Scripture Reading: Deut. 8:7-10; Josh. 1:2-3, 6-9, 16-18; 5:11-12; Col. 1:12

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 5　DAY 1　»

　　Deut. 8:10 And you shall eat and be satisfied, and you shall bless Jehovah your God for the good land which He has given you.

　　Col. 1:12 Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light.

　　The good land, the land of Canaan (Deut. 8:7-10), is a type of the all-inclusive Christ, the Christ who is all and in all and who is everything to us. The Passover, the manna, the tabernacle with its furniture, and all the offerings are types depicting various aspects of Christ. Only the land of Canaan is a full type, the complete and all-inclusive type, of Christ. In the Old Testament no type other than the good land shows that Christ is the all-inclusive One. Therefore, the good land is the ultimate type of Christ found in the Scriptures. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 466-467)

　　In the Bible the land is a figure, a symbol, of Christ. The land that came out of the death water on the third day (Gen. 1:9-10, 13) is a type of the resurrected Christ who came out of death on the third day. Many different kinds of life, including vegetable, animal, and human life, then came out of the land (Gen. 1:11-12, 24-25). This signifies that Christ is the source of all kinds of life. Everything God prepared for mankind is concentrated in the land. God's intention revealed in the Scriptures is that Christ should be our land. Christ as the good land, the land that came out of the death water, the land that was elevated above and surrounded by the death water, is depicted by the land of Canaan.

　　This land is the crucial focus of the Old Testament. For this reason the Lord speaks of the land again and again. He called out Abraham and told him that He would bring him into a certain land, the land of Canaan (Gen. 12:1). The center of God's plan, speaking according to type, is the good land with its temple and city.

　　In Colossians Paul employs the concept of the all-inclusive land. In Colossians 1:12 he speaks of "the allotted portion of the saints." This portion is the all-inclusive Christ for our enjoyment. The Greek word in this verse can be rendered "portion" and can also be rendered "lot," referring to an allotment; [hence, it is an "allotted portion"]. When Paul was writing the Epistle to the Colossians, he no doubt had in mind the picture of the allotting of the good land to the children of Israel (Josh. 14:1). He used the word portion with the Old Testament record of the land as the background. God gave His chosen people, the children of Israel, the good land for their inheritance for their enjoyment. In Colossians Christ is revealed as our portion, our lot. Just as the land of Canaan was everything to the children of Israel, so Christ, the reality of the type of the good land, is everything to us.

　　The good land provided whatever the children of Israel needed: water, wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive trees, animals, milk, honey, stones, iron, copper. All these items, most of which are mentioned in Deuteronomy 8:7-10, are types of Christ. He is the water that springs from valleys and hills. He is the wheat, which signifies the incarnated and crucified Christ, and the barley, which signifies the resurrected Christ. The vine typifies Christ as the sacrificing One who cheers God and man; the fig tree, the sweetness and satisfaction of Christ as our life supply; the pomegranate, the abundance and beauty of the life of Christ; the olive tree, Christ as the man filled with the Spirit and anointed with the Spirit as the oil of exultant joy; the animal life, Christ with His redeeming life; milk and honey, Christ in His richness and sweetness; stones, iron, and copper, Christ as the materials for building and fighting.

　　In Acts 26:18 Paul refers to the all-inclusive Christ as our inheritance. As the result of having our eyes opened and of being transferred from the authority of Satan to God, we not only have the forgiveness of sins, but we also receive a divine inheritance. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 467-468)

　　Further Reading: The All-inclusive Christ, ch. 1

«　WEEK 5　DAY 2　»

　　2 Cor. 4:3-4 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those who are perishing, in whom the god of this age has blinded the thoughts of the unbelievers that the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine on them.

