Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Eph. 3:16-21

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 9　DAY 1　»

　　2 Sam. 7:12-14 …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…

　　1 John 4:13 In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit.

　　In 2 Samuel 7 David wanted to build God’s house, but in this chapter God wanted David to realize that he needed God to build Christ into him. Thus, 2 Samuel 7 is the unveiling of a prophecy through typology showing us there is no need for us to build something for God. We simply are not able to do this. We cannot build something for God with ourselves or with our knowledge of the Bible and theology. We need God to build up Christ into our intrinsic constitution so that our entire being will be reconstituted with Christ. As a result, we are not only changed, but we are transformed from one kind of person into another…. Second Samuel 7 simply indicates that God does not need us to build anything for Him. We are nothing, we have nothing, and we can do nothing. Therefore, we need Christ to be wrought into our being. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, pp. 160-161)

　　Just as the photograph of a person does not have the life and nature of that person, so David, a photograph of God’s heart, did not have the life and nature of God. Even though he was a man whose heart was according to God, he did not have anything related to God organically. What David needed is what we need today. We need God to build Himself in Christ into our humanity. This means that we need God to work Himself in Christ into us as our life, our nature, and our constitution. As a result, we are not simply a man according to God’s heart—we are God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. We today are not outwardly as high as David was, but we can declare that we have God’s life, nature, and constitution.

　　In order to accomplish this, 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.

　　Many Christians are still trying merely to have a behaving, a living, and a being that are according to God’s heart, but they do not have the concept that God desires to build Himself in Christ into our being. What He is building into us will be His abode, which will be our abode also. Hence, it becomes a mutual abode. The New Jerusalem is this mutual abode. On the one hand, the New Jerusalem is the dwelling place of God; on the other hand, it is also our eternal dwelling place (Rev. 21:3, 22). For eternity the New Jerusalem will be the fulfillment of the Lord’s brief word in John 15:4: “Abide in Me and I in you.”

　　According to the common understanding and view among Christians, God gave Christ to be our Redeemer and our Savior. He died for our sins, accomplishing redemption; He rose up from among the dead; and He has become our life. However, this does not tell us what God wants to do. God wants to work Himself in Christ into us. Redemption and salvation are for this. Christ’s incarnation, Christ’s human living, Christ’s death and resurrection—they all are for God’s desire to work Himself in Christ into us. Everything that Christ is and everything that Christ has accomplished are for this one thing. All the steps, big and small, that God takes in our daily life are to fulfill His intention of building Himself in Christ into our being. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, pp. 168, 190)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, msgs. 24-26, 28-29

«　WEEK 9　DAY 2　»

　　John 14:23 Jesus answered,…If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.

　　Matt. 13:3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, Behold, the sower went out to sow.

　　23 But the one sown on the good earth, this is he who hears the word and understands, who by all means bears fruit…

　　The Bible tells us that God is working in us and that Christ is living in us. However, the Bible uses a very striking term—build—to denote God’s work in us…. In building a house, it is necessary to have the proper material…. On the one hand, this material is Christ Himself as the element; on the other hand, this material includes something from us with our humanity. The words make an abode [in John 14:23]…equal make His home in Ephesians 3:17. The Triune God has come into us to do a building work with Himself as the element and also with something from us as the material. The word concerning building in these verses implies that God’s building Himself in Christ into us has very much to do with what we are. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, pp. 196-197)

　　In Matthew 13 the seed is sown into the soil to grow with the nutrients in the soil. This seed, therefore, does not grow just with itself; it grows with itself and the nutrients in the soil. As a result, the produce is a composition of elements from both the seed and the soil. Here we see an important spiritual principle. In order to grow, the seed must be sown into good soil;… neither sand nor stone can supply the necessary nutrients.

　　The seed is divinity, and the soil with its nutrients is humanity. We have within us certain nutrients created by God as a preparation for His coming into us to grow in us. God has created the human spirit with the human nutrients. For this reason, human beings can believe in the Lord and receive Him.

　　The seed that has been sown into us is Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God. The rate at which the seed grows within us depends on the nutrients afforded by us. The more nutrients we supply, the faster the seed will grow and the more it will flourish.

