Open Vessels Cooperate with God who is Always Advancing in the Continuation of Acts

Today we are living in the continuation of the book of Acts, for our God is moving, our God is always advancing, and His work goes on throughout generations until today.

As believers in Christ, we have been not only born of our human parents to live in the human history outwardly, but we have also been regenerated with the divine life so that we may live in the divine history within the human history inwardly.

Our God is always moving and advancing, and when we call on the name of the Lord, fellowship with Him, and contact Him, living in spirit, we live not only in the outward human history but even more in the divine history.

God became a man, stepping from eternity onto the bridge of time, and He brought God into man. This man, Jesus Christ, lived a God-man life on earth, and He lived in the divine history within the human history.

Then, through His death on the cross He redeemed us and opened the way for us to enter into the divine history, and in His resurrection we all were regenerated to enter into God’s history within the human history.

Our regeneration brought us into another realm, the realm of God, the realm of the divine life, and by believing into the Lord we became part of the continuation of the book of Acts, Acts chapter 29 to say it like that. Hallelujah!

The human history is like an outward shell, visibly seen and studied and lived, but within this shell there’s a kernel, the divine history, the history of God in man and with man.

And whenever we call on the name of the Lord, we are saved, and we live in this another realm, the realm of the divine life.

When God became a man, this was Christ’s goings forth prophesied in Micah. Christ’s goings forth are from the days of eternity – He went forth in His incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension, and He didn’t stop there.

Rather, in His resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit to come into our spirit and continue His goings forth, for us to live in the continuation of Acts – in the divine history within the human history.

Christ’s goings forth include our redemption, our regeneration, our transformation, our renewing, our conformation, and our glorification. His goings forth are inward, for He inwardly comes into us to work in us and make us part of His work, and He is always advancing on earth with man in the church.

How we thank the Lord that He has reached us, He has come into us, and He’s working in us to make us part of His glorious corporate expression on earth!

He is mingling Himself with us, He is working Himself into us, and He is always advancing in us, with us, and among us for Him to gain His corporate expression in man. Praise the Lord!

Acts is a Book without an Ending – it is still being Continued as the Divine History within the Human History

The Acts of the Apostles is a book without an ending because this book is still being continued as the divine history within human history (see Acts 28:31).

The last verse of the book of Acts tells us that Paul rented a dwelling in Rome and he taught all those who came to him concerning the kingdom of God and the word of Jesus Christ.

This book doesn’t say concerning how Paul was martyred, how the other apostles were also martyred, or how the persecution under the Roman Empire took place. The book of Acts has an open end – it doesn’t finish with, Amen, or something like that.

The reason for this is that this book is still being continued as the divine history within the human history.

After the first disciples there were many others who believed into the Lord, were built up to be the church, and continued in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles. Year after year and age after age God is always working and always advancing, and today we are part of this advancement of the Lord in man.

The divine history within the outward human history is always going on. It may not be that visible, and our history books may not have a record of it, but God’s history in man is always going on, and God never stopped working.

From the fall of man and the rebellion of Satan God has always been working, and the Lord Jesus also has been working, so that He may gain what He is after in man – a corporate expression, the church as the Body of Christ.

The Lord said, “My Father is working until now, and I also am working” (John 5:17); this shows that since the rebellion of Satan and the fall of man, God has been working until now, and the Lord is also working.

The Lord has been working throughout the generations until today, He is working today, and He will still be working until the age of the millennium and even in eternity.

The Acts of the Apostles is a book without ending because this book is still being continued today with us.

God’s vessels are still carrying out the work, and God’s work in man and with man has not come to an end.

God’s testimony was not finished with Paul and the early apostles, and even though there are so many divisions in Christianity today, God is still working and He’s always advancing with man, so that He may gain His corporate expression on earth.

God’s work will go on until the kingdom and even until the new heaven and new earth, for our God is always advancing – He never stops. If we see this, know this, and believe this, we will praise the Lord. Hallelujah!

