II. BEING REVIVED EVERY MORNING
Our Christian life begins anew every day in the morning. We [must enjoy the Lord in the Word every day early in the morning to have a new start of each day (Psa. 119:147-148). According to God’s principle in His creation, He ordained to have a new year, a new month or a new moon, and a new day. Within every year we can have three hundred sixty-five new starts. If we failed for three hundred sixty-four days, we still have one more opportunity to have a successful day. We may have failed today, but thank the Lord tomorrow is still here waiting for us. Tomorrow morning we will have another chance to have a new start. Within every twenty-four hours, there is a new chance for us to have a new start and be renewed.]
[To have a new start is not hard. It is so easy.] Have your Bible and your clothes by your bed the night before. [Just rise up a little earlier and say, “O Lord Jesus. O Lord Jesus.’’ You do not need to shout loudly to bother others. Just say, “O Lord Jesus.’’ To say this makes a big difference. Sometimes I forgot to call on the Lord immediately after I woke up. That became a big loss to me. As soon as I realized this I said, “Lord Jesus, forgive me for forgetting You.’’]
[Then we need to pray-read a short portion of the Word, anywhere from two to four verses.] We may have our own verses or use the verses provided by the church. [We can enjoy the Lord with His Word and in His Word through pray-reading. We should do this every day in the morning to have a good, new start. We can speak the Word to ourselves, to the Lord, and even to the angels. We can speak the word to our pets and even to our furniture. When we speak the word in such a way, we will be the first ones nourished by our speaking.] It is helpful to write down in a few words what you have enjoyed. [We do not need to spend a long time to enjoy the Lord in the Word early in the morning. Ten to fifteen minutes is sufficient to get nourished and have a good start of a new day. We need to practice this.]
We call this a “morning revival.’’ The word revival is not in the Bible. But the principle is found in 2 Timothy 1:6a, which says, “For which cause I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you.’’ Many times we cool down. Especially during the night, our spirit is not so burning. Romans 12:11 says that we should be “burning in spirit.’’ The Lord in Revelation 3:15-16 warns us against being lukewarm. Rather, we should be hot. Therefore, every morning we must start with a “morning revival’’ by fanning our spirit into flame so that we may be burning in spirit and hotly in love with the Lord. Without this new beginning every morning, we cannot have a proper Christian life during the day.
III. LIVING A VICTORIOUS LIFE EVERY DAY
Then we need to live a victorious life to overcome sin, to overcome the world, to overcome ourselves, to overcome our flesh, to overcome our disobedience to our parents, and even to overcome our quarreling with our siblings. After you have a wonderful time being revived in the morning, do not stop there. Continue to live in spirit. When you see your parents and siblings, do not murmur or quarrel; fellowship with them what you see in the word and what light you receive from the Lord. If they say anything that may offend you, call on the Lord inwardly and even thank the Lord for the situation. By this way you will live a victorious life.
IV. ABIDING IN THE FELLOWSHIP WITH THE LORD DAILY AND HOURLY
[We also must abide in the fellowship with the Lord daily and hourly (1 John 1:6; 2 Cor. 13:14). Even the angels should be able to testify that we are in the fellowship with the Lord. We should not be away from Him but present in His fellowship. There should be no absence in our fellowship with the Lord. Daily and even hourly we need to be such persons. If I were not such a person, it would be hard for me to speak in the Lord’s ministry. My speaking depends upon my continual and present fellowship with the Lord. Why can we not speak in the meetings? Maybe we have been absent from the Lord’s fellowship for three days because we had a quarrel with our] sibling or our friend. [Because of this quarrel, we have been put away from the Lord’s fellowship. If we are going to speak for the Lord, we have to recover our fellowship with Him by confessing our sin and by making an apology to our] sibling or our friend. [We must remain, abide, in the constant and continual fellowship with the Lord. This is a strong demand.]
(Lesson Book, Level 4: Life—Knowing and Experiencing Life, Chapter 23, by Witness Lee)
