like to ask, “Before you were saved, who was your ruler? What was your administration?” You yourself tried to be your own ruler and you were a mess. Actually, you had no ruler or administration. One day you heard the gospel, which said, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (Matt. 3:2). You needed to repent to come under the ruling of God’s kingdom. Before that time you were a person with no ruler and no administration. But you repented to the divine Ruler and came under His administration. Through the gospel God came to be your kingdom. He is the King on the throne. Connected to His throne is a street on which you should walk, and that street is His administration. From the day you repented, you have felt that there is a throne and a golden street, a golden administration, within you. Then you began to do things according to the gold, according to the nature of God. This is because both the throne and the street are built on the gold as the nature of God.

When the brothers are buying a tie, they should buy it according to the divine nature within them. Today the shallow gospel never touches this matter. But in the high peak of the gospel we have to see this. The gospel brings us back to God as our throne, to God as our administration. We have to live a life in which we do everything according to God’s nature. Ephesians 4 says that we should let no corrupt word proceed out of our mouth (v. 29). This is because we are children of God. When we speak anything, we need to remember that we are God’s children; we are golden. To speak corrupt things does not match our golden nature. Our nature today is no longer just dusty but golden. If we take this word, it will change our life. We will be adjusted and regulated by the golden nature of God in all that we do. The sisters would not spend so much time to style their hair. That is not according to the golden throne, the golden administration.

As we enter into the experience and application of the divine nature of God, we make ourselves genuine parts of the New Jerusalem. Eventually, we become golden in everything.

We All Having to Learn the High and New Language
to Speak Forth the Revelation of the New Jerusalem
as the Greatest and Ultimate Sign in the Scriptures

This is the application of the interpretation of the golden base of the New Jerusalem to the seeking believers. Because God has released the high peak of the divine revelation to us, we all have to learn the high and new language to speak forth the revelation of the New Jerusalem as the greatest and ultimate sign in the Scriptures. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Application of the Interpretation of the New Jerusalem to the Seeking Believers,” msg. 1)

Questions:

1. Is the New Jerusalem just a physical city? If not, how should we understand the New Jerusalem?
If we see that our nature is no longer just dusty but golden, what will it change?
Do we experience God as our administration? Please share your experience.

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Forty-eight
The New Jerusalem—Its Gates, Its Wall, and Its Foundations

Hymns, #978

Scripture Reading:

Rev. 21:21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was, respectively, of one pearl…

18-19 And the building work of its wall was jasper; …The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every precious stone…

Its Twelve Gates Being Twelve Big Pearls

Now we come to the second application of the New Jerusalem, which is altogether related to the gates. Its gates are pearls (Rev. 21:21a). As we have seen, the entire New Jerusalem is a great sign. Its twelve gates are twelve big pearls. It is impossible for natural pearls to be so big that they can be the gates of the city. The pearl in the city is not a natural pearl but is used by God as a sign.

Pearls Signifying the Issue of Christ’s Secretion in Two Aspects

When an oyster is wounded by a grain of sand, it secretes its life-juice around the grain of sand and makes it into a precious pearl. Pearls signify the issue of Christ’s secretion in two aspects: His redeeming and life-releasing death and His life-dispensing resurrection. Without God’s revelation we can never realize that the death of Christ secretes, dispenses, to produce the gates of the city. The twelve gates are the issue of Christ’s secretion also in His life-dispensing resurrection. He resurrected to be the life-giving Spirit to dispense the divine life into the believers (1 Cor. 15:45b). This is a kind of secretion issuing in a big pearl to be the gates of the city. Both Christ’s death and resurrection have an issue, a secretion.

