We must now consider how the prophets perfect the saints. This perfecting is not merely by prophesying in the sense of predicting. In 1 Corinthians 14 the word prophesy is used not mainly in the sense of predicting but rather with the meaning of speaking forth. We have to learn how to speak forth the Lord. Among us there is a great shortage in this matter. We do have certain gifted persons who speak to us, but speaking forth the Lord has not become a custom among us.
When we consider the meetings in mutuality according to 1 Corinthians 14, we usually stress that everyone has to speak in the meetings. However, this chapter stresses the speaking of the prophets in particular. This speaking is not mainly to predict, but it is to speak for God and speak forth God. To prophesy is to minister, to dispense, the Triune God into the audience. Acts 13:1 says, “Now there were in Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers.” When we come together for a church meeting, there should be a number of the saints who can speak Christ and speak forth Christ. To speak Christ and speak forth Christ is to dispense Christ into the needy saints that they can be nourished and have the growth in life. This growth is the building up of the Body of Christ.
If there are some evangelists among us, they must do their duty to perfect the saints. They must stir up the spirit of gospel preaching among the saints. We are all short of the spirit of preaching. We are short of a spirit that is so burning for the gospel. If an evangelist spoke to us, we would be “burned” by his word. Then he would take the lead to bring others to go out with him to visit people at door after door. He could demonstrate how to talk to people.
An evangelist would also teach the saints the content of the practical and prevailing gospel. We may have heard much concerning God, Christ, Christ’s death and resurrection, and regeneration. However, we may not know how to present a prevailing and practical ten minute message to people. In the past I did much preaching in North China. After almost every preaching meeting, a number of saints who did not know how to preach the gospel or felt that their preaching was not very prevailing would bring their friends to me. All those dear saints had a heart to preach, but they were not trained, or perfected, in how to preach the gospel.
We need the evangelists to stir up our spirit of preaching and take us with them at least once a week to visit our relatives, neighbors, close friends, classmates, and colleagues. There are many people that we should visit. If we have an evangelist, a proper atmosphere will be brought in and built up among us. He will demonstrate how to talk to people about sin, redemption, Christ, resurrection, and regeneration. After being trained, nearly all the saints will have the spirit of preaching and the way to preach. We need the evangelists to perfect us.
We also need the shepherds and teachers’ perfecting. We need the teachers, not merely to teach the Bible, but to teach the saints as shepherds. According to the grammar of Ephesians 4:11, shepherds and teachers are one class of people. We all know that we have to visit people and shepherd them, but we may not know how to shepherd. We need some experienced shepherds and teachers to perfect us.
If we would have these four kinds of gifted persons—the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers—among us for half a year, the church would be different. There is not yet such a situation of perfecting among us.
In 1940 I went to Brother Watchman Nee’s training. One day when I was walking with him, he said, “Brother, we have the blueprint in our hand for the building up of the local church.” Brother Nee was building the church according to this blueprint, and I also desired to have this blueprint. For a short while, I observed how he built. After I returned to my hometown and the second world war broke out, we were separated for a number of years. I had to stay in Chefoo because of the invading Japanese army.
From 1940 to 1942, I followed the pattern which I had learned from Brother Nee. I took the lead among the elders in Chefoo to be an elder and to train them, and they all learned from me. Because I was serving full-time, I also took the lead among the deacons and deaconesses to be a deacon to serve the saints. I did the job of an elder, a deacon, an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, and a shepherd. I took the lead in everything. Every Monday the serving ones, the co-workers, the elders, and the deacons, came together with me from eight o’clock in the morning to three-thirty in the afternoon to fellowship, learn, discuss, and be trained in the eldership, the service of the deacons, and in the visiting of different kinds of people for the gospel preaching and the care of the saints. At the end of 1942, a great revival broke forth in Chefoo, not by conferences, preaching, or teaching about revival, but as the result of the building up of the local church. The entire church was revived. Today we are short of such a perfecting work for the building up of the Body of Christ.