Even as the New Jerusalem, His slaves will still serve Him as priests (see Rev. 22:3; cf. Acts 13:36).

Lord Jesus, we praise You and thank You for reaching us and bringing us into the divine history within the human history. Hallelujah, our God is always working and always advancing, and today we are part of the work of God in man! Lord, we want to live one spirit with You today, calling on Your name to always abide in You so that we may live not only in the outward human history but the inward divine history. We praise You Lord for always advancing and always working!

Being Open Vessels today to Cooperate with God who is Always Advancing in the Continuation of Acts

Many believers throughout the ages had the misconception that their age is the worst age of the church.

In the time of Martin Luther the believers then thought that their age was the worst, for there was so much political involvement and so many outward forms and regulations, and the Bible was not yet translated in the language of the people.

Similarly, in the time of John Wesley, he and many others thought that their age was the worst. We today may think that the time of Martin Luther and of John Wesley was so good, compared to our days today.

We may even consider that the revivals in the past were so marvelous, but today it’s not so good. While we consider other ages as being marvelous, we may think that the days today are not so good.

We may be afraid that in the old days God worked, but maybe in our days His work stopped. But God never stops – God is always advancing! Our God is a God who keeps on advancing in age by age.

He only needs to find some vessels – some open vessels that cooperate with His work in that age.

At the time of Martin Luther, the Lord found a vessel that cooperated with Him to a certain extent, and at the time of John Wesley, there was another vessel. At the time of Watchman Nee, God found this unique vessel that was fully open to Him, and He could speak so much and do so much.

Every time there’s a spiritual revival, God finds some vessels through which He can move.

Today God is moving in man, and He is always advancing; we need to be the open vessels today that allow Him to work in them and on them so that they would be suitable for His move.

Where is God’s vessel today? The Father is working until now, the Son is also working, but who can say, I am also working, just like the Father and the Son are working? This is the crucial question.

If God grants us the light in His word, we will admit that God today is after the same vessel that He ordained in the beginning – He wants to gain the church, His corporate expression, His home.

God wants to gain not an individual vessel but a corporate one, a corporate vessel – the church, the Body of Christ. For God to gain what He is after, we need to be the open vessels that cooperate with His work today.

We need to be willing to deny our natural life and be judged and dealt with by God in a deep way, so that we may know not only the divine life personally but the Body life corporately.

We need to learn obedience, and we need to learn to fellowship in the Body. In this way, we will have the chance of becoming God’s vessel. We want to be the open vessels today that are willing to cooperate with the Lord’s move, so that we may live in the continuation of the book of Acts today.

Lord Jesus, we want to be the open vessels today who cooperate with the God who is always advancing, so that we may be in reality in the continuation of the book of Acts. Grant us light, Lord, that we may see the truth in Your word. May we be those who are one with God who is always working and always advancing. Amen, Lord, gain the corporate vessel that You desire. Gain the Body, the church, the one new man! Lord, make us willing to allow You to deal with us and judge in us anything that stands in Your way so that we may learn to fellowship and obey, and we would be built up in the church as the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 37, ch. 20, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Propagating the Resurrected, Ascended, and All-inclusive Christ as the Development of the Kingdom of God (2018 fall ITERO), week 2, The Continuation of the Book of Acts — Living in the Divine History within Human History.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Though the world may change its fashion, / Yet our God is e’er the same; / His compassion and His cov’nant / Through all ages will remain. / God’s own children, God’s own children, / Must forever praise His name. (Hymns #33)
  # Living out His resurrection, / Dying to the flesh and soul-life. / Living by the mingled spirit, / Natural man we will deny. / Now we’re living in the Body, / Every day we’re overcoming, / Striving for the peak of Zion, / Watching for our Lord’s appearing. (Song on, God has called us for His purpose)
  # A mighty flowing-out is God, / He flows throughout the ages. / And so to flow Himself to man / He is in many stages; / Yet still one God is He, / One flow eternally; / His stages pave the way / To flow through man today, / And now He flows within us! (Hymns #1198)