Requiring the Seeking Believers’ Daily Experience
of the Death of Christ and the Resurrection of Christ

Both kinds of secretion (dispensing) require the seeking believers’ daily experience of the death of Christ subjectively by the power of Christ’s resurrection that they may be conformed to the death of Christ (Phil. 3:10). We have to put not just Christ’s death itself but the secretion of His death into our daily experience subjectively. We may know that we have been crucified with Christ, but we need to experience this. When a couple is quarreling, is that the talk of ones who are being crucified? When a brother talks to his wife, he has to consider that he is a crucified person.

The chorus of hymn #631 says, “If no death, no life.” This life comes to us not by our natural life but by the power of Christ’s resurrection. Yes, we have been crucified, but how can we keep ourselves on the cross all the time? No human being can do it except those who know the power of the resurrection of Christ; they have the capacity, the ability, to practice this. By the power of the resurrection of Christ, we have the ability and the power to keep our pitiful self on the cross. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Application of the Interpretation of the New Jerusalem to the Seeking Believers,” msg. 2)

Its Wall and Its Foundations Being Precious Stones

Revelation 21 shows that the wall of the city and its foundations are precious stones (vv. 18a, 19-20).

We Being Transformed into Precious Stones by Our Growth
in the Divine Life in Christ as the Living Stone

We, the believers in Christ, were created by God with dust (Gen. 2:7). Through our regeneration by the Spirit we became stones (John 1:42). When Peter came to the Lord, the Lord told him he was a stone. He was no longer dust. By our growth in the divine life in Christ as the living stone (1 Pet. 2:4), we are transformed into precious stones (1 Cor. 3:12a).

Being Built up Together to Be One Complete Wall with Its Foundations
by Our Being Transformed into Precious Stones

This transformation takes place by the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). With Christ there is His death and resurrection. With the Spirit there is transformation. God is triune and His intention is to work Himself into us as the gold to be the base. In other words, He works Himself into us to make us divine, golden. But how can God work Himself into us? He does this by Christ’s redemption and resurrection and also by the Spirit’s transformation. The Father’s golden nature is the base. The Son’s redemption and resurrection are the steps to work the Triune God into us. Christ died on the cross with the intention of working the Father into His believers as the golden base. Then in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit to carry out the work of transformation.

While the transformation work of the Spirit is going on in the divine life, we, the transformed precious stones, are being built up together to be one complete wall with its foundations. We are built up together through the work of transformation. Transformation is the proper way to build up the Body of Christ. If we do not see this, how can we build up the Body of Christ? Many speak of the Body of Christ, but where is the practicality of the Body? How can the Body of Christ be built up? It can be built up only by our being transformed into precious stones. While the transformation work is going on, we, the precious stones, are being built up together.

Applying All the Bible Teachings to Our Mind
in Order to Experience the Transformation of God by the Spirit

In order to experience the transformation of God by the Spirit, we have to apply all the Bible teachings to our mind. We have to let our mind be renewed so that it can eventually be occupied by the Spirit. Ephesians 4:23 says that we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. Through the spirit spreading into our mind, we are renewed for our transformation.

Also, our mind should continually be set upon the Spirit (Rom. 8:6), and the Spirit today is Jesus Christ. Our mind should be set on Him. Then our mind will be life and peace. If our mind remains in its oldness, always set upon the flesh, that is death. Our natural person, composed of the mind, emotion, and will, needs to be renewed. Day by day, we should live a life not according to our natural concept, but according to our renewed mind. Our mind is renewed by the word of God. Only the word of God can renew our mind. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Application of the Interpretation of the New Jerusalem to the Seeking Believers,” msg. 3)

Questions:

1. The twelve gates of the New Jerusalem are twelve big pearls. How does the pearl come into being?
The wall of the city and its foundations are precious stones. How do the precious stones come into being?
Our transformation takes place by the Spirit. How can we do to experience the transformation of God by the Spirit?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Forty-nine
The New Jerusalem—Its Furnishings and Its Supply

Hymns, #976

Scripture Reading:

Rev. 21:22-23 And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon that they should shine in it, for the glory of God illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

22:1 And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street.

