THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE

The Body of Christ

Message Nine
 The Organic Building Up of the Body of Christ
 through the Practice of the Scriptural Way to Meet and to Serve

Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:9; 4:11-16; 1 Cor. 14:24-26, 31

I. "God is doing the work of His recovery, and His recovery is to build up the Body of Christ…He is recovering the organic building up of the Body of Christ by the speaking of His ministry" (Elders' Training, Book 9, The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (1), p. 84). 

A. In the Lord's recovery we practice the genuine church life, caring for the all-inclusive Christ, the consummated Spirit, the eternal life, and the divine truths—Col. 2:16-17; John 7:39; Gal. 3:14. 

B. We endeavor to escape from organization, dogmatic regulations, rituals, the clerical system, and traditions so that there will be the function of all the members of Christ in the church life for the building up of the Body of Christ in God's eternal economy—Eph. 3:9; 4:16. 

II. In our practice of the scriptural way to meet and to serve, we need to see that the Body is the basic principle of the church, the ministry, and the work—1:22-23; 4:1, 4, 16; 1 Cor. 12:4-6, 12-13, 27: 

A. The church, the ministry, and the work are all on the ground of the Body and derive their existence from, find their place in, and work for the good of the Body—Rom. 12:4-5; Col. 2:19; 3:15. 

B. The churches are the Body expressed locally, the ministry is the Body in function, and the work is the Body seeking increase—Acts 13:1-2; 21:19. 

C. The church is the life of the Body in miniature, the ministry is the functioning of the Body in service, and the work is the reaching out of the Body in growth—1 Cor. 1:2; 12:27; 16:10; 2 Cor. 3:6.  

III. In order to practice the scriptural way to meet and to serve for the building up of the Body of Christ, we need a clear vision of God's New Testament economy—1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 3:9: 

A. God's New Testament economy is to dispense the riches of Christ into God's chosen and redeemed people—v. 8. 

B. God's New Testament economy is to have a people to be the Body of Christ for a corporate expression of the Triune God—1:23; 3:19. 

C. God's New Testament economy is for the heading up of all things in Christ through the church as the Body of Christ—1:10. 

IV. The meetings of the believers should always be linked to God's New Testament economy—1 Tim. 1:4; 1 Cor. 14:26: 

A. We should come to the meetings with a vision of the divine economy, and what we speak in the meetings should focus on the economy of God—Eph. 3:9. 

B. The Christian meetings are to make God's economy in His fatherhood known to the believers for the praise of the Father; our meeting is for the magnification and glorification of the begetting Father as the source of the Divine Trinity—Heb. 2:12; Rom. 11:36; 1 Cor. 8:6a; Eph. 4:6. 

C. Our meeting is a stewardship, a service, to carry out God's economy—3:2. 

V. The practice of the scriptural way to meet and to serve delivers the believers from hierarchy, the papal system, and the clergy-laity system for the building up of the Body of Christ—Rev. 2:6, 15; Rom. 12:4-6: 

A. God's intention in His economy is to have an organic Body built up for Christ—Eph. 3:9, 4:16. 

B. The Lord's recovery is for the annulling of the clergy and laity and the developing of the gifts, functions, and capacity of all the members of the organic Body of Christ—Rev. 2:6, 15; Eph. 4:11-16. 

C. The scriptural way to meet and to serve is the proper practice of the church life against the papal and clergy-laity systems—Matt. 20:25-28: 

1. The goal of the papal and clergy-laity systems is to annul the Body of Christ and to replace it with religion. 　

2. The recovery according to the Lord's mind is to bring His believers out of the papal system and the clergy-laity system and to replace these systems with the scriptural way to meet and to serve for the building up of the Body of Christ— 1 Cor. 14:26; Eph. 4:16.  　

VI. Through the practice of the scriptural way to meet and to serve, the Lord is recovering four major items: 

A. The Lord desires to recover the priesthood of the gospel in the New Testament—1 Pet. 2:5, 9. 

B. The Lord desires to recover the organic building up of the Body of Christ—Matt. 16:18; Eph. 4:12, 16; Col. 2:19. 

C. The Lord desires to recover the perfecting of the common members of the Body of Christ to make them living, active, functioning members of the Body—Eph. 4:11-16; Heb. 10:24-25. 

