Hymns: 255
2021 DST 2e
Message 2: The Hannah Ministry
* The Lord’s recovery today is to produce the overcomers for the building up of Zion
as the reality of the Body of Christ to consummate the holy city, the New Jerusalem:
In the Old Testament there was the city of Jerusalem with Zion as the center; in typology the church life is today's Jerusalem; within the church life there must be a group of overcomers, who are the perfected and matured God-men, and these overcomers are today's Zion.
As the highlight and beauty of the holy city Jerusalem, Zion typifies the overcomers as the high peak, the center, the uplifting, the strengthening, the enriching, the beauty, and the reality of the church.
The overcomers as Zion are the reality of the Body of Christ and consummate the building up of the Body in the local churches to bring in the consummated holy city, New Jerusalem, the ultimate Holy of Holies as God's dwelling place in eternity; in the new heaven and new earth the entire New Jerusalem will become Zion, with all the believers as the overcomers.
In the book of Revelation what the Lord wants and what the Lord will build up is Zion, the overcomers; this is the intrinsic reality of the spiritual revelation in the holy Word of God; we surely need to be desperate to pray at any cost and to pay the cost just as the apostle Paul did.
On this usurped earth there is the mountain of Jehovah, Mount Zion, which is absolutely open to the Lord and absolutely possessed by Him; the overcomers, who are typified by Zion, are the beachhead through which the Lord as the King of glory will return to possess the whole earth as His kingdom.
There is no other way to reach the high peak of God's eternal economy, the reality of the Body of Christ, except by praying; our becoming the overcomers as the reality of the Body of Christ to be the bride of Christ will close this age, the age of the church, and will bring Christ as the King of glory back to take, possess, and rule over this earth with His overcomers in the kingdom age.
God’s need
Our cooperation
Message 2 (Cont. 1)
* God’s heart’s desire today: To produce the overcomers, turn this age and bring in the kingdom of God through the Lord’s recovery
The first book of Samuel shows us in typology the bringing in of Christ as the King (typified by David) with His kingdom
Under Eli the old Aaronic priesthood had become stale and waning, and God desired to have a new beginning for the accomplishing of His eternal economy:
For Samuel's birth God initiated things behind the scenes; on the one hand, He shut up Hannah's womb; on the other hand, He prepared Peninnah to provoke Hannah "bitterly to irritate her, because Jehovah had shut up her womb"; year after year, when Hannah went up to the house of Jehovah, Peninnah provoked her to the extent that she wept and would not eat.
This forced Hannah to pray that the Lord would give her a male child; Hannah's prayer, in which she made a vow to God, was initiated not by Hannah but by God; God was pleased with Hannah's prayer and her promise, and He opened her womb; Hannah conceived, bore a child, and named him Samuel (meaning "heard of God," or "asked for of God").
Actually, no human being was the origin of Samuel; God was the real origin, who motivated His people sovereignly and secretly; Hannah‘s prayer was an echo, a speaking out, of the heart’s desire of God; it was a human cooperation with the divine move for the carrying out of God‘s eternal economy:
2021 DST 2e
Message 2 (Cont. 2)
* The Hannah ministry
Hannah's prayer was the means for the birth of Samuel; our prayers should result in the bringing forth of overcomers; we need to pray in oneness with the ascended Christ in His heavenly ministry in the stage of intensification for the producing of the overcomers—Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6; 2:7, 11, 17, 26-29; 3:5, 12, 21.
* We need to learn from Hannah
Hannah’s experience shows that we need to pour out our soul before the Lord in the midst of our bitterness; in Exodus 15 the children of Israel came to the bitter waters of Marah; when the people murmured against Moses, he “cried out to Jehovah, and Jehovah showed him a tree; and he cast it into the waters, and the waters became sweet”:
The tree that the Lord showed Moses signifies the tree of life; Revelation 2:7 speaks of “the tree of life”; in Greek the word for tree here is the same word used for tree in 1 Peter 2:24:
Hannah’s prayer came out of her bitter circumstances and her bitter being; she told Eli, “I am a woman oppressed in spirit…I have been pouring out my soul before Jehovah…Out of the greatness of my anxiety and provocation I have been speaking all this time”; Psalm 62:8 says, “Trust in Him at all times, O people; ⁄ Pour out your heart before Him; ⁄ God is a refuge to us. Selah”; such prayer to contact God consists of words spoken genuinely from the heart.
When we come to “bitter waters,” we have to realize that God is sovereignly and secretly motivating us to pray in a desperate way not only for our inner healing but even more for the producing of overcoming Nazarites, who will cooperate with Him to bring in the King with His kingdom—when the name of God will be excellent in all the earth, and the kingdom of the world will “become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever”.
2021 DST 2e
* The Lord’s recovery today is to produce the overcomers for the building up of Zion
[Psa. 48:2] Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion,…the city of the great King.
[Rev. 14:1] … the Lamb standing on Mount Zion … with Him a hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.
[Phil. 3:8] But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ.
[Rev. 20:6] … but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.
* God’s heart’s desire today: To produce the overcomers, turn this age and bring in the kingdom of God through the Lord’s recovery
[1 Sam. 1:11] And [Hannah] made a vow and said, O Jehovah of hosts…remember me…give to Your female servant a male child, then I will give him to Jehovah for all the days of his life, and no razor will come upon his head.
* The Hannah ministry
[Rev. 12:5] And she brought forth a son, a man-child, who is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.
[Rev. 12:10] And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, Now has come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ…,
* We need to learn from Hannah
[Rev. 11:15] And the seventh angel trumpeted; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.
Bird’s-eye View for Prophesying, a Sample
Message 2: The Hannah Ministry
2021 DST 2e Musing Abstract
Message 2: Appendix
Hannah’s way was not an easy way, and it was made even more difficult because of Peninnah’s comparisons and tauntings. Those who want to be Hannahs must prepare themselves for persecution, scorn, weeping, and fasting. This ministry costs. A price has to be paid because all such ministry comes through testing and suffering; it has to be wrought into us. Others can eat and drink and look at their children, but here was one who fasted and wept. It is not a matter of how many we can save but a matter of God getting His company of overcomers. God wants to get a people who will be able to pray and bring in the kingdom.
Hannah’s prayer was the means for the birth of Samuel. Our prayers should result in the bringing forth of overcomers.
<Excerpts from “Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 2) Vol. 46”, Conferences, Messages, and Fellowship (6),
Section 16, Chapter 172 “The Hannah Ministry”>
God could motivate Hannah as a person who was one with Him in the line of life. As long as He can gain such a person, He has a way on earth. I hope that at least some of us will be today's Hannahs and say, "Lord, if You have anything on Your heart to accomplish for Your purpose, I am here. I am remaining in the line of life for the carrying out of Your economy." If you do this, I have the full assurance that you will be the ones whom God will move. He will come to you and motivate you. God needs many Hannahs, persons who can bring forth some Samuels to turn the age.
We should no longer pray old prayers in a formal way. Instead, we need to pray something that is an echo of what is on God's heart. This means that what we say in our prayer is exactly what God wants to speak. Such a prayer is the speaking out of God's heart. Hannah’s prayer was like this. God wanted a Samuel, yet He needed Hannah's cooperation to pray to Him, saying, "Lord, I need a son." This prayer was very human, yet it was a cooperation with the divine move for God’s economy.
<Excerpts from “Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel”, Message 2, “The History Concerning Samuel (1) His Origin, Birth, And Youth”>
2021 DST 2e