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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 14
In this chapter we want to fellowship concerning our need to pick up the new way to practice the Lord’s present recovery. In order to meet the Lord’s present need, we must enter into two portions of His Word: 1 Corinthians 14 and Ephesians 4:11-16.
We want to begin our fellowship by studying 1 Corinthians 14. The subject of this chapter of forty verses is not only prophesying but also the encouragement to prophesy. In verse 1 Paul says, “Pursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.” This verse shows that we need to have an earnest desire to prophesy. In verse 5 he says, “I desire...that you would prophesy.” Then in verse 12 he says, “Seek that you may excel for the building up of the church.” To prophesy is to excel, because “he who prophesies builds up the church” (v. 4). The gift of prophesying is an excelling gift. All the other gifts are not as high or excelling. In verse 39 Paul says, “So then, my brothers, desire earnestly the prophesying.” From these verses we can see that the apostle Paul is encouraging, charging, and urging us to prophesy. After covering many items in the first thirteen chapters of 1 Corinthians, Paul encourages us in chapter 14 to seek this excelling gift for the building up of the church.
To prophesy in 1 Corinthians 14 is not in the sense of foretelling or predicting. To prophesy is to speak for the Lord, and in our speaking for the Lord, we have to speak forth the Lord and speak the Lord into others. To prophesy is to dispense the very Christ whom we have experienced into others. The subject of 1 Corinthians 14 is prophesying, which is speaking Christ forth into others, dispensing Christ into others by our speaking. This is not human or ordinary speaking but divine and extraordinary speaking.
According to verse 2 of chapter 1, 1 Corinthians was written not only to the church in Corinth but also to “all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, who is theirs and ours.” This Epistle is to us. It is an Epistle to all the local churches. First Corinthians is a book on Christ as our portion, so verse 2 refers to Christ as being “theirs and ours.” Christ is their portion and our portion. He is the portion of all His believers. A believer in Christ should be an enjoyer of Christ, a caller on Christ. Our calling on Him is to receive Him, to breathe Him in, to enjoy Him, and to take Him as our portion for our daily practical needs. Every day and every minute we need this Christ as our support, as our supply, so we have to call on Him all the time. To exercise our spirit to call “O Lord Jesus” is our spiritual breathing. By this kind of breathing, we receive the life supply and the enjoyment of Christ to live Christ. We live Christ by calling on Him as our portion.
In the first two chapters of 1 Corinthians we can see the enjoyment of Christ as our portion. In chapter 3 the growth in life is revealed (vv. 6-7). First Corinthians shows us that when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus to enjoy Him, this enjoyment issues in the growth in life. Little children grow by their eating, their enjoyment, of the proper food. If a child eats a lot for three years, but there is no evidence of his growth, something must be wrong. The eating, the enjoyment of food, issues in the growth in life. Furthermore, many of the problems that we have in our physical body can be solved by eating the proper food. The life supply that we get from the healthy food kills many germs within us. We may enjoy the taste of good food without realizing that we are taking in many antibiotics. While the food is nourishing us, it is also killing germs and healing us to give us the best health. Our physical strength comes from the nourishing food that we eat. Our eating of the nourishing food issues in the growth in life so that the problems within our physical body can be solved. In like manner, the growth in the divine life comes from our eating, from our enjoyment, of Christ. Because we eat Christ and enjoy Him, we grow, and as we grow, we heal ourselves. By the end of 1 Corinthians 11 many spiritual diseases have been covered. These diseases are healed by the enjoyment of Christ that issues in the growth in life.
Beginning in chapter 12, Paul introduces another subject. This subject is related to our function. A healthy body not only grows but also functions. The more a child eats, the more he grows, and the more he grows, the more he functions. A newborn babe has ears, eyes, hands, and legs, but without the adequate growth these members will not be able to function adequately. There is the need of development, and the development comes from the growth. Eating issues in the growth, and the growth develops all the parts of our body in their functions. A newborn babe cannot see clearly, but after a few months he is able to see. The seeing comes by the development of his seeing organ through the growth in life. First Corinthians shows us that we need to feed on Christ, to get the nourishment, to enjoy Him. It is a practical matter of life for us to enjoy Christ. Then we will grow, and our function will be developed. Every member has its own function, but in the Body of Christ the top function is to speak for Christ, to prophesy.