D. The Lord desires to recover the church meetings in mutuality with all speaking for the building up of the Body of Christ—1 Cor. 14:4b, 23a, 26, 31. 

VII. In the practice of the scriptural way to meet and to serve, we emphasize  prophesying—the excelling gift for the building up of the church—vv. 1, 4b, 24-25, 31: 

A. The significance of prophesying in 1 Corinthians 14 is to speak for the Lord, to speak forth the Lord, and even to speak the Lord, to minister, to dispense the Lord, into others; in the sense of the divine dispensing, the entire Bible consummates in all prophesying—vv. 3, 24-25, 31. 

B. Prophesying, speaking for God and speaking forth God with God as the content, ministers God to the hearers and brings them to God—v. 25.

C. God desires that each of the believers prophesy, that is speak for Him and speak Him forth—vv. 1b, 31; cf. Num. 11:39. 

D. The characteristic of prophesying is to minister Christ for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ; prophesying is the particular gift for the building up of the church—1 Cor. 14:3-5, 12, 24, 26. 
 

Ministry Excerpts:

 

RECOVERING THE ORGANIC BUILDING UP
OF THE BODY OF CHRIST
 BY THE SPEAKING OF HIS MINISTRY

In every age God works by His speaking. For His speaking, His divine oracle, He always uses a speaker. At Moses' time, Moses was the speaker. At David's time, David was the speaker. At Paul's time, Paul was the speaker. The speaker used by God does God's work by speaking, by the releasing of God's word. Surely this speaking, the oracle of God, will result in something.

God is doing the work of His recovery, and His recovery is to build up the Body of Christ.…He is recovering the organic building up of the Body of Christ by the speaking of His ministry. (CWWL, 1986, vol. 3, "Elders' Training, Book 9: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (1)," ch. 6)

THE BODY BEING THE GOVERNING LAW
OF THE LIFE AND WORK
 OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD TODAY

In Ephesians 4 we see that the sphere of the ministry is the Body of Christ, which may be expressed locally as a church, or extra-locally as the work. It is for this reason also that apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers are linked together, though actually the sphere of an apostle's work is quite different from that of the other three. But all belong to the one ministry, whose sphere of service is the Body of Christ. 

God uses these men to impart His grace to the Church. Their various gifts enable them to transmit grace from the Head to the Body. Spiritual ministry is nothing less than ministering Christ to His people. God's thought in giving these men as a gift to His Church was that a Christ, personally known and experienced by them, might through the gifts of the Spirit, be ministered to His people. They were given to the Church "for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ."

Ephesians 4 speaks of the Body of Christ, but no discrimination is made there between the churches, the work, and the ministry. The saints of the churches, the apostles of the work, and the different ministers of the ministry are all considered in the light of, and in relation to, the Body of Christ. Because whether it be the local church, the ministry, or the work, all are in the Church. They are really one; so while it is necessary to distinguish between them in order to understand them better, we cannot really separate them. Those who are in the different spheres of the Church need to see the reality of the Body of Christ and act relatedly as a body. They should not, because of difference of responsibilities, settle themselves into watertight compartments. "The church, which is His Body," includes the churches, the ministry, and the work. The churches are the Body expressed locally, the ministry is the Body in function, and the work is the Body seeking increase. All three are different manifestations of the one Body, so they are all interdependent and interrelated. None can move, or even exist, by itself. 

