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Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26; 7:1, 16; 9:1; Phil. 2:12-15
The purpose of God’s salvation is not only that man be saved but also that he would be a testimony of God. The Bible records that all the saved ones throughout the ages were not only for their salvation but for God’s testimony. We can see this clearly in the case of Noah. At the time of Noah the generation was degraded, but God came in and called Noah to build an ark (Gen. 6:11-14a; 1 Pet. 3:20). The ark was not only to save Noah from God’s judgment and eternal perdition. Even more, it was, on the negative side, to save him out of that degraded, perverted generation, and, on the positive side, to usher him into a new age in order to carry out God’s eternal plan, His testimony, on the earth.
From the beginning God’s purpose in creating man was to have a corporate expression of Himself. The corporate man was destined to be God’s expression. This is why man was made in the “mold” of God’s image (Gen. 1:26). Man is a copy of God, and God is the mold in which, through which, by which, and with which man was copied. Moreover, man is a copy of God, not mainly to serve God, work for Him, or worship Him but to express Him. The thought that man is made to worship, serve, and work for God and behave himself for His glory comes from fallen, degraded religion. It sounds nice, but in actuality it is a devilish concept. There is nothing in the beginning of Genesis that tells us that man was made to serve God, worship God, and work for God, or to behave himself for God’s glory. Rather, Genesis says that man was made in the image of God in order to express Him.
God does not want us merely to work for Him. He can work out everything Himself. He can simply call the things not being as being (Rom. 4:17). When He says, “Light,” light comes. He can say, “New heaven and new earth,” and the new heaven and new earth will be here. There is no need for us to work for Him. We are nothing, and we can do nothing for God. When someone takes a photograph of a person, he has no intention for the photograph to worship him or work for him. In His creation, God took a “photo” of Himself with the intention to glorify Himself. Man was not destined to worship God, serve Him, or work for Him; he was destined to glorify God. To glorify God does not mean that we do something to give Him glory. God does not need us to give Him glory. Rather, He needs us to simply glorify Him, that is, to express Him.
To this end, God may say to us, “The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. I do not need you to work for Me, and I do not need you to worship Me. I already have millions of angels serving, working, and ministering for Me and also worshipping Me. The four living creatures say, ‘Holy, holy, holy’ day and night without rest. However, neither the heavens, the earth, nor all the angels can express Me. Therefore, I need you not to do anything else but to express Me. You were made in My image; you are My photograph. Do not try to take the angels’ job, and forget your own function. Your destiny is to express Me.” However, for man to be a “photograph” of God cannot in itself adequately and livingly express God. We also need Him to enter into us to be our life, our nature, and our everything. Even if we would lose our temper, we must do it by Him to express Him.
If a photograph would say to the one who took it, “I want to worship you,” the person would reply, “How foolish. I do not want you to do that.” Then the picture may say, “Dear master, I would like to shine your shoes and wash your shirt.” The person may reply, “You can do nothing for me. This is nonsense.” After this the photo may say, “Poor me! I am not qualified to worship or to serve you. I am useless and disappointed.” We are here with a burden to bring glad tidings to all the “photographs”: Do not be disappointed; be encouraged, because you have a higher mission. Your destiny is not to worship God, work for Him, or serve Him. Your destiny is to express Him. All the “photographs” should be joyful and say, “Have you seen the wonderful person whom I express? Hallelujah, now I know my function and my destiny. I am here simply to express Him.” This is our heavenly, wonderful function.
I would ask you to read your Bible again. In the first two chapters of Genesis there is nothing that says we must work for God, worship God, and serve Him. This thought, which fits our natural concept, came from Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. Genesis 1 and 2 simply tell us that we are God’s image. We are destined eternally to be His image and expression. This expression is the top worship, work, and service to God. God has the heavens for His throne, the earth for His footstool, and millions of angels to serve Him, work for Him, and worship Him. Now God needs a corporate expression to glorify Him. This is the real definition, meaning, and significance of the testimony of Jesus.
