Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26, 31; 2:1-2; Matt. 11:28-30; Exo. 31:12-17; Isa. 1:1; 2:1; 13:1; 15:1

DAY 1 & DAY 2 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 3 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 4 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 5 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 6 Outline　MorningRevival

«　WEEK 7　DAY 1　»

　　Matt. 11:28-30 Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

　　In Matthew 11:29 and 30 we have the way to rest….The Lord’s yoke is to take the will of the Father. It is not to be regulated or controlled by any obligations of the law or religion, nor to be enslaved by any work, but to be constrained by the will of the Father. The Lord lived such a life, caring for nothing but the will of His Father (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38). He submitted Himself fully to the Father’s will (Matt. 26:39, 42). Hence, He asks us to learn from Him. God’s will is our yoke. Thus, we are not free to do as we please; rather, we are yoked. Young people, do not think that you are so free or liberated. In the Lord’s recovery we all have been yoked. How good it is to be yoked! The Lord’s yoke is pleasant and His burden is light. The Lord’s yoke is the Father’s will, and His burden is the work to carry out the Father’s will. Such a yoke is pleasant, not bitter, and such a burden is light, not heavy. (Life-study of Matthew, pp. 390-391)

　　In Matthew 11:29 the Lord tells us to learn from Him. He is meek and lowly in heart… In all the opposition the Lord was meek, and in all the rejection He was lowly in heart. He submitted Himself fully to the will of His Father, not wanting to do anything for Himself nor expecting to gain something for Himself. Hence, regardless of the situation, He had rest in His heart. He was fully satisfied with His Father’s will.

　　If we take His yoke upon us and learn from Him, we shall find rest for our souls. The rest we find by taking the Lord’s yoke and learning from Him is for our souls. It is an inward rest; it is not anything merely outward in nature.

　　If we are opposed as we minister, and we resist, we shall not have peace. But if instead of resisting we submit to the will of the Father, testifying that the opposition is of the Father, we shall have rest in our souls. John the Baptist did not regard his imprisonment as of the Father; therefore, he was not at rest. If he had realized that his imprisonment was due to the Father’s will, he would have been at rest, even in prison. Christ, the heavenly King, always submitted to the Father’s will, taking God’s will as His portion and not resisting anything. Hence, He was always at rest. We must learn of Him and also take this view. If we do, we shall have rest in our souls. (Life-study of Matthew, p. 391)

　　The Lord called all who toil and are burdened to come to Him, and He would give them rest (Matt. 11:28). The religious Jews were toiling and burdened by working under the law. On this earth who is not toiling or burdened? This world is a toiling world, full of burdens, so the Lord called us to come to Him for rest. Rest means perfect peace and full satisfaction.

　　The Lord charged the disciples to take His yoke upon them and learn from Him because He is meek and lowly in heart, and they would find rest for their souls (v. 29). To be meek means to not resist opposition, and to be lowly means to not have self-esteem. The rest from the Lord is for our souls; it is an inward rest, not something merely outward in nature. The harassment and the troubles are in our soul. Paul tells us to be anxious in nothing and to tell the Lord all our requests. Then the peace of God will guard our hearts and our thoughts in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6-7).

　　The Lord assured the disciples that His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matt. 11:30). The Greek word for easy means “fit for use”; hence, good, kind, mild, gentle, easy, pleasant—in contrast to hard, harsh, sharp, bitter. The yoke of God’s economy is like this. Everything in God’s economy is not a heavy burden but an enjoyment. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living,” pp. 549-550)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Matthew, msg. 31; CWWN, vol. 47, “Authority and Submission,” ch. 5

«　WEEK 7　DAY 2　»

　　Matt. 11:25-26 At that time Jesus answered and said, I extol You, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for thus it has been well pleasing in Your sight.

　　1 Pet. 2:21 …Christ also suffered on your behalf, leaving you a model so that you may follow in His steps.

　　It is the Father’s pleasant will to hide the contents of His economy from the wise and intelligent, the worldlings, and reveal them to infants, the Son’s believers.

　　In His prayer the Lord extolled the Father, acknowledging the Father as Lord of heaven and of earth. To extol is to praise with acknowledgment….The Lord praised the Father by acknowledging that the Father is the Lord of heaven and earth. We should learn to praise by acknowledging the Father in His economy, His will, and His doing. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living,” pp. 555-556, 548)

　　The first God-man is the Head of the Body, the prototype, and the model (Matt. 11:29a). He came as one grain of wheat to produce many grains (John 12:24). The one grain was the prototype, and the many grains are the mass production. The mass production is the duplication of the model. Peter says that Christ is a model to the believers (1 Pet. 2:21). The Greek word for model means literally a writing copy, an underwriting used by students to trace letters and thereby learn to draw them. We become the reproduction of Christ as the original writing copy. Christ is the prototype to produce a mass production and the model to produce the many duplications.

