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Editor’s Note: Those who were attending the elders’ training were asked by Brother Lee to come to the Saturday morning meeting of February 11, 1984, thirty minutes earlier for prayer. The following word on prayer was given at the conclusion of that thirty-minute period.
I did my best to enter into your prayers, but I could not make it. I would like to say frankly that your prayers were not prayers in a corporate way. All of you prayed individualistically. This is something of the old tradition. We must learn to come to a prayer meeting to pray as a body, a corporate body. To pray in the spiritual realm must be something corporate. Even in the worldly realm, to play football with eleven members on your team or basketball with five members on your team is not done individualistically but in a corporate way. I was waiting, watching, and seeking a time for over half an hour that I could enter into your prayer, but I could not see what your line or what your goal was. Everyone who prayed had his own mind, his own goal. This is altogether due to our traditional background. I hope that we all can realize that this morning we had a prayer meeting without a line, without a goal. We just came together to express our own feeling.
A long prayer always kills the prayer meeting. A long prayer indicates that you care only for yourself and that you do not care for others. You care only for your feeling; you do not care for the atmosphere and the flow in the meeting. When we come together to pray, you should not be the flow, but the Spirit should be the flow. You should not be the line, but the Spirit should be the line. You should not be the goal, but the Spirit should be the goal. We all must hold such an attitude with such a spirit that we are not the center, the flow, the line, the goal, but the Lord, the Spirit, is. Therefore, we are open — open to the Lord and open to the Spirit. If He would use us to start a prayer, maybe we would pray for just two seconds. We would not pray a long prayer to express our opinion, our feeling. Perhaps we have the inner feeling that this meeting of prayer should begin with the Lord’s mercy. Then maybe we would pray, “Lord, have mercy upon us. Thank You, Lord. Thank You that Your mercy can reach much further than Your grace.” This is good enough. The Lord just uses us this much to open the prayer meeting with His mercy.
If we were not following the way from our traditional background and if we were following the living Spirit instantly, no one would pray a long prayer full of doctrinal points. The prayer meetings do not need that. The prayer meetings need a lot of instant, fresh inspiration with fresh points. This fresh inspiration is news, even the heavenly news. We all would pray one after another just like a team in a ball game. The members of one team play with one ball. This morning, however, everyone who prayed had their own ball. When I came in, I did not know “which ball I should catch.” How many teams were here this morning? It seemed as if everybody was a team.
Do not think that I am too strict. We are here in the Lord’s training, and we are the leading ones. We are the so-called co-workers, and the entire recovery of the Lord is in our hands. Yet we, the leading ones, were holding a prayer meeting in such a way. Since this is the case, what could we expect of the church prayer meetings? From our prayer it seems that we have never been in the Lord’s recovery. We are merely a group of Christians coming together to pray but seemingly not something in the Lord’s recovery. I must tell you truthfully that I was very much disappointed by the prayer meeting this morning.
When some of you brothers stand up to give a testimony, you like to preach. When you pray, you also preach. When you speak, it is always something long — a long prayer, a long testimony, and a long sharing. This indicates that you probably have never dropped the old traditions. I would like to hear many of you stand up and share just two sentences. Do not tell a story, do not explain the reason you did something, and do not present your knowledge. When some of you brothers are with us, I am always afraid when you begin to speak either in the testing in the training or in giving a testimony. When you give a testimony, you always like to give a message full of stories at the end and at the beginning. You even pray in the same way. This shows that you have kept the oldness throughout the years. You brothers need to learn to stand up and show people the “diamond” in your testimony. You do not need to tell people that you bought the diamond from Hong Kong and that its expense forced you to borrow the money from your cousin and from your father. You do not need to tell us a story. You do not need to teach us or preach to us concerning what the diamond is and how you acquired it. This is wasting time. This is the oldness. Just take out the diamond and show it to others: “See this diamond. Do you like it? You can get it. Praise the Lord.” This kind of testimony is good enough. I am speaking to you in an allegorical way, but I believe you understand the point. In the same way, long prayers kill the prayer meeting. Your long prayer tests people’s patience. Your prayer tests how long people’s endurance will last. Brothers, we must drop the old way.
Do you believe that when the one hundred twenty met together in Jerusalem in Acts 1, they prayed in our way? If they had prayed in this way, I am sure they would have been tired and bored after ten days. The element of our traditional background could still be seen here this morning. I am not too strict. I feel that since we are in the training, I must be honest with all of you.
