Scripture Reading: Eph. 2:15; 4:22-24; 3:16-17a; 1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 12:2; Col. 3:10-11

DAY 1 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 2 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 3 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 4 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 5 & DAY 6 Outline　MorningRevival

«　WEEK 7　DAY 1　»

　　Eph. 2:15 Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace.

　　4:24 And put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality.

　　According to Ephesians 4:24, the new man is created in righteousness and holiness of the reality, but according to Colossians 3:10, the new man is being renewed. How can the new man be both created, which has nothing to do with anything old, and renewed, which is related to something old?…From Christ's side, the new man has already been created. But from our side, our experience, the new man is being renewed. According to the new creation, the new man has been completed by the work of Christ. But according to our experience, the new man is in the process of being renewed daily….This renewing is actually the putting on of the new man….The new man has been created, but now our need is to put him on in our experience. (Life-study of Ephesians, p. 217)

　　The Greek word rendered “put on” [in Colossians 3:10] is used with respect to clothing. Suppose a brother has a suit of clothes tailor-made for him. We may say that the suit has been completed. Now the brother must put on this suit in a proper way. He cannot put it on all at once; rather, it is a gradual, step-by-step procedure. The putting on of a suit of clothes, however, is not a fully accurate picture of the putting on of the new man. The putting on of a suit is objective, whereas the putting on of the new man involves an inward renewing. We do not put on the new man in an outward, objective way. On the contrary, the putting on of the new man begins from within; it is related to an inward, subjective renewing.

　　On the cross Christ has slain the ordinances in order to produce the one new man in resurrection. Hence, in the resurrection of Christ, the new man was created and brought forth. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, the life-giving Spirit came into our spirit, bringing with Him the new man as a finished product. In this way the new man was born into our spirit. Therefore, since the time of our regeneration, the new man has been in our spirit. Now the new man must saturate every part of us. This spreading is both the putting on of the new man and the renewing. As Colossians 3:10 says, we need to put on the new man, which is being renewed. How much of the new man we put on depends on how much we are renewed.

　　Our former manner of life, our heritage from Babel, and even the Jewish ordinances have been abolished in the flesh of Christ by His death on the cross. Instead of treasuring our heritage, we should disown it. On the positive side, we need to see that the new man has already been created and, by regeneration, has been put into our spirit. The need now is for our spirit to become the dominant part of our being. This means that our spirit mingled with the Spirit of God must become the spirit of our mind (Eph. 4:23). If our spirit is the spirit of our mind, then all our living will be by the spirit. Whatever we do will be according to the spirit. This spirit of our mind will then become the renewing spirit. As we are renewed by this spirit, we put on the new man.

　　This renewal takes place by the putting away of the former manner of life and by our living according to the spirit. In the past we have spoken a great deal about our spirit. However, we should not separate this from the matter of putting off our former manner of life. If we would have the new man as our living, we must first put off our former manner of life. Then we must allow our spirit to become the leading, dominating, directing, and governing element of our whole being. If we live in this way, spontaneously the process of renewing will take place within us. Such a continual renewing is the putting on of the new man. This is the church life, the life and living of the new man. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 217-218, 221-223)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 25; Life-study of Colossians, msgs. 28, 52, 62

«　WEEK 7　DAY 2　»

　　2 Cor. 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

　　Phil. 3:10 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.

　　We may be good saints in the church who have been kept and preserved by the Lord, but have we been renewed with the divine element? Is there some renewing going on with us, or are we remaining the same day by day and year after year? It would be tragic if we would pass through many sufferings and still remain the same. In order to consummate His renewing work in us and with us, God becomes our life and nature within. In addition to this, God as the sovereign Lord controls the entire universe in order to renew us. God uses the environment in order to work His life and nature into us. Without the environment, we could never be renewed. We would remain the same. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 2, “Being Renewed Day by Day,” p. 358)

　　We may be strong in our habit and strong in what we are. God's intention is not merely to chastise or correct us, but to use the outward environment to trouble us, to remind us, and to wake us up to realize that we have God as our nature, yet we do not live Him according to His nature. We may discipline [our children] according to our disposition, our being, and our habit. God, therefore, uses the environment to put us into “prison.” Then we are reminded to pray and the eventual outcome of our prayer is not merely that we get corrected but that we get renewed. Then when we are going to discipline our children, we will consider whether we are disciplining them in ourselves or with God and through God….Now God is in our disciplining of our children, and our disciplining them becomes a human-divine disciplining.

