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Our burden is to fellowship concerning the practice of the Lord’s advanced recovery today. Beginning in 1984 I began to have a new study that lasted about four and a half years. The subject of my study was the New Testament way of Christian service. We needed to see how to serve God, how to meet together, how to function, how to carry out the work, and how to preach the gospel. We needed to investigate how to carry out these things according to God’s New Testament economy.
Actually, throughout the history of the church, some of the seeking saints saw certain things concerning how to serve, how to meet, how to function, and how to preach the gospel to save sinners. They saw the truth concerning such things as baptism by immersion and the administration of the presbytery, the eldership, in the church. A big advance concerning the practice of the church life was with Zinzendorf and the Moravian Brethren in the eighteenth century. Then in the nineteenth century the Lord raised up the British Brethren to recover more. In the twentieth century the Lord brought us in mainland China into His recovery through Brother Watchman Nee. He took the lead to read about the history of the church and to read the main writings of the seeking ones throughout the centuries. We put many of the things that we saw into practice. Later, we found out that some of the things in our practice were not so fitting. In 1931 the Brethren sent some saints to visit us in Shanghai, and their visit caused a lot of trouble. Brother Nee went abroad to visit them in 1933, and he saw the real situation among them. Through that visit he saw the shortages in the practice of the Brethren. Then he saw the boundary of the local church and the local ground of the church to keep the unique oneness of the Body of Christ. The Brethren did not see this. Later, he saw the revelation of the meeting of the church as unveiled in 1 Corinthians 14. According to this revelation, when the whole church comes together, each saint should have something to share, so “each one has” (v. 26). Brother Nee called this kind of meeting a meeting of mutuality. This meeting is not according to the traditional way of meeting with one person speaking and the rest listening. Such a traditional way of meeting has become the major meeting and the major structure of the practice of Christianity. If the meeting with one person speaking and the rest listening were taken away from Christianity, the entire structure of Christianity would collapse. Brother Nee saw that this meeting was not scriptural, and he said that it was according to the customs of the nations (2 Kings 17:8, NASB).
In 1984 I fully realized that we needed to be adjusted and have some advancement in our practice. I saw three major problems in our practice. The first problem was concerning our practice in preaching the gospel. According to the New Testament, the preaching of the gospel should be practiced by the believers going out to visit people, not by inviting people to come to their meeting. Peter spoke to a big congregation on the day of Pentecost, but this happened under God’s sovereignty. That big congregation was prepared by God. The major way to preach the gospel is by going to visit people to bring them the Lord Jesus. Related to the preaching of the gospel, the word go is a strong word in the New Testament. The Lord Jesus charged us to go to disciple the nations (Matt. 28:19), and He Himself set up a pattern of going to people. Instead of inviting people to come to Him, He went to visit them. First, He came down from the heavens to the earth to visit people. While He was on this earth, He went out again and again. He went to village after village (Luke 8:1). He sent out the twelve and the seventy to visit people. The Lord charged the seventy to find God’s chosen sons of peace among the wolves (10:1-9). The practice of preaching the gospel in the New Testament is a practice of visiting people, but our practice was different from this. When we began to practice visiting people with the gospel by knocking on their doors, the results confirmed the Lord’s way.
The second major problem in our practice was concerning the way to meet. Brother Nee saw the truth concerning the meeting of mutuality revealed in 1 Corinthians 14 in 1937, and his messages were eventually printed in the book entitled The Normal Christian Church Life. In 1948 he released the messages that are now in the book entitled Church Affairs. In that book he pointed out that the Lord’s Day message meeting with one man speaking and the rest listening is not scriptural and is according to the customs of the nations. In 1984 I was reminded of Brother Nee’s fellowship, and I realized that our way of meeting was not up to the standard of the biblical revelation. The third major problem that I saw related to our practice was the matter of how the saints should function.
As a remedy to these problems, the Lord showed me three major items that are all new to me. He showed me the perfecting of the saints in Ephesians 4, the church meeting in mutuality in 1 Corinthians 14, and the New Testament priesthood of the gospel of God. Ephesians 4 tells us that the Head in His ascension gave His Body, the church, some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers (vv. 11-12). Ephesians 4 does not say that these gifted persons are for doing the particular work in their respective lines. It says that all these gifted persons were given by the Head to the Body for the perfecting of the saints so that the saints, after being perfected, can do the work of the New Testament ministry to build up the Body of Christ. Although Ephesians 4 says this clearly, our practice has not matched this revelation. This chapter tells us about the building up of the Body of Christ, which is the very work of the ministry of the New Testament.
