The Lord’s mind, thought, intention, and heart are for the Body, the church, and the building up of the local churches in various places. If there are a few thousand believers in a locality built up together as one Body, they will have an impact, but even if there are only a few saints in a locality built up together, they will still have an impact. None of them may be famous or gifted; everyone may be ordinary, yet because they are fitted together, coordinated, and knit as a living Body, they will have an impact. My physical body does not consist of giant members but of small members built together. Nonetheless, my body has impact. It can speak, see, hear, eat, drink, dress, sing, and more. When the members of my body are one, there is an impact. On the other hand, if the members of my body were detached, the impact would be gone; there would be only a heap of bones. When we look at the present situation in Christianity, we see mainly a heap of bones (cf. Ezek. 37:1-2). Thus, there is a need for the genuine building among the Lord’s children.
Every spiritual matter is related to the Body. If we have the genuine building, we have everything. When we are built up as the Body and go to preach the gospel, the Body preaches the gospel. This kind of preaching is prevailing and effective. However, the Lord’s children today have no appetite for this matter. Instead, they are all seeking their personal interests, personal salvation, personal victory, and personal healing, blessing, and spirituality. Many Christians are offended when we talk to them about the matter of the church or the building because they have no heart or appetite for this matter.
There are some seeking ones, however, who feel a need in their spirit and heart. These seeking ones long and seek for something more. They feel a need, but they do not know what they need and cannot explain what they are seeking. They have a thirst and a lack, but they cannot explain what will satisfy them. Though they may be very spiritual, they cannot be satisfied apart from the genuine church, the genuine building up of the Body. However, once they see the building of the church and enter into it, they feel satisfied and realize that this is what they were seeking. Their inner sense confirms this matter in them.
We have many items of truth and practice in the Lord’s recovery, but we do not stress any of those items as much as we stress Christ and the church. We must experience Christ as our life and our everything, and we must have the church as the expression of Christ. If we stress these two matters, all the other matters will be resolved spontaneously and automatically. Many problems can be solved by helping people to experience Christ as their life and as everything in their daily living and by helping them to come together, submit to one another, and be built up together for the expression of Christ. As long as we have these two items of Christ and the church, all other problems will be automatically solved.
Since the time of the Reformation about five hundred years ago, the Lord has recovered many items, and we feel that the building up of the church may be the last item of the Lord’s recovery before He comes back. Before the Lord comes back, He must have the church on this earth. In the Old Testament when Absalom drove his father David away from Jerusalem, some people prepared the way for David to return. Similarly, there is the need for some prevailing churches on the earth to prepare the way for the Lord to come back. This will not be accomplished by Christianity as a whole. Rather, there needs to be a remnant—the New Testament overcomers. In the seven epistles to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, the Lord sounds the call for the overcomers, the remnant (2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 20-21). We believe that in the last days before the Lord comes back, He will send out a call for the remnant, the overcomers, to be built up together as the living expression of the Lord’s Body. This will prepare the way for the Lord to return.
Question: Many Christians whom we contact come to the recovery for the blessings but simultaneously remain in their own denominations. When they need the Lord, they come here, but their money, work, and effort go to their particular denominations. It seems that they are interested only in taking away from the church and not in building up the church. How can we change this?
Answer: The Lord will not bless us if our intention is to pull people out from the denominations to help us. Our intention should be to help all the Lord’s children. While we are working with such an intention, the Lord may sovereignly cause some brothers and sisters to come together to be a nucleus and to stand on the right ground and position to practice the real expression of the Lord’s Body. As more blessing and more of the Lord’s presence is realized, people will come to get the help. After they have been helped, they may go back to their denominations to help others. If this happens, we must let them go and believe that this is something under the Lord’s hand. We must give them the full liberty to either remain in our meetings or return to their denominations. For the most part, we should not tell people to leave their denominations. We must believe that the Lord will sovereignly cause some saints to be clear concerning the recovery and that He will cause some to be a nucleus to bring in the Lord’s blessing for His children.
Question: Could you give us an example from your experience of how a church is raised up and established?
Answer: Most of the local churches in China were raised up not through famous ministers or preachers but through the believers, those who had secular jobs in the world. For instance, perhaps a brother who is a schoolteacher is transferred to another city. When he arrives there, he begins to preach the gospel and to contact believers and have fellowship with them. This schoolteacher may invite his colleagues from school, his neighbors, or even his students to his home for a meal and some fellowship. In this way some may be saved, and these may lead others to be saved in the same way. Then these saved ones may begin meeting in the schoolteacher’s home, and when the number of those meeting increases to a proper number, they may establish a local meeting. This way is very simple and effective. The local ones must preach the gospel.
In order to carry out the building up of the local expression of the Lord’s Body, we must realize that the building must be started in the way of life, not in the way of a movement. The way of a movement does not work; only the way of life works. It is good and even necessary to pay attention to other experiences such as the experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. However, the most important thing is to help people to know Christ in the way of life. I am not against the baptism in the Holy Spirit, but the most vital factor for the building up of the church is life. All the experiences such as the baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues are for the building up of the church, but the main factor is life. With our physical body, the most vital factor is life. Our bodies need exercise, air, and sunshine, but these things, though they are for life, are not life itself. Thus, in order to build up the church as the Body of Christ, we must help people to know Christ as life.