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Scripture Reading: 1 Thes. 5:16-20; Rom. 10:12; Eph. 6:17-18; 2 Tim. 2:22
In this chapter I want to share the real burden on my heart for my concern about the Lord’s recovery. The Lord has shown us His economy, and He has shown us the contents of His economy, especially throughout the past thirty-two years. Most of the messages from this ministry have been put on audio- and videotapes and have also been printed in books, yet according to our observation, generally speaking, we do not practice what we have seen of the Lord. Therefore, in this chapter I will come from the high peak of God’s revelation down to the place where our feet are, where we are. I hope that I can do my best to show you what our need is today. The fellowship in this chapter and the following chapter is also my burden, the real word on my heart, for the elders in the Lord’s recovery.
Let us read 1 Thessalonians 5:16-20: “Always rejoice, unceasingly pray, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophecies.” In this portion of the Word, I ask you to pay attention to three points. First, pray unceasingly. Second, do not quench the Spirit. Third, do not despise prophecies.
Romans 10:12 says, “There is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all and rich to all who call upon Him.” Here it says that the Lord is rich. His riches are unsearchable (Eph. 3:8), but how can we participate in and enjoy the Lord’s riches? Here is a very simple way. This way is to call upon Him.
Ephesians 6:17-18 says, “Receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints.” We teach the practice of pray-reading the Word based upon what Paul says here. Ephesians 6:17 says that the Spirit is the word of God. The Lord Jesus said, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit” (John 6:63). The word in Ephesians 6:17 is not the word in black and white. This word equals the Spirit. The next verse, verse 18, tells us that we have to pray this word, and we have to be watchful concerning this kind of prayer. In other words, we have to be watchful concerning our pray-reading. This is not just to be watchful concerning our reading of the Bible or our prayer in a common way. This is a particular prayer of praying the word, making the word our prayer. In this sense, we do not need to compose a prayer, because our prayer is the living word of God.
Second Timothy 2:22 says, “Flee youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” This verse charges us to pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. These items are the Lord Jesus Himself, so to pursue these things means to pursue Christ. Paul here itemized the practical points concerning Christ. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our faith. Christ is our love. Christ is our peace. Our practice of living the life of a God-man is a constitution of Christ as righteousness, faith, love, and peace. Paul charged Timothy to pursue Christ as these items by calling on the name of the Lord. This calling is not just by yourself but with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
You may think that we cannot see anything high in all these verses and that these things are common among us. My fellowship, which is my burden, is this. Yes, all these things have been gradually unveiled to us by the Lord in the past years, and they have even been printed in books. But in our practice there is a big shortage. How much have you called on the Lord today? Do you pray-read the word consistently and adequately? Do you pray unceasingly? Do you fan the Spirit into flame (2 Tim. 1:6)? We are told not to quench the Spirit, but nearly all of us quench the Spirit every day.
Now in our church practice, we promote the matter of prophesying. But even thus far, not many churches are practicing this. Most of the saints who do practice prophesying do not realize what it means to prophesy in the church meetings. Some give a word of their kind of experience or feeling, or they tell a story in the meeting. That is not prophesying. To prophesy is to speak God’s word to people. In this speaking, Christ is spoken forth by you. To prophesy is to speak Christ forth into people. This mainly means to minister Christ. We minister Christ to others by our speaking. You may excuse yourself by saying that you do not have the gift to speak as some brothers have. But can you say that you do not have the gift to speak for the Lord, to speak forth the Lord, and to speak the Lord into people? We all have this gift, a gift to speak Christ (1 Cor. 14:31).
To carry out God’s economy according to the high peak of God’s revelation, we need all these practices. We are charged to walk, to live, and to have our being in and according to the mingled spirit (Rom. 8:4). How can we do this? We can do this only by these few steps: calling on the name of the Lord, pray-reading His word as the Spirit, praying unceasingly, not quenching the Spirit, and not despising or ignoring prophesying. If you cut yourself off from these things, you are finished; you can never live the life of a God-man. A God-man’s life is a life of calling on the Lord, pray-reading His word as the Spirit, praying unceasingly, not quenching but fanning the Spirit into flame, and not despising but respecting prophesying. If you miss any part of these few things, you miss a lot.
I recently fellowshipped with the co-workers and elders by speaking a very frank word to them. I said, “Brothers, many of you still work for the Lord by doing affairs. Your kind of taking the lead among the saints is not according to the spirit but according to your kind of realization. So you made a number of formalities, asking others to perform your formalities. This often causes opinions and even divisions.” All the co-workers and elders from today onward should have a change. You have not been called by the Lord as a co-worker or an elder to carry out formalities. You have been called and assigned by the Lord to carry out God’s economy, and God’s economy is altogether centered on Christ, taking Christ as its reality. Without Christ, there is no economy of God. We may be very busy every day in the Lord’s recovery in the church, and we may be very diligent and faithful, yet we do things that are not the contents, the reality, and the center of God’s economy. So we need a turn.