　　Christ was the first God-man, and we are the many God-men. We have to learn of Him in His absolute submission to God and His uttermost satisfaction with God. Christ was so submissive to and satisfied with the Father and His will.

　　The Lord was meek, meaning that He did not resist His opponents. He was also lowly, meaning that He humbled Himself among men in His heart.

　　The Lord’s believers answer His call in their heart and come to Him bodily (Matt. 11:28a). To come to Him bodily means that our entire being has to come to Him. This is why Paul charges us in Romans 12:1 to present our bodies to the Lord as a living sacrifice. We have to present our bodies in a practical way by being in the meetings of the church. Since I was saved by the Lord in 1925, I have come to Him with my entire being.

　　The believers copy the Lord in their spirit by taking His yoke—God’s will—and toiling for God’s economy according to His model (Matt. 11:29a; 1 Pet. 2:21). The Lord told us to learn from Him. To learn from Him is to copy Him, not to imitate Him outwardly. In this way we become His duplication and mass production. The first requirement in learning from Him is to take His yoke, which is God’s will. God’s will has to yoke us, and we have to put our neck into this yoke. Seventy years ago as a young man, I took the yoke of Jesus. That yoke has protected me for the past seventy years.

　　We also need to be those who toil for God’s economy. All the worldly people are toiling and are burdened in many things. They are very busy. The Lord is calling those who are toiling, who are burdened, and who have no rest or satisfaction to come to Him so that He can give them the real rest with satisfaction. The rest without satisfaction is not the real rest. We take His yoke and toil for God’s economy according to His model, following Him in His footsteps.

　　The hardest thing is to rest in our soul. People lose sleep because their soul is bothered. The rest that we find by taking the Lord’s yoke and learning from Him is for our soul. We share in our soul His rest in satisfaction (Matt. 11:28b, 29b, 30). (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living,” pp. 556-557)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living,” chs. 12-13

«　WEEK 7　DAY 3　»

　　Exo. 31:17 …In six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.

　　Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…

　　13 …They are full of new wine!

　　1 Cor. 12:13 …In one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body…and were all given to drink one Spirit.

　　In [Exodus] 31:12-17, after a long record concerning the building up of God’s dwelling place, there is a repetition of the commandment to keep the Sabbath….The fact that the insertion concerning the Sabbath follows the charge for the building work of the tabernacle indicates that the Lord was telling these builders, these workers, to learn how to rest with Him. They should not work and forget about resting with the Lord. Therefore, in charging them to do the work of building His dwelling place, the Lord reminded them that as they worked for Him, they should learn how to rest with Him. If we only know how to work for the Lord but do not know how to rest with Him, we are acting contrary to the divine principle….The principle of the Sabbath is that working with the Lord requires that we learn how to rest with Him. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1821-1822)

　　The Bible emphasizes the fact that God rested on the seventh day. Genesis 2:2 says, “And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had done; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” According to the book of Genesis, to God the Sabbath is the seventh day, but to man it is the first day. In six days God created the heavens, the earth, and everything necessary for man to exist for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. After all things were made, man was created on the sixth day. This means that as soon as man came forth from the creating hand of God, his first day, which was God’s seventh day, was about to begin. Thus, what was the seventh day to God was the first day to man. The significance of this is that to God the Sabbath was rest after work, but to man it was rest first and then work. God first worked for six days and then He rested on the seventh day. But man rested on his first day and then began to work.

　　It is a divine principle that God does not ask us to work until we have had enjoyment. God first supplies us with enjoyment. Then after a full enjoyment with Him and of Him, we may work together with Him. If we do not know how to have enjoyment with God and how to enjoy God Himself, we shall not know how to work with Him. We shall not know how to be one with God in His divine work. We do emphasize the matter of working with God and not working for God by our own strength. Yes, we should work with God and even by God. But according to what the Bible reveals, it is not even sufficient merely to work with God. We need to be one with God in His work. This requires that we enjoy Him. If we do not know how to enjoy God and be filled with God, we shall not know how to work with Him, how to be one with Him in His work.

　　A very good illustration of this principle is found in the New Testament. The New Testament ministry of the apostles began with the enjoyment they had on the day of Pentecost. The disciples did not work for six days and then enjoy the Lord on the day of Pentecost. The actual situation was that the Lord had told them to wait until the Spirit came upon them to fill them. With what were the disciples filled when they were filled with the Spirit? No doubt, they were filled with the enjoyment of the Lord. Because they were filled with the Spirit, others thought that they were drunk with wine. Actually, they were filled with the enjoyment of the heavenly wine. Only after they had been filled with this enjoyment did they begin to work with God. This is the way to work with God, the way to work in oneness with Him. When Peter stood up with the apostles to preach the gospel and thereby do a work for God, they all were one with God in His work. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1822, 1824-1825)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Exodus, msg. 172

«　WEEK 7　DAY 4　»

　　Exo. 31:13 Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, You shall surely keep My Sabbaths; for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am Jehovah who sanctifies you.

