Since we have seen the vision of the Body of Christ, we need to have our practice according to this vision. We need to start practicing in small areas by first mingling with the brothers and sisters next to us. I can testify to you that I love brothers and sisters of every kind. I love those who are quick, and I also love those who are slow. I love those who are compatible with me; and I love even the more those who are not compatible with me. In these days we are translating the Chinese Recovery Version of the New Testament. Although I am more than eighty years old, I am a quick-tempered and aggressive person. Nearly all my helpers are around thirty years of age. From my viewpoint, every one of them is slow-motioned, making it necessary for me to pull them along. I do not like their slowness. It seems that many times I should have been upset, but I could not be. I said to myself, “These people are all slow-motioned. To press them to be as fast as you is an impossible task. You have to accommodate them.” Therefore I am learning to be slower, accompanying them to read slowly. This does not mean that I have been affected by them. This is mingling.
The experience of those on the gospel teams is the same in principle. Some are quick-tempered, and some are slow-motioned. A slow one says, “Please wait for me. I have forgotten my small notebook.” After a while he says again, “I have forgotten my Life Lessons.” This really becomes unbearable to the quick-tempered ones. Some simply want to be quick. Only being quick can satisfy them. Eventually the quick ones end up together. Then the slow ones do not approve of the quick ones and consider that their flesh is not yet dealt with, that they are unable to bear with others or wait for others. Hence, the slow ones also end up together. Actually, to be either quick or slow is inborn; it is not up to you.
When I was a student, I was a member of the school soccer team. Some students who were very skillful liked to show off their skills when they got the ball. They dribbled the ball back and forth, not shooting for the goal right away. I was angry when I saw that because I was not there to play with the ball, but to shoot for the goal and score. Once I got the ball, I quickly kicked it into the goal. It is the same in the Lord’s work today. Some very capable co-workers, once the ball of the work gets into their hands, begin playing with the ball. They do not care for the edification of the believers, nor for people’s salvation. They only care to do the things that interest them. Some people feel that Bible study is very enjoyable. They start doing that and forget about the work. Some do not care for Bible studies; as long as they can get people saved, everything will be all right. There is definitely such a situation among us. Our inborn temperaments and characters are simply not the same. There are a few hundred people here, yet no two faces are the same. Even with twins, there are still differences. Our God is really capable. He created each one with a different face, and He gave a different appearance to each one.
What God is doing today is to obtain the Body of Christ, not merely you as an individual, nor merely the church in a locality, nor merely the church in a country. He wants to obtain the church in the entire universe. Since this is the case, in our church life today we need to be mingled with all the brothers and sisters on the earth. The more successful the mingling, the better it is. Whoever cannot be mingled with others will eventually be disqualified by the age. In today’s age, you cannot be an isolated Christian.
I have to congratulate all of you who came to the training center because it is impossible for you to get so much mingling in any other place. I wish that each one of you could come to stay in the training center for one hundred twenty days and be burned by the fire of the training center. If you do not have the grace, the light, or this vision of the Body, then the training center is a place of suffering to you. However, if you have the vision, then the training center is not only a place for training you, but also a place for perfecting you.
I hope that you can understand, receive, and at the same time, broaden your view. I am not exhorting you to be patient, to condescend, to humble yourself, or to love others as yourself. Those things are trite expressions. Rather, it is my desire that you see the light, broaden your view, and realize that we are in God’s eternal economy, that you would allow God to have the Body of Christ on the earth. From now on, not only are we who are in Taipei in one accord, but the entire recovery of the Lord in the whole universe is also one. We are the one Body of Christ. Concerning this point, I have had very clear light all along. In the past three years in Taiwan, I also have gained a considerable amount of experience and realization. In these three years, the Lord has definitely done something in our midst that has broadened us. Everyone’s view has been broadened. It is not enough for us merely to have a local view, nor is it enough to have an international view. We must have a universal view. We need to see that Christ is after a Body, and God will prepare a Body for Christ.
A message given by Brother Witness Lee in Taipei on September 1, 1987.