The Road Map of the Overcomers
I. The Lord needs the overcomers to carry out the economy of God for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem: (2003 ITEROF, The Uniqueness of the Lord’s Recovery (1), msg. 9)
A. God’s economy is His household administration to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen people that He may have a house, a household, to express Himself, which household is the church, the Body of Christ: (The Divine Dispensing for the Divine Economy, ch. 1)
1. For the accomplishing of God’s economy and His dispensing, first God became flesh to be a man; then He accomplished redemption for us on the cross; through His death and resurrection, He became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. (The Economy and Dispensing of God, msg. 1)
2. Our God is living, our Lord is moving, and the Spirit is working within us as the sevenfold intensified, energizing, processed, and consummated Triune God by working Himself into us to build up the Body of Christ. (2006 MDC, msg. 1)
B. When the Lord is accomplishing His economy today, He is calling the overcomers for the recovery of the church life and for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem. (CWWL, 1971, vol. 3: “Gaining People and Building Them Up for the Body of Christ”, ch. 4)
II. The major structures of the book of Romans are three—salvation, life, and building; this is the road map from a sinner to an overcomer:
A. In eternity past God predestinated us; then He called us, redeemed us, justified us, and reconciled us to Himself; thus, we have full salvation.
B. Salvation is for life, and life is for building.
C. In the last part of Romans, we have the building, the Body with all of its expressions in the local churches; thus, the three major structures of Romans are salvation, life, and building. (Life-study of Romans, msg. 1)
III. The section of salvation in Romans:
A. Judicial redemption:
1. The forgiveness of sins (Life Lessons, Vol. 4 (#38))
2. The cleansing away of sins (Life Lessons, Vol. 4 (#38))
3. Reconciliation (New Beginners 365 Topics, IV-14)
4. Reconciliation (Life Lessons, Vol. 4 (#39))
5. Sanctification—the Position (Life Lessons, Vol. 4 (#40))
B. Redemption, forgiveness, justification, and reconciliation are all for one goal: regeneration; in regeneration the Holy Spirit sowed God as a life seed into our being; from the day that the Lord sowed Himself into us, we have been growing not only physically but also divinely and spiritually. (The Organic Union in God’s Relationship with Man, msg. 4)
IV. The stage of growth in life in Romans:
A. Life is the divine life with a special function, that is, to know God and Christ; God and Christ are divine; to know the divine person, we need the divine life.
B. The increase in truth results in the growth in life; as a believer receives more truth, life becomes more abundant in his experience; this is why we need to know the Bible, receive the truth, and care only for teaching that conveys God as life. (Basic Principles Concerning the Eldership, ch.14)
1. If we read the New Testament carefully, we will see that what the New Testament reveals and pays attention to is summed up in three matters: truth, life, and the gospel.
2. The apostles’ record in the Gospels places an equal importance on truth, life, and the gospel.
3. Although the gospel is listed last, it is neither for life nor for truth; rather, truth and life are for the gospel.
C. Truth, life, and the gospel are a threefold cord; truth is for life, and life is for fruit-bearing, for the gospel; the proper condition is to have all three in proper relationship to one another. (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 2: Leading the Saints to Practice the New Way Ordained by the Lord, msg. 4)
D. Some important points concerning the way of life are as below:
1. Eating the Lord:
a. Prayer (New Beginners New Beginners 365 Topics, II-01)
b. Tell Him (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-02)
c. In Nothing Be Anxious (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-03)
d. Casting Our Anxiety on God (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-04)
e. Entering into the Holy of Holies (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-06)
f. Pray unceasingly (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-09)
g. Praising (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-10)
h. Calling upon the Name of the Lord (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-11)
i. Hymns Singing (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-13)
j. Giving Thanks in All Things (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-16)
k. A Time with the Lord (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-18)
l. Prayer Life (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-19)
m. The Need for a Personal and Affectionate Relationship with Christ (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-23)
n. Rising up Early (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-30)
o. Abiding in Christ (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-48)
p. How to Study the Bible (New Beginners 365 Topics, III-08)
q. Experiencing the Dispensing of the Triune God in Our Practical Living (New Beginners 365 Topics, V-01)
r. Enjoying Christ (New Beginners 365 Topics, V-08)
s. Enjoying Christ through Prayer (New Beginners 365 Topics, V-09)
t. Eating Lord (New Beginners 365 Topics, V-10)
u. Drinking the Lord (New Beginners 365 Topics, V-11)
v. Breathing the Lord (New Beginners 365 Topics, V-12)
w. Pray-reading the Word (Pray-reading the Word)
x. Fellowship with the Lord (The Priesthood and God’s Building, msg. 18)
2. Life grows by regulation:
a. [In Philippians 3,] verse 16 the word for walk, which means to walk orderly, to range in regular line, to march in military rank, to keep step, to conform to virtue and piety, By this word the apostle charges us to walk and order our lives by the same rule, in the same line, in the same path, in the same footsteps, whereunto we have attained, at the state to which we have attained.
