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Concerning the use of the Life-study messages in the church meetings, the elders in each locality need to seek the Lord’s leading as to which book of the New Testament is most helpful to the church at the present time. In making this decision, the elders should fellowship with the serving ones in the church. This is a principle that the elders need to follow. Instead of making this decision by themselves, the elders should fellowship with those who are interested in bearing responsibility not only of the church in their locality but also of the Lord’s recovery. Such persons, whether brothers or sisters, should be included in the fellowship regarding which New Testament book would be most helpful to the church.
Once the decision has been made concerning which New Testament book to use, you should go on to consider how much time is needed to cover that book. Then you should set up a schedule. For example, suppose you decide to use the book of Ephesians. The Life-study of Ephesians has ninety-seven messages. If you take one message a week, you will need almost two years to cover all the messages on Ephesians. If you take two messages a week, you will finish the book in less than a year. I am quite certain that you cannot cover more than one message in a meeting.
The elders also need to consider which verses should be used with a particular message. If you are covering the book of Ephesians, you may want to use only three verses for a particular message. Once you have made a decision concerning the verses, you should then assign a certain message with the accompanying verses for a particular meeting. The leading ones need a thorough knowledge of each message and of the basic verses related to the message. This knowledge will include the outline, the central thought, and the crucial points. As long as you have the knowledge of these three matters, it will be easy for you to cover a complete message in one meeting. As a result of having this knowledge, you will know which portions of the message should be emphasized and which portions do not need emphasis but simply need to be read in order to maintain a good continuation.
I believe that most Life-study messages can be read in thirty minutes. Sometimes in reading messages in a church meeting, you may skip over part of a paragraph or even an entire paragraph in order to save time. Along with reading the message, you should pray-read the basic verses.
The reading of a Life-study message in a meeting should be considered the same as the speaking of such a message. In other words, the reading of a message should be treated as the actual speaking of that message.
The conducting of a meeting in which a Life-study message is read depends very much on the leading ones. These meetings should be living and uplifted, and the saints must have the opportunity to function. However, the time should not be wasted. Regarding this, the leading ones need skill to support and enrich the meeting. Suppose after several minutes nothing living, real, solid, and rich comes forth in fellowship. If this is the situation, the elders should minister a “dish” to enrich the “meal.”
Reading the Life-study messages in the meetings will be very profitable to the churches. I believe that this is more profitable than the elders using the Life-studies to make messages to give in the meetings. This does not mean that the elders should no longer give such messages. The point here is that reading the Life-study messages is profitable. Reading the message with the proper emphasis will ensure profit to the church. Yet it is also profitable for those who are saturated with the truth to give messages that use certain basic verses and crucial points from the Life-study messages. However, if one is not saturated with the truth but simply makes a message based upon a Life-study, that will not be as profitable as reading a Life-study message and regarding that reading as the speaking of the message. Of course, you have the liberty to give messages according to your burden and even to call a conference for the purpose of giving such messages.
We are here for the Lord’s recovery. I am not doing my own work, and you are not doing your own work. We all are bearing one testimony; we all have our shoulders under the “poles” of the “Ark.” Since we are all bearing the one testimony, we all should speak the same thing (1 Cor. 1:10). But the speaking in certain places is leading the saints in a direction that is away from the Lord’s recovery. Such speaking may not be wrong or unscriptural. It may be right and scriptural, but eventually it will lead the saints in a wrong direction.
If we go in a straight line, we will reach a proper goal. But if our direction is off, eventually we will reach a goal that is not the goal of the Lord’s recovery. Even after a short period of time, trouble may come to the recovery through your way of speaking scriptural things, that is, through your speaking of good messages. Although there is nothing wrong with your speaking, it may lead others in a wrong direction. If so, eventually that will become a problem to the whole recovery.
The recovery is not merely a local matter. Although the recovery is in your local church, the recovery is universal. If you lead those in your locality in a direction that is off from the recovery, then there will be two directions — the direction in the recovery as a whole and the direction in your locality. If you teach in a way that leads others in a different direction, some may receive your teaching, but many of those in the Lord’s recovery will reject it. They will not “swallow” your teaching.
