As believers in Christ, we need to be discipled by Christ to live a life according to the high peak of the divine revelation, a life of practicing the vision we have seen; such a life is the God-man living, a reproduction of the model of the life of Christ, the first God-man.
The Lord has brought us to the highest peak of the divine revelation and has shown us the “diamond” in the “box” of the Bible; this is the central revelation of God.
The central revelation of God and of the Lord’s recovery is God becoming the flesh, the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit becoming the sevenfold intensified Spirit to build up the church that becomes the Body of Christ and that consummates the New Jerusalem.
This is the highest peak of the divine revelation in the entire Bible; the Bible ends with the New Jerusalem, which is nothing else but the mingling of divinity with humanity for the corporate expression of God in man and with man for eternity.
In the beginning of the Bible we see God creating man in His image and according to His likeness; in the Gospels, we see the first God-man, Jesus Christ, who was the prototype for the mass-production of the many God-men; in Revelation, we see the consummation.
What God wants is not merely that man would fellowship with God or that God and man would be friends; God wants to work Himself into man and build man into God until God and man are mingled together into one entity, the church as the Body of Christ in this age, the bride of Christ in the next age, and the New Jerusalem for eternity.
When we see such a high peak of the divine revelation and realize that God’s desire is to mingle Himself with us so that we may be built up together to be His corporate expression, we will simply rise up and pray that God would give us a new revival, a revival which has never been recorded in history.
When we see the high peak of the divine revelation, we will live a life being controlled by this vision, and our living will not just be a regular Christian life or an ethical life but a God-man living, the living of God in man.
Seeing the vision of the eternal economy of God causes us to live a life being governed by this vision; we will no longer live in our natural man or by the self but by the divine life in our spirit.
Such a living, the living of God in man and of man in God, is the reality of the Body of Christ; the Lord wants to gain such a corporate God-man living as a model of living in the economy of God, and such a living is a new revival which will bring the Lord back.
Practice to Live a Life according to the High Peak of the Divine Revelation and have a God-man Living
The high peak of the divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures has been revealed to us, and we thank and praise the Lord for showing us His economy.
The centrality and universality of God’s economy is Christ, for He is the center, reality, and everything to God and man in God’s economy.
This Christ is not merely in the heavens in His heavenly ministry but also in our spirit, for He is the life-giving Spirit indwelling our regenerated human spirit to be one with our spirit – He and we are one spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 6:17).
What a fact! What a reality! We are joined to the Lord as one spirit, and He as the Spirit is in us to transform us and conform us to His image until we become God-men in full to express God corporately!
When we see such a high revelation in the Bible and realize what is the desire of God’s heart in His economy, we will give ourselves to no longer live for ourselves or in ourselves but live according to this vision.
The Lord wants to gain a corporate people who, by His grace, live a life according to the high peak of the divine revelation in the Bible.
He wants to gain a group of people who live a crucified life so that it is no longer them that live but it is Christ who lives in them (Gal. 2:20).
The Lord wants to gain a model of living Christ and magnifying Christ by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:21).
What He desires is to gain a corporate group of people who live out in practicality a life according to the high peak of the divine revelation, a corporate God-man living.
But where can we see such a living on earth today? Where is the model of living a crucified life so that Christ may be lived out?
Where can see a model of living Christ and magnifying Christ by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ?
Where can we see a group of people who no longer live in and by themselves but in Christ and by Christ so that Christ may be expressed through them?
May we be such ones today. God needs a corporate people to be raised up by His grace through the high peak of the divine revelation to live a life according to this revelation.
This is what a revival is: it is the practice, the practicality of the vision we have seen.
What we need is not only to SEE but also to PRACTICE; we need to see the vision of God’s economy, and we need to practice it.
Seeing the revelation of the economy of God is not enough; we need to enter into the practice of this divine revelation in our daily living.
God doesn’t give us a vision of His economy just so that we may see something amazing concerning what He is up to.
He wants us to enter into this experience so that the vision of God’s economy would become a reality to us; for this, we need to live the life of a God-man, a life according to the high peak of the divine revelation.
A new revival will come in when we practice the living of a God-man according to the high peak of the divine revelation.
When the vision we see is translated into our life into a living reality, that constitutes a genuine revival, and such a corporate living of the many God-men will be the model of living in God’s economy which will bring the Lord back.
Lord Jesus, make us those who by Your grace live a life according to the high peak of the divine revelation. May we not only see a vision of God’s economy but also live a life according to the vision that we see. We want to practice what we have seen. We do not look at our failure in the past; we simply press on to live by Christ so that we may express Christ. Amen, Lord, gain a corporate people who by Your grace live a life according to the high peak of the divine revelation! Gain a group of people who live a crucified life so that they may live Christ! Make us those who live Christ and magnify Christ by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ! We give ourselves to You, Lord, to practice the vision we have seen; bring us into a new revival as we practice living a life governed by the vision of God’s eternal economy!
