Ephesians 3:14-19 is another reference to the Triune God. “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, of Whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, having been rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” God the Father listens to the prayer; God the Spirit fulfills the prayer; and God the Son completes what is asked, namely, that Christ make His home in us that we be filled unto all the fullness of God. First there is the Father, then the Spirit, then Christ the Son, and finally all the fullness of God. Here is one divine Person, wrought into our being. We shall be saturated with Him, filled with Him to the brim, even running over. Then we shall become the fullness of God, expressing His riches. This is the mystery of Christ.
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen” (2 Cor. 13:14, lit.). Here is the love of God the Father, the grace of Christ the Son, and the fellowship of God the Spirit. May all these be with you. There is such a flow to us and in us.
The central vision of the Apostle Paul’s completing ministry is: God in us as our contents, Christ as the mystery of God, and the church as the mystery of Christ. We must lay aside our natural concepts whether religious, ethical, devotional, or spiritual, holy, or pious. Even the concept of having a good meeting or a strong service must not be our goal. The meetings and the service must come from the source; the church life is the issue.
The Lord’s recovery is the central vision. In 1970, after the successful migrations, we began to pay attention to the spread of the recovery and became somewhat negligent of the central vision. The recovery was off, for which I have very much repented to the Lord. By His mercy He cleared things up and brought us back to the right track. The Lord has rebuked me and charged me not to do much to encourage the spreading of the recovery or to gain an increase in numbers. I am not opposed to these, but I have been charged not to be concerned about them. Let the recovery grow in life. Spontaneously there will be a spreading and a proper increase, both issuing from life, not from our doing. “Little one,” the Lord pointed out, “when I was on the earth, I didn’t do anything to spread my work. All I did was to sow Myself as life into a small number. Eventually in Acts 1 I had only one hundred twenty. Not many.” It seems unbelievable that after the Lord’s labors for three and a half years all that He reaped was a mere one hundred twenty. The Lord asked me, “From all your efforts to spread and increase, where are the one hundred twenty? After you go, where are the one hundred twenty? Who will carry on the Lord’s recovery on the right track? Without the one hundred twenty, as soon as you go, everything will be off. The recovery will become a part of the pitiful history of Christianity, a repetition of its doing so many things that are scriptural and spiritual yet without Christ. If you could gain the whole world as your increase, what would that mean?”
I recently talked with the brother visiting from Taiwan. From now on, I fellowshipped with him, the work there should not pay much attention to the spreading or the increase. All your efforts must be directed toward getting the one hundred twenty. Otherwise, in ten years everything will be gone, lost because of the increase. There are already a good number in Taiwan, twenty-three thousand in the church in Taipei alone; perhaps on the whole island there are forty thousand. How many of these can be counted among the one hundred twenty? If we do not take care of this, our work will be empty concerning the central lane of God’s economy. Instead of recovering, we shall be drifting back. The more spreading we have, the more we drift back to a repetition of Christianity. I am happy that there are so many, but if they do not see the central vision my happiness is futile.
We need some faithful ones to rise up and say, “Lord, here I am. Show me the central vision as you did with the Apostle Paul.” I hope you younger ones, especially those who are in their twenties, will do this. Then after ten years you will be valuable to the Lord’s recovery.