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Scripture Reading: Num. 11:29; 1 Cor. 9:16-17; 14:31
I. God’s desire:
А. Spoken by Moses in the Old Testament — Num. 11:29.
B. Spoken by Paul in the New Testament — 1 Cor. 14:31.
C. Proven by the experience of the believers — 9:16-17.
I have read the Bible for many years, but not until recently did I discover that in the book of Numbers in the Old Testament there is the concept that everyone must speak the word of God, or that everyone may speak the word of God, or, we might say, that everyone is able to speak the word of God. In summary, we might say that one who is saved, one who serves the Lord, has the qualification, the right, the ability, and also the responsibility and burden to speak the word of God.
In Numbers 11 Moses felt that the responsibility on him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt into Canaan was too heavy (v. 14). God then told him, “Gather to Me seventy, each one from the elders of Israel,...and bring them to the Tent of Meeting” (v. 16). Moses obeyed, and out of the seventy persons, sixty-eight came before the tabernacle. Then the Spirit fell upon all of them, and they were moved to speak. The original text says that they were all prophets (v. 29), but the Chinese Union Version of the Bible did not dare to translate it this way. The sixty-eight persons all became prophets, and all were speaking for God. Meanwhile, the Spirit also rested upon the two who remained in their own tents, and they prophesied in the camp. Some saw it and were jealous and told it to Joshua, Moses’ helper. Then Joshua came to beseech Moses and said, “My lord Moses, restrain them!” (v. 28). Moses rebuked him immediately, saying, “Are you jealous for my sake?” (v. 29). Then he spoke this sentence, “Oh that all Jehovah’s people were prophets!”
When I saw this verse, there was a strong response within me, because several years earlier in America I had the boldness to tell people that every one of them could be an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a shepherd, and a teacher. I gave examples showing that even the teenage sisters could be such persons. For instance, suppose your grandparents are not yet saved, and you go home and tell them, “Grandpa, I have now received the best blessing.” Then you begin to speak the gospel to him and also to your grandmother. Finally, if the two older folks are touched and receive the Lord, are you not then an evangelist? Suppose your grandparents live in the countryside where there is no church, and you thus preach the gospel to them and they are saved. Then suppose that you bring a few brothers with you and go to them and baptize them, and you tell the two of them to begin to meet there. By doing this, you establish a church there. Are you not therefore an apostle? And if you continue to go to them to speak to them, then you are a prophet. Furthermore, if you teach them, you become a shepherd and a teacher. In this way, you have all the four jobs in one person. It is risky for me to speak in this way. Praise the Lord that now I have found a solid ground in the Old Testament, and now I can be bold.
Paul also spoke this kind of word. In 1 Corinthians 14:31 Paul says, “You can all prophesy one by one.” The Chinese Union Version says, “All may prophesy.” The Greek has both meanings: all may means also “all can.” However, may refers to right, and can refers to ability. This word in Greek includes the right and also the ability. The Chinese Union Version translated this word “may”; our Recovery Version renders it “can.”
We have already seen that God desires all men to come to the full knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4); this is God’s heart’s desire. A second desire of God’s heart is that we would speak for Him. Everyone must speak. Everyone “may” and everyone “can”; that is, everyone has the right and the ability. We cannot say that we do not have the ability. God created us with vocal cords and a tongue and with two lips and a mouth full of teeth. These are not only for our eating but also for our speaking. But we fail God according to His creation because we continually speak senselessly, criticizing, lying, and spreading rumors.
In America I incurred the displeasure of the sisters by saying to them, “Sisters, you have a particular characteristic: when you are on the telephone, you seem to be glued to the phone, and you are not able to put it down.” In this way we have wasted our time in gossiping. We must thank the Lord that He created man with a mouth, and that, in creating man, He did it in a very fine and complex way in order that man can speak. That the mouth can speak and produce sounds is truly a miracle. Furthermore, the male speaks in a strong voice, and the female speaks in a beautiful voice. But God did not create the mouth for us to speak idle words. The Bible says that “every idle word which men shall speak, they will render an account concerning it in the day of judgment” (Matt. 12:36). I would like to warn the sisters that their words on the telephone are all recorded, and one day God will play them back for them to listen to. This is not a joke; therefore, we must be warned.
Our mouths must speak the words of grace as the Lord Jesus did. Out of His mouth came forth the words of grace (Luke 4:22). Ephesians 4:29 tells us, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but only that which is good...that it may give grace to those who hear.” Grace may flow out of our mouth; this is the word of God. Brothers and sisters, let us use the time we waste in telephone conversations to call someone we know and preach the gospel to him. We must also visit our relatives to speak the word of the Lord, to speak the truth, and to speak the gospel to them. Not only in the meetings but also in our daily life, we must speak everywhere and at every time.
