THE FOURTH PART: THE PATHWAY OF THE LORD’S RECOVERY
God-ordained Way
Message Nineteen—Living a Prophesying Life for the Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ
Scripture Reading: Psa. 45:1; Num. 11:29; 1 Cor. 14:3, 12, 31; 1 Pet. 4:11; 1 Cor. 12:8
I. The speaking God, the Word of God, created us in His image to be a speaking people—Gen. 1:26; John 1:1; Heb. 1:1-2a; Acts 8:4; 1 Cor. 14:31.
II. “My heart overflows with a good matter; / I speak what I have composed concerning the King. / My tongue is the pen of a ready writer”—Psa. 45:1:
A. If we have an affectionate love for the Lord Jesus, our tongue will be the pen of a ready writer, ready to write our love and our praise.
B. Our heart should overflow to speak the full ministry of Christ in the stages of His incarnation, inclusion, and intensification as the content of God’s eternal economy—John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6.
III. Matthew 16:18 says, “I will build My church,” and 1 Corinthians 14:4b says, “He who prophesies builds up the church”:
A. To prophesy is to speak for the Lord and to speak forth the Lord, that is, to dispense Christ into people—vv. 3, 12, 31.
B. God’s desire is for all of His people to be prophets—Num. 11:29; 1 Cor. 14:31.
C. Christ first builds the church by dispensing Himself into us as the regenerating word of God through those who prophesy by speaking Him forth as the good news of the gospel—1 Pet. 1:23; Rom. 10:14-17.
D. Christ continues to build the church by overflowing from within us in the church meetings to speak forth Christ into one another—to prophesy—for the increase of Christ within us so that we may grow with the growth of God for God’s building— John 7:37-39; Col. 2:19.
IV. We must live a proper, normal Christian life—a prophesying life—so that we may be the proper speaking ones in the church meetings—1 Pet. 4:11:
A. We must love the Lord—John 21:15-17:
1. The more we love the Lord, the more we are qualified, equipped, and perfected to speak for Him.
2. Our love for the Lord is the factor, the element, and the very basic essence of our being powerful in speaking forth the Lord.
3. If we love the Lord, we will surely be filled with Him, and we will surely have something of Him to pour out, to release the One who has filled us within.
B. We must be revived by the Lord—Rev. 3:1-2, 15-17:
1. Once we are revived, we will have a desire to go fishing for men and to go to the homes where the fish are—Matt. 4:19.
2. To have a local church in the Lord’s recovery that is living and prevailing with everyone speaking, we all need to be revived day by day—2 Cor. 4:16.
C. We must live a victorious life, an overcoming life—Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21.
D. We must abide in the fellowship with the Lord daily and hourly—1 John 1:3, 6; 2 Cor. 13:14.
E. We must be a praying person—Col. 4:2; Rom. 10:12-13.
F. We must enjoy the Lord every day early in the morning to have a new start of each day—Psa. 119:147-148.
G. We must learn to walk by and according to our spirit mingled with the Spirit—Gal. 5:16; Rom. 8:4.
H. We must live Christ for His magnification by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ—Phil. 1:19-21a; Gal. 2:20.
I. We must speak Christ to all kinds of people daily in season and out of season—Acts 5:42; 8:4; 2 Tim. 4:2.
J. We must deal with our sins thoroughly—1 John 1:5, 7, 9; Acts 24:16.
K. We must be filled with the Spirit inwardly—13:52; Eph. 5:18.
L. We must be filled with the Spirit outwardly—Acts 4:31, 8; 13:9.
M. We must accumulate the experiences of Christ—Phil. 3:8-10, 12-14.
N. We must keep a rich storage of the Lord’s word—Col. 3:16; John 15:7; 1 John 2:14.
O. We must know some of the hymns on Christ, the Spirit, the church, life, etc., in our hymnal—Eph. 5:19.
P. We must desperately endeavor to build up a habit of speaking in any meeting—1 Cor. 14:26, 12, 31.
Q. We must always have something to speak in all the meetings as a freewill offering to God and to the audience—v. 26 and footnote 1.
