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Scripture Reading: 1, 12, 24, 1 Cor. 14:31, 32, 39; Isa. 12:2-5; Lam. 3:22-26; Luke 1:46-55, 67-79
In the previous chapter we saw the way to practice the Lord’s present recovery. The first step in practicing the Lord’s present recovery is to get sinners saved for the Lord. Following this we need to have home meetings with the newly baptized ones, and then we need to group them together to teach them, to perfect them, to equip them, to furnish them, so that they can do the same work that the gifted persons do to build up the Body of Christ.
According to the traditional way of thinking, preaching the gospel is only for certain ones who have the profession of being a preacher, but in the New Testament it is altogether different. The New Testament reveals that each member of the Body of Christ should bear the burden to gain sinners for the Lord. In John 15 the Lord Jesus told us that He is the vine and we are the branches. Bearing fruit is not a particular job for only some branches. All the branches of the vine must bear fruit. In order to bear remaining fruit, we have to go back to the newly baptized ones to meet with them in their homes. These home meetings are for cherishing and nourishing them. Through the home meetings, the new ones will be raised up and established.
The new ones also have to be grouped together so that they can have a life in which they live together with other Christians. In these group meetings we have to teach them and perfect them in certain things. They may love the Lord and seek after the Lord, but they do not know how to bring people to salvation. We have to train them and perfect them, instructing them how to go out to preach the gospel by knocking on people’s doors. This is a kind of particular perfecting, not a general teaching. In Christianity people listen to general sermons and teachings for years, and they still do not know how to serve the Lord. We may give the saints much knowledge in a general way without any particular training or perfecting. In a big congregation it is hard to train people in a conversational way. If I teach a group of ten or fifteen, we can all converse with one another. The particular perfecting can take place in the small groups. We have to instruct the new ones in a particular way in many things. This carries out eighty percent of the church life. We have to promote their preaching of the gospel, their going to have home meetings with others, and their learning to speak for the Lord.
On the day of Pentecost three thousand were baptized on the same day. At that time, only the one hundred twenty, who had received the outpoured Spirit, were capable of taking care of these new ones. I believe that these three thousand new ones all met in their homes on the same day, because Acts tells us that they met according to houses (2:46). This means that there was a meeting in all the homes of the saints. Among those three thousand, there were at least six hundred homes. Each home may have averaged five persons. I believe that the one hundred twenty took care of these approximately six hundred homes two by two, which means that they would have been divided into sixty teams. That would mean that each team would have had to take care of ten homes in one day. Peter’s preaching on the day of Pentecost took place early in the morning (v. 15), so this could have given the one hundred twenty the time to take care of all these homes in one day.
The first example of the church life in Acts 2 shows that every member participated in the church life. Whenever we baptize some new ones, we need to go to their homes immediately to meet with them so that the Lord can have a way to cherish and nourish them. We should not think that only certain ones can function to take care of others. We all have to say, “Amen! Hallelujah! We all can do it!” When I speak or walk, every part of my body participates in my speaking or walking. The Body of Christ is the same. When the Body acts, all the members participate. This is the church life. Christianity has disabled the members of the Body of Christ, and we all have been subjected to this disabling. Actually, the Lord’s present recovery is to recover us. He wants to recover us both corporately and individually. The Lord desires that we be living, able, active, and moving members of His Body. To carry out the Lord’s present recovery, there is the need of endeavoring and desperation.
For the sake of the Lord’s present move, we all need to make a budget of our time. We have to separate certain hours and devote these hours to the Lord. Out of seven days, many of us should be able to devote two three-hour time periods of two days to the Lord. Many of us have free time on the weekends, so this may be the proper time that we can devote to the Lord for the present advance of His recovery. We should budget six hours a week and devote them by vowing to the Lord. We can tell the Lord, “Lord, out of all my time during the week, I will return six hours to You for Your interest.” We need to budget our time in the same way that we should budget our money. If we do not have a proper budget for our expenses, we will spend our money loosely, and eventually we will be in debt. But if we budget our money, we will spend our money according to our budget, and we will not be in debt. Likewise, if we do not budget our time, it will be wasted.
