Exercise unto Godliness

Verses to Pray-read Today

1 Tim. 4:7–11

But the profane and old-womanish myths refuse, and exercise yourself unto godliness. For bodily exercise is profitable for a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the present life and of that which is to come. Faithful is the word and worthy of all acceptance. For to this end we labor and strive, because we have set our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. Charge and teach these things.

1 Tim. 4:15

Practice these things; be in them, that your progress may be manifest to all.

Heb. 5:14

But solid food is for the full-grown, who because of practice have their faculties exercised for discriminating between both good and evil.

Acts 24:16

Because of this I also exercise myself to always have a conscience without offense toward God and men.

Today’s Prayer

Lord, show us that hearing the word can make us proud, but exercise brings us low; without exercise we become Laodicea. Save us to exercise continually unto godliness. We do not want to live two kinds of lives, but to be normal Christians who contact the Lord every morning and are filled with the Lord’s Spirit. The exercise chart is meant to help, remind, and encourage us to live regularly: to rise, rest, read the Bible, come before the Lord, and contact people in a regular way.

Lord, we want to be revived. We are dead and cold; set us on fire. We have the living Lord, the all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling Spirit, and our regenerated spirit. Cause us to exercise unto godliness, not to come to meetings merely by habit, but to come out of habit and into the spirit. Lord, lead and guide us in everything.

Lord, through the exercise of the vital groups, make us accustomed to living Christ and exercising together with the brothers and sisters; to letting the truth shine within us and become our life; to exercising our inner spirit unto godliness; to living the God-man life; and to coordinating with the brothers and sisters to live out a corporate model of God-men. In our daily life, may we preach the gospel and shepherd people more, overflowing with truth and life. May we live out the corporate Christ, the reality of the Body of Christ, and the beauty of the bride. Praise the Lord!

Lord, You desire to gain companies of overcomers. A heart’s desire to consecrate ourselves is not enough; we also need a sanctified, renewed, and consecrated living. Every revival before You is the appearing of dawn and a new beginning. Make this more than a desire; bring us into this living, to be vital persons and overcomers who welcome the Lord’s coming.

O Lord, may all the churches continue to exercise and live together, living and moving in union with You before You. Let the life within us flow out and be expressed, becoming the gospel and shepherding, for the multiplication and increase of the church. May Your word spread and the reality of the Body extend; may our heart’s desire become action, and may exercising and living together become a continual vitality. Praise the Lord!

Lord, bring all the churches and the brothers and sisters onward together in the high-peak truths, the God-man living, and the vital exercise of shepherding according to God. Bless all Your churches, and may this exercise of life spread like a flame until You return! Amen.

Fellowship from the Ministry

Hearing makes us proud, but exercise brings us low

For the church life, we need a sanctified living (note: not life). Christians should not have two kinds of living, but only one. To be a normal Christian, we need to contact the Lord every morning and be filled with the Lord’s Spirit. An exercise chart helps, reminds, and encourages us to live regularly: to rise, rest, read the Bible, come before the Lord, and contact people. Since last year, more than four hundred people have joined this kind of exercise, reminding themselves and one another. This is very practical, but also difficult. Giving a message is easy; helping people to walk is the hardest. Forming a habit requires daily reminders, little by little.

Exercise exposes our many weaknesses, failures, and discouragements; this is normal. “Hearing makes us proud, but exercise brings us low.” The more we exercise, the more we say, “Lord, I cannot make it. I need You to shepherd me and strengthen me.” Every revival before the Lord is the appearing of dawn and a new beginning. This is not merely a desire; it is entering into a living, living a sanctified life, being vital persons and overcomers, and welcoming the Lord’s coming.

(Perfecting the Shepherding, Part 2, “The Perfecting of the Shepherding,” “A Sanctified Living”)

We need not only to consecrate ourselves but also to live this kind of life

Acts 18 speaks of the Lord’s way, which is also God’s way. A desire to consecrate ourselves is not enough; we also need a sanctified, renewed, and consecrated living. Samuel had such a living and was therefore an overcomer. Samson had a desire to be consecrated, but his living was a complete mess, and he became a failed Nazarite. We need not only to consecrate ourselves; we need to live this kind of life.

