I would like all of you to know that this training is not just to train the elders, or the co-workers, or the full-timers, but this training is to train all the brothers and sisters. The intention in this training is to tear down hierarchy and eliminate class structure among us.
Chapter fourteen of 1 Corinthians says that whenever we come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation (v. 26). “Has” is used five times here; five is the number for responsibility. What each one has is not definitely set. In following the Spirit, nothing is definitely set. Nevertheless, we have to be responsible to prepare. Only when we have fallen into a degraded condition will the meeting follow a set pattern. Forgive me for exposing your weakness. The concept of rank, the thought of class structure, this way of taking the lead—these things have entered into our blood. We are too accustomed to depending on the leading ones to direct the meeting.
In church history, the matter that is most condemned by the Lord is the matter of the Nicolaitans, which later developed into religious organization. For example, in Catholicism the pope is at the top; under the pope are the cardinals; under the cardinals are the archbishops and bishops; and under the bishops are more levels. This is religious organization.
Among us it seems that there is no religious organization, but the germ is still here. In our concept, a meeting is led by the elders with a few co-workers. Then what do the rest of the brothers and sisters come to do? They come to do nothing, because the leading ones and the responsible ones are present. When prayer is needed, someone will do it. When a message is needed, even the more, there are the experts who will do it. So the brothers and sisters have nothing to do except to sit there, producing a “Sunday service.” Some look around, some look at the ceiling, and some stare at the floor. A carpenter produces chairs, a shoe factory produces shoes, and a “church” with its pastor and congregation produces a “Sunday service.”
I describe these situations to show you that the Lord’s church on the earth has degraded to such an extent. Christians come to the meetings and sit motionless in their chairs. It seems as if their tongues have been cut off, their teeth have fallen out, their lips have been removed, and even their vocal chords have become mute. Do not think that I am joking. If you come to the meetings without opening your mouth, allowing only one person to speak while the rest listen, you are producing a “Sunday service.”
I have been studying the Bible for sixty years, but there is one verse that I noticed only very recently. This verse is Numbers 11:29, where Moses said, “Would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets.” Those who translated the Chinese version did not dare to translate it exactly as “all...were prophets”; rather, they translated “all...were prophets” into “all...were inspired to speak.” If you knew Hebrew, you would see that the original meaning is “all the Lord’s people were prophets.”
The prophet mentioned in this verse is not what we usually think of as a prophet, that is, one who predicts the future. In the book of Isaiah, which has a total of sixty-six chapters, all the portions of prediction added together do not exceed six chapters. There are still another sixty chapters that are not predictions but speaking for God. The primary qualification for being a prophet is not predicting, but speaking for God and speaking forth God. This was what the prophet Isaiah did and what the prophet Jeremiah also did, that is, speaking for God and speaking forth God.