The Lord’s recovery came to us through Brother Watchman Nee. Throughout the years we have learned that we should not try to unify the saints. At the beginning of the Lord’s recovery in the United States in Elden Hall, Pentecostal people sometimes came among us and spoke in tongues. The leading ones looked to me to do something, but I told them not to do anything. I said that since they are Pentecostal, let them be Pentecostal. If they like to speak in tongues, let them speak in tongues. This is what we mean when we say we need to practice the generality of the church life, as I shared in the book entitled The Speciality, Generality, and Practicality of the Church Life. The messages in that book were given in the summer of 1971.
Because we are not denominational, but general, the brothers who come into the Lord’s recovery have the liberty to practice what they want. We do not have the control. Every denomination has their particular creed and belief. Based upon their creed and belief, they control people. Among us there is nothing like this. Our trust is in the Lord as the Spirit and the life within the believers. Throughout the years we have given many messages on the Lord as the Spirit living in us that we may enjoy His life to live Him.
The apostle Paul was very general in his practice. He was general to such an extent that he was even convinced by James to go to the temple to help people consummate the Nazarite vow (Acts 21:18-26). On this occasion Paul went too far, so the Lord came in to cause a big tumult to stop him. The Lord would not tolerate his participating in a strict Judaic practice such as the Nazarite vow. The Lord stopped him in order to keep the truth of the gospel clear to the coming generations. However, this does show that Paul was a person who would be so general in the church life.
I have been speaking in the church for sixty-one years, since 1932. Throughout these years I have passed through many things, so the events of the recent turmoil among us were not a new experience to me. Such rebellion and opposition have been repeated throughout the New Testament and throughout our history. Paul was condemned of cheating others (2 Cor. 12:16); the Lord Jesus was cheated; and we have been cheated and falsely condemned. But we still have to practice the generality, and we do not want to do anything to control anyone. Paul did not try to control things and neither do we.
Whenever there has been a turmoil, we have learned to be simple by staying with the tree of life and staying away from anything related to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The general teaching in Christianity is that if you are going to be a preacher, you need to know the people to whom you are preaching, but our practice is different from this. Sometimes before going out to a certain place, the co-workers asked me what they should do and what I knew about the people there. I told them that if they had the burden from the Lord and felt led of the Lord, they should go and speak what the Lord leads them to speak. They should not try to know anything. It is better not to know things. We have learned that it is best to be simple, single, and uncomplicated, staying away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The recent turmoil rose up mainly to put me down. Certain ones decided not only to put me down but also to put me out. Now they are endeavoring to preach their kind of doctrine to accomplish this. They did much in this turmoil, but I did not do anything. From the beginning Brother Nee and I have learned the lesson not to take care of these negative things.