　　We are renewed by the addition of God into our being, by having more of the divine element added into our being…. The real Christian life is to have God added into us morning and evening and day by day. Sometimes God may allow the church to pass through a “storm.” God may allow this “storm” to occur because He wants us to be renewed. The tragic thing is that while we are suffering in the “storm,” we would remain the same with no renewing…. We have to pray, “Lord, I don't want to remain the same. I do not want to remain the same this year as I was last year. I want to be renewed day by day.” God's intention is for us to be renewed day by day. In order to be renewed, we need the new addition of God into us daily.

　　God's intention is altogether to make us new. This is not an overnight matter. It takes a long time in our life, and it requires us to contact God, to receive God, and to get God added into us all the day. It requires us to pray, confessing our sins and rejecting ourselves to take the cross of Christ. To take the cross of Christ is a killing, and this killing is death. This death brings in resurrection, and in this resurrection the divine life in us will carry out its renewing capacity. Then we will be changed metabolically. This process of renewing takes a period of years.

　　Moment by moment we have to receive God so that He can be added into us, and we have to reject ourselves to receive the death of Christ so that we can cooperate with the Lord within us. Then we will enjoy not only the renewing capacity but also the renewing result, which is a metabolic change in our behavior, in our character, in our disposition, and even in our habit. The most difficult thing to renew is our habit. When we experience God in Christ daily, we will see that God's intention is to renew us bit by bit, especially to renew our habit. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 2, “Being Renewed Day by Day,” pp. 359-361, 363)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Spirit with Our Spirit,” ch. 13; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “The Issue of the Union of the Consummated Spirit of the Triune God and the Regenerated Spirit of the Believers,” ch. 3

«　WEEK 7　DAY 3　»

　　Phil. 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

　　Titus 3:5 Not out of works in righteousness which we did but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.

　　The one new man was created in Christ, but on you nothing of the new man may exist. Thus, we have to put on, to wear, the new man, which has already been created in Christ. The way we put on the new man is by being renewed in the spirit of our mind.

　　Romans 8:16 tells us that the Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God. This verse strongly testifies that the regenerating Spirit indwells our spirit. The divine Spirit dwells in our human spirit, and now “he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). This indicates the mingling of the Lord as the Spirit with our spirit. The more that we pray, fellowship with the Lord, call on His dear name, and open our entire being to Him, the more such a mingled spirit spreads into our mind, thus becoming the spirit of our mind. It is in such a spirit that we are renewed for our transformation. (CWWL, 1977, vol. 3, “The One New Man,” pp. 515-516)

　　Our mind can be renewed only by our setting it on the spirit. Not only so, the New Testament teaches us to have the mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:5). This is equivalent to taking the mind of Christ Jesus as our mind….We should care for the transformation by the renewing of our mind, which the Lord Spirit is carrying out by moving and working in us through the divine life and the divine nature.

　　The way of renewing lies in prayer and in reading the Scriptures, because for us to be renewed in our mind is for us to get rid of all our old concepts concerning the things of the human life and be made new again by the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the enlightening of the Holy Spirit. When you read the Bible and become familiar with it, the Holy Spirit will enlighten you and guide you. When the Holy Spirit comes to enlighten you while you thus pray and read the Word day by day, the mind in you is being changed from the old to the new.

　　Such a renewing of the mind issues in the transformation of the believers in their spiritual life. Titus 3:5 refers to the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. The washing of regeneration washes away our old life; following this, the renewing of the Holy Spirit changes our mind. When our mind is renewed, our whole being is transformed. This is to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. The washing of regeneration purges away all the things in the old nature of our old man, whereas the renewing of the Holy Spirit dispenses the new things, the divine essence of the new man, into our being. Through this we turn from the old condition in which we were into a completely new condition, from the state of the old creation into the state of the new creation.

　　Today our problem is due mostly to our mind. Brother Nee said that some people are afraid of others stealing their wallet from their pocket, so they are always feeling in their pocket for their wallet; he said that this is an indication that they have mentally stolen from others. This is to have a disordered mind. Sometimes when someone has something wrong in his mind, he begins to have wild imaginations. A wife may begin to weep when she indulges in wild imaginations. All these matters are related to the mind. God Himself has become our life, He is changing our disposition, and He is also renewing our mind. Thus, we can have the proper concepts and can pursue Christ in a proper way….Our disposition needs to be sanctified so that we may partake of God's holy nature; our mind also needs to be renewed so that we may be transformed in our spiritual life. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Organic Aspect of God's Salvation,” pp. 407-409)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Organic Aspect of God's Salvation,” ch. 3

«　WEEK 7　DAY 4　»

　　Matt. 16:24 …If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.

