On the 6th day of the December 2016 Semiannual Training, the trainees were brought into a deeper appreciation of God’s recovery by life through His shepherding and the inward recovery by life for the carrying out of God’s economy.
In Message Eleven—God’s Recovery by Life through His Shepherding, we see that: 1) to shepherd is to take all-inclusive, tender care of the flock; 2) we enjoy His covenant of peace and are no longer subject to spiritual troubles and disturbances as we experience the Lord’s shepherding and remain under His kingship; 3) we become a source of blessing to others so that they may be supplied with the Lord as the showers of blessing and as the planting place of renown; 4) Christ is the good Shepherd, the great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, and the Shepherd of our souls; 5) to shepherd according to God is to shepherd according to God’s nature, desire, way, and glory, not according to our preference, interest, purpose, and disposition; that is, we need to become God in life, nature, expression, and function in order to shepherd according to God; 6) we need to be the reproduction of Christ, the expression of God, so that in our shepherding we express God not the self with its disposition and peculiarity; and 7) there will be no tears, no hunger, and no thirst, only enjoyment under Christ’s shepherding in eternity.
In Message Twelve—The Inward Recovery by Life for the Carrying Out of God’s Economy, we see that: 1) there is still the need of God’s judgment, particularly on Edom who typifies the old man, in the process of God’s recovery by life; 2) we have been recovered and revived not because of any merit in ourselves but because God did something in us for His own name; 3) God applies His judicial redemption to His people for their being cleansed with the precious blood of Christ for their inward recovery; 4) God applies His organic salvation to His people to give them a new heart and a new spirit so that they may be deified to become a new creation, the New Jerusalem; 5) God puts His Spirit within us, in our spirit, making the two spirits one mingled spirit and causing us to be one spirit with Him; 6) the desolate and waste places will become like the garden of Eden as a result of the inward recovery by life; and 7) the Lord desires to increase us “with men like a flock” (Ezekiel 36:37-38) in His recovery by life.
The titles of the twelve messages and the related hymns are as follows:
Message One: Visions of God and the Unveiling of God’s Purpose and the Desire of His Heart (Hymns, #505 and #538)
Message Two: The Spiritual History of a Normal Christian—the Wind, the Cloud, the Fire, and the Electrum (Hymns, #893 and #256)
Message Three: The Four Living Creatures (Hymns, #1142 and #1174)
Message Four: The Coordination of the Four Living Creatures (Hymns, #493 and #840)
Message Five: The Wings of an Eagle, the Hands of a Man, and the Feet of a Calf (Hymns, #497 and #242)
Message Six: The High and Awesome Wheels (Hymns, #740 and #786)
Message Seven: The Highest Point in Our Spiritual Experience—Having a Clear Sky with a Throne above It (Hymns, #372 and #942)
Message Eight: The Man on the Throne (Hymns, #124 and #132)
Message Nine: The Rainbow—the Consummation of the Experience of the Christian Life and the Church Life (Hymns, #18 and The Rainbow)
Message Ten: Eating the Scroll—Eating and Digesting the Word of God (Hymns, #814 and #1219)
Message Eleven: God’s Recovery by Life through His Shepherding (Hymns, #1221 and #841)
Message Twelve: The Inward Recovery by Life for the Carrying Out of God’s Economy (Hymns, #16, #743, #744, #152, and A New Hymn—a translation of #442, Chinese Hymnal, tune: Hymns, #585)
“I am reborn! What wondrous grace! New spirit and new heart He gave! His Spirit into mine’s been placed; His nature I may now partake!” (Chorus, A New Hymn)
May the Lord bless us in 2017 with more singing, praising, and thanksgiving. – via Mike Lee
Amen.