I told the saints in the past that if we budget our time faithfully, this will cut off much unnecessary telephone talk. When we do not budget our time, we will be so loose and free in the way that we spend our time. To many of the sisters the telephone is “sticky.” Once they get on the phone, it is hard for them to get off. We may waste much time on the telephone because we do not have a budget for our time. We should vow to the Lord to spend three hours, two times a week, to go to visit others’ homes, either for preaching the gospel by knocking on doors, for home meetings, or for grouping the new ones together and having small group meetings. If all the saints in the local churches do this, the issue will be marvelous.
Of the ones we baptized in the past, many may not have remained because we did not go back to care for them faithfully and consistently. If a newborn child does not have a nursing mother to constantly care for him, he will not be able to survive. We must have a change in our practice. We need a present recovery in practicality. If we can devote six hours a week to the Lord, three hours of two days, we will see the results.
Some may decide to devote every Lord’s Day afternoon from three o’clock to six o’clock for knocking on people’s doors to preach the gospel. When we go out to preach the gospel, we should not go by ourselves. We must have a team of three. We have to pray, “Lord, give me two companions.” Of these two companions, at least one should be a sister. On the first afternoon that we go out to preach the gospel, we may not gain anyone, but we should not be disappointed. We must continue to labor. Perhaps when we go out again the next Lord’s Day, we still will not gain anyone. What should our attitude be? We have to be strong in our spirit and in our will, and we have to pray much. If we labor patiently, we will reap some fruit for the Lord. Eventually, on the fourth Lord’s Day that we go out, we may baptize five new ones into the Triune God. If we labor in the Lord patiently, He will lead us to the ones whom He has chosen. Sometimes the Lord will test us to such an extent that we will not gain anyone after going out to preach the gospel five times. We went out to fish for men, and it seems as if the Lord bade all the fish to stay away from us. In John 21 the disciples fished all night, and they caught nothing, but at the Lord’s word to cast their net, they caught an abundance of fish. If we labor with the Lord faithfully during the hours that we have devoted to Him, we can have the assurance that we will bear two remaining fruit yearly.
We must make a budget of our time, we must be desperate, and we must endeavor. Paul says in Colossians 1:28-29 that he announced Christ by laboring and struggling. The Greek word for struggling implies the thought of fighting and battling. Paul struggled according to the operation of Christ, which operated in him in power. This shows that it was not so easy for the apostle Paul to gain people. His announcing Christ was a battle. In this universe God desires sinners to be saved, and the devil is doing everything he can to frustrate this. Because of this fighting between God and His enemy, we have to endeavor. The enemy will do whatever he can to frustrate us from devoting time to the Lord for His gospel service. He may make us feel tired or sick. Sometimes our feeling that we have a cold may be a falsehood from Satan. We need to say, “Satan, get away from me. I will not listen to your falsehood. I trust in my God to whom I have vowed these three hours.” If we go out in this way by faith, the Lord will take care of us. When we are going out to preach the gospel by knocking on doors, we should not believe the falsehoods of the enemy, which may be feelings that we are tired, that we have no strength, or that we have a cold. We have to endeavor because there is a struggle.
In Matthew 25 the Lord told us the parable of the talents. Each of us has received at least one talent from the Lord. The Lord has given us a talent, and now we have to use this talent to make some interest for the Lord. We have to contact the bankers and deposit our talent with them (v. 27). We may ask, “Who are the bankers?” The bankers are the very sinners whom we are going to visit. When we go out to knock on doors and we see the people, we should say, “Praise the Lord! Here is a banker.” We need to deposit our talent with these bankers, and then we will receive some interest. The parable in Matthew 25 says that the one who had five talents and the one who had two talents made interest, but the one who had one talent did not go to the bankers. Instead, he buried his talent. Because he did not gain any interest, he was rebuked by the Lord, and in the coming kingdom age he will suffer a dispensational punishment. This parable in the Holy Bible is a serious word. Just as we love John 3:16, we also have to love this parable in Matthew 25. The Lord has invested a lot in us. Now we have to do business for Him by depositing His investment with the bankers. Then we will gain interest for the Lord and be rewarded by Him.
