In the present advance of the Lord’s recovery, He is also moving to recover the church meeting in mutuality (1 Cor. 14:23a, 26). In a big meeting with one person speaking and the rest listening, there is no mutuality. We have to meet as the church in the way that is revealed in 1 Corinthians 14:26— “Whenever you come together, each one has....” We may wonder how we can have a big meeting in which everyone functions since the meeting would last too long. If two hundred saints each share for only one minute, that meeting would last three hours and twenty minutes. “Each one has,” however, does not mean that each one functions. Whether we function or not in the meeting, we still have something. Even if we may not have the time to function, we will still be exercised and prepared to function. If we know that a certain brother is going to give a message, there is no need for us to get prepared to speak. But when the saints gather together according to 1 Corinthians 14:26, we do not know who will speak, and we all have to bear the responsibility to speak. For every meeting we should get ourselves exercised to have something ready to share in the meeting. Then day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, we all will be exercised for the building up of the Body of Christ organically. Even though we may not share, we still were exercised.
In the church meeting in mutuality, each attendant has a portion of the riches of Christ to share with others mutually. If we are idle and do not exercise ourselves, how can we have a portion of the riches of Christ? We have to pray, get into the Word, have our mind and spirit exercised, and have our voice exercised to share in the meetings. For the sake of the meetings, we have to exercise all the time. Our exercise will make us healthy Christians. This is for the building up organically of the church as the organic Body of Christ. I must stress again that this is our shortage. We must ask the Lord to have mercy upon us and grant us the recovery of the church meeting in mutuality. We should hate to go to a meeting as “pew members” without any exercise, to merely listen, watch, and enjoy others’ sharing. This is wrong.
The recovery of the organic building up of the Body of Christ, of the perfecting of the common members of the Body of Christ, and of the church meeting in mutuality fulfills the words in Matthew 16:18, Ephesians 4:11-16, and 1 Corinthians 14:26 concerning the building up, in three levels, of the church as the Body of Christ. The three levels of building up are as follows: the Head builds up His Body by giving the gifted persons as the joints to His Body (Eph. 4:11); the gifted persons perfect each one part of the Body of Christ (v. 12); and each one part operates in its measure to build up the Body directly (v. 16). Without the fulfillment of Matthew 16:18, Ephesians 4:11-16, and 1 Corinthians 14:26, the Lord cannot come back. Regardless of the attacks, opposition, and criticism, the Lord will move to recover the building up of the organic Body of Christ, the perfecting of the saints so that all can do the work of the ministry, and the church meeting in mutuality. I have the faith, the assurance, and the certainty that the Lord today is going to recover these three items among us. I feel that we are the right persons today and that we are in the right time. I expect to see this within my lifetime. I believe that within five years a great number of the local churches will be practicing these items. We need a strong deviation from the old way into the present advance of the Lord’s recovery.