Scripture Reading: S.S. 4:4, 8, 12-16; 6:4, 10, 13; 8:5-6, 13-14

DAY 1 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 2 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 3 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 4 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 5 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 6 Outline　MorningRevival

«　WEEK 4　DAY 1　»

　　S.　S. 4:1 Oh, you are beautiful, my love! Oh, you are beautiful! Your eyes are like doves behind your veil; your hair is like a flock of goats that repose on Mount Gilead.

　　4 Your neck is like the tower of David, built for an armory: A thousand bucklers hang on it, all the shields of the mighty men.

　　Hair in the Bible always indicates something of the will. All her scattered wills have been gathered together into rows to appear as a flock of goats on a mountain [S.S. 4:1]....Some of the goats are standing on a lower part of the mountain, and some are standing on a higher part.

　　The goats are not scattered but gathered; they are not on the plain but on the mountainside, giving a picture of submission. This means that by the improvement from a mare to a palanquin, all the wills of the seeking one have been dealt with. They have been subdued and gathered together to be made into rows full of submission. (CWWL, 1972, vol. 1, "Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs," p. 272)

　　Song of Songs...speaks not only of love but also of the subduing of the will. To have complete, adequate, and thorough transformation, there must be the subduing of the will. The more our will is subdued, the more we will be transformed.

　　Many of us love the Lord, but we still hold on to our will. Our concept has been changed, and our mind has been renewed, but our will needs subduing. Many of us are so stubborn—not only the brothers but also the sisters. The problem is not with our heart. We do love the Lord. I believe that in the past few months the Lord has heard many voices saying, "Lord Jesus, I love You!" But in answer to these voices, I believe the Lord would say, "Yes, I know that you love Me, but what about your will?" To have our concept changed is not enough. We must go on to have our will subdued....Maturity is reached by the subduing of the will.

　　The Lord likens her neck to the tower of David (S.S. 4:4). We have seen that the hair signifies our will, and we know that our neck also signifies our will [cf. Isa. 3:16]. Those who are rebellious toward God in the Bible are called stiff-necked (Exo. 32:9; Acts 7:51). So we see that a flock of goats appearing on the mountain shows the subduing of her will, and the tower of David illustrates how strong her will is in resurrection. First of all, our will must be subdued; then it must be strong in resurrection. The natural will must be dealt with, and then we will have a resurrected will. The crucified and subdued will is just like a flock of goats standing on a mountainside, but the resurrected will must be like the tower of David builded up as an armory. An armory is a place where weapons for fighting are kept.

　　We simply need to stand and resist all the enemy's attacks. The bucklers and the shields that protect us against the arrows of the enemy are kept in this tower, which is the subdued and resurrected will of the Lord's seeking one. This is the real maturity in life.

　　An unsubdued will is, on the one hand, stubborn, and on the other hand, weak. When the enemy comes, the stubborn, unsubdued will always makes an unconditional surrender....But if we have a submissive will,...when the enemy comes, our will is like the tower of David that holds all kinds of weapons against his attacks.

　　The secret of the maturity of the seeking one in Song of Songs 3 is that her will has been completely subdued and resurrected. Of all eight figures, the first one is strongest in the will, and the last one has no will of its own at all. The mare has an exceedingly strong will, but the palanquin and the crown have no will at all. She has come out of her natural will and is now standing in her resurrected will against the enemy. She is like the tower of David builded as an armory for the spiritual warfare. (CWWL, 1972, vol. 1, "Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs," pp. 272-275)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1972, vol. 1, "Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs," ch. 6; CWWN, vol. 23, "The Song of Songs," sec. 3

«　WEEK 4　DAY 2　»

　　S.　S. 2:14 My dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the precipice, let me see your countenance, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your countenance is lovely.

　　4:8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride; with me from Lebanon come. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the leopards' mountains.

