In this issue of The Ministry, Brother Lee stresses our need to realize that we are branches in the vine for bearing fruit and grains of wheat for bringing forth many grains. According to its history, the church in general has had the concept that we must do a work of preaching. In the Lord’s recovery, however, our concept must be radically changed. We should not put our trust in the preaching work; rather, we must stress fruit-bearing. For this, we must abide in Christ, be willing to die, be pruned, and then go to contact people by imparting Christ to them with and in brotherly love. In this way, we will see the increase of Christ and the spread of the kingdom of God through our remaining fruit. The following messages continue the Crystallization-study of Revelation, given in the summer training of 1999. Message Four presents a full revelation of Christ in His coming back concerning His person and His work. The Lord’s coming back is also related to the prophecy of the four “sevens,” which include the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven bowls, and the last seven years of this present age. Message Five speaks of the intrinsic significance and the subjective experience of the golden lampstand. The lampstand with its golden nature, form, and seven lamps signifies the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The lampstand also signifies the church as the reproduction of Christ and the reprint of the Spirit. Such revelation needs our subjective experience so that we may become the reproduction of the lampstand, the expression of the Triune God. Message Six presents a full view of Christ as the Son of Man walking in the midst of the golden lampstands. He is the High Priest girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle, cherishing the churches in His humanity and nourishing them with His divinity. Last of all, we include reports describing the Lord’s move in the Ukraine and in Armenia and among the elders and responsible ones in a recent training in Ventura, California.

In this issue we will continue four lines of ministry. The first line--The History of the Lord's Recovery--contains chapters 23 through 26 of The Recovery of the Church according to the Pattern on the Mountain, which are in volume 1 of The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1950–1951. This section includes topics on fellowship concerning the districts, fellowship concerning arrangements for various services, and fellowship concerning district meetings. The second line--Words for New Believers--continues with another portion from chapter 48 of Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures, Volume 5, which is in volume 4 of The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1932–1949. This chapter on entering into the kingdom of the heavens is quite lengthy, and it will be continued in the subsequent issue of Ministry Digest. The third line--Maturing in Life--contains chapters 29 through 32 of The Kingdom, which are in volume 2 of The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1972. These chapters cover the matter of ambition for position being contrary to the kingdom life; the matter of Christ being versus religion, politics, doctrines, and law; the matter of the resurrected, ascended, and reigning Christ; and the matter of the reality of the kingdom. The fourth line--The High Peak of the Divine Revelation--continues with chapters 2 through 5 of Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans, which are in volume 1 of The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994–1997. These chapters cover the center of the gospel of God being Jesus Christ the God-man, the content of the gospel of God being the dynamic salvation of God in its fullness, and the structure of the gospel of God being the righteousness of God, the life of God, and the faith of the believers.

In this issue of The Ministry, Brother Lee implores the brothers and sisters to drop the old concept of bearing fruit by big movements, big campaigns, and big speakers. For fruit-bearing, we must take the hidden way of life, the way of normal growth, to bring forth new ones and raise them up. Practically speaking, we should consider our friends, relatives, colleagues, and neighbors and be burdened by the Lord for three to five of them. Then we must pray for them, contact them, invite them to our homes, and have spontaneous home meetings with them, and after bringing them to the church, we should help them to grow. This is the way to have a prevailing gospel and a living, new, and fresh church life. The next three messages included in this volume were given in the Crystallization-study of Revelation during the summer training of 1999. Message One reveals that the book of Revelation is the unique and ultimate revelation of Jesus Christ in the stage of intensification. Message Two indicates that Revelation is a book that presents to us the revealed Christ and the testifying church. The revealed Christ is the Word of God, and the testifying church is the testimony of Jesus. Message Three presents a clear view of the Trinity in the book of Revelation. The Trinity in this book is the economical Trinity (1:4-5). The Triune God in Revelation is the processed and consummated Triune God (22:17a; 3:22; 14:13) and the sevenfold intensified Spirit (3:1; 4:5; 5:6). Ultimately, in the book of Revelation we have the consummate revelation of the Divine Trinity for the divine dispensing (2 Cor. 13:14; Rev. 22:1-2; 7:17a; 21:6b; John 4:14b). Lastly, we include reports concerning the Lord’s move in Mexico and England.

In this issue of The Ministry, we continue to see that what the Bible reveals is not the improvement of our behavior but the salvation of God. Man’s salvation is God Himself; that is, God saves us not only by His power and His work but also by coming into us to be our salvation. Since God as our salvation comes to us freely by grace, we should not bring anything to Him except an empty heart. If we come to God, we should put ourselves aside, contact Him, let Him do everything according to the law of the Spirit of life, and give thanks and offer praises to Him. Then, as a result, we become one with Him, and what we live out will be something not of ourselves but of God’s nature. We have also included the first six messages of the Crystallization-study of Revelation held in the winter of 1999 in Long Beach, California. Message One covers two crystals: the temple with the ark and the principle of the man-child. The temple with the ark governs what is unveiled in Revelation 12—22 and relates to God’s expression through His building. The principle of the man-child is that God will choose a group of overcomers who will attain to His purpose and fulfill His demand. Message Two indicates strongly that the book of Revelation is a book on the overcomers, the man-child, God’s dispensational instrument to bring Christ’s kingdom to the earth. Message Three, concerning the firstfruits, the harvest, and the late overcomers, gives a complete view of the coming rapture. To be raptured is to be taken into the Lord’s presence; in order to be taken into the Lord’s presence, we must be in His presence today. Message Four unveils the source and essence of Babylon the Great—religious and material, and Message Five reveals the principle of Babylon. Message Six presents the marriage of the Lamb as the issue of the completion of God’s New Testament economy. Last of all, we include reports concerning the Lord’s continuing move through the radio broadcast in London, England and a recent conference in Stockholm, Sweden.

