GENERAL SUBJECT:

THE VISION OF THE AGE, THE MINISTRY OF THE AGE, AND THE MINISTER OF THE AGE

Message One

The Vision of the Age (1)

The Heavenly Vision and Vanquishing Conversion of the Apostle Paul

Scripture Reading: Acts 9:1-19; 22:6-16; 26:13-19

I. The heavenly vision of Paul’s completing ministry—the vision of God’s eternal economy—mustbe seen by us, and this vision must be renewed in us day by day—1 Tim. 1:3-4; Eph. 3:8-9; Acts26:19; Eph. 1:17; Prov. 29:18a:

A. This vision of the age will keep us living in God’s presence; this vision will uphold us, controlus, and become our divine commission to meet the need of this age—Jer. 1:7-10, 18-19; Isa. 6:1-8; Acts 26:16-19.

B. When we see a vision of God’s economy and have been converted from everything to ChristHimself, He will be the inner operating God to us, energizing us to carry out His plan—Gal.1:15-16; Rom. 15:16; 1 Cor. 15:10; Phil. 2:13; cf. Jer. 1:1, 4-10, 18-19.

C. Eventually, the opposing Saul became, in his victorious ministry of the gospel, Christ’svanquished captive in the triumphal procession celebrating Christ’s victory over all His enemies;the Lord’s perfecting of His chosen vessels in such a way is excellent and marvelous—Acts26:14; 2 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 4:7-12.

II. While Saul of Tarsus was on the way to Damascus, a heavenly vision came to him, and thisvision revolutionized him—Acts 9:1-19; 22:6-16; 26:13-19:

A. After he saw the vision, he became blind, unable to see anything, and impotent, unable to doanything; a blessed blindness comes upon those who are met by the heavenly vision:1. After this blindness comes upon us, there will be the inner anointing and the inner shining,

the inner enlightening; we, who were once God’s enemies, will be brought into the feast ofthe New Testament ministry to be saved in Christ’s life—v. 14; Rom. 5:10; 1 Cor. 5:8; cf. 2Kings 6:18-23.

2. The inner vision will increase more and more and will revolutionize the way that we serve theLord; this vision will control us to do everything by the Spirit, in our spirit, and in the Body,through the Body, and for the Body—Gal. 5:25; Phil. 3:3; Rom. 1:9; 1 Cor. 12:12, 27.

B. For three days Saul did not see anything, and he did not eat or drink anything; all he could dowas pray—Acts 9:9, 11:1. Under the inspiration of the essential Spirit, his only interest was to pray in order to know

the significance of what he had seen and heard—22:14-15.2. It is likely that as Saul was praying, vision after vision and revelation after revelation came to

him concerning Christ as the embodiment of God, the mystery of God, and the church as theBody of Christ, the mystery of Christ—Col. 2:2; Eph. 3:4; 5:32.

3. Each crucial point of Paul’s vision recorded in Acts 9 should not be merely a teaching to usbut a vision that we see on the heavenly “television.”

C. In our reading of Acts 9 we need to see the heavenly vision concerning three items—“Me” (v.4), “Jesus” (v. 5), and the “chosen vessel” (v. 15).

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III. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”—v. 4:

A. This is a corporate “Me,” comprising Jesus the Lord and all His believers; He is the Head, and we are His Body as one person, one new man—Eph. 2:15; Col. 3:10-11.

B. Saul (who is also Paul) began to see that the Lord Jesus and His believers are one great person—the wonderful “Me”; to him this was a unique revelation in the entire universe—Acts 13:9a; Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:12-27; Eph. 3:3-4; 5:32.

C. Paul is the only writer of the New Testament to use the term the Body of Christ; he placed great emphasis on the Body because at the time of his conversion he heard a message concerning the corporate “Me,” a message concerning the Body of Christ—Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:12-27; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:16; 4:4, 16; Col. 2:19.

D. Immediately after Saul was saved, the Lord began to educate him concerning the Body of Christ; those who see that they are members of the Body treasure the Body and honor the other members—Acts 9:6, 17-18, 24-25; 1 Cor. 12:23-24; 16:18.

IV. “Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus, whom you persecute”—Acts 9:5; 26:14:

A. Lord here equals the name Jehovah in Hebrew—Exo. 3:14-15; John 8:58. B. The name Jesus embodies the full message of the gospel; Paul saw that Jesus is Jehovah the

Savior and that as the One who is now in the heavens, He has passed through the process of incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ—Rom. 9:5; Eph. 1:19-23.

C. Paul saw that Jesus is the very God, Jehovah, who has been processed and consummated with the divine and human elements to be the ascended Lord, the Head of the Body, and the life-giving Spirit, the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, to be dispensed into all His members—Rom. 10:12-13; Col. 1:18a; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Acts 16:7; Phil. 1:19.

D. Paul saw that the center of the universe is that Christ is in us and we are in Christ; he saw that God’s plan is both to reveal Christ in us as life so that we may live Christ and to put us into Christ so that we may be conformed to His image and built up with others to be His living Body for His corporate expression—Gal. 1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19; Rom. 8:28-29; 12:1-5; 13:14; Eph. 1:17, 22-23; 3:16-19.

V. “This man is a chosen vessel to Me”—Acts 9:15:

A. God’s intention in saving Saul of Tarsus was to fill him with Himself and thereby make him an outstanding vessel—Col. 1:25; Eph. 3:8-9.

B. Paul’s writings develop the spiritual significance of the word vessel: 1. Paul saw that man is a tripartite vessel to contain and be filled with Christ as life for the

building up of the Body of Christ—Gen. 2:7; 1 Thes. 5:23-24; Rom. 9:21, 23; 2 Cor. 4:6-7; 2 Tim. 2:20-21; cf. 2 Kings 4:1-6; Jer. 48:11.

2. The Body of Christ is God’s great corporate vessel to contain Him and be filled with Him for His expression—Eph. 3:16-19.

C. As God’s chosen vessel, Paul was converted from everything to Christ Himself—converted to call on His name, to suffer on behalf of His name, and to bear His name before both the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel—Acts 9:14-16; 22:16.

VI. The central vision of the apostle Paul’s completing ministry—the vision of the eternal economy of God—is God in us as our contents (“vessel”), Christ as the mystery of God (“Jesus”), and the church as the mystery of Christ (“Me”)—9:4-5, 15:

A. Paul’s preaching in Acts and his writing in his Epistles are a detailed description of the heavenly vision seen by him—26:16; 22:15; Eph. 3:3-6.

