Prayer: Lord, how we thank You for Your sovereignty and for Your sovereign grace so that we could have this conference. Thank You, Lord, for Your presence. Thank You for Your cleansing blood which is so precious to us. Lord, we are still sinful. We take You as our sin offering and as our trespass offering. We treasure the blood that You shed on the cross as the reality of all the offerings. We believe that we are under the cleansing of Your precious blood. Thank You, Lord Jesus, that where the sprinkling of the blood is, there is the anointing of the all-inclusive Spirit. We trust in this anointing. Lord, anoint us and anoint all the attendants. We love You, Lord Jesus. Bless us all. Lord, we trust in Your blessing. We do not trust in what we can do or in what we have. We admit that we are nothing, that we have nothing, and that we can do nothing. We declare this to the entire universe. Lord, we humble ourselves to the dust, admitting that You are everything to us. Thank You, Lord. We believe that whenever we meet and come together into Your name, we are in You. Thank You for Your word. We worship You for Yourself, and for Your speaking. How we thank You for Your oracle. Even today on this earth You have an oracle where You can speak. Nothing can frustrate You from speaking. Thank You, Lord, that You are on the throne. How we worship You! We identify with You as the One on the throne. We are not speaking from the earth but from the heavens. Lord, thank You that we are the heavenly people. We like to be one with You in the heavens. Lord, confirm the fact that we are one spirit with You and that You are one spirit with us. Lord, speak in our speaking. Speak Yourself into all the attendants so that everyone who comes to this meeting will not return empty. You are the rich Lord, and You are rich to everyone who calls on Your name. O Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus! We love Your dear name, and we call on this dear name. Lord Jesus, thank You again. We like to call upon Your name and thank You a thousand times a day. Hallelujah! Jesus is Lord! The victory is Yours, Lord! We declare Your victory by the cross over the enemy. No flesh is here. No hatred is here. We have the Spirit and the love of God. Amen.
The fellowship in this book is a continuation of the fellowship in recent books concerning the Body of Christ as an organism and concerning the building up of the Body of Christ organically (see The Body of Christ, The Organism of the Triune God in the Organic Union of His Divine Trinity, and The Building Up of the Body of Christ published by Living Stream Ministry). Since I began to speak on this subject, the light has come continually. This is why I have entitled this book Further Light concerning the Building Up of the Body of Christ. Some of this further light is in 1 Corinthians. The Lord showed me the very striking, central, and crucial point of this book. The crucial point of this book is speaking for the Lord in chapter fourteen. Chapter fourteen of 1 Corinthians is the issue of the entire book. It is wrong to think that only a pastor, a minister, or even a leading brother can speak for the Lord. All of the saints can speak for the Lord. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:31 that we all can prophesy, that is, speak for the Lord, one by one. As long as you are a saved believer, you must be a speaker that speaks the Lord.
Prophesying in 1 Corinthians 14 is not predicting but speaking for the Lord, speaking forth the Lord, and speaking the Lord into others, ministering (dispensing) the Lord to others. What a precious and valuable thing it is to minister, to dispense, Christ into others. We need to learn to speak Christ, dispensing Him into others. This is proven by the words “for building up,” “encouragement,” and “consolation” in verse 3; by the words “convicted” and “judged” in verse 24; and by the words “all may learn” and “all be encouraged” in verse 31. Speaking the Lord into people builds them up, encourages them, and consoles them. When we speak for the Lord, others are convicted and judged. The fact that all may learn and all be encouraged also shows that this is not predicting but speaking for the Lord. Speaking the Lord forth into others enables them to learn something and be encouraged.