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Scripture Reading: Acts 1:14; 2:46; 4:24; 5:12; 15:25; Rom. 15:6; 12:16; 1 Cor. 1:10; 2 Cor. 13:11; Phil. 1:27; 2:2; 4:2
Our fellowship in this elders’ training of 1986 will not be that much on vision, teaching, or doctrine. My burden to have this training is absolutely for the practice. Since October of 1984 the Lord has begun something new in Taiwan. Some brothers from the United States went to Taiwan, and they got burned with the fire of the Lord’s new move. They came back to the United States with this fire. Because I dared not control, restrict, or quench this fire that has begun in the United States, I had a burden to pass on some practical points of fellowship according to the urgent need. Again, this is a training of practices, not doctrine.
The troubles that Christianity has been suffering always come from two sources — doctrines and practices. Most of the debates are concerning the doctrines. Doctrines, of course, bring in practices, and practices follow doctrines. The New Testament gives us the vision, the revelation, concerning the church. Following the revelation are the practices. It is not true to say that some of the practices in the New Testament are not according to the revelation concerning the church. Actually, every practice in the New Testament is according to the divine revelation, the heavenly vision, of the church. Throughout our history in the Lord’s recovery, all our practices have been according to what we have seen of the Lord’s revelation, of the heavenly vision.
We need such a training concerning how to take care of the practical side of the recovery. Just to talk about the recovery is not sufficient. Just to say that you are in the recovery, for the recovery, and one with the recovery does not mean too much. This is like a “kite in the air” and is not something solid on the rock, which could never be shaken. We have been in the recovery for over half a century. We have never been shaken and nothing has ever changed us because we have seen not only the doctrines, the visions, and the revelation concerning the church but also the practices.
Since October of 1984 in Taiwan we have seen and discovered something more. The practices among us have been radically changed. Even up to the present time, however, many who are very positive for the Lord’s recovery are not clear about what I am doing.
In the book of Revelation there are no elders in the churches; rather, there are the messengers who are the stars (1:16, 20). At the time that this book was written, the church had become degraded. Hence, in Revelation the Lord repudiates all formalities. Being an elder may be somewhat legal or formal. Do not desire to be an elder; desire to be a shining star. Do not be one with a mere position — be a shining star.
The Lord’s recovery has been with us for over sixty years. It was under the leadership of Brother Watchman Nee on mainland China for the first thirty years, from 1922 to 1952. The eldership greatly bothered us. I was not taking the lead in the recovery at that time, but I was always under Brother Nee’s umbrella. He talked to me personally about the problem of the eldership. Since I came out of mainland China to Taiwan and then to the United States, over the past thirty-seven years the matter of the eldership has caused me much concern and has burdened me to such an extent that I did not know how to deal with the situation. What is the main trouble? Ambition. When we were having the training on Matthew in 1976, I illustrated that a wife of an elder is not like the first lady, the wife of the president. All the wives of the elders should consider themselves as wives of slaves. Because of the poor situation, nearly everyone has ambition in the matter of the eldership. This bothers me.
In 1973 this ambition crept into the recovery. Since 1973 ambition was brought in and has been very much promoted and uplifted either secretly or openly. Ambition has been growing up to be a real “gopher” in the Lord’s recovery. According to my observation, from 1973 until the present day we have missed the mark to some extent and have suffered much loss in the rate of increase. The rate of increase in the Lord’s recovery has been very much brought down by the ambition of the elders and by the ambition of the co-workers. This ambition has damaged us very much. Throughout the past thirteen years I have been fighting against this very thing — the ambition of the elders and the ambition of the co-workers. I really hate this ambition among us. I have had some consideration that it might be better not to have a mere official eldership. We should pay attention to the way revealed in Revelation where there are only messengers or stars and no elders.
