The Lord today is recovering us back to His original intention in His word; He is seeking believers who are willing to drop any opinion, preference, and personal desire, and who would just come back to the beginning, back to God’s economy.
The truth in the Word of God is absolute, and if we allow the truth to saturate us and uplift us, we will be brought up to the standard of God’s truth; however, if we dilute the truth or water it down for the sake of some personal relationships, failures, or preferences, then we will miss what the Lord is doing today.
We must walk in the truth of the heavenly vision of God’s economy; we need to see God’s economy, be governed by a vision of God’s economy, and live and walk in the truth of the vision of God’s economy, the mark of God’s economy, and the goal of God’s economy. According to His plan, God in His economy is dispensing Himself into a group of people to be their life, their life supply, and their everything, so that the Body of Christ may be produced and built up to be God’s expression on earth.
The mark of God’s economy is the indwelling Christ as the Spirit with our spirit; the only way we can partake and participate in God’s economy is by exercising our mingled spirit, thus having all the things of God’s economy made real to us. The goal of God’s economy is the building up of the Body of Christ which consummates in the New Jerusalem.
Besides God’s economy, however, there are other teachings such as the “different teachings” spoken of by Paul; these teachings are not unscriptural, but they lead to questionings – rather than to God’s economy, which is in faith. In the Lord’s recovery we need to carry out God’s economy, and this means that we need to stay away from death and division in any of their forms.
We need to reject division, stand against any wind of teaching, and mark and turn away from those who make divisions. For this, we need to take care of our listening: we need to positively place ourselves under the hearing of the word of God, so that any negative speaking or gossip would not affect us.
Today we want to see two more aspects of death and division that we need to stay away from and be warned against: leaven and honey, and contacting people who spread death. Oh, may the Lord shine on us, expose our natural and worldly concepts of “accepting everyone and talking to everyone because God loves everyone”, and may we be separated unto God as God wants us to be, so that we may be His holy and pure testimony on the earth as He desires!
Being Purified from Ambition and Natural Affection in the Church Life as the Meal Offering
In order for us to stay away from death in the church life we need to stay away from leaven (which refers mainly to sin and defilement) and from honey (referring to natural affection and relationships). God specifically instructed His people not put honey (which will ferment) or leaven (which will puff up) in the meal offering (see Lev. 2:11). The church life today is a meal-offering; in order for us to enjoy Christ as our meal offering to live a meal offering church life, we must be purified from any leaven (ambition for leadership) and honey (natural affection).
Ambition and natural affection goes together; for example, a person who is ambitious will love anyone who helps him to gain what he desires in his ambition, but he will regard as enemy anyone who hinders him from fulfilling his ambition (see 3 John 1:9). Nothing damages the church life and the Lord’s work more than ambition and natural affection.
When someone has the ambition to be somebody in the church life, this brings in corruption; when someone develops and nurtures a natural affection for others, this damages the church life. We need to go before the Lord and deal with Him concerning ambition and natural affection in the church life, so that we may be salted by the salt of meal-offering, that is, we would be crossed out by the Lord’s death and thus have pure humility and pure love.
We need to realize and firmly declare that we are not in the Lord’s recovery because of a man, a certain person, but because we have seen the truth and the vision of God’s economy and have therefore been captured by this vision. We should neither take the way of the Lord’s recovery nor leave this way because of any person; we are following the vision of God’s economy in the realization of the Lord’s recovery (see Acts 26:19; 2 Tim. 1:15; 2:1-15).
We have received much benefit from the Lord’s speaking and recovering of truths through His servants such as Martin Luther, John Nelson Darby, Andrew Murray, Watchman Nee, Witness Lee, and many others, but we are here taking the way of the Lord’s recovery not because of a man but because of the vision the Lord has shown us. The vision of God’s economy which we see in the Lord’s recovery today extends from the first scene in Genesis with Adam until the last scene in Revelation with the New Jerusalem.
This is the only way we see to take as believers in Christ, and we cannot leave because, just like the Apostle Paul, we have seen the heavenly vision of God’s economy and we are captured by God’s economy.
We have many brothers and sisters who were instrumental in our salvation, shepherding, bringing into the church life, and perfecting, but we need to deal with the Lord regarding any natural affection so that we would not follow the way of the Lord’s recovery because of a man but because of the heavenly vision God has shown us. Hallelujah, we have seen the vision, and we want to be purified from any ambition for leadership and any natural affection!
Lord, we want to stay away from death in any of its obvious or subtle forms. We just want to enjoy You as our meal offering so that we may live a meal offering church life, a life purified from any ambition and natural affection. Lord, we open to You: purify us from any ambition for leadership or for being someone in the Lord’s recovery! Strengthen the vision of Your economy until we refuse any natural affection and remain here in this way because we have seen the heavenly vision and therefore we cannot be disobedient!