The Lord also showed me something further concerning the proper church meeting unveiled in 1 Corinthians 14. This chapter is a chapter encouraging all the saints to prophesy. Paul says that we can all prophesy one by one. We may feel that we cannot prophesy, but Paul says that we all can. We have the capacity to prophesy. When I use the word capacity, I mean the power, or the ability. We have the capacity, the ability, to eat and digest food according to the nature of our human life. Furthermore, all of us normally have the ability in our human life to speak. Human beings have the capacity, the ability, to speak according to their very nature. Paul says that we can all prophesy one by one because the capacity, the ability, to prophesy is in the divine life, which the believers possess and enjoy. First Corinthians 14:23 through 25 says that if all prophesy, when the whole church comes together, there will be the power there to convict people, to judge people, and to expose people’s real situation. When Paul says in verse 24, “If all prophesy,” this means that we all have a universal obligation to prophesy. We have the capacity to prophesy, so we have the obligation to prophesy.
Verses 1 and 39 of 1 Corinthians 14 both say that we should desire earnestly to prophesy. We have the capacity and the obligation to prophesy, and we should desire earnestly to prophesy. Paul also tells us in verse 12 that we should seek to excel for the building up of the church. This means that we should seek to prophesy because, as Paul says, “He who prophesies builds up the church” (v. 4).
I became clear that it is altogether possible to have the meeting of mutuality revealed in 1 Corinthians 14. Of course, this requires much exercise and practice. Due to the traditional practice of Christianity throughout the centuries of church history, many may feel that it is impossible to have the meeting that is revealed in 1 Corinthians 14. But since I saw the universal capacity, the universal obligation, and the universal desire to prophesy, I began to see that it is possible. There is the full possibility for the attendants of a church meeting to prophesy one by one because all of us have the divine life. There are many spiritual abilities, or capacities, in the very nature of the divine life that we possess. A dog cannot speak a human language because the dog’s life does not have this capacity. Human beings can learn a language because in the nature of the human life there is the ability to learn a language. In the same way there is a spiritual capacity, an ability, in the divine life to speak for God.
When I began to help the saints in Taipei to practice the God-ordained way, someone said to me, “Brother Lee, everything that you have shared in the past two years is scriptural, but it cannot be worked out.” I must say, however, that I have the full assurance that this God-ordained way can be worked out because the Bible tells us so. The Bible says that we can all prophesy and that whenever we come together, each one has something for building up. This is our obligation. Why do we say that we cannot do this? If we give up this obligation, our attitude is that we need a “clergyman” to replace us so that he can speak to us all the time. We may feel that we need someone to speak to us who has the learning and skill. We may have the attitude of letting a few brothers bear the burden while we rest. But this practice annuls the spiritual capacity of all the saints. I believe that many of the so-called “laymen” in Christianity may be more gifted than many of the pastors.
In the spring of 1989 the Lord also showed us the priesthood of the gospel in the New Testament. The Brethren stressed that all the believers are priests, and we followed them in this matter. We stressed the universal priesthood of the believers, but it was not until recently that the Lord showed us the main offering of the New Testament priests. What should a New Testament priest offer to God? In the past we saw that our praises to God and the things we do for God are spiritual sacrifices (Heb. 13:15-16; Phil. 4:18). However, we did not see that the main work of the New Testament priests is to offer the persons saved through their preaching as spiritual sacrifices to God. The sinners saved through our gospel preaching are the main offerings that we should offer to God in His New Testament economy. In Romans 15:16 Paul says that he was a laboring priest of the gospel of God. Today we should preach the gospel as priests.
In giving us the revelation of the priesthood of the gospel of God, the raising up of the new believers, the perfecting of the saints, and prophesying, the Lord has given us a conclusion to our four-and-a-half-year study. I considered whether I could find any more verses in the New Testament concerning how to serve, how to meet, how to function, how to preach the gospel, etc. I believe that we have exhausted the revelation in the New Testament concerning the Christian way of service. We now have a conclusion to all the findings of the saints throughout the centuries. We must practice the New Testament priesthood of the gospel of God. The gospel of God regenerates sinners, making them the members of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ. The gospel of God begins from the incarnation of the Triune God with the view of regenerating people and concludes with the New Jerusalem, which is the ultimate consummation of the building up of the Body of Christ. The gospel of God is not just telling people that they are sinners and that if they believe in Jesus, they will be saved and have peace and joy. This is only a small part of the gospel of God. The gospel of God is all-inclusive. As the New Testament priests, we are handling the gospel of God to save sinners, to raise them up, and to perfect them until they can prophesy.
Only two chapters in the New Testament tell us in a clear and definite way how the building up of the Body of Christ takes place — Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 14. Ephesians 4 refers to the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the New Testament ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ. First Corinthians 14 reveals that prophesying is for the building up of the church. Prophesying is excelling because it builds up the church. Speaking in tongues is not excelling because it does not build up the church. This means that if we do not perfect the saints to prophesy, we have not reached the level of building up the church. Strictly speaking, there has been very little building up among us, because we are short of the perfecting of the saints and the prophesying. We may care for having a big congregation, but do we care for the building up of the Body of Christ? We may only have the thought of edifying some of the saints to build them up as Christians. We do not have much thought concerning the direct building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ. The perfecting of the saints and prophesying for the building up of the church are missing among us. The Lord desires to recover these items for the building up of His organic Body.
