Scripture Reading: Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 6:17; 12:24, 31b; 13:1-8a; 10:17; Lev. 2:4; Eph. 3:16-17a; 4:16

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 7　DAY 1　»

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

　　The highest peak in God’s economy [is] the reality of the Body of Christ. We know the term the Body of Christ. We may even have seen the revelation of the Body of Christ. Yet…we can see very little of the reality of the Body of Christ within us and among us…. This reality has nothing to do with any kind of organization or with anything that remains in the nature of organization. Also, the reality of the Body of Christ is not a system in any way, because no system is organic. The reality of the Body of Christ is absolutely and altogether organic. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” p. 124)

　　Paul’s writings are the completion of the divine revelation. You have to realize that this completing ministry is altogether focused on the Body…. If you take away Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 1 and 4, and Colossians 1 and 2, you take away the chapters concerning the Body of Christ from Paul’s writings. From these chapters you can see the top point, the ultimate point, of God’s divine revelation, the Body. The Body is the ultimate item of God’s continual working, so the Body is the top point of God’s entire revelation.

　　First of all, we have to realize that we redeemed sinners have all been made part of Christ’s Body. Also, we have to realize that all the parts of Christ’s Body are organic. They are not only organic but also properly organic…. To be properly organic in the Body does not mean that you simply get baptized and that you get into a so-called church, and then you become a member of the Body of Christ; rather, it means that you must be organically united with Christ. You must be a part properly planted into Christ’s Body organically. Then you will have a proper organic union with the Body of Christ. Then you will become a part of the Body.

　　Among these four books—Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians—[each]… has its own angle of viewing the Body. Two words from Romans 12:5 indicate the organic union—in Christ. “In Christ” is a matter of the organic union. “We who are many are one Body in Christ.” Just this one little phrase tells us from which angle Romans 12 speaks of the Body. It speaks from the angle of the life union, from the angle of the organic union. How then could we get into Christ? We were not born in Christ; we were born in Adam, but by being reborn we have been transplanted into Christ…. This little phrase in Christ has been used many times in the New Testament. Whenever you read in Christ, you must remember that this indicates the organic union with Christ. Why does Romans 12 talk about the function of the Body? Because it talks about the Body based upon the organic union we have in Christ. In this union with Christ there is…a life that unites us together…with Christ [and]…with all the other members of Christ.

　　When we remain in this organic union, we are in the Body. When we do not remain in this organic union, we are out of the Body. You need to check yourself for one day to see how much time you remain in this organic union. You will have to admit that you do not remain very much in this organic union…. The actuality of the Body is the remaining in the organic union with Christ…. John 15 charges us to abide in Him. To abide in Him simply means to remain in this organic union. When we remain in this organic union, we are actually living in the Body. If we do not remain in this organic union with Christ, we have left the Body. As long as you say something by yourself, you have left the Body. This means that your gossip, your free talk, your loose conversation, is a strong sign that you have left the Body. (CWWL, 1980, vol. 1, “Perfecting Training,” pp. 250-254)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1980, vol. 1, “Perfecting Training,” chs. 23-24

«　WEEK 7　DAY 2　»

　　1 Cor. 12:27 Now you are the Body of Christ, and members individually.

　　Eph. 4:16 Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.

　　Corporately, the many sons of God [produced in resurrection] are the church; organically, they are the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is the church, the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the bride, the counterpart, of Christ. In each aspect the church takes the Body of Christ as its organic factor. Without the Body of Christ, the church is lifeless and is a mere human organization. Without the Body of Christ and, therefore, without the life of Christ, there cannot be the house of God, which is constituted with the children born of God the Father, and there cannot be the kingdom of God, which is the realm of God’s life. Without the life of Christ, there also cannot be the bride of Christ who, as His counterpart, must match Him to be a couple with Him. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “The Governing and Controlling Vision in the Bible,” p. 286)

　　We need to see the way Paul presents the Body of Christ in Ephesians 1. Paul says that God raised up Christ, seated Him in the heavens, subjected all things under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church. Right away in the following phrase he says, “Which is His Body” (v. 23a)…. This indicates that the Body is the church’s intrinsic significance. The church without the Body means nothing. In Greek the word for church is ekklesia, the called-out ones coming together. But the significance of this gathering is the Body.

　　In the recovery today, … if we consider ourselves as individual churches or as individual believers, we are through. We should consider ourselves as one Body. If the parts of our physical body would keep their own jurisdiction and be autonomous, our body would be finished. But thank the Lord that all the members of our physical body are submissive to one another so that our body can act and operate smoothly.

