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Date:Friday evening, February 17, 1950Place:Jordan Road, Kowloon, Hong KongSpeakers:Watchman Nee, Witness Lee
Watchman Nee: The Lord's intention concerning the church is one that is according to "the pattern on the mountain." A church must find out what the pattern on the mountain is. It must take God's standard as its standard before it will realize how wrong it has been. What is the condition of the church that we are trying to match? Only as our eyes are drawn to the glorious church ordained by the Lord in the Scripture will we realize our shortage and lack.
The basic reason for the failure of the church is that it cannot meet its own need of begetting and nourishing the new ones. Changes in membership of a church should not come solely as a result of movement of saints to and from other localities. When a church is strong, the number of brothers and sisters moving out of the church is small. When a church is weak, the number of brothers and sisters moving out of the church is great. A businessman pays much attention to the influx and outflow of economic forces such as capital. A church also should pay much attention to the influx and outflow of its members. A church may have three to four hundred brothers and sisters, but it may be very short in care and shepherding. In a year's time, many new ones are added, but many old ones leave also. This is a drain on the church life. For this reason, a church must not only be good at preaching the gospel and gaining new ones, but must give itself to edifying the believers. The first responsibility of the church is to save men. The second responsibility is to perfect and nourish men. If a church saves a hundred people in a few months, yet loses a hundred at the same time, it is a total failure. This is the reason I say that a church's failure lies in its inability to keep the children it has begotten.
If a church is strong, it will be in full control of everything; it can dictate at will the number of sinners it saves. In order for the church to be strong, it has to work according to the pattern on the mountain, a pattern which the Lord revealed. If it does not work according to the Lord's pattern, it will be very hard to bring in men. But if the church works according to the Lord's pattern, it can tell itself to increase by five hundred, and it will increase by five hundred. Or it can tell itself to increase by a thousand, and it will increase by a thousand. If we take the Lord's way, it will not be a surprise to save three or five hundred people. It will not be a surprise to even save three or five thousand people. Some of our brothers call the Lord "the Son of Revival." Whether or not He is the Son of Revival depends on whether we work according to the law which He has revealed to us through the Holy Spirit. Those who know the law according to which the Lord works agree with my word. If the church knows the law of the Spirit and works according to this law in preaching the gospel, it will experience no obstacles in its saving work. Once the church rises to the standard, men are saved and revival comes.
Some of us have been very much affected by Western missionaries and by the mission societies behind these missionaries. We think that God's way is through mission societies or foreign boards. But the Bible says nothing about mission societies and foreign boards. God only raises up churches. Mission societies, on the other hand, are raised up by men, in particular, by such men as A. J. Gordon. These men promote mission societies and foreign boards; they organize evangelistic institutions. Mission societies, foreign boards, and evangelistic institutions all look to a few men to spread the gospel. But God has only one way in the Bible; He only chooses one kind of people to preach the gospel — all the believers (Matt. 28:19). Everyone God has saved is a Christian, and every brother and sister He has given to the church has to be equally absolute in rejecting lust, sin, and the world. They must be equally given to preaching the gospel. God has not chosen a special class of people in the church to forsake everything for the gospel, while leaving the rest to do as they please. The church must not have two different classes of people, one being absolute in consecration while the other loves the world. There can only be one class of people in the church — those who are absolute in consecration. This is the way of revival that God is taking today. If the church is built up this way, the gates of Hades surely will not prevail against the church, and sinners surely will not be able to withstand it.
Our experience during the past few years has proven this. The result of the church preaching the gospel has been a multiple increase. In Taipei alone, the number has increased thirtyfold since last year. The rate of increase is measured by the number of folds, not by percentages. When the whole church rises up to serve, God's grace is more than we can hold. From north to south and from east to west, all the brothers and sisters have voluntarily offered up everything. We are not here to say that some should hand themselves over and others should not. We have no intention of drawing a line and dividing the saints into two classes of Christians. May the Lord find no hindrance in us, and may He find a way through the sinners. May the Lord not be hindered by worldly elements in the church, just as He is not hindered by sin in the sinners.
Today two kinds of work face the church — the work of begetting and the work of continual growth. In other words, it has to gain sinners on the one hand and edify the saints on the other hand.
