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The Ministry of the Word, Vol. 26, No. 03 by Various Authors Pdf
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the first eight of the sixteen messages given during the fall 2021 term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is "Chapters Five through Eight of Romans--the Kernel of the Bible." These first eight messages and the subsequent eight messages (published in an upcoming issue) will focus on Romans 5 and 6. This general subject will then be continued in the messages of the spring 2022 term and will focus on Romans 7 and 8. The life and death form two contrasting lines in chapters 5 through 8, showing that man is at the center of a triangular situation between God and Satan, that is, between life and death. The tree of life and the tree of knowledge (the tree of death) issue in two lines--the line of life and the line of death--that run through the entire Bible and consummate in the book of Revelation. The line of life begins with the tree of life in Genesis 2 and issues in the New Jerusalem in Revelation 22 as the city of the water of life with the tree of life, the light of life, and the glory of life. Similarly, the line of death begins with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 2 and ends with the lake of fire in Revelation 20. The kernel of the Bible is that Christ has been revealed into us as life and that we live, have our being, and exist by Christ as the divine life. God put us into Christ with the desire that we would be transformed and conformed to the image of His Son so that we might be thoroughly one with Christ. In this way we are built up together as the living Body of Christ to contain and express Christ for the Father's glory and for our glorification in Christ. Romans 5 reveals that the result of our justification is the full enjoyment of God in Christ as our life.
The Ministry of the Word, Vol. 26, No. 02: Crystallization-study of First and Second Samuel by Various Authors Pdf
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains a complete record of the twelve messages given as the crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Samuel in the December 2021 semiannual training, which was streamed 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 announcement concerning Living Stream Ministry's digital newsletter, "Having This Ministry…," "An Update concerning Europe," and important information concerning upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry with a website link to information on similar events in Europe.
The Ministry of the Word, Vol. 26, No. 01: Living in and with the Divine Trinity by Various Authors Pdf
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the six messages from the Thanksgiving weekend conference, which was a web-hosted video teleconference held on November 25-28, 2021. The subject of this series of messages is "Living in and with the Divine Trinity." 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.
The Ministry of the Word, Vol. 26, No. 08 by Various Authors Pdf
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains Messages 17 through 24 given during the spring 2022 term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California, as the continuation of the general subject "Chapters Five through Eight of Romans--the Kernel of the Bible." The sixteen messages in this term emphasize Romans 7 and especially chapter 8. The general subject of this series of messages is derived from footnote 1 on Romans 5:14, which says that chapters 5 through 8 of Romans "can be called the kernel of the Bible." The footnote also points out that life and death form two contrasting lines through these chapters and that man is in the middle between the line of life, which represents God, and the line of death, which represents Satan. Life and death are the intrinsic essence of the kernel of the Bible. In Romans 7 and 8 we see that Paul discovered four laws--four spontaneous, automatic, effortless, and unconscious universal principles, or functions. In particular, there are three lives and four laws revealed in these chapters. The first law, the law of God, is the moral and objective law. The second law is the law of good in man's soul, especially the mind, which corresponds to the created human life and which desires to carry out the law of God. The third law is the law of sin and of death, which derives from the evil satanic life in our flesh; this law is stronger than the law of good within and thus seizes man's desire to do good and turns it into an opportunity to sin. The fourth law is the law of the Spirit of life, which is higher than and overcomes the law of sin and of death; this law derives from the uncreated divine life that is now in our regenerated human spirit. We need to see these three lives and four laws in order to experience the indwelling Christ as the law of the Spirit of life. We also need to see what the flesh is. The flesh denotes the totality of the fallen old man, our entire fallen being; man is totally flesh because the fallen being today is under the dominion of the fallen flesh. The flesh is enmity against God, the flesh is not subject to God's law, the flesh is not able to subject itself to the law of God, and the flesh can never please God. Every aspect of our flesh, whether good or evil, is an enemy of God's authority. Whatever is of the flesh is against God's throne; it will be used by Satan, the subtle one, the enemy of God, to hinder God's purpose. The flesh is the "meeting hall" and the compound of sin, death, and Satan; the flesh is a hopeless case and can never be improved. However, in His wisdom and sovereignty God uses our flesh as a compelling force that causes us to turn to our spirit. We are either in the spirit or in the flesh; there is no third place for us to be. The believer is a miniature garden of Eden--with God as the tree of life in his spirit, Satan as the tree of knowledge in his flesh, and his mind in between. In Romans 8 the mind is neutral, being between the regenerated, mingled spirit and the fallen body, the flesh. Setting the mind on the spirit is the key to death or life. Because both Satan and God are in us, our mind has become a battlefield between God and Satan. Whether we are one with Satan or one with God depends upon where we set our mind. In order to fight the battle against the enemy, we must know that the mind is the battlefield and that the way to protect and cover our mind is to turn it to the Lord all the time. The Bible requires only one thing of us--that we walk according to the mingled spirit, which is to live, move, act, behave, have our being, and do everything in the mingled spirit. While we remain in the touch with the Lord, staying in contact with Him in our spirit, the law of the Spirit of life works automatically, spontaneously, and effortlessly within us. By the working, the spreading, of the law of the Spirit of life within us, God makes us the same as He is in life, nature, and expression. We are conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God by the working of the law of the Spirit of life. 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.