　　Brother Watchman Nee [and I]…always behaved, acted, and took action in the recovery as one Body. This is why the Lord’s recovery could exist on this earth over these past approximately seventy years. We do not have any organization to keep anything, but the recovery is still here. The recovery is still existing and has been kept by the principle of the Body.

　　The Body is the intrinsic significance of the church…. The church makes no sense without the Body. But Hallelujah, there is the Body! Without the Body the church makes no sense, but with the Body there is the intrinsic significance of the church.

　　What is the difference between the church and the Body?… We can use an apple tree as an illustration…. The church is the frame, like the apple tree, and the Body of Christ is the very organic essence of the church, just like the apples are the very organic essence of the apple tree. These two are one. The church is the frame for existing. The Body of Christ is the very organic contents for people’s satisfaction. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Issue of the Dispensing of the Processed Trinity and the Transmitting of the Transcending Christ,” pp. 548-549)

　　Ephesians 3 says that we are strengthened into the inner man, that Christ makes His home in our heart, and that we are filled (not covered or clothed) unto all the fullness of God, that is, the very being, essence, and element of God…. It is through this inner experience of the indwelling Christ that we apprehend with all the saints the unlimited measure of Christ, and it is by this that we are built up. (CWWL, 1965, vol. 1, “The Vision, Practice, and Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ,” p. 94)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” ch. 8; Fellowship concerning the Work of the Lord’s Recovery, Section 3

«　WEEK 7　DAY 3　»

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

　　Rev. 21:2 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

　　The reality of the Body of Christ is the aggregate, the totality, of such a living by a group of God-men. This kind of a living, which is the reality of the Body of Christ, will close this age, the age of the church, and will bring Christ back to take, possess, and rule over this earth with these God-men in the kingdom age. They were perfected, completed, and consummated in the church age. So in the next age, the kingdom age, they will reign with Christ for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4-6). (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” p. 138)

　　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…. Zion is the very spot where God is, that is, the Holy of Holies.

　　By that time all the God-redeemed people will be transformed, not only to be the same as God in life and nature but also to be the same in God’s appearance…. God looks like jasper (Rev. 4:3). Then Revelation 21 says that the entire New Jerusalem has the appearance of jasper (v. 11). Thus, God’s redeemed people have become absolutely the very God in life, in nature, and in appearance but not in His Godhead.

　　The overcomers are the very Zion, where God is. This is the intrinsic reality of the spiritual revelation in the holy Word of God…. The Lord’s recovery is to build up Zion. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” pp. 138-140)

　　According to the Bible, when God wants to do something, He first chooses a small number of people as a base and then works the same thing into the majority of the people. Jerusalem typifies the church. Within Jerusalem, there was Mount Zion. One typifies the whole body of the church, while the other typifies the overcomers of the church. 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. God always allowed Jerusalem to be trodden down, but He always protected Zion. 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.

　　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. As the Lord has done once before, so these overcomers have to pour out their blood before life can flow out to others. On behalf of the church, the overcomers take the stand of victory and also suffer tribulation and despising. Thus, the overcomers of God… have to pay the price and allow the cross to cut off all the old creation and deal with the gates of Hades (Matt. 16:18). Are you willing to endure heartache to gain the heart of God? Are you willing to let yourself be defeated so that the Lord can be the Victor? (CWWN, vol. 11, pp. 761-763)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ,” ch. 3; CWWN, vol. 11, pp. 760-766

«　WEEK 7　DAY 4　»

　　1 Cor. 12:24-25 But our comely members have no need. But God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked, that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same care for one another.

　　God has blended the Body together (1 Cor. 12:24). The word blended also means “adjusted,” “harmonized,” “tempered,” and “mingled.” God has blended the Body, adjusted the Body, harmonized the Body, tempered the Body, and mingled the Body. 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…all such distinctions are gone. 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. The co-workers and elders must learn to be crossed out. Whatever we do should be by the Spirit to dispense Christ. Also, what we do should not be for our interest and according to our taste but for the church. As long as we practice these points, we will have the blending. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” pp. 159-160)

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

　　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. If we isolate and seclude ourselves, we will lose much spiritual profit. Learn to fellowship. Learn to be blended. From now on, the churches should come together frequently to be blended…. After we begin to practice blending a few times, we will acquire the taste for it. This is the most helpful thing in the keeping of the oneness of the universal Body of Christ.

　　When we blend together, we have the cross and the Spirit…. We may come together without much blending because everyone stays in themselves. They are afraid to offend others and make mistakes, so they keep quiet. This is the manner of man according to the flesh. When we come together, we should experience the terminating of the cross. Then we should learn how to follow the Spirit, how to dispense Christ, and how to say and do something for the benefit of the Body.