The practice in the Lord’s recovery beginning from October of 1984 and starting in Taiwan was something absolutely new. I do not like to see the dear saints from the United States going to Taiwan to see something and then coming back to the United States to merely imitate or copy it. This will not work and may even damage the situation because you probably are not so clear about the Lord’s doing. Presently, I am somewhat unhappy about the practice of the home gatherings in the United States and Canada. This practice is a mere imitation and not something carried out by seeing the vision. If you have seen a vision and act according to it, this kind of practice is valuable and worthwhile. To merely copy someone else’s doing means nothing. I would not say that you should not practice the home gatherings, but I do not believe that to merely copy or imitate would help you. Instead, you will make yourself a lifeless robot. If you mean business with the Lord’s recovery and if you mean business with His present day, up-to-date move, you must first take care of this one thing — one accord.
The four Gospels tell us how the Lord spent three and a half years to teach His disciples. Much of this teaching is recorded in the Gospels, yet the Lord said in John that He had many things to say to the disciples that they could not bear but that He would die and resurrect and come back in another form as the Spirit of reality. As the Spirit of reality, He would not only remind the disciples of what He had spoken to them but also go on to tell them something further (John 14:16-20, 25-26; 16:12-15). In the three and a half years of His earthly ministry, the Lord passed on many teachings to the disciples. Then He went away through His death and came back within three days to stay with them as the life-giving Spirit. After breathing Himself into His disciples, He stayed with them for forty days to train them to experience His invisible presence. He then ascended to the heavens, leaving the disciples on this earth. What did the one hundred twenty do? They did nothing except to pray, and the key of their prayer was the one accord (Acts 1:14).
In Matthew 18:19 the Lord spoke concerning two or three being in harmony on something in prayer. The word harmony in this verse is not as strong as the phrase one accord. The word in Greek for one accord, homothumadon, is strong and all-inclusive. Homo means “the same,” and thumos means “mind, will, purpose (soul, heart).” The Chinese version of the Bible translates this word into a Chinese word meaning “the same mind and the same will.” In Romans 15:6 the King James Version translates this word into “one mind.”
In the book of Acts the one hundred twenty prayed together in one mind, in the same mind, in the same will with the same purpose around and within the soul and the heart. Whenever we pray, we surely should exercise our spirit, but we also should be in the same mind and the same will with the same purpose around and within our soul and heart. This means that our entire being is involved. After the Lord’s ascension the one hundred twenty became the kind of persons who were in one mind, in one will, with one purpose around their soul and heart. For them to be in one accord meant that their entire beings were one. No other book of the Bible uses the word for one accord as much as Acts.
In Acts the three main factors for the spreading of the gospel as an impact were prayer, the Spirit, and the Word. According to the Bible and according to history, these three items are the only way for the gospel to be prevailing. I spent much time to consider whether it is not beyond the teaching of the Scriptures for the church to use a church meeting hall and church personnel to open a school rather than to use our time to contact people one-on-one with prayer, the Spirit, and the Word, using every inch of the meeting hall in this way for the gospel. I stressed in the past that to use other ways besides prayer, the Spirit, and the Word to promote the gospel are gimmicks.
The one accord is the key and the life pulse of prayer, the Spirit, and the Word. You may pray much, seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and acquire a lot of knowledge from the Word, yet if you are short of the one accord, you cannot see the blessing. I saw people who were desperate in praying, in getting the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and in receiving the Word, yet they were dissenting among themselves. There was no one accord.
From January 1, 1940, to December 31, 1942, I stayed in Chefoo, my hometown in mainland China. During that time the Lord brought all the saints there into the one accord, and there was a real revival with the real impact. In Shanghai, in Taiwan, and in Elden hall in Los Angeles, I also saw the effectiveness of the one accord.
In the army the impact is the morale. What is the morale in the army? The one accord. This is why no commander of any army would allow any soldier to bring in any different thought. The soldiers all think the same thing, speak the same thing, stand for the same thing, and live for the same thing. If anyone expresses anything different and is dissenting, he will be cut off in order to keep the morale. This kind of morale cannot be seen among today’s Christians. I can testify, though, that in Chefoo from 1940 through 1942 the morale, the impact, was there. Even the outsiders in Chefoo realized this. Some told people not to go to our meeting hall because if they were to go, they would get caught. People were also told that if they wanted to be a Christian, the best place for them to go was our meeting hall. During those years we also performed the casting out of demons; even the demons told people not to go to our meeting hall. The impact was really there.
