Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:9; 1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 11:17, 24; John 15:1, 4-5

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 4　DAY 1　»

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

　　Eph. 4:3-6 Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace: one Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

　　In order to understand the Bible, we must exercise one principle. This principle is that God planned in His economy to make Himself one with man. The basic principle, the main principle, of Christ’s birth is that God came to join Himself to man, to be a man, and to be one with man. This is the basic principle of the Bible.

　　We should keep the principle that the Word of God as the divine revelation shows us that God’s main purpose is to make Himself one with man and to make man one with Him. In John 15 the Lord said, “I am the vine; you are the branches… Abide in Me and I in you” (vv. 5, 4). This shows us that God and the believers in Christ are one. We and God were once separate, but one day we, the wild branches, were grafted into Him in Christ (Rom. 11:24). We have been grafted into Christ as the tree, and this grafting has made us one with Him. What is needed now is for us to abide in Him that He may abide in us. Then He and we will be one, having one life, one nature, and one living. (Life-study of the Psalms, pp. 200-201)

　　Eventually, the oneness between God and man will be completed, consummated. All of God’s chosen people will be consummated to be fully one with God to become the constituents of the holy city, the New Jerusalem. Whenever we come to the Psalms, we need to hold this concept; otherwise, we can be misled.

　　I am burdened for us to see the contrast between the human concept in the Psalms and the divine concept in the New Testament. According to our concept, we may feel that the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, tells us mainly that we have to fear God, to take refuge in Him, to trust in Him, to wait on Him, to hope in Him, to praise Him, to thank Him, and to worship Him. This concept, however, is not the divine concept in the New Testament. What the New Testament shows us is God’s economy.

　　In God’s economy, God has only one intention—to gain an organism for Himself. In eternity past God decided to do one , thing in His economy—to create for Himself an organism, the Body of Christ. He created the universe and man for this purpose. Then man became fallen, but God promised man that He would come through a woman to be a man, to join Himself with man, and to become one with man (Gen. 3:15). Eventually, He became a man and lived a life on this earth to show people the life of a God-man. Afterward, He went to the cross and died not only for our sins but also to deal with every problem in the universe. Then He was resurrected. In His incarnation He brought God into man, and in His resurrection He brought man into God so that God and man could be one.

　　Although this is the revelation of the New Testament, not many see this revelation. Instead, most Christians still hold a natural and religious concept of trying to do good. Most Christians would say that they need to improve their conduct. Because they know that they are weak and the temptations are strong, they ask God to help them and try to trust in God. But they do not see the central line of God’s economy to make God and man, man and God, one entity, with the two having one living by one life with one nature. Such a revelation is missing among Christians today. (Life-study of the Psalms, pp. 201, 207-208)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of the Psalms, msg. 16; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The Ten Great Critical ’‘Ones’ for the Building Up of the Body of Christ,” ch. 1

«　WEEK 4　DAY 2　»

　　Rom. 11:17-18 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and became a fellow partaker of the root of fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches; but if you boast, remember that it is not you who bear the root, but the root you.

　　God’s economy is a matter of the dispensing of the divine life into our being. As a result of this dispensation, we, the chosen people of God, have both the human life and the divine life… God…created the human life to be the vessel for the divine life. When the divine life enters into the human life, the divine life becomes the content and the human life becomes the container and the expression… Some Christian teachers regard the Christian life as an exchanged life. According to this concept, our life is poor and Christ’s life is superior. Therefore, the Lord asks us to give up our life in exchange for His. We yield our life to Him, and He replaces it with His own life. However, our Christian life is not an exchanged life. It is altogether a matter of the divine life dispensed, infused, into our human life. This is a basic concept in the Scriptures. (Life-study of Romans, pp. 655, 658-659)

　　In Romans Paul uses the illustrations of vessels, married life, and grafting. The illustration of the vessels shows that we are God’s containers with God as our content. The illustration of marriage shows that a man and a woman with different minds, emotions, wills, personalities, characters, and dispositions are joined to form one unit. The illustration of grafting shows that two lives are joined and then grow together organically.

　　Because neither the illustration of the vessel nor that of married life picture anything organic related to God’s dispensation, Paul goes on to use a third illustration—the grafting of one tree to another. In Romans 11:17-24 Paul uses the illustration of branches from a wild olive tree being grafted into a cultivated olive tree. As a result of grafting, the branches from the wild olive tree and the cultivated olive tree grow together organically. Each tree has its own life, but now these lives grow organically together and have one issue.

