THE FOURTH PART: THE PATHWAY OF THE LORD’S RECOVERY
God-ordained Way
Message Nineteen—Living a Prophesying Life for the Building Up of the Church
as the Body of Christ
Scripture Reading: Psa. 45:1; Num. 11:29; 1 Cor. 14:3, 12, 31; 1 Pet. 4:11; 1 Cor. 12:8
I. The speaking God, the Word of God, created us in His image to be a speaking people—Gen. 1:26; John 1:1; Heb. 1:1-2a; Acts 8:4; 1 Cor. 14:31. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
II. “My heart overflows with a good matter; / I speak what I have composed concerning the King. / My tongue is the pen of a ready writer”—Psa. 45:1: (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
A. If we have an affectionate love for the Lord Jesus, our tongue will be the pen of a ready writer, ready to write our love and our praise. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
B. Our heart should overflow to speak the full ministry of Christ in the stages of His incarnation, inclusion, and intensification as the content of God’s eternal economy—John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
III. Matthew 16:18 says, “I will build My church,” and 1 Corinthians 14:4b says, “He who prophesies builds up the church”: (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
A. To prophesy is to speak for the Lord and to speak forth the Lord, that is, to dispense Christ into people—vv. 3, 12, 31. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
B. God’s desire is for all of His people to be prophets—Num. 11:29; 1 Cor. 14:31. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
C. Christ first builds the church by dispensing Himself into us as the regenerating word of God through those who prophesy by speaking Him forth as the good news of the gospel—1 Pet. 1:23; Rom. 10:14-17. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
D. Christ continues to build the church by overflowing from within us in the church meetings to speak forth Christ into one another—to prophesy—for the increase of Christ within us so that we may grow with the growth of God for God’s building— John 7:37-39; Col. 2:19. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
IV. We must live a proper, normal Christian life—a prophesying life—so that we may be the proper speaking ones in the church meetings—1 Pet. 4:11: (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
A. We must love the Lord—John 21:15-17: (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
1. The more we love the Lord, the more we are qualified, equipped, and perfected to speak for Him. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
2. Our love for the Lord is the factor, the element, and the very basic essence of our being powerful in speaking forth the Lord. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
3. If we love the Lord, we will surely be filled with Him, and we will surely have something of Him to pour out, to release the One who has filled us within. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
B. We must be revived by the Lord—Rev. 3:1-2, 15-17: (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
1. Once we are revived, we will have a desire to go fishing for men and to go to the homes where the fish are—Matt. 4:19. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
2. To have a local church in the Lord’s recovery that is living and prevailing with everyone speaking, we all need to be revived day by day—2 Cor. 4:16. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
C. We must live a victorious life, an overcoming life—Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
D. We must abide in the fellowship with the Lord daily and hourly—1 John 1:3, 6; 2 Cor. 13:14. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
E. We must be a praying person—Col. 4:2; Rom. 10:12-13. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
F. We must enjoy the Lord every day early in the morning to have a new start of each day—Psa. 119:147-148. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
G. We must learn to walk by and according to our spirit mingled with the Spirit—Gal. 5:16; Rom. 8:4. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
H. We must live Christ for His magnification by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ—Phil. 1:19-21a; Gal. 2:20. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
I. We must speak Christ to all kinds of people daily in season and out of season—Acts 5:42; 8:4; 2 Tim. 4:2. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
J. We must deal with our sins thoroughly—1 John 1:5, 7, 9; Acts 24:16. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
K. We must be filled with the Spirit inwardly—13:52; Eph. 5:18. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
L. We must be filled with the Spirit outwardly—Acts 4:31, 8; 13:9. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
M. We must accumulate the experiences of Christ—Phil. 3:8-10, 12-14. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
N. We must keep a rich storage of the Lord’s word—Col. 3:16; John 15:7; 1 John 2:14. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
O. We must know some of the hymns on Christ, the Spirit, the church, life, etc., in our hymnal—Eph. 5:19. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
P. We must desperately endeavor to build up a habit of speaking in any meeting—1 Cor. 14:26, 12, 31. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
Q. We must always have something to speak in all the meetings as a freewill offering to God and to the audience—v. 26 and footnote 1. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
V. We must be those who speak ten major categories of the word of God: (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
A. The word of grace—Acts 20:32. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
B. The word of truth—Eph. 1:13. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
C. The word of the gospel—Acts 8:4. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
D. The word of life—1 John 1:1; Phil. 2:16; Acts 5:20. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
E. The healthy word—1 Tim. 6:3; 2 Tim. 1:13. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
F. The edifying word—Eph. 4:29. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
G. The good word—Heb. 6:5. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
H. The word of righteousness—5:13. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
I. The word of wisdom—1 Cor. 12:8. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
J. The word of knowledge—v. 8. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
VI. The two most important items of the manifestation of the Spirit in the believers are the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge: (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
A. According to the context of 1 Corinthians, the word of wisdom is the word concerning Christ as the deeper things of God, predestined by God to be our portion—1:24, 30; 2:6-10. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
B. The word of knowledge is the word that imparts a general knowledge of things concerning God and the Lord—8:1-7. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
C. The word of wisdom is mainly out of our spirit through revelation, and the word of knowledge is mainly out of our understanding through teaching; the former is deeper than the latter. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)
D. However, both of these, not speaking in tongues nor any other miraculous gift, are listed as the first gifts and the topmost manifestation of the Spirit because both are the most profitable ministries, or services, for the edification of the saints and the building up of the church to carry out God’s operation. (2016 ICSC, msg. 4)