Recently in Taiwan, over one hundred thirty full-timers under our training were sent out. I told them something that I never told people since I came out of mainland China — to cast out demons and heal the sick. We do not promote these things, but when the morale is in us, these things will be among us as an impact. In Acts there are three items — prayer, the Spirit, and the Word — with one key — the one accord. After Acts 15, however, this word for one accord is not used again in the book of Acts. This somewhat implies that even during this period of time described in Acts, the one accord was lost. Acts 15 describes a conference of the apostles and elders held in Jerusalem to settle the trouble concerning circumcision (vv. 1-33). At the end of Acts 15 there was a dissenting between Barnabas and Paul. After this incident I believe that the one accord to some extent was lost.
The first Epistle in the New Testament is Romans. After Paul talked so much doctrinally concerning the Christian life and church life, he told the believers in Rome that they needed to be “with one accord” and “with one mouth” (15:6). One accord includes one mind, one will, and one purpose in one soul and in one heart. Then outwardly you have one mouth. Those of us who were in Los Angeles from 1963 to 1973 can recall that we were with one accord and with one mouth. Whoever came to a meeting in those years could sense and realize the impact. Because there was no dissenting or different opinion, there was the impact. Beginning in 1973, however, ambition came into the Lord’s recovery as a poison injected into the Body, and up until today the blood has never been purified.
The Lord’s recovery in mainland China started in 1922. I was with Brother Nee until I left for Taiwan in 1949. Throughout those twenty-seven years Brother Nee was always under a suffering due to the fact that there were saints, co-workers, and elders receiving his ministry, yet it was hard to see that they were one. There were different opinions among the ones who received his ministry — “Yes, this is the way, but...” The people who received the recovery, who received Brother Nee’s teaching, would carry out what he taught in their own way. Everyone had his own way to carry out the same kind of teaching. It is ridiculous to think that this kind of practice could be successful. If a car has five occupants and everyone of them is the driver, how could the car go? Many times the ones who are not driving the car are full of opinions; they are “back-seat drivers.” When you take a ride and you are not the driver, it is best not to voice your opinion. Let the one who is driving be free to drive according to his judgment.
From 1922 to 1942 in mainland China there was “the one car” of the Lord’s recovery, yet there were different drivers. When I came into the Lord’s recovery in 1932, I saw how Brother Nee suffered because of this, but up to 1942 and 1943 by the Lord’s mercy a great revival was taking place in Chefoo through the one accord among the serving ones there. After the war I had the opportunity to come together with Brother Nee in Shanghai, and I related to him all that happened during the years I was in Chefoo. He confirmed all that we practiced and encouraged me to carry on the same thing. We must realize that to carry out the same thing we need the one accord. From the fall of 1946 to the spring of 1949, for two and a half years, the whole situation in Shanghai was under my driving. Then the impact was seen again to some extent. To some extent there was one car with one driver. The Lord was going on in those two and a half years, and there was a revival that brought Brother Nee back to the ministry.
I was then sent to Taiwan in 1949, and when I started the work there, I dropped every point which I had seen and learned that was not practical. In the first six years we had a hundredfold increase — from about four hundred to more than forty thousand. The impact was there. Even today all the churches in Taiwan still live on that foundation. They are still standing on the riches brought into the church life throughout those six years. Soon after this six-year period the brothers were influenced to invite Brother T. Austin-Sparks from England to render us more spirituality, and his coming brought in a big factor of dissension. We invited him the first time in 1955 and again in 1957. From 1955 until recently in Taiwan the impact had never come back.
