Search
“...the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” Ephesians 1:23
Scripture Reading: Ephesians 1:23
God had an eternal plan before the foundation of the world. There are two goals in this plan. The first is to make all things express Christ, and the second is to make man like Christ, that man would have His life and glory. While God desires to accomplish these two goals, He encounters two problems: Satan’s rebellion and man’s fall.
On the day the archangel saw that Christ was the center of all things, he became jealous because of his pride. He wanted to raise himself to the same position as God’s Son. He rebelled because he wanted to rob Christ of His position as the center. One-third of the angels followed him to rebel against God, and on that day all the living creatures on the earth also followed him. Satan’s rebellion made everything a chaos, which could not express Christ. The universe is one big entity. We learn from science that if one speck of dust is out of order, the whole universe can become chaotic and be in confusion. Today, even though all things can express God’s glory, they cannot express God Himself.
God created man in order that first he would have the life and glory of Christ, and He intended to put all things under man’s subjection so that man would bring everything back to God. Second, He created man so that man would cooperate with God to deal with the rebellious Satan.
But man also fell. Therefore, now God has to accomplish two goals and solve two problems. In order to accomplish His two goals, God has to (1) save fallen man and (2) remove the rebellious Satan.
In order to carry out God’s two goals and solve His two problems, the Lord Jesus became a man and accomplished redemption. The Lord Jesus is not only the Christ to mankind, but also the Christ to all things. Christ is the centrality and the universality. Universality means that He is not limited by time or space. Christ is not only the Christ of the Jews or the Christ of the church, but He is also the Christ of all things. He is all and in all.
There are three aspects to Christ’s redemption: (1) substitution, for the individual; (2) representation, for the church; and (3) heading up, for all things. Christ as the Head includes all things. When the Head died, everything included in the Head died also. Christ’s death is an all-inclusive death. Christ’s death as the Head brought all things and mankind into death, so that all things and mankind are now reconciled to God.
Christ dealt with everything on the cross. He crushed the serpent’s head and dealt with the rebellious Satan and all his works on the cross. He saved fallen mankind on the cross. He brought back all things and reconciled them to God on the cross. On the cross He gave His life to man so that man can be like Him.
Therefore, we can see that God has two goals and also two problems. By means of the cross, Christ accomplished God’s two goals and also solved God’s two problems.
In what position has God put the church? What mission does God want the church to bear on the earth? Why did God allow Satan, whose head had been crushed, to remain on the earth?
God wants the church on earth not only to preach the gospel to save sinners but also to testify of Christ’s victory on the cross. God allows Satan to remain on the earth in order to provide us the opportunities to testify to His Son’s victory. God expects that we would testify to His Son’s victory. All failing believers damage this testimony.
The church is the Body of Christ. The Body should continue the work of the Head. The church is the fullness of Christ. What overflows from Christ is the church. The church should continue the works of the four Gospels.
There are three very crucial things in the New Testament: (1) the cross, (2) the church, and (3) the kingdom. Christ on the cross accomplished redemption and victory. The kingdom is for the manifestation of the accomplishment of Christ’s redemption and His victory. At present, the church is maintaining on earth Christ’s accomplishment on the cross. The cross is God’s proper judgment according to the law, while the kingdom is the execution of God’s authority. The church lies in the middle; it maintains the accomplishment of the cross on the one hand and is a foretaste of the power of the coming age on the other hand.
Satan cannot overcome the individual Christ, but he can insult the individual Christ through the corporate Christ. Failure of the Body is failure to the Head. A member’s failure is the Body’s failure. We are the continuation of Christ. We are to extend Christ (Isa. 53:10) just as we extended Adam. God allows us to remain on earth for the purpose of accomplishing His eternal plan and achieving His eternal goal.
Before the ark entered Jerusalem, it was in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite (2 Sam. 6). We should be faithful to take care of the blood upon the ark (Christ’s work) and the cherubim upon the ark (God’s glory).
(Afternoon, January 24)
Scripture Reading: Revelation 3:21
All victories should take the victory of Christ as a pattern: “As I also overcame.”
The Bible tells us that we have three different enemies: (1) the flesh, within us, (2) the world, outside of us, and (3) Satan, above and below us. As far as the church’s ascended position is concerned, Satan is below us.
There were three nations in the Old Testament that typified these three enemies. Amalek typifies the flesh; we should overcome it with our prayer. Egypt typifies the world; it should be buried in the Red Sea. The Canaanites typify the powers of Satan; they should be overcome and removed one by one.
The flesh is against the Spirit (Gal. 5:17). The world is against the Father. If any man loves the world, the love for the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15). Satan is against Christ. Christ came to destroy Satan (1 John 3:8). Therefore, subjection to the Spirit is victory over the flesh, the love for the Father is victory over the world, and faith in Christ is victory over Satan.
The first thing that came in was the flesh. One day, the archangel tried to uplift himself to be like God by means of the “self,” and the “self” entered the world. This was the beginning of sin, the world, and Satan.