b. Whatever state we have attained to in our spiritual life, we all must walk by the same rule, in the same path, as the apostle did; that is, to pursue Christ toward the goal that we may gain Him to the fullest extent as the prize of God’s calling from above. (Life-study of Philippians, msg. 26)
3. Exercising the spirit:
a. Exercising the spirit through calling upon the name of the Lord (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-11)
b. Exercising the spirit through pray-reading (New Beginners 365 Topics, III-01)
c. Exercising the spirit through prayer (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-01)
d. Speaking for God (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-33)
e. Pray-reading, Studying, Reciting, and Prophesying (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-35)
f. Turning to our spirit (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-24)
g. Exercising the spirit (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-25)
h. Not Quenching the Spirit (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-27)
i. Obeying the Teaching of the Anointing (New Beginners 365 Topics, IV-31)
j. One Spirit with Lord (New Beginners 365 Topics, IV-32)
k. Living by the Law of Life (New Beginners 365 Topics, IV-34)
l. Setting the Mind on the Spirit (New Beginners 365 Topics, IV-38)
m. Walking Accord to Spirit (New Beginners 365 Topics, IV-39)
n. The Filling of the Holy Spirit (New Beginners 365 Topics, IV-45)
o. Being Filled in Spirit and Letting the Word Dwell Richly (New Beginners 365 Topics, V-06)
p. Abiding in the Lord, walking according to the spirit, and flowing the rivers of living water (New Beginners 365 Topics, V-07)
q. Following the feeling of the spirit (New Beginners 365 Topics, IV-37)
4. Being conformed to His death—Phl.3:10
a. Bearing the Cross (Life-study of Luke, msg. 21)
b. Remaining in the death of Christ (Words of Life from the 1988 Full-Time Training, msg. 6)
c. Having the Old Man Crucified (Life-Study of Romans, msg. 12)
d. The flesh with the passions and the lusts have been crucified (Life-Study of Galatians, msg. 28)
e. Putting to death the practices of their body (The Conclusion of the New Testament—The Believers, msg. 149)
f. Denying the Self (Life-Study of Matthew. Msg48)
g. Losing our soul life (Life-Study of Luke, msg. 21)
h. Not living in their natural life (The Conclusion of the New Testament—The Believers, msg. 149)
i. Having died with Christ from the elements of the world (Life-Study of Colossians, msg. 57)
j. Dealing with sins (The Experience of Life, msg. 4)
k. Dealing with the world (The Experience of Life, msg. 5)
l. Dealing with the conscience (The Experience of Life, msg. 6)
m. Dealing with the flesh (The Experience of Life, msg. 9)
n. Dealing with self (The Experience of Life, msg. 10)
o. Dealing with the natural constitution (The Experience of Life, msg. 11)
p. Dealing with the spirit (The Experience of Life, msg. 13)
q. Dealing with peculiarity (Perfecting Training, msg. 11)
r. Dealing with religion (Life-Study of Galatians.msg. 3)
The believers enjoy the dispensing of the divine Trinity in the divine transformation for the divine conformation by being conformed to the death of Christ. Christ’s death took place throughout His life. Being conformed to Christ’s death should be our daily experience as believers. (The Conclusion of the New Testament—the Believers, msg. 149)
E. Truth is for life:
1. Truth
a. Concerning the Person of God (The Conclusion of the New Testament—God, msgs. 3-6)
b. Concerning God’s Creation (Life-Study of Genesis, msg. 1)
c. Concerning Man’s Fall (God’s Eternal Plan, msg. 7)
d. Concerning God’s Redemption (God’s Plan of Redemption, msg. 1)
