Prayer: Lord, again we ask You to cleanse us with Your precious blood that we may enter into the enjoyment of Your anointing. Lord, open up the Word and open up Yourself to us. Lord, visit us and give us Your living word. Amen.
In chapter one we saw that 1 Corinthians is a book on the enjoyment of Christ and that the enjoyment of Christ does three things. First, it solves the problems in the church through the work of the cross. Second, the enjoyment of Christ issues in the growth in life which produces precious materials—gold, silver, and precious stones—for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. Third, the enjoyment of Christ develops the believers’ spiritual gifts through the growth in life. The more that we grow in life, the more our spiritual gifts by our spiritual birth are developed. The enjoyment of Christ is in chapters one and two of 1 Corinthians, the growth in life is in chapter three, and the gifts begin in chapter twelve. The development of the gifts comes out of the growth in life, and the growth in life issues from the enjoyment of Christ.
Among all the gifts that are developed in the growth in life through the enjoyment of Christ, the top gift is prophesying. This is the excelling gift because it builds up the church (14:4b-5). In the last verse of 1 Corinthians 12, a chapter on the gifts, Paul tells us to desire earnestly the greater gifts. There are many gifts. Some are greater and others are lower. As far as the building up of the church is concerned, miraculous gifts such as speaking in tongues and healings are low. The greater gifts are the ones that are most profitable for the building up of the church.
Chapter thirteen reveals that the way to apply our gifts is by love. We are not qualified to desire the gifts without love. Only love in life can qualify us for the seeking of the gifts. If we do not have a life of love, we may abuse the gifts, using them wrongly to damage people rather than build them up. If we want the gifts, we must have a qualifying life, and that qualifying life is a life of love. We all have to pursue love.
The first verse of chapter fourteen tells us to “pursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy.” In verse 39 at the end of chapter fourteen Paul says, “Therefore, my brothers, desire earnestly to prophesy.” The Greek word for “desire earnestly” is used three times in 1 Corinthians—in 12:31, 14:1, and 14:39. Paul was burdened that we all would desire earnestly to prophesy. Paul also says that we must seek that we may excel to the building up of the church (14:12). Merely to speak in tongues is to remain in a low state, but to prophesy is to excel.
Chapter fourteen also gives much evidence that to prophesy is not to predict. When you prophesy, you speak to men for building up, encouragement, and consolation (v. 3). If all prophesy in a meeting, those who attend will be convicted and judged, and the secrets of their heart will be made manifest (vv. 24-25). To prophesy here is not to predict but to build up, encourage, console, convict, judge, and make manifest the secrets of the heart. Among all the gifts, the top one, the excelling one, is prophesying because it builds up the church.
I returned to Taiwan from the United States in October of 1984 because we needed to have a breakthrough in our practice for the Lord’s interest. I realized that by October of 1984 the Lord’s recovery had nearly come to a standstill. The statistics of the major denominations in Christianity showed that many of them were decreasing in number. It is not easy to bring the gospel to a typical sinner who lives in the United States because the people have been complicated and occupied with religion, philosophy, or logic. The little increase that some of the denominations had was mostly from people who were already Christians and who joined them. I realized from this situation that we had to have a new way to go on.
In 1937 in Shanghai, Brother Nee spoke to us the messages which are now in The Normal Christian Church Life. In that fellowship Brother Nee pointed out the way to meet according to 1 Corinthians 14:26. This verse says that when the whole church comes together, each one has something. The word “has” is used five times in this verse—“each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation.” When speaking of this verse, Brother Nee used the word “mutuality.” A church meeting is not a meeting where only one speaks and the others listen. This is only one-way traffic without mutuality. The church meeting described in 1 Corinthians 14:26 is full of mutuality. It is a meeting in which all the saints participate by speaking and listening to one another. Even though Brother Nee saw this, we did not find a way to carry it out.
In the fall of 1948 Brother Nee had a long training for four months. One series of messages that he gave is in the book Church Affairs. In this book he stressed more strongly that there was no need for us to maintain the practice of one man speaking and the rest listening in the church meetings. He said that since the pressure of tradition is very strong, we all need to push against it day after day until it is pushed out of the way. After Brother Nee shared these things in his training, I was sent out of mainland China to Taiwan in the spring of 1949 due to the Communist takeover. From 1949 to 1984 we still did not find a way to practice the meeting of mutuality revealed in 1 Corinthians 14:26. The conclusion of my four-year study in Taipei beginning in 1984 is that we must cooperate with the Lord to fulfill 1 Corinthians 14:26.
We may think that we have had mutuality in the past since the saints shared and testified after a brother gave a message. This is better than what is practiced in Christianity, but very few of our testimonies in these meetings could have been considered as prophesying. To prophesy is to speak for the Lord, to speak forth the Lord, to speak the Lord into others, that is, to minister Christ into people’s being. This is the dispensing of Christ. Thus, to prophesy, in the New Testament sense, is to dispense Christ into people’s inner man. To prophesy is not to speak an ordinary word. Prophesying is a divine oracle. In the past we considered that speaking in tongues, prophesying, and healing were miraculous gifts, but we did not realize that prophesying requires learning. We have to desire, seek, and learn to prophesy. When we prophesy, it is so that others may learn (14:31). This indicates that we, the ones who prophesy, have to learn first. If we did not learn something, we would not be able to speak something for others to learn.