　　[Our] inheritance is the Triune God Himself with all that He has, all He has done, and all He will do for His redeemed people. This Triune God is embodied in the all-inclusive Christ (Col. 2:9) who is the portion allotted to the saints as their inheritance. The Holy Spirit, who has been given to the saints, is the foretaste, the seal, the pledge, and the guarantee of this divine inheritance (Rom. 8:23; Eph. 1:13-14), which we are sharing and enjoying today as a foretaste and will share and enjoy in full in the coming age and for eternity (1 Pet. 1:4). The good land truly is a type of the all-inclusive Christ. Christ, the embodiment of the processed Triune God, has been given to us as our inheritance. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 468)

　　The center of the Old Testament is the temple within the city built in the good land. If we know the Scriptures and have light from God, we shall realize that the center of God's eternal plan, speaking according to the type, is the land with its temple and city. Beginning with the book of Genesis, the Old Testament takes the land as the center and mentions again and again something related to the land. As we have pointed out repeatedly, the land is the figure of the all-inclusive Christ, a type of Christ as everything to us.

　　Satan, the enemy of God, has been doing his utmost continually to frustrate the people of God from enjoying the good land. He will do whatever he can to spoil the enjoyment of Christ as the land.

　　Out of the fallen race made rebellious by Satan, God called one man, Abraham, and told him that He would bring him into a certain land. However, even this chosen one gradually drifted away from the land into Egypt, and the Lord had to bring him back to the land. Eventually, his descendants left this land and went down into Egypt. After a long period of time, the Lord brought His people out of Egypt and back to the good land. Centuries later, the enemy moved again and sent the army from Babylon to spoil the land and capture the people. But after seventy years the Lord brought them back once more to the good land. By all this we see that the history of the Old Testament is related to the land. God's work is always to recover the land, whereas the enemy's work is always to frustrate, spoil, and hinder the enjoyment of the land and do something to bring the land into chaos. The enemy's intention is to assault the land and take it over. But after the enemy makes his attempt, God moves to fight for His people and to recover the land again. (Life-study of Colossians, pp. 165-167)

　　We must fight the battle with the enemy. Though we are enjoying a portion of the all-inclusive Christ, yet the enemy and his evil forces in the heavenlies are still usurping and occupying the land. You and I have to fight the battle to take possession of the entire land. Brothers and sisters, as soon as we enjoy Christ in such a way, we realize in our spirit the reality of the evil forces in the heavenlies. These evil forces are veiling the all-inclusiveness of Christ from the Lord's children. Very few of the Lord's people can realize the all-inclusiveness of Christ simply because of the accusations of the evil powers in the heavenlies. To this very day, the evil forces are still veiling the all-inclusiveness of Christ. Therefore, we must fight the battle. There is an exceedingly real spiritual warfare in which we must engage. By enjoying something of the all-inclusive Christ, we will be burdened for this fighting; we will be burdened for this battle. That is why we have been formed as an army. The conflict is before us. (The All-inclusive Christ, p. 165)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Colossians, msgs. 6, 20

«　WEEK 5　DAY 3　»

　　Eph. 6:11-12 Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil, for our wrestling is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.

　　Without [the book of] Joshua we cannot fully understand the spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6. There is spiritual warfare in the invisible scene behind the visible scene. This means that in addition to war on the earth, there is a war between God and Satan in the air. The heavenlies are full of Satan's forces. Christ is our good land, and God wants us to gain Christ, but there is a layer of devilish, demonic forces between us and the good land. If we would take possession of the good land for our enjoyment, we have to defeat these satanic forces. (Life-study of Joshua, p. 60)

　　Joshua conquered many nations and killed many kings, but he conquered only a narrow strip of land. According to Joshua 1, the land stretched from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates. The good land was wide and spacious; however, Israel's territory never spread to the Euphrates. Since there was much fighting and rebellion after the time of Joshua, there was not the opportunity for God's people to build a temple. When David gained more land and there was a time of peace, Solomon, David's son, was able to build the temple of God to set up God's kingdom on earth.

　　In principle, our situation is the same in the Lord's recovery today....We are God's Israel, and we have our Captain, but the Lord's recovery is still involved in a struggle. Every day we need to engage in spiritual warfare.

