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God is a speaking God. He created the universe and continues to do all things through His speaking. Therefore, everyone who has been saved and who has His life should learn to speak for Him and to speak His word.
The greatest mystery in the universe is God. Where is this mystery opened and revealed to man? This mystery is opened and revealed to us in His Word. Hebrews 1 tells us that our God is a speaking God (vv. 1-2). The speaking of the human race came from His creation. He is a speaking God, and He is also the Word.
We have already seen that the Lord’s word is the Lord Himself, the Spirit, life, light, food, the seed of life, the rain that waters the seed, and the dew that moistens the plant. The Lord’s word is everything to us. The problem, however, is that we, the people of God, still have Satan and the flesh with us. Moreover, sometimes because we are confused, we mix up the spirit and the soul and are unable to discern one from the other. Therefore, God’s word is also a sharp sword that defeats Satan for us, divides our spirit from our soul, and deals with our flesh. Not only so, the word of God is like a big hammer carrying out a breaking work in us.
Now let us go a step further to see God’s desire, which is that man speak for Him. This matter sounds easy to understand, but it contains a biblical mystery. God shows us clearly in the Bible that His purpose in creating man was that man might speak for Him. Genesis 1:26 says, “God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” This was spoken during a council of the Divine Trinity to determine how to create man. The result was that God made man in His image. How did God create man in His image?
According to the inner-life people, image in Genesis 1:26 refers not to an outward form but to the attributes of God’s being, such as love, light, holiness, and righteousness. Love, light, holiness, and righteousness are four exceedingly great items. If we carefully study the Ten Commandments (Exo. 20:3-17), the law decreed by God, we will discover that the crucial contents of these laws are these four items: love, light, holiness, and righteousness.
The law first talks about the holiness of God, then the righteousness of God, then the love of God, and finally the light of God. It seems that in the Ten Commandments we cannot find these four great items—holiness, righteousness, love, and light; nevertheless, these four matters are the very content of the Ten Commandments. From the outset, God prohibited the people from making idols and from bowing down to them; He also told them that they should not take the name of Jehovah in vain and that they should remember the Sabbath day so as to sanctify it (vv. 3-11). These four commandments show us that He is the holy God, the God who is sanctified, different from all other gods, transcendent, uncommon, and distinct from all things. Therefore, the first four commandments speak of God’s holiness; they were written according to God’s attribute of holiness.
We know that the kind of law a person makes always expresses the kind of person he is. A good person makes good laws, and a bad person makes bad laws. If bank robbers could make laws, they would surely legalize bank robbery. The reason our God established such holy laws is because He is holy. “Honor your father and your mother...You shall not kill” (vv. 12-13)—these commandments show us that God is love. “You shall not steal” (v. 15)—this speaks of God being righteous. “You shall not testify with false testimony against your neighbor” (v. 16)—this concerns God being light. People who lie are in darkness, and those who kill and do not honor their father and mother are without love.
If we analyze the Ten Commandments, we will see that their basic points are God’s holiness, God’s righteousness, God’s love, and God’s light. The fact that God created man in His image means that God made man according to what He is. God is holiness, righteousness, love, and light, and according to these items, God created man. Therefore, as those created by God, we also have these virtues in our nature. It is true that we are corrupt and fallen, that many evil things have been manifested through us from the time we were born to the time we have grown up, and that we have been affected by the filthiness of human society. Nevertheless, in our nature, in the depths of our being, we still have these four virtues. For example, when we love others, we feel very happy inside, and when we hate people, we feel ashamed. In the depths of man there is something of love. Furthermore, people like to do the things of light; even children are like this. No one likes to do the things of darkness. This proves that in man there is definitely the characteristic of God as light. God’s creation of man in the beginning was according to His love and His light.
Everyone knows that to steal is wrong. Even though someone might feel good after he has stolen something, in him there is a sense of justice which condemns his action; this is righteousness. As human beings, we are deeply fallen and improper, yet from the time we are young, none of us wants to be a failure, despised by others. We all want to be honorable, outstanding, respected, and distinguished; this is according to the holy nature of God. This shows that within created man there are indeed these four characteristics: love, light, holiness, and righteousness.
