Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs, by Witness Lee

THE LORD’S RECOVERY

Today’s Christianity is very lacking in all of these matters. This is why the Lord has still not come back. How can He return without all of these things being recovered and accomplished among His people on earth? This is what the Lord is doing in His recovery, and this is why we say this is not the recovery of doctrine. It is the recovery of life and building. This is His work which He started in Genesis chapter one. The enemy has done his best to frustrate it, but the enemy cannot stop the Lord’s recovery. Today the Lord is going to recover life and building!

A real warfare is being waged today for the Lord’s recovery. Some may think that they have been called for this or for that. But these are just the traditional things. We all have been called for the Lord’s recovery. May the Lord have mercy on us that we may see His divine work of recovery and what is missing in today’s Christianity.

To love the Lord Jesus does not mean to work for Him. Working for Him means nothing to the Lord Jesus. If you do not believe this today, some day you will believe it. But that day will be too late. It is not that we work for Him, but that He works on us. We must not be merely His workers, but His work (Eph. 2:10). We must take in the Lord so that He may perfume us and transform us. Then we will progress from one figure to another and will arrive at the stage of the palanquin and the crown. But we still need to go on to the garden and the city. May the Lord be merciful to us and take us all the way! Life and building are the two main items of the Lord’s recovery. This is why we must attain to the garden and the city.

To the Lord we’re as a garden,
Out from which the spices flow;
All the precious fruits of Jesus
Freely in this garden grow.

Spikenard, saffron, henna flower,
Cinnamon and calamus,
Frankincense and myrrh and aloes;
O Lord, we would ever grow Thee thus.

O Lord, come into Thy garden,
Come, Beloved, come and eat
Freely for Thy satisfaction
Of Thy fruit, abundant, sweet.

“Yea,” Thou answerest, “I am eating
Honeycomb with honey pure.”
All sweet spices from Thy garden,
Doth Thy satisfaction, Lord, secure.

All the produce of the garden
Is with resurrection filled
That the Lord may have a city,
Fruits of resurrection build.

From the garden to the city,
Growth transformed to precious stone;
Christ is thus expressed, reflected—
God in all His glory fully shown.

Now the city, fair and comely,
As the dawn, triumphantly,
Is an army strong and mighty
Marching forth in victory.

Lo, the city and the army—
Saints transformed in one accord.
What a terror to the Devil,
And so beautiful unto the Lord!

(Tune: Hymns, #7)

(Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee)