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Scripture Reading: Acts 28:31; Luke 10:1-6; Acts 2:46; 5:42; Luke 9:59-60; Rom. 12:1; Eph. 6:18; Gal. 5:26; Heb. 12:1; 1 John 2:15-17; Acts 13:52; 2 Cor. 5:10; Matt. 25:19
In the foregoing chapters we have seen a clear vision of God’s ordained way to practice the New Testament economy. Upon seeing such a vision, we should be absolute for this vision. We must be absolute for God’s ordained way, living to God for the spreading of His kingdom. The four Gospels are a record of the completion of Christ, and the book of Acts records the propagation of Christ for the spread of the kingdom of God. At the end of Acts Paul spoke to people in a desperate way concerning the kingdom of God (28:23, 31). The first five books of the New Testament conclude with Paul proclaiming the kingdom of God. If we have believed into God, our goal must be to live to God for the spreading of His kingdom.
First, we need to visit people in their homes for the seeking of God’s chosen sons of peace (Luke 10:1-6). God in eternity chose many people to be sons of peace, yet God’s selection needs our going out to visit people that these chosen ones can be found and brought to God. Then we must also go out to build up home meetings with the believers for the teaching of the truth, the edification of the believers, and the establishment of the local churches in view of the building up of the Body of Christ (Acts 2:46; 5:42).
Throughout the centuries the Lord has recovered many items that were lost in His economy. In the past two and a half years the Lord has shown us that to visit people, to baptize them into the name of the Triune God, to set up home meetings, to build up these homes, and to establish local churches with a view to building up the Body of Christ is the Lord’s present move. According to our own history and our investigation, there is no other way to practice the New Testament economy that is so high, so prevailing, and so effective.
Today the entire situation of Christianity is worsening and becoming more dead. This situation is not so prevailing, new, or living. But we must realize that the Lord is coming and that our time is very short. We should ask ourselves whether or not we should remain in the old way. If we do, we will surely delay the Lord’s coming. If the Lord does not have His way with us, He may have to go to another people. But if He did go to another people, He would have to repeat what He has done with us over the past sixty years. This would surely hurt the Lord’s heart. We must get into the Lord’s heart and sympathize with Him, rising up to take His new way.
To oppose or criticize the new way of knocking on doors and setting up home meetings in the new believers’ homes is foolish. What is wrong for believers to go out to visit people by knocking on their doors and baptizing new believers into the processed Triune God? Whether or not this way corresponds with your own idea concerning preaching the gospel, you cannot say that it is wrong. This way is not only right but also very much needed. There is the urgent need for all God’s lovers to rise up to knock on people’s doors to bring the processed Triune God into their homes, to minister and impart the processed Triune God into their being, and to bring them into an organic union with the processed Triune God by baptizing them. No church or leading one should prohibit others from taking this way or tell others to wait until the church is ready to practice this way. This is illogical and is like stopping a person from breathing until he is “ready” to do so. All the leaders of the churches around the globe should say Amen to this way, whether or not they agree with it. To stop or criticize this way is not wise. Let the saints have the freedom to go out on their own, team by team, to knock on doors. Even if the saints knock on doors every day, there is nothing wrong with this practice.
Several churches comprising about one thousand saints have been in Orange County, California, for thirteen years, yet the total annual rate of increase has been only about two to three percent. There are many saints who love the Lord and His purpose, yet the increase has been pitifully low. However, in a little over a week’s time in the 1987 summer training, more than three thousand seven hundred were baptized in Orange County through the saints going out to knock on doors primarily in the evenings. Even if only one-fourth of these remain, there would be close to nine hundred believers who could form ten new churches in ten new localities.
We should be wise and not criticize, condemn, or oppose the new way. Rather, we should take the lead to rise up to go out to visit people in order to set up home meetings, and all the saints will follow. If we do well, the increase could be threefold each year, or at the very least, one hundred percent increase each year. Our practice in the past years was to have many big meetings each week in which message after message was given. We do not need to meet in that way any longer. We need to go out to others’ homes, taking the dear name of Jesus into their homes. If the meetings are scattered, the saints will not die; rather, the saints will go to the homes with Jesus, the Bible, and salvation. There will be a great revival and a strong church life. We all must wake up and be revolutionized by going to the homes to preach and teach. Gradually, in city after city churches will be raised up.
The elders must learn not to control; rather, they must learn to help the saints to grow, to promote their function, to develop their gift, and to cultivate their divine ability. Then all the saints will rise up to preach the gospel in a prevailing and effective way by knocking on people’s doors, reading The Mystery of Human Life, helping people to believe, and baptizing them. At least once a week, or perhaps two or three times a week, the saints would build up the home meetings by teaching the new believers the truth and by edifying them and helping them to grow in life, thus establishing the local church with a view to building up the Body of Christ.
The elders should not control but encourage the saints to go to visit others. You may have had many experiences of the Lord, but those experiences may now be old. You should let the saints go out in a fresh way. Those who go out should learn to know the Body of Christ. On the one hand, the present leading ones should not control, giving the saints the full freedom. On the other hand, those who go out should learn never to be independent. You should always practice depending upon the Body. When you came into the church, you came in as a member of the Body, meeting in the church in your locality. You are not only a member of the Body of Christ universally, but you are also a member of the church in your locality. Therefore, you are subject not only to the Body but also to the church in your locality. Do not do anything independently but do everything in dependence on your local church with thorough fellowship. The church in a locality is a local expression of the Body of Christ. You must honor and respect the church in your locality. The leading ones should give you the full freedom, yet you must learn how to depend upon the church.
