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Scripture Reading: Matt. 16:18; Eph. 4:11-16; 1 Cor. 14:23a, 26
Beginning in August of 1988, the Lord has been speaking to us concerning His organic Body and the organic building up of His Body. In this book we want to see the Lord’s advanced recovery according to His present speaking.
The divine revelation of the New Testament was fully completed with Paul’s ministry and John’s mending ministry. The New Testament tells us that at the end of Paul’s ministry, the church began to degrade and become deformed, departing from the divine revelation (2 Tim. 1:15; 2:16—3:13; 4:10, 14-16). Later, the apostle John wrote to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, telling them to repent. The Lord charged the churches to repent of the degradation into which they had fallen. The completing of the divine revelation and the degradation of the church life were both within the first century. The Lord came in to point out the degradation of the church and to sound out a call for some overcomers who would come back to the enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life (2:7), the hidden manna (v. 17), and the feast (3:20). According to church history, the Lord’s recovery with His overcomers began in the second century. Even within such a short time after the completion of the divine revelation, the church fell into degradation, so there was the need of a recovery.
In his book The Pilgrim Church Brother E. H. Broadbent pointed out that the line of the Lord’s recovery started in the second century and has continued throughout the centuries. Eventually, at the time of the Reformation with Martin Luther, the recovery of the Lord came into a definite form. The Lord used Martin Luther to recover the basic truth of justification by faith. In the seventeenth century some within the Catholic Church reacted to the deadness of the reformed churches. These were the mystics, whom the Lord used to recover the experiences of the inner life. The Lord went on in the eighteenth century with Zinzendorf to recover the initial stage of the church life in the unity of the Holy Spirit. In the early part of the nineteenth century, the Lord raised up the Brethren in England under the leadership of John Nelson Darby to recover the church life in a fuller way. This recovered church life might be considered as the fulfillment of the epistle to Philadelphia in Revelation 3. The Brethren began in 1828, but within ninety years they were divided into about one hundred divisions.
In the early part of the twentieth century, the Lord caught a young man in China named Watchman Nee, and the Lord used him to continue His recovery. This advance in the Lord’s recovery struck God’s enemy, so His enemy rose up against it. Mainland China was lost into the hands of the Communists, who were absolutely against the Lord’s interests on this earth. Brother Nee was put into prison in 1952 and died there in 1972. When mainland China was about to be lost, I was sent to Taiwan in 1949, and the Lord began His testimony on that island. From that time to 1958 on the island of Taiwan, we basically kept what we had seen and received of the Lord through Brother Nee’s ministry. In those years we did not have much advance in the Lord’s recovery.
From 1958 to 1989 at least ten big divine items have been recovered as a continuation of the Lord’s recovery in the years before. The first item is eating Christ, enjoying Christ, and experiencing Christ. Eating Christ is for enjoying Christ, and enjoying Christ is for experiencing Christ. The second item is that Christ in His resurrection became a life-giving Spirit. The Lord showed us this particular point in the divine revelation in 1 Corinthians 15:45b. The third item is calling on the name of the Lord—“O Lord Jesus.” This practice is fully recorded in many verses in both the Old and New Testaments, but we saw this and practiced it only within the past thirty years. We taste the inward sweetness of the Lord when we call “O Lord Jesus.” The fourth item is that the Triune God has been processed and consummated. The fifth item is the all-inclusive, compounded, life-giving, indwelling, sevenfold, and consummated Spirit as the consummation of the processed Triune God. The sixth item is the dispensing of the processed Triune God. The processed Triune God is dispensing Himself into His people. The seventh item is that the processed Triune God has been dispensed into the transformed, tripartite man. We saw this truth in Romans 8. The eighth item is that the riches of Christ after being enjoyed by the saints become the fullness of Christ for His expression. The fullness of Christ is the church, the Body of Christ as the expression of Christ. The ninth item is the mingling of the processed Triune God with the sanctified man. The tenth item is God’s New Testament economy.
We have seen that the divine revelation was completed within the first century, but the truths of the divine revelation were soon lost as the church degraded throughout its history. Whatever we are seeing today is not something new but ancient. It was with the saints nearly two thousand years ago, but it got lost throughout the centuries. We call the scriptural way to practice the Lord’s present recovery the new way because it is new to us, but in fact it is the ancient way to which we must return. Through century after century the Lord has been recovering item after item, and He is still going on among us today. In August of 1988 the Lord passed on the words organic and organism to us in order to advance His recovery even further. In September in Cleveland, Ohio, a series of messages was released entitled The Organism of the Triune God in the Organic Union of His Divine Trinity. Our eyes need to be opened to see what the Lord is recovering in the present advance of His recovery. We need to be impressed with three major items.
