This issue of The Ministry contains the first and second of a series of crucial messages given by Brother Lee to the co-workers in Southern California in August 1996 concerning the principles of fruit-bearing and of shepherding the young ones in corporate living. The first principle of fruit-bearing is that it is not by mass production. The second principle of fruit-bearing as seen in John 15 is that each branch bears its own fruit. As branches of Christ, our unique responsibility is to bear fruit. Brother Lee’s burden in the second message is expressed in the following excerpt: “I want to shepherd and disciple you from the Bible so you can see this matter and have a change. I am discipling you to change your concept. The God-man concept is that Christ came to save sinners, especially the top sinners....If we lose this spirit, whether we are elders, co-workers, or serving ones, we are finished. This is the main reason why we are so barren, bearing no fruit for so many years” (p. 24). Our need is to learn of the Lord to shepherd people according to His heart of love. Love covers many sins. To uncover is not love. Covering brings in blessing, but uncovering brings in a curse. The next three messages in this issue are Messages Seven, Eight, and Nine from the Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Hebrews, which were given in the Living Stream Ministry’s Summer Training of 1998. Message Seven emphasizes the main point of Christ being our High Priest—He ministers God into us. Message Eight stresses the wonderful fact that Jesus as the Apostle came to us with God to share God with us that we might partake of His divine life, nature, and fullness so that we might be formed and constituted into His church, the house of the living God. The subject of Message Nine is the Sabbath rest, which is simply God’s satisfaction in His heart’s desire. When man is on earth expressing and representing God, God’s desire is satisfied. Lastly we include a report concerning the use of the Internet to spread the Lord’s ministry and a letter from the co-workers in the former Soviet Union concerning the usefulness of the training in the Lord’s move throughout the former Soviet Union.

In this issue we will continue four lines of ministry. The first line--The History of the Lord's Recovery--contains chapters 8 through 11 of The Vital Groups, which are in volume 5 of The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997. These chapters speak of love prevailing, of Christ's cherishing us as the Son of Man in His humanity, and of Christ's nourishing us as the Son of God in His divinity. The second line--Words for New Believers--continues with chapters 19 and 20 of Basic Lessons on Life, which are in volume 1 of The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1979. This line then continues with chapters 1 and 2 of a new book, Basic Principles of the Experience of Life, which are in volume 3 of The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1963. The first two chapters in this section speak of having a proper spirit and of discerning the spirit from the soul. The next two chapters speak of the scriptural meaning of life and of the experiences of life. The third line--Maturing in Life--continues with chapters 17 through 20 of Knowing Life and the Church, which are in volume 1 of The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1953. These chapters speak of preparing ourselves to meet the Lord's need, of being joined to the Lord in the matter of service, of the principle of God's breaking, and of God's breaking, not man's magnanimity, being the way of life. The fourth line--The High Peak of the Divine Revelation--continues with chapters 4 and 5 of The Application of the Interpretation of the New Jerusalem to the Seeking Believers, which are in volume 3 of The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997. This line then continues with chapters 1 and 2 of a new book, The Practical Way to Live a Life according to the High Peak of the Divine Revelation in the Holy Scriptures, which are in volume 2 of The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997. The first two chapters in this section focus on the spiritual significance of the furnishings and the supply of the New Jerusalem. The next two chapters speak of having a clear view concerning the accomplishments of the processed and consummated Triune God and of being conformed to the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection.

This issue of The Ministry contains the first nine messages given during the 2006 spring term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is "Knowing and Experiencing the Intrinsic Constitution of the Building of God." The building of God is the corporate expression of the processed and consummated Triune God in and through His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, renewed, sanctified, transformed, and glorified people. It is the corporate expression of the Triune God produced by the mingling of God and man and by the building of God into man and man into God. God's goal is to build up the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem, which is the consummate building of God. This glorious, consummate building has a number of outstanding characteristics. However, the highest characteristic of the building of God is that it is a personal building, that is, a person, the corporate God-man. When our Lord Jesus Christ came through incarnation to be a man, the God-man, He Himself was a building (John 1:14; 2:19, 21). The Lord Jesus Himself, as the mingling of God and man, was God's building in miniature. As an individual man, He was both the tabernacle and the temple. However, God's goal is to enlarge this individual building by multiplying Christ through death and resurrection and then working this Christ into our whole being until we are the same as He is in every way except in the Godhead. The result will be a corporate building, which is a corporate person--the bride of Christ and the wife of the Lamb. God's goal in the whole universe is to gain such a spiritual, organic, and personal building. Last of all, we include a report concerning a recent international blending conference in Accra, Ghana, West Africa.

