Scripture Reading: Acts 13:22, 36; Eph. 1:9-11; 3:9-11; Heb. 10:5-10; Rom. 12:1-21

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 4　DAY 1　»

　　Acts 13:22 …He raised up David for them as king…and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man according to My heart, who will do all My will.

　　36 Now David, having served his own generation by the counsel of God…

　　1 Kings 8:17 And it was on David my father’s heart to build a house for the name of Jehovah the God of Israel.

　　We would like to fellowship concerning the living of a life according to God’s heart and will. The Old Testament contains a portrait of David, a man according to God’s heart, who did the will of God and served his own generation by the counsel of God (Acts 13:22, 36). In the New Testament, God’s heart and will in His economy are revealed in the books of Ephesians, Hebrews, and Romans. Ephesians speaks of God’s will (1:5, 9), the counsel of God’s will (v. 11), God’s good pleasure, the desire of God’s heart (v. 9), the mystery of God’s will (v. 9), and the economy of the mystery (3:9). Paul nearly exhausted his vocabulary in speaking of God’s will. God’s will is something according to God’s good pleasure, and this good pleasure was what He purposed. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 1, “The Practical and Organic Building Up of the Church,” p. 273)

　　Ephesians 3:11 speaks of the purpose of the ages, …the purpose of all time, including eternity past and eternity future. The purpose of God made by Him in Christ is such an eternal purpose, and this is according to the counsel of God’s will. Moreover, God’s will is according to the good pleasure of His heart.

　　God’s heart and will in His New Testament economy, God’s good pleasure, the counsel of His will, and His purpose are to have a Body for the enlargement and expression of Christ, the embodiment of the processed Triune God (Eph. 1:9-11, 22-23; 3:9-11).

　　God created the heavens and the earth with many items, and eventually He created mankind in order to have a Body composed of human beings who are saved, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, and transformed into the image of the processed Triune God. God wants to have such a Body for Christ, who is the very embodiment of the processed Triune God…. We all are here as a part of [Christ’s] enlargement. Therefore, we are a part of Christ’s expression. This is God’s great will.

　　God’s heart and will is also to have a church to be the organic Body of Christ for the manifestation of His multifarious wisdom (vv. 9-10)….The heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man, man is for the producing of the church, and the church is the enlargement and expression of the processed Triune God. This is God’s will. Whether we live in one place or another does not matter much. We do not need to pray much for that. Instead, we should focus our entire being on God’s will to have the church, which is the Body of the embodiment of the processed Triune God. Through this church the processed Triune God is enlarged and expressed. This is the first aspect of God’s will. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 1, “The Practical and Organic Building Up of the Church,” pp. 273-275)

　　Each chapter of the book of Ephesians unveils the mystery of the Body of Christ as the organism of the Triune God from a particular point of view. Chapter 1 shows us that the Body of Christ is the issue of the dispensing of the Divine Trinity. Chapter 2 shows us that this Body is a masterpiece as the new man. In chapter 3 Paul unveils that we are supplied with the riches of Christ to be the fullness of the Triune God. In chapter 4 is the one Body built up by the one ministry…. [Chapter 5] reveals the children of light for the preparation of the bride of Christ. The children of light and the bride of Christ are the two crucial matters in Ephesians 5. To be the children of light who walk in love and light is to be prepared to participate in the bride of Christ. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 3, “The Body of Christ,” p. 412)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1984, vol. 3, “The Divine Economy,” ch. 1; Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, msg. 12

«　WEEK 4　DAY 2　»

　　1 Cor. 12:24 …God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked.

　　Eph. 1:22-23 And He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.

　　Concerning the spiritual and divine things for the church, we must keep in mind four crucial points. First, we must go through the cross. Our native flavor should be crossed out by Christ…. In the church there is room for no natural person, but Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:11). On the cross both the Jews and the Gentiles were crossed out. Second, everything should be by the Spirit. Third, this is to dispense Christ to others. Fourth, everything is for the building up of the church. In other words, whatever we do should be through the cross and by the Spirit to dispense Christ to others for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

　　But today people would not take the cross or live by the Spirit. Instead, they would live by their flesh. They would not care for dispensing Christ. Instead, they care for their kind of social life. After our meetings we like to congregate with the ones who match our natural background….The Japanese flavor, the Chinese flavor, the Taiwanese flavor, and the American flavor all have to be crossed out. We should not do things according to our feeling but according to the Spirit. We should not enjoy Christ merely for ourselves but to dispense Christ to others. The flavor of our natural man with our culture is the flavor of men, the flavor of the flesh. That has to be crossed out by the Spirit in order that we may dispense Christ for the church. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” pp. 157-158)

　　God has blended the Body together (1 Cor. 12:24). The word blended also means “adjusted,” “harmonized,” “tempered,” and “mingled.”…The Greek word for blended implies the losing of distinctions. One brother’s distinction may be quickness, and another’s may be slowness. But in the Body life the slowness disappears, and the quickness is taken away. All such distinctions are gone. God has blended all the believers of all different races and colors….Only God can do this. A husband and a wife can have the harmony in their marriage life only by losing their distinctions.