All three are from the Body, in the Body, and for the Body. If this principle of relatedness to the Body and interrelatedness among its members is not recognized, there can be no church, no ministry, and no work. The importance of this principle cannot be over-emphasized, for without it everything is man-made, not God-created. The basic principle of the ministry is the Body. The basic principle of the work is the Body. The basic principle of the churches is the Body. The Body is the governing law of the life and work of the children of God today. (CWWN, vol. 30, "The Normal Christian Church Life," ch. 9)

NEEDING A CLEAR VISION
OF GOD'S NEW TESTAMENT ECONOMY
IN ORDER TO PRACTICE THE SCRIPTURAL WAY
 TO MEET AND TO SERVE

In order to practice the scriptural way to meet and to serve for the building up of the Body of Christ, we need a clear vision of God's New Testament economy.…God's economy is God's eternal plan, God's eternal arrangement for His administration according to His heart's desire. In the Old Testament there was God's Old Testament economy, God's old arrangement. Now in the New Testament there is a new arrangement, that is, the New Testament economy of God. In order for us to understand the divine revelation, we must understand God's New Testament economy.…The content of God's New Testament economy is a wonderful person, and this person is the Triune God.

Dispensing the Riches of Christ
 into God's Chosen People

God's New Testament economy is also to dispense the riches of Christ into God's chosen people (Eph. 3:8). The riches of God became the riches of Christ. Before the incarnation the riches of God were not the riches of Christ. Regardless of how rich God was before His incarnation, He did not possess humanity among His riches. After the incarnation another item was added to His riches—humanity. The riches of God became the riches of Christ because Christ has humanity. Today the very God, who has both divinity and humanity, is Christ.

God is different from what He was before His incarnation. Hebrews 13:8 tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Some opposers have used this verse wrongly to say that Jesus Christ does not change. But we have to remember that Paul wrote this verse after the Lord's ascension, that is, after He had passed through the necessary processes to be completed. When Christ was being completed, He took two major steps, which were two major changes. John 1:14 tells us that the Word became flesh, and 1 Corinthians 15:45b says that the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. The word became indicates a change and is applied to Christ twice. As the very God, He became flesh, and after thirty-three and a half years in the flesh, He became a life-giving Spirit. These are two wonderful changes. God changed to be the flesh, and the flesh changed to be the life-giving Spirit.

If God had not changed to be the flesh, we could not have been redeemed. God became flesh and died on the cross, shedding His human blood to redeem us, to take away our sin. After this, He entered into the tomb and Hades, entered into resurrection, and in resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit for the purpose of imparting life into us. The flesh was for redemption, and the Spirit is for the impartation of life. As the life-giving Spirit, Christ can impart His unsearchable riches into God's chosen people. God's New Testament economy is to have Himself embodied in Christ to dispense the riches of Christ into God's chosen people for the producing of the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:23) and for the completion of the mystery of Christ (3:4), which is the church as Christ's fullness and expression. (CWWL, 1987, vol. 3, "The Scriptural Way to Meet and to Serve for the Building Up of the Body of Christ," ch. 9)

Having a People to Be the Body of Christ
for a Corporate Expression
 of the Processed Triune God

In this chapter we want to see the God-ordained way to meet and to serve as revealed in the holy Word. First, we need to be impressed that the meetings of the believers should always be linked to God's New Testament economy. God's New Testament economy is to have a people to be the Body of Christ for a corporate expression of the processed Triune God (Eph. 1:23; 3:19). The processed Triune God refers to God who has gone through so many processes. The Triune God came down from the heavens and passed through incarnation, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension.

We need to come into the meeting with a vision of God becoming a man and in human living passing through all kinds of trials and suffering all kinds of hardships. We should come to the meeting with a vision that He has accomplished an all-inclusive death to terminate all the negative things. We should come to the meeting with a vision that we have been terminated. Our self, our flesh, our natural man, and all that we are as descendants of Adam have been crucified on the cross. We also need to come to the meeting with a vision that He is now in resurrection, and in Him and with Him we are also in resurrection (Eph. 2:6). Furthermore, we should come to meet with the saints in ascension (v. 6). We are not only in the heavens but also in ascension. We need to keep in mind that whenever we come together, we are linked to all these things.

