Now we have already seen clearly that the ministry spoken of in the Bible does not refer to a person, but to God’s building work. Moreover, in God’s building ministry, there are those who take the lead in that ministry in every age. May the Lord open our eyes to see that as long as we are human beings, we should be Christians; as long as we are Christians, we should enter into the Lord’s ministry in this age.
Today there are thousands of people who believe in the Lord Jesus and are saved, but not many have entered into the Lord’s ministry of building the church. It is just like the situation in Noah’s age. There were thousands of people on the earth, but only a small number were building the ark with Noah. This is why Philippians 2:12 says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” What Noah and those who built the ark with him were doing was to work out their own salvation. Yes, it was God who had saved them, but the ark that delivered them was built with their own hands by God’s grace. Today, we also need to be in God’s building ministry to work out our own salvation, that is, to bring our salvation to its ultimate conclusion so that we can be exalted by God in glory as the Lord Jesus was.
When I was saved over sixty years ago, there were Christians all around me; yet I had no knowledge of God’s move on the earth. I thank God that He gave me a heart that loves the Bible. I read it continually and even collected many reference books. Afterward, I became very clear that as a human being, I must be a Christian, and as a Christian, I must be in God’s move. Therefore, I dropped everything and dove into the Lord’s recovery. At that time, although I could not speak the message that I am giving this morning, the vision within me was very clear. I saw that there was the Lord’s commission upon Brother Nee, which is the ministry. I also knew that Brother Nee was the one chosen, commissioned by the Lord in this age to bring in His recovery. I therefore recognized him as the leader in this work.
After I came into the Lord’s recovery, having dropped my job, Brother Nee wanted me to join his work, and he committed to me a considerable amount of responsibility. At that time, there were quite a few brothers who had been in the Lord’s recovery longer than I, and they were also older in age. I was a young person who had just come in. I did not know why Brother Nee entrusted me with that much. Afterward, I began to understand that those brothers all wanted to do a work which was also for the Lord’s recovery, but whenever Brother Nee had a certain leading, there were some who had other opinions so that it was difficult for Brother Nee to carry out the work in the Lord’s recovery. Therefore, the speed of progress of the Lord’s recovery during that period was not quite what we expected. In China, from the south to the north, there were many who responded to Brother Nee’s books. Ten thousand copies of each issue of the magazine, “The Christian,” were published. But very few would truly take the way that Brother Nee saw and would work together with him under his leadership. Not many had really seen the leadership in the Lord’s recovery.
For this reason, right from the start of the Lord’s recovery in China, there was the problem with the matter of leadership. In 1922, when the Lord’s recovery just began, the two other co-workers who served with Brother Nee were fighting for leadership. And in 1924, they even signed a paper together to cut off Brother Nee. In 1927, the Lord opened the door for Brother Nee in Shanghai, and the meetings began there. A new group of brothers came in. They were not like the first group of people who fought for leadership. Outwardly, this second group all accepted Brother Nee’s leadership, but nearly all of them had their own opinions when they did things together.
In 1942, the work of Brother Nee encountered a storm. The storm was so great that Brother Nee could not minister for six years. In 1946, I brought the revival in northern China to Shanghai, and Shanghai also had a revival. This revival paved a way for Brother Nee to recover his ministry by the spring of 1948. Over ninety percent of those who opposed Brother Nee confessed and repented, and they were willing to accept Brother Nee’s leadership from then on. Brother Nee said, “If you want me to take the lead from now on, everyone has to hand himself over.” To hand over oneself means to have no opinions. This is to say that Brother Nee led only those who were without opinions. Therefore, everyone formally wrote a slip of paper to hand himself over to Brother Nee, to accept his leadership.