What the Lord desires to gain today is His overcomers. He Himself is the leading overcomer: He overcame and the Father gave Him to sit with Him on the throne. Now He is in us as the leading Overcomer and He wants to produce us also as His overcomers in this age.
The mending ministry of John is to produce the overcomers to meet God’s need in this age. We should not be content merely to be in the church life, enjoying God in Christ as life and life-supply with all the saints.
We need to aspire to be the Lord’s overcomers, the Zion within the city of Jerusalem, those who live in the reality of the Body of Christ and who accomplish God’s purpose in the church and on behalf of the church. We need to pray desperately to the Lord that, at any cost, He would make us His overcomers.
Today Christ is the speaking High Priest, the One who walks among the churches to see their situation and then intercedes before God, and He speaks to the churches according to their need. How much we need God’s speaking in Christ as the Spirit! Today the Spirit is speaking to the churches, and we need to be tuned in to hear His speaking so that we may be produced as His overcomers.
Christ’s words are spirit and are life (John 6:63), and when He speaks to us, He is mending us in life to produce us as His overcomers in this age. He knows our real situation and condition, He intercedes for us before God the Father, and then He brings a fresh message from God to us.
Christ is both the Messenger of God and the fresh message of God to us, and He wants to make us the same as He is – He wants to make us the messengers in the churches, those who listen to His fresh up-to-date speaking, and who are one with Him in what He desires to do today!
The Principle of the Overcomers
Brother Watchman Nee wrote and spoke extensively concerning the Lord’s need for overcomers today – and this was more than 70 years ago. God’s heart’s desire is with His people, and He cares for Jerusalem – and especially He loves Zion.
When God’s people returned to Jerusalem to build the city, they especially had to build the temple on mount Zion. The burden of the Lord’s recovery is to build up Zion, since all the blessings come out of Zion, the overcomers. Zion is the high peak, the centre, the uplifting, the strengthening, the enriching, and the reality of the church as the holy city. May the Lord grant us to have great searchings of heart that we may make a resolution before Him,
Lord, by your mercy I want to be an overcomer, a constituent of Your overcoming bride!
An overcomer overcomes everything that replaces Christ and is against Him. They are a small number of people – as Zion is small in the midst of the large city of Jerusalem – who care for God’s heart desire and are one with Him to fulfill it at the cost of their life.
If you look at the history of the people of Israel, whenever there’s something that has to do with God’s hearts desire, Zion is mentioned. But whenever there’s something that has to do with the failures of the Jews, Jerusalem is mentioned.
God allowed that Jerusalem would be trodden down, but He protected Zion. There will be a New Jerusalem but there will never be a new Zion, because Zion will never become old. The characteristics, the life, and the blessing of Jerusalem is Zion. Here are some verses that show how important Zion is to God:
- 1 Kings 8:1 – Zion is the city of David, the place where the ark of the covenant (God’s very presence) dwells.
- Psa. 51:18 – The Lord builds the walls of Jerusalem and He does good in His good pleasure to Zion.
- Psa. 102:21 – The name of Jehovah is declared in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem.
- Psa. 128:5 – God blesses us from Zion, and we will see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of our life.
- Psa. 135:21 – Jehovah is blessed from Zion, and He dwells in Jerusalem – Hallelujah!
- Isa. 41:27 – It is in Zion that the ovecomers are, and in Jerusalem those who preach the glad tidings.
- Joel 3:17 – Jehovah our God dwells in Zion, His holy mountain, and Jerusalem will be holy!
What God is looking for today is a small number of people who would be His overcomers. The would even pour out their blood so that life would be imparted and flow into others. On behalf of the church, the overcomers take the position of the victory of Christ and they also suffer tribulation and despising.
We need to pray that we would be produced by the Lord as His overcomers. The Lord wants and will build up Zion, the overcomers, the intrinsic reality of the spiritual revelation in the word of God. The Lord’s recovery is to build up Zion. Seeing this, the best we can do in order to cooperate with the Lord and be produced as overcomers is to pray!
Lord, we want to count the cost and pay the price to be produced by You as the overcomers You need in this age. Lord, gain the reality of the Body of Christ, the overcomers, the vital living of the saints today in the church life! Your desire is to gain Zion within Jerusalem – Lord, gain us as Your overcomers today! We are desperate before You concerning our growth in life and transformation so that we may be the overcomers You need in this age!
