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Prayer: O Lord, we worship You that You have enabled us to see Your light and receive Your revelation. We gather here again to open ourselves to You, Lord. May You also open Yourself to us to speak again a word to us for this age, even a word that You have revealed in the Bible and ordained in eternity. O Lord, make us those who love You, who enjoy sitting at Your feet to listen to the word concerning Your heart’s desire. Lord, may You visit the church in Tokyo and all the churches in the whole of Japan that they may all receive grace and be brought into Your new way for the organic building up of Your organic Body. O Lord, be with us; as we speak for You, be one spirit with us. Speak in our speaking, and seal every word with Your Spirit so that we may have fresh utterance and the expression that is of You. Furthermore, resist the enemy for us and destroy the power of darkness. May Your blessing and grace be upon all the saints. Amen.
I am burdened concerning the God-ordained way revealed in the Bible. I believe that after the three preceding chapters, we have gained considerable understanding concerning the way to worship God as revealed in the Bible and have recognized that this way greatly differs from the practice that we see in Christianity and from the way that we have had in the past among us. The difference lies in the fact that the God-ordained way is altogether organic, and since it is organic, everything is a matter of the Spirit. Perhaps someone may ask, “What does it mean to be organic?” A podium is made by putting together several pieces of wood. It is organized, not organic, because it is lifeless. However, the church, the Body of Christ of which the Scriptures speak, is not organized but organic. This organic Body of Christ is signified by our human body. Our human body is constituted with many members, and everything in this body is a matter of life; everything is organic, not mechanical. When we speak, not only does our mouth speak, but in actuality our entire being is speaking. Our hands, feet, face, and even our hair all help together. If we were robots, our mouth would move when its switch was turned on, but none of our other parts would be involved. However, when we speak, we are organic; regardless of how we speak, our entire body participates in the speaking because an organic element is present in our body. This element is the circulation of our blood. The life of our body lies in the blood; wherever the flow of blood goes, there is the organic function. On the contrary, wherever the flow of blood is stopped, the organic function is lost. People suffer a stroke or become paralyzed when there is a blockage of the blood flow. The better the circulation of blood is in our body, the healthier our body will be. Hence, our body needs a great deal of exercise to improve its blood circulation.
We are living, organic beings, not only because of the blood circulation in our body but also because of the transmission of oxygen in our blood. If we do not take any food for eight days or drink any water for three days, we may still live, but if we stop breathing for just a few minutes, we will die. Hence, oxygen is more important to us than water and food. If there is a sufficient amount of oxygen, the blood circulation will be normal, and the entire body will feel refreshed. Likewise, as the saved ones, we all have the essence of the Body of Christ, and that essence is the life of God. We have two lives: the human life and the divine life. Because we have the human life, we know the things in the human kingdom, and because we have the divine life, we know the things in God’s kingdom. This is our organic essence. If all day long we neither call on the Lord nor pray, we become miserable because the organic essence within us cannot operate. However, the more we call on the Lord and the more we pray, the more we feel comfortable and refreshed because the life within us is activated. Hence, we need to move in cooperation with the inner organic operation. The Holy Spirit in us is like the oxygen in our body. We must have the Holy Spirit and always be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit and the divine life are just like the oxygen and the blood circulation that refresh us and make us healthy. Therefore, all our activities in the church must come out of the life of God in us in coordination with the Holy Spirit. This is a basic principle.
The work of the New Testament priests of the gospel includes four major steps: first, preaching the gospel to save sinners; second, nourishing the newly saved ones; third, teaching and perfecting the nourished saints; and fourth, leading them to prophesy, to speak for the Lord. Each of these four steps must be organic; every step must be carried out in life and through our being filled with the Holy Spirit. This is the way revealed in the New Testament. However, in today’s Christianity all these things are not organic and are not carried out by being filled with the Spirit. They have become practices in ordinances with fixed programs and rigid procedures. Such practices in Christianity according to programs and schedules may sometimes be of life and occasionally be filled with the Spirit, because those who are doing these things are living. Nevertheless, in principle all the activities in Christianity depend on organizational arrangement, not on life and the Spirit. However, in the Lord’s recovery the gospel work we do as priests of the gospel should come out of the organic essence and should be filled with the Holy Spirit.