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B. The Lord appeared to Paul to appoint him as a minister and a witness both of the things in which Paul had seen Him and of the things in which He would appear to Paul—Acts 26:16; cf. 1:8; 23:11; 20:20, 31.

C. In all the visions that Paul saw, he saw Christ; the things in which we have seen Christ and the things in which He will appear to us are the things that we must minister to others—Gal. 1:15-16; Acts 22:14-15.

VII. The Lord’s recovery today is the recovery of the central vision of Paul’s completing ministry—the vision of the eternal economy of God—1 Tim.. 1:3-4; Job 10:13; Eph. 3:9; Acts 26:13-19; Col. 1:25; Eph. 5:25-27, 32:

A. Paul says that he was commissioned “to complete the word of God”—this means to complete the revelation of God; without Paul’s writings the revelation of God is not complete—Col. 1:25.

B. We must remember that this completion, this central vision of God’s eternal economy, comprises three items: 1. Our God today is in us to be our contents—Eph. 4:6; 3:10; Phil. 2:13; Heb. 13:20-21. 2. The mystery of God is Christ as the embodiment and manifestation of God, making God

so real and enjoyable to us—Col. 2:9; 1 Tim. 3:16; Psa. 19:8; 34:8. 3. The mystery of Christ is that the Triune God through death and in resurrection is mingling

Himself with us, making us the living and functioning members of the organic Body of Christ—Eph. 4:15-16; Col. 2:9; 1 Cor. 12:12.

C. This vision must direct us; it will keep us in the central lane, walking according to the mingled spirit and being in the Body life; this is what the Lord is after.

D. We need some faithful ones to rise up and say, “Lord, here I am; show me the central vision as You did with the apostle Paul.”

VIII. “I [W. L.] told Brother Nee, ‘Even if one day you do not take this way, I will still take this way. I am not taking this way because of you, and I will not leave this way because of you. I have seen that this is the Lord’s way. I have seen the vision’” (The Vision of the Age, p. 50).

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GENERAL SUBJECT:

THE VISION OF THE AGE, THE MINISTRY OF THE AGE, AND THE MINISTER OF THE AGE

Message Two

The Vision of the Age (2)

The Ultimate and Consummate Vision of the Apostle John—

the Vision of the New Jerusalem

Scripture Reading: Rev. 19:7-9; 21:1-2, 9b-11; 22:1-2; John 17:1-2, 6-24

I. In every age there is the vision of that age, and we need to serve God according to the vision of that age; God’s word reveals to us that in every age He gives only one vision to man—Acts 26:19; Eph. 1:17; 3:9:

A. In the building of God there is only “one window”—one revelation and one vision through one ministry—cf. Gen. 6:16; Acts 26:19; Rev. 21:2, 9b-10.

B. The vision that the Lord has given to His recovery is an all-inclusive vision—the all- inheriting vision of the age—Prov. 29:18a; Acts 26:19: 1. Our vision extends all the way from Adam’s vision of the tree of life in the garden of Eden

to the New Jerusalem with the tree of life; the New Jerusalem is the last scene of the vision; after that there is nothing more to be seen—Gen. 2:9; Rev. 21:2, 9b-11; 22:18-19.

2. We are not serving God according to the first few scenes alone; we are serving God according to the last scene, which includes all the previous scenes—Gen. 5:22; 6:9.

3. The goal of all our services, including preaching the gospel and edifying the believers, must be ultimately consummated in the New Jerusalem—Eph. 4:12-13; Rev. 19:7; 21:2.

II. “After my study of the Bible for the past sixty-nine years, what have I seen? I would say that I have seen the New Jerusalem. This is my vision, this is my revelation, and this is my ministry” (Practical Points concerning Blending, pp. 25-26):

A. The New Jerusalem is not a physical city; it is the greatest and the ultimate sign in the Scriptures, signifying an organic constitution of the processed Triune God mingled with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite elect—Rev. 1:1.

B. God’s eternal intention for us to become the New Jerusalem is seen in Genesis 1—2 as the organic blueprint, the architectural plan of the Triune God, and in Revelation 21—22 as the finished product, the organic masterpiece of the Triune God, for the full manifestation of His multifarious wisdom—Gen. 1:26; 2:7-14, 22; Rev. 21:2, 9-11, 18-21; 22:17; Eph. 3:10.

C. What is revealed in these two parts of the divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures is the central line of the divine revelation throughout the entire Holy Scriptures; this central line should be a controlling principle to our interpreting and understanding of the Holy Scriptures.

III. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate answer to the Lord’s prayer in John 17 for the glorification of the Triune God as the oneness of the believers built into the Triune God—vv. 1-2, 11, 21, 23:

A. The New Jerusalem is the Triune God wrought into His redeemed people for His complete expression; through the holy city the Son will be fully expressed in glory, and God will also be glorified in Him for eternity—Rev. 21:9b-11, 23-24.

B. The New Jerusalem is the Triune God mingled with His believers as the ultimate and all-inclusive oneness of the enlarged, universal, divine-human incorporation of the processed and consummated Triune God with the redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite man—vv. 3, 22.

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C. The New Jerusalem will be the complete glorification of the Son in which the Father will be glorified—John 17:1-2; Rev. 4:3; 21:10-11: 1. In the New Jerusalem the life of the Father is flowing, and everyone is built up in the Triune

God, fully separated from the world and sanctified unto the Triune God to live in the Triune God—22:1-2a; 21:10.

2. In the New Jerusalem all are in the glory; that is, they are glorified to be the expression and manifestation of the Triune God—vv. 11, 23; 22:5.

IV. To live out the New Jerusalem, which is to become the New Jerusalem, and to work out the New Jerusalem, which is to build the New Jerusalem, are the highest point and ultimate goal of our living and work—21:2, 10:

A. Our living, conduct, and work must be examined according to the New Jerusalem as the ultimate consummation of God’s habitation—Ezek. 43:10-12.

B. All that we are and do must be measured and tested by God’s house, the church, which is fully manifested as the New Jerusalem—1 Tim. 3:15; 4:12.

V. We must live out and work out the New Jerusalem, the city of life, as the ultimate answer to the Lord’s prayer in John 17 for the building up of the believers into one in the Father’s name by the eternal life—vv. 6-13:

A. To be kept in the Father’s name is to be kept by His life, because only those who are born of the Father and have the Father’s life can participate in the Father’s name—v. 11.

B. The Father has the divine life for begetting, propagating, multiplying, and bringing forth many sons to be the constituents of the New Jerusalem, the aggregate of the divine sonship, for the corporate expression of God the Father; if the Father’s children allow their mentality to overcome and overshadow their inner life, they will be divided, but the life of the Father unites us and keeps us in oneness—Rev. 21:7; Eph. 1:4-5; Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11, 23.

