In these days, whenever I have the time, I have been considering the Lord’s recovery according to what I have seen all these past years. As you know, it began there in China some sixty years ago, in 1922. The first ten years I was not there, but later I heard the history. Then for the past fifty-one years I have been directly involved and have seen many of the things that have happened. What I fellowship with you tonight is based upon what I have seen and heard.
Why am I burdened to talk with you in this way? It is because of the present situation and the situation yet to come. You may wonder how we can consider our future situation when we don’t know what it will be. Well, history does help us to visualize what may happen in the future. This is one factor. Another factor is that I am burdened to take care of some crucial matters, hoping to get them completed if the Lord wills. I want to concentrate my time and energy on these matters.
Because I do not have the time to visit the churches and help them directly, except in a limited way, I am burdened to put the things I have been considering into these practical talks and have them published. Then they will be useful not only for the present but also for the coming days. We don’t know how long the coming days will be; only the Lord knows. But for as long as the Lord tarries, the recovery will be on this earth. Even though the scale of the recovery is small, it is nonetheless scattered throughout all the continents and is still spreading. We all believe this spreading will continue, even though slowly. With these future days and future new ones especially in mind, I feel there needs to be a basic vision or basic knowledge of the Lord’s recovery.
Just five years ago a distraction came in which confused some dear ones who were concerned for the Lord’s recovery. Since such a thing could happen in the past right before our eyes, how can we have the assurance that such a thing will not be repeated in the future? Thus, while the Lord still grants me the days, I would like to do as much as I can to put things clearly into writing. Then the dear ones who are in and who will be brought into the Lord’s recovery can have a clear view about what it is.
What I would like to share I feel more free to say in these talks with you leading ones. I would not feel so free in a conference, speaking to a larger audience. These are not conference messages. Nonetheless, I want to have them printed for all the saints in the Lord’s recovery, whether old or new, experienced or newly saved. I hope every one will have a copy to read now and later as well.
It is easy to think of the recovery as meaning a reformation. I think such an understanding of the Lord’s recovery today is inadequate. I would say that even the reformation at Luther’s time was not an adequate recovery. While it may be considered as a part of the recovery, it is not what the Lord wants today. For today the Lord wants a recovery that is according to the complete revelation of the New Testament.
When we say the New Testament, we don’t mean that the New Testament has nothing to do with the Old. The New Testament is the outcome of the Old. In a true sense, the New Testament includes the Old. To speak of a recovery according to the complete revelation of the New Testament is the same as to say that it must be according to the whole Bible.
From the entire Bible we know that God is unique. He is the only God and He has a plan, which is also unique. Then, according to His plan, He has an economy, and this economy of His is also unique. Furthermore, in His economy there is His work, which is also unique. And to carry out His work, there is a way. This way is also unique. From this it is clear that what is revealed in the Bible is unique. God is unique. His plan is unique. His economy is unique. His work is unique, and His way to carry out the work is also unique.
In other words, as we have pointed out elsewhere, in the entire Bible there is only one line to carry out what God wants. Of course, there is another line, that of the evil work of God’s enemy. Yes, there are two lines in the Bible, but one belongs to God’s enemy. At the beginning of the Bible there are two trees and at the end, there is a city of water and a lake of fire. These two, the city of water and the lake of fire, are the consummation of the two trees. The tree of life will consummate in the city of water; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will consummate in the lake of fire. Between these two ends, throughout the entire Bible, are these two lines.
As those who have been saved, called, and separated by God unto His economy, we are not in the enemy’s line but rather in God’s. That this line is one is clear even in the Old Testament, but it becomes even clearer in the New. There is the one line of the unique God, of His unique plan, of His unique economy, of His unique work, and of His unique way.