The Ministry of the Word, Vol. 26, No. 10: Loving the Lord and Loving One Another for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ by Various Authors Pdf
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 October 7-9, 2022. The general subject of this series of messages is “Loving the Lord and Loving One Another for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ.”
The Ministry of the Word, Vol. 26, No. 07: Crystallization-study of First and Second Kings by Various Authors Pdf
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains a complete record of the twelve messages given as the crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Kings in the July 2022 semiannual training, held in 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 2022 Mass Distribution Update," and important information concerning upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link to information on similar events in Europe and Israel.
The Ministry of the Word, Vol. 26, No. 05: God's Economy in Faith by Various Authors Pdf
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.
The Ministry of the Word, Vol. 26, No. 09 by Witness Lee Pdf
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains Messages 25 through 32 given during the spring 2022 term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California, as the continuation of the general subject "Chapters Five through Eight of Romans--the Kernel of the Bible." The sixteen messages in this term emphasize Romans 7 and especially chapter 8. The deep divine thought in Romans is that God became man so that, in God's complete salvation, sinners may be redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified to become the sons of God, who are the same as God in life and nature, to be the members of the Body of Christ. God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and condemned sin in the flesh so that the sinners--serpentine beings, children of the devil--could be reconciled to God and justified by Him in order to receive eternal life and thus become children of God (8:3, 16). Jesus Christ our Lord, who came out of the seed of David according to the flesh, was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead (1:3-4). The firstborn Son of God, the first God-man, is the prototype for the production of the many sons, the many God-men, who, as members of the Body of Christ, are exactly the same as the firstborn Son in life, nature, and expression (8:14, 29). The prototype, the firstborn Son of God, is in our spirit as the law of the Spirit of life (v. 2). His main function as the law of the Spirit of life is to shape us, to conform us, into His image as the firstborn Son of God so that we may become His corporate expression. The law of life also functions to constitute us the members of the Body of Christ with all kinds of functions. The purpose of God's salvation is to have Christ reproduced in millions of believers so that they may become the members of His Body (12:4-5). Through God's organic salvation carried out by the divine dispensing of the Triune God as life to the tripartite man, the children of God are growing in life to become sons of God led by the Spirit. The sons of God, the many brothers of Christ as the firstborn Son of God, are the members of the Body of Christ. In order to live in the law of the Spirit of life, we need to activate this law within us. Loving the Lord with the first love is the first requirement for the law of the Spirit of life to be activated within us. We need to love the Lord with the first love, the best love, which is to give the Lord the preeminence, the first place, in all things, being constrained by His love to regard and take Him as everything in our life. To love the Lord with the first love is to have a personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual relationship with the Lord. When we contact this lovely and loving person, He will infuse us with Himself as love, and He will produce in us the love with which we can love Him. Love is the most excellent way for us to be anything or do anything for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ. Taking heed to the inner sense of the spirit is the second requirement for the law of the Spirit of life to be activated within us. The secret of our Christian life that we all must learn is found in Romans 8:6, which is the most important verse in the Bible related to our spiritual experience of Christ as the law of the Spirit of life--"the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace." To set the mind on the flesh means to take sides with the flesh, to cooperate with the flesh, and to stand with the flesh; to set the mind on the spirit is to take heed to the spirit, to take sides with the spirit, to cooperate with the spirit, and to stand with the spirit, that is, to pay attention to our spirit. We need to heed this inner sense of life and peace in the spirit. 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.
