A Timely Word Concerning the World Situation and the Lord’s Recovery
Message Five
Answering God’s Call to Be His Dispensational Instrument, His Overcomers, to Turn the Age
Opening Word of the Prophesying Meeting
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Rev. 12:5 And she brought forth a son, a man-child, who is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.
Eph. 5:15-16 Look therefore carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Word of Appetizer
When God changes His attitude toward a certain matter, He makes a dispensational move; how can He bring this age to a close and bring in another?
Every time God wants to make a dispensational move, an age-turning move, He must obtain His dispensational instrument, which are His overcomers; this is what God is doing today. The rapture of the man-child brings an end to the church age and introduces the kingdom age. The man-child enables God to move; of all the dispensational moves, the man-child is the greatest because it removes man’s power and the devil’s power, and it brings in the kingdom.
Spiritual Burden
Today the way to become vitalized is to answer the Lord’s call to be an overcomer, to be His dispensational instrument to turn the age; an overcomer is a vital person, and a vital person (one who is living and active) is a praying person. In order to be today’s overcomers as God’s dispensational instrument who turn the age, we must redeem the time.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
Every time God wants to make a dispensational move, an age-turning move, He must obtain His dispensational instrument; we must be those who have dispensational value to God.
Daniel had companions with whom he was absolutely consecrated to God and separated unto God from an age that follows Satan. Daniel joined himself to God’s desire through God’s Word.
Daniel was a man of prayer with an excellent spirit, a man living under God’s rule in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens, the ruling of the heavens.
Daniel was a self-sacrificing person with the Spirit of martyrdom.
In order to be today’s overcomers as God’s dispensational instrument who turn the age, we must redeem the time. As today’s overcomers, we should be like the children of Issachar, “men who understood the times that they might know what Israel should do”
The Experience of Life
Of the days that the Lord has ordained for us, perhaps yesterday should have been the greatest day of our life, but we may have lived yesterday in an ordinary way; this is what it means to miss the opportunity; there is never a day without God’s arrangement for us. Many times we have come short of God’s will and have acted foolishly; we have not been faithful to live Christ, to grow Christ, to express Christ and to propagate Christ in every respect for the building up of His Body. However, thank the Lord for His word of comfort, the words of Joel 2:25—the years that the locust has eaten will be restored to us; if we waste our days, ten years may be equal to one day, but if we redeem the time, one day may equal ten years.
Practical Application
In order to be today’s overcomers as God’s dispensational instrument who turn the age, we must redeem the time; the people of God will open up new horizons; the more we know god’s will, the more we will seize the opportunities; those who know God will never live in a habitual way day after day.
We need to answer God’s call to be overcomers; an overcomer is a vital person, and a vital person (one who is living and active) is a praying person. If we are going to be vitalized, we need to have close, intimate, and thorough fellowship with the Lord and with the seeking saints; we need the Lord to lead us to some companions, with whom we can labor, just as Daniel had three companions.
Using Key Verses to Have a Bird’s-Eye View over the Whole Outline
Key Verses (1)
Rev. 12:5 And she brought forth a son, a man-child, who is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.
Dan. 1:8a But Daniel set his heart not to defile himself with the king’s choice provision and with the wine that the king drank…
I. Every time God wants to make a dispensational move, an age-turning move, He must obtain His dispensational instrument; we must be those who have dispensational value to God.
II. Daniel had companions with whom he was absolutely consecrated to God and separated unto God from an age that follows Satan.
- This is a special time, so there is the need of special Christians to do a special work.
- The principle of the Lord’s recovery is seen with “Daniel and his companions” were absolutely one with God in their victory over Satan’s devices; they were men to turned the age of the captivity of God’s people to the age of their return to the land of Immanuel for the building of God’s house and God’s city for God’s expression and authority.
- The Lord needs to raise up men who turn the age for the recovery of God’s expression and authority; Daniel and his companions truly allowed God to be expressed through them and were truly under God’s authority.
- All those who are used by God to turn the age must be Nazarites—voluntarily consecrated ones who are sanctified absolutely and ultimately to God.
- Although Daniel and his companions were still very young, they stood up as an anti-testimony, similar to the way that Antipas did in the church in Pergamos.
Key Verses (2)
Dan. 9:2-3 In the first year of (Darius’s) reign I, Daniel, understood by means of the Scriptures the number of the years, which came as the word of Jehovah to Jeremiah the prophet, for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, that is, seventy years. So I set my face towards the Lord God to seek Him in prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
Dan. 6:10 Now when Daniel came to know that the writing had been signed, he went to his house (in his upper room he had windows open toward Jerusalem) and three times daily he knelt on his knees and prayed and gave thanks before his God, because he had always done so previously.