Handing ourselves over does not merely mean handing over our possessions, but handing our very person over. The purpose of handing our possessions over is merely to allow the Lord to have a free way through us. If the Lord gives us a thousand people this year, will we be able to help these thousand pray, read the Bible, and break bread together? Unless we serve together as the Body, there is no way we can meet the need. Perhaps we have a shabby prayer meeting or a sloppy bread-breaking meeting. Those who should open their mouths do not, while those who should not open their mouths do. Everyone is unbridled in speaking. If this is the condition among us, how can we serve together? We must find the proper way to serve before we can integrate the new ones. This is the reason we must not only hand over our possessions, but our whole being for the service. This is the only way for God to have a way among us, and this is the only way for God to have a way among the sinners.
Let me illustrate. The church is like a big bakery. It "digests" raw flour and produces baked bread. The church must have enough capacity to "digest" a large amount of flour and roll it out again in the form of bread. The church must be able to absorb as many people as are added to it. It cannot solicit temporary help at the last minute. There are twice as many bakeries in Shanghai as in Hong Kong; this is the only way to meet the needs of the population. In the same way, the church must train and perfect enough people to serve to meet its need.
The church must not bring men to salvation only to lose them later. If it loses them, that is, if it saves a few one month and loses a few in the next few months, the total number will never increase, and the church will never be strong. In the church in Taipei, Brother Chang Yu-lan said that he is training the brothers and sisters until they can absorb everyone; if five thousand come, they will absorb five thousand. If fifty thousand come, they will absorb fifty thousand.
Perhaps some have joined our meetings for a few months but still do not know anything. We have not contacted them. I hope that after this fellowship we will make arrangements to take care of them immediately.
Fifteen or sixteen years ago, I gave a message in Shanghai on being anxious for nothing. I used an illustration of the roofers passing tiles from one person to another. Perhaps I can change the application of that illustration a little. Suppose a worker carries twenty tiles to the site. He passes these tiles one by one to a person halfway between the ground and the roof. The man on the roof then receives the tiles one by one from the one in the middle. The one in the middle has the ability to take as many as the one on the bottom passes to him. If the one at the bottom gives him five tiles, he can take all five because he passes them all on. If the one in the middle does not pass the tiles that he has received or if the one on top does not receive the tiles from the one in the middle, the middle one will be overburdened by the tiles. If the Lord has not started anything, we will not sense the urgency of the need to train the new ones. But as soon as the Lord starts something, and the church continues to gain some new ones, we will realize the urgent need to train these ones. As soon as new believers join the church, we have to train them and perfect them. We have to tell them what to do. Perhaps a person has joined us this month. In three or four months he needs to turn around and take care of the next group of new ones. In this way the church will care for new ones in an orderly way wave after wave. Those who are saved in January will take care of those who are saved in February. The Lord will bless the church; the church will grow, and it will also be able to absorb the result of its growth. This is the reason I have to shout, "The whole church has to hand itself over. It cannot delay!" Our possessions are only one among many things that we have to hand over. We do not make too much of material offering. Hopefully, you will not make too much of it either. Our hope is that everyone will hand himself over to be perfected and edified so that the whole Body can rise up to serve.
In the past, men conducted warfare on a one-on-one basis. It was guerrilla warfare. Today it is different. Warfare is a matter of total mobilization and joint operations. Paratroopers fight by dropping from the sky one by one, but they do not fight in an isolated way. Their thrust is part of a joint operation. Many times I have felt that the Western missionaries were engaged in guerrilla warfare when they went to inland China. Sometimes a couple would work in a place for thirty or forty years without gaining more than three or four people. They worked hard, and they were tireless. I admire them for their mind to suffer, but we cannot preach the gospel this way. It is not enough. Today in China we need migrations that move like paratroopers. We should use the seaports as centers to train our brothers, then send them group by group into the interior west of China. I believe when we respond to God's move this way, the gospelization of all of China will not be a problem.
The brothers and sisters who want to migrate must have special vocational skills. The church has to make arrangements in practical affairs related to the migration. All the brothers and sisters must first be trained. They must be trained in vocational skills, and they must be trained in preaching the gospel. An elephant in a circus may be clumsy at first, but after some training, it can dance and perform.
