The Ministry Of The Word Vol 1 No 2

In this issue of The Ministry we conclude our series of messages entitled “Vision in God’s Economy,” comprising Brother Lee’s fellowship with the elders and co-workers in Taipei in March 1986. The present vision and practice in the Lord’s recovery are the culmination of all the visions, which God has given to men in His holy Word. Our vision and practice today are according to God’s New Testament economy to build up the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem. This is the vision, which matches the age, and it is the basis of the one accord among us. Six other messages in this issue are taken from the International Conference of Co-workers and Elders in September 1997. The subject of this conference was “Vital Factors in the Lord’s Present Move.” These vital factors are related to the apostles’ teaching, the Body of Christ, and the elders’ shepherding of the church. Caring diligently for these factors ensures that in our living and laboring we are kept in the central lane of the divine revelation with one way for one goal—the goal of God’s eternal economy—which we carry out by shepherding in cooperation with Christ’s heavenly ministry. These messages were spoken by twelve brothers in a blending way, and they include excerpts from Brother Lee’s written ministry. In this issue we report on our endeavor to acquire an enlarged campus for the spread of the work of God’s New Testament ministry in the Lord’s recovery. We also provide fellowship concerning the Lord’s move on the earth through letters from Ghana, France, Poland, and Romania. Lastly, we provide a report concerning the translation of the written ministry into the Spanish language.

This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the eight messages given during the international training for elders and responsible ones held in Anaheim, California, April 13-15, 2018. The general subject of this series of messages is "Taking Christ as Our Person and Living Him in and for the Church Life." God's intention in His economy is to work Himself into us not only as our life but also as our person. A wonderful person, Christ as the life-giving Spirit, came into our spirit, regenerated our spirit, and mingled Himself with our spirit, causing our spirit to become our inner man with Christ as the person indwelling our spirit. When we are strengthened with power into our inner man, the Christ in our spirit is able to spread into our heart. Our heart is the acting agent that represents us. As regenerated persons, our inner man is now our real person. Our inner man is now Christ as our person. If we live by the outer man, the old man, it is impossible to have the church life. In order for Christ to be our person, He needs to make His home in our heart; that is, He needs to be able to actually live in our heart. Then we will live Him by walking according to the spirit. When we allow Christ to actually live in our heart, He becomes our person in practice. The most important quality with regard to a leading one is his person, not his capacity, ability, or gift in carrying out a work, serving, or taking the lead. A leading one must have an enlarged heart. Pride, an expression of foolishness, comes from having a narrow heart. A leading one should have an enlarged and loving heart, and he should have a powerful and exercised spirit; that is, he should be dominated, governed, directed, led, and controlled by his spirit. When a leading one has been fully reconciled to God and has been enlarged in heart, he can represent God rightly in His economy. Every day we need to live Christ in and for the church life by walking according to the spirit. If we would live Christ, we must take Him as our person and live one person with Him. The Lord Jesus was the Pioneer, the model, example, and pattern of how all believers should live today. The first God-man lived out another person--the Father. In Jesus we see not only the man but also God living in, through, and as that man. Living Christ and walking according to the spirit are actually one matter. Living Christ requires that we love Him to the uttermost. If we do not love the Lord, we cannot live Him. The practical way to live Christ is to walk according to the spirit. Ultimately, the Bible requires only one thing of us--that we walk according to the mingled spirit. To walk in the spirit is to do everything in our daily life according to the spirit. The central thought of the Bible is that God desires us to live Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ. The Lord's shepherding in His heavenly ministry is to take care of the church, which is His Body. Christ has incorporated the apostolic ministry into His heavenly ministry in order to shepherd God's flock, the church, which issues in the Body of Christ. The elders must preach the gospel by the way of shepherding, and they must bring in a revival by the way of shepherding. They must shepherd the saints in everything and in every way for the dispensing of Christ into them. We all need to shepherd people according to the pattern of the Lord Jesus, cherish the saints in the humanity of Jesus, and nourish them in the divinity of Christ. If we all participate in Christ's shepherding, there will be a revival in the Lord's recovery. The Reports and Announcements section contains an announcement for a "Church Book Service Workshop" and an update on the construction of the Woodland Camp training facility in the northeast part of London, England. Also included at the end of this issue is a list of upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.

