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Scripture Reading: Heb. 10:24-25; 2 Tim. 2:2; Eph. 4:11-12; 5, 1 Pet. 2:9
In this series of messages on the exercise and practice of the God-ordained way, we have seen that we should carry out our Christian work according to four basic principles or in four main steps. First, we have to practice the New Testament priesthood of the gospel by going out to visit people in their homes for the preaching of the gospel. Then when we have gained some, we must raise them up properly through the nourishing and cherishing in the home meetings. Third, we should bring these new ones to the group meetings so that they might be perfected through the mutual teaching of all the saints. Then these perfected ones can prophesy in the church meetings for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ. We have given many messages on the first three steps, but I am concerned that many of us may not be practicing persistently according to what has been spoken.
We all have to remember that the goal of our going out to practice the New Testament priesthood of the gospel is not merely to “win souls.” Nearly all the gospel preaching in Christianity today is for “soul-winning,” but in the Lord’s recovery our goal is not merely to get sinners saved through regeneration. We desire that those who are saved through our preaching would also be sanctified, transformed, and conformed to the image of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ.
According to Ephesians 4:11 and 12, the ascended Head “gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ.” In these verses the word unto is used twice — “unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ.” Because these two phrases are in apposition, they refer to the same thing. The work of the ministry is the building up of the Body of Christ, and the building up of Christ’s Body is the goal of the Head’s giving of the gifted persons. The gospel work done by the evangelist is not merely for “soul-winning.” It is to get sinners regenerated to become sons of God and members of Christ. Then God can have many sons to build up His house, the church; and Christ can have many members to build up His Body, which is also the church. To be built up as the house of God and to be built up as the Body of Christ are the same thing. Both the house of God and the Body of Christ are organic, and the building up of something organic requires building in life. This building in life is the organic increase of the church through the increase of God in the growth of life within the members of the organic Body of Christ (Col. 2:19). Our goal in preaching the gospel is to go out to get sinners saved to make them the sons of God and the building members of Christ’s Body.
First Peter 2 also shows us the goal of the New Testament priesthood. Verse 5 says that we “are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood.” Then verse 9 says that we are a royal priesthood so that we might tell out the virtues of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. To “tell out” is to preach the gospel. This “telling out” is the preaching of the virtues of our saving God. According to these verses, the goal of the preaching of the gospel, the telling out of the virtues of our saving God, is for the building up of a holy priesthood as the house of God. This is not what we see in our present situation.
Our concept concerning the preaching of the gospel is very low due to our Christian tradition. We must humble ourselves, admitting to the Lord that we do not have the proper understanding. Although we have the whole Bible in our hands, much of our understanding of the Bible is traditional. When we go out to knock on people’s doors, we should not keep the old, traditional understanding concerning the goal of our gospel preaching. Our goal in preaching the gospel is to get sinners saved to be the material for the building up of the church as the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15; cf. Hag. 1) and the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23).
The central thought of the book of Romans is that God’s salvation makes sinners His sons. Romans begins with sinners (1:18—3:20), but when we come to chapter 8, these sinners have become sons of God (v. 14). Furthermore, these sons of God, the brothers of Christ, have been justified, are being sanctified, and will eventually be conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God (vv. 29-30). The goal, the aim, of our gospel preaching is that sinners would be fully conformed to the image of Christ.
Based on this goal, when we go out to visit people, we should exercise to consider people according to the discernment the Spirit gives us. It may be quite easy to get some people saved to become children of God, but for them to grow and become sons of God may not be so easy. In the Bible there is a significant difference between “children of God” and “sons of God.” John 1:12 says that those who believe in the Lord’s name have the authority to become children of God, but in Romans 8 the term sons indicates a more advanced stage of growth in the divine life. “Children” are those in the initial stage of regeneration in their human spirit, but “sons” are the children of God who are in the stage of the transformation of their soul. They not only have been regenerated in their spirit and are growing in life, but they also are living and walking by being led by the Spirit (v. 14). To help a new one become such a son of God requires much care and labor, and some may not be able to reach this stage of development in this age. Therefore, we must be wise and not waste our time on those who are not that promising.
Although we all must exercise to have the Spirit’s discernment, we should not go out to consciously “measure” or categorize every new one, saying, “This one is good for the building up of the Body, but that one is not.” To practice in this way is too extreme. Actually, no one knows for certain who is good and who is bad. Still, some discernment is needed. Over twenty years ago I went to downtown Los Angeles to a district where there were many drunkards on the streets. Some Christian missions had been located particularly in that district in order to preach the gospel to those unfortunate people and to feed them with some physical food. Surely the merciful God cares for these people and would save them, but in general, it is difficult for such persons to be that useful for the building up of the Body of Christ. They have serious problems, and with many of them, their human faculties have been damaged. We cannot reach our goal by spending much of our time to gain such persons; we will only waste our time. The Lord will give us the proper discernment, yet we should be careful not to try to “measure” the new ones too quickly.
