Search
Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 9:22-23; 1 Thes. 2:7; Eph. 4:11-12; 1 Cor. 14:1, 3-5, 12, 24, 31, 39
What I have said to the co-workers, elders, and all of you during the last week or two comes down to two things: the small groups and the prophesying. Tonight we want to see the four things related to the organic practice of the new way. They are begetting, nourishing, teaching, and building. To beget is to preach the gospel to gain the new ones (1 Cor. 9:22-23). To nourish is to have the home meetings and to be nursing mothers in the homes of the new ones (1 Thes. 2:7). To teach is to have the small group meetings for the perfecting of the saints (Eph. 4:11-12), and to build is to prophesy in the district meetings for the building up of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 14:31).
Tonight I feel that I cannot go on speaking in the same way. The reason for this is that in the past few meetings what we did here was like lecturing in the classroom, with some research done. But when I went down to the actual work site, I realized that either we have not started building, or we were not working according to plan. For this reason I will make the matter very clear by speaking in another way. This does not mean that I have changed again. I must declare that I have not changed at all. We are still on begetting, nourishing, teaching, and building and on the gospel, the homes, the small groups, and the districts. The gospel is for the begetting. The home is for the nourishing. The small groups are for the teaching, and the teaching is for the prophesying, resulting in the building up of the church. This blueprint has been drawn out clearly since last fall. However, all we had was simply a blueprint. Everyone seemed to be busy. But no one was busy according to the blueprint. Some have not even started on the work yet. Therefore, from this week on, all of you have to start working. While you are building, your blueprint must be accurate. You must not build something rectangular when the blueprint calls for something circular. If you do, you will have to rebuild everything.
For this reason I will consider carefully with all of you the detailed way for the carrying out of this work. I hope that I can speak in a thorough way and that you can listen to my speaking in a sober way. We have to make the way to carry out this work very clear. Every week over five thousand people are meeting in the church in Taipei. Among them at least two to three thousand are active in service. This is quite a large number. Regrettably, due to the fact that the blueprint was not clear and that many have not actually started building, we have been moving around a lot but accomplishing little according to the plan. I realize that we cannot go on wasting our time like this. Hence, I want to say that from now on, every way must be stopped. We have to listen carefully first before proceeding on with the work.
The first item in carrying out the work is to divide up the small groups. All the meeting halls have to make a proper division of the small groups. This does not mean that the elders and co-workers divide them up for everyone else. Rather, they are there just to assist the saints in dividing among themselves. When you divide up, there is no need to be too legal. Respect the wish of each individual. At any rate, everyone must belong to a small group meeting. If you do not have one, you are not qualified. Even if we have to give up our sleep and meals, we have to meet in the small groups. As to the number in the small groups, it must not be less than twelve and must not be more than twenty. Each small group should be from twelve to twenty in number. I hope that you will clearly settle this matter of the division of the small groups within two weeks. Everyone has to be identified with one small group.
After the small groups are established, the brothers and sisters have to start meeting in the small group meetings. The first thing to do in the small group meeting is to see whether or not everyone is revived. This revival is a morning-by-morning revival, a day-by-day overcoming, a life that lives Christ, that speaks Christ, and that attends every meeting there is. The revival that we talk about in the Lord’s recovery is easier than all the revivals that Christians have sought after throughout the previous centuries. All we need to do is go to the Lord every morning when we wake up and pour out everything we have in us in a genuine way from the depth of our being. In this way we will be cleansed and will be enlightened by the Lord’s word. The Lord will fill us, and we will be able to consecrate ourselves to Him to live the overcoming life. After ten minutes our whole being will be revived.
Following that, we should move on with the sun, which means to walk according to the Lord Jesus who is rising up within us. In the end we will become like the sun, just as the Lord Jesus is. In at least three places the Bible compares those who love the Lord and follow Him to the sun. Proverbs 4:18 says, “The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, / Which shines brighter and brighter until the full day.” Also, Judges 5:31 says, “May those who love Him be like the sun / When it rises in its might.” Matthew 13:43 says, “Then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” Hence, every morning we need to have a new beginning before the Lord to be revived anew. For this we all have to make a vow to the Lord and to consecrate ourselves.
We must be revived. Only then can we be living persons. In order to walk the new way, we must be the new man. The new man is the living man. The old man will not work. The oldness I am talking about is not oldness in age. Some have said that Brother Lee does not want old folks anymore. This is a total misunderstanding. I never reject those who are old in age. I am rejecting only the old man. The old man cannot take the new way. Hence, the first thing to make clear in the small groups is that everyone has to be revived and have clear dealings before the Lord. Everyone has to consecrate himself honestly to the Lord and live for Him so that God’s New Testament economy may be realized in us. Only by this can we walk the new way. The new way requires a revived and living people to walk in it.
