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Prayer: Lord, we love Your dwelling place, which is Your Body, Your church. Thank You for gathering us together once again. May Your presence be with us in the depths of our being so that we would not become an organization but would move together with You in one accord as Your organic Body. Lord, we desire to learn to fulfill our function as members of the Body and to promote Your new way under Your love and Your grace.
Lord, thank You that You have Your testimony here in Taiwan, and thank You for entrusting this testimony to us and showing us the clear vision and the great commission. Thank You for showing us the practical way and giving us the clear leading. We want to enter into a deeper fellowship with You, to touch Your heart’s desire in a more practical way, and to be enlightened concerning the details of how we should go on. We ask that You grant us a definite leading whether in personnel arrangements or in the financial supply. Teach us how to trust in You, believe in You, look to You, and work by You with diligence. Lord, it is not of those who will or of those who strive but of Your grace and mercy. We look to You to grant mercy to Taiwan, to all the inhabitants of this island, that this land would not only be gospelized, but that everyone would be saved unto Your name and become a child of God. May You have a strong and powerful testimony at the end time before Your return, a testimony that will affect the entire earth.
Lord, fulfill Your word today. For the past two thousand years the testimony of the church has not been fully manifested. Work this out today in Taiwan. Lord, give us this burden. We look to You not only concerning ourselves but also concerning the saints in all the churches. Just as You have visited us, cared for us, touched us, and moved within us, we ask You to do the same work within all the saints so that they will have the inner registration, the inner enlightening of their eyes, to clearly see the vision and to see the vanity of this world. May they see that everything is vanity, that there is nothing new under the sun, and that everything fails and can be compared to chasing shadows and the wind. Only You are worth anything, and only You are of eternal value.
Lord, we put ourselves, including what You have given us, all men and all things, on Your altar. Gain us. May we all be full-timers. May we live for You and unto You. Every day and every moment of our days are for You. Everything, every move we make, is for You. Lord, cleanse us, and may Your church be acceptable in Your sight. In Christ Jesus and by the Holy Spirit, we want to be priests, offering every saint in the churches under our care to You as a sacrifice. Lord, may they be acceptable to You. Sanctify them, and gain them in a deep way. Do a thorough work in them, a work beyond what we can ask or think. Lord, unless Your Spirit works deep within man, our work is in vain. May we all receive this burden to pray and to call on You day and night, until we see the New Jerusalem appearing as the praise of the earth.
Lord, accomplish an unprecedented work here in Taiwan. Do something earth-shaking in this age. Show the world a living testimony that is different from Christianity, a testimony that is the living expression of Yourself. Lord, fulfill this desire, and answer our prayer. Hear our cry. We offer this as our sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savor for Your satisfaction. This is not a personal prayer; it is the cry of Your Body. Lord, may this touch Your heart, move Your heart, and move the throne so that You in turn will move the universe, move the world, move Taiwan, move every heart, and even shake every heart. Lord, we have seen the signs of Your opening the door in Taiwan. Your promise to Philadelphia is also a promise to us. Give us an open door that no man can shut. Lord, open the door of every house, and open the doors of the hearts. Lord, grant all the saints this burden, the adequate prayer, a thorough appreciation, and a strong consecration. May everyone offer himself for Your glorious move. Amen.
In this chapter we want to speak of practical steps in carrying out the new way. We mainly want to show the brothers and sisters a schedule for gospelizing Taiwan in five years and some definite plans and actual implementations to achieve this schedule. For decades we have heard many spiritual terms and have become accustomed to them. We are used to terms such as the leading of the Holy Spirit and guidance of the Lord. As a result, we are not very concerned for the future. We do not make any plans. We only know to place everything in the Lord’s hand and let the Lord do all the work. With this kind of understanding, all schedules and plans seem redundant and unnecessary. I have been saved for sixty-one years and have been working for the Lord for sixty years. As soon as I was saved, I loved to study the Bible, and through such study I entered into the realm of spirituality. I have accumulated sixty years of experience and have become very familiar with all kinds of spiritual principles. I have said many times that everything depends on the Holy Spirit and not on human arrangement. Therefore, I am very clear that the moment I mention the word schedule, we will think that this is a movement, and the moment I mention the word plan, we will think that this is organization. Actually, this is a wrong concept.