Your results in going out for the gospel will depend on your discernment. If no one lets you in, your door-knocking should go quickly. Then if a door opens, and a lady or a gentleman comes out, you should discern whether this one is worthwhile for you to spend your time. If you sense that this one may be quite good, you may spend half an hour or more with him. You should not work according to any set time limits; instead, you must always exercise your discernment and follow your inward leading. To exercise your discernment means that you are praying and seeking the Lord: “Lord, lead me to the right door and even to the right person. Lord, You are with me, and I am with You. I am going into this home with You. Is anyone here for Your purpose?” If you go out in this way, you will not be going out by yourself. You will be going out as a person who is one with the living Christ, who has the proper discernment. In this way you will always be on the alert.
If we are persistent in going out to preach the gospel and endeavor with long-suffering, we will never be disappointed. We should never lose heart or be subdued. Eventually, we will baptize three to make up for the week in which we gained no one. If we mean business with the Lord and have the endurance to go out faithfully and regularly, we can have three or four new ones within a month. Then we must stop knocking on new doors and go back to the ones we have already baptized to have home meetings with them to feed them. We must practice according to these principles, but in our discerning, we should not be too rigid or legal. If we are too preoccupied with evaluating the new ones, we will be distracted. The main thing is for us to mean business with the Lord and be desperate to gain sinners for His purpose.
I have been speaking concerning the new way, the God-ordained way, for over five years. The brothers in Taipei have collected all my messages on the four steps of the new way and have separated them into four groups, one for each step. After seeing so many messages on each of these steps, they told me that their greatest need was not for me to give more messages but for me to stir up some saints to practice all these things. They felt that if only a small number of saints, sixty or seventy, went out to practice, it would be enough to bring the church there into the new way. I told them that they were right. This is what we are doing in the full-time training; sixty to seventy are going out to practice all these things. This is also why, for this series of messages in the training, I have chosen the title The Exercise and Practice of the God-ordained Way. We have heard so much concerning the new way, but we may not be exercising to practice what we have heard.
In these training meetings I have repeatedly charged you, especially the full-time trainees, to practice in a very particular way. First, you should go out to gain people, but at the same time you have to exercise your discernment not to baptize more than you can care for. Then once you have baptized three or four, you should stop going out to gain more new ones. Instead, you should exercise to practice the second step; you must go back to have home meetings with those whom you have baptized in their homes. In these home meetings you must feed them continuously for ten weeks, twice each week if possible. Then you can reduce your feeding from twice a week to once a week. I also told you that while you may be working on three or four whom you have baptized, you may lose two or three. Then because you would not have enough under your care, you have to knock on doors to gain another two or three. In this way you will always have three or four under your care year-round.
After the proper feeding, you must take these new ones on further by bringing them out of their homes to meet with others. You should gather together all the ones whom you have been feeding with other saints who live nearby to practice the group meeting. The group meeting is not only for feeding but also for perfecting their spiritual function so that they might learn to prophesy for the organic building up of the church.
You beget them, feed them, and perfect them with the goal that they all may grow up to prophesy. This prophesying is not to predict but to speak for the Lord, to speak forth the Lord, and to speak the Lord Himself into others for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ. These are the four steps that we have repeatedly covered for nearly three months. I have been observing the situation among us, and I realize that you are not practicing as I had expected. Very few are practicing these four steps in a definite way.
Through our testing and experimenting, we have found that for every twenty homes we visit, we will get one baptized. However, to have this kind of success, you have to mean business with the Lord. You must exercise your faith and even exercise your God-given authority to pray, “Lord, this is the time for our team to go out to gain people for You. All men were created by You and for You, and we have the right to gain some tonight.” To pray in this way means that you mean business with the Lord and are endeavoring to make some profit for Him. Even more, you must be desperate to gain people. In the past some teams went out for a full two hours and did not gain one. Then as they were about to quit for the day, one member said, “Let’s try one more door. If we do not find one there, we can go home.” Then in that last home they baptized two. If they had not been desperate, they would not have gone to that last home and would have missed those two. If you all mean business and are desperate with the Lord, out of every twenty homes you visit, you may baptize one.
Our daily business, our trade, is to tell people about Christ, baptize them, and bring them to maturity. On the earth there is such a marvelous trade, but to work in this trade successfully, we have to mean business with the Lord. When I pray, the cry in my heart is, “Lord, You must build up the practice of the new way among us. This should have been built up centuries ago, but it was not. It should have been built up fifty years ago when Brother Nee saw this matter, but it was not. Now, Lord, I have been speaking concerning Your ordained way for over five years, yet it is still not being practiced so fully and adequately.” However, this does not mean that the new way does not work. This way works, but not everyone in this kind of business will succeed. Those who are desperate will succeed. If some fail, it is because they are not desperate.
