The saints are perfected by the perfecting gifts with the life supply as the nourishment for the growth in life. Proper mothers feed their babes nourishing food. We have to perfect the saints with some solid food supply that they may be nourished. This food supply actually is the life supply. Christ Himself is not only our life but also our life supply. We have to learn how to minister Christ as life to sinners and then as life supply to the saved ones. We have to help the saints by feeding them with some solid food. I have been learning throughout the years not merely to teach people but to feed people.
The Lord brought me into His ministry in 1932. In 1943 the Lord exercised His sovereignty to put me through many trials. The Lord allowed me to be arrested by the invading Japanese army. I was in their prison for about one month. Twice a day they judged me, tested me, and examined me. Each session lasted about three hours. During these sessions, among other things, they poured water upon me and threatened me. This took place for over twenty days. That was a real suffering, but in that suffering I learned how to trust in the Lord and how to enjoy His presence. One day I was alone in the prison and I said, “Lord, You know that I am here just for You.” The Lord’s presence was so real that I felt He was standing in front of me. I wept before the Lord. What an enjoyment that was! I enjoyed the Lord’s presence in prison in a practical, real, and actual way. I also enjoyed the Lord’s wisdom. Many times when I was being tested by my captors, the Lord gave instant answers to my prayers. If I had given the wrong answer without wisdom, I could have been executed by the Japanese army. While I was being asked a question, I asked the Lord to either stop the person’s questioning or give me the wisdom to answer. The Lord answered my prayers instantly to give me the appropriate answers.
After I was released from prison, I contracted tuberculosis, and the doctors prescribed absolute bed rest for me. I was in bed for twelve months. My family also suffered extreme poverty during the war. They had to spare every cent to care for me in my illness. By the Lord’s mercy, I recovered from this serious illness. During this period of recovery, the Lord showed me that my ministry in the previous ten or eleven years had been mostly in teaching based upon the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord assured me that I was not through with His recovery yet, that He would heal me. The Lord charged me to learn to minister life after coming out of this illness, this test. He charged me not to teach people according to what is right or wrong, yes or no, good or evil. I was charged not to minister anything related to the tree of knowledge, but only to minister things based upon and concerning the tree of life. The Lord showed me from the Gospel of John that what He did on this earth was always according to the principle of life. People brought questions to Him concerning good and evil, right and wrong, and yes and no. His answers always brought them to Himself as the tree of life. I gave a message on this subject in Berkeley, California entitled “Not Good or Evil but Life” (see chapter two of the book Our Urgent Need—Spirit and Life, published by Living Stream Ministry).
In 1942 there was a big turmoil in the church in Shanghai, and Brother Nee was forced to stop his ministry. I became sick in 1943, and I learned the lesson of the tree of life in the two and a half years that it took me to recover from my illness. In 1946, after recuperating, I went to Shanghai. My ministry in Shanghai was altogether focused on the tree of life. A number of the saints in Shanghai came to ask me who was right and who was wrong. Instead of answering yes or no, I referred them to the way that the Lord Jesus lived and acted in the Gospel of John. In John 8 the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to the Lord. They asked the Lord, “Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such persons. What then do you say?” (v. 5). The Lord Jesus did not answer yes or no, according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He said, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (v. 7). He answered in a way that exposed man’s real condition in the eyes of God according to the divine light.
We must learn to perfect the saints but not as a Bible teacher. Bible teaching has been going on for centuries with very few of the Lord’s children being perfected. What is needed today is the nourishment of Christ. Do not tell people what is right and what is wrong. Even if something is right, that does not mean anything in the sight of God. Only life means something. Only life counts. Let us all learn to perfect the saints not by something but with something. We need to perfect the saints with the solid life supply, the very Christ whom we enjoy. Only this nourishes the saints to perfect them.