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Author: Various Authors
Publisher: Living Stream Ministry
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 180
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Book Description
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the first eight messages given during the fall 2016 term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is "The Failures in the Churches, the Degradation of the Church, the Overcomers in the Church, the Recovery of the Church, and the Stages of the Church." This issue comprises the first three components of this fivefold subject. This general subject unveils the decline of the church and illuminates our need to return to the orthodoxy of the church. The term orthodoxy refers to God's way for the church as ordained by Him and revealed in His Word. The practice of the church that is according to God's original intention was present in the early years of the church before degradation set in. We may say that orthodoxy is the equivalent of the word normal. Thus, the orthodoxy of the church is the normal Christian church life. The overcomers are normal Christians in a time of abnormality. Moreover, the principle of returning to the orthodoxy is the same as that of recovery. In order to be faithful to the Lord and to His word, we must forsake mere tradition and return to what God originally intended for the church. Concerning the actual practice of the church life, three particular matters must become clear to us and real within us. First, we need to have a genuine vision of the church and see the church as the Lord Himself sees the church. From the Scriptures that have been opened and rightly expounded to us through the ministry, may we have the veil lifted from our heart, receive the shining of the divine life, and have the sight under the anointing. Then we will begin to realize what the church is to Christ and how He views the church in its actual condition. In Revelation 2 and 3 the Lord Himself addressed many matters in the church, but before doing so, He presented to John a vision of the church as golden lampstands. In the eyes of the Lord all seven churches--including Thyatira, Sardis, and Laodicea, as actual local churches--were seven golden lampstands. This indicates that intrinsically, these seven churches were the embodiment and expression of the Triune God. Second, we need Christ's view and understanding concerning the degradation of the church. The Lord Jesus is absolutely clear about the degradation in the churches; nevertheless, it is He who regards the churches intrinsically as golden lampstands. Although the churches, in their history and actual practice, may be degraded in various ways, we need to see everything not from our natural perspective but as the Lord sees. Third, we need to know and carry out His way to care for the church in its condition. We are able to do so because we are governed by the vision of the church and have the Lord's view and understanding of the degradation in the church. We need to know how to minister life, how to conquer the satanic chaos, and how to present the truth. The co-workers in particular need to learn of the Lord how to represent Him and how to carry out His administration to establish and maintain the order in the churches. We need to be one with the Lord to minister Him according to the various situations. Message 1 identifies that the weaknesses and failures in the churches are due to the principle of Babylon, which is hypocrisy. To overcome this principle we must take Christ as our burnt offering. As the burnt offering, Christ is the One who is absolute for God and for His satisfaction. When we take Christ as our burnt offering and consecrate ourselves to, in, with, by, and through Him as our burnt offering, we become ashes. The ashes of the burnt offering were handled by the priests in a very stately and dignified way by placing them on the east side of the altar. The east side is the side toward the sunrise and is an allusion to resurrection. By being brought into resurrection, we are brought into the transformation of the Triune God to become gold, pearl, and precious stones, which are the building materials of the New Jerusalem. Hence, the ashes eventually become the New Jerusalem. This should be our daily experience. Messages 2 through 4 show that we need to consider the degradation of the church so that we may be inoculated against the decline. This divine and mystical vaccine will prevent us from repeating the failures in the churches and from falling into degradation. This inoculation will bring us back to the straight way of God's economy concerning the church. We need to take the straight way to be one with the persecuted Jesus by going outside the camp and bearing His reproach. The straight way is for the believers to be brought into the church in the way of life and built up in this life into the Body of Christ to bear the testimony of Jesus. The Lord's recovery is for the preparation of the bride, and in order for the bride to be prepared, the local churches must become in reality both the Body of Christ and the one new man. The Body is an organism through which the Lord can move to carry out His administration, and the one new man is a corporate person who will fulfill Genesis 1:26, expressing God with His image and representing Him with His dominion. In God's wise organic salvation, the Body and the one new man become the bride. Messages 5 through 8 consider the overcomers in the church. Instead of expressing a hope that everyone in the church will suddenly become absolutely faithful to the Lord, the Lord calls for overcomers. The Lord Jesus Himself is the first Overcomer (Rev. 3:21; 5:5), and He will reproduce Himself in those who have the heart to be produced as overcomers. The Reports and Announcements section of this issue contains reports from the January and February 2017 gospel trips to South Africa and Europe. There is also a list of upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.
