The Lord needs to recover the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry. The gifted persons were given by the Lord to His Body for the perfecting of the saints. I believe that there are a number of gifted persons among us who need to rise up to perfect the saints. In order to perfect others, the gifted persons must practice, and they must begin their practice with preaching the gospel to save sinners by knocking on their doors. When we practice the biblical way, we are qualified and we have the position, the standing, to perfect others. We can ask certain ones to go along with us to preach the gospel for their perfecting. When they go with us, they will learn from us and spontaneously we will perfect them.
In the church in Taipei, hall sixteen had an attendance of about one hundred saints in the church meetings for many years. Today they have close to three hundred in attendance. This is because the leading ones in hall sixteen went to visit the saints, and they perfected many to visit others. We need the practice of the perfecting of the saints by the gifted persons. The gifted ones among us should not be idle and allow their gifts to become idle. They must use their gifts to perfect others. Furthermore, if we learn from the gifted ones to be perfected, we can become a perfecter to perfect others after a few months. In the Lord’s recovery there must be a practical move in which many gifted persons are perfecting the saints, and eventually many saints are perfecting others.
In Ephesians 4:16 Paul stresses that all the Body of Christ causes the growth of the Body through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in measure of each one part. The joints supply the riches of Christ, and each one part operates according to its measure. We have to reach this condition. We need to see our real situation and realize what our real need is. We need the perfecting of the saints to do the work of the ministry, which is to build up the Body of Christ. We surely need such a biblical practice to begin among us.
We all must begin to labor on others. Each one part needs to operate. The more we operate, the more we learn; and the more we learn, the more we will know how to operate. Eventually, all the parts of the Body will be operating parts, so everyone will render some profit to the Body. Then the Body will be built up. A local church is built up by the increase in number and by the growth in life. A local church must increase in number and must grow in life. If we cannot see the increase in number and the growth in life with a local church, that means that it is idle in the eyes of God. This is why we must endeavor to practice the biblical way. The work of the ministry, the biblical way, is not to build up a local congregation, but it is to build up the organic Body of Christ. We must make this difference clear. We have to follow the Spirit within us to build up the Body of Christ.
In the work of the ministry, we first have to preach the gospel to save sinners. Then we have to cherish, nourish, shepherd, and teach the new believers to raise them up in Christ (1 Thes. 2:7, 11; John 21:15-17; Matt. 28:20). Regardless of how busy we are, I hope that we would dedicate six hours a week to the Lord for His work. If we do this, the Lord will bless us in many ways. He will bless us in our health, in our finances, in our situation, in our business, and in our career because we are taking care of His interests. According to history, the Lord will always return His blessing to everyone who dedicates something to Him. Today the Lord needs us to give Him six hours a week for serving Him in the biblical way by getting people saved in their homes and by going to their homes to nourish and to teach them. If we do this, we will see the results. Every year we will reap two remaining fruit. The Lord will honor our labor and honor our vow.
To do the work of the ministry, we also need to prophesy in order to minister Christ with all His riches for the building up of the church organically. Eventually, we will learn to perfect others to speak for the Lord. Then all the meeting members in the local church will be prophets. Everyone will be able to speak something for the Lord and of the Lord into others. To prophesy is to minister Christ with all His riches to the other members. This is the actual, practical, building up of the Body of Christ organically.