As believers in Christ, we need to know the truth and be constituted with the truth, for the truth sets us free and our experience of Christ has to match the truth in the Word of God.
As saints in the local churches in the Lord’s recovery, we are privileged to be under the rich ministry of the age, the ministry which inherits from all the things that were recovered previously and builds on them to unveil to us the high peak of the divine revelation and a clear vision of God’s eternal economy.
The ministry is published and is available in the books – like brother Lee said, It’s all in the books! – but what about us: do we get into the ministry in a consistent way? Do we have a habit of diving into the life-studies?
Recently the brothers put out a website, 500lifestudies.org, as a help for those who want to be diligent to develop a habit of reading the life-studies and thus enjoy the Lord in His word so that they may grow in life and experience Christ for the building up of the church.
There are approximately 1984 life-study message and reading through all of them will produce us as excellent believers! A great quote regarding this is,
If the young people are constituted in this way, in the recovery there will be a great dispensational transfer. I would encourage the young people to take the time over the next several years to become constituted of all the Life-study Messages. Witness Lee, Life-study of Acts, msg. 55, p. 477
Continue reading to find out more about:
- How to Develop a Habit of Reading the Life-studies
- Resources and Help with Reading the Life-studies
- Reading the Life-studies – Quotes from the Ministry
- Talks on Reading the Life-Studies with Minoru Chen
- An Encouragement to Read the Life-studies – Newsletter via LSM
How to Develop a Habit of Reading the Life-studies
picture credit: Amana Trust, Life-study of the Bible.
Reading the Bible is one thing and building up a habit of reading the Bible is something else. Reading the life-studies is one thing but building up the habit of reading the life-studies in a consistent, regular, and even scheduled way is something else.
We are not here to promote regulating ourselves or to impose rules on ourselves or on others, but we have discovered the benefits of being under the rule of the divine life and building up proper habits when it comes to our study of the word and eating the Lord.
It is good to have a good breakfast by enjoying the Lord in the Holy Word for Morning Revival, in the Word of God, and in our time with the Lord with singing, praying, pray-reading, and musing on God’s word.
But we also need to learn to develop a habit of reading the life-studies so that we may be excellent believers who are constituted with the truth.
How can we develop such a habit? It has to do with our consecration, consistency, reading regularly, planning our reading, digital vs hard copies, prayer, having companions, and being consistent.
Consecration
We need to consecrate ourselves to the Lord by simply opening to Him concerning this. We should not start by promising the Lord or the saints that we will do this or that for the Lord, nor should we start by making a plan.
First, we need to bring the matter of reading the life-study messages to the Lord and ask for His grace and supply for us to do this.
Just give this matter to the Lord and open to Him about it. Don’t promise you will do it.
Don’t exercise your own strength but rather, bring this to the Lord and give Him a way to touch you and infuse a desire to read His word and the life-studies into you.
Even such an endeavour is for the building up of the Body of Christ and the fulfilment of His purpose.
Consistency
Don’t start with big promises or large portions to read every day; start with reading a small amount every day in a consistent way. This requires our practice.
We need to read not only when we feel like it but in a consistent way.
This doesn’t mean we should be legal or religious about it, but we still need to cooperate with the Lord to build up a habit of reading the Word and the life-studies in a solid way.
Our eating, exercising, taking care of our health, etc require us to be “legal” about what we eat, when we eat, how we exercise, and how much or how little we do this and that, regardless of how we feel.
May we learn to read not according to how we feel but by taking the time to do this, even setting aside time to do it every day consistently.
Reading regularly
Each one of us knows what is our capacity and what is our situation.
We should not try to read too much or when things are too hectic. Rather, we need to consider before the Lord what is the best time of day to read regularly, a time during which we’re not interrupted and we are mostly free.
Also, we need to consider how much time we would have regularly, either daily or every other day, and what is the best place where we can be – a place that is calm, quiet, and free of distraction.
Yes, these are practical matters, but we can consider these matters one with the Lord.
Planning our Reading
Lord Jesus, what do You think about a plan of reading the life-studies? Ask the Lord about it. Consider this before the Lord.
Don’t be overly ambitious about it, nor give up saying that ten minutes a day is too short.
Just bring this before the Lord and consider how much time per day can you really give to the Lord. And pray about it.
Digital vs Hard Copies
Many times it is recommended to have a distraction-free, notification-free, internet-free way to read the books so that you can take notes, highlight, and be more focused.
Why not bring this to the Lord also?
Don’t take it as legality to read only the hard copies or only digital; consider before the Lord what’s the best way – according to what you can afford, what you have, and what can be more distraction-free.
The life-studies can be read via the 500 life studies app, via ministrybooks.org (without payment), or via hard copies.
Pray. Pray. And Pray more
The goal is to contact the Lord, know Him, and enjoy Him in the word so that we may receive His supply and be constituted with the truth.
So as we read the life-studies, we should have an attitude of prayer before the Lord, asking Him questions, opening to Him, and conversing with Him.
He may shine on us concerning our situation, He may enlighten us concerning some points of the truth, and He may expose us concerning our experience; we simply need to pray this back to the Lord and let Him speak to us.
Read the life-studies with the Lord.