In 2 Timothy 4:2 Paul says, “Proclaim the word; be ready in season and out of season.” Moses in the Old Testament said, “Oh that all Jehovah’s people were prophets!” Paul in the New Testament also says, “You can all prophesy one by one.” Again Paul says, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. If I do this of my own will, I have a reward” (1 Cor. 9:16-17). You may say, “Brother Lee, you quoted the Scripture improperly; in 1 Corinthians 9:16-17 Paul was talking about preaching the gospel, not about speaking God’s word.” Actually, to preach the gospel is to speak God’s word. Paul did not say that if he did not preach the gospel, he would have woe, or he was about to have woe; rather, he said that woe was already “to” him.
Please consider your own experience. After you were saved, time after time when you came to the meeting, were there not many times when you felt that you should speak, but after some consideration you eventually did not speak? Every time that you felt to speak but did not speak, did you not feel miserable after the meeting? I myself have had this experience; often I was moved to speak but did not speak, but after I went home, I suffered for three days and three nights, and I was very disappointed. But if I spoke immediately when I was moved to speak, I felt comfortable after speaking.
God’s desire is that we speak, and the most pleasing thing to God is our speaking. Parents love to hear their children speak, and whenever the children speak, the sound of their speaking is pleasant, even if they do not speak well. Similarly, in the meetings whenever the newly saved ones speak, the sound of their speaking is very pleasant. Even if they do not speak well, they still sound pleasant.
Dear brothers and sisters, try to be silent from morning until evening. If you do, you will commit a gradual suicide. Speaking is so healthful! I am not a physician or a nutritionist; I say this completely from human experience. Sixty percent of my health comes from speaking for the Lord. When I do not speak for the Lord, I cannot sleep well; I become deflated and have no joy.
We all know that none of us is without anger, for we are all human. Human beings are not wood and stone. Then how can we not be angry? If an angry person is not able to release his angry words, he will burst. My doctor told me that every time a person speaks in anger, he destroys more of his blood cells than when he has a cold. However, when a person is angry but does not speak, he may not destroy many blood cells; but if he keeps silent a number of times and then gets ulcers in his stomach, what shall he do?
We, the saved ones, have a most excellent way, that is, to speak with the Lord and to speak for the Lord. You may say, “Speak for the Lord? My husband makes me angry, the children are gone to school, and no one is at home. Then to whom should I speak?” It is wrong for you to say this, because you have many objects to speak to. The cats and dogs are your objects, the birds are also your objects, and the grass and the flowers are also your objects. First, you must speak to the Lord. Then you must speak to the cat, to the dog, to the birds, and to the flowers: “Little flowers and little grass, I really love you. I can be angry, but you cannot. But you must know that you do not have the Lord’s life. I have the Lord’s life. Hallelujah!” Speak to them. I am not joking.
What shall we Christians do when we are angry? Shall we be angry at our wives? Shall we lose our temper at our children? No. The best channel through which to let out our anger is our Lord. He will never be angry at you and will never blame you. You may say, “O Lord! Look, I am angry again. O Lord, You see that the wife You gave me is so unreasonable; she forces me to be angry.” I am not joking; every time you speak this way to the Lord, your anger will be gone.
We must see a principle, a fundamental, a law: you must speak if you want to be healthy. You will be the most healthy person if you speak unceasingly each day. But you must speak the word of the Lord. When you speak the Lord’s word, you have joy. People may oppose you, but everyone has a conscience within him; there is an element of fairness in the human heart. A brother who once worked in the telegraph company spoke Jesus whenever he met his colleagues; that is, he spoke for God. Then the others looked down at him, saying in a derogatory way that he was Jesus. But when they had difficulties or when they needed someone to take care of certain important documents for them, they all came to him. Whenever these colleagues faced difficulties, the gospel they had heard operated in them.
Therefore, you must know that the most healthy way is to speak for God. Speaking not only makes your heart happy, but it also is beneficial to your body. This is because human physical health needs deep breathing. When your mouth is closed, you do not breathe deeply, but when your mouth is open, even though you may not intend to do so, you will still breathe deeply. This morning I spoke for more than an hour in the first session, and now I am speaking again for another hour. Even though I did not try to breathe deeply, I have breathed deeply already. If I am tired, I will have a nap this afternoon. Then tonight after dinner I will come to speak again, and when I am exhausted by speaking, I will go home quickly to sleep again. In living this way surely I will sleep well and be healthy. You sisters who shut your mouth and do not speak, let me advise you that this will damage your health. But you must not gossip or talk idly; rather, you must speak the Lord’s word anytime and everywhere. When you speak the Lord’s word, the more you speak, the happier you will be; the more you speak, the healthier you will be.