C. In the New Jerusalem there is only one throne with one flow of life, one tree of life, and one street of life—Rev. 22:1-2a: 1. The divine life flowing out of the throne of God and in the divine nature is the unique way

for the daily life of God’s redeemed people for them to walk in newness of life and serve in newness of spirit and be as new as the New Jerusalem—John 10:10; 6:63; Rom. 8:6; 2 Pet. 1:4; Rom. 6:4; 7:6.

2. The divine and human communication, signified by the street, proceeds from the throne to reach all twelve gates of the city in order to bring the entire city into submission to the one divine administration and to blend the entire city into the oneness of the one divinity-mingled-with-humanity communication (fellowship)—Rev. 22:1; 21:21; 1 John 1:3.

VI. We must live out and work out the New Jerusalem, the holy city, as the ultimate answer to the Lord’s prayer in John 17 for the building up of the believers into one in the Triune God through sanctification by the holy word—vv. 14-21:

A. God’s living word works in the believers to separate them from the world and its occupation unto God and His purpose and also to saturate them with God as the Holy One to make them the holy city, the corporate and ultimate Holy of Holies as the reality of Zion—1 Thes. 5:23; Eph. 5:26; Rev. 21:10, 16.

B. “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God”—Matt. 4:4; cf. Deut. 8:3: 1. To live by every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God is to live by Christ, the

embodiment of the divine breath—2 Tim. 3:16; John 20:22. 2. Our reading of the Bible should be our inhaling of God to receive life, and our teaching of

the Bible should be our exhaling of God to impart life; we need to read the Bible by means

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of all prayer and petition in the spirit to inhale God and minister the word as the Spirit to exhale God into others—Eph. 6:17-18a; Acts 6:4, 10; 2 Cor. 3:6.

VII. We must live out and work out the New Jerusalem, the city of glory, as the ultimate answer to the Lord’s prayer in John 17 for the building up of the believers into one in the divine glory for the expression of the Triune God—vv. 22-24:

A. The Son gave to the believers the glory which the Father has given to Him so that they might have the sonship with the Father’s life and divine nature to express the Father in the Son in His fullness—v. 22; 2 Pet. 1:4; John 1:16.

B. If we would be one in the divine glory, we must deny ourselves with our life and our nature for the expression of ourselves, and we must live by the divine life and the divine nature for the expression of God; in the expression of ourselves there is division, but in the expression of God there is oneness.

C. Different expressions that produce divisions come from different teachings; in order to forsake the different expressions, we need to forsake the different teachings and continue steadfastly in the unique teaching of God’s economy—1 Tim. 1:3-4; 6:3-4; Titus 1:9; Acts 2:42.

D. Christ’s love makes the believers His martyrs, witnesses, so that God may be glorified—John 21:19; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Rom. 14:7-9; Rev. 2:10; 12:11; Rom. 8:35-37.

E. When the believers follow the Lord to deny themselves and lose their soul-life by the death of the cross, the church is produced, the Father is glorified, and Satan is expelled—John 12:23-33.

F. God is glorified in Christ and in the church (Eph. 3:21); when the believers express God in their behavior, God is glorified (Matt. 5:16; Isa. 43:7; Phil. 1:20; 1 Cor. 6:20; 10:31).

G. When the believers as the branches bear much fruit, the Father is glorified—John 15:8. H. The believers who suffer with Christ in this age will be glorified in the kingdom age; that is, they will

reign with Him as co-kings—Rom. 8:17; 2 Tim. 2:12a; Rev. 20:4, 6. I. Eventually, all of God’s chosen people will participate in the glory of the New Jerusalem; that

is, they will be glorified with the glory of God for eternity—21:11.

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GENERAL SUBJECT:

THE VISION OF THE AGE, THE MINISTRY OF THE AGE, AND THE MINISTER OF THE AGE

Message Three The Ministry of the Age

(1)

Ministering the Present Truth to God’s People in order to Bring In a New Revival that Will End this Age

Scripture Reading: 2 Pet. 1:12; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; Job 10:13; Eph. 3:9; Mark 1:35; John 14:30b; 21:15-17

I. The particular recovery and work that God is doing in one age is the ministry of that age: A. In the Old Testament, Noah had the ministry of that age to build the ark, Moses had the ministry

of that age to build the tabernacle, and David and Solomon had the ministry of that age to build the temple.

B. In the New Testament, the ministry of the Lord Jesus is to build up the church as the Body of Christ—Matt. 16:18.

C. The many gifted persons produced in the Lord’s ascension have only one ministry, that is, to minister Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, the church; this building up is not accomplished directly by the gifted ones but by the saints who have been perfected by the gifted ones—Eph. 4:11-12, 16.

D. “In God’s building ministry, there are those who take the lead in that ministry in every age. May the Lord open our eyes to see that as long as we are human beings, we should be Christians; as long as we are Christians, we should enter into the Lord’s ministry in this age”—Words of Training for the New Way, vol. 1, p. 23.

E. In every age the Lord has special things that He wants to accomplish; He has His own recoveries and His own works to do; the particular recovery and work that He does in one age is the ministry of that age—cf. Gen. 6:13-14: 1. These ministries of the ages are different from the local ministers; Luther was a minister;

Darby was also a minister of his age; Watchman Nee and Witness Lee were ministers for the present age.

2. It is God’s mercy that a person can see and come into contact with the ministry of the age, yet it is altogether a different thing for a person to take up the courage to forsake past ministries and enter into God’s present ministry—cf. 1 Sam. 14:1-46; 2 Sam. 6:16, 20-23.

II. The ministry of the age ministers the present truth to God’s people; in 2 Peter 1:12 the present truth can also be rendered “the up-to-date truth”: A. Although all the truths are in the Bible, through man’s foolishness, unfaithfulness, negligence,

and disobedience many truths were lost and hidden from man—cf. 2 Kings 22:8. B. Freshly revealed truths are not God’s new inventions; rather, they are man’s new discoveries;

every worker of the Lord should inquire before God as to what the present truth is—Jer. 15:16. C. God’s truths are cumulative; later truths do not negate former ones; what we see today are the

cumulative revelations of God. D. May God be gracious to us that we do not become castaways of “the present truth”; may we be

watchful, and may we not allow the flesh to come in or the self to gain any ground.

