What we have we first received from the Brethren and then from Brother Nee, but we have not yet practiced some of the things which he saw. In Church Affairs, Brother Nee pointed out that the Lord’s Day message meeting is following “the custom of the Nations” (2 Kings 17:8, NASB). He therefore proposed stopping the Lord’s Day morning message meetings to send out all the brothers and sisters to preach the gospel (see pp. 67-82, Church Affairs). Surely the way for the saints to go out to preach the gospel was to visit people in their homes.
I have often mentioned that by 1984 I fully realized that the recovery among us had come to a dead end. There was no way to merely continue practicing the way we had been taking. We could not continue it any longer. Furthermore, times and ages have unveiled to us that the way of gospel preaching we were practicing was not fully according to what is properly revealed in the New Testament. I had the realization that the Lord’s recovery came to us through Brother Nee and was now with us. This was a heavy burden upon me, considering that at that time at least one hundred twenty thousand people around the globe were waiting for my teaching. Therefore, I felt burdened to go back to Taiwan, temporarily stopping my work in the United States to have a big beginning for the study of the God-ordained way. I concentrated my time, my energy, and nearly every cent which the Lord gave us. As you may know, we spent a lot of money to take care of the expenses associated with six to eight hundred trainees for those many months of training.
I relate these things because of the opposition. Today I have the full confidence that the way which we are speaking tonight is the right way, the God-ordained way. This first step is to preach the gospel as the priests of the New Testament gospel by visiting people in their homes not only to save them but also to bring them to the Lord and His Body. You may say this is the step of gospel preaching; however, it includes another point—the priesthood of the New Testament gospel. We did not see this point before and, based upon it, the way is new to us. We did not see this in 1987 nor even just a year ago. While the opposition was arising, we did not see this. We began to see this in March of this year, after the rising up of the opposition. It is not just gospel preaching; it is the practice of the New Testament priesthood.
Furthermore, this kind of preaching is not by gathering people in a meeting, but by visiting people. You have to go to them. Acts 8 shows the way. Thousands of believers in Jerusalem were scattered by a great persecution and went out preaching the gospel (v. 4). Their way was surely not one of gathering people but of visiting people where they were. This is, briefly speaking, “door-knocking.” How can you visit people without knocking on their doors? You may say this is something old practiced by the Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses; however, as far as we are concerned, it is new. This is according to the Bible. This kind of gospel preaching is scriptural, ordained by God, and clearly and properly revealed in His Word. Why would people oppose this?
The real purpose of the opposition is to put the ministry down. Dear saints, if the ministry and the new way are put aside, the Lord’s recovery will have nothing. This is the real subtlety of the enemy. We, the opposed ones, have learned the lessons of the Lord and would prefer not to say anything. The goal of the opposition is not the door-knocking gospel preaching but the putting aside of the so-called new way and the putting down of the ministry. The putting down of the ministry is the ultimate goal.