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Sunday, June 20, 2010

THE VISION OF THE AGE

SERVING GOD ACCORDING TO THE COMPLETE VISION
From the time the apostle John completed the book of Revelation until today, nineteen centuries have passed. During the past nineteen hundred years, countless numbers of Christians have been serving God. Added to this great number of Christians serving God are the Jews, who also are serving God. Of course, the Jews serve only according to the vision revealed in the New Testament Gospels, which has to do only with the earthly ministry of Jesus. Some serve without any vision at all. In order to serve God according to the up-to-date vision, we have to come up to the level of Paul’s very last Epistles. In churches in Revelation as well as the revelation which covers all the ages, including the kingdom, the new heaven and new earth, and the ultimate consummation of the church—the New Jerusalem. Simply put, in order for us to serve God today, our vision must extend all the way from the first vision of Adam in Genesis to the ultimate vision of the manifestation of the church, the New Jerusalem. This and this alone is the complete vision. It is not until today that this vision has been fully opened to us. (The Vision of the Age, p. 48)

SERVING GOD ACCORDING TO THE VISION OF THE AGE
We have to see that in every age, God gives only one vision to man. In Adam is seen God’s redemption. In Abel is seen God’s way of redemption. In Enosh is seen man’s need for God and man’s calling upon Him to enjoy His riches. In Enoch is seen a redeemed one walking with God on the pathway of redemption. In Noah is seen one who walked with God and worked with God to build the ark to meet the need of that generation.
Then in Abraham is seen God’s calling, God’s promise, justification by faith, the living by faith, and the living in fellowship with God. In Isaac is seen the inheriting of grace and the rest and enjoyment. In Jacob is seen God’s selection, the transformation in life, and the maturity in life. In Joseph is seen the reigning aspect of the maturity in life. Following this, we see different things in Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and the judges. In Samuel we see the voluntarily consecrated Nazarite placing the ordained priests, ending the age of the judges, and bring in the kingdom age. (p. 11)
We must be clear that in every age there is the vision of that age. We have to serve God according to the vision of the age. Consider the age of Noah. When we read the record of the Bible, it appears as if Noah’s family, including himself, his wife, his three children, and their wives were the only ones who were serving God. Can we believe that at that time there were actually only eight people serving God, and the rest were worshipping idols and not serving God? Perhaps we have never thought about this matter. Whether or not others were serving God, one thing is certain: They were not part of those who built the ark. For this very reason their service was not recognized by God. (p. 13)

CLOSELY FOLLOWING THE COMPLETED VISION OF THIS AGE
We Are Not Following Any Person; We Are Following The One Vision of This Age
Since we have the up-to-date and ultimate vision, we should closely follow after it. We are absolutely not following a certain person. We are following a vision that It is grossly wrong to say that we are following a certain person We are following a vision that belongs to the present It is God’s consummate vision. (Pp. 49-50)
I would like to relate to you one fact. It is the Lord’s mercy that He has revealed to me the vision. I advise you not to follow me, but to follow this vision which Brother Nee and all the servants of the Lord throughout the ages have left to us, which I have handed to you. This is indeed the vision that extends from the first scene of Adam to the last scene of the New Jerusalem. Over fifty years have passed, I have seen with my own eyes that those who take the way of the Lord’s recovery for a while and then leave do not come to a proper ending. There is only one way. All spiritual things are one. There is one God, one Lord, one Spirit, one church, one Body, one testimony, one way, one flow, and one work. If you do not take this way, you will have no way to take. (p. 51)

Following the Consummated Vision Which Inherited the Past
And is Up-To-Date with This Age
Therefore, you are not following a man; rather, you are standing with the Lord’s ministry. You are following a vision, a vision that matches the age, a vision that inherits all that was in the past and a vision that is all-inclusive. It is up-to-date, and yet it builds on the past. If you remain in the book of Acts, you may have inherited everything prior to that time, but you are not up-to-date. Today as we stand here and ponder the revelation unveiled in the Lord’s recovery, as we read the publications that are released among us, we can see that they cover everything from the church to God’s economy to the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. This is a bountiful and all-sufficient vision. If you remain in this vision, you are serving according to the vision. If you are not in this vision, you could still be an Apollos, expounding the Scriptures in a powerful way; you could still be a Barnabas, visiting the churches; you could still be a James, serving piously; and you could even be a Peter, who served as the leading apostle. However, you would not be in the vision. (p. 52)
I believe this light is very clear among us. No one can argue with this. I hope that the …brothers and sisters will all be clear about this. From your…serving the Lord, you should understand what we are doing here. This is not a personal thing. It is absolutely the Lord’s ministry. He has unveiled the visions generation after generation to His children. All those who are in this vision now are serving according to God’s vision. (p. 53)

THE GENUINE ONE ACCORD
Today we can be in one accord because we have only one vision and one view. We are all in this up-to-date, all-inheriting vision. We have only one viewpoint. We speak the same thing with one heart, one mouth, one voice, and one tone, serving the Lord together. The result is a power that will become our strong morale and our impact. This is our strength. Once the Lord’s recovery possessed this power, there will be the glory of increase and multiplication. Today our situation is not yet to that point; it is not yet at the peak. Although we do not have many major contentions, we do have some small complaints and criticisms. These things lower our morale. (p. 54)