First Corinthians first shows us Christ as our portion for us to enjoy. Out from this enjoyment comes the growth, and the growth serves to develop our spiritual organs. The functions of these organs are for the building up of the Body. Thus, 1 Corinthians eventually consummates in the building up of the church. It reveals to us that the final result of enjoying Christ is neither the growth in life nor the development of the gifts but the building up of the Body, the church. Therefore, 1 Corinthians is a book on Christ and the church. Christ can be enlarged and extended by our enjoying of Him. This enjoying of Him issues in the growth in life, and the growth in life brings in much development. As we grow physically, every member and organ of our body is fully developed. Then our entire physical body with every member is functioning, and this functioning has one goal — to build up our body. The functioning of the organs and members of our physical body equals the building up of our body. The more we exercise, work, move, and function, the more our body is built up. Similarly, the functioning of the members of the Body of Christ is the building up of the Body. The more the members of the Body of Christ function, the more the Body is built up.
In Christ’s Body the excelling organ is the speaking organ. Paul, however, strongly belittles the gift of speaking in tongues and exalts the gift of prophecy to the uttermost. To build up the Body of Christ, the excelling function, or gift, is prophecy. In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul concentrates on prophesying. To prophesy is to excel, to place us at the highest point, in the building up of the Body of Christ. In the building up of the Body of Christ, prophesying is the top function.
When I returned to Taipei in 1984, I was burdened by the Lord to find out a new, scriptural way for us to meet and to serve for the building up of the Body of Christ. By October of 1984 I had a deep and clear realization that all of Christianity had come nearly to a standstill. Statistics showed that some of the major denominations were decreasing in number. Whereas the increase in Christianity had been very low, the Muslims and the Buddhists had much increase. We had also come nearly to a standstill in our increase. This fact greatly burdened me for our situation in the Lord’s recovery. I went to Taipei to do some research, some experimental work.
At the very beginning of my study I found out that for the church to grow up with the proper increase, there is the need for the proper preaching of the gospel. To have the increase in life we need to beget many new ones. If we stop begetting, we will be terminated. If the human race did not have the element of begetting, it would be terminated within a short amount of time. The factor of begetting has kept the human race going on from one man whose name was Adam to billions of people. Begetting is the base of the Lord’s move. Without begetting for the increase and spread of the church, we cannot build up anything. Beginning in 1974, I observed that within ten years the churches in Orange County, California, had very little increase. Moreover, by 1984 the church in Taipei had decreased in number over the previous twenty years. How can we talk about the building up of the church when we are not begetting or multiplying? I realized that we had to sacrifice something and suffer some loss initially in order to take the new way, but what was the use of remaining in the old way in the same unfruitful state? We needed to sacrifice something to find out a new way. For the Lord to have a proper way out of the denominational traditions, we must take care of four crucial steps: gospel preaching, home meetings, group meetings, and church meetings.
The proper preaching of the gospel is not at all according to the traditional way. I hate tradition to the uttermost because I fully realize that it has greatly damaged and killed many of us without our awareness. Day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, the evil one, Satan, has been using tradition to slaughter and annul us. Tradition is oldness, and oldness is staleness. Oldness, staleness, and tradition are synonymous. The practice of degraded Christianity, which we to some extent still retain, has become stale. This was the reason that I paid a great price to return to Taiwan in 1984 and stay there for a period of time.
While I was there, I was before the Lord day and night concerning what He wanted to do. I was considering the way to carry out the proper preaching of the gospel that was outside of tradition and according to God’s ordained way revealed in the Bible. I believe that the Lord showed us this way. Concerning the preaching of the gospel, we are fully clear that we need to go to visit people by knocking on their doors. There are many ways to preach the gospel, but visiting people by knocking on their doors is the top way for preaching the gospel.
Now that we have picked up the God-ordained way of preaching the gospel by visiting people in their homes, others are following us to do the same thing. In a conference of some Catholic bishops in 1987, one bishop said that if we have never knocked on people’s doors, we have never consecrated ourselves to the preaching of the gospel. The Southern Baptist denomination recently decided to train eighty-nine thousand young laymen to go to visit people in their homes in Texas to get one million people saved within two months. They said that preaching the gospel by visiting people in their homes is according to the New Testament plan and will never be improved on. They discovered that this is the top way to preach the gospel. Out of this one million they intend to baptize seventy thousand to make them members of the Southern Baptist denomination. Their success in this endeavor will contribute to convincing all the believers that the top way to preach the gospel is to visit people where they are, to go to their homes.
