Scripture Reading: 2 Pet. 1:12; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; Matt. 16:18; 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Rom. 1:3-4; Rev. 21:2, 9-10

DAY 1 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 2 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 3 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 4 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 5 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 6 Outline　MorningRevival

«　WEEK 6　DAY 1　»

　　2 Pet. 1:12 …I will be ready always to remind you concerning these things, even though you know them and have been established in the present truth.

　　Phil. 3:13-14 …But one thing I do: Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I pursue toward the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called me upward.

　　The “present truth” [in 2 Peter 1:12] can also be rendered the “up-to-date truth.” What is the up-to-date truth? Actually, all the truths are in the Bible; there is not one truth that is not in the Bible. Although they are all in the Bible, through man’s foolishness, unfaithfulness, negligence, and disobedience many of the truths were lost and hidden from man. The truths were there, but man did not see them or touch them. Not until the fullness of time did God release certain truths during particular periods of time and cause them to be revealed once more. (CWWN, vol. 11, “What Are We?” pp. 843-844)

　　These freshly revealed truths are not God’s new inventions. Rather, they are man’s new discoveries. There is no need for invention, but there is the need for discovery. In past generations God revealed different truths. During certain periods of time, He caused men to discover these specific truths. We can see this clearly from the history of the church.

　　Take, for example, the raising up of Martin Luther in the sixteenth century. God opened his eyes to see the matter of justification by faith. He was a vessel raised up by God to unveil the truth of justification by faith….The fact [of justification by faith] already existed before Luther’s time. Luther was merely the one who realized this truth in a stronger way; he was particularly outstanding in this truth. For this reason, this truth became the “present truth” in that age.

　　Every worker of the Lord should inquire before God as to what the present truth is. We need to ask: “God, what is the present truth?”…Not only do we need to know the general truths, we must also be clear about God’s present truth.

　　We know that God’s truths are cumulative; later truths do not negate earlier ones. All the past truths of God form the foundation of the truths today. What we see today are the cumulative revelations of God. When God opens our eyes to see this fact, we begin to realize that we are living in the tide of God’s will. This tide is a continuation of all the past works of God in previous ages.

　　Our hearts are full of thanksgiving to God. From all these brothers we have received much help. As Paul said, “Neither did I receive it from man” (Gal. 1:12). In the same way, we can say that although we have received help from our brothers, these revelations were not received from man. We received help from Luther, Zinzendorf, the Moravian Brethren, and the Keswick messages. Today we believe that God’s ultimate goal is to have Christ as everything…. I believe that God has only one work today. It is the message of Colossians 1:18 which says that God desires to see Christ have the first place in all things. The basis of everything is the death, the resurrection, and the ascension of Christ. Other than Christ, there is no spiritual reality. This is God’s “present truth.”

　　We thank God that we can touch God’s grand purpose. We need to humble and prostrate ourselves and to deny ourselves. We need to be clear that our work today is not just to save some souls or to help others become spiritual. Our goal is indeed the greatest and the most glorious. Thank God that we can know God’s “present truth.” May God be gracious to us so that we do not become the castaways of the “present truth.” May we be watchful, and may we not allow the flesh to come in or the self to gain any ground. May God’s will be accomplished in us. (CWWN, vol. 11, “What Are We?” pp. 844, 856-859)

　　Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 11, “What Are We?” pp. 843-859

«　WEEK 6　DAY 2　»

　　Rom. 1:1 Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, a called apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.

　　3-4 Concerning His Son, who came out of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

　　In Romans 1:1 Paul said that he was “separated unto the gospel of God,” and then he goes on to say that the gospel of God concerns God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1:3). This indicates that the gospel of God is a gospel of sonship. The goal of this gospel is to transform sinners into sons of God for the formation of the Body of Christ.

　　As we consider this matter of sonship, certain important words command our attention: designation, resurrection, sanctification, transformation, conformation, glorification, and manifestation. We are being designated sons of God through the process of resurrection. In this process a number of steps are involved. These steps include sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification….Glorification will also be the manifestation….On the day of our glorification, no one will need to ask us whether or not we are Christians, for we shall be manifested as sons of God. That manifestation will be the consummation of the process of designation by resurrection.

　　To serve God in the gospel is to serve Him not only in the matters of redemption, justification, and forgiveness, but especially in the matter of sonship…. According to this gospel, sinners in the flesh can be transformed into sons of God in the Spirit. What glad tidings! (Life-study of Romans, pp. 565, 578)

　　We must exercise our faith to preach… an uplifted gospel. We should not preach a gospel that has been lowered down to what we think is the level of people’s understanding… We need to realize that within man there is a God-created talent, ability, to receive God and to receive and understand His gospel.

