We need to enter into the biblical way, and we need to see what this biblical way is. God chose His people in eternity past. Then in time He sent His servants to call out His chosen ones, who become gifts to His church. All of us are gifts to the Body. In our physical body, the shoulders and the thighs are gifts to our body. Without our shoulders and our thighs, our body cannot survive. But we have to realize that even our little finger is a gift to our body. We may appreciate our shoulder, but only our little finger can “comfort” our ear when we have an itch inside of it. We may feel that we are “small potatoes” in the church life, but I can testify that many times it was the “small potatoes” who came to me to comfort me. I am saying this to help us realize that all of us are gifts to the church, Christ’s Body.
There are many gifted ones among us who have helped us by their speaking, but many times the speaking in the meeting that touches our heart is the speaking of the new ones. Many times when the new ones speak, it is like “American dessert” to me. It is so delicious and refreshing. The speaking of the older ones among us may seem common to us. However, the new ones, the new faces, and the new voices in the meeting always encourage us. All of us tend to get tired of seeing the same faces again and again. We like to see new faces, and we like to hear fresh voices telling us something new concerning our Lord.
God’s way is to have His people come together to have meetings of mutuality with all speaking for building up. According to the New Testament, the best time for this is on the Lord’s Day. Acts 20 records that Paul stayed in Troas for seven days, but it does not give a record of their meetings during those seven days. What it records is their meeting on the Lord’s Day (vv. 6-12). On this day they had the Lord’s table and a special time for the apostle’s speaking and conversation with them. It is good for us to come together on the Lord’s Day, and we need ministry meetings to receive the perfecting from certain gifted ones among us. But according to 1 Corinthians 14, the church meetings should be meetings of mutuality. It is not good for us to come together just to hear one man speaking to us again and again. We would become accustomed to his voice, his gestures, and his other characteristics. Eventually, we would become bored of the same person speaking to us again and again. This is not God’s ordained way for the meetings of the church. God’s ordained way is that His people should come together and prophesy one by one.
The church in Taipei has been exercised to take the biblical way, God’s ordained way. They have about five thousand saints meeting every Lord’s Day morning. They discovered that if all five thousand came together in a big hall, eventually the number of those attending the meeting would be reduced. Therefore, they divided these five thousand into over one hundred thirty sections. Each section has about forty to fifty saints. They call these sections “district meetings.”
The church in Taipei has been in existence for forty years. A number of saints in the church in Taipei have been there from its very beginning in 1949. They were accustomed to meeting every Lord’s Day morning with one brother speaking and the rest listening. They love the Lord and are steadfast and faithful, but none of them was accustomed to meeting on the Lord’s Day with all prophesying. At the beginning of our practicing to divide into district meetings for the universal prophesying, it was not so easy. Of course, anything new is difficult, but gradually after a few months, all the saints became used to this way of meeting.
In these meetings the saints practice prophesying one by one. They limit the time of each one’s sharing to not more than three minutes. They all know this principle of three minutes and practice to keep it. In the district meetings, they first have the Lord’s table, and then they prophesy for about sixty minutes. Within sixty minutes twenty persons can speak with a maximum time of three minutes per person. About one-third of the attendants prophesy in the district meetings without any prior arrangement or program. They all come together and follow the Spirit to prophesy. As they practice prophesying again and again, they are progressing, advancing. They have learned how to prophesy. They also have some brothers who act as coaches or tutors to coach and tutor the saints before they come to the meeting. This helps a great deal. To coach and to tutor the saints is one of the best ways to perfect the saints to prophesy.
