«　WEEK 9　DAY 4　»

　　Psa. 48:2 Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

　　11-12 Let Mount Zion rejoice; let the daughters of Judah exult because of Your judgments. Walk about Zion, and go around her; count her towers.

　　Zion was the city of King David (2 Sam. 5:7), the center of the city of Jerusalem, where the temple as God’s dwelling place on earth was built (Psa. 9:11; 74:2; 76:2b; 135:21; Isa. 8:18). Zion within Jerusalem typifies the body of overcomers, the perfected and matured God-men, within the church as the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 12:22; Rev. 14:1-5). As the highlight and beauty of the holy city Jerusalem (Psa. 48:2; 50:2), Zion typifies the overcomers as the high peak, the center, the uplifting, the strengthening, the enriching, the beauty, and the reality of the church (48:2, 11-12; 20:2; 53:6a; 87:2). The overcomers as Zion are the reality of the Body of Christ and consummate the building up of the Body in the local churches to bring in the consummated holy city, New Jerusalem, the Holy of Holies as God’s dwelling place, in eternity (Rev. 21:1-3, 16, 22). In the new heaven and new earth the entire New Jerusalem will become Zion, with all the believers as overcomers (Rev. 21:7 and footnote 1). (Psa. 48:2, footnote 1)

　　The church life is the right place for you to be an overcomer. But this does not mean that as long as you are in the church life, you are an overcomer. It is one thing to be in the church life. It is another thing to be an overcomer in the church life.

　　In the Old Testament there was the city of Jerusalem with Zion as the center….The church life is today’s Jerusalem; within the church life there must be a group of overcomers, and these overcomers are today’s Zion. According to Revelation 14, the overcomers are standing on Mount Zion with the Lord (vv. 1-5). Actually, in typology the overcomers are today’s Zion….Without Zion (the overcomers), Jerusalem (the church life) cannot be kept and maintained.

　　Zion is the high peak, the center, the uplifting, the strengthening, the enriching, and the reality of the church, the holy city. If there are no overcomers in a local church, that church is like Jerusalem without Zion….A local church must have some overcomers, and these overcomers are the peak and the center of that local church. They are the uplifting, the strengthening, the enriching, and the reality of that local church….Once a church has some full-time workers as overcomers, that church is like Jerusalem with the peak of Zion. The overcomers as Zion are the highlight, the center, and the reality of the church.

　　The overcomers as today’s Zion are for the consummation of the holy city (the church). They are to consummate, to finish, the building up of the local church and to bring in the consummated New Jerusalem in eternity (21:1-2). In order to complete the building up of the Body, the Lord needs the overcomers, and the building up of the Body consummates in the New Jerusalem. This is why at the end of the Bible, in the last book, there is the calling for the overcomers. Today the way to become vitalized is to answer the Lord’s call to be an overcomer.

　　There are two ways before us today. We can either choose to be vitalized or choose not to be vitalized. I am presenting these two ways before us. Which way will we take? Are we going to be vitalized or not? We have to make a resolution. In Judges 5:15 Deborah said, “Among the divisions of Reuben / There were great resolutions in heart.” We have to make a resolution to be the overcomers, the vitalized ones. An overcomer overcomes anything that replaces Christ or that is against Christ. In the Bible there is the age of the overcomers, and there is the calling for the overcomers. Furthermore, there is a way for us to be vitalized so that we can be the overcomers. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups,” pp. 274-275)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups,” ch. 1