At the time of regeneration, all believers receive the divine life and are begotten as children of God. Yet, this life most grow and it does so by regulation unto maturity and function. This regulation comes from revelation and issues in obedience. This word is crucial for our progress and training in the divine life for our maturity and function in our living and service to God.
The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1970, volume 3, contains messages given by Brother Witness Lee from October 18 through December 1970. From the middle of October until the end of the year, Brother Lee was in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The contents of this volume are divided into eight sections, as follows: 1. Twenty-four messages given in Hong Kong in October and November. These messages were edited from audio recordings together with the notes taken by Brother K. H. Weigh and were previously published in Chinese as a book entitled The Church Life in Spirit and Truthfulness. They are included in this volume under the same title. 2. Eight messages given in Hong Kong on October 18 through November 14. They were compiled and edited from audio recordings together with the notes of Brother K. H. Weigh and are included in this volume under the title The Proper Attitude When Facing Turmoils. 3. A message given in Hong Kong on an unknown date in 1970. In 1971 this message was published in Chinese with some added material by the Taiwan Gospel Book Room under the title Concerning the Person of Christ. Later, a booklet by the same title was published in English. The English edition is included in this volume. 4. A message given in Hong Kong on an unknown date in 1970. It was previously published in Chinese under the title Concerning the Triune God--the Father, the Son, and the Spirit and was later published in English under the same title. The English edition of the booklet is included in this section. 5. Seventeen messages given in Taipei and Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in November and December. The first fourteen messages were originally published in Chinese in The Ministry of the Word magazine in January through August 1971. The entire series of seventeen messages was published in Chinese and English as a book entitled Being Delivered from Religious Rituals and Walking according to the Spirit and is included in this volume under the same title. 6. Four messages given in Taichung, Taiwan, on December 9 through 11. These messages were previously published in Chinese and English under the title The Ministry of the New Covenant and the Spirit. The contents of the published book are included in this volume. 7. Fourteen messages given in Taipei and Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in December. They were originally published in Chinese in The Ministry of the Word magazine in March through December 1971 and were also published as a book entitled Taking Christ as Our Person for the Church Life. They were subsequently published in English in a book under the same title and are included in this volume. 8. Three messages given in Taipei, Taiwan, from December 3 through 5. These messages are included in this volume under the title An Explanation of a Few Truths.
This book traces "the New Testament service in the Gospel of Matthew from its beginning with the conceiving of Christ of the Holy Spirit, to finding Christ by following the heavenly living star, on to testifying of Christ in a living way, and then to the matter of following Christ. Finally, [it considers] the matter of life and the matter of work in the New Testament service according to the parables of the ten virgins and of the talents. In all these aspects, it is a governing principle in our service in the church life that the New Testament service is a service of coordination in every step to fulfill the Lord's purpose."
When God created man, He placed him before two trees: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. In warning man to avoid the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God indicated His desire for man to eat of the tree of life, signifying that man should receive God as his life supply. Witness Lee unveils in The Tree of Life that God is not looking for well-behaved Christians; He is looking for those who will experience and enjoy Christ as the reality of the tree of life.
"The entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, shows us that God is our enjoyment. God also has His fullness (Eph. 3:19b). He is full for us to enjoy. His fullness is the expression of the riches of Christ, and the reality of Christ is in the Spirit. We know this by the revelation of the Word. The riches of Christ are revealed in the Word. Furthermore, we can realize God as our enjoyment in our spirit (John 4:24)."
This book presents a vision of Christ and the church. It then goes on the emphasize the need to experience this Christ as the Spirit in our spirit and to practice the church life on the ground of oneness.
Two things are the key to the real experience of [the divine] life: our flesh and our spirit. On the negative side, we have to know the flesh. On the positive side, we have to experience our human spirit, which has been mingled with the divine Spirit (Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17).
The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1987, volume 3, contains messages given by Brother Witness Lee from August 12, 1987, through January 2, 1988. After the first week in July 1987, Brother Lee traveled to Taipei, Taiwan, from Anaheim, California. He remained in Taipei until the first week in December, after which he returned to Anaheim briefly before going on to Irving, Texas. He remained in Irving through the remainder of 1987 and the first few days of 1988. The contents of this volume are divided into seven sections, as follows: 1. Three messages given in Taipei, Taiwan, on August 12 through November 4, 1987. These messages are included in this volume under the title Being Delivered from Organization and Living in the Spirit to Have the Living of the New Way. 2. Fourteen messages given in Taipei, Taiwan, on August 20 through November 29, 1987. They were previously published in a book entitled Being Up to Date for the Rebuilding of the Temple and are included in this volume under the same title. 3. Two messages given in Taipei, Taiwan, on August 23 and 30, 1987. They are included in this volume under the title Fellowship concerning the Gospel in the Academic and Medical Fields. 4. Seven messages given in Taipei, Taiwan, on November 11 through December 3, 1987. They are included in this volume under the title An Evaluation of the Change of System in the Church Life. 5. A message given in Anaheim, California, on December 14, 1987. This message is included in this volume under the title Fellowship concerning the Practice of the New Way. 6. A message given in Chinese in Irving, Texas, on December 19, 1987. This message is included in this volume under the title The Secret to the Success of the New Way Being the Spirit. 7. Twenty-nine messages given in Irving, Texas, on December 23, 1987, through January 2, 1988. These messages were previously published in a book entitled The Scriptural Way to Meet and to Serve for the Building Up of the Body of Christ and are included in this volume under the same title.