　　Unbelievers can understand more of the gospel than we realize. Whenever we preach the gospel, we must believe that those listening were created by God with a certain ability, a talent, to receive and understand the message of the gospel. We need to improve our gospel preaching. We should preach an uplifted gospel and never lower the concept.

　　We need to preach an uplifted gospel, a gospel that covers more than the ABCs of God’s salvation. This will satisfy the hunger and thirst that is within man because of the way God created him. It will also stir up the interest of those who hear to come again to hear the preaching of the gospel.

　　Man was created for God, and within him there is the ability to understand the things of God, and there is a hunger for these things. Therefore, as we preach the gospel in an uplifted way, we must believe that the hearers have the ability to understand what we are saying. We need to enrich and uplift the word of our gospel preaching. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1304-1306)

　　The embodiment of God is Christ, the realization of Christ is the Spirit, the issue of the Spirit is the Body of Christ, and the consummation of the Body of Christ is the New Jerusalem. These five mysteries cannot be clearly explained by today’s traditional theology in Christianity….The Lord’s burden given to us is that we bear the testimony of His recovery, and one of the main points is to refute and correct the defects and errors of traditional Christian theology. We cannot say that traditional theology is all wrong; in fact, some of it is quite right. Nevertheless, it is incomplete….We must present the truth concerning the economy of God item by item according to the entire Bible. This is the Lord’s special commission to us. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 2, “The Governing and Controlling Vision in the Bible,” p. 307)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Exodus, msg. 113; Life-study of Romans, msgs. 54-56

«　WEEK 6　DAY 3　»

　　2 Sam. 7:12-14 When your days are fulfilled and you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, which will come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. It is he who will build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he will be My son…

　　God told David that He would build One to be David’s seed and that this seed would be called God’s Son. This seed would be both divine and human….Romans 1:3-4…tells us that in resurrection the seed of David was designated the Son of God. In their intrinsic significance, 2 Samuel 7:12-14a and Romans 1:3-4 reveal to us a human and divine person.

　　God in Christ became a man and went through some processes that this man could be designated something divine. In resurrection He was designated the firstborn Son of God. In and through resurrection Christ, the firstborn Son of God, became the life-giving Spirit, who now enters into us to impart, to dispense, Himself as life into our being to be our inner constitution, to make us a God-man just like Him. He was God becoming man, and we are man becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, pp. 167-168)

　　Jesus in His humanity, in that part, was not the Son of God. He was of the old creation, the old man, having the flesh, which is involved with Satan, sin, and the world. So this part had to be made divine, to be sonized, designated, that it might become a part of the Son of God.

　　It is very hard to say what the word designated means in Romans 1:4….Christ is a wonderful person. He has two parts: the man-part, the part of man, and the God-part, the part of God. The part of man is human. The part of God is divine…. His resurrection uplifted the humanity of Jesus into the level of divinity. Here is the essence of the person of Christ. This is very, very deep. Jesus’ divinity is the Spirit of holiness, having the divine power and the divine element to transform Jesus’ humanity, making it divine. This is what it means to designate, and this is to sonize. This is the fulfillment of the prophecy in typology in 2 Samuel 7:12-14. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” pp. 216-217)

　　Those responsible for the crucifixion of Christ did not realize that crucifixion was the best way for Him to be designated, to be glorified….If [a carnation] seed is put to an end by being buried in the soil, it will eventually sprout, grow, and blossom. In the same principle, through death and resurrection Christ “blossomed” as the Son of God. Satan expected the crucifixion of Christ to mark His termination, but the Lord Jesus knew that this was actually the beginning, that it would lead to His designation according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection from the dead….Hallelujah, in resurrection Christ was designated the Son of God in power! (Life-study of Romans, p. 551)

　　In His resurrection, all His believers were born, regenerated, with Him as His millions of “twins” to make all these twins the same as He is (1 Pet. 1:3)….The prototype is the firstborn Son of God, and the reproduction is the many sons of God. The Firstborn indicates that more sons are coming.

　　He is such a prototype to produce millions of God-men. These millions of God-men are the mass reproduction who are exactly the same as the wonderful person Jesus Christ. This mass reproduction of the prototype becomes the members of the prototype to be His Body, the Body of Christ, and this Body of Christ consummates in the New Jerusalem, which is the corporate expression of the Triune God, processed and consummated in Christ and becoming the life-giving Spirit. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” pp. 236-237)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, msgs. 24-25, 27-31; Life-study of 1 & 2 Chronicles, msgs. 2, 4, 7

«　WEEK 6　DAY 4　»

　　Rom. 8:29-30 …Those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers;…these He also called;…these He also justified; and…these He also glorified.

