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Scripture Reading: Rom. 15:16; 1 Cor. 15:10, 58; Col. 1:28-29; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Acts 2:46-47; 4:24; 5:12; 6:4
In this chapter I would like to speak something very practical concerning the practice of the church life according to the God-ordained way.
The God-ordained way is the laboring way (Col. 1:29; 1 Cor. 15:10, 58). To labor is more than to work. Without our laboring, there can be no practice of the God-ordained way. The New Testament tells us clearly that Paul was a laboring apostle. In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul says that he labored more than all the other apostles. In Colossians 1:29 Paul uses a word that is even stronger than the word labored. There he says that he was struggling according to God’s operation, which operated in him in power. In his use of these terms, Paul is probably alluding to the competing of athletes in the Olympic games. In every event in the Olympics, the athletes are struggling to gain the crown (1 Cor. 9:25).
In Romans 15:16 Paul says that he was a laboring priest of the gospel of God. In that verse the word laboring has the same root in Greek as the word energizing. Energy is the noun, whereas energize is the verb. There Paul says that he was energizing himself. To energize yourself is to use the last ounce of your strength. In other words, it is to pour out the last drop of your blood. It also means to exhaust yourself. In carrying out his ministry for God’s economy, Paul exhausted himself. If we do anything by taking the way of laboring, struggling, and energizing ourselves, we will surely have a success.
I have participated in the Lord’s work in His recovery for more than sixty years. In this work I have never suffered a defeat. I would not be defeated. I may be defeated today, but I will persevere in the same thing for another period of time.
My ministering on the God-ordained way has been like a coach’s instructing of his players. At the present time there is the need for some to develop my teaching into a practical, detailed way. One of the points that I stressed repeatedly is that every local church should have one-third of its members going out in a regularly scheduled way to visit people for the gospel. In Taipei one brother picked up a burden for this matter. Within half a year he stirred up the entire church in Taipei, which has over five thousand regular attendants each Lord’s Day morning. Through this stirring up, one-third of the saints began to practice the regular going out for the preaching of the gospel. That was a great help to Taipei. Now Taipei has seventeen hundred people going out regularly in a scheduled way to gain people. If they do not gain one within a year, surely they will gain one within two years. If we would go to visit people according to a regular schedule, we cannot care for our “climate.” Whether we are happy or full of anxiety, whether we are victorious or defeated, we still must go. I doubt that many of us have ever practiced this way. We are all easily directed by our “climate.” Just a little “rain” and we stop going. We may intend to go out to contact people, but then something may happen to stop us. We do not go, because the “weather” is not good. This causes us to change our schedule.
In my ministry concerning the God-ordained way, I also stressed very much that we need to learn how to prophesy, and we need to train the saints how to prophesy. Another brother in Taipei picked up this burden, and today the saints in his district in Taipei are excelling in the matter of prophesying.
Recently eleven full-time co-workers who had been trained in Taipei and had been sent to the countryside in Taiwan to raise up new churches were charged to return to Taipei and take care of the work among the students on the university campuses. There are more than twenty universities in Taipei, and several of these are very large. The academic standard in these universities is quite high. First, these co-workers studied and investigated to find the way to gain the young people on the campuses. They found out that the church had some young people studying in the universities already. Then they also found out that in the summer, before the beginning of fall classes, the government held an examination for the high school graduates to determine their qualifications for entering into different kinds of universities. After that examination all the schools announced who had been accepted. They made available a list of names with addresses. The co-workers succeeded in getting the names and addresses of the entering students, and they began to contact each one through the brothers and sisters who were students in the different schools. The brothers and sisters offered to help these incoming students in various ways. They made an appointment with them to contact them when they arrived at the universities and to help them with the various matters related to their getting settled. This was a very good beginning.
Then, second, they convinced them to stay not in the school dormitories but in the brothers’ and sisters’ houses. Taipei has almost sixty brothers’ and sisters’ houses, with nearly four hundred college-age young people living in those houses. A considerable effort is required to convince the new ones to stay in those houses. Their parents also must be convinced that our intention is positive. Later, after their children have stayed in the brothers’ and sisters’ houses for three or four months, the parents observe a change in the lives of their children. Because of this, the parents are no longer apprehensive about their children; rather, they appreciate their living in the brothers’ and sisters’ houses.
Third, the eleven co-workers, along with some mature ones in the Lord, work on the new ones every day from 6:30 in the morning to help them to practice the morning revival. Throughout the day they prepare many things and do many things for the new ones. They help the new ones to schedule their time. Finally, every evening before going to bed they have an evening prayer time, along with some fellowship concerning the truth. Twice a week this prayer and fellowship time lasts one hour. In that hour the co-workers train the students how to compose a prophecy from the morning revival points. The students are also assigned a spiritual book to read. During the evening time they come together and fellowship concerning what they gained from that book. They do this every week, week after week. The co-workers also share with the students concerning how to be a priest of the gospel by contacting people and preaching the gospel to them. The students also meet in groups with different families in the church. Although the meetings are in the saints’ homes, they are carried out mainly by the students. Because they are so burdened for their group meetings, once a week the students fast and pray for the new ones in the group. The full-timers in Taipei have been successful mainly because they have transferred the burden of the work to the students. The students themselves have picked up the burden, but they are under the perfecting of the full-timers. Eventually, when these students graduate, a number of them will be ready for the full-time training.
