Crystallization-Study of First and Second Kings
Message Eleven
Apostasy, the High Places, and the Recovery
of the Genuine Ground of Oneness
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Deut. 12:2 You shall completely destroy all the places where the nations whom you will dispossess have served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every flourishing tree.
Eph. 4:3-4 Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace: One Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling.
Word of Appetizer
Why is the apostasy of Jeroboam can be considered a type of today’s Christianity?
Apostasy means to leave the way of God and to take another way to follow things other than God, and it is to do things for the self under the name of Jesus Christ and under the cloak of worshipping God. In God’s New Testament economy, all true believers in Christ are made priests to God, but degraded Christianity has built up a system to ordain some believers to do the service of God, making them a clerical hierarchy and leaving the rest of the believers as laymen; this is an apostate practice, which we must abhor and abandon.
Spiritual Burden
For the recovery and preservation of the genuine, all-inclusive oneness, we must destroy the high places. In the church life we should not have any high places; instead, we should all be on one level to exalt Christ.
Because of the apostasy, the high places, and the divisions throughout Christendom, there is the need for the recovery of the genuine ground of oneness. The church, the organic Body of Christ, is undivided and indivisible; this unique Body is expressed in many local churches in the divine oneness. We thank and praise the Lord for the vision concerning the destruction of the high places and concerning the recovery and preservation of the genuine, all-inclusive oneness; it is our privilege to know, experience, and enjoy this oneness in the Lord’s recovery today.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
The apostasy of Jeroboam can be considered a type of today’s Christianity.
For the recovery and preservation of the genuine, all-inclusive oneness, we must destroy the high places. A high place is an elevation, something lifted above the common level. We must destroy everything that is not the church with Christ.
Because of the apostasy, the high places, and the divisions throughout Christendom, there is the need for the recovery of the genuine ground of oneness. We thank and praise the Lord for the vision concerning the destruction of the high places and concerning the recovery and preservation of the genuine, all-inclusive oneness.
The Experience of Life
This oneness was imparted into the spirit of all the believers in Christ, in their regeneration by the Spirit of life with Christ as the divine life.
By the Spirit of reality, who is the living reality of the Divine Trinity, the oneness of the Body of Christ becomes real and living. It is our privilege to know, experience, and enjoy this oneness in the Lord’s recovery today.
Practice and Application
For the recovery and preservation of the genuine, all-inclusive oneness, we must destroy the high places. In the church life we should not have any high places; instead, we should all be on one level to exalt Christ. we must destroy every place other than the church and every name other than the name of Christ.
In our human life and culture there are many places that remain, which need to be destroyed; we must destroy them all and then go to the unique place of God’s choice, the church.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 God had ordained that His people come together three times a year in Jerusalem (Deut. 12:5-6)
(Please illustrate that what was the purpose of Jeroboam made two calves of gold, putting one in Bethel and the other in Dan.)
T2 Apostasy means to be distracted from the right track in following God (1 Kings 12:28, 31)
(Please illustrate with examples that apostasy is worshipping God in a way that is false and devilish.)
Day 2
T1 The origin of Jeroboam set up idols was his ambition (1 Kings 12:26-27, 29)
(Please illustrate that after The nation [of Israel] was divided into two kingdoms, idolatry came in.)
T2 The divisions in Christianity are caused by selfishness and ambition (1 Kings 13:33; 2 Pet. 2:2, 15)
(Please illustrate that how do we apply this principle to the situation among Christians today.)
Day 3
T1 The significance of high places is division (Deut. 12:2)
(Please illustrate that to set up a high place is to have a division.)
T2 In the eyes of the Lord, division involves such things as lust, ambition, and idolatry (1 Kings 11:8; Col. 1:18)
(Please illustrate that not many Christians realize that division is connected to lust, ambition, and idolatry.)
Day 4
T1 Not to elevate anything other than the Lord Jesus (Rom. 15:4)
(Please illustrate with examples that every division is an elevation of some kind.)
T2 The ground of oneness is deeper, richer, higher, and fuller than [one city, one church] (Col. 3:11)
(Please illustrate that to tear down their altars related to three main things: the places, the idols, and the names.)
Day 5
T1 the unique oneness of the universal Body of Christ; the unique ground of the local church; The reality of the Spirit (Eph. 4:3; Acts 8:1; John 16:13)
(Please illustrate that what are the three crucial elements of the church ground is constituted of.)
T2 The church of God, as the living Body of Christ, needs the local churches for its existence and function (Eph. 4:3)
(Please illustrate that the ground of the church keeps, in practicality, the genuine oneness of the church both locally and universally, without any division.)
Day 6
T1 The genuine oneness, the oneness includes all positive things. Division, on the contrary, includes all negative things (Psa. 133:1, 3)
(Please illustrate that all the godly things and all the spiritual riches are ours on the ground of oneness.)
T2 It is the oneness that gives us access to all positive virtues and attributes (Psa. 133:1, 3)
(Please illustrate that when we are in the oneness, we are in life, furthermore, our spiritual condition gradually improves.)