　　In order for one kind of life to be grafted to another, the two lives must be very similar. For example, it is not possible to graft a branch from a banana tree to a peach tree. However, it is possible to graft some branches from a poorer peach tree to a healthy, productive peach tree, for the lives of these two trees are very close to each other. We may apply this principle to the dispensation of the divine life into man. The divine life cannot be grafted with the life of a dog because there is no resemblance whatever between these lives. But because our human life was made in the image of God and according to the likeness of God, it can be joined to the divine life. Although our human life is not the divine life, it resembles the divine life. Therefore, these lives can easily be grafted together and then grow together organically.

　　In the line of Hymns, #482 by A. B. Simpson, the poor tree is grafted to a better tree to gain a richer, sweeter life. The life of the poor tree does not disappear. Rather, it grows together as one unit along with the life of the rich, sweet tree. Once again we see that this is not an exchanged life, but a grafted life.

　　Furthermore, according to the natural law ordained by God, it is not the poor life that affects the richer life, but the richer life that affects the poor life. In fact, the rich life will swallow up all the defects of the poor life and thus transform the poor life. In the same principle, when we are grafted into Christ, Christ swallows up our defects, but He does not eliminate our own life. On the contrary, as He swallows our defects, He uplifts our humanity. He uplifts our mind, will, emotion, and all our virtues. (Life-study of Romans, pp. 660-662)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Romans, msg. 63; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “Crystallization-study of the Complete Salvation of God in Romans,” ch. 4

«　WEEK 4　DAY 3　»

　　John 15:4-5 Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.

　　As the many branches of the vine, the believers of Christ are members of the Christ of God to form the organism of the Triune God in the divine dispensing. In John 15:5 the Lord Jesus declared, “I am the vine; you are the branches.” Such a statement implies that Christ and His believers are one tree… The vine in John 15, therefore, is a universal vine comprising Christ and His believers as the branches. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 2930)

　　A branch of a vine cannot live by itself, for it will wither and die apart from the vine. The relationship between the branches and the vine portrays the relationship between us and the Lord Jesus…What we are, what we have, and what we do must be in the Lord and by the Lord in us.

　　As long as we abide in Christ, He will abide in us. His abiding in us depends on our abiding in Him… If we do not abide in Him, we fail to meet the condition of His abiding in us… This mutual abiding will bring forth fruit.

　　How good, how miraculous, how wonderful, and how excellent it is that we all are a part of this organism! Christ is this organism, and we are included in this organism… As far as we, the branches, are concerned, Christ, the tree, lives to be our support, our supply, and our everything. Christ as the tree also does everything through His believers as the branches. Just as the tree needs the branches and cannot do anything apart from the branches, so today Christ as the very embodiment of the Triune God can do nothing without us. In the carrying out of God’s economy—that is, growing a vine tree—without us Christ is unable to act, work, or to have any kind of activity… We surely need Him for the purpose of our enjoying the wonderful, excellent, and marvelous divine life, and He surely needs us for the purpose of fruit-bearing, the multiplication and the enlargement of this divine tree… Christ as the true vine is an organism full of life, like the tree of life (Gen. 2:9). (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 2932-2933)

　　How can we be grafted into Him? This is why Christ needed to pass through various processes. The first process that He went through was His becoming flesh (John 1:14)…that we might be grafted together with Him. As human beings, we are branches, pieces of wood; in like manner, Christ came as the branch of David, as a piece of wood. He is exactly the same as we are; hence, He and we can be grafted together.

　　A grafter knows that in order to have a successful grafting, both of the grafting parts need to be cut and to die. First, the part to be grafted has to die, and second, the part to be grafted into has to die also. Only when both sides die can the grafting be accomplished. On Christ’s side, one day, as the branch of David [Zech. 3:8; Jer. 23:5; 33:15], He died on the cross; however, although He died in the flesh, He was resurrected in the Spirit (1 Pet. 3:18b). Through death and resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). By becoming such a Spirit, Christ was ready for the grafting. On our side, as sinners, we need to repent and receive the Lord… [Then] He as the life-giving Spirit enters into our spirit and puts the divine life in us. After we have been grafted together with Christ, we should no longer live by ourselves; rather, we should allow the pneumatic Christ to live in us. Furthermore, we should no longer live by our flesh or our natural being; rather, we should live by our mingled spirit, a spirit grafted with Christ. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Experience of God’s Organic Salvation Equaling Reigning in Christ’s Life,” pp. 496-497)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1989, vol. 3, “The Experience and Growth in Life,” chs. 2, 4, 25, 31; CWWL, 1980, vol. 2, “The Secret of Experiencing Christ,” chs. 5-6

«　WEEK 4　DAY 4　»

　　Rom. 6:5 For if we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death, indeed we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection.