We all have to be students learning to prophesy. We are in the New Testament age, living according to the New Testament principle of incarnation. Incarnation means that whatever God does, He does it with man’s cooperation. In the New Testament, God does not do things by Himself apart from man. The Old Testament tells us that the Spirit fell upon certain people and they prophesied. In the New Testament, there is not such a record. In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul said that what he spoke was according to his opinion. Then he concluded by saying, “But I think that I also have the Spirit of God” (v. 40). Even though Paul said that his speaking was his opinion, his opinion became a part of the Bible. This indicates the New Testament principle of incarnation, the principle of God and man, man and God, becoming one. Paul’s speaking in 1 Corinthians 7 is different from the Pentecostal way of praying, fasting, and waiting on the Lord until something falls upon us from the heavens. In 1 Corinthians 7:25 Paul said that he had no commandment of the Lord, but he gave his opinion as one who had received mercy of the Lord to be faithful. When Paul spoke this word, however, the very processed Triune God was speaking in him and with him.
For us to prophesy we do not have to pray for three days so that something from the heavens will fall upon us. We need to contact the Lord from morning to evening by calling on Him—“O Lord Jesus.” Whenever we call, “O Lord Jesus,” we have the sensation that Someone is with us. If we were to call other names, we would not have this sensation because there would be no response. But when we call, “O Lord Jesus” again and again, we have a sweet sensation within us of a living person. We can call, “O Lord Jesus” at any time and in any place. While we are washing our face, we can call, “O Lord Jesus.” When we call, we have an inward sensation of sweetness. When we call all day long from morning to evening, we are one with the Lord in a practical way. By this we can realize and experience the fact of being one spirit with Him. As such people who live a prophesying life, our speaking will have the indwelling Spirit as its contents.
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.
Suppose that the meeting begins with a new one prophesying. He may say, “I have only been saved about three months. I do not know what to say, but I can tell you from my experience that the Lord Jesus surely is lovable. He’s so sweet, and He is real in my daily life.” Such a short prophesying by one new believer would encourage all of us. To practice the universal prophesying in the church meetings is the way to release all the riches stored in all the members of the Body of Christ. Even the new believers have a little storage of the riches of Christ. When a new believer shares the riches he has, this becomes the opener to open up all the attendants to release the riches of Christ stored within them.
In this scriptural way of meeting, we will discover who the gifted persons are among us. This scriptural way discovers the gifted persons among us who can not only prophesy in the church meetings but also perfect others to prophesy. According to the New Testament, the Lord has given particular gifts to the churches. These particular gifts have their particular work and their particular usefulness like the Apostle Paul.
When we have the church meeting on the Lord’s Day, everyone comes to prophesy. It seems that we have not given the chance or the time for the gifted persons to function. Then we may feel that the gifted persons have become useless or jobless. These gifted persons, however, will not be unemployed. I expect that all the local churches will practice the new way to such an extent that every month the church will have a weekend conference. We can have a weekend conference of three days each month of the year. This can be a special conference for the gifted persons to function for the reaping of the new ones and the perfecting of the saints.
During each month, all the dear saints can practice the priesthood of the New Testament gospel by going out to visit people. They can visit their relatives, friends, and classmates. If we have one hundred fifty meeting together, at least one-third can go out to visit people. When we visit people for the gospel, we do not have that much time to give them an adequate knowledge of the gospel truths. What shall we do? The church is rich. It does not only have many members who can go out to visit people but it also has at least two evangelists. We can set up a gospel preaching and reaping meeting every month for these two evangelists to speak to the audience. We can all bring our new contacts to this meeting. If fifty saints can visit people for one month, we can have at least fifty new ones in this meeting. Actually, these new ones are not so new. They may have already been saved and baptized, but they need to hear a series of messages on the Christian faith from these two evangelists. If they hear three long messages along this line, this will confirm them very much. They have all believed in the Lord Jesus, but they really do not know what the real Christian faith is. After hearing three messages on the Christian faith, they will be established.