It is easy for man to have a biased understanding of the Bible. When we consider creation around us and as we study the Bible, we find that under God’s sovereignty everything physical and spiritual is not one-sided. It is not even two-sided. In most cases it is many-sided. This has been a big problem to students of the Bible throughout the ages. Those who are shallow in their understanding argue that the Bible is not consistent and that many passages do not agree with one another. Some have said that since the central thought of the Bible is consistent, we need only to lay hold of this central thought and not concern ourselves with the other things the Bible says. Some have even argued that all the contradicting portions are probably not God’s own words. In reality, God’s word is not only many-sided; it is all-embracing.
I have been studying this Bible for sixty years. Almost every day I open to it. How many sides are there to the truths in the Bible? Even today it is difficult for me to count them. We all know that there are four Gospels. They describe the Lord Jesus from four different angles. This may be compared to working on a sculpture; a man has to express the object from all four sides. However, if we study the four Gospels, we will see that there are actually more than four ways to describe the Lord Jesus. It is difficult to count how many sides the four Gospels depict.
I say this to give us a certain assurance. It is true that there are subjects, central thoughts, and lines of truths in the Bible. But in addition to these things, there are facets to the truths of the Bible. If we do not understand this principle, it will be easy for us to conclude that the Bible is not consistent. We will complain that God said one thing yesterday, another thing today, and still a third thing tomorrow. However, if we dive into God’s Word and dig into its depths, we will see that our God is very consistent, yet He is not simple. Take the human body as an example. No one can fully understand what the human body is all about. God created man with a body to support and sustain his spirit. With the body there is also a soul. With such faculties man is able to express God, receive God, mingle with God, and become one with God on earth. If the body that God created is so complicated yet consistent, the God who created it should be even more complicated yet consistent.
Today some people in Christianity are too simple in their mentality. In their simplicity they consider it a heresy to say that God and man can be mingled as one. Their argument is that God is great and man is small. How can the great Lord dwell in the small man? On the Mount of Olives the disciples saw with their own eyes that the Lord ascended with a physical body. Hence, to some today Christ is high up on the throne. These people argue that the Lord promised that He will come back again, and clearly He has not yet come back. How then can He be in us? They do not believe in Galatians 2:20, which tells us that Christ lives in us. They cannot understand this. They dismiss it, saying that although this is what the Bible says, it is not what it means. To them, the Lord’s representative dwells in us — the Holy Spirit. They explain that this may be compared to a great king who cannot personally be present in a foreign country but who sends his ambassador to be his representative. Because they consider it impossible for the same Jesus to be dwelling in millions of Christians, they say that He puts the Holy Spirit inside the believers. This shows how shallow Christians are in their study of the truth.
The study of the truth is not a one-day affair. It has been going on for more than two thousand years. The completion of the New Testament was followed by the first generation of scholars known as the church fathers. They were the first group of people to study the truth. According to our research, these church fathers were higher and deeper than modern scholars in their understanding of the truth. After them, more studies were made concerning God. Some discovered that God is triune; He is not a simple monad. With Him there is not only the distinction of three and one but also the distinction of His economical aspect and His essential aspect. The essential aspect refers to His essence, His existence, and His being. The economical aspect refers to His move and His work. God is great, and His move constitutes His economy. According to His economy, He plans and works out everything. Such theological studies eventually produced three terms — trinity, essence, and economy.
