Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2)
Message Eleven
The Children of God Walking in Love and Light
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Eph. 5:2 And walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.
8 For you were once darkness but are now light in the Lord; walk as children of light.
Word of Appetizer
Now as children of God, we should walk in love and light, what does it mean to walk in love and light?
Our daily walk as children of God should be constituted with both the loving substance of God and the shining element of God; this should be the inner source of our walk. To walk in love is to walk in intimacy with God. We, the children of God, should be love because God is love; since we become God in life and in nature, we also should become love. We are not only children of light—we are light itself; we are light because we are one with God in the Lord. If we walk as children of light, we will bear the fruit described in Ephesians 5:9.
Spiritual Burden
As the children of God, we are God-men, born of God, possessing the life and nature of God, and belonging to the species of God; now as children of God, we should walk in love and light, with love as the inner substance of God and with light as the expressed element of God.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
God’s good pleasure is to be one with man and to make man the same as He is in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.
As the children of God, we are God-men, born of God, possessing the life and nature of God, and belonging to the species of God.
We need to know and experience God as love and light.
The Experience of Life
The greatest wonder in the universe is that human beings could be begotten of God and that sinners could be made children of God. Through such an amazing divine birth we have received the divine life, the eternal life, as the divine seed sown into our being.
We need to know and experience God as love and light; when the divine love appears to us, it becomes grace, and when the divine light shines upon us, it becomes truth.
When we are in the light, we are outside the realm of right and wrong. If we walk as children of light, we will bear the fruit described in Ephesians 5:9.
Practice and Application
As children of God, we should walk in love and light. To walk in love is to walk in intimacy with God. In our daily walk we should always care for our Father’s feeling, for we live intimately in His tender love.
“You were once darkness but are now light in the Lord; walk as children of light”. The fruit of the light must be good in nature, righteous in procedure, and real in expression, that God may be expressed as the reality of our daily walk.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 What a glorious fact that we, as God’s beloved children, can be imitators of God (1 John 3:1; Eph. 5:1)
(Please illustrate that we can imitate God because we have the divine life and the divine nature.)
T2 The life we received from God through regeneration enables us to be children of God (1 John 3:1; Eph. 5:1)
(Please illustrate that it is truly the greatest miracle in the universe that human beings can be born of God and sinners can become children of God.)
Day 2
T1 Light is the source of reality, and love is the source of grace (1 John 1:5; 4:8)
(Please illustrate that in the New Testament, light and love are a pair, just as reality (truth) and grace are a pair.)
T2 Love and light are God’s being and God’s essence (1 John 1:5; 4:8)
(Please illustrate that love and light are actually God Himself.)
Day 3
T1 Love and light are deeper than grace and truth (Eph. 5:2, 8)
(Please illustrate that our living and walking in love should be constituted of both God’s loving essence and the element of light.)
T2 Christ as the pattern for our living (Eph. 4:32)
(Please illustrate that Christ, who loved us and gave Himself up for us, is the pattern for living and walking in love.)
Day 4
T1 To walk in love is to walk in an intimate relationship with God (1 John 3:1; 4:10)
(Please illustrate that the intimate relationship between a daughter and a mother can be used to illustrate the meaning of walking in love.)
T2 It is not that we love God, but that God loves us (1 John 3:1; 4:10)
(Please illustrate that the difference between love and grace can be illustrated by the relationship between a mother and a child.)
Day 5
T1 God loves us first, and then this divine love stirs us up to return love to Him (Eph. 1:4; 6:24)
(Please illustrate that in this condition and atmosphere of love, we are permeated by God to become holy and without blemish, like Him.)
T2 Ephesians uses the phrase “in love” repeatedly (Eph. 1:4; 4:16)
(Please illustrate that the Body of Christ builds itself up in love.)
Day 6
T1 Experiencing light is deeper than experiencing truth (1 John 1:7; Eph. 5:9)
(Please illustrate that walking in love and in light is deeper and more subtle than walking according to truth and by grace.)
T2 The fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth (Eph. 5:9)
(Why does Paul mention only three things—goodness, righteousness, and truth—when speaking of the fruit of the light? )
