The patterns of prophesying can be seen with Isaiah and Jeremiah in the Old Testament and with Mary and Zachariah in the New Testament. Isaiah’s prophesying in Isaiah 12:2-5 is not foretelling. He speaks the Lord in these verses: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. Sing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth.” In this portion of the Word, Isaiah speaks the Lord, speaks forth the Lord, and speaks the Lord into all of us. When we read this portion from Isaiah, we have the feeling that Isaiah has spoken the Lord into us.
Jeremiah’s speaking in Lamentations 3:22-26 is another pattern of prophesying: “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.” Jeremiah told us that it is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed. This is not foretelling but blessing, well-speaking. He told us that the mercies, the compassions, of the Lord are new every morning. We need to learn to prophesy in this way. Jeremiah told the Lord, “Great is thy faithfulness.” There is a well-known hymn based upon this verse (Hymns, #19). Jeremiah also said that the Lord was his portion. It is marvelous that there was a prophet in the Old Testament who knew that the Lord was his portion. When we tell others that the Lord is our portion, we are speaking the Lord to them.
We have already seen how both Mary and Zachariah spoke for the Lord in Luke 1. Their speaking in this portion of the Word (vv. 46-55, 67-79) is prophesying. They were saturated with the holy Word, they had the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and they had a clear view.
In October of 1988, I began to teach the saints in Taipei how to prophesy. Taipei has over one hundred district meetings on the Lord’s Day with about fifty saints in each district meeting. Fifty is a good number because it gives all the saints more of an opportunity to prophesy. The saints are in a particular book of the New Testament, and each week they cover one chapter from this book. The brothers divide this chapter into six portions for six days of the week, and the saints use these portions each day for morning watch. Each portion may have about six to seven verses, and two of these verses are chosen for the saints to pray-read that they may enjoy the Lord in His Word.
I told the saints to write down a short reminder of what the Lord inspires them with each morning. After Saturday morning the saints will have six notes of the inspiration that they received during the week. I shared with them that on Saturday evening they can pray-read these six inspirations. When the saints add these six inspirations together, they will have a total inspiration. They can then compose a prophecy with this total inspiration. Some of the brothers function as tutors or coaches to help the saints compose their prophecy. These brothers may advise them to adjust their prophecy so that it is close to three minutes long. If their prophecy is too short, they will be asked to lengthen it. If it is too long, they will be asked to shorten it. The brothers also help the saints with the form and content of their prophecy.
On the Lord’s Day morning, the saints pray to get their spirit prepared. They go to the meeting with the prophecy they have prepared and with a living and ready spirit. When the saints come together in their districts on the Lord’s Day, each one has something. The saints are so happy to speak when they labor in this way. In the past we may have charged the saints to speak, to function, but they did not know what to speak or how to function. With this kind of practical perfecting today, the saints know what to speak, they are learning how to function, and they are looking forward to the meeting so that they can grasp an opportunity to speak for the Lord. The saints are ready to speak when they come to the meeting like runners ready to run in a one hundred yard dash. The saints in Taipei have been practicing this, and they have testified that this way to prophesy is rich, high, and living.
I would like to recommend this way to all the local churches. If we decide to go through the Epistles of Paul, covering about one chapter a week, we can finish them in about two years. If we take this way, within two years the saints will be greatly edified and built up organically. This practice of all prophesying will bring in the organic building up of the Body of Christ. We need to consider this practical way to help the saints prophesy, but we should not do it legally.
The elders may be excited about the fellowship in this book and may be eager to practice it, but we should not practice it too fast. We should do everything gradually. We still need to keep the big meeting on the Lord’s Day to have the Lord’s table and to have a time to practice the mutual speaking. In the initial stage this meeting may not be so rich. The leading ones should prepare something to share at the end of the meeting for ten or fifteen minutes in order to strengthen and enrich the meeting and satisfy the attendants. In this way we can keep the attendants, and gradually they will learn to prepare something to prophesy and speak mutually in the meetings. At a certain time, when the brothers feel that the time is ripe, the church can practice what I have fellowshipped above. We should not do this suddenly but gradually. It may take six months to a year for the leading ones to prepare the situation and help the saints get used to a meeting that is in full mutuality. We should not have a sudden change of our present situation in the church life. To change our practice suddenly is to ask the saints to “jump from the fifth floor.” Instead we must lead the saints to take the “stairway” so that they can gradually be brought into the Lord’s scriptural way. Eventually, the saints will be ready to have a complete change, and we will not lose anyone. I hope that the Lord will give us the wisdom to practice the scriptural way so that He can have the present advance of His recovery.