The Direction of the Lord’s Move Today
Message Six
To Bring In the Kingdom of God (2)
The Exercise of the Kingdom for the Building Up of the
Church
Opening Word of the Prophesying Meeting
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
…and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it—Matt. 16:18.
If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his soul-life shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it—vv. 24-25.
Word of Appetizer
For the building up of the church, What are the three keys that we should exercise to shut up of the gates of Hades?
The first key is denying the self; the second key is taking up the cross; the third key is losing the soul-life; every day we need to exercise these keys.
Spiritual Burden
The building up of the church depends on the shutting up of the gates of Hades through the exercise of three keys: we need to learn to exercise the key of denying the self; we need to learn to exercise the key of taking up the cross; and we need to learn to exercise the key of losing the soul-life.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
In Matthew 16 the way to build up the church and the enemy of the building are revealed; Christ, the Son of the living God, builds the church on Himself as the rock, with stones such as Peter, a transformed person; The gates of Hades, Satan’s
authority or power of darkness, attack the church to frustrate the Lord from building up the church.
The building up of the church depends on the shutting up of the gates of Hades through the exercise of three keys (denying the self; taking up the cross; losing the soul-life).
The Experience of Life
The self is the soul declaring independence from God; when we are dependent, the self is gone, and instead of the self, we have the Lord’s presence and are full of peace.
If we exercise the key of denying the self to lock up the self, it would be impossible for us to be offended; blessed are those who are not offended.
Practice and Application
We need to learn to exercise the key of denying the self to lock up the self in every situation; Whether a situation is for you or against you, whether the brothers love you or hate you, you must lock up the self.
we need to be willing to lose all our present soulish enjoyment for the Lord’s sake, for the sake of the church, and for the sake of all the saints, others will be nourished by us and will be built up through us.
Using Key Verses to Have a Bird’s-Eye View over the Whole Outline
Key Verses (1)
And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in the heavens. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall Jesus answered not prevail against it—Matt. 16:16-18.
I. In Matthew 16 the way to build up the church and the enemy of the building are revealed
• Christ, the Son of the living God, builds the church on Himself as the rock, with stones such as Peter, a transformed person.
• The gates of Hades, Satan’s authority or power of darkness, attack the church to frustrate the Lord from building up the church.
• In order to build the church, the Lord had to pass through death and enter into resurrection; The church exists and is built up only in the realm of resurrection through crucifixion.
• Peter, with a good heart, rebuked the Lord and tried to prevent the Lord from going to Jerusalem to be crucified.
Key Verses (2)
But He turned and said to Peter, Get behind Me,
Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but
on the things of men. Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself…—Matt. 16:23-24.
Doing nothing by way of selfish ambition nor by way of vainglory, but in lowliness of mind considering one another more excellent than yourselves—Phil. 2:3.
II. The building up of the church depends on the shutting up of the gates of Hades through the
exercise of three keys (1) denying the self
We need to learn to exercise the key of denying the self:
• When the mind, the thought, of Satan was injected into the human soul, the human soul became the self, the embodiment of Satan.
• The self is the soul declaring independence from God.
• Some expressions of the self: ambition, pride, and selfexaltation, self-righteousness, self-justification, and exposing, criticizing, and condemning others.
• If we exercise the key of denying the self to lock up the self, it would be impossible for us to be offended; blessed are those who are not offended.
•We need to learn to exercise the key of denying the self to lock up the self in every situation.
Key Verses (3)
Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his soul-life shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it. For what shall a man be profited if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soullife? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul-life?—Matt. 16:24-26.
The building up of the church depends on the shutting up of the gates of Hades through the exercise of three keys (2) taking up the cross, losing the soul-life
We need to learn to exercise the key of taking up the cross:
• To take up the cross simply means to take up the will of God.
• We are not forced to bear the cross but that we willingly take it up.
• We also need to keep our old man under the termination of the cross day by day.
We need to learn to exercise the key of losing the soul-life:
• To save the soul-life is to please the self by allowing the soul to have its enjoyment; to lose the soul-life is to lose the enjoyment of the soul.
•If we are willing to lose all our present soulish enjoyment for the Lord’s sake, for the sake of the church, and for the sake of all the saints, others will be nourished by us and will be built up through us.
Prophesying Topics—Twelve Topics per Week
D1
T1 The gates of hades, Satan’s authority of darkness (Matt. 16:18)
(Please explain that Satan has many gates, but we have the keys.)
T2 The self, the soul, and the mind are the main gates through which Satan comes forth (Matt. 16:24-26)
(Please use your experience to explain what the three keys we need to use to close the gates of hades day by day are.)
D2
T1 God created a body for man, but He did not create the flesh (Rom. 6:12, 14)
(Please explain that the flesh is the created body corrupted by sin, the nature of Satan.)
T2 Our mind is the expression of our self, and our self is the embodiment of our soul-life. (Matt. 16:23-25)
(Please explain that three terms in Matthew 16:23-25 are related to one another: mind, himself, and soul-life.)
D3
T1 The self is the soul being independent of God (Matt. 7:21-23)
(Please explain that the Lord does not have regard for what we do; rather, He has regard for our dependence on Him.)
T2 We should be dependent on God and also on the Body (Exo. 17:11-13; Acts 9:25)
(Please use personal experience to explain that the Lord and the Body are one; if we are dependent on the Body, we are also dependent on the Lord.)
D4
T1 There should be nothing of the self in the church service (Phil. 2:3; Gal. 6:12)
(Please use examples to explain some expressions of the self and share how you learn to exercise the key of denying the self to lock up the self.)
T2 It is a very serious matter to be offended (Matt. 18:6-9)
(Please explain what the possible reason we are offended in the church life is.)
D5
T1 To take up the cross simply means to take up the will of God (Matt. 26:39; 16:24)
(Please use an example to explain that we are not forced to bear the cross but that we willingly take it up.)
T2 Taking up our cross and carrying our cross (Matt. 16:24; Luke 14:27)
(Please explain that carrying our cross is keeping our old man under the termination of the cross day by day.)
D6
T1 To lose the soul-life is to lose the enjoyment of the soul (Matt. 16:25-26; Heb. 12:2)
(Please use personal experience to explain that apparently the losing of the soul is a suffering, but actually it is a real joy.)
T2 The losing of the soul-life actually transforms the soul (Heb. 10:39)
(Please explain that although we have been saved in our spirit, we still need the salvation of our soul.)