　　4 …Us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

　　We are designated the sons of God by a change in life through the process of resurrection. The day is coming when we shall reach the stage of “full blossom.” That will be the time of the redemption, the glorification, of our body, which is the full sonship (Rom. 8:23). The life of the Son of God has been implanted into our spirit. Now we…must pass through the process of death and resurrection. This causes the outward man to be consumed, but it enables the inner life to grow, to develop, and, ultimately, to blossom. This is resurrection….We are daily being put to death so that we may share Christ’s resurrection in a practical way. Hallelujah, we shall be designated sons of God by resurrection! (Life-study of Romans, p. 553)

　　A carnation seed is designated, not by being labeled, but by being sown into the earth and by growing gradually into a mature, blossoming carnation plant….The full blossoming of a carnation flower is its full designation. Like the carnation seed, we all are in the process of designation. The more we grow and are transformed, the more we are designated the sons of God.

　　According to the flesh, we all are troublesome, both to the church and to those with whom we live. The husbands trouble the wives, and the wives trouble the husbands. But we do not need to have our being according to the flesh, for we have the option of being according to the Spirit…. Whether you have your being according to the flesh or according to the Spirit depends on the choice you make. By your own will you may decide either to have your being according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. May the Lord be merciful to us so that we may choose to live according to the Spirit. We urgently need to learn how to walk according to the Spirit. If we walk according to the flesh, the church life will be most unpleasant. But if we walk according to the Spirit, the church life will be in the heavens.

　　The Spirit who dwells in us is the rising-up Spirit and the designating Spirit. DAY by day, this Spirit is designating us the sons of God. Most of us today may not have the confidence to say that we are the sons of God. We do not yet have the appearance, the expression, of God’s sons…. Nevertheless, we are under the process of designation by resurrection, and, eventually, after we have been fully processed, all will know that we are sons of God. The entire creation is waiting and groaning for this. We also groan because we do not yet have the appearance we should have. We know that we are still short in so many respects and wrong in many things, and we still have failures. But under the Lord’s sovereignty, even our failures are used as part of the process…. By our failures, our ugly self is torn down, and the Lord has a greater opportunity to work within us.

　　Praise the Lord for the divine process!… Not only have we been grafted into Christ that we may have a vital union with Him in His death, but we also enjoy His resurrection.

　　Designation is by resurrection, which includes sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification. All these wonderful things are in the Spirit. By touching the Spirit, we enjoy resurrection and everything included in it. Resurrection is not a matter of doctrine; it is absolutely a matter of touching the Spirit. The most simple way to contact the Spirit is to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. The more we touch the Spirit, the more we enjoy resurrection and the more we are sanctified, transformed, and glorified. (Life-study of Romans, pp. 571-572, 553-554, 582)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Romans, msgs. 52-53; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” chs. 2, 10-11

«　WEEK 6　DAY 5　»

　　Rom. 12:2 And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind that you may prove what the will of God is…

　　2 Cor. 3:18 But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.

　　In this process of resurrection there are four aspects: sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification. In Romans 12:2 Paul speaks of transformation, saying that we should not be conformed to this age but that we should be transformed by the renewing of the mind. In 8:29 Paul speaks of conformation, and in the next verse, of glorification. Our future glorification will be the ultimate step of resurrection; it is resurrection as applied to the body.

　　Today our sonship is not yet full. However, it will get fuller and fuller until it reaches the peak at the time of our glorification, when we shall be fully resurrected and designated the sons of God in nature and in appearance. Both in name and in reality we shall be the sons of God in spirit, in soul, and in body. (Life-study of Romans, pp. 554, 556)

　　[God is] building Himself in Christ into our being through the metabolic process of transformation [cf. 2 Sam. 7:12-14a].

　　Because Christ is the Spirit, He can dwell in us, and we can fellowship with Him in our spirit. We should look to Him, behold Him, and reflect Him, opening to Him the three layers of our being—our spirit, our heart, and our mouth. Then we will spontaneously reflect Him as a mirror and gradually be transformed into His glorious image from glory to glory. As a result, we will have the same image that He has [cf. 2 Cor. 3:18]. In this way the Lord Jesus makes us like Him and even makes us Him. When we look unto Him, He impresses Himself into our being. Then we become His reflection.