Moreover, we should have the realization that we are coming to the meeting not only as men; we are coming to the meeting in incarnation as God-men, as those who have been mingled with God (John 1:12-13; 2 Tim. 4:22; 1 Cor. 6:17) and who have God living in them (1 John 4:15; 2 Cor. 13:5; Rom. 8:9; Eph. 4:6). While we are meeting, we are not Germans, Africans, Chinese, or Americans. We are meeting as God-men. If we have this vision, we will see that each one of the saints in the meeting is a God-man. There is no Chinese, no American, no German, and no French, but all are God-men. Can we meet this way? We have to say a strong yes! We meet as God-men! If we have this vision when we come to meet, we will be full of praises. When we assemble with the saints, we will say, "Hallelujah! I am a God-man coming here to meet with other God-men!" Our meeting is not a meeting merely of Christian believers but of God-men. The vision of this one item will send us to the heavens. Our meeting is altogether linked with the processed Triune God, and we are in the meeting as a corporate expression of the processed Triune God according to His divine economy.

The Heading up of All Things in Christ
 through the Church as the Body of Christ

God's New Testament economy is for the heading up of all things in Christ through the church as the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:10). As we meet, we are taking step after step to lead all the created things toward one direction, that is, to be headed up in Christ. Do we have such a consideration when we come into a Christian meeting? Our meeting today directs us toward the goal of all things being headed up in our Head, Christ. While we are singing, praising, and testifying, we declare that we are taking the lead as the firstfruits of His creatures (James 1:18) to lead all the creatures to the point of everything being headed up in Christ. Today the whole universe is in disorder and chaos, with no heading up. But one day the church will bring all the created things to one direction, that is, to the heading up of all things in Christ. If we repeat the following sentence five times, we will be different persons: The Christian meeting takes the lead to bring everything to the direction of all things being headed up in Christ.

Making God's Economy in His Fatherhood Known
 to the Believers for the Praise of the Father

The Christian meetings are to make God's economy in His fatherhood known to the believers for the praise of the Father. God's economy is God's plan, God's arrangement, His desire to carry out what He loves. This economy is in the fatherhood. When I use the word fatherhood, I mean the very being of the Father with all His intentions, desires, purposes, and wishes. As an illustration, we can say that there is a fatherhood with a father who has seven children. This fatherhood denotes his being as a father. It also denotes whatever is involved in his being a father and implies all his wishes for his children, including his desires, his intentions, his purposes, and his goal that he could accomplish for all his children. Likewise, the divine fatherhood is the Father's being and implies all of His intentions, purposes, desires, and will to accomplish something for His children. The Son declaring the Father's name implies that the Son tells His brothers not only that the Father is the begetting Source but also that this begetting Source has many intentions, purposes, wishes, and desires to accomplish many things for His sons. (CWWL, 1987, vol. 3, "The Scriptural Way to Meet and to Serve for the Building Up of the Body of Christ," ch. 1)

Our Stewardship Being to Carry Out
 God's Economy in a Corporate Way

We need to be brought into a high realization of our Christian meeting. Our meeting today is a stewardship, a service, to carry out God's economy. We carry out our stewardship by meeting. We are continuing to do the work of the apostle Paul to carry out God's New Testament economy. Whenever we meet, we serve. Whenever we meet, we are taking care of our stewardship to carry out God's New Testament economy. This means that our meeting dispenses all the riches of Christ into the attendants, who are God's chosen people. In this book, we are talking about the scriptural way to meet and to serve. I use the words to serve because our meeting is a service, which is really the divine stewardship assigned to us to carry out God's New Testament economy. Whenever we as the attendants in a meeting dispense the processed Triune God into others, actually our meeting dispenses.

