I.　The churches in the Lord's recovery need the ministry of life—1 John 5:14-17; 2 Cor. 3:6; 4:1, 12:

A.　Ministry is based on constitution; we need to be constituted with what Christ is, with what He has done, with what He has attained, and with what He has obtained—Eph. 3:8, 17:

1.　The ministry is brought forth as a result of being constituted with the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit; Christ, with all that He is, has, and has attained, must be constituted into our being; this is the only way to have a ministry.

2.　The new covenant ministry is not only a matter of life; it is a constitution in life and of life—2 Cor. 4:12.

3.　The Spirit, who is the ultimate expression of the processed Triune God, imparts the divine life, even God Himself, into the apostles and all the other believers, making them ministers of a new covenant, the covenant of life; hence, their ministry is one constituted with the Triune God of life by His life-giving Spirit—3:6; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:2, 11.

4.　The ministry of the new covenant is of the Spirit who gives life, because the new covenant brings in God's righteousness unto life—5:17, 21.

B.　The ministers of the new covenant experience God as the God of resurrection and minister Him to others as the God of resurrection—2 Cor. 1:8-10.

C.　The ministry of the apostle John, the ministry with which the Bible concludes, was a mending ministry of life—Matt. 4:21; John 1:4; 10:10; 11:25; 20:31.

II.　We who have eternal life and experience and enjoy eternal life may min-ister this life to other members of the Body—1 John 1:2; 5:14-17:

A.　To minister life is to impart life; when we have a surplus of life, we can minister from this supply to others—v. 16.

B.　In 1 John 5:16 he shall ask and he will give life refer to the same person, that is, to the one who sees his brother sinning and asks concerning him:

1.　Such an asker, who is abiding in the Lord and who is one with the Lord, becomes the means, the channel, by which God's life-giving Spirit can give life to the one for whom he is asking; this is the ministering of life in the fellowship of the divine life—1 Cor. 6:17; 1 John 1:3, 7.

2.　To be one who can give, impart, life to others, we must abide in the divine life and live, walk, and have our being in the divine life—John 15:4-5, 7; 1John1:1-7.

3.　We need to experience and enjoy the eternal life within us, and we need to minister this life by being a channel through which eternal life can flow to other members of the Body—5:16.

III.　In the ministry of life we need to be one with the Lord to encourage the saints to experience and enjoy God as the fountain of living waters, taking Him as their unique source—Jer. 2:13; Rev. 7:17:

A.　God's intention in His economy is to be the fountain, the source, of living waters to satisfy His chosen people for their enjoyment—Jer. 2:13; Psa. 36:8-9:

1.　God wants us to take Him as the fountain of living waters, the unique source of our living—Rom. 11:36:

a.　God does not want His chosen and redeemed people to take anything other than Himself as the source—1 Cor. 8:6; Jer. 2:13.

b.　We should take God as our source to be one with Him and to receive whatever issues from Him—Rom. 11:36.

2.　God's aim in His economy is to have a group of human beings who have His life and nature inwardly and His image and likeness outwardly; this group of people is a corporate entity, the Body of Christ, to be one with Him and live Him for His corporate expression—Gen. 1:26; Eph. 1:10; 3:9; 4:16.

3.　God's goal in being the fountain of living waters is to produce the church as HisincreasetobeHis fullnessfor Hisexpression; thisisthe heart'sdesire, the good pleasure, of God in His economy—1:5, 9, 22-23:

a.　God needs to be the fountain of living waters to His elect because He has an economy, and His economy is to produce a counterpart, a bride, for Himself—John 3:29a; 4:14; Rev. 19:7-8.

b.　God's purpose in wanting to be the fountain of living waters for His elect to drink is that He would be increased and enlarged—Jer. 2:13.

c.　God's economy is to dispense Himself as the living water to produce His increase, His enlargement, for His expression—Col. 2:19.

d.　Our drinking of God as the fountain of living waters is for the church as His increase; our drinking is for the producing of His enlargement, His fullness, for His expression—John 4:14; 3:29a; 1 Cor. 12:12-13.

e.　Nothing apart from God as the fountain of living waters can quench our thirst and satisfy us; nothing apart from God dispensed into our being can make us His increase for His expression—Rev. 22:1, 17.

4.　God's desire is to be everything to His chosen people so that they may trust in Him and rely on Him for everything; if they do this, they will receive God's dispensing—Jer. 17:7-8.

5.　The only way to take God as the fountain of living waters is to drink Him; by drinking Him, we take into us the living water that issues from God as the fountain of living waters—John 4:14; 7:37; Jer. 2:13.

B.　The Triune God has been processed and consummated in order to dispense Himself into our tripartite being—John 7:37-39; Rom. 8:11:

1.　God's economy is to dispense Himself into our being so that our being can be constituted with His being; this can be accomplished only by God putting Himself into us as the divine life—vv. 2, 6, 10-11.

2.　By dispensing Himself into us as life, God is accomplishing His economy, that He may have a corporate expression of Himself for eternity—Rev. 21:9-10; 22:1.

C.　We need to drink of God as the fountain of living waters so that He may increase for the fulfillment of His economy to have His expression through His counter-part—Jer. 2:13; 1 Cor. 12:13; John 4:14:

1.　When we drink of God as the fountain of living waters, He becomes one with us, and we become one with Him—Psa. 36:8-9.

2.　Themorewedrink of God, themoreHeisone with us andthe more we are one with Him and constituted with Him in His life and nature to be His corporate expression, His counterpart, for the fulfillment of the desire of His heart and the consummation of His eternal economy—John 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4; Eph. 1:5, 9; 5:27.