Friday, June 18, 2010

THE VISION AND REVELATION OF THE LORD REACHING THE HIGH PEAK

For the past nineteen centuries thousands of Bible lovers have studied the Bible. If they were asked what the Bible teaches, they would give many different answers. What I have presented to you in this chapter is the highest standard of what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches only five things: the God-men, the new man, the new creation, the Body of Christ, and the New Jerusalem. The first three—the God-men, the new man, and the new creation—are the factors to bring forth one object of two aspects—the Body of Christ and the New Jerusalem. The God-men, the new man, and the new creation are for the producing of the Body of Christ, which will consummate the New Jerusalem as God’s ultimate goal. This is the real and intrinsic understanding of what the Bible teaches.
In the past seventy-three years, from 1922 until [1995], the Lord in His recovery has used us to develop the intrinsic understanding of His Word. In these seventy-three years Brother Watchman Nee’s ministry occupied the first thirty years, from 1922 to 1952, the year he was imprisoned. During that period Brother Nee laid a very good foundation. From 1952 until today, a period of forty-three years, we, the co-workers of Brother Nee, have continued to develop what he laid as a foundation. In the past two years we have reached the ultimate consummation of our development. This devel¬opment consummates in the God-men, the new man, the new creation, the Body of Christ, and the New Jerusalem. This is the conclusion of our seventy-three years of labor on this Holy Book. I believe that nothing could be higher than this. In the past two years I have been occupied with this day and night. To release this high revelation, there is a need to put out the crystallization-study of the holy Word. (The God-men, pp. 22-23)
THE CRYSTALLIZATION-STUDY
In this series of messages, I have the burden to crystallize the book of Romans. Romans is a very common and popular book among Christians. I myself have expounded this book in congregations a number of times. Eventually, I had the Life-study on Romans in [1974]. Even though we did this, I still feel some things are hidden there, and these things are the intrinsic essence of God’s divine revelation in the Epistle to the Romans. (The Crystallization of the Epistle to the Romans, p. 4)
[In 1994 the Lord] led us to begin the crystallization-study of the Bible, a study which goes even deeper than the life-study of the Bible. Recently, I have been on the crystallization-study of Romans every Wednesday night.…The life-study opens the entire Bible to us in a general way, but we still need to touch the depths, the crystals, of the holy Scriptures. Although we are acquainted with the book of Romans and I have expounded it several times, there are still many hidden things as the intrinsic essence of the divine revelation. By such a crystallization-study, the Lord can reveal to us the intrinsic essence of the divine revelation, item by item. (The Governing and Controlling Vision in the Bible, p. 13)
GOD BECOMING MAN TO MAKE MAN GOD IN LIFE AND NATURE
BUT NOT IN THE GODHEAD
All the saints should be motivated by the Triune God’s revelations and visions to join with Him for His move to accomplish His New Testament economy on the earth. Today almost all the countries of this world, except the Muslim countries, have been evangelized. Nearly every place is filled with Christians. Since this is the case, what are our revelation and our vision today? Our revelation and vision have been greatly uplifted in the last three years because we have seen the high peaks of God’s revelation. These are mainly concerning God becoming a man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead. This is the center of the high peaks of the divine revelation among us.
Today our vision is to go tell the high-peak truths to the Christians. This is what we have been doing in Russia for the past few years. We need to enlighten those in Christianity with the high peaks of the divine revelation. There is a hot market for these high peaks today. Wherever we go today, we will be greatly welcomed if we can speak these high peaks. (The Triune God’s Revelation and His Move, p. 97)
If we read the Bible without paying attention to this crucial point, then, in a very real sense, the Bible is to us an empty book. This means that although the Bible is real in itself, in our understanding of it the Bible is empty. As an illustration, let us suppose that a certain box, which is quite attractive, contains a large diamond. A child may be interested in the box but not in the diamond. An adult, however, would focus his attention on the diamond contained in the box. Today, many Christians care for the Bible as the “box,” they have not seen and do not appreciate the “diamond” which is the content of this box, and they may even condemn those who have a proper appreciation of the “diamond” in the “box.” The “diamond” in the “box” of the Bible is the revelation that in Christ God has become man in order that man may become God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.
The vast majority of today’s Christians neglect the crucial point in the Bible that in Christ God has become man in order to make man God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead and that God desires to mingle Himself with man to be one entity. Some not only neglect this; they falsely accuse as heretical those who teach it. Today many believe one aspect of this crucial point—that God became a man named Jesus—but they do not believe the other aspect—that man is becoming God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, p. 204)
Hence, beginning from 1984 I released many messages on the economy of God. Then in the spring of [1994] I continued to go higher. I saw that it is only by God’s becoming man to make man God that the Body of Christ can be produced. This point is the high peak of the vision given to us by God.
Actually, early in the fourth century Athanasius, who was present at the Nicene Council, said that “He was made man that we might be made God.” At that time he was an unnoticed young theologian. This word of his became a maxim in church history. However, later, gradually people in Chris¬tianity not only would not teach this but did not dare to teach this. (The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of The Body of Christ, p. 15)
In the Chinese-speaking conference in February of [1994]…my burden was to speak about this matter. For twenty-seven years I had not written a new hymn. Several days before the Chinese-speaking conference I wrote a new hymn with four stanzas:

1. What miracle! What mystery!
That God and man should blended be!
God became man to make man God,
Untraceable economy!
From His good pleasure, heart’s desire,
His highest goal attained will be.

2. Flesh He became, the first God-man,
His pleasure that I God may be:
In life and nature I’m God’s kind,
Though Godhead’s His exclusively.
His attributes my virtues are;
His glorious image shines through me.

3. No longer I alone that live,
But God together lives with me.
Built with the saints in the Triune God,
His universal house we’ll be,
And His organic Body we
For His expression corp’rately.

4. Jerusalem, the ultimate,
Of visions the totality;
The Triune God, tripartite man—
A loving pair eternally—
As man yet God they coinhere,
A mutual dwelling place to be;
God’s glory in humanity
Shines forth in splendor radiantly!

