NOURISHING PEOPLE IN THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST (4)
The Lord promises the overcomers in the church in Thyatira that they will have the authority to rule, to reign as kings, over the nations (Rev. 2:26). First, we need to reign as kings today. According to Romans 5:17, we must receive the Lord’s abounding grace to reign in life today. If we do not reign as kings today in Christ’s life, how can we be kings in the coming age to rule over the nations?
In His fifth epistle, the Lord tells the church in Sardis that they are dead and dying. He promises the overcomers that they will be clothed in white garments ( Rev. 3:5 ). White garments signify the walk and living that are not stained with deadness. The way the overcomers walk in this age will become a prize to them in the coming age. We have to become living so that we can have the white garments.
The Lord tells the church in Philadelphia to hold fast what they already have ( v. 11 ). Those who overcome to hold fast what they have in the Lord’s recovery will be built into the New Jerusalem, the temple of God, as a pillar ( v. 12 ). In the seventh epistle the Lord counsels the church in Laodicea to buy gold, white garments, and eyesalve to be saved from their degradation in lukewarmness ( v. 18 ). He promises to dine with the ones who would open the door to Him ( v. 20 ). We can see that this is the nourishing of Christ in His divinity exercised by and with His love.
He is also the High Priest with His divinity as the “energy belt” to nourish us with Himself as the all-inclusive Christ in His full ministry of three stages… His nourishing the churches in His divinity is so that the churches may grow and mature in His divine life and become the overcomers in His sevenfold intensification.
Our Christ today is our High Priest. In His humanity He is easily touched with the feeling of our weaknesses. He sympathizes with our weakness because He was tempted in all respects like us. He is cherishing us in His humanity. Meanwhile, He is nourishing us in His divinity with all the positive aspects of His person revealed in the seven epistles to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 . He is taking care of the churches in the recovery in both ways. In His humanity He is cherishing us to make us proper so that we may be happy, pleasant, and comfortable. In His divinity He is nourishing us so that we may grow and mature in the divine life to be His overcomers to accomplish His eternal economy. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups”, ch. 11, pp. 157)
The church in Zamboanga 