Scripture Reading: Matt. 7:13-14; 1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor. 3:6; Rev. 22:1-2
Ⅰ
The way of the Lord's recovery is the way of life; we need to know the intrinsic essence of life in the Lord's recovery—Psa. 16:11; Jer. 2:13; 21:8; John 1:4; 10:10b; 14:6; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:2, 10, 6, 11:
A
The intrinsic essence of the Triune God is the divine life—God the Father is the source of life (John 5:26), God the Son is the embodiment of life (1:4), and God the Spirit is the flow of life (4:14b; 7:38-39a).
B
The intrinsic essence of the New Jerusalem is the divine life—God the Father is the light of life (Rev. 21:23; 22:5), God the Son is the tree of life (v. 2), and God the Spirit is the river of life (v. 1).
C
God builds the church to prepare the bride of Christ for the building of the New Jeru-salem by the divine life, the resurrection life—the flowing, transforming, and building life—Matt. 16:18; Gen. 2:22; John 19:34; Psa. 36:8-9.
Ⅱ
The unique way for the daily life of God's people and for their fellowship with God and with one another is the divine life flowing in the divine nature—Rev. 21:21b; 22:1-2; 1 John 1:3:
A
The street of the holy city is pure gold, symbolizing the divine nature, and the river of water of life proceeds in the middle of the street—Rev. 21:21b; 22:1.
B
Where the divine life flows, there the divine nature is as the holy way by which God's people walk; and where the holy way of the divine nature is, there the divine life is flow-ing—2 Pet. 1:4; John 7:38-39a.
C
The street connected to and coming out of the throne is a "fellowship street"; the divine fellowship brings God to all His redeemed people in order to bring them back to Him-self as their throne for His golden administration within them—Rev. 21:18b; 22:1-2; 21:21b; cf. Ezek. 1:22, 26; 1 Kings 10:18.
D
When we walk and move in the divine nature of God, we are brought under God's golden administration to enjoy the flow of life and the supply of life—Rev. 22:1-2.
Ⅲ
In our service to the Lord, we must reject our natural enthusiasm, natural strength, and natural ability; our service must be life flowing out of us as a ministry of life to others—John 7:38; 2 Cor. 3:6; 1 John 5:16a:
A
We must be burning in spirit with the fire of God's life; we should not serve with strange fire, which signifies the natural enthusiasm not dealt with by the cross and not in resur-rection—Exo. 3:2; Luke 12:49-50; Rom. 12:11; Lev. 10:1:
１
Strange fire in the priestly service, a sin of presumption, causes death before God— 9:24; 10:1-2.
２
The offering of strange fire might have been related to the drinking of wine; drinking wine signifies the overenjoyment of the worldly, natural, or physical, material things— vv. 8-9.
３
When the priests are drunk, they lose the discernment of holiness and are unable to teach God's people—vv. 10-11.
B
Our natural strength and ability need to be dealt with by the cross to become useful in resurrection for our service to the Lord—Phil. 3:3:
１
After being put aside by God for forty years, Moses learned to serve God according to His leading and to trust in Him—Exo. 2:14-15; Acts 7:22-36; Heb. 11:28.
２
After becoming a complete failure, Peter learned to serve the brothers by faith and with humility—Luke 22:32-33; John 18:15-18, 25-27; Matt. 26:69-75; 1 Pet. 5:5-6.
Ⅳ
In the decree of the kingdom's constitution, Christ displayed the two possible ways of people's life and work before God—Matt. 7:13-14, 21-27:
A
The broad way leading to destruction is according to the worldly systems, satisfying the natural tastes, to get the crowd, to maintain a career of man, and to achieve man's enterprise—13:31-33; Rev. 2:13, 20; 17:4-5.
B
The constricted way leading to life is according to the divine regulations, fulfilling the spiritual requests to bring in God's elect and to bear the testimony of Jesus Christ, carrying out God's economy for the building up of the Body of Christ—Rom. 1:9; Heb. 11:5-6; Rev. 1:1-2, 9-10.
C
The way that leads to a living reward in life is the Way (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:22)— the way of the truth, the straight way, the way of righteousness (2 Pet. 2:2, 15, 21), 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), and the way of the Lord (John 1:23; Acts 18:25); it is slandered as the way of heresy (24:14).