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III. The ministry of the present age ministers the present truth to God’s people in order to bring in a new revival that will end this age: A. We can enter into a new revival by arriving at the highest peak of the divine revelation given to

us by God—the revelation of the eternal economy of God (1 Tim. 1:3-4; 1 Cor. 9:17; Acts 26:19, 22); this is the great answer to the great question concerning God’s purpose in His creation of man and in His dealing with His chosen people (Gen. 1:26; Job 10:13; cf. Eph. 3:9): 1. The mystery hidden in God’s heart is God’s eternal economy (1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4), which is

God’s eternal intention with His heart’s desire to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity as the Father in the Son by the Spirit into His chosen people to be their life and nature that they may be the same as He is as His duplication (Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:2) to become an organism, the Body of Christ as the new man (Eph. 2:15-16), for God’s fullness, God’s expression (1:22-23; 3:19), which will consummate in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2—22:5).

2. God becoming man that man might become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem is the essence of the entire Bible, the “diamond” in the “box” of the Bible, the eternal economy of God—Gen. 1:26; John 12:24; Rom. 8:29.

3. The central revelation of God and of the Lord’s recovery is God becoming the flesh (John 1:1, 14), the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), and the life-giving Spirit becoming the sevenfold intensified Spirit (Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6) to build up the church (Matt. 16:18) that becomes the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:15-16) and that consummates the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2, 9; 22:17a; cf. Gen. 2:22; John 19:34).

B. If we practice living the life of a God-man, which is the reality of the Body of Christ, spontaneously a corporate model will be built up, a model living in the economy of God; this model will be the greatest revival in the history of the church to bring the Lord back—Psa. 48:2 and footnote 1; Rev. 3:12, 21: 1. God needs a corporate people to be raised up by His grace through the high peak of the

divine revelation to live a life according to this revelation; a revival is the practice, the practicality, of the vision we have seen.

2. The Spirit of life and reality who was breathed into the disciples would guide them into all the reality of what they had observed of the Lord when they were with Him for three and a half years—John 16:13; 20:22: a. The Lord lived a life of contacting God (Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:28; Heb. 7:25),

living in the presence of God without ceasing (Acts 10:38c; John 8:29; 16:32), and of contacting people, ministering God into them to bring them into the jubilee of God’s New Testament economy (Luke 4:18-19; Heb. 8:2; cf. Gen. 14:18; Acts 6:4).

b. He was a man in whom Satan, the ruler of the world, had nothing (no ground, no chance, no hope, no possibility in anything)—John 14:30b, cf. v. 20; 2 Cor. 12:2a; Col. 1:27; 2 Tim. 4:22; John 3:6b; 4:23-24; 1 John 5:4, 18.

3. The only way to live the life of a God-man according to the Lord’s model is to set our entire being on the mingled spirit, walking, living, and having our being according to the mingled spirit—Rom. 8:2, 4, 10, 6, 11, 16; 1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 10:12; Gal. 5:25; Eph. 6:17-18; 1 Thes. 5:16-20; 1 Tim. 4:6-7; 2 Tim. 1:6-7.

C. We can enter into a new revival by participating in Christ’s heavenly ministry to feed His lambs and shepherd His sheep in order to take care of God’s flock, which is the church that issues in the Body of Christ; this is to incorporate the apostolic ministry with Christ’s heavenly ministry—John 21:15-17; 1 Pet. 2:25; 5:1-4; Heb. 13:20-21; Rev. 1:12-13: 1. We need to shepherd people according to the pattern of the Lord Jesus in His ministry for

carrying out God’s eternal economy—Matt. 9:36; John 10:11; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 5:4:

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© 2015 Living Stream Ministry

a. The content of God’s entire New Testament economy in His complete salvation is Christ as the Son of Man cherishing us by redeeming us from sin, accomplishing His judicial redemption through His death (1 Tim. 1:15; Eph. 1:7), and Christ as the Son of God nourishing us to impart the divine life into us abundantly, carrying out His organic salvation in His resurrection (John 10:10; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Eph. 5:29).

b. Our not having the Father’s loving and forgiving heart and the Savior’s shepherding and seeking spirit are the reason for our barrenness—Luke 15:1-24.

c. We need to cherish people (to make them happy and to make them feel pleasant and comfortable) in the humanity of Jesus (Matt. 9:10; Luke 7:34); we need to nourish people (to feed them with the all-inclusive Christ in His ministry of three stages—incarnation, inclusion, and intensification) in the divinity of Christ (Matt. 24:45-47; John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 4:5; 5:6).

2. We need to shepherd people according to the pattern of the apostle Paul, who shepherded the saints as a nursing mother and an exhorting father in order to take care of God’s flock—1 Thes. 2:7-8, 11-12; 1 Tim. 1:16; Acts 20:28: a. Paul shepherded the saints in Ephesus by teaching them “publicly and from house to

house” (v. 20) and by admonishing each one of the saints with tears for three years (vv. 31, 19), declaring to them all the counsel of God (v. 27).

b. Paul had an intimate concern for the believers (2 Cor. 7:2-7; Philem. 7, 12), and he came down to the weak ones’ level so that he could gain them (2 Cor. 11:28-29; 1 Cor. 9:22; cf. Matt. 12:20).

c. Paul revealed that love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and to do anything for the building up of the Body of Christ—1 Cor. 8:1; 12:31; 13:4-8a; Eph. 1:4; 3:17; 4:2, 15-16; 5:2; 6:24; Rev. 2:4-5; Col. 1:18b; 1 Thes. 1:3.

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GENERAL SUBJECT:

THE VISION OF THE AGE, THE MINISTRY OF THE AGE, AND THE MINISTER OF THE AGE

Message Four

The Ministry of the Age (2)

Ministering the Totality of the Unique New Testament Ministry in order to Live Out and Work Out the New Jerusalem for a New Revival

Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 3:3, 6, 8; 4:1; 5:18-20; 11:2-3; 1 Tim. 1:3-4, 18; Rev. 22:1-2, 14, 17a

I. Our living out the New Jerusalem is for us to become the New Jerusalem, and our working out the New Jerusalem is for us to build the New Jerusalem by the flowing Triune God—Jer. 2:13; John 4:14b; 7:37-39; Jude 19-21, 24-25; Rev. 22:1-2a:

A. Every local church should be a miniature of the New Jerusalem, and every believer should be “a little New Jerusalem”; whatever is ascribed to the New Jerusalem should be both our corporate and personal experience—21:3, 22-23; 22:1-2, 14, 17; 3:12.

