VITAL FACTORS FOR THE RECOVERY OF THE CHURCH LIFE
« Week One »
The Factor of Cooperating with the Lord to Bring In a New Revival That Will End This Age
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Scripture Reading: Hab. 3:2; Acts 26:19, 22; Matt. 14:19, 22-23; Phil. 1:19-22, 25; John 21:15-17
Ⅰ 
Among God’s elect there has always been an aspiration to be revived—Hab. 3:2; Hosea 6:2; Rom. 8:20-22; Psa. 119:25, 50, 107, 154; John 6:57, 63; 2 Cor. 3:3, 6.
Ⅱ 
We can enter into a new revival by arriving at the highest peak of the divine revelation given to us by God—the revelation of the eternal economy of God (1 Tim. 1:3-4; 1 Cor. 9:17; Acts 26:19, 22); this is the great answer to the great question concerning God’s purpose in His creation of man and in His dealing with His chosen people (Gen. 1:26; Job 10:13; cf. Eph. 3:9):
A 
The mystery hidden in God’s heart is God’s eternal economy (1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4), which is God’s eternal intention with His heart’s desire to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity as the Father in the Son by the Spirit into His chosen people to be their life and nature that they may be the same as He is as His duplication (Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:2) to become an organism, the Body of Christ as the new man (Eph. 2:15-16), for God’s fullness, God’s expression (1:22-23; 3:19), which will consummate in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2—22:5).
B 
God becoming man that man might become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem is the essence of the entire Bible, the “diamond” in the “box” of the Bible, the eternal economy of God—Gen. 1:26; John 12:24; Rom. 8:29:
1 
God became man through incarnation by participating in man’s humanity; man becomes God in life and nature but not in the Godhead through transformation by participating in God’s divinity—John 1:14; 2 Cor. 3:18; Col. 3:4; 2 Pet. 1:4; Phil. 2:5; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:10; Eph. 1:5; Rom. 8:19; 1 John 3:2; John 1:12-13.
2 
This divine-human romance is the subject of the entire Bible, the content of God’s economy, and the secret of the entire universe—S. S. 1:1; 6:13; cf. Hab. 1:1; 2:4; Rom. 1:17:
a 
Christ is divine and human, and His transformed lover is human and divine; they are the same in life and nature, perfectly matching each other.
b 
The Triune God consummated to be the Husband and the tripartite man transformed to be the bride are to be one couple, a corporate, great God-man—Rev. 21:2, 9; 22:17a.
C 
The central revelation of God and of the Lord’s recovery is God becoming the flesh (John 1:1, 14), the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), and the life-giving Spirit becoming the sevenfold intensified Spirit (Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6) to build up the church (Matt. 16:18) that becomes the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:15-16) and that consummates the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2, 9; 22:17a; cf. Gen. 2:22; John 19:34).
D 
God and man will become one entity, and that one entity is the mingling of divinity with humanity, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the conclusion of the entire Bible—Rev. 21:3, 22, 2, 9; cf. Lev. 2:4-5; Psa. 92:10.
E 
“I hope that the saints in all the churches throughout the earth, especially the co-workers and the elders, will see this revelation and then rise up to pray that God would give us a new revival—a revival which has never been recorded in history”—Life-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, p. 15.
Ⅲ 
If we practice living the life of a God-man, which is the reality of the Body of Christ, spontaneously a corporate model will be built up, a model living in the economy of God; this model will be the greatest revival in the history of the church to bring the Lord back—Psa. 48:2 and footnote 1; Rev. 3:12, 21:
A 
God needs a corporate people to be raised up by His grace through the high peak of the divine revelation to live a life according to this revelation; a revival is the practice, the practicality, of the vision we have seen.
B 
The followers of Christ (Matt. 5:1; 28:19) were discipled through Christ’s human living on the earth, as the model of a God-man—living God by denying Himself in humanity (John 5:19, 30), revolutionizing their concept concerning man (Phil. 3:10; 1:21a).
C 
Our life should be a copy, a reproduction, of the model of the life of Christ, the first God-man—1 Pet. 2:21; Matt. 11:28-29; Eph. 4:20-21; John 17:4; 5:17; Phil. 1:19-22, 25.
D 
The Spirit of life and reality who was breathed into the disciples would guide them into all the reality of what they had observed of the Lord when they were with Him for three and a half years—John 16:13; 20:22:
1 
At the commencement of the first God-man’s ministry, He was baptized to fulfill all righteousness, recognizing that according to His flesh (His humanity—1:14; Rom. 1:3; 8:3), He was good for nothing but death and burial—Matt. 3:15-17.
2 
He trained His disciples to learn from Him (11:29) in the miracle of feeding five thousand people with five loaves and two fish; His “looking up to heaven” to bless the five loaves and two fish (14:19) indicates His realizing that the source of blessing was not Him, the sent One, but the Father, the sending One (John 10:30; 5:19, 30; 7:6, 8, 18).
3 
The Lord did not remain in the issue of the miracle with the crowds but went away from them to be with the Father privately on the mountain in prayer—Matt. 14:22-23; Luke 6:12.
