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In this chapter we will continue to consider the vision of the Lord’s recovery. We need to know the Lord’s recovery in life and truth. These two items are inexhaustible topics in the Bible. Life is the Triune God, for the Father is in the Son, and the Son became the Spirit to be our life. The truth is the content of the Bible. Therefore, in order to have an adequate vision of the Lord’s recovery, we have to know the recovery in the Triune God and through the Bible.
Many Christian workers have not seen life; they carry out their particular works without a realization of life. When they preach the gospel, they do not emphasize life. When they teach the Bible, they teach only doctrines and do not seek to minister life to others through their teaching. In the past in China there was a large publishing group in which several denominations participated to release Christian literature in Chinese. Of the many books they published, I did not read or hear of one that ministered life to the readers. Instead, they conveyed only Bible stories, doctrines, and Christian culture. Few Christians in the denominations know or minister life. When I was young, my family met with the Southern Baptists, who are fundamental and have sound teachings, but I never heard anything of life there. All that I heard was like husks and chaff, but there was no grain, no life. They have the term life, and they quote verses that mention life, such as John 10:10 and 14:6. However, they define life in these verses merely as everlasting blessing. In all my years among them I never heard that Christ can be life to us in our daily living or that Christ is the life-giving Spirit.
Although in the local churches we have seen something concerning life, there have been periods in our history when we deviated from life. We forgot what we were doing for a time and missed the mark. Sometimes even the so-called release of the spirit has not been on the line of life — it was not the genuine release of the spirit. The real content of some apparently high meetings was not life but entertainment. It is possible for us to be misled concerning life, because life is deep, abstract, and mysterious. As a result, some are distracted from life by tongue-speaking, shouting, or other outward activities. We may also be misled from the line of life by eloquence or scriptural knowledge. These activities and natural abilities may be compared to physical images of Jesus, which some claim lead their viewers to remember the real Lord but which are actually deceiving idols. Attractive activities and abilities are idols in the eyes of God when we mistake them for life.
Life is mysterious and difficult to define and share with others, but our eyes must be opened to see that the Lord’s recovery is a recovery back to life. The degradation of Christianity is a deviation from life. Even a deviation to doctrines concerning life is still a deviation from life. There are few messages on life in Christian denominations today. Because some base their speaking on the Word of God, the Spirit is able to work on some of the listeners, but few speakers have the intention to minister life. This shows that Christianity has deviated from the central lane of life. It is easy to be attracted by a powerful evangelist, an eloquent teacher, or one who performs miracles. However, natural charisma, knowledge, eloquence, and miracles are not life and do not minister life.
The Bible establishes the principle that the degradation of Christianity, which began from the last part of the first century, is a deviation from life. The last ministry in the Bible is John’s mending ministry, which uniquely brings the believers back to life. Yet many who read the Gospel of John, the Epistles of John, and Revelation do not realize that the purpose of these writings is to bring us back to life. The deviation of Christianity from life has continued from the New Testament time down to the present.
Brother Watchman Nee was a pattern of one who never deviated from life in spite of many seemingly positive attractions. There were several contemporary Christian workers in China who apparently had good works and great followings. I witnessed that Brother Nee was not moved even a bit to seek such outward success but was absolutely in life and for life. I also saw that some Christian workers came the way of the Lord’s recovery but did not stay long because they were not for life but were for a successful work, movement, or career. Even many believers who remained in the local churches did not know life. They stayed because they felt that the local churches were the best place to hear good doctrines from the Bible. Thirty years ago in mainland China, I heard many say this. They came to the meetings and were genuine and moral Christians who cared for proper doctrines, but they lacked life.
We need to ask ourselves what we are doing in the local churches. Are we doing an ordinary Christian work? Is our goal merely to have the best doctrines? We need to see that the purpose of the Lord’s recovery is to bring us back to God Himself as our life. I have no interest in anything but life. I have studied the Bible daily for more than fifty years, but I have no interest in mere scriptural knowledge, because it is like chaff. Life is God Himself — the God who created the universe, was incarnated, lived on the earth in humanity for thirty-three and a half years, died on the cross, passed through death and Hades, entered into resurrection, ascended to the heavens as a man, and became the life-giving Spirit to enter into us as our life. Therefore, life implies a great deal. God ordained that His chosen, called, saved, and regenerated people should live this life — the processed God, who is real, practical, available, and even one with us.
