Knowing, Experiencing, and Living the All-inclusive Christ for the Genuine Church Life
Message Four
Taking Christ as Our Living for His Magnification and Dealing with the Self for Our Oneness in the Divine Glory in the Genuine Church Life
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Phil. 1:19-21 For I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Word of Appetizer
How can we taking christ as our living for his magnification in the genuine church life?
Salvation in Philippians 1:19 means to be sustained and strengthened to live and magnify Christ; this requires the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The key to Paul’s experience of salvation was the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ; when we enjoy the all-inclusive and bountifully supplying Spirit of Jesus Christ and are filled with Him, Christ is magnified and becomes our expression.
We need to be in the Body life and remain in the priestly service that builds up the Body so that we can maintain our enjoyment of the bountiful supply of the Spirit, the supply of the Body, in order to live Christ for magnifying Christ.
Spiritual Burden
If we magnify Christ in our body for His expression by living Him, we will become strong factors, channels of supply, to enable the saints to grow in life and enjoy the Lord. All of us should aspire to be strong factors, channels of supply, to the saints for their “progress” (their growth in life) and their “joy of the faith” (their enjoyment of Christ); whether or not we are such factors of the saints’ growth in life and of their enjoyment of Christ depends on whether or not we magnify Christ by living Him.
The glorification of God is the purpose of our living and our service; the highest living and service that we can render to God is to “do all to the glory of God” for the corporate expression of God.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
In the apostle’s suffering in his body, Christ was magnified; that is, He was shown or declared to be great (without limitation), exalted, and extolled.
If we magnify Christ in our body for His expression by living Him, we will become strong factors, channels of supply, to enable the saints to grow in life and enjoy the Lord.
In order for the believers to enter into the oneness in the divine glory, the corporate expression of God, they must fully deal with the self.
The Experience of Life
as we die to ourselves daily, we do not preach ourselves for our glory, but we live to the Lord for His divine glory; furthermore, we are being transformed from glory to glory as Christ is making His home in our hearts for His glory in the genuine church life. By exercising our spirit, we can apply the death of Christ in the compound Spirit (flowing myrrh signifies the precious death of Christ, and fragrant cinnamon signifies the sweetness and effectiveness of Christ’s death) for the subjective crucifixion of our self.
Practice and Application
We need to be in the Body life and remain in the priestly service that builds up the Body so that we can maintain our enjoyment of the bountiful supply of the Spirit, the supply of the Body, in order to live Christ for magnifying Christ.
We should be those who “do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31) so that we can “glorify God in [our] body” (6:20).
In order to deal with the self, we must be those who bear the cross, allowing the cross to work on us continually in order to put our self to death. We need to remain on the cross, keeping our self under the termination of the cross day by day.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 The salvation in Philippians 1:19 is the working out of the salvation in 2:12 (Phil. 1:19; 2:12)
(According to Philippians 1:19-21, please illustrate what the salvation Paul expected to enjoy was.)
T2 The key to Paul’s experience of salvation was the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19-21)
(Please illustrate that Paul’s sufferings did not put him to shame. Instead, they afforded him an opportunity to magnify Christ.)
Day 2
T1 The word magnify means to make something large to our sight (Phil. 1:20)
(Please illustrate what expressions in Philippians 1:20 are related to Paul’s statement that Christ would be magnified in him.)
T2 As Paul was held captive in a Roman prison, he made Christ to appear great in the eyes of his captors (Phil. 4:22; 3:9)
(Please illustrate with experiences that in our daily living we also should magnify Christ, making Him great in the eyes of others.)
Day 3
T1 To put on Christ is to live by Christ and to live out Christ (Rom. 13:14; Exo. 28:2)
(Please illustrate that although we have been baptized into Christ and are already in Christ, we must still put Him on.)
T2 Paul expressed the greatness of Christ in an enlarged way (Phil. 1:21; 2:20)
(Please illustrate that even though Paul must have been mistreated in prison, he could be happy and display to the guards the unlimited greatness of Christ.)
Day 4
T1 Christ could be magnified in Paul’s body because Paul lived Christ (Phil. 1:21-23)
(Please illustrate Paul’s work was actually his living.)
T2 It should matter to the church whether we live or die (Phil. 1:25-26)
(Please illustrate that this depends on our living Christ, magnifying Christ, ministering Christ, and transfusing Christ from the depths of our being into that of the saints.)
Day 5
T1 A leper portrays a typical sinner (Lev. 13:45-46; Matt. 8:2)
(Please illustrate leprosy results from rebellion and disobedience.)
T2 The greatest problem, the greatest frustration and opposition, to the Body is also the self (Matt. 16:24)
(Please illustrate the main problem with us fallen sinners is really not our outward sinful deeds but the sinful nature within us, which originates from the evil life of Satan.)
Day 6
T1 The aim of the cross is not suffering but the termination of the person (Luke 14:27)
(Please illustrate Christ first carried the cross and then was crucified. But the believers in Him are first crucified and then carry the cross.)
T2 The hair signifies the difficulties within ourselves (Lev. 14:9)
(Please illustrate that shaving the hair means dealing with the difficulties of our own self.)