　　In order to be harmonized, blended, adjusted, mingled, and tempered in the Body life, we have to go through the cross and be by the Spirit, dispensing Christ to others for the sake of the Body of Christ. The co-workers and elders must learn to be crossed out. Whatever we do should be by the Spirit to dispense Christ. Also, what we do should not be for our interest and according to our taste but for the church. As long as we practice these points, we will have the blending.

　　All these points mean that we should fellowship. When a co-worker does anything, he should fellowship with the other co-workers. An elder should fellowship with the other elders. Fellowship tempers us, fellowship adjusts us, fellowship harmonizes us, and fellowship mingles us. We should forget about whether we are slow or quick and just fellowship with others. We should not do anything without fellowshipping with the other saints who are coordinating with us. Fellowship requires us to stop when we are about to do something. In our coordination in the church life and in the Lord’s work, we all have to learn not to do anything without fellowship.

　　The blending is for the building up of the universal Body of Christ (Eph. 1:23) to consummate the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2) as the final goal of God’s economy according to His good pleasure (Eph. 3:8-10; 1:9-10). (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” pp. 159-160, 162)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” ch. 6; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” chs. 1, 2, 5

«　WEEK 4　DAY 3　»

　　Heb. 10:5 Therefore, coming into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.”

　　9-10 He then has said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second, by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

　　God’s will is first to have a Body for Christ….The second aspect of God’s will is to have Christ as the replacement for all the sacrifices and offerings so that we may enjoy Him as our all in all (Heb. 10:5-10)….The sacrifices and the offerings meant everything to [the Old Testament saints]. However, Christ came to do God’s will by replacing all the sacrifices and offerings in order that He could be everything to us. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 1, “The Practical and Organic Building Up of the Church,” p. 275)

　　Hebrews 10:1-12 indicates that Christ is the fulfillment of all the offerings. He came to do the will of God (vv. 7, 9), that is, to replace the sacrifices and offerings, which were types, with Himself in His humanity as the unique sacrifice and offering for the sanctification of God’s chosen people. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 462)

　　The word in Psalm 40:6-8 is actually the word of Christ, as quoted by Paul in Hebrews 10:5-7. The prophecy in Psalm 40:6-8 is one of the greatest revelations concerning the all-inclusive Christ in the commission that God committed to Christ in His first coming through incarnation, which was to put away the animal sacrifices of the old covenant and to establish Himself, in His body, as the sacrifice of the new covenant.

　　In this prophecy Christ comes through His incarnation to terminate God’s old economy and initiate God’s new economy, His New Testament economy, by replacing the animal sacrifices and establishing Himself as the unique sacrifice of the new covenant. As such a sacrifice, Christ is the factor that enacts God’s New Testament economy (Matt. 26:28) that He may be its centrality and universality for the producing and building up of the church as His organic Body, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem. Hence, Christ has changed the age for the consummating of God’s new creation out of God’s old creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). His changing of the age is greater than the creation of the universe mentioned in Genesis 1. (Psa. 40:6, footnote 1)

　　In the Old Testament there are five main categories of offerings: the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. Hebrews 10:5 says, “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.” God prepared a body for Christ so that He could offer Himself to God to replace all the offerings. This was God’s will, which Christ came to do. Now the sacrifices and offerings are no longer needed because they have been replaced by Christ. Christ today is all the offerings, and He is all the sacrifices.

　　Christ took away and replaced all the Old Testament types, and He established Himself to be “the second” [Heb. 10:9]. As “the second,” Christ is everything. Christ’s replacing of all the Old Testament sacrifices and offerings, taking away the Old Testament types and establishing Himself as everything to us, was God’s great will. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of Christ’s body once for all, to enjoy and partake of Him as our everything (v. 10). What is the will of God today? It is simply for us to enjoy Christ. To live a life according to God’s heart and will is to have Christ as everything to us and to live by Christ. God’s great will is for us to be a part of the Body, enjoying Christ as everything. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 1, “The Practical and Organic Building Up of the Church,” pp. 275-277)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 459-462

«　WEEK 4　DAY 4　»

　　John 4:23-24 But an hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truthfulness, for the Father also seeks such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.