　　Christ asks His lover as His bride to look with Him from His ascension (Lebanon), the highest place of the truth (Amana) and of Christ's victory in His fighting (Senir and Hermon), and from the heavenly places of the enemies (the lions' dens and the leopards' mountains)....When the lover is living in ascension, she and Christ are living in one condition, the condition of ascension, to be a couple. Christ is divine and human, and His transformed lover is human and divine. They are the same in life and nature, perfectly matching one another. (S.S. 4:8, footnote 1)

　　After the lover of Christ has experienced Christ in His sweet death and His fragrant resurrection, she determines to stay in the sweet death of Christ (the mountain of myrrh) and His fragrant resurrection (the hill of frankincense) until her Beloved comes back when the day dawns and the shadows flee away (S.S. 4:6). If we have Christ, we have His sweet death because He and His death are one....We cannot experience Christ's death and resurrection as something separate and apart from Christ.

　　In Song of Songs 2:14 He called her to be with Him in the clefts of the rock and in the covert of the precipice. Now [in 4:8] He calls her again to be with Him in His ascension instead of remaining on the mountain of myrrh and on the hill of frankincense.

　　In Christ's ascension there are the positive peaks of reality, victory, and the destruction of the enemy. Amana means "truth, reality." This is the truth, the reality, of the consummated Triune God; the all-inclusive Christ with His complete redemption; and the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving, sevenfold intensified Spirit. These realities are the three of the Triune God. Senir means "soft armor," signifying that the war is over and victory has been gained. We do not need to wear the hard armor to fight. Satan is the defeated foe. We do not need to fight, because he has been defeated already (Heb. 2:14; Col. 2:15). We are now wearing the soft armor to enjoy our victory in Christ. Hermon means "destruction." In ascension the enemy is destroyed.

　　With Christ Satan is a defeated foe, but with us he is still a troublesome one. Therefore, Ephesians 6 says that we need to wrestle with the evil one. Christ calls us to look from the heavenlies (v. 12), signified by the lions' dens and the leopards' mountains (S.S. 4:8b). Here are Satan and his subordinates (Eph. 6:12; 2:2). Here the believers fight with Satan and his power of darkness (6:12) by being empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength (v. 10), by putting on the whole armor of God (vv. 11a, 13a), by standing against the stratagems of the devil (v. 11b), by receiving the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, the word of God (v. 17), and by praying always in spirit (v. 18a) for the building up of the Body of Christ and the spreading of the gospel (vv. 18b-20). This is the reality of living in the ascension of Christ.

　　To be resurrected with Him is to enjoy the resurrected life-giving Christ. To live in ascension is to enjoy Christ in the condition of ascension. We need to live in ascension as God's new creation in resurrection....Ascension,

　　God's new creation, and resurrection are one. Christ is not only in the conditions of His death, resurrection, and ascension but also in the condition of the life-giving Spirit. He is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit of Jesus Christ to us. Where the Spirit is, Christ is, and it is in this Spirit that we enjoy Christ. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, "Crystallization-study of Song of Songs," pp. 320-321, 319-320)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Song of Songs, msg. 5; CWWL, 1972, vol. 1, "Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs," chs. 8-9

«　WEEK 4　DAY 3　»

　　S.S. 4:12 A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

　　6:4 You are as beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, as lovely as Jerusalem, as terrible as an army with banners.

　　Through her living in Christ's ascension as the new creation in resurrection for her growth in life and transformation by life, Christ's transformed bride becomes mature in the riches of the life of Christ so that she becomes four things: a garden to satisfy Christ (S.S. 4:12—5:1; 6:2-3), God's dwelling place with its protection (6:4a), the heavenly bodies as the universal light (6:10a), and a terrible army, which is the corporate overcomer—the Shulammite (6:4b, 10b, 13, and footnotes). Here the garden is enclosed, and there is a spring shut up, a fountain sealed, for Christ's private enjoyment, indicating that in experiencing Christ we, the seeking believers, must have something private, hidden, shut up, and sealed that is for Christ alone. (S.S. 4:12, footnote 1)

　　This praise of the Beloved's [in Song of Songs 6:4] indicates that her becoming the heavenly sanctuary and the heavenly Jerusalem is due to her victory over the enemies. Only by being an overcomer can we live within the veil.

