Morning Nourishment - Christ as the Son of Man Walking in the Midst of the Golden Lampstands
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Day 6
Verses: Matt. 16:18 …Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. (cid:53)(cid:72)(cid:89)N RPZQT (cid:36)(cid:81)(cid:71) (cid:71)(cid:72)(cid:68)(cid:87)(cid:75) (cid:68)(cid:81)(cid:71) (cid:43)(cid:68)(cid:71)(cid:72)(cid:86) (cid:90)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:72) (cid:70)(cid:68)(cid:86)(cid:87) (cid:76)(cid:81)(cid:87)(cid:82) (cid:87)(cid:75)(cid:72) (cid:79)(cid:68)(cid:78)(cid:72) (cid:82)(cid:73) (cid:191)(cid:85)(cid:72)N (cid:55)(cid:75)(cid:76)(cid:86) (cid:76)(cid:86) (cid:87)(cid:75)(cid:72) (cid:86)(cid:72)(cid:70)(cid:82)(cid:81)(cid:71) (cid:71)(cid:72)(cid:68)(cid:87)(cid:75)L (cid:87)(cid:75)(cid:72) (cid:79)(cid:68)(cid:78)(cid:72) (cid:82)(cid:73) (cid:191)(cid:85)(cid:72)N In Matthew 16:18 …gates of Hades refers to Satan’s authority or power of darkness (Col. 1:13; Acts 26:18), which cannot prevail against the genuine church built by Christ upon this revelation concerning Him as the rock, with stones such as Peter, a transformed human being. This word of the Lord’s indicates also that Satan’s power of darkness will attack the church. Hence, there is spiritual warfare between Satan’s power, which is his kingdom, and the church, which is God’s kingdom. On the dome [of Saint Peter’s Cathedral in Rome] there [are] written some words from Matthew 16:18: “I will build My church upon this rock.” However, the last part of this verse — “and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it”—[is] not written there…The church in the Lord’s recovery, however, is truly built upon the revelation concerning Christ, and against this church the gates of Hades cannot prevail. (Life-study of Matthew, pp. 541-542)
(cid:527)In(cid:528) Revelation 20:14—the lake of fiire is the trash can for the entire universe, into which all negative things, including death and Hades, will be cast. Death will be the last enemy destroyed by the Lord (1 Cor. 15:26). In the first death, the soul and spirit are separated from the body and, in the case of the unbelievers, are kept in the suffering section of Hades (Luke 16:22-24). In the second death, the soul and spirit of the unbelievers, after being rejoined to their body in resurrection, are cast with their body into the lake of fiire. This means that the unbelievers' whole being—spirit, soul, and body—will perish in eternal torment in the lake of fiire.
In the four Gospels Christ was mild, gentle, and kind. When He looked at people, they felt loved. In the Gospel of John, Jesus looked at people and wept; He truly captured people by His loving look (11:35; Luke 22:61). This same Christ, however, appears differently in the book of Revelation. He has seven eyes, which are like a filame of fiire (1:14; 5:6), burning and shining. In the Gospels His most intimate disciple could even recline on His bosom (John 13:23)…However, when John saw Him again in Revelation, he was frightened and fell at His feet as dead (1:17)…Luke 4:22 says that words of grace proceeded out of His mouth, but Revelation tells us that a sharp two-edged sword proceeds out of His mouth (1:16; 19:15). Moreover, in John 1:29 He is introduced as the Lamb of God, but in Revelation 5:5 He is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
The book of Revelation unveils Christ to us not in a common way but in an extraordinary way…Revelation continues the Gospels and the Epistles, but it does not reveal Christ according to the Gospels and the Epistles. In Revelation He is not a small, gentle, kind, patient, silent, and suffering Christ; He is a bold, fiierce, rich, burning, and living Christ. If we experience the Christ unveiled in Revelation, we will be in life, enjoy His victory, praise Him, and shout for joy. If we consider the picture of Christ in Revelation 1, we will see that this chapter presents a fiierce Christ. His eyes are as a filame of fiire; His feet are like shining bronze, as having been fiired in a furnace; His voice is as the sound of many waters; and out of His mouth proceeds a sharp two-edged sword.
