This is God's sovereignty and wisdom. Suppose that today, for example, we are all living in Los Angeles. We could not have the home churches or the street churches; we could only have the city church. As long as we have the city church, all the saints in Los Angeles will be one. If we could have the street churches, we would be immediately divided. There could be a church on First Street, another on Second Street, and another on Third. If we could have home churches, it would be worse yet. The city keeps the unity that the saints may be one. If you move from Los Angeles to San Francisco, you need not be concerned as to which "church" you will go. It is so clear. You will go to the city church, the local church. You will not go to a church called by the name of some street, but to the local church in the city; not the church of some home or of some campus, but of the city. If you get into anything other than the local church of the city, you get into a division; if you get into the church of that city, you get into unity.

If we are not clear regarding the unique ground of the church, we have no way to go on for a practical, local expression. We will either persist in a division or we must give up the matter of the church altogether. This latter course is just what many have been forced to follow. They have talked much about the church, but they did not take the unique ground of the church, the ground of unity. Eventually therefore, they have been disbanded and dissolved. There was no way for them to go on. Do not despise the matter of the church ground; it has momentous implications and consequences. You may protest that if you take the definite standing of the ground of the church, you will be involved in trouble and problems. But, I tell you, if you do not take the ground of the church, you will be involved in considerably more trouble and problems. We must take a definite stand upon the original ground of the church, the local ground of unity in the city in which we live.

We need to pray regarding these four points: (1) the church is God's heart desire, (2) the church must be practical, (3) the church must be local, and (4) the church must have the definite local ground of unity. We need to see this vision; otherwise, we will go astray. Regardless of how much we talk about the Body life or the church life, without this vision, we will not know where we are.

These words are not merely a teaching, but a strong testimony to what I have been practicing and experiencing for more than thirty-five years. I have been captured by this vision. By the mercy of the Lord I have never changed my way or my tone. And I have seen truly local churches raised up in many cities as an incontrovertible testimony that this is the way of the Lord.

We must see this vision, and we must be ready to pay the price, even the price of our life, for it. I can say with full assurance that until the day you are clear in this vision and settled with the saints upon the unique ground of unity, your Christian life will never be settled. You will be continually wandering and changing your position. In the morning you will have one position, and in the evening you will have another. You must come to the place where you can say: "I do see the heart desire of God; I see that the church is so practical and so local; and I do see in the midst of so many divisions and so much confusion the proper standing, the local ground of the unique unity. I don't care if others despise and refuse this ground. I will take it, and I will stand upon it." Ask the Lord to give you a clear vision regarding the church.