　　15 Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to Jehovah…

　　After God gave the revelation concerning the tabernacle and the furniture, and after God selected the builders and gave Moses a charge regarding them, He went on to speak again of the Sabbath. It seems as if God were saying, “Do not forget My Sabbath. Don’t take the excuse that you are not laboring on your own business, but are doing a divine work. You should not think that because you are working to build My dwelling place, you can work every day continually. No, even in doing My divine work, the work of building the tabernacle, you must still bear a sign to indicate that you are My people and you need Me. Therefore you need to enjoy Me first. Then you will be able to work not only for Me, but also with Me and by being one with Me. I will be your strength to work and your energy to labor….You must do the work of building My dwelling place with Me, by Me, and in oneness with Me…. If you try to do a good work for Me by yourselves, leaving Me aside, that would be an insult to Me, for that is a sign of the devil’s people. You are My people, and you should bear a sign that you need Me to be your enjoyment, strength, and energy…. By working in this way you honor Me and glorify Me. This is to bear a sign indicating that you are My people.” (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1826-1827)

　　We all need to learn a basic lesson regarding the Sabbath…. The Sabbath means that before we work for God, we need to enjoy God and be filled with Him. If we have enjoyed God and if we have been filled with God, then we are ready to work for Him. Such work will not be by ourselves; it will be by God. Consider Peter’s situation on the day of Pentecost. When Peter stood up to preach the gospel, he did not preach by himself. He preached by the very God who had filled him up. In preaching the gospel, Peter was not empty. He preached the gospel by the infilling God, by the infilling Spirit. Therefore, Peter had a sign that he was God’s co-worker, and his gospel preaching was an honor and glory to God.

　　The people of the world all work by themselves. They do not have a sign on them that indicates that they belong to God. They do not enjoy God, they do not rest with God, and they do not work with God. Our situation is altogether different because we have a sign….The sign is that we rest with God, enjoy God, and are filled up with God first, and then we work with the very One who fills us. Furthermore, we not only work with God, but we work as those who are one with God.

　　I pray repeatedly, “Lord, in my speaking I want to practice being one spirit with You so that my speaking will be Your speaking. Lord, it must be that You speak in my speaking. If You are not one with me, I will not speak anything. I would never speak in my empty self. That would be a blasphemy to You, an insult to You. Lord, I would speak not only with You, but also by being one with You. Those who listen must have the impression that while I am speaking, You are one with me. Lord, my speaking involves the practice not only from my side, that I am one spirit with You; it also involves the practice on Your side, that You are one spirit with me.” If we would speak this way, what an honor and glory it would be to the Lord! This is the sign of the Sabbath. In my speaking I always seek to bear a sign that my Lord is my Sabbath. He is my rest, my refreshment, my energy, my strength, and my everything for ministering the Word. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1827-1828)

　　Further Reading: Truth Lessons—Level Two, vol. 2, lsn. 16

«　WEEK 7　DAY 5　»

　　Isa. 13:1 The burden concerning Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.

　　Acts 6:4 But we will continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the word.

　　When people come to a meeting, there may be the need to release the word. We must seek the Lord concerning what we speak and concerning the issue of our speaking…. If some are not yet saved, we should receive a burden to bear their souls by the Lord’s grace in order to sow the seed of salvation into them when we release the word…. If they are saved but do not love the Lord, our burden should be for them to love the Lord. If they love the Lord but are not willing to give themselves to the Lord and receive His dealing, our burden should be for them to willingly give themselves to the Lord and be dealt with by Him. This is the ministry of the word with a burden.

　　We cannot neglect this responsibility and think that God has not given us a burden….When someone in the church in Corinth committed the sin of fornication, Paul did not simply condemn the sin or stop praying for the one who sinned. He received a burden from God to bear a responsibility and commission for the church (1 Cor. 5:1-13). Paul did not preach doctrines in his Epistles; instead, he was burdened to fellowship concerning certain matters, so he was able to touch people’s feelings. (CWWL, 1957, vol. 2, “The Administration of the Church and the Ministry of the Word,” pp. 233-235)

　　When we minister the word of God, our concern should be whether we have God’s speaking, not the topic of our speaking. In order to have God’s speaking, the one who ministers the word must have a burden. People may have a negative reaction or be stirred up when they hear a message that is spoken with a burden, but they cannot deny that it is God’s speaking. This kind of message can help people and solve their problems. A message that sounds nice but is void of God’s speaking cannot touch people, turn them inwardly, or satisfy those who are hungry and thirsty, because they are not the words that God wants to speak even if they are from the Bible.