4 
The Lord lived a life of contacting God (Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:28; Heb. 7:25), living in the presence of God without ceasing (Acts 10:38c; John 8:29; 16:32), and of contacting people, ministering God into them to bring them into the jubilee of God’s New Testament economy (Luke 4:18-19; Heb. 8:2; cf. Gen. 14:18; Acts 6:4).
5 
He was a man in whom Satan, the ruler of the world, had nothing (no ground, no chance, no hope, no possibility in anything)—John 14:30b, cf. v. 20; 2 Cor. 12:2a; Col. 1:27; 2 Tim. 4:22; John 3:6b; 4:23-24; 1 John 5:4, 18.
E 
The only way to live the life of a God-man according to the Lord’s model is to set our entire being on the mingled spirit, walking, living, and having our being according to the mingled spirit—Rom. 8:2, 4, 10, 6, 11, 16; 1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 10:12; Gal. 5:25; Eph. 6:17-18; 1 Thes. 5:16-20; 1 Tim. 4:6-7; 2 Tim. 1:6-7.
F 
“We should all declare that we want to live the life of a God-man. Eventually, the God-men will be the victors, the overcomers, the Zion within Jerusalem. This will bring in a new revival which has never been seen in history, and this will end this age”—Life-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, p. 28.
Ⅳ 
We can enter into a new revival by participating in Christ’s heavenly ministry to feed His lambs and shepherd His sheep in order to take care of God’s flock, which is the church that issues in the Body of Christ; this is to incorporate the apostolic ministry with Christ’s heavenly ministry—John 21:15-17; 1 Pet. 2:25; 5:1-4; Heb. 13:20-21; Rev. 1:12-13:
A 
We need to shepherd people according to the pattern of the Lord Jesus in His ministry for carrying out God’s eternal economy—Matt. 9:36; John 10:11; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 5:4:
1 
The content of God’s entire New Testament economy in His complete salvation is Christ as the Son of Man cherishing us by redeeming us from sin, accomplishing His judicial redemption through His death (1 Tim. 1:15; Eph. 1:7), and Christ as the Son of God nourishing us to impart the divine life into us abundantly, carrying out His organic salvation in His resurrection (John 10:10; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Eph. 5:29).
2 
Our not having the Father’s loving and forgiving heart and the Savior’s shepherding and seeking spirit are the reason for our barrenness—Luke 15:1-24.
3 
We need to cherish people (to make them happy and to make them feel pleasant and comfortable) in the humanity of Jesus (Matt. 9:10; Luke 7:34); we need to nourish people (to feed them with the all-inclusive Christ in His ministry of three stages) in the divinity of Christ—Matt. 24:45-47.
4 
Christ had to pass through Samaria, purposely detouring to Sychar to gain one immoral woman, cherishing her by asking her to give Him something to drink in order to nourish her with the flowing Triune God as the river of water of life—John 4:3-14; Rev. 22:1.
5 
As the One without sin, He did not condemn the adulterous woman but cherished her for the forgiveness of her sins judicially and for the setting free from her sins organically (John 8:1-11, 32, 36); it is also significant that the first one saved by Christ through His crucifixion was a robber sentenced to death (Luke 23:42-43).
6 
The Lord went to Jericho just to visit and gain one person, a chief tax collector, and His preaching was a shepherding (19:1-10); He also cherished the parents by laying His hands on their children (Matt. 19:13-15).
B 
We need to shepherd people according to the pattern of the apostle Paul, who shepherded the saints as a nursing mother and an exhorting father in order to take care of God’s flock—1 Thes. 2:7-8, 11-12; 1 Tim. 1:16; Acts 20:28:
1 
Paul shepherded the saints in Ephesus by teaching them “publicly and from house to house” (v. 20) and by admonishing each one of the saints with tears for three years (vv. 31, 19), declaring to them all the counsel of God (v. 27).
2 
Paul had an intimate concern for the believers (2 Cor. 7:2-7; Philem. 7, 12), and he came down to the weak ones’ level so that he could gain them (2 Cor. 11:28-29; 1 Cor. 9:22; cf. Matt. 12:20).
3 
He was willing to spend what he had, referring to his possessions, and to spend what he was, referring to his being, for the sake of the saints (2 Cor. 12:15); he was a drink offering, one with Christ as the wine producer, sacrificing himself for others’ enjoyment of Christ (Phil. 2:17; Judg. 9:13; Eph. 3:2).
4 
Paul walked by the Spirit to honor God so that he could minister the Spirit to honor man—2 Cor. 3:3, 6, 8; Gal. 5:16, 25; Judg. 9:9.
5 
Paul indicated in his teaching that the church is a home to raise up people, a hospital to heal and recover them, and a school to teach and edify them—Eph. 2:19; 1 Thes. 5:14; 1 Cor. 14:31.
6 
He revealed that love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and to do anything for the building up of the Body of Christ—8:1; 12:31; 13:4-8a; Eph. 1:4; 3:17; 4:2, 15-16; 5:2; 6:24; Rev. 2:4-5; Col. 1:18b; 1 Thes. 1:3.
C 
“I hope that there will be a genuine revival among us by our receiving this burden of shepherding. If all the churches receive this teaching to participate in Christ’s wonderful shepherding, there will be a big revival in the recovery”—The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994–1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” p. 92.
 