At the time God created man, He bestowed on him the highest ability, the ability to reproduce, by which he can pass his life on to his offspring. Originally God expected man to eat the fruit of the tree of life so that he would have God’s life to pass on to his offspring. God forbade him to eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Satan came and committed spiritual fornication with the first couple in their soul. Satan put his poisonous seed within them so that they passed this on to their offspring. Satan is the father of liars. The seed of Satan is lies. The seed of God is truth. The principle with which Satan beguiled Adam to sin is the same principle as that which caused Satan himself to sin at the beginning.
Satan has his household and kingdom. He gains men to be the members of his household and citizens of his kingdom so that he can be the king over them.
After Satan beguiled man to sin, his work was confined from the universe to just the earth, the world. He was cursed: “Upon your stomach you will go, / And dust you will eat / All the days of your life” (Gen. 3:14). He could only move on the earth and could only have man, who comes out of the dust, for his food. This was a great defeat for Satan. Man’s fall is a great victory for God.
Satan has his system on the earth. His organization becomes the present world. Satan is the king of this organization, while the whole world lies under his hand.
Before the Lord Jesus began to minister, He was baptized. This means that His work during the three and a half years was carried out after His death and resurrection. As a result, there was no flesh in His work. We can call this three and a half years as a living of the cross. The Lord Jesus never walked according to His will but according to the will of Him who sent Him. He did the Father’s will and also waited for the Father’s time (John 7:6).
Satan tempted the Lord to do something without God’s word by asking Him to turn stones into bread. But the Lord answered and said that man shall live on every word of God (Matt. 4:4). He said many times that He only spoke what He had heard, and in John 5:30 He said, “I can do nothing from Myself.” This means that He did not consider the self as His source. Satan always wants man to justify himself after God has already justified him. This is like Satan trying to persuade the Lord to declare that He was the Son of God after God had already declared this.
The crucifixion of the Lord was according to the will of God. He prayed in Gethsemane, “Not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:39). “If this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done” (Matt. 26:42). At the end He said, “The cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18:11). To be able to accept the cross is a victory. Not to be shaken by things inwardly or outwardly is a victory. Overcoming is having nothing of the flesh within, nothing of the world without, and nothing of Satan below. Throughout His life, the Lord did not allow the flesh to come into His living. He always put aside the flesh. The Lord was the first One from whom Satan could gain nothing. Neither the flesh nor the world had any ground in Him.
God’s salvation of man is to save him from the flesh, the world, and Satan. God wants us to refuse everything that is from the world, earth, self, flesh, and Satan. Satan attacks us through the world and flesh. Only those who are absolutely spiritual, who have absolutely refused the worldly system and the will of the flesh, will be attacked by Satan directly.
The cross of Christ needs the Body of Christ. If a sinner merely accepts the cross objectively, only he himself will gain something. However, if we accept the cross subjectively, God will gain something. The cross of Christ cuts off like a knife everything of the old creation, while His resurrection brings us into a new beginning.
The victory of Christ is seen in (1) the crucifixion which removes the whole old creation on the negative side, (2) the resurrection which brings in a new beginning on the positive side, and (3) the ascension which secures for Him the position of victory.
The church lives out Christ’s victory on earth by the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. The cross should be planted in the center of our life. God wants us to be responsible for the cross’ cutting off of that part of the old creation which is known to us. God does not want us to be responsible for that part of the old creation which is not known to us.
(Afternoon, January 25)
Scripture Reading: Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21
The reason that the church is on the earth is to maintain the victory of Christ on the cross and bind Satan in each locality as the Lord bound him on Calvary. On the cross the Lord has condemned Satan according to the law. Now God desires that the church execute this judgment on the earth.
Satan knows that the church will be involved in his defeat. This is why he persecutes and tries to deceive the church with his falsehood. He is a murderer and a liar. The church is not afraid of his angry countenance but of his smiling face. The Acts of the Apostles is the record of how the church passed through death into life. God used Satan’s attack to display Christ’s victory. However, the church gradually became degraded. For example, there were the falsehood of Ananias and Sapphira, the greediness of Simon, the admission of false brothers, the care of many for their own affairs, and the forsaking by many of Paul when he was in prison.
After the failure of the church, God searched for a small number of people in the church to become His overcomers, those who would bear the responsibility which the church should have picked up but did not. God wanted a small number of faithful ones to represent the church and maintain the victory of Christ. In all of the seven ages of the church, there are God’s overcomers. This line of overcomers has never been broken. The overcomers are not special people. The overcomers of God are a group of people who are one with God’s original purpose.
According to the Bible, when God wants to do something, He first chooses a small number of people as a base and then works the same thing into the majority of the people. The record of the age of the patriarchs proves this principle is true. At that time, God chose men here and there in a scattered way. There were men like Abel, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham. From Abraham, the record went on to the Israelites; from the dispensation of the patriarchs, to the dispensation of the law; from the dispensation of the law, to the dispensation of grace; from the dispensation of grace, to the dispensation of the kingdom; and from the dispensation of the kingdom, to the new heaven and new earth. The kingdom is a precursor to the new heaven and new earth. The altar and the tabernacle of the dispensation of the law typify items of the dispensation of grace. This is the principle of God’s work; it always goes from few to many.
