Search
Scripture Reading: Acts 26:18-19; Phil. 3:13-14; 2 Tim. 4:7-8
Since 1984 when I returned to Taipei, I have been very clear that the Lord’s changing of the system must start from Taiwan. If the Lord’s recovery is without such a change and if there are no full-timers raised up, there will gradually be no way to go on. The way of Christianity eventually leads to a dead end. For this reason the Lord raised up His recovery among us. We have to admit that we have had our shortcomings and weaknesses in the past sixty plus years. We have fallen short and become loose. But there is a fact, which even those who disagree with us or oppose us cannot deny, that in the Far East, and especially among the Chinese-speaking Christians, we bear a great influence. In many things they follow us to improve, but their rate of improvement is very slow because they do not have an absolute heart. This is one difficulty that exists.
Such a difficulty has occurred again and again in history. For example, during the time of the Reformation by Luther, the Roman Catholic Church had been in existence for about a thousand years. One can imagine the greatness of her power and influence. Had it not been for what Luther saw, and for his courage and boldness, he would never have dared to rise up to initiate the Reformation. Those who were closer to Luther were more faithful, and those who were further away were less faithful. Gradually, the further they moved away, the less absolute they became. Throughout the ages the Lord’s way on this earth has always encountered such difficulties. Although many may say that they are in the Lord’s recovery, the degree is quite different. Today, whether Christianity likes to hear it or not, I have to speak again and again concerning the vision I have seen. I have been speaking on this vision for over fifty years. I am not stubborn, nor am I proud. But I have to declare to the universe that I am a person who has seen the vision. I must admit that I am chosen by the Lord; I am called by the Lord.
Due to the Lord’s sovereignty, I was born into Christianity. Even though I had not yet been saved, I defended Christianity quite often. One day a young lady preacher came to our hometown to preach the gospel. Out of curiosity I went to listen. I heard her speak, based on the story of Pharaoh’s ruling, dominating, and enslaving the children of Israel, that the whole world was under the domination of Satan and that men became his slaves to serve him. At that time the Lord caught me with this word. I was deeply moved. Spontaneously, I had a longing and a deep sensation that henceforth I should not be under Satan’s enslaving any longer. When I walked out of that big chapel, I remember clearly that on the way home, I lifted my head and looked toward the heavens and said in my heart, “O God, even if the whole world were offered to me, I would not want it. From this day on, I just want You. I would be a poor preacher carrying my Bible bag and preaching the gospel from village to village for You.”
From that day on, my whole being was changed completely. I gave up all my past desires and pursuits. I was only interested in studying the Bible. Very quickly, I finished reading through the whole Old and New Testament once. Later, I heard that there was a place that had the most excellent Bible exposition, a meeting of the Brethren assembly. I went to join them. Because I had just been saved and knew practically nothing, I was immediately attracted by them. Daily I loved to study the Bible and listen to expositions on it. After seven years the Lord showed me clearly the way of the recovery. I then determined to leave that place and began to cooperate with the Lord and be used by Him. By 1932 a church was raised up in my hometown, Chefoo. That was the first church in northern China raised up in the Lord’s recovery. From that time until now, for fifty-five years, I have never changed the tone in my speaking. If I could liken the church in the Lord’s recovery to a ship and myself to a pilot, I can say that I have never given up my compass, neither have I changed my direction. However, during this period I have seen many wavering and staggering in this way of the recovery, some even wandering hesitantly along the border.
In 1949 I began to speak for the Lord in Taipei. Today it has already been thirty-eight years. You have never heard me change my tone. This does not mean that I have never gone through any storm. On the contrary, the more fierce the storm is, the clearer my direction is. From the first day that we began our work here, we made the decision not to touch Christianity but to concentrate on the preaching of the gospel, bringing people to be saved, to love the Lord, and to grow in life and in truth. We had a good beginning here. Within a short period of six years, a great revival was brought in. At that time the brothers desired to seek spirituality. They invited an outsider to visit us. This caused a big problem among us. Later, I was forced to release thirty-six messages concerning the matter of the church. All those messages were put into a book entitled The Testimony and the Ground of the Church (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1957, vol. 2). Because of this, the truth was further established and brought to light. In 1962 I began to work in the United States. For the last twenty years, I have also seen many being unsteady and uncertain. But I have always remained the same. The reason for this is that I have had a clear vision within.
We know that Paul was originally a stout defender of Judaism. He inherited the tradition from his fathers and was excessively zealous for religion, trying his best to persecute and ravage the church of God. One day, while he was on his way to Damascus to bind all those who called on the name of the Lord, the Lord met him and spoke to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” He said, “Who are You, Lord?” The Lord answered, “I am Jesus, whom you persecute” (Acts 9:1-5). This was the gospel that Paul heard and the vision that he saw. This “Jesus” was no longer individual; rather, He was corporate. He included Stephen and all those who believed in Him. They were a part of Him. Whoever persecuted Stephen persecuted Him. To persecute the Christians was to persecute Jesus.