The Three Furnishings of the New Jerusalem
Being the Throne, the Temple, and the Lamp

In this message we want to see the furnishings of the New Jerusalem. If a building is completed, yet it is without furnishings, it still cannot be used. The divine building is structured with three basic parts plus furnished with three furnishings. The three furnishings of the New Jerusalem are the throne, the temple, and the lamp.

The first furnishing is the throne of the redeeming God (Rev. 22:1). Today there are kings and queens on many thrones, but the day will come when in the entire universe there will be a central city, and the center of that central city will be the throne of God. The Possessor of that throne will be the redeeming God, God and the Lamb. For eternity we cannot forget that He is not only our God but also our Redeemer. He has redeemed us back to Himself, and now we are centered around His throne.

Revelation 21:22 says, “And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” We need to consider why the temple is considered a furnishing of the holy city and not part of the structure itself. The structure itself is called the tabernacle of God (v. 3). The writer of Revelation tells us that he did not see the temple. Because he was used to the temple, he was looking for it, but he saw no temple. Instead, he saw that the temple was the redeeming God. Thus, the redeeming God is not only the basic factor for the structure of the New Jerusalem but also the very central furnishing. We human beings created by God need a temple. Our temple is the redeeming God as a part of the furnishings of the New Jerusalem.

We cannot live in darkness. We can live only in the light. The New Jerusalem will have a particular kind of light—the redeeming and shining God (Rev. 21:23). The redeeming God shines as the shining God. The illuminating glory of God is the light within Christ, and the redeeming Christ is the lamp containing the light. God is always contained in Christ. Christ is the unique container of God. God’s glory is the light of the city, and God is contained by Christ as the content, shining out through Christ.

The Application of the Furnishings

Now let us consider how to apply these furnishings. First, we have to apply the throne of God with its administration to our daily life. Dear saints, every morning you have to apply this. You should remember: “I am a God-man under the throne of God and in the administration of God. I cannot be free. I am fully ruled, governed, by the Lord.”

Also, you have to remember that you are a member of the royal family. You are one of many kings of the kingly family. If you consider that you are a king, you would not act lightly, talk loosely, or behave meanly.

We also have God in Christ as our light. In the church life, we do not need our understanding by our natural ability or our school-taught knowledge. Instead, we have our God shining within us through His word. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Application of the Interpretation of the New Jerusalem to the Seeking Believers,” msg. 4)

The Supply of the Holy City
Being the Processed and Consummated Triune God

The supply of the holy city is the processed and consummated Triune God (Rev. 22:1-2). The Triune God has been consummated into one life-giving Spirit, and this Spirit is the flow signified by the river of water of life. The supply of the city is the Father as the source, the Spirit as the flow, and Christ as the content, typified by the tree of life.

The tree of life is for our nourishment, and the river of water of life is for our beverage. The supply Christ affords is for our nourishment and the water the Spirit brings to us is for our supply to satisfy us and quench our thirst. But to nourish and to satisfy are not the final goal. Christ nourishes us and the Spirit quenches our thirst for our growth in the divine life, and the growth of the divine life is for the building up of the city as the organic constitution of the processed Triune God mingled with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite elect. Christ’s nourishment and the Spirit’s beverage are for us to grow, and the growth by these two supplies is for the building up of the New Jerusalem. Even today the New Jerusalem is still under construction. If we look at today’s outward situation, we can see the lack of the building up of the Body of Christ which consummates the New Jerusalem. This is why the Lord has charged me to release the high peaks of His divine revelation.

We Needing to Experience and Speak These Things

The New Jerusalem is constructed with the Triune God as the main factors. It is furnished with the Triune God as the throne, as the temple (the palace), and as the lamp. Also, New Jerusalem is a city supplied by the Triune God—the Father as the source and the base, the Spirit as the flow, the river, and the Son as the main supply to nourish the entire city. Through this nourishment and divine beverage we members of the new city grow in the divine life and are built together.