B. As we experience each section of God’s organic salvation, we go up level by level until we become beings in the New Jerusalem—Rom. 5:10, 17, 21; 8:10, 6, 11; Rev. 22:1-2; cf. Jer. 18:15; Micah 5:2: 1. We are regenerated by participating in God’s life to become God’s species, God’s children, for

God’s sonship—John 1:12-13; Rev. 21:7; 22:14b. 2. We are sanctified by participating in God’s nature to become as holy as the holy city—1

Thes. 5:23; Eph. 5:26. 3. We are renewed by participating in God’s mind to become as new as the New Jerusalem—2

Cor. 4:16; Eph. 4:23. 4. We are transformed by participating in God’s being to be constituted with the Triune God as

gold, silver (pearl), and precious stones—1 Cor. 3:12; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2; Rev. 21:18-21. 5. We are conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God by participating in God’s image

to have the appearance of the New Jerusalem—Rom. 8:28-29; Rev. 21:11; 4:3. 6. We are glorified by participating in God’s glory to be completely permeated with the glory

of the New Jerusalem—Rom. 8:21; Phil. 3:21; Rev. 21:11.

II. To live out and work out the New Jerusalem is to live out and work out God’s complete salvation according to the intrinsic essence and totality of the unique New Testament ministry, the ministry of the age, for a new revival—Phil. 1:19; 2:13; Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 4:1; Eph. 4:11-12, 16:

A. The ministry of the Spirit is the ministry of the new covenant to deify us by inscribing our hearts with the Spirit of the living God as the divine and mystical “ink,” making us the living letters of Christ—this is the highest peak of the divine revelation—2 Cor. 3:3, 6, 8, 18; 4:1; Isa. 42:6; 49:6; Psa. 45:1-2: 1. By the ministry of the Spirit, we are “Christified” to become the city of life and the bride of

Christ; thus, the Spirit as the consummated Triune God marries the bride as the transformed tripartite church to live a life that is the mingling of God and man as one spirit, a life that is superexcellent and that overflows with blessings and joy—Rom. 5:10; Rev. 2:7; 22:1-2, 17a.

2. In order to be constituted the ministers of the new covenant for the building up of the Body of Christ, we must experience all the aspects of the all-inclusive Spirit in 2 Corinthians—the anointing Spirit, the sealing Spirit, the pledging Spirit (1:21-22; 5:5), the inscribing Spirit

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(3:3), the life-giving Spirit (v. 6), the ministering Spirit (v. 8), the freeing Spirit (v. 17), the transforming Spirit (v. 18), and the transmitting Spirit (13:14).

B. The ministry of righteousness is the ministry of Christ as our objective righteousness for our justification and as our subjective righteousness “embroidered” into us by the transforming work of the Spirit for the living out and genuine expression of Christ—this is the God-man living—3:9; Psa. 45:13-14; Rom. 8:4; Psa. 23:3: 1. By the ministry of righteousness, we receive Christ as our objective righteousness and enjoy

Him as our subjective righteousness to become the New Jerusalem as the new creation of righteousness in the new heaven and new earth—1 Cor. 1:30; Phil. 3:9; 2 Pet. 3:13; cf. Isa. 33:22.

2. Objective righteousness (Christ given to us) issues in grace (Christ enjoyed by us), and grace issues in subjective righteousness (Christ lived out of us)—Rom. 5:1-2, 17-18; Luke 15:22-23.

3. The power of grace operates in us and produces subjective righteousness, making us right with God, with others, and even with ourselves; it not only subdues sin but also overcomes Satan, sin, and death in our being, causing us to reign in life—2 Tim. 2:1; Rom. 5:17, 21.

4. The righteousness we receive for our justification is objective and enables us to meet the requirements of the righteous God, whereas the righteousnesses of the overcoming saints are subjective and enable them to meet the requirements of the overcoming Christ—Rev. 22:14; 19:7-8.

C. The ministry of reconciliation is the ministry of reconciling the world to Christ through the forgiveness of sins for their judicial redemption and the reconciling of the believers to Christ that they might be persons who live in the spirit, in the Holy of Holies, for their organic salvation—this is shepherding people according to God—2 Cor. 5:18-21; 1 Pet. 5:1-6; Heb. 13:20: 1. The Lord’s present recovery is to bring us into the reality of Christ’s pneumatic shepherding

in Psalm 23 as the issue of His redeeming death and church-producing resurrection in Psalm 22 and as the accomplishing factor of His coming as the King to establish His kingdom in Psalm 24.

2. By the ministry of reconciliation, we are shepherded into God to enjoy Him as the springs of waters of life so that we may become the eternal Zion as the corporate Holy of Holies, the place where God is—Rev. 7:14, 17; 14:1; 21:16, 22; Psa. 20:2; 24:1, 3, 7-10; 48:2; 50:2; 87:2; 125:1; Ezek. 48:35b.

3. The ministry of reconciliation is the apostolic ministry in cooperation with Christ’s heavenly ministry to shepherd the flock of God for building up the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem according to God’s eternal economy—John 21:15-17; Acts 20:28-29; Rev. 1:12-13.

III. The Lord’s recovery brings us back to the unique ministry of the New Testament; this ministry (2 Cor. 3:18; 4:1) has the following characteristics:

A. It ministers the healthy teaching of God’s economy and wars the good warfare against the different and strange teachings of the dissenters with the strange fire of man’s natural enthusiasm, natural affection, natural strength, and natural ability—1 Tim. 1:3-4, 18; Heb. 13:9; 2 Tim. 2:1-15; Lev. 10:1-11.

B. It produces the local churches as the golden lampstands to be the testimony of Jesus with the same essence, appearance, and expression, and it builds up the one Body of Christ by the one Spirit, perfecting all of us into the oneness of the Triune God—Rev. 1:10-13, 20; John 17:23; Eph. 4:1-4, 11-13; Zech. 4:6.

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C. It prepares the overcomers to be Christ’s bride, His “queen,” in Himself as the “royal abode” and in the local churches as the “palaces of ivory” to consummate in the New Jerusalem as the “King’s palace”; it betroths us to Christ, stirring up our love for Him in the simplicity and the purity toward Christ, to make us His queen—Psa. 45:1-15; Rev. 21:2, 9-10; 2 Cor. 11:2-3.

D. It strengthens us to follow Christ in the fellowship of His sufferings on the pathway to glory, the way of the cross, for the manifestation and multiplication of life—John 12:24-26; Col. 1:24; 2 Cor. 4:10-11, 16-18; 11:23-33.

E. It dispenses Christ as grace, truth, life, and the Spirit into us for our revelation of Christ, our enjoyment of Christ, and our growth in life that we may be saved in life to reign in life—1:12, 24; Phil. 1:25; Rom. 5:10, 17.