Being Careful about what Kind of People We Contact: Flee Youthful Lusts and Pursue Christ!
In Leviticus 11 God ordained that His people Israel would not eat five kinds of animals; in our spiritual experience these animals signify different kinds of people, and eating signifies our contacting people (see Peter’s vision and experience in Acts 10:9-14, 27-29). There are five types of persons that we should stay away from:
- “Animals that do not divide the hoof” – signifying people who do not have any discernment at all. We need to be careful concerning loving others without discernment, and we should avoid companionship with people who lack discernment.
- “Animals in the sea that don’t have fins and scales” – referring to people who cannot move and act freely in the world and at the same time resist its influence. There are many people, both believers and unbelievers, who are heavily influenced by the world.
- “Birds that eat flesh and carcasses as their food supply” – referring to people who feed on death, who live all the time in contact with death. Yes, there are such people who eat death, and we should stay away from them!
- “Insects that have four feet for creeping about” – referring to people who live on earth and who are unable to keep themselves from the world, and they creep around.
- “Creatures that creep on earth” – people who are filled with Satan, who contact evil spirits and demons, who cling to the world and cannot be separated from the world.
As God’s people are a holy nation, and we should definitely preach the gospel to ALL creation, not looking at the face, background, color, culture, and religion of a man; however, when it comes to relationships and companionship, we should avoid any kind of unhealthy contact with such people.
To eat is to contact things that are outside of us (and have nothing to do with us) and receive them into us, with the result that they eventually become our inner constitution. Whatever we contact, we receive, and whatever we receive will reconstitute us, making us a different kind of person from what we are now.
Paul warns us, “Do not be deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals” (1 Cor. 15:33). We may be sons of God enjoying the Lord in the church life, but if we have evil companions (even if it is “to gain them for the Lord”), our good morals will be corrupted. We don’t just “hang out” with our friends – we “eat” their living and words, and what they are becomes our constitution.
“He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be troubled” (Prov. 13:20). Our contacting people regularly is an important matter: our contact with certain kinds of people can cause us to be reconstituted and thus make us another kind of person. We need to remember that we are a holy nation, a people separated unto God for His purpose, and we need to be wise in contacting others.
We need to avoid profane, vain babblings, for they will advance to more ungodliness, and their word will spread like gangrene, causing us to misaim concerning the truth; what we should do is flee youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart (see 2 Tim. 2:16-18, 22). We should flee evil companionships and pursue the Lord with those who enjoy Him and call on His name out of a pure heart!
Of course, we need to preach the gospel to all men, and we need to especially pray and speak to those who were our friends before we received the Lord and came into the church life, but we need to be careful about the kind of people we contact and we need to choose wisely who our companions should be!
Lord Jesus, we want to flee youthful lusts and avoid any profane and vain babblings, and we want to pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart! Lord, shine on us and show us the importance of the kind of people we contact. Save us from having evil companions. We want to sanctify ourselves unto You and pursue You with companions who call on Your name out of a pure heart! Lord, keep us in the divine life, enjoying You and experiencing You as life in the church life!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of Leviticus, msgs. 13, 36 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Crucial Points of the Major Items of the Lord’s Recovery Today (ITERO 2015 fall), week 1 / msg 1, The Recovery of the Economy of God.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# Glorious vision, I have seen it: My life is meant for God’s economy! / Earthly bondage, I have left it: My heart outpours for the Lord’s recovery! (Song on Seeing the Vision)
# Daniel had companions, and they ate God’s Word, / From the world, they stood apart; / Through a praying spirit were aligned with God, / For His people, God’s own heart. / I will choose to be a living overcomer, / Be a person not ashamed to be a Jesus lover, / One who eats the tree of life, / And drinks the living water. (Song on Having Companions)
# But you, O man of God, flee these things, / And pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, / Love, endurance, meekness. / Fight the good fight of the faith; / Lay hold on the eternal life, to which you were called. (Song on Fleeing and Pursuing)
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To eat is not merely to contact something but also to receive something into us. Once a thing is received into us, that thing can be digested inside to become our constituent, that is, our being, our constitution. We all are a constitution of the food we eat and digest. Eventually, what we digest becomes us; it becomes our very constitution. This indicates that contacting people is an important matter. If we intend to live a holy life as required by the holy God, we need to be careful about our contact with people. Our contact with certain kinds of people can cause us to be reconstituted and thus make us another kind of person. Whatever we contact we will receive, and whatever we receive will reconstitute us, making us a different kind of person from what we are now. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Leviticus, pp. 313-314)