Making Ourselves Ready For The Lord’s Coming
Message Five
Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming by
Having a Revived Living and a Labor of Shepherding
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
2 Cor. 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is
being renewed day by day.
John 21:15-16 Then when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You. He said to him, Feed My lambs. He said to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me? He said to Him, Yes,
Lord, You know that I love You. He said to him, Shepherd My sheep.
Word of Appetizer
How can we maintain our victory by making ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming?
In order to make ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming, we need to maintain our victory by having a revived living, a living of being renewed day by day; this renewal has to be refreshed every morning.
In order to make ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming, we need to maintain our victory by participating in Christ’s heavenly ministry to feed His lambs and shepherd His sheep in order to take care of God’s flock, which is the church that issues in the Body of Christ.
Spiritual Burden
In order to make ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming, we need to have a revived living of being renewed day by day and a labor of shepherding with the loving and forgiving heart of our Father God and the shepherding and seeking spirit of our Savior Christ.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
In order to make ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming, we need to maintain our victory by having a revived living, a living of being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16-18); this renewal has to be refreshed every morning.
In order to make ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming, we need to maintain our victory by participating in Christ’s heavenly ministry to feed His lambs and shepherd His sheep in order to take care of God’s flock, which is the church that issues in the Body of Christ.
The Experience of Life
While we are in the midst of suffering, we need to receive the Lord’s new compassions every morning so that we may experience His renewing; otherwise, we will remain the same, and the suffering we pass through will be in vain.
In His caring for the churches as the golden lampstands, the ascended Lord is the “walking Christ” and the “speaking Spirit”; by His walking in the midst of the churches, He gets to know the condition of each church, and then according to what He sees, He speaks to us so that all the saints in the churches might be metabolically and organically transformed with the aim of making them His overcomers.
Practice and Application
We must enjoy the Lord early in the morning to have a new start of each day. Every morning we should allow the Lord Jesus, our Sun, to rise up in us so that we can be renewed. Every morning we should offer up Christ as our burnt offering and peace offering, based upon His being our sin offering, so that we may have a new beginning; not only must we do this every day, but we must also do it with sweetness and depth.
We need to shepherd people according to the pattern of the apostle Paul, who shepherded the saints as a nursing mother and an exhorting father in order to take care of God’s flock.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 Practicing a revived living and a labor in shepherding (2 Cor. 4:16-18; John 21:15-17)
(Please illustrate that what maintains us in the victory is a life and work of love toward the Lord.)
T2 We fight from the position of victory, and we are not fighting to win a victory (John 14:30; 1 John 3:8)
(Please illustrate Satan is defeated and we have overcome in Christ.)
Day 2
T1 We should follow the sun to be revived and to have a new start every morning (Prov. 4:18; Matt. 13:43)
(Please illustrate what we need today is the kind of renewal in the inner life as opposed to a renewal in outward actions or expression.)
T2 A morning-by-morning revival is what Paul described as the renewing day by day(2 Cor. 4:16)
(Please illustrate with experiences that how we can practice to have a new revival, a new beginning.)
Day 3
T1 The altar is based on God’s appearance (Gen. 12:7)
(Please illustrate with experiences that consecration is not the result of man’s exhortation or persuasion but of God’s revelation.)
T2 The altar has its issue in the tent (Gen. 12:8)
(Please illustrate that through the altar God deals with us; through the tent God deals with our possessions.)
Day 4
T1 God has the best provisions to help us to receive the renewing (Titus 3:5; Eph. 4:23)
(Please illustrate what are the four provisions of God that help us to receive the renewing.)
T2 We need to more get into the reality of to be renewed day by day (Acts 24:16; Eph. 4:32)
(Please illustrate that anything negative is a cause and a factor of oldness.)
Day 5
T1 The preaching of the gospel is the top shepherding of sinners (Luke 19:1, 5; John 4:4)
(Please illustrate with examples that the first gospel preacher, Christ, carried out His ministry by shepherding.)
T2 Christ cherishes us in His humanity and nourishes us in His divinity (Rev. 1:13)
(Please illustrate how Christ cherishes us in His humanity and nourishes us in His divinity.)
Day 6
T1 The way to shepherd people by visiting them (1 Cor. 9:22; 2 Cor. 11:29)
(Please illustrate with examples that the pattern of Paul as a good shepherd, taking care of God’s flock.)
T2 Visiting the homes of the saints from house to house(Acts 20:20, 27, 31, 35)
(Please illustrate that Paul does not only speak publicly, but he also visits the homes of the saints.)
