In chapters one and two, I talked about prophesying as the excelling gift for the building up of the Body of Christ. I also spoke of our need to desire and learn to prophesy. I am concerned, however, that you may have forgotten this fellowship. I also feel that some who are endeavoring to prophesy have not prophesied adequately. We need to be perfected to prophesy. First Corinthians 14 stresses and uplifts prophesying. It is considered as the excelling gift, the top gift, for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. Prophesying in 1 Corinthians 14 is a speaking that builds up, encourages, consoles, convicts, and judges (vv. 3, 24). Prophesying is not ordinary speaking. It is speaking for the Lord and with the Lord.
Anyone can speak in a general way, but to prophesy, to speak the Lord forth, comprises three elements. First, we must learn the holy Word. We must gain the proper knowledge concerning God and concerning the things of God through the knowledge of the holy Word. We have to study the Bible. Second, we must have the instant inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This implies that we must be persons who are always communicating with the Lord, who are living in the Lord’s fellowship. As long as our fellowship with the Lord is cut off, we can never have the instant, living inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We must be persons living in the fellowship of the Lord all day long. All day long we should be enjoying the current of the Spirit. As persons abiding in the Lord in fellowship with Him, we can have the inspiration of the Spirit at any time. Third, we must have a vision concerning God’s interest, the churches’ condition, our condition, and others’ condition. We must have a vision concerning the world, concerning the sinners, concerning God’s people, concerning the church as the Body of Christ, and concerning ourselves. To prophesy, we need to have a clear vision to see through all things in all situations. When our eyes are open and the sky above us is clear, we can speak what we see with the word of the Bible under the inspiration of the Spirit. This is what it means to prophesy. This divine speaking ministers Christ as life to others. When we speak in this way, we have the Word and the Spirit, and out of the Word and the Spirit, we have the authority and the power. To prophesy, we need the human element of learning the Word and the divine element of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit plus a clear view.
Luke 1 is a record of three persons prophesying: Elizabeth, Mary, and Zachariah. Mary’s prophecy is full of quotations from the Old Testament. Mary was very familiar with the Old Testament, and she spoke with what she had learned from the Old Testament. She also had the inspiration from God and she saw something. She was in a condition to receive the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to speak with a clear view. Elizabeth and Zachariah were the same. They all had learned the Word, they had the divine inspiration, and they had a seeing of the situation. Thus, their speaking was prophesying.
If we really mean business to practice prophesying, we must first spend our time and energy to study the holy Word. Isaiah was an Old Testament prophet who wrote a long book of sixty-six chapters. Most of what Isaiah spoke in his book is not foretelling, or predicting. Most of the book of Isaiah is prophesying in the sense of speaking for the Lord, speaking forth the Lord, and speaking the Lord into people. In his rebuking of Israel, for example, there are many quotations from the law of Moses. This proves that he surely studied the Pentateuch to the uttermost. When he saw the situation among the Israelites, he rebuked them, not with his own word but with the word he had learned of Moses in the first five books of the Bible. No doubt, when he was speaking, he was under the inspiration of the Spirit. Thus, Isaiah had learned the Word, he had the divine inspiration, and he had a clear view. Then whatever he spoke was his prophesying, his speaking for the Lord, his speaking forth the Lord.
We must practice this fellowship in order to learn to prophesy. If we practice this fellowship, we will be perfected unto the work of the ministry. In other words, we will be perfected to prophesy for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. Then we have to go to others to perfect them. If we all do this, all of us will become prophets. How good it would be for all the saints in the Lord’s recovery to be prophets in this way! Some of the sisters may wonder whether or not they can do such a work. In the Old Testament, there were both male and female prophets (Exo. 15:20; Judg. 4:4; 2 Kings 22:14), and according to the New Testament, women can prophesy (1 Cor. 11:5; Acts 2:17-18; 21:9). This is why Paul says that when the whole church comes together, all can prophesy (1 Cor. 14:31). Both the brothers and the sisters can prophesy. I hope that we would receive the perfecting fellowship in this chapter and practice it. Then we can go to others with this fellowship and perfect them from house to house the way the Apostle Paul did.
Recently I called a certain leading brother early in the morning. I was a little fearful of calling him so early, but when I called he was not home. He had gone to another brother’s home to have morning watch. When I heard that, my fearfulness turned to happiness. It would be wonderful if we could go to another brother’s home every morning to have morning watch with him and teach him how to perfect others. If all the saints are perfected in this way, the church will be full of functions. The Body growing through “the operation in measure of each one part,” mentioned in Ephesians 4:16, will be fulfilled. Then it will be so easy to get someone saved and keep him. Right after you baptize him, you can go to have morning watch with him the next morning.
We all need to visit people with the gospel and visit the new ones and the other saints for their perfecting. We have the holy Word in our hand and the Holy Spirit within us. When we work together with the Lord to visit others, the Word becomes living, and the Spirit exercises authority and power over people. We need to go out to save people and to nourish them, to teach them, to perfect them. By this way, the church will always be growing. Today, however, not many of us will go out to perfect others. We have much knowledge in our mind concerning the Word, but we do not use it. We have the Holy Spirit within us, but we do not exercise our spirit. As a result, we see more of a congregation among us than the living Body of Christ. If we all would practice the fellowship in this chapter and then go to perfect others, what a marvelous situation there would be in the churches. All of the churches are full of people who need perfecting. Who is going to do it? If all of us pick up the burden to go and perfect others, the condition of the churches will be changed after two months.
The Lord gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some shepherd-teachers for the perfecting of the saints unto, resulting in, issuing in, the work of the ministry. God has only one ministry today on this earth. This is the unique New Testament ministry for the purpose of building up the Body of Christ. To do the work of the ministry, we need to practice prophesying. If we are going to prophesy, we must learn the Word day by day to get familiar with the holy Word. We must also fellowship with the Lord, remaining in His fellowship. This means that we are always in the current of the Spirit, so at any time we can have the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. If we are such persons, our eyes will be opened. The sky above us will be clear, and we will have a clear view of the entire universe. We will always see the real situation of the world, the real situation of the churches, the real situation of our fellow believers, and the real situation of ourselves. Thus, we will always have something to speak about. When we have these three elements—the human learning of the Word, the divine inspiration of the Spirit, and the clear view—we will be able to prophesy. Because I have these three elements, I have a lot to say to the saints in the ministry of the Word.
If we put these points into practice, it will be easy for us to prophesy. After two weeks of practicing, we can pick up the burden to perfect others. After another two weeks, the ones that we perfect will be able to do the same thing, and they will perfect others. Then the churches will be filled with this kind of living perfecting. After two months of such activity, the churches will be revived and stirred up.
A portion of the Word like Ephesians 4:11-16 altogether needs some practice. All of us need to rise up to perfect the saints. We should not say that we are not apostles or prophets. If we practice the fellowship in this chapter, we will get ourselves perfected, and we will become apostles or prophets. It is not that difficult. The grace is in the Word and in the Spirit. We have the Word in our hand and the Spirit within us, so we can practice according to the biblical way. We will see the easiness in taking this way and the rich result. I have the full assurance that this is the Lord’s way. I hope that we all would receive the perfecting word in this chapter.
Many saints among us are the joints of the rich supply. They have been gifted, but they need perfecting. After being perfected, they will function to prophesy, and they will go to perfect others. The joints, the gifts, perfect the saints unto the work of ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12). Then all the members hold to truth in love and grow up into the Head, Christ, in all things (v. 15). Out from the Head all the Body is joined closely together and knit together through every joint of the rich supply. This causes the growth of the Body through the operation in measure of each one part unto the building up of the Body in love (v. 16).