Question: Can you tell us more about the process of transformation?
Answer: Precious stones are not created directly but are formed through the transforming of created materials. For example, a diamond is formed from carbon, a created substance, that is put into an environment of intense heat and high pressure for a period of time. We were originally created of clay, but one day the Lord put Himself into us as a new element in order that we may experience a metabolic change. This metabolic change needs not only the Lord as the new element to replace our old element, but also an environment of heat and pressure. Many times the Lord puts us into an environment of heat and pressure. We need a certain amount of burning and pressing; otherwise, we will remain created material that has not been transformed. In order to be transformed from clay into precious stones for God’s building, we must pass through a process of burning and pressing. We need not be afraid of this, but when we experience it, we should know where we are.
Question: I have realized that Christ is my life and that He is transforming me into a precious stone through trials and tribulations to conform me more and more to be like Him. But as far as the matter of building is concerned, this is something new. Can you say something more about building?
Answer: Most Christians think that they must be spiritual, not realizing that eventually they need to be built up with other Christians. To be genuinely spiritual means to be transformed into a precious stone in order to be built up with others. However, today many Christians merely seek a certain kind of spirituality and do not know anything about being built up. They can be likened to beautiful stones that are exhibited in a museum for others’ appreciation. The purpose of our being transformed is not to be an exhibit. We are transformed to be the materials for God’s building. Individual spirituality does not count for anything. We need to be spiritual in order to be built up with others. Without being tested by the building, we might think that we are spiritual, but when we are put into the building, we are examined as to whether our spirituality is genuine or not. A young brother who is a bachelor and is not related to anyone may dream that he is more spiritual than Martin Luther, but once he has a wife and three or four children, and once he begins to serve together with other brothers in the church life, he will be tested. Then he will know where he is and what he is. He will find that he is a most unspiritual person and that whatever spirituality he thinks he has is false and is simply in his imagination. We need to be built up with others. If we can be spiritual with our wife, with our children, and with the brothers, our spirituality is genuine. We need to be spiritual and to be built up as well. The more individualistic we are, the more it is proven that we are not spiritual.
In the Far East there are a few single sisters who think that they are very spiritual. I knew a single sister who was very nice, who loved the Lord, and who sought the Lord. Everyone admired her and considered her better than an angel. After she married, several times she came to me in tears concerning her husband. Later, she had children. As the children grew up, there were many problems. The husband and the children were all trials to her. After learning all the lessons, she testified, “Dear brothers and sisters, before I was married, my spirituality was absolutely false. Today, after the Lord put me through fire with a husband and children, I can say that there might be something in my spirituality that is really of the Lord.”
Many Christians today remain in the old condition without any transformation. Because of this, there is an urgent need for messages like this one to render help to the Lord’s children. After receiving this kind of help, we will realize the genuine church life, which is not merely to come together but to experience Christ more and more. Christ is life to us, and we, the church, the Body of Christ, are the expression of Christ. God planned in eternity past and has been seeking in generation after generation to be life to man in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that His redeemed and regenerated ones may be transformed and built up together as a corporate expression of Christ.
Question: Is it not true that before the Lord’s coming, it will be impossible for the church as a whole to actually be His Body?
Answer: In the Scriptures, especially related to the matter of the church, there is the principle of the overcomers, the remnant. As a whole, the church has failed the Lord, but today, before His coming back, the Lord is calling the overcomers. This is revealed in the seven epistles to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3. There the Lord spoke many things concerning the churches, and at the end of each epistle He issued a call for the overcomers, the remnant. On the one hand, we must expect that all the Lord’s children will be helped in a general way, but on the other hand, we must realize that, according to the prophetic teaching of the Scriptures, before the Lord’s coming back only a comparatively small number of believers will respond to the Lord’s calling and become the overcomers to fill the place that the church as a whole has lost. As a whole the church has failed the Lord, but part of the church will answer the Lord’s call to be the overcomers to fulfill God’s purpose on behalf of the whole church. This is the principle of the overcomers, the principle of the remnant.
In Revelation the New Jerusalem is the wife of the Lamb, Christ. In chapter 12 there is a universal woman who is about to give birth to a man-child (vv. 1-2). The woman symbolizes the totality of God’s people on earth, and the man-child is the stronger part of God’s people. In biblical typology, a male signifies a strong one, and a female, a weaker one (1 Pet. 3:7). The majority of the church, signified by the woman, is weak, and only a small part, signified by the man-child, is strong. This stronger part will shepherd the nations with an iron rod (Rev. 12:5). According to Revelation 2:26-27, those who will shepherd the nations with an iron rod are the overcomers. Thus, the man-child is composed of the overcomers, the stronger part of the Body of Christ. In the eyes of God the whole Body, the whole church, is like a woman, a weaker vessel.
We realize that there is an urgent need because there are many seeking ones in different localities. Although they may not know what they hunger for, we know that they hunger for Christ as life and for the real expression of the church. The Holy Spirit works this hunger into the spirit of the seeking saints. Within the seeking saints is a deep sense which nothing can satisfy. Revivals will not satisfy their hunger, for the more revivals there are, the more hunger they feel. Christ is the satisfying life to be experienced by all His seeking ones. Once they discover the secret of experiencing Christ, they will be satisfied. They are also seeking for a genuine church life, without which they will never be satisfied. This is because they need a family, a home. Life is Christ, and the home, the family, is the church. We must minister Christ as life to these hungry, seeking saints and afford them a spiritual home, that is, the church.
Two and a half years ago I came to this country for the second time. I went to New York and stayed with the church in New York City from the fall of 1960 until the end of the year, a period of two and a half months. In December I came back to the West en route to the Far East. At that time I had a deep and clear sense that the Lord would do something in this country, especially along the West Coast.
I told the brother with whom I was staying my feeling, but he would not believe me and thought that I was dreaming. Even I must admit that I had no intention of coming to America a third time. Yet I was brought, and even forced, by the Lord to come here a third time, and my visit lasted for a whole year. At the end of October, as I tried to leave, the Lord put His hand upon me to keep me here. The Lord closed the door on whatever way I tried to leave. I had prepared everything for my return to the Far East, but the Lord did everything to frustrate me, and I had to submit myself to Him. I told Him, “Even though there is a large work in the Far East, if You want me to stay here, I must go along with You.” At that time I was staying in Seattle. I called a brother in San Francisco, and he was astonished to learn that I was still in America. I asked him to go to Sacramento with me. Then I called a brother in Los Angeles, and he too was astonished, thinking that I had gone back to the Far East already. I told the brothers that I would go to San Francisco, then to Sacramento, and after that to Los Angeles in order to stay there for a longer time. That was the end of November. Consider what has happened since then. In one place the number coming together has increased from six persons to about seventy. Something has happened in Los Angeles, and many things have happened along the West Coast in different cities. Wherever I go, I meet seeking ones who tell me that it is only in the last two or three years that something has happened among them. People tell me the same thing, that is, that if I had come earlier than this, no one would have listened to me. It is only within these two or three years that something has happened. Now after hearing us, they feel that what we minister to them is exactly what they need.