(Perfecting the Shepherding, Part 2, “The Perfecting of the Shepherding,” “A Sanctified Living”)

Rise up to be a person who exercises

The Lord’s word is settled in heaven and will surely be fulfilled. This is a clear vision in the Lord’s recovery. We must press on and advance along this line. The Lord’s coming to receive us is according to our degree of maturity. If we are not sufficiently mature, we may miss the rapture and need to mature rapidly in the great tribulation or reach maturity in the millennial kingdom. Wherever the Lord speaks, there His work is carried out. We should say Amen to His word and let God’s word be wrought into us. We hope not only to hear the word clearly but also to walk the way well. After a year, we have learned, “Hearing makes us proud, but exercise brings us low.” We must not only hear clearly; we must rise up to be people who exercise. By the Lord’s grace, we can fail and try again, and the Lord will accomplish this marvelous matter in this age.

(O Lord Jesus, I Come!, message 6, “The Lord’s Coming and the Redemption of the Body”)

From a stirring of the heart to action

After passing through the matter of consecration, we still need to take the way. We all have a desire and have been stirred in our heart; now we need action: to pass through the gate of consecration and take the way of prayer and shepherding. In the 1950s, Brother Lee released a key message concerning the enjoyment of God and exercise. This is a key to the advance of the Lord’s recovery. Church history shows that even where the highest spiritual messages were released, the saints’ condition could still be desolate and weak. We need exercise. Hearing can make us self-assured, but exercise shows us that we cannot make it; the end of man is the beginning of God.

Build a regular and healthy spiritual living

The Lord’s recovery has revelation, and it also has practical exercise. It has the healthy teaching according to the apostles and the building up of a healthy spiritual living. In 1986–1987, when Brother Lee led us to practice the God-ordained way, he told us that we needed to build a regular and healthy spiritual living. To live victoriously, our living must be healthy. The issue is not merely whether we have done something; once we see the need, we must build a healthy spiritual living. We have healthy teaching, and even more we need to bring in a healthy living. The brothers also told us that we need to exercise and practice in certain definite matters, not according to outward regulations but according to our fellowship with the Lord. Do you aspire to have a healthy spiritual living?

(The Organic Shepherding for the Building Up of the Body of Christ, message 5, “The Normal Way of Shepherding for the Building Up of the Church”)

Without exercise we become Laodicea

Revelation 3:18 is the Lord’s word to the church in Laodicea. We need to exercise continually and receive the Lord’s deliverance, so that we do not become Laodicea. Even the church in Philadelphia, the church of brotherly love, can become lukewarm if it is distorted, deformed, and degraded. Every day we need to pay the price to buy the Spirit as the anointing eye salve.

Exercise unto godliness

First Timothy 4:7 says, “Exercise yourself unto godliness.” Godliness includes every spiritual matter, everything concerning God and our relationship with Him. All these matters require exercise. We need to exercise in prayer, in studying the Lord’s word, in visiting people, and in speaking with people. We also need to exercise in using the words of the Bible as weapons in spiritual warfare, in how to function in the meetings, in fasting and praying, in knowing the inner life, in discerning the spirit and the soul, and in knowing the hymns. Godliness includes many matters, especially everything concerning our relationship with God. This short phrase is very profound.

We should ask ourselves how much we have exercised. Today there is very little exercise in the Christian churches. Some establish seminaries or Bible schools for a few people to study spiritual matters, but the church as a whole does not exercise. In many so-called churches, the main thing is to preach message after message, without exercise. The way we take in the church for the ministry must include the way of the four books from 1 Timothy through Philemon—the way of exercise.

One lecture in a classroom requires more than ten times as much work in the laboratory. A professor may say, “What good is a lecture? Listening makes you proud, but experimenting makes you humble.” If year after year we sit and listen, we will think that we know everything and will easily criticize everyone. Understanding something is easy, but practicing it is difficult.

We need practical lessons for the small groups to practice together

In the early 1950s I gave the saints many teachings concerning the line of life. A brother who studied chemistry suggested that we put all these matters into practice. Otherwise, the saints would have the points only in their minds, without the reality. I agreed and told him to carry it out. He spent much time writing instructions and putting the lessons into practical form. Then he trained the small-group leaders how to practice and how to lead the saints in their groups to practice together. This worked and helped us greatly. It is the right principle: we need to exercise unto godliness.

These practical instructions cannot be carried out in a large congregation. In a large congregation we can only preach messages. To put all these matters into practice, we need groups of ten or twenty people to come together.

(An Overview of the New Testament from the Viewpoint of Christ and the Church, ch. 22, “The Practice of the Church Life in 1 and 2 Timothy”)

The ministry excerpts and book titles on this page are translated from the Chinese.