　　When the overcoming lover of Christ becomes one with God to be God's dwelling place, in the eyes of God she is as beautiful as Tirzah and as lovely as Jerusalem. However, to the enemy she is as terrible as an army with banners. Banners indicate a readiness to fight and also are a sign that the victory is won. A terrible army signifies that the overcomers of the Lord terrify God's enemy, Satan....This army fights the battle for God's kingdom in the degradation of God's people to become the overcomers who answer the Lord's call (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). Eventually, the overcomers will be a bride collectively to marry Christ (Rev. 19:7-9). After their wedding, this bride will become an army to fight alongside Christ, her Husband, to defeat Antichrist with all his followers (Rev. 19:11-21). (S.S. 6:4, footnote 2)

　　[In Song of Songs 6:4] the Lord is viewing the believers from heaven, from within the sanctuary. Hence, this is something which happens within the veil. The Lord has mentioned her beauty and comeliness previously. But the beauty and comeliness in this verse are more restricted than before.

　　Tirzah is where the palace is (1 Kings 14:17). Jerusalem is the city of the great King. Tirzah signifies the heavenly sanctuary, the dwelling of God. Jerusalem signifies the heavenly Jerusalem. The Lord is examining our heavenly nature and life within the sanctuary. In that Jerusalem everything is comely, and in that Tirzah everything is beautiful, because both are God's new creation. Today believers are already displaying the beauty and comeliness of the coming sanctuary.

　　Weapons are the most important thing to an army in battle, whereas the banner is the most important thing in victory. If the battle is lost, the banner is put away in shame. An unfurled banner signifies the glory of victory....The maiden is beautiful and comely before the Lord, as solid as the heavenly city and as serene as the sanctuary [cf. S.S. 6:4]. At the same time, she displays the glory of her victory before the enemy and the world. A life within the veil is not just a life before the Lord, but a life before the enemy, because the heaven in which the saints dwell is the very heaven which the enemy assails. God has no intention for His believers to possess only the heavenly beauty without possessing a warring nature. The heavenly warfare is never abated before the Lord.

　　"Terrible as an army with banners" [S.S. 6:4]. Not only does she have a future that is full of hope, and a life that is absolutely heavenly, but she is a victor who constantly triumphs in her victory. She is "terrible as an army with banners." She goes from victory to victory. Do you know such a one? Have you seen her? (CWWN, vol. 23, "The Song of Songs," pp. 96-97, 101)

　　Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 23, "The Song of Songs," sec. 4; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, "Crystallization-study of Song of Songs," chs. 9-10; Life-study of Song of Songs, msg. 7

«　WEEK 4　DAY 4　»

　　S.　S. 6:10 Who is this woman who looks forth like the dawn, as beautiful as the moon, as clear as the sun, as terrible as an army with banners?

　　Eph. 6:11 Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil.

　　Believers ought to be lovable and terrible at the same time. Believers today have lost their loveliness before the Lord, and they have lost their terribleness before the enemy and the world. Are men terrified by us? The Bible often mentions the terribleness of the Lord; He is terrible because He is holy. If we maintain our holiness and victory, we will see the enemy retreating and the world standing back. (CWWN, vol. 23, "The Song of Songs," p. 97)

　　When the seeking one becomes the city, she is also an army. We mentioned that the tenth figure is the last one, but there is also the eleventh. This is the army. "You are as beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, / As lovely as Jerusalem, / As terrible as an army with banners" [S.S. 6:4]. Why do I say that the tenth is the last, yet there is still the eleventh? It is because the tenth is the eleventh, and the eleventh is the tenth. When we become a city to the Lord, we are an army to the enemy. It is not just an armory as in the past (4:4). An armory is defensive, but the army is offensive. It is not just a matter of defending the kingdom but also of fighting for the kingdom. She is so beautiful to the Lord, even as beautiful as Jerusalem. But to the enemy, she is as terrible as an army with banners. We all know that an army with banners means victory. She is not without banners. This means that she has won the victory already. No wonder she is so terrible to the enemy!

