Scripture Reading: Num. 11:29; Deut. 18:15-19; Acts 3:21-22; 1 Cor. 14:1, 3, 5, 24, 31

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 9　DAY 1　»

　　Heb. 1:1-2 God, having spoken of old in many portions and in many ways to the fathers in the prophets, has at the last of these days spoken to us in the Son, whom He appointed Heir of all things, through whom also He made the universe.

　　God is mysterious. He is altogether a mystery. But this mystery has been revealed by God's speaking. Without the divine speaking, God would remain forever unknowable. But our God no longer is mysterious. He is not a mystery, but a story….We can tell the story of God. The story of God is a matter of continual speaking; it is a speaking history.

　　The book of Hebrews begins with God speaking…. God has spoken! Praise Him! It is absolutely not a small thing that God has spoken. Without speaking God is mysterious. But He has revealed Himself in His speaking. He is no longer mysterious. Now He is the revealed God. (Life-study of Hebrews, pp. 31,17)

　　God created the universe and continues to do all things through His speaking. Therefore, everyone who has been saved and who has His life should learn to speak for Him and to speak His word.

　　The greatest mystery in the universe is God. Where is this mystery opened and revealed to man? This mystery is opened and revealed to us in His Word. Hebrews 1 tells us that our God is a speaking God (vv. 1-2). The speaking of the human race came from His creation. He is a speaking God, and He is also the Word. God's desire…is that man speak for Him. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 5,”Speaking for God,” p. 201)

　　Hebrews 1:1-2 says that God in ancient times, in the Old Testament times, spoke through the prophets, but now in the New Testament times, God speaks in Christ. In the entire New Testament age, not only in the three and a half years of Jesus Christ's earthly life, God speaks in the person of the Son. Today we have to realize that the Son has been made a corporate One. We the believers of His Son have all become the parts of this corporate One, a corporate Son. Therefore, God is still speaking through the Son, that is, through the church. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 3,”The Divine Speaking,” p. 308)

　　We have a speaking God, and this speaking God desires to have a speaking people. God desires to speak, and His Spirit is waiting for us to speak. If all the millions of Christians in the United States would speak for God and Christ every day, the whole earth would be overturned. However, … [the] habit of Christians [is] to go to church simply to listen to one speaker. We all need to rise up and overthrow this custom.

　　When we come to the church meetings, we must speak. There is more than one way to speak. Shouting, singing, praising, and praying are all different kinds of speaking….We should not begin the meeting in the meeting hall but in our dining room, living room, or bedroom. When we are preparing to come to the meeting, we should begin to sing, and on the way to the meeting, we should come singing, praising, praying, and shouting. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 2,”The Practice of Prophesying,” pp. 366-367)

　　If you speak when you come to the meeting, you will be filled up….Enjoy yourself by speaking. God spoke in His old creation, and He spoke in His new creation. Now it is our turn to speak in our daily life, in our ministry, in the meetings, in the Holy Spirit, by the spirit of faith, and with the word of Christ. We have the Holy Spirit in whom we can speak, we have the spirit of faith by which we can speak, and we have the word of Christ, which is God with the Spirit, which is life, with which we can speak. We have something that we can speak in, speak by, and speak with. We all can speak in the Holy Spirit, by the spirit of faith, and with the word of Christ. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 3,”The Divine Speaking,” p. 311)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Hebrews, msgs. 2-3; Life-study of 1 Corinthians, msg. 63; Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 39, 84; CWWL, 1990, vol. 2,”The Practice of Prophesying,” ch. 4; CWWL, 1985, vol. 5,”Speaking for God,” ch. 3; CWWL, 1985, vol. 3,”The Divine Speaking,” chs. 1-4

«　WEEK 9　DAY 2　»

　　Num. 11:29 But Moses said to him, Are you jealous for my sake? Oh that all Jehovah's people were prophets, that Jehovah would put His Spirit upon them!

