THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
The God-man Living
Message Four—The Five Treasure of Our Heritage for the God-man Living
Scripture Reading: John 6:57, 63; 8:32; 5:39-40; 2 Cor. 4:12; 1 John 5:11-16; Acts 20:20, 27; 26:18; 1 Cor. 3:6-7; Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:19
I. As believers in Christ, we need to eat Christ to become the reproduction of Christ practically and to live the life of a God-man; if we eat Christ, we will become Christ—Luke 22:19; John 6:57; 1 Cor. 10:17:
A. John 6:57 reveals how the reality that is in Jesus, the God-man living of Jesus, can become the reality of the Body of Christ, the corporate God-man living of the new man as the duplication of the God-man living of Jesus; the purpose of God in sending the Lord Jesus to be a man was for Him to live a God-man life by the divine life—1 Cor. 17:4:
1. John 6:57a says, “As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father”; this is the reality that is in Jesus, the God-man living of Jesus.
2. John 6:57b says, “So he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me”; this is the reality of the Body of Christ, the corporate God-man living of the many members of the Body of Christ, who are learning Christ, living because of Christ, as the reality is in Jesus.
3. We live because of Christ, taking Christ as the supplying factor of our living; to live because of Christ as our food, we must eat Him so that He can be the supplying and energizing factor to live in us and through us for the building up of His Body—v. 63; Jer. 15:16; Rom. 8:2; 12:1-2.
B. We need to eat the word of the Bible; the word of God is not mainly for knowledge but for nourishment; according to the entire revelation in the Holy Bible, God’s words are good for us to eat, and we need to eat them—John 6:63; 1 Pet. 2:2-3; Heb. 5:12-14.
C. All the divine facts are contained in the Word and conveyed to us through the Word; when the Spirit shines upon the facts in the Word, we have the heavenly television and know the truth—John 8:32.
D. The five treasures in the Lord’s recovery: the Life-studies; the basic truths revealed in the Recovery Version; the Conclusion of the New Testament; the Life; the Hymns:
1. Our study of the word plus our experience of life issues in the truths preached in the Lord’s recovery today; the footnotes in the Recovery Version were written according to this principle; we first studied the text of the Bible, and then based on our spiritual experience of the past decades, we produced footnotes and the Life-studies.
2. The Recovery Version with the Life-study Messages can be considered as the crystallization of the understanding of the holy Word, which the seeking saints have interpreted throughout the past twenty centuries.
II. The life-study messages do not replace the Bible and are also not for educational research, but they are the best way to bring people into the Bible; the Life-study of the Bible began with the Life-study of Romans back in 1974 and finished with the Life-study of Song of Songs in 1995; there are 867 life-study messages in the Old Testament, and 1,117 messages in the New Testament, 1,984 messages in total; the Life-Study of the Bible took Brother Lee the longest time to publish, its content is also the broadest and deepest, and it is the most complete publication work in the Lord’s recovery:
A. The function of the life-study messages—2 Cor. 4:12; 1 John 5:11-16; Acts 20:20, 27; 26:18:
1. To minister the life supply; the main purpose of the Life-study is to minister life; diamonds, jewels, and jade are here in the Life-studies.
2. To present the truth—Acts 20:20, 27; 26:18.
3. To solve the common and hard problems in the Bible.
4. To open up the books of the Bible.
B. The features of the life-study messages:
1. Pointing out the central theme of the Bible and all of its aspects; the life-studies have a center; they also contain explanations and definitions of various matters, so they are comprehensive as well; therefore, when we study the life-studies, we are always able to obtain the life nourishment from them, and we are also able to gain some knowledge of the truth.
2. Apprehending and experiencing all the aspects of Christ.
3. Checking the types with our practical experience and applying them to our daily living.
C. Entering into the truths of the Bible through the life-study messages; the goal of the life-study messages is to bring people into the truths of the Bible; dig into the Recovery Version with the footnotes and the life-study messages as you would dig into a mine for treasure:
1. Leading people to touch life; the life-study messages bring people into the truth to enjoy and experience its riches; the life-study messages bring us into the depths of the Bible to touch and enjoy the life within—cf. John 5:39-40.
2. Encouraging people to progress in the truth.
3. Inspiring people to speak the profound truth.
4. Enriching the meetings; we need to use the Life-studies in order to enrich the home meetings, to strengthen the home meetings, to refresh, and to make them so alive, so attractive, even so attracting, and so upholding.