In this issue of The Ministry we begin a series of messages given by Brother Lee in Taipei, Taiwan in April and May of 1950. These messages concern the salvation of God; a brief presentation of the history, content, and outline of the Bible; the person and work of the Lord; and the history and ground of the church. In the first message, Brother Lee reminds us that although human society esteems self-improvement and religion, these things have no place in God’s salvation. Rather, God’s salvation is simply God Himself, the One who is able to deliver us from the things that we are not able to overcome by our resolve. God’s salvation is inward, in spirit; not outward, in letter. The six messages that follow were given in the 1999 Thanksgiving Conference in Irving, Texas. The general subject is A New Revival— Reaching the Highest Peak of the Divine Revelation. Message One shows us that God’s intention in His economy is to build Himself in Christ into our being. Message Two presents the great question, the great answer, and the great way to fulfill the answer. Message Three presents the “diamond” in the “box” of the divine revelation from the aspect of the gospel of God. The main subject of Message Four is 2 Samuel 7:12-14a, which is the unveiling of a prophecy through typology showing us that we need God to build Christ into our intrinsic constitution so that our entire being will be reconstituted with Christ. Message Five shows us that God in Christ is within us to build Himself into our being and to build us into His being. Such a Christ who is built and constituted into us is both God’s house and our house. Message Six concludes with the charge that the intrinsic element of our work must be to minister the building and builded God into others so that the Triune God may build Himself into their being for His corporate expression. Last of all, we include reports concerning the Lord’s move in Romania and in Armenia among the young people, and a recent conference in Thessaloniki, Greece.

In this issue of The Ministry, we present the last of the series of The Way to Bear Fruit. In this message Brother Lee shows us the practical way to continue our fruit-bearing with newly saved ones to help them to consecrate themselves, realize the all-inclusive Spirit, exercise their spirit, read the Word, enter practically into the Body, fellowship with all the members, and begin to bear fruit themselves. Brother Lee reminds us that we are on the earth for the spreading of the Lord, the spreading and enlargement of His kingdom by the way of fruit-bearing. This is the main part of our Christian living and our commission on this earth. To this end, his unique burden was that we abandon the expectation of a big revival, which is in our blood from our traditional background, and become small seeds and small branches bearing fruit by personal contact with people. The next three messages are the conclusion of the Crystallization-study of Revelation, given in the summer training of 1999. Message Ten shows us the vision of world history from Christ’s ascension to the end of this age and the prayer of the martyred saints for the carrying out of God’s economy. Message Eleven presents two crystals: Christ as another Angel and the finishing of the mystery of God. In the book of Revelation Christ is called “another Angel,” the unique, special Angel, because He is the One sent by God to carry out His economy. Message Twelve brings clearly into view that God is recovering His right over the earth to make the whole earth His kingdom. This kingdom is Christ Himself; the Triune God in humanity (Col. 2:9) is the seed, the gene, of the kingdom of God to be sown into God’s chosen people that He might grow in them, live in them, and be expressed from within them to develop into God’s ruling realm (Mark 4:26-29; 1 Cor. 3:9). Last of all, we include reports concerning the Lord’s move in Russia, India, and Mexico.

In this issue of The Ministry, Brother Lee speaks from a heavy burden concerning fruit-bearing. In John 15 the Lord says that every branch in Him that does not bear fruit the Father will take away. This does not mean that a branch of the vine that does not bear fruit will perish. Rather, it means that such a branch is in danger of losing the enjoyment of the rich supply of Christ. On the contrary, the more we as branches produce new believers as fruit, the more we enjoy Christ. The proper way to bear remaining fruit is not the way of gospel campaigns and big speakers but the inner, hidden way of life. As branches of the vine we must impart life to others to bring forth the fruit of life in a hidden way. The three messages which follow are the conclusion of the messages given in the Memorial Day Conference in Chicago, Illinois concerning the new revival. The subject of Message Four in this series is living the life of a God-man to be conformed to the death of Christ through the power of the resurrection of Christ for the reality of the Body of Christ. Death and resurrection are vital to our Christian life and to God’s economy. Such a life of dying to ourselves and living to God is for Christ, the first God-man, to be formed in His many members, the many God-men, for the building up of His organic Body that the economy of God might be carried out. Message Five indicates that we need to shepherd people according to the pattern of the Lord Jesus in His ministry for the carrying out of God’s eternal economy, and Message Six concludes with the fact that shepherding is to take all-inclusive, tender care of the flock. Last of all, we include reports concerning the Lord’s move in Mexico, Taiwan, and Russia, as well as an announcement which gives the dates of the upcoming conferences and trainings in Europe.