Questions:

1. The New Jerusalem is structured with three basic parts plus furnished with three furnishings. What are the three furnishings of the New Jerusalem?
How can we apply the three furnishings of the New Jerusalem in our experience?
If we see that today the New Jerusalem is still under construction, what should we do?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Fifty
The New Jerusalem—an Eternal Couple

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

Rev. 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let him who hears say, Come! And let him who is thirsty come; let him who wills take the water of life freely.

21:2 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

The Subject of the Bible Being a Divine Romance of a Universal Couple

The subject of the Bible is a divine romance of a universal couple; the male is God Himself, and the female is God’s chosen and redeemed people (Gen. 2:21-24; Isa. 54:5; Jer. 2:2; 3:14; 31:32; Ezek. 23:5; Hosea 2:7, 19; Matt. 9:15; John 3:29). In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, God likens His chosen people to a spouse (Isa. 54:6; Jer. 3:1; Ezek. 16:8; Hosea 2:19; 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:31-32) and a dwelling place for Himself (Exo. 29:45-46; Num. 5:3; Ezek. 43:7, 9; Psa. 68:18; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Tim. 3:15). The spouse is for His satisfaction in love. As the bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem comes out of Christ, her Husband, and becomes His counterpart, just as Eve came out of Adam, her husband, and became his counterpart (Gen. 2:21-24). She is prepared by participating in the riches of the life and nature of Christ.

In Its Humanity and in Its Divinity,
the New Jerusalem Being a Couple, a Wife and a Husband

According to its humanity, the New Jerusalem is the human wife (with the divine life and nature) of the Lamb—the redeeming God (21:2, 9). This human wife can marry a divine Person because she has the divine life and nature. This qualifies her to match the redeeming God. On the one hand, she is human. On the other hand, she is divine. Because she is human, she can be the redeeming God’s human wife. Because she is divine, she can marry Him, a divine Person.

According to its divinity, the New Jerusalem is the divine Husband (the redeeming God in His consummated embodiment, Christ, with the human life and nature) of God’s redeemed elect. The wife is human, and the Husband is divine. A human wife can marry a divine person because she has the divine person’s nature and life.

The same entity can be both a husband and a wife because the New Jerusalem is divine. The divine God is a part of its constituent. Therefore, on the one hand, it is a wife; on the other hand, it is a husband. The New Jerusalem is the wife according to its humanity and the Husband according to its divinity. But as the divine Husband, the New Jerusalem has the human life and nature. In its humanity and in its divinity it is a couple, a wife and a husband.

The New Jerusalem as the Bride of Christ Needing to Be
Not Only Consummated but Also Adorned with Pure Gold,
Pearl, and Precious Stones

Revelation 22:17 indicates that Christ and the New Jerusalem as His wife will be a universal couple for eternity. The Spirit, who is the totality of the processed and consummated Triune God, becomes one with the believers, who are now fully matured to be the bride (21:2, 9-10). The consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God and the consummation of His regenerated, transformed, and glorified people will be a universal couple expressing the Triune God for eternity (vv. 11, 23).

Revelation 21:2 says, “I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Christ is a person, and He will marry the New Jerusalem. It is impossible for Christ to marry a physical city as His wife. This is a strong proof that the New Jerusalem is not a physical city. Here, to be adorned is to make oneself pretty. This term can be applied only to females. Only females need adornment. The New Jerusalem as the bride of Christ needs to be not only consummated but also adorned (v. 19). Today we need to adorn and consummate the New Jerusalem with God the Father as its golden base, God the Son as its pearl gates, and God the Spirit as its wall of precious stones. The New Jerusalem is adorned with pure gold, pearl, and precious stones, that is, with the Triune God as the elements. This is the consummated Divine Trinity constituting Himself into our being to make us gold, pearl, and precious stones so that He may have an enlargement for His eternal expression, the New Jerusalem.

