This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the six messages from the Memorial Day weekend conference, which was a web-hosted video teleconference held on May 28-31, 2021. The subject of this series of messages is "Knowing the Truth, Being Absolute for the Truth, and Proclaiming the Truth in the Present Evil Age." The key statements 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 a complete record of the twelve messages in our crystallization-study of the books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth that comprised the July 2021 Semiannual Training, which was released via webcast from Anaheim, California. The Key Statements on the following page embody and summarize the crucial truths and main burdens covered in these twelve messages.The Reports and Announcements section contains "An Update concerning Europe," a "Summer 2021 Mass Distribution Update," and important information concerning upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry plus a website link to information on 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 April 16-18, 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 "Vital Factors for the Recovery of the Church Life." The ultimate goal in God's eternal economy is the building up of the church as the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem, the bride of the redeeming God. In the age of the church, there needs to be an understanding, experience, and application of various vital factors for the strengthening and full recovery of the church life. A factor is an element that actively contributes to the production of a result. In this series of messages, we will see eight vital, critical, and strategic elements that actively contribute to the recovery of the church life.
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 by webcast from Anaheim, California, as the December 2020 semiannual training on the crystallization-studies of the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. The key statements in the following section embody and summarize the crucial truths and main burdens in these twelve messages. The Reports and Announcements section contains an update concerning Europe, reports from regions across Europe, and the winter 2020 mass distribution update. 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 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.
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the final 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." God's ultimate intention is to gain a corporate God-man for His corporate manifestation. The intrinsic element of God's eternal economy is that the Triune God in humanity, the wonderful Christ as the Spirit of the glorified Jesus, is sown into God's chosen people as the seed of life, the seed of God, so that He might grow in them, live in them, develop in them, and be expressed from within them as the farm of God for the building up of the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God. The seed of life is actually God in Christ as the Spirit through His word sown into us. This seed contains everything related to God's economy, to the divine life, and to the growth, development, and function of that life. The seed of life is not only a substance, a reproductive element, or an essence but also a person--the all-inclusive Christ. The seed of life sown into us needs to grow to maturity so that we may be the kingdom of God. In resurrection Christ became a life-giving Spirit for imparting life. The life-giving Spirit is the extract, the essence, the concentrated form of the all-inclusive Christ. The totality of all that the all-inclusive Christ is as the life-giving Spirit is for our experience and enjoyment. Without the experience of Christ as the life-giving Spirit, the Lord cannot have His Body. If we never have any experience or enjoyment, we will never grow. There is always a spiritual war related to the growth in life. If the enemy cannot stop the sowing of the seed, then he will do everything he can with every believer to prevent the seed from growing to maturity. However, there is a fighting element in this seed. The only way to enter into the coming kingdom is to grow into the kingdom. Second Peter 1:5-11 reveals that our growth in life to maturity becomes an entrance into the kingdom richly supplied to us. The law of the Spirit of life is the subject of Romans 8. God's life is the highest life, and the law of this life is the highest law. The law of the Spirit of life is not a thing but a person--the processed and consummated Triune God embodied in Christ and realized as a living law in our spirit. This law of life is the spontaneous power, the natural characteristic, and the innate, automatic function of the divine life. While we remain in touch with the Lord, staying in contact with Him, the law of the Spirit of life works automatically, spontaneously, and effortlessly to dispense God as life into our being and to overcome the law of sin and of death (vv. 10, 6, 11). We activate the law of the Spirit of life by remaining in touch with the Lord. We need to cooperate with the indwelling, installed, automatic, and inner-operating God by prayer and by having a spirit of dependence, thus maintaining our fellowship with the Lord of life and the Lord of work. Romans 8 reveals that the processed Triune God as the law of the Spirit of life gives the divine life to the believers for their living. There are four laws in Romans 7 and 8. One law is outside of us, and the other three correspond to the three lives that are within us as regenerated persons. Outside of us is the law of God, the law of moral commandments, which is a portrait of God. Within us is the law of sin and of death in our flesh, the law of good in our soul, and the law of the Spirit of life in our spirit. The only way we can match and become the living portrait of God is by living according to the law of the Spirit of life in our spirit. God's desire and goal are that we live by the divine life and minister life to others for the building up of the church. The all-inclusive, indwelling Spirit is constantly transmitting this life into each one of us to build up the church, edify the saints, and minister the riches of Christ to everyone who contacts us. In Romans 8 we also see that the desire of God's heart is to have many sons for His corporate expression (v. 29). The Father sent His Son--who was born under the law and born through a woman--to redeem us out from under the law. Having redeemed us, He "sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father!'" (Gal. 4:6). Now our spirit has become a spirit of sonship. As the divine life grows within us and transforms us, it spontaneously shapes us into the form, the image, of the firstborn Son of God. We are to be conformed to the image of God's firstborn Son, Christ as the first God-man, that we may be a group of God-men who are exactly like Him. Paul's Epistle to the Romans reveals God's complete salvation in two aspects. God's judicial redemption is the procedure of God's complete salvation for the believers to participate in God's organic salvation as the purpose of the complete salvation of God. Redemption entails the forgiveness of all our sins, reconciliation, positional sanctification, and justification. God's organic salvation is the organic aspect of God's complete salvation through the life of God (Rom. 1:17b; Acts 11:18; Rom. 5:10b, 17b, 18b, 21b) as the purpose of God's salvation, accomplishing