In the two-thousand-year history of Christianity there is not one hymn that is of this category. This is the unique hymn in this category of hymns. This hymn speaks very clearly concerning the high peak of God’s vision. (pp. 16-17)
THE NEW JERUSALEM—THE HIGHEST GOAL OF GOD’S ECONOMY
In…the Bible [God] shows us…a great revelation, that is, that God wants to make Himself the same as man.…He is God, yet he took on human nature, put on a human body, and had a human life to dwell and live together with men in order to make men, His chosen people, the same as He is. Thus, although these men are human, they have His divine life and His divine nature.…He is God and has our human nature; likewise, we are man and also have His divine nature.…By these two natures and two lives God mingles Himself with man in order that His divine life may be lived out through humanity among men, and in order that His redeemed may have His divinity and in His divinity may live out the likeness of God through the resurrected and uplifted humanity.
Eventually, this will make God and man alike and mingled together and even built together. God builds Himself…into man and builds man into Himself.…This is the one new man in the universe. This is what Ephesians 4 shows us. The ultimate consummation of this new man is the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is a constitution of God and man and man and God, who are constituted into one; it is divinity expressed in humanity and humanity glorified in divinity. Therefore, they two—divinity and humanity—become a mutual dwelling place. The One who is God yet man dwells in the one who is man yet God, and the one who is man yet God dwells in the One who is God yet man. They are a mutual dwelling place. Thus, His divine glory shines forth radiantly with great splendor in humanity.…This economy is God and man becoming one entity, as one who is God yet man and man yet God. (The Dispensing, Transformation, and Building of the Processed Divine Trinity in the Believers, pp. 37-38)
THE UNIVERSAL INCORPORATION OF THE UNION AND MINGLING
OF DIVINITY AND HUMANITY
The Bible actually unveils just one thing—the universal incorporation. The purposeful God has an economy, and in His economy He intends to have a universal incorporation. Deep within Himself, God has the purpose to produce a universal incorporation. Eventually, for eternity in the new heaven and new earth, there will be the New Jerusalem, the unique goal of God in His economy.
Although we have seen that the New Jerusalem is the goal of God’s economy, we did not see that the New Jerusalem is an incorporation. In Revelation 21:2 the apostle John says, “I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,” and in the next verse he speaks of the New Jerusalem as “the tabernacle of God.” As the tabernacle of God the New Jerusalem is God’s dwelling place. We are quite familiar with this aspect of the New Jerusalem; it has become old knowledge to us. Now we need to learn something new and see that as the tabernacle of God the New Jerusalem is the universal incorporation. (The Issue of Christ Being Glorified by the Father With the Divine Glory, pp. 29-30)
Then in [John chapter 14] verse 20 the Lord said that on the day of resurrection the disciples would know that He is in the Father, that they are in Him, and that He is in them. The Son, the person, is in the Father, another person. Then we, the millions of persons, are in the Son, the person. Also, the Son is in us. Union and mingling refer to our relationship with the Lord in our life and nature but not in our person. Humanly speaking, no person can be in another person. But in the divine and mystical realm, the consummated God and the regenerated believers, the persons, indwell one another. This is an incor¬poration. In this universal, divine-human incorporation, persons indwell one another, that is, they coinhere.
In the whole universe, there are God, man, Satan, and the angels. The angels, including Satan and his fallen ones, are not considered persons. God and man are both corporate persons. God is not just a single person. He is three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—a corporate person. We, the millions of believers, are also a corporate person. These persons are now in one another. This is not a mingling but an incorporation.
The word incorporation also indicates that these persons are incorporated together to carry out their purpose, that is, to carry out God’s economy. God’s economy is a big career, a big business. In order to carry out His economy, God needs man to be incorporated into Him. Man and God, humanity and divinity, as persons, are incorporated together for the same purpose, for the same goal, to carry out the same career, that is, God’s eternal economy. (p. 41)
THE ORGANIC ASPECT OF GOD’S SALVATION
How does God make man God? After God regenerates us with Himself as life, He continues to carry out the work of sanctification, renewing, and transformation in us by His Spirit of life. God became man through incarnation; man becomes God through transformation. When the Lord Jesus lived as a man on this earth, He went up on the mountain and was transfigured. That transfiguration was a sudden occurrence. Our transformation into God, however, is not something that happens unexpectedly. Rather, it is a lifetime transformation until we are conformed to His image. Even¬tually, we will enter with Him into glory; that is, we will be redeemed in our body. That will be the final step of the redemption of our whole being that brings us into glory. Therefore, it is through regeneration, sanctification, renew¬ing, transformation, conformation, and glorification that we may become God. When we reach this point, 1 John 3:2 says that when “He is manifested, we will be like Him because we will see Him even as He is.” (The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of The Body of Christ, p. 31)
[God’s complete salvation having the aspect of judicial and organic,] that which is accomplished judicially is the initial step as redemption with five items, that which is carried out organically is a further step as salvation, which is different from redemption and includes eight items. Redemption is accomplished judicially, whereas salvation is carried out organically. The eight items in the organic aspect issue in the church of God to constitute the Body of Christ which will consummate the New Jerusalem, which is the ultimate goal of God’s eternal economy, that is, an organism constituted with the processed Triune God and His regenerated, sanctified, transformed, and glorified elect joined and mingled as one to be the enlargement and expression of God in eternity.
Unfortunately, most of the believers through the generations have considered the redemption which God accomplished for us in procedure as the purpose of God’s salvation.…This is a great shortcoming of the majority of believers today in salvation in God’s life. As a result, they neglect the pursuing and growing unto full growth in God’s life and hardly see anything concerning the building of the Body of Christ, much less the consummation of the ultimate goal of God’s eternal economy, which is the New Jerusalem. Moreover, even concerning the New Jerusalem as the conclusion of the entire Bible, nearly no one knows what it is, yet some consider the New Jerusalem as the heaven where the believers will go after their death. Because of the lack of knowledge concerning the universal oneness of Christ and the unique goal of God’s economy, they form different sects and establish their own churches according to the partial truths of their fragmentary seeing, thus resulting in the divided and confused condition of Christianity today. (The Organic Aspect of God’s Salvation, pp. 14-15)
THE FULL MINISTRY OF CHRIST IN HIS THREE STAGES
I hope that all the co-workers will see the three stages, the three sections, of Christ: incarnation—the stage of Christ in the flesh; inclusion—the stage of Christ as the life-giving Spirit; and intensification—the stage of Christ as the sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit. These three stages are the three sections of Christ’s history. This means that Christ’s history is divided into the section of His incarnation, the section of His inclusion, and the section of His intensification.
Therefore we emphasize these three words—incarnation, inclusion, and intensification—and stress the facts that incarnation produces redeemed people, that inclusion pro¬duces the churches, and that intensification produces the overcomers to build up the Body, which consummates in the New Jerusalem as the unique goal of God’s economy. This is the revelation in the New Testament. (Incarnation, Inclusion, and Intensification, p. 21)
The New Testament clearly shows us that our Lord became something three times. First, as God, He became flesh; that is, as the infinite God, He became a finite man. Next, as the last Adam, a man in the flesh, He became the life-giving Spirit. Third, as the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ, He became the seven Spirits. In the New Testament we see that Christ has these three stages. The majority of Christians have seen only one age, the age of the New Testament; they have not seen that within this one age there are three stages. In the first stage He was the Son of Man in the flesh; this is the stage of His incarnation in the four Gospels. In the second stage He is altogether the Spirit; this is the stage of His inclusion from Acts to Jude, the twenty-two books dealing with the life-giving Spirit. In the third stage the life-giving Spirit has become the seven Spirits, the sevenfold intensified Spirit; this is the stage of His intensification in Revelation. These are Christ’s three “becomings” in His three stages. His first becoming is in the stage of His incarnation, His second coming is in the stage of His inclusion, and His third coming is in the stage of His intensification. This is the New Testament. (How To Be a Co-worker and an Elder and How to Fulfill Their Obligations, p. 61)
THE DIVINE AND MYSTICAL REALM
We have seen that the Spirit has been consummated and that Christ has become the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ. Thus, we may now speak of the divine and mystical realm of this consummated Spirit and of this pneumatic Christ. What a marvelous realm this is!
We have pointed out that the three of the Divine Trinity are self-existing, ever-existing, and coinhering, and as such the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are a divine and mystical realm. With the Triune God Himself as a mystical realm there are no “complications,” but in the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ there are a number of “complications,” all of which are blessings to us.
God wanted us to be in Him. If He were merely the Triune God without Christ’s humanity, death, and resurrection, and we could enter into Him, we would find the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, but nothing of humanity, death, and resurrection. However, when we enter into the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ, we have not only divinity but also the humanity of Christ, the death of Christ with its effectiveness, and the resurrection of Christ with its repelling power. Everything is here in this wonderful realm. (The Divine and Mystical Realm, p. 40)
The believers must consider highly the entry into this realm, realizing that without Christ becoming the life-giving Spirit, without Christ being the pneumatic Christ, without Christ being the Lord Spirit, and without Christ being the Christ in resurrection and not only in the flesh, there is absolutely no way for the believers to participate in, experience, and enjoy the organic section of God’s complete salvation in Christ. (pp. 47-48)

