Scripture Reading: Eph. 1:17, 22-23; 3:3-5, 9; 1 Cor. 12:12, 24-27; 2 Cor. 11:28-29; Rom. 12:3-5

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 6　DAY 1　»

　　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.

　　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.

　　What is the Body of Christ? The Body of Christ is the continuation of Christ’s life on earth. When He came to the earth and lived on earth, He expressed Himself through a body. Today He still requires a body to express Himself. Just as a man needs a body to express all that he is, Christ needs a body to express Himself. The function of the Body is to be the full expression of Christ. We cannot manifest our personality through any one member of our body—the ears, mouth, eyes, hands, or feet—alone. Similarly, Christ cannot manifest His personality through any one member of His Body. It takes His whole Body to manifest Him. We must see that everything of Christ is expressed through His Body. This is not all. The Body of Christ is the extension and continuation of Christ on earth. He spent more than thirty years on earth to reveal Himself. He did this as the individual Christ. Today He is revealing Himself through the church. This is the corporate Christ. Formerly, Christ was expressed individually; now He is expressed corporately. (CWWN, vol. 44, “The Mystery of Christ,” p. 793)

　　God is after a corporate vessel, not individual vessels. He is not choosing a few zealous, consecrated ones to work for Him individually. Individual vessels cannot fulfill God’s goal and plan. God has chosen the church….Only the church as the corporate Christ can fulfill God’s goal and plan. Consider our human body. No member of our body can act independently. It is impossible for a body to depend on one hand or one leg. However, if the body loses a member, it will not be complete. The Body of Christ is composed of all the believers. Every believer is a member in the Body of Christ, and every believer is indispensable.

　　The Body of Christ is a reality. The church life is also a reality. The Word of God does not say the church is like the Body of Christ; it says the church is the Body of Christ…. Nothing that is of us can ever become part of the Body of Christ, because “Christ is all and in all” in the Body (Col. 3:11). Anything in us that is not a part of Christ frustrates our inward knowledge of the Body of Christ. Sin hinders us from seeing Christ, and the natural life hinders us from seeing the Body. We all must see our position in the Body of Christ. If we truly see our position in the Body, it will be as though we were saved a second time.

　　The Body of Christ is not a doctrine; it is a realm. It is not a teaching but a life. Many Christians seek to teach the truth of the Body, but few know the life of the Body. The Body of Christ is an experience in a totally different realm. A man can know the book of Romans without being justified. Similarly, a man can know the book of Ephesians without seeing the Body of Christ. We do not need knowledge; rather, we need revelation to know the reality of the Body of Christ and to enter the realm of the Body. Only a revelation from God will usher us into the realm of the Body, and only then will the Body of Christ become our experience.

　　In Acts 2 it seems as if Peter was preaching the gospel alone and that three thousand people were saved through him. But we must remember that the other eleven apostles were standing beside him. The Body of Christ was preaching the gospel; it was not the preaching of an individual. If we have the view of the Body, we will see that individualism will not bring us anywhere. (CWWN, vol. 44, “The Mystery of Christ,” pp. 793-795)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1965, vol. 3, “The Heavenly Vision,” ch. 6; The Problems Causing the Turmoils in the Church Life, chs. 2-4; CWWN, vol. 40, “What Shall This Man Do?” ch. 5

«　WEEK 6　DAY 2　»

　　Rev. 14:1 And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.

　　21:16 And the city lies square…. And he measured the city with the reed to a length of twelve thousand stadia; the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.

　　Today in the church age, the God-men who were perfected and matured are Zion, the overcomers, the vital groups within the churches. But in the new heaven and new earth there will be no more Zion, only Jerusalem, because all the unqualified saints will have been qualified to be Zion. In other words, the entire New Jerusalem will become Zion. What is Zion? Zion is the very spot where God is, that is, the Holy of Holies. In Revelation 21 there is a sign signifying that the New Jerusalem will be the Holy of Holies. Its dimensions are the dimensions of a cube, twelve thousand stadia long, twelve thousand stadia wide, and twelve thousand stadia high (v. 16). That is the Holy of Holies, because the Holy of Holies in the Old Testament in both the tabernacle and the temple was a cube, equal in length, breadth, and height (Exo. 26:2-8; 1 Kings 6:20).

