CHAPTER SEVEN THE PROPHESYING FOR THE BUILDING UP OF THE CHURCH AS THE ORGANIC BODY OF CHRIST (2)

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1 CHAPTER SEVEN THE PROPHESYING FOR THE BUILDING UP OF THE CHURCH AS THE ORGANIC BODY OF CHRIST (2) In the last chapter we saw that the fourth major item in the advance of the Lord s recovery today is the prophesying for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ. Prophesying in 1 Corinthians 14 is not in the sense of predicting but in the sense of speaking for the Lord and speaking forth the Lord to dispense Christ to people. It is the excelling gift among all the gifts, making its seekers excelling. In this chapter we want to see three more crucial points related to prophesying: first, all the believers have the capacity and the obligation to prophesy; second, all the believers have been charged by the apostle to pursue, to desire earnestly, and to seek to prophesy; and third, in the Lord s advanced recovery, there is the need for the highest meetings of the church. ALL THE BELIEVERS HAVING THE CAPACITY TO PROPHESY AND HAVING THE OBLIGATION TO PROPHESY The Capacity Being in the Divine Life, Which the Believers Possess and Enjoy and Which Needs to Increase within Them That the Capacity May Be Developed unto Their Ability All the believers have the capacity to prophesy and have the obligation to prophesy (1 Cor. 14:31, 24). The capacity is the ability. First Corinthians 14:31 says that we can all prophesy one by one. The word can indicates the capacity, the ability, to prophesy. Any kind of life has a certain capacity. The peach tree has its life, and in this life there is the capacity to produce peaches. In our human life, there are many capacities. There is the capacity to hear, to see, to smell, to speak, and to eat. A normal child s organs are complete at his birth. With all the organs are the capacities. These capacities need growth, development, and practice. A little infant learns to walk through growth, development, and practice. His capacity to walk is developed based on the growth in life with the help of some instruction from his parents. By practicing, he is gradually able to progress from crawling to standing to walking. Eventually, he is able to run and jump. This is an example of the capacities in our human life. There are also capacities in the divine life that we have received. Through regeneration we received another life, the divine life, which is the eternal life. The divine life is eternal in space, in time, and in quality. It is altogether unlimited. This life is full of capacities, and the most striking capacity is the capacity to speak for God, to prophesy. The capacity to prophesy is in the divine life, which the believers possess and enjoy and which needs to increase within them that the capacity may be developed unto their ability. Because we have the divine life, we have the capacity to speak Christ. We possess and enjoy the divine life, and this divine life needs to increase within us. We all need to grow with the increase of God. The increase of God within us increases our capacity so that this capacity is developed unto our ability. Right after someone receives the Lord Jesus and is regenerated, a desire is put within him to speak something for Christ. He may not know how to speak, but this desire is within him. As he begins to speak in the meetings of the church, his speaking function develops. As he continues

2 to practice speaking, he is like a babe who learns to stand, to walk, and eventually to run and jump. His spiritual function is developed through his practice. Fifty-seven years ago a small church was raised up in my hometown. That was the first church in north China in the Lord s recovery in I have been attending meetings regularly since that day. By attending all these meetings, I have received much instruction. Through this instruction and growth in life, my capacity to prophesy has been developed. Today it is so easy for me to prophesy. As we attend the meetings regularly and practice speaking with some instruction, we will be perfected to prophesy. A newborn babe who is only five days old is not able to speak, but as he grows in life, there is the increase of his capacity to speak. At a certain point he is able to say ma ma and da da. As he grows in life, the capacity to speak within him is developed. How much someone can speak depends upon how much growth he has had. The growth of the human life develops the capacities of the human life. Besides our growth in life, we still need the practice. If a newborn babe is never allowed to speak throughout the course of his life, he will eventually not be able to speak because he has not practiced speaking. The strategy of Satan is to make only a small group of people, the clergy, a speaking class. By devising the clergy-laity system, Satan has made the majority of the Lord s children dumb. We need to abandon the old way of one man speaking and the rest listening. In 1937 Brother Watchman Nee, who brought the revelation of the Lord s recovery to us, saw that the practice of one man speaking and the rest listening in the meetings of the church is not scriptural. He talked about this in The Normal Christian Church Life. He pointed out in this book that the church meeting should be a meeting of mutuality. We did not find a way to practice what Brother Nee passed on to us. He mentioned this matter again in 1948, and this fellowship is in the book entitled Church Affairs. As I began to reconsider our way beginning in 1984, I realized that now is the time for us to practice our senior brother s vision. He saw the vision fifty-two years ago, and now we must practice it. We need to cooperate with the Lord to enter into this scriptural way. In endeavoring in this scriptural way, we should not be disappointed. Whenever we change from an old way to a new way, it is difficult for us. But as we practice, we will eventually be brought into it. When we practice the truth in the Bible, the Triune God will be with us, and we all will enter into this truth. The Obligation to Prophesy Being the Fulfillment of Their Spiritual Service, in Which They Are Indebted to God s Salvation The obligation to prophesy is the fulfillment of our spiritual service, in which we are indebted to God s salvation. Verse 24 says that if all prophesy the unbelievers and unlearned persons are convicted and judged. Verse 31 says that we can all prophesy one by one. These verses show that we all should bear the responsibility to prophesy. We all have the obligation to prophesy. It is so good that we have the capacity to prophesy. This should encourage us. But we also have to realize that we have the obligation to prophesy. We owe something to God and to His dynamic salvation. His salvation is with, by, and in the divine life. In this dynamic salvation, there is the capacity to prophesy. Furthermore, since we are enjoying such a salvation, we are indebted to this salvation. It is our duty to prophesy for the building up of the church. We have received the dynamic salvation, yet we have been annulled by the traditional practice that made us passive. We have to drop the way of the clergy-laity system and come back to the way of every member functioning for the building up of the Body of Christ.