The second thing the small group has to do is consider whether or not there are new ones among them. If not, the small group meeting cannot go on. Where do the new ones come from? The only way to gain new ones is by preaching the gospel through visiting people. Three persons will be grouped into a team and will go out to preach the gospel by knocking at others’ doors. There can be two to three teams in a small group. Every week they should go out at least twice, the more the better. After doing this consecutively for a few weeks, surely a few new ones will be gained. Next, they should distribute the new ones among them, and the saints in the small group should start caring for them specifically one by one. I hope that everyone will have at least two new ones in their hands. Preferably, each should have three to care for. If the base number for a small group meeting is twelve, with eight to nine being the regularly active ones, they can care for at least eighteen new ones.
After we baptize the new ones, we should begin having home meetings with them. At the beginning, if possible we should go to nourish them once every two to three days. After a month we can visit them once a week. When we go to the home meetings, we have to lead the new ones to attend the small group meetings and the Lord’s Day district meetings. In other words, within a week after a person is saved, we should work into him all four things: the begetting, the nourishing, the teaching, and the building. Furthermore, we should continue to do this every week. Of course, among the new ones there are better ones and worse ones. Their condition also varies from time to time. As soon as the number you care for becomes less than two or three, you should look for others to go with you to preach the gospel by knocking on doors. This will replenish the number of new ones. If we would all do this, the number will surely increase. A small group that originally has twelve people will bring in over ten new ones after six months, and those twenty or more people will be established in the small groups. By then, we can divide this small group of twenty or more people into two small groups.
As soon as the small group is divided, we repeat the same thing. Begin by considering whether or not everyone is consecrated and whether or not everyone is revived. Then go out to preach the gospel by knocking on doors and gain some new ones. Furthermore, care for and help the new ones. If there is a shortage, replenish the number immediately. In this way, after another half year we can divide again. Originally, there was only one group. After half a year it becomes two. By the end of the year it becomes four groups. In the four groups there are at least forty people. In this way we have a two and a half times increase. If you will all practice this way, you will find that such a result is not that hard to achieve. Even if we take a big discount, we may still have, with a base number of twelve at the beginning of the year, an addition of fourteen by the end of the year. In all we will have twenty-six. This is surely attainable. Why were we not able to do such a thing in the past? It is because we did not have the way. There were too many blueprints. Everyone was wasting his time on useless ways. Now I am presenting before you this way of building according to plan. I hope that you will all build according to this plan and will practice these three steps. They are the three phases of the small group. Number one is the morning revival. Number two is the gaining of the new ones. Number three is nourishing and helping the new ones to have home meetings, small group meetings, and district meetings.
Following this, we have to go on to consider how the small group meetings should be conducted. According to the organic practice of the new way, the small group meetings must be organic. In order to show you what is organic, I must first show you another blueprint of what it is to be non-organic. The non-organic way is the way of a worship service. A worship service is for worshipping God. This is good. But the set of religious formalities that have to be carried out is not good. The meetings in Christianity, especially the worship hour on the Lord’s Day, whether in the West or in the East, all consist of some prescribed procedures and programs. Before the meeting a printed program that was prepared ahead of time is passed out to every attendant. On it is printed the name of the leader of the songs, the prayers, the reading of the Scriptures, and the names of the preachers. All these activities are performed by the professionals who have been trained. The congregation has nothing to do. They only sit there. There is no need to labor, and everyone is spared the trouble. This kind of worship affords neither the enlightening, the supply, nor the edification or the perfecting, much less the building up of the church. This is a vain worship service, and it annuls God’s eternal purpose and the New Testament economy.
What then is not a worship service? To be organic is opposed to a worship service. The small group meeting has to be organic. It should not be in the way of a worship service. However, I must say that even today, at least over half of our small groups are still in the way of a worship service rather than in an organic way. Most of the small group meetings have a set time for starting the meeting. When the time comes, the people come and sit. They look at the clock and at the leading brothers. After a while some brother calls a hymn for singing. Then some prayers follow. After the prayers everyone waits for one another again. Gradually, some reluctantly begin to say something. At a certain point a brother would say that now is the time for sharing. Only then will everyone share a little. In the end all the meetings follow the same pattern. Although there is no program sheet, in reality the programs are all there. The only difference is that they are not printed. Although there are the prayers, the fellowship, the mutual care, the studying of the truth, and the enlightening in life, the way is still that of the worship service. There is the lack of the organic flavor. Even when there is some organic flavor, it is very weak.
