Concerning God's "Recovery" Movement ...

In particular, we feel God's burden is about the restoration of Christ's divine life to the local expression of His Body. In this sense, our church emphasizes the Lord’s recovery – the recovery of the true life and ways of Christ as imparted by the Holy Spirit. This recovery is a process, always standing in contrast to the dead and formal traditions of the past.

A basic definition of what we mean by recovery is necessary for an accurate understanding of our passionate testimony. The word "recover" means, “to obtain again something that has been lost or misplaced”. It means to return something to a normal, healthy condition. "Recovery" also means the restoration or return to a normal condition after a damage or a loss has been incurred. To say that God is recovering certain matters to His church means that in the course of church history many spiritual things have been lost, misused, or corrupted. What we have left today after this loss is something void of God’s life, power and glory. Without God's intervention and our faithfulness these things can not be recovered.

What we believe God is doing -- and the reason for the passion that motivates our church -- is that He is restoring these lost and damaged matters to their original state or condition.

Because the church has become degraded through the many centuries of its history, it needs to be restored according to God's original intentions. Concerning the church, our vision is governed not by the present situation nor by traditional practice, but by God's original intention and by His unchanging standard as revealed in His Word. We regard the New Testament revelation of the church not merely as a historical antecedent, but as the norm for church practice in the present day.

We do not claim any great merit to ourselves in this matter of recovery. We are but one of many churches that in one way or another has caught this passion from the Lord’s heart. The Lord’s “Recovery” is something that has been going on for many, many years. Since the time of the Reformation, the Lord has been recovering important truths and revelations to the body of Christ so that we may walk in fuller and fuller revelation of the Lord’s fullness. It is in this historical trend that we firmly place ourselves in, in order to be an instrument in returning the church to God’s glorious designs.

In His recovery in our generation the Lord is doing two essential things. He is recovering the experience of the riches of Christ – that is, the enjoyment of Christ as our life and our everything – and He is recovering the practice of the church life. These two matters are close to His heart. Both go hand in hand and really should not be separated from one another. The practice of true church life should lead to and enhance the grace of enjoying all the multifaceted riches of Christ. Likewise, the enjoyment of Christ in one’s personal experience should enhance the contribution of life to the whole church and result in effective ministry and love being demonstrated in practical ways.

These two things are the passion of our desire for the Lord. We want to see His people come to a fuller enjoyment of all His riches and we want to see the church return to New Testament practices that are loving, life-giving and truthful.

As those with passionate hearts for the Lord's recovery today, we join in the testimony that Christ is indeed unsearchably rich and glorious! We testify that He alone has everything to satisfy the needs of the human heart. Furthermore, we testify that the Lord has called us for the purpose of mending the practice of the church life according to the revelation of the pure Word of God.

Jesus said...
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." -- John 15:5

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