This Jesus is the Jehovah who created the heavens and the earth. He is the Triune God. One day He became flesh. He lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years as a man. Ultimately, He went to the cross to die for our sins. He terminated the old man, the flesh, Satan, and the world. Then He was buried, entered into Hades, passed through death, was resurrected from the dead, and became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. Today this Jesus is joined as one with Peter, James, John, Stephen, and thousands of those who believe in Him. He has become a great, universal Jesus. Hence, the gospel that Paul heard from the first day was a gospel concerning the mystery in God’s economy. This gospel became his vision.
Later, the Lord told him, “Rise up and enter into the city, and it will be told to you what you must do” (Acts 9:6). This is the second part of the gospel that Paul heard: This Jesus who was revealed to him had a mysterious Body, which was composed of many members. Now the Lord would not tell him directly what he should do; rather, He sent a member of His Body, Ananias, to initiate him into the union with this Body. Although Paul could not see anything physically at that time, he was clear within. Formerly, he was leading others; now he was led by others. Ananias laid his hands on him so that he might see. Ananias then baptized Paul and charged him to call on the name of the Lord that he might wash away his sins. This was the vision that Paul saw: Jesus, Ananias, and the words that they spoke. Moreover, this vision included the way that he walked the rest of his life, as recorded in Acts 26:17b-18: “To whom [the people of Israel and the Gentiles] I [the Lord] send you, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” From that day on, what Paul preached and worked was fully controlled by the vision he saw; he never deviated from it. This is why he could testify before the king, saying, “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” (v. 19).
The inheritance we have obtained is not a heavenly mansion or any creature in the universe but the very Triune God Himself. Not only has He become our life; He is even our possession. He is the inheritance that we have received, just like a portion of the good land that was allotted to each Israelite in the Old Testament. When we were saved, we received the Triune God to be our Savior. This is the first part of our inheritance. The second part is the Triune God as our life. Since we have received this inheritance today, we should do our best to enjoy it. Paul says in Philippians 3:13-14: “But one thing I do: Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I pursue toward the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called me upward.” The prize here is the inheritance. Our enjoying of the inheritance is our gaining of the prize. Today, we all have been saved and regenerated. As long as we are running the course before us by the salvation and life we have received, and we properly enjoy the inheritance given to us by God, we will be able to enter into the kingdom to partake of a greater and richer inheritance when the Lord comes. Otherwise, we will lose our prize and will have no part in the coming kingdom; we will be punished and cast into the outer darkness.
When I was raised up by the Lord to give up my job to serve the Lord full time, many came to discourage me. The first ones were my in-laws. They entreated me saying that it was all right for me to believe in Jesus or even to preach, but why did I have to give up my profession? At that time I had a very good job. They wanted me to seriously reconsider. Then when my schoolmates heard that I was going to be a poor preacher, they thought that I was crazy. All of them came to rebuke me for being so foolish as to choose a way that men despised. In spite of all of these, the vision within me was very clear. I knew that I had received the inheritance of God and that I could not forsake this inheritance. From that day on, by the Lord’s grace and mercy I have been enjoying this inheritance every day.
God’s inheritance is our enjoyment today. The continuation of our enjoyment today will become our enjoyment in the kingdom for the future. The enjoyment in the kingdom will further develop into the enjoyment in the new heaven and the new earth. Our enjoyment of this inheritance in the kingdom is the prize of God’s high calling. Paul was such a person who had received the prize. In Philippians 3 he says, “Not that I have already obtained or am already perfected, but I pursue” (v. 12). This means that although he had received quite an inheritance, he still had not fully obtained it. That was why there was the need of “forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I pursue toward the goal” (vv. 13-14). Not only had he forgotten all the things that he had before in Judaism, but he also laid aside all the inheritance that he enjoyed in the past in order to pursue after the coming inheritance. At the end he finished his course. It was not until he was about to be martyred that he was confident of the kingdom prize. He testified to his young co-worker Timothy, “I have finished the course...Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, with which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will recompense me in that day, and not only me but also all those who have loved His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:7-8).
We have seen that the inheritance we received is the Triune God. He is all the supply that we enjoy today, the prize that we will receive in the coming kingdom, and the eternal portion that we will enjoy in the new heaven and new earth. I have spoken very clearly for the last ten or twenty years concerning this matter. I have given you message after message on this subject. I would say that this has become my “shoptalk.” Whatever I speak from this angle or from that angle is on this matter. This thing has filled me up. It has become my blood and my cells. My whole being is just this one thing. There are many aspects of this Triune God. Therefore, the New Testament uses a great term, economy, to convey the thought that the Triune God has a desire, an intention, a plan, and an arrangement. This is also His administration, management, government, operation, execution, and completion. This is the economy of the Triune God. This economy is altogether wrapped up with the dispensing of this Triune God.
First of all, this Triune God is a unique God. He has no beginning and no ending. No one created Him, and no one begat Him. He is self-existing and ever-existing. At the same time, this Triune God has the aspect of three. There is the aspect of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. But this does not mean that He has three names. Rather, this is one name of the one God. Matthew 28:19 says, “The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The name here is singular. This shows that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not three names but one. In order for this Triune God to enter into man to be one with man, He made a plan in eternity past. Then in time He came to create the heavens and the earth, and He also created man. He called man to follow Him and taught man how to serve Him. He gave the law and sent the prophets. He set up the priests and appointed the kings. He did many things, but no one knew why He did them.