The real small group is organic. It is not a worship service. Organically speaking, the small group meeting begins at the latest from our homes. From that time on we begin to pray. While we are on the way, we rejoice and praise. It is like what the psalmist says, that we rejoice when others say to us, let us go to the house of Jehovah (Psa. 122:1). When we arrive at the meeting place, we do not care whether there are people there already; we simply begin to pray and to praise. If other brothers and sisters come in, they spontaneously join in. Some can also give testimonies or discuss questions related to the truth. Another may come in with problems that he opens up in fellowship for mutual intercession and help.
This kind of meeting does not follow a set rule. Everything is organic. Any question can be raised up in this meeting. The answers should not come from some specialists. Every attendant is a learner, and every attendant is also a teacher. The amount one speaks depends on the amount he has. But everyone has something. Hence, everyone should share that little bit that he has. When sharing his portion, no one should give long stories, and no one should take up too much time. If a question is raised up, and there are seven or eight answers with a word of some weight and experience at the end, the whole thing will take only about ten minutes, and the question will be thoroughly discussed. If it is a question that concerns the truth, everyone will have learned something. If it is one that concerns life, everyone will be stirred up to pursue after it. When a new one attends this kind of meeting ten times or more, he will also become organic in less than three months.
In this kind of small group meeting, every attendant is living. Spontaneously, everyone will be a priest. The gospel is preached, the new ones are brought in, the questions are answered, the truth is learned, and there is mutual fellowship and care. Hence, within one small group meeting, everything is there; the content is all-inclusive. For this reason a small group meeting should last for at least an hour and a half. If it is shorter, it will not be a good meeting. I am describing a little to you to show you that the small group meeting is not a worship service. It is a picture of the daily life of a Christian. It is natural, and it is not peculiar at all.
Today I have to cry out aloud and declare that the Lord Jesus worked on earth for three and a half years. Not once did He attend a worship service. Never did He call a meeting. Rather, He was conducting a small group in an organic way. This small group comprised the twelve disciples, with Peter, James, and John being among them. He did not have a set date of meeting, nor did He have a set time and place. He was living together with the disciples, teaching and leading them along the way. If you do not understand what an organic small group is, just look at what the Lord Jesus did with the disciples during the three and a half years, and you will understand.
Today for the sake of convenience, our meeting should have a proper date, time, and place. But we should not bring in elements of a worship service. Do not come together for a worship service and at the same time neglect your living. We are not Christians for a worship service. We are Christians for a living. When we, the ordinary Christians, come together to meet with no intention of having a worship service and having no set procedures, all the brothers and sisters who attend will have the opportunity to develop the spiritual function within them. In this way, meeting by meeting, we will receive some good perfecting, and the gifts will be developed (Eph. 4:11-12). In the end everyone will be able to do what he is supposed to do.
In the past the old system of meeting did not afford the Holy Spirit the opportunity to develop the gifts within the saints. At the same time it annulled the spiritual function of the saints. It only caused people to sit through the meetings with their mouths shut, listening to others speaking, while they themselves never had their spiritual gifts developed. Now we have the organic practice of the new way. All the opportunities are there before everyone. Whosoever will can make it. There is something within everyone. As long as they will speak meeting by meeting, sooner or later everything will be manifested. Every time we have this organic small group meeting, everyone learns and everyone teaches. You will perfect me, and I will perfect you. In the end everyone will open their mouths, and everyone will become useful.
When we have the begetting, the nourishing, and the teaching, we still need the building. What God wants is a corporate vessel, which is the church, the Body of Christ. We have paid much attention to this matter in the past. During the past two years, we have also studied much concerning this. In the end we see that there is one chapter in the Bible that talks about the building up of the church. It is 1 Corinthians 14. It mentions the word building at least five times. This chapter deals with nothing other than prophesying. Only prophesying builds up the church. A few verses are particularly important. Verse 1 says, “Desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.” Verses 3 and 4 say, “He who prophesies speaks building up and encouragement and consolation to men... He who prophesies builds up the church.” Verse 12 says, “Since you are zealous of spirits, seek that you may excel for the building up of the church.” Verse 24 says, “But if all prophesy and some unbeliever or unlearned person enters, he is examined by all, he is judged by all.” Verse 31 says, “You can all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be encouraged.” From these verses we see that the most important thing with our meeting is the prophesying, which is to speak for the Lord, to speak Him forth, and to speak the Lord into people. Through the speaking of the Lord’s word, the riches of Christ are released and are dispensed into all the attendants. Finally, verse 39 says, “So then, my brothers, desire earnestly the prophesying.” From this we can see that this whole chapter is on prophesying from beginning to end.
