You must get into the New Testament ministry. Some of you may be concerned as to how you could do this. In spite of this, you must do it. Today all the people in Houston at NASA are taking care of the exploration of space. Many of these people have doctor’s degrees and are working day and night. Otherwise, they could never have gotten such a position. If the worldly people can work this hard for worldly things, what about us? We should consider our business as the King’s business. Our job is much higher than their job. How could we do our business lightly? We could not. Some of you have considered the Lord’s recovery too lightly. You never got into the Recovery Version and you have never read more than fifty Life-study messages, even though about twelve hundred Life-study messages have been published. Yet you still consider that you know something. I do not mean that you do not know anything, but you must realize that, even humanly speaking, a short period of study does not qualify a person to get a job having to do with the exploration of space in the space center in Houston. Some of you have been in the recovery for years and yet you have never gotten into the intrinsic element of the Lord’s recovery. We must consider that what the Lord has shown us over the years is not that shallow.
I came to this country with a burden to present the solid truth. I realize that I have been a little limited, especially because English is not my mother tongue. Still, I have published many things which need your spending years to get into. If you think this is something so easy for you to get into, you are wrong. You need years to get into the New Testament ministry. I do not think that you are such a genius that you can do a quicker job than I did. To put out the things of the ministry has required me to labor both day and night for years. Even during this training while I have been speaking here three times a day I have studied much in the morning and in the night. I still study the Word daily. Some of your talk to me, however, showed me that you did not spend that much time to get into the ministry. Through your talk I realized that you did not read or study the Life-studies.
We have come to a point in the Lord’s recovery where we must consider how to meet. Our way of meeting is related to how to use the Life-study messages. In other words, we must find out the best way to carry out the New Testament ministry. In principle, I feel that we, the leaders, must get into the ministry and we must find a way to bring our congregation into it. I do not feel, however, that we should conduct our meetings like classes in the schools. We do not want to have a meeting to teach the saints the things in the Life-studies in a dead way. We must, by the Lord’s grace, keep our meetings so living and so full of nourishment. But still, we must carry out the saints’ education in the basic truths. Then all the saints who have been meeting in the Lord’s recovery with us for many years will get the adequate, solid, and basic education of the New Testament economy. Eventually, they will have the New Testament ministry to minister these truths to the unbelievers, to the believers who do not meet with us, and also to minister life to all the people. We should not, however, have any intention to proselyte people. Our burden should simply be to preach the gospel, to teach the truth, and to minister life to people. This is our commission. When the Lord was on this earth He also preached the gospel, taught the truth, ministered life, and prepared the disciples. Millions of people received the benefit. There were not too many, however, who took the New Testament way. I feel that we should do the same thing. Then we would not be narrow or sectarian in reality.
Our meeting should be carried out in a living way such that all the saints might be nourished on the one hand and educated on the other hand. Many saints have been meeting with us for over five years and yet they do not know much concerning the basic truths. We need a new start. After three years of meeting with us, the saints should have received some solid education of the New Testament ministry. Then they will become ministers. I once said that all of us could be apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. Eventually, however, we did not have the proper practice to bring all the saints into such a ministry. Time has shown us that we have to wake up. I do not blame the past since it was also quite good. We did experience the Lord’s mercy, but we still need some improvement. To see something short or weak in the past does not mean that we blame that, but it means that we have to improve.
We should seek after the Lord’s leading in this matter. I do not like to make any kind of legal decision that from now on every local church has to take certain kinds of steps in a legal way. Maybe one local church has a sense to take a certain way and another local church takes a little different way. Only the Lord knows. We must, however, pick up the principles that govern us and we must have some basic points to work on. How to carry out the meetings depends on the environment of your location and the need of your congregation. In principle, we need thorough fellowship, and then the Lord may lead us to pick up a better way to take care of our meetings. This does not necessarily mean that we would revolutionize and completely change our meetings. My intention is not to belittle or lower down our meetings in the past but to uplift them. I believe the Lord has brought us to the highest plane and at the least the high place, but we still need some improvement. Pray about this.