Search
Scripture Reading: Prov. 4:18; 2 Cor. 4:16; Rom. 8:4; Col. 1:29; 2 Cor. 5:10
In the previous chapters we have seen clearly that God’s desire in the New Testament is that every saved one be a priest of the gospel. First, we need to go and preach the gospel to gain sinners that they may be regenerated so that we may offer them to God as sacrifices. After this we need to pick up the burden to go to their homes regularly to nourish and cherish them that they may receive the life supply and grow in the spiritual life until they can present themselves to God as living sacrifices. Then we need to continue to carry out in them the work of teaching and perfecting. This requires us to bring them to the small group meetings to have contact and fellowship with the saints that they may open themselves up to the saints to receive mutual care and supply. In such a small group meeting everyone has the equal opportunity and right to open his mouth to speak, to ask questions, and to answer questions. Everyone also can teach others and be taught by others. The questions asked are mainly of two categories: one category concerns the divine truths in the Bible, and the other category concerns our Christian pursuit and growth in life. It is best to have such a small group meeting once a week. For fifty-two weeks in a year, all should come together weekly to fellowship, minister, ask questions, answer questions, teach, and learn. In this way we can gradually enter into the knowledge of the truth and the growth in life. As a result, we will be perfected to do the same work that the gifted ones do, with all of us carrying out our respective functions for the building up of the Body of Christ.
In the stage of perfecting, we need to help others to exercise and learn to speak for the Lord, that is, to prophesy. This is not to gossip or speak ordinary words. Instead, this is to speak concerning Christ and to minister Christ, to speak forth God’s eternal purpose, plan, and economy, and to speak forth the proper spiritual living and the spiritual experiences, which we who belong to the Lord should have. This is to prophesy according to the biblical revelation in coordination with our own experience of life and in conjunction with the instant inspiration that we receive. Hence, this kind of prophesying is organic and in the Spirit, not mechanical or according to doctrines and reasonings in letters. Such organic prophesying and spiritual speaking spontaneously minister Christ to others and release the light of truth so that people may receive enlightenment and life supply. This is not limited to two or three people, but all attendants have the equal opportunity and the same right to speak. Hence, prophesying is everyone speaking and everyone listening; it is mutual speaking and mutual listening.
In such a meeting for prophesying, at least over half of the attendants can speak. This does not mean that the others may not speak, but because of time not everyone may have the opportunity to speak. If someone does not have the opportunity on one occasion, he can wait for the next occasion to speak, if time allows. There may be some whose speaking is not rich or strong, but there will always be some who speak in a very rich and strong way. All the speakings are needed, whether they are deep or shallow, high or low, rich or poor. This is because a church meeting is not like a class in school. In a class all the students have the same status and are at the same level, but in a church meeting there are young ones, middle-aged ones, older ones, more advanced ones, and less advanced ones. All are blended together, and even the newly saved ones are encouraged to open their mouth to speak. Everyone presents what he has received of the Lord; in this there are true riches. Furthermore, everyone can receive much supply and edification from what is spoken, heard, taught, and learned. Then week after week the supply that we receive will be of a great variety, and the functions in which we are perfected will be extensive. When all the saints are established, the whole church can be built up. In this way the Body of Christ will be built up organically, and God’s desire will be realized, God’s purpose will be accomplished, and God’s eternal economy will be fulfilled.
The church should help the brothers and sisters in the way of visiting people to preach the gospel to save sinners, nourishing and taking care of the new believers, and teaching and perfecting them so that all can prophesy and speak for the Lord. When the church does this, sinners will be saved, believers will grow, saints will be perfected, and all will prophesy one by one. Then the church will be flourishing, and the testimony will be strong. What a rejoicing this will be to us!
I was a Christian in the old way for fifty-five years, and I preached in the old way for fifty years. In 1984 the Lord opened my eyes to see that the old way was partially scriptural and partially unscriptural. In the last four and a half years I have seen begetting, nourishing, teaching, and building in the Bible, that is, preaching the gospel, nourishing and cherishing, teaching and perfecting, and prophesying for the Lord. In addition to seeing these things, I researched them. I set up a training center in Taipei, which in actuality was a research center, where we spent much time investigating these matters one by one. A number of saints went there to be trained, but to speak honestly, they did not receive much genuine training. What they saw was merely a small amount of practice; it was not the ultimate result. Although they saw only the investigation, they considered that they had received the training, and therefore, after returning to their locality, they did exactly as they had seen, and they trained others to do the same. However, since that was not the final result of our research, they did not receive the real training. At the beginning of this time I told people that we were still in the stage of investigation, a stage that was experimental in nature, and I told them that we did not yet have the assurance about what we were doing.