Today almost all theologians have accepted the term trinity. Yet many are still ignorant, blind, and bewildered concerning the economical and essential aspects of God. When the Lord Jesus was baptized, it was the Son who was standing in the water, the Father who was speaking from heaven, and the Spirit who was hovering in the air like a dove. Therefore, some argue that this clearly depicts three persons in three places; how can we say that They are one? Such an argument sounds convincing, but I can defeat it with one stroke. I would ask them, “Before the Spirit descended on the Lord Jesus like a dove, did the Lord have the Spirit within Him?” They dare not answer me, for any answer would be a defeat to them. I would ask, “Since the Lord was conceived of the Holy Spirit, surely the Holy Spirit was in Him. The Bible clearly says that the One in the womb of Mary was begotten of the Holy Spirit. This means that the essence of His divinity was the Holy Spirit. At that time He was conceived, and He was begotten and born of the Spirit as His essence in His divinity. When He stood in the water, the Holy Spirit was already within Him. Why then was the Holy Spirit hovering like a dove above Him?” They would not be able to answer me.
We can say that God is three-one, and we can also say that there are two aspects of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit was in the Lord Jesus from the time He was conceived. Yet after thirty years He also descended upon the Lord. Are there two Spirits or one Spirit? For those who have a shallow understanding of the truth, this is a thorny question. This shows that the truth is not that simple. There are at least two sides to every truth. Ancient theologians have delved deeply into the mystery of this issue. They have discovered that there are two aspects to God’s being triune, the essential aspect and the economical aspect, that is, the aspect related to God’s existence and the aspect related to His expression in His move.
Bible translation is not a simple task. For example, consider Matthew 1:20. The Chinese Union Version says, “That which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” This is clear, and no one would question it. But if we dig into the original language, we find that this verse actually says, “That which has been begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit.” The Bible does not merely say, “That which has been conceived in her” but “that which has been begotten in her.” This means that at the time the Lord Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary, a certain One was born in her. Who is this One? To be sure, He is the Holy Spirit Himself. The Holy Spirit is not only the essence that brought about the Lord Jesus’ conception; He is the very One who was begotten in Mary.
With such a consideration, we can readily understand the words of John 1:1 and 14: “In the beginning was the Word...the Word became flesh.” How did the Word become flesh? It was by being begotten in the womb of Mary. This indicates that the God who was realized through the Holy Spirit was born into a man. This is a great truth. That which was begotten in Mary was the Holy Spirit Himself. Luke 1:35 proves this: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” The word overshadow connotes a hen brooding over her chicks. As God brooded, the Holy Spirit was begotten within Mary. Who is this Holy Spirit? He is the One who makes God realized and real.
This is a great truth, but it has been neglected through the limitation of man’s knowledge. The Chinese Union Version is one of the seven best versions in the world. But even if we read this portion a thousand times, we will not be aware of the mystery and reality of God’s birth within man. Actually, the revelation in the original language is plain and obvious, but because man’s study of the Bible is inadequate and his understanding of theology incomplete, he becomes muddled and shortsighted.
When we read the New Testament carefully, especially the Gospels and Acts, we find that both the Lord and the disciples worked with plans and arrangements. The Lord had a schedule and a plan; He did not pass His days on earth foolishly and carelessly. In Luke 13 the Pharisees threatened the Lord, saying, “Get out and go from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” The Lord answered, saying, “Go and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out demons and accomplish healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I am perfected. However, I must journey today and tomorrow and on the following day because it is not acceptable for a prophet to perish outside of Jerusalem” (vv. 31-33). This shows that the Lord had a schedule and an itinerary.
Actually, the Lord’s itinerary was set from the foundation of the world. His birth in Bethlehem, His flight to Egypt, His growth in Nazareth, and His being called a Nazarene were all prophesied long ago in the Old Testament. The same is true with His death. Daniel 9:26 prophesies concerning the year the Messiah was to be crucified. It was to be in the sixty-ninth week. Furthermore, He had to be killed on the fourteenth day of the first month during the Passover at Mount Moriah, which is Mount Zion. When the time came, the Lord delivered Himself to death. He acted according to God’s plan, which was set before the foundation of the world.