Colossians 2:19 says, “And...holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.” “Joints” are for supply, while “sinews” are for the knitting together. The Head supplies and knits together the whole body through the joints and sinews. Only the overcomers can be the supplying joints and the connecting sinews.
Jerusalem typifies the church. Within Jerusalem, there was Mount Zion. One typifies the whole body of the church, while the other typifies the overcomers of the church. Jerusalem is large, while Zion is small. The stronghold of Jerusalem is Zion. Whenever there is something that has to do with God’s heart desire, Zion is mentioned. Whenever there is something that has to do with the failures and sins of the Jews, Jerusalem is mentioned. God always allowed Jerusalem to be trodden down, but He always protected Zion. There is a New Jerusalem, but there never will be a new Zion, because Zion can never become old. Every time the Old Testament speaks of the relationship between Zion and Jerusalem, it shows us that the characteristics, the life, the blessing, and the establishment of Jerusalem come from Zion. In 1 Kings 8:1, the elders were in Jerusalem, and the ark of the covenant was in Zion. Psalm 51:18 says that God did good to Zion and built the walls of Jerusalem. Psalm 102:21 says that the name of the Lord was in Zion and that His praise was in Jerusalem. Psalm 128:5 says that the Lord blessed out of Zion and that the good was seen in Jerusalem. Psalm 135:21 says that the Lord dwelt at Jerusalem but that the Lord was to be blessed out of Zion. In Isaiah 41:27 the word was first announced to Zion and then preached to Jerusalem. Joel 3:17 says that when God dwelt in Zion, Jerusalem would be holy.
Today God is looking for the one hundred and forty-four thousand amidst the defeated church, who will stand on Mount Zion (Rev. 14). God always uses a small number of believers to pass on the flow of life to the church and to revive the church. As the Lord has done once before, so these overcomers have to pour out their blood before life can flow out to others. On behalf of the church, the overcomers take the stand of victory and also suffer tribulation and despising.
Thus, the overcomers of God need to give up what they consider as right. They have to pay the price and allow the cross to cut off all the old creation and deal with the gates of Hades (Matt. 16:18).
Are you willing to endure heartache to gain the heart of God? Are you willing to let yourself be defeated so that the Lord can be the Victor? When your obedience is fulfilled, God will deal with all disobedience (2 Cor. 10:6).
(Afternoon, January 26)
Scripture Reading: Joshua 3:6, 8, 13, 15-17; 4:10-11, 15-18; 2 Corinthians 4:10-12
In considering the overcomers, we need to pay attention to two things: (1) God chose a few persons to take the place of all the people who failed. (2) God made the few carry out God’s command first, and then He worked the same thing into the majority.
God chose the Israelites to be a kingdom of priests among all people (Exo. 19:5-6), but they failed because they worshipped the golden calf at Mount Sinai. God then chose the sons of Levi, who had done His command, to be His overcomers to replace the Israelites as the priests (Exo. 32:15-29).
Originally God intended that the whole tribe of Israel be the priests. But because they worshipped the idol, God made the Levites to replace the Israelites as the priests.
God works on a few persons first. Then He works on the majority of the people through these few. Before God could deliver the Israelites, He first had to deliver Moses. God had to deliver Moses out of Egypt before He could deliver the Israelites out of Egypt. God had to deal with David to gain him first, before He could deliver the Israelites from the hand of the Philistines and could make them a nation. All spiritual goals must be fulfilled by spiritual means. God had to deal with Moses and David to the extent that they would no longer try to fulfill God’s will by their flesh or exercise their flesh to render God the help.
First God gained twelve people, then one hundred and twenty, and finally He established the church. God allows a few persons to take up the responsibility which the majority should but would not. The principle of the overcomers is for God to allow a few persons to do something that results in blessing for the majority. He makes a few persons to stand in death so that the majority will receive life. God plants the cross into their heart for them to experience the principle of the cross in their family and their environment. The result of this is that life is poured into others. God needs channels of life in order to pour out life to others.
God put the priests in the place of death so that the Israelites would have a way to the land of life. The priests were the first ones to go into the water and the last ones to come up out of the water. They were the overcomers of God. Today God is seeking for a group of people who, like the priests of old, step into the water, that is, walk into death first. They are willing to be dealt with by the cross first, to stand in the place of death in order that the church will find the way of life. God must first put us in the place of death before others can receive life. The overcomers of God are the pioneers of God.
The priests could not do much by themselves; they merely bore the ark. They had to bear the ark of the covenant and go down into the midst of the water. We have to let Christ be the center, to put on Christ, and to go down to the water. The feet of the priests were standing on the riverbed while their shoulders were bearing the ark. They were standing in death, while lifting up Christ.
