Have a Revived Living to Live an Overcoming Life and Contact People to Care for them

As believers in Christ, we need to have a revived living to live an overcoming life and contact people to care for them in love.

In order to make ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming, we need to maintain our victory by having a revived living, a living of being renewed day by day; we already have the victory, we just need to maintain the Lord’s victory by standing in Him and one with Him, for He has overcome and we overcome in Him. Praise the Lord!

This week we come to the last week in our morning revival related to, Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 ICSC).

The topic for this week is, Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming by Having a Revived Living and a Labor of Shepherding.

We need a clear sky so that we may see what is the way for us to prepare ourselves for the Lord’s second coming so that He would take us at His secret return to be with Him.

The Lord is coming, and we need to make ourselves ready. How do we make ourselves ready?

It is not only by knowing that the Lord is coming and paying attention to the outward signs, the events in the world situation, and the general situation on earth today.

He comes back to marry His bride; when His bride is prepared, the Lord will come.

The bride is not manifested all of a sudden; she has to go through a process of preparation.

On one hand, we need to know the prophecies and see the signs of the Lord’s coming as unveiled in the Bible.

On the other hand, however, in a most practical way, we need to prepare ourselves for the Lord’s return.

Merely knowing the signs and understanding the prophecies is not enough.

What about our hearts? What condition is our heart in? Do we long after the Lord’s presence?

Do we have the attitude that we want the Lord to come quickly? What is the condition of our heart and what is our daily living in regards to the Lord’s return?

We should not only look at the outward situations and see the various signs of the Lord’s coming but have a deeper and fuller understanding of how we make ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming.

He is not only the great God or the Savior who saved us; He is even more our dear Lord Jesus whom we love and enjoy day by day.

To make ourselves ready, we need to appreciate Him, love Him, and contact the Lord every day so that our living would be in His appearing and in the light of His coming.

It is not adequate for us to merely be involved and participate faithfully in the services related to the church life; our entire being needs to be prepared.

Are we prepared in our being for the Lord’s coming?

Yes, we do need to preach the gospel and shepherd the saints, and there are so many things that need to be taken care of in the practical service of the church, and we need to take care of all these things.

But what is most important in our being, our very person; the Lord is preparing us, the persons, so that we may be ready for His coming and be mature to be His bride.

May we cooperate with the Lord day by day to make ourselves ready for His coming, especially by having a revived living and a labor of shepherding.

Making ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming by Maintaining our Victory: Christ has Overcome and we Stand in His Victory!

In order for us as believers in Christ to make ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming, we need to maintain our victory by having a revived living day by day.

We do not fight for victory; the victory has been gained by Christ, and He as the Overcomer is in us to keep us in His ascendancy so that we may maintain His victory.

We need to have a revived living day by day by being renewed daily; this is based on seeing that we have the victory and we stand in Christ’s victory.

May the Lord touch us related to the matter of overcoming, and maintaining the victory of Christ; to prepare for the Lord’s coming, we need to live an overcoming life.

Our Christian life is based on the divine facts in the Bible.

According to the word of God, Christ came and overcome the world and the one who is the ruler of the world (John 16).

When He was on the cross, being crucified for us to accomplish redemption, the Lord said, It is finished.

From the human point of view, He was terminated, for He was put to death. It seemed that Satan had won the victory.

But from God’s point of view, Christ destroyed the devil through the cross; at the cross, He won the full victory, and this victory extends to all things and includes every aspect of our human life.

Victory is ours. By being joined to the Lord in spirit, what He has accomplished is ours, and what He has attained to is ours to experience and stand on (1 Cor. 6:17).

Our warfare today is not to gain the victory but to stand in Christ’s victory and maintain the victory of Christ.

We don’t become overcomers through fighting; we overcome because Christ, the Overcomer, is in our spirit, and we simply maintain His victory.

Satan tempts us by causing us to forget our own position and victory; he blinds our eyes to our own victory.

May we not give in to his tactics and thus think that victory is far away, beyond our reach, and something to be obtained eventually.

May we remember that the Lord’s victory is complete, and our whole life is included in this victory!

Once we believe into the Lord, we overcome!