When I was going back to Taiwan in October of 1984, I realized how the one accord, the morale, was lost in Taiwan and how the morale was also lost to some extent in the United States. I made the decision to go back to Taiwan since that was the place where the Lord’s recovery started abroad. I had to go there to have a new start. This new start is absolutely different. The brothers from the United States who joined the gospel preaching there can testify that it is one hundred percent different from our present way to preach the gospel, and it works. Recently, sixteen gospel teams were sent out from the church in Taipei to nearby villages. Within only twenty-one days one thousand nine hundred and seventy-five people were baptized. They did not use any gimmicks. They used prayer, the Spirit, and the Word, and they had the one accord. They had one mind and one will with one purpose in one heart and in one soul. No doubt, they had the morale.
One policeman came to maintain order when he saw a crowd gathering. Within a short time he was baptized and sat there to listen to the first lesson of the new life series. One particular person was saved on the street with no place to baptize him. The saints knocked on the door of a nearby house, thinking that this might be a house of somebody who would listen to the gospel. They asked the person who answered if they could borrow their bathroom. This person gave them permission, and while the people in the house were eating lunch, the saints went to their bathroom to baptize this newly saved one. The family asked the saints what they were doing, and the saints preached the gospel to them. Then the whole family was baptized. A number of these sixteen villages are now ready to have a church. The halls in Taipei are going to spread the church life to these nearby places.
When I went back to Taipei in 1984, fifty-two brothers were established to be elders, and twenty-eight more were added later. There are also now over one hundred thirty new full-timers in Taipei, and most of them are college graduates. The church in Taipei is prepared to receive another two hundred fifty full-timers by June of 1986.
We need to forget about our own way and our old way. I was once in this old way. I brought this way to Taiwan and to the United States, but now this way is too old. I am not contradicting myself but improving myself. The airplane manufacturers manufactured the DC-4 between 1947 and 1948. I traveled on a DC-4 when China first began to use it. When I first came to the United States, it took me over twenty-four hours to fly from Taiwan. Today I can make this trip in less than twelve hours on a DC-10. Today we have to forget about the DC-4 because we have the DC-10. This improved aircraft is made by the same manufacturer.
We cannot change the globe, but we can improve our means of transportation around the globe. We cannot change the truth either, but we can improve our practice. Our practice in the past concerning the way to meet was somewhat influenced by the traditional way. We were born into and are surrounded by traditional things that are hard for us to drop. The fact that we need to be asked by someone in the church meeting to read the Scriptures is not a good indication. Why would anyone of us not read the verses on the board spontaneously? Perhaps we are in our tradition, waiting for an assistant pastor to lead us in the Scripture reading. In the new move, which is the up-to-date move of the Lord, we want to go back to the Bible one thousand percent.
The one accord revealed in the New Testament is a great matter. This is why Paul indicated to the saints in Rome that they had to take care of being in one accord (Rom. 15:5-6). There were many troubles in the church in Corinth, and the real factor of all these troubles was dissension. Some said that they were of Paul and appreciated him. Others said that they were of Apollos and probably appreciated his way to teach the Bible. Still others appreciated Cephas, or Peter (1 Cor. 1:12). This is disaccord, dissension. Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians has more problems in it than any of his other Epistles. There are at least ten problems in 1 Corinthians, that all came out of the same source of disaccord, having different opinions and not speaking the same thing (1:10).
In 1 and 2 Corinthians Paul does not use the phrase one accord, but he does stress speaking the same thing. For one person to say that he is of Paul and another to say that he is of Apollos indicates that they are not speaking the same thing. We all have to say, “I am of Christ.” To say “I am of Paul” or “I am of Apollos” is just like Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration saying that he would make three tabernacles — one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Jesus. Then a voice came out of the cloud that overshadowed them: “This is My Son, the Beloved. Hear Him!” And suddenly, “When they looked around, they no longer saw anyone, but Jesus only with them” (Mark 9:7-8). We all need to speak the same thing. Why should Paul, Apollos, and Cephas be mentioned? This is why Paul asked the Corinthians, “Is Christ divided?” (1 Cor. 1:13). In Paul’s second Epistle to the church in Corinth he also charged them to “think the same thing” (13:11). In his letter to the Philippians Paul likewise charged the saints to think the same thing (2:2; 4:2).
