I.　The function of the church is to be the testimony of Christ, expressing Christ and testifying of Christ as the testimony of God—1 Tim. 3:15-16a; Rev. 1:2, 5, 9:

A.　The meaning of being a testimony is to speak forth God, declare God, and express God—John 1:1, 18; Heb. 1:1-2a.

B.　The law as the word of God is the testimony of God, God's expression, God's portrait, as a revelation of Himself to His people—Exo. 34:28:

1.　The law is called the Testimony, and the tablets of the law are called the tablets of the Testimony—25:16, 21; 40:20; 31:18.

2.　Because the law, God's testimony, was placed in the Ark, the Ark was called the Ark of the Testimony, and because the Ark was in the tabernacle, the tabernacle was called the Tabernacle of the Testimony—25:22; 26:33-34; 38:21; Num. 1:50, 53.

3.　The law is a testimony of God in that it reveals the attributes of God and explains the kind of God He is—Exo. 34:28.

4.　The law places requirements on man according to the standard of what God is—20:2-17.

5.　Only God Himself is able to satisfy the requirements of the law, which are for man to have the divine attributes and be the same as God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead—Lev. 11:44; 1 Pet. 1:15-16.

6.　Man is able to spontaneously fulfill the requirements of the law if he touches God, receives God, and is infused with God so that all God's divine attributes become his human virtues—Rom. 8:4.

C.　The entire Bible is the testimony of God—Psa. 119:1-2, 9, 11; 2 Tim. 3:16-17:

1.　As the testimony of Christ, the Bible is the testimony of God—John 5:39-40; Luke 24:27, 44-45.

2.　As the word of God, the Bible reveals what God is and therefore is the testimony of God—Matt. 22:29.

3.　When we read the Bible, we need to contact God, touch God, meet God, and be infused with God as the reality and substance of the Bible—John 6:63.

D.　Christ is the testimony of God—Rev. 1:5; 3:14:

1.　As the reality of the law of God and the living word of God, Christ is the testimony of God, the Witness of God, the expression of God, the living portrait of what God is—John 1:1, 18; Rev. 19:13.

2.　In order for man to contact God, touch God, and reach God, he must do it through Christ and in Christ; man is not able to know God outside of Christ— John 14:6-11; Col. 2:9.

E.　The Holy Spirit is the testimony of Christ:

1.　The Holy Spirit as the transfiguration of Christ (through His death, resurrection, ascension, and descension) declares all the things of Christ to men and glorifies Christ as the testimony of Christ—John 16:5-7; 14:16-18; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17.

2.　In order for man to touch Christ and know Christ, he must be in the Holy Spirit; man is not able to know Christ apart from the Holy Spirit—1 Cor. 12:3b; John 16:13-15.

F.　The church is the testimony of Christ—Rev. 1:9; 12:17; 19:10:

1.　The church is the Body of Christ, the embodiment of Christ, and therefore the testimony of Christ—1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 4:12-13.

2.　The church testifies concerning Christ, and the testimony of the church is to live Christ—John 15:26-27; Acts 1:8; Rev. 1:2, 9; Phil. 1:19-21a.

II.　To be constituted with the truth is to be constituted with Christ as the testimony of God and the living word of God so that we may become the testimony of Christ for the fulfillment of the economy of God—John 14:6a; 17:17; Rev. 1:9; 1 Tim. 3:15-16a:

A.　The law is a type of Christ as God's Word and God's testimony, God's expression; when we let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, we become the testimony of Christ for His expression—John 1:1, 18; Rev. 19:13; Col. 3:16:

1.　Christ Himself is God's real and living law, the Word of God, the breath of God, and the expression of God—2 Tim. 3:16-17.

2.　By pray-reading the Word, we breathe God's element into us, being infused with what God is to cause us to live Christ and become the living expres- sion of God—Eph. 6:17-18; John 17:17.

3.　Through our daily reading of the divine Word, the word of God works within us, and the Spirit, through the word, spontaneously dispenses God's nature with His element into our being, causing us to be constituted with God— 6:63.

B.　To be constituted with the truth of the living word of God is to be transfused with the thought of God, with the considerations of God, and with all that God is, making us God's reproduction to be God's testimony—Neh. 8:1; 13:30a:

1.　We need to be constituted with the truth of the living word of God so that we can be instructed, governed, ruled, and controlled by the word of God to live under the government of God and in the economy of God—Deut. 17:18-20; 2 Pet. 1:12, 19-21; 2 Cor. 10:5; 2 John 2, 4; cf. Heb. 1:2-3.

2.　Once the truth gets into us through our understanding, it remains in our memory, and then we retain the truth in our memory, causing us to have an accumulation of the truth—Col. 3:16; cf. Rom. 8:6; Eph. 4:23.

3.　After the truth gets into our memory, it becomes a constant and long-term source of nourishment—Psa. 119:15-16, 48-49.

4.　All the saints in the Lord's recovery should be trained in the divine reve- lation of the truths in the Holy Scriptures—2 Tim. 2:2, 15:

a.　Nearly all the crucial revelations in the Bible have been covered in the ministry of Brother Nee and Brother Lee; we should pay our atten- tion to these pure and healthy things and not waste our time collecting "poisonous gourds"—2 Kings 4:38-41.

b.　The Life-studies and the Recovery Version open up the Bible, release the riches of the Bible, and bring us under the governing and controlling vision of the economy of God for the building up of the church as the house of God—Neh. 8:8, 13; 1 Tim. 1:3-4; Acts 26:18-19.