In this training for the working saints, I have a heavy burden. There are many things I want to say to you. Tonight, we want to consider the relationship between the working saints and the new way in the Lord’s recovery. Recently, I heard a saying that the working saints are the backbone of the church. I feel that this description is most appropriate. The working saints are the backbone of the church. When a man has trouble with his backbone, his whole body is in trouble. The older folks are especially careful to protect their backbones. The backbone is a very important part of a man’s body. In the same way, the working saints are very important in the new way in the Lord’s recovery.
God’s economy is to dispense Himself into His created and chosen people that they may be regenerated to become His children and the members of Christ through transformation, conformation, and eventually glorification. When these ones come together, they constitute the Body of Christ to express the Triune God in eternity. Strictly speaking, the Lord’s recovery is simply God’s economy. This new way in the recovery is simply a way to practice God’s economy. Hence, the new way is not merely a matter of preaching the gospel and bringing sinners to believe in the Lord and be saved. That is only the initial stage. The new way is to carry out God’s economy all the way from God’s dispensing to His expression.
This way is a way of labor, striving, and struggle. I myself deeply feel that my experience during the past three and a half years has been one of laboring and striving. It is not a simple matter to bring a large church like the church in Taipei to the proper track of the new way. But tonight from the depths of my heart I do thank God for His grace. We should all bow down our heads and worship Him. The church in Taipei is now on the right track. The attendance at tonight’s meeting is a proof that we are all on the right track. What we need in the Lord’s recovery now are the young and the middle-aged saints.
The first qualification of being a “young or middle-aged saint” is to grow up in the life of God. After three and a half years of experimenting, we have found out that after a person is baptized, we need to spend at least five to six months to feed him before he can become stable and somewhat free from the infant stage. You who are sitting here tonight have to admit that you have grown up in the life of God. How much more we should grow is a different question; but nevertheless, you have all grown.
The evil one means something pernicious, harmfully evil, affecting and influencing others to be evil and vicious; it is personified. This personified one is Satan, the Devil, in whom the whole world lies (1 John 5:19). To overcome the evil one is a characteristic of a grown-up and strong saint (1 John 2:13b). He is nourished, strengthened, and maintained by the word of God. This word abides and operates in him to oppose Satan, the world, and all the lusts thereof.
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