Similarly, Song of Songs 1:10-11 reveals that Christ’s lover is transformed with the Triune God’s attributes by the remaking Spirit in coordination with the lover’s companions, the gifted members in the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-12). The seeker’s hair being bound into plaits of gold indicates her submission to God through the transformation of the Spirit with God the Father in His divine nature. The plaits of gold are fastened with studs of silver, signifying Christ the Son in His all-inclusive judicial redemption. The strings of jewels on the seeker’s neck signify God the Spirit in His transforming work to become her obedience to God’s will. Perfecting others with gold, silver, and precious stones in Song of Songs 1:10-11 corresponds to building the church with gold, silver, and precious stones in 1 Corinthians 3:10-12. Eventually, what is built at the end of the Bible will be a city of gold, precious stones, and pearls to replace silver.

We Needing to Learn to Build with Gold, Silver, and Precious Stones

The entire Bible speaks the same thing concerning God’s economy to produce the church as the Body of Christ, consummating in the New Jerusalem. If we want what we do to be in the New Jerusalem, we need to learn how to add gold into the plaits of hair, how to make silver studs to hold the plaits of hair, and how to make strings of jewels, precious stones, to cover the naked neck. In other words, we need to learn to build with gold, silver, and precious stones. We must learn to minister the Triune God in a practical way to others for their transformation. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 428)

Questions:

1. How to understand that the New Jerusalem is the human wife of the Lamb—the redeeming God, and is the divine Husband of God’s redeemed elect?
The New Jerusalem as the bride of Christ needs to be not only consummated but also adorned. What materials is it adorned with?
The entire Bible speaks the same thing concerning God’s economy to produce the church as the Body of Christ, consummating in the New Jerusalem. What do we need to do if we see this?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Fifty-one
The New Jerusalem—
Divinity and Humanity Being Mutual Dwelling Place

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

Rev. 21:3 And I heard a loud voice out of the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His peoples, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.

22 And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

In Eternity Future the New Jerusalem Being the Tabernacle
for God’s Dwelling and the Temple for Our Dwelling

John 14:23 says that the Father and the Son will come to the one who loves the Son and make an abode, a dwelling place, with him. This dwelling place will be a mutual abode for the Father with the Son and the Son’s lover. This mutual abode will be enlarged in eternity to be the New Jerusalem where God will be our dwelling place, and we will be His dwelling place.

The New Jerusalem as the tabernacle to God and the temple to us indicates a marvelous mingling. God dwells in us, and we dwell in Him—a mutual indwelling. In eternity future the New Jerusalem will be the tabernacle for God’s dwelling and the temple for our dwelling.

The New Jerusalem has two natures, humanity and divinity. According to its humanity, the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God among men, the dwelling place of God in His humanity among men on the earth (Rev. 21:3). In the Bible the tabernacle is a human dwelling place. Likewise, the New Jerusalem is a human dwelling place because it is constituted with humanity. John 1:14 says that God was incarnated in the flesh to tabernacle among men. He is God, but He has become a man. He partook of humanity as His nature; hence, He dwells in humanity.

According to its divinity, the New Jerusalem is the temple of God as the dwelling place of His redeemed elect (Rev. 21:22). The holy city is the temple of God because it is divine. It is the temple of God, yet it is the dwelling place of His redeemed. Because this is God’s temple, the dweller must be divine. According to its humanity, the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle; God dwells in the tabernacle. God can dwell in a human dwelling place because He has become a man. According to the divinity of the New Jerusalem, it is a temple for God’s dwelling. If we are only human and not divine, we cannot dwell in the temple. As believers in Christ and children of God, we human beings can dwell in a divine temple because, having the divine life and nature through regeneration, we have been made God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. The New Jerusalem is therefore a mutual abode. According to its humanity, it is a human tabernacle, and according to its divinity, it is a divine temple. It is a human dwelling place, but the Dweller is God. God can dwell in a human place because He became a man. In the same way, we human beings can dwell in God’s temple because we have been made God. This is the mutual abiding of God and man.

