I.　In order to see life and to know the Lord's recovery in life, we need to be unveiled—2 Cor. 3:14-17:

A.　For centuries the human mind has been in captivity to religious and natural concepts; for this reason, we may read the Bible without seeing what it reveals—v. 15; John 5:39-40.

B.　Many in the local churches are still natural in their understanding of spiritual things; they remain under the veil of natural concepts—2 Cor. 3:14.

C.　From experience we know that there are different kinds of veils—v. 15:

1.　Believers are veiled by religious concepts, and everyone is veiled by certain natural concepts or ideas—Matt. 11:25.

2.　Veils are often related to the kind of people we are by our natural constitution— 1 Cor. 2:14.

3.　We may be veiled by our racial and national character; the various national characters, dispositions, habits, and customs are veils that keep us from seeing the vision concerning life—Phil. 3:3-6.

4.　Everyone has four layers of veils: the natural makeup with its ethical element, culture, religion, and the ethics acquired through teaching and training—Rom. 7:21-23; Phil. 3:3-6.

D.　Instead of assuming that we do not have any veils, we need to look to the Lord and pray, "Lord, take away anything that is covering me. O Lord, remove my veils!"

II.　Organized Christianity has deviated from the central line of life; the degradation in Christianity is a deviation from life—Eph. 4:18; Rev. 3:1.

III.　We need to know the Lord's recovery in life—John 1:4; 1 John 1:1-2:

A.　Our eyes must be opened to see that the Lord's recovery is a recovery back to life—John 1:1, 4; 14:6; 1 John 1:1-2.

B.　The purpose of the Lord's recovery is to bring us back to God Himself as our life—Eph. 4:18; Rom. 5:10; 8:2, 10-11.

C.　The Lord's recovery is absolutely a matter of life—a recovery to bring us back to the Triune God in order to possess, experience, and enjoy Him as life— 2 Cor. 13:14.

D.　In order to have an adequate vision of the Lord's recovery, we need to know the recovery in the Triune God—1 John 1:1-2; 2:25; 5:11-13.

IV.　To know the Lord's recovery in life is to know the Triune God as life in our experience—John 1:4, 14, 16-17; 10:10; 11:25; 14:6:

A.　Life is the Triune God, for the Father is in the Son, and the Son became the Spirit to be our life—1:14; 20:22; 1 Cor. 15:45b:

1.　Life is the Triune God Himself coming into us so that we may experience Him, enjoy Him, be one with Him, and express Him—Rom. 8:2, 10-11.

2.　Life is a person—the Triune God, who in Christ has passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension and has come into us as the life-giving Spirit to be our life and to mingle with us— 1 Cor. 15:3-4, 45b; 6:17.

3.　Life is the Triune God Himself—the God who created the universe, was incarnated, lived on the earth in humanity for thirty-three and a half years, died on the cross, passed through death and Hades, entered into resurrection, ascended to the heavens as a man, and became the life-giving Spirit to enter into us as our life—John 1:14, 29; 12:24; 14:9-10, 17-18, 20.

B.　Our standard must be God Himself, who is our life—1:1, 4; 11:25; 14:6:

1.　If we know God in all the items from creation to our glorification, then we know what life is—1 John 1:1-2; 5:13.

2.　God ordained that His chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people should live this life—the processed God, who is real, practical, available, and even one with us—John 6:57; 7:37-39; Col. 3:4.

C.　Regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification are the work of life within us, and this life is the processed Triune God, who became the life-giving Spirit to dwell in our spirit and to be one with us—Rom. 6:19; 8:16, 29-30; 12:2.

D.　Christ is the processed Triune God, who is dwelling within us as our life and mingling Himself with us to sanctify, renew, transform, conform, and eventually glorify us—John 1:1, 14; 14:9-10, 17-18; Col. 3:4.

E.　Life is a wonderful person who is both God and man, who passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and who is now the indwelling Spirit; this is what we mean by life, and we need to see a vision of this profound reality—2:9; 3:4; 1:9.

V.　If we see the vision of the churches as the golden lampstands—the embodiment and expression of the Triune God—we will truly know what life is—Rev. 1:12, 20; 2:1:

A.　The churches can be golden, having God's nature, because His life is being worked into the believers through regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification; apart from this process, there is no way for the church to be a golden lampstand—John 3:6; Rom. 8:11.

B.　The church is the Triune God's reproduction, not in the Godhead as a deity to be worshipped but in life, nature, and expression—Eph. 4:4-6; Rev. 1:12, 20.

C.　Life is not only something in our experiences, such as the law of life, the sense of life, and the fellowship of life, but primarily the Triune God dispensing Himself into us and making us one in Him to be the golden lampstands— 2 Cor. 13:14; Rev. 1:4-6, 12, 20.

VI.　The Christian life has the individual aspect and the corporate aspect; the individual aspect is for the corporate aspect—John 3:3, 5-6; 17:22-23:

A.　Outside the church life, people can be regenerated to receive the divine life, but without the church life, they will not have the abundance of life—1:12-13; 3:3, 5-6, 15-16.

B.　We experience life individually, but because our individual experience is for the corporate aspect, we must be in the practical church life in order to have the abundance of life—10:10.

VII.　We need to pray that the Lord will show us a clear vision of life so that we may know the Lord's recovery in life—Col. 1:9; Eph. 1:17:

A.　If we see the revelation in the Bible concerning life, we will know what the Lord's recovery is; we will know that the recovery is not a matter of any kind of activity, movement, or practice, because these things are not the Triune God Himself as life—Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11.

B.　If we see life in a practical way, we will be able to discern life and not be misled if some try to lead the church in a wrong direction—Col. 3:4.

C.　If we have the vision of the Lord's recovery in life, no matter what happens, we will be kept in the recovery without any change, distraction, or deviation— Prov. 29:18a; Acts 26:19.