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Heb. 1:9; 3:14; 2 Tim. 2:22; Matt. 18:19; 28:18-20; 1 Pet. 1:23; 2:2; 2 Tim. 2:2; John 12:24; 1 Cor. 14:1, 4, 12, 26, 39; Psa. 45:1; Matt. 16:18
I. Having partners in Christ
II. Preaching Christ to beget members for the Body of Christ
III. Nourishing the new ones in Christ
IV. Perfecting the younger ones to function
V. Building up the Body through prophesying in the church meetings
We need to have a normal Christian life as well as a normal church life. Individually, we need to grow in life; corporately, we need to be built up in life. We need a normal daily life for the church life. A normal church life helps us to have a normal Christian life. One of the first things we need in the church life is to have partners, companions. All the believers are partners of Christ to carry out God’s economy (Heb. 1:9; 3:14). The apostle Paul also had partners such as Silas, Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and many others (Acts 15:40; Rom. 16:21; 2 Cor. 8:23; Philem. 17). Practically speaking, it is good for us to have one or two saints in our age group to be our partners. We can call on the Lord and help one another to flee youthful lusts together (2 Tim. 2:22). We can stir up one another to love the Lord and study the word together. We can pray for our friends and go to preach to them together. It is so good to have partners in Christ to experience life and grow together. Our partners make the church life more real and more dear to us.
[The gospel is Christ, who is the very embodiment of the processed Triune God, reaching us as the consummated Spirit, who is the consummation of the Triune God for our enjoyment.] [My intention is to impress you that in the universe and today on this earth there is something called the gospel which we are reminded and commanded to live for. The Lord commanded us to live for this gospel uniquely. What are we living on this earth for? Do we live for our profession or for our job to make a lot of money? What is man living for? Poor human society has so much activity but no goal. Do we have a goal? Our goal is the gospel, and our gospel is the Triune God processed to be the very Spirit within us as our salvation, as our life, as our life supply, and as our all-inclusive enjoyment. What a wonder and what a glory to live uniquely for such a gospel. I have been living uniquely for this gospel for over fifty years. Hallelujah for this! It is worth it!]
The preaching of the gospel is the carrying out of God’s economy in life. Many of our friends, neighbors, and relatives around us have never heard the gospel and are not saved. Their destiny is eternal perdition, without God, without hope. We must allow the life in us to flow into them through the preaching of the gospel. Make a name list of your friends, neighbors, and relatives. If you do not have enough friends, make more friends at school. Pray with your partners and by yourself for the ones you are burdened for. Your prayer will bind the devil who is holding them captive and will loose them for the Body of Christ (Matt. 18:19). Then go with the authority of Christ (Matt. 28:18), and preach to them the gospel, the good news. You may use the booklet, The Mystery of Human Life, or other appropriate literature. If they would not believe, do not argue, just continue to pray for them. If they respond to what you are saying by smiling, they are the sons of peace (Luke 10:6). They have received faith through hearing your preaching (Rom. 10:17). Then you should lead them to repent, call, pray, and believe. After they pray they are ready to be baptized into the Triune God immediately (Acts 2:38; 8:36-38; 16:33; 22:16; Matt. 28:19). We must practice this every week.
After they have believed and are baptized, they are saved (Mark 16:16), and have been born of God (John 1:12) to be members of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-13). Since they are regenerated through the living and abiding word (1 Pet. 1:23), they are as babes needing to be fed with the milk of the word that they may grow (1 Pet. 2:2).
Firstly, we have to use verses such as John 3:5-6; 4:23-24 and 1 Corinthians 6:17 to show them that the Holy Spirit has entered their spirit to give it life, and that these two spirits have been mingled into one spirit. From now on, they must strengthen their mingled, regenerated spirit by calling on the name of the Lord (1 Cor. 12:3) and by praying (Eph. 6:18). Secondly, we must use verses such as 2, John 6:63 Timothy 3:16, 1 Peter 2:2, and Matthew 4:4 to show them that the Word of God is Spirit and life to be the supply to their regenerated spirit as spiritual air, water, and food. They need to pray-read and read the Word of God every day to be filled with the Spirit and grow in life. Thirdly, We must use verses such as Romans 8:6 and Galatians 5:16 to show them that we have a sense of life within us that is of the mingled regenerated spirit. From now on they need to live and walk by the sense of life within them. This sense of life is the sense of the mingled regenerated spirit. We sense life and peace whenever we are doing things according to the spirit. We sense death whenever we are doing things according to the flesh.