We hope that the brothers and sisters will practice coordination in their occupation as well. We hope that all their occupations will be for the gospel. They should coordinate together in their business so that they can make more money for migration and the spreading of the gospel. Students who are studying at school should also coordinate together. I hope that they will learn some lessons now for the gospel's sake so that in the future they can support themselves in a migration. Some of the applicants for migration to Yi-Yang have good educations and high spiritual capacities, but we cannot use them. However, we can use concrete workers. If we have good education but cannot support ourselves, we will present a problem to the migration. A concrete worker can support himself; therefore, he is useful to the migration.
In order to prepare ourselves for migration, we have to do a few things. First, brothers and sisters who have a burden to migrate for the spread of the gospel must have a practical skill. We may think that such training is very troublesome, but we have to remember the Lord's word that it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). We have to learn to be those who give. We have to learn to work with our own hands, not only to support ourselves but to support others as well. Second, the brothers and sisters must learn to do things properly. If we can do things properly here in Hong Kong, we can do things properly in Chungking. We have to be trained by the church in the way we handle things. We have to learn the secret of preaching the gospel effectively and leading men to salvation effectively. Third, we in the church have to learn to know the Bible. Through the brothers' and sisters' handing themselves over, we have turned the whole church into a school or a clinic; we will give practical training on how to diagnose people. I hope those who have heard this word before will become more and more clear of our way. This is the only way for the gospel to go out.
From now on, all trainings, including trainings in the gospel, business affairs, and the study of the Bible, are under the leadership of Brother Witness. We cannot live a leisurely and lazy life any longer. Unless some are unable to catch up physically, we want everyone to be on the alert, to busy himself, to gird up, and to catch up. May the church in Hong Kong be like the army of God, a church that moves in military steps (cf. Num. 1—2). May the Lord be gracious to us.
Witness Lee: For almost half a year, I have stayed in Taiwan. Ninety percent of the brothers and sisters who were saved during the past half year had never heard the gospel before and had never touched Christianity. Presently, twelve hundred people have been saved. But one problem with these newly saved ones is that they still do not know the ground and the way of service.
In Kaoshiung there are over three hundred brothers and sisters. Last year only a few dozen were breaking bread there. There are no so-called workers in Kaoshiung; every brother and sister has a job. They are all quite busy. But the number of saved ones swarms in like a flood because everyone puts in his portion and is trained. In gospel meetings during the past Chinese New Year, over six hundred people received the Lord and left their names. All the brothers and sisters are young.
How long has the church been on the earth? Almost two thousand years. Has it passed through many places? We can say it has reached almost the entire world. How many people has it touched? Millions. After having been on earth for so long, passing through so many places and touching so many people, do you not think that the church has changed from its original state? In buying things, we want to buy them factory-made in an unaltered state. Do you realize that the church today is something that has been altered from its original state? If you buy a garment, do you want one that is unaltered or one that has been altered? Everyone wants an unaltered one. Unless we have the thought that the church has not been altered, we all should want to go back to the church in its original state. During the past two thousand years, the church has degraded. The church that we see today is no longer the same as the church at the beginning. Today our ground is the ground of recovery; we cannot be ignorant of this fact. The more questions we ask, the better. No matter from what angle we view Christianity, can we say that it is the same as the original church? We must remember that we do not save men to bring them into Christianity. If we only bring them to Christianity, there is a problem with our work. Hence, we should have as many questions as possible. Once we ask questions, we will take the way of God's recovery.
Since 1940, or perhaps 1939, the high point of God's recovery work in the church has been the raising up of the whole Body in His service. Not only do we see this truth in the Bible, but we also have this sense in our spirit. The entire assembly hands itself over to be trained and then to be sent out group by group in migration. This will afford God the opportunity to take a quick way among us. For five or six years, I was under the trial of illness as well as under pressure in the environment and opposition from men. All of these taught me precious lessons in life. According to the sense I received in my spirit during my time of fellowshipping with the Lord, I was clear that I have to train the saints to know coordination outwardly and to be perfected in life inwardly. Locally we have to preach the gospel, and extra-locally we have to move through migration. These are very crucial principles.