In order to have the organic practice of the new way, we should have a great deal of exercise. If we desire to go out week by week to preach the gospel, we first need to decide on a time and ask someone to coordinate with us; then when the time comes, we go out together. Doing this, however, does not mean that we are organic. Preaching the gospel is a good thing, but a good thing is not necessarily organic or filled with the Spirit. As gospel preachers, we need to pick up the burden to pray every day for our gospel contacts whose names we have listed. In our prayers, as we are moved and led by the Lord, we know to which one we should go that we may lead him to salvation. Then we should make an appointment with him and specifically pray for him, even with fasting. Meanwhile, we should find someone with whom to coordinate and pray. Then when the time comes, we are living, organic, and full of the Spirit. We do not act according to procedures or in a routine way. Instead, we go together with the same organic source and in the same move of the Spirit. When we see our contact, right away we may testify to him, saying, “The Lord is living. He is the Savior, who shed His blood on the cross for redemption. Anyone who repents and confesses his sins will receive forgiveness. Moreover, today the Lord as the life-giving Spirit desires to enter into anyone who believes and calls on Him that He may be his life and his everything. Therefore, you should open yourself and call on the Lord’s name to take Him in, just like you breathe fresh air.” As we lead him in this way to receive the Lord and be baptized, he is saved and becomes a person who has the divine life and the Holy Spirit. This is the organic gospel preaching.
If our gospel preaching is organic, full of the Spirit and full of life, people will be saved organically and will be full of the Spirit and full of life. After this we have to nourish the saved ones; this is also organic. This is not to do things merely in the proper order; rather, it is to do everything in an organic way, being full of the Spirit and full of life. From the time we lead someone to baptism, instead of forgetting him, we should pray for him every day. We should love him and cherish him as an infant to whom we have given birth. Every time we contact him, we should be in the Spirit so that he senses that he has received the life supply. We should also instruct him to pray with his spirit and enjoy the Lord’s word. Not only so, we should bring him to the small group meetings, according to the organic operation of the Body of Christ, so that he can see how the saints are living and organic when they meet together.
Before leaving home, everyone who attends these meetings should begin to sing and pray. Spontaneously, we all go to the meeting singing and praying. The Christian meeting is based on prayer and singing and is constituted with the word of God and the Spirit of God as its elements. This way of going to the meeting with singing and prayer is organic, full of life and the Spirit. In such an organic small group meeting no one comes to attend a worship service, and no one comes to lead the meeting. Everyone who comes is living and full of organic function. Hence, such a meeting does not have any fixed program or procedure; we simply follow the organic operation and act according to the Holy Spirit. There is no rigid speaking according to a prior decision. Everything is not carried out in a proper order according to prescription and arrangement with programs and procedures; this is to have a worship service in the way of the denominations. Our condition in the past was like this to some extent. Such practices are a departure from the Bible and do not correspond to God’s New Testament economy. According to the Bible, Christian meetings are not mechanical but living, not organized but organic, full of the Spirit and full of life. Only this can enable people to be supplied, enlightened, and, even the more, perfected.
Last, we must reach the point where every saint prophesies and speaks for the Lord. This step is not only absent in Christianity, but also, regretfully, it is lacking among us. It is something very great and high, which requires the saints to enter deeply into the truth and know the Bible well and, at the same time, to have the experience of the Lord and growth in life. To be rich in truth and to be rich in life are the basic factors. Furthermore, the saints should live a life in which they contact the Lord day by day, fellowship with the Lord moment by moment, confess their sins thoroughly, and are always filled with the Spirit. They are ready at any time to receive inspiration from God. When they open their mouth, they have the word of truth with the experience of life to speak forth the Lord and to speak the Lord into others. Their speaking is organic and of the Spirit, not mechanical or merely from their memory.
To be a Christian is very simple. It only requires us to be saved and regenerated and to receive spiritual nourishment, teaching, and perfecting. In this way we are sanctified and transformed by the renewing of our mind. Every day we need to be soaked with the Lord’s word and to experience the Lord. Then whenever we are inspired and open our mouth, what we speak is the word of truth with the experience of life, full of light, revelation, and supply, speaking forth the Lord and speaking Him into people so that the seekers may be satisfied, the Lord’s lovers may be supplied, and everyone who hears the word may be edified. As a result all the brothers and sisters are built up together to be the organic Body of Christ. This is truly to reach the peak.
