The Lord’s recovery depends upon our renewed and purified heart and on our renewed and strengthened spirit, for when our heart is fully possessed by Christ and our spirit is thoroughly saturated with the Spirit, God will have a way, and the recovery will be prevailing.
We need to seek to be in spirit all the time so that our mind would be renewed and our spirit would be renewed and living, and so that we would live one spirit with the Lord.
The Lord’s recovery and the church life depends on our heart and our spirit, that is, on the condition of our heart and spirit.
We may love the Lord and read His word, pray with the saints and meet in the homes, but if our heart and spirit are not in the right condition, we cannot be useful to the Lord in shepherding the saints and in caring for the new ones.
On the one hand the Lord did give us a new heart and a new spirit, but on the other hand, we need to cooperate with the Lord to maintain the newness of our heart and our spirit day by day.
We begin our Christian life by hearing the gospel and having a repentance before the Lord – this softens our heart – and by receiving the Spirit in our spirit – this renews and enlivens our spirit.
We need to maintain the newness of our heart by repenting before the Lord, and we need to maintain the newness of our spirit by contacting the Lord and exercising our spirit.
We need to have an enlarged heart, that is, we need to have largeness of heart. If we do not have a large heart, we will not accept and receive all the saints but rather, we will preferentially spend time with some saints and seek their company.
If we don’t have a large heart, we may be proud, have a narrow heart, think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, and even argue with others.
Therefore, it is good to blend, visit other localities, and participate in the Lord’s move, so that our heart may be enlarged and we would see more.
Just as the Lord forgave us, so we should forgive others, and pray that the Lord would enlarge our heart to fellowship with those who do not have the same natural makeup as we do but may be different from us.
We need to be pure in heart and poor in spirit, seeking the Lord in purity of heart and singleness in view, and we need to exercise our spirit to be emptied to receive from the Lord something fresh all the time.
We need to be simplified, that is, our view needs to be single for the Lord, focusing only on Him and on His purpose. It is not easy to seek the Lord and be in the church life with a pure heart, because many things may distract us and get our attention.
Even such good things as reading the Bible, serving in the church, visiting the saints, and singing can become a distraction from contacting God and focusing only on God.
God should be our only goal, and when we contact Him we need to have a pure heart and a spirit that is emptied and unloaded. We need to ask the Lord to empty us, unload us, and show us the need to gain more of Christ, so that we may be open and give the Lord the ground in our being to speak to us and work in us.
May we be such ones, those who are emptied in our inner being and who have a pure heart, seeking the Lord.
Praying to be in our Spirit and see a Clear Vision of the Church and of the World Situation
We need to be strengthened into our inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart, and we need to pray to be in our spirit so that we may see a clear vision of the church and of the world situation.
The apostle John was in his spirit when he saw the four major visions in the book of Revelation. We also need to be in our spirit in order to see the visions in the book of Revelation.
This book is composed of four major visions: the churches (chs. 1—3), the destiny of the world (chs. 4—16), Babylon the Great (chs. 17—20), and the New Jerusalem (chs. 21—22); John was in his spirit when he saw these four visions (1:10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10); we too need to be in our spirit to see the visions in this book.
For us to see the church, practice the church life, live in the church, and see something concerning what the Lord is doing today and what is the consummation of this age, we need to be in our spirit.
Actually, for us to see anything concerning God’s economy and for us to live the church life we need to know our spirit and be in spirit. And the best way for us to see the church and live the church life is to be in the mingled spirit.
In Rev. 1:10-12 John said, I was in spirit on the Lord’s day and heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, saying, What you see write in a scroll and send it to the seven churches…. And I turned to see the voice that spoke to me; and when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.
How can we see the church? It is by turning to our spirit. When we are in spirit, we see the church and the local churches.
Then in Rev. 4:2 John was in spirit and saw the divine throne in heavens, and whatever was happening on earth was under the sovereignty of the throne in the heavens.
We may wonder why this and that happens, but when we turn to our spirit and are in spirit, we will realise that everything is under the sovereignty of Christ, who is on the throne in the heavens.
In Rev. 17:3 John was carried away in spirit into a wilderness and saw Babylon, the apostate church. How can we see the apostate church? It is by being in spirit. Finally, in Rev. 21:10 John was carried away in spirit onto a great and high mountain to see the New Jerusalem.
