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The Scriptures reveal that God’s eternal purpose, His intention, is to express Himself through His Son, Christ, and through the church as the Body of Christ (John 1:18; Heb. 1:3; 1 Tim. 3:16). What God has done in the past, what He is doing in the present, and what He will do in the future are all for this goal — to gain a group of people who are saved and filled with Him to be the Body of Christ as the expression of God in Christ as the Spirit. This is God’s heart’s desire and the central matter in the Scriptures.
The book of Romans reveals to us the full gospel, which comprises everything in the counsel of God. The first matter that Romans deals with is the matter of our sins and God’s condemnation. Then it deals with our justification, our redemption, our salvation, and our sanctification, that is, our deliverance from the nature of sin. The last point, unveiled in chapter 12, is that all of the saved and sanctified ones are the many members of the one Body of Christ, the church (v. 5). However, most of the Lord’s children neglect this matter. Most expositions of the book of Romans cover the first eight chapters, dealing with condemnation, justification, and sanctification, and neglect the teaching of the Body in chapter 12.
The very last matter mentioned in the entire Scriptures is the holy city, the New Jerusalem, which is built with precious stones (Rev. 21:18a, 19-20). Thus, the Scriptures tell us that God’s intention is to have not a pile of stones but a building and that we saved ones are living stones for the building (Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 3:9; 1 Pet. 2:5). However, most Christians pay attention to the stones and forget that the stones are for the building. If we know God’s intention and know the Word, we will realize that although there are groups of Christians all over the earth, most of these groups are like heaps of stones instead of something built up. In Christianity there is no spiritual building as the house of God.
This is due to the strategy of God’s enemy. God’s enemy will allow the Lord’s children to do almost anything except to build up the genuine, living church. The enemy may allow the Lord’s children to preach the gospel or to bring people to the Lord, but he will always fight against the building up of the church. This is where the battle is, and this is what the enemy attacks. He knows that this is a strategic point in the battle between him and God, because if God can gain the genuine, living church on the earth, He can accomplish His purpose.
In Ephesians 4 Paul says, “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 unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ” (vv. 11-12). The Lord has given the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers for the building up of the Body. However, what we see in the Christian world today is not the building but many gifted persons who are individual, spiritual giants. People exalt these gifted ones, the preachers and ministers, forgetting that they alone are not the building. Many Christians today are even seeking to be spiritual giants or something special in the Christian world. However, this is not the Lord’s way to accomplish His purpose. The Lord’s way is to use ordinary believers as stones for the building. Most physical buildings are formed not of one large piece of special material but of many ordinary pieces of material.
In the New Testament age, Peter, John, and Paul were great apostles, yet what they built up was not their own ministries but the local churches. The apostle John was the last of the great apostles and was very experienced, spiritual, and successful in his ministry. However, the Lord did not want to build him up; the Lord wanted to build up the local churches. In Revelation the apostle John portrayed each of the seven churches in Asia as a lampstand (1:11-12, 20). He did not say that the apostles were like lampstands; rather, he said that the local churches were the lampstands standing for the Lord’s testimony. The testimony of the Lord is with the local churches because the local churches are the genuine expressions of the Body of Christ.
Our work in China and Taiwan during the past thirty years has been to build up the local churches, not to build up anyone’s ministry. In the United States Brother Watchman Nee’s ministry has become somewhat famous through his book The Normal Christian Life, but in Taiwan many of the saints do not know who he is. This proves that our goal is the building up of the church, not the building up of Watchman Nee’s ministry. When I left Taiwan to live and work in the United States, there was no need for me to make arrangements before my departure, because the whole work in Taiwan was in the hands of the brothers, not in my hands. The more we worked in Taiwan, the more the church was in the brothers’ hands, because we were building the church, not our own ministry. The same thing happened when I moved from Shanghai to Taiwan in 1949. I had been working in Shanghai for a period of time before the war, and the church had been blessed by the Lord. However, in 1949 I received a cable from Watchman Nee saying that I should leave immediately because the Communists were very close to occupying Shanghai. Two days after receiving the cable, I left Shanghai. I could leave in such a sudden way because the church was not in my hands but in the hands of the brothers. Our testimony is that we are building up the church, not any person’s particular ministry.
Although most ministers today take the direction of building up their ministry, the right direction is to build up the local churches. We who are in the work are merely the Lord’s co-workers in building up the church (1 Cor. 3:9), which is His house (1 Tim. 3:15). In other words, the church is not ours but His, and the church is the house of the saints. When we work with the goal of building up the local churches, our work is prevailing because we bring all the saints into function. When the saints come to the meetings, they do not have the feeling that they are coming to someone else’s church; rather, they feel that the church is theirs. On the other hand, if we build up our own ministry or keep the church in our own hands, we will at the very least hinder the building work. If we build up a church so that it is in our own hands, the saints will have the feeling that they are coming to our church, and this feeling will hinder them from taking up the responsibility to build.
This is what happened in China when the missionaries from the West went to China and began to build up their own denominational churches. Those who attended their churches felt like they had to help that particular missionary and honor him by going to his church. However, the feeling in the genuine church is different. The saints in the genuine churches are always grateful whenever the co-workers visit, but their feeling is that the church is theirs, not someone else’s. They take the responsibility of building up the church and feel that the church is their home, their house, which they must care for. When a brother comes to help them, he does not take up the burden or responsibility of the church; he simply helps the saints build up their church.
