* What

1. We must take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our King, to submit to God’s authority and administration:
1. The highest point in our spiritual experience is having a clear sky with the throne above it—Ezek. 1:22, 26-28:
1. The kind of sky we have as Christians depends on our conscience; our conscience is connected to our sky—Rom. 9:1; 2 Cor. 1:12.
2. When there is nothing between us and the Lord and nothing between us and one another, our sky will be crystal clear, and we will have not only a good conscience but also a pure conscience—Acts 24:16; 1 Tim. 1:5, 19; 3:9; 2 Tim. 1:3.
2. The throne is the center of the universe, and it is the Lord’s ruling presence; the throne in our spirit is actually Christ Himself—Isa. 22:23; Heb. 4:16; Rom. 5:21; Rev. 22:1:
1. If we have a clear sky, the throne will be present, and we will spontaneously be under the ruling and reigning of the throne; for God to have the throne in us means that He has the position to reign in us—cf. Dan. 4:17, 25-26; 5:18-31; Isa. 6:1-8.
2. To have the throne above a clear sky is to allow God to have the highest and most prominent position in our Christian life; in our spiritual experience, to reach the point of having the throne above a clear sky means that in everything we are completely submissive to God’s authority and administration.
3. The Lord’s ruling presence is in its heavenly state—Exo. 24:10:

In Ezekiel 1:26 “the likeness of the throne” is “like the appearance of a sapphire stone”; indicating the heavenly situation, atmosphere, and condition of God’s ruling presence.

D. God desires to manifest Himself through man and to reign through man; He wants man to express Him and to exercise His authority; God's complete salvation is for us to be saved in life and to reign in life by the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness—Gen. 1:26; Rev. 11:15; 3:21; 22:3-5; Rom. 5:17, 21.

2. We must take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our Lord, to live to the Lord to please Him:
1. We must be people who live to the Lord, not merely for the Lord—2 Cor. 5:9, 14-15：
1. The love of Christ constrains us to live to the Lord; to live to the Lord means that we are absolutely under the Lord’s control, direction, and governing and that we want to fulfill His requirements, satisfy His desires, and complete what He intends.
2. Paul sought to please the Lord not by doing a work but by living to Him in every aspect of his daily life; likewise, we today should not seek to please ourselves but seek to please the Lord by living to Him; all that we do must be to Him.
2. Because we have been bought with the price of the precious blood of Christ, “we are the Lord’s”; we need to give Him the first place in all things to please Him—Rom. 14:8-9:

“Whether we live, we live to the Lord, and whether we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore whether we live or we die, we are the Lord’s. For Christ died and lived again for this, that He might be Lord…”:

• Christ died on the cross for our judicial redemption, and He lives again in resurrection within us for our organic salvation so that He might be our indwelling Lord, the Lord Spirit in our spirit, as the One who rules within us.
• Because we have been bought with the price of the precious blood of Christ, “we are the Lord’s”, and we should continually exalt Him as Lord, giving Him the first place in our life and in our work; we are those who labor in the Lord for the work of the Lord, which is the work of the ministry to build up the organic Body of Christ—1 Cor. 6:19-20; 15:58; 16:10; Eph. 4:11-12.
• We should learn to serve the Lord as the slave, for the building up of the Body of Christ—2 Cor. 4:5; 1 Pet. 5:3; Matt. 20:26-27; 23:10-11:

“We do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake”; among the believers, besides Christ there should be no other lord; all should be servants, even slaves.

Hymns: 960, 500

Message 8: Taking, Experiencing, and Enjoying Christ as Our King, Our Lord, Our Head, and Our Husband for the Building Up of the Body of Christ to Consummate the New Jerusalem

2021 ITERO-F 8e

Message 8 (Cont. 1)

3. We must take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our Head, being headed up in Christ:
1. We need to grow in life and live under the light, take the lead to be headed up in Christ in the church life—Eph. 1:10; John 1:4; Rev. 21:23-25; Eph. 5:8-9:

Our being headed up in Christ rescues us from the heap of the universal collapse in death and darkness, which was caused by the rebellion of the angels and the rebellion of man; the believers participate in Christ’s heading up by being willing to be headed up in the church life, by growing in life, and by living under Christ’s light.

2. We need to hold Christ as the Head, staying intimately connected to Him to enjoy the divine dispensation so that we can function out of Him; this will cause the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love—Col. 2:19; Eph. 4:15-16:

To hold Christ as the Head is not only to take Him as our unique authority but also to stay intimately connected to Him so that His riches and life supply are dispensed into our being to cause us to grow with the growth of God, growing up into Him in all things and functioning out from Him so that all the Body causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.

