We need the Lord’s mercy for this light to shine brighter and brighter among us that we may see that attending the meeting is not “going to church” for the worship of dumb idols. When Paul wrote 1 Corinthians chapters twelve through fourteen, he inserted chapter thirteen to speak about love. The preceding and succeeding chapters-chapters twelve and fourteen-are the focus of this section, showing us that the Christian meeting is not for “going to church.” Rather, the Christian meeting is for speaking, for everyone to speak the word of God, for everyone to “play ball.” In chapter twelve Paul mentioned a total of nine items concerning the manifestation of the Spirit in the believers. This is not to say that there are only nine items of the manifestation of the Spirit; rather, these nine items were listed as an illustration. The most important items of the manifestation of the Spirit in us are the first two mentioned by Paul: first, a word of wisdom, and second, a word of knowledge (v. 8). Therefore, the “ball” we use is a “wisdom ball” and also a “knowledge ball.” Ordinarily, the ball we play with is very simple, but the ball we use in the church meeting is not so simple-it is a “wisdom ball” and also a “knowledge ball.”

If there is no speaking in the Christian meeting, then it is equivalent to playing ball without the ball. Some of the believers may say the reason they do not speak is not that they do not want to speak but that they do not know what to speak. After visiting the churches in various localities, we received a general impression that in the church meetings there is a shortage of the word and a lack of speaking. Even the singing is limited to a few hymns. It seems that besides these few, there are no other hymns. The same is true in the matter of praying. You can predict who will pray, because it is always the same five or six persons. It seems that these ones form a prayer group representing everyone else. After these few pray, it is almost time to dismiss the meeting. The rest of the attendants are just the supporting cast.

Many years ago a number of our co-workers felt that it was very hard to be a co-worker, because in addition to giving a message every Lord’s Day, they also had to give a message in the middle of the week for fifty-two weeks a year. Preparing to give a message was not at all easy; rather, it was laborious. After delivering the message on the Lord’s Day morning, they may have felt somewhat relieved, but then soon it was Wednesday, and they had to consider what they would speak on Thursday. After speaking on Thursday, they again breathed a little easier, but after Friday, Saturday soon arrived and the need for the Lord’s Day message was pressing hard on them again. Thus, week after week it was the same cycle. The co-workers all felt the hardship because they had nothing to speak, they had no ball to play with. This was the general situation in those days.

In the past when Brother Nee was leading us, he clearly said that we should not do any work in the way of one person doing everything, but we should do it in coordination with other brothers. He charged us to keep this principle faithfully, and according to his instruction we tried to do things, not in the way of one person doing everything but in the way of coordination with others. However, the fact that everyone was responsible for the work meant that no one was responsible. For instance, suppose four of us responsible brothers sit together in the meeting. You look at me, and I look at you, until finally one of us cannot bear it anymore, so he selects a hymn for everyone to sing. Such a situation showed us that we did not have a “ball” to play with.

For this reason, starting from 1974, I was determined to release the riches of the divine revelation in the Lord’s word; in this way we would have “balls” for us to use. Now we have so many “balls” that we do not know how to choose from them. This one looks good, and the other is not bad either. This may be likened to going to a department store. Due to the great variety of merchandise, we are simply confused and do not know which item we should buy. Therefore, there are salespersons who are trained to know how to show people only a few selected items. Maybe they would introduce you to only one item or perhaps five or ten items, but they would not bring out all the items.

Likewise, today the “balls” are all here. The Life-study of the New Testament alone contains more than 1,200 topics, and if we count the pages, there are more than ten thousand pages. Within these pages, the riches we can use, the “balls” we can use for playing, are difficult to count, and it is hard for us to know how to select from them. Therefore, today the problem is not that there are no “balls”; rather, the problem is that we do not know how to select a “ball,” nor do we know how to use it. Sometimes people bring a large number of “balls” into the meeting. Some end up playing in this direction and others in another direction. The result is great confusion. Therefore, the problem is not only that there are too many “balls” and that we do not know how to select a “ball”; the problem is also that what we have selected might not be fitting, and even when it is suitable, we might not know how to use it. This is our difficulty.
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