D. “I have the assurance to say that whoever has read through five hundred Life-study messages properly has been an excellent believer…Medicine, nourishment, and all kinds of vitamins are included in these messages” (Elders’ Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision, p. 106).
E. I absolutely believe that if any local church promotes the Life-studies in this way, it will be revived; if all the saints in a locality practice for one year to read the Life-studies to receive the life supply and study the truth for small group meetings, message meetings, and shepherding and helping others by fellowshipping with them, the church in that locality will surely be revived.
III. The basic truths revealed in the Recovery Version; the Recovery Version of the New Testament can be called the crystallization of the understanding of the divine revelation, which the saints everywhere have attained to in the past two thousand years—Gen. 1:26:
A. The first item of the basic truths in the Bible is God’s creation—Gen. 1:26:
1. First, God created nonliving things; these are the heavens, the earth, light, the atmosphere, and all other myriads of things without life.
2. God created living things; there are three steps in this point: the creation of things with the lowest level of life, the creation of things with a higher level of life, and the creation of things with the highest level of life; the lowest level of life includes things without feelings or consciousness like plants, the next level of life includes animals such as fish and birds, and the highest level of non-human life includes beasts like monkeys and horses.
3. God created the life that resembles Him, and this refers to the creation of man; God created man in His image and according to His likeness—Gen. 1:26.
B. The second item of the basic truths is man’s fall, which is recorded in Genesis 3—vv. 1, 4-5:
1. Man transgressed and became a sinner, a transgressor before God; he was condemned by God’s law—Rom. 3:23.
2. In his transgression man’s inward nature became sinful; when man fell, he not only broke God’s law, which is outward, but also received Satan’s poison, which is inward; in this way Satan entered into human nature and became man’s sinful nature—7:17, 20.
C. The third item of the basic truths is God’s redemption; in the fall we sold ourselves; in God’s view, however, we were redeemable; in order for God to save us, He first had to redeem us; this is the purpose of redemption; in God’s redemption we must pass through seven steps for its completion—1 John 1:7, 9; 1 Cor. 6:11; 2 Cor. 5:19-21:
1. The first step is the redemption from sins (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14); the Lord redeemed us from our sins; strictly speaking, this is redemption, but it is only the first step of redemption; the Lord cleared up our sins and redeemed us from the condemnation of the law.
2. The second step is the forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; Acts 2:38); Luke 24:47 says, “That repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed.” hence, one aspect of the gospel is that it is the gospel of the forgiveness of sins.
3. The third step is the cleansing from sins (1 John 1:7, 9); the Lord does not merely forgive us our sins; He also washes away every trace of our sins from us so that it is as if we never sinned at all.
4. The fourth step of redemption is sanctification (Heb. 10:29); sanctification refers to the fact that God has separated us unto holiness; we are different from everything else, and we no longer belong to this world; this sanctification is objective and positional.
5. The fifth step of redemption is justification (Rom. 3:24-25); after sanctifying us, God justifies us.
6. The sixth step is reconciliation (5:10; Eph. 2:16; Col. 1:20, 22); God causes us to be reconciled to Himself.
7. The seventh step is acceptance (2 Cor. 6:2; Luke 15:22-24); second Corinthians 6:2 says, “Behold, now is the well-acceptable time;” God is happy when He accepts us.
E. The fourth item of the basic truths is God’s dispensing; this is the theology of the Lord’s recovery; the theology outside of the Lord’s recovery does not have this item; most believers in Christianity speak only of God’s redemption, which is entirely objective and refers to God’s redeeming us through the blood; God’s dispensing, however, is very subjective; there are seven points in God’s dispensing—John 3:3; 1 Thes. 5:23; Rom. 12:2; Titus 3:5; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29-30:
1. The first point is regeneration (John 3:3); through regeneration God gives us His life after He has redeemed us; in other words, God plants Himself as the seed of life into us, causing us to receive His life.
2. The second point in God’s dispensing is sanctification (1 Thes. 5:23); this sanctification is not outward; it is inward; it is subjective, not objective; it is dispositional, not positional.
3. The third point in God’s dispensing is renewing (Rom. 12:2; Titus 3:5); when God sanctifies us with His divine life, His life renews us inwardly.
4. The fourth point in God’s dispensing is transformation (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18); transformation is not an outward change; transformation is metabolic; every day the Lord supplies us with a new element, and this new element metabolically discharges the old elements within us; this is transformation.
