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Scripture Reading: Ezra 3:1-2
Chapter 1 of Ezra tells us that God stirred up the spirit of some of the captives in Babylon. After their spirit was stirred up, they rose up to go back to Jerusalem, bringing with them vessels of gold and silver. Their intention in going back was to build up the house of God. Ezra 3:1 then tells us that “the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem.” The seventh month was come, and although the people of Israel were in the cities, no oneness had yet been realized. But then “the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem.” That was the real oneness, the real harmony, not in the cities but in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the unique ground, the unique center, for the oneness.
How do we apply these things to ourselves today? If we are the remnant from captivity that has come back to Jerusalem, we need the real oneness and harmony. We all must be one. We must be gathered together as one man. We all must be as one man, not in this place or in that but in Jerusalem. It is not according to my opinion or your way, my concept or your teaching. It is according to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the center. Can we forsake all our opinions for Jerusalem? Can we forget about all our concepts for Jerusalem? We all have come back, but we must not come back with the influence of Babylon. We must forget about the things of Babylon. Do not come back with the teachings of Babylon. Let us all come up to Jerusalem. Then nothing will be according to you or me, but according to Jerusalem, for Jerusalem is the unique center and the unique ground for oneness.
In the past years, I have been watching and observing. I have discovered that some saints have begun to meet in different places, but eventually the meetings failed because of their different opinions and concepts. The problem is that some have come back, but they have not brought back the vessels. Instead, they have brought with them the things of Babylon. They have come back with so many Babylonian concepts. They have come back, but they do not have the oneness. They have never been gathered together as one man.
I must praise the Lord for the local churches. In the local churches, by the Lord’s mercy, we are just as one man. We have no different opinions, we have dropped all the Babylonian concepts, and we have gathered together as one. Since the Lord gave us pray-reading, we have really been brought into oneness. Praise the Lord! We need the oneness. Without oneness the building up of the house of the Lord is impossible.
If we are going to realize the church life, we must forget about all the dissenting teachings and opinions we have received in the past. We must forsake all these things. Different opinions, concepts, and knowledge of the Bible have caused much trouble. This is dreadful!
This is why, following the degradation of the church, the last book of the Bible was written in a different way. In the Gospels and in the Epistles, the order of the persons of the Godhead is Father, Son, and Spirit. But in the last book the order of the Godhead is changed to Father, Spirit, and Son. Now the Spirit is more important and has been changed from the third place to the second. Moreover, the one Spirit has become the seven Spirits, the sevenfold intensified Spirit.
The Lord Jesus said many things in the four Gospels, and the apostles wrote many books, but none of these told us as strongly as the book of Revelation that we must listen to the speaking of the Spirit. This last book tells us at the end of each of the seven epistles, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says.” Christianity has many Bible studies, Bible classes, and Bible institutes, but they are nearly all in the dead letters.
Instead of Bible study classes, we need weeping classes to weep for the spiritual poverty and deadness. We must listen to the Spirit—not just read what is written. We must listen to the present, instant speaking of the living Spirit. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” To read the writings is not sufficient. The age has been turned to the Spirit.
Why have Christians been divided? It is simply because of the different teachings and doctrines. The more teachings there are, the more divisions there will be. All the various teachings and opinions have done much damage to the recovery of the church. I fear that some of us are still under the influence of the Babylonian doctrines. May the Lord have mercy on us that we may forsake all those teachings, regardless of whether they are right or wrong. Let us go back to Jerusalem with the Spirit. Our mentality has done much damage to the Lord’s recovery. We simply need to turn to the Spirit.
In the past fifteen to twenty years, the Lord has shown us clearly that Christ is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Second Corinthians 3:17 says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” Based upon these Scriptures we have told people that they must realize that Christ is not only the Redeemer but also the life-giving Spirit. Some have condemned this, saying that it is heresy to say that Christ is the Spirit. They say that this is wrong and is against the teaching of the Trinity. But the Bible tells us clearly that “the Lord is the Spirit.” We do not care for man’s deadly teachings; we only care for the enjoyment of the living Christ as the Spirit.