Morning Nourishment
  Hab. 3:2 …O Jehovah, revive Your work in the midst of the years…

  Hosea 6:2 He will enliven us after two days; on the third day He will raise us up…

  Psa. 119:25 My soul clings to the dust; enliven me according to Your word.

  [The] matter of revival is the “kernel” within the “shell” of the books of the Minor Prophets [cf. Hab. 3:2]…. Among God’s elect there has always been an aspiration to be revived. As long as you are a saved one, every day, consciously or unconsciously, there is an aspiration with a spontaneous prayer within you: “O Lord, revive us.” …Habakkuk’s prayer for revival … represents the whole [of God’s elect]. God always considers His elect as a corporate Body. This means that Habakkuk and we are one in the unit of God’s elect. Thus, when Habakkuk prayed for revival, we also prayed…. Such a prayer is an everlasting prayer. (Life-study of Malachi, p. 21)
Today’s Reading
  The main contents of the New Testament are that the Triune God has an eternal economy according to His good pleasure to dispense Himself into His chosen and redeemed people in His life and in His nature, to make all of them the same as He is in life and nature, to make them His duplication that they may express Him. This corporate expression will consummate in the New Jerusalem. Thus, the New Jerusalem is simply the enlarged, the increased, incarnation consummated in full, that is, the fullness of the Triune God for Him to express Himself in His divinity mingled with humanity. These are the contents of the New Testament, and this is the answer that Job needed. (Life-study of Job, p. 64)

  In 2 Samuel 7:12 God spoke of David’s seed, and in verse 14a He said, “I will be his Father, and he will be My son.” Here we have something of very great significance—the seed of David becoming the Son of God. These verses clearly unveil that a seed of man, that is, a son of a man, can become the Son of God. This implies that God’s intention is to make Himself man in order to make man God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, p. 203)

  God, because of His heart’s desire [to be one with man], became a man in incarnation, and He contacted man by the way of a romance. Before God opened up in the New Testament what was on His heart, both angels and men did not know what God was doing (Eph. 3:9). They did not realize that their God was becoming a Husband to marry a wife. This Husband was divine, and the wife He was going to marry was human.

