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After their salvation people often ask how to live the Christian life. This question is related to our work. As those who serve full time, our work is to lead people to salvation, and after a person is saved, we need to lead him to live the Christian life. I would ask this question: according to our knowledge and experience, how should a person live the Christian life?
Some say that to live the Christian life is to live in spirit, to live a life according to the spirit, and to know that Christ is our life. This answer is too general; it is not specific. If we use only these items to lead the newly saved ones to live the Christian life, they will feel empty. Others say that the Christian life is a life that depends on the Lord. Although this answer is not wrong, it is vague. A new believer will not be able to touch the substance of what depending on the Lord means. Hence, we should not use theories or high and profound spiritual doctrines when we speak with new believers. Since we are speaking about practice, we must be specific.
Some have proposed that we use the sequence recorded in 2 Corinthians 3 through 7 to speak to new believers concerning how to live the Christian life. This way, however, is too particular. We cannot use it to lead new believers in living the Christian life. We need a practical and normal way. Of course, it would be more practical to use only some verses in 2 Corinthians instead of using an entire section.
When we lead new believers, we must be practical and help them build up a living of praying, reading the Bible, meeting, and preaching the gospel. Among these items, prayer must be the first. This can be likened to newborn babies, who first learn to breathe and then learn to drink milk. A Christian’s breathing is praying. Hence, when helping the new believers, we should not help them first to read the Bible but to pray. We may say to the new believers, “Now that you are saved, you must live the Christian life. The first item in the Christian life is prayer.” In practice, we may speak from our own experience concerning prayer, but we should not speak too long. Later, we can tell them that the second important thing in the Christian life is reading the Bible. We can tell them how to read the Bible or suggest which book to read. If the new believers have questions, we should endeavor to answer them. When time allows, we can explain the structure of the Bible, telling them about the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The third important thing is to meet with other believers. We must tell new believers that the church is a corporate body and that the church is also our home. A newborn baby needs a home; it is a pitiful thing for a baby to be homeless. The church is now our home, and it can take care of us in many aspects. The fourth matter in the Christian life is to preach the gospel. In leading new believers to live the Christian life, we must help them in these four matters: praying, reading the Bible, meeting, and preaching the gospel. We would have good results if, after their baptism, the new believers could spend three or five days together, eating their meals together, having morning revival together, and being taught how to pray, read the Bible, meet, and preach the gospel.
Leading new believers to practice these items depends entirely on how much we know and experience these items. If we neither pray much nor know much about prayer, we will not be able to render help to others. This also applies to reading the Bible. If we do not spend time reading the Bible or know the Bible well, having little light or experience, we will be able to give others only knowledge and doctrine, not real help. Today the education level in Taiwan is rather high, such that even a newly saved brother in junior high school will have many questions concerning the Bible. He may ask why he should read the Bible, what the Bible is, and what its source and content are. We should explain that the Bible is God-breathed, that we can know and gain the Lord by reading the Bible, and that the Lord’s words are spirit and life. However, we must remember to be very careful when answering questions. When we say that the Bible is God-breathed, he may want to know what we mean by God-breathed. Perhaps we would say that the Bible is the word of God, but he may ask why the Bible is the word of God and what the word of God means. Hence, we must be careful and thoughtful when we answer the questions of a new believer in order to not introduce more questions. This requires learning. Since we are serving full time, we must be prepared by using the publications and reading the Bible as often as we can. We must cultivate and build up these matters first in ourselves.
In leading the new believers we must first help them to pray, read the Bible, meet with the saints, and preach the gospel. We should spend more time in preaching the gospel, helping them to be active in approaching non-believers and speaking the gospel. However, these four matters are outward; they are related to practice. We still need to help the new believers to enter into their spirit. According to our experience, in addition to helping them to pray, read the Bible, meet with the saints, and preach the gospel, we also need to help them learn to fellowship with the Lord.
Fellowshipping with the Lord is a general subject, but it involves many items. To fellowship with the Lord is to contact the Lord, and such contact with the Lord takes place mainly during our prayer or reading the Bible. While praying and reading the Word, we contact the Lord and fellowship with Him. This brings in His shining, and thus we are enlightened. On the one hand, the Lord uses His Word, the Bible, to shine on us. On the other hand, the Spirit of the Lord within us gives us a spiritual sense and speaks to us. This sense and the Spirit’s speaking also enlighten us.
