Scripture Reading: John 8:12, 32; 1 John 1:5-8; 3 John 3-4, 8; 1 Tim. 2:4; 4:3

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 3　DAY 1　»

　　2 John 2 For the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever.

　　1 Tim. 4:6 If you lay these things before the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, being nourished with the words of the faith and of the good teaching which you have closely followed.

　　A number of the saints have been meeting with us for years and years, but they still have not gotten into the basic intrinsic element of the Lord’s recovery…. For many years I attended the [Christian] services, heard the sermons, and went to Sunday school, but nearly nothing got into me. However, something of the Bible stories and of the traditional Christian practices surely got into me…. Actually, no truth, no life, no Spirit, and no reality ever got into me….We all have to admit that a good number of saints have been meeting with us year after year, yet if you check with them today, you would discover that not much intrinsic element of the divine revelation has been really wrought and constituted into their being. Not only in the matter of life but even more in the matter of the truth, not much intrinsic element has been wrought into the saints. I am really concerned that not many among us can present particular truths in an adequate way. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision,” pp. 307-308)

　　You must dive into the Recovery Version with the footnotes and the Life-study messages. It is not an easy task to be built up in the truth. You must study the text and every footnote. If possible, it is helpful to take care of the cross references. Then you need to study the Life-study messages. You need to get into these messages not like you are reading a newspaper or a reference book. You must consider the text of the Recovery Version with the footnotes and the Life-study messages as a textbook. Because this is my work, I know the nature of it. I am fellowshipping this with you to let you know the way our publications were written. If you merely read them in a light way, you cannot get into them. You must study them as a textbook.

　　If you merely read the Life-studies, you will receive only a temporary nourishment. That will become only a kind of inspiration to you. An inspiration is like a vapor in the air. When what we read becomes a truth in our being, this nourishment remains forever. What I have received is not all the time inspiration, like a vapor. What I have received from the Lord is always the solid truth, so it remains in me, nourishing me all the time. You must have the truth. The only way for the truth to get into you is through your mentality. Then it remains in your memory. If you do not understand, the truth cannot get into you….If the truth gets into your memory, it becomes a constant and long-term nourishment. Then you have an accumulation of the truth, and you are a person continually under the constant nourishment. You will then know how to present the truth to others, not merely to inspire them or to stir them up but to make them solid and constituted with the truth.

　　While the issue of nourishment is forever, the nourishment itself remains only temporarily. Once the truth has been constituted into someone, however, it will remain there forever, and its remaining is its supply. Our need for the long run is this kind of education with the truth, which is really something solid, living, and existing. We need this. Do not expect to have an overnight success, which is like a factory making artificial flowers. Overnight you can produce many flowers, but in a genuine nursery or garden it takes time to grow flowers….You may have the thought that within two years a great number of people will be added to the church. Most of these people, however, may be empty. This is mushrooming. We must take care of the church in a way of growing gradually by life and by truth. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision,” pp. 312-313, 336)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of 1 John, msgs. 5, 7, 9-11, 17-18, 22, 28, 32; CWWL, 1978, vol. 3, “Truth Messages,” chs. 1-2, 5

«　WEEK 3　DAY 2　»

　　1 Tim. 2:3-4 This is good and acceptable in the sight of our Savior God, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth.

　　2 Thes. 2:13 But we ought to thank God always concerning you, brothers beloved of the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.

　　[According to 1 Timothy 2:4] God desires all men to have two things: salvation and the full knowledge of the truth. In the past we took care of salvation, but we neglected the full knowledge of the truth. Notice that, according to the Greek, this verse does not say that men should come simply to the knowledge of the truth, but to the full knowledge of the truth. To have the full knowledge of the truth is to fully know the truth. To know the truth in this way is a safeguard. (CWWL, 1978, vol. 3, “Truth Messages,” pp. 294-295)

　　The very salvation that is the goal of God’s eternal selection is in two things: in sanctification of the Spirit and also in belief of the truth [cf. 2 Thes. 2:13].

　　To be sanctified in the belief, in the faith, of the truth is very subjective. Faith is the reaction, the substantiation, of the unseen scenery (the truth). Now we not only have the knowledge of the truth but also the faith of the truth. We have the reaction to the truth we have come to know objectively…. When we learn these truths and we hear these truths, we will have the hearing of faith (Gal. 3:2, 5). The scenery (truth) and the seeing (faith) are objective to the camera (us). But when the light (the Spirit) brings the scenery to the film (our spirit) within the camera, both the seeing and the scenery become subjective to it. When the light brings the scenery to the film, there is a click within the camera. That “click” within us, which brings the scenery of the truth into our spirit, is faith. This is the faith of the truth.

