We need to have close, intimate, and thorough fellowship with the Lord and with the seeking saints. To fellowship only with the Lord is inadequate. We must also be in fellowship with the saints. We need to get companions with whom we can labor. According to the example in the Bible, Daniel had three companions (Dan. 1:6). I would encourage you to get three companions. Do not ask the elders to give them to you. Ask the Lord to lead you to someone, making this one your companion in fellowship. Then you can get a few others. Spontaneously, you and your companions will be a very good small group.
The elders should not try to form the groups in an organizational way. That does not work. They must stir up the saints to be vitalized first. Once you get vitalized, you will have the deep sensation that you need companions. Then you need to follow the Lord’s leading to gain some to join you to be a group. This will be an organic group, and eventually this group will be vitalized. Four saints grouped together is a sufficient number. Do not get more saints at this point. Instead, be vitalized to an extent that you would go fishing to get some new fish. When your organic group of four saints is vitalized, you will not need to hunt for more saints to join you. Instead, you will go fishing to get some new fish.
After you get your companions in fellowship, you must learn to take the lead to reconsecrate yourself to the Lord. You may have consecrated yourself already, but you need to be consecrated afresh.
To present your body means to give your body to the Lord as a living sacrifice. You have to sacrifice your body to the Lord. This is what Paul taught in Romans 12:1. You need to reconsecrate yourself in presenting your body.
Firstly, you give your body to the Lord. Following this you should have your mind renewed from being fashioned according to this age (Rom. 12:2). The world is the satanic system, which is composed of many ages (Eph. 2:2). An age is a part, a section, an aspect, the present and modern appearance, of the system of Satan, which is used by him to usurp and occupy people and keep them away from God and His purpose. A number of years ago, men wore wide neckties. That was a current of that age. Later, they wore narrow ties; that was a current of another age. In the sixties, men began to have long hair; that was a current of that age. All the worldly people are fashioned according to the present age. In order to be vitalized, we need to be transformed by the renewing of the mind so that we will not be fashioned according to this age.
Our body needs to be presented to the Lord, our mind needs to be renewed, taken over by the Lord, and our spirit needs to be burning. This involves our entire being-body, soul, and spirit. We need to be persons who are fully gained and occupied by the Lord. We should not be slothful in zeal, but burning in spirit to serve the Lord (Rom. 12:11). Then we will be vitalized.
The church life is the right place for you to be an overcomer. But this does not mean that as long as you are in the church life, you are an overcomer. It is one thing to be in the church life. It is another thing to be an overcomer in the church life.
In the Old Testament, there is the city of Jerusalem with Zion as the center. Jerusalem was built on a mountain range. Mount Zion was one of the mountains on which Jerusalem was built. Zion is the center and Jerusalem is the circumference. The church life is today’s Jerusalem; within the church life there must be a group of overcomers, and these overcomers are today’s Zion. According to Revelation 14, the overcomers are standing on Mount Zion with the Lord (vv. 1-5). Actually in typology, the overcomers are today’s Zion. Then in the last two chapters of Revelation, there is the New Jerusalem. Without Zion (the overcomers), Jerusalem (the church life) cannot be kept and maintained.
Zion is the high peak, the center, the uplifting, the strengthening, the enriching, and the reality of the church, the holy city. If there are no overcomers in a local church, that church is like Jerusalem without Zion. There are some churches like this today, so they are weak churches. A local church must have some overcomers, and these overcomers are the peak and the center of that local church. They are the uplifting, the strengthening, the enriching, and the reality of that local church. If you take away these overcomers from that local church, that local church becomes like a flat tire. The full-time training is for the producing of the overcomers. Once a church has some full-time workers as overcomers, that church is like Jerusalem with the peak of Zion. The overcomers as Zion are the highlight, the center, and the reality of the church.
The overcomers as today’s Zion are for the consummation of the holy city (the church). They are to consummate, to finish, the building up of the local church and to bring in the consummated New Jerusalem in eternity (Rev. 21:1-2). In order to complete the building up of the Body, the Lord needs the overcomers, and the building up of the Body consummates in the New Jerusalem. This is why at the end of the Bible, in the last book, there is the calling for the overcomers. Today the way to become vitalized is to answer the Lord’s call to be an overcomer.
There are two ways before us today. We can either choose to be vitalized or choose not to be vitalized. I am presenting these two ways before us. Which way will we take? Are we going to be vitalized or not? We have to make a resolution. In Judges 5:15 Deborah said, “Among the divisions of Reuben / There were great resolutions in heart.” We have to make a resolution to be the overcomers, the vitalized ones. An overcomer overcomes anything that is replacing Christ or that is against Christ. In the Bible there is the age of the overcomers, and there is the calling for the overcomers. Furthermore, there is a way for us to be vitalized so that we can be the overcomers.
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