Some among us have been accused of following one man. Recently a number of leading brothers all expressed to me that they felt they must follow this ministry. At that time I was burdened to tell them, “To declare that you follow someone is nonsense. It is entirely not a matter of following a man or not following a man. It is altogether a matter of where the present revelation is.” If we were born and lived in Noah’s age, we would have needed to follow Noah, because he had God’s revelation. Apart from Noah, we could not have had the revelation of that age. If someone had said, “I do not follow Noah. I will follow someone else,” then he would have missed the mark. If I am speaking for my own sake, I must be stopped, but I am not speaking for myself. I am speaking the truth. Please read your Bible again. In every age, in every generation, there was only one means for the revelation in that age. Noah, Moses, and David were the unique means in their age, and Peter, Paul, and eventually John, in the book of Revelation, became the unique means of God’s up-to-date revelation. I strongly declare that when I was with Brother Watchman Nee, I respected him not because he was good but because he was the unique means of God’s revelation in that time. In every age God had and still has one unique means for His up-to-date revelation.
It was through this ministry that the Lord’s recovery was brought to this country, and many have received help from it. Regrettably, though, some have utilized the materials of this ministry to establish a church in their own “pocket.” They declare, “We are the local church here,” but they are not a genuine local church. Because that church is not open, it is a church not of the saints but of someone’s private concern. This is not the church the Lord desires today. It is the church of someone’s own work and a church for that work. It is someone’s “pocket version” of the church life. In the churches in Los Angeles and Anaheim, we never closed the door to others. Whoever wished to come to us was able to. I would speak a word to the dear ones who keep the churches as their “pocket church”: Will you open the door of your church to everyone? If you will, I will be the first to speak an approving word. However, I am afraid such a church will reject this ministry, accusing me of trying to be a “pope” to control them. I have no intention to be the pope, but those who keep this kind of church do have the intention to be a king in their “empire.”
I labored closely with Watchman Nee, so he told me things he could not tell others. He suffered much, because some were accusing him, saying, “You are trying to be a pope, using your ministry, your gift, your messages, and your knowledge of the Bible to control all the churches.” Brother Nee told me, “Only robbers always suspect others of robbing them. You know that we have no thought of controlling others. They are able to think this way only because they are the ‘robbers.’ If they were in our position, they would surely be ‘popes’ to control others. Because they are ‘robbers,’ they think we are robbing others too.” Some have accused me also of trying to set up a “papal system” and of putting out messages to control all the churches. I never had such a concept. How can the dear ones have such a concept? It may be because they are “robbers.” If such ones were in my situation, they might set up such a papal system.
Those who have been in the church life for many years can declare to the entire universe that I have controlled nothing. Nevertheless, in every age there is a means for God’s up-to-date revelation. The things this ministry is speaking are unique. This ministry today is burdened directly for the Lord’s present revelation. If the Lord would not give me something to minister, there is no need to pick up something old from the other books. Those things are out of date. They might have been good one or two centuries ago, or even fifty years ago, but they are not good for the present revelation. Anyone can compare our messages with the other books to see that all the points in our messages are unique. This revelation is from the Lord, not from me. This is why I have the full assurance that if anyone opposes this ministry, he will suffer the loss of the Lord’s revelation today.
I am forced by the present situation to speak in such a way in order to warn you not to listen to and be poisoned by critical and divisive speakings that damage our one accord. We have no intention to control anyone, and we are not qualified to control anyone. According to their natural thought, some believe that I control the church in my locality. In 1965, the brother helping me to file my income tax asked me if I knew how much money had been given to me in the previous year by the church in my locality. When I told him that I do not pay attention to such things, he told me the amount, which was a very small figure. This illustrates that this ministry has no intention of controlling anyone. This ministry cares only to minister the Lord’s burden in His present revelation.
Some saints have been listening to my messages for many years. Many of them considered that eventually I would have no more new messages and that I would simply repeat my old ones. However, throughout all the years, our conferences have never been a mere repetition. There is always something new. This is due to the Lord’s mercy and grace, because this is not my ministry but His. Since 1950, every time I visited Manila the brothers there have asked me to hold a conference, and every time the Lord has given me something new. One elderly sister testified that she was surprised when I came with new messages. She said, “I am a third generation Christian, but I have never heard the terms you spoke in your message. Please tell me where you found these new things.” I told her, “After coming here for so many years, you should have realized where I receive my messages. I do not get them from a seminary or merely from bookshelves or a reference Bible. I receive my messages from only one source—the One on the throne that flows out the living water.”
In the entire universe there is only one flow, but whether anyone follows the messages from this flow is up to him. I have declared this for many years. The first message I published in the first issue of The Stream, on July 1, 1963, was entitled “The Divine Stream,” concerning the one flow on this earth. This was the reason that I chose the name of the magazine. The stream is the unique flow from the throne. In the entire universe there is only one flow. We can see this in the Acts. After the day of Pentecost the one flow flowed from Jerusalem to Antioch, and from Antioch the flow turned to Europe. Since Barnabas had brought Paul into the Lord’s ministry, he may have thought that he could dissent against him (Acts 15:39). However, after he separated from Paul, there is no further record in Acts concerning his work. This is because he left the one flow.
I am forced to speak concerning my ministry in this way, not for my sake but for the sake of the churches. Whoever rejects this ministry rejects not a small man from China but the flow from the throne. This ministry has only one burden, which is to build today’s ark, not only to save the saints from God’s eternal judgment but also to save them from the crooked and perverted generation of today so that they may express God in a corporate way, be ushered into the coming kingdom, and exercise His authority in the kingship. This is the purpose, the burden, and the goal of this ministry as God’s unique means for His revelation. God would not send out trumpeters to sound different trumpets for His army to fight the battle (1 Cor. 14:8; Num. 10:9; Judg. 7:18). This would be confusion. God is wiser than this. He will raise up only one trumpeter to sound one calling, one voice, so that His people on the earth can march on.