We know the general principles above, but where do we start? We have to start with the small things. We can consider two angles. A church in a locality has to satisfy the inner demand of its own brothers and sisters internally, and it must also satisfy the need of outsiders externally. If we cannot meet the inner need of the brothers and sisters, we have a problem. Every brother and sister should be able to touch a supply when they come into the church life. If the church cannot supply them, something is wrong. We may not have anything wrong outwardly, but as long as we cannot satisfy the inner needs of the brothers and sisters, something is wrong with us. In every generation God bestows grace differently. What we see, taste, and hear today are things that men of former generations have never seen, tasted, or heard. For this we have to worship God with grateful tears. He has been too gracious to us. He has shown us these things. He has chosen to reveal these to us among all the people for the purpose of encouraging us to go to Him to take His way. The inner urge of the brothers and sisters is a sure sign that God is taking the way of recovery quickly. It is precious that they have this feeling. Presently, we see this happening in Tsingtao, Chefoo, Peking, and Shanghai.
For this very reason, I was forced to look to the Lord, because I realized that all of us are not fully captured by Him yet. Individually, we have not allowed God to get through in us completely. So many brothers and sisters in the church have this demand and urge within them, yet we cannot meet their need. I feel that we have to bear the responsibility of this entire matter before the Lord. Unless we take up this matter seriously, universal service and migration will be nothing but theories.
If one individual among all the brothers and sisters will not answer God's call and go forward, God cannot go on with the whole, and He cannot get through in the church. In this age God is taking the quick way, the way of recovery. The least He can ask of the church is for the entire Body to rise up, migrate, and spread the gospel. Whether or not God can get through depends on us. God's servant has released His speaking and His light, and the brothers and sisters have sensed this inner urge and need within them. But nothing will happen without our cooperation. Hence, the first thing that we have to do is hand ourselves over. Our very person as well as our possessions have to be offered up to answer God's call.
Handing over is not something that just involves material offerings; it does not refer just to money. It refers to our very person. If every brother and sister hands himself or herself over and coordinates together as a Body, there will be no problem with our training. I was not too clear about this matter of coordination and training back in 1940-43. Today I see this clearly; we need coordination in everything and in every aspect. We need training in everything and in every area. Last night when I arrived, I sat at the back. I realized that there must be coordination not only in the preaching of the gospel and in consecration, but even in the choice of our occupation. To hand ourselves over means that we hand ourselves and our possessions over to meet God's demand on the one hand and that we give ourselves to the church, accept the arrangement of the church, and give ourselves to coordination and training on the other hand.
In the past it seems that we put too much so-called "trust" in the Holy Spirit and not enough trust in the church. In the past we always said that we would leave it to the Holy Spirit to do the work. Today we are not telling the saints to no longer trust in the leading of the Spirit; rather, we are telling the saints to trust in the leading of the Body. During the past ten or more years, we have witnessed so many questionable so-called leadings of the Spirit. Today it is more sure to give ourselves to the Body and to receive the leading of the Body.
Once we hand ourselves over, we will realize that we need training in everything and in every aspect. We need training even in the way we conduct our prayer meeting. In the beginning we may come together to pray, but in the end, we may find ourselves criticizing each other. One may say that someone is too wordy. Another may say that the first one is too much in the mind. Still a third may say that others are not addressing God in the right way, etc. Once we hand ourselves over, the self has to go. No one whose self is intact can coordinate and serve in the church life. If the self remains, it is hard to have the whole Body rise up to serve. We all have to learn to take the breaking which the Lord applies to the self through the church. Many of us have been seeking and struggling to break the self for many years but have not been successful. The self is still not broken. Once we place ourselves in the church and take the dealings from the Body, we will get through easily; the self will go away effortlessly. We will not only be properly equipped in function, but we will be practically perfected in our spiritual life. We should never recoil from offering or giving ourselves to the training through fear of making mistakes. If we make a mistake it will only be a mistake in our behavior; in our spirit we will still be perfected. I hope we all will give ourselves to be trained, to be dealt with, and to learn the lessons.
