Man has an innate ability to love the truth. There are clear indications of this in the Bible. When the Lord Jesus began His ministry, He mostly preached the word on the mountains and in the wilderness. There were no luxurious or comfortable facilities, yet people came in flocks. When John Wesley was raised up in England, he preached on the streets. One of Wesley’s contemporaries, George Whitefield, who was considered to be more powerful than him, preached in the open fields. In those days there were no microphones or proper facilities. The preachers simply raised their voices and spoke loudly, and people went in crowds to listen to them. Today our speaking is weak. We cannot compensate for this weakness with money, knowledge, or capability. People do not want our knowledge, eloquence, or capability. Rather, they desire the supplying word. This innate ability to love the truth was created by God.
When God created man, He put in man a longing to seek after knowledge. This is why people have a desire to know about the things around them from their youth. A wise mother will not force her children to do things or punish them by beating them when she teaches them. Rather, she will speak to them a great deal, and by her speaking, she will transfuse knowledge into them. The Westerners are not necessarily better than the Chinese in educating their children, but one good point about the Westerners is that they often read a story to their children at bedtime. Furthermore, sometimes when a mother finds that her little boy is being naughty, instead of spanking him, she will read him a story. Once the boy begins to listen to the story, he calms down, behaves properly, becomes obedient, and stops being naughty. This is because within him there is a desire to obtain more knowledge. The more a child learns, the more he is happy and satisfied.
During my stay this time I have observed that the churches everywhere are lacking in the ministry of the word, not only in the big meetings but even more so in the small meetings. In a sense, our meetings abound in every aspect except the ministry of the word. This is a great shortage. If I had stayed here for a year, I would not have let this matter go lightly. The truths and the riches among us are all being stored in the bookroom with no effect. This is a very regrettable matter.
The co-workers who received my training thirty years ago and who were trained for as long as ten years have done quite a good job during all these years. On the other hand, however, their ministry of the word has been merely average. The truths and the riches given to us by the Lord have all been released, but they have been put on the shelves and are not being used. Perhaps you may say, “Oh, we use them. We are all using them.” According to my consideration, however, using them improperly is equivalent to not using them. This is similar to someone having a ball but not knowing how to use it to play a game. This is a big problem.
This is the reason I encouraged hundreds of you to rise up and serve full time. You have responded, and the churches are willing to cooperate. What I am afraid of the most, however, is that you will fall into the same trap. Therefore, I hope that you can complete at least one course of the training in the Lord’s word. This does not mean that when you graduate, your brain will be filled with knowledge. Rather, it means that you will know how to use the Lord’s word, how to study the truth, and how to preach the word. This should not be too difficult for you since you are all at least college graduates. It all depends on whether or not you set your heart on this matter.
Nothing is too difficult for someone who sets his heart to do it. There is nothing that you cannot do; it all depends upon whether or not you put your heart into it. If you put your heart into something, you can do it. This is what we mean when we say, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” The problem is that by nature man loves ease and hates work. Laziness is second nature to man. I am very concerned about this matter. I have a considerable amount of human experience, and I realize that all humans tend to be easygoing. However, you should not be loose in any way during your first five years of full-time service because these are the most crucial years of your service. You must lay hold of these five years. What matters is not what you do but how much you learn. The most important thing is to learn the truth and the experiences of life. You need to try to advance as quickly as possible in these two matters.
For your sake I would use myself as an example. When I began corresponding with Brother Watchman Nee in 1925, I mostly asked him questions concerning the Scriptures. It was not until 1932, when I invited him to speak in my hometown of Chefoo, that I met him for the first time. As a result of his visit, a church was raised up in Chefoo in July of the same year. Through the Lord’s blessing, the number of saints meeting in the church exceeded a hundred. I had to give a message five times a week. This forced me to drop my job and serve full time. Afterward I went to Shanghai to see Brother Nee, and later he asked me to move to Shanghai with my whole family. From then on I became his co-worker. Two years later in October of 1935, Brother Nee held a conference in Kulangsu, Amoy, which is in the province of Fukien, but I did not go with him then. Fifteen years later in 1950, I went to the Philippines. One of the responsible brothers there who had attended the conference in Kulangsu told me that in that conference Brother Nee had told a group of seeking saints, “We have a brother, Witness Lee, whose progress in the truth and in life can be likened not just to running but to flying.” Actually, at that time I had not been satisfied with my condition.
Although those of you who are serving full time have already graduated from college, you are still under thirty years of age. Your prospects for the years ahead are bright, and you still have much potential to advance. Therefore, you must treasure this period of time and endeavor to enter into the truth and to learn the experiences in life. What is important now is not how much you read every day but how much you learn and enter into the truth. You can never finish studying the Bible. I have been studying the Bible for sixty and a half years, and the more I study, the more I receive, and the more I sense that there is more to study. If time allows, I would like to have another life-study of the Bible that would be different from what we had in the past. Our study of the truths in the Bible will never end.