　　According to the Bible, growth equals building. The Lord Jesus declared, “I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18). This building takes place by the growth of the divine seed within us. The degree of growth depends not on the divine seed but on how many [spiritual] nutrients we afford this seed. Matthew 13 indicates that only the good soil (vv. 8, 23) affords the adequate nutrients for the growth of the divine seed.

　　Since God’s building Himself in Christ into us depends not only on Himself as the element but also on the nutrients supplied by us, we need to be strengthened into our inner man. If we remain in our soul, in our natural man, there will not be any nutrients for the growth of the divine seed. But if we are strengthened into our inner man and if we pay attention to our spirit and exercise our spirit, the nutrients will be supplied. Then Christ will make His home in our inner being. Paul prayed that the Father would strengthen us with power through His Spirit into our inner man [Eph. 3:16]. This power, referred to in Ephesians 1:19-22, is the power that raised Christ from the dead, seated Christ at the right hand of God in the heavenlies, subjected all things under Christ’s feet, and gave Christ to be Head over all things to the church. Such power operates in us (3:20), and with it God strengthens us for His building. The Spirit through whom God strengthens us is the consummation of the processed Triune God. On the one hand, God strengthens us with Himself as the element and, on the other hand, we afford the nutrients. Through these two God in Christ carries out His intrinsic building—the building of His home—in our entire being. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, pp. 197-198)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, msgs. 30-31

«　WEEK 9　DAY 3　»

　　Matt. 16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church…

　　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.

　　God’s building Himself in Christ into our being [is] through the metabolic process of transformation. 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. This is altogether from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18). When we look unto Him, He impresses Himself into our being. Then we become His reflection. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, pp. 171-172)

　　Transformation is a metabolic process that changes us by adding some new element into our being and discharging the old element. This is illustrated by one’s having a healthy complexion through the proper, daily eating, digesting, and assimilating of food. This healthy appearance is the result not of cosmetics but of nourishment…. In like manner, we need to receive spiritual nourishment day by day. This nourishment will supply a new element and then cause the old things to be carried away. Gradually, we will grow, change, and mature…. 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.

　　When we enjoy the “now” Christ by eating, drinking, and breathing Him, a metabolic process, a spiritual digestion and metabolism, takes place within us. Through this metabolic process Christ is constituted into our being. This constitution is the building. Christ, therefore, is building Himself into us as our inner constitution. The issue of such a building is that we become a very particular class of people—the members of the Body of Christ. Whenever we gather together we are the church of God. In Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus said, “I will build My church.”…Christ builds the church…by supplying us with spiritual drink and by feeding us with spiritual food, which are uniquely Himself as the Spirit. In different kinds of meetings, we endeavor to minister Christ into the saints as their spiritual food and drink. The more we receive Christ in this way, the more we will experience the inner, spiritual metabolism. This metabolism is transformation, and transformation is the building.

　　This organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ through the process of spiritual metabolism is actually what Jehovah prophesied to David in the way of typology in 2 Samuel 7:12-14a…. It is only through this process that something human—the human seed—can become divine—the sons of God. In typology God prophesied to David regarding this when He told David that his seed would be God’s son. This indicates that a human seed would become a divine son. This is what we are experiencing today. Therefore, we, the believers in Christ, are a very particular and peculiar people, …a precious treasure in the eyes of God. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, pp. 172-174)

　　Further Reading: The Tree of Life, ch. 13; CWWL, 1987, vol. 3, “The Scriptural Way to Meet and to Serve for the Building Up of the Body of Christ,” ch. 15

«　WEEK 9　DAY 4　»

　　Eph. 3:16-17 That He would grant you…to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love.

　　Ephesians 3:14-19 reveals the apostle praying to the Father; the Father strengthening the believers through the Spirit; Christ making His home in the believers’ hearts; and the believers being rooted and grounded in love, apprehending the dimensions of Christ, and knowing the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ to be filled unto all the fullness of [the Triune] God. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 1, “Living in and with the Divine Trinity,” p. 319)

　　[For] the church [to] be constituted to become the fullness of Christ and the fullness of God,…Paul prayed that we might be strengthened into our inner man with the result that Christ could make His home in our heart and thereby occupy, possess, permeate, and saturate our whole inner being with Himself. In this way we are filled with Christ, and we become strong to apprehend the dimensions of Christ and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ. Eventually, we shall be filled with Christ to such an extent that we become the fullness of God. (Life-study of Ephesians, p. 285)

　　First, Paul prayed to the Father as the source. Then the Father strengthens the believers through the Spirit as the means, the channel. Then Christ moves and works to make His home in the believers’ hearts. Eventually, the issue of the moving of the Father and the Spirit and the issue of the Son making His home in our hearts is the fullness of the Triune God. The Father is the source, the Spirit is the means, the Son is the object, and the fullness of the Triune God is the issue.