When we are in spirit habitually, the Lord may carry us away in spirit and show us the churches, the sovereignty of the throne in the heavens, Babylon the Great as the apostate Church, and the consummation – the New Jerusalem.
Lord Jesus, make us persons who are in spirit, persons who live in the mingled spirit. Amen, Lord, we love our spirit. May every Lord’s day and even every day we would be in our mingled spirit. Oh Lord, we want to see the heavenly vision of the churches, the sovereignty of the throne in heavens, the apostate church, and the New Jerusalem! May we be in spirit and see the churches, even live in spirit to live the proper church life according to Your purpose for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ!
Having a Renewed and Purified Heart and a Strengthened Spirit for the Lord to have a Way among us in His Recovery
The Lord’s recovery depends not on our capacity or ability but upon on our renewed and purified heart and our renewed and strengthened spirit. If our heart is fully possessed by Christ and our spirit is fully and thoroughly saturated with the Spirit, God will have a way among us, and the recovery will be prevailing.
How can we have a renewed and purified heart, and how can we have a renewed and strengthened spirit? According to Eph. 3:17-21, when we are strengthened into our inner man by the Father through the Spirit, Christ can make His home in our heart, and we can apprehend with all the saints the universal dimensions of Christ for and in the church life.
Being strengthened into our inner man and Christ making His home in our heart are both for the church. When we are inwardly strengthened by God into our inner man and when Christ makes His home in our heart, God is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think concerning the church life.
For us to allow God to have a way among us we need to daily pray that the Lord would strengthen us into our inner man and for Christ to make His home in our heart so that we may be in spirit, see the church, and give the Lord a way among us in the church life.
The Lord’s recovery is not an ordinary Christian work or movement, for it altogether depends on our heart and spirit.
For example, the electricity is powerful, but unless there are wires and switches and electrical installations to transmit it and use it, we don’t know or experience its power.
Similarly, our God is powerful and can do so many things, as recorded in the New Testament, but unless we have a renewed heart possessed by Christ and a renewed, regenerated, and strengthened spirit, He may not have a way to manifest what He desires among us.
It is not something outward that the Lord is looking for but our heart and spirit. It is actually quite good to set aside time every day for at least thirty days to pray to the Lord, Lord, strengthen me into my spirit and make Your home in my heart.
When we pray this way, spending time with the Lord and allowing Him to make His home in our heart, we will clearly see the vision of the churches, the world, Babylon the great, and the New Jerusalem.
We will realise that the world will be judged by God, Babylon the great will fall, but the churches will consummate in the New Jerusalem, which will remain forever.
We need to pray this prayer for at least thirty days so that we may have a renewed and purified heart, and a renewed and strengthened spirit, thus giving the Lord a way to move and do what is on His heart among us.
When our heart is fully possessed by Christ and our spirit is thoroughly saturated with the Spirit, God will have a way, and the recovery will be prevailing.
Lord Jesus, grant us to have a renewed and purified heart and a strengthened spirit so that You may have a way among us in Your recovery. Strengthen us with power through Your Spirit into our inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith. May our heart is fully possessed by You and may our spirit be thoroughly saturated with the Spirit so that God would have a way and the recovery would be prevailing. Lord, we want to cooperate with You that we may have a proper heart and spirit for You to have a way in us and among us on earth!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message given by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1975-1976, vol. 2, pp. 342-345, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Taking Christ as our Person and Living Him in and for the Church Life (2018 spring ITERO), week 4, The Heart and Spirit of a Leading One.
- Hymns on this topic:
# O that Christ may make His home my heart, / Spread Himself in every part! / Saturate and life impart! / That with all saints, I may apprehend / All the vast dimensions of my loving Christ. (Song on, O that Christ may make His home)
# Make home in my heart, O Lord Jesus, / Make home in my heart, I pray; / That we may be filled with Your fullness, / Make home in my heart today. / To Him who is able to do it / Above all we think or say, / We open our hearts wide and welcome / Him into our heart today. (Hymns #1134)
# From the center to circumference / God would saturate each part; / Feeling, mind, and will renewing, / Making home in all our heart. / Thus in life we’re built together, / Then in love we’re knit as one; / God is now His plan fulfilling, / Finishing what He’s begun. (Hymns #1325)
About aGodMan