Author: Various Authors
Publisher: Living Stream Ministry
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 180
Get Book Here
Book Description
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the first eight messages given during the fall 2016 term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is "The Failures in the Churches, the Degradation of the Church, the Overcomers in the Church, the Recovery of the Church, and the Stages of the Church." This issue comprises the first three components of this fivefold subject. This general subject unveils the decline of the church and illuminates our need to return to the orthodoxy of the church. The term orthodoxy refers to God's way for the church as ordained by Him and revealed in His Word. The practice of the church that is according to God's original intention was present in the early years of the church before degradation set in. We may say that orthodoxy is the equivalent of the word normal. Thus, the orthodoxy of the church is the normal Christian church life. The overcomers are normal Christians in a time of abnormality. Moreover, the principle of returning to the orthodoxy is the same as that of recovery. In order to be faithful to the Lord and to His word, we must forsake mere tradition and return to what God originally intended for the church. Concerning the actual practice of the church life, three particular matters must become clear to us and real within us. First, we need to have a genuine vision of the church and see the church as the Lord Himself sees the church. From the Scriptures that have been opened and rightly expounded to us through the ministry, may we have the veil lifted from our heart, receive the shining of the divine life, and have the sight under the anointing. Then we will begin to realize what the church is to Christ and how He views the church in its actual condition. In Revelation 2 and 3 the Lord Himself addressed many matters in the church, but before doing so, He presented to John a vision of the church as golden lampstands. In the eyes of the Lord all seven churches--including Thyatira, Sardis, and Laodicea, as actual local churches--were seven golden lampstands. This indicates that intrinsically, these seven churches were the embodiment and expression of the Triune God. Second, we need Christ's view and understanding concerning the degradation of the church. The Lord Jesus is absolutely clear about the degradation in the churches; nevertheless, it is He who regards the churches intrinsically as golden lampstands. Although the churches, in their history and actual practice, may be degraded in various ways, we need to see everything not from our natural perspective but as the Lord sees. Third, we need to know and carry out His way to care for the church in its condition. We are able to do so because we are governed by the vision of the church and have the Lord's view and understanding of the degradation in the church. We need to know how to minister life, how to conquer the satanic chaos, and how to present the truth. The co-workers in particular need to learn of the Lord how to represent Him and how to carry out His administration to establish and maintain the order in the churches. We need to be one with the Lord to minister Him according to the various situations. Message 1 identifies that the weaknesses and failures in the churches are due to the principle of Babylon, which is hypocrisy. To overcome this principle we must take Christ as our burnt offering. As the burnt offering, Christ is the One who is absolute for God and for His satisfaction. When we take Christ as our burnt offering and consecrate ourselves to, in, with, by, and through Him as our burnt offering, we become ashes. The ashes of the burnt offering were handled by the priests in a very stately and dignified way by placing them on the east side of the altar. The east side is the side toward the sunrise and is an allusion to resurrection. By being brought into resurrection, we are brought into the transformation of the Triune God to become gold, pearl, and precious stones, which are the building materials of the New Jerusalem. Hence, the ashes eventually become the New Jerusalem. This should be our daily experience. Messages 2 through 4 show that we need to consider the degradation of the church so that we may be inoculated against the decline. This divine and mystical vaccine will prevent us from repeating the failures in the churches and from falling into degradation. This inoculation will bring us back to the straight way of God's economy concerning the church. We need to take the straight way to be one with the persecuted Jesus by going outside the camp and bearing His reproach. The straight way is for the believers to be brought into the church in the way of life and built up in this life into the Body of Christ to bear the testimony of Jesus. The Lord's recovery is for the preparation of the bride, and in order for the bride to be prepared, the local churches must become in reality both the Body of Christ and the one new man. The Body is an organism through which the Lord can move to carry out His administration, and the one new man is a corporate person who will fulfill Genesis 1:26, expressing God with His image and representing Him with His dominion. In God's wise organic salvation, the Body and the one new man become the bride. Messages 5 through 8 consider the overcomers in the church. Instead of expressing a hope that everyone in the church will suddenly become absolutely faithful to the Lord, the Lord calls for overcomers. The Lord Jesus Himself is the first Overcomer (Rev. 3:21; 5:5), and He will reproduce Himself in those who have the heart to be produced as overcomers. The Reports and Announcements section of this issue contains reports from the January and February 2017 gospel trips to South Africa and Europe. There is also a list of upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.