We must have a new impression of Christ. Christ, the Son of Man, who is walking in the midst of the local churches, is living, burning, and fiierce. He is gracious, yet He is terrifying…Because the days are so dark, evil, and dead, we need a fiierce Christ. If we contact the Christ in Revelation, we will not be cold but burning, and we will not be silent but will shout to praise Him. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 4156-4157)
Day 1
Verses: Eph. 4:3 Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. Matt. 18:20 0 For where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst. Chapter 12 of Deuteronomy corresponds in at least four ways to the revelation in the New Testament. First,…the people of God should always be one. In order to preserve the oneness of the children of Israel, God did not allow each of the twelve tribes to have its own worship center…In His wisdom God did not allow His people to have their own choice or preference but required them to take His choice and to come three times a year to the unique worship center, even though travel to that place was inconvenient for many of them. Many prefer to have their own way instead of God’s way…All denominations are according to man’s preferences…The Lord’s recovery is a matter of coming back to God’s way according to God’s preference. (Life-study of Deuteronomy, 2nd ed., pp. 75-76)
Second,…God’s way to keep the oneness of His people is to have a place with His name, the unique name…Today Christians should be gathered together into only one name, the name of the Lord Jesus (Matt. 18:20). However, Christians are accustomed to being gathered into other names, such as Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Lutheran, and Methodist.
According to the type in Deuteronomy 12, it is a serious matter to be gathered into a name other than the unique name of the Lord. To have other names for our worship is an abomination; it is spiritual fornication. We are Christ’s counterpart, His wife. Since we are His counterpart, we should not have a name other than His name…Just as a wife should bear the name of her husband, not the name of any other man, so we, the believers in Christ, should bear only His name and not any other name. Third, both Deuteronomy 12 and the New Testament reveal that the place chosen by God for our worship of Him is the place of His habitation…
According to Ephesians 2:22, God’s habitation, His dwelling place, is in our spirit…If we come together under the name of Christ but, instead of exercising our spirit, we remain in the natural mind or, even worse, in the filesh, we will not be in the habitation of God. In gathering together for the worship of God by enjoying Christ, we must gather into the name of Christ and we must be in the spirit. Otherwise, we will lose the proper ground of the church.
In everything related to the worship of God, we need to exercise our spirit. Whenever we sing, we should sing with our spirit. Whenever we praise, we should praise with our spirit. Whenever we speak, we should speak with our spirit. If we do this, the meeting will be in God’s habitation. Fourth, in Deuteronomy 12 and in the New Testament we have the altar, the cross…Paul’s word in 1 Corinthians 2:2 indicates the importance of this: “I did not determine to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and this One crucifiied."
At the entrance of the church is the cross, and everyone who would come into the church must experience the cross and be crucifiied. To experience the cross is to be set aside, to be annulled, to be reduced to nothing. In the church there should be only Christ, not us. Where should we be? We should be on the cross. This means that we should not bring anything of the old man, anything of the filesh, the self, or the natural life, into the church. When we are on the cross, we are truly in the spirit.
As we are preparing to come to the meeting, we may pray, “Lord, if I still have something related to the filesh, the self, and the natural life, I ask You to forgive me and to cross out these things. Lord, I need to be crossed out and then anointed with Yourself." If we all come to the meeting in this way, we will meet in the name of Christ, we will meet in God’s habitation, and we will meet under the application of the cross. (Life-study of Deuteronomy, 2nd ed., pp. 76-78)
Day 2
Verses: Rev. 1:9 I John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Acts 14:22 …Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. The phrase in Jesus governs the words tribulation, kingdom, and endurance [Rev. 1:9], and we must pay close attention to it…According to the facts of His life, His name, Jesus, denotes a suffering person, a man of sorrows (Isa. 53:3)…When we say that we are fellow partakers of the tribulation, kingdom, and endurance "in Jesus," this means that we are suffering and are being persecuted as we follow Jesus the Nazarene…The book of Revelation is for those who are suffering tribulation "in Jesus." " This means that those who are waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus must be people who suffer tribulation in Jesus. (Life-study of Revelation, pp. 57-58)
Because we do not cooperate with religion, it persecutes us. The persecution that we are suffering today is the persecution in Jesus. He is now suffering persecution with His followers (Acts 9:4-5)…When Saul of Tarsus was traveling to Damascus with the intention of arresting all those who called on the name of Jesus, the Lord Jesus knocked him down to the earth, saying, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me(cid:491)" (v. 4). When Saul said, "Who are You, Lord(cid:491)" Jesus answered, "I am Jesus, whom you persecute" (v. 5)— According to the Lord Jesus, Saul was persecuting Him, because, at that time, He was in Stephen, Peter, John, and all His other members and was one with them. The same is true today.