　　First, there was the armory for the defensive warfare. But now the seeking one has become an army marching in triumphant victory. The Hebrew word army in this verse is in the plural, so some versions say that she is the hosts, the troops. It is not just one troop but the many troops with banners. She has become such a marvelous fighting army as troops with the victory banners. We can never separate the building from the spiritual warfare. Wherever the building is, there is the battle. We all remember the account in Nehemiah: with one hand the people did the building work, and with the other hand they held the weapons for battle (4:17). While they were building, they were fighting. Fighting always accompanies the building, and the building always brings in the victory in the battle. This is the consummation of the Christian life. This is the uttermost completion that the seeking one of the Lord can attain. She is now a city as an army.

　　In Ezekiel 37:2-10 we read the same thing. All the dry bones, after being inbreathed with life, came alive to be built into the habitation of God. And at the same time they were formed into an army. The building is always an army. Without an enemy, there is no need to build a city. In human history, the city came into existence because of the attacks of the enemies. The city is God's dwelling place, but it is also the fighting army to the enemy. (CWWL, 1972, vol. 1, "Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs," pp. 289-290)

　　Not only is the church the Body, the new man, the bride, the family, the kingdom, and the dwelling place; the church is also the warrior to fight against God's enemy. God's enemy, Satan, is terrified of such a church. Satan is not afraid of individualistic Christians, not even if they number in the thousands. But whenever the believers come together as the church in the aspect of the Body and in these other aspects, Satan trembles. By the church in these seven aspects Christ is expressed, the Father has rest, and the enemy is defeated. May we all see the vision that the church is not a matter of individual holiness or spirituality. On the contrary, it is a matter of being built up together as the Body, the new man, the bride, the family, the kingdom, the dwelling place, and the warrior. As such a church, we defeat the enemy and prepare the way for the Lord Jesus to come back. (Life-study of Ephesians, p. 627)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1972, vol. 1, "Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs," ch. 12

«　WEEK 4　DAY 5　»

　　Rev. 19:7-8 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. And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints.

　　11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sits on it called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.

　　When Christ comes to fight against Antichrist and his army, He will come as the Son of Man. As the Son of Man, He will need a counterpart to match Him and complete Him. This counterpart will be His bride. After gaining and marrying the church as His bride, Christ will come as the smiting stone. If Christ did not have a bride, He would have to fight alone against Antichrist and his army. However, Christ will have an army, and this army will be His bride. On the day of His wedding, Christ will marry the one who has been fighting the battle against God's enemy for years. This means that Christ will marry the overcomers, who have already overcome the evil one, the devil (Rev. 12:11). As the God-cut stone, Christ with His overcomers—the corporate Christ—will strike the ten kings with Antichrist (19:11-21), signified by the ten toes of the great human image. In so doing, the corporate Christ will crush the great image from the toes to the head (Dan. 2:35); that is, the corporate Christ—Christ with His newly-married bride composed of the overcomers—will come as a stone cut without hands and smite the human government into pieces. In this way, Christ with His bride will annihilate human government. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 4346)

　　I want to stress the fact that the bride requires maturity. Christ will not marry a bride who is immature. Only when we have reached maturity will

　　He take us to be His bride. We must admit that in the Lord's recovery we have not yet reached maturity; we are still too young to be presented to Christ as His bride. Thus, there is the urgent need for maturity. When Christ, the Bridegroom, sees that we have reached maturity, He will marry the bride and then come with her as His army to crush the human government. (Life-study of Daniel, p. 82)

　　We need to repent for replacing Christ with other things. We need to repent for having a daily living that is in the principle of antichrist, that allows culture, religion, ethics, and natural concepts to replace Christ. We need to pray, "Lord, save us, rescue us, and deliver us from all replacements. Lord, bring us back to Your anointing. We don't want to be anti Christ in any way. We don't want to be anti the anointing. Lord, we want to live and walk in, with, through, and by the anointing. We want to live and walk by the moving, working, and saturating of the Triune God within us." This is the revelation of the Bible, and this is also our burden in the Lord's recovery today. (Life-study of 1 John, p. 297)