Suppose the book of Revelation did not say anything about the seven Spirits of God, and yet someone told us that today the Spirit of God is the seven Spirits. Would you believe it? I am afraid that all Christians would say that this man is a heretic. The Spirit of God is the one unique Spirit. How could anyone say that He is the seven Spirits? But praise the Lord! We have this last book of Revelation, and it tells us that the Spirit of God is not only one Spirit but seven Spirits. Is this heresy? If this is a heresy, it is divine heresy. It is a divine heresy even out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, deadly teachings really cause a lot of damage both to the Christian life and to the church life. The Spirit of God is one. How can you say seven? But the Lord Jesus said that the Spirit is the seven Spirits. Then what shall we say? We have to say, “Amen! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!”
I am afraid that within you are still some “buts.” You may say, “This is quite good, but, but...” That little “but” is of Satan. All of us must learn to reject the “buts.” We must not have “buts”; we must only have oneness. No more “buts,” but all “Amens!” All the “buts” must be given up. We must not have any opinions so that we all might be gathered as one man. Never say, “but”; simply be one with the saints. Let us all be gathered together as one man to Jerusalem. We must not care for anything except the Lord’s recovery. We must only care for the building up of the temple of the Lord. Let us all come back to Jerusalem to be gathered as one man.
There is something more in Ezra 3:2. The names of two people are mentioned: Joshua and Zerubbabel. From the books of Haggai and Zechariah, we know that Joshua was the high priest at that time. According to Haggai, Zerubbabel was the governor of Judah, and if we trace his genealogy, we see that he was the descendant of David. So he was in the line of the kingship. Therefore, there are these two people: Joshua, representing the priesthood, and Zerubbabel, representing the kingship. In the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah, these two things are always represented. This is because these books are connected with the recovery of the building of the house and the city of God.
The building up of the house of God always requires the priesthood and the kingship. For the building of the tabernacle, Moses represented the kingship and the authority, and Aaron represented the priesthood. For the building up of the temple, Solomon represented the kingship, and the high priest represented the priesthood. For the recovery of the building, the priesthood and the kingship are still necessary. In the original building, there was first the kingship and then the priesthood. But with the recovery there is first the priesthood and then the kingship. The kingship is the divine authority, and the priesthood is simply to contact God, to be saturated with God, and to be occupied and possessed by God.
For the recovery of the building of the local churches, it is not only a matter of giving up the denominations in order to come back to the local ground but also a matter of the priesthood and the kingship. Praise the Lord that many have come back! But in the past years I have noticed that in many places, although the people came back, they were still short of the priesthood and the kingship. They did not have Joshua, and they did not have Zerubbabel. They left the denominations and came back with the intention to recover the church life, but they failed because they did not have the priesthood and the kingship. They thought that when they came back, they could use a certain way to practice the church life, but it did not work. The church life is not a matter of a certain way; it is a matter of the priesthood and the kingship.
Are we in the priesthood, and are we under the kingship? We need the priesthood in order to have a real contact with God, that our whole being may be saturated with God. It is not a matter of having a certain way to conduct our meetings—this will never work. It is a matter of the priesthood. Are we in the priesthood? Do we know something of the priesthood by experience? Are we helping others to experience the priesthood? It is not a matter of this or that; it is a matter of the priesthood. We all must contact the Lord, be filled and saturated with the Lord, and be occupied with Him day by day. We must have the priesthood in this way. All the dear ones in the Lord’s recovery must be helped to realize the proper priesthood. We all must contact the Lord. To shout for joy in the meetings is good, but what about our contact with the Lord in our private life? How much do we contact the Lord, and how much are we being saturated with the Lord in our daily life? This is the priesthood. In the Lord’s recovery we must have the priesthood; we must have Joshua.