　　It is hard to get an increase....Our enemies are not humans on the earth but evil forces in the air, who hinder people from believing into the name of the Lord Jesus and who frustrate the saved ones from pursuing Christ to the uttermost.

　　We all need to know what the recovery is, where the recovery is, and what kind of persons can take the recovery on. We all need to see that in the Lord's recovery today we are on a battlefield. We should be today's Joshua and Caleb, fighting against Satan's aerial forces so that we can gain more of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, setting up and spreading the kingdom of God so that Christ can come back to inherit the earth. It is not adequate for us simply to be spiritual and holy. We need to learn of Joshua and Caleb to represent God's interest in this age to fight down the enemies that Christ can be gained by people and that Christ can be increased by His pursuers.

　　In Ephesians 1, which is typified by Joshua 1, we can see that everything has been finished and completed and that every blessing in Christ is there in the heavenlies, waiting for God's chosen, redeemed, and perfected people to take and enjoy as their inheritance. According to Ephesians 1 we have been chosen by God to partake of His holy nature and we have been predestinated by God to have His life in order to become His sons (vv. 4-5). Furthermore, Christ's redemption has brought us into Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God to be the realm in which and the element by which we can be made God's inheritance (vv. 7, 11). Having been redeemed and having been put into Christ as the realm and the element, we are daily being reconstituted and transformed by this element to be a treasure for God's inheritance. As we take Christ and enjoy Him as our inheritance, we become God's inheritance.

　　Ephesians 2 indicates that in the heavenlies there are different layers. Christ is in the highest layer, the third heaven, to be our everything as our good land. But there is a lower layer of the heavenlies—the air, where Satan as the ruler of the authority of the air is frustrating the people on earth from contacting God and from receiving Christ (v. 2). This is typified by the Canaanites, who were frustrating Israel from entering into the good land. (Life-study of Joshua, pp. 60-61, 14)

　　Further Reading: The All-inclusive Christ, chs. 12-13

«　WEEK 5　DAY 4　»

　　Josh. 1:3 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads I have given to you, as I promised Moses.

　　6 Be strong and take courage, for you will cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.

　　In Genesis God promised Abraham that He would give the good land to Abraham's descendants. More than four hundred years later, God sent Moses to deliver Israel out of Egypt, telling him that He was sending him to bring the people into the good land. It was a fact that God had given the land to Israel, but this fact was not yet practical. Rather, it was a promise that still needed to be fulfilled. Not even at the time when Israel came to the plains of Moab under the leadership of Joshua was the giving of the good land to Israel a practical fact, for the land had not yet become Israel's possession. Only after Israel had gained the good land and had taken possession of it did the land actually become theirs as a practical fact. (Life-study of Joshua, pp. 31-32)

　　The good land had been promised to Israel, and the situation was ready for the land to be given to Israel in actuality. God, the Giver, had done everything, but there was still the need for Israel, the receiver, to do something to take possession of what God had given.

　　The principle is the same with the preaching of the gospel today. God's salvation has been promised, prepared, and completed in Christ and with Christ. Everything is ready for this salvation to be given to sinners. God wants to give salvation to sinners, but they need to respond to Him by receiving His gift of salvation. To respond to God by receiving His salvation is to do something helpful for God. Actually, to receive God's salvation is to do God a favor. If you know the heart of God, you will realize that whenever a sinner repents and receives Christ, that sinner is doing God a favor.

　　At the beginning of the book of Joshua, Israel was ready to go forward, to take the good land, to possess it, and to enjoy it. For Israel to do this meant that they were doing something for Christ, who is typified by the good land. Otherwise, the good land would have lain there idle. Today, Christ as the good land is ready to be taken and possessed by His believers. However, where are those who are ready to take Him, possess Him, and enjoy Him as the all-inclusive good land? Many sinners are not willing to respond to Christ, and even many of His believers are not willing to respond to Him by taking Him, possessing Him, and enjoying Him.