The Lord’s mind, thought, intention, and heart are for the Body, the church, and the building up of the local churches in various places. If there are a few thousand believers in a locality built up together as one Body, they will have an impact, but even if there are only a few saints in a locality built up together, they will still have an impact. None of them may be famous or gifted; everyone may be ordinary, yet because they are fitted together, coordinated, and knit as a living Body, they will have an impact. My physical body does not consist of giant members but of small members built together. Nonetheless, my body has impact. It can speak, see, hear, eat, drink, dress, sing, and more. When the members of my body are one, there is an impact. On the other hand, if the members of my body were detached, the impact would be gone; there would be only a heap of bones. When we look at the present situation in Christianity, we see mainly a heap of bones (cf. Ezek. 37:1-2). Thus, there is a need for the genuine building among the Lord’s children.
Every spiritual matter is related to the Body. If we have the genuine building, we have everything. When we are built up as the Body and go to preach the gospel, the Body preaches the gospel. This kind of preaching is prevailing and effective. However, the Lord’s children today have no appetite for this matter. Instead, they are all seeking their personal interests, personal salvation, personal victory, and personal healing, blessing, and spirituality. Many Christians are offended when we talk to them about the matter of the church or the building because they have no heart or appetite for this matter.
There are some seeking ones, however, who feel a need in their spirit and heart. These seeking ones long and seek for something more. They feel a need, but they do not know what they need and cannot explain what they are seeking. They have a thirst and a lack, but they cannot explain what will satisfy them. Though they may be very spiritual, they cannot be satisfied apart from the genuine church, the genuine building up of the Body. However, once they see the building of the church and enter into it, they feel satisfied and realize that this is what they were seeking. Their inner sense confirms this matter in them.
We have many items of truth and practice in the Lord’s recovery, but we do not stress any of those items as much as we stress Christ and the church. We must experience Christ as our life and our everything, and we must have the church as the expression of Christ. If we stress these two matters, all the other matters will be resolved spontaneously and automatically. Many problems can be solved by helping people to experience Christ as their life and as everything in their daily living and by helping them to come together, submit to one another, and be built up together for the expression of Christ. As long as we have these two items of Christ and the church, all other problems will be automatically solved.
Since the time of the Reformation about five hundred years ago, the Lord has recovered many items, and we feel that the building up of the church may be the last item of the Lord’s recovery before He comes back. Before the Lord comes back, He must have the church on this earth. In the Old Testament when Absalom drove his father David away from Jerusalem, some people prepared the way for David to return. Similarly, there is the need for some prevailing churches on the earth to prepare the way for the Lord to come back. This will not be accomplished by Christianity as a whole. Rather, there needs to be a remnant — the New Testament overcomers. In the seven epistles to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, the Lord sounds the call for the overcomers, the remnant (2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 20-21). We believe that in the last days before the Lord comes back, He will send out a call for the remnant, the overcomers, to be built up together as the living expression of the Lord’s Body. This will prepare the way for the Lord to return.
Question: Many Christians whom we contact come to the recovery for the blessings but simultaneously remain in their own denominations. When they need the Lord, they come here, but their money, work, and effort go to their particular denominations. It seems that they are interested only in taking away from the church and not in building up the church. How can we change this?
Answer: The Lord will not bless us if our intention is to pull people out from the denominations to help us. Our intention should be to help all the Lord’s children. While we are working with such an intention, the Lord may sovereignly cause some brothers and sisters to come together to be a nucleus and to stand on the right ground and position to practice the real expression of the Lord’s Body. As more blessing and more of the Lord’s presence is realized, people will come to get the help. After they have been helped, they may go back to their denominations to help others. If this happens, we must let them go and believe that this is something under the Lord’s hand. We must give them the full liberty to either remain in our meetings or return to their denominations. For the most part, we should not tell people to leave their denominations. We must believe that the Lord will sovereignly cause some saints to be clear concerning the recovery and that He will cause some to be a nucleus to bring in the Lord’s blessing for His children.
Question: Could you give us an example from your experience of how a church is raised up and established?
Answer: Most of the local churches in China were raised up not through famous ministers or preachers but through the believers, those who had secular jobs in the world. For instance, perhaps a brother who is a schoolteacher is transferred to another city. When he arrives there, he begins to preach the gospel and to contact believers and have fellowship with them. This schoolteacher may invite his colleagues from school, his neighbors, or even his students to his home for a meal and some fellowship. In this way some may be saved, and these may lead others to be saved in the same way. Then these saved ones may begin meeting in the schoolteacher’s home, and when the number of those meeting increases to a proper number, they may establish a local meeting. This way is very simple and effective. The local ones must preach the gospel.
In order to carry out the building up of the local expression of the Lord’s Body, we must realize that the building must be started in the way of life, not in the way of a movement. The way of a movement does not work; only the way of life works. It is good and even necessary to pay attention to other experiences such as the experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. However, the most important thing is to help people to know Christ in the way of life. I am not against the baptism in the Holy Spirit, but the most vital factor for the building up of the church is life. All the experiences such as the baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues are for the building up of the church, but the main factor is life. With our physical body, the most vital factor is life. Our bodies need exercise, air, and sunshine, but these things, though they are for life, are not life itself. Thus, in order to build up the church as the Body of Christ, we must help people to know Christ as life.
