The Lord’s move is in our Move, and His Move has the Same Appearance in Every Church

The high and awesome wheels in Ezek. 1:15 show us that God needs a move on earth today; the Lord’s move is in our move, and this move bears the appearance of the Lord, being the same in every locality on earth.

We can cooperate with the Lord for His move through prayer, so that we would carry out His move; when we pray, we are acting together with the acting God for the accomplishment of His economy, as seen in the book of Acts.

The book of Acts records the acts of the disciples as the reproduction and continuation of Christ; they were one with the Lord to be in the move of the Holy Spirit for the spreading and increase of the kingdom of God, so that God would move all over the earth and bring in His kingdom.

In order for us to be in the continuation of the book of Acts today, we need to pray one with the Lord and one with the saints for His move. First, we need the prayer that brought in the outpouring of the Spirit; we need the prayer in one accord that brought in the outpouring of God’s being on man for His move on earth.

We need the prayer that shook the earth and empowered the disciples with the Holy Spirit for the speaking of the word with boldness; we need to not look at our present situation but pray over God’s word and apply it in a living way to our situation, so that God would have a way to move in and through us.

We need to give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the word, and we need to continue steadfastly in prayer; we need to pray for God’s move and align our will with His will, praying back His word to Him so that He can do it.

We need to have the kind of prayer that brings us out of ourselves and into a trance, bringing a heavenly vision to us. We need to have the kind of prayer that opens any prison door, shakes the earth, and changes the environment for the spreading of God’s kingdom and the furtherance of God’s move on earth.

We need the prayer that brings us into the Lord’s commission; we need to minister to the Lord, fast, and pray, together with the saints He put us with, and the Spirit will speak to us, direct us, and even send us out.

May we all have the prayer that brings us into a trance and into the Lord’s speaking to us, so that we may be commissioned by Him and we would be one with Him either move in His move, give in His giving, or pray in His praying, as He directs us.

The Lord’s Move has His Appearance and Likeness in Every Church on Earth

The high and awesome wheels being upon the earth (Ezek. 1:15) shows us that God needs a move on the earth. This is why the Lord commanded us to pray, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth (Matt. 6:10).

The earth is our responsibility: we need to reclaim and recover the earth for God, bringing in God’s kingdom to the earth. We can do this through our prayer for the Lord’s move.

The appearance of the wheels by the living creatures is of beryl (Ezek. 1:16); beryl is the appearance of the Lord when He is moving (see Dan. 10:6), which indicates that, wherever the move of the wheels goes, it brings the appearance of the Lord.

Wherever the Lord’s move is, the Lord’s appearance and likeness is there. When we are one with the Lord as we go to school or to work, we will bring the appearance of the Lord there with us.

Others will be able to see the likeness of the Lord – not a mere proper and genuine man, but Jesus living again in us and Christ being expressed through us. If we don’t have the Lord’s appearance, we can’t have His move; if we don’t live Christ, He can’t move through us.

Furthermore, all four wheels have the same appearance; this indicates that the Lord’s move has the same likeness and appearance in every church.

The Lord has only one move and only one church, and when the Apostle Paul taught something or did something, he spoke the same thing, taught the same thing, and encouraged the churches to do the same thing (1 Cor. 4:17; 7:17; 11:16; 14:33; 16:1).

We should not be confused by saying that the Lord’s move in this place is different from His move in another place; there is only one move on the entire earth, and if we are in that unique move of the Lord, this move will look exactly like the Lord’s move everywhere on earth.

We should not stress that we need to have a different likeness of the Lord’s move from another local church, that is, to have our own distinction locally; this is wrong, and it brings division in the Body.

All the four wheels in Ezekiel 1 bear the same likeness, indicating that, in every place and in every country, the Lord’s move must have the same appearance, and as per 1 Thes. 2:14, the churches should follow one another, thus bearing the same likeness.

God needs a move on earth, and His move is in our move; however, the Lord’s move bears the Lord’s appearance everywhere on earth, and it is the same in every locality.

Lord, may Your kingdom come and may Your will be done, as in heaven so also on earth! May the high and awesome wheel of God’s move be in our locality and in all the local churches all over the earth! We want to be in the Lord’s unique move on earth, having the appearance of the Lord, and following the churches to be in the Lord’s move. Amen, Lord, save us from being in a move that doesn’t look like the Lord’s move on earth. May we be those living Christ, praying in coordination with the saints, and being in the Lord’s unique move on earth bearing the Lord’s appearance!