　　The source is the Father, the means is the Spirit, and the aim, the goal, is the Son because the Son is the center…. Paul prayed to the Father as the source, asking the Father to strengthen the believers through the channel of the Spirit that a goal might be reached. The goal was that Christ would make His home in the hearts of the believers.

　　The Triune God may be likened to a big machine, of which Paul was the operator. His prayer “turned the wheel.” We have to learn…that there is a high principle in the entire universe. This principle is that God wants to do something, but He will only be the “machine,” and He needs someone to be the operator. Today I hope that the church would be the operator. Whatever the apostle Paul did was done in a representing way. He was a representative of the entire Body of Christ. Now the operator of the universal “machine,” the Triune God, is the church, the Body of Christ. But just because the church operates does not mean that the church in itself carries out. The church operates, but the “machine,” the Triune God, carries out. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are the three “parts” of this universal “machine,” and the Body is the operator. The Father is the source, the Spirit is the means, and the Son is the aim, the goal. According to Ephesians 3, the operator asks the “machine” to strengthen the operator…. The Spirit as the channel does the work within us to strengthen every part of our being into the inner man so that the goal, the aim, the Son, might make His home within all the parts of our heart. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 1, “Living in and with the Divine Trinity,” pp. 319-321)

　　In the phrase into the inner man [v. 16], the word into is very significant. To say that we need to be strengthened into the inner man indicates that we are not in the inner man, that we live mostly in the outer man. When a brother tells his wife that he is tired, he is in the outer man, in the mind, living according to his physical tiredness…. You have an inner man. Why not stay there? Why stay in your tiredness? You need to practice bowing your knees unto the Father, that He would strengthen you into your inner man from your tiredness. (CWWL, 1983, vol. 2, “The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity,” p. 311)

　　Further Reading: The Way to Build Up the Church (booklet)

«　WEEK 9　DAY 5　»

　　Eph. 3:17-18 That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are.

　　We are rooted in Christ so that He may make His home in our hearts (Eph. 3:16-19). In Ephesians 3 the apostle prays that God the Father would grant the believers to be strengthened through God the Spirit into their inner man, that Christ, God the Son, may make His home in their hearts, that is, to occupy their entire being, that they might be filled unto all the fullness of God (vv. 14-19). The phrase make His home is only one word in the Greek, katoikeo. This Greek word basically means to settle down in a dwelling, to make a dwelling place. The prefix of this word, kata, means “down.” (CWWL, 1984, vol. 3, “God’s New Testament Economy,” p. 475)

　　God the Father is exercising His authority through God the Spirit to strengthen us into the inner man, that God the Son may make His home deep down in our hearts…. Christ is not only in us (Col. 1:27) but… He is also making His home downward in our heart. He is housing Himself in our heart.

　　We all have entered into the Triune God, and we are now abiding in Him. Our abiding in Him affords Him a way to abide in us triunely. The Triune God is now abiding in us, so we have been rooted into Him. While we are rooted into Him, the Father works to strengthen us through God the Spirit so that God the Son, Christ, may make His home deep down in our heart, which is composed of our mind (Heb. 4:12), will (Acts 11:23), emotion (John 16:6, 22), and conscience (Heb. 10:22)…. Since we began to pray that God the Father would strengthen us into the inner man, Christ gradually began to occupy our mind, take over our emotion and will, and possess our entire conscience.

　　Our heart is like a house that has four rooms, and these rooms are the mind, the emotion, the will, and the conscience. Christ has the desire to occupy every room of our heart and every corner of every room. As He makes His home downward in our heart, we become strong to apprehend with all the saints the breadth, length, height, and depth of Christ (Eph. 3:18). These are the dimensions of the universe…. All these dimensions describe the immeasurable Christ, whose dimensions are the dimensions of the universe. He is the breadth, length, height, and depth. We can only apprehend His universal dimensions with all the saints. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 3, “God’s New Testament Economy,” p. 476)

　　In our experience of Christ, we first experience the breadth of what He is, and then we experience the length. This is horizontal. When we advance in Christ, we experience the height and depth of His riches. This is vertical. First we experience Christ spreading as the breadth and the length. Later we experience Him rising up as the height and finally descending as the depth. As we shall see, our experience of Christ must eventually become three-dimensional, like a cube.