To preach the gospel by visiting people in their homes does not exclude other ways of preaching the gospel. Peter took advantage of the situation on the day of Pentecost to speak to thousands of people, and three thousand were added in one day. This was a special occasion arranged by the Lord, but it was not the God-ordained way to preach the gospel. The God-ordained way is to go to people where they are. Because they are in their homes, we must go there.
Actually, to knock on doors means to visit people. This is the scientific way to preach the gospel. It has been fully tested, and the results have been marvelous wherever it has been practiced in a proper way. Anything that is scientific remains. To preach the gospel to the people where they are is not only scientific but also logical and reasonable. Can we be satisfied by merely bringing a few people into Christ by inviting them to come to us? We invited many new ones to our love feasts in the past, but we did not bring in that many.
A spiritual giant may have big campaigns for the preaching of the gospel, but what is the real result for the building up of the church? Furthermore, when this spiritual giant is gone, who has been perfected to preach the gospel? Tradition has killed us, cheated us, and deceived us, so we must come back to the ordained way of perfecting all the saints. Ephesians 4:11 and 12 say, “He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints.” The evangelists are not only for preaching the gospel but also for the perfecting of the saints to do the work of preaching the gospel as they do. We need to be perfected by some evangelists. We do not know how to preach the gospel in a proper and adequate way. Anyone can move his fingers on the keys of a piano, but to learn how to play the piano, a person must be perfected. The Lord’s way is for all of us to be perfected. We need to be perfected by the evangelists who are the experts in preaching the gospel.
Although we have seen the light concerning how to preach the gospel in the most effective way, we are still not too clear regarding how to have the home meetings. For this one thing I reconsidered the entire New Testament chapter by chapter. The first mention of something related to the home meetings is in Matthew 18:20: “Where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst.” Later, we are told in Acts that the early believers met from house to house (2:46; 5:42). The phrase from house to house means “according to houses.” This means that every believer’s house had a meeting. The number of meetings equaled the number of the believers’ houses. The Epistles show us that the early churches often met in a certain saint’s home, such as the church in the house of Prisca and Aquila (Rom. 16:3, 5), the church in the house of Nymphas (Col. 4:15), and the church in the house of Philemon (Philem. 1-2).
Although we know these things concerning the home meetings, we still cannot find much in the New Testament regarding how to have the home meetings. After we learned the proper way of preaching the gospel according to God’s ordained way as revealed in the Bible, we began to ask how we should take care of the home meetings. At first, the trainees in Taipei used Truth Lessons for their home meetings. Later, we published Life Lessons specifically to take care of the home meetings with the newly baptized ones.
The New Testament does not say much about how to have the small group meetings. Matthew 18:20 refers to two or three being gathered together. This may be considered also as a small group. Acts 12 says that while Peter was imprisoned, the saints came together to pray in Mary’s home (v. 12). This may also be considered as a group meeting. In Hebrews 10:25 Paul says, “Not abandoning our own assembling together...but exhorting one another.” This verse may indicate a group meeting. The above three verses, however, do not tell us what to do in a group meeting. This is all that the New Testament says concerning this matter.
First Corinthians 14 and Ephesians 4 tell us much more regarding how to have the church meetings. We are more clear concerning the care of the church meetings because we have 1 Corinthians 14 — a whole chapter of forty verses instructing us how to meet as a church. Verse 23 refers to the whole church coming together in one place. First Corinthians 14 and Ephesians 4 are particular chapters in the New Testament regarding the building up of the Body of Christ. The more that I speak on these two chapters, the more the light comes. Ephesians 4 has to be connected to 1 Corinthians 14 because without the perfecting of the saints, there is no possibility of having the saints prophesy one by one in the meeting, that is, to have the meeting that is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 14:26. Brother Nee saw this matter over fifty years ago, in 1937, but he told us that he could not find a way to practice it. He emphasized it again in 1948, but within a short time the Communists took over mainland China. Brother Nee was put into prison, I was sent out, and we were frustrated again from practicing the revelation that he had seen in 1 Corinthians 14:26.
After four years of study beginning in 1984 in Taipei, the Lord has given us a clear view of 1 Corinthians 14 and Ephesians 4. In June of 1988 these two chapters came to the surface. First Corinthians 14 is a chapter centered on prophesying. The writer encourages the receivers of his Epistle to pursue, to desire, to seek, to excel, and to learn to prophesy. Prophesying does not come in an easy way. A student cannot get a degree without proper and diligent study. We need to pursue, desire, seek, and learn so that we may excel in prophesying for the building up of the Body of Christ.
