We need to be perfected to do the work of the gifted persons. Suppose that two families move to a city where there is no church life. They may feel that they need to ask a gifted brother to come to set up the church for them because they are not apostles and do not know how to set up the church. We may not be apostles, but we need to be perfected to do the apostles’ work. If we are perfected in this way, we will know how to set up a church when we move to another locality. Because we have been perfected, we will know how to go to sinners to get them saved and baptized. We will know how to feed them, how to bring them into the group meetings, and how to bring them to meet with the saints as the church. We will be enabled to set up a church. This kind of perfecting to enable the saints to do what the gifted persons do is God’s ordained way.
It is a difficult process to set up a church in the system of Christianity. Some devoted ones must study at a seminary for four years in order to be ordained. There also need to be board meetings and fund raising; but according to the Bible, everything is simple. There is no need for us to graduate from seminary or to be officially ordained. We have already been ordained by the Lord (John 15:16; Matt. 28:19). We do not need to have a fundraising group or a church board. We can go out to preach the gospel to save sinners and baptize them into the Triune God. Then we can raise these ones up and perfect them to do the same thing that we do. After half a year or one year of being perfected, many saints will be enabled to go out and set up the churches.
Some who have moved to a new place may feel that they need some gifted ones to come to make a decision as to whether or not they should take the ground of the church there and begin having the Lord’s table. This is like some saying that they have moved to a new city and they do not know how to cook. Because they do not know how to cook, they want someone to come to cook for them. Even if the saints there feel that they do not know “how to cook,” it is best for them to try. Eventually, they will learn how to cook by trying and making mistakes. We must see that there are two different kinds of concepts concerning the Lord’s service. One is the traditional concept of Christianity, and the other is according to what is revealed in the Bible, the God-ordained way.
All of us, especially the elders, full-timers, and co-workers, should practice to perfect ourselves. In order to perfect ourselves we must first begin to live a priestly life. We should pray, “Lord, I want to be perfected by You to live a priestly life. I want to be a priest on this earth.” Regardless of whether we are a businessman, a professor, or a housewife, we should live a priest’s life. The life of a priest is a victorious life, an overcoming daily life. The first practice of the priestly life is to visit sinners to get them saved. We need to ask the Lord, “Lord, lead me and guide me in using my time to fulfill the first item of the priesthood in getting sinners saved to make them the sons of God and the members of Christ.” I believe that the Lord will lead us.
A sister who is a housewife with four children is obviously very busy. Perhaps the Lord would lead her to go to the persons whom she knows already. Maybe she would only be able to visit people for the gospel once every two weeks. Regardless of the time period, all of us must make a budget of our time. We should set up a schedule to go out for the gospel in a regular and definite way. We can make a decision before the Lord to go out once every two weeks for two or three hours. It would be good if we would make a list of all the people we know, including our relatives, classmates, and colleagues. We can put their names on a list and pray for them. We can pray, “Lord, among all these names, which one do You want me to visit first?”
In order to do things in cooperation with the Lord and not by ourselves, we have to pray much. We should always have a talk with the Lord. The Lord will lead us. If this is the condition of our living, we will be persons who are one with the Lord. We should pray before we go to preach the gospel and also go with prayer. As we go with prayer, we will surely go with the Lord, with the Lord’s authority, and with the Lord’s sovereignty. We can ask the Lord to keep the person whom we are going to visit at home. The Lord will answer our prayer. We can also ask the Lord to prepare his heart and to prepare his environment and his overall situation so that he will be ready to receive the gospel. Then when we go, it will be so easy for us to talk to him, and he will be ready to receive the Lord and be baptized.
After we baptize people, we have to have a longer talk with them to nourish them. We need to learn how to converse with the newly baptized ones. The principle is that we should always say something organic. What we say should not merely be a kind of teaching or instruction, but should always be something in life. We should minister something of life to the new ones. That means that we should speak forth Christ into them, dispense Christ into them. We need to go back to the newly baptized ones as soon as possible. We should go back to them either the next day or at the least after two days. We have to go back to feed the new ones and to take care of them. Our practice of these matters will be our personal perfection. We have to go back to them again and again to nourish and cherish them. We also have to bring them to the group meetings and to the larger meetings of the church.
With the group meetings, we have to learn to keep away from any traditional, unscriptural, so-called worship. Our meeting should be full of the Word, the Spirit, singing, and praying. When we come together we have to learn how to fellowship. Our fellowship will bring in some interceding for one another. As we practice these things, we will perfect ourselves. The interceding and praying for one another will bring in the mutual care. The group meeting will issue in the shepherding of the saints. We also need to learn how to ask questions in a group meeting. We may know certain truths, but for the sake of the new beginners we can ask some questions. Then we can let all the attendants answer these questions.
As we practice we will perfect ourselves to such an extent that we will be able to conduct the group meetings to the highest degree. In our meetings we should have the living singing, the living praying, and the living fellowship. We have to learn to set up a pattern for others in the group meeting. When someone answers a question, we have to learn how to continue their answer in a little deeper way. We should not speak too long in order to give others the time to answer. As we practice, we will learn and get ourselves perfected. Then we will become a pattern, and our pattern will be a perfecting to others. The new ones will see what we do and practice the same thing.
Our learning of the scriptural way of meeting and serving can be compared to learning a language. If children grow up in an English-speaking home, they will spontaneously learn to speak English. In these homes there are patterns from whom they can learn. All of us should practice to be the pioneers in the practice of the present advance of the Lord’s recovery. We can practice to perfect ourselves according to the fellowship we have received in this book. We can put this fellowship into practice to perfect ourselves, and spontaneously we will set up a pattern for others to follow. As we practice, this pattern will be improved all the time.
As we practice living the life of a priest, we will bring in the new ones. If each one of us takes care of one or two new ones, the church will increase in a positive and gradual way. We will gain a steady increase every year. The practice of the priesthood of the gospel is not a revival that only lasts for a short period of time. We do not want to be excited for a brief period of time and then have no exercise in the gospel afterwards. We need to live a proper life, a priestly life. We need to practice the priesthood, and the first step in this practice is to go to the sinners to get them saved. The second step is to care for them in the home meetings. The third step is to bring them into the group meetings and the larger meetings of the church. Then we will get them established and perfected. After one year, these new ones may be able to do at least part of what we are doing. Eventually, the whole church will be perfected to function. The entire church will be equipped to do the work of the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers. Even though most of us are not these gifted persons, we can do the same work that they do. This is God’s intention. I hope that all of us can be revolutionized in our concept. We all need to practice the fellowship that we have received.
Because there is not such a thing as the perfecting of the saints by the gifts on this earth, we must endeavor, we must labor, and we must struggle according to His operation which operates in us in power (Col. 1:29). We must cooperate with the Lord so that He can recover such a “missing.” I hope that within ten years thousands of believers around the earth will be perfected. While the saints still keep their regular jobs and pursuits, they can carry out the preaching of the gospel as New Testament priests to save sinners regularly as a part of their daily life. Each saint can take care of two or three new ones yearly, and this will be like small families raising up their children to form a big society.
I hope that we would study and prayerfully consider the fellowship in this chapter. Then we will see something new. Thus far, we have covered three things: the priesthood of the gospel in the New Testament, the organic building up of the Body of Christ, and the perfecting of the saints by the gifts for this organic building. All these items are very high. When we see these items, we have the feeling that our present practice is far off. We have quite a distance to go in order for our present practice to reach the standard. Therefore, we all have to endeavor and labor with and in the Lord. May the Lord have mercy upon us. Home | First | Prev | Next