This issue of The Ministry contains a complete record of the six messages given during the 2007 Thanksgiving Weekend Conference held in Boston, Massachusetts on November 22-25, 2007. The general subject of the conference was "Closely Following the Present Vision of the Lord's Recovery." The burden of these messages can be summarized in the following four statements: 1) To live out and work out the New Jerusalem is to live out and work out God's complete salvation according to the intrinsic essence of the unique New Testament ministry for the reality of the Body of Christ and a new revival; 2) God became man so that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to produce and build up the Body of Christ for the fulfillment of God's economy to close this age and bring Christ back to set up His kingdom; 3) God's intention is, through the universal woman, to bring forth the man-child--the stronger part of God's people--whom He will use to defeat His enemy and bring in His kingdom; and 4) We must closely follow the present vision of the Lord's recovery by holding to the teaching of the apostles to remain in the essence of oneness. The Reports and Announcements section includes a schedule concerning the upcoming conferences and trainings for 2008.

This issue of The Ministry contains a complete record of the nine messages given during the 2007 International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones in Mexico City, Mexico, October 4-6, 2007. The general subject of the training was "Knowing and Caring for the Church." This knowing is a knowing by revelation and by the experience of life. We need to know the Lord, to know God's economy, the divine dispensing, and to know the church. Our care for the church is limited by our knowing of the church, and our behavior and proper conduct in the church as the house of God is determined by our knowing of the church. This is a set principle. The burden in these messages is that we must first know the church in order to care for the church. If we do not know the church, we cannot care for the church in a proper way. Therefore, we need to be those who know the church in the way that God knows the church, and then we need to care for the church in the way that God cares for the church. Our knowing the church according to revelation and the experiences of life brings in the proper caring. We must care for the church according to the revelation, the vision, and the experiences of life that have constituted our inner knowing of the church. Therefore, our knowing of the church, which is progressive, must increase. We also include letters from Romania concerning the Lord's move there.

This issue of The Ministry of the Word includes the first nine messages of the 2007 spring term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is "The Believers." Collectively, the believers are one of the seven persons in the eternal economy of God. The first three persons in God's economy are the three of the Divine Trinity--the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The fourth person, composed of the believers as a collective entity, is in the middle of this sequence of seven persons. The believers then become a corporate person--the church, the kingdom, and the New Jerusalem, which are the remaining three persons. The believers constitute a certain class or category of people who have received mercy from God to believe into the Son of God and in His redemptive work, particularly in His resurrection. First Peter 1:8 says, "Whom having not seen, you love; into whom though not seeing Him at present, yet believing, you exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory." In many ways, this verse is the theme for this line of ministry on the believers. We are those who exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, and the Lord, as the Author and Perfecter of our faith, will take us on from one degree of enjoyment to the next until we reach the highest enjoyment of the Lord. The believers are the happiest and most joyful people on the earth because God is pleased with them (Heb. 11:6). Last of all, we include a report of the 2008 Chinese-speaking Perfecting Training in Plano, Texas and a follow-up conference in Irving, Texas.

This issue of The Ministry of the Word includes the last nine messages of the 2007 spring term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is "The Believers." In the final two messages of the previous issue, we covered ten symbols of the believers in the Bible--the wheat of life, the good seed, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the fishers of men, a lamp, a city situated upon a mountain, the sun, virgins, and plants. In this issue we will consider thirty-one more symbols of the believers in the Bible--living stones, sheep, vessels of mercy unto honor and glory, grains of wheat, branches of the vine, branches of the cultivated olive tree, a wise master builder, stewards, a spectacle, the offscouring of the world and the scum of all things, the temple of the Holy Spirit, threshing oxen, contenders in a game, runners in a race, workman in carpentry, nursing mother, father, captives of Christ in His triumphal procession, incense-bearers, ambassadors, letters of Christ, mirrors, earthen vessels, pillars, luminaries, a laboring husbandman, a good soldier, stars, the man-child, the firstfruits and the harvest, and jasper and other precious stones. These symbols of the believers help us to see who we are in Christ and who Christ is in us. Seeing who we are in Christ and who Christ is in us will revolutionize our living and bring us into the life and living of the divine-human mystical incorporation of the Triune God. In this divine-human incorporation the Triune God abides in us, and we abide in the Triune God as the mutual abode of God and man, in which we are being built together and structured together with the Triune God to be the New Jerusalem. There are no reports or announcements in this issue.

This issue of The Ministry contains a complete record of the twelve messages given during the 2007 winter training on the Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Peter and Jude, held December 24-29 in Anaheim, California. The crucial truth and burden embodied in these twelve messages may be summarized in four statements: (1) In Christ's death we have been separated from sins, and in His resurrection we have been enlivened so that we might live to righteousness under the government of God. (2) We must redeem the time to enjoy Christ as the supreme preciousness of God so that He can build Himself into us to make us His spiritual house and His holy and royal priesthood for the accomplishment of His heart's desire. (3) We should be diligent to pursue the growth and development of the divine life and divine nature for a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom. (4) As we are contending for the faith, enjoying the Blessed Trinity, and taking the way of rapture by giving heed to the prophetic word, our trust is in our precious Lord and God as the One who is able to guard us from stumbling and to set us before His glory without blemish in exultation. These messages are being published immediately following the training in order that they might benefit the saints participating in the many video trainings that are held throughout the earth. The Reports and Announcements section includes two reports related to the Lord's move to Europe and an announcement related to upcoming conferences and trainings.

This issue of The Ministry contains a complete record of the eight messages given during the 2008 International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones in Anaheim, California, April 2-4, 2008. The general subject of this series of messages is "The Vision, Experience, and Practice of the All-inclusive Oneness." These messages are a continuation of the messages given in the previous International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones in Mexico City, Mexico, October 4-6, 2007 (see The Ministry Magazine, vol. 12 no. 2). The final two messages of that training (Messages 8 and 9) are an introduction to this training. In this volume, we will see that the all-inclusive oneness is actually a person--the all-inclusive Christ. The all-inclusive Christ is the all-inclusive Spirit, who is the all-inclusive processed and consummated Triune God. Therefore, the all-inclusive oneness is actually the all-inclusive Spirit as the processed and consummated Triune God, united, mingled, and incorporated with all the genuine believers in Christ. Moreover, we will also see that this all-inclusive oneness is the expression of God. God is expressed as oneness because He is oneness itself. There is no oneness outside of the Triune God; hence, when He is expressed, He is expressed as a marvelous, mysterious, divine, and mystical oneness. We also include a report concerning the Lord's move in Ethiopia.

This issue of The Ministry contains the final eight messages given during the 2006 fall term of the full-time training in Anaheim, California. The general subject of this series of messages is entitled "The Reality of the Body of Christ." The Body of Christ is crucial in relation to God's economy. In short, God's economy is to constitute us with Christ and thereby make us the same as Christ in life, nature, and expression. Therefore, God's goal is the Body of Christ, which is simply the enlargement, increase, duplication, and reproduction of Christ. God in His economy wants us to experience Christ and be filled with Christ in our daily lives, yet His ultimate goal is to gain the Body of Christ for His expression and dominion. Furthermore, His Body is also His bride for His satisfaction in love. We need to be infused with a burden concerning the reality of the Body of Christ, and we need to become the Body of Christ in reality in order to hasten our Lord's return. Last of all, we include a report concerning the recent international conference in London, England. In addition, we include a letter from the Russian-speaking churches to all the churches in the Lord's recovery.