enjoyment from the conference – Lord, grant me a Fresh, Renewed Vision of Your Recovery!

The subject for the graduation meeting of the FTTA spring class of 2005 was: “The All-Inheriting Vision of the Age and It’s Glorious Inheritors.” After being under the day to day and moment by moment dispensing of the Triune God in every aspect of our lives, there was the beginning of a little something that had been deposited in our being. There was at least a definite outline of a marvelous all-inheriting vision. This past weekend, at the conference in Málaga, exactly five years and six months later, I was touched by these words: If your vision is old, stale, in bad need of an update, then it’s as if you had no vision at all.

Oh, Lord!!! Grant me a FRESH, RENEWED vision!

The good news is, saints, that the Lord’s heart is to impart to us a refreshed vision every day. See, He has a desire hidden deep down in His heart. And you are included in His desire. In order to accomplish it, He needs you to cooperate with Him. However, without a vision it is unlikely that you would be very willing to do so. So, He is very willing and very able to impart to us this fresh vision.

What then, you may ask, is this fresh vision? It is a vision of what the Lord is recovering in His chosen, redeemed people, right now. This weekend in Málaga, the brothers shared with us the messages given at the Thanksgiving Day conference in November. The vision that we need to see is what the Lord is doing in this age. Today, what the Lord is doing, what He is recovering are three main, crucial matters.

One, He is recovering Christ as everything. Christ is EVERYTHING. He is the Head and the Body. He is in all and through all. He is the reality of every positive thing in the universe. He is the good land. He is all-inclusive. He is the One in whom the Father delights. He is the center and circumference. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the alphabet with which God writes His heart’s desire into existence. He just IS. Outside of this wonderful One, we have nothing and we are nothing. Outside of Him, things just really aren’t worth a hill of beans.

Two, He is recovering the oneness of the Body of Christ. Look at the deplorable situation in the secular world today. Can there be peace and unity among any two groups of people? Race separates us, and so does culture, language, religious beliefs or unbeliefs, education, social class, sex, personal opinions, eye color, skin color and shading, accent, fashion sense or lack thereof – the list is almost endless. How about among any two people? Seems to me like divorce rates continue to climb. Then, just take a close look at degraded Christianity. There are as many divisions and sects as there are doctrines and teachings and “leaders.” Where is the Body of Christ? Who even sees it as a problem that there seems to be no Body in actuality? Well, Ephesians 4:4-6 tells us this: “One Body and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, on baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Saints, the Lord’s desire is to have this in practicality and actuality today. And this can only happen in the church life. This can only happen when we lay aside our opinions and concepts and we say amen to the Lord’s arbitrating word. When we say Amen to the Lord’s word, the Spirit applies the effectiveness of the death and resurrection of the Lord to our inner being. All problems are mitigated and solved and we can truly be one. When we have the oneness and when we are in one accord we become a sweet, pleasing melody to God.

Three, He is recovering the functioning of every member of the Body. In first Corinthians chapter 14 we see that each member of this one Body has been given a specific function and each member has to function. But over the centuries, the enemy, helped by our passive nature and fear of losing face, has made it so that we would rather pay an eloquent speaker to come give us a sermon or give money to a traveling evangelist to preach the gospel or in some other way exercise their spiritual gift so that we don’t have to. Maybe, you’ve realized it might be a little more difficult in our more atypical meetings, but how many times have you prophesied in the last month? Even more, do you earnestly desire this most excellent way? So, I must confess, though I may at times force myself out of my chair on Lord’s day, I lack this earnest desire. Oh Lord! What’s more, to prophesy implies our daily and hourly, our constant enjoyment of the dispensing. It implies that we are in the Word of God, we are constituted with the Word and with the truth in the Word. It also implies that we are open to experience the Lord in specific ways in our daily living. This is not just a matter of “going to church on Sunday.” But it is a life and a living. It has nothing to do with vain religion and its traditional system.

These three matters, Christ as everything, the oneness of the Body, and the functioning of every member is what the Lord is recovering. We need to see our lack with respect to these and beseech the Lord earnestly that He would impart to us a open and unveiled heart so that we would be those who cooperate with Him in this age so that He would gain His heart’s desire. [sharing by sister Maria from the last weekend’s conference in Malaga, Spain]

Lord, dear Lord. In these days, rekindle our love for You. Show us that You alone are all we need. Bring us into the divine oneness that we would be those standing boards linked by the Spirit into one. And, Lord, cause us to be those who function in our measure for the building up of the church. Refresh us. Recover us.