In Revelation, the final book of the Bible, the Lord also does not tell us to do something for Him. Instead, the entire book of Revelation shows the need for the testimony of Jesus. Jesus needs us not to worship Him or work for Him but to be His corporate expression. The poor thought of Christianity is too selfish, only considering people’s own salvation, welfare, peace, and joy. These things are like “candy” to the listeners. A good mother would never allow her children to eat too much candy and dessert instead of proper, nourishing food. Sweets damage the proper appetite, and they cause children to have a bad temper. This is an illustration of much of today’s teaching in Christianity. All the itching ears like to hear comfort, peace, joy, and rest (2 Tim. 4:3). If someone goes to them to say, “You need to be the testimony of Jesus at any cost,” they would reject him. They may say, “What do you mean by this? We are saved, and we will go to heaven. Jesus is sweet and good to us. When we have trouble, He rescues us, and if we have suffering, He comforts us. Our pastor has always taught us in this way. Where did you come from? This is your Eastern mystical philosophy.” Almost no Christian minister dares to say something against today’s trend of Christianity. If he does, his financial support may be cut off. However, those sent by the Lord are never afraid of having their supply cut off. They would give their life for this.
As we have pointed out, Noah was saved not only from God’s judgment but also from the crooked, perverted, and evil generation. When Noah went into the ark, Jehovah shut the door (Gen. 7:16). It is as if God were saying, “Even if you change your mind, you cannot get out. I have shut you in, and you must stay here.” This kind of salvation may have seemed like a prison. In one sense Noah was saved and rescued, but in another sense he was imprisoned. One of his daughters-in-law might have said, “I prefer my old house with many bedrooms, bathrooms, and a large living room. What you preached to us was good, but this ark is like a prison.” It is the same in principle today. I have served the Lord for over forty years, and I have suffered many things. A number of times my children came to me and said, “Father, according to your ability and education, we should not have to suffer this much. Other people did not get as much education as you did, and they are not as capable, but now they have nice houses, stores, land, and bank accounts. What do you have? You have only one room, in which the whole family lives. Those who appreciate and respect you live in mansions, but we are in a prison.” Noah might have replied to his daughters-in-law, “What can I do, and where can we go? I cannot open the door. It is not up to me; it is up to Jehovah. He shut us in. We simply need to remain here. Do not be bothered; be patient and wait for a little while longer.” After the flood Noah came out of the ark with his whole family and entered into a new age (8:16, 18).
This shows the kind of salvation Noah secured and enjoyed. It was a salvation not merely from eternal perdition but out of the crooked, evil generation and into a new age. However, when Noah came out of the ark, God had no intention to make him a king. God’s intention was still that he and all his children would be His corporate expression. Genesis 9:1 says, “God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” Because man was made in God’s image, for Noah and his sons to multiply was for them to be a multiplied expression of God. God did not have the intention to make them kings with a good life and many acres of land. Rather, they were to continue God’s purpose in creating man to be His image as His corporate expression.
At Noah’s time there must have been more than eight persons who feared God and believed in Him. According to Genesis 5, the early forefathers lived for a long time. Being godly, they taught their second, third, and further generations to fear God and trust in Him. Therefore, we can be assured that besides Noah and his family, there must have been a number of others who believed in God. Although these may have been saved from eternal perdition, they were not saved from their perverted generation, and they were not ushered into the new age. Some may question how it could be that some outside the ark were saved. However, consider the daily life of many who believe in the Lord Jesus, who go to the movies, attend nightclubs, watch television, and follow the modern fashions. Those who partake of these corruptions may be saved from eternal punishment, but they have not been saved from today’s crooked generation, and many will not be ushered into the kingdom of Christ to be kings there. No one who has truly been saved from today’s crooked generation follows the course of today’s present age. On one hand, we are saved because we believe that the Lord shed His blood and died for us. Therefore, we will not perish for eternity. On the other hand, though, we may still go to the department stores to buy the things of the modern, worldly fashions. If the Lord comes tomorrow, are we assured that He will usher us into His kingdom? Rather, we may be punished along with the present generation.
In the Bible there is such a picture of this. Only eight persons were saved in the ark, through water, from that crooked generation. Many may have been saved from eternal perdition, but not many entered into the ark. In order to be saved from eternal perdition, there is no need for us to do anything, but in order to be saved from the evil generation, we need to build up the ark. Philippians 2:12 says, “Work out your own salvation.” Fundamentalists may be unhappy with this verse, because they insist that we are saved by faith through grace apart from any work and that it is heresy to say that we are saved by works. However, at least one verse in the New Testament tells us to work out our own salvation. This is not salvation from eternal perdition. It is salvation from the crooked and perverted generation mentioned in verse 15. This verse says, “That you may be blameless and guileless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine as luminaries in the world.” Many of us can only say that we have been saved from eternal perdition. We may have been rejoicing, saying, “Hallelujah, I have been saved! I will never perish. Heaven is mine, and hell is gone.” However, we should not overly rejoice. This is only half of our salvation. We also need to be saved from the other half, from this crooked and perverted generation.