After four thousand years He came to be flesh. He entered into the womb of the virgin Mary and remained in her womb for nine months in accordance with the law of creation. After He was born, He grew up in a poor carpenter’s home in the city of Nazareth. After thirty years He came out to carry out His ministry. For three and a half years He went everywhere healing the sick, casting out demons, preaching the word, and calling out disciples. Eventually, He died on the cross, was buried, and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the all-inclusive Triune God. In this Spirit there is Jehovah, the Father, the Son, the Spirit, man, humanity and human living, with crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. This One is the Spirit that is spoken of at the end of the Bible (Rev. 22:17). Moreover, this Spirit is also the word. The word and the Spirit are inseparable; the two are one. This is why in Romans 10 it says that Christ is the word and that He is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (v. 8). Now all you need to do is believe in your heart and confess with your mouth and call “O Lord Jesus,” and He, the Spirit, will enter into your spirit to be mingled with your spirit to become one spirit with you. When you have Him, you will have satisfaction and rest, and when He has you, He will be fully satisfied. He will become your Savior, life, and everything. You can call on Him, enjoy Him, and testify for Him all the time.
As such a saved person, naturally you need companions, and you need to meet together with all the believers. This is the church. The main item in the church is the meetings. When we come to meet, we should not bring in the worldly elements, neither should we bring in the practices of Christianity. We do not want the world, neither Christianity, nor our self. We come in the way of emptying ourselves of everything and being filled with Christ. Therefore, everyone of us enjoys Christ in our daily life, and we become persons filled with Christ. And when we come to the meetings, we cannot help but open our mouths to sing and pray. In this way everyone will sing, pray, and speak. This singing, praying, and speaking will fill the meeting with the riches of Christ, and the meeting will become the exhibition of Christ. This is the way that we must take today. This is called the recovery. This is also what we mean by the change of the system. The change of the system is not a change of dead methods; rather, it is to recover the meeting that the Lord desires according to the Bible. When we come together, each one has a psalm, or a teaching, or a revelation, or a tongue, or an interpretation (1 Cor. 14:26). In this way Christ will be supplied and ministered mutually to one another.
In addition, in order to spread the gospel, we must go out to visit people by door-knocking. However, this is not the condition for the receiving of the saints by the church, nor is this an item of our basic faith. Today in the church, in the Lord’s recovery, there must be such an item of gospel preaching by visiting people. But we are not requiring everyone to go out to do this. We have a budget that among the brothers and sisters meeting in one locality, there should be one-fourth who would go out regularly throughout the year to visit people to preach the gospel. For the church to gain people and for the gospel to go out, there is no other way as widespread and far-reaching as this. No one who has tasted this would say that this way is not good. The reports from all six major continents constantly prove that this is the most excellent way. If we have never gone out to visit people to preach the gospel, we have not consecrated ourselves to the Lord in an absolute way. If we are absolute in our consecration, surely we will go out to visit people to preach the gospel. To go among the wolves to search out and to save the sons of peace is most pleasing to the Lord.
We must see a clear vision. First, as a Christian on the earth today, we must be a person who goes out to visit people to preach the gospel. Although we cannot do this every day, at least we should do this once a week. For us to do this is to testify to Satan that we are those who have consecrated ourselves fully to the Lord and to His gospel. We have to build up such a habit in the way we serve the Lord. Second, after we preach the gospel and baptize people into the Triune God, we have to supply them with more of the riches of Christ. We should not bring them the world or religion, nor should we bring them Christianity; rather, we should bring to them the life that is filled with the vision in which we live every day. If we can lay hold of these two things and practice them seriously, the Lord will then have a way.
For this, we must return to the way of meeting and gospel preaching revealed in the Bible. This way will enable us to spread the gospel and will help the sinners to be easily saved. After a person is saved, he will be liberated in a kind of free atmosphere to develop the gift of life within him. This is a recovered way and is also a sure way. Since the Bible has thus charged, surely the Lord will accomplish it. Man is prone to take the simple and easy way. The uphill way is hard, and not many are willing to take it; the downhill way is easy, and many are happy to take it. Our training here is to help every saint to turn around from the downhill way to the uphill way. This is the vision that we see and the recovery that the Lord desires. If we cannot carry this out in this generation, the Lord will do it with the next generation. He has been waiting for two thousand years. He can wait longer. He has said, “Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). This word will not fail. He will surely accomplish what He has said. His word will surely be fulfilled. The Lord will surely work out the mutuality in meeting as described by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:26 and Hebrews 10:25. I hope that, after hearing these words, you can all have a clear vision within that the way we are taking today is not directionless, and the training we are receiving is not aimless. When I see so many of you young ones being trained here, not only do I rejoice, but I also have the full assurance that the future of the Lord’s recovery is full of hope. May the Lord bless everyone who has a desire to take this way, and may the Lord also use this way of recovery that is revealed in the Bible.