　　1 Cor. 14:31 For you can all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be encouraged.

　　Prophets are God's spokesmen….For example, in Exodus 3 and 4 when Moses was called by God, he told God that he was slow of speech and of a slow tongue (4:10). So God gave Aaron to Moses to be his prophet (4:14-16; 7:1). Aaron did not predict for Moses; rather, he spoke for him. In the whole Bible, to prophesy is mainly to speak for God and to speak forth God; sometimes it is also to predict, … [which] is secondary. This is the proper meaning of prophesying in the Bible. (Truth Lessons—Level One, vol. 2, p. 19)

　　Prophets receive God's revelation directly and are borne by the Spirit of God to speak for God and speak forth God (2 Pet. 1:21). God is hidden, but through the speaking of the prophets, God Himself and His intention are explained. (Truth Lessons—Level Three, vol. 2, p. 121)

　　[In Numbers 11] two of the seventy [elders], who were not with the others around the Tent of Meeting, also prophesied (v. 26)…. Joshua was jealous for Moses, and he charged Moses to forbid them [vv. 27-28]. But Moses replied,”Are you jealous for my sake?” (v. 29a). Then Moses uttered a great prophecy:”Oh that all Jehovah's people were prophets, that Jehovah would put His Spirit upon them!” (v. 29b). This prophecy was promoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians and will be fulfilled in God's New Testament economy. (Life-study of Numbers, p. 133)

　　Paul in the New Testament was not the only one who had this kind of vision in 1 Corinthians 14:31:”You can all prophesy one by one.” It is very likely that Paul's concept came from Moses, because Paul, as one who understood the Old Testament, must have been familiar with what Moses had said in Numbers 11:29,”Oh that all Jehovah's people were prophets!” We know that when Paul wrote the Epistles in the New Testament, many of his words were derived from the Old Testament. Therefore, we see that this concept is consistent in both the Old and New Testaments—God wants His people to speak for Him. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 5,”Speaking for God,” p. 209)

　　Paul said nearly the same thing that Moses did…(Num. 11:29;…1 Cor. 14:31). It is a poor situation that most of the Christian people today understand the word prophesy to mean to predict. But when Moses used the Hebrew word for prophesy, his intention was not to indicate prediction. Even he himself did not predict much. In all his five books how many predictions are there? There are very few, but his writing, that is, his speaking, was altogether the speaking forth of God. He was speaking for God, and he was speaking God. Moses predicted little. It was the same with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Their books actually contain very few predictions but rather are full of speaking forth God, speaking for God, and speaking God directly. This was the Old Testament prophecy: there is not much prediction, but it is full of speaking forth of God, speaking for God, and speaking God directly. It is the same way with the Greek word in the New Testament. Prophecy in New Testament Greek means a kind of speaking of God. You speak God forth, you speak Christ out, you speak Christ to people, you speak for Christ. This is prophecy. To prophesy is mainly to speak for Christ, to speak Christ forth, to speak Christ out. To prophesy is to speak God, to speak Christ, to speak the divine interest, to speak the things concerning Christ and God, and to speak forth, speak out, and speak for God. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 3,”The Divine Speaking,” pp. 280-281)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Numbers, msg. 18; Life-study of Romans, msg. 26; Truth Lessons—Level One, vol. 2, lsn. 14; Truth Lessons—Level Three, vol. 2, lsn. 30; CWWL, 1986, vol. 1,”Elders' Training, Book 8: The Life Pulse of the Lord's Present Move,” ch. 3; CWWL, 1985, vol. 4,”Everyone Speaking the Word of God,” ch. 1; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, pp. 325-327

«　WEEK 9　DAY 3　»

　　Deut. 18:15 A Prophet will Jehovah your God raise up for you from your midst, from among your brothers, like me; you shall listen to Him.

　　John 7:16-17 Jesus therefore answered them and said, My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone resolves to do His will, he will know concerning the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.

　　In Deuteronomy 18:15-19 Moses spoke concerning Jehovah God's raising up of a Prophet (the coming Christ) like Moses for the children of Israel. Acts 3:22 applies these verses to Christ, indicating that Christ is the Prophet promised by God to His people, the children of Israel. The Prophet was to be from among their brothers (Deut. 18:15a). This indicates that Christ as the coming Prophet would be human as well as divine, that He would be God incarnated to be a man, the God-man. As God, Christ could not be from among the Jews as a brother, but as the incarnated One, the One who has put on human nature and who was a Jew, Christ was from among His brothers. Moses told the children of Israel that they were to listen to this Prophet (Deut. 18:15b).