In order to practice the New Testament priesthood of the gospel, we have to visit people. The conclusion of the Old Testament priesthood and the beginning of the New Testament priesthood were in John the Baptist. He was born to be a priest. Surely his father Zachariah and his mother Elizabeth expected to see their son function in the priesthood by wearing the priestly robe, eating the priestly food, and staying in the priestly place, the temple. But probably to their surprise their son became “naughty.” He would not wear the robe of the priest. Instead, he wore a garment of camel’s hair. The camel was an unclean animal according to the Levitical regulations (Lev. 11:4). Instead of eating the priestly food, John the Baptist ate locusts and wild honey. His living was uncultured and without any background of religion. He became a new start in God’s move. He declared that people should repent for the kingdom of the heavens. When people repented, he “threw” them into the water. He even worked in a wild way. His living and work ended the Old Testament priesthood. John was the first New Testament priest practicing the New Testament priesthood. He did not offer the animal sacrifices, which were types of Christ. Instead, he offered the repentant sinners as sacrifices to God. These repentant sinners were to be parts of the upcoming, enlarged, and corporate Christ. Paul as a pattern of the New Testament priests of the gospel of God also offered the saved sinners to God as spiritual sacrifices (Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5).
The major job of the priests is to offer the offerings. This is their major business. We have to help the saints realize that we are all priests of the gospel. We must go to save sinners to make them offerings that we can offer to God. After this we should help them to grow by having home meetings with them. To have home meetings with them is the best way to help them to grow in life and in truth. Then we have to perfect them, and the best way to do this is through the group meetings. Having home meetings in the new beginners’ homes is the best way to raise them up, and having group meetings is the best way to perfect the growing saints. Then we have to lead them to prophesy. In this way they become the acting, functioning, living, real members of the church life.
The Lord is going to carry out this scriptural way because this has been spoken in His Word. Heaven and earth can pass away, but the Lord’s words will never pass away (Matt. 24:35). Every part of His Word will be fulfilled. Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 14 will be fulfilled. The New Testament priesthood of the gospel will be carried out. It is just a matter of time. I have the deep feeling that now is the age for the Lord to carry this out. When the Lord’s move comes, it comes like a tide. When the tide comes, no one can stop it. Today in the world, democracy is like a tide. Many nations desire to have some form of democracy. The Lord’s move today is also like a tide. We have to follow the Lord in an up-to-date way. Right after we began to pay attention to preaching the gospel by knocking on people’s doors, the Southern Baptists also picked up this practice. In their recent convention in Las Vegas, many of them went out to knock on people’s doors.
As the leading ones, we need to ask ourselves what we will do as we function in the churches. Shall we remain in our old practice prior to October of 1984? Shall we preach the gospel by inviting people to our meetings and meet on the Lord’s Day morning with a big congregation and a good speaker while the rest sit and listen? We need to ask ourselves where the real functioning of the acting members in the church is. How do the co-workers among us function? Are they perfecting the saints? We are short in our experience of the scriptural way of service. We must cooperate with the Lord.
I do not expect this God-ordained way to be fully consummated among us in five years. Rather, it may take twenty, twenty-five, thirty, or fifty years for the Lord to carry this out. To the Lord one thousand years are as one day. We have published many books concerning the scriptural way of meeting and serving for the building up of the Body of Christ in the advance of the Lord’s recovery today. Sooner or later, some of the seeking saints will pick up some copies of these books and practice what has been released in them.
I do not like to impose this on anyone, but I do have a burden to promote this scriptural way. This way is like a diamond that I am presenting. I will not impose this diamond on you, but if you are wise, you will not miss the opportunity to pay the price to buy it. I realize that some of the churches are not fully ready to take this scriptural way. I am not saying that we need to begin practicing these four major practices right away. But we all have to see that in this age something is coming as a tide. Whether you are for it or against it, the tide will still come. I have the full assurance that this way is easy to work out. We only need to practice it by laboring, striving, and struggling.
In our locality we need to pray and seek the Lord’s leading concerning how to take the church on. It is not necessary for all the churches to be unified at the same time. We need to go on according to what we feel in the Lord and before the Lord. I would like to share something with those of us who have a burden to practice this new way. The best way to begin such a practice is to have a small local conference of three or four messages. In this conference we can present to the saints what the Lord has shown us. We should tell them that this practice is the practice of the New Testament priesthood. Therefore, we all need to have a new beginning in our Christian life every day by being revived every morning. When we have this conference, we should ask the church to pray that we could have the power to stir up all the saints to be revived and ask them to consecrate themselves anew for this practice. Later, some arrangement should be made for the consecrated saints so that they can be formed into groups of three to go out in a regular way to reach people.