The economy of God has become our stewardship, and our stewardship is to carry out God's economy in a corporate way by meeting. We must count on the meetings for the carrying out of our stewardship. (CWWL, 1987, vol. 3, "The Scriptural Way to Meet and to Serve for the Building Up of the Body of Christ," ch. 9)

PRACTICING THE GOD-ORDAINED WAY
AND BEING RESCUED FROM THE PAPAL
 AND CLERGY-LAITY SYSTEMS

The Intention of God's Economy
 to Have an Organic Body Built up for Christ

The God-ordained way as revealed in the Bible is the proper practice of the church life against the papal and clergy-laity systems. The papal system is the system of the pope in the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church is called "The Mother of the Harlots" (Rev. 17:5). Out of this impure, dirty mother, another system was produced—the clergy-laity system. The clergy-laity system, as the daughter of the papal system, is the system of Protestantism. The Bible reveals the God-ordained practice to counter these two systems. The Bible has its own practice and principle. The biblical practice and principle are always being put down by the papal and clergy-laity systems. The goal of the papal and clergy-laity systems is to annul the Body of Christ and replace it with a religion. The intention of God's economy is to have an organic Body built up for Christ. But after nearly two thousand years of church history, what is prevailing today on this earth is an organized religion, comprising Catholicism and Protestantism.

The church is the Body of Christ and the new man. It is not normal for only a small number of the members of a person's body to function while all the rest are paralyzed. A normal man uses all his physical members. We need to consider today's situation in Christianity, in Catholicism and Protestantism. Where is such a corporate man, comprising the living, active, functioning members of the Body of Christ, to fulfill the purpose of God? There is not such a thing. Mostly what is considered in Christianity is the work of gaining sinners, winning souls, to build up a congregation. That is not for the Body of Christ. Our concept has been captured by that practice. We left Babylon, but Babylon's principle and philosophy still remain with us. We left Babylon, but the Babylonian system would not leave us.

The God-ordained way is to rescue us from this Babylonian capture. We have been captured by the philosophy of the papal and clergy-laity systems. We are still carrying, probably unintentionally and subconsciously, the philosophy of these systems with us in whatever we do. This is why I say that we have to endeavor to change our philosophy. We are not building up any kind of religion. We are building up the Body of Christ, and we are building up the new man. We should be perfecting all the members of the Body and equipping all the parts of the new man, but we do not do much perfecting or equipping. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 1, "Elders' Training, Book 11: The Eldership and the God-Ordained Way (3)," ch. 10)

The Genuine Church for the Building up
 of the Body of Christ in God's Eternal Economy

In the Lord's recovery we practice the genuine church, caring for the all-inclusive Christ, the consummated Spirit, the eternal life, and all the divine truths of reality, not of vain letters, and endeavoring to escape from organization, dogmatic regulations, rituals, the clerical system, and traditions, that we may practice the universal priesthood, the universal function of all the members of Christ in the church life for the building up of the Body of Christ in God's eternal economy. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, "The Crucial Points of the Major Items of the Lord's Recovery Today")

The biblical way to meet and to serve, the way ordained by God and declared by the apostle Paul, is difficult to practice because it is against our natural man. According to this way, whenever we Christians come together, we must come with something. Everyone should have something of the Lord or for the Lord to minister, to present, to the meeting for the mutual enjoyment of the attendants. I minister something for your enjoyment, and you offer something for my enjoyment. We all minister something for each other to enjoy with God. (CWWL, 1987, vol. 3, "The Scriptural Way to Meet and to Serve for the Building Up of the Body of Christ," ch. 4)

Developing the Organic Ability and Function
 of the Living Members of Christ

Another characteristic of the meetings according to the God-ordained way is that they develop the organic ability and function of the living members of Christ (Eph. 4:16). The old way of meeting is not the right way, because instead of developing the organic ability and function of the members of the Body, it annuls them. Many who have attended the so-called services in Christianity week after week have had their ability and function annulled. By birth a small child has all its organs—organs for eating, digesting, seeing, listening, smelling, speaking, and walking. But suppose a child's parents practiced a way that prevented the child from having any kind of movement or function for twenty years. Because the child's walking ability had not been developed, he would not be able to walk. In Christianity after a person's new birth in Christ, his regeneration, he is put into a situation where he is prevented from functioning in a normal way. The newborn ones have hardly any way to exercise their spiritual eyes, ears, nose, or feet. They have hardly any way to develop any kind of organic ability or function.

