The New Testament tells us that as saved ones we have been regenerated in our spirit and that from the time we were saved, God has been edifying and building up our spirit. Ephesians 2:22 clearly reveals that our spirit is God’s dwelling place in us. Hence, to build up our spirit, the individual spirit, is to build up God’s dwelling place, God’s temple. On the other hand, the church is also God’s house and God’s temple. But how do we build up the church? It is through all the saved ones encouraging one another and functioning in mutuality according to their fellowship with the Lord and the experiences of life they have had with the Lord in their spirit. The Body of Christ is built up through the spiritual development of all the members. Today in Christianity and even among us, the message meeting on Lord’s Day morning is a gathering where one person speaks and everyone else listens. Apparently, the meeting is for bringing people to the Lord. To bring people to the Lord is quite good; however, after a person has believed in the Lord and has been baptized, this practice of one person speaking and everyone else listening immediately nullifies his function. His spiritual function is annulled. There is no need for him to preach the gospel, to pray, or even to serve, because there are already some who can do these things properly. All he needs to do is to come to the Lord’s Day service in the morning and listen to the message.
Many of us can testify that when we were first saved, we were inwardly touched very much and were full of zeal. We not only wanted to testify to other people but also wanted to preach the gospel to them. However, when we came to the Lord’s Day meeting, we were not required to say anything. The longer we attended this kind of meeting, the more we forgot how to speak. After meeting for a month, half a year, or a year, we did not speak at all. Therefore, Brother Nee said that this kind of Lord’s Day meeting in which one person speaks and everyone else listens is very deadening.
The result of people being deadened is that their spiritual function is completely nullified, and ultimately, there is no building up. The translators of the Chinese Union Version rendered the phrase building up in 1 Corinthians 14 as edification (vv. 3-5), but in Greek this phrase can mean either edification or building up. As a rule, the word edification should be rendered as building up. Today is there any building up in the Catholic masses, the Protestant services, or our Lord’s Day meetings? Strictly speaking, these kinds of meetings do not build up the church that much. Brother Nee even said in a message that we should tell the newly saved ones that when they attend the Lord’s Day meeting, they are not coming to a meeting of the church but to a meeting of the work. If we have been attending the Lord’s Day meeting for thirty years and there still has not been the building up of the church, then our situation is truly pitiful.
Earlier we mentioned that Brother Nee spoke some words concerning the Lord’s Day meeting in The Normal Christian Church Life and Church Affairs, but we never emphasized them in our speaking to the saints. Having clearly read these words again, we have been truly enlightened within, and we realize that these words are very serious. Fifty years ago Brother Nee pointed out that we do not need to maintain the Lord’s Day message meeting, but we completely forgot this word. When I came to Taiwan thirty-eight years ago in 1949, I should not have maintained the Lord’s Day message meeting, yet I continued it. I have always regretted this. Similarly, when I started my work in the United States more than twenty years ago, I did not change this practice.
From 1976 to 1977 the Lord showed me that He had taken away the blessing. Although the number of churches in every place was increasing, from 1977 there was almost no increase in the number of saints, especially in Anaheim. There had not been any increase for one year, two years, and even three years. Everyone seemed to be very busy every day and were also baptizing people, but when we counted the total number of saints, we found that it had not increased but decreased over the years. When I left Anaheim in 1984, the number of saints there was less than that of ten years ago.
It is the same with the work in Taiwan. For example, consider the church in Taipei. Seemingly, all the saints are very busy. Sometimes they baptize dozens of people, and sometimes they baptize several hundred people, but after these people are baptized, we do not know where they go. This may be likened to someone who has a business. He may be very busy every week and apparently may have a very good and promising business, but at the annual accounting time he discovers that his gross assets two years ago were $35 million, but after a year of operation his gross assets had been reduced to $34 million, and after another year of operation, they have been reduced to $33 million. We all can see the result. Therefore, I came to an end and did not know how to continue the work. But at that time I was awakened to remember what Brother Nee had said fifty years ago concerning not maintaining the Lord’s Day message meeting and concerning the Lord’s Day message meeting being a waste. After much consideration, I felt that if I wanted to deal with this problem, I would have to go back to Taipei. Taipei is a base for the overseas development of the Lord’s recovery, and if we do not clear up this matter in Taipei, there will be no way to do it elsewhere.
This time I came back with a determined will and a mind to devote myself to this problem at any cost. My wife reminded me again and again that I am already over eighty years old. Every time I heard this word, I looked to the Lord inwardly, saying, “O Lord, You have heard all these things, and You also know that my life and death are in Your hand. If You want me to live for several more years or even ten more years, it is not impossible. No matter what, as long as I have breath, I am willing to devote myself to do what I should do.”
The work here in Taiwan was started by me. The meeting halls here, especially the main meeting halls such as Hall One, Hall Three, and Hall Four in Taipei, as well as Hall One in Kaohsiung, were purchased mostly by my ministry. When we first came to Taiwan, all of us were very pressed financially and were unable to offer anything for the purchase of the meeting halls. In 1958 I went to Southeast Asia and labored there for a few months. There was a brother who asked me to tell him all the financial needs for the work in Taiwan, because the Lord had given him a burden to bear the entire cost for the Lord’s work in Taiwan, no matter how much it was. So when I came back to Taiwan, I began to build meeting halls, and I took care of the monthly living expenses of over one hundred and twenty full-time co-workers.
Please forgive me for saying this. Although I cannot be compared to Paul, allow me to imitate him in his speaking to the churches. To the churches in Taiwan, I am like an old father. Hence, I do not have any concerns in coming back to change the system. Some time ago I was led by the Lord to read one of Brother Nee’s books to you, and after reading it, we all had the assurance that we needed to change the system. To change the system is not mainly to change our way of meeting but to bring the church back to her condition before the degradation.