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Christ's faithful followers are shining and living stars, those who follow Christ as the shining and living Star to be His duplication—Dan. 12:3; cf. Gen. 22:17:
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The living stars follow the heavenly, living, up-to-date, and instant vision of Christ as the centrality and universality of God's economy—Acts 26:16-18.
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The living stars are those who bless God's people; the more we praise the Lord for God's people and speak well of them in faith, the more we put ourselves under God's blessing—Num. 24:9; Gen. 12:2-3; 22:17.
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The living stars give heed to the prophetic word of the Scriptures”as to a lamp shining in a dark place” so that Christ as the morning star rises in their hearts day by day; if we give heed to the word in the Bible, which shines as a lamp in a dark place, we will have His rising in our hearts to shine in the darkness of apostasy where we are today, before His actual appearing as the morning star—2 Pet. 1:19; John 6:63; Rev. 2:28; 22:16; 2 Tim. 4:8:
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In the principle of the morning star, a Christian should rise up early because the early morning is the best time to meet the Lord (to fellowship with God, to praise and sing, to pray-read the Bible with the ministry, and to pray to the Lord)—S. S. 7:12; Psa. 5:1-3; 57:8-9; 59:16-17; 63:1-8; 90:14; 92:1-2; 108:2-3; 143:8; Exo. 16:21.
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He will secretly give Himself as the morning star to those who love Him and who watch and wait for Him so that they may taste the freshness of His presence at His coming back after a long absence.
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The living stars enjoy and are filled with the sevenfold intensified Spirit to make them intensely living and intensely shining for God's building—Rev. 3:1; 4:5; 5:6.
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The living stars are the messengers of the churches, those who enjoy and experience the pneumatic Christ as the Messenger of God and as the fresh message from God so that they can dispense the fresh and present Christ into the people of God for the testimony of Jesus—1:16, 20; 2:1; Mal. 3:1-3.
Morning Nourishment
Psa. 5:3 O Jehovah,…in the morning I will set forth my words in order to You, and I will watch.90:14 Satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness that we may give a ringing shout and rejoice all our days.
Rev. 22:16 …I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright morning star.
2:28 And to him I will give the morning star.
The best time to meet the Lord, to contact Him, and to fellowship with Him is early in the morning. Manna is gathered before the sun rises (Exo. 16:14-21). Anyone who wants to eat God's food should rise up early. When the sun waxes hot, manna melts and is gone. If we want to receive spiritual nourishment and spiritual edification, and if we want to have spiritual fellowship and spiritual supply, we need to rise up early. If we rise up late, the manna will be gone. The early morning is the very time when God dispenses His spiritual food and holy fellowship to His children…. All those who know God rise up early.
We should spend the best time of the day—the early morning—before the Lord, rather than in other things. Some Christians spend the whole day on other matters and kneel down to read the Bible and pray only at night when they are about to go to sleep. No wonder they are ineffective in their Bible reading, their prayer, and their fellowship with the Lord….The moment we believe in the Lord, we should set apart the early morning for fellowshipping with God and for contacting Him. (CWWN, vol. 48,”Messages for Building Up New Believers (1),” pp. 165-167)
Today's Reading
Revelation 2:28 tells us that Christ will give the morning star to the overcomers. The New Testament reveals that Christ, who is signified by the heavenly luminaries, the lights, is the bright morning star (22:16). Concerning the types of Christ, the entire Bible begins with Him as the light (Gen. 1:3) and ends with Him as the morning star, a luminary. The morning star appears in the darkest hour, after midnight and prior to the dawn. This indicates that Christ will appear as the bright morning star in the darkest time, prior to the close of this age.No star is as bright as the morning star. At the darkest time, within the overcomers there is a star shining. The overcomers will have and enjoy the particular light, Christ as the morning star. At the beginning of the New Testament the star was outside of religion (Matt. 2:1-6), but at the end of the New Testament the star is within the church….Today the star is in the church and among the churches. Jesus Christ, who is the morning star, is walking today among the local churches. To see the star, we must come to the local churches….When we are in religion, we have the sense of being in darkness, but when the Lord brings us into the churches, we see the bright star. The heavenly star today is in the local churches.
According to 2 Peter 1:19, the morning star is associated with the Bible….If we take heed to the word of prophecy, the day will dawn within us, and the morning star will arise in our hearts. To take heed to the prophetic word is to pay attention to the living Word. It is not simply to read the Word; it is to enter into the Word until something arises within us. We may call this the dawn, or the morning star. In 2 Peter 1:19 the term”morning star” in Greek is phosphoros, a light-bearing substance….Christ is the real phosphorus shining in today's darkness….We must take heed [to the Word] until something begins to shine within us. That shining will become the divine”phosphorus” in our heart. Then we will have the morning star. We will be like the wise men, and something from the heavens will shine over us. We must come to the sure Word and open up our whole being to the Word—our mouth, our eyes, our mind, our spirit, and our heart—until Christ as the morning star rises up in us and shines over us. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 4190-4192)
Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 48, ch. 11; The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 113, 407, 411; CWWL, 1953, vol. 3,”The Knowledge of Life,” ch. 14