This God needs an organism. Let us use the human body as an example. Our body is an organism; it is not organized but organic. When we eat, the body digests what we eat. After digestion, the body absorbs and also discharges. Everything that is nutritious to the body is transported to all parts of our body, causing each part to manifest its function. For instance, our ears can hear, and our eyes can see. Even while we are speaking, the ears help to facilitate the organic operations of the body. If our ears were artificial and not able to facilitate the organic operations of the body, we would not be able to hear. If our eyes were artificial and did not have the organic operation, we would not be able to see. In this way, our entire being is an organism.
Since God is eternal life, He needs an organism to express Him as eternal life. In John 15 the Lord says, “I am the vine; you are the branches” (v. 5). The Lord is the vine, and we who believe into Him are the branches. This great vine is an organism for the expression of the life of the vine. Christ with the church is God’s organism that operates and works on the earth for the expression of God as the eternal life.
Today we all are in this organism of Christ. Those who do not understand this organism cannot figure out what we are doing when we come to a meeting. Some of us are seventy- or eighty-year-old seniors, and some are young people in their teens and twenties, but when we come together, we sing and shout, acting as if we are crazy. We do not come together to watch movies or sing popular songs. Rather, when we meet, we simply call on the Lord’s name, and we sing and pray. To the unbelievers this is beyond comprehension. However, we are in an organism. When this organism moves, we cannot be still; when this organism goes forward, we cannot hold back. Today when this organism moves and operates, it is for us to go forth and bear fruit. In addition, we do not use the old way but the new way, which is to knock on doors house by house to find the sons of peace.
Formerly we preached the gospel mostly by putting out advertisements, telling people about our gospel meeting and inviting them to come and listen. The result was not very good. We did our best to invite people, making phone calls and even going to the train stations and people’s doors, and we prepared love feasts to welcome them. However, not many came. In the past two years, the Lord has given us a new way, to have us go from house to house, bringing the gospel with us. As a result, when we go, God goes, and when God goes, the gospel goes.
When we go door-knocking, we might encounter “packs of wolves,” but among them some are sons of peace whom God chose before the foundation of the world. By door-knocking, we seek out the sons of peace. After we have sought them out, it is necessary to fellowship with them. We impart God into them by speaking. John 1:1 says that the Word was God. The words we speak to the sons of peace dispense God into them. The Lord Jesus also said, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (6:63). When we go to speak to the sons of peace, every sentence we speak conveys God, the Spirit, and life. In this way, this organism operates on the earth, and this operation brings forth fruit. Eventually, this great vine bears fruit, filling the whole earth.
I hope that all the young brothers and sisters, after they graduate from college, will go to knock on doors for fruit-bearing. Where should you go? Go to Africa, South America, North America, and Europe; go to all parts of the world and go to all of the nations to knock on doors. How I wish there would be ten thousand young brothers and sisters among us who are trained, each one being able to go out to knock on doors, seeking out the sons of peace. How glorious this would be! After they have completed their education, they do not do anything except one thing, which is to go door-knocking, knocking on all the doors in all corners of the world. After you have finished knocking in South America, go and knock in Central America. After you have finished knocking in Central America, go and knock in North America. After you have finished knocking in North America, go and knock in Europe. Knock in each and every continent. Knock to a point that all across the globe there are young “heroes” from Taiwan knocking on doors.
We like to have the dream that one day there will be five hundred thousand Taiwanese young people knocking on doors all over the earth, and by their door-knocking the Lord Jesus will return. I believe we all have a willing heart, willing to go out and learn door-knocking, seeking out all of the sons of peace so that they can become the Lord’s lambs, even in flocks. In the last part of the Gospel of John, the Lord asked Peter, “Do you love Me?” Peter responded, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You” (21:16). The Lord said to him, “Shepherd My sheep....Feed My sheep” (vv. 16-17).
When we go door-knocking, we find sons of peace and they are saved to become the Lord’s sheep who need to be fed by us. How do we feed these new believers? We feed them by having home meetings, establishing many shepherding stations. The result will be not only that Taiwan is gospelized and there is feeding in every home but that this will spread to the whole world so that the entire earth is doing the same thing. Therefore, our going out for the Lord has a goal with a view. We are not just passing time; that would be meaningless. We need to go out door-knocking every day, seeking out the sons of peace so they may be fruit, be regenerated, and become the Lord’s flock. Then we can set up home meetings to shepherd them and feed them.
For the accomplishment of this task, we need preparation, preparing to serve the Lord full-time. How do we prepare? Every day we need to contact the Lord, be filled with the Spirit, and be filled with the Lord’s word. We not only know the Bible and the Spirit, but we are soaked with the Lord’s word and filled with the riches in the Holy Spirit. In this way, each time we go out to knock on doors, certainly we will be able to speak forth the Lord.
In the past, some high school students asked what they should study after graduation. According to the current situation, those who are preparing to knock on doors for the Lord or to shepherd the flock in the future should study medicine. If studying medicine is too time-consuming, you can study languages. There are some languages that you should know. As Chinese persons, you should study Greek, English, Spanish, German, and French. If you have the capacity, you can choose a few more, such as Hebrew. Learning Greek and Hebrew is for studying the Bible, the Word of God. As for Spanish and English, these are the most widespread languages in the world. Additionally, to meet the need in the region of Asia, some of us need to learn Japanese or Korean.
I hope that one day the young people who go out from here will preach the gospel either in the Spanish, English, German, French, Japanese, or Korean speaking world. May there be young people who are in the organism of the Lord everywhere, each one door-knocking house by house, seeking out the sons of peace that they may be saved to be God’s flock. Then the young people can speak the native language and read the Bible in the native language to feed and shepherd the native people. This is the new way.
This is a comprehensive fellowship, from the mystery of the universe to door-knocking, fruit-bearing, setting up home meetings, and feeding the Lord’s flock. This is for us to apprehend and know the mystery of God so that we can go on to labor in the new way to accomplish the work of the New Testament ministry, which is the building up of the Body of Christ.
(A message given at a young people’s conference in Taipei, Taiwan on July 13, 1987)