We will continue reading The Advance of the Lord’s Recovery Today for the churches in Anaheim, Cypress, and Orange. Detailed information including the full reading schedule is available at churchinanaheim.org/gowreading/.
This week we will be reading The Advance of the Lord’s Recovery Today, Chapter 4. This book is available for purchase from Living Stream Ministry. You can also read it online at ministrybooks.org.
In The Advance of the Lord’s Recovery Today Chapter 4 is a continuation of Chapter 3 on the organic building up of the Body of Christ. For the organic building up of the Body of Christ, we need to serve in an organic way by ministering Christ to others. Christ in His essence is Spirit, and we must be filled up with this Spirit, the very essence of Christ. Our ministering of Christ into others causes the increase of the essence of Christ within them for their growth in Christ. The realization of ministering Christ to others revolutionizes our work, changing the very nature and essence of our work, from an ethical work to a work in the principle of the tree of life. The organic building is to live Christ under the cross which spontaneously brings the increase of God among us. This increase of God is the growth of the Body, and this growth is the organic building up of the Body of Christ.
Furthermore, the Body of Christ is built up organically through the members of the Body feeding on the milk and food of the holy Word. According to the Word of God, to be saved is to be reborn, which means that this is an organic matter. As newborn babes, they need to long for the milk of the word, that they may grow (1 Pet 2:2). Then as mature ones they need to take the solid food of the word, the word of righteousness (Heb. 5:13-14). By feeding on the milk and food of the holy Word, we grow and this growth is the very organic building up of the church.
The organic building up of the Body of Christ is also through the saints being perfected by the gifted persons—the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers—resulting in growth. Through our growth we will arrive at three things: at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, and at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:12-14). The perfecting of the saints by the gifts issues in their growth in life, and this growth in life is the organic building up of the Body of Christ.
Week 28: December 2nd through December 8th
If you have any questions or comments contact us at: gowreading@gmail.com.