In October of 1988 I began to tell the saints in Taipei how to prophesy. I was like a coach teaching them the best way, the top way, the excelling way, to play ball. Within three weeks I saw the success in their church meetings. In the past many saints did not know what to do in the church meetings. The leading ones would charge them and urge them to speak, but they did not know how to speak or what to speak. I encouraged all the elders, co-workers, and full-timers to take the lead to practice to prophesy by composing a prophecy at the end of every week. They have taken the lead to practice this, and many of the saints have been brought into it.
Every morning during the week, we should enjoy the Lord in certain verses. We can take down some notes concerning what we enjoy of the Lord each morning. Then we will have notes from six mornings of enjoyment. On Saturday night we can look over our notes of what we have enjoyed during the week. From these notes we can have a topic to compose a short prophecy that is good for us to speak for three minutes. By practicing to speak what we have composed, we can determine whether it is too long or too short, whether we have to delete something or add something. Some in Taipei even pass on their composition of prophecy to someone who acts as a coach to give them more instructions to correct and adjust it. The saints are happy because now they know what to do and how to speak in the church meetings.
We have all the tools that we need to prophesy in the church meetings. We have the Recovery Version, which is a properly translated New Testament, with footnotes that open up the text and many helpful cross references. We also have the Life-study messages to help us. We are like carpenters who have the best tools to do the best carpentry, as unashamed workmen, “cutting straight the word of the truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). We also have a living spirit to pray and to exercise to get something from the Word. In this sense it is easy to prophesy because we have the best tools and our spirit. Now we need to learn and practice.
If we take the way of composing something to prophesy, we will have something to present to the saints in the church meetings every Lord’s Day. We will not need to wonder or worry about what to say, because we can speak what we have prepared. We will be like the Israelites in the ancient time who labored on their land and eventually reaped something to bring to the feasts appointed by the Lord. They were not allowed to appear before the Lord empty-handed (Deut. 16:16). They had something in their hand to offer to the Lord for His satisfaction. The reality of this is in 1 Corinthians 14:26, where Paul says, “Whenever you come together, each one has.” Today in Taipei this verse has been applied. Over five thousand saints come together every Lord’s Day morning in many district meetings of the church in the principle of 1 Corinthians 14:26 — each one has something. They also take care of the sequence of their speaking. Someone who realizes that he should not speak first will wait for the appropriate time to speak his prepared prophecy. When twenty persons prophesy in this way, it is like one person speaking a composed message. The contents are rich and arranged in a very good sequence.
In order to have what is described by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 14, we must have the perfecting of the saints by the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers in Ephesians 4. Some have said that after the apostles establish the churches with the elders, they should keep their hands off, having nothing to do with the churches and elders anymore. If the apostles did this, however, how could they perfect the saints?
Acts 20 tells us that on Paul’s way to Jerusalem, he could not forget his burden for the church in Ephesus. From Miletus he sent for the elders of Ephesus to come to him. Paul told them that he had been with them for three years (v. 31), teaching them publicly and from house to house (v. 20). For Paul to teach the saints publicly means that there was some public exhortation, probably in front of the saints as a congregation. He also taught them according to their homes, admonishing them night and day with tears (v. 31). Paul did not keep his hands off the church in Ephesus. Rather, he remained with them for three years. When Paul was on his way back to Jerusalem in Acts 20, that was the latter part of his ministry, and the church in Ephesus was an established church. Even with such an established church, the apostle still bore the responsibility to perfect them. He asked the elders to remember how he perfected the saints night and day for three years. An apostle should not only speak publicly but also go to the saints’ homes day and night to perfect them, to teach them house to house.
If the gifted persons — the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers — do their perfecting work, spontaneously all the perfected saints will do the same work that they do. The saints will participate in the work of the ministry, which is to build up the Body of Christ. Ephesians 4 tells us that the church as the Body of Christ is not built up by the gifted persons directly. Their work is to perfect the saints. Then the perfected saints do the direct building up of the Body of Christ (vv. 11-12).
