We need to see that the Lord’s new way is the one way, the God-ordained way, and this way is to visit people for the preaching of the gospel and to establish home meetings for the building up of the church (Mark 16:15; Matt. 28:19; Acts 5:42). From the beginning of the Lord’s recovery in mainland China, we studied the Bible and the history of the church thoroughly so that we could see the proper practice of the church life. Brother Nee set forth the proper practice of the church life in his book The Normal Christian Church Life. We have said that we are taking the Lord’s new way, but actually this new way is an ancient way. Peter and Paul both took this way, and we are following them to take the same way.
The way of Christianity is the way of confusion. Confusion prevails in Christianity. We are living in the midst of this confusion, but we have been brought into the Lord’s recovery through His mercy to practice the one way to carry out His New Testament economy. In this new way, there should be no control. No one needs to get someone’s permission or approval to visit others by knocking on their doors. Because of the new way, however, there is an open door for us to think that we are free to do whatever we desire. We need to be impressed that we have only one way, and that this one way is the controlling factor among us.
Some saints have been in the Lord’s recovery for many years. They love the recovery and the church to the uttermost. When I began to share about visiting people for the preaching of the gospel and establishing home meetings, however, they were concerned about dropping our old way of meeting. Our old way of meeting was a production of the traditional practice of Christianity. We practiced to have big meetings all the time with big speakers delivering good messages. I pointed out to the saints who have been with us for many years that there is nothing wrong with having big meetings on the Lord’s Day with a good message given by a good speaker. Many of them had been listening to good messages for over thirty years, but I asked them how much fruit they had born in the years that they had been listening to those good messages. Some told me that they had brought ten to the Lord within the many years they had been in the church life. Then I told them to look at the actual situation today. When I left Taipei in 1961, the number of saints there was over twenty thousand. When I came back twenty-three years later, there were less than eleven thousand saints. I asked the saints who said that they had brought some to the Lord during the years they had been in the church life, where these ones were today.
Our old way to practice the church life may be good, but it is deadening. We must not take that way. When we are driving a car down the street and realize that it is a dead end, we will turn back. None of us would be foolish enough to keep driving through a dead end. When we see a dead end sign, we need to make a u-turn. Our old way to practice the church life is a dead end. We must take the new way, the God-ordained way, to practice the New Testament economy.
In the last two terms of the full-time training in Taipei, twenty-four thousand people have been baptized. Those who meet in the halls in Taipei are less than four thousand, but outside the halls there are over eight thousand meeting in homes. The number of saints meeting in the homes in Taipei is increasing. There are thousands of homes with small groups of saints worshipping God, preaching the gospel, teaching the truth, breaking bread, and fellowshipping one with another. All these home meetings make the Lord happy. These facts along with our history are convincing and subduing. Within ten years, I expect that there will be ten thousand homes meeting in Taipei.
Recently one young sister among us went out to visit people for close to a week without getting anyone baptized. She fasted, repented, and cried out to the Lord for a breakthrough. When she went out the next evening, she baptized six people. Her fasting prayer was heard by the Lord, and she gained six new ones. The God-ordained way to practice the New Testament economy is the unique way, the biblical way, and the most effective way.
If we love the Lord and do not want to take the Lord’s new way, we are foolish. The Lord Jesus did tell us, however, that no one who has drunk the old wine desires the new, for he says that the old is better (Luke 5:39). Actually, the new wine is better. When we get into the taste of knocking on doors to turn people to believe and be baptized, we will become addicted to this gospel service. When we establish home meetings and see the new ones growing in the divine life, we will be happy. These new ones whom we have baptized will be like our children whom we love and care for. We will be like nursing mothers (1 Thes. 2:7) who enjoy seeing their children grow. One leading one in the United States who was a trainee in the full-time training in Taipei told me he became addicted to knocking on people’s doors to get them baptized and to setting up and having home meetings.
All the new ones who have come into the Lord’s recovery through door knocking and through home meetings occasionally need to hear a proper message of truth related to the vision of the Lord’s recovery. The whole church needs to come together to give the Lord an opportunity to solidly root the new ones through their hearing of a proper message of God’s revelation. Providing the new ones with a vision cannot be done properly or adequately in small homes. We need the big meetings to perform this task. The new ones can meet in the homes during the week, and once a month they can come together to hear a proper message on God’s economy and on God’s divine revelation. In this way all the new ones will be solidly rooted and founded in truth. Some brothers need to give messages on the Lord’s recovery, on God’s economy, and on the divine revelation. They have to learn the truth and learn how to present the truth in a proper way in the Lord’s unique New Testament ministry. In the Old Testament there was only one ministry, the ministry of the law, and in the New Testament there is only one ministry, the ministry of the Spirit, the ministry of life, the ministry of righteousness (2 Cor. 3:6-9). We all are working for God’s purpose in this one ministry, so we have one way for one goal by one ministry.
The one goal in the Lord’s recovery is not merely for the spreading of the gospel, not merely for the release of the biblical truths, not merely for saving sinners, and not merely for edifying the believers, but mainly for the building up of the Body of Christ that God may have a corporate expression on the earth, even in this age, for the building up of the coming New Jerusalem as God’s eternal, corporate expression (Eph. 4:11-12; Rev. 21:2). We need to take this one way for one goal without opinion both in theory and in practice.
Furthermore, we take this one way for one goal without different teachings (1 Tim. 1:3-4). We take only the apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:42) as the healthy words of the Lord Jesus (1 Tim. 6:3). First Timothy 1 speaks of the teaching concerning God’s economy and chapter six speaks of the healthy words of the Lord Jesus. All the teachings of the apostles are for God’s economy, and these teachings are the healthy words of the Lord Jesus. The apostles learned these words from the Lord and followed the Lord to teach the same thing that He did. The apostles’ teaching is the teaching concerning God’s economy. We must preach and teach concerning Christ’s unsearchable riches and God’s New Testament economy. In Ephesians 3:8 Paul speaks of the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel and in verse 9 he speaks of God’s eternal economy. We must preach and teach these two items. May the Lord preserve us in the one way for one goal without opinion and without different teachings.