The saints do not need to do too much because that will tire them out and frustrate them. It is better not to do too much. Instead, we need to labor regularly and constantly. We only need to go out once a week for two hours. If we have the proper practice with adequate prayer, we will get some to believe and be baptized. Once we baptize two or three new ones, we should not go out to gain more people. We need to care for the two or three that the Lord has given us by having home meetings with them in their homes. We should have home meetings with them at least once a week. Probably at the beginning we need to visit them twice a week, every three or four days. We have to visit them to nourish and cherish them. Then we gradually need to encourage them to come out of their homes to join the group meetings.
We need to take care of the new believers for at least six months. It is best if we can care for them for a year until they are established. After one year of care, they can be perfected. We should carry out the new way according to all the fellowship that we have published in the recent past. If we follow the details of this fellowship in our practice, we will see that it really works. The new ones will be brought on quickly or slowly according to their particular case. As we care for them for six months to a year, they will be ready to present themselves as a living sacrifice to God as Romans 12:1 instructs. Eventually, they should be able to do what we can do in the priesthood of the gospel. Our group meetings will increase and eventually will have to divide.
We hope that at least about one-third of the saints in the church would practice this kind of gospel visitation. Suppose there is a church with one hundred saints. The leading brothers should pray, “Lord, raise up at least thirty-five of the saints to practice the priesthood of the gospel. We even ask You for fifty.” I have the assurance that if we practice this way according to what we have published, every saint who is exercised in this way will bring in two new ones a year. With this kind of endeavor, it is possible for the church to double in a year. Even if the church increases yearly by thirty percent, that would be the fastest-growing church on this earth.
I would like to say again that the first step is to have a conference to stir up the saints. Then the saints who want to take this way can be grouped into teams of three to go out to visit people regularly. They can keep going to visit the ones they gain for six months to a year. After one year a group meeting should increase in size so that it can be divided into two groups.
The group meeting occupies eighty percent of the practical church life. The main part of the church life depends on the group meetings. In the group meetings the saints will be spontaneously perfected to prophesy. Whether or not the saints will prophesy depends upon our practice of the group meetings. We need to take the first step to get people saved and the second step to have home meetings with them in order to raise them up in the way that parents raise up their children. Then we need to bring them into the group meetings so that they can be perfected. Nearly everyone who attends the group meetings constantly and regularly will prophesy. They will be able to prophesy, and they will have a desire to prophesy. In order to practice the group meetings in an organic way, we have much to learn.
We do not want to compel people to take anything or impose what we have learned on others, but we need to have some discernment to know the more excellent things. The four major steps in the advance of the Lord’s recovery today are workable, but they require our constant and regular labor. In Colossians 1:28 Paul says that he announced Christ, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom to present every man full-grown in Christ. Then in verse 29 he says, “For which also I labor, struggling according to His operation which operates in me in power.” We need this kind of labor. This new way will make everyone busy because it will afford everyone the opportunity to function, to serve.
The governing principle of the Lord’s ordained way is that it affords equal opportunity to all the members of the Body of Christ. In preaching the gospel, in home meetings, in the group meetings, and in prophesying in the church meetings, the opportunity is afforded to each of the saints. This is God’s way. The traditional way robs the saints of their opportunity to function and gives this opportunity to a small clerical class. Thus, the clergy has all the opportunities, and they do everything. The so-called laymen are left with little opportunity to do anything. In this clergy-laity system the saints are annulled in their capacity of the divine life. In the divine life there is the capacity, the power, the ability, to speak for the Lord. According to the old, traditional way, the believers seemingly have little ability because they are not allowed to participate in anything. They become pew members, coming to a Lord’s Day service to listen to a professional speaker. The Lord’s ordained way releases the saints from the bondage of this system.
Of course, to have any change is difficult at the beginning. To take the new way is not so easy because we are not used to it. I fully sympathize with the elders who are taking the lead and bearing the responsibility of the churches. It is easy to carry on in the old way because so much of the service is carried out in a routine way. There is not the need of much labor. But to carry out the new way, we have to practice diligently to learn something. Then we have to help others to enter into what we have learned to bring them into functioning with equal opportunity. I believe that in another five years we will begin to see the consequence, the result, the coming out, of the new way. We want to be brought into a situation in which everyone can preach the gospel, everyone can take care of new ones, everyone can perfect others in the group meetings, and everyone can speak forth the Lord into others. Thus, whenever we come together, we will have many ministers. We must exercise to discern the excellent things and the excellent way. The new way is the excellent way to organically build up the Body of Christ.
