Meeting God’s Need and Present Needs
in the Lord’s Recovery
Message Five
Prayer to Absorb God and to Express God
by Praying to God as a Friend
So That We Can Co-work with God
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Rom. 6:4 We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead…, so also we might walk in newness of life.
Rom. 7:6 But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so that we serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of letter.
2 Cor. 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
Word of Appetizer
As believers in Christ, we have been made a new creation; why do we need to be renewed in our inner man day by day?
In the sense of being in Christ, we are a new creation, but in actuality in our daily life, we are not that new because we do not yet have Christ as the only One who occupies us, fills us, and is our life, nature, appearance, and expression; we have been regenerated, but still there is a mixture in our daily living because our living is partly the new creation and even more the old creation; although our spirit has been regenerated, our soul with its faculties of mind, will, and emotion remains in the old creation and needs to be renewed.
Spiritual Burden
Our living should be in newness of life, and our service should be in newness of spirit; newness of life issues from our being identified with Christ’s resurrection and is for our walk in our daily life; newness of spirit issues from our being discharged from the law and being joined to the resurrected Christ and is for our service to God.
The Christian life is a life of being renewed; we need to be renewed in our inner man day by day;in our Christian life for God’s purpose, we need to pass through the process of renewing—a process that involves suffering.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
“He who sits on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new”; as believers in Christ, we have been made a new creation—a person regenerated with the life of God and living in the inner man, not in the outer man.
As a new creation in Christ Jesus, we need to walk in newness of life.
As a new creation in Christ Jesus, we need to serve in newness of spirit.
The Christian life is a life of being renewed; we need to be renewed in our inner man day by day.
The Experience of Life
Our outer man is being consumed, but our inner man is being renewed day by day; the renewing of the inner man takes place as the inner man is nourished with the fresh supply of the resurrection life of Christ; as our outer man is being consumed by the killing work of death, our inner man—our regenerated spirit with our inward parts—is being metabolically renewed day by day with the supply of resurrection life.
Practice and Application
Our living should be in newness of life, and our service should be in newness of spirit; like Paul, we should serve God in our regenerated spirit by the indwelling Christ, the life-giving Spirit, not in our soul by the power and ability of the soul.
We need to experience and enjoy the renewing capacity in the resurrection life of Christ so that we may be renewed in our inner man day by day.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1: To walk in newness of life means to live in the realm of resurrection (Rom. 6:4).
(Please explain that newness of life is closely related to the life-giving Spirit, who is Christ Himself in His resurrection.)
T2: To live a life in resurrection is based upon the all-inclusive death of Christ (Rom. 6:6; Eph. 2:6).
(Please explain according to your own experiences that if we are being saved in His life, then we are walking in newness of life.)
Day 2
T1: Both newness of life and newness of spirit are related to the Spirit (Rom. 6:4; Eph. 2:6).
(Please explain that we have the newness of life for our living; we have the newness of spirit for our service.)
T2: We all must learn how to exercise our spirit (Rom. 1:9; 1 Tim. 4:8).
(Please explain according to your own experience the difference between using our spirit and our memory when you come to the meetings of the church.)
Day 3
T1: Spirit is the person of the inner man (2 Cor. 4:16).
(Please explain the difference between our inner man and our outer man.)
T2: Our outer man is being consumed, but our inner man is being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16).
(Please explain how our inner man is renewed and how our outer man is consumed.)
Day 4
T1: Before we were regenerated, we were the old creation. After we were regenerated, we became a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).
(What’s the difference between the old creation and the new creation?)
T2: When God is increasing within us, His new element is being added into us (Col. 2:19).
(Please explain that as the new element of God is being added into our being, this new element metabolically renews us.)
Day 5
T1: We may be the most right persons and still be the most old persons (Titus 3:5).
(Please explain that it would be tragic if we would pass through many sufferings and still remain the same.)
T2: God uses the outward environment in which we suffer to renew us (Rom. 8:17-18).
(Please explain according to your own experiences how God leads us to discipline our children according to God’s nature?)
Day 6
T1: We need to enjoy the renewing capacity of the divine life in resurrection day by day (Rom. 12:2; Rev. 21:5).
(Please explain according to your own experiences that the life of God we enjoy has the renewing capacity.)
T2: To have a metabolic change in our behavior, in our character, in our disposition, and even in our habit (Rom. 12:2; Rev. 21:5).
(Please explain that God’s intention is altogether to make us new.)