The bottom of the river is the position of death; it is not comfortable, attractive, or restful. They were not sitting there, nor lying there, but standing there. If I live in my temper, Christ cannot live in others. If I stand at the bottom of the river, others will cross over the Jordan victoriously. Death works in me, but life works in others. If I die in submitting to God, life will work in others to make them also submit to God. The death of Christ works His life into us. Without death, there is no life.
To bear the ark of the covenant at the bottom of the river is a great suffering. They needed to be very careful. If they were not careful, the holy God would destroy them. They stood there watching the Israelites crossing one by one. Yet they were set to be last. The apostle said, “God has set forth us the apostles last”; “we have become as the offscouring of the world, the scum of all things, until now” (1 Cor. 4:9, 13). He wished all would believe in the gospel but not be like him with chains on his hands (Acts 26:29). Do I want a good report, an easy life, or sympathy? Or do I want the church of God to gain life? May we be able to pray, “Lord, let me die so that others can gain life.” God has said clearly that this is not an easy matter. Yet only in this way will God accomplish His eternal plan.
Before they could come out, they waited at the bottom of the river for all of God’s people to cross over. We cannot come out of death before the kingdom comes. Eventually Joshua commanded, saying, “Come up out of the Jordan” (Josh. 4:17). Our triumphant Joshua will tell us to come up out of the water. This will happen at the beginning of the kingdom.
Many people are not disobedient; they are merely not obedient enough. It is not that they have not paid the price, but that they have not paid enough. It is not that they would not spend the money, or that they would not raise an army, but what they do is not adequate (Luke 14:25-35). Without going through the cross, one cannot reach Gethsemane. Without dealing with the cross, one cannot say, “Your will be done.” Many people like the calling of Abraham, yet they do not like the consecration on Mount Moriah.
Have you ever envied others’ easy living? God has put us at the river bottom in order that we would be His overcomers. He put us in chains in order that others can receive the gospel. Death works in me but life in others. This is the only channel of life. The life that flows into us has passed through two pipes, Paul and Martin Luther. The Lord’s death first fills us with life, and then this life flows to others (2 Cor. 4:10-12).
The work of God’s overcomer is to stand upon Christ’s death so that others can gain life. The words of the Bible must first be realized by us before we can preach them. The light of the truth must first become life to us before it will become light to others. God makes His overcomers first see a truth and confirm such truth before He gains some others to obey this truth. Truth must first be constituted in us and become a part of our being. We ourselves must first have the experience of faith, prayer, and consecration before we can tell others what faith, prayer, and consecration are. Otherwise, we will only have the terms without the content. God wants us to go through death first after which He will give others life. We first must pass through the sufferings and the pain before others can have the life. To learn God’s truth, one must stand at the bottom of the river first. The reason the church cannot gain the victory by crossing over to the good land is that there is a shortage of priests who will stand in the bottom of the Jordan. Those who stand in the bottom of the Jordan will create a seeking heart in others. If a truth is deeply constituted in us, it will attract others to pursue the truth. Today, many of God’s truths need to be constituted in man. When we allow a truth to be constituted in us, we are allowing the Body of Christ to grow one more inch. The overcomers are those who receive life from above to supply the Body.
(Afternoon, January 27)
Who are God’s overcomers? The overcomers are the ones who allow their “self” to remain in the place of death in order that others might have the life. These ones are like the priests who bore the ark through the Jordan, who themselves stood in the place of death in order that the people of God could pass through. What does death here signify? What does it mean to stand in the place of death? This is a very crucial point; it has to do with the going on of God’s people. This is the one thing that God is concerned with the most today. For this reason, it should also be the one thing that we are concerned with the most.
The truths in the Bible are not put together in bits and pieces. Behind every truth, there is something living. The letter of the truth is dead; it does not have life. In order for the truth to become living, there is the need for a living spirit. Many truths in the Bible are read, preached, and believed by men. But these truths must be experienced, dealt with, and transformed into life before they can become powerful to us. Many people think that those people who are more intelligent will receive more scriptural truths than others or will understand more of the things of God. This is absolutely wrong. Spiritual truths are not limited by our natural wisdom. Many people think that they can help others by acquiring something by their own strength and wisdom and conveying the same to others. Actually, this will not give life to others.
John 1 says that the Lord is the light of life. Many people think that as long as they understand this truth and preach this truth, everything will be all right. They think that the truth is the truth and that it is not necessary that it has to have anything to do with the person himself. But this is not God’s way. His way is first to constitute the truth in a man, so that the truth becomes part of his constitution before he can preach this truth to others. A man must be dealt with, cut open, and saturated by the truth in a deep way before he can convey this truth to others. If a truth has never gone through God’s constituting work, it will not produce any effect on man.
Let me give you a few illustrations.
The first item is faith. What is faith? It does not mean that you know about faith on Saturday and then preach it on the Lord’s Day. You may have the letter but not have seen the thing itself. This is like talking to primitive people about the electric light. They may know the term but never have seen the thing itself. They may act like they understand. But in fact, they do not know what the thing is.