　　In order for God to regain the earth from the usurping hand of the enemy, we need to be in full cooperation and coordination with Him in the principle of incarnation. We need to be one with God in His heart's desire and in His move on earth. Today God wants to save people, but in order to do this, He needs us to be one with Him according to the principle of incarnation.

　　God's charge (Joshua 1:1-4) was that Joshua should enter into God's promised land. His charge to the land-takers was based upon His ordination, initiation, and choosing. The land-takers needed to sacrifice themselves, deny themselves, give up their own interest and preference in all things, and run the risk of their lives for the carrying out of God's eternal economy.

　　In verse 2 God said to Joshua, "Moses My servant is dead; now then arise, and cross over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, to the children of Israel." Here we see that the good land had been given to Israel by God.

　　"Every place on which the sole of your foot treads I have given to you, as I promised Moses" (v. 3). This verse indicates that even though God had given Israel the good land, Israel still needed to take the land. On the one hand, there was God's giving of the good land; on the other hand, there was the cooperation of God's people in rising up to fulfill God's commission to possess the land. (Life-study of Joshua, pp. 32, 9-10)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Joshua, msgs. 1-2

«　WEEK 5　DAY 5　»

　　Josh. 1:16-17 And they answered Joshua, saying, All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. As in all things we listened to Moses, so we will listen to you. Only may Jehovah your God be with you, as He was with Moses.

　　The content of the book of Joshua is that Joshua led the children of Israel to enter the promised land and to take it, possess it, allot it, and enjoy it. The sequence here is quite significant. First, the children of Israel entered the promised land, and then they possessed it and occupied it. Following this, the land was allotted, apportioned, to each tribe in a particular way. Then they enjoyed the land. (Life-study of Joshua, p. 4)

　　The children of Israel agreed with Joshua in taking God's commission [Josh. 1:16-18]. Their response implied their willingness, their readiness, and their being in one accord not only with Joshua but also with Jehovah their God as expressed by their blessing of Joshua in the name of their God. They were one with the Triune God in the great wheel of His economy for the purpose of gaining the good land. (Life-study of Joshua, p. 12)

　　The pagan tribes which occupied the promised land signify the different aspects of the natural life....God has promised to cut off all the pagan tribes, all the aspects of our natural life.

　　However, it is important for us to realize that God's driving out of the natural life depends on two matters. First, it depends on our growth, on our increase, reproduction, and multiplication. The more we grow, the more God drives away the natural life. Second, God's driving out the pagan tribes depends on our taking the initiative to drive out these tribes. In Exodus 23:28-30 God indicates that He will drive out the tribes, but in verse 31 He says, "You shall drive them out from before you." Yes, God promises to drive them out, but we must take the initiative. (Life-study of Exodus, p. 881)

　　Joshua 1 shows us that everything was ready. Israel had been prepared through God's dealing with them for several hundred years in Egypt and for forty years in the wilderness. Israel had become a corporate Joshua, chosen, called, redeemed, saved, trained, prepared, and qualified by God. There in the plains of Moab they did not have any land or inheritance. They were ready to go on with God as one to take the land of Canaan, which typifies the rich, all-inclusive Christ.

　　In Joshua 1, God's move had reached a certain situation. At that time the entire earth was full of idols and demons. In a sense, God had been chased away from the earth, which He had created for Himself, and did not have a way to be the Lord of the earth as well as of the heavens. However, among all the nations and peoples, God had separated Israel, His elect, for the carrying out of His economy. They had nothing to do with any idols or demons. On the contrary, they were occupied with the God of the heavens and the earth. After being formed, constituted, disciplined, trained, and qualified, God's people had come to the plains of Moab where they were waiting to enter into the good land, to take it, and to possess it.

