I knew that preaching the gospel by going to people where they are was the first step for the new way, but I was not yet enlightened to fully see the following steps. In the summer of 1988, though, I began to see that after the preaching of the gospel, we must have meetings in mutuality by prophesying (1 Cor. 14) through the perfecting by the gifted persons (Eph. 4:11-16). First Corinthians 14 and Ephesians 4 became so clear, living, impressive, and encouraging to me. Although I have expounded 1 Corinthians 14 a number of times in the past and have conducted at least four studies of the book of Ephesians, these two portions of the Word were never as clear to me as they have become recently.
The stress and emphasis of 1 Corinthians 14 is not simply on meeting but on prophesying, on every member of the Body of Christ speaking for the Lord. In verse 31 the Apostle Paul was strong to say, “You can all prophesy one by one.” In this chapter to prophesy does not denote to foretell, or to predict, but to carry out the divine oracle, that is, to speak for the Lord and speak forth the Lord into others’ spirits. This is to dispense the Triune God in Christ, His embodiment, into the needy ones. This is the top definition of prophesying. Paul promoted prophesying to the uttermost. In verse 1 he says, “Pursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy.” To prophesy is the top gift. In verse 39 he repeated his desire: “Therefore, my brothers, desire earnestly to prophesy.”
We must stress speaking for the Lord by every member of the Body. In verses 24 and 25, Paul said, “But if all prophesy and some unbeliever or unlearned person enters, he is convicted by all, he is judged by all; the secrets of his heart become manifest; and so falling on his face, he will worship God, reporting that God is really among you.” First Corinthians 14:26 says, “What is it then, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation.” The principle of 1 Corinthians 14:26 is a meeting full of mutuality. Every attendant has something.
In our past we did not have meetings according to 1 Corinthians 14:26. I also could not find any mention of the practice of such meetings in church history or in the biographies and writings of great Christians. In 1937 Brother Watchman Nee, the senior co-worker among us, saw the light concerning 1 Corinthians 14:26, and he was caught by this vision. He pointed out that the old way of a congregation with one person speaking and the rest listening is according to “the customs of the nations” (2 Kings 17:8—NASB). In the Old Testament, God charged His people not to worship according to the customs of the nations after they came into the good land. The traditional practice of meeting is not scriptural but rather is something of the Gentiles, and we have to give it up. Brother Nee proposed that instead of having a meeting on the Lord’s Day morning, the saints should go out to preach the gospel. However, at that time we did not have a way to do this or to practice 1 Corinthians 14:26 because we had nothing with which to replace the traditional way.
The meeting on the Lord’s Day morning has become a strong habit with Christians. Even the unbelievers, before they become Christians, have the thought that the Christian way to worship God is to come together on the Lord’s Day morning as a congregation with a certain speaker. This is the prevailing concept in almost every country on earth. It is hard to remove this habit from the dear saints who have been accustomed to it for years. Many may feel happy about church meetings in the principle of one man speaking with the rest listening. If we stopped the Lord’s Day morning meeting in order to go out to preach the gospel, many would simply become idle. Some might even become disappointed and drop the church life.
In 1948 Brother Nee conducted a training for four months. In that training he gave a series of messages on different subjects. One series of messages has been translated into English as the book Church Affairs. In these messages he repeated and stressed again more strongly that there is no need to maintain the old practice of meeting which is so strongly a part of people’s habit. He told us that if we all pushed against the pressure of tradition, our situation would eventually change.
At the end of 1948 China fell into the hands of the Communists, and I was sent to Taiwan. There was no more time for us to practice the revelation Brother Nee had seen and published. Shortly afterwards, in 1952, Brother Nee was put into prison where he remained until he died in 1973. In Taiwan and the Philippines and later in this country, we never practiced his revelation. For many years Brother Nee had seen the vision from 1 Corinthians 14, and he spoke concerning it in messages which we printed, yet his vision simply remained on our bookshelves. In 1984 when I went to Taiwan to seek the Lord for a new way, a new start, this vision came back to me and I reconsidered it. I had the revelation concerning 1 Corinthians 14, but I did not know the way to practice it. However, when our situation came to a standstill, I was forced to study the way. After close to four years of study, 1 Corinthians 14 was made clear to me.