　　Along with faith, we also need a good conscience, a conscience without offense (Acts 24:16). A good conscience is a safeguard of Christian faith and life. Faith and a good conscience go together. Whenever there is an offense in our conscience, there will be a leakage, and our faith will leak away. A good conscience accompanying faith is needed for warring the good warfare against the dissenting teachings in a troubled local church. (Life-study of 1 Timothy, pp. 21-22)

　　Shulammite is the feminine form of Solomon, indicating that now the overcomers have become the same as Christ. All the overcomers must be one with God and must be Christ. The Shulammite was a country girl. Now, as a counterpart of Solomon, she has become the same as Solomon in life, in nature, in expression, and in function for the carrying out of God's economy. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, "Crystallization-study of Song of Songs," p. 349)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, "Crystallization-study of Song of Songs," chs. 9, 12; The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 426

«　WEEK 4　DAY 6　»

　　S.　S. 6:13 Return, return, O Shulammite; return, return, that we may gaze at you. Why should you gaze at the Shulammite, as upon the dance of two camps?

　　Gen. 32:2 And Jacob said when he saw them, This is God's camp. So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

　　In these four things—life, nature, expression, and function—we become the same as God and Christ but not in Their Godhead. To say that we are the same as God in His Godhead is a great blasphemy, but if we say that we cannot be the same as God in life, nature, expression, and function, this is unbelief. The Bible tells us again and again that God wants to be one with us and to make us one with Him. This is God's intention. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, "Crystallization-study of Song of Songs," p. 349)

　　After seeing such a high vision in Song of Songs, we may ask, "Who can be such persons?" In order to answer this we need an additional interpretation of 6:13b, which says, "Why should you gaze at the Shulammite, / As upon the dance of two camps?" By this time the Shulammite is like two camps, or armies, in the eyes of God. These two armies are dancing in celebration of their victory.

　　This phrase two armies in Hebrew is Mahanaim. This is not a common word; it is a historical name from the Old Testament in Genesis 32:2. Jacob decided to go back to his fathers' land when he could no longer stay with his uncle Laban, to whom he had fled from his brother Esau....Jacob was returning with the fear that Esau still wanted to kill him. As he journeyed with his family, there were no strong ones with him. There were only feeble ones, women and children. Jacob was very frightened at the prospect of meeting Esau. On the way "the angels of God met him," and Jacob said, "This is God's camp." So he "called the name of that place Mahanaim" (vv. 1-2).

　　After he saw the two armies of God, Jacob did a marvelous thing. He divided his wives, children, and the rest of his possessions into two groups, or "two armies." He thought that if his brother Esau attacked one group, the other group could escape being slaughtered. This is full of spiritual significance. These two groups are not just the singular army of God but "two armies." This means that we are more than conquerors. It also signifies a strong testimony. God does not want "giants." He wants only the feeble ones, the weaker ones, the women and children. They can become His armies because the fighting is not in their hands but in His hands. He needs a people who are one with Him, a people who are submissive to Him, signified by the plaited hair (S.S. 1:11), and obedient to Him with a flexible will, signified by the neck with strings of jewels (v. 10).

　　When we consider how to arrive at the high peak of the revelation in Song of Songs, we should not trust in ourselves. We may think that because the apostle Paul was strong, he could do it. But the apostle Paul himself says that he was less than the least among the saints (Eph. 3:8). He says, "Who is weak, and I am not weak?" (2 Cor. 11:29)....In Romans 9:16 Paul says, "It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy." We may think that we can run, but we cannot. It is Christ who can run. Paul also says, "It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me" (Gal. 2:20a).

　　All who are strong in themselves will be disqualified....The weaker ones...who depend on the Lord will be counted worthy to be the overcomers....In Revelation 3:8 the Lord said that those in Philadelphia had

　　"a little power."...Remember that these two armies were composed of Jacob's wives and children. Eventually, none of them fought against Esau. It was God who fought Esau by changing his attitude. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, "Crystallization-study of Song of Songs," pp. 347-349)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, "Crystallization-study of Song of Songs," ch. 12; Life-study of Song of Songs, msgs. 7-8