Nourishment November — Week 2 (Day 8 of 30)
November 8, 2021
Thank the Lord for this past week of nourishment and a brand new week for more growth in life. How has your reading and eating been? We hope that the saints have been encouraged to eat of Christ’s riches more regularly, perhaps daily or even multiple times a day, in order to meet their ministry reading goals.
Praying while reading, reading while praying
As we read the ministry, we can maintain an exercised and hungry spirit by praying over what we read. When a sentence, a specific utterance, or even a question strikes us, we can immediately pray it back to the Lord. This allows what we are reading to become God’s rhema word to us, His instant and present word to meet our present situation.
Reading with a companion for mutual feeding
We continue to encourage every saint participating to read together with a companion. Not only does this encourage one another, but it also gives us opportunities to feed one another with the food we have enjoyed ourselves. This makes our reading more enjoyable and, crucially, more profitable and long-lasting in impact. As Jehovah charged Ezekiel, “son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel” (Ezek. 3:1), let us eat, and then go and speak to others what we have eaten.
Enjoyments from the saints
As described in the first blog post, in these posts and weekly emails, we would like to share anonymized enjoyments and highlights from the saints. As you read, if you want to share your enjoyments and highlights, please email Philip Lee (philiplee260@gmail.com) or Jeff Ou (jeffou7@gmail.com) with your message and the serving saints will include it in the following email and blog post.
Here are some of these enjoyments:
From chapter 18 of the Life-Study of Genesis: "Our husband is with our spirit. However, if we remain in our mind it means that we are assuming the headship, setting our mind to behave independently. This is awful and sinful. We must realize that our husband is with our spirit and exercise our spirit accordingly." I enjoyed that our Husband is in our spirit! To take Him as our Head and Husband we just need to turn back to Him in our spirit. I really enjoyed during this week reading the ministry throughout the day—it's a great way for me to remember to turn to my Husband in the midst of whatever I'm doing to both enjoy Him and submit to Him.
It is such a blessing to be able to spend some time everyday to enjoy the Lord's rich speaking. In chapter two of "The Economy of God", we see that the Spirit is the all-inclusive dose. "...When I was young, I learned all the doctrines about the various dispensations. I was taught that there were at least seven dispensations. But strictly speaking, there is only one dispensation which we need—the dispensation of God Himself. The sixty-six books of the Scriptures are a full record of this one dispensation—the dispensing of God Himself into us. Oh, that we may partake of Him all the day as the all-inclusive dose in this wonderful Spirit! Let us enjoy God Himself—not these dispensational doctrines. Are you a weak brother? Here is a dose, a wonderful dose, to strengthen you with might and divine power. Are you a troubled brother? The cure is in the dose. One dose of the Holy Spirit will cure all your troubles. By contacting Him, we will see what a wonderful Spirit He is, dwelling within us to be the bountiful and all-sufficient supply." Praise Him!
“The Economy of God”--what a classic of the Ministry. When I read it in a prayerful way, I received new light. One of the portions I enjoyed was, “John 14:23 says that the Father and the Lord will come to make Their abode with us. What does this mean? Have you ever experienced the Father and the Son coming to make Their abode with you? This is the mark of God’s economy which we are considering. This abode is two-sided—the Father and the Son will become our abode, and we will become Their abode. It is a mutual abode. How can this mutual abode be possible? Only as we are in the Spirit, just as the Father and the Son are in the Spirit, can we experience this mutual abiding. When we are in the Spirit, we are abiding in the Son and the Father, and at the same time They are abiding in us. Only then will we have an intimate communion and fellowship with the Father and the Son. We will have an inward “talking.” We will talk with the Lord, and the Lord will talk with us. These are the practical experiences of the mutual abode.” (Chapter 2, “The All-Sufficient Spirit: The Spirit Is the Mutual Abode”) When I read this word, the Lord just reminded me of John 5:17, “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” His words abiding in us requires many face-to-face conversations. This will not happen if we merely use our mind to understand the teachings. Only when we abide in the Spirit, will we have a two-way conversation with Him. We thus will receive responses from Him and hear His direct speaking. The words He says to us are not in black and white letters, but His breathing into us. When we pray according to these words, He will do and fulfill them. What a realization of the experiences of the mutual abode!
Continue to enjoy!
Lord, keep dispensing Your riches into our being! We open to You for your filling. Work the truth into us subjectively. We give ourselves to be nourished. Have mercy and grace upon us every day.
The Books Serving Saints
"Take heed to yourself and to your teaching; continue in these things; for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you." -- 1 Timothy 4:16
Comments