We also need the kingship, the divine authority. People always ask if we have someone ruling the church. I always reply that it is rather hard to say. If you say that we do, I say that we do not. If you say that we do not, I say that we do. Who rules the meetings of the church in Los Angeles? If you say that no one rules, I will not agree. But if you say that someone does rule, I also will not agree. It is all a matter of learning how to submit to divine authority. There is a kind of divine kingship among us, and we are all under that kingship. We do not need an election for a leader. We need to be under divine authority.
In some places the saints have told me that it is really difficult to decide who will be the leaders. Sometimes I have spoken to the people in this way: whoever wants to be a leader is not qualified to be a leader. If someone is ambitious to be a leader among the saints in the Lord’s recovery, that is a shame. A leader is simply a leader. If you are a leader, everyone knows that you are a leader. You are what you are. If we know divine authority and realize the kingship among us, we all will know our place. We will know who we are, what we are, and where we are. We will know because we are under the kingship and authority, which is the headship of the Lord Jesus.
In the Lord’s recovery there is the need of the priesthood and the kingship; then there will be something recovered. Ezra 3 tells us that the first thing recovered was the altar. For the recovery of the house we need the recovery of the altar. Without the altar, the house can never be recovered. The altar is the place to offer all things to the Lord. This is the recovery of the real consecration.
According to Ezra 3, they did not offer anything except the burnt offering upon the altar. They did not offer the sin offering, the trespass offering, the peace offering, or any other offering. They only offered the burnt offering. We all know that the burnt offering is for God’s satisfaction. The sin offering is for sins, the trespass offering is for our trespasses, the peace offering is for our peace, the meal offering is for our satisfaction, but the burnt offering is for God’s satisfaction. To recover the house is for God’s satisfaction. The house is not for us to be forgiven; it is not for us to have peace with God; it is not for our enjoyment; it is wholly for God’s satisfaction. Therefore, we must offer nothing but the burnt offering. In other words, we must put all that we have, all that we are, and all that we can do on the altar for God’s satisfaction. This is the start of the church life. Before we can have the church life, we must put everything on the altar. The young people must offer their college degrees and their scholarships, and we all must offer all that we have and are on the altar for God’s satisfaction. Otherwise, it is impossible to recover God’s house.
In some places I have observed that certain brothers like to bear responsibility in the church life, but they are still in the world. They have not put all that they have and are on the altar. We need a consecration to offer everything on the altar for the building up of the local churches.
Many of the churches have a real burden that local seeking ones be added. But eventually, they only have a small number. I tell you frankly that if you will offer everything—what you have, what you can do, and what you are—on the altar, the Lord will bring in the seeking ones. The problem is that we have come back from Babylon to Jerusalem, yet at Jerusalem we still keep many things for our own interest. We would not offer everything on the altar for His interest and for His satisfaction. This is why we need consecration.
In Ezra 3 they offered burnt offerings morning and evening every day, and they offered the burnt offerings continually. All the time there was something burning on the altar. Only this type of consecration can bring about the building up of the churches.
If we really mean business with the Lord, we must offer everything on the altar. Otherwise, we had better go back to Babylon. We should not come back to Jerusalem and yet still maintain our life just as it was in Babylon. The life in Jerusalem must be absolutely for the Lord’s interest. The life in the Lord’s recovery must be absolutely for the recovery of the building up of the churches.
A few of the churches have had little increase. If they mean business with the Lord, they will be desperate to pray, “Lord, give us an increase; otherwise, we will die!” We must make ourselves cold or hot. If we are cold, let us be freezing. If we are hot, let us be so hot that people will say we are crazy. Let people say that we are too much. We all must be so mad, so burning for the local church. If we will be so burning, we will see the increase of the church. We do not care what people say about us; we must be absolutely for the Lord’s recovery.
The first thing to be recovered for the church life is the altar. We all need to recover the altar by praying, “Lord, this day we put upon the altar everything we have, everything we are, and everything we can do. We do it for Your house, Your church.” This is what we need. We need the oneness, we need the priesthood, we need the kingship, and we need the altar. Then the foundation of the temple will be laid for the recovery of the building of the churches.