e. Concerning Christ (2004 ST, msg. 1)
f. Concerning Christ’s Redemption (Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 1, ch.3)
g. Concerning the Holy Spirit’s Sanctification (Life Lessons, Vol. 4, les.37)
h. Concerning God’s Forgiveness of Sins (Life Lessons, Vol. 4, les.38)
i. Concerning God’s Justification in Christ (The Conclusion of the New Testament—Believers, msg. 128)
j. Concerning the Believers’ Reconciliation with God (Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 1, ch.10)
k. Concerning the Spirit’s Regeneration of the Believers (The Conclusion of the New Testament—The Spirit, msg85)
l. Concerning God’s Full Salvation (Life-Study of 1 Peter，msg. 5)
m. Concerning the Spirit’s Sanctification, Renewing, and Transformation of the Believers (The Organic Aspect of God’s Salvation, msgs. 3-4)
n. Concerning the Conformation and Glorification of the Believers (The Organic Aspect of God’s Salvation, msg. 5)
o. Concerning the Church as the Body of Christ, the New Man, the House of God, and the Kingdom of God.
p. Concerning the Economy of God and the Divine Dispensing (The Economy and Dispensing of God, msgs. 1-2)
q. Concerning the Rapture of the Believers, the Great Tribulation, and the Second Coming of Christ (The Conclusion of the New Testament—Christ, msg. 78)
r. Concerning the Reward and Punishment of the Believers at the Judgment Seat of Christ and in the Coming Kingdom (The Kingdom, msg. 38)
s. Concerning the Kingdom, Millennium, and the Age of Restoration (The divine economy in the book of Isaiah, msg. 14)
t. Concerning the New Jerusalem and the New Heaven and the New Earth (The Conclusion of the New Testament—The New Jerusalem, msgs.254-264)
u. Concerning the Principle of the Holy Scriptures (Life-study of Psalms, msg. 8)
v. Concerning the Way to Cut Straight the Word of the Truth (The Practice of the Church Life according to the God-ordained Way, msg. 6)
2. The pursuit of truth:
a. The Recovery Version of the Bible (New Beginners 365 Topics, III-05)
b. Life-Study (New Beginners 365 Topics, III-11)
c. Crystallization-Study (New Beginners 365 Topics, III-12)
d. The Hymns (New Beginners 365 Topics, II-14)
e. Morning Revival (New Beginners 365 Topics, III-13)
f. Ministry books (http://www.ministrybooks.org/)
g. WeChat Subscription Accounts: Feeding New Ones (Notes: pursuing the truth through this subscription account)
F. Life is for the gospel—Fruit-bearing:
The commission of the church today is to preach the gospel, the content of which is the truth; our preaching of the truth is the preaching of the high gospel—Mark 16:15; 1 Tim. 2:4. (The Four Great Pillars in the Lord’s Recovery, msg. 1)
1. The expressions related to the gospel (Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 3, ch.28)
a. Witnessing
b. Leading People to the Lord
c. Sowing
d. Reaping a Harvest
e. Repaying a Debt (Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 3, ch.28)
2. The spirit of the gospel (Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 3, ch.28)
a. Being fervent in spirit
b. Not being ashamed of the gospel
c. Using Our Own Will
d. Coming Down from the Throne of Human Dignity
e. Spending and Being Utterly Spent
f. Not Choosing the Time or Place
g. Not Being Afraid of Sufferings
h. Leaving Everything
3. The gospel preaching of the church (Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 3, ch.28)
a. Fellowshipping
b. Striving Together with One Soul
God’s building by the growth in life (The Experience of Christ as Life for the Building Up of the Church, msg. 4)
Eph. 2:21 In whom all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord;
Eph. 4:16 Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.
