Knowing Life and the Church
Message Two
The Knowledge of Life
Opening Word of the Prophesying Meeting
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light—Psa. 36:9.
And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—Gen. 2:9.
Word of Appetizer
The Old Testament speaks of creation, and the New Testament speaks of redemption. What is God’s purpose and center both in creation and redemption?
Life is the goal of God’s creation. God’s creation involves life and produces life. God brought the man that He created to the tree of life and put him in front of life.
God’s organic salvation, being saved in Christ’s life, is the goal of the process of God’s judicial redemption.
Spiritual Burden
All the beauty, power, brightness, and ability of the church come from the fact that Christ as life is her inward content; the church is the result of life, and life is the content of the church.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
Christ as life is the reality of the tree of life, which is the center of the universe.
We need to see the obstacles that God’s life encounters in man: we do not realize the darkness of our human concepts; hypocrisy; rebellion; our natural capability.
We need to see the subjective obstacles encountered by God’s life in us: whose mind, will, and emotion cannot cooperate with his spirit.
We need to see the pathway of life.
We need to see a vision of how the life of God can be lived out of us.
The Experience of Life
If the Spirit in us gives us a word or a feeling to open our mouth and praise the Lord, we should receive this word and open our mouth to praise the Lord; thus, we will have light within, and this light is life, the Spirit, Christ, and God. When we respond to this feeling and offer a prayer of praise to the Lord, we sense the satisfaction of life, the sweetness of Christ, the presence of God, and the moving of the Spirit.
Practice and Application
A Christian who is spiritual and lives before God needs to “read” three things every day: first, he needs to read the Bible; second, he needs to read his inward sense of the spirit; third, he needs to read his environment and circumstances, which are the persons, matters, and things around him.
Our work should just be the releasing of the life of the Lord, the imparting and supplying of the Lord’s life to others.
Using Key Verses to Have a Bird’s-Eye View over the Whole Outline
Key Verses (1)
And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—Gen. 2:9.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men—John 1:4.
I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman—15:1.
I. Christ as life is the reality of the tree of life, which is the center of the universe
A. Life is the goal of God’s creation.
B. God’s organic salvation, being saved in Christ’s life, is the goal of the process of God’s judicial redemption.
C. Life is God Himself in Christ as the Spirit flowing out to be enjoyed by man and to please and satisfy
God is in Christ, Christ is the Spirit, and the Spirit is life.
Life is the Lord Himself as the bread of life for us to eat.
F. Life is the light, light overcomes darkness, and light is in God’s word.
G. All the beauty, power, brightness, and ability of the church come from the fact that Christ as life is her inward content; the church is the result of life, and life is the content of the church.
Key Verses (2)
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus—Phil. 2:5.
For it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure—v. 13.
For God is my witness how I long after you all in the inward parts of Christ Jesus—1:8.
I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me…—Gal. 2:20.
We need to see the obstacles that God’s life encounters in man and the subjective obstacles encountered in us
II. The obstacles that God’s life encounters in man:
• We do not realize the darkness of our human concepts; hypocrisy; rebellion; our natural capability.
• if we want Christ’s life to be unhindered in us, we must experience the breaking of the cross and allow these obstacles to be dealt with and removed.
III. the subjective obstacles encountered by God’s life in us:
• The first subjective problem is the problem of our mind.
• The second subjective problem is the problem of our will.
• The third subjective problem is the problem of our emotion.
• We need to be broken and we daily need to be strengthened into the inner man so that Christ can make His home in our heart.
Key Verses (3)
To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death—Phil. 3:10.
Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit—John 12:24.
I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me…—Gal. 2:20.
The pathway of life; how the life of God can be lived out of us
IV. We need to see the pathway of life:
• There is life in a grain of wheat, but unless the grain falls into the ground and dies, the life within the grain will not be released.
• The way of life is the way of death; when there is the death of Christ operating in us, there is a way for the life of Christ to come out of us.
• The cross of Christ is experienced by us through the Spirit.
V. We need to see a vision of how the life of God can be lived out of us: we need to see that we have been crucified on the cross, and we must hate our self.
VI. What every church today needs most is the things of All our work and activity must come out of life.
Prophesying Topics—Twelve Topics per Week
D1
T1 The tree of life is the center of the universe (Gen. 2:7-9)
(Please explain that the whole universe is centered on this tree of life.)
T2 Life is the goal of God’s creation (John 1:1, 4, 14; 8:12; 10:10)
(Please use verses to explain that life is the incarnated Christ.)
D2
T1 The life was the light of men (John 1:4; 6:63)
(Please explain that the light is in the word of God.)
T2 The proper attitude toward the Word (John 6:63)
(What is the reason why many people listen to messages, but they do not touch God’s word.)
D3
T1 Human concepts are in darkness (cf. 2 Cor. 4:4)
(Please give an example to explain that all human concepts are in darkness.)
T2 The second problem that life encounters in us is hypocrisy (Matt. 6:2, 5; 7:5; 23:13-29)
(Please explain that a person’s spirituality is not determined by outward appearance but by how he takes care of the indwelling Christ.)
D4
T1 Christ is living in us, and He is constantly giving us an inward sense of life (Rom. 8:6; 1 John 2:27)
(Please use experience to explain that the third problem that life encounters in us is rebellion.)
T2 The fourth problem that life encounters in us is our natural capability (cf. Acts 7:22)
(Please explain that there is one solution to all these obstacles in us—we must pass through the cross.)
D5
T1 A proper Christian is one whose mind, will, and emotion cooperate with his spirit (Phil. 2:5, 13)
(Please explain what the subjective obstacles encountered by God’s life in us are.)
T2 We daily need to be strengthened into the inner man so that Christ can make His home in our heart (Eph. 3:16-17)
(Please use experience to explain that our person is truly an obstacle for the living out of God’s life.)
D6
T1 See the pathway of life (Matt. 7:13-14)
(Please explain that the way of life is the way of death.)
T2 The cross of Christ is experienced through the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 24)
(Please use experience to explain that the stronger the Holy Spirit’s work in us is, the stronger our experience of the cross will be.)