Thursday, June 17, 2010

THE VISION AND REVELATION THAT THE LORD SHOWED US THROUGH WATCHMAN NEE

Watchman Nee fully believed in the scriptural, fundamental faith held by all true Christians. He believed in the verbal inspiration of the Bible and that the Bible is God’s holy Word. He believed that God is triune—Father, Son, and Spirit—distinctly three, yet fully one, co-existing and coinhering each other from eternity to eternity. He believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, even God Himself, incarnated as a man with both the human and the divine life, that He died on the cross to accomplish redemption, that He rose bodily from the dead on the third day, that He ascended into heaven and was enthroned, crowned with glory, and made the Lord of all, and that He will return the second time to receive His followers, to save Israel, and to establish His millennial kingdom on the earth. He believed that every person who believes in Jesus Christ will be forgiven by God, washed by His redeeming blood, justified by faith, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and saved by grace. Such a believer is a child of God and a member of the Body of Christ. He also believed that the destiny of every believer is to be an integral part of the church, which is the Body of Christ and the house of God.

In addition to these five aspects of the Christian faith, Watchman Nee was further enlightened to receive clear revelation from the Lord concerning fifty-three other scriptural teachings, which are crucial for fully understanding and practicing the Christian faith. (Watchman Nee—A Seer of the Divine Revelation in the Present Age, p. 151)


Thank the Lord that, according to what we know, as far as the history of the church and the existing state of the church are concerned, there has not been one age in which the Lord’s revelation to His church has been as thorough and as high as what He has revealed to us in the past seventy-four years, beginning with Brother Nee. Through Brother Nee He first showed us the matter of salvation. In those days thousands of Western missionaries went to China. Many of them had quite a measure of spiritual worth and were quite learned. But not one Western missionary taught concerning the matter of salvation in a thorough, well-rounded way. This was the case until Brother Nee was raised up by the Lord. He not only preached the gospel, but he saw the salvation accomplished by the Lord according to His redemption, from the inside to the outside, from the beginning to the end, in a complete, well-rounded way, and he also handed over everything to us. You all know about this. If you want to know the details, you need to read Brother Nee’s publications. For this reason we have compiled all his publications and printed them in three sets. Although you are all very busy, I still hope that you can read every page of those three sets.

Furthermore, through Brother Nee the Lord showed us the matter of the church. Concerning the church, the Lord showed us, on the negative side, that Christianity and Catholicism are altogether degraded and deformed. Never before had anyone spoken about the degradation of the Catholic Church and the Protestant churches in such a clear and thorough way as Brother Nee did. On the positive side, the Lord also led Brother Nee to see the local church, that is, the practical aspect of the church. He expended much effort in stressing this point. Eventually, the point of his emphasis became very clear. He enabled us to see clearly the ground of the church and the reality of the church.