However, after four and a half years of study I now have the full confidence and the boldness to tell people that we have completed our study of the four steps of the new way. Every step is according to the Bible and has been determined by studying church history, comparing what others have done, and reviewing the practice among us for the last sixty years. Hence, I have great courage and boldness to definitely say that what has been presented in the previous four chapters is absolutely according to the Scriptures; nothing is according to human opinion or ideas. We truly feel good and are happy about these things.
What shall we do now? To do anything does not depend first on the method of doing it but on what kind of person is doing it. The person is far more important than the method. Two people may be taught to do the same thing, and both may learn it. However, one person may be diligent, serious, thorough, and absolute, but the other one may be just the opposite — lazy, loose, sloppy, and careless. Even if they do the same thing in the same way, the results will be extremely different.
The church life in the Lord’s recovery today is very noble because here we are doing the work of the priests of the gospel. Apparently, every step is a work, but in reality, it is our living, which is the living of the priests of the gospel. In actuality, it is not that we are working but that we are living the Christian life. Our life consists not only of sleeping, eating, being clothed, exercising, studying, and working; there are other matters that comprise our life. First, we need to rise every morning to have a morning revival. Just as we need to wash our face in the morning, so we need to contact the Lord, and just as we need to eat breakfast, so we need to enjoy the Lord. Eating breakfast and enjoying the Lord in the morning are both equally a part of our living. Not only so, we go to work by day; that is also a part of our living. But at night we also must set aside a time to visit our relatives or friends to lead them to salvation. This is a very important part of our living. Then we must regularly go to the homes of the new ones and meet with them to nourish them with the milk of the word in the Bible and cherish them so that visit after visit they may grow in life. This is also a part of our Christian life. Furthermore, we need to bring them to the small group meetings that they may have a taste of the mutual fellowship of the saints and at the same time learn the truth of the Lord. Thus, they have some amount of learning in truth and some experiences in life, and they also know how to come near to the Lord, fellowship with the Lord, and receive inspiration from Him so that they can stand up to prophesy, to speak for the Lord, in the meetings. This is not a simple matter. Therefore, in our living we must continue to pick up the burden to teach them, perfect them, and demonstrate to them how to prophesy, to speak for the Lord. We must tell them that to prophesy is not to talk about secular matters or merely about how our sicknesses have been healed. Rather, it is to release the truth according to the Bible and testify the truth according to the experience of life. Furthermore, when they speak, they should speak according to inspiration organically, not mechanically. To be organic is to have the truths of the Bible, the matching experiences of life, and the inspiration. This is the proper prophesying, the genuine speaking for the Lord. Every week we need to set aside a little time to help others to exercise in this way. This is also a part of our living.
Strictly speaking, we do not need everyone to serve the Lord with their full time. According to the natural law in God’s creation, we cannot work continuously for twenty-four hours a day. Throughout the course of development in history, human beings have come to the conclusion that the most suitable way for our human life is to have eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, and eight hours for eating, resting, taking a walk, exercising, or engaging in other activities, which consist mostly of recreation and amusements. Without recreation or amusements it is difficult for human beings to feel pleasant, but most recreation and amusements lead people to commit sins and do evil. As Christians and as those who love the Lord, we also need to have a part of our time in our living for recreation and amusement. Our recreation, our amusement, is our church life. What a joy it is to come to the meetings to have mutual fellowship with the brothers and sisters, singing, praying, and testifying! When there is no meeting, we can go to preach the gospel to lead people to salvation, or we can visit the new ones to nourish them in their homes, bring them to the small group meetings to perfect them, and bring them to the Lord’s Day meeting, teaching them how to prophesy in the meeting. This is our most noble “amusement.”