I am not proud that the Lord has revealed these things to us. Instead, my heart aches for the pitiful situation of millions of Christians today who do not know life. Many even reject, despise, criticize, and try to damage the Lord’s recovery. If our vision is clear, we will not be bothered by such ones but will pity them because they do not know life. We should similarly pity those who have gone out from among us. However, we mainly need to consider our own situation and whether we truly know life. In the past many in the local churches deviated from life. Even if we truly care only for life, we must be careful not to give others even the impression that we care more for anything else, such as increasing the number of believers in our meetings or the number of local churches. Life grows on its own; the growth of life is not our doing. I believe that the Lord sovereignly allowed the recent turmoil in the churches in order to give us a negative background that will help us to see what life is. From now on we must have a definite vision concerning life.
We need to pray that the Lord would cause us to see life. Although we may have heard many messages concerning life, it is possible that we may have never seen life. As genuine believers, we have life, but if we have seen life in a practical way, we will be able to discern life and not be misled if some try to lead the church in a wrong direction. No man’s speaking alone can give us a vision or cause us to see life. Our seeing of life depends entirely on the Lord, but we need to have a seeking heart. We must not be content with the situation in Christianity or with our own situation. Our standard must be God Himself, who is our life. If we know God in all the items from creation to our glorification, we know what life is.
If we know life, we will be able to discern that some so-called holiness and power are not life. Brother Nee told me that when he was young, he would often go to hear famous preachers who visited the big cities in China to hold revival meetings. Afterward, he would go to see Miss M. E. Barber, an older sister who gave him much spiritual help, and would tell her how good the speaking was. Miss Barber went with him on several occasions to hear these preachers. Brother Nee often appreciated the power, eloquence, and knowledge of the speakers. However, Miss Barber pointed out to him that these things are not life but natural human ability. Brother Nee was eventually helped to see that things such as eloquence, ability, and charisma are not life. Miss Barber could discern life because she knew life. We need a vision in order to similarly know life.
The elders should not try to learn methods for establishing, organizing, and pastoring a local church. These kinds of subjects are taught in seminary courses. We do not need any such techniques. Instead, we need to see a vision concerning what life is. To know the Lord’s recovery in life is to know God as our life in experience. We should be able to tell others how we definitely experienced the Lord as our life.
Life is not miracles. The Lord did not trust those who believed because of miracles. John 2:23-24 says, “When He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed into His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus Himself did not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all men.” John is a book of life. Whoever cares for miracles does not know life. John 2 ends with this word about the Lord’s not entrusting Himself to those who believed because of miraculous signs, and chapter 3 begins with the word but, indicating that what follows is different. Verse 1 says, “But there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.” Nicodemus came to the Lord not to see miracles but to seek something deeper. Therefore, in chapter 3 the Lord opened Himself to this seeking one regarding regeneration, which is altogether a matter of life (vv. 3, 5). The Gospel of John is the unique Gospel of life. Miracles are what God can do with His power, but life is God Himself coming into us so that we may live, experience, enjoy, and be one with Him.
Seeing such a vision concerning life will make us different. This is what we need. In past turmoils many saints in the local churches were deceived because their vision concerning life was inadequate. If a man does not know what real gold looks like, he can be cheated by someone selling a lesser substitute. If we have a proper and definite vision, a clear view, concerning life, no one will be able to deceive us. For this reason we all need to pray definite prayers asking the Lord to show us a clear vision of life. Along with such prayer we need to study particular verses and books in the Bible. Reading certain ministry books concerning life can also help us. However, studying alone is not adequate to see life — we must have the prayer.
The truth is the content of the Bible. In between doctrine and light is the truth. According to the human mentality, the Bible appears to be a book of many doctrines concerning matters such as God, man’s fall, and salvation. Anyone who is literate can read the Bible and learn such doctrines. The truth is the reality conveyed in the doctrines. It is possible to know the doctrines but not have the truth, the reality. When I was a youth, I heard the pastor of my family’s denomination preach that Jesus is the Savior who died for all men. I heard this doctrine, but I did not receive the truth. Before I was saved, I could even teach the doctrines concerning Christ and salvation. My mother had been baptized in our denomination, but she was not saved. Nevertheless, she taught her children many Bible stories, and she told us that Jesus was the Savior who died on the cross. That was only a story and a doctrine to us. We did not realize the truth.
