Taking the Way of Enjoying Christ As the Tree of Life
Message Three
Loving the Lord with the First Love,
Enjoying the Lord as the Tree of Life,
and Being the Golden Lampstand
as the Testimony of Jesus
for the Building Up of the New Jerusalem
as the Goal of God’s Eternal Economy
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Rev. 2:4 But I have one thing against you, that you have left your first love.
Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart and from your whole soul and
from your whole mind and from your whole strength.”
Rev. 2:7 …To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.
Word of Appetizer
What is the primary matter in the church life?
Eating the tree of life, that is, enjoying Christ as our life supply, should be the primary matter in the church life; Christ as the tree of life is “good for food” (Gen. 2:9) so that we may eat Him for our enjoyment and be constituted with Him for God’s expression.
To enjoy Christ requires us to love Him with the first love. If we leave our first love toward the Lord, we will miss the enjoyment of Christ and lose the testimony of Jesus; consequently, the lampstand will be removed from us. These three things—loving the Lord, enjoying the Lord, and being the testimony of the Lord—go together.
Spiritual Burden
The Lord’s recovery is a recovery of loving the Lord Jesus with the first love, the best love, and of eating the Lord Jesus as the tree of life for the building up of the organic Body of Christ, which is the building up of the New Jerusalem as the goal of God’s eternal economy.
To enjoy Christ as the tree of life, we must tell Him all the time, “Lord Jesus, I love You”; if we have a burning love toward the Lord Jesus, giving Him the first place in all things, we will enjoy all that He is.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
In Revelation 2:7 the tree of life signifies the crucified (implied in the tree as a piece of wood—1 Pet. 2:24) and resurrected (implied in the life of God—John 11:25) Christ, who today is in the church, the consummation of which will be the New Jerusalem, in which the crucified and resurrected Christ will be the tree of life for the nourishment and enjoyment of all God’s redeemed people for eternity.
The churches in Asia, including the church in Ephesus, had turned away from the apostle Paul’s betrothing ministry; thus, we see that approximately twenty-six years later, when the apostle John wrote the epistle to the church in Ephesus, they had left their first love and lost the genuine enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life.
The Lord’s recovery is a recovery of loving the Lord Jesus with the first love, the best love, and of eating the Lord Jesus as the tree of life for the building up of the organic Body of Christ, which is the building up of the New Jerusalem as the goal of God’s eternal economy.
The Experience of Life
The very life that we received when we believed in the Lord Jesus is a person, and the only way to apply and enjoy this person is by loving Him with the first love; since the Lord Jesus as our life is a person, we need a new contact with Him to enjoy His present presence at this very moment and day by day.
Eating the tree of life, that is, enjoying Christ as our life supply, should be the primary matter in the church life; Christ as the tree of life is “good for food” (Gen. 2:9) so that we may eat Him for our enjoyment and be constituted with Him for God’s expression.
Practice and Application
We must give the Lord Jesus the preeminence in every way and in everything to recover the first love; then we will enjoy Him as the tree of life, and this life will become the light of life; then we will be shining as the golden lampstand, as the testimony of Jesus.
we need to pray prayers such as, “Lord, show me Your love, and constrain me with Your love that I may love You and live to You”; “Lord, keep me loving You all the time”; we must continually tell the Lord, “Lord Jesus, I love You; Lord, keep me in Your love! Attract me with Yourself! Keep me all the time in Your loving and present presence.”
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 In Revelation 2:7 the tree of life signifies the crucified and resurrected Christ (Gen. 2:9; Rev. 2:7)
(Please illustrate that the tree of life signifies Christ as the embodiment of all the riches of God for our food.)
T2 The genuine ministry of the New Testament always stirs us up to love the Lord Jesus with the first love (2 Cor. 11:2-3; Col. 1:18)
(Please illustrate that the goal of the Lord’s recovery is to recover Christ Himself as the unique Husband for us to love.)
Day 2
T1 In the book of Ephesians the phrase in love, which is rich in feeling, is used repeatedly (Eph. 1:4; 3:17)
(Please illustrate that the first and second scriptures in Ephesians that speak of “in love”.)
T2 In Ephesians the phrase in love occurs six times (Eph. 4:2, 15-16)
(Please illustrate that what three times is the phrase “in love” used in Ephesians chapter 4.)
Day 3
T1 To overcome the loss of the first love (Rev. 2:4; Mark 12；30)
(Please illustrate that our first love toward the Lord must be the best love for Him.)
T2 To recover the first love is to consider the Lord Jesus as the first in everything (1 John 4:8; Col. 1:18)
(Please illustrate with experiences that Christ should be first not only in big things but also in small things.)
Day 4
T1 To enjoy Christ as our life supply should be the primary matter in the church life (Rev. 2:5, 7)
(Please illustrate that these three things—loving the Lord, enjoying the Lord, and being the testimony of the Lord—go together.)
T2 When we enjoy Christ as the tree of life, we have the Paradise of God (Rev. 2:7)
(Please illustrate with experiences that our feeling and attitude toward the church depend upon our situation.)
Day 5
T1 Only by loving Jesus can we enjoy Him (S. S. 1:2-4; 2 Cor. 5:14)
(Please illustrate with experiences that this life is a Person, there is no other way for us to experience Him but by love.)
T2 As long as we love Him from the deepest part of our being, everything will be all right (S. S. 1:4)
(Please illustrate with experiences that we should give ourselves to love the Lord; no other way is so prevailing, so safe, so rich, and so full of enjoyment.)
Day 6
T1 To be a lover of the Lord Jesus all day long (S. S. 5:16; John 12:3)
(Please illustrate that the most significant aspect of the miniature of the church life is the love that poured the ointment upon the Lord.)
T2 The Lord Jesus manifests Himself to His lovers (John 14:21, 23)
(Please illustrate that it is possible to be a believer of Jesus Christ but not be a lover of Him.)