This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the first eight messages given during the fall 2017 term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is "The Crucial Revelation of Life in the Scriptures." The central thought of God in this universe and in eternity is to have Christ as His expression through the church with the shining in life. God's expression is based on life and light, and the light is the shining in life. In order for God to have an expression of Himself in Christ through the church, the divine life that expresses Him must be embodied and expressed in Christ and then dispensed into, worked into, and expressed through the church. Only the life of God can express God. Based on this principle, we will see the crucial revelation of life throughout the Scriptures. Genesis 1 and 2 are not merely a record of creation; actually, nearly every item recorded in these two chapters is a revelation of Christ who is life to God's people for the producing and building up of the church. According to Genesis 1, God created many forms of life, beginning with the lowest form and progressing to the highest form of created life, that is, man, whom God created in His image. The purpose of the creation of man with God's image is that this man would express God. However, the created man had only a human life. Any form of created life can only express itself; it cannot express another kind of life. This means that man is unable to express God if he has only his created human life. In order for man to express God and fulfill His purpose, man must obtain and receive the life of God as his life. God has to enter into man to be life to man. Genesis 2 reveals that the bride of Christ--typified by the woman built from the rib taken from the man--is produced and comes into being by life. The real Eve, the church, the counterpart of Christ, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem, is built with the resurrection life that was released by the Lord through His death and imparted through His resurrection. This counterpart of the Lord is a building of life. For God to gain His corporate expression through the church, He must dispense and work Himself into us, His people, His believers. This is accomplished through our eating and drinking Him. We need to pass through three stages of the enjoyment of Christ by eating Him. The first stage is the eating of Christ as the Passover lamb in Egypt, the second stage is the eating of Christ as the manna in the wilderness, and the third stage is the eating of Christ as the rich produce of the good land. By our eating in the first two stages, we are energized to leave the world and are constituted with Christ as the heavenly element. Only in the third stage of the enjoyment of Christ as our food can we fulfill God's purpose. It was not until the children of Israel entered into the good land and enjoyed the produce of the land that they were able to defeat all the enemies, build up God's dwelling place on the earth, and bring in the kingdom of God. Likewise, for us to reach the goal of God's economy, we need to progress until we enter into the highest stage of eating Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit, as typified by the rich produce of the good land. In this stage we overcome the spiritual enemies, we are built up to be God's dwelling place, and we establish God's kingdom on earth. The history of God's people is not only one of eating but also one of drinking. In the Old Testament, before coming into the good land and building the house of God, the children of Israel journeyed through the wilderness. During that journey they came to Marah, a place of bitter waters. Moses followed God's command to cast a tree into the bitter waters; the waters then became sweet. This tree signifies the tree of life, the crucified and resurrected Christ, who today is the Spirit mingled with our spirit. In our spirit we have the crucified and resurrected Christ as our Healer. He is the One who transforms our bitter circumstances and makes them sweet, and He also heals all our diseases. Before the building of the house of God, the Bible speaks of the springs of water (Exo. 15:22-27), the water out of the cleft rock (17:6), and the water from the well (Num. 21:16-17). Christ as the living, spiritual rock was smitten by the authority of God's law so that the water of life in resurrection could flow out of Him and into His redeemed people for them to drink. After God's people built the house of God in the good land, the Bible speaks of the river of God's pleasures (Psa. 36:8b), the river whose streams gladden the city of God (46:4), a fountain going forth from the house of Jehovah (Joel 3:18), and living waters going forth from Jerusalem (Zech. 14:8). We need to experience the flowing of the living water out of the house of God (Ezek. 47:1-5). In order to be in the flow, we have to be in the building; that is, we need to be in the church. In the New Testament we can see the crucial revelation of life in the book of Matthew. In the decree of the kingdom's constitution given by the Lord in chapters 5--7, He displayed the two possible ways people may live and work before God (7:13-14, 21-27). The broad way that leads 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. The constricted way is according to the divine regulations. This way, which leads to life, fulfills the spiritual requests, brings in God's elect, bears the testimony of Jesus Christ, and carries out God's economy for the building up of the Body of Christ. We take this way by walking in the spirit; this will restrict us and cause us to live a normal Christian life. We will thereby become vital, healthy believers who take the way of life for God's building. There are three basic elements in Matthew. First, Christ is the King as the kingdom bringing in the reality of the kingdom. Second, He is the King in His all-inclusiveness. Third, He is the kingly bread. When we partake of this kingly bread, we eat, digest, and assimilate the King and the kingdom with its reality, and we eat and digest the King in His all-inclusiveness. The ruling element is in the food. When we take in this food, we gradually become the reality of the kingdom of the heavens. The Announcements section at the end of this issue contains a list of upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.