The Ministry of the Word, Vol. 26, No. 4: Chapters Five through Eight of Romans - the Kernel of the Bible (2) by Various Authors Pdf
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains Messages 9 through 16 given during the fall 2021 term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California, as the continuation of the general subject "Chapters Five through Eight of Romans--the Kernel of the Bible." The sixteen messages in this term focus on Romans 5 and 6, while future messages will focus on Romans 7 and 8. The eight messages of the April 2022 issue draw from Witness Lee's understanding of Romans 5 and 6 in his earlier ministry. The eight messages of this issue present a further understanding of Romans 5 and 6 based on the latter part of his ministry, in which Brother Lee emphasized the matters of being saved in life and reigning in life (5:10, 17). In life indicates that both being saved and reigning are related to the organic aspect of God's complete salvation, which is the fulfillment of God's salvation through the life of Christ for the believers to be transformed and to grow and mature in the life of God. Brother Lee thus began to speak about God's salvation in life in a brand new way, especially in view of the great diamond of God's eternal economy. In his earlier ministry Brother Lee spoke about our being saved in life from particular items, such as worldliness, Satan, sin, and death. In the latter part of his ministry, he saw that organic salvation is our deification, a process that includes regeneration, feeding, sanctification, renewing, transformation, building, conformation, and glorification and that results in our becoming God in life and nature but not in the Godhead. The goal of organic salvation is the building--the corporate expression of the Triune God in Christ through the church, the mingling of God with man, and the enlargement and expansion of God. The secret of all the experiences of God's organic salvation and the building of God is the Spirit with our spirit, that is, the consummated Spirit being and working together with the believers' created and regenerated spirit. Romans further reveals that the believers need to reign in life over all things for the Body life (cf. 8:17, 29; 12:5). By experiencing grace upon grace, the believers reign in life not only over sin, death, and Satan but even over all things. To reign in life is to conquer, subdue, and rule over Satan, the world, sin, the flesh, ourselves, and all the environmental circumstances and to subdue all kinds of insubordination. 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 (16:1, 4-5, 16). 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.
The Ministry of the Word, Vol. 26, No. 6: Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life by Various Authors Pdf
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the six messages from the Memorial Day weekend conference held in Anaheim, California, on May 27-30, 2022. The general subject of this series of messages is "Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ as the Tree of Life." 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.
The Ministry of the Word, Vol. 28, No. 03: The Crucial Points of the Truth in Paul’s Epistles—First Corinthians by Various Authors Pdf
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the first eight of the sixteen messages given during the fall 2023 term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is “The Crucial Points of the Truth in Paul’s Epistles—First Corinthians.”
The Ministry of the Word, Vol. 27, No. 03 by Various Authors Pdf
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the first eight of the sixteen messages given during the fall 2022 term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is "Living in the Reality of the Body of Christ by Learning Christ as the Reality Is in Jesus." The phrase learning Christ as the reality is in Jesus is based on Ephesians 4:20-21. The reality...in Jesus refers to the actual condition of the life of Jesus that is recorded in the four Gospels. The actual condition of the life of Christ, who is God, is His living God in the four Gospels. Everything He did was in God, with God, by God, for God, through God, and to God. God was in His living, and He was one with God.The desire of God's heart is that the reality of the Body of Christ, which is "the reality…in Jesus" (Eph. 4:21), would be duplicated in the many members of Christ's Body by the Spirit of reality to become the reality of the Body of Christ, the highest peak in God's economy. He wants His God-man living seen in the four Gospels to be reproduced in us. To learn Christ means that we learn Christ experientially, enjoyably, and subjectively. The One we are enjoying is the Lord as the Spirit of reality in our spirit. The Spirit guides us into all the realities of God's eternal economy. The Lord wants the actual condition of His life to be reproduced in each one of us as members of the Body individually as well as in us all corporately. The corporate living of the perfected God-man, the reality of the Body of Christ, is the reality that is in Jesus.Every detail, aspect, and feature of the New Jerusalem is actually the reality in Jesus in its consummate state. Thus, Christ wants the life that He lived in the four Gospels duplicated and reproduced in us until we become the New Jerusalem. The Lord's recovery is to build up Zion as the reality of the Body of Christ by living out and working out the New Jerusalem. To live out the New Jerusalem is to become the New Jerusalem, and to work out the New Jerusalem is to build the New Jerusalem.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.