Author: Various Authors
Publisher: Living Stream Ministry
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 176
Get Book Here
Book Description
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.
Author: Various Authors
Publisher: Living Stream Ministry
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 132
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Various Authors
Publisher: Living Stream Ministry
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Various Authors
Publisher: Living Stream Ministry
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 195
Get Book Here
Book Description
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the final nine messages given during the spring 2017 term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is "The Mending Ministry of John." The overall subject of John's writings, which include his Gospel, his Epistles, and Revelation, is that the Triune God wants to dispense Himself into His chosen people as their life and life supply to make them divine so that they may express Him in full and for eternity. In Revelation John presents the consummate vision in the Bible and the ultimate fulfillment of God's eternal economy--the New Jerusalem. The mending ministry of John, carried out in the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit, is for the living out and the working out of the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is lived out by the believers becoming the New Jerusalem, and the New Jerusalem is worked out by the believers building the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate answer to the Lord's prayer in John 17 for the glorification of the Triune God through the oneness of the believers built into the Triune God. This city is the City of Jehovah, the city of life, the holy city, and the city of glory. Even in the Old Testament the prophets describe this city as a person that is one with Jehovah. Isaiah says, "They will call you the City of Jehovah" (60:14), and Ezekiel concludes his prophecy by declaring that "the name of the city from that day shall be, Jehovah Is There" (48:35). The City of Jehovah means that Jehovah is in His redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite people and that they are in Him. Jehovah Is There refers to the presence of Jehovah Himself who will be united, mingled, and incorporated with His people to be one entity--the great, corporate God-man. The New Jerusalem is also the city of life. The Christ ministered by John is for the dispensing of the Triune God as life into man's tripartite being. Out of such a ministered Christ, the children of God are brought forth by receiving the eternal life. They then partake of the fellowship of the eternal life by abiding in the Lord and walking in the light. They are taught by the anointing to enjoy the virtues of the divine birth with the divine seed. As a result, they become the testimony of Jesus--the lampstands as the expression of the Triune God--to be the firstfruits and the harvest as the expression of life and the bride of the Lamb as His increase and satisfaction. Moreover, the New Jerusalem is the holy city. God's living word--His breathing out as the divine breath into the believers--works within them to separate them from the world and to saturate them with the divine nature to make them a holy city, the corporate and ultimate Holy of Holies as the reality of Zion. To live out and work out the New Jerusalem, the believers partake of the divine nature of the Father by exercising their spirit to enjoy God as Spirit (the nature of God's person) and by remaining in the divine fellowship to enjoy God as love (the nature of God's essence) and as light (the nature of God's expression). Furthermore, the New Jerusalem is the city of glory. The Lord wants to occupy every room in our being, and He desires that we would be filled with His riches unto the fullness of God so that there would be glory to God in the church. The Father will be glorified when His many sons are thus filled with the Triune God. To be filled with the Triune God of glory for His corporate expression, the believers must cooperate with the Spirit, who is daily operating in them, by their allowing the Spirit to infuse and transmit all the riches of the Triune God into them. All believers need to be open to this Spirit to allow the Triune God to fill them, to flow through them, and to overflow out of them so that there would be the full expression of the Triune God in the church as the reality of the Body of Christ. This Body will in turn consummate in the New Jerusalem as the ultimate expression of the consummated Triune God in and through man. The New Jerusalem is the church as the reality of the Body of Christ in its ultimate state and consummation. To live out the New Jerusalem is to grow up into Christ, the Head, by the mingling of God with man, and to work out the New Jerusalem is to function out from the Head for the building up of the Body of Christ. Only the Body of Christ will remain forever as the unique mutual abode of God and man so that God as the Spirit and man as the bride, becoming a married couple, are mingled and incorporated together to be one entity--a great, corporate God-man. Thus, the issue of John's mending ministry is the accomplishing of the goal of God's economy, which is to obtain the enlarged, universal, divine-human incorporation of the consummated Triune God with the regenerated believers--the New Jerusalem in eternity.