When the religious people persecute us, they are actually persecuting Jesus because Jesus is in us and is one with us…We are fellow partakers of tribulation in Jesus. If we are fellow partakers in the tribulation in Jesus, then we are fellow partakers in the kingdom. To partake of the persecution in Jesus is to partake of the kingdom. In a proper sense, the church is the kingdom [cf. Matt. 16:18-19]. Romans 14:17 also indicates that we in the church are in the kingdom. The proper church life is the kingdom life. The divine life brings us into the divine kingdom. The kingdom into which we are reborn in John 3:5 is the very kingdom mentioned by John in Revelation 1:9…After we have been reborn into the kingdom, we should remain in it…If you remain in the kingdom and live in it, you will never fiight with your husband, your wife, or anyone else.
Although the enemy may tempt you to fiight, the ruling of the heavenly kingdom will restrain you. In Revelation 1:9 John also said that he was a fellow partaker in the endurance in Jesus. For both the tribulation and the kingdom we need endurance. Many saints, even among us in the Lord’s recovery, lack endurance. Some have suffered persecution from their relatives, friends, and neighbors, but eventually, they exhausted their supply of endurance. While they were able to withstand the persecution for a certain time, they lacked the endurance to bear it for a longer time. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He endured persecution (Heb. 12:2-3), and He is still enduring men’s opposition and reproach today.
When we abide in Christ, we partake of His endurance and have the endurance to bear suffering and opposition. The Lord’s word is even called the word of endurance (Rev. 3:10). Today the whole world is opposing and rejecting Him, but He does not fiight back. He simply endures it all. Now as we have fellowship with Him and abide in Him, we partake of His endurance. As His followers, we must follow Him on the same pathway with endurance (Heb. 12:1). In this way we also can endure persecution, rumors, rejection, and opposition. This is a strong proof that we are those who are waiting for the Lord’s coming back. (Life-study of Revelation, pp. 60-65)
Day 3
Verses: Rev. 1:13 And in the midst of the lampstands [I saw] One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment reaching to the feet, and girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle. Eph. 5:29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ also the church. . To cherish people is to make them feel happy and comfortable. To nourish them is to feed them, to give them something to eat…As the Son of Man, Christ as the High Priest is taking care of all the churches as lampstands (Rev. 1:12-13). On the one hand, He is cherishing the churches in His humanity; on the other hand, He is nourishing the churches in His divinity…When we visit people, invite them to our home, or contact them before and after the meetings, we must be one with Christ to cherish and nourish them. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, "The Vital Groups," p. 152)
Christ is the best model of cherishing and nourishing…Christ is taking care of the lampstands by being the Son of Man with a long garment. This garment is the priestly robe (Exo. 28:33-35), which shows that Christ is our great High Priest. He is also girded about at the breasts [a sign of love] with a golden girdle… The golden girdle is one piece of gold to become a belt. The Son of Man is in His humanity, and the golden girdle signifies His divinity. The priests in the Old Testament were girded at the loins for their ministry (Exo. 28:4). In Daniel 10:5 Christ also was girded at His loins, with fiine gold. To be girded at the loins is to be strengthened for the work. Christ has fiinished His divine work in producing the churches.
Now by His love He is caring for the churches that He has produced…Now He takes care of the churches with the girdle not on His loins but on His breasts, signifying love. I hope we all could realize that in these days even among us, Christ is wearing a golden girdle on His breasts. The totality of Christ in His divinity has become a girdle. The golden girdle signifies Christ's divinity becoming His energy, and the breasts signify that this golden energy is exercised and motivated by His love. His divine energy is exercised by and with His love to nourish the churches. Christ takes care of the churches as the lampstands in His humanity as the Son of Man to cherish them (Rev. 1:13a).
Christ as our High Priest takes care of the churches that He has established first in His humanity to cherish the churches, to make the churches happy, pleasant, and comfortable. The high priest in the Old Testament dressed the lamps of the lampstands every morning (Exo. 30:7). To dress the lamps is to make them proper. Christ cares for the lampstands by trimming the wicks of the lamps of the lampstand, just as the priest did according to the type in the Old Testament (Exo. 25:38). When the wick was burned out, it became charred and black, so the priest had to come to cut off the black part of the wick…The charred part of the wick, the snuff, signifies things that are not according to God's purpose which need to be cut off, such as our filesh, our natural man, our self, and our old creation.