　　There is no other way to reach this high peak except by praying. It is more than evident that Jerusalem is here as a big realm of Christians, but where is Zion, the overcomers?…The overcomers are the very Zion, where God is. This is the intrinsic reality of the spiritual revelation in the holy Word of God. We have to realize what the Lord’s recovery is. The Lord’s recovery is to build up Zion. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” pp. 138-140)

　　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. If you take away these overcomers from that local church, that local church becomes like a flat tire. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups,” pp. 274-275)

　　Jerusalem typifies the church. Within Jerusalem, there was Mount Zion [typifying the overcomers]….Jerusalem is large, while Zion is small. The stronghold of Jerusalem is Zion. Whenever there is something that has to do with God’s heart desire, Zion is mentioned. Whenever there is something that has to do with the failures and sins of the Jews, Jerusalem is mentioned….There is a New Jerusalem, but there never will be a new Zion, because Zion can never become old. Every time the Old Testament speaks of the relationship between Zion and Jerusalem, it shows us that the characteristics, the life, the blessing, and the establishment of Jerusalem come from Zion. In 1 Kings 8:1, the elders were in Jerusalem, and the Ark of the Covenant was in Zion. Psalm 51:18 says that God did good to Zion and built the walls of Jerusalem. Psalm 102:21 says that the name of the Lord was in Zion and that His praise was in Jerusalem….Psalm 135:21 says that the Lord dwelt at Jerusalem but that the Lord was to be blessed out of Zion. In Isaiah 41:27 the word was first announced to Zion and then preached to Jerusalem. Joel 3:17 says that when God dwelt in Zion, Jerusalem would be holy.

　　Today God is looking for the one hundred and forty-four thousand amidst the defeated church, who will stand on Mount Zion (Rev. 14). God always uses a small number of believers to pass on the flow of life to the church and to revive the church. (CWWN, vol. 11, pp. 762-763)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” ch. 5; CWWN, vol. 11, pp. 760-763

«　WEEK 6　DAY 3　»

　　Heb. 14:1 But you have come forward to Mount Zion and 14:1 to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem;...to the universal gathering.

　　Psa. 48:1 Great is Jehovah, and much to be praised in the city of our God, in His holy mountain.

　　Jerusalem was built on a mountain range. Mount Zion was one of the mountains on which Jerusalem was built. Zion is the center, and Jerusalem is the circumference. 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. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups,” p. 274)

　　The reality of the Body of Christ is a kind of corporate living, not a living by any individual. This corporate living is the aggregate of many saints who have been redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, and transformed by the processed and consummated God within them. By this indwelling consummated God, these redeemed saints have been made actual God-men.

　　For thirty-three and a half years, this God-man, Jesus, was a genuine man, but He lived not by man’s life but by God’s life. To live such a life He had to be crucified. The crucifixion mentioned in the New Testament transpired on the wooden cross on Mount Calvary. But you have to realize that before Christ was there in the physical crucifixion, He was being crucified every day for thirty-three and a half years. Was not Jesus a human being, a genuine man? Yes. But He did not live by that genuine man. Instead, He kept that genuine man on the cross. Then, in the sense of resurrection, He lived God’s life. God’s life with all its attributes was lived within this God-man Jesus and expressed as this God-man’s virtues.

　　Such a life was there originally just in an individual man, Jesus Christ. But this life has now been repeated, reproduced, in many men who have been redeemed and regenerated and who now possess the divine life within them. All of them have been nourished, sanctified, transformed, and perfected not just to be matured Christians but to be God-men. The reality of the Body of Christ is the corporate living by the perfected God-men, who are genuine men but are not living by their life but by the life of the processed God, whose attributes have been expressed through their virtues.

　　The death of Christ is a mold, and Paul put himself into that death-mold to be conformed there [cf. Phil 3:10]. On this man, Paul, all men could see the mark and the image of the cross (Gal. 6:14, 17...). His old life was conformed to the image of the death of Christ by the power of Christ’s resurrection. The power of resurrection strengthened him to live the life of a God-man. The Lord expects that many of us would be such ones.