III. Daniel joined himself to God’s desire through God’s Word
IV. Daniel was a man of prayer with an excellent spirit, a man living under God’s rule in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens, the ruling of the heavens
V. Daniel was a self-sacrificing person with the spirit of martyrdom
- Daniel was not only a person who read God’s Word regularly but also a person who was joined to God’s Word; we must read God’s Word in a spirit and atmosphere of prayer and touch God’s desire from His word; then we must immediately join ourselves to that desire; the Bible should affect our living, and we should be joined to the Bible.
- The center of Daniel 6 is man’s prayer for the carrying out of God’s economy; the highest expression of a man who cooperates with God is in prayer; God carries out His economy on the earth through His faithful channels of prayer; prayer is the lifeline in the Lord’s recovery; the more Satan tries to frustrate our prayer, the more we should pray.
- Daniel’s companions had a true spirit of martyrdom; they stood for the Lord as the unique God and against idol worship at the cost of their lives, being thrown at the command of Nebuchadnezzar into a blazing furnace.
Key Verses (3)
Eph. 5:15-16 Look therefore carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Col. 4:5 Walk in wisdom toward those who are without, redeeming the time.
Dan. 11:32 ….But the people who know their God will show strength and take action.
1 Ch. 12:32a And of the children of Issachar, men who understood the times that they might know what Israel should do, the heads of them were two hundred…
VI. In order to be today’s overcomers as God’s dispensational instrument who turn the age, we must redeem the time
VII. Today the way to become vitalized is to answer the Lord’s call to be an overcomer; an overcomer is a vital person, and a vital person (one who is living and active) is a praying person.
VIII. As today’s overcomers, we should be like the children of Issachar, “men who understood the times that they might know what Israel should do”
- One could translate the word time in these passages as redeeming the “opportunity”; we who are learning to serve the Lord must not let the Head have a sense that we are dull to His direction and numb to His leading; we need to allow the Lord to train our spiritual sense and our spiritual sight to sense the opportunities whenever they come and make the most of them.
- If we are going to be vitalized, we need to have close, intimate, and thorough fellowship with the Lord and with the seeking saints; we need the Lord to lead us to some companions, with whom we can labor, just as Daniel had three companions; within today’s church life, we must be the Lord’s overcomers.
- As today’s overcomers, we should be like the children of Issachar, “men who understood the times that they might know what Israel should do”; today we should truly consecrate ourselves to answer God’s demands on behalf of the church so that God may have a way to come in and to turn this age of procedures into the age of His heart’s desire.
Prophesying Topics—Twelve Topics per Week
D1
T1 We must be those who have dispensational value to God (Rev. 12:5-11)
(Please illustrate that every time God wants to make a dispensational move, an age-turning move, He must obtain His dispensational instrument.)
T2 Of all the dispensational moves, the man-child is the greatest (Rev. 12:5)
(Please illustrate that this is a special time, so there is the need of special Christians to do a special work.)
D2
T1 Daniel had companions with whom he was absolutely consecrated to God (Dan. 1:4-8)
(Please illustrate that all those who are used by God to turn the age must be Nazarites.)
T2 The first characteristic of Daniel was that he was a separated person (Dan. 1:4-8)
(Please illustrate that Daniel and his three friends, had a clear separation from others on those matters.)
D3
T1 The second characteristic of Daniel was that he was a person who was joined to God’s Word. (Dan. 9:1-4)
(Please illustrate that which ever point he read, he joined himself to that point.)
T2 Daniel had a third characteristic. He was a man who was always praying. (Dan. 11:32b)
(Please illustrate that there is no other way to bring God’s economy into fullness and into fulfillment except by prayer.)
D4
T1 One could translate the word time as redeeming the “opportunity: (Eph. 5:15-16)
(Please illustrate what is missing opportunities.)
T2 “Opportunity” is something that is found in time. Every day the Lord gives us opportunities. (Col. 4:5)
(Please illustrate that in order to not miss the opportunities, we need spiritual training and spiritual sensitivity.)
D5
T1 Most of God’s will lies in the opportunities He has given us. (Dan. 11:32b)
(Please illustrate that the more we know God’s will, the more we will seize the opportunities.)
T2 God will restore to us the years that the swarming locust has eaten. (Joel 2:25, Psa. 90:12, 84:10)
(Please illustrate how God will restore to us the years that the swarming locust has eaten)
D6
T1 We have to make a resolution to be the overcomers, the vitalized ones. (Judg. 5:15, Psa. 119:88)
(Please illustrate that a vital person, an overcomer, is a praying person.)
T2 We need to get companions with whom we can labor. (Dan. 1:6)
(Please illustrate with experience how the Lord led you to someone, making this one your companion in fellowship.)
