You can all prophesy one by one… —1 Cor. 12:31

2023 ITEROS Message One

Knowing, Experiencing, and Living the All-inclusive Christ for the Genuine Church Life

Message One

Being Brought Back to Christ Himself for the Genuine Church Life

OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING

Reading the verses in each day.

Reading the main points in the outlines.

Pray-reading the verses:

Phil. 3:7-8 But what things were gains to me, these I have counted as loss on account of Christ….moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them asrefuse that I may gain Christ.

Eph. 3:16-17 …To be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith,…

Word of Appetizer

How can we, believers in Christ and children of God, be freed from all distractions and brought back to Christ Himself?

Paul wrote his Epistles because he was clear that many good things, such as doctrines, ethics, morality, teachings, and culture, are distractions from Christ; the apostle Paul shows us that these things are not Christ Himself, and he indicates that if they distract us from Christ, they are versus Christ. When we turn away from all distractions and turn to Christ, we will be brought back to Christ Himself so that we may know Christ, experience Christ, enjoy Christ, express Christ, and be constituted with Christ.

Spiritual Burden

God wants Christ to be the center of all things and to have the first place in all things—Christ being all and in all. God’s will, which is His eternal purpose and desire in the universe, is that Christ be everything to us and be wrought into us as our life and everything.

All the saints need to experience something of Christ in their daily life and come together with the Christ whom they have experienced to exhibit this Christ, to share Him with one another, and to enjoy Him with God the Father for His pleasure; this is the genuine church life.

Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting

The Revelation of the Truth

We, believers in Christ and children of God, need to be freed from all distractions and brought back to Christ Himself; we need to see a heavenly vision of God’s intention to make Christ everything to us.

The issue of our being brought back to Christ Himself is the genuine church life; the genuine church life is Christ realized, experienced, and expressed by all the saints in a corporate way; the genuine church life is the life of Christ, Christ Himself; the genuine church life requires us to take up our cross and follow Him.

The Experience of Life

When we turn away from all distractions and turn to Christ, we will be brought back to Christ Himself so that we may know Christ, experience Christ, enjoy Christ, express Christ, and be constituted with Christ.

The genuine church life is not an organization; it is in our spirit, which is nourished with the riches of Christ until we are filled unto all the fullness of God. If we all experience and enjoy the riches of Christ, the genuine church life as the fullness, the expression, of Christ will be produced spontaneously.

Practice and Application

We need to pray that Christ will be everything to us in our daily life. As we are doing various things, we should apply Christ in what we are doing.  Every day we need to pray for new experiences of Christ—the One who dwells in us to be our life and everything; this is our great need today.

PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK

Day 1

T1  God created us as vessels in His image to contain Him as our content (Gen. 1:26; Eph. 3:8)

(Please illustrate that God’s intention is to work the all-inclusive Christ into us as our everything.)

T2  Seeing the vision of Christ being life and everything to us in our daily life (Phil. 3:7-8, 13)

(Please illustrate that we must receive new mercy and grace from the Lord so that we may be able to drop
all the good things—even the best things—and stretch forward to lay hold of Christ Himself.)

Day 2

T1  Being found in Christ (Phil. 3:9-10)

(Please illustrate that it is one thing to have a doctrinal understanding of being found in Christ; it is quite another thing to be found in Christ in our daily living)

T2 To gain Christ is to experience, enjoy, and take possession of all His unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8; Phil. 3:8-10)

(Please illustrate that as we gain Christ, we should also live in Him and become those who are in Him in experience.)

Day 3

T1  Seeing God’s intention is to make Christ everything to us (Matt. 17:4-5)

(Please illustrate with experiences that when we receive such a vision, we will repent of many good things that are apart from Christ.)

T2 Applying Christ to our daily living (Phil. 3:13-15)

(Please illustrate with experiences that although we have Christ within us, we do not apply Him in our daily life.)

Day 4

T1  The riches of Christ, which are unsearchable, are for the church (Eph. 3:8)

(Please illustrate in order to have a genuine church life, we must experience the riches of Christ.)

T2 Understanding the difference between the riches of Christ and the fullness of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23; 3:8)

(Please illustrate the difference between the riches of Christ and the fullness of Christ.)

Day 5

T1  The self, the soulish life, the natural life, is contrary to the church life (Matt. 16:24-25; Gal. 5:24)

(Please illustrate to bear the cross means to apply the death of Christ to our self)

T2 The way to realize the genuine church life (Rom. 6:5)

(Please illustrate the genuine church life is the life of Christ.)

Day 6

T1  To be strengthened into our spirit so that Christ may spread Himself from our spirit into our whole heart (Eph. 3:16-17)

(Please illustrate When our spirit is strengthened, this gives the way and the ground to Christ so that He may occupy, saturate, and permeate our whole being to make His home in our heart. )

T2 The secret, the key, to the enjoyment of all the riches of Christ (Eph. 6:17-18)

(Please illustrate that the genuine church life issues out of the enjoyment of Christ through our pray-reading the word.)