　　I do believe that among us there should be some like this, maybe not constantly but at least instantly like this…. Many times when I was trying to talk to my wife, something within said, “This is not from your spirit. This is from your old man.” Right away I stopped. Sometimes I would go to her, and then right away I returned. This is because my going was by my natural man. While I was doing that, something within turned me. That was the very life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ. The processed Triune God turned me, and that was in resurrection. Such a corporate living is the reality of the Body of Christ, dear saints. This is a corporate living of the conformity to the death of Christ through the power of the resurrection of Christ. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” pp. 127-130)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” ch. 4; CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups,” ch. 1

«　WEEK 6　DAY 4　»

　　1Cor. 12:26-27 And whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the Body of Christ, and members individually.

　　The adamic life is individualistic and independent. Even though everyone in Adam shares the same life, there is no fellowship among them. We all commit sin, yet we each take our own way…. In Christ everything that is individualistic is ruled out. If we want to know the Body life, we need deliverance not only from our sinful life and our natural life, but also from our individualistic life. All individual elements must go because nothing that is individualistic can reach God’s goal. (CWWN, vol. 44, “The Mystery of Christ,” p. 794)

　　Being a Christian is something one does for himself, whereas being a member is something for the Body. In the Bible there are many terms with opposite meanings, such as purity and uncleanness, holiness and commonness, victory and defeat, the Spirit and the flesh, Christ and Satan, the kingdom and the world, and glory and shame….Just as the Father is versus the world, the Spirit is versus the flesh, and the Lord is versus the devil, so also is the Body versus the individual. Once a man sees the Body of Christ, he is free from individualism. He will no longer live for himself but for the Body. Once I am delivered from individualism, I am spontaneously in the Body.

　　If we realize that a Christian is nothing more than a member, we will no longer be proud….Those who see that they are members will surely treasure the Body and honor the other members. They will not see just their own virtues; they will readily see others as being better than themselves.

　　Every member has a function, and all the functions are for the Body. The function of one member is the function of the whole Body. When one member does something, the whole Body does it. When the mouth speaks, the whole body is speaking. When the hands work, the whole body is working. When the legs walk, the whole body is walking. We cannot divide the members from the body…. Everything that the members do should be for the Body. Ephesians 4 says that the Body is growing into a full-grown man. It does not say that individuals are growing into full-grown men. In chapter 3 the ability to know the love of Christ and to apprehend the Lord’s breadth, length, height, and depth is with all the saints. No one can know or apprehend by himself. An individual does not have the time or the capacity to experience the love of Christ in that kind of way.

　　First Corinthians 12:14-27 speaks of two erroneous concepts that members may have: (1) “Because I am not...I am not of the body” (v. 15). This is to despise oneself and covet the work of others. (2) “I have no need of you” (v. 21). This is to be proud of oneself, thinking that one man can be all-inclusive and despising others. Both concepts are harmful to the Body. We should not imitate other members or be covetous of other members. In this way we will not become discouraged and give up when we find that we cannot be like others. At the same time, we should not despise other members, thinking that we are better and more useful.

　　In the church life, we should learn to have the consciousness of the Body. When we are at odds with the brothers and sisters, it means that we are surely at odds with God….Wherever there is Body-revelation, there is Body-consciousness, and wherever there is Body-consciousness, individual thought and action are automatically ruled out. Seeing Christ results in deliverance from sin; seeing the Body results in deliverance from individualism…. It is not a matter of changing our attitude or conduct; revelation does the work. We cannot enter the realm of the Body by anything other than seeing. (CWWN vol. 44, “The Mystery of Christ,” pp. 794-797)

　　Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 44, “The Mystery of Christ,” chs. 96-98; Life-study of Acts, msgs. 25-26; CWWL, 1980, vol. 2, “The Completing Ministry of Paul,” chs. 1, 4, 11-12

«　WEEK 6　DAY 5　»

　　Col. 4:15-16 Greet the brothers in Laodicea, as well as Nymphas and the church, which is in his house. And when this letter is read among you, cause that it be read in the church of the Laodiceans also, and that you also read the one from Laodicea.

　　[The] personal greetings... in the book of Colossians... indicate that with Paul there was a sense, a consciousness, of the new man….There should be no differences among the believers [or] among the churches; for example, no difference between the church in Laodicea and the church in Colossae. This is proved by Paul’s word regarding the reading of letters: “And when this letter is read among you, cause that it be read in the church of the Laodiceans also, and that you also read the one from Laodicea” (Col. 4:16). What Paul wrote to the Colossians was also for the Laodiceans, and what he wrote to the Laodiceans was for the Colossians. What fellowship, oneness, harmony, and intimate contact this implies!