This issue of The Ministry includes the first nine messages given during the 2004 spring term of the Full-time Training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What is typified by the experiences of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is realized in the New Testament, especially in Galatians 3--6. Abraham's experiences represent the experiences of God the Father (3:8, 29), Isaac's experiences represent the experiences of the Son (4:28), and Jacob's experiences represent the work of the Spirit in discipline and transformation (cf. 5:16; 6:8; 5:22-23). The experiences of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob culminated in God's people, Israel. God's goal always was and still is to have a corporate people to express and represent Him on the earth. The existence of such a people--Israel in the Old Testament and the Israel of God in the New Testament--depends upon certain kinds of spiritual experiences had by all the people of God. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the foundation of the nation of Israel. Their experiences were not merely for themselves. Their experiences were to gain a corporate people, all of whom know God and experience Him as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Last of all, we include a report concerning the 2005 Chinese-speaking perfecting conference in New Jersey.

This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains Messages 25 through 32 given during the spring 2022 term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California, as the continuation of the general subject "Chapters Five through Eight of Romans--the Kernel of the Bible." The sixteen messages in this term emphasize Romans 7 and especially chapter 8. The deep divine thought in Romans is that God became man so that, in God's complete salvation, sinners may be redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified to become the sons of God, who are the same as God in life and nature, to be the members of the Body of Christ. God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and condemned sin in the flesh so that the sinners--serpentine beings, children of the devil--could be reconciled to God and justified by Him in order to receive eternal life and thus become children of God (8:3, 16). Jesus Christ our Lord, who came out of the seed of David according to the flesh, was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead (1:3-4). The firstborn Son of God, the first God-man, is the prototype for the production of the many sons, the many God-men, who, as members of the Body of Christ, are exactly the same as the firstborn Son in life, nature, and expression (8:14, 29). The prototype, the firstborn Son of God, is in our spirit as the law of the Spirit of life (v. 2). His main function as the law of the Spirit of life is to shape us, to conform us, into His image as the firstborn Son of God so that we may become His corporate expression. The law of life also functions to constitute us the members of the Body of Christ with all kinds of functions. The purpose of God's salvation is to have Christ reproduced in millions of believers so that they may become the members of His Body (12:4-5). Through God's organic salvation carried out by the divine dispensing of the Triune God as life to the tripartite man, the children of God are growing in life to become sons of God led by the Spirit. The sons of God, the many brothers of Christ as the firstborn Son of God, are the members of the Body of Christ. In order to live in the law of the Spirit of life, we need to activate this law within us. Loving the Lord with the first love is the first requirement for the law of the Spirit of life to be activated within us. We need to love the Lord with the first love, the best love, which is to give the Lord the preeminence, the first place, in all things, being constrained by His love to regard and take Him as everything in our life. To love the Lord with the first love is to have a personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual relationship with the Lord. When we contact this lovely and loving person, He will infuse us with Himself as love, and He will produce in us the love with which we can love Him. Love is the most excellent way for us to be anything or do anything for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ. Taking heed to the inner sense of the spirit is the second requirement for the law of the Spirit of life to be activated within us. The secret of our Christian life that we all must learn is found in Romans 8:6, which is the most important verse in the Bible related to our spiritual experience of Christ as the law of the Spirit of life--"the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace." To set the mind on the flesh means to take sides with the flesh, to cooperate with the flesh, and to stand with the flesh; to set the mind on the spirit is to take heed to the spirit, to take sides with the spirit, to cooperate with the spirit, and to stand with the spirit, that is, to pay attention to our spirit. We need to heed this inner sense of life and peace in the spirit. The Announcements section at the end of this issue contains a list of upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.