　　[In] John’s Gospel, truthfulness…denotes the divine reality becoming man’s genuineness and sincerity (which are the opposite of the hypocrisy of the immoral Samaritan worshipper—4:16-18) for the true worship of God. The divine reality is Christ (who is the reality—14:6) as the reality of all the offerings of the Old Testament for the worship of God (1:29; 3:14)….[This divine reality] eventually becomes their genuineness and sincerity in which they worship God with the worship that He seeks. (John 4:24, footnote 5)

　　The burnt offering (Lev. 1:3), which was wholly for God’s satisfaction, typifies Christ as God’s pleasure and satisfaction. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He made God happy and satisfied Him because He always did God’s will (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38) and sought His glory (John 7:16-18)….Therefore, He pleased God and satisfied Him. The meal offering (Lev. 2:1) typifies Christ in His humanity as food for God and especially for those who have fellowship with God and serve Him. In His humanity Christ is our food and constant satisfaction. The meal offering was made of fine flour mingled with oil (Lev. 2:4). The fine flour, with its evenness and fineness, typifies Christ’s perfect humanity with its balance, evenness, and fineness. The four Gospels portray the fineness of the Lord’s behavior in His human living. The oil mingled with the fine flour signifies the divine Spirit. This mingling typifies the mingling of divinity with humanity in the Lord Jesus. The frankincense added to the meal offering (Lev. 2:15) signifies the fragrance of resurrection life. This is Christ typified by the meal offering, the mingling of humanity and divinity with the fragrant manifestation of resurrection life to be our daily nourishment and supply.

　　The peace offering (Lev. 3:1) typifies Christ as the Peacemaker (Eph. 2:15)…. Because there can be no peace in the universe without Christ, we need Him to be our peace offering. Christ has “made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:20). Now as the fulfillment of the type of the peace offering, Christ is our peace (Eph. 2:14) with God and with one another. Through Him and in Him we have peace with God and man…. In typology, the peace offering was food for God and the serving ones. Today, in reality, we with God may enjoy Christ as the sweet, satisfying peace offering.

　　The sin offering (Lev. 4:3) is a type of Christ as the One who died on the cross to deal with the sinful nature of our fallen being. As the sin offering, Christ has dealt with the sin that dwells in us (Rom. 7:20)….This sin is actually the evil nature of Satan. Because we are sinful, even sin itself, we need Christ to be our sin offering. As the reality of the type of the sin offering, Christ, who did not know sin, was “made sin on our behalf” by God (2 Cor. 5:21)…. In Him our sinful nature has been judged.

　　Christ is also typified by the trespass offering (Lev. 5:6)…. On the cross Christ bore all our trespasses before God. He “Himself bore up our sins in His body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24)…. As the sin offering Christ was made sin for us, but as the trespass offering He bore our sins.

　　The wave offering typifies Christ as the resurrected One…. The resurrected Christ is “waving”; that is, He is living.

　　The drink offering typifies Christ as the One poured out as real wine before God for His satisfaction [Isa. 53:12]. In His death Christ offered Himself to God as the offering that fulfills all the types of the offerings. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 459-462)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Leviticus, msgs. 2, 14-15; The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 459-462

«　WEEK 4　DAY 5　»

　　Rom. 12:4-5 For just as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

　　The third aspect of God’s great will is to have the believers in Christ practice the Body life (Rom. 12). For this we must first present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice to do the will of God, that is, to practice the Body life (v. 1), not being conformed to this age but being transformed by the renewing of the mind that we may prove the will of God, which is that we practice the Body life (vv. 2-3)….Then we must exercise our gifts in the Body life (vv. 4-8). We have to preach the gospel, have home meetings to nourish the new believers, have small group meetings to perfect the saints, and learn to prophesy.

　　The saints who are practicing the Body life should live a life of the highest virtues, not of their human life or love but of the divine life and love by being burning in their spirit (vv. 9-21). Our body should be presented, our soul should be renewed, and our spirit should be burning. If we are such persons, we will have the practice of the Body life and a life of the highest virtues by God’s divine life and love. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 1, “The Practical and Organic Building Up of the Church,” p. 277)

　　Two words from Romans 12:5 indicate the organic union—in Christ….“We who are many are one Body in Christ.” Just this one little phrase tells us from which angle Romans 12 speaks of the Body. It speaks from the angle of the life union, from the angle of the organic union. How then could we get into Christ? We were not born in Christ; we were born in Adam, but by being reborn we have been transplanted into Christ…. Whenever you read in Christ, you must remember that this indicates the organic union with Christ. In Christ always implies…the fact that you are organically one with Christ.

