Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (1)
Message Nine
Christ as the Resurrection and the Grain of Wheat
OPENING WORD OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Num. 17:8 And on the next day Moses went into the Tent of the Testimony, and there was the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi: it had budded; it even put forth buds and produced blossoms and bore ripe almonds.
John 12:23-24 And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Word of Appetizer
Why must we know, experience, and receive the resurrected God if we are to live in the resurrection? What is the difference between the resurrected God and the living God?
Resurrection means that everything is from God, not from us; resurrection is that only God can, we cannot; all those who know the resurrection are those who are desperate about themselves; they know they cannot. God has always been working through the cross to finish us, to bring us to the end, so that we no longer trust in ourselves, but only in the resurrected God; though the living God can do many things for man, the life and nature of the living God have not been wrought into man; when the resurrected God works, His life and nature are wrought into man.
Spiritual Burden
The budding rod signifies Christ the resurrected One, who should be our life, our living, and the resurrected life within us, and this life should sprout, blossom, and bear ripe almonds; when we live not by our natural life but by the divine life within us, we are in the resurrection, and the result is the Body of Christ.
Christ as the wheat, through His death that releases life and His resurrection that imparts life, brings all His believers into a merging with the processed Triune God. In Christ’s resurrection, the merging of the processed Triune God with the regenerated believer, an enlarged, divine-human, cosmic merging, is produced by Christ as the transfigured wheat, and has three aspects: the Father’s house, the true vine, and the children of the Spirit.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
We can experience, enjoy, and manifest Christ as the resurrection; the Spirit is the reality of the Trinity, the reality of the resurrection, the reality of the Body of Christ; the budding rod signifies Christ the resurrected One, who should be our life, our living, and the resurrected life within us, and this life should sprout, blossom, and bear ripe almonds.
We can experience, enjoy, and manifest Christ as the wheat; Christ as the wheat, through His death that releases life and His resurrection that imparts life, brings all His believers into a merging with the processed Triune God.
The Experience of Life
When we live not by our natural life but by the divine life within us, we are in the resurrection, and the result is the Body of Christ. God has always been working through the cross to finish us, to bring us to the end, so that we no longer trust in ourselves, but only in the resurrected God. God uses circumstances to work His life and nature into us.
Being a Christian is not only difficult, but impossible; only the Triune God, who is processed and ultimately completed, and who lives in us as the all-encompassing Spirit, can be a Christian; only the Spirit can be a Christian, and only the Spirit can be an overcomer.
Practice and Application
We all need to be trained by the Lord to be disciples, to become holy and mysterious people, to deny our natural life and live the divine life.
The true Christian life is to have the resurrected God added to us every day, in the morning and in the evening; to receive the power of the renewal of the divine life in the resurrection, we need to contact God, open ourselves to Him, and let Him come into us, to be the fresh increase within us every day.
PROPHESYING TOPICS—TWELVE TOPICS PER WEEK
Day 1
T1 The resurrection of Christ (Acts 13:33, 1 Pet. 1:3)
(Please illustrate that the three things God accomplished in the resurrection of Christ.)
T2 The actual Spirit of the Trinity became the reality of Christ’s body (John 16:13-15)
(Please illustrate that how this actual Spirit causes all things in the processed Trinity to become actual in the body of Christ.)
Day 2
T1 Resurrection is the basis of authority (Num. 17:8, Matt. 19:26)
(Please illustrate that the spiritual significance of Aaron’s rod budding.)
T2 The principle of all service is the budding rod (Num. 17:8, Matt. 19:26)
(Please illustrate that resurrection is God, not us; resurrection is God can, I cannot; resurrection is God’s doing, not mine. )
Day 3
T1 The living God and the resurrected God (2 Cor. 1:8-9)
(Please illustrate that the difference between the living God and the resurrected God.)
T2 The primary purpose of suffering in the universe (2 Cor. 4:6, Rom. 8:28, Heb. 12:10)
(Please illustrate that the meaning of suffering. )
Day 4
T1 We grow by the increase of God within us (2 Cor. 4:6, Col. 2:19)
(Please illustrate that God is willing to add Himself into us, but He cannot increase in us if we don’t touch Him.)
T2 Lord, I don’t want to stay the same; I want to be renewed every day (2 Cor. 4:6, Col. 2:19)
(Why might God allow the church to go through “storms” sometimes?)
Day 5
T1 The incarnation of Christ caused His divine glory to be veiled in His flesh (John 12:23-24)
(Please illustrate that how through Christ’s death, His glory was released.)
T2 Union is the result of Christ’s glorification (John 20:16-20)
(Please illustrate that God’s desire in His economy is to obtain a unique union )
Day 6
T1 There are many dwelling places in the Father’s house (John 14:23, 15:5)
(Please illustrate that these dwelling places are built up by the Father and the Son indwelling those who love Him.)
T2 The Lord is the vine, and we are the branches (John 15:5)
(Please illustrate that the true vine, as a symbol of the all-inclusive Christ, is the processed and ultimately consummated Trinity organism, whose branches are the believers in Christ. )