Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:2-5; 1 Cor. 9:17; Acts 26:19; Col. 3:16; Acts 2:42; Matt. 28:19-20; John 21:15-17
I. The Lord has opened to us His divine revelation from the making of His eternal economy to the consummation of His eternal goal—the New Jerusalem; the Lord has also commissioned us with the ministry of His word; from the time of the apostles until today, for two thousand years, all the servants of the Lord who serve according to the revelation of the Bible serve according to the vision; the Lord’s recovery is also serving in His vision—Eph. 3:2-5; 1 Cor. 9:17; Acts 26:19:
A. The Lord’s recovery today is the recovery of the central vision of Paul’s completing ministry; this is the vision of the age in the ministry of the age─ 1:25; cf. Acts 9:4-5, 15; 22:14-15; 26:16-19.
B. In the New Testament, the apostles, specially the apostle Paul, completed the word of God, which is the divine revelation; the central vision of Paul’s completing ministry is God in us as our contents, Christ as the mystery of God, and the church as the mystery of Christ, revealed to us God’s economy in a full way─Eph. 3:9; 2 Cor. 4:7; Col. 2:2; Eph. 3:4.
C. The Lord’s recovery is the recovery of truth, the most remarkable characteristic is the knowledge and the experience of the saints towards the truth revealed in the Bible is progressing and growing; Brother Watchman Nee drew the essence of the divine revelation, and saw further on it, and laid a good foundation for today’s recovery; Brother Lee continued his ministry, and advanced in the divine revelation, which is to arrive at the high peak of the divine revelation—Isa. 28:10; 2 Tim. 2:2.
D. “In God’s building ministry there are those who take the lead in that ministry in every age. May the Lord open our eyes to see that as long as we are human beings, we should be Christians; as long as we are Christians, we should enter into the Lord’s ministry in this age. “(Words of Training for the New Way, Vol. 1, ch. 2)
II. To carry out the vision we need to be constituted with the New Testament ministry; our constitution should not be something gilded but something inwrought into our being; the intrinsic element of the divine revelation must be wrought into and constituted into our being —Col. 3:16; Acts 2:42; 1 Tim. 1:3-4:
A. The Lord’s recovery does not treasure any gilded thing; we treasure the basic things, the intrinsic things, the essential things— 17:4a; Matt. 23:5; Col. 3:16; 1 Tim. 4:6.
B. Being constituted with the truth is to let the truth to work into us, become the element of our constituent, our inward being, and our organic constitution—1 John 1:8; 2:4; 2 John 1-2; John 3:3-4; John 17:17:
1. We must receive the word of God and let this Word to be absorbed into our entire being organically ─Col. 3:16.
2. Through the word, by the Spirit and in the church life, we are constituted with the truth ─John 17:17; 16:13; 1 John 5:6; 1 Tim. 3:15.
3. We need to let all the people, especially those in the social network of Christian to see that we are a group of people who come to the full knowledge of the truth; this is a strong testimony—John 3:3-4.
4. We must give the Lord ways that the recovery may be full of life and come to the full knowledge of the truth, so that we may be a person who preach the gospel, teach the truth, and supply life—1 Tim. 2:4; 4:3; 2 Tim. 2:25; 3:7; Titus 1:1.
C. “Now we are not worried of pursuing the truth without material nor do we worry of how to pursue; our only need is that we are willing to labor, to spend time and energy on this matter. If we all rise up, labor on the truth, pursue to know the Lord, this surely will bring in the unprecedental genuine revival.” (CWWL,1984, 5, ch. 8)
D. We must learn the divine truth through study the opened Bible; we need to practice pray, study, recite, and speak; we must pray-read, study-read, and recite the key points which we have study; then we will be equipped—Eph. 6:17-18; Col. 3:16.