　　Why does Romans 12 talk about the function of the Body? Because it talks about the Body based upon the organic union we have in Christ. In this union with Christ there is life. Dentures may be put into my mouth, but there is no organic union….We have to see that Romans 12 talks about the Body of Christ from the angle of the organic union, from the uniting life, from a life that unites us together not only with Christ but also with all the other members of Christ…. Romans 12 talks about the Body from the angle of the organic union.

　　We all have to realize that the Body of Christ is altogether a matter of life that keeps us in an organic union with Christ. When we remain in this organic union, we are in the Body. When we do not remain in this organic union, we are out of the Body. You need to check yourself for one day to see how much time you remain in this organic union. You will have to admit that you do not remain very much in this organic union. Occasionally we get there, but quite often we get out of there, so we are not in the Body. The actuality of the Body is the remaining in the organic union with Christ. If we are going to be actually living in the Body life, we must remain in the organic union with Christ. In other words, we must be remaining in Christ. So John 15 charges us to abide in Him. To abide in Him simply means to remain in this organic union. When we remain in this organic union, we are actually living in the Body. If we do not remain in this organic union with Christ, we have left the Body. As long as you say something by yourself, you have left the Body. This means that your gossip, your free talk, your loose conversation, is a strong sign that you have left the Body.

　　The Body is not an organization or a society. The Body is not just a bunch of Christians coming together. The Body is something that is held together by the organic union with Christ. When we remain in the organic union with Christ, we are just living in the Body….We are many yet one Body in Christ (Rom. 12:5). In Christ implies an organic union. (CWWL, 1980, vol. 1, “Perfecting Training,” pp. 253-255)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1980, vol. 1, “Perfecting Training,” chs. 23-24; Life-study of Romans, msg. 25

«　WEEK 4　DAY 6　»

　　Rom. 12:1-3 I exhort you therefore, brothers,…to present your bodies a living sacrifice…. 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….For I say… to everyone who is among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to be sober-minded…

　　Bodies in Romans 12:1 is plural and sacrifice is singular…. Although many bodies are presented, they become one sacrifice, implying that, although we are many, our service in the Body of Christ should not be many individual services, separated and unrelated. All our service should constitute one whole service, and this service must be unique because it is the service of the one Body of Christ. (Rom. 12:1, footnote 5)

　　After presenting our body, we need to have our mind renewed. The renewing of the mind, which results from setting the mind on the spirit (Rom. 8:6), is the base for the transformation of our soul. Our mind is the leading part of our soul, and as it is renewed, our will and emotion automatically follow to be renewed also. To be renewed means that a new element is wrought into our being. This produces an inward metabolic transformation, making us suitable for the building up of the Body of Christ, which is the practice of the church life. (Rom. 12:2, footnote 4)

　　After we have presented our body for the church life, it is very easy for us to fall into the opinions of our mind in our soul, which results in our being damaged in the church life; therefore, our soul, and particularly the mind of our soul, needs to be transformed. However, once our mind is transformed, we may easily fall into a negative and dormant state. At that time we must be burning in spirit that we may be stirred up and encouraged to go on in the church life in a positive way. (Rom. 12:11, footnote 1)

　　In Romans 12:3 we come to a very practical point. Everyone of us thinks highly of himself. Outwardly you may appear to be humble, but inwardly you think quite highly of yourself. This is a problem to the church life…. If you think highly of yourself, your mind is not sober or normal. It… needs to be adjusted and renewed.

　　We need to realize that the many members of the one Body have different functions [vv. 4-5]….I hope that so many of the young brothers could say to one another, “Brother, what I can do, you cannot do, and what you can do, I cannot do.”

　　In verse 6 Paul says that we have “gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.”…Grace is simply God in Christ as our enjoyment. When this grace, this divine element, which is the divine life, comes into our being, it brings with it certain skills and abilities which are the gifts. The gifts, the spiritual abilities, come from the divine element which we have enjoyed…. [They are] the gifts of grace in life.

　　Romans 5:17 says that “those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life.”…Furthermore, in 5:21 Paul says that “grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” These two verses…prove that grace is related to life. What is grace? It is the divine life for our enjoyment. When the eternal life of God becomes our enjoyment, that is grace. In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul says, “I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me.” The grace of God which was with Paul was the divine life within Paul as his enjoyment. Thus, he labored more than the other apostles, although actually it was not Paul himself, but the divine life which he enjoyed. Thus, grace in Romans is a matter of life. (Life-study of Romans, pp. 303-306)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “Crystallization-study of the Complete Salvation of God in Romans,” ch. 5; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ,” ch. 4