V. We must be those who speak ten major categories of the word of God:
A. The word of grace—Acts 20:32.
B. The word of truth—Eph. 1:13.
C. The word of the gospel—Acts 8:4.
D. The word of life—1 John 1:1; Phil. 2:16; Acts 5:20.
E. The healthy word—1 Tim. 6:3; 2 Tim. 1:13.
F. The edifying word—Eph. 4:29.
G. The good word—Heb. 6:5.
H. The word of righteousness—5:13.
I. The word of wisdom—1 Cor. 12:8.
J. The word of knowledge—v. 8.
VI. The two most important items of the manifestation of the Spirit in the believers are the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge:
A. According to the context of 1 Corinthians, the word of wisdom is the word concerning Christ as the deeper things of God, predestined by God to be our portion—1:24, 30; 2:6-10.
B. The word of knowledge is the word that imparts a general knowledge of things concerning God and the Lord—8:1-7.
C. The word of wisdom is mainly out of our spirit through revelation, and the word of knowledge is mainly out of our understanding through teaching; the former is deeper than the latter.
D. However, both of these, not speaking in tongues nor any other miraculous gift, are listed as the first gifts and the topmost manifestation of the Spirit because both are the most profitable ministries, or services, for the edification of the saints and the building up of the church to carry out God’s operation.
Ministry Excerpts:
TAKING THE LORD’S NEW WAY
FOR THE BUILDING UP OF THE BODY OF CHRIST
To prophesy is to speak divinely, to speak something related to God, to speak something of God, and to speak God forth. To prophesy is to speak Christ into others. Let us suppose that one hundred brothers and sisters come together with no definite speaker, and they all exercise to speak Christ into one another for one hour and a half. How wonderful, rich, refreshing, nourishing, and enriching that meeting would be! No matter how good one speaker is, the congregation that he speaks to again and again will become bored of his speaking after a certain period of time.
First Corinthians 14:26 as a part of the holy Word needs to be fulfilled for the Body of Christ to be built up. The congregational way of one speaking and the rest listening cannot build up the Body of Christ. Where on this earth can we see the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ? Without this organic building, the Lord’s prophecy in Matthew 16:18 cannot be fulfilled, and the church as the bride cannot be made ready for Christ as the Bridegroom. Some have advised me not to labor so hard at my age. One saint told me that whatever I had spoken concerning the new way is scriptural, but he did not believe it could be worked out. But within me was the thought, “If I don’t do this, how can I go to see the Lord?” Others told me that since I began to talk about the new way in 1984, the churches have been decreasing and the condition of the churches has been going down. They told me that I needed to reconsider my way. Despite all the criticisms and hardships, I have to take care of the commission that I have received from the Lord. My burden is to pass on His word so that at least a small number of Jesus lovers would take His word and get into it. Then the Lord Jesus will have a way on this earth. I do not care about the criticisms. I care that one day I will stand before the Lord. I must care for my inner burden from the Lord.
We must turn from the old, traditional way of meeting and serving to the new, scriptural way. To turn anything from one way to another way will involve some loss at first. To remodel a building, you have to suffer some loss initially. Eventually, however, the remodeled building is worth this initial loss. In taking the new way, we have to do our best to limit our loss by not going quickly but gradually and positively. In Taipei, we worked for thirty-seven months before we stopped having church meetings with one man speaking a message. If we would have stopped this immediately or too quickly, we would have suffered much loss. We turned to the new way of meeting according to 1 Corinthians 14:26 after we labored much to fully prepare the church.