First, the Lord toiled and fulfilled His ministry in Galilee for three years. Then when the last year approached and the Passover was drawing near, He knew within Himself that He had to arrive in Jerusalem six days before the Passover to be examined by men as a lamb, so He set out from Galilee. When the disciples saw this, they were amazed, and His followers were afraid (Mark 10:32). His itinerary was very definite; He needed to pass through Samaria on His way to Judea. He needed to arrive at His destination — Jerusalem — at the appointed time. He could not miss a day. If He arrived a day earlier or later, He would not have been crucified on the day of the Passover, and the prophecy of the Old Testament would not have been fulfilled.
This is not all. The Lord planned ahead of time. As He approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the other side of the Mount of Olives, He sent two disciples and said, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her; untie them and lead them to Me” (Matt. 21:1-2). This was the Lord’s planning ahead. No one brought a donkey to Him when He arrived. No angel appeared to the owner of the donkey in a dream the night before. The Lord planned this ahead of time. In addition to this, on the night of the Passover, when they were about to take the feast, and the disciples asked the Lord where they should prepare the meal, He answered, “Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, The Teacher says, My time is near. I am keeping the passover at your house with My disciples” (26:18). This again is an example of the Lord’s planning.
Those who are too “spiritual” may say that since the Lord Jesus is the Lord of everything, He could call a donkey into being and ride it into the city. If He wanted a place for the passover meal, He could also call it into being. There was no need to make preparations ahead of time. It is true that He is God, but He entered into humanity and became the Son of Man. As far as His divinity is concerned, He did not need to ride on a donkey or a colt. He did not need to pass through Samaria on His way from Galilee to Jerusalem. But because He was a man, He needed to move step by step in the fashion of a man (Phil. 2:8). Since a man needs a certain number of days to travel from Galilee to Jerusalem, He made arrangements ahead of time. The Old Testament prophesied concerning His move, and He acted and made preparations accordingly to match the prophecy.
Since the Lord was a man, there was the need for Him to make many detailed arrangements involving persons and matters; hence, there was the need of schedules and budgets. The Bible shows that the Lord never acted hastily. He always worked according to His timetable. Even His visit to Lazarus and His raising him up was not done in a hurry; He followed His own timetable. Others sent men to plead with Him again and again, but He was not moved. At a certain point the disciples became indignant, but when the Lord’s time came, He went. The disciples said, “The Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and You are going there again?” He did not listen to them, because He had His itinerary. The disciples might have been unhappy; however, they had no choice but to follow. They said in resignation, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him” (John 11:8, 16). This clearly shows that as long as we are human beings, we need schedules and budgets.
Today it is not only the angels or only God Himself who is involved in the gospelization of Taiwan. It is we, such small people, who are involved in this work, and for this reason there is truly the need for a schedule and a plan. For example, we need to learn the local dialects, such as Taiwanese or Hakka, before we can preach the gospel to others in an intimate way. At present we have the following schedule. First, we visit the communities and the campuses. This is a warm-up exercise for our eventual expedition, comparable to the training and drills of an army before it sets out for the battlefield. We will have three years of drills. Then in the fourth year we will set out. Within five months we will establish churches in all the towns and cities. According to this schedule, we need at least one thousand full-timers in the first phase. Of course, we can get by with seven hundred, but the timing will be prolonged, the manpower stretched, and the impact reduced. There will not be as much force and success as we would like to see.
When I was young, I paid much attention to the world situation and to international developments. In 1924 the Whampoa Military Academy was established in China. After three years of preparation and training, the Northern Expedition for the unification of China began in 1926. I am not a student of politics or military science, but I was clear that as soon as the Northern Expedition set out, it would win, because the preparation work was more than adequate. In the same way, I believe three years of preparation is adequate for us. We will have one thousand full-timers who will be grouped into one hundred teams. Through visiting the communities and the campuses in a solid way, and through building up the home meetings and learning to have the proper meetings, we will accomplish the great task of gospelizing Taiwan in five years.
The next step in our plan is to produce another five hundred full-timers in the next two years. This will bring the number to fifteen hundred. We will then have a sufficient number not only to gospelize the towns but also to gospelize all the villages in another five years.
