Scripture Reading: Matt. 5:3, 8

Ⅰ　

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens”—Matt. 5:3:

To be poor in spirit is not only to be humble but also to be emptied in our spirit, in the depth of our being, not holding on to the old things of the old dispensation but unloaded to receive the new things, the things of the kingdom of the heavens—cf. Luke 6:20.

We need to be poor, emptied, unloaded, in our human spirit that we may realize and possess the kingdom of the heavens—cf. Matt. 19:13-15.

To be poor in spirit means that we are humble, acknowledging that we have nothing, know nothing, can do nothing, and are nothing—Gal. 6:3; John 15:5b; Isa. 57:15; 66:2:

１　

Those who are poor in spirit have a willing spirit for the things of the Lord and for the things of the church—Psa. 51:12.

２　

Those who are poor in spirit experience the Spirit of joy and the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of Jehovah—Heb. 1:9; Rom. 14:17; Isa. 11:2-3.

All spiritual progress depends on man’s hunger—Luke 1:53; Psa. 81:10:

１　

We should be afraid of self-contentment, self-satisfaction, and satisfaction with the things of the past—Phil. 3:13.

２　

Spiritual stagnation is the result of indifference to one’s own spiritual lack; all failure and decadence are the result of self-complacency—cf. Deut. 4:25.

３　

Past victory can never be our present strength—cf. Josh. 7:3-4:

ａ　

We cannot go on without new knowledge of the Lord and a new vision of Him—cf. Acts 26:16; Phil. 3:8b, 10a.

ｂ　

Whenever we find ourselves crying, “I cannot make it,” our progress has begun; then God is easily able to create a desire for Him in us—cf. 2 Chron. 20:12.

ｃ　

We should remember that God gives difficulties to us in order to dig more deeply in us so that He can fill us more with Himself—cf. Rom. 8:28-29.

４　

Whenever we become empty, the Lord will fill us up; spiritual progress is a matter of being continually emptied out and continually filled up—cf. 2 Kings 4:1-6.

“Truly I say to you, Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child shall by no means enter into it”—Luke 18:17:

１　

A little child, not filled with and occupied by old concepts, can easily receive a new thought—cf. Psa. 139:17.

２　

People need to be like little children and, with an unoccupied heart, receive the kingdom of God as a new thing.

Ⅱ　

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”—Matt. 5:8:

To have a pure heart means that our heart is single, seeking nothing but the Lord Himself, so that Christ may grow in us without frustration—13:19-23.

If we are pure in heart in seeking God, our reward is that we will see God.

In God’s appearing to him, Job saw God, gaining God in his personal experience and abhorring himself—Job 38:1-3; 42:1-6.

Today our God is the all-inclusive Spirit as the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God; the God whom we look at today is the consummated Spirit, and we can look at Him in our spirit—2 Cor. 2:10; 2 Tim. 4:22.

We see God so that we may be constituted with God; seeing God transforms us, and seeing God equals gaining God so that we may become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead—2 Cor. 3:16, 18; Matt. 5:8; Rev. 22:4.

The more we see God and love God, the more we deny ourselves and abhor ourselves—Job 42:5-6; Isa. 6:5; Luke 14:26.

If we see the Lord, we will see that the things and objects of this world are trash—Phil. 3:7-8; cf. Jer. 15:19.

Spiritual progress is the increase of the element of God in us and the decrease of things within us that usurp God’s place—1 Tim. 4:15; Col. 2:19.

As long as there is one thing, one event, or one person that takes possession of us, there is something in our heart usurping the place of God; an idol is anything within us that we love more than the Lord or that replaces the Lord in our life—Prov. 4:23; Ezek. 14:3.

We must be pure; our heart should not be occupied by anything other than God—Matt. 13:19-23.

Our spiritual progress depends on the degree to which our heart is turned toward God—4:17; 2 Cor. 3:16; cf. 2 Kings 23:25.

The more a person is in the word of God, the purer he becomes—Psa. 12:6; 119:140; John 17:17.

Ⅲ　

We should aspire to have an enlarged heart—Psa. 119:32:

Solomon was competent to oversee God’s people because he had wisdom and a large heart, which are two aspects of one thing:

１　

Although he asked only for the wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in among God’s people (1 Kings 3:5-9; 2 Chron. 1:10), God gave him “largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore” (1 Kings 4:29).

２　

The seashore encloses the sea, God having “set the sand as a boundary for the sea” (Jer. 5:22); this shows that Solomon’s heart was larger than the sea.

We must be genuine ministers of the new covenant, having an enlarged heart with the intimate concern of the ministering life, which is a fruitful life—2 Cor. 7:2-3:

１　

With an enlarged heart the apostles were able to embrace all believers regardless of their condition, and with an opened mouth they were able to speak to all believers frankly concerning the real situation into which they had been misled—6:11.

２　

This kind of openness and enlargement is needed to reconcile, to bring back, the misled or distracted believers to God.

Ⅳ　

In order to maintain the newness of our heart and our spirit, we need to be renewed day by day with the fresh supply of the resurrection life to become as new as the New Jerusalem—4:16-18:

Newness is God; the believers should be renewed to be as new as the New Jerusalem since they all are becoming the New Jerusalem by walking in newness of life (Rom. 6:4) and building the New Jerusalem by serving in newness of spirit (7:6).

While we are in the midst of suffering, we need to receive the renewing; otherwise, the suffering that we pass through means nothing to us; within us there is a refuge—our spirit—Psa. 91:1.

In order to be renewed day by day, we need to be revived every morning—Matt. 13:43; Luke 1:78-79; Prov. 4:18; Judg. 5:31; 2 Cor. 4:16.

We need to come to the Lord’s table in newness (Matt. 26:29); we can be renewed by learning to say, “I’m sorry; forgive me.”

We are renewed day by day through four items: the cross (2 Cor. 4:10-12, 16-18); the Holy Spirit, by which we are reconditioned, remade, and remodeled with the divine life (Titus 3:5); our mingled spirit (Eph. 4:23); and the holy Word of God (5:26).

Our mingled spirit needs to spread into our mind in order to subdue, take over, and occupy our mind, thus becoming the spirit of our mind; the more the mingled spirit penetrates, saturates, and possesses our mind, the more we let Christ’s mind become our mind—Phil. 2:5; Eph. 4:23; 1 Cor. 2:16; Rom. 12:2.

We should not live according to the vanity of the mind but according to the spirit of the mind; this is the key to the daily living of the corporate one new man, the secret to having a church life filled with the character of God, the aroma of Christ, and the oneness of the Spirit—Eph. 4:3-4, 17-18, 23.

Our loving the Lord and our exercising our spirit in prayer and in reading the Word day by day change and renew our mind; this is to get rid of all the old concepts concerning the things of the human life and be made new again by the teaching of the Holy Scriptures and the enlightening of the Holy Spirit—Psa. 119:105, 130; 2 Tim. 3:15-17; Deut. 17:18-20.

Ⅴ　

The Lord’s recovery depends upon our renewed, purified heart and our renewed, strengthened spirit; when our heart is fully possessed by Christ and our spirit is habitually exercised to touch the Lord, God will have a way, and the recovery will be prevailing:

This consummates God’s intention in making the believers the new man as the new creation to consummate in the New Jerusalem; as a result of our being renewed, we are made a new creation, which is the new man in Christ—Col. 3:10-11; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15-17; Eph. 2:10, 15.

God’s goal is to have the one new man, which ultimately will consummate in the New Jerusalem, the final consummation of the one new man.

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