5. The fifth point in God’s dispensing is conformation; God wants us to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29); transformation is a matter of essence, and conformation is a matter of image; we have God’s life, and this life is growing inside of us, transforming us, and conforming us to God’s image; since it is the life of God, it produces the image of God; this is conformation.
6. The sixth point in God’s dispensing is glorification (v. 30); glorification does not mean that we glorify God but that God glorifies us; God is glorified when He lives out from within us; God is constantly dispensing Himself into us, and His element of life glorifies us.
7. Finally, the seventh point is the ultimate manifestation of God’s dispensing—the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2); God’s dispensing begins with our regeneration, and it continues to its ultimate manifestation; in eternity we will become the New Jerusalem for God’s expression and His magnification.
IV. The Conclusion of the New Testament; after completing the life-study trainings of the entire New Testament in the winter of 1984, Brother Witness Lee, the Lord’s servant, began, from the summer of 1985 to the summer of 1986, to conduct three trainings to have a full expounding of crucial items concerning God, Christ, the Spirit, the believers, the church, the kingdom, and the New Jerusalem in God’s New Testament economy, and these messages are compiled into the first two hundred sixty-four messages of The Conclusion of the New Testament:
A. God: The revelations concerning what God is can be seen everywhere in every book of the Bible; these revelations of the person of God, which are scattered in different places like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, need to be put together in order to form a complete picture; in these following messages we shall see the revelations concerning God in His person, nature, attributes, good pleasure, manifestation, and work unveiled in the Bible.
B. Christ: All that God is, is in Christ; God and Christ are one; if we would know God and enjoy Him, we need to consider all the aspects of who Christ is and what Christ is, His person in the Godhead, attributes, virtues, and work.
C. The Spirit: In the specific messages concerning the Spirit, beginning with various aspects of the person of the Spirit, we shall orderly study the person, symbols, attributes, coming, and work of the Spirit.
D. The believers: Begining with the sixfold status of the believers before they were saved, we shall successively present the believers’ status, designations, symbols, life, nature, past, present, and future; through this we will realize the ordination and intention of God for man and have the eternal hope for these.
E. The church: The church as the hidden mystery in God’s eternal economy is the revelation of the mystery of Christ; these messages will explain the formation of the church, the establishment of the churches, the two aspects of the church, the offices in the church, the relationship between the four special gifts and the church, the fellowship among the churches, the status of the church, the failures in the churches, the degradation of the church, the recovery of the church, the stages of the church, and the consummation of the church.
F. The kingdom: According to the book of Daniel, Christ as the heavenly stone will eventually become a great mountain and fill the whole earth; this is the kingdom as the increase of Christ; in these messages we shall orderly present various aspects of the kingdom: its reality, its nature, its expression, its relation to God’s glory, and its unshakableness.
G. The New Jerusalem: The New Jerusalem, the most mysterious and puzzling matter in the Bible, is first mentioned in Galatians 4:26; these messages are to unlock the greatest and ultimate sign in the Scriptures and to unveil the significance of this mystery, the New Jerusalem.
H. In the winter of 1986 Brother Witness Lee held one more training, conducting a study of the whole New Testament from the point of view of the experience, enjoyment, and expression of Christ; this abundant content is compiled as 265th to 436th messages of The Conclusion of the New Testament.
V. Life is another item of the treasures in the Lord’s recovery; life is related to experience; it is not a doctrine; hence, we must study our experiences to see how we were regenerated, how we are being transformed, how we will mature, and so forth; we cannot understand this point merely by studying the Bible; we must match what we read in the Bible with our experience—1 Cor. 3:6-7; Col. 2:19:
A. Several books about life:
1. The Knowledge of Life.
2. The Experience of Life.
3. Basic Principles of the Experience of Life.
4. Practical Lessons on the Experience of Life.
5. Life Messages.
6. The Experience and Growth in Life.
7. The God-Man Living.
B. “There is a very heavy burden within me, a very deep feeling, that what every church today needs most is the things of life. All our work and activity must come out of life…Unless it comes out of life, our work and service will neither last nor bear much weight. If we want our work to bear abundant and lasting fruit, we must have a foundation in life. We ourselves must touch the Lord in life…Only thus can we fit into the work which God desires to do in this age…We should have only one desire—to know and experience the life of the Lord more, and to be able to share with others what we have known and experienced so that they too may obtain something…Our work should just be the releasing of the life of the Lord, the imparting and supplying of the Lord’s life to others. May the Lord have mercy upon us and open our eyes to see that the central work of God in this age is that man may gain His life and grow and mature in His life. Only the work which comes out of His life can reach His eternal standard and be accepted by Him” (The Knowledge of Life, pp. 57-58).
