DAY 1 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 2 & DAY 3 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 4 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 5 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 6 Outline　MorningRevival

«　WEEK 9　DAY 1　»

　　Prov. 1:1-4 The proverbs of Solomon…: For knowing wisdom and instruction; for discerning words of understanding; for receiving instruction in wise conduct, righteousness, justice, and equity; for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young man.

　　Proverbs is a collection of the words of the wise. The main writers and collectors are Solomon, who wrote three thousand proverbs (1 Kings 4:32; cf. Eccl. 12:9), and Hezekiah, who added some proverbs of the forefathers in chapters 25 through 29.

　　The theme of Proverbs is that this book consists of words of wisdom teaching people how to behave and how to build up their character in the human life. Humanly speaking, this is the great subject, and all religions and philosophies are concerned with it. The matters of behavior and the building up of character have been the subjects of teaching ever since humankind came into being.

　　Proverbs stresses wisdom that man receives of God through his contacting of God and that teaches man how to behave in his human life. (Life-study of Proverbs, pp. 1-3)

　　Since the proverbs were collected mainly by two kings of Judah in the age of the law, the book of Proverbs may be considered a subsidiary to the law. The law is the portrait of God, demanding God’s people to keep it that they might be made copies of God for His expression and glorification. Proverbs, as a subsidiary to the law, helps God’s people to keep the law.

　　Because the law was written according to what God is, the law tells man how to behave and how to build up himself according to God’s attributes. God is love and light, and God is holy and righteous. These are some of God’s attributes. For God to create man in His own image means that God created man according to what He is, that is, according to His attributes. The law, which was written according to God’s attributes, demands that man behave and build himself up according to God. Regarding this, Proverbs is a subsidiary part of the law, instructing people how to behave and how to build themselves up according to what God is. This helps us to see what the position of Proverbs probably is in the divine revelation in the Scriptures.

　　The book of Proverbs … has a particular character; that is, it presents to us the words of wisdom by many ancient wise men, which is unanimously considered good by all the people who read it. But whether it is really good or not depends upon what kind of reader you are.

　　If you are an ethical person with a strong mind and have a desire to be perfect as a genuine moral person, surely this book would help you to make a success in your pursuit of perfection. But it helps you to cultivate yourself, that is, to cultivate the human “bright virtue” created for man by God according to His attributes, that is, according to what He is. However, it does not help you to be a person who lives in his spirit according to the Spirit of God who dwells in you for the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy, that is, to produce and build up the Body of Christ which consummates the New Jerusalem as God’s heart’s desire and ultimate goal. In the Old Testament Job was exactly such a person. He was satisfied with his integrity, with his pursuit of human perfection. But that was not what God wanted of him; rather, it replaced what God wanted of him and then it became an enemy of God frustrating him, a man created by God to fulfill God’s purpose. God’s purpose in creating man is to have man be filled with Him to be His expression, not an expression of human perfection. So the success of Job in human perfection was torn down by God. In this tearing down by God, God tore down Job also. Job was perplexed, not knowing what to do. Then God came in to reveal Himself to Job, indicating that He Himself is what Job should pursue, gain, and express. Then Job had a big turn from pursuing human perfection to pursue God Himself. (Life-study of Proverbs, pp. 2-5)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Proverbs, msg. 1

«　WEEK 9　DAY 2　»

　　Psa. 119:48 And I will lift up my hand to Your commandments, which I love…

　　2 Tim. 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.

　　John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life;…the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

　　To lift up our hand unto the word of God is to indicate that we receive it warmly and gladly and that we say Amen to it (Neh. 8:5-6). (Psa. 119:48, footnote 1)

　　If you are a person who is a law-keeper, surely you will appreciate all the proverbs in this book as words of wise men, thinking that they could help you to be a good or even better law-keeper. If so, you just make all the proverbs many, many laws and fall into the snare of keeping the law as many Jews do, who do not know God’s purpose in the dispensation of His law, that is, to expose fallen man’s weakness.

