I.　Our God is living (1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:12), our Lord is moving (Matt. 16:18), and the Spirit is working within us as the sevenfold intensified, energizing, processed, and consummated Triune God (Rev. 4:5; 5:6) to make us energizing priests of the gospel of God (Rom. 15:16) by working Himself into us and operating in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure to build up the Body of Christ, prepare the bride of Christ, and bring in the kingdom of God for the eternal glory and administration of the Triune God(Eph. 3:16-17; Phil. 2:13; 4:13; Eph. 4:16; Rev. 19:7-8; Matt. 24:14; Dan. 2:44-45).

II.　The present advance of the Lord's recovery is to bring us into a new revival to turn the age by being the Lord's overcomers, His normal Christians, who are receiving the special seeing of the glorious, all-inheriting vision of the age to live the life of a God-man and shepherd people according to God in the vital groups for the reality of the Body of Christ in the local churches to consummate the New Jerusalem—Hab. 3:2a; Hosea 6:1-3; Rev. 1:10; 2:7b.

III.　In order to bring in a new revival and change the age, we need to see the revelation of the history and pathway of the church in Revelation 2 and 3; the seven churches in these chapters not only signify prophetically the progress of the church in seven stages but also symbolize the seven kinds of churches in church history—Rev. 2:1 and footnote 1:

A.　According to history, the initial church (signified by Ephesus), the suffering church (signified by Smyrna), and the worldly church (signified by Pergamos) have passed away; the following kinds of churches—the Roman Catholic Church (signified by Thyatira), the reformed Protestant church (signified by Sardis), the recovered church (signified by Philadelphia), and the degraded recovered church (signified by Laodicea) will remain until the Lord returns.

B.　Only the recovered church, signified by the church in Philadelphia, can fulfill God's eternal purpose, and only she is what the Lord is after; the overcomers in Philadelphia live in the reality of the Body of Christ to bring in a new revival to turn the age and bring the Lord back—3:7-13; cf. v. 22 and footnote 1.

IV.　The characteristic of the overcomers in Philadelphia is their arriving at the highest peak of the divine revelation of God's economy:

A.　One church in Asia was unique and highly appraised by the Lord—the church in Philadelphia; the Lord appreciated the overcomers in Philadelphia because they kept the word, which means they did not turn away from the word of the apostle's teaching, the healthy teaching of God's economy, the highest peak of the divine revelation—v. 8; 2 Tim. 1:15; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; cf. Rev. 2:14-15, 20; 2 Cor. 11:2-3.

B.　With the overcomers in Sardis, there was the recovery of God's judicial redemption; with the overcomers in Philadelphia there is the recovery of God's organic salvation, His deification, "Christification," and "sonizing" of His believers—Rom. 5:10; 8:10, 6, 11; 2 Cor. 5:4; Rom. 8:23; 1 John 3:2:

1.　For the overcomers to be pillars in the temple means that they will be pillars in the Triune God, for the temple is "the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb"; God is built into them to make them living and precious stones, and they are built into God to make them pillars of stone in God for their incorporation with God as the mutual abode of God and man—Rev. 3:12a; 21:22, 3; Psa. 90:1; John 14:23; cf. 1 Kings 7:17.

2.　That the name of God, the name of the New Jerusalem, and the Lord's new name are written upon the overcomers indicates that what God is, the nature of the New Jerusalem, and the person of the Lord have all been wrought into them, labeling them with the Triune God and making them God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead—Rev. 3:12b; 22:4b.

V.　The characteristic of the overcomers in Philadelphia is their God-man living by enjoying the riches of Christ as their indwelling treasure:

A.　Christ has the key of David, the key of (the treasury of) the house of God (typified by the house of David for the building up of the kingdom of God) to control the door of God's treasury, in which are the riches of God in Christ for our enjoyment; in order to enjoy His riches as the treasure, we need to remain in constant contact with Him, keeping ourselves absolutely open to Him and using the "keys" of denying the self, taking up the cross, and losing the soul-life—3:7; Isa. 22:15, 20-24; Matt. 5:3; 16:18- 19, 24-25; 17:5, 8.

B.　The overcomers in Philadelphia have a little power—Rev. 3:8; cf. 2 Cor. 12:7-10:

1.　To have a little power indicates that what pleases the Lord is not our doing much for Him but our doing our best for Him with what we have—Matt. 25:21.