Third, it was also through Brother Nee that God showed us the matter of Christ as our life. Christ is to be to us not only the Savior, the Redeemer, the Deliverer, the Grace-giver, and much more. These are not the center. The center is that Christ is to be our life. The Lord’s redeeming, saving, and giving of grace are not the goal but the procedure to reach the goal. God’s goal is Christ as our life. I say again, not only did the Western missionaries who went to China not stress this point; even in the entire history of Christianity only a handful paid attention to this point. This handful of people began mainly with Madame Guyon. Later, there were the mystics, and after them there were the inner-life people. Of course, Brother Nee stood on their shoulders, but Brother Nee saw something in a more thorough way and something higher, deeper, and richer than what they had seen.

After this God showed us the Body of Christ through Brother Nee. The Lord showed us that the local church is the procedure and not the goal. The goal of the local church is the building up of the Body of Christ. Here, regretfully, among us there were quite a number of brothers who were weighty, yet they saw only the importance of the local church and did not see the Body of Christ. Hence, they rose up to argue, saying that Brother Nee said very clearly that all local churches are autonomous, each having nothing to do with the others. Not one local church, whatever it may be, should interfere with another local church. This is their total disregard for the Body of Christ. Therefore, through Brother Nee the Lord showed us further that what God wants in the end is not the local church. Although at the end of the Bible there are seven lampstands, they all become one city, the New Jerusalem.

Although Revelation 2 and 3 show us seven different churches, …the differences among the churches are not on the positive side but on the negative side. The seven churches have their distinctive characteristics only in their negative conditions, such as their failures, degradation, mistakes, and shortages.

Not only so, Revelation does not have only three chapters. If we read on, first we see the overcomers. Although they are the overcomers in the local churches, in chapter twelve we see that they are one man-child, not seven man-children. In chapter fourteen we see that they are one group of 144,000 overcomers, not two groups, and much less seven groups. These 144,000 overcomers cannot possibly be out of one church. In the entire book of Revelation we see only one man-child, one group of overcomers. Furthermore, Peter was the apostle who set up the Jewish churches, and Paul was the apostle who set up the Gentile churches (Gal. 2:8). But at the end of Revelation the churches set up by the twelve apostles are one building, the holy city New Jerusalem, the Body of Christ. (The High Peak of the Vision and the Reality of the Body of Christ, pp. 8-10)

THE REVELATIONS AND SCRIPTURAL REALIZATIONS GIVEN BY THE LORD THROUGH WITNESS LEE

The Lord’s recovery is by definition a progression and an advance in the apprehension of the truth as revealed to the saints in the Scriptures. This advance in spiritual understanding translates into a growth in the full knowledge of Christ, that is, in the experience of Christ by the saints, which in turn issues in the building up of the Body for the fulfillment of God’s economy to gain His universal expression. Since the practical beginning of the recovery in the days of Martin Luther, there has been steady progress across the centuries, and the Lord has used many believers to advance His recovery. In the seven decades that the Lord has moved among us, first through Brother Nee and then through Brother Lee, the progress and advance of the recovery are easily perceived. During the first decades the Lord used Brother Nee to bring to light a number of revelations and scriptural realizations. (For a detailed list, see Watchman Nee: A Seer of the Divine Revelation in the Present Age, by Brother Lee, published by Living Stream Ministry, pp. 15 1-167) When Brother Lee was sent out of China in 1949, he repeated and emphasized what he had received from Brother Nee. In 1958 the Lord began to release yet more light and truth through Brother Lee, and continued to do so until Brother Lee’s last days. The truths we have received through Brother Lee since 1958 fall broadly into nine categories: God, Christ, the Spirit, salvation, life, the believers, the church, church practice, and the New Jerusalem. There are thirty-nine items.

God
First, through Brother Lee’s ministry the Lord recovered the pure revelation of the Triune God in the Scriptures. God is uniquely one in essence, or substance, and distinctly three in hypostases, or persons. The three of the Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—are eternally distinct, but They are never separate from one another, and They never act independently. Such a Triune God is the Father in Christ as the Spirit to be the life and life supply to the believers.
The second item concerning God recovered through Brother Lee’s ministry is the processed and consummated Triune God. In His eternal existence God is unchanging, but in His economical move the Triune God underwent in Christ the processes of incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension to be consummated as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17) to dwell in the believers. The third item is the dispensing of the Triune God. The processed and consummated God dispenses Himself into His chosen people to regenerate them with His divine life (1 Pet. 1:3), transform them according to His divine nature (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18), and ultimately glorify them with His divine glory (Rom. 8:30), thereby making them the same as He is in life, nature, and expression. The fourth, and perhaps greatest, item is the revelation of God’s New Testament economy (1 Tim. 1:4), which is God’s eternal plan to accomplish His eternal purpose by dispensing His very being into His chosen people (Eph. 3:8-11) to consummate the New Jerusalem as the mutual abode of the Triune God and the tripartite man (Rev. 2 1:3, 22) for His full expression in eternity.

Christ
The first item concerning Christ recovered in Brother Lee’s ministry is that the living Christ is versus dead religion. The second item is that Christ as the Head of the Body (Col. 1:18) is not merely the Leader of and pattern for the church but more intrinsically the very person of the church, out from whom all the Body has its existence, living, and work (Eph. 4:16; Col. 2:19). The third item is Christ’s full ministry in the three stages of His incarnation, His inclusion, and His intensification, through which ministry God accomplishes in full His eternal economy according to His heart’s desire. In the stage of His incarnation Christ brought God into man, expressed God in humanity, and accomplished our judicial redemption, effecting for us the forgiveness of our sins (Col. 1:14), our justification before God (Rom. 4:25; 5:18), our reconciliation to God (Rom. 5:10), and our positional sanctification (Heb. 13:12). In the stage of His inclusion, through His resurrection Christ was designated the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 1:3-4; 8:29), became the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 1 5:45b), and regenerated all His believers to be the many sons of God (1 Pet. 1:3). In the stage of His intensification, He as the life-giving Spirit is intensified to be the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 1:4; 5:6) to deal with the degradation of the church by intensifying His organic salvation, producing the overcomers, and consummating the New Jerusalem for eternity.

The Spirit
In all his ministry Brother Lee emphasized the crucial role of the Spirit in God’s economy. First, he realized that Christ has become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), who is the reality of Christ in resurrection (John 14:16-20). Second, in his study of the book of Revelation he discovered the crucial revelation concerning the sevenfold intensified Spirit (Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5: 6). While the Spirit is eternally one (Eph. 4:4), in the age of the church’s degradation the function and working of the Spirit are intensified “sevenfold” for the completion of God’s economy. Third, in his ministry Brother Lee gave us, according to the revelation of the New Testament, the fullest description of the Spirit as the all-inclusive, compounded, life-giving, indwelling, sevenfold intensified, and consummated Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God. Fourth, Brother Lee realized that the experience of Christ as the Spirit ushers us into the divine and mystical realm of the consummated Spirit and the pneumatic Christ, where we enjoy and experience what the Triune God is. Today Christ as the life-giving Spirit is ministering to us things that are not physical (and not even merely spiritual) but divine and mystical, and He is bringing us into a realm that is divine and mystical.

Salvation
Brother Lee had a very rich understanding of both the judicial and organic aspects of God’s complete salvation. The judicial aspect of God’s complete salvation was accomplished by Christ’s death for God’s judicial redemption so that we might be forgiven before God, washed, justified, reconciled to God, and sanctified unto God positionally. Having been judicially redeemed and reconciled to God, we now enjoy the organic aspect of God’s salvation, which is being carried out in Christ’s life (Rom. 5:10), as made available to us by Him as the life-giving Spirit. In such an organic salvation we are regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed to His image, and ultimately glorified.

Life
Watchman Nee was used by the Lord to recover the experience and enjoyment of the divine life by the believers. Brother Lee was led by the Lord to see the further development that this life is actually the processed Triune God being dispensed into the transformed, tripartite man
(1 Thes. 5:23; Rom. 8:10, 6,11). This dispensing transforms man into the glorious image of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18) so that man may become God’s expression.
Brother Lee saw that the Bible begins with the tree of life (Gen. 2:9) and ends with the tree of life (Rev. 22:2). The line of the tree of life is always versus the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Another major emphasis in Brother Lee’s ministry was the experience and enjoyment of Christ by eating and drinking Him (John 6:54-58). Because Christ is the life-giving Spirit today, we can practically and actually enjoy Him as our life and life supply. Brother Lee showed us that the best way to eat the Lord is to pray-read His Word, that is, to receive the Word of God by means of all prayer (Eph. 6:17-18). He also showed us that the simplest way to enjoy Christ is to call on His name. No one can call “Lord Jesus” except in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). Calling on the Lord was joyfully practiced by both the Old Testament saints (Gen. 4:26; 12:8; Isa. 12:3-4; Lam. 3:55) and the New Testament saints (Rom. 10:12-13; 1 Cor. 1:2). Brother Lee also helped us to see that because Christ is the life-giving Spirit, or Pneuma (‘Breath’), we can breathe the Lord. Actually, calling on the Lord is both a drinking (Isa. 12:3-4) and a breathing (Lam. 3:55-56).

The Believers
Brother Lee showed us from the Scriptures the organic union between the regenerated man and the processed Triune God (1 Cor. 6:17). He further showed us from the Scriptures that our relationship with the Triune God is more than a union; it is a mingling of the processed Triune God with us as the sanctified man. In this mingling His identity as God and our identity as man are distinctly preserved.
The highest peak of the divine revelation is that in God’s economy man becomes God in life and nature but not in the Godhead. Brother Lee taught that because we are begotten of God (John 1:13; 1 John 5:1) with His divine life and are partakers of His divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4), we become what He is in life and nature.
One of the last revelations given to us by the Lord through Brother Lee was the universal, divine-human incorporation of the consummated God with the regenerated believers. God in His divine Trinity is an incorporation (John 14:10-11), and the goal of God’s economy is to bring the regenerated, transformed, and glorified elect into an incorporation with the Triune God, whereby we and He become one forever (John 14:20; 17:2 1, 23).
In February 1997, in the last conference that he gave, Brother Lee said that the full experience of God’s organic salvation equals reigning in Christ’s life (Rom. 5:17). In this age we the believers can reign over sin and death by the full experience and enjoyment of Christ as life, and ultimately, in the New Jerusalem, we will reign in life with God forever (Rev. 22:5b).

The Church
One of the earliest revelations that the Lord gave Brother Lee concerning the church was that the church is the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23; Cot. 1:24). As the Body of Christ, it is an organism (John 15:1-8) and not an organization. The church is also the new man composed of the redeemed and regenerated believers from the two peoples of mankind, the Jews and the Gentiles. Those who formerly were enemies by nature, Christ has reconciled in His own Body through the cross, forming the two into one new man and making peace between them (Eph. 2:15-16). Brother Lee saw that one of the results of Christ’s work on the cross was to abolish the ordinances that divided the Jews and the Gentiles, thus opening the way for the genuine blending of all the believers in the one new man.
Brother Lee also saw that the church as the fullness of Christ results from all the saints enjoying the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8). The riches of Christ enjoyed by the saints become the fullness of Christ for His expression. The church is also the increase of Christ as the bride of Christ (John 3:29). It is the counterpart of Christ, and it matches Christ. Brother Lee also ministered concerning the organic building up of the Body of Christ as the organism of the Triune God. The universal vine with its branches (John 15:1-8) is a figure of the Body of Christ, which is the reality of this organism of the Triune God. Brother Lee also helped us to see that in its highest definition the church is the issue of the dispensing of the processed Trinity and the transmitting of the transcending Christ (Eph. 1:22).
The church, which is the result of the universal dispensing of Christ, is expressed in every Locality as the local churches. These local churches are the lampstands standing on the ground of locality to express the one unique Christ. Brother Lee saw that the local churches are the process, the procedure, while the one Body of Christ is the unique goal.

