An Overview of the Central Burden and Present Truth
of the Lord’s Recovery before His Appearing
Message Five
The God-man Living
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Eph. 4:20-21 But you did not so learn Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him as the reality is in Jesus.
1 John 4:16-17 …We know and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. In this has love been perfected with us, that we may have boldness in the day of the judgment because even as He is, so also are we in this world.
Word of Appetizer
What does “the reality is in Jesus” mean? And what is learning Christ as the reality is in Jesus?
The four Gospels show the pattern of the life that God desires, the mold of the life that can satisfy God and fulfill His purpose; Jesus lived a life in which He did everything in God, with God, and for God; God was in His living, and He was one with God; this is what is meant by the reality is in Jesus; to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus is to be molded into the pattern of Christ, to be conformed to the image of Christ.
The purpose of God in sending the Lord Jesus to be a man was for Him to live a God-man life by the divine life; when we eat Him, we live because of Him to become a universal great man who is exactly the same as He is—a man living a God-man life by the divine life.
Spiritual Burden
The desire of God’s heart is that “the reality…in Jesus” (Eph. 4:21), the actual condition of the God-man living of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels, would be duplicated in the many members of Christ’s Body by the Spirit of reality to become the reality of the Body of Christ, the highest peak in God’s economy.
When we abide in the love that is God Himself, love has been “perfected with us, that we may have boldness in the day of the judgment because even as He is, so also are we in this world” (1 John 4:17)—Christ as the reality of the burnt offering lived in this world a life of God as love, and He is now our life that we may live the same life of love in this world and be the same as He is.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
The desire of God’s heart is that “the reality…in Jesus” (Eph. 4:21), the actual condition of the God-man living of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels, would be duplicated in the many members of Christ’s Body by the Spirit of reality to become the reality of the Body of Christ, the highest peak in God’s economy.
The only life that is pleasing to God is the life that is a repetition of the life Christ lived on the earth; this is a life that experiences Christ in His experiences as the burnt offering.
In carrying out God’s New Testament ministry, the Lord Jesus, as the reality of the burnt offering, did not do anything out of Himself (John 5:19), He did not do His own work (4:34; 17:4), He did not speak His own word (14:10, 24), He did everything not by His own will (5:30), and He did not seek His own glory (7:18); He was never disappointed because He was satisfied only with God.
The Experience of Life
When we live in the mingled spirit, we are learning Christ according to the reality in Jesus by the Spirit of reality; we learn from Him as our model so that His biography becomes our history; the living of the Body of Christ as the new man should be exactly the same as the living of Jesus revealed in the Gospels.
The more we are identified with Christ in His death, the more we will realize that we have become a heap of ashes; when we become ashes, we are no longer a natural person; instead, we are a person who has been crucified, terminated, burned.
Practice and Application
As we love the Lord, contact Him, and pray to Him, we automatically live Him according to the mold, the form, the pattern, described in the Gospels; in this way we are shaped, conformed, to the image of this mold—this is what it means to learn Christ.
By laying our hands on Christ as our burnt offering through the proper prayer, we are joined to Him, and He and we become one; as Christ lives in us, He repeats in us the life He lived on earth, the life of the burnt offering.
We must allow the Lord to burn us so that we may be a continual burnt offering to burn others and be reduced to ashes to become the New Jerusalem for God’s expression.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 Christ is not only life to us but also an example (John 13:15; 1 Pet. 2:21)
(Please illustrate that we learn from Him (Matt. 11:29) according to His example, not by our natural life but by Him as our life.）
T2 God intends to form us into the mold of Christ (Rom. 8:29; Gal. 3:27)
(Please illustrate that in God’s eyes, we were put into this mold when we were baptized. Through being placed into the mold.)
Day 2
T1 The reality in Jesus is the real situation of the life of Jesus (Matt. 11:29; Eph. 4:20-21)
(What is the reality in Jesus?）
T2 Truth is the expression of God (1 John 1:5)
(Please illustrate that the shining of the light is truth, and truth is the expression of God.)
Day 3
T1 The Hebrew word translated “burnt offering” literally means “that which goes up” and thus denotes something that ascends to God (Lev. 1:9; 2 Cor. 5:15)
(What is the significance of the burnt offering?）
T2 By laying our hands on Him we make Him one with us, and we make ourselves one with Him (Heb. 9:28)
(Please illustrate that by laying our hands on Him, then He will repeat His living in us.)
Day 4
T1 For the burnt offering to be turned to ashes means that God is satisfied (Lev. 6:11; 1:16)
(Why to us who offer the burnt offering, ashes are indeed pleasant, even precious?）
T2 The ashes will become the New Jerusalem (Lev. 6:11; 1:16)
(Please illustrate that how can the ashes of the burnt offering become the New Jerusalem.)
Day 5
T1 Throughout His life, the Lord took satisfaction in God (John 8:29)
(Why the Lord Jesus was not disappointed no matter how people, events, and things in this world changed?）
T2 The Lord lived as a man of prayer (Luke 6:12; John 1:30)
(Please illustrate that the Lord was a man of prayer, a man who is one with God)
Day 6
T1 In our abiding in the love which is God Himself, the love of God is perfected in us (1 John 4:16-17)
(Please illustrate that to abide in love is to live a life that loves others habitually with the love which is God Himself so that He may be expressed in us.）
T2 The law of love, which is the law of Christ, is the law of life (Gal. 6:2)
(Please illustrate that the law of Christ, which is the law of love, must be substantiated by the divine life.)