3. We need to experience and enjoy the transmitting of the great fourfold power of Christ—resurrecting power, ascending power, subjecting power, and heading-up power—1 Cor. 1:24; Eph. 1:19-23:

God’s surpassingly great power that is presently being transmitted into us is the transcending Christ Himself as the fourfold power of the Triune God; the normal, genuine, proper, and real church comes out of this great fourfold power—resurrecting power, ascending power, subjecting power, and heading-up power—for the building up of the church as His Body:

• To the church (Eph. 1:22) indicates that the divine power, which includes all that the Triune God has passed through, has been installed into us once for all and is being transmitted into us continually, causing us to enjoy Christ richly and to have the proper church life with the reality of the Body of Christ.
• The transmitting of the transcending Christ is to transfuse into the church, the Body of Christ, what the Triune God has accomplished, attained, and obtained in Christ; this is not only for producing the church but also for growing, establishing, and building up the church.
• We need to be strengthened into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in our hearts through faith, for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ—Eph. 3:16-17; 1:19-23:

We must ask the Father to strengthen us into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in our hearts through faith with the power that raised Christ from the dead, that seated Christ at the right hand of God in the heavenlies, that subjected all things under His feet, and that gave Him to be Head over all things to the church.

5. This is to fulfill God’s eternal economy, so that God is glorified in the church—Eph. 3:20-21:

God is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think concerning the church as the Body of Christ, according to this fourfold power that operates in us, so that God is glorified in the church.

2021 ITERO-F 8e

Message 8 (Cont. 2)

* How

4. We must take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our Husband, having a personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual relationship with Him:
1. The romance in Song of Songs portrays that our relationship with the Lord must be personal—S. S. 1:4a:
1. We must follow the pattern of Abraham, who was the friend of God for the desire of God, and the pattern of Moses, who was a companion of God for the interests of God—Gen. 18:1-33; Exo. 33:11.
2. We must follow the pattern of David and Asaph, who sought the shining face of God in and for the house of God—Psa. 27:4, 8; 80:3, 7, 14-19.
3. We must follow the pattern of the Lord Jesus, who lived in the presence of God without ceasing—Acts 10:38c; John 8:29; 16:32.
4. We must follow the pattern of Peter, whose love for the Lord was restored for him to shepherd the Lord’s sheep and follow the Lord unto martyrdom without any confidence in his natural strength—John 21:15-19; Mark 16:7.
5. We must follow the pattern of Paul, who was constrained by the love of Christ to live in the person of Christ as an ambassador of Christ to be well pleasing to Christ—2 Cor. 5:9, 14.
2. The romance in Song of Songs portrays that our relationship with the Lord must be affectionate—S. S. 1:1-2:
1. The Lord who indwells us is our Father, and grace is our mother—Rom. 8:15.
2. The Lord who indwells us is our Husband and our Brother—2 Cor. 11:2-3; John 20:17; Rom. 8:29.
3. The Lord who indwells us is our Friend and our Counselor—John 15:12-17; Isa. 9:6.
4. The Lord who indwells us is our Advocate, our Comforter, and our Shepherd—1 John 2:1; John 14:16; Psa. 23:1.
3. The romance in Song of Songs portrays that our relationship with the Lord must be private—S. S. 1:3-4:
1. We must contact the Lord and spend time with Him privately in a secret, definite, and prevailing way, opening our entire being to Him for His enlightening and infusing, so that we can glow with God and shine forth God—Matt. 6:6; 2 Cor. 3:16-18.
• We have no alternative but to fellowship with God in all things, discuss all things with Him, and allow Him to handle all things, speak in all things, and make every decision; it is glorious for a Christian to be dependent on another One—God—at every moment and in every matter—Phil. 4:5-7; Prov. 3:5-6; 2 Cor. 1:8-9.
4. The romance in Song of Songs portrays that our relationship with the Lord must be spiritual—S. S. 1:4b:
1. Christ visits us spiritually because He is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit; our spirit is the Holy of Holies, the chambers of the pneumatic Christ as the Lord of lords and the King of kings—1 Cor. 15:45b; 1 Cor. 6:17; 2 Tim. 4:22.
2. In the book of Romans, Paul stresses that whatever we are, whatever we have, and whatever we do toward God must be in our spirit—Rom. 2:29; 8:16, 1:9.
3. We must build up the habit of continually exercising our spirit by praying in the Holy Spirit to keep ourselves in the love of God (the Father), awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Son at His second coming) unto eternal life (to become the totality of the eternal life—the New Jerusalem)—Jude 19-21.

* The Purpose – to Fulfill God’s Need

5. Taking, experiencing, and enjoying Christ as our King, our Lord, our Head, and our Husband is for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem—Matt. 16:18; Eph. 4:11-12, 16; Rev. 19:7; 21:2.

2021 ITERO-F 8e

* What

1. We must take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our King, to submit to God’s authority and administration

[Ezek. 1:26] And above the expanse…was the likeness of a throne, like the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was One in appearance like a man, above it.

• The highest point in our spiritual experience is having a clear sky with the throne above it; The throne is the center of the universe, and it is the Lord’s ruling presence; the throne in our spirit is actually Christ Himself.
• The kind of sky we have as Christians depends on our conscience; when there is nothing between us and the Lord and nothing between us and one another, our sky will be crystal clear, and we will have not only a good conscience but also a pure conscience.
• The Lord’s ruling presence is in its heavenly state; God desires to manifest Himself through man and to reign through man; He wants man to express Him and to exercise His authority.