The church should be organic in everything and in every aspect. A robot is mechanical with nothing organic, but a person is a living, moving, functioning organism with a body that is totally organic. Christ is a living person and His Body is absolutely organic. Our gospel preaching may be according to the trained way, but we may still need some arrangement. Without arrangement, no one may go out to preach the gospel. This is not organic. We have to endeavor and train the saints until they arrive at a state in which they will be organically burdened to go out. Then there will be no need of any arrangement by the church. The saints will have an organic feeling to go out to reach people and get them baptized. Without any need of organization or arrangement, the saints will have the burden to go to the homes of the new believers to take care of them. Furthermore, they will have the burden to take care of the small group meetings organically, and they will have the organic motive to function, to prophesy, to speak for the Lord, in the church meetings.
We have to realize that we are far behind the biblical revelation in our practice of the church life. Twenty-six years ago, I came to the United States with a burden to bring the Lord’s recovery here, but the saints came into a recovery that was still, to a certain extent, remaining in tradition. Now we have seen that we must take the new way, the scriptural way, to practice His present recovery. We must learn to preach the gospel not by the natural way but by the biblical, revealed way. We also have to meet, to come together, not by the traditional way but by the way according to 1 Corinthians 14:26.
LEARNING TO PROPHESY
To meet according to 1 Corinthians 14:26, we must desire and learn to prophesy. Prophesying is so that others may learn; hence, to prophesy requires learning. If we say something for others to learn, we have to learn first. We learn to prophesy through experiences. We have to love the Lord, live Him, and enjoy Him. We also learn to prophesy by being equipped with the Word (2 Tim. 3:16-17). We must get into the Word and become saturated with the Word until we are one with the Word. To learn to prophesy we need to pray unceasingly (1 Thes. 5:17-20). We need to pray ourselves into the Spirit. This kind of unceasing prayer will keep us in the Spirit all the time. We must be in the Spirit; otherwise, we cannot have God’s oracle. We must be in the Spirit; otherwise, we cannot speak something divine. We learn to prophesy by living and walking by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25). We also learn to prophesy by practicing. Our learning to prophesy is for attending the meeting of mutuality to fulfill 1 Corinthians 14:26.
THE PROPHESYING LIFE
If we are going to prophesy, we need to live a prophesying life. First, we need to be revived every morning (Prov. 4:18; Lam. 3:22-24; Psa. 119:147-148). Proverbs 4:18 says, “But the path of the righteous is as the dawning light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (ASV). The way of the just is like the dawn that becomes brighter and brighter until noontime. Every twenty-four hours there is a new start, a dawn, a rising sun. This is according to the natural law in God’s creation. We have to go along with this natural law. Every morning, we have to rise early to contact the Lord, to call on Him, and to be revived by Him. In Lamentations 3:22-24, Jeremiah says that the Lord’s mercies are fresh and new every morning. His mercies are like the fresh dew in the morning. Every morning we must enjoy this fresh dew to have a new start, a morning revival.
In addition to being revived every morning, we must also live an overcoming life every day (Rev. 21:7). After the morning revival, we should not stop contacting the Lord. We can live a victorious life by fellowshipping with the Lord moment by moment (1 John 1:6). We also need to walk according to spirit (Rom. 8:4b), not doing anything outside of the Spirit. We should also speak the word (the Lord) all the time. Paul charged Timothy to preach the word in season and out of season (2 Tim. 4:2a). We should not say, “Now is not the time for me to speak to people.” Seemingly it is out of season, but even if it is out of season, we still have to speak the word. Such a prophesying life qualifies us to prophesy. (The Excelling Gift for the Building Up of the Church, ch. 2)
BY BEING PERFECTED BY THE PROPHETS
We are also enabled to prophesy by being perfected by the prophets (Eph. 4:12). There are some among us who can do the prophesying work. We should receive the perfecting from these ones. The gifted prophets among us should contact some of the dear saints. Then these saints can be perfected to prophesy. We all must have a new start in speaking for the Lord. The gifted ones among us can go to some promising saints to teach them to prophesy. After a number of weeks, a nucleus of saints can be perfected to prophesy by learning.
BY PRACTICING TO SPEAK IN ALL THE MEETINGS
AND TO TELL PEOPLE ABOUT CHRIST
The saints need to be perfected and instructed, and they must put their instruction into practice. They need to practice by speaking in all the meetings. They should also tell people about Christ to practice prophesying.