We all know that animals do not have these characteristics and virtues; only human beings have them. Why? Because when God created man, He created him according to the image of what He is—love, light, holiness, and righteousness. It is a pity that today many Christians still do not realize that when God created man in His image, He created in man all these virtues and characteristics.
Another special matter in God’s creation of man is that since God is a speaking God, when He created man in His image, He created man with the ability to speak just like Himself. Because God is a God of love, light, holiness, and righteousness, He created man with love, light, holiness and righteousness. Because God is a speaking God, He created man to be just like Him—also being able to speak.
Among the human race there is a special book—the Holy Bible. This book has always been held in the highest estimation throughout the generations. In Latin, it is called the Book of books, the unique book, or the most extraordinary book. This book has suffered opposition and has been damaged, but today it still stands upright and unshaken. On the earth today there are translations of the Bible among almost every race and in almost every tongue. The Bible has been translated into all kinds of written and spoken languages in the world. Aside from the Bible, there is no other book that has been spread universally in so many different kinds of dialects. Only the divine Word has universally reached almost every human language. In other words, God is the unique God, and the Bible is the unique word among the human race.
The Bible is among nearly every race, people, and tongue, and there are Christians among nearly every human race, people, and tongue. Therefore, the New Testament says that Christians are people who have been called “out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9). God has called us out of different languages. Today on this globe there is hardly a nation, people, or tongue in which there are no Christians. This is a glorious thing. In almost every people and every language in the world there are Christians and there is the Bible. When we Christians come together, although we are of different races and speak different languages, we can connect with one another in our conversations.
God is a speaking God, and when He created us, He wanted us also to speak. Not only do we have His image in love, light, holiness, and righteousness, but we also represent Him and have His image in our ability to speak. According to Genesis 1:26, God created us not only that we might have His image but even more that we might rule for Him. Therefore, He gave us the authority to have dominion over all the other creatures, that is, “over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth.”
Inwardly in our image we are like God, having love, light, holiness, and righteousness. Outwardly, God is a speaking God, and like Him, we also are able to speak. Among God’s creatures, there are only two kinds that can speak. One kind consists of the angels in heaven. Angels do speak. Before the Lord Jesus was born, an angel came to reveal His name to Joseph (Matt. 1:20-21). Charles Wesley wrote a hymn: “Hark! the herald angels sing, / ‘Glory to the new-born King’” (Hymns, #84). Therefore, it was an angel who spoke first, and it was an angel who announced the good news first; thereafter, we must preach the gospel.
Why is it that we human beings are able to speak? It is because we are God’s representatives. He created us that we might represent Him. The most important requirement of a representative is that he must be able to speak. If today someone sends a representative to us, yet this representative, being dumb, is not able to talk, then in the end no agreement can be reached since there is no possibility of having any discussion. This kind of representative is a useless representative. Today we can represent God because we can speak. I believe that many Christians have not thought about this. We can speak because we are like God.
We have already pointed out that God created man with two outstanding features: one is that He created a spirit within man, and the other is that He created a speaking organ for man. This speaking organ is not simple; it consists of the vocal chords, the tongue, the teeth, the mouth, and the lips, all of which are for speaking. Someone might say that these parts are mainly for eating and drinking. Please consider, though, how many times a day does a person eat, and how many times does he drink? Actually, the most repetitious action a person does in a day is breathing; man continuously breathes. In the Bible breathing and speaking are linked together. Concerning the Bible, 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed.” This means that God’s speaking is linked to His breathing. Since breathing and speaking are linked together, when someone speaks, he naturally breathes. In other words, if a person cannot breathe or will not breathe, he cannot speak.
In America a certain military physician who had done some research discovered that the exercise most beneficial to human health is deep breathing. If a person would do deep breathing frequently, he will be healthy. In God’s creation no other creatures can speak as well as breathe. Only we human beings can breathe and speak as well—this is something unique. According to 2 Timothy 3:16, we speak just like God speaks. Our entire speaking apparatus is mysterious and marvelous, and it was entirely created by God. God created us with such an apparatus in order that we may be able to speak.