　　To be blended means that you are touched by others and that you are touching others, but… in a blending way. Go through the cross, do things by the Spirit, and do everything to dispense Christ for His Body’s sake. We should not come to a blending meeting to be silent. We have to prepare ourselves to say something for the Lord. The Lord may use us, but we need to be tempered and crossed out, and we need to learn how to follow the Spirit to dispense Christ for His Body’s sake.

　　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. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm,” ch. 6

«　WEEK 7　DAY 5　»

　　Rom. 16:1 I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a deaconess of the church which is in Cenchrea.

　　16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.

　　20 Now the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

　　The last three chapters of Romans show that we need to reign in life particularly in two crucial matters. The first matter is in imitating the apostle to bring the local churches into the fellowship of the Body of Christ (14:3; 15:7-9, 25-33); the second matter is in following in the apostle’s footsteps to bring all the saints into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ (ch. 16).

　　The last three chapters of Romans show the blending and fellowship of the Body life brought forth through the apostle’s receiving according to God and Christ; such an explanation was not seen by the Bible expositors throughout the generations. Romans 16 gives us an excellent pattern of the apostle in bringing all the saints into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ. It is in such a life that we can truly reign in life. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Experience of God’s Organic Salvation Equaling Reigning in Christ’s Life,” pp. 513, 515)

　　We must follow in the footsteps of the apostle. He brought us into the blending life of the entire Body of Christ by recommendations and greetings in order that the God of peace may crush Satan under our feet and we may enjoy the rich grace of Christ (Rom. 16:1-16, 21-24, 20). In Romans 16 the apostle Paul greeted the saints one by one, mentioning at least twenty-seven names…. Moreover, he greeted the saints generally. This shows that he had a considerable amount of knowledge, understanding, and care with regard to every one of them. Such recommendations and greetings show both the mutual concern among the saints and the mutual fellowship among the churches. It is by the churches’ fellowship in the Body that the God of peace will crush Satan under our feet and we will be able to enjoy the rich grace of Christ. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Experience of God’s Organic Salvation Equaling Reigning in Christ’s Life,” p. 516)

　　According to Ephesians 1:22-23, the goal of God’s economy is the church, which is Christ’s Body. 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…. Likewise, 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.

　　The thought of blending is very strong in the Bible. In the Old Testament there is a type of the blending for the fulfillment of God’s economy…. This type of the blending is strongly referred to by the apostle Paul. 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…. That is blending. Paul tells us that the church is a bread, a cake, made of fine flour. This fine flour comes from wheat grains, and the wheat grains come from the one grain of wheat, which is Christ [John 12:24]…. We are the many grains so that we may be ground into fine flour for making the cake, the bread, of the church.

　　The truth of blending is in the holy Word, [but] hardly anyone speaks about blending because this is not only very high and deep but also very mysterious. It is not a physical matter. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” pp. 103-104, 111-112, 116)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Problems Causing the Turmoils in the Church Life,” chs. 3-4

«　WEEK 7　DAY 6　»

　　Gal. 2:20 I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

　　Phil. 3:10 To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.

　　[The] 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. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” pp. 128-129)

　　To be perfected…is to be matured by continually exercising to reject the self and live by another life. This is according to what Paul says: “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20a). Paul lived by dying to live. He was dying to his natural man and living by his new man with the divine life. So he said that by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, he lived and magnified Christ (Phil. 1:19-21a).

　　In Philippians 3 Paul says that he lived a life conformed to the death of Christ (v. 10). The death of Christ is a mold, and Paul put himself into that death-mold to be conformed there. On this man, Paul, all men could see the mark and the image of the cross…. 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.

　　The reality of the Body of Christ is not just a corporate living but a mingling living, … [a living that] is still going on. It is the mingling living in the eternal union of the regenerated, transformed, glorified tripartite God-men with the Triune God in the resurrection of Christ…. Such a mingling living is in the resurrection of Christ, and the reality of this resurrection is the Spirit. This resurrection imparts the consummated God and releases the death-overcoming life into the believers. Such a mingling living as the reality of the Body of Christ will consummate ultimately in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth as God’s increase and expression for eternity.

　　Anyone who lives such a mingling life would never be a trouble to anyone. They have been delivered out of themselves and have been transformed and perfected. They would not despise or condemn anyone, nor would they be bothered by others. They would not have anything to do with dissension, rebellion, or division. Instead, they would be here in the recovery as the high peak, Mount Zion, in Jerusalem. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The Practical Points concerning Blending,” pp. 129-131)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ,” ch. 4