THE NEED FOR THE HIGHEST MEETINGS
OF THE CHURCH
In order to practice 1 Corinthians 14, there is the need for the highest meetings of the church. To nourish and cherish the new believers, there is the need of mainly the home meetings. After a person believes in the Lord and is baptized, we need to go back to his home to have home meetings with him so that he can be fed and nourished. We need to be the nursing mothers, nourishing the new ones as our babes. To fellowship with, teach, and perfect the saints, there is the need of mainly the group meetings. The group meetings are a little bigger than the home meetings. A group meeting is a gathering of about twenty saints. In this meeting the saints can fellowship with one another, intercede for one another, and care for and shepherd one another. The teaching and perfecting of the saints also takes place in the group meetings. In these group meetings, everyone teaches, and everyone learns.
To build up the church by prophesying, we need the bigger and higher meetings of the church. The church meeting must be a prophesying meeting. We need to labor together in the Lord and with the Lord so that we can have church meetings in which we all come together to prophesy. For our present church life we need three kinds of meetings. We need the home meetings in the new believers’ homes to nourish and to cherish the new ones. We need the group meetings so that the saints can fellowship with one another, pray for one another, and take care of one another. In these group meetings, the saints can ask questions concerning the truth and concerning life, and everyone can answer these questions. Thus, in the group meetings everyone asks, everyone answers, everyone teaches, and everyone learns. After meeting in the group meetings in a regular way throughout the year, all the attendants will be taught with the truth and will be built up in life. Eventually, we will all reach the high peak of prophesying for the building up of the church. Prophesying is the highest attainment in our church life.
LEARN TO SPEAK FOR THE LORD
In addition to living a prophesying life, we also need to learn to speak for the Lord. Regardless of how much a person loves the Lord, he cannot prophesy properly unless he learns the “language” of prophesying. He must learn the language in order to cooperate with the indwelling Spirit to prophesy. In Matthew 25 the Lord indicated that He gave talents to His slaves according to their ability. If they had not had the ability, there would have been no basis for the Lord to give them the talents. Human ability is constituted by a person’s birth according to God’s creation. God’s creation plus human learning builds up an ability which is a base for the Lord, the saving One, to give us the spiritual talent, the gift. The prophesying gift is constituted by our ability which is according to God’s creation.
A brother may be created by God with a smart mind and with eloquent speaking ability. He is smart and eloquent in speaking because God created him that way. He has such a base to enable him to prophesy. As this brother loves the Lord and fellowships with Him, the Lord will come in to become his spiritual talent, and this will become a gift to enable him to prophesy. He still needs to advance by learning in the Word so that he can quote the Word. He needs to get himself soaked in the Word, to become fully familiar with all the biblical phrases and clauses. He also needs to endeavor to live in the presence of the Lord and to keep himself in a condition of not having any obstacle between him and his Lord. We should sing the hymn “Nothing Between, Lord, Nothing Between” (Hymns, #373). We should have a direct contact with the Lord, and His presence should be so clear to us. Between Him and us there should be nothing as a veil or as a kind of darkness. We need to be so much in the light. We need to be persons who know the Word and who have the experience of life. If we are such persons, we can prophesy in any kind of meeting. If we all live such a prophesying life, all of us will be able to speak something for the Lord when we come together.
If each one speaks three minutes or less, twenty to thirty will have the chance to speak. No one man can replace the riches of these twenty or thirty brothers and sisters. Their speaking will be an exhibition of the riches of Christ. The next week thirty more may speak, and fifteen of them will be ones who did not prophesy the previous week. Therefore, every Lord’s Day there will be twenty to thirty speaking, with new saints speaking each week. The many voices of the different saints will never cause people to be bored. A person who speaks a message can only cover a limited number of points. With thirty people speaking, there can be thirty points. (The Advance of the Lord’s Recovery Today, ch. 7)