This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the six messages from the international Thanksgiving blending conference held in Dallas, Texas, on November 23-26, 2023. The subject of this series of messages is "The Enjoyment of Christ and Our Growth in Life unto Maturity."

This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the eight messages of the international training for elders and responsible ones hosted by Living Stream Ministry on March 27-29, 2020. The messages were provided via webcast from Anaheim, California, and the mutual fellowship, prophesy­ing, and studying by groups were practiced locally in the various churches that participated. The general subject of this series of messages is “The Will of God.” God created the universe to fulfill His eternal purpose based on His determined will. Ultimately, God’s will in the universe is to head up all things in Christ through the church as the Body of Christ. God’s working throughout the ages according to His economy will issue in the heading up of all things in Christ in the new heaven and new earth for eternity. We can know God’s great and lofty will and participate in His economy to head up all things in Christ. In order to be headed up in Christ, we need to grow up into Christ, the Head, in all things, in big things and small things, both in our daily life and in our work. The way we participate in God’s will and work together with Him to carry out His will is by our prayer for God’s will to be done on earth. God’s people must pray before God will move on earth to accomplish His will. Whenever God’s people place their will in harmony with God’s will, the will of God will be done on earth as in heaven. Since God’s great will is to head up all things through the church as the Body of Christ, the believers in Christ need to practice the Body life, that is, to have the living of the Body of Christ. We need to live a life according to God’s heart and will by daily enjoying Christ as the reality of all the offer­ings for the divine goal of the Triune God. The will of God is also our sanctification. To be sanctified is to be made holy, which is to be separated unto God and saturated with God as the Holy One. Sanctification is for sonship; actually, sanctification is God’s “sonizing.” The divine sanctification is the holding line in the carrying out of the divine economy to divinely sonize us, making us sons of God that we may become the same as God in His life and in His nature (but not in His Godhead) so that we may be God’s expression. We need to do the will of God in the realm that carries out His will—the kingdom of God. We do the will of God in the kingdom of God, of which the central government is the enthroned Son of Man, Jesus, who is Lord of all. When we do the will of God in the kingdom of God under the government of God, the church becomes the Israel of God, which fulfills God’s commission to subdue the earth, to exercise dominion, and to represent God with His authority. As the Israel of God, we represent God, exercise His authority, and carry out His administration on earth for the fulfillment of His purpose. If we take the Father’s will upon us as a yoke and learn from Him, we will find rest for our souls. Hence, in the church age we need to enjoy Christ as our rest—our perfect peace and full satisfaction—in order to be His expression and representation on earth. When there is a situation on earth in which man expresses God and represents Him, that situation is a Sabbath rest to God. Everything of God’s economy is not a heavy bur­den but an enjoyment. The Lord’s yoke (the Father’s will) is easy, and His burden (the work to carry out the Father’s will) is light. It is a divine princi­ple that God does not ask us to work until we have had rest and enjoyment. It is in a full enjoyment with Him and of Him that we can work together with Him. A central aspect of God’s will is the church, which is the assembly of the called-out ones. As such, the meetings of the church are crucial to the carrying out of God’s will. Our doing God’s will depends on our knowing His will, and it is in the meetings that God makes His will known to us. Since the Christian life is a meeting life and much of the Lord’s work is carried out in and through the meetings, we should regard the meetings as being of great importance. The goal of our meeting together is to exhibit Christ; therefore, our Christian meetings should be an exhibition of our experience of Christ in our daily life. Since the Father’s eternal will and the desire of His heart are to build up the church as the Body of Christ, we do His will by functioning in the meetings according to the scriptural way to meet for the building up of the Body. The Announcements section at the end of this issue contains a list of upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.