　　Transformation is a metabolic process that changes us by adding some new element into our being and discharging the old element….God’s economy is just to work Himself into us that we may experience such a metabolic process of spiritual digestion and assimilation that produces a gradual, intrinsic change in life. God’s building Himself into our being is altogether an organic matter. In order for such a building to take place, we need to receive, digest, and assimilate an organic element. Our spiritual food and drink is the organic, pneumatic Christ (John 6:51, 57; 7:37-39), the Christ who is the life-giving Spirit. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, pp. 171-172)

　　As such a Spirit He enters into God’s chosen people to dispense, to build, Himself as life into their being to be their inner constitution. In this way He makes them God-men, the many sons of God (Heb. 2:10), the mass reproduction of Himself as the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:2). Thus, they, the human seeds, become the sons of God with divinity through the metabolic process of transformation….This metabolic process is the building up of the church as the Body of Christ and the house of God…by the building of God into man and man into God, that is, by the constituting of the divine element into the human element and the human element into the divine element. This building will consummate in the New Jerusalem as a great, corporate God-man, the aggregate, the totality, of all the sons of God (Rev. 21:7). (2 Sam. 7:14, footnote 1)

　　On God’s side, the Triune God has been incarnated to be a man; on our side, we are being deified, constituted with the processed and consummated Triune God so that we may be made God in life and in nature to be His corporate expression for eternity. This is the highest truth, and this is the highest gospel. (Life-study of Job, p. 122)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, msg. 26; CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 2: The Vision of the Lord’s Recovery,” ch. 6

«　WEEK 6　DAY 6　»

　　Psa. 119:130 The opening of Your words gives light, imparting understanding to the simple.

　　Eph. 3:9 And to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things.

　　I have made an attempt to open every book of the New Testament to you, but I have left the further digging to you. I have only “opened up the mine,” but I have not dug that much….I picked up the burden to write the expository footnotes for the Recovery Version in order to open each book of the New Testament to the seeking saints. I believe that the Lord will continue this digging work either through you or through some others. After a period of time I believe that many of you will be “good diggers.” The intention and the goal of our publishing the Life-study messages is to open up the mine for you to go in and dig. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision,” pp. 311-312)

　　If we continue to take our old way, I am afraid that after another ten years we will be in the same condition. We are just giving people a little injection to help them grow in life mainly by inspiration, but no solid truth has been constituted into their being that can remain in their memory and that can be presented to others in a proper doctrinal way. By taking the way that we have taken, we have lost the nature of the testimony of Jesus, which must be a constitution of the proper truth that produces a proper daily living. If the saints are not properly constituted with the truth, they cannot live a proper life. If they live only by inspiration and not by the constitution of the truth, I do not trust in that kind of living to be a testimony of the Lord.

　　We must educate our spiritual children. We should not only help them grow in life but should also help them to be educated and built up in the proper knowledge of the truth…. If all the saints could go through the entire New Testament and the Life-studies with the Recovery Version and the footnotes in five years, I would worship the Lord. This would be wonderful.

　　The elders have to endeavor to get into the truth. Do not excuse yourself by saying that you are too old. Even at the age of eighty I spend a certain time every day in the Word. If I can make it, so can you. It all depends upon whether or not we have the heart…. All of us elder brothers need to get ourselves saturated, soaked, and constituted with this basic knowledge of God’s Word. I must testify that I love God’s Word. God is Spirit, and God is life. The Spirit is in the Word, and the Word is life.

　　I propose that you study the Bible with an opener, with a help. All of us who have some experience with the Life-study messages know that they may be considered as the best help. They are the most availing and prevailing key to open up the New Testament to all of us. We must remember that at the beginning of any endeavor we always feel awkward and not so successful. However,… if we keep endeavoring to get into the truth, I believe the result that will issue will be very promising.

　　We should encourage the saints to have a private time in the Lord’s Word and… do this as a proper rule of their daily life. Regardless of how busy or how tired we are, we can reserve thirty minutes a day for a time with the Lord in the Word…. If there is the will, there is the way. To save half an hour among twenty-four hours is not a hard thing. If the saints could practice spending one hour or more in the Lord’s Word, this would be wonderful, but at least we should encourage them to give half an hour to the Lord every day….We all can realize what a blessing this will be, and I believe that this will make the Lord very pleased. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision,” pp. 356-359)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, “Elders’ Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision,” chs. 9-13; Life-study of Ezra, msg. 5; Life-study of Nehemiah, msgs. 3, 5