The ministry of life involves feeding, which is a supply for living. Paul told the Corinthians “I gave you milk to drink” (v. 3:2). Had they been mature enough to receive it, he would have given them solid food. This ministry is nourishment, not knowledge. We are ministers “not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6). The Spirit nourishes. This nourishment comes from healthy words (1 Tim. 6:3) which are according to godliness, a life lived one with Christ to express God (1 Tim. 3:16). [continue reading online, a review of message 5 in the recent ITERO]
the reality of the church life today is the kingdom of God in this age
Praise the Lord, the church life today has as its reality the kingdom of God, but by simply “being in the genuine church life” we may not necessarily be in the kingdom of God. We are in the kingdom in reality only when we live and walk by the spirit (Gal. 5:25). If we live, walk, behave, and have our being in ourselves as the old creation, we are not in reality in the kingdom of God even though outwardly we may be in the church life. Only when we live, walk, behave, and have our entire being altogether in our spirit are we in the church as the kingdom of God! [continue reading online]
by repenting and believing we can enter the kingdom of God to be God-men, God’s species
God became flesh – God became man – to enter into our race, our species, and now man becomes God in His life and nature (but not in His divine Godhead) to enter into the divine species. Man was created in the image and likeness of God with a spirit to receive God, but unless man makes a conscious decision under the divine light to receive the life of God, man is still man, part of the human kingdom. We are not “born Christian” by human birth but by our opening to the Lord to receive Him in our heat as Lord and Savior, even as our life. [read more online]
the church life today is the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, a delightful place
The church life has a practical and tangible aspect to it like the meetings, the services, the arrangements, the blending, conferences, etc. But the church life also has an invisible aspect – the reality of the church life is the kingdom of God, a realm where we are ruled in love with life. Here we are under the heavenly ruling and restriction – and at the same time we have real freedom in love, with life, and under light. Praise the Lord, we can exercise our spirit and allow the divine life to rule in us in love under light – and we become part of the enlargement of the kingdom of God on earth, the church life! [read more online]
God desires that we would be recovered back to living under His direct rule in life
In us who are in the kingdom of God as a realm of life, the divine life should be able to move into our mind, our thinking, our imagination, our memory, our reasoning, our thoughts, our emotions (what is stored, buried, accumulated there? What anger, what feelings, what pains are suppressed there?). The river of water of life needs to go into every part so that it will bring life to our soul, until every part of our inner being would be alive with this river [continue reading online]
this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony!
I am so encouraged with what the Lord is doing today! On the one hand we have the high peak truth and the high gospel – the complete gospel as revealed in the whole New Testament – and on the other hand we have a way to enjoy the Lord, practice the church life, build up the Body, and become the Bride of Christ! In His recovery the Lord is continually speaking – conference after conference, training after training, meeting after meeting, and even morning after morning as we spend time with Him. [continue reading online]
the church as the kingdom of God is the realm of the divine life
When the Lord Jesus came out to preach the gospel, He preached the gospel of the kingdom “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (Matt. 3:2). The intrinsic essence of the gospel is not for us to go to heaven but for God to have a kingdom of which we are part. The Lord Jesus told us to repent to be part of the kingdom of God. By repenting and believing into the Lord, we enter the kingdom of God as a realm of life [continue reading online]