Today the Lord is moving to recover the organic building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12, 16). This organic building can be seen in the New Testament. Paul tells us that the church is built up with precious materials, and among these precious materials are the precious stones (1 Cor. 3:12). Physical stones are lifeless, inorganic, and a building made of these stones is inorganic. But in 1 Peter 2:5 Peter tells us that we are living stones, stones that are full of life. God’s building is organic because all the stones are living. Peter says that as living stones, we are being built up into a spiritual house. Since God’s building is a living building, Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:21 that it is growing. We can illustrate the difference between an inorganic item and something organic by comparing a piece of wood to a person’s finger. If a piece of wood is cut in half, and the pieces are put together without any glue, they will remain separate. But if a person’s finger is cut in half, and a doctor puts the two pieces together, they will grow together because they are organic. Their coming together is organic. Because we are organic members of the Body of Christ, our building together is totally organic. We have not seen much of the organic building among us because we have not taken the organic way. The old, traditional, and unscriptural way is good for organization but not for the organism of the Triune God, the Body of Christ. It is good for the organizational building but not for the organic building.
Some who are opposing the Lord’s present advance in His recovery have said that I have deviated from the Lord’s recovery. I have not deviated from the Lord’s recovery, but I have surely deviated from the old way. My deviation from the old way has brought me more into the recovery. Today I am in the Lord’s recovery more than ever before. Sixty-one years ago in 1927, I officially left my denomination. That was the initiation of my deviation from Christianity. According to my feeling, my deviation from Christianity was fully completed in August of 1988. Now that the old way is being annulled, some older co-workers have to consider where they will be. Should they remain in the old way or go forth into the new way? To go forth into the new way, we have to pay a price. Some older co-workers were a success in the recovery according to the old way, but now the old way is being annulled. This is the root of all the troubles among us today. All the other things are on the surface. I must testify that instead of deviating from the Lord’s recovery, I have entered into the Lord’s recovery more deeply.
Much of what we carried out in the past according to the old way was organizational. Some of it was organic, but the main situation of our practice was not organic. Today the Lord wants us to be absolutely organic in everything. He wants to recover the organic building up of the Body of Christ. The Lord does not want to build up a congregation but an organic Body. I would like to check with the elders in the local churches whether the local church in your locality is just a congregation or a part of the Body of Christ. The difference between an organization and an organism can be illustrated by comparing a robot to our physical body. A robot is an organization of inorganic parts, but our human body, which typifies the Body of Christ, is altogether organic. The church in our locality may be mostly congregational instead of organic. We have to deviate from the organizational and congregational way into something organic. We all need such a deviation.
The organic building up of the Body of Christ is not only by the gifted persons but also by every member of the Body. We must admit that in many of the local churches, the building up has been mostly by the elders and the co-workers, the leading ones. We may say that we do not agree with the clergy-laity system and that among us in the Lord’s recovery, we do not have the class of the clergy. Actually, though, we have to admit that there has been a strong clerical class in the Lord’s recovery. Some among us have been the clergy, and many have been the laity. In his epistle to the church in Ephesus in the book of Revelation, the Lord revealed that He hates the clergy-laity system (2:6 and footnote, Recovery Version). When I went back to Taipei in 1984, there were about three thousand saints attending the meetings. Of these, only about one hundred were serving. There were about five serving ones in each of the twenty-one halls. Unconsciously there was a strong clergy among us. We may say that we do not have a clergy, but in fact we have had it.
When I returned to Taipei in 1984, I took note of many of the saints who were brought into the Lord’s recovery when we began the Lord’s work there thirty-five years ago in 1949. I checked with them whether or not they could speak a word for the Lord on certain truths such as reconciliation. None of them said that they could do this. Actually, a small number of the saints were in the clerical class, and the rest had become the laity. The clergy-laity system is what the Lord hates, and yet we have practiced it. Should we not deviate from such a situation? We all have to rise up and say, “Lord, we want to deviate from this system that You hate. We want to build up Your Body, not only by a few gifted ones but also by every member of Your Body.”
The building up of the Body of Christ is not in the organizational way but in the organic way. The organic building up of the Body of Christ must be the first item that the Lord desires to recover. I believe that the Lord is earnestly after this one thing. He desires to see His Body being built up organically on this earth. This must be absolutely recovered. If we mean business with the Lord that we love Him, we have to rise up for this organic building. We need to tell the Lord, “Lord, You hate the clergy-laity system, and so do I. I do not want to remain in this system anymore. I want to get out of this system.”
In the present advance of the Lord’s recovery, He also desires to recover the perfecting of the common members of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:11-16). If only a small percentage of the saints in a local church are able to speak a word for the Lord and serve Him organically, this is a strong sign that this local church is short of the perfecting of the saints. In the past we almost always held big meetings with one man speaking to give people help in a general way, but there was very little particular perfecting. It is so good that there are many schools in America where people can receive training in a particular trade. If we only had people who were college graduates and we did not have plumbers, electricians, and secretaries, what would our economy be like? People who receive particular training in trades and skills render a great benefit and profit to society. Their training is the perfecting. We need this kind of particular perfecting of the saints in the Lord’s recovery. We need particular teaching that we may be perfected in a particular field.
To some extent we need the general edification of the big meetings. This is why high schools give young people a general education in subjects such as mathematics, geography, and history. In addition to this general education, though, some particular instruction is needed. All that we had in the churches in the past was the general education of the saints week after week and year after year with hardly any particular instruction. Many saints have been in the church life for many years, but today they know very little because they were edified only in a general way.
