Question: If we want to meet on the church ground, gather around the Lord’s table, and be led freely by the Spirit, and if we extend open fellowship to all, but others do not come, where do we stand?

Answer: In today’s situation everything is complicated and confused, but we do not take responsibility for this. Rather, we must be responsible before the Lord for ourselves. If you see the light concerning the oneness of the church, you must practice it by the grace of God. Whether or not others would come is their responsibility. However, we must be careful of one thing: before beginning a meeting in any place, we must first find out if there are saints who are already meeting there and taking the ground of the church. If there are such believers, we must join them and submit ourselves to them. We should not start another meeting. If we are careless in this matter, we will do something wrong.

Question: Suppose there is such a group of believers, but some of the things they believe or practice are peculiar. How would you react?

Answer: It depends on how much these things damage the oneness. For instance, some believe in practicing foot-washing, whereas others believe in practicing head covering. These kinds of differences will not cause much damage to the oneness of the Body. To be sure, we cannot accept any difference that damages the oneness. However, when a difference concerns something that does not damage the oneness, when it is only a difference of thought, we need to be patient. The scriptural basis for this is Romans 14 and 15. In these chapters some saints insisted on eating meat, and others insisted on eating only vegetables. Some insisted on keeping certain days, and others considered every day the same. The apostle told them that they had to receive one another (14:1, 3; 15:7). His attitude was that those who keep certain days should not look down on those who do not, and that those who do not keep the days should not criticize those who do. He did not say what was right and what was wrong. He simply asked the saints to be patient with one another and receive one another. They had to accept all kinds of genuine believers.

Question: That would be a little hard to practice, would it not?

Answer: The matter of receiving the believers requires us to deny our self. For example, thirty years ago I saw the light that I should be baptized by immersion. From that time on, I would not agree with anyone who insisted on being sprinkled, and I refused to meet with such persons. Gradually, however, the Lord showed me that baptism by immersion is not what matters; what matters is Christ Himself. Having seen this, I can go along with those who insist on being sprinkled, as long as they love the Lord and live in the spirit.

The more we discuss matters of doctrine, the less we will be in the oneness. But if, instead of caring for differences in teaching and doctrine, we all learn to experience Christ in a genuine way day by day, we will be filled with Christ. Then we will forget about all the minor things. None of us will insist on anything, but we will bring everything to the Lord in fellowship to seek the Lord’s mind. The Lord will lead us on. There will be no need to set up any regulation or observe any rule in the way of legality and dead letters. We should simply take Christ as our life and come together as a genuine local expression of the Body in the place where we are.

Question: How do you differentiate between coming together through Christ and knowing the will of Christ? Do you have to know the will of Christ in order to believe in this teaching?

Answer: To attempt to settle everything by means of knowledge through teaching is a dead practice. Instead, we need to take the Lord as everything and experience Him in a living way. Whenever anything happens, we need to come together to seek the Lord’s mind by reading the Word, by prayer, and by fellowship. We do not need to set up any rules, but time after time and in a living way, we should simply take the living Lord with His living word for our experience. This will save us from the legality of dead letters and dead knowledge.

For example, it is a rule in dead letters to require the sisters to wear a head covering in the meetings. However, if we come together with the sisters to seek the Lord’s mind by reading His Word and consecrating ourselves to Him to allow Him to speak to us, the wearing of a head covering will be something living. When we trust in the Lord and honor Him, He will lead us. Although a sister may never be subdued or submissive by our speaking to her concerning head covering, if we pray and seek the Lord with her, she may be very willing to take the Lord’s word and command.

Question: Are you saying that even if what we teach is scriptural, if a person receives it only because we said it and not because the Spirit revealed it, then that is of the flesh and not of the Lord?

Answer: We must realize that human beings love to set up certain rules, doctrines, and teachings and live by them. But in the New Testament the Lord never set up such things; rather, He gave some living teachings. Similarly, when they wrote the Epistles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the apostles did not write in the way of setting up rules. Since this is the case, today we should not take the apostles’ teachings and set them up as rules. What the apostles wrote were living words from the Lord, words that are fresh and refreshing, and today we must also have such fresh and refreshing words. Therefore, in everything we need to seek the Lord’s mind together in a living way.

Question: How do we know where we are in the Body? How can we know our relationship to other members and how we fit in with the members in the Body?

Answer: The basic question we need to ask ourselves is, Do we really experience our Lord as life? If I live by my self and another member lives by his self, it will be very difficult for the two of us to fit in with each other. But if I live by the Lord and he lives by the Lord, it will be easy. When we come together, it will be easy to know where I am and where he is. Automatically and spontaneously, we will be fitted together in the experience of Christ as life. For example, I may not know whether I have the gift to minister the Lord’s word. Nevertheless, I know because of the inward anointing that I have a measure of grace to do something in the Body. Through the anointing of the Holy Spirit each one of us has an inward assurance to know where we are, what we should do, and how we should be related to the other members. There is an inner feeling, sense, and assurance that comes from the anointing of the Holy Spirit within us. This is spontaneous.

What the Lord is seeking today is, first, that His people would experience Him as life in their daily living and, second, that He would have a genuine local expression of Himself in every locality. We are not saying that teachings are not necessary, but the urgent need today is for us to experience Christ as our life in a real way and then come together as a genuine expression of Christ in the place where we are. This is simple and effective. If we practice this, the Lord will be with us in everything we do.

Question: Have many great men had this vision?

Answer: According to our study of history, there have only been two occasions when the Lord’s people endeavored to practice the church life in the genuine oneness. The first was with the Moravians under the leadership of Count Zinzendorf at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The second was with the British Brethren raised up by the Lord in the early nineteenth century. Apart from these two occasions, no other group intended to do this. For example, when the Baptists began to meet, they met not to have the church life but to maintain the truth of the proper baptism. The intention of the Presbyterians was not primarily to practice the church but to practice the Presbyterian system. Likewise, when John Wesley began a meeting, he did not have the light concerning the church. His intention was to practice holiness by a certain method, and this led to the name Methodist. Therefore, the attempt to practice the church life in the genuine oneness took place only on two occasions, the first of which was not as clear, full, or adequate as the second. However, today we believe that the Lord has taken a further step to realize the genuine expression of the Body of Christ in every place through the experience of Christ as life.