Once we exercise our spirit to be joined to the Lord, we overcome, and Satan is defeated.

It’s not based on whether we feel we’re strong, we didn’t sin, and we are burning for the Lord; the matter of victory is altogether the victory of Christ.

He’s the unique Overcomer, the unique Victor, for through His death and resurrection He fought the battle and won the full victory.

Now we as His continuation, His reproduction, and His expression on earth stand in His victory and fight in victory.

Whenever we try to overcome, we are defeated; when we realize and stand in Christ’s victory, Satan is defeated.

It’s all a matter of seeing the victory of Christ and remaining in His victory, maintaining His victory, and declaring His victory.

We withstand the devil through the Lord’s manifestation, death, resurrection, and ascension; we stand on the accomplished and victorious work of the Lord.

We don’t need to try to overcome – we simply maintain the victory of Christ.

This requires revelation; we need to see the Lord’s incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and we need to exercise our spirit and remain in our spirit to be one with Him in ascension.

Rev. 3:21 says that he who overcomes will sit with Him on His throne even as He overcame and sat with His Father on His throne. He overcame.

We overcome because He overcame.

For us to have a revived living and a labor of shepherding, we need to maintain our victory.

We need to stand in the victory of Christ.

The Lord is looking for a group of people who, in the midst of the general defeat and degradation today, are a continuation of the Lord’s victory.

Who are the overcomers? They are not just some spiritual persons who transcend certain things.

They represent the Body to stand on the ground of the death of Christ, be harmonious with God’s interests and be fully for God’s purpose, and who remain in the ascendancy of Christ.

They are not the strong and powerful and spiritual ones in themselves; they represent the Body standing in death and resurrection so that the will of God can be carried out through them.

Even though the world situation is corrupted and the church is degraded, there is a group of people who are overcoming by remaining in the victory of Christ and maintaining this victory.

They are the ones qualified to be the bride, the counterpart of Christ.

To make ourselves ready for the Lord’s coming, we need to not only take care of outward things but in particular we need to remain in the victory of Christ.

Because Christ has overcome, we also overcome!

Praise the Lord Jesus, the One who has won the victory! Hallelujah, on the cross Christ has defeated the devil! Amen, Lord, You have overcome, and You sat with Your Father on the throne. We are joined to You. Everything You have done and accomplished is now for us to enjoy and maintain. Hallelujah, we believers in Christ are joined to the Lord as one spirit, and we overcome in and by Christ! Thank You, Lord, You are in our spirit as the unique Overcomer, and we overcome in You and because of You! Thank You for Your incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension. We stand upon Your accomplished work and we simply maintain the victory of Christ. Thank You, Lord, in ourselves we’re not qualified, but we can stand in Your victory, remaining in our spirit to be in the ascendancy, so that we maintain Your victory! Praise the Lord Jesus, the Overcomer, the Victor, and the One to whom we’re joined in spirit! Amen, Lord, we want to prepare for Your coming by maintaining the victory of Christ, which is our victory by virtue of our organic union with Him!

Having a Revived Living to Live an Overcoming Life and Contacting People to Care for them

We need to become genuine overcomers not by our own efforts to overcome but by remaining in the victory of Christ to maintain the victory of Christ.

Based on the Lord’s victory, we can live an overcoming life and have a revived living day by day.

Because Christ, the One who overcame, lives in us, we also overcome; we simply remain in the victory of Christ.

We are in His triumphant procession, and His victory is ours.

Because we stand in this organic union with the Lord to maintain His victory, we can have a revived living and live an overcoming life.

We exercise our spirit to contact the Lord in His word, and we take in His word by means of all prayer and petition.

His word is living, and we exercise our spirit to breathe the Lord in through His word.

Every morning we need to be revived by the Lord; this revival is not something that is temporary and extraordinary but daily and continual.

We need to have a revived living by contacting the Lord every day, and we need to live an overcoming life by remaining in the victory of Christ.

This will qualify us to contact others.

If we have a heart for the Lord, we should daily have a revived living to live an overcoming life, and we should consecrate everything for the Lord.

Then, we need to strive to redeem every bit of time to contact people. We need to take care of the saints one by one.

