The Church in Hayward

John 4;24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness. We must also realize that the only way we as containers can express God is by exercising and releasing our spirit, because today God is Spirit, and this divine Spirit is in our human spirit (John 4:24; Rom. 8:16; 2 Tim. 4:22). Many Christians who have been saved, redeemed, and regenerated do not realize that they have a human spirit. Some believe that the spirit an...d the soul are synonymous, and others say that the spirit is the same thing as the heart. However, if we are going to realize the spiritual things and understand the secret and mystery of God, we must realize that we have a spirit (Job 32:8; Zech. 12:1). It would be impossible for us to physically grow if we did not realize that we have a stomach and thus never exercised or used our stomach. In order to grow, we must use and exercise our stomach every day to take food in and digest it. God purposely created us with a stomach so that we could take food in for our growth. In the same principle, there is an organ within us called the human spirit which God created for the purpose of receiving Him. Thus, the principle is that in order to substantiate a certain thing, you need the proper organ with which to substantiate it. You cannot substantiate color using the ear or substantiate sound using the tongue. In the same way, God is Spirit; He is a spiritual substance. He is so real, yet if we do not use the right organ to substantiate Him, He will not be real to us. Since God is a spiritual substance, we must substantiate Him with a spiritual organour human spirit. One of the best ways to use our spirit to contact the Lord is to call, " O Lord Jesus! " When we exercise our spirit in this way, we have the sense of something moving within our being. That something is our spirit. ( The Exercise of Our Spirit for the Release of the Spirit - Witness Lee ) See more

Titus 3:5 Not out of works in righteousness which we did but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.

Mat 5:48 says, You, therefore, shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Many Christians have taken Mat 5:31-48 as instructions concerning their outward behavior. This is the reason so many have been disappointed. Do not take the Lord’s word as a teaching concerning how you should behave. This way will not work. The Lord’s word was intended to touch our being, our natural choice, and to expose what we are and where we are. When we have been exposed and subdued, w...e shall give the full opportunity to the divine life to live in us. This will make us perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect. We cannot imitate the Father. The kingdom of the heavens is the highest demand, and the divine life of the Father is the highest supply to meet that demand. After we have been exposed, we can turn to Him, stay near to Him, trust in Him, live by Him, and pray, Lord, have mercy on me. How I need Your deliverance! I want to stay near to You and trust in You. Then I will be perfect as my Father.

Mat 5:17 Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. Christ fulfilled the law in three ways. He kept it, He died for us, and His death brought into us the resurrection life to strengthen us for fulfilling the requirements of the new law. Today we are not trying to keep the lower law; rather, we are keeping the uplifted, higher law through the highest life that is in us. We need to pray, Lord, grant me the highest expression of life. Grant me to have the highest level of morality. Lord, we are not only moral people, but kingdom people.

Mat 5:13-14 "You are the salt of the earth...", You are the light of the world... Light is the shining of the lamp to enlighten those in darkness. To the darkened world, the people of the kingdom of the heavens are such a light effacing its darkness. In nature they are the healing salt, and in behavior they are the shining light. When we have truly been built together, we shall be the city on a mountaintop shining upon those around us. Mat 5:16 "...Let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in the heavens."

John 4;24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness. We must also realize that the only way we as containers can express God is by exercising and releasing our spirit, because today God is Spirit, and this divine Spirit is in our human spirit (John 4:24; Rom. 8:16; 2 Tim. 4:22). Many Christians who have been saved, redeemed, and regenerated do not realize that they have a human spirit. Some believe that the spirit an...d the soul are synonymous, and others say that the spirit is the same thing as the heart. However, if we are going to realize the spiritual things and understand the secret and mystery of God, we must realize that we have a spirit (Job 32:8; Zech. 12:1). It would be impossible for us to physically grow if we did not realize that we have a stomach and thus never exercised or used our stomach. In order to grow, we must use and exercise our stomach every day to take food in and digest it. God purposely created us with a stomach so that we could take food in for our growth. In the same principle, there is an organ within us called the human spirit which God created for the purpose of receiving Him. Thus, the principle is that in order to substantiate a certain thing, you need the proper organ with which to substantiate it. You cannot substantiate color using the ear or substantiate sound using the tongue. In the same way, God is Spirit; He is a spiritual substance. He is so real, yet if we do not use the right organ to substantiate Him, He will not be real to us. Since God is a spiritual substance, we must substantiate Him with a spiritual organour human spirit. One of the best ways to use our spirit to contact the Lord is to call, " O Lord Jesus! " When we exercise our spirit in this way, we have the sense of something moving within our being. That something is our spirit. ( The Exercise of Our Spirit for the Release of the Spirit - Witness Lee ) See more

Titus 3:5 Not out of works in righteousness which we did but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.