From experience we know that the one who teaches differently is the first one to be sacrificed. This means that if you teach differently, you run the risk not of sacrificing the recovery but of sacrificing yourself. We all need to practice Paul’s word to Timothy: “Even as I exhorted you, when I was going into Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach different things” (1 Tim. 1:3). Instead of teaching differently, we should all speak the same thing.
Since I am the one who has given the Life-study messages, it is rather awkward for me to speak about them. However, I can say that the Lord’s recovery has been going on by the ministry. If the ministry had not come to this country, the recovery would not be prevailing here. The recovery came through the ministry, and the recovery has been going on by the ministry. If you, then, speak something that is off from the ministry, surely the recovery will not follow that speaking. It is a dream to think that the entire recovery will follow the speaking that is different from that of the ministry. Therefore, if you speak differently, you will exclude yourself from the recovery by your speaking. No one else will exclude you; you will be excluded by your own speaking, concept, and attitude.
It is no doubt true that every local church has its own jurisdiction. However, we have taught very strongly that each local church is not a Body of Christ; all the churches together are the one Body. Because of this, what happens in one place will affect other places. This means that what you do in your locality will affect the other local churches. News travels quickly from one place to another. Also, the saints who are now in your locality may later move to a different locality.
Those who teach differently are not able to stop the ministry in the Lord’s recovery. The ministry brought the recovery to this country, and the ministry is still carrying the recovery. How can the ministry receive dissenting teachings? Those who teach differently will cause trouble first to themselves and then to others and to the recovery. They will damage others and then cause damage to the recovery. Such damage is the responsibility of those who teach differently.
We all need to consider what we minister, preach, and teach. This means that we need to take care of all the churches. Before the Lord I can testify that this was my practice in China, and it is my practice today. When I was in China speaking in a certain locality, I considered how the other churches might be affected by my speaking. I asked myself, “Will this cause trouble to the other churches? How will it affect them? Will the entire recovery be able to accept this?” I realized that if I did not consider my speaking in this way, I could cause trouble. I could speak something that the recovery as a whole would not receive. I could speak something that others would reject because it was contrary to their taste.
Just as people have different tastes in food, so the Lord’s recovery also has a taste for the ministry that has built up the recovery over the years. The recovery was raised up with a certain taste. Those who have been raised with this taste will reject a taste that is contrary to it. This means that if you speak something contrary to the taste of the Lord’s recovery, your speaking will be rejected, and you will be the first to suffer loss. We have seen a number of examples of this in the past.
In 1964 I invited a certain brother to share a message in one session each day of a training. That brother’s teaching was very good. Otherwise, I would not have asked him to share that training with me. However, the speaking of that brother went against the taste of the saints. One brother told me that this brother’s teaching was too philosophical. This indicates that even though the recovery had been in this country less than two years, the saints had already acquired a taste for life.
Concerning a matter such as this, it is useless to argue about who is right and who is wrong. The point here is that saints have a taste, and they do not accept what is contrary to it. Let me give you an illustration of what I mean by a taste for the ministry in the Lord’s recovery. One day I encouraged a brother to try eating sea cucumber, a Chinese dish that I enjoy very much. Even though the sea cucumber had been prepared by an expert cook and I had strongly recommended it, the brother refused to eat it because it was contrary to his taste in food. Likewise, you may think that your speaking is good, but it is not according to the taste in the recovery.
If you are wise, you will know the taste of those to whom you are speaking. All the churches in the recovery were raised up through the ministry, and the saints have been “eating” this ministry for years and have a taste for it. Even though no churches have been produced by your speaking, you now begin to “serve” the saints with something different from the ministry, with something that is not according to their taste. If you do this, you will cause trouble for yourself. Just as parents will have trouble with their children if they force them to eat food that is contrary to their taste, so you will have trouble if you expect the saints to “eat” something against the taste in the Lord’s recovery.
Those who teach differently are not wise, for they do not know the environment, situation, and condition of the Lord’s recovery. The Lord’s recovery has been raised up in a particular way. Brothers who teach differently are actually trying to bring in a foreign element; they are trying to wedge in a foreign particle into the “body” of the recovery. The recovery will not accept any kind of foreign element or article. As we have strongly emphasized, the reason is that the saints have their taste.