In Taipei we have more than four thousand brothers and sisters in the meetings. This number may not be large compared to the total population, but if over four thousand brothers and sisters all speak the word of the Lord in every place, this will be a tremendous matter. The Lord Jesus said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). We are the Lord’s witnesses; therefore, we are those who speak. The members of our family, our relatives, our friends, and our neighbors are our Jerusalem. We must speak every day, even if our audience is weary of hearing it. Perhaps one day if some calamity befalls them, they will remember what we have said to them. If the four thousand brothers and sisters in Taipei speak every day and everywhere, after ten years would they not have saturated Taipei with their speaking?
However, if we have only a big meeting where one person speaks and the rest listen, when you bring your relatives or friends to such a meeting, they will say, “What is the difference? When we go to other places, they also do the same thing, and the pastor speaks even better than you do. He is eloquent, his voice is clear and loud, and his knowledge is not inferior to yours — he is better than you.” If we meet in this way, it is not easy to subdue them. But if they come to our meeting and everyone speaks — the young ones speak, the older ones speak, the brothers speak, and the sisters also speak — then they will be amazed and will surely be moved.
When I came back to Taiwan this time, a brother told me that a certain one was invited to a small group gathering, and when he saw everyone speaking there, he was very surprised and said, “You are really wonderful!” Therefore, when we gather together, we all must be able to speak. We must be able not only to speak but also to speak with truth, with weight, not with nonsense, and to speak golden and precious things in every word. This, of course, will astonish people and move them.
Therefore, we must exercise to do two things. First, we must exercise to go on in the word of the Lord. Many of you have a college education, and your vocabulary and expression are with a collegiate style. This has not been acquired in two or three days. It has required at least four years, or eight semesters, of a college environment under the influence of the proper textbooks, instruction, and teachers. After four years you then have the collegiate style and character. You have not only the style but also the deposit within you. If during the present changing of the system every one of us is faithful and everyone endeavors, if everyone labors in the Word and prays conscientiously, I believe that after three or four years all the brothers and sisters among us will have the bearing of a spiritual collegiate. At that time you will not only be willing and able to speak, but you also will have things to speak about. You will have something real, and you will not merely say, “It is so good to believe in the Lord Jesus. If you believe in Him, you will have peace and joy. I used to provoke my wife to anger, but now I do not throw chopsticks anymore.” Because most people today are somewhat philosophical in their thinking, they do not like to listen to such things. You must preach to them the truths in the Bible as the gospel.
Last year when I was in Texas, two or three hundred Chinese, many of them having Ph.D. degrees, were invited to the meeting. I preached the gospel to them, speaking to them a message entitled “The Triune God Dispensing Himself into the Tripartite Man.” They listened with interest and were fascinated while I spoke to them. By the Lord’s mercy, we have dug out the fundamental truths and even the deep and mysterious things in the Bible, and we have also put them into print. My only fear is that the brothers and sisters may not have the heart for these things, and even if they do have the heart, there is no way if they do not labor. I hope that among the hundred of you in this meeting, at least sixty, including the older ones, are digging into the study of the Bible. Do not say that you are already sixty years old; a sixty-year-old is still very young. If you learn a little more, you will still have twenty useful years for the Lord. In summary, we all must labor on the Word of the Lord.
We cannot take the old way of Christianity. The old way of Christianity is to put the responsibility of speaking for the Lord completely on the pastors. Many Christians think that the pastors are the ones who have studied and that speaking is their job. Thus, they spend money to hire a pastor to give them a sermon on Sunday. This is completely wrong. We must tear this down and stir up every one of our brothers and sisters. Each one loves the Lord, each one loves the Word of the Lord, and each one is willing to labor in order to study the Word. In your study you may read a book of the Bible such as the Gospel of Matthew, or you may read about a topic such as justification by faith.
Today the important biblical truths have been made clear in our publications, but what I fear is that we all may say that we have already heard these things. For instance, we have a set of books called Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures. I spoke the contents of these books in Taipei for the first time thirty-six years ago. At that time many were helped, and I believe that many of you have read these books. But I am afraid that you read them as you would read a newspaper. You may know some of the truths in these books, but you have not gone deeply into them.
The fact that you have read much does not mean that you are thoroughly clear. You are not thoroughly clear until you have spoken a certain matter at least once. Only when you are able to teach them have the contents of a book entered into you. Therefore, I hope that every one of you brothers and sisters would not only know the truth but would also be able to teach the truth. To speak the truth you must speak it convincingly, reasonably, attractively, and movingly. All these printed materials are present among us, volume after volume. Not to speak of other books, but just in the Life-studies alone there are over twelve hundred messages comprising more than twelve thousand pages. These messages are all available. In these messages the meanings of all the basic and important truths are made very clear.