　　Now we not only have the truth as some objective scenery, but we have the faith of the truth. In this faith of the truth we are being saved. Our daily salvation is in this faith, in this reaction, to the scenery of the truth. We all are short of the vision that comes from the faith of the truth…. All the problems come from the shortage of a clear and adequate vision. The Bible may be…veiled to us in the same way that it was veiled to many of the Jews when they read the Old Testament (2 Cor. 3:15)…. All the leading ones in the churches bear a great responsibility, and I do believe that all of us will be held responsible for the churches at the judgment seat. In light of the judgment seat, we need to be in fear and trembling that we would delay the saints or veil them in any way. We need to expose the truth to the saints and minister the proper truth, the proper scenery, into them. The Lord may ask us at the judgment seat, “As a leader in the church, were you taking the veils away from My people? Did you bring them to the best scenery in My divine revelation of the sixty-six books of the Bible?” If the Lord would check with us in such a way, what would we say?

　　First, we need the knowledge of the truth. We need someone to speak the truth. Romans 10:17 tells us, “Faith comes out of hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” We have to preach, to speak, the word. This preaching, this speaking, of the word produces the hearing, and the hearing will produce the reaction within others. This reaction is the “click” of faith impressing whatever you speak into the spirit of the ones you are speaking to….We all need to be delivered from skating on the surface of the divine truth, and we need to cooperate with the Lord by laboring together with Him to dive into the depths of the truth of His marvelous New Testament economy. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 3, “Elders’ Training, Book 6: The Crucial Points of the Truth in Paul’s Epistles,” pp. 539-541)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1985, vol. 3, “Elders’ Training, Book 6: The Crucial Points of the Truth in Paul’s Epistles,” ch. 8

«　WEEK 3　DAY 3　»

　　Eph. 4:15 But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ.

　　21 If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him as the reality is in Jesus.

　　Concerning the truth, we need to understand and explain it. Concerning Christ, we need to experience Him and minister to others what we have experienced. The Christ we are referring to here is not the objective Christ who is sitting in the heavens but the subjective Christ who is our life. Hence, to experience Christ is to experience life, and to minister Christ is to minister life. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 5, “Truth, Life, the Church, and the Gospel—the Four Great Pillars in the Lord’s Recovery,” p. 403)

　　Merely having the truth without experience is vanity; hence, we all need to have experience….The truth is God, and God is Christ. Hence, concerning the truth, we cannot have just the doctrinal knowledge; we must also have the experience. In other words, we must experience Christ.

　　After we have learned the truth, we still have to experience Christ so that He may become our reality. In this way, when we speak to people, we will not give them knowledge or doctrines, but we will minister Christ to them….The proper practice is that we would all learn to speak Christ and minister Christ to others.

　　Acts 5:42 tells us that the early disciples announced the gospel of Jesus as the Christ; this means that they announced Jesus Christ as the gospel. What they announced was not an empty doctrine or an elusive gospel but a living Jesus Christ, who is the reality and content of the gospel. After their preaching, once men received the gospel, they spontaneously received Jesus Christ.

　　In Ephesians 3:8 Paul says that he announced to people the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel…. For example, Paul tells us that Christ has both divinity and humanity (Rom. 1:3-4). This means that He was God and man, possessing all the divine attributes and human virtues. This is an item of the riches of Christ. Moreover, He also passed through human living, experienced all the trials and ordeals of human life, and endured all the pains of humanity. Then He went to the cross and died, and in His death He terminated all things and accomplished redemption for us. After His death He resurrected and became the life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is the Triune God, comprising the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. All the attributes of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, including love, light, holiness, righteousness, life, power, authority, peace, and joy, are items of the unsearchable riches. However, how can all these riches become our practical experience? How do we minister such a Christ to others in our speaking?

　　We must tell people that this Christ, who possesses all these unsearchable riches, is now the life-giving Spirit….This Spirit, being omnipresent, is in our heart and in our mouth. As long as we confess, repent, and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, opening our mouth and believing in our heart, the Spirit will enter into us. When the Spirit comes into us, He comes with all His riches. From then on, as long as we call on Him, breathe Him, and enjoy Him day by day, all His riches will become our experience, and His attributes such as love, light, holiness, and righteousness will become our virtues. Then we will realize that our love is boundless, our patience is enduring and transcendent, and our power is strong. After speaking to people, we should also pray with them….This is the way to minister Christ to people. First, we should speak the truth and present Christ clearly to them. Then we should pray with them to supply them practically in spirit with what we spoke to them so that they can receive the Christ whom we have announced. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 5, “Truth, Life, the Church, and the Gospel—the Four Great Pillars in the Lord’s Recovery,” pp. 405, 408-409)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 7-8,10, 80, 89; Life-study of 2 John, msgs. 1-2; Life-study of 3 John, msgs. 1-2

«　WEEK 3　DAY 4　»

　　2 Pet. 2:2 And many will follow their licentiousness, because of whom the way of the truth will be reviled.

　　1 Pet. 1:22 Since you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned brotherly love, love one another from a pure heart fervently.