　　God came in to call Joshua and to tell him to take the lead so that he and the children of Israel could enter into the good land and possess it. Joshua took the word from Jehovah and charged the children of Israel to perform God's commission (vv. 1-15). The land-takers had to prepare themselves to move with God in His move....To take the good land, they had to enter into a full coordination with God in His move. If the children of Israel had looked at themselves, they would have said that there was no possibility. But their possibility was the unique God, who needed His elect people to cooperate with Him in His move to carry out His economy, in His desire to move in His economy as the great wheel. Here God seemed to be saying, "Israel, My elect, you must know that there is no need for you to do anything. Simply cooperate with Me. I am motivating the wheel to run. You need to be one with Me. Go in to possess the land, and I will slaughter the idol worshippers through you. Without you I cannot do anything." (Life-study of Joshua, pp. 13-14, 8-9)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Joshua, msgs. 4, 6, 10

«　WEEK 5　DAY 6　»

　　Num. 36:13 These are the commandments and the ordinances which Jehovah commanded through Moses to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.

　　6:27 So shall they put My name upon the children of Israel, that I Myself may bless them.

　　The children of Israel were formed into a body to fight for God as warriors and serve God as priests for the carrying out of God's purpose. God's purpose is to have the New Jerusalem, to mingle Himself with His redeemed people. The formation of the children of Israel into a body to fight for God and to serve God typifies the New Testament believers being built up into the organic Body of Christ to fight for God for the carrying out, in its service to God, of God's eternal economy.

　　The children of Israel were formed into an army able to fight for the protection of God's testimony (the Ark in the tabernacle). This indicates that, in a very real sense, the church today is fighting for the protection of the incarnated God. God in Himself needs no protection, but God in His embodiment needs to be protected by the fighting of the church. (Life-study of Numbers, pp. 12-13)

　　To serve the Lord and to fight for His kingdom are not shallow, small, or light matters. On the contrary, these matters are very deep, high, and profound. We must be up to the level of a Nazarite, one who overcomes natural affection, earthly pleasure, rebellion, and unexpected death. If we overcome these four things and stay away from them, we will be in a position to receive God Himself as our blessing.

　　After the record of the Nazarite vow, the Lord told Moses to tell Aaron and his sons—all the priests, who were so close to Him—to bless His people in the way of His Divine Trinity. Jehovah is the Triune God. As the Triune God, He dispenses Himself into us in His divinity and in His Divine

　　Trinity. Without being triune, God could not dispense Himself into His chosen people as their blessing. The very blessing is God Himself dispensed into His chosen people. Although God desires to bless His chosen people in this way, they need to come up to a standard that matches His blessing.

　　The unique blessing in the whole universe is God Himself. Anything besides God is vanity. The entire universe was created by God, yet without God, apart from God, even the universe created by God is vanity. The existence of the universe is a great miracle, but without God the miraculous existence of the universe is vanity. Apart from God, everything is "vanity of vanities" (Eccl. 1:2). Only God Himself is real. Only He is the blessing to us. If we gained the entire universe yet missed God, we would be the most pitiful persons. History is filled with cases of people who gained many riches and many material things but who eventually realized that, without God, it was all vanity. God Himself is our blessing, and this blessing comes to us through the dispensing of the divine Being into us in His Divine Trinity—in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

　　The traditional and even the basic theology concerning God's Divine Trinity does not have the view that the Divine Trinity is for God to dispense Himself into us. This light has come to us only in the last thirty years.

　　Ephesians 1 gives us a record of how the Triune God blesses His chosen, redeemed, and transformed people in His Divine Trinity. This chapter is mainly on the three steps of God's blessing us in His Divine Trinity, that is, on how He blesses us in the Father (vv. 3-6), in the Son (vv. 7-12), and in the Spirit (vv. 13-14). Eventually, because of such a flow of the Divine Trinity as the blessing to God's chosen people, there is an issue, and the issue of this blessed flow is the church as the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all (vv. 22-23). The church as the Body of Christ is the total issue of the Divine Trinity as a flow to dispense all that God is into His chosen people. The Body of Christ is the fullness, the totality, of the One who fills all in all. (Life-study of Numbers, pp. 77-78)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 11, 73-74