If you are going to do something to follow what the Lord has been doing and is still doing in Taiwan, the first thing you must do is to recover the one accord. Before this is recovered, do not do anything else. Without the one accord you are altogether not qualified to do anything in the Lord’s new start of His new move. The Lord’s church, His Body, His testimony, has been altogether cut into pieces by the Christians through the centuries not being in one accord. Many know the Lord and know the Bible to some extent, but they would not be in one accord. Where is the one accord? It is hard to see such a thing in Christian history, so the Lord has suffered.
Today we are in the Lord’s recovery, and especially we are in His new move, His up-to-date move. We must see that the crucial need today is the recovery of this one accord. If this is not among us, we are through. Then you may say that the Lord will go to others, but it is hard for Him to go to others. The ancient Chinese did not like either the soldiers or the police, so they had a proverb that basically said, “If you leave the soldiers and come to the policeman, what is the difference?” The two are about the same. For the Lord to leave “the soldier” and go to “the policeman” is about the same. Where could the Lord go then? In a sense the Lord becomes “pitiful” because of us. He has nowhere to go, and He has come to us. He has been “pitiful” for years.
There was some kind of morale among us, but it has been nearly lost. We have many good teachings, we have the ground of the church, and we have all the divine provisions, but our morale is a problem. What is the problem? The problem is that we have nearly lost the one accord. Among the churches there is the lack of one accord. Even among the elders in one church, there is the lack of one accord. Among the saints in one locality there is also the lack of one accord. It is the same among the co-workers. Everywhere there is a lack of one accord. We say that we all are in the recovery, we are for the recovery, and we are with the ministry. We say this, but this may just be our slogan. Where is the one accord?
The one accord is the need. Do not think about others concerning this matter of the one accord. Think about yourself, your share, your portion, in this matter. We do not have much morale, because we are lacking the one accord, yet we still want to practice the things that the Lord has shown us in His recovery. We may practice them yet with no impact, no livingness, and in other words, without much fruit.
From 1970 to 1972 the migration of the saints to new places had the impact, but not today. I am quite concerned for the recent migrations to other cities. Do they have the one accord there or not? If we do not have the one accord, whether or not we migrate makes little difference. If there is no morale, to have an army or not to have an army makes little difference. What makes an army different is its morale. Do we have the morale in the church in our locality? Those of you who migrated to another place must ask yourselves if you have the one accord. If not, you have destroyed your migration. You will waste your time in being there. To have the home gatherings without the one accord means nothing. To go out to visit others to distribute the booklets needs the one accord. Without the one accord all our doings will be in vain.
We must realize that the practices in the Lord’s recovery are not matters for others to copy. You must have the life. To do anything you need the life. You have to see what the landmark was of the one hundred twenty in the book of Acts. The landmark that divides the Gospels and the Acts was not the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The landmark was the one accord of the one hundred twenty. If you want to experience the baptism in the Spirit, you must have the one accord. If all the members of a local church have the one accord, the baptism in the Spirit will be there. If you really want to practice the proper way to preach the gospel, you need the one accord. Without this key, no door can be opened. The one accord is the “master key to all the rooms,” the master key to every blessing in the New Testament. This is why Paul told Euodias and Syntyche that they needed this one accord (Phil. 4:2). Paul knew that these sisters loved the Lord but that they had lost the one accord.
What we need is to recover this one accord. If we mean business to go along with the Lord’s present-day move, we need this one accord. Who is right does not mean anything; we need this one accord. We need to have the same mind and the same will for the same purpose with the same soul and the same heart. Philippians tells us that this matter starts from our spirit (1:27), yet we must realize that we are not persons of spirit only. We are persons also of the mind, will, purpose, soul, and heart. For us to be in the same one spirit with the same one soul, one mind, and one will is to have the one accord, which is the key to all the New Testament blessings and bequests. Otherwise, we will repeat the pitiful history of Christianity by being another group of Christians repeating the same kind of disaccord.