　　11:17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and became a fellow partaker of the root of fatness of the olive tree.

　　This grafted life…is not an exchanged life…The branch still retains its same essential characteristics, but its life is uplifted and transformed by being grafted to the better life. What are the results of the grafting? When the fatness of the better tree supplies the grafted branch, all the negative things are taken away. Then the original function of that branch is restored and strengthened… [Christ] uplifts the original function that God had for us, strengthening and enriching it. Then naturally and spontaneously, our whole being is saturated and transformed, and a marvelous fruit comes forth. (CWWL, 1979, vol. 1, “Life Messages, Volume 2,” pp. 285-286)

　　As the divine life works within us to transform and conform us, it discharges the negative element within us. For this reason, we do not need anyone to adjust us. The divine life works in us to gradually eliminate whatever is negative or natural.

　　The divine life [also] resurrects us…Whatever God creates is good. Instead of giving up His creation, God will reclaim it and restore it by the resurrection power of the divine life. As the divine life discharges the negative things, it works to resurrect God’s original creation. God created us with a mind, emotion, will, soul, heart, and spirit, and He intends to bring all these aspects of our being into resurrection. Before we were saved, we may have been dull in the mind, unbalanced in the emotion, improper in the will. But the more we contact the Lord and experience Him, the more our mind becomes clear and sober, the more our emotion becomes properly balanced, and the more our will becomes adjusted. This is not our natural character, but a resurrected character.

　　Christians should not be of low character. Wherever we may be, we should display the highest character, because our natural faculties have been uplifted by the divine life. In order to experience this in a full way, we need to be faithful to contact the divine life within us. If we are faithful to do this, our character will be uplifted.

　　Furthermore, as the divine life discharges, resurrects, and uplifts, it supplies the riches of Christ to our inward parts. For this reason, many who love the Lord become very keen in their mentality. Although certain brothers and sisters may give themselves to attend all the meetings of the church, they are still outstanding students in school because their resurrected and uplifted faculties are supplied with the riches of Christ.

　　Finally, the divine life will saturate our whole being. This saturation is much better than inspiration. Eventually, our entire being will be soaked with the divine life. This brings about transformation. The riches of Christ saturate our being and cause a genuine metabolic change. By this saturation of the divine life we are conformed to the image of Christ.

　　The divine life is prepared and able to do such a work within us. But we need to exercise ourselves concerning what the Lord has shown us. We need to be faithful to contact Him, to pray to Him, to read the Word, and to breathe Him in. To do these things is to set our mind on the spirit (Rom. 8:6). When our mind is set on the spirit, no part of our inward being will be separated from the spirit. This will give the divine life a free way to discharge the negative element, to resurrect, uplift, and supply our faculties, and to saturate every part of our being. Concerning this, we need to pray for ourselves, for others, and for all the local churches. May we be faithful to live and walk according to what we have seen. (Life-study of Romans, pp. 683-685)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1979, vol. 1, “Life Messages, Volume 2,” chs. 58-59, 75; Life-study of Romans, msgs. 64-65

«　WEEK 4　DAY 5　»

　　John 15:1 I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.

　　4-5 Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.

　　We have been grafted into Christ, becoming the branches of the vine tree revealed in John 15…We have been grafted into Christ by this all-inclusive Spirit. When we believed into Jesus as the Savior, this all-inclusive Spirit came into us, delivering us from all the negative things on the negative side and grafting us into Christ so that we might become a branch of Christ on the positive side. (CWWL, 1965, vol. 2, “The Tree of Life,” p. 137)

　　This life-giving Spirit, who is Christ Himself, who is the Word that was God, who is the Son of God, and who is the reality of the Triune God, is within us. We have to learn not only to feed on Him, to eat of Him, but also to abide in Him. John 1:12-13 tells us that we have to receive Him and that to believe in Him is to receive Him. The book of John also tells us that we have to drink of Him (4:14; 7:37) and that we have to eat Him (6:57). Furthermore, John tells us that we have to abide in Him (15:4). The order in John is to receive Him, to drink of Him, to eat Him, and to abide in Him. In order to abide in Him we first have to receive Him. Then we have to learn how to drink of Him and feed on Him. By drinking of Him and feeding on Him, we can abide in Him.

　　We all have to realize the reality of the tree of life. God’s intention is to present Himself to us as the tree of life. We not only eat of this tree, but we also are abiding in this tree. Not only do we take something of the tree into us, but we also have become a part of the tree. By drinking of the Lord and by feeding on Him, we become a part of Him; we become the branches of the tree. For the branches to absorb the life-juice of the tree is the real drinking. The branches are drinking of the tree and eating of the tree by absorbing the life-juice of the tree. The branches absorb all that the tree is and has and also abide in the tree, have their existence in the tree. Without the tree the branches can do nothing, and they cannot even live or exist. It is in the tree that they have their existence.