After much study and consideration, I was led to the conclusion that prophesying is not absolutely miraculous, but it is a miraculous normality. On the one hand, it is normal. On the other hand, it is miraculous because it is speaking with the divine element. To prophesy is to speak for God, to have God’s oracle. Some of us may feel that only certain ones can have the oracle of God, but Paul does not agree with this. Paul says that we all can prophesy one by one (14:31). He also said that if we all prophesy, a new one who comes to our meeting will be convicted and judged by all and the secrets of his heart will become manifest. He will fall on his face and worship God, reporting that God is really among us (vv. 24-25).
Prophesying in 1 Corinthians 14 is not in the sense of predicting. Someone who prophesies might speak something like this: “Brothers, 1 Corinthians 15:45b says, ‘The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.’ Christ, who died in the flesh for our sins, is now in resurrection the life-giving Spirit. Today He is indwelling us to be our life. The Lord Jesus is the life-giving Spirit, and our spirit, created by God, has been regenerated by this Spirit. Our spirit and the life-giving Spirit are now joined as one spirit. The Lord as the Spirit is indwelling us so that we can enjoy Him all the time to live Christ.” This kind of speaking is neither a natural utterance nor a prediction. To prophesy in this way is God’s oracle, and Paul says that we all can prophesy. In the past we had testimonies in our meetings, but many of them were not the divine speaking. Sometimes, however, a testimony could be the divine speaking. It depends upon the contents of the testimony and the way it is given. If someone gives a testimony, even of himself, in a spiritual, divine way, that is prophesying. A testimony is prophesying when there is some part in it unveiling the divine things concerning God to people.
To prophesy is to speak divinely, to speak something related to God, to speak something of God, and to speak God forth. To prophesy is to speak Christ into others. Let us suppose that one hundred brothers and sisters come together with no definite speaker, and they all exercise to speak Christ into one another for one hour and a half. How wonderful, rich, refreshing, nourishing, and enriching that meeting would be! No matter how good one speaker is, the congregation that he speaks to again and again will become bored of his speaking after a certain period of time.
Have we ever seen a meeting on this earth according to what 1 Corinthians 14:26 describes? I must say that our practice of sharing and testifying after a message has not been the practice of 1 Corinthians 14:26. In our meetings in the past in which there was testifying after a message, there was a little bit of mutuality, but not the mutuality that is revealed in 1 Corinthians 14:26. Some said to me, “Brother Lee, this is not the new way. We did this already.” What we did, however, was in a natural way, not in a revealed way. The way that the Lord has revealed to us in 1 Corinthians 14:26 is a way that we have never driven before. This is a new way.
When I went back to Taiwan in 1984, I illustrated our need to take a new way by using the improvement in our means of transportation on this earth. The God-created earth cannot be changed, but the means of transportation on the earth has been changed and improved again and again. If we do not have a change, we are behind the times. We cannot change the truth of the Scriptures, the Lord Jesus, and God’s salvation, but we must change the way we minister the word of truth and practice the church life to the scriptural way, the God-ordained way, which is the best way. We must endeavor to have meetings on this earth that are according to 1 Corinthians 14:26. We have to learn. Just because a person can move his fingers on a piano does not mean that he knows how to play it. In order to learn how to play the piano properly, a person must have years of instruction. If we do not learn, how can we carry out the Lord’s present move?
In the traditional practice of Christianity, a newly baptized one simply enters into the congregation to sit and listen. He is not perfected to speak for the Lord. The members of the congregation do not have to endeavor or learn anything. They simply hire a pastor who is eloquent, who can tell good stories and give good illustrations. The Sunday morning service is a place for them to relax and listen to a choir and a good speaker. They listen for years without learning and being perfected to speak themselves. This situation is not according to what Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 14. He encourages all of us to prophesy for the building up of the church. Do we really like Paul? We may say that we love Paul, but deep within we may feel that Paul is too hard on us, that he is over-burdening us. Someone who works hard for a living may think that he needs a rest at the end of the week. Instead of being charged to speak, he feels that he should be able to rest in the meeting. Just as doctors and lawyers are trained specifically for their jobs, he may feel that certain ones should be trained to be speakers. Then he can come to the meetings and enjoy listening. Paul, however, tells us that we should practice our meetings according to 1 Corinthians 14:26. He tells us to desire earnestly to prophesy and to seek that we may excel to the building up of the church.
