Concerning the use of the Life-study messages in the church meetings, the elders in each locality need to seek the Lord’s leading as to which book of the New Testament is most helpful to the church at the present time. In making this decision the elders should fellowship with the serving ones in the church. This is a principle the elders need to follow. Instead of making this decision by themselves, the elders should fellowship with those who are interested in bearing responsibility, not only of the church in their locality but also of the Lord’s recovery. Such persons, whether brothers or sisters, should be included in the fellowship regarding which New Testament book would be most helpful to the church.
Once the decision has been made concerning which New Testament book to use, you should go on to consider how much time is needed to cover that book. Then you should set up a schedule. For example, suppose you decide to use the book of Ephesians. The Life-study of Ephesians has ninety-seven messages. If you take one message a week, you will need almost two years to cover all the messages on Ephesians. If you take two messages a week, you will finish the book in less than a year. I am quite certain that you cannot cover more than one message in a meeting.
The elders also need to consider which verses should be used with a particular message. If you are covering the book of Ephesians, you may want to use only three verses for a particular message. Once you have made a decision concerning verses, you should then assign a certain message with the accompanying verses for a particular meeting. The leading ones need a thorough knowledge of each message and of the basic verses related to the message. This knowledge will include the outline, the central thought, and the crucial points. As long as you have the knowledge of these three matters, it will be easy for you to cover a complete message in one meeting. As a result of having this knowledge, you will know which portions of the message should be emphasized and which portions do not need emphasis, but simply need to be read in order to maintain a good continuation.
I believe that most Life-study messages can be read in thirty minutes. Sometimes in reading messages in a church meeting you may skip over part of a paragraph, or even an entire paragraph, in order to save time. Along with reading the message, you should pray-read the basic verses.
The reading of a Life-study message in a meeting should be considered the same as the speaking of such a message. In other words, the reading of a message should be treated as if it were the actual speaking of that message.
The conducting of a meeting in which a Life-study message is read depends very much on the leading ones. These meetings should be living and uplifted, and the saints must have the opportunity to function. However, the time should not be wasted. Regarding this the leading ones need skill to support and enrich the meeting. Suppose after several minutes nothing living, real, solid, and rich comes forth in fellowship. If this is the situation the elders should minister a “dish” to enrich the “meal.”
Reading the Life-study messages in the meetings will be very profitable to the churches. I believe that this is more profitable than the elders using the Life-studies to make messages to give in the meetings. This does not mean that the elders should no longer give such messages. The point here is that reading the Life-study messages is profitable. Reading the message with the proper emphasis will ensure profit to the church. Yet it is also profitable for those who are saturated with the truth to give messages that use certain basic verses and crucial points from the Life-study messages. However, if one is not saturated with the truth, but simply makes a message based upon a Life-study, that will not be as profitable as reading a Life-study message and regarding that reading as the speaking of the message. Of course, you have the liberty to give messages according to your burden and even to call a conference for the purpose of giving such messages.
We are here for the Lord’s recovery. I am not doing my own work, and you are not doing your own work. We all are bearing one testimony; we all have our shoulders under the “staves” of the “ark.” Since we are all bearing the one testimony, we all should speak the same thing (1 Cor. 1:10). But the speaking in certain places is leading the saints in the direction that is away from the Lord’s recovery. Such speaking may not be wrong or unscriptural. It may be right and scriptural, but eventually it will lead the saints in a wrong direction.
If we go in a straight line, we shall reach a proper goal. But if our direction is off, eventually we shall reach a goal that is not the goal of the Lord’s recovery. Even after a short period of time, trouble may come to the recovery through your way of speaking scriptural things, that is, through your speaking of good messages. Although there is nothing wrong with your speaking, it may lead others in a wrong direction. If so, eventually that will become a problem to the whole recovery.
The recovery is not merely a local matter. Although the recovery is in your local church, the recovery is universal. If you lead those in your locality in a direction that is off from the recovery, then there will be two directions—the direction in the recovery as a whole and the direction in your locality. If you teach in a way that leads others in a different direction, some may receive your teaching, but many of those in the Lord’s recovery will reject it. They will not “swallow” your teaching.
From experience we know that the one who teaches differently is the first one to be sacrificed. This means that if you teach differently, you run the risk not of sacrificing the recovery but of sacrificing yourself. We all need to practice Paul’s word to Timothy: “Even as I urged you, when I was going into Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach differently” (1 Tim. 1:3). Instead of teaching differently, we should all speak the same thing.
Since I am the one who has given the Life-study messages, it is rather awkward for me to speak about them. However, I can say that the Lord’s recovery has been going on by the ministry. If the ministry had not come to this country, the recovery would not be prevailing here. The recovery came through the ministry, and the recovery has been going on by the ministry. If you, then, speak something that is off from the ministry, surely the recovery will not follow that speaking. It is a dream to think that the entire recovery will follow the speaking that is different from that of the ministry. Therefore, if you speak differently, you will exclude yourself from the recovery by your speaking. No one else will exclude you; you will be excluded by your own speaking, concept, and attitude.
It is no doubt true that every local church has its own jurisdiction. However, we have taught very strongly that each local church is not a Body of Christ; all the churches together are the one Body. Because of this, what happens in one place will affect other places. This means that what you do in your locality will affect the other local churches. News travels quickly from one place to another. Also, the saints who are now in your locality later may move to a different locality.
Those who teach differently are not able to stop the ministry in the Lord’s recovery. The ministry brought the recovery to this country, and the ministry is still carrying the recovery. How can the ministry receive dissenting teachings? Those who teach differently will cause trouble first to themselves and then to others and to the recovery. They will damage others and then cause damage to the recovery. Such damage is the responsibility of those who teach differently.
We all need to consider what we minister, preach, and teach. This means that we need to take care of all the churches. Before the Lord I can testify that this was my practice in China, and it is my practice today. When I was in China speaking in a certain locality, I considered how the other churches might be affected by my speaking. I asked myself, “Will this cause trouble to the other churches? How will it affect them? Will the entire recovery be able to accept this?” I realized that if I did not consider my speaking in this way, I could cause trouble. I could speak something that the recovery as a whole would not receive. I could speak something that others would reject because it was contrary to their taste.