All the saints should go out to visit people to get the people ready. At the end of the month, we can have a gospel reaping conference to reap all these ones. Then the next month we can have a conference so that the gifted persons like the prophets and teachers can function to give messages on a certain vision. Suppose that year-round, we had a gospel reaping meeting every other month, and we also had some messages every other month to release something of God’s revelation. If we practice in this way, we will see the riches released through the members of the Body
Some of the dear saints misunderstand the new way. Some of the older saints may feel that they have become useless and put aside. This is absolutely wrong. If a family is going to flourish, it must have aggressive young people. The young people must be aggressive in studying to get a degree and to enter into some enterprise. When the young ones get some new knowledge, they may not be so happy with their older parents because they are so conservative. Because the parents do not understand computers, they may not want to use them. The young ones should not be bothered by their parents’ attitude toward computers. They need to remember who their parents are. If their parents say something, they say it with a good heart. It is good for the young people to be aggressive in the new way, but they need to be careful. Otherwise, they will be like someone driving a truck without a brake. A big truck without a brake is dangerous. On the one hand, the young people need to be aggressive to pick up all the new concepts and practices of the new way. On the other hand, they need to be cautious.
I have no intention of not using the old ones. I love the old ones. How wonderful it is to have fathers in the church life! How lovely it is for a father to say to a son, “Son, how is your work going? Remember not to go too fast.” It should make us happy to have our father living with us. All the riches are here in the church life. We have the saints who can visit people to preach the gospel, doing the work of the New Testament priesthood. We also have the gifted persons such as the evangelists who can give messages concerning items of the truth such as Christ’s redemption, the objective justification by faith, and the subjective justification by life. In the church we can have many young people going out with a burning spirit, and we can also have some older ones as the gifts who can teach the gospel truths to the uttermost. What a display of the riches in the Body! Everyone will be occupied in the new way. No one will have the chance to be idle.
Today, generally speaking, only a minority of the saints are doing the priestly service. Other saints do practical work such as vacuuming and cleaning; this work is Levitical work. When we all get brought into the scriptural way, however, all will be functioning as priests. Some will go out to visit people for gospel preaching; some will go out to the homes to feed the young ones; some will go to have group meetings; and some will endeavor for the whole week to learn how to prophesy for the coming Lord’s Day. They will spend the whole week to prepare a prophecy of three minutes to speak in the Lord’s Day meeting.
When we take this way, the saints will be developed to the uttermost, and more chances will be created for the riches of Christ to be released. This scriptural way will produce many, many gifted persons. Among one hundred fifty saints meeting together, there may be quite a few who are gifted persons. These gifted persons need to be discovered. They need to be developed and built up. If we practice the biblical way as ordained by God, all the gifts will come to the surface. Whatever we have among us will be manifested, the gifts among us will also be manifested, and the saints will be perfected. Many new ones will be brought in, and they will be fed, taught, and perfected. They will be our second generation to do the same work that we have done. Then we will have a third generation and a fourth generation. The church will be built up in this way. A society is built up in a similar way. It is not built up by mass propagation. The many families in society each bear children, and the society is built up.
God’s way is higher than our way. He is much wiser than we are. Why should we follow the human-made way and not pick up the God-ordained way? We need to come back to the “ordained map” and follow the Lord according to this map. Then we will see His blessing. We are not so much blessed because we are not fully on His ordained way. In a certain sense, we are not obedient to Him. We behave ourselves according to our understanding and according to our choice.
In practicing the new way, we need the Lord’s help to practice with patience. I believe that at least one-third of the saints will be able to carry out the four major points of the advance of the Lord’s recovery today. These saints can participate in the priesthood of the gospel in the New Testament, the organic building up of the Body of Christ, the perfecting of the saints by the gifts, and the prophesying for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ. Then all the saints among us will be occupied by a certain item of the New Testament service as ordained by God. Whatever we do in the God-ordained way will be very fruitful. People will be saved and brought in by us. These ones will be raised up by us and will be perfected. All the gifts, the talents, the abilities, and the capacities among us will be exposed and manifested in our meetings, and the gifted persons will be produced. This will take place among us in a gradual way. We must take God’s ordained way according to His holy Word.