2.　Mary grasped the opportunity to pour upon the Lord the best that she had; the Lord said concerning her, "She has done what she could," which literally means, "What she had she did"—Mark 14:8 and footnote 1; S. S. 8:6.

C.　The overcomers in Philadelphia keep the Lord's word:

1.　They care solely for the Word of God, saying Amen to God's Word and remaining in the healthy teaching of God's economy—Rev. 3:14; 1 Tim. 6:3.

2.　They are nourished with the words of the faith and of the good teaching, receiving the God-breathed Scripture by means of all prayer to be men of God with the breath of God—4:6-7; Eph. 6:17-18; 2 Tim. 3:14-17.

D.　The overcomers in Philadelphia do not deny the Lord's name:

1.　The recovered church has abandoned all names other than that of the Lord Jesus Christ; they belong to the Lord absolutely, having nothing to do with any denominations (any names).

2.　The recovered church exalts Christ Jesus as Lord and calls upon the name of the Lord (Rom. 10:9-10, 12-13), openly confessing "that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:11).

VI.　The characteristic of the overcomers in Philadelphia is their brotherly love; love prevails among them so that they shepherd people by cherishing them with the cheering presence of God and nourishing them with the healthy teaching of the economy of God—Eph. 4:11; 5:29:

A.　The Lord's recovery is a recovery of loving the Lord Jesus; the overcomers in Philadelphia stand on the genuine ground of oneness and keep themselves in the love of God to love the Lord and love all the brothers—Jude 20-21; 2 Cor. 5:14; John 12:3; Luke 7:47; 1 John 3:14-16; cf. Psa. 133.

B.　Loving to be first in the church is versus having the Lord as our first love by giving Him the first place in all things—3 John 9; Col. 1:18b.

C.　In the vital groups, love must prevail; God first loved us in that He infused us with His love and generated within us the love with which we love Him and the brothers— 1 Cor. 12:31b; 13:4-8, 13; 1 John 3:14, 19-21.

D.　In the vital groups, we need to love one another, our wives need to love one another, and we need to love one another's children—John 13:34-35; 1 John 4:10-11, 21; Matt. 19:13-15; Mark 10:13-16; cf. Jude 12a.

E.　In order to minister life to others and maintain our victory for the building up of the church, we must have a revived living and a labor in shepherding that flow out from our love for the Lord and for the brothers—John 21:15-17.

VII.　In order to continue in the way of Philadelphia, we must be saved from the way of Laodicea; Laodicea is a degraded and distorted Philadelphia:

A.　Laodicea is characterized by lukewarmness and spiritual pride; when brotherly love is gone, Philadelphia immediately turns into "the opinion of the people" (the meaning of Laodicea)—Rev. 3:14-22.

B.　Spiritual pride comes from history; some still remember their history, but they have lost Christ as the reality of their life, the reality of their former enjoyment of the riches of Christ as life.

C.　Laodicea means to know everything but in reality to be fervent about nothing; in name it has everything, but it cannot sacrifice its life for anything; it remembers its former glory but forgets its present condition before God; formerly it was Philadelphia, but today it is Laodicea.

D.　If we want to continue in the way of Philadelphia, we need to humble ourselves before God—vv. 19-20; Matt. 5:3; Isa. 66:1-2; Luke 10:38-42.

E.　We need to pay the price to buy gold refined by fire that we may be rich toward God, white garments that we may be clothed with Christ by living out Christ, and eyesalve as the anointing Spirit to heal our blindness—Rev. 3:18.

VIII.　As we are receiving the Lord as our mercy and grace to take the God-ordained pathway for the church, the way of Philadelphia, He puts before us an opened door, which no one can shut, for us to preach the gospel of the kingdom, the full ministry of Christ, to the whole inhabited earth—vv. 7-8; Matt. 24:14:

A.　By the ministry of the Spirit, we enlighten all with Christ as the light of the Spirit of life that their eyes may be opened to see the highest peak of the divine revelation of God's economy—2 Cor. 3:3, 6, 8; Eph. 3:9.

B.　By the ministry of righteousness, we bring people into the God-man living, which is the living out and genuine expression of Christ as their subjective righteousness— 2 Cor. 3:9; Phil. 3:9.

C.　By the ministry of reconciliation, we shepherd people according to God that they might become persons in the spirit, in the Holy of Holies, who love God, live God, and are constituted with God to become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead— 2 Cor. 5:18-21; 1 Pet. 5:4.