　　The Prophet raised up by God would be according to all that the children of Israel asked of Jehovah their God at Horeb (vv. 16-17). They had told Moses that they could not bear to hear God's voice. They wanted a middleman, one who could hear God's word and pass it on to them. Because they wanted a prophet, Moses promised that God would fulfill their desire for a prophet. (Life-study of Deuteronomy, pp. 140-141)

　　Deuteronomy 18:18 indicates that God would raise up this Prophet through the incarnation of Christ to speak the word of God (John 1:14; 3:34; 7:16-17; Heb. 1:2a). When the Lord Jesus came, He surely spoke God's word. To speak God's word is to dispense God, to speak God forth into others. (Life-study of Deuteronomy, p. 141)

　　The Old Testament prophet Moses prophesied that Christ would come as a Prophet raised up by God (Deut. 18:15-19). In verse 15 Moses said to the children of Israel,”A Prophet will Jehovah your God raise up for you from your midst.” Moses indicated that God would give Him, the Prophet, the words that He ought to speak and that He would speak to God's people all that God commanded Him. In Acts 3:22-23 Peter quotes Moses' words to indicate that Christ is the Prophet promised by God through Moses to His people. Thus, the fulfillment of this prophecy was confirmed in Acts 3:22-23. Moses said that this Prophet would be raised up”from your midst.”…If Christ were merely God, He could not have been raised up from among the Israelites. However, as the incarnated God, Christ put on human nature and became a Jew. Thus, He is the Prophet raised up”from your midst,” as prophesied by Moses. Christ in His first coming was the Prophet raised up by God. He spoke the word of God (John 1:14; 3:34; 7:16-17; Heb. 1:2) and prophesied many things concerning God's economy, especially concerning the accomplishment of God's economy. Christ was indeed a great Prophet in His first coming. (Truth Lessons—Level Four, vol. 1, pp. 31-32)

　　As the firstborn Son of God being the Word of God (John 1:1) is God's oracle for the speaking and dispensing of God to carry out His eternal economy, so the many sons of God being members of the Word of God are God's oracle, speaking and dispensing God for the spreading of God and the increase of Christ. The firstborn Son of God is the oracle of God, and we are the many sons. This means that all the sons are God's oracle so that God may have a spread and Christ may have an increase. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5,”The Vital Groups,” p. 83)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Deuteronomy, msg. 20; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5,”The Vital Groups,” ch. 3; Truth Lessons—Level Four, vol. 1, lsn. 3; CWWL, 1977, vol. 1,”The Kernel of the Bible,” ch. 12

«　WEEK 9　DAY 4　»

　　1 John 2:20 And you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know.

　　27 And as for you, the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, abide in Him.

　　All the prophets in the Old Testament typify the Holy Spirit as the anointing ointment in the New Testament. In the New Testament the Holy Spirit, the anointing ointment, has entered into us personally and directly to be our Prophet. The law in the Old Testament represents and declares the nature of God's life, which is love, light, holiness, and righteousness. Today the nature of God's life has entered into us directly, so there is no longer any need for an outward law to declare it to us. In the Old Testament everything was a shadow, a type, a representation, but in the New Testament the reality has come…. In the Old Testament the representatives through whom the Holy Spirit gave revelations were the prophets. Today the Spirit of revelation, typified by the prophets, is in us, and the Spirit gives us revelations directly. (CWWL, 1955, vol. 4,”Further Talks on the Knowledge of Life,” pp. 303-304)

　　Today the law of life within us has replaced the law of the Old Testament, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit has replaced the prophets of the Old Testament. Although we still keep the law, we are keeping an inward law, not an outward law. God's life is the law in us, and the Holy Spirit, as the anointing ointment, is the Prophet in us.

　　Can we be a prophet to others? For example, if a saint wants to go to a certain place, he may come to us for fellowship, asking,”Should I go to a certain place? Would you seek an answer from God for me?”…It is not right for him to ask us, because we are not his prophet, but it is also not right for him to only ask himself, because he is not a prophet only in himself. Instead, he should seek the leading of the Spirit as the anointing ointment within him; the Spirit anointing within him is the Prophet. The responsible brothers in the church are not our prophets, the coworkers are also not our prophets, and we, needless to say, are not others' prophets.

　　The Spirit who inspired people to be prophets in the Old Testament is now the Spirit as the anointing ointment within all of us. Since the Spirit is anointing us from within, we no longer need an outward representative to be our prophet…. In the Old Testament the Spirit of God came upon certain people and moved only them. But now the Spirit has entered into all of us to be our Prophet. The Spirit who inspired people to be prophets has entered into us today as the anointing to be our Prophet personally and directly. (CWWL, 1955, vol. 4,”Further Talks on the Knowledge of Life,” p. 303)

　　In the New Testament the Holy Spirit has replaced the work of the Old Testament prophets. Today we have prophets in the church. Some can prophesy, while others can exhort and comfort. But we do not have personal prophets to come and tell us what we should do…. Everyone can know God directly and be led of God and know God's will directly. Do you have a prophet? I am ashamed that many people have considered me a prophet, that is, the kind of personal prophet mentioned above. The danger of a worker is to burden himself with the work of a prophet. When there are too many personal prophets, the proper place of the New Testament prophet is annulled. The New Testament church does not need any spiritual giants to act as personal prophets to teach others what they should do. That is the work of the Holy Spirit, not the work of the prophets. The main work of the New Testament prophets is for building up, encouraging, and consoling men. This is the work that God's workers should do today. (CWWN, vol. 42, pp. 242-243)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1955, vol. 4,”Further Talks on the Knowledge of Life,” ch. 17; CWWN, vol. 42, ch. 32; CWWL, 1961-1962, vol. 3,”The Exercise of the Spirit and the Building of God,” ch. 3; CWWN, vol. 53,”The Ministry of God's Word,” chs. 3-4

«　WEEK 9　DAY 5　»

　　1 Cor. 14:3 But he who prophesies speaks building up and encouragement and consolation to men.

　　5 I desire…especially that you would prophesy…that the church may receive building up.

　　31 For you can all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be encouraged.

　　Among all the gifts that are developed in the growth in life through the enjoyment of Christ, the top gift is prophesying. This is the excelling gift because it builds up the church (1 Cor. 14:4b-5). In the last verse of 1 Corinthians 12, a chapter on the gifts, Paul tells us to earnestly desire the greater gifts. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 4,”The Excelling Gift for the Building Up of the Church,” p. 455)

　　In the New Testament 1 Corinthians 14 is a chapter that especially speaks concerning prophesying. Because prophesying is the excelling gift, this chapter of forty verses begins with this word:”Pursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy” (v. 1). Verse 12 says,”Since you are zealous of spirits, seek that you may excel for the building up of the church.” The word excel in Greek denotes”to become full, to abound, to overflow,” hence”to excel”…We should pursue the Lord to such an extent that we can prophesy, speaking for the Lord, speaking forth the Lord, and speaking the Lord into others, that we may minister Christ for the building up of the church. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 2,”The Ministry of the New Testament Priests of the Gospel,” p. 256)

　　The New Testament believers are saved by God to be kings, priests, and prophets who prophesy for God (Rev. 1:5-6; 20:4b; 1 Cor. 14:31). God desires that each of the believers prophesy, that is, speak for and speak forth Him. (Truth Lessons—Level Three, vol. 2, pp. 122-123)

　　The speaking Spirit of God is earnestly expecting that we would speak. In the New Testament, God operates through the principle of incarnation. God does not do anything by Himself, especially in the matter of speaking. He prefers to speak through us and speak within us….When we speak, the very Lord whom we speak forth is speaking with us and within us. If we do not speak, God has no way to speak, but whenever we open up to speak, the Spirit who expects to speak immediately follows us and joins with our speaking. Eventually, it is difficult to tell whether it is He or we who is speaking.