Christ is Interceding for us and Speaking to us to Make us His Overcomers
In Revelation 1 we see that Christ is the High Priest, walking among the churches to know their situation and taking care of them according to their need. How does Christ take care of the churches? He cares for us according to our need before God by speaking to us.
In Rev. 2-3 we see that, after Christ as the High Priest walked among the golden lampstands (the local churches), He has to say a specific word to each one of them. We need to be under the Lord’s fresh speaking every day. Only His life – contained in His fresh living words – can mend us. His words are life (John 6:63). He speaks life into us and He mends us.
First, Christ walks among the churches to know their situation and condition. Then, He intercedes for them before God (Heb. 7:25), and He speaks to them according to their need. He walks among all the local churches today just as He walked among the seven churches in Asia in Revelation 1-3, and this tour makes Him thoroughly familiar with every situation.
Then, He speaks to us in order to mend us by fixing us, restoring us, perfecting us, preparing us, completing us, adjusting us, equipping us, making us suitable for God’s building, and attuning us to build us up together as His Body. Christ first speaks to God to intercede for us, and then He speaks to us to minister the priestly service (see Heb. 7:25; Rev. 1:16, 20; 2:1a, 7; cf. Mal. 3:1; Heb. 1:2), giving us a fresh message from God to meet our need and produce us as His overcomers.
As we see in Rev. 2-3, the Lord doesn’t speak directly to the churches; He speaks to the messengers in the churches. As the Lord sees our situation and knows our condition today, He is looking for messengers in the churches to whom He can speak a fresh message.
He Himself is the Messenger of God and also the fresh message of God to His people who, once received by the messengers in the churches, enlivens them, intensifies them, and produces them as the overcomers the Lord needs today!
In His human living Christ as the Word of God declared God through the word (God expressed), life (God imparted), light (God shining), grace (God enjoyed), and reality (God realized). In the Epistles Christ spoke to the churches a nourishing and edifying word.
Today, in the age of intensification Christ still speaks to the churches as the Spirit, and even in the warfare for the kingdom of God, Christ will still be the Word of God speaking for God’s purpose (Rev. 19:13).
The Christ who walks among the churches and knows their situation becomes the speaking Spirit: in the beginning of each of the seven Epistles to the seven churches it is the Lord who speaks (see Rev. 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14), and at the end it is the Spirit speaking to the churches (see Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22).
His speaking reveals a particular aspect of Himself that the church needs, and He speaks practically to equip the messengers to be the overcomers the Lord needs in the church today.
Lord Jesus, make us the messengers in the churches that have an ear to hear what You are speaking to the churches today! We need Your fresh speaking every day. Lord, You know our situation and You’re familiar with our real condition. We open to Your speaking, Lord, that we may see You and enjoy You in a specific way today to be produced as Your overcomers in the churches. Thank You for Your intercession and Your speaking! We open to Your heavenly priesthood, Your intercession and Your speaking!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, The Mending Ministry of John (ch. 13), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Mending Ministry of John, week 5 / msg 5, Christ’s Heavenly Priesthood Ministered to the Churches for the Producing of the Overcomers.
- Further reading:
# see msg 1 in, Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John;
# Practical Points Concerning Blending, last 3-4 paragraphs of the last chapter (by Witness Lee).
# Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 11, the section on Jerusalem and Zion. - Hymns on this topic:
# Will you be an overcomer? / Christ is calling now! / Will you then be such a follower, / Though you know not how? / Will you be an overcomer? / Will you make this choice? / Christ is calling, Christ is calling, / Listen to His voice! (Hymns #894)
# He’s living now to intercede, / Continuing forever; / He undertakes into the age, / His priesthood changes never; / He always lives to intercede, / Such a High Priest is what we need: / He’s higher than the heavens. (Hymns #1130)
# Jesus, O living Word of God, / Wash me and cleanse me with Your blood / So You can speak to me…. / All I can give to You, my Lord, / Is my whole being, love outpoured; / Lord, I belong to You. / Jesus, faithful God, / Gain us through and through; / Use us thoroughly / To see Your purpose through. (New song – Jesus, living word of God)
About aGodMan