Ezek. 1:26 And above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, like the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was One in appearance like a man, above it. God's intention to have a man God's intention on earth is to have a man. This is His desire. Eventually, He himself became a man, and today on the throne He is still a man. People may want to be like God, but God wants to be a man. God's intention is to work Himself int...o us, making us the same as He is, and even more, making Himself the same as we are. Thus. God's intention is to have a man and to work Himself into man. We need to be deeply impressed with the fact that the Lord is still on the throne as a man. - Witness Lee - Life Study of Ezekiel ( Message 12 )

Heb. 9:14 How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? " When we come to serve God, or worship God, we need to have a pure conscience, a conscience purified from dead works or from any kind of offense.. Because Christ offered Himself by the eternal Spirit, His blood has an eternal efficacy to purify our conscience so that we may serve and worship the living God. " -Witness Lee; The Conclusion of the New Testament

1 Kings 6:15 "And he built the walls of the house within with cedar boards; from the floor of the house to the wall of the ceiling he covered them on the inside with wood. And he overlaid the floor of the house with boards of cypress." "All those who want to be built together in the church must first be those who have died with Christ; that is, they must be cypress. Second, they must be those who have resurrected with Christ; that is, they must be cedar. Third, they must be t...hose who are in the Holy Spirit with Christ, who have gained a spiritual entrance into spiritual matters and have a spiritual understanding of them, and upon whom the glory of God is manifest; that is, they must be olive wood. The church is constituted and built with these ones as materials. In the church there are no thorns, thistles, or other kinds of wood except cypress, cedar, and olive wood. In other words, in the church there is only the new man in resurrection and in the Holy Spirit, and in this new man there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free man, because all these have died and been buried with Christ." -Witness Lee; The Vision of the Building of the Church See more

Banners for 2015 Thanksgiving Conference The Lord within us is aspiring to go on from the tabernacle church life in the wilderness of the soul to the temple church life with Christ as the reality of the good land in our spirit. Our experience of Christ being renewed, deepened, stabilized, strengthened, intensified, and enlarged in order for us to enter into the reality of the Body of Christ as the temple church life is a gradual "day by day," "little by little," and "brighte...r and brighter" experience in the Body until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts. The economy of God to have the church as the temple of God filled with the glory of God is related to the high peak of the divine revelation - God becoming man so that man may become God in life, in nature, and in expression. Christ builds the church as the temple of God by building Himself into us, by the mingling of divinity with humanity, and through our growth in life and our being joined together in the divine life.

"The Apostle Paul was an ambassador of Christ. An ambassador is one who represents the highest authority. The United States government has many ambassadors sent out to many different countries. These ambassadors represent the government of the United States. The highest authority in this universe is God, and God has given all the authority in heaven and on earth to Christ (Matt. 28:18). God has appointed Christ to be the King of kings, and the Lord of lords (1 Tim. 6:15; Rev.... 17:14). Today Jesus is the Christ, the Lord of all, the highest authority. For this highest authority there is the need of some ambassadors on this earth who are qualified to represent Him. The Lord's ministry is not a matter of merely being a preacher or a teacher but of being one who is authorized with the heavenly authority, representing the highest authority in the whole universe. First, we need to be captured by Christ, and eventually we need to become a representative of Christ on this earth to deal with the earthly nations as an ambassador." -Witness Lee; Holy Word for Morning Revival; The Need for a New Revival; Week 6 Day 5 (Taken from "An Autobiography of a Person in the Spirit")

Matt. 9:12 "Now when He heard this, He said, Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill." In calling people to follow Him for the kingdom, the King of the heavenly kingdom ministered as a Physician, not as a Judge. A judge’s judgment is according to righteousness, whereas a physician’s healing is according to mercy and grace. Those whom He made people of His heavenly kingdom were lepers (8:2-4), paralytics (8:5-13; 9:2-8), the fever-ridden (8:14-1...5), the demon-possessed (8:16, 28-32), those ill with all kinds of diseases (8:16), despised tax collectors, and sinners (vv. 9-11). If He had visited these pitiful people as a Judge, all would have been condemned and rejected, and none would have been qualified, selected, and called to be the people of His heavenly kingdom. However, He came to minister as a Physician, to heal, recover, enliven, and save them that they might be reconstituted to be His new and heavenly citizens, with whom He could establish His heavenly kingdom on this corrupted earth. (footnote 1 Recovery Version) See more

"Manna is a type of Christ (John 6:31-35, 48-51, 57-58). As the real manna, Christ was sent by God the Father (v. 32) for God’s chosen people to live by Christ (v. 57). Although we may readily acknowledge that manna is a type of Christ, we should not regard this in a natural way or superficial way. As we consider the account of the sending of manna in Exodus 16, it is important for us to see the relationship between our eating and our living. We must eat in order to live. Thi...Continue reading

"The crucial point in chapter sixteen is God’s intention to reconstitute His redeemed people. After God has redeemed us, saved us, and delivered us from the world, He will change our diet in order to change our constitution. His aim is to eliminate every trace of the Egyptian constitution." -Life Study of Exodus Message 34, The Change of Diet