Living a Christian Life and Church Life
Under the Government of God
for the Economy of God
Message Three
Life and Building in Peter’s Epistles
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
2 Pet. 1:3-4 Seeing that His divine power has granted to us all things which relate to life and godliness, through the full knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and virtue, through which He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust.
1 Pet. 2:5 You yourselves also…are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Word of Appetizer
The central thought of Peter’s Epistles and of the entire Scripture is life and building; what is life? what is building?
Life is the Triune God embodied in Christ and realized as the Spirit dispensing Himself into us for our enjoyment, and building is the church, the Body of Christ, God’s spiritual house, as the enlargement and expansion of God for the corporate expression of God.
Christ as the seed of life is the power of life within us that has granted to us all things which relate to life and godliness for the building up of the church as the rich surplus of life and the expression of life through the growth and development of life.
Spiritual Burden
God’s goal is to have a spiritual house built up with living stones; as life to us, Christ is the incorruptible seed; for God’s building, He is the living stone.
We, the believers in Christ, are living stones as the duplication of Christ through regeneration and transformation; we were created of clay (Rom. 9:21), but at regeneration we received the seed of the divine life, which by its growing in us transforms us into living stones.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
The central thought of Peter’s Epistles and of the entire Scripture is life and building.
God’s goal is to have a spiritual house built up with living stones.
Since God’s building is living, it is growing; the actual building up of the church as the house of God is by the believers’ growth in life.
The holy priesthood, the coordinated body of priests, is the built-up spiritual house; God wants a spiritual house for His dwelling and a priestly body, a corporate priesthood, for His service.
The Experience of Life
If we want Christ’s life to be unhindered in us, we must experience the breaking of the cross, the killing death of Christ in the all-inclusive Spirit of Christ as the Spirit of glory, so that the obstacles within us can be dealt with and removed.
All our priestly service to the Lord must originate from Him as “the God of measure” and not from ourselves; all our priestly service must be according to His leading and His limitation, as we allow His death to operate in us, so that His resurrection life can be imparted through us into others.
Practice and Application
In order to grow in life for God’s building, we must love the Lord, take heed to our spirit, and guard our heart with all vigilance to stay on the pathway of life.
In order to grow in life for God’s building, we must put away “all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envyings and all evil speakings”.
In order to grow in life for God’s building, we must be nourished with the guileless milk of God’s word.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 The matter of life and building is actually the theme of the whole New Testament (2 Pet. 2:5)
(Please illustrate that growth, transformation, and building are the crucial points in the New Testament.)
T2 The divine life is the divine power (2 Pet. 1:3-4)
(Please illustrate that the divine life power has given us all things that relate to life and godliness.)
Day 2
T1 The seed is for life-planting; the stone is for building (1 Pet. 2:4-5)
(Please illustrate that a living stone is one that not only possesses life but also grows in life.)
T2 We become stones through the process of transformation (1 Pet. 2:4-5)
(Please illustrate that how can we become stones?)
Day 3
T1 Regardless of how much a person can meet—and even go beyond—the standard of morality, this is still not necessarily life (Eph. 2:21; Prov. 4:23)
(Please illustrate that a person’s spirituality is not determined by outward appearance but by how he takes care of Christ.)
T2 Obstacle of life (Prov. 4:23)
(Please illustrate that our natural being, disposition, and self are all problems that prevent God’s life from coming out of us.)
Day 4
T1 The nourishment contained in the guileless milk of the word is an antibiotic for guile (1 Pet. 2:1-2)
(Please illustrate that what the sequence of [the five sinful matters in 1 Peter 2:1] is.)
T2 By the guileless milk of the word we may grow unto salvation (1 Pet. 2:1-2)
(Please illustrate that what unto salvation in 2:2 refers directly to.)
Day 5
T1 The coordinated body of priests is the built-up spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5)
(Please illustrate that this service issues from the three vital steps in the spiritual life.)
T2 Spiritual house and holy priesthood are synonymous terms (1 Pet. 2:5)
(Please illustrate that what spiritual sacrifices that the believers offer in the New Testament age according to God’s economy are.)
Day 6
T1 Apostle Paul had to learn to take the Lord’s restriction (2 Cor. 4:12, 10:13)
(Please illustrate that Paul’s bonds and imprisonment were God’s sovereign restriction.)
T2 We must know our rule, our limit (2 Cor. 4:12, 10:13)
(Please illustrate that God knows our problem. Therefore, He sets up boundaries and restrictions so that we may stay within the measure that He has apportioned to us.)