These three points are the three foundation stones of the Christian life. The new ones must be clear about them and practice them to be established in their faith. There are many other points you may use to help your new ones. Chapter nineteen of The Scriptural Way to Meet and to Serve for the Building Up of the Body of Christ will render you further help.
After the new ones become more established in the faith, you need to perfect them further. You must teach them everything you have learned (Matt. 28:20; 2 Tim. 2:2). You must cause them to be just like you: loving the Lord, having morning revival, living a victorious life, etc. As you sow Christ into them as a seed of life (John 12:24), they will grow up to love the Lord just like you. If you have kept your first love toward the Lord, they will have the first love toward the Lord. If you are living uniquely for the gospel, they will live uniquely for the gospel. If you help your friends receive salvation, they also can help their friends receive salvation. Whatever you are in life, they will be. Whatever you are perfected in, they will be perfected by you in the same things (Eph. 4:11-12). The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.’’ You can say the same thing to your new ones. If to you to live is Christ (Phil. 1:21a), then to them to live will also be Christ. This is too wonderful! You will be a little apostle, a little evangelist, a little prophet, a little shepherd and teacher. If you would do this for ten years, you will surely experience much life and you will grow in life. After ten years, you may become a mature apostle, evangelist, prophet, shepherd and teacher.
The final step is to prophesy and help your new ones to prophesy in the church meeting so that you may build up the church, the Body of Christ. First Corinthians 14:4b says, “He who prophesies builds up the church.’’ [Prophesying in 1 Corinthians 14 is not predicting but speaking for the Lord, speaking forth the Lord, and speaking the Lord into others, ministering (dispensing) the Lord to others. What a precious and valuable thing it is to minister, to dispense Christ into others. We need to learn to speak Christ, dispensing Him into others.]
[First Corinthians reveals that we need to enjoy Christ as everything. What we enjoy will have an issue. The enjoyment of Christ firstly issues in the growth in life to produce materials for the building up of the church (3:6, 9-14).] [The enjoyment of Christ also issues in the development of gifts for functioning to build up the Body of Christ, prophesying being the excelling gift (1 Cor. 14:1, 12, 39a). To build up anything you need firstly the materials and secondly the skill, the functioning. Thus, the enjoyment of Christ issues not only in the growth in life but also in the development of gifts for functioning.] [Dispensing Christ by speaking Him, prophesying, is the top development of the gifts as an issue of enjoying Him.]
Whenever we call on the Lord and pray-read the word, we must have some enjoyment of Christ and some experiences of life. We should write down these revelations and experiences. On Saturday, we should use these notes to compose a prophecy. We also should help our new ones to do the same. On the Lord’s day, when the whole church comes together, you and your new ones will have a revelation or a testimony (1 Cor. 14:26). Then you and your new ones should prophesy or testify according to what you have composed concerning the Lord (Psa. 45:1). When you speak for the Lord this way you will build up the church, the Body of Christ. You will tear down the degraded system of clergy-laity, which the Lord hates (Rev. 2:6), to build up the church directly (Eph. 4:12). In this way, the prophecy (foretelling) of the Lord, “I will build My church’’ (Matt. 16:18), will be partially fulfilled by you.
If you and all the saints in the churches will rise up to experience life, to grow in life, to deal with all the hindrances by repenting and confessing, to maintain a strong spirit by calling and praying, to be enriched with the Word of God by pray-reading, reading, studying, and memorizing, to speak Christ every day in every place to every person, to live a normal Christian daily life, and to have a normal church life, then the Body of Christ will be built, the Lord will return, you will enter into the millennial kingdom as a reward, and finally, you will be the New Jerusalem for eternity. Hallelujah! This is the final issue of life. We all have to praise the Lord that He is the eternal, divine, and indestructible life in us to produce such wonderful results. Praise the Lord!