We should help new believers according to our experience. We may point out to them that when we are newly saved, the Lord speaks to us mainly through His shining. The Lord may show us that we are wrong in the way that we treat our parents, our children, our spouse, our neighbors, or our colleagues. Then we should confess these sins to the Lord in prayer. Whatever sins we sense within, we should confess one by one to the Lord. This is how to confess our sins; it is also how to deal with our sins.
After helping them learn to confess their sins, we need to speak to new believers concerning being cleansed by the Lord’s precious blood. We can read 1 John 1:9 and the second part of verse 7 with them. Verse 9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Verse 7 says, “The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin.” When a believer understands these two verses, he will realize his need to confess his sins and allow God to forgive and cleanse him. Such a cleansing is through the precious blood of the Lord.
These examples are for our training. The first step in our work is to preach the gospel. Then we should lead the saved ones to live the Christian life. We first lead them to pray, read the Bible, meet with the saints, and preach the gospel. Then we lead them to fellowship with the Lord and to receive His shining through prayer and reading the Bible. Furthermore, we should lead them to confess and deal with their sins and to experience the cleansing of the Lord’s precious blood. At this point, some of the new believers may be touched by the Lord’s Spirit to present themselves to the Lord. This is consecration. Some may offer themselves in this way, not as a result of the Spirit’s leading in life but as the issue of our teaching. We cannot say that this is wrong; nevertheless, it is better if a new believer, after having dealt with his sins, would have a spontaneous desire within his spirit to consecrate himself to the Lord and thus pray, “Lord, I truly love You, and I desire to give myself and my whole life to You.”
After a believer consecrates himself, we should lead him to take another step forward. According to the life of a normal Christian, after consecration he should learn to walk according to the spirit. Hence, we need to help him by explaining that he is one with the Lord. This means that the Lord who is in him can lead him, and that his living and conduct, his intentions, thoughts, speech, and attitude should follow the inner feeling that the Spirit gives him.
After new ones learn to walk according to the spirit, we need to bring them into the anointing, or we may say the teaching of the anointing. This is an important matter. After helping new ones to fellowship with the Lord, to be enlightened, to confess their sins, and to consecrate themselves, we should help them to walk according to the spirit. Then we should point out that they have the anointing within them. We should tell them that the Lord is the Spirit, and the Lord’s Spirit is the ointment. All His actions within us are the anointing. This anointing within us is teaching us. We should help them as much as we can. The more help we render, the better. We must let them know that by the anointing the Lord gives us a feeling, and we should walk according to this feeling. Then we can give them an illustration: When we apply ointment to our skin, we have a sensation. Similarly, when the Spirit as the ointment anoints us within, we have a sensation, and we should walk according to the anointing, that is, according to the sensation. This is to walk according to the spirit. If a believer can live and move according to the anointing, he will advance in his spiritual life.
We need to learn many lessons because our ability to render help to others depends on how much we have experienced the anointing. If we do not have adequate knowledge of the anointing or the teaching of the anointing, we should get help from our publications. We should find the relevant books and study them and practice what we learn from the books. It is only when we know and experience the anointing that we can render help to others.
Leading new believers in the life practices of praying, reading the Bible, meeting with the saints, and preaching the gospel can be considered as only “elementary education.” Therefore, we should lead them into fellowshipping with the Lord, being enlightened, and dealing with their sins so that there are no barriers between them and the Lord. We should also lead them to consecrate themselves fully to the Lord, walk according to the spirit, and know the anointing. In terms of spiritual experience, these items can be considered as being “high-school education.” A person who knows the anointing may be considered rather advanced in the growth in life. However, in spiritual matters there is the principle of a cycle. In the educational system in schools, after learning math and history at the elementary level, we do not need to relearn them later. However, spiritual matters are different. The experiences in the divine life are always repetitive, forming a cycle. Hence, even after we know the anointing, we still need to pray, read the Bible, meet, and preach the gospel. Furthermore, we must continue to fellowship with the Lord, to be enlightened, and to deal with our sins. We will never graduate from these matters. We may graduate from a school curriculum, but the experiences of our spiritual life are a cycle from which we never graduate.