I pray, “Lord, grant us in Your recovery to have a genuine, real revival.” We do not want a revival, however, like the many revivals that went on in the past. One famous revival took place in Wales from 1904 to 1906 under the leadership of Evan Roberts, who was a coal miner. In a short time this revival became so prevailing that when people would go to Wales to preach the gospel, no one would be saved. This is because nearly everyone in Wales had been saved. When I came into the work of the recovery in 1932, only about twenty-six years later, I heard about that revival. By then it had become not as prevailing as it should have been. The issue of that revival in Wales did not last long.
Evan Roberts stressed spiritual warfare, how to fight against Satan. But today what we have seen of the Lord is not in that category. What we have seen of the Lord is in God’s central lane, the economy of God, with Christ as its centrality and universality, with Christ as its center, reality, and everything. This Christ is now the life-giving Spirit indwelling our regenerated spirit to be one with our spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17).
For such a revelation, which is so high, deep, and profound, the Lord needs a model. He needs a corporate people to be raised up by His grace through this high peak of the divine revelation to live a life according to this revelation. Then they will be the model. Even for pray-reading, we did not set up a strong and proper model. Where is the model of living a crucified life that we may live Christ? Even among us, this is not too prevailing. Where is the model of living Christ and magnifying Christ by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ? Where is this life? We have these revelations released as messages printed in books, but where is the model?
My burden is that my fellowship could affect you to be burdened with me for the same thing. We have the local churches but no model. For all the things the Lord has shown us, there is no model. With calling on the name of the Lord, there is no model. With praying unceasingly, there is no model. The Lord is rich unto all who call on Him, but there is no model of this. We are not that rich in the Lord’s recovery because we do not have the genuine, living practice of calling on the Lord. If we have this model, we will be enriched by the Lord through our calling on Him.
Paul even tells us that we should pursue Christ not only by our own individual calling but also by our corporate calling with others who call on the Lord from their sincere and pure heart. This indicates that we not only need to call on the Lord and pray-read the word of the Lord as the Spirit individually. We also need this corporately. In all the churches there should be groups of ten or fifteen saints who come together often to call on the Lord.
Calling on the Lord implies a lot. When you open your mouth with the exercise of your spirit to call on the Lord, right away you are under His shining. You are enlightened and exposed. Then you see all your defects, shortcomings, and mistakes. As a wife, you see your mistakes in dealing with your husband. As a husband, you see that the way you deal with your wife is altogether not in the spirit. Then you make a thorough confession of your sins, failures, mistakes, defects, trespasses, transgressions, and wrongdoings. You cannot make such a thorough confession unless you are enlightened in the light of the Lord. Who can be enlightened in the light of the Lord? Only those who call on Him from a sincere and pure heart. This is the initial experience of Christ in calling on His name. Then the Lord will continue to transfuse all His particular riches into your spirit and even into your mind. In this way you will participate in and enjoy the Lord’s riches.
All the messages that I have passed on to you came to me in this way. If you do not touch the Lord, how can you see His light and receive His revelation? Do not think that all these revelations have come to us just because we studied the Bible thoroughly. I know some who have studied the Bible very diligently, but they only know the Bible according to the letter. In my hometown, about sixty years ago, there was a brother who was a Chinese scholar in the Ching Dynasty. He was put into prison by the Ching Dynasty, and it was there that he got saved. After he was released from prison, he studied the Bible. Eventually, he remembered every verse of the Bible, so we called him “the living concordance.” If you wanted to know a verse of the Bible, you could ask him instead of going to the concordance. I knew him. But I can testify before the Lord that this brother who was a living concordance did not have much light. He could not tell you the truth concerning regeneration or the church. If you know the black and white, this does not mean that you know the Bible. The Bible is not just the black and white. The black and white is a conveyer to convey the spiritual, divine, intrinsic reality to us.
In Ephesians 6 Paul says that the Spirit today is the word. The Bible must become the word as the Spirit. This means that your Bible must be one with the Spirit. Your Bible is the Spirit, and the Spirit is your Bible. How can we get this? There is no other way except by calling on the Lord, by touching the Lord daily and moment by moment. If we are all such persons living in the presence of the Lord by calling on Him, by praying to Him unceasingly day after day and hour after hour, we will be the reality of the fulfillment of the typology in 1 and 2 Kings.
This is my strong burden that I would fellowship with the elders. Every local church needs this. Do not invent many formalities. You yourself should practice calling on the Lord. You yourself should practice pray-reading the word as the Spirit. You need to practice the unceasing prayer. You need to practice never quenching the Spirit but rather, fanning the Spirit all the time into flame. You need to practice not despising any prophesying. You elders should take the lead to practice this. First, you be the model. Then your practice in such an intimate way with the Lord will influence the saints in your church. Especially as elders, you can exercise much influence over the members of the church.
Probably after about one year, your church will become a model. When we talk to people about the vision that we have seen, they will say, “Where is such a church?” Then we can say, “I’ll bring you to one so you can see the model.” This is what we need now. I do not believe that we need further revelations. We have seen enough. The urgent need today is the practice of a kind of living that belongs to God-men, and the God-men are the very components of God’s economy.
All the elders and co-workers should pursue this reality so that they will be made into a model by the Lord, a model living in the economy of God. Then they and their churches will become such a model. In my prayer, this is what I call the genuine revival. There are over two hundred churches in the United States. Just in Southern California alone, there are fifty churches. If all these churches would be such a model, that would be a prevailing testimony.