Therefore, God must first deal with you through matters; you first must be dealt with in the matter of faith and allow God’s faith to be constituted in you before you can convey to others what is constituted in you. Only then can you render help to others. Only when death works in you will life work in others.
Next, let us consider prayer. Teaching others to pray is not a matter of preparing or composing some doctrines on prayer. God has to take you through many environments before He can teach you the lesson on prayer. Only after many such experiences will you be able to tell others the way to pray. In everything, you must first be God’s experiment.
Real prayer requires more strength than I exert in preaching. Many times we think that as long as we can deliver a good message, everything will be all right. But we have to realize that it is only after we have prayed thoroughly that our message will flow into others.
What we have mentioned above is the principle of God. This principle states that one must first go through sufferings and pay the price to have the experience before he can communicate the truth to others. Such ones are the overcomers according to God’s desire.
Let us again take up the matter of consecration as an illustration. What is absolute consecration? The Bible speaks of this, and men talk about this. But many only have the letters without having seen the thing itself. This is like a person reading a dictionary; he can read the words in the dictionary, but he does not know what the words indicate. The same is true with the church of God. One day when God compares your family, your work, your possessions, your career, and your loved ones with Christ, you will realize what it is to live for the Lord. What will you choose? Will you choose Christ or something else? Will you bargain with God? No truth can be acquired without paying a price. I am afraid that many people have learned the truth but do not have any experience of it.
How much of the truth in you has never been constituted? How much of what you know has never been realized in you? From this we see that men today do not even know what obedience is, what prayer is, and what faith is. There is no short cut to learning God’s truth. The seed determines what the plant eventually will be. How a worker is, determines how the ones he works on will be. If you are not a serious person, the fruit you bear will surely not be serious. If you are a sober person, the fruit you bear will be sober. The kind of person you are determines the kind of fruit you will produce. I have seen men preaching the doctrine of “dying with Christ,” “living with Christ,” and “ascending with Christ,” but the person himself had nothing to do with the spiritual things he was speaking of.
Once I asked Miss Barber how one can produce the sense of the need of life within others and generate a hunger within them. She replied, “On the one hand, this matter depends on God. But on the other hand, there are things that the workers themselves have to be responsible for. Let us not consider God’s side for now. On the worker’s side, whether or not he can create in others a spiritual hunger does not depend on what he says but on what he is. When an advanced one is put together with one who has not made much progress, that one will spontaneously realize his backwardness. When an obedient one is put together with a disobedient one, the disobedient one will spontaneously recognize his own disobedience. In the same way, when a holy one is put side by side with an unholy one, the unholy one will spontaneously realize his own unholiness. If you are not that type of person, you will not be able to produce that type of hunger in others.”
The nature which we have inherited in regeneration is very prone to imitate. If you put it in front of holiness, it will spontaneously incline toward holiness. If you put it in front of obedience, it will spontaneously learn to obey. We should be a group of people who take the lead to grow before God. Today God is attracting others to the shore through the experience of the cross and the endurance of sufferings in the life of the overcomers. The ones who entered the water first were the priests; they took the lead to stand in the death water. The overcomers are the pioneers; they open up a way in the midst of darkness and take the lead into death. Only by doing this will they be able to help others to go through in the same way.
Believers in the past mostly stumbled their way through. But believers today are told of the way others have stumbled through. All they have to do today is to obey and allow the truth already released to be constituted in their very being. These are the ones who have the ark on their shoulders, whose feet are on the earth, and who are standing firmly on the ground of death. Only by bearing Christ on our shoulder in this way can we be God’s overcomers. If God cannot gain us as such a group of overcomers, He will have to find someone else.
Every time the cross comes upon you, or every time God deals with you, are you willing to accept the dealing, or will you run away from it? This is the crucial question today.
(Afternoon, January 28)
Scripture Reading: Judges 6:1-6, 11-35; 7:1-8, 19-25; 8:1-4
Now we come to the matter of selecting the overcomers, of how to separate the overcomers from the non-overcomers.
Numbers says that every male of the Israelites from twenty years old and upward had to be a soldier to go forth to war for the Lord. At the time of the Judges, the Israelites had failed. In order for God to deliver them all, He had to select three hundred men who would fight the battle which the others should but did not fight. The others had failed and would not fight for Jehovah anymore. Many people know how to keep the faith and finish the course, yet they do not know how to fight the good fight.
It is easy to be humble before God, but it is very difficult to be humble before man in comparison with others. Saying, “I am the least” is easy, but saying, “I am the least in my father’s house” is not easy. Saying, “My family is poor” is easy, but saying, “My family is poor in Manasseh” is not easy (Judg. 6:15). The overcomers do not see the shining on their own faces, though others may see it. All those who see the shining on their own faces through a mirror are not overcomers. Though David was anointed, he still considered himself a dog. The overcomers have the reality of an overcomer rather than the name of an overcomer.
No one can work without seeing a vision. If one has the vision, though he may encounter difficulties, he will still reach his goal. When we have the Lord’s word, we can cross to the other side. When we have the vision, our footsteps will be steadfast in our work.