　　[In 2 Peter 2:2] the way of the truth is the path of the Christian life according to the truth, which is the reality of the contents of the New Testament (1 Tim. 2:4; 3:15; 4:3; 2 Tim. 2:15,18; Titus 1:1). It is designated by other titles according to its various virtues, like the straight way (2 Pet. 2:15; see Heb. 12:13), the way of righteousness (2 Pet. 2:21; Matt. 21:32), the way of peace (Luke 1:79; Rom. 3:17), the way of salvation (Acts 16:17), the way of God (Matt. 22:16; Acts 18:26), the way of the Lord (John 1:23; Acts 18:25), and the Way (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:22). It was slandered as the way of heresy (Acts 24:14).

　　Because of the false teachers, the way of the truth will be reviled. Since the way of the truth is the way of reality, and the way of reality is the way of God’s economy, this means that the false teachers will cause the entire revelation of the New Testament to be reviled. (Life-study of 2 Peter, p. 80)

　　The purification of our souls is the Spirit’s sanctification of our disposition that we may live a holy life in God’s holy nature (1 Pet. 1:15-16). It is deeper than the purification of our sins (Heb. 1:3) and the cleansing of sin (1 John 1:7). The latter is the purification of our outward doing; the former, the purification of our inward being—the soul. This is like the washing in the word in Ephesians 5:26.

　　In order to understand what it means to purify our souls by obedience to the truth [1 Pet. 1:22], we must be clear concerning the meaning of truth in this verse. Truth here is the sanctifying truth, which is God’s word of reality (John 17:17). Truth in this verse does not mean doctrine. Truth is the reality contained in God’s word and conveyed by it. For example, John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world.” This is the divine word. This word, however, should not merely be a doctrine to us, as it is with so many readers of John 3:16. To read this verse only in a doctrinal way is to have a natural understanding…. If we are to have more than a natural understanding of John 3:16, we need to touch the reality contained in this short word and conveyed by it. When we read, “God so loved the world,” we need to ask ourselves if we have experienced this love. We should say, “God so loved the world. Does this ‘world’ include me? Does this word mean that God so loved me?” Anyone who reads John 3:16 in this way will get saved. Such a one would say, “O God, how I thank You that the world includes me. For You to love the world means that You love me.” This is to take John 3:16 as truth, as reality, and not merely as a doctrine.

　　First Timothy 3:15 says that the church is the house of the living God. This verse contains doctrine, but to us it should not be merely a doctrine. Rather, Paul’s word about the church being the house of the living God should be a truth, a reality. We need to ask, “Is the church in my locality the house of the living God?” If we read the verse in this way, we shall contact reality, truth. The truth is the solid content, the reality, contained in the word of God and conveyed by it to us.

　　[In 1 Peter 1:13] Peter charges us to gird up the loins of our mind and to be sober. We should not allow our mind to wander, and we should not be drunken or drugged. To gird up our mind is actually to purify our soul. Whenever our mind is wandering, our soul is impure. Dissenting thoughts cause our mind to wander….When our mind begins to wander, our soul becomes unclean. If this is our situation, we need to purify our soul….We purify our soul by girding up our mind and by setting it on one thing, not allowing it to wander. (Life-study of 1 Peter, pp. 113-117)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of 2 Peter, msgs. 2, 9, 13

«　WEEK 3　DAY 5　»

　　Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart and from your whole soul and from your whole mind and from your whole strength.

　　1 John 5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten of God, and everyone who loves Him who has begotten loves him also who has been begotten of Him.

　　God will not purify our soul for us. We need to do this ourselves by our obedience to the truth we have heard and received. Suppose a certain brother struggles for a period of time concerning the Lord’s recovery. Eventually, by God’s mercy and the moving of the sanctifying Spirit within him, he declares, “Praise the Lord! My mind is girded up with one goal. My emotion is fully set on one person, the Lord Himself. I have no other object of my love. Therefore, my will follows to make a strong decision: I am for the Lord, and I am for the Lord’s recovery. I don’t care for anything else.” This is obedience to the truth….This truth is conveyed in God’s sanctifying word. (Life-study of 1 Peter, p. 118)

　　In 1 Peter 1:22 Peter says that we purify our souls by obedience to the truth unto unfeigned brotherly love. Since the purification of our souls concentrates our entire being on God that we may love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind (Mark 12:30), it results in unfeigned brotherly love. We love from the heart fervently all those whom God loves. First, God’s regeneration issues in a holy life. Then His sanctification (purification) results in brotherly love.