This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains a complete record of the twelve messages given during the semiannual training held December 25 through 30, 2017, in Anaheim, California, as the first part of the crystallization-study of Leviticus. The banners in the following section embody and summarize the crucial truths and main burdens in these twelve messages. These training messages are being published immediately following the training in order that they might benefit the saints participating in the many video trainings that are held throughout the earth. The Reports and Announcements section contains "An Update concerning Europe" and "An Update concerning the Publication of The Collected Works of Witness Lee." Also included is information concerning upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.

This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the six messages from the Thanksgiving weekend conference held in Phoenix, Arizona, November 23-26, 2017. The subject of this series of messages is "The Genuine Church Life." The banners in the following section embody the crucial truths and the main burden of the conference. The Announcements section at the end of this issue contains a list of upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.

This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the eight messages of the international training for elders and responsible ones hosted by Living Stream Ministry on October 8-10, 2021. The messages were provided via webcast from Anaheim, California, and the mutual fellowship, prophesying, and studying by groups were practiced locally in the various churches that participated. The general subject of this series of messages is “Meeting God’s Need and Present Needs in the Lord’s Recovery.” We must see that God has His need. No matter what our human needs or the churches’ needs are, God’s need is much greater. To see God’s need, we need to realize that God has a will, a good pleasure, which is His heart’s desire. God’s good pleasure, that which makes Him happy, is the fulfillment of His eternal purpose to have His eternal habitation for His eternal expression. In order for His will to be done on earth and for His eternal purpose to be fulfilled, God needs our cooperation. He has placed His almighty power under the limitation of the human will; hence, only when He has gained a people who will cooperate with Him by being totally responsive to Him will He have an unhindered way to accomplish His will. God also needs to recover the earth from His enemy by man’s dealing with Satan and subduing and conquering the rebellious earth. Moreover, God needs the “family of Noah” to build the church as today’s ark to terminate the present crooked and perverted age and bring in God’s kingdom. God needs the man-child, the overcomers in the church, as His dispensational instrument for His greatest dispensational move to end the age and bring in His kingdom. To be constituted as overcomers, we must realize that through regeneration we have been made a new creation. As such, we need to walk in newness of life, to serve in newness of spirit, and to be renewed daily. Furthermore, we daily need to labor on the all-inclusive Christ as the good land by seeking and enjoying Christ in every situation. Especially as elders and responsible ones, we should enter into Christ’s wonderful shepherding in His heavenly ministry by enjoying and ministering Christ to shepherd the church of God as a slave of God. In meeting the Lord’s need, prayer is our most direct and intimate cooperation with Him. Prayer is to absorb the elements of the soil of Christ [4] as the good land and to express what God has spoken within us by our contacting and fellowshipping with Him. The best prayer is to pray to God as a friend, as portrayed in Abraham’s glorious intercession, his intimate conversation with God. This kind of intercession expresses God’s desire and carries out His will. The Announcements section at the end of this issue contains a list of upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.