　　If you are a person who loves the Lord and pursues Christ, not self-perfection, and who loves the Lord’s word in the entire Bible and reads it with a praying spirit, not for the seeking of the doctrine of letters but for seeking the Spirit and word of life, not to get any help for self-cultivation but for the nourishment of your spirit that you may live a Christian life which is perfect not in human virtues but in the divine virtues which are the expressions of the divine attributes, then this book will render you nuggets and gems to strengthen your life of pursuing Christ for the fulfillment of God’s economy in producing and building up the Body of Christ. (Life-study of Proverbs, p. 5)

　　God does not want us just to seek the knowledge, doctrine, truth, theology, and so-called revelation in letters. God wants us to seek after Him that we may gain Him and that He may fill us up with Himself for His expression. He is the Spirit, and we worship Him and contact Him in our spirit. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. The word spoken to us by the Lord should become the Spirit and the life to us (John 6:63). If we study the Bible by the way of letters, not by the way of the Spirit and of life, we make the Bible, regardless of what part, a book of letters. Most Christians today have made the New Testament of the Spirit and of life the Old Testament of letters. To Paul the apostle even the Old Testament was like the New Testament, of the Spirit and of life. Too many Christians have made the New Testament proverbs, precepts, exhortations, and instructions of letters. Our life-studies have made all of the Old Testament, as the Word of God, books of the Spirit and of life. By this we have to realize that what the book of Proverbs would be to us depends upon what kind of persons we are and by what way we take it.

　　As New Testament believers, we should believe that Proverbs is a part of the holy word in God’s Holy Scriptures.

　　We should realize that Proverbs is the breath of God for us to breathe in that we may receive the life supply from God (2 Tim. 3:16).

　　Next, we should read Proverbs by being filled with the fullness of God in our spirit (Eph. 5:18-19), in the New Testament Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), with our regenerated spirit, and by pray-reading to mingle it with spirit and life (cf. John 6:63).

　　I can testify that after just a few minutes of fellowship with the Lord, I am fed, nourished, and stirred up. Then when I come to the Bible, every word becomes a gem. We all need to read the book of Proverbs in this way. Then every word of Proverbs will become spirit and life to us. Every word will be living and become a gem to strengthen our life of pursuing Christ for the fulfillment of God’s economy in producing and building up the Body of Christ. (Life-study of Proverbs, pp. 5-6, 18)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Proverbs, msg. 3

«　WEEK 9　DAY 3　»

　　Eph. 4:22-24 …Put off, as regards your former manner of life, the old man, which is being corrupted according to the lusts of the deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality.

　　Ephesians 4:22-24 tells us clearly that a believer in Christ has two men—the old man and the new man. The old man is of Adam through our natural birth, and the new man is of Christ by a new birth, regeneration.

　　According to my observation, very few believers in Christ and lovers of Christ live a life of continually putting off the old man and putting on the new man. In our daily life we mainly live an ethical life, spontaneously caring for matters of right and wrong. Those who live such an ethical life try their best to do what is right and to avoid doing what is wrong.

　　What kind of life do you live day by day? Is your daily life a life of the new man?… In your married life is it your practice to love your wife or husband by the new man or by the old man? We should not think that loving in the old man is justified by God. That kind of love is according to the law, according to the old dispensation, not according to God’s New Testament economy and not according to the new creation. A brother may love his wife very much, but his love may be of the old creation, not of the new creation. (Life-study of Proverbs, p. 25)

　　We need to have this realization when we come to the Bible. We may study the Bible either by the old man or by the new man. Many Christians study the Word in a natural way, according to their old man…. If we merely exercise our mind to get knowledge from the Word, we are reading it by the old man.

　　To read the Bible by the new man is very different. Even before coming to the Bible, a person in the new man exercises his spirit to contact the Lord. He may confess, saying, “Lord, I am sorry that I live so much in my old man, not exercising my spirit to contact You, to live by my new man, as one of Your new creation. Lord, forgive this sin.” When we approach the Bible in this way, exercising our spirit, we have the deep feeling and sense that we are approaching, touching, and contacting God. By this I do not mean that the Bible is God but that in coming to the Bible we are coming to contact God.

　　In Proverbs there are many detailed precepts for man to live a proper human life and … every precept is a gem. Even if a person accepts all these gems and is successful in keeping them, he will only build up himself to be a perfect man by cultivating the self. But the Lord Jesus said that whoever would follow Him must deny himself (Matt. 16:24).

　　We must learn to come to the Word of God as those who are approaching God, not to receive proverbs and teachings but to receive nourishment and enlightenment, so that we may know that, according to God, we should always be conformed to the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection (Phil. 3:10), which is the consummated Spirit, who is the reality of the resurrection of Christ.

　　We must reject self-cultivation and condemn the building up of the natural man. We need to turn the Bible from a book that teaches us to cultivate the self and to build up the natural man to a book that is full of life, spirit, spiritual nourishment, and spiritual enlightenment. This will tear down our self, break our natural man, and supply us with the consummated Spirit of the Triune God. Then we will live a life not by our natural man, by our old man, and by our self but by the Lord Jesus, who is our life and person living in our spirit.