[Acts. 24:16 ] …I also exercise myself to always have a conscience without offense toward God and men.

2. We must take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our Lord, to live to the Lord to please Him

[2 Cor. 5:9] Therefore also we are determined, whether at home or abroad, to gain the honor of being well pleasing to Him.

• We must be people who live to the Lord, not merely for the Lord; Because we have been bought with the price of the precious blood of Christ, “we are the Lord’s”; we need to give Him the first place in all things to please Him.
• we are those who labor in the Lord for the work of the Lord, which is the work of the ministry to build up the organic Body of Christ; We should learn to serve the Lord as the slave, for the building up of the Body of Christ.

[2 Cor. 5:14-16] For the love of Christ constrains us … that those who live may no longer live to themselves but to Him who died for them and has been raised.

3. We must take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our Head, being headed up in Christ

[Eph. 1:10] Unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him.

• We need to grow in life and live under the light, take the lead to be headed up in Christ in the church life; we need to hold Christ as the Head.
• We need to experience and enjoy the transmitting of the great fourfold power of Christ—resurrecting power, ascending power, subjecting power, and heading-up power
• We need to be strengthened into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in our hearts through faith, for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ; this is to fulfill God’s eternal economy, so that God is glorified in the church

[Col. 1:18] And He is the Head of the Body, the church; He is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, that He Himself might have the first place in all things.

[Col 2:19] And…holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.

* How

4. We must take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our Husband, having a personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual relationship with Him
1. The romance in Song of Songs portrays that our relationship with the Lord must be personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual.
2. We must contact the Lord and spend time with Him privately in a secret, definite, and prevailing way, opening our entire being to Him for His enlightening and infusing, so that we can glow with God and shine forth God.

[S. S. 1:2-4] Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! / For your love is better than wine. Your anointing oils have a pleasant fragrance; / Your name is like ointment poured forth; / Therefore the virgins love you. Draw me; we will run after you.

* The Purpose – to Fulfill God’s Need

5. Taking, experiencing, and enjoying Christ as our King, our Lord, our Head, and our Husband is for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem

[Matt. 16:18] …and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

[Rev. 19:17] Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.

Bird’s-eye View for Prophesying, a Sample

Message 8: Taking, Experiencing, and Enjoying Christ as Our King, Our Lord, Our Head, and Our

Husband for the Building Up of the Body of Christ to Consummate the New Jerusalem

2021 ITERO-F 8e Musing Abstract

Message 8: Appendix

In family life, whenever a husband and a wife love the Lord and reject everything other than Him, their married life will be wonderful. But once a husband or wife begins to love something else in place of the Lord, their married life and family life become chaotic.

We have no right to divorce the Lord; we have no basis to forsake Him. We must take Him, love Him, honor Him, respect Him, regard Him, exalt Him, and cling to Him, rejecting Satan to the uttermost. Then we will be blessed.

This principle can be applied to the entire human race, to every nation, to every society, to every family, and to every individual. If we love the Lord and hate Satan, we will be blessed. However, we will only get into trouble whenever we change and begin to love something other than Christ. Psalm 33:12 says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah.” Blessed is everyone—nation, society, group, and individual—whose Lord, Head, King, and Husband is Jehovah.

<Excerpts from “Life-study of Judges”, Message 6, “The Miserable History of Israel’s Forsaking of God

Chapters 2-16 (4) The Fifth Cycles of the Miserable History of Israel”>

The very God whom we pursue is personal and affectionate.

We all need this kind of personal, affectionate, intimate contact with the Lord every day. This has become my habit. Every morning after rising up I go to my desk and the first thing I say is, “Lord Jesus, I love You.” I am not just a poor man praying to a merciful God, but I am contacting a Savior who is personal and affectionate to me, as I am personal and affectionate to Him. We all need to take heed to what the seeker says: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!” Right away her tone changes: “Your love is better than wine.” This is a personal, intimate prayer. “Draw me; we will run after you.” This is personal and affectionate. We need this kind of personal and affectionate seeking after Him, and we need to build up such a relationship with Him that is so personal and affectionate.

<Excerpts from “Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs’’, Message 1, “Pursuing Christ for Satisfaction”>

What I am doing is building the New Jerusalem and will be consummated in the New Jerusalem. My concern is not soul-winning, nor is it just for us to have satisfaction. My concern is for others to be brought into the church life through Christ’s private, spiritual fellowship. When we fellowship with Christ privately and spiritually, He will direct our feet to go forth on the footsteps of the flock. Then we will be in the church for the Body of Christ and for the consummation of the New Jerusalem.

<Excerpts from “Crystallization-Study of Song of Songs’’, Message 2, “Fellowshipping in the inner Chambers of Christ”>

2021 ITERO-F 8e