The Wheel within a Wheel in Ezek. 1:16 shows the Lord’s Move in our Move on Earth

The appearance and workmanship of the wheels in Ezek. 1:16 was of a wheel within a wheel; this shows us that the Lord’s move is in our move, and when we move, God moves in our move.

The inner wheel is the Lord Himself as the hub, and it is the source of power for the moving of the outer wheel, which is the church as the rim. A very good illustration of this is in James 5:17, Elijah…earnestly prayed that it would not rain; here “earnestly prayed” literally means, “prayed in a prayer”.

Elijah was a man of like feeling with us, but a prayer was given to him from the Lord, and he prayed in that prayer. He didn’t initiate the prayer, but it was the Lord as the hub, the inner wheel, that initiated it, and he voiced that prayer; the result was that the outer wheel of God’s move began to move.

Elijah didn’t pray in his feeling, thought, intention, or mood; he was not motivated by anything arising from his circumstances or situations, neither was he looking to fulfill his own purpose. Rather, he prayed in the prayer given to him by the Lord for the accomplishing of His will, and the Lord’s move was carried out.

The Lord Jesus also, before He appointed the twelve disciples, spent the whole night in prayer to God; literally, this means that He spent the whole night in the prayer of God.

He could discern which disciples to choose and which not to simply by being in the prayer of God and praying it back to God. As believers in Christ we don’t know what to pray, but the Spirit joins in; when we open our mouth, the Spirit joins in and prays in our praying (Rom. 8:26-27).

We may not know what to pray for, but if we just open our mouth and exercise our spirit, the Spirit will pray in our prayer, for He intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; He knows what to pray, and we echo that prayer.

The Lord as the inner wheel – the wheel within the wheel – is the dynamo, the generator, that causes the great wheel of the move of God to move. If our move is genuine, it must be that within our move is the move of the Lord, as we serve God in our spirit in the gospel, and we follow the sense of life and peace within us (see Rom. 1:8; 8:16).

In the church life the Lord Jesus is the hub and we are the rim (see Col. 1:17-18); in our move there is the Lord’s move, and when we are moving, the Lord is moving in our moving.

In a physical wheel there’s a hub and a rim; when the hub moves (the hub itself is being powered and moved), then the rim moves; when the hub stops, the rim also stops.

The Lord Jesus is the hub; when we contact Him and allow Him to move in us both individually and corporately, the church will move and the Lord moves in the move of the church; when the Lord stops, we will stop, and when He moves, we will move.

But if the churches don’t move one with the Lord, they have no way to go on, for there’s no wheel within a wheel. When you look at these “state churches”, they do a lot of things, but the Lord’s move is not there – there’s no hub, for Christ does not motivate or energize what they do.

Among us in the church life today we need to make sure that the Lord Jesus is the wheel within the wheel (He is the hub, the center, the motivator, and the originator), and we are one with Him in His move (we are the rim of the wheel).

Lord Jesus, we don’t know what to pray but we open our mouth to pray, allowing the Spirit to come in and pray in our prayer, for He intercedes for us before God with groanings which cannot be uttered. Oh Lord, we turn to You, we take You as our center and source of power, and we want to move one with You. You are our center, our hub, and we want to move in Your move so that God may move in our move. Make us fully one with You, Lord, as we move both individually and as the church, so that our move would be the Lord’s move, and the Lord would move in our move on earth!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Mark R. for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ezekiel, msg. 9 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (1), msg. 6 (week 6), The High and Awesome Wheels. 
• Hymns on this topic:
  # O Lord, grant us the strength to say, / Our will is Yours in every way; / You’d move through us to all the earth, / To show the nations Your unbounded, / Everlasting worth. (Song on being in the Lord’s move)
  # Prayer is the mightiest force of earth and heaven, / Prayer is the very dynamite of God; / It moves the hand that all things moves, and turns / The living wheels that sweep through earth abroad. (Hymns #762)
  # Pray to labor with the Lord / Till the wheel begins to move; / Pray together with the Lord / Till the Church His pow’r shall prove. (Hymns #786)