SPECIAL FELLOWSHIP CONCERNING THE WORLD SITUATION AND THE LORD'S MOVE
Message One
Cooperating with God to Carry Out His Move in His Economy by Knowing This Age and by Knowing the Present Truth
Scripture Reading: Ezek. 1:15-21; John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; Exo. 30:23-25; Rom. 8:2, 9-11; Isa. 30:26; Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6; 2 Pet. 1:12; Rev. 19:7-9; 21:2
I. In the book of Ezekiel God's economy and God's move in His economy are signified by a high and awesome wheel—1:15-21:
A. The hub of this great wheel signifies Christ as the center of God's economy, and the rim signifies Christ's counterpart, the church, which consummates in the New Jerusalem; the spokes of the wheel spreading from the hub to the rim signify the many believers as the members of Christ.
B. The appearing of the wheels on the earth beside the living creatures indicates that God's move on earth follows the coordination of the four living creatures.
C. God's move is the move of His economy in man to deify man to bring forth the one new man so that God in Christ may have His corporate expression and administration—vv. 10, 13, 15, 26-27; Eph. 2:15; 4:22-24; Col. 3:10-11.
D. Every local church and every individual believer should have a high and awesome wheel with them—cf. Acts 13:1-2.
E. The wheels following the living creatures indicates that the move of God's work depends upon our moving; it also indicates that if we move in faith, the Lord will follow our move—Ezek. 1:19; 2 Cor. 5:7; 4:13, 18; cf. Eccl. 11:4.
F. The wheels follow the living creatures (Ezek. 1:19, 21), and the creatures follow the Spirit, but the Spirit is in the wheels:
1. This indicates that the move of the Lord in our move is in the principle of incarnation—v. 20; cf. 1 Cor. 7:10, 12.
2. This is the Lord's move on earth today, and this is the Lord's recovery.
II. If we are going to cooperate with the Lord to carry out His move in His economy, we must know this age; to know this age is to know the age of today's Christianity in a particular way, especially in relation to the revelation of the Scriptures, the divine truths, and the genuine and proper theology:
A. Not one of today's theologies, including the Nicene Creed, stresses adequately the following five critical points concerning the Spirit of God in the move of God's eternal economy:
1. The Spirit that gives life was not yet before the glorification (resurrection) of Christ—John 7:37-39.
2. The last Adam (Christ in the flesh) became a life-giving Spirit (fulfilling John 7:39)—1 Cor. 15:45b; hence, 2 Corinthians 3:17 says that "the Lord is the Spirit," and the following verse uses the Lord Spirit as a compound divine title.
3. The compound Spirit is typified by the anointing ointment (a compound of one hin of olive oil with four kinds of spices and their effectiveness) in Exodus 30:23-25.
4. The Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, Christ Himself, and the indwelling Spirit in Romans 8:2, 9-11, all refer to the compound Spirit that gives life.
5. The Spirit of God in the move of God's eternal economy is the seven Spirits (the sevenfold intensified Spirit, cf. the sevenfold sunlight—Isa. 30:26) of God—Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6.
B. 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.
C. 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.
III. Second Peter 1:12 mentions the words the present truth:
A. All the truths are in the Bible, but through man's foolishness, unfaithfulness, negligence, and disobedience, many truths were lost and were hidden from man; freshly revealed truths are not God's new inventions; rather, they are man's new discoveries.
B. Every worker of the Lord should inquire before God as to what the present truth is; we need to ask God, "God, what is the present truth?"
C. We know that God's truths are cumulative; later truths do not negate former ones.
D. All the past truths of God form the foundation of the truths today; what we see today are the cumulative revelations of God.
E. When God opens our eyes to see this fact, we begin to realize that we are living in the tide of God's will; this tide is a continuation of all the past works of God in the previous ages.
F. May God be gracious to us so that we do not become the castaways of "the present truth"; may we be watchful, and may we not allow the flesh to come in or the self to gain any ground; may God's will be accomplished in us.
IV. The present truth is both the central revelation of God and the Lord's present recovery:
A. 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.
B. This is the full ministry of Christ in three stages (incarnation, inclusion, and intensification), and this is the central revelation of God and the present truth:
1. In the first stage, the stage of His incarnation, from His human birth to His death, He brought the infinite God into the finite man, He united and mingled the Triune God with the tripartite man, He expressed in His humanity the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic virtues, and He accomplished His all-inclusive judicial redemption—John 1:1, 14; Matt. 1:18, 20; John 5:19; 4:34; 17:4; 14:10, 24; 5:30; 7:18; 1:29; Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19.
2. In the second stage, the stage of His inclusion, from His resurrection to the degradation of the church, He was begotten by God to be God's firstborn Son, He became the life-giving Spirit, and He regenerated the believers for His Body—Acts 13:33; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 1 Pet. 1:3.
3. In the third stage, the stage of His intensification, from the degradation of the church to the consummation of the New Jerusalem, He intensifies His organic salvation, He produces the overcomers, and He consummates the New Jerusalem—Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6; 2:1-7; 19:7-9; 21:2.
4. We need to do a work of three sections: a work in the stage of incarnation to produce redeemed people, a work in the stage of inclusion to produce the churches, and a work in the stage of intensification to produce the overcomers to build up the Body, which consummates in the New Jerusalem as the unique goal of God's economy.