The Ministry of the Word, Vol. 27, No. 05: Knowing, Experiencing, and Living the All-inclusive Christ for the Genuine Church Life by Various Authors Pdf
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.
The Ministry, Vol. 01, No. 03 by Various Authors Pdf
In this issue of The Ministry we conclude our series of messages entitled “Vision in God’s Economy,” comprising Brother Lee’s fellowship with the elders and co-workers in Taipei in March 1986. The present vision and practice in the Lord’s recovery are the culmination of all the visions, which God has given to men in His holy Word. Our vision and practice today are according to God’s New Testament economy to build up the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem. This is the vision, which matches the age, and it is the basis of the one accord among us. Six other messages in this issue are taken from the International Conference of Co-workers and Elders in September 1997. The subject of this conference was “Vital Factors in the Lord’s Present Move.” These vital factors are related to the apostles’ teaching, the Body of Christ, and the elders’ shepherding of the church. Caring diligently for these factors ensures that in our living and laboring we are kept in the central lane of the divine revelation with one way for one goal—the goal of God’s eternal economy—which we carry out by shepherding in cooperation with Christ’s heavenly ministry. These messages were spoken by twelve brothers in a blending way, and they include excerpts from Brother Lee’s written ministry. In this issue we report on our endeavor to acquire an enlarged campus for the spread of the work of God’s New Testament ministry in the Lord’s recovery. We also provide fellowship concerning the Lord’s move on the earth through letters from Ghana, France, Poland, and Romania. Lastly, we provide a report concerning the translation of the written ministry into the Spanish language.
The Ministry of the Word, Vol. 21, No. 2 by Various Authors Pdf
This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the nine messages given during the International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones in Gold Coast, Australia, on October 6 through 8, 2016. The general subject of this series of messages is "Returning to the Orthodoxy of the Church." We urgently need to come back to the orthodoxy of the apostolic church. The orthodoxy of the church is the church according to the teaching and practice of the apostles. What is orthodox is the New Testament apostles' vision, revelation, teaching, practice, direction, and ministry. In the mid 1940s Watchman Nee gave the messages published in The Orthodoxy of the Church. In the preface to the English edition, Witness Lee writes, "What we urgently need today is to come back to the orthodoxy of the beginning and stand firmly on the ground of locality" (The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 47, p. 6). In The Orthodoxy of the Church Watchman Nee is one with the Lord to identify what is not normal and what is degradation; he also identifies what is the orthodoxy of the church--the apostolic church as revealed in the New Testament. In this issue we will see from Revelation 2 and 3 that only the church in Philadelphia returned to the orthodoxy of the church. We may already have some knowledge about this subject. However, we need to be in fear and trembling lest we would have confidence in our knowledge and understanding and think that there is nothing new to see, gain, or experience. To have such an attitude is to have the spirit of the Laodiceans, who boasted and said, "I am wealthy and have become rich and have need of nothing" (Rev. 3:17). In principle, the elders and responsible brothers are the messengers representing the church, are responsible for the church, have a heart to care for the church, and recognize that they are under the Lord's direct authority concerning the church. The Spirit speaks to the churches; the Son of Man, however, speaks to the messengers. The entire book of Revelation is the revelation of the person of Jesus Christ and not the revelation of locusts, beasts, or so many other things. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ, and concerning Jesus Christ. If we [4] are to return to the orthodoxy of the church, we cannot merely return to teachings and practices; we must return by way of the person, Jesus Christ, the One who knows the situation of every local church and of every messenger of every local church. If we have an increasing vision of what is most on God's heart for His eternal satisfaction--the bride, the wife, the New Jerusalem--we will be beside ourselves in the Spirit. In the first three chapters of Revelation we can see how the Lord cares for the churches. Even in His awesome majesty, He must judge them in order to gain them. In the final two chapters the Lord Jesus sent His angel for the particular purpose that all His dear churches would see the final vision (cf. 22:16). From the beginning to the end, the Lord cares for the churches. This word should at least give us a heart to see what John saw and to treasure and care for it. The Reports and Announcements section at the end of this issue contains the winter 2016 mass distribution update, a list of upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry, and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.