all that God wants to achieve in the believers in His economy through His divine life (Gen. 2:9; Rev. 22:14). Organic salvation entails regeneration with God's life, sanctification with God's holy nature, renewing with God's element, transformation with God's being, conformation into God's image, and glorification, which is our full sonship. Glorification sonizes our whole being, from spirit to soul to body. All the items of God's organic salvation are carried out by Christ as the life-giving Spirit in His heavenly ministry organically and subjectively. Being saved in His life is actually the process of resurrection, with the resurrection life of Christ as the element, increasingly taking place in our inner being so that we are sanctified, which is to be saturated with God's holy nature. It is in resurrection that we are renewed, we walk in newness of life, and we serve in newness of spirit (Rom. 6:4; 7:6). The experience of God's organic salvation equals reigning in Christ's life. The issue of our reigning in life, living under the ruling of the divine life, is the real and practical Body life expressed in the church life (12:1-4, 9-12, 15, 18). 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 April 1-3, 2022. The messages were provided via webcast from Anaheim, California, and the mutual fellowship, prophesying, and studying by groups were practiced locally by the various churches that participated. The general subject of this series of messages is "God's Economy in Faith." God's economy is God's household administration, which is to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen and redeemed people that He may have a house to express Himself, which house is the church, the Body of Christ. God's economy is initiated and developed in the sphere of faith (1 Tim. 1:4). Faith is the substantiation of the divine facts concerning God revealed in His Word. Faith is the unique requirement for us to contact God in His economy and the unique way for us to carry out His economy. Faith is a proclamation that we are unable to fulfill God's requirements but that God has done everything for us and that we receive all God has planned for us, all God has done for us, and all God has given to us. For this reason, as believers, we need to be persons of prayer who pray with God as our faith. The real significance of prayer is to contact God in our spirit and to absorb God Himself. A praying person will cooperate with God, work together with God, and allow God to express Himself and His desire from within him and through him, thereby enabling God to accomplish His purpose. All the saints need faith and are the household of faith. The leading ones are particularly charged to be men full of faith in order that they can infuse the saints under their care with faith so that all can experience God's economy daily and even moment by moment. The leading ones' manner of life, the way they live and conduct themselves, should be worthy of consideration and an example of faith that is worthy of imitation (Heb. 13:7). When those who take the lead have such imitable faith, they are participating in the apostolic ministry, which cooperates with Christ's heavenly ministry to shepherd the saints according to God (Acts 20:28). We live the Christian life and run the Christian race by looking away unto Jesus--the Author, the Originator, of our faith and the Perfecter, the Completer, of our faith--and by turning away from every other object to Him who is the greatest attraction in the universe. If we look away unto Him as such a wonderful and all-inclusive One, He will minister Himself as heaven, life, and strength into us, transfusing and infusing us with all that He is, so that we may be able to run the heavenly race and live the heavenly life on earth. In this way He will carry us through all the lifelong pathway of faith and lead and bring us into glory. Furthermore, our faith in Christ brings us into the life union with Christ. This faith links us to the Triune God and enables us to run the race that every saved Christian must run with endurance to win the prize. We can live the Christian life, live Christ, by this linking organ of faith. By this faith we are joined to God in Christ to participate in all that the all-inclusive Christ is, has, and has attained to, for the producing of the organic members of Christ to constitute and build up His organic Body, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the enlargement and expression of the eternal Triune God. 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 in Anaheim, California, on March 24-26, 2023. The general subject of this series of messages is "Knowing, Experiencing, and Living the All-inclusive Christ for the Genuine Church Life." God's will, which is His eternal purpose and desire in the universe, is that Christ be everything to us and be wrought into us as our life and every- thing. We need to see a heavenly vision of God's intention to make Christ everything to us, and we need to be freed from all distractions and brought back to Christ Himself so that we may know Christ, experience Christ, enjoy Christ, express Christ, and be constituted with Christ. The issue of our being brought back to Christ Himself is the genuine church life, which is Christ realized, experienced, and expressed by all the saints in a corporate way. The church life is nothing other than the all-inclusive Christ with His unsearchable riches experienced and enjoyed by us and expressed through us. The genuine church life can be realized only by the experience of Christ as everything to us in our daily life. The development of Christ into our inward being issues in the genuine church life. God's intention in His economy is to work Himself into us not only as our life but also as our person. We need to take Christ as our person for the church as the one new man, in whom Christ is all and in all. Just as the Lord lived because of the Father by taking the Father as His person, so also we should live because of the Lord by taking Him as our person. We also need to take Christ as our living for His magnification. To take Christ as our life, our living, and our person equals doing all things—including in our daily life, service in the church, prayer, and speaking—in the name of the Lord Jesus, which is our being one with Christ. Furthermore, as the Lord's people who are living in the all-inclusive Christ, we need to labor on Christ, seeking Christ and enjoying Christ in every situation, by exercising our mingled spirit so that He produces Himself in us through our labor. Christ's God-man living duplicated in His members is the reality of the Body of Christ. The reality of the Body of Christ realized through our being blended together, as typified by the meal offering, is the corporate living by the perfected God-men, who are genuine men but are not living by their life but by the life of the processed God, whose attributes have been expressed through their human virtues. We must redeem the time to enjoy Christ as the supreme preciousness of God so that we can be constituted with Him to be men of preciousness, even preciousness itself, as His personal treasure for us to become the New Jerusalem as a miraculous structure of treasure for His glory. The Report and Announcements section at the end of this issue contains "A Training Center for the Full-time Training in London" and important information concerning upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.