We need Companions!
One key to reading consistently and even being accountable about this is having companions.
We may not read with our companions, but we can check with one another concerning our reading and even share what we have enjoyed.
At least we can pray with them and be built together, and we can encourage and support one another.
This will cause us to be vital and living, and we can practice speaking for the Lord for the building up of the church.
Being Persistent
Persistence is very important. We all have to admit that, though we may have started to read the life-studies before, things happened and situations rose up that caused us to be off our schedule for reading, and we simply gave up or forgot about it.
Sometimes it has been days, weeks, and even months that we didn’t read a life-study. It is understandable that things change, and our situations change, but we need to be persistent.
We shouldn’t feel discouraged or condemned; rather, we need to be encouraged by the Lord and realize that this happens not just to us but to others also.
Therefore, we should simply pick up where we left off, no matter how much time has passed.
Resources and Help with Reading the Life-studies
A good way to read the life-studies consistently is with the help of the 500 life studies app.
More details on this app will be on the 500 life studies website.
Also, please keep an eye on the Living to Him website for more announcements.
As a further recommendation, it is helpful to watch some of the testimonies from the recent 2022 Thanksgiving Working Saints Fellowship – regarding both the reading of the life-studies and migration, including the burden related to the 500 life studies website. The life-study reading all will be soon released you can register your interest via the website to be kept in the loop. It is helpful to have something on the phone, right there with you, to read and track your reading.
Reading the Life-studies – Quotes from the Ministry
One of my burdens in completing the life-study of the entire Bible was to solve the common and hard problems in the Bible and to open up every book of the Bible. If you have a question and turn to the footnotes in the Recovery Version or the Life-study messages, you can get the answer. When the life-study of the Old Testament is finished, the Bible will then be an open Bible. At that time the Bible will not only have been inspired, written, and translated but will also have been entirely interpreted. We should spend our time and energy to study the Word. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, p. 575-576)
I have the assurance that if you would get into the Life-study messages continually, you will be different after fifty days. Any message from any book, such as Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, or Revelation, is good for your study. Just go to the Life-study messages. (CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, p. 324)
Talks on Reading the Life-Studies with Minoru Chen
Brother Minoru Chen gave a series of talks regarding the matter of getting into the life-studies. There is a need to get into the truth, to be educated with the truth, even to be trained in the truth, and if we don’t do it day by day, little by little, we will not advance in the Lord that well, and we will not have a constitution of the truth to speak to others also.
The saints at Living to Him have the video recordings via their youtube channel, and we are listing them below for you to enjoy and watch.
Reading the Life-studies (1): Being Constituted with the Truth for the Church to be the Pillar and Base of the Truth with All the Saints Being Responsible to Uphold the Truth
Reading the Life-studies (2): Coming to the Full Knowledge of the Truth by Studying the Truth with the Life-studies to be Equipped to Teach the Truth to Others
Reading the Life-studies (3): Promoting the Life-studies to Raise the Standard of the Church Life and Bring in a Genuine Revival
Reading the Life-studies (4): Using the Life-studies to Touch Life in the Bible, to Grow in Life, Bear Fruit, and Feed the Lord’s Lambs
An Encouragement to Read the Life-studies – Newsletter via LSM
The October 2021 newsletter from Living Stream Ministry is an encouragement to all the saints concerning reading the life-studies, and it has many helpful quotes and instructions. We are posting some of the content below:
During a time of fellowship in 1985, Brother Lee shared a touching word concerning the origin and value of the Life-study messages. He said,
I daily prayed and studied the Bible for fifty years before I began to release the Life-study messages in 1974. I also read the great Bible commentaries…In 1974 I had a deep sense that we needed a life-study of the Bible in the Lord’s recovery. The Life-studies and the Recovery Version of the Bible are our treasures in the Lord’s recovery. I wrote these things based on the saints’ rich commentaries from the past two thousand years as well as what the Lord is revealing to us in the present time. I collected the best, that is, the cream, of the past teaching and incorporated our own experience, knowledge, and revelation. In this sense the Life-studies and the footnotes of the Recovery Version are integrated writings. (CWWL, 1985, vol. 2, “Fellowship with Elders and Co-workers in Taipei,” p. 505)
While many expositions of the Bible have been produced over the centuries, the Life-study of the Bible is distinctive (and outstanding!) in part because it ministers life to its readers. Those of us who have read even a handful of Life-study messages can surely testify that these messages minister the divine life to us and usher us into the proper experience of Christ as life.
By spending time each day to read the Life-studies, we can gradually accumulate the truth within us. In Elders’ Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision, Brother Lee expresses his assurance that “whoever has read through five hundred Life-study messages properly has been an excellent believer” (CWWL, 1984, vol. 2, p. 323). To this he adds: “If you would begin to study the Life-studies every day starting tomorrow morning, you will become a different person even after fifty days” (p. 324). We should not accept the lie that it is too difficult to read through five hundred Life-study messages (or the entire Life-study of the Bible, for that matter). Rather, we should take the way of reading through the Life-studies gradually and consistently with the aspiration of becoming “excellent believers.”
Continue reading this newsletter via, Having This Ministry, Newsletter on October 2021.