We must learn to forget all the things that we have, all the things that we know, and even all the things that we have heard recently. Let us come together to pray with an open spirit with nothing occupying us; just come to the prayer meeting in an empty way. We should come to the prayer meeting with our whole being on the altar so that the Lord can operate within us and even expose us. We should come to the prayer meeting with the attitude that we do not know anything but that we only know the Lord Himself. I want to assure all of you that if you would continue to use your old doctrine, your old knowledge, and your old experience or anything old, you are through in the Lord’s recovery. The Lord’s recovery has nothing to do with anything old. Re means “anew”; it means to renew or to be new. It is not to be strange, peculiar, or odd but to be new.
After we had been here together for five days, I was very burdened last night to call this prayer meeting for this morning. I expected that our oldness would be killed in the last five days. We should have come to this prayer meeting this morning very empty and very new. Our attitude should have been that we know nothing, that we have nothing, and that we are nothing. Even if we are something, that does not mean anything. If you had presented yourself to the Lord in such an open, empty way, the Lord would have touched you instantly. I do not believe that He would touch you to pray for three minutes. He would just touch you with a feeling that could be expressed in two seconds. This is good enough. This is very living! If you would open up your mouth and speak two or three sentences from within in this way, the heavens would be open. Not one of you can deny that after thirty minutes of your praying together this morning, no one among us had the feeling that the heavens were opened. The heavens were not opened. The more you prayed, the more clouds were brought in. There was a cloudy sky due to your prayer. I do not care who is right or who is wrong. I only care for the fact that this morning in our prayer we did not have a clear sky above us. My fellowship with you this morning is a part of this training.
I have been together with some of you for over fifteen years. Your coming here has always been a test to me. I have been very much tested by your way of speaking, praying, testifying, and sharing. I do not mean that we only say, “Praise the Lord! Amen! Hallelujah!” I mean that we must practice to live in our spirit. In the Lord’s recovery we practice one thing — to live in spirit. We should not live in the old way of prayer, nor should we follow the old way of prayer. We must live in spirit and walk according to spirit. Your long prayer is altogether according to your knowledge, to your hearing, and to your kind of realization. There is no Spirit there. There are a lot of sentences full of wasted words. I would say that nearly your entire prayer was a waste; it was just to express your kind of feeling. This is not a prayer meeting. I say again that a prayer meeting should be like a team. All the members of the team are on the alert to play with one ball. You should pray in a way that the next one who prays can continue your prayer. If you played ball in such a way that no one could continue playing, you would be off the team.
Many among us here have been in the Lord’s recovery for over thirty years, but this morning some of us were silent and did not pray, and others prayed in a long way. We should not think that the ones who prayed were wrong and that the ones who did not pray were not wrong. I must ask those of you who did not pray, Why would you not pray? Did the Spirit lead you not to pray? I must also ask those of you who prayed, Did the Spirit lead you to pray? I think with both questions the answer is no. You prayed, and the Spirit did not lead you to pray; you did not pray, and the Spirit did not lead you not to pray. Therefore, we all came here and behaved in ourselves and in our old way.
The experienced ones among us have learned to be “wise.” The wisest way is not to open up your mouth. If you open your mouth, you will get in trouble. This morning, however, I am giving trouble not only to the ones who opened their mouths but even more to the ones who did not open their mouths. Neither of you were right. The praying ones were not right. The ones who did not pray were even more not right. Therefore, we all have killed the prayer meeting this morning. We must learn from this. If the ones who did not pray had prayed in a short way, they would have taken over the prayer meeting, leaving no gap for the long prayers to creep in. If eleven members on a team are playing football, and nine of these members are strong, they would take over the entire play, and the two weaker ones would be left there. The game would still be quite good. I hope this fellowship will help us for the future.
Since we have touched the ultimate consummation, the New Jerusalem, in the book of consummation, Revelation, I feel that it is best to see this ultimate consummation in this book in a more thorough way. We are not merely studying the Bible, nor are we debating any doctrine. We want to see what is in the ultimate consummation of God’s entire revelation. The ultimate word of any writing is the final word, the concluding word, and the final, concluding word always gives us the real significance of that writing. Thousands of items were covered in the first sixty-five books of the Bible. These books cover a long span of time and many, many items. This always confuses the readers of the Bible. If the Bible were only three pages long, we could never be confused. But here are sixty-five books covering a long span of time and thousands and thousands of items. After reading this, it is easy to get lost. Therefore, in God’s wisdom, He put all these items together in a consummating book; this is the last book, the sixty-sixth book of the Bible.