Author: Various Authors
Publisher: Living Stream Ministry
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 259
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Book Description
Author: Various Authors
Publisher: Living Stream Ministry
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 173
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Various Authors
Publisher: Living Stream Ministry
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 139
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Book Description
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the six messages from the Memorial Day weekend conference held in White Plains, New York, May 26-29, 2017. The subject of this series of messages is "Knowing Life and the Church." The banners in the following section embody the crucial truths and the main burden of the conference. The Reports and Announcements section at the end of this issue contains the "Summer 2017 Mass Distribution Update" as well as information concerning upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.
Author: Various Authors
Publisher: Living Stream Ministry
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 185
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Book Description
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the remaining nine messages given during the spring 2002 term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is "Christ and the Church in the Psalms." The progression of the revelation through the Psalms may be encapsulated by four major themes--Christ, house, city, and earth. Psalm 40 speaks concerning the will of God, which is to have Christ as the replacement for all the offerings in the Old Testament. In the New Testament we now enjoy Christ as everything in living and practicing the Body life for the building up of the Body of Christ. Concerning Christ, Psalm 45 shows the direct praising of Christ as the King in His fairness, in His victory, in His kingdom, and in the sweetness of His virtues. Psalm 45 also shows the indirect praising of the King in the praising of God's corporate queen, as the duplication and reproduction of the King. Christ came down to our level, becoming our species, so that He could court us, woo us, win us, and gain us. Furthermore, He came into us to dispense Himself into our entire being to make us the same as He is in life and nature so that we would become His queen for His duplication, reproduction, expression, and glory in the universe. In this psalm we also have the praising of the King in the praising of His sons, the princes, who signify the overcomers reigning with Christ over the nations. In Psalms 46 through 48 we see that a king must have not only a place to live but also a city, a kingdom, as a realm to rule and reign. In Psalm 46 we see that when God has the church enlarged, strengthened, and built up as the city, He has a place to rule and reign. In Psalms 47 and 48 we see that there is a great King over all the earth enthroned in the city. Before the Lord comes manifestly to be the King in the literal city of Jerusalem, He must first be the King in a spiritual, heavenly, divine, and mystical city, and that city is the enlarged, strengthened, and built-up church. When the church is enlarged, strengthened, and built up, the house of God becomes the city of God as the kingdom of God [4] for the God-King to rule and reign. The church is for the kingdom; that is, the house is for the city. Eventually, the house of God becomes the holy city, the New Jerusalem. At the end of Psalm 48 God is revealed as the God of the city, the God in the city, and the God who is experienced and enjoyed only in the city under the rule of the God-King. As seen in Psalm 51, repentance and confession with God's forgiveness are very crucial for us to live the life of a God-man day by day and for us to be in the reality of the Body. The issue and goal of our repenting and confessing is God's purpose--God's building, which is the church consummating in the New Jerusalem. Psalm 68 is the highest psalm, because it reveals Christ, the house, the city, and the earth. Christ builds up the house; the house spreads into the kingdom as the city; and when the kingdom comes, Christ gains the whole earth. In this psalm we can see the nine steps of God's move on the earth in Christ as the living embodiment of the Triune God. Psalm 69, a psalm of David, speaks of Christ's sufferings in a detailed way, as typified by the suffering David. We cannot participate in the afflictions that Jesus Christ suffered to accomplish redemption; however, we need to have much fellowship in Christ's sufferings for the church, that is, for the building up of the Body of Christ (cf. Phil. 3:10). In Psalm 72, a psalm of Solomon, we see that the Lord's kingdom will spread to the ends of the earth by His flowing and watering as a river. Before we can know Him as the reigning Christ, we need to know Him as the suffering Christ. Christ's reigning in resurrection follows His suffering in incarnation and human living. The Reports and Announcements section of this issue contains "Reports and Testimonies from Gospel Trips, Regional Conferences, and Blending
Author: Various Authors
Publisher: Living Stream Ministry
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 178
Get Book Here
Book Description