Col. 2:19 And not holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.
1 Pet. 2:5 You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house ……
V. The stage of the building in Romans:
A. God’s goal is the building; life is the procedure by which God obtains the building, and life maintains the building; today this life is Christ and is God Himself coming to us to dispense the whole Triune God into us; When this dispensing is undergoing, there must be a result that the church is brought in through the dispensing of life to become the sanctuary of God; this is related to the building of the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:12-16. (2005 WT, msg. 3)
B. The intrinsic building up of the organic Body of Christ is by the gifted persons’ perfecting of the saints in the divine dispensing, that all the saints may be able to do the work of the New Testament ministry, that is, to build up the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:11-12:
1. The gifted persons perfect the saints by nourishing them according to the tree of life with the life supply for their growth in life.
2. The gifted persons perfect the saints to do what they do for the direct building of the Body of Christ.
3. The result of this perfecting is that we will all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, and at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. (Crystallization-study of Ephesians, msg. 8)
C. In order for the Body to be produced in a full and complete way, there is the need of the third stage of Christ’s ministry; there is the need for the compound, all-inclusive life-giving Spirit to be the sevenfold intensified Spirit; in this stage Christ intensifies His organic salvation; He produces the overcomers; and He consummates the New Jerusalem: (2005 MDC, msg. 4)
1. Christ has become the sevenfold intensified Spirit to overcome the degradation of the church that the overcomers may be produced to bring forth the Body.
2. Without the overcomers the Body of Christ cannot be built up, and unless the Body of Christ is built up, Christ cannot come back for His bride.
3. The building up of the Body of Christ is by the overcomers produced by Christ as the sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit.
4. The building up of the Body of Christ by the overcomers in this age is for the initial consummation of the New Jerusalem in the kingdom age and eventually for the full consummation of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. (2003 ITEROF, msg. 9)
VI. The overcomers are for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem:
A. The Lord needs the overcomers to carry out the economy of God to have a Body and to destroy His enemy.
B. The overcomers see the Body, know the Body, and care for the Body.
C. The overcomers are those who care for God’s interests above everything, including their necessities.
D. Conquering all the destructive chaos and triumph in the unique constructive economy:
1. Loving the Lord with the first love (Life-Study of Revelation, msg. 1)
2. Enjoying Christ as the tree of life (Life-Study of Revelation, msg. 3)
3. Being faithful unto death (Life-Study of Revelation, msg. 7)
4. Suffering poverty and trial for the crown of life (Life-Study of Revelation, msg. 11)
5. Enjoying Christ as the hidden manna (Life-Study of Revelation, msg. 12)
6. Overcoming the worldliness of the degraded church (Life-Study of Revelation, msg. 12)
7. Overcoming the idolatrous teaching of Balaam (Life-Study of Revelation, msg. 12)
8. Overcoming the hierarchical teaching of the Nicolaitans (Life-Study of Revelation, msg. 12)
9. Being transformed to be a “white stone,” justified and approved by the Lord, for the building up of the house of God (Life-Study of Revelation, msg. 12)
10. Standing strongly against the Romish teaching of Jezebel (Life-Study of Revelation, msg. 13)
11. Fleeing the spiritual death, and walking in “white garments” without any defilement (Life-Study of Revelation, msg. 14)
12. Keeping the Lord’s word of endurance and not denying the Lord’s name unto the last bit of their power (Life-Study of Revelation, msg. 12)
13. Being hot, instead of being lukewarm (Life-Study of Revelation, msg. 16)
14. Buying gold refined by fire, white garments, and eyesalve (Life-Study of Revelation, msg. 16)
15. Be invited to dine with the Lord (Life-Study of Revelation, msg. 16)
16. Sitting with the Lord on His throne. (The Satanic Chaos in the Old Creation and the Divine Economy for the New Creation, msg. 3)
E. The Lord has been delayed because He still needs some who will pay the price to be His overcomers.
F. The overcomers are the way for Christ to come back.
G. We must resolve to deny ourselves and be the overcomers for the Lord, for the recovery, and for the Body. (2003 ITEROF, msg. 9)