　　We need to learn to exercise our spirit every day in our daily life, especially in our Bible study. We need to turn ourselves from the mind to the spirit by praying in our spirit. If we come to the Bible in this way, we will be touching the Word by the new man, and it will become to us a book of Spirit and life. (Life-study of Proverbs, pp. 26, 28-29)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Proverbs, msgs. 4, 6

«　WEEK 9　DAY 4　»

　　2 Tim. 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

　　Eph. 6:17-18 And receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints.

　　When we come to the Bible to contact God, we should not only read but pray-read the Word. No matter who we are, as long as we read the Bible without praying, we are reading by the old man. To read the Bible without praying is to contact the Word by the old man. The genuine reading of the Bible by the new man can never be separated from praying.

　　The term pray-reading has been in use for less than thirty years. This does not mean, however, that before we invented this term, there was no such thing as pray-reading. Many saints have practiced the pray-reading of the Word without using this expression to describe what they were doing. A number of seeking Christians have pointed out that the best way to read the Bible is to read it prayerfully. I have read certain books which said that we should read the Bible in a prayerful way. To read the Word prayerfully actually is to pray-read the Word. (Life-study of Proverbs, pp. 26-27)

　　I can testify that long before we began to speak of pray-reading, it was my practice to read the Word with prayer. For example, I remember reading John 3:16 and praying, “O God, thank You. You loved the world so much. O God my Father, You loved me so much that You gave Your Son, the Only Begotten, to me.” I had the feeling that I had touched God and that He had touched me. Through my prayer John 3:16 became Spirit and life to me.

　　My burden in these messages on Proverbs is to help you touch the Word of God by your new man, by exercising your spirit to pray-read. Pray-reading changes the Bible from letters to Spirit and life. Apart from pray-reading, the book of Proverbs is merely a collection of proverbs. But when we pray-read Proverbs, our pray-reading causes all the proverbs to become words of Spirit and life to us.

　　Ephesians 6:17-18 unveils the matter of pray-reading, and our invention of the term pray-reading was based on these verses. Ephesians 6:17-18 tells us to “receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit.” Here we see that we should receive the word of God not merely by exercising our mind to understand but by means of all prayer and petition, praying by exercising our spirit. Prayer is general; petition particular.

　　We receive the word by reading. However, to receive (read) without praying is altogether a matter in the mind. Along with our reading we must pray. When we pray-read the Word by exercising our spirit, the word in black and white immediately becomes the Spirit. In this way the Spirit and the word are one. When we read, it is a word. When we pray with the exercise of our spirit, the word becomes Spirit and life. Whenever we come to the Word we must pray, and we should pray not merely with the mind but with the spirit.

　　The Bible is God’s breathing. God is breathing out Himself as the word (2 Tim. 3:16a). This means that the Bible is God’s exhaling. The exhaling of God in the Bible is waiting for us to inhale. When we read any verse and pray, this praying becomes our inhaling of God’s breath. By this the Word becomes Spirit and life to us in our experience. If this is not our situation, then even in our reading of the Bible we are not in the new man but are still in the old man. (Life-study of Proverbs, pp. 27-28)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Proverbs, msg. 8

«　WEEK 9　DAY 5　»

　　Heb. 4:12 For the word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit,…able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

　　2 Tim. 1:6-7 For which cause I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you….For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sobermindedness.

　　The Hebrew believers were wondering what they should do with their old Hebrew religion…. So the writer of this book said that the word of God, that is, what was quoted from the Old Testament, could pierce into their wondering like a sharp two-edged sword and divide their soul from their spirit. As the marrow is concealed deep in the joints, so the spirit is deep in the soul. The dividing of the marrow from the joints requires mainly the breaking of the joints. In the same principle, the dividing of the spirit from the soul requires the breaking of the soul. The Hebrew believers’ soul, with its wondering mind, its doubting concerning God’s way of salvation, and its considering of its own interests, had to be broken by the living, operative, and piercing word of God that their spirit might be divided from their soul. (Heb. 4:12, footnote 2)

　　In Hebrews 4:12 the word discern is used….Quite often our thoughts are deceiving. But if we exercise our spirit, there is a discernment that our thoughts are evil, because behind our thoughts there is an evil intention. To discern the thoughts and intents of the heart equals the dividing of the soul from the spirit….The enemy’s strategy is always to mix our spirit up with our soul. In today’s world nearly everyone is in a mixed situation. They mix up their spirit with their soul. Whenever such mixing is there, the spirit loses and the soul wins.