　　The Spirit is always ready and expects to speak with us and through us, but we would not always cooperate with the Spirit to speak. Whenever we come to the meeting, we must try to speak. In a good sense, it does not matter whether we speak properly or wrongly, well or poorly. As long as we speak, God will be happy. Parents always like to hear their young children speak….For many years our Father in heaven has not seen us speak much in the meetings, and this should have bothered Him. If we come to the meetings speaking, even in an incorrect way, He will be happy. To speak incorrectly is much better than not to speak. When someone speaks, even incorrectly, he is learning to minister to others. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 2,”The Practice of Prophesying,” pp. 367-368)

　　To prophesy in the sense of telling for and telling forth requires much growth in life. For this, we need to know God and experience Christ. If we do not have the adequate knowledge of God and experience of Christ, we do not have anything to say for Him, and we cannot speak Him forth. Whenever a prophet speaks for God, speaks forth God, or speaks in the way of foretelling, he must speak by the Spirit of God. If we speak for God or try to speak forth God without the Spirit of life, our speaking will be ordinary human speaking, not prophesying. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 2172)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1988, vol. 4,”The Excelling Gift for the Building Up of the Church,” ch. 2; CWWL, 1989, vol. 2,”The Ministry of the New Testament Priests of the Gospel,” ch. 4; CWWL, 1985, vol. 4,”Meeting to Speak the Word of God,” chs. 1, 3

«　WEEK 9　DAY 6　»

　　1 Cor. 14:12 …Seek that you may excel for the building up of the church.

　　32 And the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.

　　Eph. 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.

　　The three constituting elements of prophesying [are]:…[to] possess a knowledge of the Word of God—the human element of learning;… [to] have the instant inspiration of the Holy Spirit— the divine element of inspiration;… [and to] have a vision concerning God's interest and economy, concerning the church as the Body of Christ, concerning the local churches, concerning the world, concerning the individual saints, and even concerning ourselves—the view through the enlightening of the divine light. (Prophesying in the Church Meetings for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ (Outlines), p. 33)

　　If we are going to prophesy, we need to live a prophesying life. First, we need to be revived every morning (Prov. 4:18; Lam. 3:22-24; Psa. 119:147-148)….Every twenty-four hours there is a new start, a dawn, a rising sun. This is according to the natural law in God's creation. We have to go along with this natural law. Every morning we have to rise early to contact the Lord, to call on Him, and to be revived by Him. In Lamentations 3:22-24 Jeremiah says that the Lord's compassions are fresh and new every morning. His mercies are like the fresh dew in the morning. Every morning we must enjoy this fresh dew to have a new start, a morning revival.

　　We must also live an overcoming life every day (Rev. 21:7). After the morning revival we should not stop contacting the Lord. We can live a victorious life by fellowshipping with the Lord moment by moment (1 John 1:6). We also need to walk according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4b), not doing anything outside of the Spirit. We should also speak the word (the Lord) all the time, …in season and out of season (2 Tim. 4:2a). We should not say,”Now is not the time for me to speak to people.” Seemingly it is out of season, but even if it is out of season, we still have to speak the word. Such a prophesying life qualifies us to prophesy.

　　In Taipei we gave the saints some practical fellowship concerning how to prepare to prophesy in the church meetings on the Lord's Day. Every week they will cover a chapter of a certain book of the Bible and divide this chapter into six portions for six days. In each section for each day, they choose two or three verses for pray-reading, and they enjoy the Lord with these verses for their morning revival. We charged the saints to write down a short reminder of what the Lord inspired them with in their time with Him in the morning. At the end of the week they will have six notes of what they were inspired with during the week. On Saturday night they use these notes of their inspiration to compose a prophecy to speak for three minutes. Then they practice it in their homes. They are instructed not to be too long or too short. When they go to the church meeting on the Lord's Day, they have something, thus fulfilling the Lord's word in 1 Corinthians 14:26:”Each one has.” They do not trust merely in instant inspiration, but they come to the meeting prepared with the riches of Christ that they have enjoyed….The saints need to be perfected to enjoy the Lord, to be saturated with the Word, to pray unceasingly, to fellowship with the Lord moment by moment, to walk in the Spirit, and to speak the Lord in the Spirit at all times. Then they need to learn how to compose a prophecy for the church meetings. I hope that we all would try to practice this for our church meetings. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 4,”The Excelling Gift for the Building Up of the Church,” pp. 463-464)

　　Further Reading: Prophesying in the Church Meetings for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ (Outlines), outls. 6-10; CWWL, 1989, vol. 4,”The Advance of the Lord's Recovery Today,” chs. 6-7; The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 202, 340; CWWL, 1988, vol. 1,”Speaking Christ for the Building Up of the Body of Christ,” ch. 1