VI. The Lord’s recovery has a hymnal; we put out our hymnal, we had a focus and an emphasis, and we did not cut ourselves off from any truth; today there is no other collection of hymns like ours that includes all the major truths:
A. Hymns being expressions of a thorough understanding of the truth; I compiled our present hymnal in 1966; you cannot find a hymnal in Christianity that is like our hymnal, which is so full of truths in its contents:
1. The study of this hymnal alone is the study of the highest theology in the Lord’s recovery; to study the table of contents of our hymnal until we thoroughly understand it and find the basis of the biblical truth of each hymn would require at least four years.
2. Our spiritual books and life-studies are the expressions of the truths in written words, and hymns are the conversion of the words into poems and lyrics; to compose hymns is to reach the peak, to arrive at the ultimate point, of the study of the truth.
3. It is not easy to select a proper hymn; the English hymnal that we compiled has 1,080 hymns of which more than two hundred were written by us; the remaining eight hundred or so hymns were collected from among more than ten thousand hymns; we can say that the best of the hymns written throughout the centuries.
B. The development of hymns in the lord’s recovery:
1. The first stage began over sixty years ago; we read of the hymnals published by the Brethren during their golden age; Brother Nee borrowed the table of contents of their hymnals as the basic structure for ours and added two more topics related to the spiritual warfare and the subjective experience of the cross; these were compiled into a hymnal; at that time, our hymnal only had one hundred eighty-three hymns.
2. In 1949, the young people’s work began in Taiwan; we felt that the one hundred eighty-three hymns were not adequate, so we published a second volume of our hymnal; by 1961, we began to see God’s economy; I wrote eighty-five hymns which became the so-called “Supplement of 85 Hymns;” they were all related to God’s economy.
3. In 1967, after I finished the compilation of the English hymnal in America, I returned to Taiwan and combined the two volumes of the Chinese hymnal, the “Supplement of 85 Hymns,” and the gospel songs into a single volume; in addition, I added two hundred more hymns; the result is the Chinese hymnal that we are using today.
C. Every hymn that is up to the standard must meet three basic requirements; if a hymn fails to meet any of these requirements, it is not a good hymn:
1. First, the words of a hymn must be based on the truth; if it falls short in doctrinal integrity, it will easily lead Christians into error.
2. Second, a hymn needs to be poetic in its form and structure; every psalm is fine and tender in form and expression and utters God’s mind in the way of poetry.
3. Third, a hymn needs to provide spiritual impact; it must touch spiritual reality.
D. The contents of the hymns have a total of 29 categories, including: Blessing of the Trinity, Worship of the Father, Praise of the Lord, Fullness of the Spirit, Assurance and Joy of Salvation, Consecration, Union with Christ, Experience of Christ, Experience of God, Gloying in the Cross, the Way of the Cross, the Resurrection Life, Encouragement, Comfort in Trials, Divine Healing, Prayer, the Church, Meetings, Spiritual Warfare, Serving, Preaching of the Gospel, Baptism, the Lord’s Day, the Kingdom, Hope of Glory, Ultimate Manifestation, and Gospel.
E. In conclusion, if we are going to have meetings according to the scriptural way, we must know the hymns; we need to learn to speak the hymns in our meetings—Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:19:
1. We have to know the crucial points of the contents of the hymns, the standard of the hymns, the sensation of the hymns, the wording of the hymns, and the tune of the hymns.
2. We need to learn to speak the hymns in our meetings; this practice with Christ as the center is refreshing, nourishing, edifying, and building up; if all the saints in the Lord’s recovery practiced speaking the hymns in the meetings, the meetings would be living, refreshing, and rich.
Ministry Excerpts:
THE TREASURES IN THE LORD’S RECOVERY
The Life-studies
My burden is that we would enter into the truth. We must spend time to get into the Life-study messages. I have the assurance and I strongly believe that the Life-study messages are the best tool for opening the Bible for our understanding. Both those who are young and those who are old should spend two hours a day getting into one Life-study message, including the verses related to the message, and the footnotes and cross references related to the verses. If you are willing to read one message a day in this way for six days every week, in one year you will be able to read three hundred messages, and in four years you will have read all the New Testament Life-study messages. If you are willing to make a strong decision to do this and if you study diligently for four years, you will have a good foundation in the holy Word of God; not only so, you will also grow in life.