　　Therefore, speaking should not be easy or cheap. We cannot speak simply because we have prepared a message. One who ministers the word should bear people’s condition before God. He bears the responsibility of knowing their needs. He needs to sense their condition and know what God wants to speak.

　　The brothers need to understand that bearing the word of God is equal to bearing the souls of men…. If there is no change in [the saints listening to our speaking] after three months, we should not be at peace…. Are the brothers who speak sorrowful for the souls who have not changed in three months? A store owner who has no customers would be unable to continue working, considering everything to be fine. He would consider the situation and find a way to change the situation. How can those who minister the word continue as usual when there is no profit? We should not consider that it is sufficient merely to speak from the podium week after week.

　　When Brother Nee began his work in Foochow, he fasted and prayed every Saturday for the gospel meeting on the Lord’s Day. He considered before the Lord what to speak and how to speak. He considered what word the sinners needed to hear. Since he fasted and prayed with a heavy burden, his words were always very effective and were later published as messages. Many who are used by the Lord bear a burden in their ministry of the word. When Peace Wang was young, she had a successful revival work. She always knelt before the Lord and spent a long period of time weeping and grieving for sinners. Therefore, when she stood up to speak, her words were always living and operative. (CWWL, 1957, vol. 2, “The Administration of the Church and the Ministry of the Word,” pp. 235-236)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1957, vol. 2, “The Administration of the Church and the Ministry of the Word,” chs. 2-3

«　WEEK 7　DAY 6　»

　　Zech. 12:1 The burden of the word of Jehovah concerning Israel…

　　Mal. 2:7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts.

　　Without a burden, all our activity will be dead and ineffective; with a burden, we will be living and flourishing. Such an outcome is not related to our method but to our person.

　　A brother may give a message merely out of obligation, because it is his turn to speak. However, giving messages is not a matter of obligation but of burden. We may speak for half a year, but those who listen might not receive anything, and our speaking will be in vain. If we have a burden, we will see that our messages are ineffective. Our messages should “trouble” people so that they have no peace, and they are stirred up to love and serve the Lord. In this situation, our being will be touched by God. There is no need for the self to be dealt with if we give messages that are out of obligation. However, in giving a message out of a burden, our self must be dealt with. (CWWL, 1957, vol. 2, “The Administration of the Church and the Ministry of the Word,” p. 238)

　　Working from nine to six as an employee is a matter of obligation and does not require any dealing. However, we would work differently if we had our own business. Our laziness would be dealt with because we would rise earlier to work. The attitude of a waiter or clerk toward customers might not need to be dealt with. However, a person who owns his shop will adjust himself in order not to offend his customers. Instead of being dealt with, some brothers seem to have more problems because they serve out of obligation, not burden. If there is a burden, our self decreases and is dealt with. It will not increase, because there are things that our burden will not allow us to do, and there are areas that will require our being dealt with before we can release our burden. Hence, having a burden deals with us the most.

　　Everyone who serves the Lord must receive a burden and have a burden. This also applies to the sisters even though they are not involved in the church administration or in giving messages. If the sisters fellowship together and visit people simply because it is time to do so, they are doing so out of obligation. The sisters should seek to know the result of their fellowship and visitation. They should know the condition of the sisters under their care. They should not say, “As long as the Lord works in them, they will be all right, but if the Lord does not work in them, there is nothing we can do.” We must receive a genuine burden.

　　The problem is that we are gradually leaning toward responsibility in our service; we lack a burden. Since our prayers are mostly without burden, our prayer meetings are ineffective. If someone is saved when we preach the gospel, we thank and praise the Lord. If no one is saved, we are at peace. When we give messages, we are at peace even if there is no effect. The same applies to the administration of the church and visiting the brothers and sisters; we are at peace even if there is no result. Since this is our condition, our prayer is a prayer of obligation, not a prayer with burden. If we pray with a burden, our prayer meeting will be different. Some brothers and sisters will weep bitterly and mourn in prayer, feeling that they cannot go on in the same way. They will feel that the gospel preaching, the administration of the church, and the condition of their meeting are unsatisfactory. This kind of prayer is out of a burden.

　　Genuine service is not a matter of obligation but a matter of burden; burden always goes beyond obligation. (CWWL, 1957, vol. 2, “The Administration of the Church and the Ministry of the Word,” pp. 238-240)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1957, vol. 2, “The Administration of the Church and the Ministry of the Word,” ch. 5