The Lord desires to recover the perfecting of the common members of the Body of Christ, and this perfecting can take place in the homes. In Acts 20 Paul reminded the elders in Ephesus that he taught the saints in the church publicly and from house to house (v. 20), admonishing each one with tears night and day for three years (v. 31). The practical and actual perfecting takes place from house to house. We should not just give general messages and teachings, but we need some particular instruction. Week after week and month after month, we need to instruct some saints face to face in a particular way. After half a year of this perfecting, many of the saints will learn how to serve.
Ephesians 4:11-12 says that the Head of the Body gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as shepherds and teachers for the perfecting of the saints so that the saints can do the work of the ministry. This means that all the perfected saints are able to do what the gifted ones do. There is a great shortage of such particular perfecting among us. We have the general teaching, but we have very little of the particular perfecting. There is the need of a recovery of this matter. The Lord is recovering the organic building up of His Body, and He is also desirous to see all the saints particularly perfected in order to participate in the building up of the Body of Christ as the gifted persons do. I have been in the Lord’s recovery for fifty-six years, and I have seen, done, passed through, and experienced many things, yet I must admit that we are short of the organic building up of the Body of Christ and short of the perfecting of the saints that they all may share the work of the ministry. This is the revelation that I have received of the Lord within the past six months.
The perfecting of the saints is by the gifted persons as the joints of the rich supply (vv. 11, 16). Our physical body is full of joints. We would be terribly disabled without the joints in our physical body. Years ago I thought that the gifted persons were only the big members. The joints in our fingers, however, are not big joints, and they are very useful. When the joints in our body work, our body enjoys the supply for its support. Many saints in the Lord’s recovery are the gifted persons, the joints, but they do not exercise as joints. They need to be released to function for the building up of the Body of Christ. We all need to be revolutionized since we have been distracted and somewhat paralyzed in a certain direction. We have to change our direction to the present advance of the Lord’s recovery.
The Lord wants to recover the perfecting of the saints so that each one part of the Body of Christ may do the work of the New Testament ministry by operating in its measure for the purpose of building up the organic Body of Christ (vv. 12, 16). To have every part of the Body exercised is to build up the organic Body by the organic way. This is recorded in Ephesians 4:11-16, but we have not entered into this experience. Now that this vision has been presented to us, we can see our need and the Lord’s need today.
In the present advance of the Lord’s recovery, He is also moving to recover the church meeting in mutuality (1 Cor. 14:23a, 26). In a big meeting with one person speaking and the rest listening, there is no mutuality. We have to meet as the church in the way that is revealed in 1 Corinthians 14:26: “Whenever you come together, each one has...” We may wonder how we can have a big meeting in which everyone functions, since the meeting would last too long. If two hundred saints each share for only one minute, that meeting would last three hours and twenty minutes. Each one has, however, does not mean that each one functions. Whether we function or not in the meeting, we still have something. Even if we do not have the time to function, we will still be exercised and prepared to function. If we know that a certain brother is going to give a message, there is no need for us to get prepared to speak. But when the saints gather together according to 1 Corinthians 14:26, we do not know who will speak, and we all have to bear the responsibility to speak. For every meeting we should get ourselves exercised to have something ready to share in the meeting. Then day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, we all will be exercised for the building up of the Body of Christ organically. Even though we may not share, we still were exercised.
In the church meeting in mutuality, each attendant has a portion of the riches of Christ to share with others mutually. If we are idle and do not exercise ourselves, how can we have a portion of the riches of Christ? We have to pray, get into the Word, have our mind and spirit exercised, and have our voice exercised to share in the meetings. For the sake of the meetings, we have to exercise all the time. Our exercise will make us healthy Christians. This is for the building up organically of the church as the organic Body of Christ. I must stress again that this is our shortage. We must ask the Lord to have mercy upon us and grant us the recovery of the church meeting in mutuality. We should hate to go to a meeting as “pew members” without any exercise, to merely listen, watch, and enjoy others’ sharing. This is wrong.
The recovery of the organic building up of the Body of Christ, of the perfecting of the common members of the Body of Christ, and of the church meeting in mutuality fulfills the words in Matthew 16:18, Ephesians 4:11-16, and 1 Corinthians 14:26 concerning the building up, in three levels, of the church as the Body of Christ. The three levels of building up are as follows: the Head builds up His Body by giving the gifted persons as the joints to His Body (Eph. 4:11); the gifted persons perfect each one part of the Body of Christ (v. 12); and each one part operates in its measure to build up the Body directly (v. 16). Without the fulfillment of Matthew 16:18, Ephesians 4:11-16, and 1 Corinthians 14:26, the Lord cannot come back. Regardless of the attacks, opposition, and criticism, the Lord will move to recover the building up of the organic Body of Christ, the perfecting of the saints so that all can do the work of the ministry, and the church meeting in mutuality. I have the faith, the assurance, and the certainty that the Lord today is going to recover these three items among us. I feel that we are the right persons today and that we are in the right time. I expect to see this within my lifetime. I believe that within five years a great number of the local churches will be practicing these items. We need a strong deviation from the old way into the present advance of the Lord’s recovery.