In the old times God spoke through the prophets in many portions and in many ways to the fathers (Heb. 1:1). Today He speaks to us in the Son (v. 2a). If we read through the sixty-six books of the Bible, we can see that the Bible contains many words of wisdom, and all the things mentioned are wonderful and comprehensive, including subjects such as astronomy, geography, science, and physics. The book of Isaiah, for example, says, “It is He [God] who sits above the circle of the earth” (40:22a). In the original Hebrew text the word earth is the same as the word earth in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” When the Scriptures were written, man did not have the concept of the earth as a “globe.” As we know, the Bible was translated into Chinese at a much later time. About a hundred years ago when the Bible was translated into Chinese, Columbus had already discovered that the earth was round, not flat; therefore, the translators of the Chinese Bible could easily translate this verse into “He who sits above the circle of the earth.” Before Columbus discovered the new continent, however, hardly anyone believed that the earth was round; instead, most people thought that the earth was flat. Still, more than a thousand years before Columbus, the prophet Isaiah in his book refers to the earth as a circle, saying that God sits above the circle of the earth.
From this we see that the Bible is truly a heavenly book, the record of the divine speaking. It has everything in it. It has wisdom and life, and it is all-inclusive and most mysterious. The Bible is the Word of God.
We have already seen that God created us not only to be like Him in having love, light, holiness, and righteousness but also to be like Him in being able to speak. However, we need to know what kinds of words God wanted man to speak when He created man with the ability to speak. Did He want man merely to speak the words of man? God created man to represent Him. A representative should speak the words of the one he represents. As God’s representatives, we represent God; therefore, we must speak God’s words. We have to speak for God and speak forth God; this God is the word.
However, due to our fall, we were joined to Satan; thus, Satan has come into us to speak in us. The Chinese character for soul is formed by two radicals: one radical denotes “demon,” and the other denotes “say” or “speak.” Hence, soul means “demon-speaking”; demon-speaking is the soul. A fallen person is a soul, and when he opens his mouth, it is often like the speaking of demons. After being regenerated in our spirit, we the saved ones are the children of God. As such, when we open our mouth, it ought to be God speaking; we speak whatever God speaks. This may be likened to someone speaking Chinese because he was born a Chinese; we speak the language of the one of whom we were born.
Since we all have been begotten of God, within us we ought to have the “God” tone; whatever we speak, we speak about God. In America there are people of different colors: white, red, yellow, brown, and black. Among these races, the Asian people are difficult to distinguish outwardly. For example, the Chinese and the Koreans look very much alike, and the Malaysians and the Indonesians also look about the same. How then does one tell the difference? It is by listening to their speech. Once they begin to talk, we know then that this one is Chinese and that one is Korean, this one is from Malaysia and that one was born in Indonesia. We speak the words of the one of whom we were born. Since we were born of God, naturally we speak God’s words. Since God’s word is God Himself, when we speak God’s word, we speak God.
The New Testament shows us that God wants us, the saved ones, to prophesy as prophets (1 Cor. 14:31). To prophesy is to speak the word of God instead of the word of demons or the word of man. The word of God is just God Himself; when we prophesy by speaking, we speak the word of God. Concerning this matter, Paul in the New Testament and Moses in the Old Testament (Num. 11:29) were in agreement. In 1 Corinthians 14:31 Paul says, “You can all prophesy one by one.” Paul believed that every one of us can speak for God. The word can has two interpretations in Bible translation. The Chinese Union Version translates it into “may.” That everyone may prophesy means that everyone has the right, though not necessarily the ability, to prophesy. The Greek word has both meanings: “all may” and “all can.” Today as prophets, you and I, the saved ones, not only may but also can prophesy and speak for God.
