Outline
A
God needs a corporate people to be raised up by His grace through the high peak of the divine revelation to live a life according to this revelation; a revival is the practice, the practicality, of the vision we have seen.
B
The followers of Christ (Matt. 5:1; 28:19) were discipled through Christ's human living on the earth, as the model of a God-man—living God by denying Himself in humanity (John 5:19, 30), revolutionizing their concept concerning man (Phil. 3:10; 1:21a).
C
Our life should be a copy, a reproduction, of the model of the life of Christ, the first God-man—1 Pet. 2:21; Matt. 11:28-29; Eph. 4:20-21; John 17:4; 5:17; Phil. 1:19-22, 25.
D
The Spirit of life and reality who was breathed into the disciples would guide them into all the reality of what they had observed of the Lord when they were with Him for three and a half years—John 16:13; 20:22:
Morning Nourishment
Phil. 1:19 For I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.1 Cor. 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.
Today what we have seen of the Lord…is in God’s central lane, the economy of God, with Christ as its centrality and universality, with Christ as its center, reality, and everything. This Christ is now the life-giving Spirit indwelling our regenerated spirit to be one with our spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17). For such a revelation, which is so high, deep, and profound, the Lord needs a model. He needs a corporate people to be raised up by His grace through this high peak of the divine revelation to live a life according to this revelation…Where is the model of living a crucified life that we may live Christ?…Where is the model of living Christ and magnifying Christ by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ? Where is this life? We have these revelations released as messages printed in books, but where is the model? (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” p. 196)
Today’s Reading
The constituents of the vital groups are the disciples of Christ (Matt. 5:1)… To disciple the Gentiles [28:19] is to constitute the Gentiles into the disciples of Christ. The Lord Jesus, in particular, discipled four people of two families: Peter and Andrew and James and John. He discipled them for about three and a half years. They followed the Lord and stayed with Him day and night, traveling with Him, eating with Him, and doing everything with Him. They were living with Him and were around Him all the time. They saw how this God-man behaved…He lived by another life in His human life. This other life is the divine life. Because He lived the divine life in His human life, His human life became mystical, a mystery. Out from His human life came something divine.The disciples who followed the Lord for three and a half years saw what He did, how He behaved, and how He spoke…They saw Christ’s human living and His death on the cross for six hours, and they saw Him in resurrection. Christ used these three processes—His human living; His all-inclusive, all-terminating, life-releasing, and new-man-creating death; and His life-dispensing resurrection—to disciple His followers.
In resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit and entered into them… On the day of His resurrection Christ breathed Himself into His disciples, and they also became living…The Spirit of life and of reality who was breathed into them would guide them into all the reality of what they had observed of the Lord when they were with Him for three and a half years.
The concept of the disciples was revolutionized by what they saw of the Lord Jesus living God by denying Himself in His humanity…They were discipled through Christ’s crucifixion to annul their human life for them to live the divine life (Gal. 2:20).
They were also discipled through Christ’s resurrection to know Him as God’s firstborn Son (Rom. 1:4; Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29)…Christ had the human life and nature, but He lived the divine life and nature through the denying of His human life and nature. This was His divine and mystical living to disciple all His followers for three and a half years…They were also discipled to know Christ as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45)…Christ’s resurrection was for the producing of the many sons of God as His multiplication and increase (Heb. 2:10; John 12:24).
If we open to the Spirit within us as we prayerfully consider this fellowship, we will be discipled. Only the discipled ones are the constituents of the vital groups. They have been discipled to be vital…The vitality of the ministry is due to a person’s living the divine life out of his human life. Then what he utters is divine out of a crucified human life. We need to deny our human life for the releasing of something divine. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” pp. 74-77)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” chs. 2—4, 6