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Exploring Life in John – The Need of the Dying – Life’s Healing

LIFE MEETING THE NEED OF MAN’S EVERY CASE

The Need Of The Dying —

Life’s Healing

Verses:

John 4:43-54  

43 And after the two days He went forth from there into Galilee,

44 For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

45 Then when He came into Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all that He did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went to the feast.

46 He then came again to Cana of Galilee, where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain royal official, whose son was sick in Capernaum.

47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and asked Him to come down and heal his son, for he was about to die.

48 Jesus therefore said to him, Unless you see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.

49 The royal official said to Him, Sir, come down before my little child dies.

50 Jesus said to him, Go, your son lives. The man believed the word which Jesus said to him and went his way.

51 And as he was now going down, his slaves met him and said that his child was living.

52 So he asked them the hour in which he got better. They said then to him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.

53 Then the father knew that it was in that hour in which Jesus said to him, Your son lives; and he believed, he and his whole house.

54 Again, this second sign Jesus performed when He came out of Judea into Galilee.

Ministry Excerpts:

 JESUS COMING BACK TO THE PLACE OF THE WEAK AND FRAGILE PEOPLE

Jesus returned to Cana of Galilee, the place of the weak and fragile people (John 4:43-46). Cana is in Galilee, a despised place (7:41, 52), which signifies the world of a low and mean condition where the weak and fragile people are. The Lord was here once during the first sign to change the death water into life wine. Now He comes back to the same place to do the second sign, which in the principle of life corresponds with the first sign—to change death into life.

THE WEAK AND FRAGILE PEOPLE DYING

This case, the third among the nine, reveals the dying people’s need of healing. This case concerns the son of a royal official who was about to die. Mankind firstly needs regeneration, secondly satisfaction, and thirdly healing. We all need a certain amount of healing. In a sense, we are living; in another sense, we all are dying. When a baby is newly born, his mother would think that he is growing. Actually the baby is dying. Everyone on earth is dying. If you are young, still under thirty years of age, you may not have the sense that you are dying. However, when you reach the age of sixty or seventy, you realize that you are dying. A life span of seventy years may be likened to seventy dollars. Each year that is lived is the equivalent of spending a dollar. Once you have lived sixty years, you have spent sixty dollars. When you reach the age of sixty-nine, it means that you have only one dollar left. Once that dollar has been spent, you will be exhausted. So, human beings are apparently living, but actually dying. This is why I do not ask my children or grandchildren to celebrate my birthday, for my birthday tells me that I am dying. Tell me, is your age increasing or decreasing? The longer we live, the less time we have to live. I do not want to reach the age of seventy. I would like to stay back, but I cannot do it. We all need healing.

We have been regenerated and, day by day, we may contact the Lord, the living Spirit, for our satisfaction. In addition to this, we need healing. We are all sick and dying people. We are fallen people, weak and fragile, who are dying and who need the Lord’s healing. If you have the healing of the Lord Jesus, your dying will become living.

Let me share with you my secret prayer to the Lord. I have told the Lord, “Lord, the time of Your coming is near. Do me a favor—keep me from seeing death. Lord, I want to see You physically face to face. Keep me living until You come.” Hallelujah, He is coming! While He is coming, He is healing. While He is on His way, He is healing our spirit, soul, and body. If you want to be healthy, you need to enjoy the healing of Jesus. Jesus is the real health food store. Come to Jesus, contact Him, and enjoy Him. If you participate in Jesus continually, you will have the best food, the real health food. How we need the healing of the divine life!

Romans 8:11 says, “And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” If we allow the indwelling Spirit to make His home in our being, this indwelling Spirit will saturate our dying, mortal body with resurrection life. Our mortal body will be enlivened, quickened, and healed with the divine life. Romans 8 reveals that our spirit, soul, and body all may receive the divine life. When we believe in the Lord Jesus, He, as the life-giving Spirit, comes into our spirit. Since He is the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit in Romans 8:2 is called the Spirit of life, meaning that the divine Spirit is life. When we called on the Lord Jesus, this divine Spirit who is life came into our spirit and enlivened it. Therefore, our spirit is life (Rom. 8:10). When we set the mind of our soul upon the spirit, our mind also becomes life (Rom. 8:6). If we give ground to the indwelling Spirit, the Spirit will spread Himself from within our spirit through our soul into our body, making our mortal body a body full of life. Eventually, this divine life becomes a fourfold life: the life in the divine Spirit, the life that fills our spirit, the life that will saturate our soul, and the life that will permeate our body. Our whole being—spirit, soul, and body—will be filled, saturated, and permeated with the divine life. This is healing. Whenever the divine life enters into a part of our being, it heals that part. This means that the divine life changes the death of that part of our being into life. Death is swallowed up by life—this is healing.