  Through the divine power in the Spirit of holiness, Jesus’ humanity was uplifted into the divine sonship, into divinity [Rom. 1:3-4]. By this He was born of God not as God’s only begotten Son but as God’s firstborn Son (8:29), which indicates that many sons would follow. Today our Christ is God in the divine sense and man in the human sense. He is a God-man.

  This God-man is the Bridegroom in the divine, universal romance (John 3:29), but His counterpart, being merely human, still does not match Him….Therefore, God regenerated His human elect. Regeneration is to put divinity into humanity, to uplift humanity to the standard of divinity. However, regeneration does not complete the process. We were regenerated in our spirit, but we are not only a spirit. We are even more a soul. In order to uplift our entire being, God first has to regenerate our spirit and then transform our soul. The transformation of our soul takes time.

  Christ is divine and human, and His transformed lover is human and divine. They are the same in life and nature, perfectly matching each other. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “Crystallization-study of Song of Songs,” pp. 325-326)

  Further Reading: Life-study of Malachi, msg. 4; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “The Governing and Controlling Vision in the Bible,” ch. 1; Life-study of Job, msgs. 8-10, 12, 16, 21, 24, 28, 30-31
 


Morning Nourishment
  John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us…

  1 Cor. 15:45 …”The first man, Adam, became a living soul”; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.

  Rev. 5:6 And I saw in the midst of the throne…a Lamb standing as having just been slain, having… seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God…

  We all need to have a clear view of the central revelation of God. The central revelation of God is God becoming flesh, the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit becoming intensified sevenfold to build up the church to issue in the Body of Christ and to consummate the New Jerusalem. We need to see that the Triune God became flesh, that the flesh became the life-giving Spirit, and that the life-giving Spirit became the sevenfold intensified Spirit. This Spirit is to build up the church, which becomes the Body of Christ consummating the New Jerusalem as the final goal of God’s economy….The Lord’s recovery today is just the recovery of these critical points concerning the Spirit of God in the move of God’s eternal economy. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” p. 92)
Today’s Reading
  I am quite concerned for all the co-workers and elders. It may be that a good number of them do not have a complete understanding of what the Lord’s recovery is…. Regarding the Lord’s present recovery, I hope that none of you would be held back by your old theology or by your old understanding of the recovery. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” pp. 92-93)

  Christ made Himself, the first God-man, a prototype for the mass reproduction of many brothers, the many God-men (Rom. 8:29)….I have been made by God to know only one thing—God became man so that man may become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. This is my unique burden, my unique message. God and man will become one entity, and that one entity is the mingling of divinity with humanity. This mingling will consummate in the New Jerusalem, which is the conclusion of the entire Bible. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “The Practical Way to Live a Life according to the High Peak of the Divine Revelation in the Holy Scriptures,” p. 55)

  I recently fellowshipped with the co-workers and elders by speaking a very frank word to them. I said, “Brothers, many of you still work for the Lord by doing affairs. Your kind of taking the lead among the saints is not according to the spirit but according to your kind of realization. So you made a number of formalities, asking others to perform your formalities. This often causes opinions and even divisions.” All the co-workers and elders from today onward should have a change….You have been called and assigned by the Lord to carry out God’s economy, and God’s economy is altogether centered on Christ, taking Christ as its reality. Without Christ, there is no economy of God. We may be very busy every day in the Lord’s recovery in the church, and we may be very diligent and faithful, yet we do things that are not the contents, the reality, and the center of God’s economy. So we need a turn.

  I pray, “Lord, grant us in Your recovery to have a genuine, real revival.” The urgent need today is the practice of a kind of living that belongs to God-men, and the God-men are the very components of God’s economy.