At present I have two heavy burdens within me. One of them is to change the system and to not merely have large meetings as before. Eighty to ninety percent of this change of the system is to adopt the modern educational system. The modern educational system consists of six years of elementary school, three years of junior high school, three years of high school, four years of college, and two years of graduate school. This system has resulted from the practices of many nations through six thousand years of human history. Therefore, virtually every nation on earth uses this educational system. This is certain, and this is an established principle.
At the present time we have brought many to salvation, but how will we educate them after they are saved? How will we train them and build them up? This has become a big problem. I received telephone calls and letters from you saying that a few weeks ago you had a gospel week here in Taipei. Everyone went out to preach the gospel, and 1,104 persons were baptized. This is good, but what will you do after they are baptized? Merely to bring them together to meet after their baptism surely will not be adequate. Therefore, we must take the opportunity to educate them.
I feel that we have the materials, but we still need to prepare lessons for teaching, and we still need to write textbooks. There are many riches in the Life-studies, but they are not yet teaching materials. You have been through school, and I believe that some of you have been teachers. Concerning a subject such as mathematics, for example, material may be available, but there is still a need for someone to write textbooks delineating all the important points and methods. Someone must decide what material to cover in the six years of elementary school and what to cover in junior high. Then more material must be added in high school, and still more must be added in college. Additional topics in the field of mathematics must be added continually. Likewise, there is no lack of material among us, but we must still write textbooks, yet we must not write them in a general way.
In the past we were like a family in which all the members ate from one large pot. Those among us who had been saved for fifty-eight years and those who had been saved for only eighteen days all ate from the same pot. We even boasted about this, but after eating in this way, the old ones departed and the young ones did not grow. Before many of you were born, our number was greater than it is today. We cannot do this kind of work any longer. No matter what, we must change the system, because we can no longer make progress under the present system. Therefore, this is a heavy burden upon me.
I do not have sufficient time to accomplish the task of preparing lessons for teaching; therefore, I must produce many brothers and sisters to do it. We have all the materials, but we still need to put out instructional materials, that is, to put out textbooks. The Life-studies and the other publications are library books; we may use them as references, and the students may also read them. We must do it this way for the long run.
According to my observation, preaching the gospel is not a problem. At present the problem is how to nurture those who are saved through the preaching of the gospel. We must not only nurture them but also educate them. But how should we educate them? This has become a big problem at present, and this is where we failed in the past. I hope that you all realize that from now on there are no so-called co-workers and elders among us as a separate class of believers. Our hope is that everyone will be a prophet, everyone will be an apostle, everyone will be a gospel preacher, everyone will be a teacher, and everyone will be a shepherd. Everyone must speak. From now on we must have the organic function of all the members.
Frankly speaking, to carry out the spiritual education on different levels is very difficult, because in Taipei there are the church as a whole, the different meeting halls, and the small groups. How then should we divide into levels? We cannot rigidly follow the secular educational system, beginning from elementary school and dividing clearly into elementary, junior high, high school, and college. To establish a school, one must first build the school with classrooms and offices. Then there is a need for workers and teachers and also for students and textbooks. Having all these elements, a school can flourish and be successful. In my observation, having enough “students” is not a problem to us, but where and how to educate them constitutes a big problem.
I am a student of the Bible. I have thought about these things all day and have searched through all the Scriptures, but I have not found any hints. In the Bible there are only a few places that speak of the meetings and of how the saints met in the New Testament. It is right to say that they met in small groups from house to house (Acts 2:46; 5:42), but the spiritual revelation did not continue from that point. How were the three thousand or the five thousand people who were saved in Acts educated? I could not find the answer.
We are all members of a family, and we must face this real situation. This is indeed a great need. In this one year I believe that in the gospel work of the church in Taipei, at least two or three thousand were baptized, but where should we put these two or three thousand? How should we arrange them, and how should we educate them? This has become a great problem. We must enlarge our view.
In summary, the training is laying the ground work in these few days. First, whether you were saved long ago or are newly saved, you brothers and sisters must labor on the word of the Lord. In this modern age we all must learn English, for without learning English it is very difficult to do anything. In the same way we all must learn the word of the Lord, for without learning the word of the Lord, the church has no way to go on. Second, regardless of how we divide into levels or what lessons are used for instruction, we all must learn to speak the word of the Lord. The basic thing is that everyone must seek after the Word of the Lord and learn to speak the word of the Lord. If you continue to practice, in the future you will be useful to the Lord. This will not require a long time. Perhaps after a year, everyone will be occupied in speaking the Lord’s word. Then when someone is saved, you will be able to speak to him. This is a heavy burden within me.
Today we all must hurry to catch up. We have labored for many years, yet we still do not have this foundation. Hence, it is as if we are beginning from nothing. We must realize this situation and pour out all our effort; then the Lord will have a way.