Although the recovery is not controlled by any person, there is a controlling factor in the Lord’s recovery, and this factor is the taste in the recovery. The recovery has a particular taste because it has a certain life that came from its birth. Just as a human being is born with a life that gives him a certain taste, so the Lord’s recovery was born with the life that has its own particular taste. This taste is the controlling factor in the Lord’s recovery. No one can overthrow this controlling factor. If you try to overthrow it, you yourself will be overthrown. This means that you actually overthrow yourself, causing yourself to be separated from the Lord’s recovery.
I do not insist that all the churches use the Life-study messages. However, I wish to point out that this ministry brought the recovery to this country and has been helping and nourishing the recovery. The recovery has grown up with the “food” provided by this ministry. Now it is impossible for the saints to change their taste. If you try to change the taste of the saints, you will be foolish, you will waste your time, and you will cause damage. If you feel that your teaching is better than that in the Lord’s recovery, you should serve your “food” to those who have a taste for it. Those who have been raised on certain foods may occasionally eat something different. But for the long run in their daily living, they will eat what matches their taste and reject what is contrary to it.
Since this is the situation among the saints in the Lord’s recovery, we should be wise to learn the basic truths and then serve these truths to the saints. If we do this, everyone will be happy, and we will have a peaceful situation not only among individual saints but also between the churches and between the churches and the ministry.
If you can give messages that fit the taste of the Lord’s recovery without using the Life-study messages, that would be wonderful. Such messages will be profitable to the recovery. Messages that fit the taste of the recovery are truly part of the New Testament ministry. No one should think that only what I minister is the New Testament ministry. Paul, of course, ministered the New Testament ministry. Martin Luther also ministered a part of the New Testament ministry. Many among us also minister the ministry of the New Testament.
Whatever we minister must be of the nature of the New Testament ministry. Whether or not a particular ministry is part of the New Testament ministry can be proved by applying three governing principles: one, the principle of the processed Triune God being dispensed into His chosen people; second, the principle of Christ and the church; and third, the principle of Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church. If your teaching can pass this threefold test, your teaching is part of the New Testament ministry. Any ministry that is part of the New Testament ministry will be welcomed by the saints in the Lord’s recovery. Any other ministry, however, will only cause trouble for the recovery.
If a brother is to be an adequate elder, or even an adequate leader in any church meeting, he needs to have the adequate knowledge of the truth. Anyone who does not have this knowledge of the truth cannot take care of the church, God’s flock, in a proper way. If you would be a leader in the church caring for the flock, and if you would keep spiritual germs away from the church life, you must have an adequate knowledge of the New Testament truths. As a help to gaining the full knowledge of the basic truths, I would encourage you to go through the entire New Testament using the Recovery Version with the footnotes and the Life-studies. According to a rough estimate, if a person spends two hours a day studying the New Testament in this way, he can go through the entire New Testament in five years.
Recently, a brother raised a question concerning the appointment of elders. A person is born a human being and remains a human being permanently. No matter what kind of human being a person may be, he remains a human being. The appointment of elders is different. Anyone who desires to be an elder permanently should resign, and whenever a brother realizes that he is not qualified to be in the eldership, he should also resign.
In Acts 20:28 we have a word concerning the appointing of elders (overseers) by the Holy Spirit. We may say that here we have the divine appointment of elders to take care of the flock of God. However, I do not believe that all those who are elders in the church today are divinely appointed. Some have become elders in a natural way, perhaps because they were the first one in their locality or because the church in their place was raised up through them. But who can tell such a brother that he should not be an elder? My purpose in saying this is not to disappoint anyone; my purpose is to present the situation in an honest way.
When some hear that certain brothers have become elders in a natural way, they may say, “Brother Lee, why don’t you do something about this?” My answer to this question is that I do not feel free to do anything. This is one reason I can testify that I do not control any church or any person. I care only to help the churches. I may realize that the appointment of a particular brother as an elder is not a divine appointment, but as I consider the situation, I also realize that there is no way to do anything about it. Actually, we all need to humble ourselves and not regard our being an elder as divine. It is very possible that you have become an elder in some way other than that of a divine appointment.