The Basic Truths in the Lord’s Recovery
God’s Creation
The first item of the basic truths in the Bible is God’s creation. In order to grasp this truth, we must read the first chapter of Genesis. There are several subpoints related to God’s creation. First, God created nonliving things. These are the heavens, the earth, light, the atmosphere, and all other myriads of things without life.
Man’s Fall
The second item of the basic truths is man’s fall, which is recorded in Genesis 3. This item consists of two points. First, man transgressed and became a sinner, a transgressor before God; he was condemned by God’s law (Rom. 3:23). Second, in his transgression man’s inward nature became sinful. When man fell, he not only broke God’s law, which is outward, but also received Satan’s poison, which is inward. In this way Satan entered into human nature and became man’s sinful nature (7:17, 20). Hence, as a result of man’s fall, man has both sinful deeds and a sinful nature; his outward deeds are sins, and his inward nature is sin. These are the results of man’s fall.
God’s Redemption
The third item of the basic truths is God’s redemption. In Christianity there are many writings concerning God’s redemption. Although they may be correct, they are incomplete. Hence, we need to fellowship concerning the points of God’s redemption. Man was created by God, but he fell out of God’s hands. God was not willing to give man up; He wanted to save man back to Himself. But God had to pay a price in order to accomplish this salvation; thus, there was a need for redemption. It was not sufficient for God merely to save man; His salvation needed to include redemption. This can be compared to an item being taken to a pawnshop. If you want the item back, you need to redeem it with money. In the fall we sold ourselves. In God’s view, however, this sale was not final; we were redeemable. Hence, God came in to redeem us. In order for God to save us, He first had to redeem us. This is the purpose of redemption.
God’s Dispensing
The fourth item of the basic truths is God’s dispensing. This is the theology of the Lord’s recovery. The theology outside of the Lord’s recovery does not have this item. Most believers in Christianity speak only of God’s redemption, which is entirely objective and refers to God’s redeeming us through the blood. God’s dispensing, however, is very subjective. There are seven points in God’s dispensing.
The first point is regeneration (John 3:3). Through regeneration God gives us His life after He has redeemed us. In other words, God plants Himself as the seed of life into us, causing us to receive His life. As soon as we obtain God’s life, we are regenerated in our spirit. This means that we are born of God. This is the first step of the Triune God’s dispensing of Himself into us.
The second point in God’s dispensing is sanctification (1 Thes. 5:23). This sanctification is not outward; it is inward. It is subjective, not objective. It is dispositional, not positional. In this sanctification the Lord does not sanctify us with His blood; rather, He sanctifies us by dispensing His life into us.
The third point in God’s dispensing is renewing (Rom. 12:2; Titus 3:5). When God sanctifies us with His divine life, His life renews us inwardly.
The fourth point in God’s dispensing is transformation (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). Transformation is not an outward change. At the most, philosophies and doctrines can change us, but they cannot transform us. Change is mainly an outward matter, just as people wear make-up on their faces. If my complexion is pale, and I put on some powder and then apply some reddish cosmetics, my face will become rosy. This is change, not transformation. What is transformation? Transformation is metabolic. My complexion is pale because my body lacks nourishment. Therefore, if I eat nourishing food every day, after one or two months my body will be transformed, and my face will exhibit a healthy, ruddy glow. This is not a matter of putting on make-up but of an inward transformation. This is a metabolic process.
The fifth point in God’s dispensing is conformation. God wants us to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29). Transformation is a matter of essence, and conformation is a matter of image. When Adam was created, he had God’s image, but he did not have the essence of God’s life. However, when we are saved, we receive the essence of God’s life. The nature of this life essence is to transform us inwardly day by day, causing us to have God’s image.
The sixth point in God’s dispensing is glorification (v. 30). Glorification does not mean that we glorify God but that God glorifies us. According to the general concept in Christianity, we glorify God by doing good deeds; these good deeds allow people to see that we are Christians, and as a result, they praise God. This is the general concept concerning what it means to glorify God. We dare not say that this is wrong, but this is very shallow. God is glorified when He lives out from within us. God’s dispensing is God coming to glorify us. God is constantly dispensing Himself into us, and His element of life glorifies us.
Finally, the seventh point is the ultimate manifestation of God’s dispensing—the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2). God’s dispensing begins with our regeneration, and it continues to its ultimate manifestation. In eternity we will become the New Jerusalem for God’s expression and His magnification. (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 3: The Future of the Lord’s Recovery and the Building Up of the Organic Service, msg. 9)
The Life-Studies and Recovery Version
Through the past ten years up to the present time it has been fully proven among us that the most profitable writings and publications are the Life-study messages with the notes of the Recovery Version. I wrote these things, not for scholarly study for people to get a degree, but for life ministering, for truth releasing, and for opening up the books of the Bible.