　　Phil. 1:19-20 …This will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death.

　　Paul…could say, “Walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4), in the realm of the newness of the divine life. In Ephesians 4:23 Paul says, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” To be renewed in the spirit of our mind is inward and intrinsic. If we learn to be renewed in this way, we will have a deeper perception with which to understand persons and matters….Often our knowing of people is shallow. We lack the perception that penetrates the barriers and coverings because we do not practice being daily renewed in the spirit of our mind. The renewing in the spirit of our mind always revolutionizes our logic, philosophy, thought, concept, and psychology. As a result, our perception in all things is different, and we have a deeper understanding of the people we meet. Even by the way they ask questions, we can know people's condition. A natural man is a very shallow man, but if we are spiritual, we will be deep. If we are deep, we will know others, even though they will not be able to know us (1 Cor. 2:15). (CWWL, 1990, vol. 2, “Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990,” p. 453)

　　The renewing Spirit is mingled with our regenerated spirit as one mingled spirit to spread into our mind (Eph. 4:23) to renew our entire being as a member of the new man by putting off our old man (v. 22), that is, by renouncing and denying our old self (Matt. 16:24), and by putting on the new man (Eph. 4:24), that is, by applying what Christ has accomplished in creating the new man (2:15).

　　Ephesians 4:23 says that we are to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. To put off the old man and to put on the new man are by being renewed in the spirit of our mind. When the Holy Spirit who dwells in and is mingled with our spirit spreads into our mind, that mingled spirit becomes the spirit in our mind. It is by this mingled spirit that our mind is renewed.

　　In Matthew 16:24 the Lord said that if we want to come after Him, we need to deny ourselves and take up our cross. To deny ourselves is to renounce ourselves, to apply the cross to ourselves. This is to put off the old man. To put on the new man is to live and magnify Christ through the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19-21). The renewing is altogether wrapped up with the Spirit and our regenerated spirit, which became the one spirit. This one spirit is the renewing spirit in our mind to change our mind.

　　The Lord uses the environmental sufferings to consume, to kill, our outer man so that our inner man may be renewed day by day. Second Corinthians 4:16 says, “Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying [is consumed], yet our inner man is being renewed day by day”…This renewing is by God's working with every situation in our daily environment. Every day we are troubled from many directions. This trouble could be from our spouse, our children, or our co-workers. This trouble consumes our outer man, our natural man, so that our inner man can be renewed with the supply of the resurrection life.

　　Since we believers all will be the consummating part of the New Jerusalem, we have to be renewed to be as new as the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2). The New Jerusalem is first called the holy city, so we have to be holy. Then it is called the New Jerusalem, so we have to be new If we are not renewed, we are not qualified to be in the New Jerusalem. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” pp. 131-132)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” ch. 4

«　WEEK 7　DAY 5　»

　　Col. 3:10-11 And have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.

　　The focal point of being renewed in the spirit of our mind is for the one new man. [According to Colossians 3:10-11], in the new man Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free man have no place. The renewal is not merely for our behavior. The renewal is even more to get rid of our racial ordinances and to get rid of the natural persons. Not only is there no natural person in the new man, but there is no possibility, no room, for any natural person. In the new man there is room only for Christ. The new man is not Chinese, Japanese, French, English, German, or American. The new man is Christ. Christ is all and in all in the new man. In the new man there cannot be any Jew or Greek. There cannot be any Chinese or any Japanese. In the new man there cannot be any white or any black. We all need to be renewed for the existence of the one new man. (CWWL, 1977, vol. 3, “The One New Man,” pp. 516-517)

　　In Colossians 3:10 are the creation of the new man and his renewal. The creation was completed on the cross, but the renewal needs to go on. We need to have our mind renewed for the existence of the new man. God has created the new man, but the new man has not fully come into existence because of our unrenewed mind. Our mind is the problem….For people from different races and cultures to get saved is much easier than being renewed concerning their way of living. The ordinances in Japan are absolutely different from the ordinances in the United States. Everywhere I traveled I had to adjust to the particular ordinances of the people I visited. These different ordinances usually create a problem for us because our mind needs more renewing.

　　God created one corporate man. God needed that man to fulfill His heart's desire, but man fell and became divided and scattered. By being divided and scattered, man became useless in the hands of God. Look at today's situation. The whole world is a divided and scattered world….The real situation of the world is that the nations of this earth are not united but divided. In every level of society there is division.