  All the elders and co-workers should pursue this reality so that they will be made into a model by the Lord, a model living in the economy of God. Then they and their churches will become such a model. In my prayer, this is what I call the genuine revival. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” pp. 195-196, 198)

  Further Reading: CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Christian Life,” ch. 2; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Triune God’s Revelation and His Move,” chs. 1-2
 


Morning Nourishment
  1 Pet. 2:21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered on your behalf, leaving you a model so that you may follow in His steps.

  1 Cor. 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.

  Today what we have seen of the Lord… is in God’s central lane, the economy of God, with Christ as its centrality and universality, with Christ as its center, reality, and everything. This Christ is now the life-giving Spirit indwelling our regenerated spirit to be one with our spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17).

  For such a revelation, which is so high, deep, and profound, the Lord needs a model. He needs a corporate people to be raised up by His grace through this high peak of the divine revelation to live a life according to this revelation….Where is the model of living a crucified life that we may live Christ?… Where is the model of living Christ and magnifying Christ by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ? Where is this life? We have these revelations released as messages printed in books, but where is the model? (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” p. 196)
Today’s Reading
  The disciples who followed the Lord for three and a half years saw what He did, how He behaved, and how He spoke. That discipled them….Christ used these three processes—His human living; His all-inclusive, all-terminating, life-releasing, and new-man-creating death; and His life-dispensing resurrection—to disciple His followers.

  In resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit and entered into them…. In Genesis 2 God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into man the breath of life (v. 7). This caused man to become living, that is, a living person. On the day of His resurrection Christ breathed Himself into His disciples, and they also became living [John 20:22]. They were made alive with the divine life. The Spirit of life and of reality who was breathed into them would guide them into all the reality of what they had observed of the Lord when they were with Him for three and a half years.

  The followers of Christ were discipled through Christ’s human living on the earth, as the model of a God-man—living God by denying Himself in humanity (John 5:19, 30), revolutionizing their concept concerning man (Phil. 3:10; 1:21a). The concept of the disciples was revolutionized by what they saw of the Lord Jesus living God by denying Himself in His humanity.

  They were discipled through Christ’s crucifixion to annul their human life for them to live the divine life (Gal. 2:20).

  They were also discipled through Christ’s resurrection to know Him as God’s firstborn Son (Rom. 1:4; Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29). As the only begotten Son of God, Christ had only the divine life and nature. He had nothing human. But as the firstborn Son of God, He is both divine and human. Christ had the human life and nature, but He lived the divine life and nature through the denying of His human life and nature. This was His divine and mystical living to disciple all His followers for three and a half years.

  They were also discipled to know Christ as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45).

  If we open to the Spirit within us as we prayerfully consider this fellowship, we will be discipled. Only the discipled ones are the constituents of the vital groups. They have been discipled to be vital. A disciple is one who lives the divine life in his human life. The vitality of the ministry is due to a person’s living the divine life out of his human life. Then what he utters is divine out of a crucified human life. We need to deny our human life for the releasing of something divine. This is the main factor of our being vital. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” pp. 75-77)

  Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” chs. 2-4, 6-11; CWWL, 1993, vol. 1, “The Move of God in Man,” ch. 1
 


Morning Nourishment
  Matt. 3:15-16 …For it is fitting for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness….And having been baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him.

  11:29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart…

  As the first God-man, Christ lived on earth in a particular way for the accomplishing of God’s eternal economy, which ultimately consummates in the New Jerusalem. The very center of the four Gospels is Christ. Matthew 1:18 and 20 say that this God-man’s conception was of the Holy Spirit. The God-man was one person but of two sources. The first source is divine, and the second source is human. He was one person of two natures—human and divine.

  Before He carried out any part of His ministry, the first thing He did was to be baptized to fulfill the righteousness according to the way of righteousness brought in by John (Matt. 3:15; 21:32)….The Lord Jesus recognized that, according to His flesh (His humanity—John 1:14; Rom. 1:3; 8:3), He was good for nothing but death and burial. Jesus needed to be baptized because He became flesh, and the flesh, in the eyes of God, is good for nothing but death and burial. To bury such a dead person by baptism is the way of righteousness, not the way of the law with its statutes and ordinances. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living,” pp. 473-475)
Today’s Reading
  The Lord told the disciples that they needed to learn from Him, indicating that He was their pattern [Matt. 11:29].