Although we became fallen, once we are regenerated and our spirit is made alive, we are doubly able to speak for God, even more able than Adam. Adam was only created, not regenerated. Although we were created and became fallen, we have been regenerated and saved. John 1:12-13 says, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name, who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Since we have been begotten of God, we can speak the word of God. If a child is born of us and is not dumb, it is impossible for him to be unable to speak human words. Therefore, we all need to be encouraged to speak the word of God after our regeneration.
Paul told the Corinthians, “You can all prophesy one by one” (1 Cor. 14:31). The reason Paul said this is that the Corinthians, after receiving the Holy Spirit, had turned aside to pay attention to the so-called speaking in tongues. Paul seemed to be admonishing them, saying, “Why do you have to pay attention to such tongues? God has regenerated you and has made you His children to speak for Him. Since you can all prophesy one by one, why do you have to play with those strange tongues? They may be merely human-invented sounds of the tongue. What God requires of you is that you speak for Him.”
Chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians is just one chapter of the entire book. If we want to understand this chapter, we have to look at the whole book of 1 Corinthians. Chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians clearly shows us that Christ is wisdom, as well as power, to us from God (vv. 24, 30a). This is not only the main topic of chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians, it is also the focus and subject of the entire book of 1 Corinthians. God has given Christ to us as our wisdom and our power. Today whether in our daily walk or in our various activities in the church, Christ is our wisdom and our power. Therefore, in our daily speaking we speak Christ, and in our speaking in the meetings we speak Christ all the more. The prophesying mentioned in 1 Corinthians 14 refers to speaking Christ. As long as we speak Christ, we are prophets.
In the Scriptures the prophets are not ordinary people; they are people who speak for God. Those who speak the word of God are the prophets. In the Old Testament sometimes God would come upon someone, and then this one would have the word of God. When God’s word came upon someone and when this one opened his mouth to speak God’s word, this one was then a prophet. If a person did not have God coming upon him, and if he did not speak God or speak for God, he was merely an ordinary person. He would become a prophet, however, immediately after he opened his mouth to speak God, to speak God’s words, and to speak for God. Today are we merely ordinary people, or are we prophets? We have to know that in the Old Testament there were no self-appointed prophets, nor were there prophets designated by men. Rather, it was when God came upon a person, and this person spoke for God, that he was a prophet. As long as we speak for God, we are prophets. Opening our mouths to speak the word of God is the qualification for us to become prophets.
Suppose some young people have been saved for only two months, and at home they have grandparents who not only do not believe in the Lord, but who sometimes even scold them in anger. When these young people find an opportunity, they should lift up their spirit and say to their grandparents, “Do you know there is only one true God in this universe? The gods our neighbors worship are not the true God; there is only one true God.” When they speak to their grandparents about God, they are prophets. They may not be experienced prophets, but at least they are little prophets. How glorious this is! Once we speak concerning God, we are speaking for God, and as long as we speak for God, we are prophets.
While Moses was leading about two million Israelites through the wilderness to enter Canaan, these people frequently murmured, created trouble, and caused disturbances until he could no longer bear it. He alone was bearing the heavy burden of leading these two million people who complained constantly; therefore, he felt that he could not bear the burden by himself. God then told him to gather from among the elders of the Israelites seventy persons and to bring them to the Tent of Meeting. Sixty-eight of the seventy came to the Tent of Meeting. These sixty-eight persons received the Spirit who was upon Moses, and they began to prophesy. The two who did not come to the Tent of Meeting but remained in their own tents also began to prophesy in the camp. Someone came and reported this to Moses. Joshua, Moses’ helper, was not happy when he heard it, so he asked Moses to restrain them (Num. 11:1-28). Moses immediately said to Joshua, “Are you jealous for my sake? Oh that all Jehovah’s people were prophets, that Jehovah would put His Spirit upon them!” (v. 29).
This shows us that Paul in the New Testament was not the only one who had this kind of vision in 1 Corinthians 14:31: “You can all prophesy one by one.” It is very likely that Paul’s concept came from Moses, because Paul, as one who understood the Old Testament, must have been familiar with what Moses had said in Numbers 11:29, “Oh that all Jehovah’s people were prophets!” We know that when Paul wrote the Epistles in the New Testament, many of his words were derived from the Old Testament. Therefore, we see that this concept is consistent in both the Old and New Testaments— God wants His people to speak for Him.