Church Practice
In his earlier years Brother Nee recovered many items of church practice for the Lord’s recovery in China, such as the breaking of bread and baptism by immersion. The goal of such practices was to bring the saints back to the scriptural way to carry out the church life and to help all the saints to function properly as living members of the Body of Christ. Brother Lee continued this recovery by stressing the importance of all the saints prophesying in the church meetings, which issues in the actual building up of the Body of Christ (1 Cot. 14:3-4, 24, 31). From Romans 15:16 Brother Lee also saw the New Testament priesthood of the gospel. He also brought us into four vital practices necessary for the building up of the Body— begetting, nourishing, perfecting, and building. First, we need to lead sinners to Christ that they might be begotten of God (1 Cot. 4:15). Then these new believers need to be nourished in an intimate way with the divine supply from the Scriptures (1 Thes. 2:7; John 21:15). As they grow in life, all the ones we care for must be perfected in the truth and in their function in the Body. Ultimately, every believer must be brought into the same work of building up the Body according to this pattern (Eph. 4:12, 16). Practically speaking, this organic building work consummates in all the members being perfected to prophesy for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Beginning in 1992 Brother Lee led the churches to enter into a new way for the increase and building up of the church, the way of the vital groups (Heb. 10:24-25). In the vital groups the saints are blended together and built up in an atmosphere of mutual love and shepherding. They also labor together to visit the unbelievers with the gospel that the church may continually increase.
In the last months of his ministry, Brother Lee stressed the need for the blending of all the saints in order to bring in the genuine reality of the Body of Christ. Through the blending many saints can be perfected to be overcomers who are built together to be today’s Zion.

The New Jerusalem
Brother Lee far surpassed other students of the Bible before him in his apprehension and appreciation of the New Jerusalem. He came to realize that the New Jerusalem is the totality of the divine revelation in the Scriptures. All the revelations in the Bible ultimately point to the consummation found in the New Jerusalem. Brother Lee also taught that the New Jerusalem is the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God mingled with His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, transformed, conformed, and glorified elect to be a universal, loving pair eternally (Rev. 21:2, 9-10).
The highest revelation concerning the New Jerusalem, and thus the highest revelation concerning the goal of God’s economy, is that the New Jerusalem is the universal incorporation of the union and mingling of divinity with humanity. As a sign, the New Jerusalem signifies that God and man will be incorporated into one existence of mutual coinherence for eternity and that divinity and humanity will be mingled forever. Brother Lee was used by the Lord to unlock the grand revelation concerning this incorporation. Before creation, God in His Trinity existed eternally as an incorporation, and as the great issue of His work in time, the New Jerusalem will be the enlargement of that incorporation to include His regenerated, transformed, and glorified elect for eternity (Rev. 21:2-3). (A Memorial Biography of Brother Witness Lee, pp. 38-41)