　　Before a brother begins to talk to his wife about another brother, he has to consider, “Is this of my spirit or of my soul?” If it is of his soul, what he says will be either gossip or criticism. If it is of his spirit, what he says will be something led by the Lord. This shows that we have to discern our spirit from our soul.

　　Actually, our person, our being, is quite complicated …because we have three parts. We have the flesh, which is bad; the spirit, which is good; and the soul, which is in between. We should always follow our spirit and walk in all things according to our spirit. This is according to Romans 8:4. We should always be on the alert to discern anything that is not of the spirit but of the soul. Then we will remain in the spirit all the time. This is to exercise, to use, to employ, our spirit.

　　It is easy to know what is of the flesh and what is of the spirit; but quite often it is a very mixed-up situation between what is of the soul and what is of the spirit.

　　Our Christian walk is a very fine walk. If we are going to walk according to our spirit, we must learn not to do things too fast or to say things too quickly. It is safe to wait awhile. I have had this experience in writing answers to letters. Sometimes I will write a letter and then keep it for another day before I mail it. The next day a new thought might come to me to include in that letter, or I may realize that I said something wrong. To wait in this way helps us to walk according to our spirit.

　　Within us there is a battle between the spirit and the flesh and even more between the spirit and the soul. So we have to exercise our spirit, to use our spirit, that is, to fan our spirit into flame. Then we should learn how to control our mind by setting our mind on our spirit. We should also always discern what is of the spirit and what is of the soul. If something is not of the spirit, we do not want to say it or do it. This is to use, to exercise, our spirit. I hope that we will practice using our spirit until we build up a strong habit of exercising our spirit. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Spirit with Our Spirit,” pp. 186-187)

　　Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 54, “The Breaking of the Outer Man and the Release of the Spirit,” chs. 7-8; CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Spirit with Our Spirit,” ch. 8

«　WEEK 9　DAY 6　»

　　John 10:35 If He said they were gods, to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken.

　　1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

　　Eph. 6:17 …Receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God.

　　According to Romans 10:17, faith comes out of the hearing of the word. Thus, the source of faith is the word….There are three aspects of the word. First, there is the written word of God—the Bible (John 10:35). Then there is the living word of God—Christ (1:1). Finally, there is the applied word of God—the Spirit (Eph. 6:17; John 6:63).

　　The living word becomes the applied word through the Spirit. God has only one kind of word. First, He spoke, and what He spoke was written in a book. That is the Bible. There is only one book that is the word of God….The Bible is the book of books. What a mercy and what a wonder that in human history such a book has been produced—the word of God! The world today is a mess. So many bad things are reported in today’s newspapers. Suppose the Bible were taken away from mankind. I do not think that mankind could exist without the word of God. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” pp. 286-287)

　　We have to either read or hear the Bible. Every week we gather together a number of times just to read, speak, and hear the word. When the word of the Bible is spoken to us and heard by us, right away the written word becomes the living word. That is Christ. When the living word is applied to us and received by us, it becomes the word of the Spirit. Then this word of the Spirit heard by us is the source of our faith. Faith comes from the hearing of this applied word by the Spirit through the living Christ out of the written Bible.

　　Early in the morning you may read the Bible but without prayer and without calling on the name of the Lord. Then the word of God is merely the written word to you. It has nothing to do with you subjectively. So you have to have some contact with the Lord by calling on Him and pray-reading the Word. When you call on Him and pray-read the Word, right away you have the deep sensation that Christ is living within you. Then you would say, “Lord, I love You. I love this word here. How I love Hebrews 11:6: ‘He who comes forward to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.’” Right away this written word becomes a living word and then an applied word to you. Then you get into your car and drive to your office. While you are driving, you have something living applied to you. Then you have faith. Faith comes from this source.

　　All three—the written word, the living word, and the applied word—refer to God Himself. “In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The Word here is a person. God’s written word in the Bible becomes Christ as the living word, who is applied into us as the Spirit, the word of the Spirit. That is God Himself. The more that God is gained by you in this way, the more He becomes your faith.

　　Thus, the source of faith is God. He is the One who calls the things not being as being and gives life to the dead (Rom. 4:17).

　　The source of faith is. God in His written word contacted as the living word and applied as the word of the Spirit so that we can gain the Triune God, who is able to call the things not being as being and give life to the dead. This One is embodied in Christ and realized as the Spirit. So faith is the Triune God embodied and realized. God in the written word becomes the living word applied as the word of the Spirit. Thus, God embodied in Christ and realized as the Spirit is faith. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” pp. 287-289)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” ch. 8