The Bible completed through the apostle was an open book intended for all the children of God. However, Satan, who is vicious and subtle, locked up the Bible through the Roman Catholic Church. The pope gave an order saying that the Bible was too sacred and beyond the understanding of the ordinary people. Therefore, they could not read it or interpret it; only the pope and the few archbishops under him had the ability to understand it. Therefore, the theological and doctrinal definitions in the Catholic Church were all decided through papal decrees; the common people were not permitted to make any decisions for themselves.
In a way, the most important thing accomplished through the Reformation, which is well-known in history, was not the recovery of the truth concerning justification by faith but the release of the Bible to the general public. Those who have read history know that before the Reformation, people did not have newspapers. It was during the Reformation that the reformers invented the newspaper to propagate the truth they saw. Therefore, through the Reformation first the Bible was unlocked, and the word of God was released; second, the newspaper was invented as a way to propagate the word of God. Regrettably, Christians today do not utilize the newspaper to intensify the power of the gospel. On the contrary, it is the worldly people who use newspapers for the mass spread of news. This is a lamentable matter. Therefore, we have to see that where the work of the Lord is, there must also be the literature work for the spread and release of the Lord’s word.
Although Martin Luther took the lead to unlock the Bible five hundred years ago, the Bible had not been fully interpreted by then. When people came to the book of Revelation, they said that this book was a mysterious book that should not be read, because it was incomprehensible. Then about one hundred years ago, the Lord raised up the Brethren in England. The Bible scholars among them, with John Nelson Darby as the leader and others such as William Kelly and C. H. Mackintosh, interpreted so many of the types and prophecies in the Bible. They saw the meaning of the great human image in Daniel 2, the four beasts in chapter 7, and the seventy weeks in chapter 9. Through their understanding and knowledge of these three matters, they were able to open up the book of Revelation. Thus, a hundred years ago the Bible became not only a released book but also an interpreted book.
Ever since the Lord’s recovery started in China, we have paid much attention to studying the truth and the Bible. We have read deeply into church history and thoroughly researched the various important schools of interpretation of the Bible. Hence, in our exposition of the Scriptures, we are standing on the shoulders of our predecessors. We may say that the Lord’s recovery today has passed through Luther, Zinzendorf, the Brethren, and now it has reached us. This is why we have utterances such as “Christ is all-inclusive.” This is what we have seen, and this utterance is uniquely ours. We are able to see so many things because we are standing on the shoulders of our predecessors. If I stand on the ground, what I can see will be very limited, but if I climb onto the top of a thousand-man human pyramid and stand on the shoulders of the person on the very top, then I will be able to see much farther. This is not to say that we are looking down on our predecessors; rather, we are grateful for what they saw, but at the same time, we feel that what they saw was lower. Although the things they saw were numerous, they were on the ground level. Although we have not seen as many things as they first saw, the things we have seen are high and were seen from a high position.
The reason the Bible has been opened to us today is that God wants us to speak, and He wants us to speak His word. In the history of the propagation of the Bible, the Bible was locked up at first by the Catholic Church for about one thousand years, from A.D. 500 to A.D. 1500. This period of one thousand years is called the Dark Ages in history. Why was it dark? That age was dark because there was, in practice, no Bible, no Word of God. Then during the Reformation the Bible was released, and one hundred and fifty years ago it was interpreted through the Brethren. Today the highest theologies are based on the theological teachings of the Brethren. The theologies of the two higher schools of theology in America today—Dallas Theological Seminary and Moody Bible Institute—are basically those of the Brethren. Today the so-called proper and orthodox teachings of Protestant Christianity are all influenced by the teachings of the Brethren.
Although God’s desire is that we all speak for Him, today in Christianity the degraded system of worship services is a system of one man speaking and all the rest listening. Such a system of one person speaking shuts the mouths of everyone else.
