I.　We not only have eternal life and enjoy eternal life, but we can also minister this life to other members of the Body—1 John 5:14-17:

A.　God wants us to have life, and He wants His life to flow out of us—vv. 11-13; John 3:15; 7:37-39:

1.　When we received the Lord's life, we were joined to the fountain of life—Psa. 36:8-9; John 3:15; 4:14.

2.　The living water is not only within us, but it also has become rivers of living water, flowing out of us into others and supplying them with life and satisfying their thirst—7:37-39:

a.　God is seeking those into whom He can dispense Christ's life more and more so that they can supply others with His life—Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11.

b.　Life needs channels, and God wants us to be the channels through whichHis life can flow into others—1 John 1:1-2.

3.　The eternal life within us can overcome death both in ourselves and in other members of the church—3:14; Matt. 16:18.

B.　First John 5:16 refers to the ministering of life, to the imparting of life; when we have a surplus of life, we can minister life to others:

1.　In verse 16 he shall ask and he will give refer to a believer who is abiding in the Lord and who is one with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17), indicating that such a believer can become the means, the channel, by which God's life-giving Spirit can give life to others; this is a matter of the ministering of life in the fellowship of the divine life.

2.　In order to be those who can give, impart, life to others, we must abide in the divine life and live and have our being in the divine life—1 John 1:1-7:

a.　We need to experience and enjoy the eternal life within us, and we needto minister this life by being a channel through which eternal life canflow to other members of the Body—5:11-13, 16.

b.　If we would be a channel for eternal life to flow out to others, we must be deep in the Lord, and we must know the Lord's heart by being in His heart—Psa. 25:14; Gen. 18:17, 22-33; Amos 3:7.

II.　The building up of the church requires the ministry of life—2 Cor. 4:12:

A.　Throughout its history the church has been divided by gifts, but it cannot be divided by the ministry of life; if we pay our full attention to the ministry of life, we will always be kept in oneness—1 Cor. 12:4-11; 2 Cor. 3:6; 4:1.

B.　The ministry of life is to minister as life the Christ whom we have experienced—1:3-4:

1.　The ministry comes out by the working of the cross; it is by the way of thecross that we have the riches of Christ as life to minister to others—4:12.

2.　How much life and how much reality of the riches of Christ we can minister depends upon how much revelation we have received and how much we have suffered for what has been revealed to us—Eph. 3:8.

III.　If we would minister life, we need to know, experience, and gain God as the God of resurrection—Rom. 4:17; 2 Cor. 1:9; John 11:25:

A.　God is working through the cross to terminate us, to bring us to an end, so that we will no longer trust in ourselves but in the God of resurrection—2 Cor. 1:9.

B.　When the God of resurrection works in us, His life and nature are wrought into us—4:16.

C.　The killing of the crossresults in the manifestation of resurrection life—vv. 10-12:

1.　The putting to death of Jesus destroys the natural man, the outer man, and the flesh, with the result that the inner man is given the opportunity to develop and be renewed to live out the resurrection life—v. 16.

2.　All the work that the Lord is doing on us is to destroy our outer, natural man so that we can live out the life of Christ from within us; this is the deepest thought in the New Testament concerning the life of a Christian—John12:24-26; Phil. 1:21a.

3.　Remaining in the death of Christ and being conformed to His death is a profound principle of the Christian life—Rom. 6:4-5; Phil. 3:10:

a.　When we remain in the death of Christ, we experience the power of Christ's resurrection—vv. 10-11; Rom. 8:11; 2 Cor. 1:8-10; 4:14.

b.　The more we die with Christ in this way, the more His resurrection power will be manifested in us and the more we will be able to minister life to the Body of Christ—John 11:25.

4.　Our natural strength and ability need to be dealt with by the cross so that they may become useful in resurrection for the ministry of life—Phil. 3:3.

D.　The budding, blossoming, fruit-yielding rod signifies the resurrection life of Christ for us to minister life to the Body—Num. 17:8.

IV.　Like the apostles, we minister life by dying—2 Cor. 4:10-12; Josh. 3:17;4:10, 17:

A.　"So then death operates in us, but life in you"—2 Cor. 4:12:

1.　The work of the apostles is the work of death operating in them so that life may operate in the believers; this is the real work of the new covenant ministry—3:6; 4:10-12.

2.　In the Lord's recovery we need to die in order that life may work in others:

a.　When we are under the killing of the Lord's death, His resurrection life is imparted through us into others—vv. 10-12; Phil. 3:10.

b.　The impartation of life into others is always the issue of our suffering the killing of the cross—1 John 5:16; John 12:24-26.

c.　The Lord does not need us to accomplish a work for Him; He needs us to die—1 Cor. 15:31; 2 Cor. 1:9.

d.　If we die, life will work in others; we minister life to others by dying—4:12.

B.　"The priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel was crossing over on dry ground, until all the nation had completely crossed over the Jordan"—Josh.3:17:

1.　God put the priests in the place of death so that all Israel would have a way into the land of life; the priests were the first ones to go into the water and the last ones to come up out of the water—vv. 11-17; 4:10, 17.

2.　Before others can receive life, God must first put us in the place of death so that death may operate in us and life in others; this is to minister life by dying—2 Cor. 4:12.

3.　Today God is seeking those who are willing to stand in the place of death in order that the church may find the way of life.