2016 ITEROF Message Eight – Prophesying Reference

Returning to the Orthodoxy of the Church

Message Eight

The Church in Laodicea

Opening Word of the Prophesying Meeting

Reading the verses in each day.

Reading the main points in the outlines.

Pray-reading the verses:

I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am about to spew you out of My mouth. Because you say, I am wealthy and have become rich and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked—Rev. 3:15-17.

I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed and that the shame of your nakedness may not be manifested, and eyesalve to anoint your eyes that you may see—v. 18.

Word of Appetizer

How does the “the church in Laodicea” been produced?

The church in Laodicea is the degraded church. In Greek Laodicea means “opinion, judgment, of the people” or “of the laymen”. As a sign, the church in Laodicea prefigures the degraded recovered church.

Laodicea is the deformed and distorted Philadelphia. When brotherly love is gone, immediately, it becomes the people’s opinion. This is the meaning of Laodicea.

Spiritual Burden

Once Philadelphia fails, she becomes Laodicea; In the eyes of the Lord, the characteristics of Laodicea are lukewarmness and spiritual pride; If we want to continue in the way of Philadelphia and avoid becoming Laodicea, we have to remember to humble ourselves before God.

We need to overcome the lukewarmness and pride of the degraded recovered church, to pay the price to buy the needed items (gold refined by fire, white garments, eyesalve), and to open the door so that the Lord can come in.

Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting

The Revelation of the Truth

In Greek Laodicea means “opinion, judgment, of the people” or “of the laymen”.

In the eyes of the Lord, the characteristics of Laodicea are lukewarmness and spiritual pride; the degraded recovered church has the following five characteristics: wretched、miserable、poor、blind、naked.

He who overcomes, to him I will give to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne.

The Experience of Life

　“eyesalve to anoint your eyes that you may see”. Seeing God transforms us, because in seeing God we receive His element into us, and our old element is discharged; this metabolic process is transformation. The more we see God, know God, and love God, the more we abhor ourselves and the more we deny ourselves.

Practice and Application

Those who follow the Lord have no pride. May the Lord be merciful to us; this is a warning to all of us: we must not be proud in our speaking.

Using Key Verses to Have a Bird’s-Eye View over the Whole Outline

Key Verses (1)

And to the messenger of the church in Laodicea write; …I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot; So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am about to spew you out of My mouth; Because you say, I am wealthy and have become rich and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked—Rev. 3:14-17.

Laodicea—“opinion, judgment, of the people” or “of the laymen”;
Laodicea is a distorted Philadelphia;
The characteristics of Laodicea are lukewarmness and spiritual pride

• In Greek Laodicea means “opinion, judgment, of the people” or “of the laymen” ; Laodicea is a distorted Philadelphia.

•In the eyes of the Lord, the characteristics of Laodicea are lukewarmness and spiritual pride.

•If we want to continue in the way of Philadelphia and avoid becoming Laodicea, we have to remember to humble ourselves before God.

•In the eyes of the Lord, the degraded recovered church has the following five characteristics: wretched、miserable、poor、blind、naked.

Key Verses (2)

I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed and that the shame of your nakedness may not be manifested, and eyesalve to anoint your eyes that you may see. As many as I love I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore and repent—Rev. 3:18-19.

III. Buy the gold refined by fire, buy the white garments, buy the eyesalve

•In the Bible our operating, working faith is likened to gold, and the divine nature of God, which is the divinity of Christ, is typified by gold; by faith we partake of the divine nature of God.

• White garments signify conduct that can be approved by the Lord; such conduct is the Lord Himself lived out of the church, and it is required by the degraded recovered church for the covering of her nakedness.

• The eyesalve needed to anoint their eyes must be the anointing Spirit; the degraded recovered church needs this kind of eyesalve for the healing of her blindness.

Key Verses (3)

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me. He who overcomes, to him I will give to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches—Rev. 3:20-22.

Anyone hears My voice and opens the door; dine with him and he with Me
He who overcomes, to him I will give to sit with Me on My throne

IV Anyone hears My voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me; The door is the door of the church, but the door is opened by individual believers.

V. “He who overcomes, to him I will give to sit with Me on My throne, …He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

• To sit with the Lord on His throne will be a prize to the overcomer.

•If the lukewarm church forgets all her dead knowledge and listens to the speaking of the living and burning Spirit, she will be delivered from her degraded condition.

Prophesying Topics—Twelve Topics per Week

T1 In Greek Laodicea means “opinion, judgment, of the people” or “of the laymen” (Rev. 3:14)

(Please explain that the church in Laodicea prefigures the degraded recovered church.)

T2 Philadelphia has fallen, it becomes Laodicea (Rev. 3:14)

(Please explain that when brotherly love is lost, only the opinions of men were left.)

T1 The characteristics of Laodicea are lukewarmness and spiritual pride (Rev. 3:15-17)

(How can we overcome the degradation of the church?)

T2 We have nothing we have not received (1 Cor. 4:7)

(Please explain that the Laodicea remembers its former glory but forgets its present condition before God.)

T1 The God-ordained pathway for the church is the way of (Rev. 3:8)

(What is the characteristic of the church in Philadelphia?)

T2 Those who follow the Lord have no proud (1 Pet. 5:5)

(Please explain that when we take the way of Philadelphia, the greatest temptation is to become proud.)

T1 The characteristics of the degraded recovered church (Rev. 3:17) (Refers to Outlines II. G)

(Please explain what the five characteristics that the degraded recovered church has in the eyes of the Lord are.)

T2 The Lord counsels the church in Laodicea to buy “gold refined by fire” (Rev. 3:18)

(Please explain that Gold signifies two things: God’s divine nature and the living faith.)

T1 The Lord counseled the church in Laodicea to buy “white garments” that they “may be clothed and that the shame” of their “nakedness may not be manifested” (Rev. 3:18)

(Please explain that the white garments here are Christ as our subjective righteousness, Christ lived out of our being.)

T2 The Lord counsels the church in Laodicea to buy from Him eyesalve to anoint their eyes that they may see (Rev. 3:18)

(Please explain that the gold, the garment, and the eyesalve are all Christ. Our need is Christ.)

T1 The Lord is standing outside the degraded church, knocking at her door (Rev. 3:20)

(Please explain that the door is the door of the church, but the door is opened by individual believers.)

T2 The seven epistles in Revelation were written as one book to the seven churches (Rev. 1:4, 11)

(Please explain that each epistle was written to all the churches, and it indicates that all the local churches should be the same in positive things, but not in negative things.)