Thirty years ago when I was in Manila, Philippines, working for the Lord, one of the saints had a relative who was sick and was staying in the hospital. This saint brought along two or three others to visit his relative. While they were there, some other Christian friends and relatives of the sick person also came to visit him. When the other Christians saw our brothers and sisters praying so confidently, they were astonished and asked, “Are all of you pastors?” The reason they asked this was that those Christians did not even know how to pray.
I was born into a Christian family, studied in a Christian school, and attended Sunday school every week. My mother was baptized quite early in life, so when we were young, she taught us many Bible stories. We were moved to tears when we heard the stories. However, I never once saw her pray. Even so, every Lord’s Day she always insisted that we children dress up properly and go to church. We did this week after week and year after year; apart from the pastor, we did not hear anyone else who could preach or pray. Therefore, it was commonly said that if someone is sick, he should see a doctor; if he goes to court, he should get a lawyer; and if he needs prayer, he should find a pastor. In Christianity the pastors are those who specialize in prayer and Bible reading, while all the other people do not have the ability to speak.
We are speaking these things in order to show you Satan’s scheme. The Bible has been released from the chains of Catholicism through Luther and interpreted through the Brethren. Yet because of the traditions of Christianity, the degraded system has produced many who belong to the clergy. These ones specialize in preaching, Bible reading, and praying, while the rest of the congregation remains silent, not needing to speak for God or to speak God’s word. This is due to the fact that people have become accustomed to merely “going to church” and have thus lost their ability to speak for the Lord. This is altogether the subtlety of Satan. God wants us to speak, and He wants us to speak His word. After saving us and regenerating us, He wants us to speak for Him and to speak Him forth. Since we are begotten of God, we ought to speak God’s word and to speak God. However, the concept of “going to church” in today’s Christianity has shut up all the mouths of the children of God.
Therefore, in the Lord’s recovery we need to change the system of our meetings. In our meetings we should not have one person speaking and the rest just listening; rather, everyone should speak. If we look at the context of 1 Corinthians 14:31, we can see that when Paul said, “You can all prophesy one by one,” he was referring to speaking in the meetings. When the whole church comes together, we all can prophesy one by one, speaking for the Lord.
The purpose of God in creating man in His image was that man might express Him. In which points does man express Him? First, man expresses Him in speaking. There are some Christians today who believe that we can express God by our behavior alone and without speaking. In other words, they say that if we have a good testimony and a proper living with good behavior, we will be able to express God in the presence of men. This is not wrong, and this has its place, but we cannot avoid the matter of speaking for God. Speaking cannot be replaced; speaking is the real expression. Suppose there is a preacher who dresses himself tidily and properly and has his hair combed neatly, and when he stands on the podium, he is gentle and courteous, giving people the feeling that he really behaves well. However, if he would stand there for two hours, staring at the congregation with a smile but without saying a word, the congregation would not be satisfied, and he would not be able to express God. Therefore, when we express God, we need to have a proper living, but even more we need to speak forth clear words.
Regardless of whether we are in the office, in school, or in the midst of our relatives and friends, we need to speak. If we do not speak, it will not be easy for us to maintain a proper testimony. For instance, suppose you work for a certain company, but you have never told people that you are a Christian, and you refuse to let them know that you are a Christian. Rather, you only try to maintain a good conduct. In this way, perhaps after half a month, your colleagues may come and invite you to a Saturday or Sunday dancing party. Then it would be hard for you to be separated from among them. However, suppose you go to a new place to work, and after the first or second day at work, you declare, “I am a Christian; I love the Lord Jesus.” After two weeks when they are planning to have a dancing party, they will not come to you, so you are naturally separated from among them. Therefore, if you do not declare and if you do not speak, you leave a back door for Satan to come in and for you to slip out. But once you have declared and spoken, not only is the back door closed, but every other door is also closed; then you have protected yourself.