　　In 4:7... Paul had charged Tychicus to make known to the Colossians all that concerned him. If Paul did not have the consciousness of the new man, he would not have regarded it necessary to give Tychicus such a charge. (Life-study of Colossians, p. 259)

　　If you are a member of the Body, then you must allow yourself to be limited by the other members. Here we find the necessity of the cross. The cross leads to the Body, and the cross operates in the sphere of the Body. If I am quick and another is slow, I must not insist on keeping my own pace; I must allow myself to be limited by the slow member…. It is essential for the development of the Body that we each recognize our measure and not go beyond it [cf. Eph. 4:7]. This is a basic requirement for the growth of the Body.

　　The Body of Christ is not only a protection to the members but a limitation to all the members….We should not allow ourselves to go our own way; rather, we should learn to be blended with other brothers and sisters. Individual dispositions and peculiarities have no place in the church. Every member should honor the talents of others and be faithful to his own. Moreover, every member should know his own capacity and not consider himself more highly than he should. If everyone does this, there will be no jealousy, ambition, or craving to do what others can do…. Many people have not seen their own capacity. As a result they overstep their boundaries [cf. 2 Cor. 10:14]…. If members behave this way in the church, some will begin to monopolize while others will withdraw, and the result will be a loss to the church. We should not behave in this way. We should turn back and take our place in the Body and be limited by the Body. If we do this, the Body will be spared from damage.

　　Many of us have the experience that when we are dry and have no way to go on, we need other brothers and sisters to intercede for us before we can get through.

　　The Head is Christ, and the Body is also Christ. Each member is a part of the life of Christ. If I refuse the help of my fellow members, I am refusing the help of Christ. If I am not willing to acknowledge my need of them, I am not willing to acknowledge my need of Christ. Just as I cannot be independent from the Head, I cannot be independent from the Body. Individualism is hateful in the sight of God. What I do not know, another member of the Body will know; what I cannot see, another member of the Body will see; what I cannot do, another member of the Body will do.

　　Sooner or later, all individual Christians will dry up. As long as we live in the Body, we will receive the supply of the Body, no matter what our condition is. Every member should learn to treasure the supply of the Body and to treasure every member. (CWWN, vol. 44, “The Mystery of Christ,” pp. 805-806, 800-802)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Colossians, msg. 31; CWWN, vol. 44, “The Mystery of Christ,” chs. 99-100, 103-104, 106

«　WEEK 6　DAY 6　»

　　1 Cor. 12:24 …Our comely members have no need. But God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked.

　　10:17 Seeing that there is one bread, we who are many are one Body; for we all partake of the one bread.

　　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….God has blended all the believers of all different races and colors.

　　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….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. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” pp. 159-160)

　　The purpose of the blending is to usher us all into the reality of the Body of Christ…. I treasure the local churches because of a purpose. The local churches are the procedure to bring me into the Body of Christ….Thus, we need to be in the local churches so that we can be ushered, or brought, into the reality of the Body of Christ.

　　The highest peak of the Lord’s recovery that can really, practically, and actually carry out God’s economy is for God to produce not many local churches in a physical way but an organic Body to be His organism. We all have a physical body, but our body actually is not the reality of our being….The churches set up around the globe are a physical frame, but among the churches there may be no reality of the Body of Christ.

　　In the Old Testament there is a type of the blending for the fulfillment of God’s economy…. In 1 Corinthians 10:17 Paul says, “Seeing that there is one bread, we who are many are one Body; for we all partake of the one bread.” Paul’s thought of the church being one bread was not his own invention; rather, it was taken from the Old Testament. The meal offering in Leviticus 2:4 consisted of cakes made of fine flour mingled with oil. Every part of the flour was mixed, or mingled, with the oil. That is blending. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” pp. 104, 111-112)

　　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 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.

　　Among us we should have the blending of all the individual members of the Body of Christ, the blending of all the churches in certain districts, the blending of all the co-workers, and the blending of all the elders. Blending means that we should always stop to fellowship with others. Then we will receive many benefits…. [Blending] is the most helpful thing in the keeping of the oneness of the universal Body of Christ. Such a blending is not social but the blending of the very Christ whom the individual members, the district churches, the co-workers, and the elders enjoy, experience, and partake of. 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. 160-162)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” chs. 1-3; Fellowship concerning the Work of the Lord’s Recovery, pp. 43-76