The last book is not a new book but a harvest. Most of the new things in the Bible were there in Genesis. Genesis is a book of new items. Before the book of Genesis there was no creation. When creation came into being, that was something really new. Before Genesis there was no man, and only God was there in eternity; nothing had come into existence. The angels were not there, and man was not there. Everything in Genesis was new. Before Genesis there was no Abraham, no Isaac, and no Jacob. The things in Genesis were new and sown into the field of God’s revelation. Everything that was sown in the book of Genesis began to grow from the second book, Exodus, throughout the next sixty-four books of the Bible. Then the sixty-sixth book, Revelation, the last book of the entire Bible, is there as a harvest of the truths that were sown in Genesis. One verse in the book of Revelation tells us that “the harvest of the earth is ripe” (14:15). The time has come for the Lord to reap the harvest. The seeds of this harvest were sown in Genesis. Even the word Genesis means “beginning.” Genesis is a record of the beginning. Revelation is a book of harvest. The sowing of the seeds and their growth and development are over. Now is the harvest in Revelation. Actually, harvest is an interpretation of the word consummation. Consummation and harvest are synonyms. Our burden is to see all the items that are consummated in the book of Revelation.
A number of things in the Old Testament, though, are not consummated in the book of Revelation. All the consummations in Revelation are a consummation concerning Christ, concerning the Spirit, concerning life, and concerning the church. Many things in the Old Testament are consummated in Revelation that are seemingly not related to Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church. Actually, they are all indirectly related. As we have seen, chapters 4 through 20 of Revelation are on God’s universal, governmental administration. Seemingly, God’s governmental administration has nothing to do with the church, but it is indirectly related to the church. This is why I have previously given you seventeen instances of the mentioning of the church in these seventeen chapters.
The opening word in the book of Revelation shows us the harvest of the prevailing Divine Trinity. Revelation 1:4-5a says, “Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth.” Undoubtedly, this is the Divine Trinity, but we must see that the mentioning of the Divine Trinity here is the consummation of the Divine Trinity revealed first in Genesis 1:1, where the subject God is plural in number, and developed throughout the entire Bible. This definition of the Divine Trinity in Revelation 1:4-5a implies the entire Divine Trinity revealed in the Bible.
This title of the Divine Trinity in Revelation is different from the title — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — in Matthew 28:19. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit does not imply the entire Bible. However, Him who is and who was and who is coming brings us back to the beginning of the divine revelation concerning the Divine Trinity (Exo. 3:14-15). The Ruler of the kings of the earth implies the ending of the revelation concerning the Divine Trinity. Also, in between these titles are the seven Spirits, the faithful Witness, and the Firstborn of the dead. The entire Bible is needed to interpret this consummation of the divine title of the Divine Trinity. This is the consummation of the Divine Trinity from the beginning of the divine revelation to its end, not in a particular way but in an all-embracing way. At the beginning of the book of Revelation the Divine Trinity is consummated in an all-embracing way, and at the end of Revelation we see the Divine Trinity consummated in an all-inclusive way but applied to us in a very substantial, practical, and living way. We have seen that the Divine Trinity in Revelation 21 and 22 has consummated to the uttermost to be our existence, our entrance into the divine realm, our constitution, our living, and our enjoyment.
From seeing the Divine Trinity in an all-embracing way in Revelation 1:4, we must go on to the seven churches. The seven churches are a consummation of the doctrine concerning the church. This is the consummation of the church, which was first mentioned by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 16:18, where the seed of this truth was sown. Then this seed grew up in Acts and was growing in the Epistles, where it developed to the uttermost. Then the last book of the New Testament gives us the consummation of the church — the local churches. The book of Revelation, especially chapter 1, does not continue the thought that the church is God’s ekklesia, God’s house, Christ’s Body, Christ’s fullness, the new man, the wife, the bride of Christ, or the warrior. The church in Revelation 1 is consummated as the lampstands. The lampstands are the consummation of all the definitions of all the aspects of the church.
Probably many of us have never thought about the location of the lampstands. Where are the local churches — on earth or in heaven? Surely they are on earth because Revelation 1:11 tells us that the seven churches are seven cities. None of the local churches are in the heavens, but they are all physical, geographical locations. The local churches are on the earth. Now we must ask where the lampstands are. Are they in the heavens or on the earth? We need to be careful in our answer to this question. The lampstands are the consummation of the lampstand in the Old Testament. In Exodus 25:31-38 and in Zechariah 4:2 the lampstand was in the tabernacle, and in 1 Kings 7:49 the lampstand was in the temple. Is this location within the tabernacle the earthly place or the heavenly place? The earthly place was outside the tabernacle, where the altar was. But what about within the tabernacle? The lampstand was not in the outer court but in the Holy Place. In practical existence the churches are on this earth. In the sign of the churches, the lampstands, the churches are in the Holy Place. Here the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus, appears not as a priest offering sacrifices on the altar outside of the tabernacle, but He appears as a priest who serves within the tabernacle to take care of the lampstands.