God wants us to express Him mainly through our speaking for Him. In the time of Noah when the whole earth was corrupted, God came and called Noah to be a herald of righteousness (2 Pet. 2:5), and Noah then preached the righteous words of God for one hundred and twenty years. Today we should speak for God in the same way.
How do we speak for God? To speak for God, we need to have the full knowledge of the word of God (1 Tim. 2:4). Today the main reason that Christians cannot speak for God is that they do not understand the word of God. Therefore, we need to learn to understand the word of God; then we will be able to speak for God.
Next, we have to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly (Col. 3:16). The words let and dwell are strong words in Greek. It is not just to store the words of Christ richly in us, as the Chinese Union Version says. Here, the word of Christ is considered a living person; the word of Christ is the personified word. If we just let the word be stored in us, the word does not have to be a person. However, if we want to let the word dwell in us, the word must be a person. This is why Colossians says that we have to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. He is waiting for us to let Him, and He wants to dwell in us; in this way we have the word of the Lord in us.
Furthermore, we need to be experienced in God’s word of righteousness (Heb. 5:13-14). In the book of Hebrews, the shallow word of God is called “the word of the beginning of Christ” (6:1); God’s word of righteousness is deeper and more mystical. We all need to be experienced in the deeper word of God so that when needed we may have the words with which to speak for God.
Finally, Paul told Timothy to proclaim the word, to speak for God, in season and out of season (2 Tim. 4:2).
What we should emphasize after the changing of the system is teaching the saints the truth according to a certain line of lessons. At the same time, we hope that at the end of every Lord’s table and every prayer meeting, we could reserve half an hour to speak a portion of God’s word. In this way, every week, besides the formal learning of the truth, we will also have the two periods of time, after the prayer meeting and the Lord’s table, to learn the truth. The food that the Lord has given us is so rich. The twenty-seven books of the New Testament in particular have all been interpreted for us, and the truths are quite clear. Therefore, this matter would not be too difficult.
For example, a church may be divided into four places for meetings, and each place may have two brothers who are responsible specifically to prepare for the speaking after the Lord’s table. They should pray and consider one of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, and if they think that the book of Ephesians is fitting, then they should first read through the six chapters of Ephesians and see which chapter or which portion they should speak. If they do not have enough burden, then they should go and read the footnotes and the Life-study of the New Testament from which they could surely find a portion or two which are fitting. If they can find five or six pages of material, that would be sufficient.
It is best to announce at the Lord’s table what will be read the next Lord’s Day and to ask the saints to bring the Life-studies. However, it is not enough to merely read. You have to speak while reading, but do not speak too much; it is sufficient just to point out a few things. Not only one person, but everyone can read and point out certain points. First read a few verses, then pray-read them, and then read a few paragraphs of explanation. In this way I believe that everyone will be satisfied. There are fifty-two weeks in a year, and every week we could have two such meetings, so altogether there would be one hundred and four meetings a year. In this way the saints would be able to hear the Lord’s words of life and to receive nourishment from them.
Almost everywhere in the world there is the custom of resting from work on the Lord’s Day; everyone has a day of vacation and rest. Therefore, we have to utilize the Lord’s Day morning to diligently work on the truth, speak the truth, and teach the truth. If possible, on the Lord’s Day morning we should have not only one kind of meeting, but three or four kinds of meetings at the same time—one that is not too deep, another one that is a little deeper, and still another that is even deeper. We must have all kinds of meetings. At present we are still in the process of research, and I hope that after the changing of the system we could strictly put these things into practice so that the saints may receive the teaching. In this way, after three to five years the saints among us will have made great progress in knowing, speaking, and explaining the truth. Everyone will be able to speak for God, speaking every day and speaking everywhere, in season and out of season; they will be able to speak at any time and in any place.
Today the whole world is in a spiritual drought; every place is lacking the word of God and the truth of God. If we depend only on the preachers to speak and minister the word, the word will be very limited and very restricted. What we need today is for all the saints to speak the word of God. If we all speak, in the end the word of God will grow and multiply greatly and will also become strong (Acts 6:7; 12:24; 19:20).
