In the Lord’s recovery during the past five hundred years the church’s knowledge of the Lord and His truth has been continually progressing. This monumental and classical work by Brother Witness Lee builds upon and is a further development of all that the Lord has revealed to His church in the past centuries. It is filled with the revelation concerning the processed Triune God, the living Christ, the life-giving Spirit, the experience of life, and the definition and practice of the church. In this set Brother Lee has kept three basic principles that should rule and govern every believer in their interpretation, development, and expounding of the truths contained in the Scriptures. The first principle is that of the Triune God dispensing Himself into His chosen and redeemed people; the second principle is that we should interpret, develop, and expound the truths contained in the Bible with Christ for the church; and the third governing principle is Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church. No other study or exposition of the New Testament conveys the life nourishment or ushers the reader into the divine revelation of God’s holy Word according to His New Testament economy as this one does.

In the Lord’s recovery during the past five hundred years the church’s knowledge of the Lord and His truth has been continually progressing. This monumental and classical work by Brother Witness Lee builds upon and is a further development of all that the Lord has revealed to His church in the past centuries. It is filled with the revelation concerning the processed Triune God, the living Christ, the life-giving Spirit, the experience of life, and the definition and practice of the church. In this set Brother Lee has kept three basic principles that should rule and govern every believer in their interpretation, development, and expounding of the truths contained in the Scriptures. The first principle is that of the Triune God dispensing Himself into His chosen and redeemed people; the second principle is that we should interpret, develop, and expound the truths contained in the Bible with Christ for the church; and the third governing principle is Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church. No other study or exposition of the New Testament conveys the life nourishment or ushers the reader into the divine revelation of God’s holy Word according to His New Testament economy as this one does.

In Life-study of James, Witness Lee emphasizes two key points related to the Epistle of James—first, that the believers must progress in practical Christian perfection, and second, that the believers must be careful not to cultivate such perfection without a clear vision concerning the law and grace of God in God's New Testament economy. In Life-study of First Peter, he describes the Christian life under the government of God with its high demand, and in Life-study of Second Peter, he details the divine provision that supplies the believers with all that they need to meet that high demand.

This book is intended as an aid to believers in developing a daily time of morning revival with the Lord in His word. At the same time, it provides a limited review of the International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones held in Águas de Lindóia, Brazil on October 1-3, 2015. The general subject of the training was “The Crucial Points of the Major Items of the Lord’s Recovery Today.” Through intimate contact with the Lord in His word, the believers can be constituted with life and truth and thereby equipped to prophesy in the meetings of the church unto the building up of the Body of Christ.

The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1991-1992, volume 1, contains messages given by Brother Witness Lee from January 3 through December 17, 1991. In 1991 and 1992 Brother Lee spoke one hundred sixty-two messages that were published in the Life-study of Job, Life-study of the Psalms, Life-study of Isaiah, Life-study of Jeremiah, Life-study of Lamentations, Life-study of Daniel, Life-study of Hosea, Life-study of Joel, Life-study of Amos, Life-study of Obadiah, Life-study of Jonah, Life-study of Micah, Life-study of Nahum, Life-study of Habakkuk, Life-study of Zephaniah, Life-study of Haggai, Life-study of Zechariah, and Life-study of Malachi. These messages are not included in The Collected Works of Witness Lee. From January through August 1991, Brother Lee was in Anaheim, California. During that period he visited Los Angeles and Alhambra, California, in April. At the end of August he traveled to Berkeley, California. In early September he returned to Anaheim and remained there until the end of November. During that time he visited Huntington Beach, California. At the end of November Brother Lee traveled to Reston, Virginia, for the Thanksgiving weekend conference. In early December he returned to Anaheim and remained there until the end of the year. The contents of this volume are divided into ten sections, as follows: 1. Two messages given in Anaheim, California, on January 3 and 4. These messages were previously published in a book entitled The God-ordained Way and the Eldership. They are included in The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1989, volume 4, as chapters 9 and 10 of Elders' Training, Book 10: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (2). Therefore, they are not printed in this volume. 2. Seven messages given to the full-time trainees in Anaheim, California, on February 4 through December 17. These messages are included in this volume under the title Fellowship to the Full-time Trainees in Anaheim. 3. Thirty-one messages given in Anaheim, California, on February 17 through December 15. One message was spoken in Chinese. These messages are included in this volume under the title Various Meetings in Anaheim. 4. Thirteen messages given in Anaheim, California, on February 23 through July 7. These messages were previously published in a book entitled Elders' Training, Book 11: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (3) and are included in this volume under the same title. Chapters 12 and 13 were also published in a small book entitled Further Consideration of the Eldership, the Region of Work, and the Care for the Body of Christ. 5. A message given in Los Angeles, California, on April 7. This message is included in this volume under the title A Capturing Vision of the Lord's Recovery in Three Aspects. 6. Four messages given in Anaheim, California, on May 25 through 27. These messages were previously published in a book entitled The World Situation and the Direction of the Lord's Move and are included in this volume under the same title. 7. A message given in Anaheim, California, on June 30. This message is included in this volume under the title Fellowship on the Lord's Move to Spread the Gospel of the Kingdom to Europe. 8. Two messages given in Anaheim, California, on July 6 and 7. These messages were previously published in a book entitled Further Consideration of the Eldership, the Region of Work, and the Care for the Body of Christ. They are included in this volume as chapters 12 and 13 in the section entitled Elders' Training, Book 11: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (3). Therefore, they are not included in this volume as a separate section. 9. Twenty-eight messages given in Anaheim, California, on August 27 through December 17. These messages were previously published in a book entitled The Central Line of the Divine Revelation and are included in this volume under the same title. 10. Two messages given in Berkeley, California, on August 30 and September 2. These messages are included in this volume under the title Laboring Organically to Practice the God-ordained Way.

This issue of The Ministry contains a complete record of the eight messages given during the International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones in Anaheim, California, held March 30--April 1, 2007. The general subject of the training was "Shepherding the Church of God as a Slave of God," which comes from Acts 20:28, where Paul charges the elders to "shepherd the church of God, which He obtained through His own blood." This is also our charge. Paul says that God purchased the church with His own blood and that we need to shepherd the church of God. In verse 19 Paul said that he served "the Lord as a slave with all humility and tears and trials." This is the pattern that we should follow. We need to shepherd the church of God as a slave of God, serving the Lord with all humility in all trials and even with tears so that we could be dispensing stewards of the grace of God for the building up of the Body. We also include a report concerning the 2007 European Young People's Conference held in Male Ciche, Poland.

This book is intended as an aid to believers in developinga daily time of morning revival with the Lord in His word. At the same time, it provides a limited review of the semi-annual training held June 29—July 4, 2020, on the “Crystallization-study of Jeremiah and Lamentations.” Through intimate contact with the Lord in His word, the believers can be constituted with life and truth and thereby equipped to prophesy in the meetings of the church unto the building up of the Body of Christ.