Shepherding Materials
Volume 5
Knowing the Truth
LESSON SIXTEEN – THE HOLY WORD FOR MORNING REVIVAL
2 Cor. 4:16 — We do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
Eph. 6:17-18 — Receive…the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit.
1 Cor. 14:4, 26 — He who prophesies builds up the church.…What then, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.
EXERCISING TO BE REVIVED AND TO PROPHESY
Being Revived and Renewed Every Morning
Paul says in Titus 3 that our salvation today is through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit (v. 5). The salvation here…is a daily salvation, being delivered daily from all kinds of difficulties, temptations, entanglements, and every weakness, frustration, and lust. We are those who need salvation daily. Every day we need to be saved by the Lord. This salvation is first through the washing of regeneration and then through the renewing of the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit washes us within, it brings in a renewing. This is the first lesson early in the morning for every Christian. I myself exercise this way. In the morning when I wake up,…I would not open my mouth to any man before I open my mouth to God. I would say, “O Lord, I love You! Lord Jesus, I am coming to You!” Every morning all I do are these two things: calling on the name of the Lord and pray-reading His Word. These two things are the morning exercises for a Christian. If you would exercise yourself in these two things every morning, you will surely be revived. You will become the rising sun, with the shining, dawning light that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.
I have said all this to show you that we Christians are different from the people in the world. The worldly people at most meditate or contemplate in the morning. But what we are doing is not meditation. We are calling on the Lord and pray-reading His Word. This fills us up with the Lord and refreshes us from within. At the same time, when we call on the Lord, the Holy Spirit comes, because today the Lord Jesus is the Holy Spirit. When we call on the Lord every morning, there is a deep realization within that the Lord Jesus has come. We have really found Him. In the end our whole person will be changed. This is what is meant by a revival.
This revival is like our washing ourselves daily; one does not do it once for all. There must be a daily washing. According to the law of nature, the sun rises once every twenty-four hours. When we move with the sun, we should also have a rising up once every twenty-four hours. Moreover, we have to be as bright as the sun shining in its might. If we are like this spiritually, every day we will surely live a renewed life. In the words of Paul, our inner man will be renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16). The inner man signifies our regenerated spirit within.
This spirit, together with all the inward parts, is being renewed by the daily metabolism that comes about through the supply of the resurrection life. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 1, “The Organic Practice of the New Way,” pp. 521-523)
Receiving Enlightenment and Preparing a Prophecy for the Church Meeting
In recent years we have found a way to use a portion of the Word for morning revival. The practice of pray-reading and reading portions from The Holy Word for Morning Revival has been a great help to many of the saints.…Since they began to use The Holy Word for Morning Revival, their spirits have been stirred up, their thoughts have been inspired, and they now have a subject on which to speak, with some material to eat, to digest, to paraphrase, and to pray-read.
The most helpful way in reading the Bible is to paraphrase.…Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet, / And a light to my path,” and verse 130 of the same psalm says, “The opening of Your words gives light.” The best way to enter into the Word and receive the light of its shining is to paraphrase the Word.…This helps us to understand the Bible, to receive light, and to prophesy.
In the Old Testament the practice of meditating on the Word is mentioned a number of times,…but in the New Testament there is no reference to meditating on the Scriptures in the Old Testament way.… Today we not only have the Bible in our hands outwardly, but we also have the indwelling Spirit within us. When we prayread the Word, we exercise our spirit, and the indwelling Spirit is stirred up by our pray-reading.…When we say, “In the beginning. O Lord, in the beginning was the Word. Amen. The Word. Hallelujah, the Word!” this stirs up our spirit. Then the indwelling Spirit leaps within us, and the inspirations come. It is good always to keep a small notebook in which to write the inspirations we receive. We should write something immediately after receiving an inspiration, even writing only one crucial word to use as a reminder when we do not have time to write more. After that, for our practicing of prophesying, it is good to compose a prophecy of no longer than three minutes from the inspirations we have received. If our prophecy is longer than three minutes, we can shorten it. If it is too short, we can insert something. We can even work together with other saints to practice and to learn.
We also need to practice by praying the messages we write for prophesying. After we write a message for prophesying, we need to pray-read our writing. By doing this, it will become constituted into our being. Then we should go to the meeting and prophesy. I have the assurance that such a prophesying will be very good.
Finally, we all need to seek the infilling of the Spirit and the outpouring of the Spirit upon us as power from on high to be our impact (Acts 6:10; 7:55; 4:31). For this we must pray. Even while we are in the meetings, on the one hand we are listening to others, and on the other hand we should pray to get ourselves filled with the Spirit and to have the outpouring of the Spirit upon us to be our power and authority. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Practice of the Church Life according to the God-ordained Way,” pp. 603-606)
References: CWWL, 1989, vol. 1, “The Organic Practice of the New Way,” ch. 4; CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Practice of the Church Life according to the Godordained Way,” ch. 9; A Time with the Lord; Pray-reading the Word
LORD JESUS, I LONG IN THY PRESENCE TO LIVE
Longings—For Living in the Lord’s Presence – 389
- Lord Jesus, I long in Thy presence to live,
From morning to evening my one world Thou art;
O let not my heart be contented or rest
When loving or seeking what with Thee doth part.
Each moment, each day, throughout suff’ring and pain,
When nought in the world can give comfort or cheer,
When sighing and weeping encompasses me,
Lord, still all my sighing and wipe every tear.
- Each time when I dream of the goodness of life,
I pray Thee, dear Lord, that Thou in it may be;
O do not allow me to choose by myself,
Nor seek any pleasure that’s other than Thee.
Each night when alone in the stillness I lie,
I pray Thee, Lord Jesus, that Thou wilt be near;
Each morning ere dawn comes, while still in my sleep,
Then whispering call me and open my ear.
- Each time, Lord, when reading in Thy holy Word,
I pray that Thy glory may shine on each line,
That clearly I’ll see what a Savior I have
And how great salvation that Thou hast made mine.
When helpless I come, Lord, to kneel at Thy throne,
I pray Thee to hear me and grant me Thy grace;
If thru my shortcomings Thou hear not my prayer,
Withdraw not Thy presence, O hide not Thy face.
- Each time when of heavenly blessings I think,
O let my heart long to be raptured to Thee;
My only hope here is Thy coming again,
My only joy there, Lord, Thy presence will be.
Lord, teach me each day in Thy presence to live,
From morning to evening my one world Thou art;
O let not my heart be contented or rest
When loving or seeking what with Thee doth part.