This issue of The Ministry of the Word includes the first nine messages of the 2007 spring term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is "The Believers." Collectively, the believers are one of the seven persons in the eternal economy of God. The first three persons in God's economy are the three of the Divine Trinity--the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The fourth person, composed of the believers as a collective entity, is in the middle of this sequence of seven persons. The believers then become a corporate person--the church, the kingdom, and the New Jerusalem, which are the remaining three persons. The believers constitute a certain class or category of people who have received mercy from God to believe into the Son of God and in His redemptive work, particularly in His resurrection. First Peter 1:8 says, "Whom having not seen, you love; into whom though not seeing Him at present, yet believing, you exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory." In many ways, this verse is the theme for this line of ministry on the believers. We are those who exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, and the Lord, as the Author and Perfecter of our faith, will take us on from one degree of enjoyment to the next until we reach the highest enjoyment of the Lord. The believers are the happiest and most joyful people on the earth because God is pleased with them (Heb. 11:6). Last of all, we include a report of the 2008 Chinese-speaking Perfecting Training in Plano, Texas and a follow-up conference in Irving, Texas.

In this issue of The Ministry, we include six messages from the 2002 Memorial Day Conference in Seattle, Washington, May 24-27. The general subject of this series of messages is, "A New Reviva--Living the Life of a God-man for the Reality of the Body of Christ." The following four statements summarize the burden for these messages: 1) God's economy is God becoming man that man may become God in life and in nature for the producing of the Body of Christ; 2) the reality of the Body of Christ is a corporate living of conformity to the death of Christ by the power of the resurrection of Christ; 3) the Spirit is the reality of the Triune God, the reality of resurrection, and the reality of the Body of Christ; and 4) whenever we turn to our spirit and exercise our spirit, we enter into the reality of the Body, because the Body is in our spirit. Last of all, we include two reports: 1) a recent training among the young people in West Africa, and 2) recent and upcoming trainings and conferences in Russia.

This issue of The Ministry of the Word contains the first eight messages given during the spring 2019 term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is "The Wonderful Christ in the Canon of the New Testament." Christ is wonderful, glorious, excellent, supereminent, all-inclusive, invaluable, incomprehensible, and inexhaustible! The desire of God's heart is that the reality in Jesus, the God-man living of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels, would be duplicated in the many members of Christ's Body by the Spirit of reality to become the reality of the Body of Christ, the highest peak in God's economy. In the four Gospels we see that Jesus lived a life in which He did everything in God, with God, for God, through God, and by God. God was in His living, and He was one with God. The Lord wants the actual condition of His life to be duplicated in us, repeated in us, and wrought into us so that the actual condition of His life in the four Gospels becomes the actual condition of our life. In the Gospel of Matthew we see the wonderful Christ as the great light; as the One who has authority because He lived absolutely under the ruling of the divine life of the Father; as the King of the heavenly kingdom who ministered as the Physician; as the Bridegroom; as the unfulled cloth made into a new garment to cover us as our righteousness before God; and as our new wine, as the inward exciting life, put into fresh wineskins, the church life. We need to live in the reality of the Body of Christ according to the bird's-eye view of the reality in Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, which unveils a full picture of the Slave-Savior serving fallen sinners as a collective person with Himself as their all-inclusive salvation. The Gospel of Luke is a revelation of the God-man who lived a human life filled with the divine life as its content, thereby expressing God in humanity. In the Gospel of John we see that in the Godhead Christ is the Word; that is, He is God defined, explained, and expressed. In redemption Christ is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the human race and who satisfies the requirements of God's righteousness, holiness, and glory; and in resurrection Christ as the consummated Spirit is the breath as everything to us in living the Christian life and in being an overcomer. The intrinsic focus of Romans is on the wonderful person--Christ-- who, as the Spirit living within the believers, is higher and more subjective than the Christ presented in the Gospels. As the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ now indwells His believers as their subjective Savior. This wonderful One fully saturated Paul and permeated everything he spoke and wrote in this book, which presents the gospel of God. The deep thought in Romans is that God became man so that, in God's complete salvation, sinners may be redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and glorified to become the sons of God, who are the same as God in life and nature, to be the members of the Body of Christ expressed as local churches. The Announcements section at the end of this issue contains a list of upcoming conferences and trainings hosted by Living Stream Ministry and a website link for information related to similar events in Europe.