　　If we have only the length of Christ, without any breadth, our experience will be a “line,” that is, an experience that is long and narrow to an extreme. Our experience of Christ, however, should not have only one dimension, like a line, but it should have two dimensions, like a square, and then three dimensions, like a cube…. If we have only a “line” experience of Him, this “line” will eventually continue until it reaches an extreme.

　　In our experience of Christ, we should go on from the two dimensions to three, from a “square” to a “cube.” A cube is solid. Both in the tabernacle and in the temple the Holy of Holies was a cube. The dimensions of this cube in the tabernacle and temple respectively were ten cubits and twenty cubits. The New Jerusalem will be an eternal cube, twelve thousand stadia in three dimensions. The church life today must also be a “cube.” (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 286, 288)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 33; CWWL, 1984, vol. 3, “God’s New Testament Economy,” ch. 39

«　WEEK 9　DAY 6　»

　　Eph. 3:19-21 And to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God. But to Him who is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power which operates in us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all the generations forever and ever. Amen.

　　When we were saved, Christ came into our spirit. Now we must give Him the opportunity to spread Himself throughout all the parts of our inner being. As we are strengthened into the inner man, the door is opened for Christ to spread in us, to spread from our spirit to every part of our mind, emotion, and will. The more Christ spreads within us, the more He settles down in us and makes His home in us. This means that He occupies every part of our inner being, possessing all these parts and saturating them with Himself. As a result, not only do we receive the revelation, but we also are filled with Christ. Then wherever we may go, we shall be the apostles, the sent ones, and the prophets, those who speak for Christ. (Life-study of Ephesians, p. 282)

　　In Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus promised that He would build His church. In order for this to be realized, the church has to enter into a state where so many saints will have Christ making His home deep down in their heart so that their entire being would be saturated within with Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, possessing and occupying every corner and every avenue of their entire being…. We have entered into the Triune God, and we are still entering. We are entering, and He is making His home deep down in our heart. The more we enter, the more He deepens. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 3, “God’s New Testament Economy,” p. 477)

　　As God’s cultivated land [1 Cor. 3:9], we need to be rooted for our growth, and as God’s building, we need to be grounded for our building up. (Eph. 3:17, footnote 3)

　　God’s glory is wrought into the church, and He is expressed in the church. Hence, the glory in the church is to God; that is, God is glorified in the church [cf. Eph. 3:21]. (Life-study of Ephesians, p. 303)

　　Ephesians 3:16-21… helps us know how to serve God in the church and shows Paul’s spirit, attitude, prayer, and faith. We should have this spirit, attitude, prayer, and faith when we serve God in the church. If we have truly seen the church and the materials that build the church, we will have this kind of spirit and attitude, and we will also have this kind of prayer and faith. His spirit and attitude—what he saw, what he was filled with, what he said, and what he cared about in his heart—were related to the vision of God being manifested in the flesh and being mingled with man in order to build the church with Christ so that the church would be filled with Christ. This matter filled Paul’s entire being; hence, what he saw, what he spoke, and what he cared about in his heart were related to this matter. The most precious point in this portion of the Scriptures is not Paul’s prayer and faith but his spirit and attitude.

　　If we have seen this vision, we will be obsessed with it, and we will bow our knees unto the Father. Hence, every elder, deacon, co-worker, and everyone who serves the Lord must see a vision, a revelation, to the point that he is absolutely obsessed with it and has the same spirit, attitude, and mood of Paul. Because Paul had such a spirit, attitude, and mood, he spontaneously had this kind of prayer; he also believed that God is able to do superabundantly. All those who serve God in the church must have this kind of spirit and attitude and this kind of prayer. All our prayers must take this kind of prayer as the center, and we should have the faith for such prayer. (CWWL, 1952, vol. 2, “How to Administrate the Church,” pp. 153-155)

　　Further Reading: Messages Given during the Resumption of Watchman Nee’s Ministry, 2nd ed., vol. 1, chs. 20, 24; Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 32, 34-35