All the lampstands are organic. They are living lampstands. Since each church is a living lampstand, each church has much feeling. A church with charred wicks will not feel comfortable. I thank the Lord that today in His recovery He is the High Priest in His humanity…We do not have a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all respects like us, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). Our Christ is the same as we are…He always sympathizes with our weaknesses in His humanity. He is the High Priest in His humanity taking care of us by cherishing us all the time. (CWWL, 1994- 1997, vol. 5, "The Vital Groups," pp. 154-156)
Day 4
Verses: Rev. 2:1 …These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, He who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God. Christ, as the High Priest, takes care of the churches as the lampstands in His divinity with His divine love, signifiied by the golden girdle on His breasts, to nourish the churches (Rev. 1:13b). Christ is not only human but also divine. He is the Son of Man wearing a golden girdle, signifying His divinity as His divine energy. His divinity as the divine energy nourishes the churches in many ways. On the one hand, He trims the wicks of the church lamps, cutting away all the wrongdoings, shortages, failures, and defects mentioned in the seven epistles to the seven churches. Christ does the best trimming work in His humanity to cherish the churches. On the other hand, in each of these seven epistles, we see Christ’s nourishing. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups," pp. 156-157)
We may say that [Revelation 2:7] is a prophecy referring to the kingdom age, in which the overcomers will enjoy Christ as the tree of life in God’s Paradise. But if we do not enjoy Christ as the tree of life in the church life today, surely we will not participate in the tree of life in the kingdom age…If I do not eat Christ here today, I will not eat Him in the kingdom age. In the seventh epistle the Lord counsels the church in Laodicea to buy gold, white garments, and eyesalve to be saved from their degradation in lukewarmness (Rev. 3:18). He promises to dine with the ones who would open the door to Him (v. 20). We can see that this is the nourishing of Christ in His divinity exercised by and with His love.
His nourishing the churches in His divinity is so that the churches may grow and mature in His divine life and become the overcomers in His sevenfold intensifiication. Our Christ today is our High Priest. In His humanity He is easily touched with the feeling of our weaknesses. He sympathizes with our weakness because He was tempted in all respects like us. He is cherishing us in His humanity. Meanwhile, He is nourishing us in His divinity with all the positive aspects of His person revealed in the seven epistles to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3…In His humanity He is cherishing us to make us proper so that we may be happy, pleasant, and comfortable. In His divinity He is nourishing us so that we may grow and mature in the divine life to be His overcomers to accomplish His eternal economy.
Just as a child is cherished by the very presence of his mother, so we are cherished by the Lord’s presence…The Lord’s presence produces an atmosphere of tenderness and warmth to cherish our very being. No matter how enjoyable the fellowship may be in your home, the atmosphere there is not nearly as cherishing as the atmosphere in the [church] meetings…It is by the atmosphere produced by the Lord’s brooding presence that the Lord cherishes the church.
To be in this climate, this atmosphere, this environment, gives us rest, comfort, healing, cleansing, and encouragement… For this reason I do not want to miss even one meeting of the church. Nourishing and cherishing go together. Through the nourishing we enjoy the supply of life inwardly, and through the cherishing we experience the soothing, comforting atmosphere outwardly. Whenever we are in an atmosphere of cherishing, we can absorb every word of the ministry. This indicates that under the cherishing we receive nourishing. (Life-study of Ephesians, p. 438)
Day 5
