We can see from the following verses in 1 Corinthians 14 that the apostle encouraged prophesying:
“Desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy”—v. 1.
“I desire...rather that you may prophesy”—v. 5.
“If all prophesy and some unbeliever or unlearned person enters, he is convicted by all, he is judged by all”—v. 24.
“You can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all be encouraged”—v. 31.
“Therefore, my brothers, desire earnestly to prophesy”—v. 39.
In all these verses Paul is encouraging us to prophesy. He tells us that we need to desire earnestly to prophesy.
In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul indicated that speaking in tongues is not of great value. He strongly belittled the gift of tongues and exalted the gift of prophecy because his main concern was the church rather than the individual believers. Speaking in tongues, even if it is genuine and proper, only edifies the speaker himself, but prophesying builds up the church (v. 4). Paul did not say that speaking in tongues was wrong, but that the abuse and the exaggeration of it was wrong. He indicated to the saints in Corinth that they had to be limited in their speaking in tongues and increased in their speaking for the Lord.
The Lord desires that we all would be those who prophesy for the building up of the church. In 1937 Brother Nee told us that to practice the meeting life according to the traditional way with one preacher speaking and the rest listening is not according to God’s way. This fellowship is contained in the book The Normal Christian Church Life, published in English in 1939. In 1948 Brother Nee had a long term of training for four months. There were about eighty people under his training at that time. In that training he gave several series of messages. One series is published in the book entitled Church Affairs. In his fellowship contained in this book, Brother Nee became stronger. He encouraged us to stop the Lord’s Day morning meeting and go out to preach the gospel (pp. 71-72). He indicated that there was no need for us to keep the old way of one man speaking and the rest listening. He told us that the pressure of tradition is very strong and that we all need to push against it day after day until the traditional way is pushed out of the way. If everyone pushes, one day the traditional way of one man speaking and the rest listening will be pushed away (pp. 81-82).
When I returned to Taipei in 1984, I was seeking the Lord’s leading that we could have a new start. I realized that all of Christianity, basically speaking, had come to a standstill. Most of the major denominations are decreasing in number. The ones who do have some increase, have very little increase. I realized that our situation was no different. We were very low in our percentage of increase. The result of my seeking the Lord since I returned to Taipei in 1984 is this—the Lord wants to have all the saints prophesying. The Lord does not want a Lord’s Day morning meeting with one speaker and the rest listening. What the Lord wants is to have all the saints, including the sisters and all the young people, to speak for the Lord, to prophesy. We have seen all the verses in 1 Corinthians 14 in which the apostle encouraged us to prophesy. In verse 39 Paul told us to “desire earnestly to prophesy.” He was encouraging, teaching, and instructing us to prophesy. He told us that all of us can speak for the Lord, one by one (v. 31). The subject of 1 Corinthians 14 is the matter of speaking for the Lord. The apostle strongly encouraged the speaking of the Lord again and again.
Brother Nee saw this fifty years ago, but we never fully entered into the practice of it because we had no way. Brother Nee told us that we had nothing to replace the kind of meeting in which one person is speaking and the rest are listening. He also told us that this kind of meeting had become a deeply rooted habit. Even the unbelievers have such a concept. Their concept of Christian worship is to be gathered together under one man’s speaking. Most unbelievers know that this is what it means to worship God in Christianity. Although they have not become Christians yet, the thought of one man speaking and the rest listening is already in them. It is hard for us to get out of this prevailing traditional thought and concept. When I went back to Taipei in 1984, I was really seeking the Lord so that He could have a new way among us in His recovery. Eventually the Lord showed me that His new way is for all His people to speak for Him. What the Lord wants is for each one of us to prophesy. My burden is to tell all the saints to learn to speak. I have a burden to go back to Taipei to teach the saints one by one to speak for the Lord.
In order to speak for the Lord, we have to be revived every morning of every day. We have to rise up in the morning to be revived. After rising up in the morning, we have to spend some time with the Lord, enjoying Him through the Word. Surely we will gain something of the Lord. At the end of the week on Saturday evening, we may even write down or compose a little speaking to present in the meeting on the Lord’s Day morning for three minutes. They have begun to practice this way in Taipei, and they have experienced success. I have a burden to go back and to say more. I want to teach them how to speak for the Lord. I believe that all the churches need this. When we Christians come together to meet, there should be much speaking from all the saints. It is not scriptural for just one man to speak in a church meeting. Regardless of how rich, how capable, or how able a speaker is, his speaking in itself cannot be as rich as many people speaking the riches of Christ in many aspects and from different directions. If twenty out of fifty saints meeting together speak forth the Lord to exhibit the riches of Christ, that meeting will be a rich feast.
When I considered before the Lord how to help the saints to speak, the Lord charged me to get into Ephesians 4:11-16. Ephesians 4 tells us that Christ as the heavenly Head gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers to perfect the saints. These gifted ones not only feed the saints but also perfect them, equip them, furnish them, that the saints may do the work of the New Testament ministry to build up the Body of Christ in an organic way. In the next three chapters, we will go on from Paul’s burden in 1 Corinthians 14 to Ephesians 4. We may have never considered that the evangelists need to perfect the saints. Surely the evangelists need to preach the gospel to sinners. But they also need to perfect the saints, to edify the saints. In a proper university there are many professors teaching different courses. There are professors of mathematics, biology, physics, and history. In God’s university, God has four kinds of professors—apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherd-teachers. All the saints should be educated, taught, instructed, perfected, equipped, and furnished by these professors. Then all the graduates from this university will be able to do the same thing that the professors do. This kind of education will spread if the saints are perfected by these four kinds of gifts. Everyone will be enabled to do the work of the New Testament ministry to build up the Body of Christ. We are short of this kind of perfecting.
My burden in these days is to speak the truth revealed in 1 Corinthians 14 and Ephesians 4. In this matter of everyone being perfected to speak for the Lord and to speak the Lord into others, I want to be an “alarm clock” to wake up the saints. We need to wake up to speak Christ. We need to wake up to learn how to prophesy. For a person to play the piano he has to learn. One cannot buy a piano and simply begin to play it immediately without any instruction, perfecting, or learning. If one is going to play the piano in a proper way, he needs to practice for many years. Then he will be enabled to play a proper melody. For a person to learn how to play basketball, he has to practice over and over again. In like manner, we have to learn how to prophesy. However, we have not been instructed or perfected in this matter. Who is endeavoring to practice the truth revealed in 1 Corinthians 14:26 and Ephesians 4:11-16? At the end of my four years of study since returning to Taipei in 1984, the Lord has brought me to these two portions of the Word. I will speak on this until all of the saints in the meeting are speaking for Christ. We need speakings in the meetings of three or four minutes. We must practice this kind of speaking for the Lord. Some of the saints may feel that they cannot do this. This is why we have to learn and practice. We have to drop the traditional way, and rise up to learn to speak for Christ.