The priests in the Old Testament had a threefold duty — to offer the sacrifices, to trim the lamps of the lampstands, and to burn the incense. One of their responsibilities was in the outer court, and two were in the tabernacle. In the book of Revelation the Lord Jesus appears as a priest with only these two duties within the tabernacle — to trim the lampstand and to offer the incense (8:3-5). There is not a verse in Revelation that indicates that the Lord is offering some sacrifice because the offering of sacrifices has already been accomplished. In chapter 1 He appears not as the priest offering the sacrifices but as the priest trimming the lampstand. Therefore, we must realize that according to the lampstand, the churches are in the heavens. According to the practical existence, the churches are on the earth. This indicates that the churches are in the heavens appearing on the earth. This is the principle of Bethel, which is the house of God (Gen. 28:17, 19). The house of God is a spot where a ladder joins the earth to the heavens and brings the heavens down to the earth. As a consummation concerning the church, we see a view of how the church in its significance is in the heavens and in its physical existence is on the earth. Therefore, the church is a heavenly matter, yet it is on earth. This is the consummation. To understand Revelation 1 concerning the church as the lampstand, we need the entire Old Testament. The seven lampstands are the consummation of the lampstand in the Old Testament.
The seven stars in Revelation 1:16 and 20 are also a consummation. First, God promised Abraham that He would multiply his seed like the stars of the heavens and also like the sand which is on the seashore (Gen. 22:17). Abraham had two kinds of descendants — the heavenly ones, which are the believers, the regenerated ones, and the earthly ones, the natural Jews who were born of the race of Abraham without being regenerated. The Jews are the earthly descendants of Abraham like the sand which is on the seashore. But we are the heavenly descendants of Abraham, the stars of the heavens. Daniel 12:3 also indicates that the heavenly descendants of Abraham will be like the shining stars. The mentioning of the stars in Revelation 1 is a consummation indicating that all the messengers, the leading ones, of the churches should be altogether in the heavens. The stars are not only heavenly, but they are also in the heavens. This again is a consummation.
We can also see the consummation of other items in the seven epistles to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3. The first consummation is the tree of life. In the epistle to Ephesus the Lord says, “To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God” (2:7). This is nothing new, but this is the tree of life in consummation. In Genesis 2 the tree of life was presented to man in a general way, but in Revelation 2:7 the right to eat the tree of life has been restricted to the overcomers. The unbelievers and even the common believers have no right to eat the tree of life in Revelation 2:7. Only he who overcomes has the right to eat. This is the consummation, but it is still not the ultimate consummation. We see the ultimate consummation of the tree of life in Revelation 22:2 and 14, where all the believers, not only the overcomers, will have the right to the tree of life in the new heaven and the new earth. The right to the tree of life there is based upon only one requirement — to have your robes washed, to be saved. In Revelation 2:7, however, the right to the tree of life is restricted to the overcoming ones who do not merely have their robes washed but have overcome the degraded church situation.
In these epistles to the seven churches we also see Balaam (v. 14) and Jezebel (v. 20) and their consummation. Seemingly, these two are not related to life, to Christ, to the Spirit, or to the church. What they did, however, had very much to do, negatively, with the churches. Balaam did many things to distract God’s people (Deut. 23:4; Num. 31:16 cf. 25:1-3), and Jezebel did many things to lead God’s people astray (1 Kings 16:31; 19:2; 21:23, 25-26; 2 Kings 9:7). Throughout the centuries there have been many Balaams who have distracted God’s people and many Jezebels who have misled God’s people.
In Revelation 2:17 we also see the hidden manna, which again is only for a restricted number of people — the overcomers. In John 6 the Lord Jesus referred to manna: “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that anyone may eat of it and not die” (vv. 48-50). In Revelation 2 the manna is applied again in a restricted way. This is the hidden manna in the Ark of the Testimony within the Holy of Holies. We can see again that there is nearly nothing new in the book of Revelation. All the items are in their consummation.
The “Star out of Jacob” (Num. 24:17) and the star appearing at the Lord’s birth (Matt. 2:7, 9-10) consummate in the morning star in Revelation 2:28. No star is as bright as the morning star. At His second appearing, Christ will be the morning star to His overcomers who watch for His coming. To all the others He will appear only as the sun (Mal. 4:2).