When we realize the truth, we have the reality. Christ becomes living to us, and His death becomes real to us as an event that took place specifically for the forgiveness of our sins. We receive the reality that is conveyed in the doctrines. Such reality can be revealed to us and realized by us only through the Spirit. For this reason, if two speakers give more or less the same message, one may preach only doctrine, but the other ministers the reality, because the power of the Holy Spirit is in his preaching. The power of the Holy Spirit makes preached doctrines real to the listeners — it gives them the reality, the fact. Truth is the reality conveyed in the doctrines and realized through the Spirit. The Bible has many doctrines, but few readers of the Bible receive the truth. Anyone can read the term the church in the Bible, but few have seen or touched the reality of the church. When the Spirit operates, the church becomes no longer only a doctrine but a truth, a reality, to us.
If we have truth, we have light, for truth is the shining of light, just as grace is the expression of love. In the Gospel of John we see grace and reality, which is truth. John 1:17 says, “Grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” Grace and reality in the Gospel of John become love and light in 1 John. First John 4:8 says, “God is love.” First John 1:5 says, “God is light.” Love is the source of grace, and grace is the expression of love. In the same principle, light is the source of truth, and truth is the shining of light. If we know only doctrine and lack the truth, we do not have light. Once doctrine becomes truth to us, light shines within us, and we have light. To know the Lord’s recovery in truth implies both doctrine and light, for the doctrines in the Bible convey truth, and truth is the shining of God as the divine light.
Truth is the shining of light, and the divine light is life (John 1:4). This brings us back to life. We may know that life is the Triune God, but we still need the truth, the shining of the Triune God in many aspects, in order to have the riches of life. The shining of the divine light in its many aspects is the riches of life.
We first must have the doctrines in order to have the truth. Thus, Christian workers and the fundamental denominations that lack life are still helpful if they preach correct doctrines, for eventually those doctrines may become the truth. Without the doctrine, the truth cannot come. Many missionaries who went to China taught only doctrines, but without their work many Chinese would have never heard that Jesus is the Savior who died on the cross for sinners. Eventually, some of the Chinese who heard this doctrine realized and received the truth that Jesus was their Savior. Through the doctrines we see the truths. Doctrine becoming truth in us is the shining of light, and the light is life.
Concerning the proper ground of the church, we first must know the doctrine. Then, perhaps through our prayer and hunger for the truth, the Lord will enlighten us, giving us the shining of light. Through the Lord’s enlightening, the doctrine of the ground of the church becomes truth, a shining within us. This shining joins us to the light, and the light becomes life. Thus, even the ground of the church is an aspect of the riches of life. To see the light, the truth, of the ground of the church makes us different in life. One who truly sees the ground of the church is different from one who remains in the church yet does not know or see anything concerning the truth of the ground of the church.
We need to know the Lord’s recovery both in life and in truth, which means in the Triune God and in the Bible. For this reason, we need to study the Bible daily, because from the Bible we first receive the doctrines. Through God’s enlightening, the doctrines become truth and the shining of the divine light in us. Then we are joined to the light, and the light becomes life to us. This is what we need.
All the riches of life are in the truth. Every truth is an aspect of the riches of life. In our experience it is first a doctrine; then it becomes a truth, which joins us to the light, and that particular aspect of the light becomes life to us in one of life’s rich aspects. This is difficult to explain and analyze, but our experience confirms it. When we read the Bible, we first get doctrine, then the truth, then light, and finally life. This is the procedure. We cannot have life first. We first learn the doctrine by reading, then we see the truth, then the light shines, then light becomes life, and we receive the riches of life. Often during one time in the Word, we experience all four — doctrine, truth, light, and life. However, it takes a long time to realize some truths. After knowing a doctrine for several years, in one particular time of prayer with the Lord it may become real to us as truth and the shining of light, bringing us the riches of life.
We must know the Lord’s recovery in life and truth. Those who are truly in the Lord’s recovery know God in a living way and know the Bible in the way of light. We have to pray for this to be our experience. The Lord’s recovery is not an activity, movement, or ordinary Christian work but a matter of life and truth in light. We are truly in the Lord’s recovery if we know God and the Bible, have life and truth, and are full of light. Christians who are not genuinely seeking the Lord will not understand what we are doing and teaching in the Lord’s recovery. They may be offended and criticize us. We cannot avoid this, but there are always a few like Nicodemus, who are sincere, hungry, and seeking after the Lord’s heart. The Lord reveals Himself to such ones, and they become part of His recovery.