The Divine God Living in a Human Tabernacle,
and Redeemed Man Living in a Divine Dwelling Place;
This Indicating the Mingling of Divinity with Humanity,
in Which Both Humanity and Divinity Became a Mutual Abode

The tabernacle is built mostly with the humanity of God’s people to be God’s dwelling place, whereas the temple is built mostly of divinity to be the dwelling place of God’s redeemed. This indicates that God takes us as His dwelling place and gives Himself to us to be our dwelling place. The divine God lives in a human tabernacle, and redeemed man lives in a divine dwelling place. This indicates the mingling of divinity with humanity, in which both humanity and divinity became a mutual abode. Concerning God and His redeemed in the New Jerusalem, a new hymn says, “As man yet God they coinhere, / A mutual dwelling place to be.” The New Jerusalem as the tabernacle of God indicates that the redeemed of God are the dwelling place of God, and the redeeming God as the temple indicates that God is the dwelling place for His serving ones.

Today We Abiding in the Lord and Having Him Abide in Us

For eternity the New Jerusalem will be the fulfillment of the Lord’s brief word in John 15:4: “Abide in Me and I in you.” To abide in the Lord means to take Him as our dwelling, our habitation. When we take the Lord as our dwelling, He abides in us. This abiding is mutual, for we abide in the Lord, and He abides in us. There is no need to wait until the coming New Jerusalem to abide in the Lord and to have Him abide in us. We can testify strongly that many times we know that we are truly in the Lord and that He is actually abiding in us. When we abide in Him, we immediately sense that He is abiding in us. If we say, “Lord Jesus, how I thank You that right now I am abiding in You,” we will have the deep sense that He is abiding in us. Wherever we are—at home, at work, or at school—we can say, “O Lord Jesus, I am abiding in You right now,” and something within us will say, “And I am abiding in you.” This is a miniature of the coming New Jerusalem, which will simply be a mutual abiding place for us and for God and the Lamb.

We Must Be Surrounded and Covered by God and Christ
If We Would Serve God and Christ in the Church

The New Jerusalem is a mutual habitation. God dwells in us, and we dwell in God. The church today is a habitation where God may dwell (Eph. 2:22), and God is the home where we may dwell. We have the presence of God and Christ as the temple. We are not simply before God’s presence, but we are in His presence. The presence of God and Christ becomes a dwelling place for us. If we would serve God and Christ in the church, we must be surrounded and covered by God and Christ. This is intensely personal, subjective, and experiential. Here we need to consider that the air is within us and that the air is also outside of us. If the air were not in us, we would soon expire, and if we were not in the air, we could not breathe. Likewise, God and Christ are in us, and we are in God and Christ. We may experience this as a reality in our life. One day, in the new heaven and new earth, we will realize this in the fullest way. We will see how much God and Christ are to us. He dwells in us, and we dwell in Him; hence, we will enjoy His presence to the uttermost. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 430)

Questions:

1. According to the divinity of the New Jerusalem, it is a temple for God to dwell in. Why can we, the believers, can dwell in a divine temple?
The divine God lives in a human tabernacle, and redeemed man lives in a divine dwelling place. What does this indicate?
Today we may abide in the Lord and have Him abide in us. How can we have this practical experience?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

Week Fifty-two
Becoming the New Jerusalem

Hymns, #

Scripture Reading:

Rev. 21:2 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Our Becoming the New Jerusalem
Being Our Entering in the New Jerusalem

The writings of John cover the span from God to the New Jerusalem. Eventually, the triune, eternal God becomes the New Jerusalem incorporated with all of us. We do not enter into the New Jerusalem; we become the New Jerusalem. Our becoming is our entering in. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” msg. 16)

We Becoming the New Jerusalem
through the Process of God’s Organic Salvation

God Regenerating Us That We May Have His Divine Life

In God’s organic salvation, God first regenerates us that we may have His divine life. We have said that regeneration is the center of God’s entire salvation and the commencement of God’s salvation in its organic aspect. Today we see further that regeneration is the base of God’s organic salvation. This base is of two aspects: first, it is the base for us to grow in the divine life; second, it is the base for us to be built up in the divine life. Regeneration is the base both for our growth and for our building up.