This is what is revealed in 1 Corinthians 14. However, it is not easy to arrive at such a point. This peak is high and the way is steep; therefore, very few are willing to spend their energy to pursue it. Christianity simply puts this matter aside, and 1 Corinthians 14 has become a chapter buried and sealed up in the Bible. However, we believe that today, in the last days of this age, it is the right time for the Lord to recover 1 Corinthians 14 among us. For this reason we have to endeavor, labor, and struggle. After we are saved and sanctified, we grow and are transformed so that we present ourselves to the Lord as living sacrifices. Then we need to go on and be perfected; we need to have mutual teaching and mutual building up with the brothers and sisters in the small group meetings. Furthermore, we need to read the word every day, penetrate the word, pray to the Lord every moment, and experience Him. We also should be those who love the Lord and fellowship with Him and who constantly have His appearing and inspiration. Thus, spontaneously, when we come to the meetings, we can right away, at the right opportunity, open our mouth to prophesy, to speak for the Lord, that the church may be built up.
If we are organic and are full of the Spirit and full of life in preaching the gospel, nourishing the new ones, attending the small group meetings, and prophesying for the Lord, surely our gospel will be very effective, the number of the believers will multiply, and the churches will spread and be built up. A large city such as Tokyo may be likened to a huge fishpond in that there are people everywhere who are all candidates for the gospel. It is not difficult to gain people for the Lord. Moreover, according to God’s sovereign arrangement, we still have many relatives, friends, colleagues, schoolmates, and neighbors, who are all the objects of our gospel preaching. What we need is to be organic by being according to the Spirit and being a living Christian, not being complacent or slothful but turning from the old way back to the Bible and carrying out every step according to the God-revealed and God-ordained way. Thus, we will receive the Lord’s grace and blessing. We will grow in life, be perfected, and arrive at the stage of maturity that we may speak for the Lord.
Every one of us can arrive at such a condition. In Philippians 3:13-14 Paul says, “One thing I do: Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I pursue toward the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called me upward.” This is to begin with being saved, growing, being perfected, and then arriving at prophesying. If we are blessed to arrive at such a condition, even the outsiders, the unbelievers, will be saved and blessed, and the church will be built up.
This is the conclusion of what we have received in the last four or five years after reconsidering our ways before the Lord according to the Bible, by studying church history, and by comparing the statistics of numerous denominations. This is also the life that we should live, the work that we should do, and the way that we should take as God’s New Testament priests of the gospel. For this reason I am convinced that among us the Lord will first recover the New Testament priesthood of the gospel. Second, He will recover the organic essence of the Body of Christ so that every member is living, full of the Spirit, and full of life. Third, He will recover Ephesians 4 so that all the gifted ones may perfect the saints to do the work of the ministry, and fourth, He will recover 1 Corinthians 14 so that all the saints may arrive at a state in which they all speak for the Lord as prophets. I believe that the Lord will work this out for the accomplishment of His purpose. On the human side we may have looseness and shortcomings, which merely delay the Lord’s time. Furthermore, to the Lord a thousand years are like one day. However, He will eventually accomplish what He is after; He will work it out sooner or later.
We all should have much faith and maintain a heart of endurance, being hopeful in the Lord and hopeful concerning His new way. In the last days of this age the Lord will fully recover these four things among us — the New Testament priesthood of the gospel, the organic function of the believers, the perfecting in Ephesians 4, and the prophesying in 1 Corinthians 14. We need to be positive but not anxious. We all have our old background and old upbringing, which are not easy to discard and replace with something new. Therefore, we should not be too hasty to have a success but should rather proceed slowly with a right heart and endurance. At the same time those who have already entered into the new way should not despise those who have not yet entered, and neither should those who have not yet entered oppose those who have entered. We all should love one another, bear one another, and wait for one another. Do not forget that whichever way we are in, we are all those who believe in the Lord, who love Him, and who are for Him. However, it makes a difference which way we take. If we take the right way, the results will be great; if we take the wrong way, the results will be small, and this will be a frustration to the Lord. Therefore, as much as we can, we should turn to the proper way.
We must endeavor to go on with the Lord. The Lord knows our problems and our circumstances. He can be our supply and strength and day after day bring us to the right way. We also should consider one another and pray for one another, without criticizing, despising, or opposing, but only loving, exhorting, and supporting one another. We all should endeavor together to do our best. May every saint enter into the God-ordained way, may everyone be a priest of the gospel, may everyone preach the gospel to save sinners, may everyone nourish others, may everyone perfect others, and may everyone prophesy and help others to prophesy for releasing the riches of Christ that all may be supplied and the church may be built up.
