Verse 24 says also that this voice is the voice of the Almighty. It becomes the voice of God Himself. It is the voice of a corporate body, but eventually this voice becomes the voice of God. How marvelous!
The testimony of a local church should be like this. The voice in your local church should be the voice not of any individual but the voice of the Almighty.
Eventually, as verse 24 says, the voice is the voice of a fighting army.
Often the situation in the local churches is not like this, because the church does not have a clear, expanding, and stable heaven. If the brothers and sisters do not have the proper fellowship and coordination, they may try to vindicate themselves and claim to have something. But if they have something real, they do not need to claim anything. If they claim to be rich, this indicates that actually they are poor. A millionaire does not need to claim that he is rich. If our church is like the four living creatures, there is no need for us to claim anything for our church.
Consider again the wonderful situation in Ezekiel 1. Look at the expanse, the move, the coordination, and the fellowship. Here is the voice of great waters, the voice of the Almighty, and the voice of an army.
This cannot be accomplished in us overnight. We must begin with the blowing wind from the north and then pass through all the subsequent experiences in order to have a sky that is crystal clear.
All the local churches need to arrive at this point, following one another until we get there. In the New Jerusalem there is only one street (Rev. 21:21b; 22:1), indicating that there should be only one street in the church life today and that we all need to walk on it. We need to follow one another on this one street until we arrive at the point described in Ezekiel 1:22-25. This means that we need to have a clear sky with a wide expanse which is awesome and terrible in the eyes of others. When we reach this stage, we will have a proper testimony. We will have a voice like the sound of great waters and like that of the Almighty God and of an army fighting the battle for God’s economy.
There is another matter that we need to consider, and this is mentioned in verse 24b: “When they stood, they let down their wings.” Here we see that the living creatures do not move all the time. Sometimes they stop and stand still. When they stand still, they let down their wings, lowering them. When they hear a voice not out of their wings but out of the clear sky above their heads, they stop and let down their wings. This indicates that they know how to listen to God’s voice. They know not only how to speak and sound forth their voice but also how to listen to God’s voice. Whenever they listen to God’s voice, they stop moving, stand still, and lower their wings.
If we have a sky that is crystal clear, expanding, and stable, there will be a twofold result. On the one hand, having a clear sky enables us to speak; on the other hand, it enables us to listen. We speak to others, and we listen to God. This means that we should be a Christian who both speaks for God and listens to God’s speaking. If our condition is like that of the living creatures in Ezekiel 1, our sky will be clear, and then we will be able to speak for God and also to hear God’s speaking. The ability to speak and to hear depends upon having a clear sky.
A clear sky, speaking for the Lord, and listening to the Lord are all matters of fellowship. Genuine fellowship is related to genuine coordination. When we have fellowship with God and with one another, there will be a genuine coordination among us. Then as we move we can speak for God, and when God comes to speak to us, we can listen quietly to His speaking.
This should be the situation in all the local churches. A proper local church knows both how to move and how to stop, how to sound forth its voice and how to listen to God’s voice. Is your local church like this? I am concerned that your church may not know how to stop, lower its wings, and listen to the voice from the sky. I am also concerned that in your local church there may not be the proper coordination. Instead, there may be a one-man show, with one person doing everything and insisting that everything and everyone be under his control. Any local church that is like this will be poor and weak. No matter what such a church may claim to have, there is no voice coming from the wings. The coordination of the four living creatures, on the contrary, is not a one-man show. One person does not decide everything. Their coordination is a coordination of all the living creatures.
Ezekiel 1 presents the clearest picture in the Bible concerning the proper church life, and we all need to see the church life as it is portrayed in this chapter. The coordination shown here is marvelous. All the experiences in a wonderful sequence bring the living creatures to a point where they are under a crystal-clear, expanding, and stable heaven. Therefore, the living creatures have a proper move on earth and give a proper voice and testimony to the whole universe. Here they learn how to stop and listen to God’s voice. They know how to give the voice by moving and know how to listen to God’s voice by stopping.
We all, especially the leading ones in the local churches, need to see this picture and experience what is unveiled in it. May the Lord be merciful to us and cause all the local churches to be brought into the experiences depicted in this chapter.