God Renewing Us That We May Be Built up in God’s Organic Salvation

God renews us that we may be built up in God’s organic salvation. This is to bring us into the practical experience, since God’s organic salvation is altogether subjective and organic. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Experience of God’s Organic Salvation Equaling Reigning in Christ’s Life,” msg. 1)

God Sanctifying Us That We May Be Established
in God’s Organic Salvation

God sanctifies us that we may have His holy nature; this is the establishing of God’s organic salvation (Rom. 6:19, 22; 15:16; 2 Pet. 1:4).

God Transforming Us That We May Have His Divine Image

God transforms us that we may have His divine image. To have His divine image is to be shaped in God’s organic salvation (Rom. 12:2a; 2 Cor. 3:18). God’s organic salvation is to produce something with a shape, something visible; hence, there is the shaping aspect in God’s salvation. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Experience of God’s Organic Salvation Equaling Reigning in Christ’s Life,” msg. 2)

God Conforming Us That We May Have His Divine Element

In the past when we spoke about conformation, our stress was on the image. This time the Lord has shown us that God’s conforming us is that we may have His divine element. Conformation is related not only to the divine image but also to the divine element. It is not enough merely to have an outward image. What God wants is for us to have His image outwardly and His element inwardly. A person’s picture bears only the image of the person without his element. As those who have been regenerated by God with the divine life, we are not just photographs of God; rather, we are His reproduction. As such, we not only have His image outwardly, but we also have His life and nature with His divine element inwardly. Merely having the image without the element is vain. We must see that with the matter of conformation, the emphasis is not only on the divine image but also on the divine element.

God Glorifying Us That We May Have His Divine Image in Full

God glorifies us that we may have His divine image in full; this is the consummating of God’s organic salvation (Rom. 8:30, 23; Eph. 4:30; Phil. 3:21; Col. 3:4b; 1 Pet. 5:10a; 2 Tim. 2:10; Heb. 2:10). Glorification, the final step in God’s organic salvation, brings the conformed believers into the glory of God. Glorification is accomplished through a gradual process, beginning with regeneration, continuing through renewing, sanctification, transformation, and conformation, and finally arriving at glorification by which we have His divine image in full.

The Consummation of God’s Organic Salvation
Being the New Jerusalem

The consummation of God’s organic salvation is the New Jerusalem—the universal incorporation of the union and mingling of divinity with humanity—the processed and consummated Triune God incorporated with His regenerated, renewed, sanctified, transformed, conformed, and glorified tripartite elect. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Experience of God’s Organic Salvation Equaling Reigning in Christ’s Life,” msg. 3)

We Should Do Only One Work,
Which Is to Make God’s Chosen People Beings in the New Jerusalem

The co-workers must see that we should do only one work, which is to make God’s chosen people regenerated ones, sanctified ones, renewed ones—the new man, transformed ones, conformed ones—those conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God, and glorified ones. All those who will be in the New Jerusalem are this kind of people. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Highest Point: Doing the Work of the New Jerusalem,” The Highest Point: Doing the Work of the New Jerusalem)

Questions:

1. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate consummation of the Bible. How can we become the New Jerusalem?
When we speak about that God would conform us, does it only relate to the divine image? If not, what does it also relate to?
Dear brothers and sisters, today we need to see that we should do only one work. What is this work?

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY (PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)

A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE MESSAGES OF THE MINISTRY
(PART TWO: FIFTY-TWO WEEKS)