Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (1)
Message Nine
Christ as the Resurrection and the Grain of Wheat
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Num. 17:8 And on the next day Moses went into the Tent of the Testimony, and there was the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi: it had budded; it even put forth buds and produced blossoms and bore ripe almonds.
John 12:23-24 And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Word of Appetizer
Why must we know, experience, and receive the God of resurrection if we are to live in the resurrection? What is the difference between the God of resurrection and the living God?
Resurrection means that everything is of God and not of us; it means that God alone is able and that we are not able; all of those who know resurrection have given up hope in themselves; they know that they cannot make it. God is working through the cross to terminate us, to bring us to an end, so that we will no longer trust in ourselves but in the God of resurrection; although the living God can perform many acts on man’s behalf, the life and nature of the living God are not wrought into man; when the God of resurrection works, His life and nature are wrought into man.
Spiritual Burden
The budding rod signifies that Christ, the resurrected One, should be our life, our living, and the resurrection life within us and that this life should bud, blossom, and bear fruit to maturity; when we do not live by our natural life but live by the divine life within us, we are in resurrection; the issue of this is the Body of Christ.
Through His life-releasing death and life-dispensing resurrection as the grain of wheat, Christ brought all His believers into an incorporation with the processed Triune God. In the resurrection of Christ, the enlarged, divine-human, universal incorporation of the processed Triune God with the regenerated believers came forth from Christ as the transfigured grain of wheat in three aspects: the Father’s house, the true vine, and the child of the Spirit.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
We can experience, enjoy, and manifest Christ as the resurrection; the Spirit is the reality of the Trinity, the reality of the resurrection, the reality of the Body of Christ; the budding rod signifies that Christ, the resurrected One, should be our life, our living, and the resurrection life within us and that this life should bud, blossom, and bear fruit to maturity.
We can experience, enjoy, and manifest Christ as the wheat; through His life-releasing death and life-dispensing resurrection as the grain of wheat, Christ brought all His believers into an incorporation with the processed Triune God.
The Experience of Life
When we live not by our natural life but by the divine life within us, we are in the resurrection, and the result is the Body of Christ. God has always been working through the cross to finish us, to bring us to the end, so that we no longer trust in ourselves, but only in the God of resurrection. God uses the environment in order to work His life and nature into us.
To be a Christian is not merely difficult—it is impossible; only the processed and consummated Triune God living in us as the all-inclusive Spirit can be a Christian; only the Spirit can be a Christian, and only the Spirit can be an overcomer.
Practice and Application
We all need to be discipled by the Lord to be divine and mystical persons, living the divine life by denying our natural life.
The real Christian life is to have the God of resurrection added into us morning and evening and day by day; in order to receive the renewing capacity of the divine life in resurrection, we need to contact God, open ourselves up to Him, and let Him come into us to be a new addition in us day by day.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 The resurrection of Christ (Acts 13:33, 1 Pet. 1:3)
(Please illustrate that the three things God accomplished in the resurrection of Christ.)
T2 The actual Spirit of the Trinity became the reality of Christ’s body (John 16:13-15)
(Please illustrate that how this actual Spirit causes all things in the processed Trinity to become actual in the body of Christ.)
Day 2
T1 Resurrection is the basis of authority (Num. 17:8, Matt. 19:26)
(Please illustrate that what did it mean for Aaron’s rod to bud?)
T2 The principle of every service lies in the budding rod (Num. 17:8, Matt. 19:26)
(Please illustrate that resurrection means that everything is of God and not of us. It means that God alone is able and that we are not able. )
Day 3
T1 The living God and the God of resurrection (2 Cor. 1:8-9)
(Please illustrate that the difference between the living God and the God of resurrection.)
T2 The primary purpose of suffering in this universe (2 Cor. 4:6, Rom. 8:28, Heb. 12:10)
(Please illustrate that the significance of suffering. )
Day 4
T1 We grow by the increase of God within us (2 Cor. 4:6, Col. 2:19)
(Please illustrate that God is willing to add Himself into us, but He cannot increase in us if we don’t touch Him.)
T2 Lord, I don’t want to remain the same; I want to be renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:6, Col. 2:19)
(Why might sometimes God may allow the church to pass through a “storm”?)
Day 5
T1 Christ’s incarnation caused His divine glory to be concealed in His flesh (John 12:23-24)
(Please illustrate that how through Christ’s death, His glory was released.)
T2 The incorporation is the issue of Christ’s glorification (John 20:16-20)
(Please illustrate that God’s desire in His economy is to have a unique incorporation.)
Day 6
T1 In the Father’s house are many abodes (John 14:23, 15:5)
(Please illustrate that these abodes are built up by the Father and the Son’s visitation to those who love Him.)
T2 The Lord is the vine, and we are the branches (John 15:5)
(Please illustrate that the true vine, as a sign of the all-inclusive Christ, is the organism of the processed and consummated Triune God. Its branches are the believers of Christ.)