First Corinthians 14:26 as a part of the holy Word needs to be fulfilled for the Body of Christ to be built up. The congregational way of one speaking and the rest listening cannot build up the Body of Christ. Where on this earth can we see the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ? Without this organic building, the Lord’s prophecy in Matthew 16:18 cannot be fulfilled, and the church as the bride cannot be made ready for Christ as the Bridegroom. Some have advised me not to labor so hard at my age. One saint told me that whatever I had spoken concerning the new way is scriptural, but he did not believe it could be worked out. But within me was the thought, “If I don’t do this, how can I go to see the Lord?” Others told me that since I began to talk about the new way in 1984, the churches have been decreasing and the condition of the churches has been going down. They told me that I needed to reconsider my way. Despite all the criticisms and hardships, I have to take care of the commission that I have received from the Lord. My burden is to pass on His word so that at least a small number of Jesus lovers would take His word and get into it. Then the Lord Jesus will have a way on this earth. I do not care about the criticisms. I care that one day I will stand before the Lord. I must care for my inner burden from the Lord.
When we become old, it is hard for us to have a change and learn something new. Many companies and big corporations like to hire young college graduates because they are open to learning new things. In my youth I learned to use the abacus. When the adding machine was invented, the abacus became outdated because it was much slower and less efficient. Some people gave adding machines to me as gifts, but I never used them. I still like to use my old wooden abacus. In this matter I do not want to give up my old habit to have a change. It is also hard for an older person to learn how to use a computer because he may not want to have a change. There are a number of saints who have been in the Lord’s recovery for many years. They have been faithful and diligent, and they have endeavored for the recovery in those years. They may have been fresh with the Lord twenty years ago, but now that they are older, they do not like to have a change. Many of the young people in the recovery, on the other hand, have been so glad to take the Lord’s new way.
Christianity has taken the lead to go the easy way, but the new way to practice the Lord’s present recovery is the way of labor. Who likes to climb up a high mountain? We all like to take the easy way. The preaching of the gospel in the traditional way is according to the natural way, not by the way that is revealed in the Bible. This is because the natural way is easy. The traditional way of meeting with one man speaking and the rest listening is also according to the natural way. No one wants to practice 1 Corinthians 14:26 because it requires much labor.
In order for 1 Corinthians 14 to be realized among us, the co-workers and elders need to labor because all the saints need to be instructed. They have to learn, and they need some tutors. Ephesians 4 tells us that the Head, Christ, gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers for the perfecting of the saints (vv. 11-12). Perfecting means equipping and furnishing. Have we ever practiced the perfecting of the saints? This is a new way that we must take. Today my eyes have been opened more than ever to see that we need the gifts’ perfecting of the saints.
Even the evangelists are for the perfecting of the saints. This indicates that we need some particular perfecting and instruction in order to preach the gospel in a proper way. If someone is going to play the piano properly, he needs to be perfected, instructed, taught, and trained. The saints needing the evangelists to perfect them indicates that preaching the gospel should not be done in a natural way. It has to be carried out under the proper instruction and by learning. Which preachers in the denominations are perfecting the saints to do the preaching? Even among us it is hard to see this, yet we may charge the saints to go out to preach the gospel. If they are not perfected to preach the gospel, they will preach in a natural way. Even we ourselves are not so clear about the proper way to preach the gospel. If we do not know how to play the piano properly, how can we perfect others to do it? Likewise, if we do not know how to preach the gospel properly, how can we perfect others to preach? This is our situation today, and this is why I am burdened to the uttermost.
We must turn from the old, traditional way of meeting and serving to the new, scriptural way. To turn anything from one way to another way will involve some loss at first. To remodel a building, you have to suffer some loss initially. Eventually, however, the remodeled building is worth this initial loss. In taking the new way, we have to do our best to limit our loss by not going quickly but gradually and positively. In Taipei, we worked for thirty-seven months before we stopped having church meetings with one man speaking a message. If we would have stopped this immediately or too quickly, we would have suffered much loss. We turned to the new way of meeting according to 1 Corinthians 14:26 after we labored much to fully prepare the church.
The church should be organic in everything and in every aspect. A robot is mechanical with nothing organic, but a person is a living, moving, functioning organism with a body that is totally organic. Christ is a living person and His Body is absolutely organic. Our gospel preaching may be according to the trained way, but we may still need some arrangement. Without arrangement, no one may go out to preach the gospel. This is not organic. We have to endeavor and train the saints until they arrive at a state in which they will be organically burdened to go out. Then there will be no need of any arrangement by the church. The saints will have an organic feeling to go out to reach people and get them baptized. Without any need of organization or arrangement, the saints will have the burden to go to the homes of the new believers to take care of them. Furthermore, they will have the burden to take care of the small group meetings organically, and they will have the organic motive to function, to prophesy, to speak for the Lord, in the church meetings.
We have to realize that we are far behind the biblical revelation in our practice of the church life. Twenty-six years ago, I came to the United States with a burden to bring the Lord’s recovery here, but the saints came into a recovery that was still, to a certain extent, remaining in tradition. Now we have seen that we must take the new way, the scriptural way, to practice His present recovery. We must learn to preach the gospel not by the natural way but by the biblical, revealed way. We also have to meet, to come together, not by the traditional way but by the way according to 1 Corinthians 14:26.