In Matthew 24 the Lord revealed that as the Master, He has set some slaves over His household that they may give food to His household at the appointed time. This giving of food takes place in the home meetings and group meetings. When we go to visit sinners with the gospel by knocking on their doors, we are depositing the Lord’s investment with the bankers. When we function in the home meetings and group meetings, we are giving food to the Lord’s household at the appointed time. Every day is the appointed time. We have to go to distribute the Lord’s rich food to nourish His household. The Lord said, “Blessed is that slave whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing” (v. 46). If the Lord sees us feeding His household at His return, we will be blessed by receiving His reward in the kingdom age. Whether we will be rewarded or punished in the coming kingdom age depends upon how we work in this age. The punishment in the kingdom age will be to be cast out into the outer darkness (25:30), whereas the reward will be to enjoy the Lord’s joy and to participate in His kingship (v. 23). What we receive in the coming age depends upon how we work for the Lord in this age. We have the Lord’s investment so that we can make a deposit with the bankers to gain some interest. We also have the ability to feed others, to distribute His rich food to His household, at the appointed time. If we are faithful to serve the Lord in this way, we will receive a reward.
To knock on doors for the preaching of the gospel is to gain sinners, to invest our talent with the bankers. To have home meetings and small group meetings is to be faithful in distributing the Lord’s rich supply to His household at the appointed time. This service to the Lord, though, still has not reached the ultimate point for the building up of the Body of Christ.
The building up of the Body of Christ is fully covered in the Epistles of Paul. First Corinthians 14 is the only chapter in his Epistles that stresses to the uttermost that the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ can be prevailing only by all prophesying.
In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul talks about love as the excelling way for exercising the gifts. In the first verse of chapter 14, Paul says, “Pursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.” Prophesying is the excelling gift for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. In verse 31 Paul says, “You can all prophesy one by one,” and in verse 24 he says, “If all prophesy...” We all can prophesy, and we all should prophesy. Paul also indicates in verse 12 that prophesying is something excelling all the other gifts. To prophesy is excelling because it builds up the Body of Christ. Paul dedicated all of 1 Corinthians 14 to promote this and encourage all the saints to prophesy. At the beginning and at the conclusion of this chapter Paul tells us that we need to desire earnestly to prophesy (vv. 1, 39). For the Lord to gain the organic building up of His Body, we need to pursue and desire to prophesy, seeking to be rich in this excelling gift for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
In the past we did not know the true significance of prophesying. In the Pentecostal movement there have been many false prophecies about the future. One so-called prophecy among them was that there would be a great earthquake, and the entire city of Los Angeles would go into the ocean. Eventually, there was no fulfillment of this prophecy. Because of the traditional teaching and practice of Christianity, we thought that to prophesy is merely to foretell, or predict. But if we carefully read 1 Corinthians 14, we can see that in this chapter to prophesy is not to predict but to speak for the Lord. When we look at the patterns of prophesying in both the Old and New Testaments, we can see that the saints spoke for the Lord. Luke 1:67 says, “Zachariah...was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied.” What Zachariah said after verse 67 was his speaking for the Lord. In the New Testament sense, to prophesy mainly means to speak for the Lord, to speak forth the Lord, to speak out the Lord, and to speak the Lord into others. Prophesying is the top gift for building up the Body of Christ.
Today we are doing something particular, definite, and special for the Lord’s recovery. For the Lord to build up His Body in an organic way, we must gain sinners by knocking on their doors and have home meetings and group meetings. Millions of sinners may be brought to the Lord, but without the home meetings and group meetings, these new ones have no way to go on with the Lord and become remaining fruit. If we can carry out these steps, we will gain the proper increase for the church life. The Lord desires to build up His organic Body, not a congregation. This is why we stress the group meetings. It would be marvelous to see thousands of small group meetings of fifteen to twenty saints in every local church. There would be many small groups but no congregation as a façade to make a show. The Lord would be able to get the genuine worship in all these small groups. If we had only the above steps, however, we would still fall short of the building up of the Body of Christ. There would be no practical building up of the Body of Christ organically, because we would still be short of prophesying. We need the excelling gift of prophesying. When each one of us is prophesying, the Body of Christ is built up organically. This is surely an advanced recovery.