Today in Christianity this light has been lost. The result is that the Body of Christ is not built up. Even among us there is not much building. The reason is that there is not this kind of prophesying. Hence, from now on we must pay attention to this matter and must promote it. In order to prophesy, there are a few things that are indispensable. First, we must love the Lord and have fellowship with Him. We must live before the Lord and be a person who is joined to Him as one. Second, we must spend the effort to learn the truth. We need to read much of the Bible and the spiritual publications. The good thing is that such books are abundant among us. Books like the Recovery Version of the Bible, Truth Lessons, and Life Lessons should be read much; the more the better. When you read them, you should allow the Lord’s word to saturate, fill, and penetrate your whole being so that, in the end, the words become your constitution. The Lord’s word will be mingled with you. It will even become you. Third, you must be flexible, walking according to the Spirit and receiving instant and fresh inspiration all the time. Fourth, you should learn to have a heavenly, enlarged view, to know Christ and the church, and not to have your own opinions or view but to have the view of God. When you study the word of God this way, with the experience of life, the inspiration of the Spirit, plus the spiritual light and view, it will be easy for you to prophesy for the Lord. Fifth, you should be prepared to prophesy in your daily life.
At present, many districts are practicing reading one chapter of the Bible each week. The chapter is divided into six portions with one portion each day to be used in the morning. In every portion two verses are selected for pray-reading, together with some footnotes and passages from the Life-study messages. The inspiration received during the daily enjoyment of the Lord is jotted down in brief. On Saturday these points are put together and composed into a composition for prophesying. The next morning it can be brought to the Lord’s Day morning meeting for prophesying. This method is very helpful. But it is not enough to depend only on this, because it can become merely a composition, a thesis, or an interpretation of the Bible, which does not have the nature of prophesying. The real prophesying is the outward expression of the indwelling God through the word of God. This happens when God is within you, and you are one with Him. It is not a doctrine. Rather, it is an inspiration. There is no self-opinion. Rather, there is the spiritual insight. Moreover, during the speaking, there should not be any banal or common speaking. While one is speaking, he should look to the Lord for fresh utterance and instant inspiration. This will greatly increase the spiritual nature of the prophesying and will make the prophesying filled with fresh revelation.
I hope that you will practice these five points: fellowshipping with the Lord to be one with Him, being saturated with the Lord’s word and being constituted by it, being living in the spirit to receive constant inspiration, being without self prejudice but with God’s view, and learning to speak with revelation using the fresh feelings and expressions. This is the best kind of prophesying. It is not merely a teaching or instruction based on others’ words. Nor is it merely some personal testimonies. In the church meetings the highest speaking is the prophesying. Second to this is the teaching. The testimonies rank third.
I hope that in the future we will see more of the prophesying in our meetings, even to the point that it will be more than the teaching. There is also no need to have too many testimonies. In this way the content of the meetings will be rich. When we are speaking, there is the need to have the biblical materials. For example, in the praises of Mary the mother of Jesus in Luke 1, many words of the Old Testament were quoted throughout the whole passage. This shows that she was full of inspiration, that her view was broad and her choice of expression fresh, with much revelation. It was a good example of a proper prophesying (vv. 46-55). Before this, the blessing of Elizabeth (vv. 42-45), and following this, the prophecy of Zachariah (vv. 68-79) were in the same principle. Not only were there the words of the Bible and the fresh utterance but the broad view and the spiritual revelation. When all these elements are added together, we have the prophesying.
This kind of prophesying cannot be acquired in two or three days. There is the need to live this kind of life for a long time. Prophesying is the highest expression of the Christian life. If we live this way, we will spontaneously be able to speak for God, to speak forth God, and to speak God into others. Week by week, if all prophesy this way, doubtless all the saints will receive the enlightening, the cleansing, the nourishing in life, the help in the truth, and the spiritual perfecting to be built up together into the Body of Christ. For this reason everyone needs the small groups. In the small group there is the fellowship, the prayer, the reading of the Bible, the mutual care, the learning of the truth, the pursuit of the growth in life, and the perfecting. First, we are perfected in the small groups. By the time we come to the prophesying meetings in the church, everyone will be built up together. By then, the Body of Christ will be built up, and we will have succeeded in having the proper Christian meeting and service.