To be saved from the crooked generation is not as easy as being saved from eternal perdition. To be saved from eternal perdition requires us simply to say, “O Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. I thank You that You died for me. You are the Son of God, and You are my Savior. Lord Jesus, forgive me. I repent and believe in You.” This is sufficient for our salvation by grace. However, the remainder of our salvation requires our cooperation with God. Verse 13 says, “It is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.” To this we need to say, “Amen to Your work.” If we cooperate with God’s operation, on the negative side, we will spontaneously be rescued out of this crooked generation. On the positive side, we will enter into the ark, which signifies the proper church life.
We need to enter into the proper church life, which is a “prison” to us. Many people are free to go everywhere, seeking sports, entertainments, and sightseeing on their holidays. They are truly out of prison. The church people, however, remain in their “prison.” The parents of some of the saints say, “Pity yourself. Do not go to your church so often. You have been going to your church every Saturday and Sunday. That is enough. Do not forget that this is a holiday. Why would you not take a vacation and enjoy yourself?” However, those who speak in this way do not realize that we have something better and higher. They do not know the heavenly, spiritual, and wonderful “entertainment” that we enjoy. We are imprisoned in the church life, and we love it. The church is a prison, but it is also the best “entertainment.”
Many at Noah’s time may have been saved from eternal perdition, but only eight were rescued from their generation and put into the ark. The church is the place where we can be saved from today’s generation. The New Testament tells us that after the Lord’s resurrection, He showed Himself to five hundred brothers at one time, but on the day of Pentecost only one hundred twenty were meeting together (1 Cor. 15:6; Acts 1:15). In addition to the five hundred brothers, there may have been many more saved ones. Through the Lord’s ministry of three and a half years, many hundreds may have been saved, but on the day of Pentecost only one hundred twenty were present. All the others were saved, but they were not in the “ark.” Only the one hundred twenty were in the ark. No doubt, Nicodemus and Joseph, the ones who buried Jesus, were also saved. They were good, but they were not among the one hundred twenty. They were saved, but they were not in the church practically. They should not have been satisfied in that condition. No one should have said, “As long as I am saved, everything is all right. I still prefer to remain in the temple with the altar, the priesthood, and the burning lamps. I realize that this religion put Jesus to death, but I myself believe in Jesus, I love Him, and I am for Him.” Nevertheless, regardless of how much many people seemed to be for Jesus, they were not in the church life.
Today many Christians are like this. One person recently told me, “I surely appreciate your ministry. It is wonderful. However, I am a Catholic. I love Jesus, yet I also love Catholicism and all the things in it. In the Catholic Church today there is the charismatic movement, and many people there like to read Watchman Nee’s books.” In truth, this is a pitiful stand to take. What God wants today is not millions of saved individuals. What He wants is the church, the ark. He wants to save us from the crooked generation and usher us into God’s kingdom to fulfill His eternal purpose. He does not care for a charismatic movement or for speaking in tongues. God only cares for whether or not we are in the ark, the proper church life. He wants us to be a part of the testimony of His Son, Jesus.
In the ancient time all the Israelites were God’s people. They worshipped God in the temple, and they read and studied the law of Moses. However, one day Elijah accused them, saying, “The children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, thrown down Your altars, and slain Your prophets with the sword; and I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.” The Lord replied to him, “I have left Myself seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed unto Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:10, 18). Seven thousand is a good number, but compared with millions of Israelites it is small. Today the situation among Christians is the same. All are God’s people, but almost all have “bowed unto Baal.” Baal was an idol, and the principle of an idol is that it is something besides God that occupies people. The department stores, our improper shopping, our way to spend the money the Lord gives us, long hair, a short skirt, modern fashion, television, and the newspaper may all be idols to which many believers have been bowing and still are bowing. Day by day God’s people may be worshipping cars, houses, clothing, education, fame, position, and promotion. Even a certain reverend, pastor, or denomination may be an idol to someone. Those who have idols do not love the Lord at any cost and give up everything else. Whatever we still hold on to is an idol. Apparently not many today love the Lord absolutely, but in actuality the Lord has reserved a certain number for His church life who are building the ark to be saved from today’s generation, to save others also, and to have the church life.