In the seven epistles we also see the pillar in the temple (Rev. 3:12). For us to realize the significance of the pillar in Revelation 3, we need to study 1 Kings 7:13-23. In the temple in the Old Testament there were two pillars. One was named Jachin, and the other was named Boaz (v. 21). We also need to study the pillars in the church in Galatians 2:9 and the church being the pillar of the truth in 1 Timothy 3:15. The pillar mentioned in Revelation 3 is a consummation of the pillars in all these portions of the Word.
Then to the church in Laodicea the promise to the overcomers is a feast (v. 20). Based upon this thought of a feast, it is necessary to go back and study all the feasts in the Old Testament. There were three major feasts each year in the Old Testament (Deut. 16:16) — the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:4-8), the Feast of Weeks (Deut. 16:10), which was also called the Feast of the Harvest (Exo. 23:16) or Pentecost (Lev. 23:15-22), and the Feast of Tabernacles (vv. 33-44). This shows us that the thought of a feast is not new in the book of Revelation. This thought was in the Old Testament already.
In Revelation 4 we see the throne in its consummation (vv. 2-3). Ezekiel also saw the throne (Ezek. 1:26; 10:1). The throne of God revealed in Revelation is nearly the same as the portrait of the throne of God in Ezekiel. Daniel also saw the throne (Dan. 7:9). He saw a little concerning the throne, and Ezekiel saw more, but neither of them saw as much as John did in Revelation. The throne in Revelation is not new, but it is a consummation of the throne. Seventeen chapters in the book of Revelation give us a record of this throne, from chapter 4 through chapter 20. Out of this throne come the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls.
Then in the book of Revelation we see the Lamb. This is also a consummation. The Lamb is implied in the firstlings of the flock offered by Abel in Genesis 4:4. The Lamb was revealed in Genesis 22 with Abraham (vv. 7-8, 13). The ram offered by Abraham as a substitutionary sacrifice for Isaac points to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world in John’s writings. To understand the Lamb and its consummation in Revelation, it is necessary to go back to all the books of the Bible to see the Lamb. The Lion of the tribe of Judah (Rev. 5:5), undoubtedly, is the consummation of the Lion in Genesis 49:9. The redeeming Lamb (Rev. 5:6) and the overcoming Lion are consummations. In redeeming, Christ has overcome all the negative things, especially the main enemy, Satan. He is the Lion-Lamb, accomplishing redemption by overcoming all the negative things. This is the consummation in chapter 5. The ultimate consummation of the Lamb, though, is in chapter 21. There we see the Lamb as the One who holds God within Him as light, because the Lamb is the lamp, and God is the light in the lamp (v. 23). This indicates that Christ as the overcoming Redeemer holds God within Him. This is the ultimate consummation of the Lamb.
When the fifth seal is opened in Revelation 6:9, we see the altar. Underneath the altar are the souls of the martyred saints who cry out to God from Paradise for vengeance. This altar is not the altar within the tabernacle, the incense altar, but the altar in the outer court, the altar of burnt offering, where people offer things for God’s satisfaction. The souls of the martyrs underneath the altar indicate that they were sacrifices offered to God on the altar for God’s satisfaction.
Another item in the book of Revelation is the seven seals (5:1). The seal was also an item that was in the Old Testament (Dan. 9:24; 12:4). Something that is sealed means that it is kept secret and confidential. In the New Testament, in Revelation, is the consummation of the seals. These seals are the secrets of the entire universal administration of God.
In the book of Revelation we also see the seven trumpets, which are the execution of God’s economy (8:6—11:19). The trumpet is another item that was in the Old Testament. A trumpet was always used to indicate the move of God’s people (Num. 10:2), especially the move in war (Josh. 6:5). Actually, the seven trumpets are soundings to the church to move on, to fight God’s battle. Even the trumpets in Revelation are a consummation.
In Revelation 8 we see Christ as the Priest burning the incense with the fire from the altar of burnt offering (vv. 3-5). Christ came and stood at the altar of burnt offering (Exo. 27:1-8) to get the fire. Then He burned the incense and offered it at the incense altar. These two altars are consummations. We must see that these are not the altars in type, but these are the real altars. The burnt-offering altar surely cannot be in the heavens but must be something on this earth. Also, Christ stood by this altar. As we have seen, the incense altar, undoubtedly, was in the heavenly tabernacle, but where is the altar on this earth? This shows us that to interpret the Bible is not an easy task. Actually, the earthly altar is a sign of the cross. The cross was not something accomplished in the heavens but on the earth. Therefore, when Christ stood by the altar of the offerings, this indicates that Christ stood by His cross to get the fire from the cross to burn the incense to offer to God on the incense altar in the heavens.
All these items need our study and need many messages to develop. In the next chapter we will continue to see more of the book of Revelation as a consummation of all the items related to Christ, life, the Spirit, and the church.