　　Romans 12:2 exhorts us not to be conformed to this age….To not be conformed to this age means…that we should not follow the way of divisions. Romans 12:2 and Ephesians 4:23 are concerning the matter of renewing, and both verses are for the Body life….If you look into the context of Romans 12, you can see that the will of God is to have the Body. The renewing of the mind is for the Body life. The problems in the Body life are related to the different ordinances.

　　Paul was all-inclusive when he listed the types of natural persons for which there is no room in the new man. The Greeks are for philosophical wisdom; the Jews, for miraculous signs (1 Cor. 1:22). Circumcision refers to the observers of the Jewish religious rituals; uncircumcision to those who do not care for the Jewish religion. A barbarian is an uncultured person. Scythians were considered the most barbarous. A slave was one who had been sold into slavery, and a free man was one who was free from slavery. Christians today have been divided by race, by nationality, by language, and also by religious matters. Some Christians are for baptism by immersion, whereas others are for sprinkling. This is no different than being for circumcision or uncircumcision. Religious matters can divide Christians. Others have divided over the way a Christian meeting should be held. Religious opinions always divide the members of the Body. We need to be renewed in our natural mind, which means that our mind needs to be filled up and saturated with the Spirit. The Spirit needs to permeate every fiber of our mentality. (CWWL, 1977, vol. 3, “The One New Man,” pp. 517-518)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1977, vol. 3, “The One New Man,” chs. 3, 5-7

«　WEEK 7　DAY 6　»

　　Rom. 12:2 And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well pleasing and perfect.

　　1 Cor. 12:13 For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.

　　Ephesians 5:18 tells us to be filled in spirit. To be drunk with wine is to be filled in the body, whereas to be filled in the spirit (our regenerated spirit, not God's Spirit) is to be filled with Christ (1:23) unto the fullness of God (3:19). The Lord wants to spread from our spirit first into our mind and then into our emotion and will. Our regenerated spirit mingled with the indwelling Spirit of God spreads into our mind. It is in this mingled spirit of our mind that we are renewed. To drink of the Spirit is to open ourselves to the Lord by praying to Him, calling upon His name, and fellowshipping with Him. The Spirit of God today is the drinking water. The more we drink of the Spirit, the more He fills us with Himself, and the more He saturates our mind to renew it for transformation. (CWWL, 1977, vol. 3, “The One New Man,” p. 516)

　　We need to be renewed in our mind not just for our personal, ethical behavior but for the one new man. Many Christians today still hold on to their natural, religious, and individual concepts because they will not let the Spirit spread into their mind. They do not let the Spirit take over their mind. We all need to open ourselves up to the Lord and pray, “Lord, I am here. I want my mind to be fully opened to You. Come in and fill me up. Permeate, saturate, and possess my entire inward being.” I believe that if we would pray to the Lord in such a way, the Spirit would have a way to permeate our mind. When the Spirit permeates our mind, the ordinances are over. When the Spirit has possessed and saturated our mind, we will not care for black, white, Chinese, Japanese, American, British, German, French, Italian, or Spanish. We will not care whether the meeting is noisy or quiet. We will only care for the one new man.

　　Even though in this modern era so many races and peoples have been brought together, people still like to keep themselves divided. To keep ourselves divided from other Christians because of religious ordinances is to be conformed to this age because this age is one of division. To cause division is to be conformed to this age. We need to interpret Romans 12:2 in the way of not being conformed to this age of division….No natural person has any place in the one new man.

　　The only way the one new man can be realized practically is by our mind being renewed. The one new man cannot be realized by our being corrected or taught but by the Spirit of God permeating our mentality. When the element of God gets into our mentality, we will think as He thinks, we will see things the way He does, and we will consider the situation as He does. It is then that the one new man will come into existence. There will be no races, no social ranks, and no religious differences. Christ will truly be all and in all. I believe that this is the up-to-date vision of the Lord's move on this earth. The Lord is moving on to get the one new man.

　　The building of the church depends upon the existence of the new man. If the new man comes into existence, no doubt, the builded church is here. Regardless of the present situation of division, the Lord is going to get the new man. Everything that the Lord is doing in this present age is to usher in the practical existence of the one new man. To drop our natural, religious concepts, our mind needs to be saturated, permeated, possessed, and taken over by our mingled spirit. Then our concepts will be fully revolutionized, and we will no longer have any ordinances. The new man will then come into existence. This is the Lord's move on the earth today. (CWWL, 1977, vol. 3, “The One New Man,” pp. 519-520)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1977, vol. 3, “One Body, One Spirit, and One New Man,” ch. 9