We need to offer up ourselves, even what we regard to be the least, to the hand of God. It does not matter whether we see ourselves as big or as small. If we do not put ourselves in the hand of God, both are equally futile. All living sacrifices that are according to God’s will are acceptable to God. The overcomers were called by God. Have you heard and answered the call to the overcomers in Revelation 2 and 3?
After one has consecrated himself in his heart, he still needs to tear down the idols as an outward testimony. We need to be aware of ourselves, our family, and those with whom we have contact. Anything that occupies equal standing with God should be torn down. Only those who have seen God know what an idol is. Only those who have seen the Angel of God, who is the Lord, know that anything besides the Lord is an idol. Only after one has seen the Angel of God will he realize that the wooden image is not God. The sacrifice on the rock (Judg. 6:21) is for the individual, but the sacrifice on the altar (v. 24) is for the multitude.
After having passed through these four steps, the Holy Spirit came upon Gideon. The filling of the Holy Spirit does not come as a result of prayer for power. When a man stands in the proper condition, the Holy Spirit will come upon him.
The blowing of the trumpet (v. 34) is a call for others to join the ranks of the overcomers. Overcomers should not act independently. We should separate ourselves from the defeated ones, but we should not separate ourselves from the other overcomers.
The first selection resulted in twenty-two thousand people leaving. They left because (1) they wanted to glorify themselves. We are willing to give up our life but not to give up our glory. Not only do we have to overcome Satan, we have to overcome ourselves as well. God wants only those who will work for Him without boasting about it. After working for God, we should merely say, “We are unprofitable slaves” (Luke 17:10). We should forget how much we have plowed, how many sheep we have shepherded. God cannot divide His glory between Him and us. If we still expect anything for ourselves, we will be eliminated. These ones also left because (2) they were fearful and afraid (Josh. 7:3). Whoever is fearful and afraid will be asked to leave. One must not love himself but must endure suffering. The greatest suffering is not material but spiritual. Whoever wants to glorify himself and is fearful and afraid will be eliminated. Overcoming does not depend on the number of people but on knowing God.
The selection this time was based on a very small matter, that of drinking. A small matter always exposes what we are. In those days both the Jews and the Arabs carried their luggage on their backs when they traveled. There were two ways to drink water along the way. One was to put down the luggage and kneel, bowing down to the ground to drink with the mouth. The other was to leave the luggage on the back and drink by putting the hand to the mouth. The latter was done for the sake of saving time for the journey and also for guarding oneself from robbers. Among the ten thousand, nine thousand and seven hundred drank with their mouths directly to the water, while three hundred drank by putting water in their hand to the mouth. Those who drank directly with their mouths were eliminated by God. Those who drank by bringing water in their hand to the mouth were selected by God. A person who has the chance to indulge himself but who will not do so is one who has been dealt with by the cross. This kind of person can be used by God. God can only use those who are willing to be unconditionally dealt with by the cross.
The three conditions by which God selects the overcomers are: (1) being absolute for God’s glory, (2) being afraid of nothing, and (3) allowing the cross to deal with the self. One can judge for himself if he is an overcomer. God will test us, and we will be exposed as to whether or not we are overcomers. Only those who know the victory of the cross will be able to maintain the victory of the cross.
God gave Gideon three hundred men and made them one body. Individual victory is not proper. Gideon and those three hundred men moved together and acted in one accord. All of their flesh was cut off, so they could be one. This is the oneness in the Spirit and a living in the Body. The record in the New Testament is a record of meetings rather than a record of working.
The three hundred men fought the battle, yet the whole congregation chased the enemy. The three hundred labored, yet the whole congregation reaped the harvest. When we overcome, the whole body is revived. To stand at the bottom of the river is not for ourselves, but for the whole body. “I...fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His Body, which is the church” (Col. 1:24). To be an overcomer, we also have to suffer the murmurings of the people, in the same way that Gideon suffered the murmurings of the men from Ephraim. Gideon not only defeated the Midianites from without but also defeated the Midianites from within. Only this kind of person can continue to overcome. They were “weary yet pursuing” (Judg. 8:4b).
(Afternoon, January 29)
Scripture Reading: Matthew 18:18; Ephesians 6:12-13; 1:20-22; 2:6; Mark 11:23-24
To be God’s overcomer, one has to learn to pray with authority by exercising Christ’s authority. In the Bible prayer is not merely a petition but a representation of authority. Prayer is to command with authority.
God’s overcomer must first be faithful to deny the self, the world, and Satan. We should first allow God to defeat us by the cross, that is we should allow ourselves to be defeated before God. Second, we must know how to apply Christ’s authority. We should exercise Christ’s authority to defeat Satan, that is, we should win the victory over Satan. Authoritative prayers are not petitions but commands. There are two kinds of prayer: petitioning prayers and commanding prayers. Isaiah 45:11 says, “Command Me.” We can command God to do something. This is a commanding prayer.