By our spiritual birth we have many divine, organic functions. But after we were regenerated, we were put into an environment in which our functions were being annulled. This annulling goes on under the best pretense, a pretense of feeding, teaching, edifying, perfecting, and helping people to grow. But these so-called feedings and teachings are doing a unique work to annul the members of Christ. The situation in Christianity is one of little development of the abilities or functions of the saints. Instead, there is the annulling. In all the local churches, we have to reconsider our way. (CWWL, 1987, vol. 3, "The Scriptural Way to Meet and to Serve for the Building Up of the Body of Christ," ch. 22)

RECOVERING FOUR MAJOR ITEMS
THROUGH THE PRACTICE OF THE SCRIPTURAL WAY
 TO MEET AND TO SERVE

The New Testament Priesthood of the Gospel

We need to practice the New Testament priesthood of the gospel. We need to preach the gospel according to the way of the New Testament. We have also seen the need for the feeding of the new believers in the home meetings. We need to feed the new ones, nourishing them so that they may grow. Then we have to have group meetings to equip, to teach, and to perfect the members of the Body of Christ so that they all will be able to do the same work that the gifted persons do to build up the Body of Christ. Finally, we need to attain to the stage of every member of the church prophesying in the church meetings for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ and as the new man.

Our lack is in the actual practice of the God-ordained way. According to the actual practice, the God-ordained way replaces the papal system and the clergy-laity system. To replace these systems is to kill the practice of today's Christianity. We should not preach the gospel in the old way of winning souls. Instead, we should practice the New Testament priesthood of the gospel to present and offer saved sinners as sacrifices to God (Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5). To carry out the papal and clergy-laity systems, one must have a gathering in which one or two speak to convince and help others to believe in the Lord Jesus and be saved. But the practice of the New Testament priesthood of the gospel does not depend mainly upon gatherings with good speakers. This practice altogether depends upon the functioning of all the members of the Body of Christ to contact people individually, one by one. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 1, "Elders' Training, Book 11: The Eldership and the God-Ordained Way (3)," ch. 10)

The Practice of Visiting People
 to Preach the Gospel

The practice of visiting people to preach the gospel is the biblical way. God visited Adam (Gen. 3:8-9) and preached the gospel to him (v. 15). The Lord Jesus visited people (Luke 19:1-10; John 4:3-15), and He sent the twelve disciples to visit people (Matt. 10:5-8, 11-13). Furthermore, He sent the seventy to go to every city and place to seek the sons of peace (Luke 10:1-6). After His resurrection He charged all of His disciples to go to disciple the nations, baptizing them into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19). Can the nations be discipled if we do not visit people? We have to go. To go is to visit.

Building Up Home Meetings
 and Group Meetings

The subjective way of practice also includes building up home meetings (Acts 2:46; 5:42) and group meetings (12:12). Many people do not like to come to a big meeting, but we can send the meeting to their homes. They will be very grateful to us for this, and they will welcome this kind of meeting. (CWWL, 1987, vol. 3, "The Scriptural Way to Meet and to Serve for the Building Up of the Body of Christ," ch. 20)

The Perfecting of the Saints

If the way that I have presented to you is ordained by God and is according to the Scriptures, we have to practice it at any cost. Then the Lord will have a way with us to finish His recovery. Otherwise, we may force Him to drop us and go to others. The Lord dropped others in His move and came to us sixty years ago, but where are we today? The gifted ones—the leading ones and the co-workers—need to perfect the needy saints, not by speaking to them as a congregation but by visiting them in their homes. Some of the older co-workers may feel that they have become useless now that we are changing to the new way. Actually, if the older ones pick up the new way, they will become more useful. Their years of experience are needed for the perfecting of the saints. If we do not go along with the tide of the Spirit in this age, however, we will become dropouts. Time does not wait for us. This is why the New Testament tells us to redeem the time (Eph. 5:16). (CWWL, 1986, vol. 3, "Elders' Training, Book 9: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (1)," ch. 8)

