I.　God's intention in His economy is to dispense Christ with all His riches into His believers chosen by God for the constitution and building up of the Body of Christ, the church, to consummate the New Jerusalem for the full expression of the processed Triune God—Eph. 3:8-10; cf. Jer. 2:13.

II.　Because the church has become degraded through the many centuries of its history, it needs to be restored according to God's original intention and standard as revealed in the Scriptures—cf. 2 Kings 22:8; Ezra 1:3-11; Neh. 2:11, 17; Rev. 18:4.

III.　The word recovery means the restoration or return to a normal condition after a damage or a loss has been incurred:

A.　After Satan's destruction, God came in to redo the things that He had done before; this redoing is His recovery, which is to bring back whatever has been lost and destroyed by God's enemy, Satan—1 John 3:8b.

B.　In Matthew 19:8 we see the principle of recovery: "from the beginning it has not been so":

1.　Recovery means to go back to the beginning; we need to go back to the beginning, receiving the Lord's grace to go back to God's original intention, to what God ordained in the beginning.

2.　The word recovery means that something was there originally and then was damaged or lost; thus, there is a need to bring that thing back to its original state and to its normal condition—Dan. 1:1-2; Ezra 1:3-11; 6:3-5.

C.　The words recovery and economy refer to one thing as seen from two different viewpoints—1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 1:10; 3:9:

1.　With God, it is a matter of economy; with us, it is a matter of recovery.

2.　God's economy was unveiled through the apostles, but because the believers lost the proper understanding of God's economy, there is the need for it to be recovered—vv. 3-5; Acts 2:42.

3.　We in the Lord's recovery must have a clear vision of God's economy and then be governed, controlled, and directed by this vision, for we are here to carry out God's economy in His recovery—26:19; Prov. 29:18a.

IV.　Satan's strategy is versus the Lord's recovery—Isa. 14:12-15; Ezek. 28:12-19; John 14:30; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 6:10-11:

A.　The first category of Satan's activity is to produce many substitutes for Christ:

1.　In Colossae human philosophy was brought in as a substitute for Christ— Col. 2:8; 1:12.

2.　Hebrews reveals that Satan utilized Judaism to replace Christ—8:6; 9:23; 10:5-10.

3.　Galatians reveals that the Judaizers were making the law a substitute for Christ—3:1-3, 24; 1:15-16a; 2:20; 4:19.

4.　In Corinth the gifts, signs, and wisdom were used by the enemy to replace Christ—1 Cor. 1:22-23; 12:31.

5.　Anything that replaces Christ or occupies the position of Christ is an idol that becomes a burden to the worshipper—Isa. 46:1; 1 John 5:21.

B.　The second category of Satan's work is to divide the Body of Christ; the sects, denominations, and divisions in the Body wipe out the corporate expression of Christ—1 Cor. 1:10-13a; Gal. 5:19-20.

C.　The third category of Satan's work is to kill the function of all the members of Christ's Body by the clergy-laity system; we need to have the Lord's hate for the works of the Nicolaitans—Rev. 2:6; 1:5b-6; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9.

V.　The Lord's recovery is the recovery of Christ as our center, reality, life, and everything—Col. 1:18b; Rev. 2:4, 7, 17; 3:20:

A.　Christ is preeminent:

1.　In the Triune Godhead—Phil. 2:9; John 15:26; Col. 1:18b-19; 2:9.

2.　In God's old creation—1:15b; Heb. 2:14a.

3.　In God's new creation—Col. 1:18; 1 Cor. 15:20; Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:20-23.

4.　In God's exaltation—Acts 2:33a; Eph. 1:22b; Phil. 2:9b.

B.　Christ is the governing principle of all genuine wisdom and knowledge, the reality of all genuine teaching, and the only measure of all concepts acceptable to God; Christ is our everything—Col. 2:8.

C.　Christ is everything to the believers:

1.　He is the God-allotted portion to the saints—1:12; 1 Cor. 1:2.

2.　He is our life—Col. 3:4a; Gal. 2:20a; Phil. 1:20-21a; Gal. 4:19; Col. 2:19b.

3.　He is the hope of glory—1:27.

4.　He is our necessities and our enjoyment—John 8:12; 6:51, 57b; 1 Cor. 10:4; John 20:22; Gal. 3:27; John 15:7a; Col. 2:16-17; Matt. 11:28.

D.　Christ is the divine provision:

1.　He is God's power to us—1 Cor. 1:24a.

2.　He is wisdom to us from God as our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption—vv. 24b, 30.

E.　Christ is everything to the church:

1.　He is the Head of the Body—Col. 1:18a.

2.　He is the Body of the Head—1 Cor. 12:12.

3.　He is the foundation—3:11.

4.　He is the cornerstone—Eph. 2:20.

5.　He is all the members of the new man—Col. 3:10-11.

F.　Christ is every part of God's New Testament economy in His full ministry of three stages (incarnation, inclusion, and intensification); the Lord's recovery is God becoming the flesh, the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit, and the lifegiving Spirit becoming the sevenfold intensified Spirit to build up the church that becomes the Body of Christ and that consummates the New Jerusalem— Ezek. 1:15; Col. 1:17; John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 4:5; 5:6.

VI.　The Lord's recovery is the recovery of the oneness of the Body of Christ— John 17:11b, 21; Eph. 4:3-4a; Rev. 1:11:

A.　The oneness of the Lord's aspiration and prayer is the oneness of the Body, which is the enlarged oneness of the Divine Trinity—John 17:11b, 21; Eph. 4:4; Rom. 12:4-5:

1.　This oneness is in the Father's name by His divine life—John 17:2, 6, 11.

2.　This oneness is in the Triune God through sanctification by the holy word—vv. 14-21.

3.　This oneness is in the divine glory for the expression of the Triune God— vv. 22-24.

B.　The oneness of the Lord's aspiration became the oneness in actuality, the oneness of the Spirit—Eph. 4:3.

C.　The practice of this oneness is the one accord—Matt. 18:19; Eph. 4:1-4; Acts 1:14; Phil. 1:27; 2:2; 4:2; 1 Cor. 1:10.

D.　The practice of this oneness is on the unique ground of the locality in which a local church is established and exists—Acts 8:1; 13:1; Rev. 1:11; Acts 14:23; cf. Titus 1:5.

E.　The one accord is the master key to every blessing in the New Testament— Acts 1:14; Psa. 133.

VII.　The Lord's recovery is the recovery of the function of all the members of the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:15-16; 1 Cor. 14:4b, 26, 31:

A.　The gifts, the gifted persons, perfect the saints to do what they do for the organic building up of the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:11-16; Acts 20:20, 31:

1.　The gifted persons perfect the saints by nourishing them with the life supply for their growth in life—6:4; Eph. 4:15-16; 1 Cor. 3:2, 6; 1 Pet. 2:2.

2.　The gifted persons perfect the saints in the priesthood of the gospel for the carrying out of God's eternal economy—vv. 5, 9; Rev. 1:6; Rom. 15:16; 12:1; Col. 1:28-29.

3.　The Body is built directly by all the members of Christ functioning, each in his own measure—Eph. 4:16.

B.　The saints who are willing and ready to be perfected will be the overcomers who constitute the bride of Christ to end this age and usher in the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ—Rev. 11:15; 17:14; 19:7-9.