THE LORD’S RECOVERY

THE MEANING OF THE LORD’S RECOVERY
After the Lord sent me to the United States, I began the ministry here in December 1962. From that time until the present a little more than thirty years have passed. From the first conference I emphasized the term “the Lord’s recovery.” I told the dear saints that the Lord sent me to this country for nothing but His recovery.
Although the ministry has continued to stress the matter of the Lord’s recovery throughout these years, according to my observation, even some dear saints who have been with us for many years are still not clear concerning what the Lord’s recovery is. Because there are many new ones and young ones in the recovery, I feel very burdened concerning this matter. We need to speak about the Lord’s recovery, to fellowship about the recovery, and to make transactions among ourselves concerning the Lord’s recovery. We are here for the recovery. (1993 Blending Conference Messages Concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need, p. 13)
The word recovery means that something was there originally, and then was lost. So there is the need to bring that thing back to its original state. The word recovery is somewhat simple and not too profound, but when we speak of the Lord’s recovery we need to apply it to the revelation of the whole Bible. From this point of view the Lord’s recovery is a profound and crucial thing. In a sense the revelation of the entire Bible is a revelation of recovery. (Concerning the Lord’s Recovery, p. 7)
God is a God with an eternal purpose. He is a purposeful God, and once He has made up His mind to do something, nothing can change His mind, and nothing can stop Him. Apparently some things may frustrate Him a little, but nothing can stop Him. So after Satan’s destruction, God came in to redo the things that He had done before. This redoing is His recovery. This is to bring back whatever has been lost and destroyed by His enemy, Satan. (p. 8)
First, the Lord’s recovery is the recovery of the divine truths as revealed in the holy Scriptures, the holy Word of God (2 Tim. 3:16).…The truths as revealed in the Scriptures have been lost, missed, misunderstood, misinterpreted, and wrongly taught throughout the ages. Hence, there is the need of the Lord’s recovery. In the age of the early apostles, in the age of the church fathers, in the age of the church councils, in the age of Catholicism with the papal system, and in the age of the Protestant practice, the Lord has always recovered some of the lost, misunderstood, misinterpreted, and wrongly taught truths through some of His saints who loved Him and His holy Word. (1993 Blending Conference Messages Concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need, pp. 13-14)
THE FIRST ASPECT OF THE LORD’S RECOVERY—
THE REVELATION OF GOD
Simply, the Lord’s recovery has three aspects. The first aspect is the revelation of God. The revelation of God is the speaking of God. From Moses in the Old Testament until the apostle John in the New Testament, God spoke for more than fifteen hundred years. His speaking collectively became the completed Bible, which is in our hands today. Hence, the last book of the Bible, Revelation, says at the end that no one should add to these words or take away from these words (22:18-19).
Even before the first group of apostles passed away, the church had already veered from the word of God, the revelation of God. This was why the apostles wrote the second Epistles, such as 2 Peter, 2 Timothy, the Epistles of 2 and 3 John, etc. All these second Epistles are books of recovery.…After the first group of apostles, in church history there were the so-called church fathers, who defended the truths. However, among the church fathers, because of inadequate light, there was always much contention concerning the truths. It was not until A.D. 325 that, for the sake of maintaining the order in his empire, the Roman emperor Constantine the Great came forward to intervene by calling a meeting at Nicaea in order to quiet the contentions among the church fathers.…The Nicene Creed…was not bad in presenting the orthodox and fundamental doctrines concerning God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. It is still used by the Catholic Church and the Protestant churches. Although this creed is good, in terms of the truth it is still very lacking. Hence, the Nicene Council did not completely solve the problems concerning the truths.
The knowledge concerning the consummated Spirit of the Triune God has been very lacking for centuries.…[In the nineteenth century], when the British Brethren were raised up by the Lord, they pointed out clearly that the Holy Spirit is a person. This was because the word of the Lord Jesus clearly mentioned “the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19), and the church fathers long before had acknowledged the Holy Spirit as a person in the Godhead.…In the twentieth century the Lord’s recovery has reached us. Beginning with Brother Nee, we have read through the Bible thoroughly. We have especially dug out all the verses in the Bible concerning the Holy Spirit. Concerning the consummated Spirit, the Lord has shown us three crucial points. First, the Spirit of God has been processed to become a life-giving spirit (John 7:39; 1 Cor. 15:45b). Second, this consummated Spirit is the compound Spirit typified by the holy anointing ointment in the Old Testament (Exo. 30:23-25). Third, this Spirit has also become the seven Spirits (Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6), that is, the sevenfold intensified Spirit. These three points were not mentioned in the Nicene Creed.…Today many Christians have never heard of the processed and consummated God. Hence, what they are preaching is the unprocessed God in Genesis chapter one. However, what we have seen is the consummated God in Revelation chapter twenty-two.…The final word of the Bible is the highest authority for defining the truth. The Lord in His recovery has already shown us the highest truth defined by the Bible. (The Issue of the Union of the Consummated Spirit of the Triune God and the Regenerated Spirit of the Believers, pp. 75-77)
THE SECOND ASPECT OF THE LORD’S RECOVERY—THE GOD-MAN LIFE
Now we come to the second aspect of the Lord’s recovery, that is, the God-man life, which is the kind of living that the believers need to have. The worldly people emphasize moral and ethical living and religious living; yet these are not what God wants. What God wants is the God-man life, which is God and man living together. In your family life you should have God living together with you. As a wife, you should have God be the wife with you. As a husband, you should have God be the husband with you. As a co-worker, you should have God be the co-worker with you. Even when you go shopping, you should have God go shopping with you. I have often prayed, “Lord, are You willing to go with me? I have a few words that I want to speak to Brother So-and-so. Lord, will You go with me?” Not living alone but living together with God in this way is the God-man life.
We are not religionists living a religious life. Neither are we followers of Confucius’s teachings or Mencius’s thoughts, living a moral and ethical life. We are God-men living a God-man life. The Lord’s recovery is to recover this kind of God-man life. (p. 81)
THE THIRD ASPECT OF THE LORD’S RECOVERY—
THE PRACTICE OF THE CHURCH
…the third aspect of the Lord’s recovery, that is, the practice of the church. First, the church as the universal Body of Christ is the universal house of God and also the kingdom of God (Eph. 1:23; 1 Tim. 3:15-16; Matt. 16:18-19). These three—the Body of Christ, the house of God, and the kingdom of God—are just one. The Body of Christ is the house of God, and the house of God is the kingdom of God. (p. 84)
In conclusion, the Lord’s recovery has not only the revelation of God but also the God-man life; and the God-man life requires a proper practice of the church. I cannot say that in the church everyone is a God-man, an overcomer; but I can say that in the church the opportunity for us to be a God-man is greater, and it is easier to be an overcomer. This is because in the Lord’s recovery, every local church is daily nurturing us to be overcomers, to be God-men. I hope that the elders and the co-workers in every locality will create an environment in the church to nurture the saints to be God-men to live an overcoming life. (p. 88)
THE GOAL OF THE LORD’S RECOVERY
The Catholic Church, the Protestant denominations, the Brethren assemblies, the Pentecostal churches, and all the free groups are held back by their imperfect and unscriptural theology from the central revelation of God and come short of the completion of God’s eternal economy because of their missing, negligence of, and opposition to the above five critical points concerning the Spirit of God.…The Lord’s recovery today is just the recovery of these critical points concerning the Spirit of God in the move of God’s eternal economy.…If we are asked to explain what the recovery is today, we should be able to answer in one simple sentence: The Lord’s recovery is God becoming the flesh, the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit becoming the sevenfold intensified Spirit to build up the church that becomes the Body of Christ and that consummates the New Jerusalem.…God must have a people who are the God-men to be His overcomers for Him to accomplish His eternal economy concerning the church issuing in the Body of Christ and consummating the New Jerusalem. (The Divine and Mystical Realm, pp. 17-18)
Dear saints, such a mingling living is the reality of the Body of Christ. If among us there is, if not in full at least in part, such a living, the reality of the Body of Christ is among us. This is the high peak of the recovery in the local churches like Mount Zion in the city of Jerusalem. Such a mingling living as the reality of the Body of Christ will consummate ultimately in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth as God’s increase and expression for eternity. (The Practical Points Concerning Blending, p. 37)
What shall we do in the light of this revelation? There is no other way to reach this high peak except by praying. It is more than evident that Jerusalem is here as a big realm of Christians, but where is Zion, the overcomers? In the book of Revelation what the Lord wants and what the Lord will build up is Zion, the overcomers. The overcomers are the very Zion, where God is. This is the intrinsic reality of the spiritual revelation in the holy Word of God. We have to realize what the Lord’s recovery is. The Lord’s recovery is to build up Zion. (p. 46)
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