We will continue reading The Advance of the Lord’s Recovery Today for the churches in Anaheim, Cypress, and Orange. Detailed information including the full reading schedule is available at churchinanaheim.org/gowreading/.
This week we will be reading The Advance of the Lord’s Recovery Today, Chapter 7. This book is available for purchase from Living Stream Ministry. You can also read it online at ministrybooks.org.
In the last chapter we saw that the fourth major item in the advance of the Lord’s recovery today is the prophesying for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ. In Chapter 7 we see three more crucial points related to prophesying: first, all the believers have the capacity and the obligation to prophesy; second, all the believers have been charged by the apostle to pursue, to desire earnestly, and to seek to prophesy; and third, in the Lord’s advanced recovery, there is the need for the highest meetings of the church.
All the believers have the capacity to prophesy and have the obligation to prophesy (1 Cor. 14:31, 24). The capacity is in the divine life, which the believers possess and enjoy and which needs to increase within them that the capacity may be developed unto their ability. The obligation to prophesy is the fulfillment of their spiritual service, in which they are indebted to God’s salvation.
All the believers have been charged by the apostle to pursue, to desire earnestly, and to seek to prophesy (1 Cor. 14:1, 12, 39). They are enabled to prophesy by learning in the Word of God, in the growth of life, and in their contact with God. The saints are also enabled by being perfected by the prophets, by practicing to speak in all the meetings, and telling people about Christ.
For our present church life we need three kinds of meetings. We need the home meetings in the new believers’ homes to nourish and to cherish the new ones. We need the group meetings so that the saints can have mutual fellowship, prayer, care, and teaching. To build up the church by prophesying, we need the bigger and higher meetings of the church. Eventually, we will all reach the high peak of prophesying for the building up of the church. Prophesying is the highest attainment in our church life.
Quote from p. 123: “During the past four and a half years, I have reconsidered the entire Bible in relation to our practice. After so much reconsideration, I am burdened to present these four major items of the advance of the Lord’s recovery today to the churches. I hope that we can spend a period of time to study the fellowship in this book with all the quotations and references of the Scripture. If we prayerfully consider the fellowship in this book, the Lord will speak to us, and this will revolutionize our concept concerning being a Christian, concerning the meetings, concerning the preaching of the gospel, and concerning Christian service. When the Lord recovers these four major items of the advance of His recovery today, that will be a big revolution to all of the Christians.”
Week 30: January 6th through January 12th
If you have any questions or comments contact us at: gowreading@gmail.com.
Recommended Readings on Prayer
In addition to the God-ordained way reading material, the following titles are recommended readings concerning the church’s current emphasis on prayer: “Burden and Prayer” and “The Key to Prayer.” They are chapters 50 and 51, respectively, of The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, Vol. 38: General Messages (2) published by Living Stream Ministry. They are also available online through ministrybooks.org. In the online version they are chapters 13 and 14.