Seeking the Excelling Gift of Prophesying
 for the Building up of the Church

The subject of this chapter of forty verses is not only prophesying but also the encouragement to prophesy. In verse 1 Paul says, "Pursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy." This verse shows that we need to have an earnest desire to prophesy. In verse 5 he says, "I desire…that you would prophesy." Then in verse 12 he says, "Seek that you may excel for the building up of the church." To prophesy is to excel, because "he who prophesies builds up the church" (v. 4). The gift of prophesying is an excelling gift. All the other gifts are not as high or excelling. In verse 39 Paul says, "So then, my brothers, desire earnestly the prophesying." From these verses we can see that the apostle Paul is encouraging, charging, and urging us to prophesy. After covering many items in the first thirteen chapters of 1 Corinthians, Paul encourages us in chapter 14 to seek this excelling gift for the building up of the church.

To Prophesy Being to Speak for the Lord,
 Speak Forth the Lord, and Speak the Lord into Others

To prophesy in 1 Corinthians 14 is not in the sense of foretelling or predicting. To prophesy is to speak for the Lord, and in our speaking for the Lord, we have to speak forth the Lord and speak the Lord into others. To prophesy is to dispense the very Christ whom we have experienced into others. The subject of 1 Corinthians 14 is prophesying, which is speaking Christ forth into others, dispensing Christ into others by our speaking. This is not human or ordinary speaking but divine and extraordinary speaking.

The Functioning of the Members of the Body of Christ
 Being the Building up of the Body

First Corinthians first shows us Christ as our portion for us to enjoy. Out from this enjoyment comes the growth, and the growth serves to develop our spiritual organs. The functions of these organs are for the building up of the Body. Thus, 1 Corinthians eventually consummates in the building up of the church. It reveals to us that the final result of enjoying Christ is neither the growth in life nor the development of the gifts but the building up of the Body, the church. Therefore, 1 Corinthians is a book on Christ and the church. Christ can be enlarged and extended by our enjoying of Him. This enjoying of Him issues in the growth in life, and the growth in life brings in much development. As we grow physically, every member and organ of our body is fully developed. Then our entire physical body with every member is functioning, and this functioning has one goal—to build up our body. The functioning of the organs and members of our physical body equals the building up of our body. The more we exercise, work, move, and function, the more our body is built up. Similarly, the functioning of the members of the Body of Christ is the building up of the Body. The more the members of the Body of Christ function, the more the Body is built up.

Prophesying Being the Top Function
 in the Building up of the Body of Christ

In Christ's Body the excelling organ is the speaking organ. Paul, however, strongly belittles the gift of speaking in tongues and exalts the gift of prophecy to the uttermost. To build up the Body of Christ, the excelling function, or gift, is prophecy. In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul concentrates on prophesying. To prophesy is to excel, to place us at the highest point, in the building up of the Body of Christ. In the building up of the Body of Christ, prophesying is the top function. (CWWL, 1986, vol. 3, "Elders' Training, Book 9: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (1)," ch. 7)

Everyone Prophesying for the Building up of the Church
 as the Organic Body of Christ

Prophesying is for the building up of the church, which is the organism of the processed Triune God, in the way of life (1 Cor. 14:4-5). When Christ is spoken into us as building up, encouragement, and consolation, and we are convicted and examined to turn to Christ, Christ is gained by us as nourishment. Encouragement and consolation are a nourishment. To be convicted and examined brings us to Christ. Then we receive Christ and gain Christ. Whenever we gain Christ, the Christ gained by us becomes our support, our supply, and our nourishment, and then we grow. Our growth is the building up of the Body of Christ. The apostle Paul's speaking is centered on Christ for the building up of His mystical Body to fulfill God's eternal economy.

Everyone prophesying for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ has not been seen in Christianity. Because Christianity has become deformed in relation to the divine revelation, we have to come back to the Scriptures. The Lord desires to recover 1 Corinthians 14. I believe that now is the time, at the end of this age, for the Lord to recover 1 Corinthians 14 among us. The Lord has been preparing us for this recovery for the past sixty-seven years, since 1922. I feel that now is the time and that we are the people to give the Lord a way to recover the truth seen and written by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 14. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 4, "The Advance of the Lord's Recovery Today," ch. 6)