Ephesians 4:16 says that the Body builds itself up in love. Where is the reality of such a verse on the earth today, and where can we see a meeting according to 1 Corinthians 14:26? In the early church there was such a reality for a short time, but it disappeared through the degradation of the church. The Lord needs to recover the reality of 1 Corinthians 14:26 on the earth. We have to believe that now is the time for the Lord to recover this matter. Fifty years ago our senior co-worker, Brother Nee, saw and presented this to us. He is not here today, but this truth remains with us in his books. We are following his steps to recover 1 Corinthians 14:26 for the building up of the Body of Christ. If we are not the persons to recover this verse, who are? If today is not the time, when is the time? Should we go back to the old way to remain in our comfortable situation and forget about this verse, giving up what Brother Nee spoke and published?
I realize that it is not easy for the elders of the church to suddenly change to a new way. It is much easier to remain in the old way because something has been set up, and every week they can do a routine work. They do not need to learn anything. They can routinely make the announcements about the scheduled times of the meetings and appoint certain brothers to speak in the meetings. The only one who really bears the burden for the meeting is the one who has been assigned to speak. The others become passive.
I believe that we all love the Lord, the saints, and the church. Since this is the case, we must pay the price. Regardless of our age, we should pick up the burden to learn. Those who are close to me have reminded me of my age and have urged me not to labor so much, but I told them that I will not stop laboring until I die. Many of us are still young, and we have many years to learn new things for the Lord’s new way. To go on with the Lord, we all have to condemn our habit. Habit is the biggest enemy. A number of years ago, some advised me that we needed computers for our editing work. Now our polishers use computers to do their work, but I do not use one because it is not my habit. I use this example as an illustration of how our habit can hinder us from progressing. I believe that some of the opposition to and criticism of the new way has been due to certain ones’ old habit. It may not be out of their heart to criticize or out of their intention to oppose, but their old habit is the problem. They do not want to have a change.
Some of the elders may want everything in the church to be under their control. If all the saints have the liberty to go out to knock on doors and baptize people, the elders may feel that the church will be confused and out of control. They may restrict all the activities of the saints so that everything is in good order under their control. I must say a frank word to my fellow co-workers who act in this way. Let all the saints be freed. Let them go out to baptize people. Give them the freedom to make mistakes. We all know that one of the best ways to learn is to make mistakes. If we are never mistaken, we will never learn anything.
Furthermore, the old way is not according to the holy Word. The new way is the scriptural way of meeting and serving to build up the Body of Christ. Let us put the old way aside and pick up the new “machine.” If a person does not know how to use a computer, he may criticize the use of it. In the same way I heard the criticism of the new way by those who did not want to give up the old way, which was according to their old habit. For Christian brothers to criticize other brothers who go out with the gospel to visit people in their homes is not in a right spirit, with a right attitude, or with a right heart. We need to humble ourselves to learn something that excels. No one can deny that there are many ways to preach the gospel, but the top way is to visit people where they are by knocking on their doors. We should go to their homes and speak to them concerning God, Christ, the Bible, the gospel, salvation, grace, and redemption. This is more than acceptable to our God. Some saints have gone out to visit people when it was raining heavily. This touched the hearts of the people they visited. They were touched that some would suffer to go out in such heavy rain to come to their home to preach the gospel. Nothing can restrict, frustrate, or stop the preaching of the gospel by visiting people in their homes. We can go to every street and every home of the city where we live to find the sons of peace (Luke 10:5-6). Why would we not pick up this way? I have the assurance that if thirty percent of the saints would pick up this burden, every church could be doubled yearly.
My burden is to present to you what I have received in my four-year study beginning in 1984 in Taipei. We must practice four things. First, we need to visit people in their homes for the preaching of the gospel. Second, we need to have home meetings to nourish the new believers. Third, we need to have small group meetings to take care of the saints and to teach them the truth for their edification. Fourth, we need to have church meetings to exhibit Christ and minister Christ to the saints for the building up of the Body of Christ by the developing and exercising of the saints’ organic functions. For this we need to perfect every saint to prophesy. According to the principle of the Bible, it is better that every week we have one day for the church to come together. In this meeting, the saints must learn to prophesy. If one-third of the saints in a meeting of fifty to one hundred would prophesy, the time would be filled up with the riches of Christ. Then the saints will be built up as members of the organic Body of Christ, and the church as the organism of the Triune God will be organically built up.
If we practice the four points mentioned above, 1 Corinthians 14 and Ephesians 4 will be fully recovered, and the building up of the organic Body of Christ will take place on this earth as a strong testimony of the resurrected Christ. Then the bride will make herself ready for Christ, the Bridegroom, to return. Let us endeavor to pick up these four points, these four “machines,” to reach the goal.