We need regeneration, satisfaction, and healing. Many of us, particularly the sisters, need healing in our emotions. The sisters need healing in their unbalanced emotions, for there is a kind of sickness in their emotions. Why do you sisters cry so easily? Probably because of the sickness in your emotions. You need healing. The brothers need healing in their unbalanced mind and in their stubborn will. Why are you brothers so stubborn in your will? Once you make up your will, nothing on earth can change it. That is a disease, a sickness. We need healing. Praise the Lord that He is healing! To tell you the truth, even this morning I received some healing through my dear wife. My wife was not the healer, but she was the dispenser of the heavenly medicine. We all need healing. This healing is the transformation. The more we are healed in our mind, emotion, and will, the more we are transformed.

HEALING BY THE LIFE-GIVING WORD THROUGH BELIEVING

Although the royal official begged the Lord to come down and heal his son (4:47, 49), the Lord simply spoke the word, and the boy was healed. “Jesus said to him, Go, your son is living. The man believed the word which Jesus said to him and went his way” (4:50). The royal official believed the word out of the mouth of the Lord. When he learned from his slaves that the boy was living, he and his whole household believed (4:51-53). Hallelujah for the life-giving word! We love the life-giving word, not the word in dead letters, but the word that is the Spirit. The Lord simply spoke the life-giving word, and the dying boy was healed. Today the Lord is still sending forth His healing word. When the dying people receive this word through believing, they are healed with life. Once the life-giving word has been transfused into us, whether or not we are conscious of it, we can never be the same. The life-giving word brings about a real change in our life.

When dying people receive the word through believing and are healed with life, this, in principle, is changing death into life. Death’s deadening power is overcome by life. Praise the Lord for His healing life and for the life-giving word that heals all our sicknesses! Death is of the source of the tree of knowledge, and life is of the source of the tree of life. We were born into the sickness of death. The Lord’s word of life heals our death. All we need is to receive and believe in His life-giving and healing word.

The case of the healing of the son of the royal official signifies that there is no need for us to contact the Lord physically. As long as we have the Lord’s word, it is sufficient. Even though we do not have the Lord’s physical presence, as long as we have His word and work, it is good enough, and nothing more is needed. When we have the word of the Lord, we shall be saved and filled with the Lord. Just His word is enough to heal and save us. (Life-study of John, msg. 13) 

 

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Explroing Life in John – The Increase of Christ

LIFE MEETING THE NEED OF MAN’S EVERY CASE

THE INCREASE OF CHRIST

Verses:

John 3:23-30  

23   And John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people came and were baptized;

24   For John had not yet been thrown into prison.

25   There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification.

26   And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, He who was with you across the Jordan, of whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.

27   John answered and said, A man cannot receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven.

28   You yourselves testify of me that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him.

29   He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine therefore is made full.

30   He must increase, but I must decrease

Ministry Excerpts:

John said, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine therefore is made full. He must increase, but I must decrease” (vv. 29-30). Most Christians, especially most of the Christian teachers, misinterpret verse 30. What does it mean for Christ to increase and for you to decrease? It means that you must withdraw from the scene and from having the following and allow Christ to be the only figure on the scene and to have all the following. All the following should go to Christ; none of it should go to John the Baptist or to anyone else. Since John did not make this matter clear to his disciples, they were jealous on his behalf. When John’s disciples saw that all the people went to Jesus, they were unhappy. They seemed to say, “Why do these people not follow our teacher, but they go to Jesus?” Do you see the point? If John had withdrawn from the scene, there would have been no problem. If he had told all of his disciples to go to the Lord Jesus, no longer accepting a following for himself, there would have been no difficulty.

All the Regenerated Ones Becoming One as the Bride of Christ Given Him by God

John wrote his gospel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. By his words we can see that all the regenerated followers of Christ are His increase. The increase in verse 30 is the bride in verse 29, and the bride there is a living composition of all the regenerated people. This means that in this chapter on regeneration, regeneration is not only to bring the divine life into the believers and annul the satanic nature in their flesh, but also to make them the corporate bride for Christ’s increase. The last two points, to annul the serpentine nature in the believers and to make them the bride of Christ, are both fully developed in John’s writing of Revelation. The book of Revelation mainly reveals how Satan as the old serpent will be fully eliminated (Rev. 20:2, 10), and how the bride of Christ as the New Jerusalem will be fully produced (Rev. 21:2, 10-27).