　　The word unfeigned…means not to pretend or not to be hypocritical….To feign something is to put on a mask to disguise how we really feel….Unfeigned brotherly love is brotherly love that is genuine, without pretense; it is brotherly love without any kind of mask. In 1 Peter 1:22 the adjective unfeigned is very important. It indicates that through the purification of our soul, all the masks have been taken away.

　　If a brother takes in dissenting thoughts concerning the Lord’s recovery, he may still love the brothers, but that love will be feigned. This means that it will be love with a mask…. If he lives with others in a brothers’ house, he may apparently still love those brothers. But he does not have an unfeigned love, a love without a mask, for them. However, if he decides to obey the truth and by that obedience purifies his soul, this purification will result in unfeigned brotherly love.

　　Many times the saints may put on masks in the church life. They may love one another, but it is a love with a mask. The reason for this feigned love is that these saints have not purified their souls. They have not girded up the loins of their mind, concentrated their emotion, and made a strong decision with their will concerning the recovery. Therefore, everything they do is with a mask. They may realize that as long as they are in the church life they need to behave in a loving way. But inwardly they are doubting, and their souls, including the mind, the emotion, and the will, have been polluted. These saints need to purify their souls by obeying the truth.

　　When we have purified our souls by our obedience to the truth, we can love one another from the heart fervently. In verse 22 we have both the purifying of the soul and love from the heart. To love from the heart is to have a love that comes not only from the parts of the soul but also from the conscience. Our conscience testifies that we love the brothers with an unfeigned love. When our conscience has this kind of testimony, we love from the heart. But if our conscience does not confirm our love or testify concerning it, then our love is merely from the soul. It is not a love from the heart, because the conscience is not part of the soul, but is part of the heart. (Life-study of 1 Peter, pp. 118-120)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1953, vol. 3, “The Knowledge of Life,” chs. 13-14

«　WEEK 3　DAY 6　»

　　Matt. 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

　　28:20 Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age.

　　These four great points—God’s creation, man’s fall, God’s becoming flesh, and God’s dispensing—are the major truths in the Bible from God’s creation to the New Jerusalem….We must preach these truths as the gospel to others…. If we speak clearly, plainly, and logically, then everyone will be able to understand. If we speak clumsily and ambiguously, then no one will be able to understand. Therefore, if we have the burden within that the Lord’s recovery would spread to every place, it is not enough just to preach the superficial gospel of Christianity. We must announce to people the major truths in the Bible as the gospel. For this reason we must study them diligently. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 5, “Truth, Life, the Church, and the Gospel—the Four Great Pillars in the Lord’s Recovery,” p. 391)

　　In general, the educational level among people today has been raised, and people’s reasoning and logic skills are more advanced and enriched than in the past. Furthermore, most people have some philosophical ideas and are able to ponder over all kinds of questions related to human life, questions requiring high levels of psychological reasoning…. If we preach these four great truths, people will be appreciative because these truths will match their inner condition, raising their interest and their thinking concerning human life, as well as providing them the highest answers to the true meaning of human life. If someone is saved as a result of this, his salvation will be a surpassing salvation.

　　We believe that this is the only way we can bring the Lord back as well as meet the need of human society in its present vain condition. The result of society’s civilization and progress has been an unremitting emptiness within man. Only the high truths in the Lord’s recovery can fill up this emptiness. Therefore, we should bear this burden to diligently study the truth to the extent that we can expound the truth and announce the truth….This is the preaching of the high gospel. Paul says that God had commissioned him to preach the gospel and to teach the truth (1 Tim. 2:7). In the same way, this commission has been given to us today. I hope that we would all receive this commission to actively preach the gospel and teach the truth.

　　We should no longer speak the superficial gospel of peace and prosperity….The proper gospel is to tell others that the only God, who is the Triune God—the Father, Son, and Spirit—became flesh, died on the cross to accomplish redemption, and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is the processed Triune God….When man repents and believes into Him, immediately He enters into man to be man’s life and life supply. He is in man as the essential Spirit and upon man as the economical Spirit. In this way He becomes one spirit with man, and man also becomes one spirit with Him. The result is that man possesses real joy, satisfaction, and the true meaning of human life. This is the high gospel that we should announce everywhere.

　　When we preach and speak in this way, the essential Spirit will fill us inwardly, and the economical Spirit will fill us outwardly….The life we live will be a life of love, light, holiness, and righteousness, and we will spontaneously live out God’s image. This is true spirituality, true holiness, and true overcoming. Ultimately, this is glory, which will expand to become the kingdom, consummating in the New Jerusalem. This will be the completion of the truth of God’s central mystery. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 5, “Truth, Life, the Church, and the Gospel—the Four Great Pillars in the Lord’s Recovery,” pp. 391-392, 401-402)

　　Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 57, ch. 12; CWWN, vol. 52, “The Character of the Lord’s Worker,” ch. 10