Although I had contact with Brother Nee's ministry in 1925, I did not come into the Lord's recovery in a full way until 1932. Since that time I have seen the recovery passing through a process of coming out of Christendom. Even today we have not come out of Christendom in a thorough way. We still have something of Christendom within us, even unconsciously. When we come to a meeting, we may expect a good speaker to speak to us. In nature, this is the element and cause of fallen Christendom. This is the evil element of Nicolaitanism, the clergy-laity system, which the Lord hates (Rev. 2:6). Why do we not come to the meetings prepared to minister something? We may say that we are weak, but we are strong in expecting to listen to a good message. We may dislike going to a meeting where there is not a good speaker. This is the subtle element of the clergy-laity system still remaining within us.
The Lord's recovery is for bringing us out of this unscriptural system and back to the beginning of the pure practice of the church life according to the divine revelation. In the beginning the saints were focused on the divine Spirit mingled with their human spirit—the mingled spirit (Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 8:4). The saints, the chosen ones, the saved ones, were in the spirit enjoying Christ, experiencing Christ, and expressing Christ in a corporate way. That was the church life in the beginning. In this proper church life, there were no religion, no outward regulations, no rituals, and no vain doctrines or teachings. The saints were exercised to be in the spirit to enjoy Christ, to experience Christ, and to express and speak Christ in a corporate way.
Through all the years of the history of the local churches, the Lord has been recovering us little by little. The progress of this recovery has been somewhat hindered, though, because of our dullness. Today we are still somewhat under the "drugging" influence of Christendom. The Lord's recovery is to bring us up out of a fallen situation. It is easy to be down, but to be brought up is difficult. To be brought up is a struggle. The Lord in His recovery is bringing us up and up to His divine standard. The more we are brought up, the simpler we become. The more we are brought up, the more we become nothing.
In books such as Romans and Ephesians, there are many teachings, but in Revelation, there is just the spirit—the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God (1:4; 4:5; 5:6) and the human spirit (1:10; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10). John was in spirit and he saw the golden lampstands—one lampstand for one city (1:10-12). He did not see thousands of believers. He saw only one lampstand for one city. This is so simple. The many believers in a city should be just one lampstand in one accord, without disputation, different opinions, or different concepts and divisions. Thank the Lord that we are here today standing in oneness, but in our hearts we may still hold on to something of ourselves and something other than Christ. In God's eyes, a local church must be so simple. It should be a lampstand of pure gold without mixture—so simple, single, and pure.
To each of the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, the Lord says, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). This is so simple—the Spirit speaks to the churches. Eventually, the entire Bible consummates with the Spirit and the bride (Rev. 22:17a). By God's work throughout the ages, all the saints and the Spirit speak the same thing. All the many saints are one bride. Are we one bride today? In a sense we are, but we may still be holding on to our concepts and opinions that damage the one accord. We are still in a situation in which we need the Lord's rescue, the Lord's recovery. I am afraid that a number of us are still under the negative influence of Christendom. We all have to realize that today the Lord is going on and on to fully recover us and bring us fully out of Christendom. The Lord desires something fully in the spirit.
The book of Revelation is a book of the Spirit and the bride. The church is something absolutely in the Spirit. We need to turn to our spirit and stay in our spirit. In the spirit we are one. Nothing is as important or as strategic in the New Testament as the oneness of the believers. The Lord Jesus prayed that we all would be one (John 17:21). Some maintain that they want to be scriptural, but in their exercise to be scriptural, they divide the saints. Nothing is more unscriptural than to divide the saints. It is better to have a whole man who is dirty, than a clean, dismembered arm of a man. The arm being clean may be likened to being "scriptural." Although the arm is clean, it is apart from the body and divided from the body. Some use scriptural things with an intention to divide the saints, but division is the most unscriptural thing.
Our need today is to be in the Spirit and in the Body, in the Spirit and in the oneness. We should care only for being in the Spirit and in the Body. This is what the Lord has been doing among us and with us throughout our history. Year after year the Lord has been gaining something because we are becoming clearer that the Lord's desire is absolutely a matter of our being in the Spirit and in the Body.