We are not for theology, but we are for “theos,” God. Our publications are not for any kind of “ology,” but just for God, the Triune God, the processed Triune God, and the Lord, Christ, Jesus, the Spirit, life, and the church. Our publications are for a living Person, not for any “ology.” We are not for the ology of God, the ology of Christ, the ology of the church, or the ology of the divine things. However, I do have a burden to publish things full of Christ, full of the Triune, processed God, full of the life-giving Spirit, full of life, and full of the church. The Lord’s recovery is just for the recovery of the processed Triune God to be dispensed into us, and the living Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church are the crucial contents of the Lord’s recovery. There is no other place to pick up other books which are so rich, so enlightening, and so nourishing concerning the recovery of Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church. Since this is the real situation and the real condition, I feel that we have no choice but to use the Life-studies, because we realize that this is the best way to bring people into the holy Word.
I consider our writings as the opener to open the holy Word. I believe that those of you who have read the Life-study messages can testify honestly that these messages with the notes of the Recovery Version have opened up a certain chapter or a certain book of the Bible to you. This is not to replace the Bible, but to bring people into the Bible. (Elders’ Training, Book 03: The Way to Carry Out the Vision, msg. 10)
Hymns Being Expressions of a Thorough Understanding of the Truth
Our hymns were written not according to our own ideas but according to the truths in the Bible. To explain the biblical truths is not an easy matter. To express the truths in poems and lyrics requires even the more that we have a thorough understanding of the truths. If we desire to study and pursue the profound truths in the Bible, we must do it by using our hymnal along with the Bible and by being assisted by the life-studies and spiritual books. Sometimes even one line of a hymn is full of the riches of the truth.
I compiled our present hymnal in 1966. You cannot find a hymnal in Christianity that is like our hymnal, which is so full of truths in its contents. The table of contents alone occupies five pages, pointing out the sequence of the truths, so that by reading it, one can easily receive light. The study of this hymnal alone is the study of the highest theology in the Lord’s recovery. To study the table of contents of our hymnal until we thoroughly understand it and find the basis of the biblical truth of each hymn would require at least four years. Our spiritual books and life-studies are the expressions of the truths in written words, and hymns are the conversion of the words into poems and lyrics. To compose hymns is to reach the peak, to arrive at the ultimate point, of the study of the truth. (The Four Crucial Elements of the Bible—Christ, the Spirit, Life, and the Church, msg. 9)
Hymns Concerning the Spirit with Our Spirit
It is not easy to select a proper hymn. The English hymnal that we compiled has 1,080 hymns of which more than two hundred were written by us. The remaining eight hundred or so hymns were collected from among more than ten thousand hymns. We can say that the best of the hymns written throughout the centuries, including certain Pentecostal hymns, are almost entirely included in our hymnal. The table of contents at the beginning of our hymnal shows that our knowledge of the truth is very inclusive.
In October 1934, when Brother Watchman Nee was giving the fourth Overcomers’ Conference in Hangchow, he felt that a certain hymn from the Pentecostal movement was very good and suggested that the brothers translate the chorus for singing in the meetings. I picked up that burden. The chorus of that hymn, Hymns, #551, says “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I have passed the riven veil, Here the glories never fail, Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I am living in the presence of the King.” Singing a hymn like this was a new thing in the Lord’s recovery because up until then our meetings had been very structured. We had never sung a short chorus like this. It is worth remembering that just after that conference, we had Brother Nee’s wedding meeting, and we sang this short hymn there.
My burden in saying this is that you would see that when we put out our hymnal, we had a focus and an emphasis, and we did not cut ourselves off from any truth. Today there is no other collection of hymns like ours that includes all the major truths. When we put out our English hymnal, an elderly American sister, who had spent many years in China, read the table of contents and told us that it was very precious because all aspects of the truth were included there. We did this because we wanted the brothers and sisters to know that our knowledge of the truth is many-sided, but we still have an emphasis and a focus. This is particularly manifest in the more than two hundred hymns written by us, many of which exclusively concern the Spirit with our spirit and the two spirits becoming one spirit. This is a very important point. (The Four Crucial Elements of the Bible—Christ, the Spirit, Life, and the Church, msg. 6)