In 1984 I realized that the Lord’s recovery had nearly come to a standstill. We had become dormant. By the Lord’s mercy. He caused us to realize that we needed to get into His recovery in an ultimate way. Many scriptural truths and practices have been recovered by the Lord throughout the history of the church. Brother E. H. Broadbent in his book The Pilgrim Church traced the line of the Lord’s recovery since the second century. The Lord has recovered so much, but there is at least one thing He has not recovered. He has not yet recovered the way to meet. The traditional way of meeting in Christianity is according to the customs of the nations (2 Kings 17:8—NASB). Brother Nee saw this fifty years ago. This matter of the scriptural way to meet has been printed in his books The Normal Christian Church Life and Church Affairs. He said that the church has to practice 1 Corinthians 14:26. This is a big item in the New Testament that needs to be recovered. Where can we see a meeting in which the Christians come together, and each one has something? In 1 Corinthians 14:26 Paul used the word “has” five times— each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Brother Nee called this kind of meeting a meeting of mutuality. This is different from the customs of the nations. Whenever the nations have a gathering, only one person speaks and the rest listen. This practice is worldly and natural.
When Brother Nee gave the messages printed in The Normal Christian Church Life in January of 1937, I was there. One day he was sick and he charged me to speak one of the messages. He gave me the points to speak for him. Eleven years later in 1948 he had a training in which he gave a series of messages in the book Church Affairs. He again spoke concerning our need to practice 1 Corinthians 14:26. Soon after that training, however, mainland China fell into the hands of the communists, and Brother Nee was imprisoned for twenty years until his death. After that training, I was sent out to Taiwan, so we did not have time to practice the truth of 1 Corinthians 14:26.
It was not until recently in my ministry that the Lord reminded me of this matter. I asked the Lord how we could have such a meeting in which each one has something to minister for the fulfillment of 1 Corinthians 14:26. Then the Lord led me to Ephesians 4. If we are going to fulfill 1 Corinthians 14:26, we must take care of Ephesians 4:11-16. All the gifted persons have to perfect the saints. Then all the saints will do exactly what the gifted persons do, and each one part of the Body will operate. All the Body of Christ causes the growth of the Body through every part operating. The answer to how 1 Corinthians 14:26 can be fulfilled is in Ephesians 4:11-16. This should be considered as the gospel, the good news, because this is a part of the Lord’s recovery and a progression of the Lord’s recovery.
We are so blessed to be saved, to be unveiled, and to be in a position to practice 1 Corinthians 14:26. This is a significant part of church history; I believe that the Lord’s present recovery is eternally significant. We have the assurance from the Word that 1 Corinthians 14:26 and Ephesians 4:11-16 must be fulfilled. The main thing that these two portions of the Word reveal to us is the proper church meeting for the building up of the organic Body of Christ, not for the building up of a congregation. This has to be fulfilled, and this fulfillment is a great part of the Lord’s recovery. We have to treasure this revelation and receive it as the glad tidings. We are blessed to be in the Lord’s recovery at this time.
To be a Christian in today’s traditional Christianity does not require much. People hear the gospel, they repent, confess their sins, receive the Lord, and get baptized to become members of fundamental denominations. After their salvation, they come to meet week after week on the weekend to listen to one man speaking. After working hard during the week, people like to relax on the weekends and have some entertainment. “Going to church” on Sundays is a form of entertainment for many Christians. They can listen to a choir sing beautiful music and listen to a good speaker give an eloquent message. There is no requirement for them to be full of life and in the spirit. To be Christians according to God’s Word, however, is very troublesome to the natural man. Now that we are Christians, we have to take the biblical way, not the easy, traditional way.
Once we are born into this world, we have to believe in the Lord Jesus to become Christians; otherwise, we will go to the lake of fire. Now that we are Christians, we have to love the Lord, to get ourselves engaged to Him. We have no choice in this matter because we are not the Lord. He created us, regenerated us, and chose us. We have no choice. We have to take His way. As believers in Christ, we are married to Christ. Marriage is a kind of binding. When a person gets married, he does not have the freedom that he used to have when he was single. Both the husband and the wife are limited by one another. We are limited by the Lord in the same way. We cannot do whatever we desire because He is our Husband. The more we accept His limitation, the more peace we will have. Actually, His limitation is profitable to us.
The New Testament is full of grace and also full of responsibility, full of burden. Paul is a real pattern to us of someone who bore his responsibility by laboring abundantly. He took the “troublesome way” because he realized that he had no choice. One day he would have to stand before the Lord to give an account of his stewardship. All of the unbelievers will be judged at the great white throne, and the issue of that judgment will be the lake of fire (Rev. 20:11-15); while all of the believers will appear before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10). The issue of that judgment will either be the kingdom of the heavens for us to enter into the Lord’s joy in the kingship or the outer darkness for us to suffer some dispensational punishment. I must say this to be faithful to the Lord and honest to His children. We have to realize where we are and what we have to do. If we are going to enjoy more of His grace, we must take the “troublesome way.” In Matthew 7 the Lord told us that the gate is narrow and the way is constricted which leads to life, but the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction (vv. 13-14). Which way will we choose? I surely will choose the constricted way. I am constricted and restricted by the Lord every day. At times I may want to do something to vindicate myself, but the Lord will not allow me. I have entered the narrow gate, and I am now on the constricted way.