The book of Revelation is not about our personal salvation. It is about the golden lampstands. Many Christians do not care about the lampstands in Revelation. They may feel that the lampstands and the golden city with twelve gates are too mysterious and that it is more practical to tell people the stories of Jesus from Matthew and John, about how He loved Mary and Lazarus and performed miracles. As we have said before, many Christians have been “drugged,” caring only for their eternal salvation, even though they may have been saved only to a small degree. People may not like to hear that they have been saved only to a small degree, but eventually everyone will face a situation that will expose how much he has been saved. We can fool man, and we can fool the church, but we can never fool God. The book of Revelation contains the highest salvation, which is the golden lampstands, today’s ark, the churches.
Some people question us as to what we mean when we speak of the church, asking, “Do you mean that only you are the church?” We should check again with our Bible. The Lord appeared after His resurrection to five hundred brothers at one time, but only one hundred twenty were in the practical church life. We should not think that as long as we are Christians, we are in the church. If we do, we may deceive ourselves and deceive others also. We may be members of the church in name, but this means little if we are not in the church practically. We may illustrate this with the Jews on the earth today. There are more than twelve million Jews today, and in New York City alone there are about one million. To be sure, all these are genuine Jews. Every one of them can say, “I am a member of the Jewish race.” Nevertheless, not all these Jews are the nation of Israel. In order to be the nation of Israel, they must return to their fathers’ land. Some may object to this and say, “Do not be so narrow-minded. How can I go back to Israel? I have my house, my business, and my investments here. Every month I send much money to help Israel.” Regardless of how much money anyone sends to help Israel, he is still not in the nation of Israel. He is only a helper to Israel. Only those who go back to their forefathers’ land are the nation of Israel today. In the same way, regardless of how good a Christian may be, as long as he is not in the local churches, he is not in the church practically. He is a member of the Body of Christ, but he is not in the practical church life. To be in the church in practicality, we need to pay the price to come into the local church. This is not a small matter.
When certain missionaries asked me, “Do you mean that you are the church, and we are not?” I replied, “You do not need to ask me. Simply ask yourselves. You call yourself Presbyterians, but if you are Presbyterians, you are not the church. You do not like for us to call ourselves what we are, but if we do not call ourselves the church, what should we call ourselves? If a woman is the wife of Mr. Smith, then she is Mrs. Smith. It is not logical for someone to claim to be Mrs. Smith yet go by the name of Mrs. Johnson.” These dear missionaries eventually realized that they could not argue with me. If they did, they would lose their case. However, before they argued with me, they had already lost their case. If they call themselves “Mrs. Johnson,” they have no case to claim that they are “Mrs. Smith.” Therefore, I told them, “If you want to be the church along with us, get rid of the name Presbyterian.” However, they answered that they could not do that. As long as they cannot give up the name Presbyterian, they are not the church in practicality. Instead, they are still in Protestantism, which is a part of today’s crooked and perverted generation. The Lord desires only a pure church, a pure golden lampstand, a pure bride. To still keep some mixture is confusion. It is not the church, and it will not be a part of the New Jerusalem. Instead, it will be burned with Babylon.
We must all be saved from the crooked generation by building up the ark. Even while we are speaking these things, we are building. To say that Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism are all part of today’s generation and that only the local churches are the ark seems very bold. Nevertheless, we must fight for this truth throughout the entire world. We must fight against today’s perverted generation, which includes the world, Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and even the free groups with their speaking in tongues. They are not the church but a part of today’s crooked generation.
The Lord desires one church in every locality and one Body in the entire universe. Therefore, no church should say, “Since we are the local church in our city, we want nothing to do with the other churches.” Whoever cuts themselves off from the fellowship with all the churches universally is no longer a local church; they have become a local sect. Regardless of how much some claim to meet in the Lord’s name according to the teaching of the New Testament, and even according to Brother Watchman Nee’s books, if they cut themselves off from the Lord’s flow today, they are a local sect. They are not the church but a counterfeit, an imitation. Some have used the messages of my ministry from our tapes and our books, yet they have openly rejected this ministry. Morally speaking, this is not right, and we cannot believe that the Lord will honor this. Are those who do this the church in practicality? To act in this way is not to be the pure woman clothed with the sun, with the moon underneath her feet, and with a crown of stars on her head. Instead, it is to be one of the daughters of the great harlot, Babylon (Rev. 12:1; 17:5). It is subtle to steal someone’s messages yet reject his ministry. If certain ones do not receive my ministry, they should reject my books and tapes also. These ones are not right, honest, or moral.
