Overflowing on the Focus of the Lord’s Recovery

This post is a brief overflow of my enjoyment from a recent Thanksgiving Conference in San Jose, California on the Subject of “The Focus of the Lord’s Recovery.”

I am reminded of the Lord’s gathering of the broken pieces of bread, the abundance of His rich feeding (John 6:12-13). Twelve baskets were left over, the overflow of the riches of Christ’s life supply. Nothing was wasted, being left on the ground.

I feel in the light of the Lord’s pattern, I must also pick up the pieces, the nourishing words from the Lord’s fresh speaking to me and consider them together with you.

This is also a kind of musing or ruminating (like a cow, bringing up and further chewing) on the words spoken to me in this time.

To accomplish this purpose, I will use the four banner statements as my base:

The Focus of the Lord’s recovery

“The unique focus of the Lord’s recovery is the testimony of the Triune God—the corporate expression of the Triune God, the testimony of Jesus.”

This single statement captures the essence of the first message, that is, that the focus of the Lord’s recovery is the testimony of the Triune God. The type of the golden lampstand in Exodus 25:31-40 portrays the Triune God. Gold signifies the nature of God the Father (2 Pet. 1:4). The form of the lampstand signifies the Son who is the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9). The seven lamps signify the Spirit who is the expression of the Triune God (Rev. 4:5).

In Exodus 25 the lampstand is one, but in Revelation the lampstand has been multiplied and the mystery of the seven lampstands is the seven churches (Rev. 1:20). This means that the churches as the reproduction and multiplication of that unique lampstand are the corporate expression of the Triune God.

One very impressive point to me was that “in everything we do in the church life and in our daily life, we must bear a clear, evident, strong testimony of a golden lampstand constituted with the Father’s nature, the Son’s embodiment, and the Spirit’s expression.”

Romans 8—the Focus of the Entire Bible

“Romans 8 is the focus of the entire Bible and the center of the universe.”

I was especially impressed with the six points of the way to live as a man by the law of the Spirit of life. First, we need to walk according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4). Second, we need to be according to the spirit (v. 5). Third, we need to mind the things of the Spirit (v. 5). Fourth, we need to put to death the practices of our body (v. 13). Fifth, we need to be led by the Spirit (v. 14). Sixth, we need to cry, “Abba, Father!” (v. 15).

I particularly enjoyed that for the law of the Spirit of life (v. 2) to function in every place and every time, we need to build up a spiritual habit of exercising our spirit to “switch on” the law of the Spirit of life. Since the law of the Spirit of life, this resurrecting Spirit, has already been installed in us, in order to receive His life supply, we need only to exercise our spirit by calling on the Lord and worshipping, thanking, praising, and exalting Him (Isa. 12:2-6).

The Mingled Spirit—the Focus of God’s Economy

“The focus of God’s economy is the mingled spirit—the divine Spirit mingled with the human spirit—a spirit that is both the Spirit of the Lord and our spirit.”

I was really impressed that all our spiritual experiences including our fellowship with the Lord, prayer to Him, and our living with Him, are in this mingled spirit.

“The Spirit…with our spirit” (8:16) is the most crucial secret in Romans for God to execute His dynamic salvation and for us to participate in it.

Ultimately, the Bible only requires one thing of us—that we walk according to this mingled spirit (Rom. 8:4).

Living in the mingled spirit is the way to practice the vision according to the focus of the Lord’s recovery. This kind of practice will bring in a genuine revival that will bring the Lord back.

Living in the focus of the Lord’s recovery as inoculators and ministers of the new covenant

“We need to live in the focus of the Lord’s recovery as inoculators and ministers of the new covenant.”

As inoculators we should be those that inoculate others against the decline of the church. As such inoculators, we need to be teachers nourishing others with the words of the faith (2 Tim. 2:2; 1 Tim. 4:6), soldiers fighting the good fight for God’s interest on earth (2 Tim. 2:3-4), athletes running the Christian race until we finish our course (v. 5), farmers sowing the seed of life into people and watering it (v. 6), and workmen cutting strait the word of the truth, unfolding it rightly (v. 15).

We should also be ministers of the new covenant. To be such ministers we must be Christ’s captives (2 Cor. 2:12-14). We should daily pray, “Lord, make me your captive. Never let me win. Defeat me all the time.”

We should also be incense-bearers scattering the incense of Christ (2:14b-17). Since we have been captured by Christ, He has the way to saturate us and make us a fragrance of Himself.

Then we should be the living letters of Christ written with Him as the content to convey Him to others. To be filled with the “inking Spirit” in our experience, we must enjoy and be thoroughly saturated with Christ as the life-giving Spirit; then we will spontaneously minister Christ to those whom we contact.

As ministers of the new covenant, we should also be mirrors beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord (3:18). We do this by continually turning our heart to the Lord (v. 16) so that we may behold Him with an unveiled face.

Finally, as ministers of the new covenant, we are earthen vessels containing Christ as our excellent treasure (4:7). As such vessels, we are like today’s camera, into which Christ, the figure enters through the flash of God’s shining (v. 4, 6-7). I covered this kind of divine photography in my previous post “Preparing “Our Camera”—Our Faith—to “Photograph” the Scenery of Grace.”

“Lord Jesus, thank you for opening Your heart to us concerning the focus of Your recovery today. Re-calibrate us according to Your fresh speaking so that in everything we do in our Christian life and church life there would be the strong testimony of the golden lampstand with the Father’s nature, the Son’s embodiment, and the Spirit’s expression. To practice such a focus strengthen us to always live and serve in our mingled spirit so that we may faithfully practice the vision You have given us and bring in a new revival that will bring You back.”

This post was inspired by the Banners and Outlines 1, 3, 4 and 5 of the Thanksgiving Conference in San Jose, California. The subject of the conference was based on fellowship from Witness Lee in a book entitled Practical Talks to the Elders. You can also read it online at ministrybooks.org.