Verses: Rev. 1:14-15 And His head and hair were as white as white wool, as (cid:86)(cid:81)(cid:82)(cid:90)(cid:30) (cid:68)(cid:81)(cid:71) (cid:43)(cid:76)(cid:86) (cid:72)(cid:92)(cid:72)(cid:86) (cid:90)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:72) (cid:79)(cid:76)(cid:78)(cid:72) (cid:68) (cid:192)(cid:68)(cid:80)(cid:72) (cid:82)(cid:73) (cid:191)(cid:85)(cid:72)(cid:30) (cid:68)(cid:81)(cid:71) (cid:43)(cid:76)(cid:86) (cid:73)(cid:72)(cid:72)(cid:87) (cid:90)(cid:72)(cid:85)(cid:72) (cid:79)(cid:76)(cid:78)(cid:72) (cid:86)(cid:75)(cid:76)(cid:81)(cid:76)(cid:81)(cid:74) (cid:69)(cid:85)(cid:82)(cid:81)(cid:93)(cid:72)L (cid:68)(cid:86) (cid:75)(cid:68)(cid:89)(cid:76)(cid:81)(cid:74) (cid:69)(cid:72)(cid:72)(cid:81) (cid:191)(cid:85)(cid:72)(cid:71) (cid:76)(cid:81) (cid:68) (cid:73)(cid:88)(cid:85)(cid:81)(cid:68)(cid:70)(cid:72)(cid:30) (cid:68)(cid:81)(cid:71) (cid:43)(cid:76)(cid:86) (cid:89)(cid:82)(cid:76)(cid:70)(cid:72) (cid:90)(cid:68)(cid:86) (cid:79)(cid:76)(cid:78)(cid:72) (cid:87)(cid:75)(cid:72) (cid:86)(cid:82)(cid:88)(cid:81)(cid:71) of many waters. The black hair with which the Lord is depicted in Song of Songs 5:11 signifies His unfading and everlasting strength, but the white hair with which He is depicted (cid:527)in Revelation 1:14(cid:528) signifies His ancientness (cid:527)cf. Job 15:10(cid:528). In Revelation 1 we see that His head and His hair were as white as white wool and as snow. White wool issues from the nature of life, and white snow comes down from the sky, from heaven…White wool is the color of Christ’s nature. His ancientness is of His nature. Snow is white because it comes from heaven and contains no earthly dirt or stain. Hence, white wool, both here and in Daniel 7:9, signifies that the ancientness of Christ is of His nature, not out of His becoming old, whereas white snow signifies that His ancientness is heavenly, not earthly. (Life-study of Revelation, p. 98)
In Song of Songs 5:12 the eyes of Christ are like doves. That is for the expression of His love. (cid:527)In Revelation 1:14(cid:528) His eyes are "like a filame of fiire." This is for Him to observe and search that He may exercise judgment by enlightening…His eyes are not two but seven (5:6). Seven is the number of completion in God’s move. Hence, Christ’s eyes in this book are for God’s operation.
These seven eyes of His are the "seven lamps of fiire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God" (4:5; cf. Dan. 10:6). The "fiire burning" equals the "filame of fiire" and is for observing and searching. The seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth are also for God’s move upon the earth. Thus, the eyes of Christ in Revelation are the seven Spirits of God for God’s move and operation on earth today. Christ’s eyes are for watching, observing, searching, judging by enlightening, and infusing.
We must experience all these different aspects of His eyes, especially the aspect of infusing. His eyes infuse us with all that He is—Since the day we were saved, Christ's eyes have been like a burning fiire enlightening and infusing us. His eyes also stir us up to be hot…Many times the Lord comes to us with His piercing eyes. Perhaps when we are trying to hide something from our wives, the Lord comes with seven shining eyes piercing into our being and exposing our true condition. I have had this kind of experience hundreds of times.
When I was arguing with others, especially with my intimate ones, the shining eyes of Christ were upon me, and I could not go on speaking. His shining stopped my mouth. The book of Revelation is a book with a judging nature. Fire is for divine judgment (1 Cor. 3:13; Heb. 6:8; 10:27). "Our God is also a consuming fiire" (12:29). His throne is a fiiery filame and its wheels are burning fiire, and a fiiery stream issues and comes out from before Him (Dan. 7:9-10). All of this is for judgment.
The Lord's eyes being like a filame of fiire is mainly for His judgment (Rev. 2:18-23; 19:11-12). In typology bronze signifies divine judgment (Exo. 27:1-6). When Christ was on earth, His earthly walk and daily walk were tried and tested. Because His walk was tested, He came out shining. Now the feet of Christ are like shining bronze, as mentioned also in Ezekiel 1:7 and Daniel 10:6, signifying that His perfect and bright walk qualifiies Him to exercise divine judgment— When He comes to possess the earth by judging it, His feet will be like pillars of fiire (Rev. 10:1).
"His voice" is "like the sound of many waters" (cid:527)1:15(cid:528),—a tumultuous sound,…the sound of the voice of the almighty God (Ezek. 1:24; 43:2). It signifies the seriousness and solemnity of His speaking (cf. Rev. 10:3). Sometimes the Lord’s voice is gentle and tender, but at other times His voice shocks us like thunder…His voice, which is that of the almighty God, warns us and wakes us up. (Life-study of Revelation, pp. 99-100)