One Accord and Crucial Aspects of the Book of Acts
Message Five
Keeping Ourselves in the One Flow of
the Lord’s Work for the Spreading of the Church
and Receiving the Lord’s Mercy
to Be Saved from Satan’s Schemes
THE EXTRACT OF THE OUTLINES
Scripture Reading:
Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
9:31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, being built up; and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, its number was increased.
Eph. 4:16 Out from Whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.
I. The book of Acts reveals that in the Lord’s move there is only one divine stream of the Lord’s work, and we need to keep ourselves in this stream—1 John 1:3, Rev. 22:1: (Monday)
A. There is only one divine stream, and we need to keep ourselves in this one stream—1 John 1:3, Rev. 22:1.
B. When we give the Lord the first place in our entire being and take Him as our first love, He becomes the divine stream to us, flowing in us and flowing out from us as our first work—Rev. 2:4-5, Col. 1:18.
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II. The basic principle of the church is eternal and universal, so the church must continually be spreading on the earth; the growth of the church and the building of the church are based on this spreading—Acts 1:8, 8:1, 9:31: (Tuesday)
A. The spreading of the church is by the growth of the Lord’s life and the flowing out of the Lord’s life, which is the flowing of life—Eph. 4:16.
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B. Acts chapter nine shows us that God chose Saul (later called Paul), contrary to human concept; our narrow and mistaken human concepts need to be broken through and shattered by the spreading of the church; we must believe that a person who is against the church one hour may preach the gospel one hour later—vv. 10-22. (Wednesday)
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III. We must be under the Lord’s mercy to be delivered from the schemes of the Devil that distract the spreading and building of the church and keep ourselves in the stream of the age for the building up of His Body—cf. Heb. 4:16, Lam. 3:22-25: (Thursday)
A. We must be delivered from dead outward regulations, human opinions, and the self with its old concepts; those who are under the Lord’s mercy are delivered in these things; as much as we are delivered, there is the building of the church—Rom. 5:10.
B. We must learn a lesson from Peter’s case and be delivered from the veil of our religious traditions and old background so that we can see the vision of God’s eternal economy and live under this vision to keep the truth of the gospel—Acts 10:9-16.
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C. We must learn a lesson from the mistakes of James and from the mixture in the church in Jerusalem which ravaged the church—v. 18. (Friday)
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IV. All of us should follow the Apostle Paul’s example to do the same universal work for the one Body—1 Cor. 3:12. (Saturday)
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Rev. 22:1 And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street.
Word of Appetizer
Why must the church constantly spread on the earth? What is the spreading of the church?
The basic principle of the church is that it is eternal and universal, so the church must constantly spread on the earth; the growth of the church and the building up of the church are based on spreading.
The spreading of the church is brought about by the growth in the Lord’s life and the flowing out of the Lord’s life, the overflow of life. Acts 8 shows that the first step in the church’s spread was to Samaria, and the second step was to Ethiopia, to Africa; this shows that we must preach the gospel to every tribe and tongue and people and nation because the church is universal and needs to spread.
Spiritual Burden
We must receive the Lord’s mercy to be saved from Satan’s schemes to frustrate the spreading and building up of the church, and we must keep ourselves in the flow of the age for the building up of His Body. We must be saved from outward and dead ordinances, human opinions, and the self with its old concepts; whoever receives mercy from the Lord will be saved in these matters; the degree to which we are saved is the degree to which the church can be built up.
All of us should follow the pattern of the apostle Paul to do the same one work universally for the unique Body.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
The book of Acts reveals that in the move of the Lord there is only one divine stream of the Lord’s work and that we need to keep ourselves in this stream.
The basic principle of the church is that it is eternal and universal, so the church must constantly spread on the earth; the growth of the church and the building up of the church are based on spreading.
The Experience of Life
When we give the Lord the preeminence in our entire being, taking Him as our first love, He becomes the divine stream to us, flowing within us and out of us as the first works; the first works are works that are motivated by, issue from, and express the Lord as our first love; only works that are motivated by the first love are gold, silver, and precious stones.
When the church begins to spread, erroneous concepts are shattered, regardless of whether the concepts are regional, racial, or mutually discriminatory; it is through spreading that all our close-mindedness is
eliminated.
Practice and Application
All of us should follow the pattern of the apostle Paul to do the same one work universally for the unique Body. The first kind is the co-workers who match the need of the ministry of God in the present age; this is a small group of people who have been dealt with by the Lord and who are in one accord. The second kind is the younger co-workers; they are willing to receive direction and to come under the coordination of the older co-workers, and they are willing to follow and to learn in humility. What we need today are the first and second kind of co-workers.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 God comes to us as life as the flowing of living water (1 John 1:3, Rev. 22:1)
(Please illustrate that the river of living water is the supply of the divine life.)
T2 In the whole city [of the New Jerusalem] there is only one street, and in the midst of that street is the stream of living water (1 John 1:3, Rev. 22:1)
(Please illustrate that this reveals that the fellowship of the Body of Christ is the stream of divine life.)
Day 2
T1 The spreading of the church is brought about by the growth in the Lord’s life (Acts 1:8, 8:1)
(Please illustrate that the spreading of the church can break through many barriers and eliminate many undesirable practices.)
T2 The spreading of the church (Acts 1:8, 8:1)
(Please illustrate that from Acts 8 what the first step and the second step of the church’s spread were.)
Day 3
T1 We must believe that a person can be persecuting the church one hour and preaching the gospel the next hour (Acts 9:15)
(Please illustrate that our narrow, erroneous human concept needs to be broken and shattered through the spreading of the church.)
T2 The church is not local but universal (Acts 10:45)
(Please illustrate that from Acts chapter 10 the church is not of the Jews and that it must spread to the Gentiles.)
Day 4
T1 The Holy Spirit forbade and the Spirit of Jesus did not allow (Acts 16:6-7)
(Please illustrate that in order to work for the Lord, we must be sanctified, on the one hand, and we must be under the cross, on the other hand.)
T2 When the church was spreading, Satan created three problems (Acts 15:36-41, 16:6-12)
(Please illustrate that for the church to spread, the bondage of the Jewish religion, human opinions, and the self with its old concepts must be broken.)
Day 5
T1 The law was of the old age, now the age of grace is with Christ.(John 1:17, Rom. 8:2)
(Please illustrate with examples that James was not speaking of the law of life but of the law of letters.)
T2 We must crucify our flesh with its passions and lusts (Gal. 2:20)
(Please illustrate that whether we are a good man or a bad man, we have to be crossed out.)
Day 6
T1 Everything that will not give way to the flow of the river of life will eventually pass through the burning of the river of fire (1 Cor. 3:12-13)
(Please illustrate that only God’s life will remain forever. Everything that is not of life will be burned. )
T2 Genuine work involves God’s working with us (1 Cor. 3:12-13)
(Please illustrate what are the four kinds of workers today.)