D
The God-ordained way is to have a living and a working that are always narrow and constricted, according to the pattern of the Lord's indescribable life and ministry—John 5:19; 4:34; 17:4; 14:10, 24; 5:30; 7:6, 18:
１
We in the Lord's recovery must walk in our spirit; walking in spirit restricts us, caus-ing us to live a normal Christian life and making us vital, healthy believers—Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16, 22-23; 1 Thes. 5:16-18.
２
We must learn to restrict ourselves in our labor according to the measure of the rule that the God of measure, the ruling God, has apportioned to us—2 Cor. 10:13-14; John 15:5; Acts 20:19-20, 31.
Ⅴ
Life and building are the two key words in the entire Bible—life is God in Christ as the living content, and building is the corporate expression of the Triune God—Gen. 2:8-12, 22; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 3:8-11, 16-21:
A
Christ is our life (Col. 3:4), and the church is God's building (1 Cor. 3:9).
B
The building up of the church is by the believers' growing in life for their transformation in life—vv. 6-12; Col. 2:19:
１
The growing members are the building members—Eph. 4:15-16.
２
To build up the Body of Christ, the church of God, is to minister Christ as the tree of life to people for their growth in Christ—1 Cor. 3:6.
C
The intrinsic significance and heavenly reality of the church as the Body of Christ are typified by the golden lampstand, portraying the Triune God as a living, golden tree, growing, branching, budding, and blossoming with resurrection life—Exo. 25:31-40; Rev. 1:10-12; Num. 17:8:
１
When we overcome to return to Christ as our first love and do the first works, we will enjoy Him as life and shine forth the divine light to keep the testimony of Jesus in our locality; otherwise, the lampstand will be removed from us—Rev. 1:2; 2:4-7.
２
The local churches are the procedure that God takes to reach the goal of His eternal economy; we need to be in the local churches so that we can be ushered into the goal of the reality of the Body of Christ (as Zion within Jerusalem) to be the golden lamp-stands in actuality—vv. 4-5; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4; Psa. 102:16; 48:2; 50:2; 51:18; 125:1-2; 128:5.
D
In the New Jerusalem, God's ultimate building, there is the river of life flowing for us to drink and the tree of life growing in the river of life for us to eat; this shows that for us to partake of God's building, there is no other way but by life and with life—Rev. 22:1-2.
E
The sevenfold intensified organic salvation of God in Christ's heavenly ministry is to bring the degraded church back to the enjoyment of Christ as life for the building up of the Body of Christ by producing the overcomers to consummate the New Jerusalem as God's ultimate building in life, the city of life—1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6; 22:1-2; cf. 1:10; 2:7:
１
The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to save the believers in the church in Ephesus from the formal church life, which has lost the first love to the Lord, the shining capacity of the lampstand, and the enjoyment of Christ as life, to become overcomers so that they will be rewarded to eat of the tree of life in the Paradise of God—the New Jerusalem in the kingdom age—vv. 1-7.
２
The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to strengthen the suffering believers in the church in Smyrna to overcome the persecution by being martyred so that they will be rewarded not to be hurt of the second death during the kingdom age—vv. 8-11.
３
The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to sanctify the believers in the church in Pergamos from the union with the world and from the teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans to be the overcomers so that they may be rewarded to eat the hidden manna and to have a white stone upon which a new name will be written in the kingdom age—vv. 12-17.
４
The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to rescue the believers in the church in Thyatira from idol worship, fornication, demonic teaching, and the deep things of Satan to be the overcomers so that they may be rewarded with the authority over the nations in the kingdom age—vv. 18-29.
５
The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to revive the believers in the church in Sardis from their dead and dying condition to be the overcomers so that they may be rewarded with walking with the Lord in white and with not having their names erased from the book of life but confessed by the Lord before the Father and His angels in the kingdom age—3:1-6.
６
The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to encourage the believers in the church in Philadelphia to hold fast what they have, that no one take their crown, to be the overcomers so that they may be rewarded to be a pillar in the temple of God with the name of God and the name of the New Jerusalem and the new name of the Lord written upon them in the kingdom age—vv. 7-13.
７
The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to awaken the believers in the church in Laodicea from their lukewarm and Christless condition, exhorting them to pay the price for the refined gold, white garments, and eyesalve and to open their door to the knocking Lord to be the overcomers so that they may be rewarded to sit on the throne of the Lord in the kingdom age—vv. 14-22.