Knowing, Experiencing, and Living the All-inclusive Christ for the Genuine Church Life
Message Six
Allowing the Peace of Christ to Arbitrate in Our Hearts, Letting the Word of Christ Dwell in Us Richly, and Persevering in Prayer 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:
Col. 3:15-16 And let the peace of Christ arbitrate in your hearts, to which also you were called in one Body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.
2 Persevere in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving.
Word of Appetizer
What three things can we practice in the book of Colossians to have the genuine church life?
We need to allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts; if we allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts, this peace will settle all the disputes among us; we will have peace with God vertically and with the saints horizontally.
We need to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly; we need to allow the word of the Lord to have the first place in us and to inhabit us so that we may experience the functions of the word of God operating within us and ministering the riches of Christ into our being.
We need to persevere in prayer; we need to allow adequate time for prayer, which will enable us to absorb more of the riches of Christ as the all-inclusive land.
Spiritual Burden
As we are ruled by the peace of Christ and inhabited by the word of Christ through persevering in prayer, He permeates and replaces us with Himself until all our natural distinctions have been eliminated for us to have the genuine church life.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
We need to allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts; if we allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts, this peace will settle all the disputes among us; we will have peace with God vertically and with the saints horizontally.
We need to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly; we need to allow the word of the Lord to have the first place in us and to inhabit us so that we may experience the functions of the word of God operating within us and ministering the riches of Christ into our being.
We need to persevere in prayer; we need to allow adequate time for prayer, which will enable us to absorb more of the riches of Christ as the all-inclusive land.
The Experience of Life
If we allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts, this peace will settle all the disputes among us; we will have peace with God vertically and with the saints horizontally. Through the arbitration of the peace of Christ, our problems are solved, and the friction between the saints disappears; then the church life is preserved in sweetness, and the new man is maintained in a practical way.
The more we sing and psalm the Lord’s word, the more we give opportunity to the word to dwell in us, sink into us, and permeate us with the divine element; then spontaneously, we will live Christ.
Practice and Application
We need to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. Daily we need to practice coming to Christ as the living word in God’s written word so that He may speak to us personally as the applied word of the Spirit for Him to be infused into us according to the following life principles. We must exercise our spirit to pray over and with God’s word and exercise our whole being to sing, psalm, and muse on His word.
We need to persevere in prayer; we need to allow adequate time for prayer, which will enable us to absorb more of the riches of Christ as the all-inclusive land. We need to set aside definite times for prayer; our attitude should be that prayer is our most important business and that nothing should be allowed to interfere with it.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 The peace of Christ is our inward arbitrator (Col. 3:15)
(Please illustrate with experience that we need an arbitrator to settle the arguing or quarreling of the different parties within our being.)
T2 The peace of Christ is the very oneness of the new man (Eph. 2:15; Col. 3:15)
(Please illustrate that apart from Christ and the church, those of different races and nationalities cannot be truly one.)
Day 2
T1 Experiencing the peace of Christ ruling within us (Col. 3:15)
(Please illustrate with experiences that if we allow the peace of Christ to arbitrate in our hearts, this peace will settle all the disputes among us.)
T2 In us Christ is the supplying grace and the arbitrating peace (Eph. 2:15; 4:3)
(Please illustrate when the peace of Christ is enthroned in our hearts to be the unique umpire within us, we shall have peace with God vertically and with the saints horizontally.)
Day 3
T1 Experiencing the functions of the word of God (1) (Col. 3:6; 2 Tim. 3:16-17)
(Please illustrate that the word of God nourishing us and strengthening us, we shall be strong not only in spirit, but also in our soul.)
T2 Experiencing the functions of the word of God (1) (Col. 3:6; 2 Tim. 3:16-17)
(Please illustrate that the word of God builds us up. The word of God also completes and perfects.)
Day 4
T1 Pray-reading the Word and sing-reading the Word of God (Psa. 119:54; Col. 3:16)
(Please illustrate as we sing and psalm the Word, we dwell upon it, muse on it, and enjoy it, thereby giving more opportunity for the Word to saturate us.)
T2 If we want to receive blessing from the Word of God, we must first deal with our heart (2 Tim. 3:16; James 4:6)
(Please illustrate that if our condition is normal, we should be helped and very much blessed whenever we come to the Word of God.)
Day 5
T1 [God] gives the growth by getting into us (Col. 2:6-7)
(Please illustrate that since God gives growth in this way, we need to take time to absorb Him. )
T2 Learning to contact the Lord in a definite and prevailing way (Col. 4:2; 2:6-7)
(Please illustrate with experiences that to be a Christian is to be in the spirit and that the Christian life is absolutely a matter in the spirit.)
Day 6
T1 To pray is to go against the current, the trend, in the fallen universe (Matt. 26:41; Eph. 6:18)
(Please illustrate that persevering in prayer is like rowing a boat upstream.)
T2 We all need to make a vow to Him concerning our prayer life (Matt. 26:41; Eph. 6:18)
(Please illustrate that after we make such a deal with the Lord concerning prayer, we should set aside definite times for prayer.)