Although most Christians are familiar with regeneration in John 3, very few see that each regenerated person should be a part of the increase of Christ, which is His bride. Regeneration is for the increase of Christ. It is for the producing of the bride. Regeneration is for you to be a part of the bride of Christ. John 3 is a chapter of regeneration for the increase of Christ. Many Christians only see regeneration itself. They do not see the purpose of regeneration. Is regeneration just for you to have eternal life? No! It is for something more. Regeneration is for us to be built into the bride, which is the increase of Christ.

Originally we all were little serpents with a serpentine nature. By regeneration, the serpentine nature has been terminated. We saw this clearly in the last message. Furthermore, in regeneration we all have been germinated with the divine life. Since our serpentine nature has been terminated and since we have been germinated with the divine life, we are all a part of the bride. Are you a serpentine person or are you a part of the bride of Christ? We are parts of the bride! We are parts of the increase of Christ.

The Gospel of John is a book about the increase of Christ. Christ as the bridegroom needs a bride. He came for this purpose. He came for His increase. How will He obtain His increase? By entering into us and making us a part of Himself. We all are parts of Christ. As parts of Christ composed together, we are the bride of Christ, His increase. Both salvation and regeneration are for this purpose, for the bride as the increase of Christ.

The Bride of Christ Being His Increase

The bride of Christ is the increase of Christ. All of the reborn people are the increase of Christ, and this increase is the bride which becomes the counterpart of Christ. The bride is the church, the composition of all the regenerated people. All those who are regenerated are composed together as the corporate bride to match Christ. Without regeneration, Christ cannot have a bride as His increase.

The bride as the increase of Christ is like Eve who was the increase of Adam. When Adam was first created, he was single—a so-called bachelor. In Adam’s single state, there was no increase. After God took a rib out of Adam and built a woman with it, this woman was married to Adam (Gen. 2:21-24). Once she was joined to Adam, she became the increase of Adam. Adam then had an increase and was no longer single.

Christ also was single, and so He made a bride to be the increase of Himself. But who is the increase, the bride, of Christ? Only those who are regenerated with Him as life. Through regeneration we possess the divine life of God which is Christ Himself, thus becoming members of the corporate bride of Christ. Later, the same writer, in the book of Revelation, says that the bride of Christ, the bride of the Lamb, is the New Jerusalem (21:2, 9-10). What is the New Jerusalem? Again, it is the composition of all those who have been born again through the regeneration of the Spirit. If you have been regenerated, you are part of the increase of Christ, a member of the corporate bride of Christ, which is the church today and which will consummate in the New Jerusalem in the future.

How can we become the increase of Christ? We repeat once again that the increase of Christ is produced through regeneration. For example, when we were born of our parents, we were the increase of Adam. Do you realize that Adam is increasing every day? Have you ever thought of how large Adam is today? About six thousand years ago, when Adam was alone in the garden of Eden, he was single, a bachelor. However, down through the generations, Adam has acquired many descendants. All his descendants are his increase. Today, counting only the living ones, Adam has increased to about three billion people. Adam has increased to be such a big Adam. Praise the Lord that Christ is increasing also. But He is not increased by our first birth. Our first birth is for the increase of Adam; our second birth is for the increase of Christ. When you have a child, that is another person for the increase of Adam. However, you must thank the Lord for another possibility: this once-born one may also be born again for the increase of Christ. Potentially, all of your children can be born again into the increase of Christ as well as into the increase of Adam.

Are you the increase of Adam, or are you the increase of Christ? Formerly, we had to say that we were just the increase of Adam. Now, thank the Lord, we are the increase of Christ through regeneration. However, we must also make sure that we live, walk, and do things, not by the life of Adam, but by the life of Christ. As long as we live by our human life, we are merely the increase of Adam. It is only as we live and walk by God’s divine life that we are the increase of Christ. Then we shall be the bride as the counterpart of Christ.

As a wife is one flesh with her husband, so we are one spirit with Christ (1 Cor. 6:17). As the wife is the increase of the husband, so we, as His bride, are the increase of Christ. Due to the fact that we have Christ as life through the second birth, we are the increase of Christ. Therefore the ultimate result of regeneration is that Christ has a bride as His increase. Christ is increased through regeneration because by regeneration He is reproduced in us. We, the regenerated people, are His reproduction.

Eve could be the increase of Adam because she was constituted with the rib of Adam and became one flesh with Adam, a part of Adam. In the same principle, we can be the increase of Christ because we are spiritually constituted with the life of Christ and have become one spirit with Him, a part of Him. As Eve came out of Adam and returned to be one with Adam, thus becoming Adam’s increase, so we also have come out of Christ and will return to be one with Him, thus becoming His increase. This increase is just His reproduction in us through regeneration. All the people who participate in this reproduction are given to Christ by God. (Life-study of John, msg. 10)