E. “Let us all be filled with the riches of God’s New Testament economy and then carry out the burden for God’s economy positively and aggressively. We all can become aggressive if we are filled and saturated. I hope that in the coming years there will be a great increase for the Lord’s propagation. May there be a real stirring up throughout the earth!” (Life-study of Acts, 55)
III. The great commission that the Lord gave us is for us to disciple the nations and teach them the teachings of Christ; our commission is to go and preach the gospel of the kingdom to every part of the inhabited earth and to cause every believer to become a disciple of the kingdom— 28:19-20:
A. Preaching the gospel is the greatest commission in the Bible, and it is the Lord’s greatest charge to us; surrender everything for the gospel is God’s demand today; we hope that we can cope up with God’s demand today, we would not lower God’s demand, and give everything for the Lord and the gospel—1 Cor. 9:16-17; 2 Cor. 12:15; cf. 1 Thes. 2:
B. Today the Lord has truly commissioned us with the gospel; facing this fact, we need to have a response; we need to have people, especially young people, who receive this burden and are led by the Lord to serve full time; do not worry that you cannot make a living as a full timer; apparently, no one takes care of your living, but in actuality, the Lord will take care of you—1 Cor. 9:14; Matt. 6:33.
C. To suffer for the gospel means that you are on earth solely for the interest of God’s economy; to suffer for the gospel is to care for the accomplishment of God’s economy; the gospel includes God’s economy, and suffering for the gospel requires that we participate in God’s economy; thus, to suffer for the gospel actually means to share in the carrying out of God’s economy—Phil. 1:7, 29-30.
D. Our work and labor for the Lord in the gospel are not by our natural life and natural ability but by the Lord’s resurrection life and power; We must pray that we might have the Spirit as the power to spread the Word─Acts 6:7; 12:24; 19:20; 1 Tim. 2:1-4, 8; Eph. 6:17-18; cf. 1 Tim. 5:17-18:
1. We must get ourselves saturated, constituted, and even soaked with the holy Word; if we are burdened to preach the gospel, we must get into the Word and be persons who know the Word─Col. 3:16.
2. We should ask the Lord to bring our entire being into the light and be dealt with by Him to become persons of power, who are full of the Spirit within and without, essentially and economically ─Eph. 5:18; Acts 2:38; 5:32b; 4:8, 31, 13:9, 52.
E. We must be very definite in our going out to preach the gospel; we must make a budget;…set your budget to go out twice a week…each time for two or three hours; one year fifty-two weeks, whenever people are convenient, we can practice this every week without fail—2 Tim. 4:2; Matt. 28:19.
IV. The Lord has commissioned us not only to disciple the heathen, baptizing them into the reality of the Triune God and setting up the kingdom of the heavens on this earth, but also to shepherd His flock; we must feed the little lambs and even the sheep—John 21:15-17:
A. The Lord shepherded Peter after resurrection and commissioned him to feed His lamb and shepherd His sheep; this is to incorporate the apostolic ministry with Christ’s heavenly ministry to take care of God’s flock, which is the church that issues in the Body of Christ ─vv. 15-17; 1 Pet. 5:2.
B. The Lord is speaking to us, “You take care of My flock; I will take care of your living. You leave the matter of living to Me. I need you to shepherd My flock.”—John 21:5-6, 9-11.
C. We need to cooperate with Christ in His heavenly ministry, shepherd people according to God in the vital groups, for the accomplishing of God’s economy to build up the Body of Christ—1 Pet. 5:4, 二25; Acts 20:28:
1. “I hope that there will be a genuine revival among us by our receiving this burden of shepherding. If all the churches receive this teaching to participate in Christ’s wonderful shepherding, there will be a big revival in the recovery.” (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, The Vital Groups, 4)
2. “I hope that we would pray, ‘Lord, I want to be revived. From today I want to be a shepherd. I want to go to feed people, to shepherd people, and to flock people together.’” (Crystallization-study of John, 13)
3. In order to nourish the new believers and lead them to grow in life that they may become remaining fruit, we need to go to their homes to meet with them by personally leading and nourishing them; we should not carry out the home meetings sporadically; rather, we should do it steadily and continually, fifty-two times a year—1 Thes. 2:7, 11; Matt. 4:19; John 21:15; S.S. 1:7-8.
4. “If we practice these things, there will be a real revival in the Lord’s recovery. We must be shepherds with the loving and forgiving heart of our Father God in His divinity and the shepherding and finding spirit of our Savior Christ in His humanity. We also must have the heavenly vision of all the divine and mystical teachings of Christ. Shepherding and teaching are the obligation of the vital groups and the basic way ordained by God to build up the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem.” (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, The Vital Groups, ch. 6)
V. I would encourage all of us to pick up this high commission: to go out with the high peaks of the divine revelation and with God’s up-to-date vision to move with God for His high peaks of the divine revelation that will consummate His eternal economy.” (The Triune God’s Revelation and His Move, msg. 12)