Let us humble ourselves and realize that we are nothing. Others may regard me as something, but I do not consider myself to be anything. I have simply acted according to my conscience and have done the works I felt burdened to do. Let the Lord judge the nature of these works. As Paul says, “I am conscious of nothing against myself; but I am not justified in this, but He who examines me is the Lord. So then do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then there will be praise to each from God” (1 Cor. 4:4-5).
Please do not think that your being an elder is a divine appointment. My intention in saying this is so that we would all humble ourselves, not claiming to have the assurance that we have been divinely appointed to be elders.
Whether or not you have been divinely appointed to be an elder does not depend on your thought or someone else’s confirmation; it depends on how much you have been constituted with the divine knowledge of the basic New Testament truths. The more you are constituted with the truths of the New Testament, the more you have been divinely appointed to be an elder. Today the divine appointment is nothing other than the adequate knowledge of the basic truths of the New Testament.
We are short of those constituted with the New Testament truths. The churches are somewhat weak simply because of the shortage of brothers who have the adequate knowledge of the basic truths of the New Testament. It would be a great help for a church to have even one such brother.
I would encourage you not to consider whether you have been divinely appointed to be an elder. Some in the Pentecostal movement claim to have a divine appointment, but the result of their so-called appointment is confusion. Others, by contrast, have become saturated with the New Testament truths. Those who are constituted even to some extent with the biblical truths are a great blessing to the church. Wherever they are, they are a blessing, as they simply live among the saints. They may not have the title or the position of an elder, but as long as they are present in a locality, the church receives the benefit. This is surely a divine appointment.
Do not think that according to my feeling, the situation of the elders in all the churches is right. On the contrary, there are situations that I am not happy with. But I would not do anything to change those situations. Nevertheless, I have been falsely accused of being an “autonomous dictator.” However, the reason I have not done anything to adjust the situation in certain churches is not that I am afraid of being called a pope or a dictator; the reason is that I realize that such a thing would not be helpful to the church. It would be more profitable to the churches to do nothing about the situation than to do something.
My purpose in speaking concerning the divine appointment of elders is to point out our shortage. Our shortage is the adequate knowledge of the biblical truths. Any brother who becomes an elder should know at least fifty percent of the basic truths of the New Testament. I must tell you honestly that some of those in the position of elders know even less than five percent of the basic truths of God’s economy. But who can put these brothers out of the eldership? No one can do this. Furthermore, if these brothers were asked to resign, they would be disappointed.
Once again I wish to emphasize the fact that being an elder does not depend on a human appointment. Rather, being an elder depends on the degree to which one has the proper knowledge of the New Testament economy.
At present, the best way to gain the knowledge of God’s New Testament economy is to use the Recovery Version with the footnotes and the Life-study messages. Do not think that my intention in saying this is to promote my materials. I am simply telling you honestly what is the best way to be constituted with the New Testament truths.
It is difficult to gain from the writings of expositors the adequate knowledge of the basic truths of the New Testament. The reason is that those writings were not put out with this intention or burden. On the contrary, those writings, composed for scholarship, are in a different category and may actually hinder you from receiving the knowledge of the basic truths.
Again I say, if you would be qualified to be an elder and take care of the church, you need to be constituted with the New Testament truths. If you do not have this divine deposit in your being, you are not qualified for the eldership, because you lack the necessary “capital.”
Those who are not constituted with the truth may be able to bring people into the church life, but they are not able to take them on. One day a certain person said to me, “Brother Lee, I can only bring people into the church. I am not able to give them nourishment and to build them up.” I replied, “Brother, it is very good that you realize this. I hope that you will not go beyond the matter of bringing people in. Do not try to go further. Let others do a further work on the saints.” However, this brother’s actual practice was very different. Because he did not have an adequate knowledge of the truth, he was not qualified to be an elder. To be sure, he was not divinely appointed as an elder.
Who is the one divinely appointed to be an elder? Again, I would say that the one who is divinely appointed is the one who knows at least a major part of the New Testament truths. This is his qualification and also his capital. Furthermore, I again encourage you to gain this capital by using the Recovery Version with the footnotes and the Life-study messages. I would also ask you to seek a way to help the saints in your locality to use these rich materials. This will be a great profit to all the churches.