　　The more you try to put yourself to death by reckoning yourself to be dead, the more you will be alive. Brother Watchman Nee once told us that a person can commit suicide in many ways, but no one can commit suicide by means of crucifixion. To be crucified there is the need of others to put you on the cross. You cannot nail yourself to the cross. Forget about putting yourself to death. Just feed on Him and abide in Him. The more you absorb the life-juice of Christ as the tree of life, the more you will sense the killing element within you.

　　The Triune God is the tree of life to us, and we can share of this tree of life because of His incarnation plus His death and resurrection. By His incarnation He brought God into man, and by His death and resurrection He has brought man into God. Also, by His death and resurrection He became a Spirit; He was transfigured from the flesh into the Spirit, a life-giving Spirit. This life-giving Spirit brings God into us and brings us into God. He grafts us into Christ, the universal tree, to make us branches of this tree. Now we need to enjoy all that He is. Through our abiding and our enjoying Him, the church will come into existence as the real expression of the Triune God. Out of our enjoyment and experience of the tree of life, God’s eternal purpose will be fulfilled. How important it is that we know this tree of life and that we experience this tree of life in such a living way! (CWWL, 1965, vol. 2, “The Tree of Life,” pp. 137-139)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1965, vol. 2, “The Tree of Life,” ch. 7; Life-study of Galatians, msgs. 9-10, 16

«　WEEK 4　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.

　　Rom. 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.

　　God has no intention for us to stop being man. He has no intention for us to be spirits. God wants us to be God-men, those into whom God has been “grafted.” There is no such thing in our concept. In our concept there is only ourselves, and we consider that we are not too bad. However, we are not good enough; there are still some flaws. As a result, we need some improvement and expect some changes for the better. To change for the better is a human concept. The schools educate people with the hope that man would improve and would be better than before. Although this kind of improvement may superficially seem to work a little, in the end the person will be worse than before and will have no hope of being improved. God does not want this… He wants us to be filled with God until the living water of life flows out from us like rivers. This is to have the divine life added to the human life, to have God’s life grafted into the human life, and to have two lives becoming one life, thus living a mingled living of a God-man. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 3, “A Deeper Study of the Divine Dispensing,” pp. 408-409)

　　The highest standard of living for a Christian is to live the mingled life of a God-man. God’s purpose is to work Himself into us to the extent that He becomes us and we become Him, that we and He become completely identical in life, nature, and image. This is the pinnacle. This is much higher than being good. Unfortunately, although many of us are saved, we are not very clear about this matter and do not know what is the real Christian life. We think that the Christian life is merely to have good behavior and to glorify God. But the real meaning of glorifying God is not to do these things but to express God. We often think that to be humble, patient, and have good works is to glorify God. Actually, our so-called humility, patience, and gentleness do not express God. Rather, they express ourselves.

　　I fully believe that everyone’s condition, including my own, is not quite proper. But thank God, one day we all repented, and we believed in the Lord Jesus. When we called on His name, the holy breath came into us. From that time on, God has been grafted into our life. This Jesus Christ who is in us is the embodiment of the Triune God. Moreover, this embodied Triune God has become a Spirit, who is the compound Spirit of life. He is diverse and all-inclusive. This Spirit is Jesus Christ and is also the Triune God. He is our Redeemer and our Savior as well. When He entered into us, we received another life, the life of God, in addition to our human life. This is called the grafted life. God’s life has been grafted into the human life, and the two lives have been joined to become one life. This is like the grafted branches being joined to the tree. Hence, it is not a matter of cultivation or improvement, which has only temporary results. We have God grafted into us. He and we have become one. He is our life, and we are His living. He is our content, and we have become His expression. The Triune God has been processed and has entered into us to be life in our tripartite being, that is, in our spirit, soul, and body. This life is like a law, operating daily in us in a natural, spontaneous, and powerful way… The Triune God can be compared to electricity. He has been processed and has passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, death, and resurrection. In resurrection He has become the life-giving Spirit and has entered into us. This Spirit of life has become a law and is regulating us day by day. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 3, “A Deeper Study of the Divine Dispensing,” pp. 409-410)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1990, vol. 3, “A Deeper Study of the Divine Dispensing,” chs. 5, 13; CWWL, 1980, vol. 2, “The Mending Ministry of John,” ch. 2