God desires only one church. We cannot see in Revelation more than one woman in the heavens, shining with the sun, the moon, and the stars. There is no doubt that every local church is independent according to its locality, but we also must realize that all the local churches are one Body. Only those who are ambitious, who desire to have a little empire, would say, “We are the local church here, and you are the church in your locality. Do not interfere with us.” Yes, we are the church in our locality, but we take the way to fellowship and be one with all the churches; however, others are the local church in the way of cutting themselves off from the flow of the Lord’s testimony today. This is not the church the Lord desires today. It is an old antique, in the principle of the practice of Brethrenism. That may have been good a century ago, but it is not good today. What the Lord desires today is the present testimony of Jesus.
In the ancient times, people walked with God in the way they had learned from their forefather Enoch (Gen. 5:22-24). At a certain point, however, Noah was raised up to build an ark. Some might have said to him, “We have never heard of building an ark. Our forefathers instructed us concerning godliness, telling us to take the way of salvation according to Adam, to please God according to Abel, to call on the name of the Lord and enjoy all His riches according to Enosh, and to walk with God according to Enoch. I walked with God for many years before you were born. How can you tell me something new? Did God tell you that a flood will come? Why did He not tell Enoch? This is your own foreign concept.” The preaching of Noah did not mean that people should not take Adam’s, Abel’s, Enosh’s, or Enoch’s way. However, God had His up-to-date revelation. Merely to be saved—as Adam was—or to please God, call on the name of the Lord, and walk with God—as Abel, Enosh, and Enoch did—would no longer satisfy God. At that time, there was only one thing that could fully satisfy God and rescue people from that crooked generation, and that was to build the ark.
The principle today is the same. Someone may say, “I was born in America. I am sixty-five years old, I have more than one Ph.D., and I know many things in Christianity. I have also read church history and many books from the past centuries. However, I never heard this term the local church. Who are you? You are a little Chinese man from the land of the heathen with their philosophical Confucian thought. What can you know? This is your Eastern concept.” However, do not argue. Simply wait and let time prove the fact. Those who do not receive this way will one day have to agree that this is God’s present revelation. We, the little brothers in China who were raised up by the Lord fifty years ago, do know the way to be saved, to preach the gospel, to call on the Lord’s name, and to walk with God. We have practiced these things for many years. However, one day the Lord showed us that all these are not adequate and up to date. There is only one thing the Lord desires today—the local churches as the golden lampstands according to the revelation in the last book of the Bible. Watchman Nee was captured by seeing this, and he truly influenced me. I told him, “This is it! Let us take this way at any cost,” and by the Lord’s mercy, we did take this way. From that day, more than forty years ago until the present, I have never changed my tone. In the United States I have been ministering for over twelve years and have put out many messages, but from the first day up until today my tone has always been the same. This is not an “Eastern philosophical thought”; it is the divine revelation from the Bible today.
Some among us have been accused of following one man. Recently, a number of leading brothers all expressed to me that they felt they must follow this ministry. At that time I was burdened to tell them, “To declare that you follow someone is nonsense. It is entirely not a matter of following a man or not following a man. It is altogether a matter of where the present revelation is.” If we were born and lived in Noah’s age, we would have needed to follow Noah, because he had God’s revelation. Apart from Noah, we could not have had the revelation of that age. If someone had said, “I do not follow Noah. I will follow someone else,” then he would have missed the mark. If I am speaking for my own sake, I must be stopped, but I am not speaking for myself. I am speaking the truth. Please read your Bible again. In every age, in every generation, there was only one means for the revelation in that age. Noah, Moses, and David were the unique means in their age, and Peter, Paul, and eventually John, in the book of Revelation, became the unique means of God’s up-to-date revelation. I strongly declare that when I was with Brother Watchman Nee, I respected him not because he was good but because he was the unique means of God’s revelation in that time. In every age God had and still has one unique means for His up-to-date revelation.
It was through this ministry that the Lord’s recovery was brought to this country, and many have received help from it. Regrettably, though, some have utilized the materials of this ministry to establish a church in their own “pocket.” They declare, “We are the local church here,” but they are not a genuine local church. Because that church is not open, it is a church not of the saints but of someone’s private concern. This is not the church the Lord desires today. It is the church of someone’s own work and a church for that work. It is someone’s “pocket version” of the church life. In the churches in Los Angeles and Anaheim, we never closed the door to others. Whoever wished to come to us was able to. I would speak a word to the dear ones who keep the churches as their “pocket church”: Will you open the door of your church to everyone? If you will, I will be the first to speak an approving word. However, I am afraid such a church will reject this ministry, accusing me of trying to be a “pope” to control them. I have no intention to be the pope, but those who keep this kind of church do have the intention to be a king in their “empire.”