At present we have more than two hundred sixty young people in our full-time training. We anticipate that another two hundred or more will be added to the next term of training. Based on this number, we will need five hundred more next year. In order to reach our goal, all the elders and responsible brothers in all the churches need to pick up the burden in one accord. We need to encourage the young people in our respective localities to attend the full-time training. At the same time the campus work should aim toward this goal. Based on the above considerations, we can probably get by with seven hundred, but one thousand is better.
I hope that we will consider this schedule and plan and bear this burden in oneness. I do not believe that I am asking too much. We all agree that it is more than right for us to gospelize Taiwan in five years. Without reservation we are declaring war on Satan. We are storming his house, breaking his forces, binding the strong man, and plundering his wealth. Although there are only eighteen thousand regular attendants in our meetings, any corporate effort will make our job easier; where there is the will of the entire Body, there is the way to win an “entire city.” As long as we function and offer up our part, it will not be difficult to accomplish this momentous task. What we need now is to strive and struggle to realize our plan.
In order to realize our plan, we need practical ways to implement it. First, in order to produce one thousand full-timers, there is the need of our prayers. We need to ask the Lord to give us no fewer than a thousand persons. We even need to dream of these one thousand persons. Next, we need to operate according to some practical principles. Eighteen months ago I said that the basic principle in producing the full-timers is to have one out of twenty saints in every local church giving himself to be a full-timer. At present we have eighteen thousand regular attendants in our meetings. This means that we should produce nine hundred full-timers. The potential of our source is not poor. By next year the attendance may reach twenty thousand. This will be more than adequate to produce a thousand full-timers. Next, when we say that out of twenty saints we should have one full-timer, we are taking into consideration the source of our financial support. The nineteen saints should set aside five percent of their income to support the living of the one full-timer among them. This will not pose too heavy a burden on anyone. I believe that as the saints are faithful to the Lord, we will meet this budget.
Our statistics show that we are barely obtaining the number of full-timers we need, and our financial offering is still inadequate. I hope that as the elders return to their respective localities, they will fellowship the practical needs with the brothers and sisters. Although we are faithful in our regular offerings, we need to set aside five percent to support the full-timers. This will make up the lack. In the Old Testament, in addition to the regular sacrifices, God’s people had to pay the temple tax, which was half a shekel of silver per person (Exo. 30:13-16; 38:26). Among the twelve tribes the tribe of Levi served the Lord full time. The other eleven tribes took a tenth of their income to take care of the need of the Levites. I hope that all the saints will be faithful to the Lord to make up the portion that they ought to cover so that the Lord’s work can go on in a smooth way.
For every saint to offer five percent of their income to support the full-timers does not mean that they should divert their regular offerings to this matter. Rather, they should offer this additional five percent over and above their regular offerings. This is only half of a tenth. It is strictly for the support of the full-timers. Only when we have such a budget can we move according to schedule. Even if we do not have a thousand full-timers by 1988, hopefully we will have seven hundred; however, if our financial support covers only five hundred, our move to gospelize Taiwan will be hampered.
We have received a new leading from the Lord to turn the church from the degraded situation of Christianity to the practice of the God-ordained way. We have also received a new commission to gospelize Taiwan in five years. For this we need a schedule and a budget. We are clear about the schedule and the budget. What we need to do is to mobilize the entire congregation to obtain the people and the financial support so that we can carry out our plan as scheduled. May the Lord be gracious to all the saints in all the places, and may we set our eyes on this in steadfastness and one accord.
Although the churches in the Lord’s recovery are a “little flock” (Luke 12:32), we thank the Lord that He has committed to us a great commission of gospelizing Taiwan in five years. This is an unprecedented task and a glorious enterprise. I hope that we will all see the bright future and share in this great enterprise. I believe the Lord will multiply His blessing on all those who spend themselves for the Lord and His gospel, and He will bless this country. The effect of this is far-reaching. May we all have the wisdom to receive this fellowship.
