Lastly, we must reach the point where every saint prophesies and speaks for the Lord. This step is not only absent in Christianity but also, regretfully, it is lacking among us. It is something very great and high, which requires the saints to enter deeply into the truth and know the Bible well, and at the same time, to have the experience of the Lord and growth in life. To be rich in truth and to be rich in life are the basic factors. Furthermore, the saints should live a life in which they contact the Lord day by day, fellowship with the Lord moment by moment, confess their sins thoroughly, and are always filled with the Spirit. They are ready at any time to receive inspiration from God. When they open their mouth, they have the word of truth with the experience of life to speak forth the Lord and to speak the Lord into others. Their speaking is organic and of the Spirit, not mechanical or merely from their memory.
To be a Christian is very simple. It only requires us to be saved and regenerated and to receive spiritual nourishment, teaching, and perfecting. In this way we are sanctified and transformed by the renewing of our mind. Every day we need to be soaked with the Lord’s word and to experience the Lord. Then, whenever we are inspired and open our mouth, what we speak is the word of truth with the experience of life, full of light, revelation, and supply, speaking forth the Lord and speaking Him into people that the seekers may be satisfied, the Lord’s lovers may be supplied, and everyone who hears the word may be edified. As a result, all the brothers and sisters are built up together to be the organic Body of Christ. This is truly to reach the peak.
This is what is revealed in 1 Corinthians 14. However, it is not easy to arrive at such a point. This peak is high and the way is steep; therefore, very few are willing to spend their energy to pursue it. Christianity simply puts this matter aside, and 1 Corinthians 14 has become a chapter buried and sealed up in the Bible. However, we believe that today, in the last days of this age, it is the right time for the Lord to recover 1 Corinthians 14 among us. For this reason we have to endeavor, labor, and struggle. After we are saved and sanctified, we grow and are transformed so that we present ourselves to the Lord as living sacrifices. Then we need to go on and be perfected; we need to have mutual teaching and mutual building up with the brothers and sisters in the small group meetings. Furthermore, we need to read the word every day, penetrate the word, pray to the Lord every moment, and experience Him. We also should be those who love the Lord and fellowship with Him and who constantly have His appearing and inspiration. Thus, spontaneously, when we come to the meetings, we can right away, at the right opportunity, open our mouth to prophesy, to speak for the Lord, that the church may be built up.
If we are organic and are full of the Spirit and full of life in preaching the gospel, nourishing the new ones, attending the small group meetings, and prophesying for the Lord, surely our gospel will be very effective, the number of the believers will multiply, and the churches will spread and be built up. A large city such as Tokyo may be likened to a huge fishpond in that there are people everywhere who are all candidates for the gospel. It is not difficult to gain people for the Lord. Moreover, according to God’s sovereign arrangement, we still have many relatives, friends, colleagues, schoolmates, and neighbors, who are all the objects of our gospel preaching. What we need is to be organic by being according to the Spirit and being a living Christian, not being complacent or slothful, but turning from the old way back to the Bible, carrying out every step according to the God-revealed and God-ordained way. Thus, we will receive the Lord’s grace and blessing. We will grow in life, be perfected, and arrive at the stage of maturity that we may speak for the Lord.
Every one of us can arrive at such a condition. In Philippians 3:13-14 Paul said, “One thing I do: Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I pursue toward the goal for the prize to which God in Christ Jesus has called me upward.” This is to begin with being saved, growing, being perfected, and then arriving at prophesying. If we are blessed to arrive at such a condition, even the outsiders, the unbelievers, will be saved and blessed, and the church will be built up.
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