I have been in the Lord for sixty years, but I still need to pray and read the Bible every day, to meet regularly, and to preach the gospel. I still need to fellowship with the Lord, and I need the Lord to speak to me. Moreover, I still need to be enlightened, to confess my sins, and to consecrate myself day by day and moment by moment. We all have had the experience of being on the altar one moment and coming down from the altar the next moment. When we fellowship with the Lord, we are on the altar, but we often come down from the altar. Our life as a Christian is a life of being on the altar and off the altar. According to the truth, a person cannot come down from the cross after he is crucified. Nevertheless, even though a person cannot come down from the cross after being crucified, he can come down from the altar after being on the altar. This is confirmed by our experience. Hence, we need to consecrate ourselves repeatedly. After consecrating ourselves, we should ask the Lord to have mercy on us and to grant us the grace to walk according to the spirit. Besides these items of the Christian life, we need to experience the anointing continually. The points mentioned above are a main portion in the experience of life. We ourselves need to learn these experiences, and we need to lead others into these experiences as a cycle.
The most effective way to lead people is to use the Bible. Hence, we should know appropriate verses for every topic. In leading new believers to live the Christian life, we should first help them to pray. There are many verses in the Bible related to prayer, but we need to find the most appropriate verses.
In the same way, in helping others to read the Bible, we also need to use appropriate verses. For instance, 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed.” It is best to use this verse with verse 15, which says, “The sacred writings, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus.” We must learn to use these two verses when helping people read the Bible. Hence, we need more training and practice related to using appropriate verses. Otherwise, when we go out to contact people, we will be like an unskilled cook who, even though he has many ingredients, cannot prepare a delicious dish. There are many verses concerning going to meetings, preaching the gospel, fellowshipping with the Lord, and being enlightened. Furthermore, we should find relevant verses concerning the Lord’s speaking to us through the Spirit, knowing the sense of life from the Lord, dealing with our sins in the light, and consecrating ourselves to the Lord. We also need verses concerning walking according to the spirit and knowing the anointing. We need to find all the relevant verses. This will make our contact with people more effective. As the Lord’s serving ones, we should learn these things.
According to the development of all the churches in Taiwan, especially in the Taipei region, we will need a big meeting hall with facilities to provide hospitality. If such a meeting hall were available, some saints in a district in Taipei could bring a group of new believers there and live the church life together for three days. After that, another group of saints could take a group of new believers there. In this way the facility would be constantly occupied. The meeting hall will not be for regular meetings in the Taipei area but for special needs in the work, such as gospel meetings or weekend perfecting trainings. In the future we will have such a need. I believe that such a meeting hall would be used every day. The saints in other localities in Taiwan also could use the facility. Hence, we need to bear this burden and pray for this matter. May the Lord work in many ways to accomplish this.
We should not regard lightly the Lord’s work in Taiwan. The Lord has truly done a great thing here. Taiwan has a rare environment: twenty million people populate this island, there is good transportation, and the level of education is high. In addition, we have a large number of saints. My main burden is that we would make use of these resources.
For the last few years I have felt that the church in Taipei has many resources and can be compared to a large company that possesses much capital. However, we have not touched our resources; instead, they lie waste. Our burden is to stir us up to use every resource. This stirring up will have a deep and far-reaching effect. We can compare this to throwing a large stone into the ocean and creating waves, which, if they are strong enough, will spread to the major continents. In recent months I have been traveling between the two coasts of the Pacific to stir up the saints. We hope that in thirty years some of the young people among us will be greatly used by the Lord. By then they will be in their fifties, which are our most useful years in the Lord’s hand. Their future will be unlimited. We all need to be enlarged in our view to realize that what we are learning today is not only for us in Taipei but also for the future of the Lord’s recovery. This is a great need. In the past we said that we would be willing to sell everything we have for the Lord’s recovery. However, the Lord has never asked us to sell anything. In April 1925, after I was saved, I consecrated myself to the Lord, saying, “Lord, I do not want the world anymore. After I finish my studies, I will go with my Bible from village to village to preach the gospel. I am willing to do this even if I must live on tree roots and drink from mountain brooks.” That was my consecration. However, the Lord has had mercy on me. I never had to eat tree roots or drink mountain water. Furthermore, He did not lead me to go from village to village but rather from continent to continent. Who can say what our future will be? Sixty years ago I was only a young student. I was twenty years old, and I gave myself to the Lord, never expecting that He would use me, a Chinese young man, to spread His recovery to the six major continents. Now about six hundred churches have been raised up. This is truly the Lord’s blessing.
On every continent doors are opening to the Lord’s recovery. However, we are short of people and cannot meet this need. We all must wake up in order to see our true condition. The work in Taiwan must have an epochal change so that we may meet the Lord’s need. We must all realize this need and receive the burden to pray for it.