I labored closely with Watchman Nee, so he told me things he could not tell others. He suffered much, because some were accusing him, saying, “You are trying to be a pope, using your ministry, your gift, your messages, and your knowledge of the Bible to control all the churches.” Brother Nee told me, “Only robbers always suspect others of robbing them. You know that we have no thought of controlling others. They are able to think this way only because they are the ‘robbers.’ If they were in our position, they would surely be ‘popes’ to control others. Because they are ‘robbers,’ they think we are robbing others too.” Some have accused me also of trying to set up a “papal system” and of putting out messages to control all the churches. I never had such a concept. How can the dear ones have such a concept? It may be because they are “robbers.” If such ones were in my situation, they might set up such a papal system.
Those who have been in the church life for many years can declare to the entire universe that I have controlled nothing. Nevertheless, in every age there is a means for God’s up-to-date revelation. The things this ministry is speaking are unique. This ministry today is burdened directly for the Lord’s present revelation. If the Lord would not give me something to minister, there is no need to pick up something old from the other books. Those things are out of date. They might have been good one or two centuries ago, or even fifty years ago, but they are not good for the present revelation. Anyone can compare our messages with the other books to see that all the points in our messages are unique. This revelation is from the Lord, not from me. This is why I have the full assurance that if anyone opposes this ministry, he will suffer the loss of the Lord’s revelation today.
I am forced by the present situation to speak in such a way in order to warn you not to listen to and be poisoned by critical and divisive speakings that damage our one accord. We have no intention to control anyone, and we are not qualified to control anyone. According to their natural thought, some believe that I control the church in my locality. In 1965 the brother helping me to file my income tax asked me if I knew how much money had been given to me in the previous year by the church in my locality. When I told him that I do not pay attention to such things, he told me the amount, which was a very small figure. This illustrates that this ministry has no intention of controlling anyone. This ministry cares only to minister the Lord’s burden in His present revelation.
Some saints have been listening to my messages for many years. Many of them considered that eventually I would have no more new messages and that I would simply repeat my old ones. However, throughout all the years, our conferences have never been a mere repetition. There is always something new. This is due to the Lord’s mercy and grace, because this is not my ministry but His. Since 1950, every time I visited Manila the brothers there have asked me to hold a conference, and every time the Lord has given me something new. One elderly sister testified that she was surprised when I came with new messages. She said, “I am a third-generation Christian, but I have never heard the terms you spoke in your message. Please tell me where you found these new things.” I told her, “After coming here for so many years, you should have realized where I receive my messages. I do not get them from a seminary or merely from bookshelves or a reference Bible. I receive my messages from only one source—the One on the throne that flows out the living water.”
In the entire universe there is only one flow, but whether anyone follows the messages from this flow is up to him. I have declared this for many years. The first message I published in the first issue of The Stream, on July 1, 1963, was entitled “The Divine Stream,” concerning the one flow on this earth. This was the reason that I chose the name of the magazine. The stream is the unique flow from the throne. In the entire universe there is only one flow. We can see this in the Acts. After the day of Pentecost the one flow flowed from Jerusalem to Antioch, and from Antioch the flow turned to Europe. Since Barnabas had brought Paul into the Lord’s ministry, he may have thought that he could dissent against him (15:39). However, after he separated from Paul, there is no further record in Acts concerning his work. This is because he left the one flow.
I am forced to speak concerning my ministry in this way, not for my sake but for the sake of the churches. Whoever rejects this ministry rejects not a small man from China but the flow from the throne. This ministry has only one burden, which is to build today’s ark, not only to save the saints from God’s eternal judgment but also to save them from the crooked and perverted generation of today so that they may express God in a corporate way, be ushered into the coming kingdom, and exercise His authority in the kingship. This is the purpose, the burden, and the goal of this ministry as God’s unique means for His revelation. God would not send out trumpeters to sound different trumpets for His army to fight the battle (1 Cor. 14:8; Num. 10:9; Judg. 7:18); that would be confusion. God is wiser than this. He will raise up only one trumpeter to sound one calling, one voice, so that His people on the earth can march on.