Throughout the past centuries item after item of truth and practice have been recovered by the Lord, but the Lord’s recovery has always been stopped and frustrated by people’s contentment. The British Brethren were greatly used by the Lord, but at a certain point they became contented. They were stopped by being contented with where they were, and the Lord could not go on with them. The Lord’s recovery has been progressing very slowly because of people’s contentment.
By 1984 we were somewhat at a standstill, so I realized that we had to be desperate to go on with the Lord. By August of 1988 the Lord showed us that He needs to recover the truth of 1 Corinthians 14:26 and Ephesians 4:11-16. If we are going to have the practice of 1 Corinthians 14:26, of every saint prophesying, we must practice Ephesians 4:11-16. All the gifted persons must rise up to do the perfecting work. The evangelists not only preach the gospel. They also spend time to perfect the saints to preach the gospel. Suppose an evangelist went to twelve localities and spent one month in each locality to perfect and to train the saints to preach the gospel. The result would be marvelous. In addition to being perfected to preach the gospel, we need to be perfected in cherishing and nourishing the new ones in home meetings and in teaching them in the small group meetings. Eventually, we all need to be perfected to prophesy, to speak for the Lord, in the larger meetings of the church. When we are all trained and perfected to prophesy one by one, the Body of Christ will be organically built up. This is the Lord’s recovery today.
The fellowship in this book presents the vision, the view, of the Lord’s present, advanced recovery. Now we have to endeavor to get sinners saved for the Lord and to go to their homes to have home meetings with them in order to cherish them, nourish them, and raise them up. We have to endeavor to have small group meetings to educate, teach, instruct, perfect, equip, and furnish the new ones so that they will be enabled to do everything necessary for the carrying out of the church life. Finally, we have to endeavor to reach the point where all the saints have something of Christ to offer by prophesying in the larger meetings of the church according to the principle of 1 Corinthians 14:26. By this scriptural way each one of us will be built up organically, and the Lord Jesus will be happy because He will be able to have something built up on this earth as His Body to be His bride so that He can come back.
Over fifty years ago, in 1937, Brother Nee saw that we needed to practice 1 Corinthians 14:26. This fellowship is in his book The Normal Christian Church Life. At that time, however, we did not find a way to practice it. Brother Nee said in his book Church Affairs that to have a church meeting in which one person speaks to a big congregation is according to the customs of the nations (2 Kings 17:8—NASB) and that we should not maintain such a meeting. He told us that the traditional way of meeting had become a habit rooted deeply within us. He also told us that we had to have something better to replace this traditional way of meeting before we stopped it. Otherwise, the saints would stop coming to the meetings. Brother Nee shared these things and strongly stressed them in 1948. Soon after his fellowship the Communists took over mainland China. Brother Nee was put into prison, and I was sent to Taiwan, so we did not have the time to practice his fellowship.
Whenever I consider our history, I regret that we did not endeavor to put his fellowship into practice when I first came to the United States. We did not endeavor to practice it until we had drifted into a dormant situation, and we were forced to reconsider our way. It was in August of 1988 that one word came to me—organic— and I saw the Lord’s desire in 1 Corinthians 14 and Ephesians 4. From that time my burden has been focused on these two chapters. The more I speak on these portions of the Word, the more I have to speak.
The conclusion of the scriptural way to build up the Body of Christ is that we all have to learn to prophesy. First Corinthians 14:31 says, “You can all prophesy one by one that all may learn.” Since the ones who listen to our prophesying learn, then we who prophesy must learn first. If we do not learn anything, we cannot teach others that they may learn something. A professor’s students can learn much from him because he has learned much. Many of us have been in the church for years, but we have never been taught nor have we learned how to prophesy.
