Crystallization-Study of Job
Message One
The Great Question in the Book of Job and the Great Answer
Opening Word of the Prophesying Meeting
(Day1 ¦ Day2 ¦ Day3 ¦ Day4 ¦ Day5 ¦ Day6)
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
Eph. 3:9 And to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things,
Job 42:5-6 I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, / But now my eye has seen You; Therefore I abhor myself, and I repent / In dust and ashes.
Phil. 3:8 But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ.
Word of Appetizer
The forty-two chapters in Job leave us with a great question: What is the purpose of God in His creating of man, and what is the purpose of God in His dealing with His chosen people?
The great answer to this great question is the mystery hidden in God throughout the ages, the eternal economy of God, which is God’s eternal intention with His heart’s desire to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity as the Father in the Son by the Spirit into His chosen people to be their life and nature so that they may become an organism, the Body of Christ as the new man, for God’s fullness, God’s expression, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
Spiritual Burden
God’s purpose in dealing with those who love Him is that they may gain Him to the fullest extent, surpassing the loss of all that they have other than Him (Phil. 3:7-8), that He might be expressed through them for the fulfillment of His purpose in creating man.
In all of God’s dealings with Job, God’s intention was to reduce Job to nothing, yet to maintain his existence (2:6) so that He might have time to impart Himself into Job; God cares for only one thing—for being worked into us.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
Job’s basic problem was that he was short of God; in all of God’s dealings with Job, God’s intention was to reduce Job to nothing, yet to maintain his existence (2:6) so that He might have time to impart Himself into Job; God cares for only one thing—for being worked into us.
The move of the Triune God to deify man for the fulfillment of His economy to have His corporate expression is altogether in the mingled spirit, the divine Spirit mingled as one with our human spirit.
In God’s appearing to him, Job saw God, gaining God in his personal experience and abhorring himself.
The Experience of Life
We see God so that we may be constituted with God; seeing God transforms us, and seeing God equals gaining God; the more we look at Him in our spirit, the more we receive all His ingredients into our being as our inner supply. The more we see God and love God, the more we deny ourselves and hate ourselves.
Practice and Application
we should cooperate with the operating Spirit and accept the environment that God has arranged for us; in our Christian life we should live by the Spirit and walk by the Spirit; we should not face any situation or meet any need apart from the Spirit.
In order to see God, we must deal with our heart; We must be renewed in the spirit of our mind by being reconstituted with the holy word of God to be instructed, governed, ruled, and controlled by God’s word; We must have our will subdued by Christ and transformed with Christ through sufferings so that it is submitted to the headship of Christ, and we must maintain a good and pure conscience by the priceless, cleansing, and purifying blood of Christ.
Prophesying Topics—Twelve Topics per Week
T1: Job could not find the reason and purpose for God’s treatment of him (Job. 10:2, 13).
(Please explain according to the scriptures above that Job could not find the reason for God’s treatment of him, but he believed that there had to be some reason hidden in God’s heart.)
T2: The book of Job leaves us with a great question (Job 10:13, Eph. 3:9).
(What is the great question in Job? And what is the Great Answer? )
Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msgs. 8, 10
T1: Job’s sufferings were not God’s judgment but God’s stripping and consuming (Job 42:7).
(Why were Job’s three friends not right concerning God’s purpose in dealing with His people?)
T2: The purpose of God’s dealing with us by stripping us and consuming us (Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:2).
(Please explain that God’s purpose in dealing with His people is to give Himself to them as their eternal portion.)
Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msg. 30
T1: Unless we know God’s economy, we will not understand the Bible (John 10:10; 1 Cor. 15:45b).
(What’s God’s economy?)
T2: If we see the revelation concerning God’s economy, then we will be able to understand the book of Job (Job 10:13; Eph. 3:9).
(Why did Job suffer God’s stripping and consuming, but not understand what was happening to him?)
Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msgs. 9, 31
T1: The suffering is for the gaining of Christ (Phil. 3:8; 2 Cor. 4:16).
(Please explain that the ultimate object of all suffering is the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose.)
T2: The difference between the living God and the God of resurrection (2 Cor. 1:8-9; 4:16).
(Please explain that the primary purpose of suffering is that through it the very nature of God may be wrought into the nature of man.)
Further Reading: CWWL, 1957, vol. 3, “The Living God and the God of Resurrection,” ch. 3
T1: The divine Spirit and the human spirit (Gal. 3:14; 6:18).
(Why should we treasure the two spirits in the book of Galatians?)
T2: The mingled spirit is the divine Spirit mingled as one with our human spirit (Job 32:8; 1 Cor. 6:17).
(Please explain according to your own experiences that we should not face any situation or meet any need apart from the Spirit.)
Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msgs. 12, 16, 24, 28
T1: To see God is to receive God (Job 42:5; Matt. 5:8).
(Please explain that according to the clear view in the New Testament, to see God is to receive God into us.)
T2: The more we look at Him, the more we are being transformed into God’s image (2 Cor. 3:18).
(Please explain according to your own experiences that our Christian life is not a matter of changing outwardly but of being transformed from within.)
Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msg. 21; CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Christian Life,” ch. 15