All of us who are now in the recovery should pick up a burden to practice certain steps of the God-ordained way. In order to have a definite beginning in the practice of the God-ordained way, each one should pick up a particular item as a particular burden. The first step is to get people saved to become members of the Lord’s Body. We must study this matter and get into it, and we also need to cooperate with others. We also need to pick up the further item of feeding and cherishing the new ones. This will require much learning. We should not consider this as something common. Merely visiting the new ones, speaking to them concerning the Lord, and teaching them some portions of the Bible are too common and too natural. We must study the situation and find the proper and particular way to carry out our burden.
We should endeavor to practice the group meetings with no formality, no religious service, and no religious worship. We should meet together simply as believers in Christ coming together to fellowship, making everything so natural. However, we also need to practice the main points of a group meeting. The main thing is to carry out the mutual teaching. We do not need a teacher to come to teach us; we should teach one another. All the attendants in the group meetings have the right to ask questions mutually, and everyone has the right to answer mutually. In this way the saints’ knowledge of the truth will increase every week, and they will be educated and perfected. Those who are burdened for the practice of the group meetings can come together to pray and even fast for the group meetings. They can study together and find out the secrets, and then they can go to the groups to give them some instructions and help them to practice, without doing anything to replace the other members of the group.
Those who have a burden to improve the prophesying in the church meetings must bear the burden and get others to work with them. They must study and learn the secrets. Then with what they have learned they should instruct others. They also need to pray concerning whom they should go to and fellowship with concerning prophesying. During their fellowship with others they should pass on to them their own experience. They should teach others face to face, allowing them to practice and correcting them so that they can improve. In this way our prophesying meetings will be very much uplifted. Those who are burdened for the prophesying can gather a number of brothers and sisters and come together each week to investigate how to improve the prophesying and how to teach others to prophesy. This is worthwhile.
As we have mentioned previously, the first item in the practice of the God-ordained way is the universal priesthood of the gospel (Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9). In the Bible the priesthood is the priesthood of the gospel, and the priesthood is also universal. That the priesthood is universal means that every believer shares in the priesthood. We have no clergy, nor do we have any laymen. We have only priests. Every brother and every sister is a priest to serve God. However, because of age or physical weakness or some other circumstances, many saints are unable to go out regularly to contact sinners. So, generally speaking, at least thirty percent of the saints in a local church are able to go out for the gospel. For this the elders must work on the saints and stir them up. The elders should not merely announce that one-third of the church members should go out to preach the gospel. The elders themselves must go out. Then they should contact all the saints who have the capacity to go out. These still may not have the heart to go out, so the elders need to fan their hearts into flame. They can ask some to be their partners in preaching the gospel. There must be such a beginning among us for the gospel preaching.
After begetting the new believers through the gospel, the next step is to feed them. For this we need to learn how to warm people up by cherishing them. If we do not know how to cherish people, we could never nourish them. When a nursing mother feeds her baby, she first does something to make the baby happy. Many children are naughty and refuse to take their food, but if the mother dances with them and gives them something to play with, they will be happy; their hearts will be warmed. In such a situation, whatever the mother gives them, they will eat. Like a nursing mother (1 Thes. 2:7), we need to exercise our patience, our endurance, and our love to feed the newly saved ones. Then after a period of time we can group the new ones with other believers for mutual teaching and perfecting, and we can also help them to practice prophesying in the Lord’s Day meetings.
The practice of the God-ordained way requires wisdom in every way. As we have pointed out, in Colossians 1:28-29 Paul tells us that he labored, struggling according to God’s operation in all wisdom, to present every man to God full-grown in Christ. That indicates that to bring one sinner to God perfected in Christ is not a simple thing. For this we need to labor and struggle, not foolishly but with the exercise of all wisdom.
Wisdom is needed to find out the secrets in every step of the God-ordained way. For this we need to study. A number of saints can spend time to come together to study the situation and the need and to find out the secrets. They can practice, and then they can go to teach others and help others to practice. It is not wise to promote or to merely make a general announcement. What is needed is a definite step with a definite, wise beginning.
In contacting people, we need to exercise wisdom in every way. We need wisdom to discern whether we should speak to them quickly or slowly, or whether we should be stern or mild in our tone. We need to learn by studying every detail. None of us can do this by ourselves. We need two or three to help us by correcting us, adjusting us, and balancing us. Otherwise, without others’ correcting, adjusting, and balancing, we may be laboring in vain.
To carry out any step of the God-ordained way, there is a need for coordination with one accord (Acts 2:46-47; 4:24; 5:12). If a group of saints are coordinating together, they all must be one. When they lose the one accord, they also lose the impact. We do not need to stress the power of the Holy Spirit. Instead, we should pay attention to the coordination with one accord.
Finally, the practice of the God-ordained way in its definite steps needs much prayer (6:4). To pray is not only to entreat the Lord to do things for us but also to cause our spirit to be exercised and strengthened. Hence, prayer should precede every step in our practice of the God-ordained way. Without such prayer our practice will not be enlivened and empowered.
I would encourage and even entreat all the saints to pick up one item of the four steps of the God-ordained way and to practice it with others in a definite and specific way according to what has been presented in this message.
