The Enjoyment of Christ
And Our Growth in Life Unto Maturity
Message Three
Dealing with Our Heart for the Growth
of the Divine Seed of Life within Us
unto Our Maturity in Life
for God’s Building in Life
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Matt. 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Prov. 4:23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it are the issues of life.
Eph. 3:16-17 That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love.
Word of Appetizer
Why do we need to deal with our hearts? What are the four great problems with our heart toward God?
We must deal with our heart in the light of the Lord’s presence for the growth of the divine seed of life within us unto our maturity in life; the heart is the conglomerate of man’s inward parts, man’s chief representative, his acting agent.
Toward God, our heart has four great problems: hardness, impurity, unlovingness, and unpeacefulness. Hardness is a matter of the will, impurity is a matter not only of the mind but also of the emotion, unlovingness is a matter of the emotion, and unpeacefulness is a matter of the conscience…[God] deals with these four aspects so that our heart may be soft, pure, loving, and at peace.
Spiritual Burden
We must deal with our heart in the light of the Lord’s presence for the growth of the divine seed of life within us unto our maturity in life; the heart is the conglomerate of man’s inward parts, man’s chief representative, his acting agent.
May the Lord have mercy upon us and open our eyes to see that the central work of God in this age is that man may gain His life and grow and mature in His life; our work should be the imparting and supplying of the Lord’s life to others; only the work that comes out of His life can reach His eternal standard and be accepted by Him.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
We must deal with our heart in the light of the Lord’s presence for the growth of the divine seed of life within us unto our maturity in life; the heart is the conglomerate of man’s inward parts, man’s chief representative, his acting agent.
Our growth in life builds up the church as the Body of Christ, which takes place by the growth of Christ as the seed of life in our heart; we need to cooperate with the Lord by dealing with our heart so that it can be kept with the following characteristics: our heart to be soft, our heart to be pure, our heart to be loving, our heart to be at peace.
We need to see the obstacles that God’s life encounters in our heart: the darkness of our human concepts, hypocrisy, rebellion, and our natural capability.
We need to see the subjective obstacles encountered by God’s life in our heart.
The Experience of Life
God softens our heart by using His love to move us; if love cannot move us, He uses His hand through the environment to discipline us until our heart is softened.
The sin that we commit the most frequently and most severely is not outward and visible; rather, it is the sin of disobeying the sense of Christ in us; Christ is living in us, and He is constantly giving us an inward sense of life.
Even though our mind often understands the intention in our spirit, and we know the will of God, we are unwilling to submit and obey.
Practice and Application
We must pursue Christ “with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart”.
We must turn our heart back to the Lord again and again and have it continually renewed so that we may have a new and fresh love toward the Lord.
We need to let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts by forgiving one another to put on the one new man.
We daily need to be strengthened into the inner man so that Christ as life can make His home in the main parts of our heart—our mind, will, and emotion.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 A person is a soul (Exo. 1:5; Matt. 5:8)
(Please illustrate that what our hearts are composed of.）
T2 The soul is the person himself, but the heart is the person in action (Prov. 4:23)
(Please illustrate that the way we act and behave depends on the kind of heart we have.)
Day 2
T1 God wants our heart to be soft (Ezek. 36:26; Matt. 13:8)
(Please illustrate that to be soft means that the will of the heart toward God is submissive and yielding, not stiff-necked and rebellious.）
T2 God wants our heart to be pure (Matt. 5:8)
(Please illustrate that a pure heart means a heart that sets its mind specifically on God.)
Day 3
T1 God wants our heart to be loving (1 Tim. 1:5)
(Please illustrate that a loving heart means a heart in which the emotion loves God, wants God, thirsts after God, yearns for God, and has affection toward God.）
T2 God wants our heart to be at peace (Phil. 4:7)
(Please illustrate that a heart at peace means a heart in which the conscience has no offense, no condemnation or reproach; it is safe and secure.)
Day 4
T1 The first problem that God’s life encounters in us (1 John 1:5)
(Please illustrate that the first problem that God’s life encounters in us is that we do not realize the darkness of our human concepts.）
T2 The second problem that life encounters in us (Matt. 6:2)
(Please illustrate that the second problem that life encounters in us is hypocrisy.)
Day 5
T1 The third problem that life encounters in us (2 Cor. 1:4-5)
(Please illustrate that the third problem that life encounters in us is rebellion.）
T2 The fourth problem that life encounters in us (Gen. 32:25)
(Please illustrate that the fourth problem that life encounters in us is our natural capability.)
Day 6
T1 The subjective obstacles encountered by God’s life in our mind and our will (Eph. 4:23; Eph. 3:16-17)
(Please illustrate that what the problems are with God’s life in our mind and our will.）
T2 The problem encountered by God’s life in our emotion (2 Thes. 3:5)
(Please illustrate that the problem of God’s life in our emotions.)