To learn we must first have a desire. If someone does not have the appetite or desire to learn, he will not learn. We must have a desire and a strong will to carry out our desire. It is easy to be a “traditional Christian.” We can just “go to church” every Sunday and let others who are professionals serve for us. But today the Lord is recovering His interest on this earth. He is recovering the organic building up of His Body, the perfecting by the gifts of all the saints that they may do the same work of the New Testament ministry that the gifted ones do to build up the Body of Christ and the church meeting in mutuality. The Lord is endeavoring to intercede for us so that He can recover these matters. Now we have to endeavor to practice His scriptural way. We have to pray, and we have to endeavor to learn how to be strengthened to save sinners by contacting them where they are. Then we have to dedicate ourselves and devote some of our time to the Lord to take care of home meetings and group meetings. Also, we have to endeavor to learn how to prophesy.
First, in order to prophesy we must be persons who have been saturated and soaked with the holy Word. Nearly every phrase and every point of Mary’s short prophesying in Luke 1:46-55 is a quotation from the Old Testament. This proves that Mary, a young woman, was soaked in the Word. This is why the Lord chose her to be the mother of the Man-Savior. The Lord Jesus was born into a family that was full of the knowledge and love of God’s holy Word. Mary’s example shows us that if we are going to prophesy, we must get into the Word, being saturated and soaked with the Word to become one with the Word.
Second, in order to learn to prophesy, we must be ready in the spirit to have the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 14:32). A ready spirit is a spirit that is always one with the Lord, the Spirit, fellowshipping with Him, remaining with Him, and abiding in Him. When we have such a ready spirit, we can have the spiritual inspiration at any time. We can even tell the Lord, “Please give me the inspiration. I am ready in my spirit, and I have to prophesy.” To prophesy we need the knowledge of the Word and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The knowledge of the Word is constant, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is instant. The instant inspiration depends upon our constant readiness. We have to be constantly ready in our spirit to receive the instant inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
If we have only the knowledge of the Word and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we still will not be able to prophesy. We need to have a clear view to see through all things in all situations. We will not know what to say without a vision. We need to have a clear sky all the time. We need to be sober in our mind and in our spirit. We need a clear view concerning the Lord’s interest on this earth, concerning His Body, concerning the local churches, concerning the individual saints, and even concerning ourselves.
If we have the three items mentioned above, we can prophesy at any time. With a clear view to see, we have something to speak. We also have the ability to speak because we have the knowledge of the Word for the utterance and the proper expressions. Furthermore, we have the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. When we speak with these three elements, our speaking is the speaking of the Lord and the speaking forth of the Lord.
The patterns of prophesying can be seen with Isaiah and Jeremiah in the Old Testament and with Mary and Zachariah in the New Testament. Isaiah’s prophesying in Isaiah 12:2-5 is not foretelling. He speaks the Lord in these verses: “God is now my salvation; / I will trust and not dread; / For Jah Jehovah is my strength and song, / And He has become my salvation. / Therefore you will draw water with rejoicing / From the springs of salvation, / And you will say in that day, / Give thanks to Jehovah; call upon His name! / Make His deeds known among the peoples; / Remind them that His name is exalted. / Sing psalms to Jehovah, for He has done something majestic! / Let it be made known in all the earth!” In this portion of the Word, Isaiah speaks the Lord, speaks forth the Lord, and speaks the Lord into all of us. When we read this portion from Isaiah, we have the feeling that Isaiah has spoken the Lord into us.
Jeremiah’s speaking in Lamentations 3:22-26 is another pattern of prophesying: “It is Jehovah’s lovingkindness that we are not consumed, / For His compassions do not fail; / They are new every morning; / Great is Your faithfulness. / Jehovah is my portion, says my soul; / Therefore I hope in Him. / Jehovah is good to those who wait on Him, / To the soul that seeks Him. / It is good for one to hope, and to do so in silence, / For the salvation of Jehovah.” Jeremiah tells us that it is the Lord’s lovingkindness that we are not consumed. This is not foretelling but blessing, well-speaking. He tells us that the compassions of the Lord are new every morning. We need to learn to prophesy in this way. Jeremiah told the Lord, “Great is Your faithfulness.” There is a well-known hymn based upon this verse (Hymns, #19). Jeremiah also says that the Lord was his portion. It is marvelous that there was a prophet in the Old Testament who knew that the Lord was his portion. When we tell others that the Lord is our portion, we are speaking the Lord to them.