Commanding prayer begins from Christ’s ascension. Christ’s death and resurrection solved God’s four big problems. The death of Christ solved all the problems in Adam. His resurrection granted us a new position. His ascension seated us in the heavens, far above all rule, authority, power, lordship, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. Ephesians 1 refers to Christ’s ascension far above all principality and power. Chapter two refers to the fact that we are also seated in the heavens with Him. Therefore, as Christ is far above all rule and authority, we also are far above all rule and authority.
Ephesians 1 tells us that Christ’s position is in the heavens. Chapter two tells us of our position in Christ, which is that we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies. Chapter six tells us what we do in the heavenlies. We are to sit in the heavenlies and pray by issuing commanding prayers with the authority of Christ’s victory.
A common prayer is one that prays from earth to heaven. A commanding prayer is one that prays from heaven to earth. Matthew 6 is a prayer of petition; it is upward. Ephesians 6 is a commanding prayer; it is downward. We are sitting in the heavenlies issuing prayers of command. Amen in Hebrew means “definitely so.” This is a command. Satan, at the beginning of all battles, tries to dislodge our position as victors in the heavenlies. To battle means to fight for our position, while to overcome means to occupy our position. In Christ we sit in the heavenly position and are able to pray with authoritative prayer.
The words “for this reason” in Mark 11:24 indicate that verse 23 is also on prayer. But verse 23 does not tell us to pray to God. It merely says, “Whoever says to this mountain,” that is, commands the mountain. It is not a direct speaking to God, but it is still a prayer, a prayer of command. It is not to ask God to do something but to exercise God’s authority to deal with the mountain, the things that hinder us. Absolute faith comes out of absolute knowledge of God’s will. Only with this faith can we speak to the mountain. We command what God has already commanded and decide what God has already decided. We have faith through having a full knowledge of God’s will.
The one who sits on the throne is God, who is the Lord. The one who is under the throne is the enemy. Prayer unites us to God. The overcoming ones, the reigning and ruling ones, know how to pray and exercise the authority of God’s throne. (This authority of God’s throne governs the world.) We may turn to the throne and apply the authority there to call a brother to come. (Hudson Taylor did this before.) In order to rule over the church, the world, and the authority in the heavenlies, the overcomers have to exercise the authority of the throne. In England about ten years ago, there were some brothers who had applied the authority of God’s throne to govern the political changes. This is to rule over the nations. Spiritual battle is not only defensive but also offensive. We will not only rule over the nations but also over Hades and all rule, authority, power, and lordship. May God grant us to know how to exercise Christ’s authority. All things are under Christ’s feet. He is the Head of the church. When we exercise Christ’s authority, all things will be under our feet also.
Matthew 18:18-19 refers to praying. “On earth” and “in the heavens” in verse 19 show us that the prayer in verse 18 is a command. This praying is an execution, not a petition. It is a binding and a loosing, not a petitioning for God to bind and loose. There are two aspects to this commanding prayer. The first is to bind. We should bind the brothers and sisters who do not behave properly in the meetings. We should bind the world that frustrates the work. We should bind the demons and the evil spirits, and we should bind Satan and all his work. We can be kings and rule over all things. Whenever something goes wrong in the world or among the brothers, it is time for us to rule as kings. The second aspect to a commanding prayer is to loose. We should be those who can loose others. We should loose the brothers who are withdrawn. We should loose the brothers who need to free themselves for the work. We should loose men’s money for God. We should loose the truth of God. We are ambassadors sent by God. On this earth, we should enjoy our right of “foreign diplomatic immunity.” We can call on heaven to dominate this earth.
(Afternoon, January 30)
Scripture Reading: Genesis 3:14-15; Revelation 12:1-11
The two passages we read today correspond with each other. One is in the beginning of the Bible while the other is at the end. In Genesis 3 we have (1) the serpent, (2) the woman, and (3) the seed. In Revelation 12 we have (1) the serpent, (2) the woman, and (3) the man-child.
Genesis 3 covers God’s pronouncement on man and on the serpent after the fall. It also covers God’s redemption. “Upon thy belly shalt thou go” means God restricted Satan’s work to the earth; he can no longer work throughout the universe. “And dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life” means God restricted Satan to feed on the man of dust. God ordained that all the descendants of Adam be the food of Satan.
“The woman” was the mother of all living. Hence, the woman represents all the living ones whom God intends to save.
“The seed of the woman” means Christ. When Christ was on the earth, He bruised the serpent’s head. The head is the vital part of a body. The Lord bruised the vital power of Satan.
The serpent bruising His heel means Satan doing his work behind Christ’s back. After Christ bruised the serpent’s head, He went on, while the serpent worked behind His back. This has always been the way he works in the believers — behind their back.
“The seed of the woman” refers to the individual Christ; it also refers to the corporate Christ. Those who participate in Christ’s resurrection are the seed of the woman. The Lord was born of a woman and is without the Adamic nature. Likewise, the regenerated new man in the believers does not have Adam’s nature in it. Christ is the Son of God, and the new man is also the son of God. Christ is not out of the flesh, neither is the new man out of the flesh nor out of the will of man.