F. It sanctifies us through the word of the truth and the washing of the water in the word; it also shepherds us with the cherishing and nourishing presence of the pneumatic Christ—John 17:17; Eph. 5:26, 29-30; Rev. 1:12-13.

G. It tears down hierarchy and blends us into one, making us all brothers of Christ, slaves of Christ, and members of Christ to be the one Body of Christ in reality; it also tears down the high places and exalts Christ alone to make Christ everything in the church—Matt. 23:8-12; 1 Cor. 12:24; Deut. 12:1-3; 2 Cor. 4:5; 10:3-5; Col. 3:10-11.

H. It brings all of us into function to practice the God-ordained way and leads us to follow the Lamb wherever He may go for the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth—Rom. 12:4-5; Eph. 4:11-12; Rev. 14:4; Matt. 24:14.

I. It brings us into a new revival of living out the New Jerusalem and working out the New Jerusalem to gain the reality of the Body of Christ as the highest peak in God’s economy—2 Cor. 3:6, 8-9; 5:18-20; Rom. 12:4-5; Eph. 4:4-6, 16.

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GENERAL SUBJECT:

THE VISION OF THE AGE, THE MINISTRY OF THE AGE, AND THE MINISTER OF THE AGE

Message Five The Minister of the Age

(1)

The Intrinsic Significance of the Ministers of the Age

Scripture Reading: Rev. 2:7; 3:21-22; Psa. 48:2; 50:2; 2 Cor. 2:12-17; 3:1-6, 16-18; 4:1, 6-7

I. A minister of the age knows the special things that the Lord wants to accomplish in his age and knows the Lord’s ministry and work in that age—cf. Acts 13:22, 25, 36a; 20:24, 27; 2 Tim. 4:7: A. According to church history, the Lord's recovery with His overcomers began in the second

century; at the end of Paul's ministry, the church began to degrade and become deformed from the divine revelation (2 Tim. 1:15; 2:16; 3:13; 4:10, 14-16); later, the apostle John wrote to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, charging them to repent of the degradation into which they had fallen, and He sounded out a call for some overcomers to come back to the enjoyment of Himself as the tree of life (2:7), the hidden manna (v. 17), and the feast (3:20) for the finalization of God’s economy.

B. The Lord used Martin Luther to recover the basic truth of justification by faith; in the seventeenth century, some within the Catholic Church reacted to the deadness of the reformed churches; these were the mystics, whom the Lord used to recover the experiences of the inner life.

C. The Lord went on in the eighteenth century with Zinzendorf to recover the initial stage of the church life in the unity of the Holy Spirit; in the early part of the nineteenth century, the Lord raised up the Brethren under the leadership of John Nelson Darby to recover the church life in a fuller way, which might be considered as the initial fulfillment of the epistle to Philadelphia in Revelation 3.

II. The one who can take the lead in the Lord’s move in this age is the one who knows God’s eternal economy and knows what God is speaking today—1 Tim. 1:3-4; Eph. 3:2, 8-9; Acts 22:14-15; Isa. 50:4-5; 1 Sam. 3:1, 9-10, 19-21; Luke 1:35-38; Rev. 1:10-12; 2:7: A. In the early part of the twentieth century, the Lord caught a young man in China by the name of

Watchman Nee, and the Lord used him to continue His recovery; "I knew that there was the Lord’s commission upon Brother Nee, which is the ministry. I also knew that Brother Nee was the one chosen, commissioned by the Lord to bring in His recovery” (Words of Training for the New Way, Volume 1, p. 24).

B. In God’s building ministry, there are those who take the lead in that ministry in every age; may the Lord open our eyes to see that as long as we are human beings, we should be Christians; as long as we are Christians, we should enter into the Lord’s ministry in this present age.

C. Whoever has God’s speaking concerning the entire teaching of God’s eternal economy is the leading one in His move, the minister of the age; Brother Nee and Brother Lee were ministers of the present age—Acts 20:20, 27, 31-32.

III. This present age is the age of the overcomers, and the ministry of this present age through the ministers of the present age is the sounding of the Lord’s call for the overcomers (those

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who see the vision of eternity, live the life of eternity, and work the work of eternity)—Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26-29; 3:5-6, 12-13, 21-22: A. The overcomers are today’s Zion in today’s Jerusalem (the church life); Zion was the city of King

David (2 Sam. 5:7), the center of the city of Jerusalem, where the temple as God’s dwelling place on earth was built (Psa. 9:11; 74:2; 76:2b; 135:21; Isa. 8:18).

B. Zion is the high peak, the center, the uplifting, the strengthening, the enriching, the beauty, and the reality of the church, the holy city—Psa. 48:2, 11-12; 20:2; 50:2; 51:18; 53:6a; 87:2; 102:21; 128:5; 135:21.

C. The overcomers as today’s Zion are the reality of the Body of Christ and consummate the building up of the Body in the local churches to bring in the consummated holy city, the New Jerusalem, the Holy of Holies as God’s dwelling place, in eternity—Rev. 21:1-3, 16, 22.

D. We have to realize what the Lord’s present recovery is; the Lord’s recovery is to build up Zion, which is the building up of the reality of the Body of Christ, the preparation of the bride of Christ and the ushering in of the manifestation of the kingdom of Christ; we have to make a resolution to be the overcomers, the vitalized ones—Judg. 5:15.

IV. As ministers of the present age, Brother Nee and Brother Lee are patterns to us so that we may be perfected “unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ”; we are being perfected in this present age to become the ministers of the new covenant—Eph. 4:12; 1 Tim. 1:16; 4:12; 1 Cor. 4:16-17: A. The ministers of the new covenant are captives in a triumphal procession for the celebration of

Christ’s victory—2 Cor. 2:12-14: 1. Paul uses the metaphor of a procession held in honor of the victory of a Roman general to

illustrate what he was in the ministry—v. 14. 2. Paul and his co-workers had been conquered by Christ and had become His captives in the

train of His triumph, celebrating His victory; therefore, Paul’s ministry was a triumphal procession of the victorious General, the Lord Jesus, leading many captives—Eph. 4:8; Col. 1:18b.

3. As such captives, we are witnesses that once we were enemies of Christ, but we have been defeated, subdued, captured, and made submissive to Him: a. In our experience much of the time we must admit that instead of being captives to

Christ, Christ is a captive to us—cf. Acts 26:14. b. A captive of Christ is daily conquered, defeated, and captured by Christ; for this we

should pray, “Lord, make me Your captive. Never let me win. Defeat me all the time.” B. The ministers of the new covenant are incense-bearers to scatter the fragrance of Christ—2 Cor.