  Matthew 14:19 says that He took the five loaves and two fish and when He was going to bless them, He looked up to heaven. In other words, He blessed the food by looking up to heaven. Looking up to heaven indicates that He was looking up to His Father in heaven….He was the sent One….The sending One, the Father, should be the source of blessing.

  Here is a great lesson for us to learn. Most readers of the Bible would pay attention to the miracle of creating something from nothing performed by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 14. But we need to see the pattern that the Lord set up for us here. We need to remember that He looked up to the Father in heaven and blessed the five loaves and two fish in front of His disciples. After His blessing in this way, He told the disciples what to do. No doubt, what He did was a pattern for the disciples to learn from Him. According to this pattern, we have to realize that we are not the Sender but the ones sent by the Sender. Regardless of how much we can do, we should realize that we still need the blessing from the source, from our Sender, that we can pass on to the benefited ones.

  After performing the miracle, the Lord went up to the mountain privately to pray (v. 23; cf. Luke 6:12). The Lord did not remain in the issue of the miracle with the crowds but went away from them to be with the Father privately on the mountain in prayer. If we go to a certain place and have a great success, would we leave right away, or would we remain in this big success to enjoy it? We need to see and follow the pattern of the Lord Jesus. He did not remain in the issue of the great miracle that He performed. Instead, He went up to the mountain privately to pray. The word privately…means He did not let the people know that He was going to pray. Otherwise, they would have followed Him. He went away from them to be with the Father privately in prayer. I like these three phrases: to be with the Father, on the mountain, and in prayer. We should learn from the Lord’s pattern here by exercising to be with Him on the mountain in prayer. His looking up to heaven means that He had no trust in Himself. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living,” pp. 561, 564)

  Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living,” chs. 1, 4-6, 8, 10, 13-14, 16
 


Morning Nourishment
  John 10:10-11 …I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly. I am the good Shepherd; the good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

  The content of God’s entire New Testament economy is Christ as the Son of Man cherishing us and as the Son of God nourishing us.

  The Jesus who is portrayed in the four Gospels is very cherishing…. All people need Him to cherish them, to make them happy, comfort them, and give them rest. If He came to us in His divine status, this would intimidate us. But even the most sinful tax collectors could sit with Him as friends, eating and talking with Him (Luke 15:1; Matt. 9:10).

  God sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins in His humanity (1 John 4:10)—cherishing….God sent His Son to us that we may have life and live through Him in His divinity (v. 9)—nourishing….God gave us His only begotten Son that we… may not perish through His redemption in His humanity (cherishing) but may have eternal life in His divinity (nourishing). Christ as the Son of Man came to redeem us from sin (1 Tim. 1:15)—cherishing. This is the first part of the New Testament….Christ as the Son of God came to impart the divine life into us abundantly (John 10:10)—nourishing. This is the second part of the New Testament. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” pp. 131-132, 136-137)
Today’s Reading
  I believe that not having the Father’s loving and forgiving heart and not having the Savior’s shepherding and seeking spirit is the reason for our barrenness. I realize that you all work hard, but there is almost no fruit. The Lord said, “By the fruit the tree is known” (Matt. 12:33), but we are a tree without any fruit…. A good, gentle pastor may not have a particular gift, such as the gift of speaking; he may simply visit people and welcome them when they come to his meeting, but according to statistics, he will have a ten percent yearly increase. We, however, do not have even a ten percent increase. Can you see how barren we are? Many of you are good speakers, knowing the higher truths. The truths we hold are much higher than those in Christianity. However, we do not have fruit, because we are lacking in the Father’s loving and forgiving heart and the Son’s shepherding and seeking spirit. We condemn and regulate others rather than shepherding and seeking them. We are short of love and shepherding. These are the vital factors for us to bear fruit, that is, to gain people…. Do we train the young ones to gain people or to regulate people? We have to consider our ways…(Hag. 1:5). Our way is not right; something is wrong. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “A Word of Love to the Coworkers, Elders, Lovers, and Seekers of the Lord,” p. 31)