We shouldn’t try to contact too many people at once; even if we contact one of the saints every day, taking the slow and sure way, we will impart something of Christ to the saints.

All the saints need to be perfected unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12); we can perfect one another simply by having a revived living to live an overcoming life and then contacting one another in spirit.

If we contact one person per day, in a year we will have contacted three hundred and sixty-five people.

Contacting one another in spirit by remaining in the victory of Christ and having a revived living will result in much perfecting and building.

In this way all the Body causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love (Eph. 4:16).

May we learn to do our best to contact the brothers and sisters, be concerned for them and care for them in love, and strive to help and shepherd them.

If we all do this, if each member has a revived living to have an overcoming life and then contacts others to shepherd them, there will be a genuine revival among us, a revival that will bring the Lord back. Amen!

May we recover the matter of giving our all and our time to contact and shepherd people to build up the church as the organic Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12-16).

But may we do this not in and of ourselves, nor in our own zeal or outward practice, but by having a revived living to live an overcoming life day by day.

Daily, we need to be revived and overcome, and then there will be an overflow: we will simply minister Christ to others to shepherd them.

If we don’t have a revived living or a labor of shepherding, we will not be overcoming for long, for there will not be any way for us to maintain our victory.

We need both of these aspects: we need both the personal and corporate aspects.

On the personal side, we need to remain in the victory of Christ and maintain His victory, having a revived living to live an overcoming life day by day.

On the corporate side, we need to have a labor in shepherding by contacting the saints to minister Christ to them for the building up of the church, and we need to practice having meetings in mutuality as 1 Cor. 14:26 describes.

Amen, may the Lord continually recover these matters among us in the church life today so that we may prepare ourselves for the Lord’s coming!

Lord Jesus, we want to prepare for the Lord’s coming by having a revived living and living an overcoming life day by day so that we may contact others to shepherd them by ministering Christ to them. Amen, Lord, recover the matter of giving our all and our time to contact and shepherd people for the building up of the church. We love You, Lord Jesus, and we want to do a work of love for You by contacting the saints one by one to minister Christ to them. May we all have a revived living and a labor of shepherding in the church life so that we may live an overcoming life in a constant and sustained way. Amen, Lord, we want to maintain ourselves in the victory of the Lord by having a life and work of love toward the Lord! Keep us in our spirit, day by day, and keep us contacting people to minister Christ to them in love for the building up of the church!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1988, vol. 4, “A Timely Trumpeting and the Present Need,” ch. 4, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 ICSC), week 5, entitled, Making Ourselves Ready for the Lord’s Coming by Having a Revived Living and a Labor of Shepherding.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – The Holy Word for Morning Revival: Its Purpose and Usefulness, via, Having this ministry.
  – Being revived every morning and living a victorious life every day, a portion from, Lesson Book, Level 4: Life—Knowing and Experiencing Life, Chapter 23, by Witness Lee.
  – Prayer for the saints to be revived every morning and overcoming every day, via Beseeching.
  – God’s Dynamic Salvation Work, from Watchman Nee’s life.
  – The Key to True Inner Peace During Times of Distress, article via, Bibles for America blog.
  – The Bride in the Millennium, the Wife in Eternity, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Revived? As working saints in the Lord’s recovery, we are pulled in every direction from the moment we get up in the morning. Article at, Living to Him.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Who is this that comes in glory, / With the trump of jubilee? / Lord of battles, God of armies, / He has gained the victory; / He who on the cross did suffer, / He who from the grave arose, / He has vanquished sin and Satan, / He by death, He by death, He by / death has spoiled His foes. (Hymns #130 stanza 2)
  – Teach us to pray and use Thy rod / In strong, prevailing prayer, / Beneath Thy blood to shake the earth / And powers of the air. / By prayer and faith, O may we learn / To labor, Lord, with Thee, / To know the victory is ours / And Thine authority. (Hymns #767 stanzas 3-4)
  – To the lost world minister Christ, / Not just by word, but by life, / Imparting Christ by living deeds / To the poor souls living in strife. / To the lost world minister Christ, / By daily walk making Him known; / Imparting Christ by whom you live, / Share with all men what you own. (Hymns #922 stanza 1 and chorus)