2:14b-17: 1. As captives of Christ in Christ’s triumphal procession, we are simultaneously incense-

bearers; through us God manifests the savor of the knowledge of Christ in every place—v. 14.

2. Because we have been captured, subdued, possessed, and gained by Christ, He has the liberty to saturate us to make us a fragrance of Christ—v. 15.

3. The ministers of Christ, the lovers of Christ, are prepared to give forth Christ’s fragrance in all circumstances and in any kind of environment—S. S. 4:10-16.

C. The ministers of the new covenant are letters written with Christ as the content to convey and express Christ—2 Cor. 3:1-6; Psa. 45:1: 1. Christ is written into every part of our inner being with the Spirit of the living God to make

us His living letters, that He may be expressed, read, and known by others in us—2 Cor. 3:2-3; cf. Eph. 3:17.

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2. The heavenly, compound ink is the compound Spirit, the essence of this Spirit-ink is Christ with all His riches, and we are the pen; to have this ink in our experience we must enjoy and be thoroughly saturated with Christ as the life-giving Spirit; then we will spontaneously minister Christ to those whom we contact, making them living letters of Christ—Phil. 1:19; 2 Cor. 3:6: a. While we are ministering Christ to others, Christ is simultaneously written in the ones

to whom we are ministering and also in us—vv. 2-3. b. The one writing produces two original copies of the one letter; one copy is in our heart,

and the other copy is in the heart of the ones to whom we are ministering. c. They become a letter of Christ and this letter is also written in us, the writers; such a

ministry involves two hearts becoming one. d. We can never forget the ones to whom we have ministered Christ and the ones who

have ministered Christ to us—7:3. D. The ministers of the new covenant are mirrors beholding and reflecting the glory of Christ in

order to be transformed into His glorious image—3:16-18—4:1: 1. An unveiled face is an unveiled heart to behold the glory of the Lord; beholding is to see the

Lord by ourselves; reflecting is for others to see Him through us. 2. The glory of God is in the face of Christ, and His face, His person, is the indwelling treasure

in our spirit—2:10; 4:6-7; 1 Pet. 3:4. 3. In the whole universe, there is nothing so precious as to behold the face of Jesus—Gen.

32:30; Exo. 25:30; 33:11; Psa. 27:4, 8; Rev. 22:4: a. It is only when we are living in His presence, looking at the index of His being, that we

will sense that He is such a treasure to us. b. Seeing God equals gaining God, which is to receive God in His element into us to

transform us—Job 42:5-6. c. The very God whom we look at today is the consummated Spirit, and we can look at Him

in our spirit to absorb the riches of God into our being and be under the divine transformation day by day—2 Cor. 3:18b; Matt. 14:22-23; Col. 4:2.

4. Transformation is not an outward change or correction, but spiritual metabolism; it is the metabolic function of the life of God in the believers: a. As we receive the Lord as the new element into us, a spiritual metabolism takes place

within us to be expressed outwardly in the image of Christ, manifesting the metabolism in life.

b. Only that which is expressed outwardly through the inward metabolism is genuine health and real beauty—Exo. 28:2; Psa. 90:17.

E. The ministers of the new covenant are earthen vessels to contain the Christ of glory as the excellent treasure—2 Cor. 4:6-7: 1. Christ as the priceless treasure is contained in us, the worthless and fragile vessels; this

makes the worthless vessels ministers of the new covenant with a priceless ministry—v. 7; 2:17; 13:3; cf. Gen. 4:26.

2. This treasure, the indwelling Christ, in us, the earthen vessels, is the divine supply and power for the Christian life; God’s power is manifested in man’s weakness, and man’s weakness cannot limit God’s power—2 Cor. 4:7; 12:10.

3. The new covenant ministers are Christ’s chosen vessels to contain and express Him—Acts 9:15; cf. Dan. 5:2-3, 23; Rom. 9: 21, 23; Judg. 9:9; 2 Cor. 5:20; Eph. 6:20.

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GENERAL SUBJECT:

THE VISION OF THE AGE, THE MINISTRY OF THE AGE, AND THE MINISTER OF THE AGE

Message Six

The Minister of the Age (2)

Following the Minister of the Age in an Intrinsic Way and Serving as Fellow Slaves with the Minister of the Age in a Blended Way

Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 2:1-14; Judg. 6:1-6, 11-35; 7:1-8, 19-25; 8:1-5

I. Elisha’s following of Elijah from Gilgal to Bethel, from Bethel to Jericho, and from Jericho to the river Jordan shows that in order to enter into the ministry of the New Testament age, we should intrinsically follow the minister of the age according to the vision of the age; to do this we must follow the Lord through four crucial places:

A. Elijah is a type of the Old Testament age with the Old Testament economy, and Elisha is a type of the New Testament age with the New Testament economy.

B. The age was changed by passing through four places—2 Kings 2:1-14: 1. Gilgal is the place where God’s people were circumcised to deal with their flesh—Josh. 5:2-

9; Gal. 5:24; Phil. 3:3-8: a. The flesh is everything we possess from our birth (John 3:6); it is the uttermost

expression of the fallen, tripartite man. b. All that we possess from our birth is not only sin, uncleanness, and corruption but also

natural kindness, talent, zeal, wisdom, and ability. 2. Bethel is the place to give up the world and turn to God absolutely, taking God as

everything—Gen. 12:8; 1 John 2:15-17: a. According to Genesis 12:8, Bethel is the place where Abraham built an altar, the place

of fellowship and communication with God; it is the place where we consecrate ourselves to God and are totally given to Him to overcome the world.

b. Genesis 13:3 and 4 say that Abraham went on his journey from the south (where Egypt was) and came to Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar, and there Abraham called on the name of the Lord.

3. Jericho, the first city that Joshua and the people of Israel had to defeat when they entered into the good land, signifies God’s enemy, Satan—Josh. 6; Rev. 12:11: a. Joshua 6 speaks of overcoming Jericho, which means “cursed”; the Canaanites signify

evil spirits; they are the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies mentioned in Ephesians 6:12.

b. In order to overcome the attack of the evil spirits, we must disregard every situation and feeling and believe in God’s word of promise; we must also stand in the position that Christ has given us, which is in the heavens, and must put down Satan and His evil spirits to their inferior position—Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1-2.

c. The bearing of the Ark by the priests at Jericho signifies that in spiritual warfare the first thing we should do is to exalt Christ; the blowing of the trumpets and the shouting (the seventh time around the city) signifies the testifying and proclaiming of God with Christ (the Ark) through faith in God’s word of instruction.