I believe that according to God’s arrangement, every brother and sister can afford at least two nights every week either to visit people for gospel preaching, to nourish the new believers, to bring them to the small group meetings, or to help them to learn to prophesy. If we can do this every week, we will have a normal Christian life. If we live in this way, we can bring at least two people to the Lord every year and equip them to be perfected. It is best to not be overly zealous; otherwise, our work cannot be thorough. If we preach the gospel and bring two or three to salvation, we can nourish and lead them week after week. If we lose one of them, we should go to bring another one or two more to be saved and then nourish and lead them. In this way, from the beginning to the end of the year, we will always have two or three under our nourishing and perfecting. We should calmly consider these matters. What I have fellowshipped can be carried out both by those who have an occupation and by those who have a family. Furthermore, this can be done in an unhurried manner, since it does not require us to go out to do this every day but only two nights in a week. We must do this regularly, ordinarily, and according to a specified time; we should neither be overly zealous nor indifferent. This is to live the normal Christian life, which is the church life in the Lord’s recovery today.
For us to live the church life in the Lord’s recovery today, there are certain requirements. The first requirement is to be revived every morning. We need to have a revival every morning like the rising of the sun. In this way our path is the path of the righteous, which shines brighter and brighter (Prov. 4:18). The second requirement is to overcome day by day. Every day we begin with morning revival; then during the day we continue to live an overcoming life and are thereby renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16). The third requirement is to live in the Spirit moment by moment (Gal. 5:25). The fourth requirement is to walk according to the Spirit in everything, to not walk according to the flesh (Rom. 8:4), to have no murmurings and reasonings (Phil. 2:14), and to have no selfish intentions and covetousness (Gal. 5:26).
The fifth requirement for us to live the church life in the Lord’s recovery today is to be in one accord and in harmony with the saints (1 Cor. 1:10), and the sixth requirement is to not be blown by winds of teaching (Eph. 4:14). Among us the Lord’s recovery has spread to all the six major continents, and there are over one thousand churches with people of different races and kinds. It is unavoidable to have different speakings and teachings. Ever since we began to speak concerning the new way in preaching the gospel by knocking on doors to visit people, some who have dissenting opinions have considered that this is not necessarily the best way to preach the gospel. Although they may be right, we must care for the true situation. If the way of our gospel preaching cannot stir up the spirits of the saints to be priests of the gospel, activate their organic faculties for gospel preaching, or create the opportunity for every brother and sister to preach the gospel directly to others, that is not the way that God desires. Therefore, if we probe deeply into this matter, we will see that only by personally visiting people to preach the gospel can the saints exercise their function of gospel preaching. Generally speaking, this is something that cannot be accomplished by other ways of gospel preaching. For everyone to go out to visit people personally and preach the gospel directly to them is to practice the scriptural way and the most proper, normal way. We cannot say that all other speakings are wrong, but it is easy for them to become winds of teaching that toss people about so that they do not know what to follow. As a result, the saints cannot be in one accord and in harmony with one another, and the church suffers loss.
The seventh requirement for living the church life in the Lord’s recovery today is to not preach anything different from the teaching concerning God’s New Testament priesthood of the gospel (1 Tim. 1:3-4). We should not be blown about by the winds of teaching; furthermore, we should not preach or teach different opinions in the church. We have no dissension; we simply work according to God’s New Testament economy and avoid speaking about anything else.
The eighth requirement is to pray watchfully, labor diligently, and struggle earnestly to carry out every step of the duties of God’s New Testament priests of the gospel (Matt. 26:41; Rom. 12:11; Col. 1:29; 1 Cor. 15:58). For the church life in the Lord’s recovery today, we must watch and pray. It is only by this that we can be moved by the Holy Spirit and manifest our organic functions. Furthermore, we need to labor diligently, being serious and thorough, not being slack or slothful but struggling earnestly according to the power which Christ operates in us.
The ninth requirement is to await the Lord’s coming by living and working in the light of His judgment seat (Phil. 3:20; 2 Cor. 5:10). In the Lord’s recovery we need to be those awaiting the Lord’s coming. We are the heavenly citizens, not people belonging to the earth. Our commonwealth exists in the heavens, from where the Lord will come to receive us. We are waiting for His coming, and when He comes, we will receive either His reward or His punishment before His judgment seat. Therefore, today we should live and work in the light of His judgment seat, awaiting His coming. These are the requirements for us to live the church life in the Lord’s recovery today. May the Lord bless every one of us. Blessed are we if we receive this word and do accordingly.
