The Eldership And The God Ordained Way

This book is intended as an aid to believers in developing a daily time of morning revival with the Lord in His word. At the same time, it provides a review of the July 2002 summer training on the God-ordained Way. This training covered the book Lessons on the God-ordained Way. Through intimate contact with the Lord in His word, the believers can be constituted with life and truth and thereby be equipped to prophesy in the meetings of the church unto the building up of the Body of Christ.

Today we need the intensified Spirit because of the degradation of the church. When the book of Revelation was written, the church had become degraded. The Lord became the intensified Spirit because of the degradation of the church. The history of the church tells us that even in the last part of the first century while the apostle John was still alive, the church had degraded from the Spirit to religion. The church had fallen from the living Spirit to dead religion. It was in such a situation that the Lord wrote this book to the seven local churches, using the title of the sevenfold Spirit. Under the degradation of the church, what we need is not religion or doctrines but the intensified Spirit.

This book is intended as an aid to believers in developing a daily time of morning revival with the Lord in His word. At the same time, it provides a review of the July 2002 summer training on the God-ordained Way. This training covered the book Lessons on the God-ordained Way. Through intimate contact with the Lord in His word, the believers can be constituted with life and truth and thereby be equipped to prophesy in the meetings of the church unto the building up of the Body of Christ.

This book is intended as an aid to believers in developing a daily time of morning revival with the Lord in His word. At the same time, it provides a review of the July 2002 summer training on the God-ordained Way. This training covered the book Lessons on the God-ordained Way. Through intimate contact with the Lord in His word, the believers can be constituted with life and truth and thereby be equipped to prophesy in the meetings of the church unto the building up of the Body of Christ.

This two-volume publication, Lessons on the Eldership, is composed of outlines and excerpts compiled from the ministry of Witness Lee and Watchman Nee. They are intended to be used by mature workers for the training of the elders and responsible brothers among the churches in the hope that these brothers will be perfected to labor fruitfully in the carrying out of God’s economy for the fulfillment of His purpose through the churches.

The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1989, volume 4, contains messages given by Brother Witness Lee from May 19, 1989, through January 4, 1991. In the middle of May 1989 Brother Lee returned to Anaheim, California, after spending more than two months in the Far East. At the end of the third week in May Brother Lee visited Cleveland, Ohio, and Newton and Cambridge, Massachusetts, until the end of the first week in June. At that time he returned to Anaheim and remained there until the end of 1989. The contents of this volume are divided into eight sections, as follows: 1. Sixteen messages given in Anaheim, California; Cleveland, Ohio; and Newton, Massachusetts, on May 19 through June 6, 1989. These messages were previously published in a ten-chapter book entitled The Advance of the Lord's Recovery Today and are included in this volume under the same title. 2. Two messages given in Anaheim, California, on July 8 and 9, 1989. These messages were previously published in a three-chapter book entitled A Summary of the Study of the New Testament Way of Christian Service and are included in this volume under the same title. Chapters 2 and 3 of this section also appear as chapters 10 and 11 in Elders' Training, Book 9: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (1), which is included in The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1986, volume 3. 3. Ten messages given in Anaheim, California, on September 4 through December 14, 1989. These messages were previously published in two volumes entitled Talks concerning the Church Services, Part 1 and Part 2 and are included in this volume under the title Talks concerning the Church Services. 4. Five messages given in Anaheim, California, on November 23 through 25, 1989. These messages were previously published in a book entitled The Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ to Be the Organism of the Processed and Dispensing Triune God and are included in this volume under the same title. 5. Two messages given in Anaheim, California, on November 26, 1989. These messages were previously published in a book entitled The Present Turmoil in the Lord's Recovery and the Direction of the Lord's Move Today and are included in the next section of this volume as chapters 1 and 2 of Elders' Training, Book 10: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (2). 6. Ten messages given in Anaheim, California, on November 26, 1989, through January 4, 1991. These messages are included in this volume under the title Elders' Training, Book 10: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (2). Chapters 1 and 2 were previously published in a book entitled The Present Turmoil in the Lord's Recovery and the Direction of the Lord's Move Today and were given on November 26, 1989. Chapters 3 through 6 were previously published in a book entitled The Intrinsic Problem in the Lord's Recovery Today and Its Scriptural Remedy and were given on March 9 and 10, 1990. Chapter 7 was previously published in a book entitled A Brief Presentation of the Lord's Recovery and was given on July 7, 1990. Chapter 8 was previously published in a booklet entitled How to Have a Definite Beginning of the God-ordained Way in a Local Church and was given on July 8, 1990. Chapters 9 and 10 were previously published in a book entitled The God-ordained Way and the Eldership and were given on January 3 and 4, 1991. 7. A message given in Anaheim, California, on December 19, 1989. This message is included in this volume under the title Fellowship with Saints Serving in the Ministry Office in Irving. 8. Two messages given in Anaheim, California, on December 29 and 30, 1989. These messages were previously published in a book entitled The Apostles' Teaching and the New Testament Leadership and are included in this volume under the same title.