Beginning from Genesis 3, both God and man set their hope on the seed of the woman. Satan also paid much attention to the seed of the woman. That is why he tried to stir up Herod to kill the Lord, why he tempted the Lord in the wilderness, and why he persecuted Him during the three and a half years. But in all these situations, the Lord overcame.
Revelation 4 through 11 is one section. Chapter fifteen to the end is another section. Chapters twelve through fourteen are inserted as a footnote for the previous chapters; they do not form part of the main text. Chapter twelve is a continuation of chapters two and three. These two chapters mention “overcoming” seven times, while chapter twelve says “they overcame him.” Chapters two and three mention God’s calling of the overcomers at the time when most of the church has failed, while chapter twelve tells what these overcomers are and what they do. Revelation 2:27 says that the overcomers will rule the nations with an iron rod, while 12:5 says that the man-child will rule over the nations with an iron rod. The overcomers in the church are the man-child. The man-child is corporate, composed of the “brothers” in verses 10 and 11.
The Lord purposely calls Satan the “ancient serpent” here to remind us of the record in Genesis 3.
In Revelation 12 the woman who brought forth the man-child is Jerusalem. This does not refer only to the earthly Jerusalem but also to the heavenly Jerusalem. The Bible tells us that God is our Father, the Lord is our elder Brother, and Jerusalem is our mother (Gal. 4:26).
The sun, the moon, and the twelve stars are consistent with the dream of Joseph. Hence, these things refer to the Israelites. Jerusalem is the center for the Israelites. Hence, this woman must mean Jerusalem.
This woman is the Jerusalem in chapters twenty-one and twenty-two. This city is composed of all the saved ones in the Old and the New Testaments, who have the life of Christ in them. The woman before the bringing forth of the man-child is a type of the church. The woman after the bringing forth of the man-child is a type of the Israelites. Before the bringing forth of the man-child, the description was concerning the things in the heavens — the sun, the moon, and the stars. After the bringing forth of the man-child, the description is concerning her condition on earth — fleeing to the wilderness.
The woman typifies the many sons whom God has saved. They will be very much persecuted by the enemy; the woman will suffer under the serpent. They should fight for themselves but because they cannot do this, God will raise up some overcomers from among them to fight for them. These overcomers will rule over the nations with an iron rod and will have a special place in the kingdom. When they are raptured to heaven, Satan will be cast down, and they will take back the serpent’s place in heaven. When they are on earth, Satan will withdraw. When they are in heaven, Satan will be cast down. To overcome means to recover the lost ground. The man-child overcomes on behalf of the mother. This means that the overcomers overcome on behalf of the church. At the end times, God is looking for the overcomers to end the battle in heaven. God’s “salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ” (Rev. 12:10) will be brought to heaven by them. As a result, the serpent will no longer have a place in heaven. Wherever the overcomers go, Satan will have to withdraw.
These overcomers overcome the enemy by the following things:
First, the blood of Christ is poured out, signifying that the life of the flesh is poured out. Through this, Satan will not be able to do anything to us. The food of Satan is dust; he can only work within a life of the flesh. Second, the blood of Christ deals with the attack of Satan. We are protected under the blood of Christ from the attack of Satan, in the same way that the Israelites were protected under the blood of the Passover. The blood satisfies God’s righteousness; it signifies death. Therefore, Satan cannot attack us. Third, the blood of Christ answers Satan’s accusations.
All the works of Satan in the church are to overthrow the testimony. The church is the lampstand, and the lampstand is a testimony. Satan wants to overthrow the church in order to overthrow the testimony. The testimony spoken of here refers especially to the testimony against Satan. When the Lord was tempted, He said three sentences which were testimonies directed at Satan. We also should declare a testimony against Satan. Satan may say to us, “You are weak.” But we should say to him that the power of the Lord is perfected in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). We should exercise the victory of Christ by applying God’s Word. The blood speaks of the victory of Christ. A testimony is an application of the victory of Christ with the Word of God.
We should sacrifice our body and our life and have no pity on ourselves. We should “consider my life of no account as if precious to myself” (Acts 20:24). By the blood and the word of our testimony, we should not fear death but should fight until we overcome. Such men will fulfill the pronouncement of Genesis 3:15.
The dragon wants to devour the man-child which is about to be delivered. This is the reason we have persecutions and sufferings. These persecutions and sufferings force us to become the man-child, and cause us to be among the first to be raptured — the first rapture. The first rapture is not only a blessing but a responsibility. Whoever has a place for the dragon in his heart will be persecuted by the dragon; he will go through the tribulation. Whoever does not have a place for the dragon in his heart will step on the head of the dragon. The serpent corrupted the woman. This is why there is the need for the seed of the woman to bruise him. God will not defeat the serpent by Himself. God needs the overcomers to defeat him. May we be part of the overcomers.
(Afternoon, January 31)
Spoken by Watchman Nee
Recorded by Witness Lee in Shanghai