Being Discipled by Christ to Live a God-man Life as a Reproduction of the Model of the Life of Christ
The disciples of the Lord Jesus, who were with Him on earth and saw His human living, death, and resurrection, were discipled by Christ to live a certain kind of life – a life of expressing God.
They saw how He spoke, how He behaved, and what He did; what they saw discipled them.
In particular, the Lord discipled them through His human living, through His all-inclusive, all-terminating, life-releasing, and new-man-creating death, and through His life-dispensing resurrection.
He discipled them not merely by seeing His pattern but by coming into them as the Spirit; on the evening of the day of His resurrection, Christ came to them and breathed into them saying, Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22).
They were then regenerated, made alive with the divine life, for the Spirit of life and of reality was breathed into them to guide them into all the reality of what they have observed of the Lord while they were with Him for three and a half years.
The Lord discipled them through His human living; He lived not by His human life but by denying Himself and living God in His human living (John 5:19, 30), thus being the model of a God-man.
When the disciples saw the way the Lord Jesus lived, they were revolutionized in their thinking and living, for here was a man who lived by the divine life.
The disciples were also discipled through Christ’s crucifixion to annul their human life for them to live the divine life (Gal. 2:20); Paul later saw this clearly, and he lived a crucified life for the living out and manifestation of Christ.
The Lord discipled His followers through His resurrection to know Him as God’s firstborn Son (Rom. 1:4; Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29).
When He was on earth in His earthly ministry, the Lord was the only begotten Son of God, but through His death and resurrection He became the firstborn Son of God and He was transfigured to be the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45).
The process the Lord went through discipled His followers.
As followers of Christ, we need to be open to the Lord in prayer to be discipled by the Lord’s God-man living, His all-inclusive death on the cross, and His life-imparting resurrection.
We need to be discipled through Christ’s human living on earth as the model of a God-man – living God by denying Himself in humanity.
The Lord’s God-man living revolutionizes our concept concerning man to the point that even our life becomes a copy, a reproduction of the model of the life of Christ, the first God-man (1 Pet. 2:21; Matt. 11:28-29; Eph. 4:20-21; John 17:4; 5:17; Phil. 1:19-22, 25).
We do not advocate the outward and natural imitation of Christ, for just as a monkey can imitate a man for a little bit before it returns to being a monkey, so we cannot imitate Christ by our natural efforts.
We are here to be a reproduction, a copy of Christ, even His duplication and increase; through the process of God’s organic salvation within us, we are conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God.
From regeneration through sanctification, transformation, and conformation, we will be fully conformed to the image of Christ, for He is making us a duplication of Himself, a corporate model of the God-man on the earth to live Christ again.
The Spirit of reality is in us doing one main thing: guiding us into the reality of the life of Jesus, the reality which is in Jesus, even the condition of the Lord Jesus as He lived on the earth as a man.
May we allow the Lord to disciple us and transform us into His image so that we may live a God-man life, a reproduction of the life that He lived when He was on earth.
Lord Jesus, we open to You and we allow You to disciple us through Your human living on earth so that we may live the life of a God-man. Amen, Lord, make us those who live God by denying themselves in our humanity; make us those who magnify Christ by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Make us living and vital to live because of Christ, living out a crucified life to express the divine life. How we yearn to be just like You, Lord! Reproduce Yourself in us. Sanctify us, transform us, and conform us to Your image until our living becomes a reproduction of Your God-man living. Gain a group of people who are Jesus living again! Amen, Lord Jesus, do it in us!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” chs. 2-4, 6-11, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Vital Factors for the Lord’s Recovery of the Church Life (2021 ITERO), week 1, The Factor of Cooperating with the Lord to Bring In a New Revival That Will End This Age.
- Hymns on this topic:
– By Thy death and resurrection, / Thou wast made God’s firstborn Son; / By Thy life to us imparting, / Was Thy duplication done. / We, in Thee regenerated, / Many sons to God became; / Truly as Thy many brethren, / We are as Thyself the same. (Hymns #203)
– Oh, what a thought! Oh, what a boast! / Christ shall in me be magnified. / In nothing shall I be ashamed, / For He in all shall be applied. / In woe or blessing, death or life, / Through me shall Christ be testified. (Hymns #499)
– From death He resurrected and became / The living Spirit to give life to us. / When we believe and call upon His name; / This living Spirit comes to dwell in us. / By this the very Triune God is now / The living Spirit mingling deep within. / Our spirit joins in oneness; this is how / We are one spirit evermore with Him. (Hymns #1195)
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