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4. The river Jordan, where the New Testament baptism began, signifies death—Matt. 3:5-6; Rom. 6:3-4; Gal. 2:20: a. The Lord’s baptism signifies death, and His coming out of the water signifies

resurrection; by being baptized He was able to live and minister in resurrection even before His actual death and resurrection three and a half years later--Matt. 3:13-17.

b. To walk in newness of life is to live in the reality of our baptism (Rom. 6:4); to serve in newness of spirit is to serve in the reality of our baptism (7:6).

c. We need to pursue knowing the power of Christ’s resurrection; it is by the power of Christ's resurrection, not by our natural life, that we determine to take the cross by denying our self and are enabled to be conformed to His death by being one with His cross—Phil. 3:10-12; Matt. 16:24.

C. In order for the age to be changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament in our experience, we must deal with our flesh (Gal. 5:24; Phil. 3:3), give up the world and turn to God (James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17), defeat Satan (Eph. 6:10-20; Rev. 12:11), and pass through death (Rom. 6:3-4; Gal. 2:20).

II. The selection of the overcomers is seen with God's selection of Gideon and the three hundred men to fight with him to defeat the Midianites—Judg. 6:1-6, 11-35; 7:1-8, 19-25; 8:1-4:

A. The account of Gideon shows us how to be an overcomer: 1. We must know the self, realizing ourselves to be the least—Judg. 6:15; Eph. 3:8; Matt.

20:27-28: Gal. 6:3. 2. We must see the heavenly vision of Christ as the centrality and universality of God’s eternal

economy—Judg. 6:12; Acts 26:16-22; Col. 1:17b, 18b; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; Phil. 3:8, 10. 3. We must offer up ourselves to God as a living sacrifice according to His good, well-pleasing,

and perfect will to have the reality and living of the Body of Christ (Rom. 12:1-5; cf. Judg. 6:21-24); we must be those who hear and answer the Lord’s call for overcomers in Revelation 2 and 3—2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 20-21; Hymns, #894.

4. We must tear down the idols in our heart, in our life, and in our work for the Lord’s testimony, realizing that on the one hand, God leads us into the enjoyment of Christ as life, light, and power, and on the other hand, God is faithful to allow us to have financial difficulties, emotional sufferings, physical sufferings, and the loss of natural goodness in order that we would take Christ as our satisfaction, be filled with Christ, and allow Him to have the first place in all things—Judg. 6:25-28; John 10:10; 8:12; 2 Tim. 2:1; Col. 1:17b, 18b; 1 John 5:21; Job 22:24-26; Matt. 10:35-39; 2 Cor. 12:7-9; Job 1:1, 22; 2:9-10; 3:1, 11; 2 Cor. 4:5; 1 Cor. 2:2.

B. How the overcomers are selected is seen with the selection of the three hundred; by telling Gideon that he had too many people, God was indicating that He would fight for Israel; the first selection resulted in twenty-two thousand leaving: 1. Those who left wanted to glorify themselves—Judg. 7:1-2; John 5:41, 44. 2. Those who left were fearful and afraid—Judg. 7:3; Matt. 25:25; cf. Deut. 20:5-8.

C. The second selection was determined by how the people drank; those who drank directly with their mouths were eliminated by God; those who drank by bringing water in their hand to their mouths were selected by God because they were self-denying persons; by drinking in this way, they were able to watch diligently for any attack by the enemy—Judg. 7:4-6: 1. Those who have the chance to indulge themselves but will not do so are self-denying

persons who have been dealt with by the cross, sacrificing their personal rest and comfort for the sake of God’s purpose in the day of His warfare—v. 7; Psa. 110:3.

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2. The overcomers are absolute for God's glory and are afraid of nothing except offending the Lord and losing His presence (Exo. 33:14-16); they allow the cross to deal with the self (1 John 3:8; Heb. 2:14; Rom. 6:23; Gal. 2:20).

D. God gave Gideon three hundred men and made them one body, “one man” (Judg. 6:16), signified by a “round loaf of barley bread” tumbling through the camp of the Midianites for their defeat and God’s victory (7:9-16, 19-25): 1. Gideon and his men moved and acted together in one accord, signifying the oneness in the

Spirit and the living in the Body; they were blended together in resurrection, signified by barley, the first-ripe grain (6:16; 2 Sam. 21:9; Lev. 23:10; 1 Cor. 15:20) to be one bread, signifying the church (10:17).

2. Gideon and his men striking the Midianites as one man, as a “round loaf of barley bread,” signifies a blended group of co-workers in resurrection and in one accord, being one with the acting God in the moving of His economy to display Christ’s victory and defeat His enemy.

3. Paul’s thought of the church being one bread was taken from the Old Testament with the meal offering (Lev. 2:4-5); we are the many grains (John 12:24) so that we may be ground into fine flour mingled with oil for making the bread of the church (1 Cor. 12:24-25).

E. We need to be co-workers who are dealt with by the Lord and who are in one accord to match the need of the ministry of the age—Acts 1:14; Rom. 15:6: 1. “The Lord has shown me that He has prepared many brothers who will serve as fellow

slaves with me in a blended way. I feel that this is the Lord’s sovereign provision for His Body and the up-to-date way to fulfill His ministry”—The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, p. 525.

2. “The center of the work in the Lord’s recovery is a group of blended co-workers”—from Brother Lee’s fellowship with a small group of co-workers who met with him in his office on three successive mornings in 1995.

3. All of the co-workers and elders should shepherd one another and love one another to be a model of the Body-life, a model of those who are learning to be tempered, blended, and crossed out in order to do everything by the Spirit to dispense Christ into one another for the practical Body life—Rom. 12:1-5; cf. 2 Chron. 1:10.

F. Gideon and his three hundred men fought the battle and labored, yet the whole congregation chased the enemy and reaped the harvest, signifying that when we overcome, the whole Body is revived until Jehovah as peace, Jehovah-shalom, reigns on the earth—Judg. 7:22-25; 8:1-4; Col. 1:24; Psa. 128:5; Isa. 32:17; 66:12.

G. As Gideon and his men were pursuing the kings of Midian, they were “weary yet pursuing” (Judg. 8:4b); because we have received God’s mercy to minister and live in the reality of God’s eternal economy, we do not lose heart (2 Cor. 4:1, 16-18); we may labor to the point of exhaustion, but our labor is according to God’s operation, which operates in us in power (Col. 1:28-29; 1 Cor. 15:58).

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