  The preaching of the gospel is the top shepherding of sinners….Christ carried out His ministry by shepherding. He went to Jericho just to visit one person, a chief tax collector (Luke 19:1-10). He did not go there to hold a big gospel campaign…. His desire was to preach the gospel to gain one person, and His preaching was a shepherding. John 4 says that while the Lord was on His way to Galilee, “He had to pass through Samaria” (v. 4). He detoured… in order to contact a sinful Samaritan woman, who previously had five husbands. The Lord foreknew that she would come to the well of Jacob. The well of Jacob is a type of Christ, who is the fountain of water springing up into eternal life (v. 14b). We have to learn of the Lord’s pattern in purposely detouring to Sychar to gain only one person.

  To spend three years to gain one person is worthwhile. If you spend three years to visit one person continually, you will gain him. After twelve years you will have four new ones following you to the church meetings. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” pp. 113-114)

  Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” chs. 7,13; Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 46, 49
 


Morning Nourishment
  Acts 20:28 Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among whom the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers to shepherd the church of God…

  2 Cor. 12:15 But I, I will most gladly spend and be utterly spent on behalf of your souls…

  Phil. 2:17 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and I rejoice together with you all.

  We may have the feeling that we are strong ones. In 1 Corinthians 9:22 Paul says, “To the weak I became weak that I might gain the weak.” This means that we should come down to the weak one’s level. To a sick person we come down to the level of a sick person. This is the way to shepherd people by visiting them. Paul also says, “Who is stumbled, and I myself do not burn?” This is to burn in sorrow and indignation over the cause of the stumbling of all the fallen ones. This shows the pattern of Paul as a good shepherd, taking care of God’s flock. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” p. 115)
Today’s Reading
  In Paul’s talk with the elders in Ephesus in Acts 20, Paul said that he taught them “publicly and from house to house” (v. 20)….He did this to perfect the saints. He did not shrink from declaring to them anything that was profitable (v. 20), declaring to them all the counsel of God (v. 27). What a marvelous perfecting work the apostle Paul did!

  Paul went back again and again to every home of the saints, exhorting them and admonishing them with tears. An apostle should speak full of sympathy, with tears. Do you want to be an apostle? Then learn how to weep. In Acts 20:19 Paul said that he served the Lord as a slave with all humility and tears. Then in verse 31 he said that he did not cease admonishing each one of the saints with tears. An apostle tells the dear ones under his shepherding everything concerning God and His counsel with tears. He does not only speak publicly, but he also visits the homes of the saints. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 4, “Further Light concerning the Building Up of the Body of Christ,” pp. 358-359)

   The end of 1 Corinthians 12 reveals that love is the most excellent way (v. 31b). How can one be an elder?…How can one be a co-worker?… How do we shepherd people? Love is the most excellent way. Love is the most excellent way for us to prophesy and to teach others. Love is the most excellent way for us to be anything or do anything.

  The church is not a police station to arrest people or a law court to judge people but a home to raise up the believers. Parents know that the worse their children are, the more they need their raising up. If our children were angels, they would not need our parenting to raise them up. The church is a loving home to raise up the children. The church is also a hospital to heal and to recover the sick ones. Finally, the church is a school to teach and edify the unlearned ones who do not have much understanding. Because the church is a home, a hospital, and a school, the co-workers and elders should be one with the Lord to raise up, to heal, to recover, and to teach others in love.

  Love covers and builds up, so love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and to do anything for the building up of the Body of Christ.

  I hope that there will be a genuine revival among us by our receiving this burden of shepherding. If all the churches receive this teaching to participate in Christ’s wonderful shepherding, there will be a big revival in the recovery. In the past we did much speaking and teaching with very little shepherding. Shepherding and teaching should be like two feet for our move with the Lord. Our shepherding should always be with teaching, and our teaching should always be with shepherding. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” pp. 126-127,92)

  Further Reading: CWWL, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” chs. 5-6; Life-study of 2 Corinthians, msg. 44; Life-study of Philippians, msg. 7
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