We have already seen how both Mary and Zachariah spoke for the Lord in Luke 1. Their speaking in this portion of the Word (vv. 46-55, 67-79) is prophesying. They were saturated with the holy Word, they had the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and they had a clear view.
In October of 1988 I began to teach the saints in Taipei how to prophesy. Taipei has over one hundred district meetings on the Lord’s Day with about fifty saints in each district meeting. Fifty is a good number because it gives all the saints more of an opportunity to prophesy. The saints are in a particular book of the New Testament, and each week they cover one chapter from this book. The brothers divide this chapter into six portions for six days of the week, and the saints use these portions each day for morning revival. Each portion may have about six to seven verses, and two of these verses are chosen for the saints to pray-read so that they may enjoy the Lord in His Word.
I told the saints to write down a short reminder of what the Lord inspires them with each morning. After Saturday morning the saints will have six notes of the inspiration that they received during the week. I shared with them that on Saturday evening they can pray-read these six inspirations. When the saints add these six inspirations together, they will have a total inspiration. They can then compose a prophecy with this total inspiration. Some of the brothers function as tutors or coaches to help the saints compose their prophecy. These brothers may advise them to adjust their prophecy so that it is close to three minutes long. If their prophecy is too short, they will be asked to lengthen it. If it is too long, they will be asked to shorten it. The brothers also help the saints with the form and content of their prophecy.
On the Lord’s Day morning the saints pray to get their spirit prepared. They go to the meeting with the prophecy they have prepared and with a living and ready spirit. When the saints come together in their districts on the Lord’s Day, each one has something. The saints are so happy to speak when they labor in this way. In the past we may have charged the saints to speak, to function, but they did not know what to speak or how to function. With this kind of practical perfecting today, the saints know what to speak, they are learning how to function, and they are looking forward to the meeting so that they can grasp an opportunity to speak for the Lord. The saints are ready to speak when they come to the meeting like runners ready to run in a one-hundred-yard dash. The saints in Taipei have been practicing this, and they have testified that this way to prophesy is rich, high, and living.
I would like to recommend this way to all the local churches. If we decide to go through the Epistles of Paul, covering about one chapter a week, we can finish them in about two years. If we take this way, within two years the saints will be greatly edified and built up organically. This practice of all prophesying will bring in the organic building up of the Body of Christ. We need to consider this practical way to help the saints prophesy, but we should not do it legalistically.
The elders may be excited about the fellowship in this book and may be eager to practice it, but we should not practice it too fast. We should do everything gradually. We still need to keep the big meeting on the Lord’s Day to have the Lord’s table and to have a time to practice the mutual speaking. In the initial stage this meeting may not be so rich. The leading ones should prepare something to share at the end of the meeting for ten or fifteen minutes in order to strengthen and enrich the meeting and satisfy the attendants. In this way we can keep the attendants, and gradually they will learn to prepare something to prophesy and speak mutually in the meetings. At a certain time, when the brothers feel that the time is ripe, the church can practice what I have fellowshipped above. We should not do this suddenly but gradually. It may take six months to a year for the leading ones to prepare the situation and help the saints get used to a meeting that is in full mutuality. We should not have a sudden change of our present situation in the church life. To change our practice suddenly is to ask the saints to “jump from the fifth floor.” Instead, we must lead the saints to take the “stairway” so that they can gradually be brought into the Lord’s scriptural way. Eventually, the saints will be ready to have a complete change, and we will not lose anyone. I hope that the Lord will give us the wisdom to practice the scriptural way so that He can have the present advance of His recovery.