We must be clear that we are going out to get persons saved and regenerated to be sons of God and members of the Body of Christ. After baptizing some, we have to feed them. All year long we should have two or three newly baptized ones under our care. If we do this faithfully, in one year we will surely gain one or two as remaining fruit. If each of us can gain one or two as remaining fruit in one year, that would be wonderful. Regardless of how much fruit we bear, we must keep going out to labor. If we go out continuously and faithfully for the next thirty years, each one of us could eventually gain fifty as remaining fruit. Then we can go with these fifty fruit to see the Lord and say, “Lord, here are my fruit.” It would be very good if out of one hundred meeting together, fifty would go out to practice the priesthood of the gospel. If not half, at least we would expect one-third to go out. If thirty saints out of one hundred would do this, it is possible for the church to increase fifty percent in one year.
I recently had a long talk with one of the leading brothers from Taipei. He meets together regularly with a group of saints. Last February there were only twenty in this group, but by August it had grown to over fifty; it had more than doubled. By November this group had increased to over eighty. In only nine months that group has increased more than fourfold. Then he told me the secret. He said, “The secret is to simply go out to practice the four steps of the God-ordained way.” He told me that practicing the new way really works, especially for the new ones. This brother said that many of those brought in had come through the work of the new ones themselves. In Taiwan it is possible to find many who have never been in Christianity and who have never learned anything about Christianity. He said that working with this kind of new one for only one hour can accomplish much, much more than working for many hours with one who has already been a Christian for a few years. Someone who has been a Christian for some years can become an “old Christian.” They can become the hardest ones for the Lord to work on.
I want to impress us and encourage us to practice the definite steps of the new way. We should not work in a general way. We may not be so desperate in practicing these definite steps. We may not have a definite work. This leading brother from Taipei was desperate to have morning watch with the new ones every day. Through this, every new one, within one or two days after being baptized, had a good morning revival and became fully revived.
We may do many good works, but we may not have a goal. This leading brother from Taipei does not care for other things; he only cares for these few things — to beget new ones, to feed them, to stir them up, and to revive them. If a schoolteacher receives a message that his friend is seriously sick, does he stop teaching and go to visit his friend? If he leaves for two weeks, he will lose his job. Even a mother cannot forsake her responsibilities in the household to go to care for someone else. She has a duty to stay home to prepare food and care for her family’s needs. In the same way, we must be occupied with our priestly duty in the gospel. We need to realize our grave responsibility to gain sinners for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
After you baptize two or three, you should stop baptizing and endeavor to feed them. You have begotten some children, and now these babes are under your care. You have to feed them. If you do not feed them, you are neglecting your duty. There is no excuse for leaving your babes without any care. Your primary responsibility is to take care of your babes. At least you should be able to complete these first three steps with the new ones — begetting, feeding, and perfecting. Then they will all learn to meet, to pray, to function, and to prophesy.
I am very burdened to strongly encourage you to exercise and practice what you have already heard. This is the present need, yet this is very difficult for us. All of us, including me, are “old-timers.” We have a strong Christian background with many old things. To get rid of this is not easy. Therefore, there is the need for some of the local saints to pick up the burden and be desperate to exercise to practice these steps of the God-ordained way. They must go out regularly and persistently, once every week, with a definite goal each time. They must practice the steps of the new way — begetting, feeding, perfecting, and prophesying — in a definite way. They should always have two or three under their constant care.
In this way some of the local saints will be able to raise up some new churches. Some saints can go to a nearby city to labor, and I hope that the elders will take the lead to send them out in this way. After half a year there can be little churches of about fifteen saints in some surrounding cities. They will produce elders from among themselves.
In the city of Monterey Park, California, about forty began to meet together in April of 1988. Today, after only one and a half years, they have grown to over one hundred. This small church was raised up, nourished, built, and established particularly according to the God-ordained way. In San Gabriel, California, about fourteen began to meet together at about the same time that those in Monterey Park began. Now, after one and a half years, they have close to sixty in their meetings. There is also another church in that area — Hacienda Heights. They have been meeting there for about two years. They began with a few saints, and now they have one hundred fifty. These churches were born through much travail. They have grown and become healthy by practicing the new way.
Luke 19 and Matthew 25 show that the Lord has given us some capital and that we have been charged to do business. He demands a profit from His investment. In Matthew 24 each of us is the slave whom the Lord has set over His household. When He returns, we will receive either a reward or a punishment. In Matthew 25 we are His slaves, and He wants us to do business for Him. When He comes back, He will demand that we give Him an account of our business, and we will receive either a reward or a punishment. This is very serious. If I did not speak this to you, I would not be faithful to the Lord or to you. I care only for the burden I have received from the Lord. I believe that some faithful saints will carry out God’s ordained way on the earth.
