God’s inheritance is our enjoyment today. The continuation of our enjoyment today will become our enjoyment in the kingdom for the future. The enjoyment in the kingdom will further develop into the enjoyment in the new heaven and the new earth. Our enjoyment of this inheritance in the kingdom is the prize of God’s high calling. Paul was such a person who had received the prize. In Philippians 3 he said, “Not that I have already obtained or am already perfected, but I pursue” (v. 12). This means that although he had received quite an inheritance, he still had not fully obtained it. That was why there was the need of “forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I pursue toward the goal” (vv. 13-14). Not only had he forgotten all the things which he had before in Judaism, but he also laid aside all the inheritance that he enjoyed in the past, to pursue after the coming inheritance. At the end he finished his course. It was not until he was about to be martyred that he was confident of the kingdom prize. He testified to his young co-worker Timothy, “I have finished the course...henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me in that day; and not only to me, but also to all those who have loved His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:7-8).
We have seen that the inheritance we received is the Triune God. He is all the supply that we enjoy today, the prize which we will receive in the coming kingdom, and the eternal portion that we will enjoy in the new heaven and new earth. I have spoken very clearly for the last ten or twenty years concerning this matter. I have given you message after message on this subject. I would say that this has become my “shop-talk.” Whatever I speak from this angle or from that angle is on this matter. This thing has filled me up. It has become my blood and my cells. My whole being is just this one thing. There are many aspects of this Triune God. Therefore the New Testament uses a great term, economy, to convey the thought that the Triune God has a desire, an intention, a plan, and an arrangement. This is also His administration, management, government, operation, execution, and completion. This is the economy of the Triune God. This economy is altogether wrapped up with the dispensing of this Triune God.
First of all, this Triune God is a unique God. He has no beginning and no ending. No one created Him, and no one begat Him. He is self-existing and ever-existing. At the same time, this Triune God has the aspect of three. There is the aspect of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. But this does not mean that He has three names. Rather this is one name of the one God. Matthew 28:19 says, “The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The name here is singular. This shows that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not three names but one. In order for this Triune God to enter into man to be one with man, He made a plan in eternity past. Then in time He came to create the heavens and the earth, and He also created man. He called man to follow Him and taught man how to serve Him. He gave the law and sent the prophets. He set up the priests and appointed kings. He did many things, but no one knew why He did them.
After four thousand years, He came to be flesh. He entered into the womb of the virgin Mary and remained in her womb for nine months in accordance with the law of creation. After He was born, He grew up in a poor carpenter’s home in the city of Nazareth. After thirty years, He came out to carry out His ministry. For three and a half years He went everywhere healing the sick, casting out demons, preaching the word, and calling out disciples. Eventually, He died on the cross, was buried, and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the all-inclusive Triune God. In this Spirit there is Jehovah, the Father, the Son, the Spirit, man, humanity and human living, with crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. This One is the Spirit that is spoken of at the end of the Bible (Rev. 22:17). Moreover, this Spirit is also the word. The word and the Spirit are inseparable; the two are one. This is why in Romans 10 it says that Christ is the word and He is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (v. 8). Now all you need to do is believe in your heart and confess with your mouth and call “O Lord Jesus,” and He, the Spirit, will enter into your spirit to be mingled with your spirit to become one spirit with you. When you have Him, you will have satisfaction and rest, and when He has you, He will be fully satisfied. He will become your Savior, life, and everything. You can call on Him, enjoy Him, and testify for Him all the time.
As such a saved person, naturally you need companions, and you need to meet together with all the believers. This is the church. The main item in the church is the meetings. When we come to meet, we should not bring in the worldly elements, neither should we bring in the practices of Christianity. We do not want the world, neither Christianity, nor our self. We come in the way of emptying ourselves of everything and being filled with Christ. Therefore, everyone of us enjoys Christ in our daily life, and we become persons filled with Christ. And when we come to the meetings, we cannot help but open our mouths to sing and pray. In this way, everyone will sing, pray, and speak. This singing, praying, and speaking will fill the meeting with the riches of Christ, and the meeting will become the exhibition of Christ. This is the way that we must take today. This is called the recovery. This is also what we mean by the change of the system. The change of the system is not a change of dead methods; rather, it is to recover the meeting which the Lord desires according to the Bible. When we come together, each one has a psalm, or a teaching, or a revelation, or a tongue, or an interpretation (1 Cor. 14:26). In this way Christ will be supplied and ministered mutually to one another.
In addition, in order to spread the gospel, we must go out to visit people by door-knocking. However, this is not the condition for the receiving of the saints by the church nor is this an item of our basic faith. Today in the church, in the Lord’s recovery, there must be such an item of gospel preaching by visiting people. But we are not requiring everyone to go out to do this. We have a budget, that among the brothers and sisters meeting in one locality, there should be one-fourth that would go out regularly throughout the year to visit people to preach the gospel. For the church to gain people and for the gospel to go out, there is no other way as widespread and far-reaching as this. No one who has tasted this would say that this way is not good. The reports from all six continents constantly prove that this is the most excellent way. If we have never gone out to visit people to preach the gospel, we have not consecrated ourselves to the Lord in an absolute way. If we are absolute in our consecration, surely we will go out to visit people to preach the gospel. To go among the wolves to search out and to save the sons of peace is most pleasing to the Lord.
We must see a clear vision. First, as a Christian on the earth today, we must be a person who goes out to visit people to preach the gospel. Although we cannot do this every day, at least we should do this once a week. For us to do this is to testify to Satan that we are those who have consecrated ourselves fully to the Lord and to His gospel. We have to build up such a habit in the way we serve the Lord. Second, after we preach the gospel and baptize people into the Triune God, we have to supply them with more of the riches of Christ. We should not bring them the world or religion; nor should we bring them Christianity; rather, we should bring to them the life that is filled with the vision in which we live every day. If we can lay hold of these two things and practice them seriously, the Lord will then have a way.
For this we must return to the way of meeting and gospel preaching revealed in the Bible. This way will enable us to spread the gospel and will help the sinners to be easily saved. After a person is saved, he will be liberated in a kind of free atmosphere to develop the gift of life within him. This is a recovered way and is also a sure way. Since the Bible has thus charged, surely the Lord will accomplish it. Man is prone to take the simple and easy way. The uphill way is hard, and not many are willing to take it; the downhill way is easy, and many are happy to take it. Our training here is to help every saint to turn around from the downhill way to the uphill way. This is the vision that we see, and the recovery that the Lord desires. If we cannot carry this out in this generation, the Lord will do it with the next generation. He has been waiting for two thousand years. He can wait longer. He has said, “On this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). This word will not fail. He will surely accomplish what He has said. His word will surely be fulfilled. The Lord will surely work out the mutuality in meeting as described by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:26 and Hebrews 10:25. I hope that, after hearing these words, you can all have a clear vision within that the way we are taking today is not directionless, and the training we are receiving is not aimless. When I see so many of you young ones being trained here, not only do I rejoice, but I also have the full assurance that the future of the Lord’s recovery is full of hope. May the Lord bless everyone who has a desire to take this way, and may the Lord also use this way of recovery that is revealed in the Bible.
A message given by Brother Witness Lee in Taipei on December 3, 1987.