God Operating in Us
“For I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” (Phil. 1:19)
“For it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.” (Phil. 2:13)
In Philippians 2:13 Paul says that God operates in us “both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.” Where within us does this willing take place? It must be in our will. This indicates that God’s operation begins from our spirit and spreads into our mind, emotion, and will….The grace of Christ is with our spirit. However, God’s operating to will in us involves not only our spirit but also our will. Therefore, God’s operation must spread from our spirit into our will.
As God operates the willing within us, He carries out His working. This corresponds to Romans 8, where we see that God works not only in our spirit, but also in our mind and eventually in our physical body (vv. 6, 11). We will in our will, and we work in our body. The Triune God operates in us from our spirit, through our will, and then into our physical body. (Life-study of Philippians, pp. 103-104)
O Triune God, continue to operate in us both the willing and the working for Your good pleasure!
God’s Economy in Faith
“…God’s economy, which is in faith.” (1 Tim. 1:4)
“And having the same spirit of faith according to that which is written, ‘I believed, therefore I spoke,’ we also believe, therefore we also speak.” (2 Cor. 4:13)
The subject of ITERO last weekend was “God’s Economy in Faith.” God carries out His economy by dispensing Himself into us; we receive His dispensing by our spirit of faith—our regenerated human spirit mingled with the Spirit. Then we exercise this mingled spirit in any kind of meeting and in personal contact with other people to speak what we enjoy in the Bible and what we experience of the Lord.
Lord, fill our church life with much more believing (receiving) and much more speaking!
Southern California College Conference
We have 65 to 70 students from Los Angeles (including UCLA, USC, CSUN, and local community colleges) registered to attend the college conference this weekend, April 8 to 9. The topic of the conference is “Abounding Grace!” based on the recent International Chinese-Speaking Conference. On Friday evening, students and serving ones will gather in Westwood for a livestream of the first session. On Saturday afternoon, they will be in Arcadia for the remaining two sessions along with other college students from across Southern California.
Please pray for all of our students to see and experience Christ as the multiplying and abounding grace of God in His economy. Also pray that the newer ones would enter into the rich enjoyment of the Spirit of grace during every conference session.
SCYP Spring Junior High Conferences
The Spring High School Conferences are April 8 to 10 for brothers and April 22 to 24 for sisters. These gatherings will be held in a hybrid format with options to join online or in person at Oak Glen. The messages on “The Precious Blood of Christ” will help to solve three problems—separation from God, guilt in our conscience, and accusation from the enemy—so that we can partake of God as our portion.
We encourage all the saints—especially the parents, serving ones and college students—to pray for the Lord to open and soften the hearts of the young people to be good receivers this coming weekend!
Bibles for America
BfA offers seven titles by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee that anyone in the world can download for free at http://bfa.org/books. We also offer physical copies of one or more of these titles on a rotating basis to residents of the US. From 2019 to 2021, we gave away 33,000 copies of The All-inclusive Christ. This year, we will be giving away free sets of Basic Elements of the Christian Life, vols. 1-3.
Please pray that all the details related to the launch of this offer would be taken care of in a timely way so these books can be made available to the hungry seekers in this country. Pray also that all those who receive these booklets would be helped to establish a firm foundation for a rich and meaningful Christian life.
Ukraine
Please continue to pray for the ruling of the heavens over the entire situation so that:
- The teams going out to proclaim the gospel among the refugees in Eastern Europe will find many sons of peace who will open their hearts to receive the Lord and be gained for the church life.
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Many seeking Ukrainians will read and respond to the publications posted on http://aidmyfreedom.org.
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Saints in Ukraine and refugees in the European countries will receive the needed spiritual supply.
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The tripartite being of the saints who are under attack, including the brothers fighting in the army, will be protected and preserved.
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The Ukrainian refugees will be comforted and supplied with the necessities for their living, and those who care for them will enjoy the Lord as their grace, wisdom, and endurance.
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Satan and the authority of darkness over Europe will be bound, and God’s move in His economy will advance.
As the Lord leads, saints may give through the church in Los Angeles designated for ‘Ukraine’.
Announcements
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Morning Revival: Week 5 of Living in and with the Divine Trinity (Thanksgiving Conference).
After next week, we begin Crystallization-study of 1 & 2 Samuel. -
Wednesday Night Ministry Meeting: The live broadcast resumes this Wednesday 7:25 pm at http://lsm.org/live in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Korean. Outlines will be posted on the same site.
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Memorial Day Conference: Living Stream Ministry is now able to open the live, in-person portion of the 2022 International Memorial Day Blending Conference to all the saints in the Lord’s recovery from May 27 to 30 in Anaheim. The meetings will also be streamed online.
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Free e-Booklets: Living Stream Ministry has made a series of free e-booklets available to read and share with others at http://www.lsm.org/booklets. The latest release is “The Law of the Spirit of Life.”
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SCYP Spring Conferences: Junior High Brothers, April 8 to 10; Junior High Sisters, April 22 to 24 (due April 10); Sixth Grade, May 6 to 8 (due April 24).
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Living Stream Ministry: The March issue of “Having This Ministry…” presents Watchman Nee’s message on “World Wars and the Church” in English, Chinese, Korean and Spanish.
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Ways to Give: Information about the church’s online giving platform, Subsplash, and where to mail checks, are at http://www.churchinlosangeles.org/members/offerings.