To go out without sufficient, adequate fellowship with the church is independent and divisive. There is only one Body on this earth. Regardless of how much we say that we are right, as long as we are independent of the church in our locality, we are divisive. We must not neglect the Body of Christ, the church with which we are meeting. As long as we have been meeting with the church for even a short time, we must realize that it is the local expression of the unique Body of Christ and that we are members of this expression. On the one hand, all the leading ones should not control anyone, but on the other hand, everyone who really knows the Body of Christ should act, behave, and do things in a dependent way, realizing that we all are members of the same Body. Not only should the young ones depend on the older ones, but the older ones should also learn to depend upon the young ones because we are members of the same Body. If the hand in one’s physical body said, “I trust in the head, but I have nothing to do with the arm,” the arm said, “I have nothing to do with the neck,” and the neck said, “I have nothing to do with the ear,” all the members of this body would become detached. Every member in the body depends upon the circulation of the blood throughout the body. The circulation of the blood is not local or individualistic; it is universal and corporate. Independence from the Body is like cancer, a disease not of germs but of cells that grow for their own purpose. Cancer cells can kill the whole body.
We are practicing the new way, and the new way is a way without control. Some of the more experienced ones may hesitate to say Amen to this way. They may consider that this way is risky and could result in division and confusion. They may desire to wait and see what will happen with the other churches who take this way. On the other hand, others, especially the young ones, may want to act independently of the church. If we go out independently from the church, after a short time we will be in division. With such an attitude, it will be dangerous for us to take the new way, risking a division that could seriously damage the Body. We all have to learn, on the one hand, not to control others and, on the other hand, to depend upon our brothers. We are not individualistic or detached members; we are attached members. We are a corporate Body, depending upon one another.
It is foolish for one to consider that since he brought the Lord’s recovery to a certain place, he has the right to control the church there. The elders of the churches must learn not to control. In the past twenty-five years the Lord through this ministry has raised up over six hundred churches in Central America, South America, North America, Africa, Europe, and Australasia. If I would have controlled the churches, this never could have happened. Today there are so many churches to testify that the way of no control is effective.
On the other hand, everyone must learn to be dependent, trusting the elders and the church where we meet. We should ask the elders to help us and go to them to thoroughly fellowship everything, regardless of what attitude they would have and regardless of what they would say. As members of the Body, we should depend on the Body. Then we will have peace, we will have the enjoyment, and the Lord’s blessing will be with us. Division and confusion exhaust the members of the Body, but if we practice fellowship and dependence on the Body, we will have a unanimous oneness in a condition of peace. May the Lord keep us in the genuine oneness and teach us to live such a oneness in His recovery.
We must live to God for the spreading of His kingdom by visiting people and setting up home meetings, and we must be absolute for such a living for our whole life. We should take such a living as the purpose of life, whether we are job-dropping full-timers or money-making full-timers (Luke 9:59-60). We simply should have a job that can sustain us, provide a proper living for our family, and provide for a good upbringing and education for our children. Then we must use the rest of our ability, time, and resources for going out to knock on people’s doors to baptize them into the Triune God and to set up home meetings to build up the churches. Every day, every week, every month, and every year throughout our whole life, we must go out to baptize people and set up home meetings. This should become our favorite pastime and even our “addiction.” To be able to say at the Lord’s return that thousands of people have been baptized into the Triune God through us and that many churches have been raised up through our home meetings will be a glory to us at the Lord’s coming back. But if the Lord comes back and we are empty-handed, we will be troubled at His coming back.
Some may say that to do well at their job or to do well in school requires them to compete and that this competition can fully occupy their time. However, no occupation, regardless of the competition, is to such a high standard that it does not leave us any leisure time. If we have a proper heart, there is still enough time for us to live a life for the spreading of the kingdom. If in one week we do not baptize one person, at least after two weeks we can get one baptized. To go out once or twice a week for two hours is adequate to baptize one person and take care of the baptized ones by setting up meetings in their homes. These new ones will grow, and they will learn from us and repeat what we do. To go out in this way is for the spreading of the kingdom of God. The way of Christianity is to send their young people to the seminary to become professional pastors, the clergy, while all the others sit in their congregations doing nothing. This way will delay the Lord, but the new way will speed up the Lord’s return. There is no excuse for our not taking the spreading of the kingdom of God as the purpose of our life.
We must be vigilant every day without wasting our time, energy, and money. All our time, our money, and our energy must be spent for the unique purpose of knocking on people’s doors and setting up home meetings. We must also be vigilant in consecration (Rom. 12:1). Many years ago we may have consecrated ourselves to the Lord, but we must remain in that consecration today. We need to be vigilant in prayer (Eph. 6:18) and in dealing with self-seeking, sins, and worldliness (Gal. 5:26a; Heb. 12:1; 1 John 2:15-17). Also, we must be vigilant in being filled, saturated, and empowered by the Spirit (Acts 13:52) every day and every moment. We must be vigilant in bringing people to Christ and building up home meetings. If we have not baptized one person in two weeks, we need to consider why and not let our time pass away. Then if we go out in full desperation, we will see at least one baptized. We must take the spreading of the kingdom of God as our real and unique career.
If we are vigilant in consecration, in prayer, in dealing with self-seeking, sins, and worldliness, in being filled, saturated, and empowered by the Spirit, in bringing people to Christ and building up home meetings, and in taking the spreading of the kingdom of God as our real career, we will be ready to meet the Lord at His judgment seat (2 Cor. 5:10; Matt. 25:19). Every day we should live before the judgment seat of Christ, being fearful that if the Lord comes, we may not be ready to meet Him. It is more than worthwhile for us to rise up and go out to knock on people’s doors to get them baptized. Then we need to set up home meetings and build them up by teaching the new ones the truth and edifying them with a view to building up the Body of Christ. May the Lord bless us in our divine appointment to bear fruit for the producing of His Body (John 15:16).