3 Many of the saints have never prophesied according to the revelation of 1 Corinthians 14. When any of us speaks in a meeting, that meeting becomes the top meeting to us. A certain meeting may be high, but if we do not speak in that meeting, we do not appreciate it that much. A high meeting may be poor in our sight because we did not speak. Even if a meeting was low, if we spoke in that meeting, it became the best meeting to us. To us it was the best meeting because we spoke something. If all of us come together as pew members, that meeting will be full of death. But if all of us come together, and all of us exercise to speak one by one, that meeting will be in the heavens. It will be the highest meeting. Some may feel that they do not know how to speak, but I do not believe that we do not know how. Who among us cannot tell people that the Lord Jesus is good? Someone in the meeting can say, The Lord Jesus is good. Another one can follow by saying, Yes, the Lord is good. Even this morning I tasted Him in His presence. All of us, one by one, can at least speak one sentence concerning Christ. On the other hand, we may speak for five minutes, but our speaking may be a sea story with little content of Christ. We should not think that just because all speak, the meeting will be heavenly. If we all speak things other than Christ, the meeting will be full of death. A brother may even speak things in a scriptural way with quotations from the Bible, but his speaking may not be the actual speaking of Christ. Throughout the history of the church, there has almost never been a body of Christians that has been brought to the right track of all prophesying for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ. First Corinthians 14 gives a full description and even a charge for all to prophesy when the church comes together, but today there is not such a situation among the Lord s people. According to our study of the history of the church, there has almost never been such a thing. First Corinthians 14 surely should not be cut out of the Bible. The Lord told us that heaven and earth will pass away but His word will not pass away (Matt. 24:35). Every bit of the Lord s spoken word will be fulfilled. First Corinthians 14 will definitely be fulfilled. This is a great chapter in the divine revelation, showing that all of us need to pursue, desire earnestly, and seek to prophesy for the building up of the church. I have spent so much time to stress this one matter because this chapter has been neglected. This burden for all of us to prophesy is of the Lord for the building up of His organic Body. ALL BELIEVERS BEING CHARGED BY THE APOSTLE TO PURSUE, TO DESIRE EARNESTLY, AND TO SEEK TO PROPHESY All the believers have been charged by the apostle to pursue, to desire earnestly, and to seek to prophesy (1 Cor. 14:1, 12, 39). In verse 1 is the word pursue. In verse 12 is the word seek. In verse 39 the words desire earnestly are used. By Learning in the Word of God, in the Growth of Life, and in Their Contact with God We can pursue, desire earnestly, and seek to prophesy by learning (v. 31) in the Word of God, in the growth of life, and in our contact with God. First Corinthians 14:31 says that we can all prophesy one by one that all may learn. When we prophesy, others learn. This proves that before we prophesy, we have learned something. We are enabled to prophesy by learning. At this point I would like to say a word of love to all of us. We have been chosen by God. We have been called by Him. We have been regenerated by Him and have become sons of God. We must spend sufficient time in the holy Word. We have to do it. We should not say that we do not have any time for this. As long as we have time to eat, we should have time to study the

4 Word of God. Some saints had a proverb that said No Bible, no breakfast. This proverb should always be in front of us. Perhaps we should even put it on our desk or hang it on our wall where we can see it every day No Bible, no breakfast. If we desire to prophesy, we must learn the holy Word in the Bible. We must get ourselves fully acquainted with all the terms in the Bible. We need to be soaked in the holy Word so that we can be knowledgeable of the holy Word. In Luke 1 there is a record of the Lord s mother, Mary, visiting Elizabeth. Both of them prophesied to one another. Nearly every clause and every phrase of Mary s prophecy was a quotation from the Old Testament. This proves that Mary as a young woman was very knowledgeable of God s Word. We all have to learn the holy Word. If we do not have the holy Word, we do not have the expressions with which to speak. We may have the feeling and the inspiration within, but we will not have the utterances and the wording. All of us have to endeavor to learn the Word. We also learn to prophesy in the growth of life. A person who has only been saved two months should not expect that he will be able to speak that much. In order to do things properly even in our human life, we have to grow. In the spiritual life it is the same. Spiritually speaking, we pass through stages of infancy, babyhood, childhood, teenage, and then we become a full-grown man. How much we can prophesy depends upon the degree of our growth in life. This is why we must seek the growth in the spiritual life. We also learn to prophesy in our contact with God. We have to contact God, to fellowship with God. If we get into the Lord s Word, pursue the growth in life, and keep ourselves in contact with God, we will learn to prophesy. By Being Perfected by the Prophets We are also enabled to prophesy by being perfected by the prophets (Eph. 4:12). There are some among us who can do the prophesying work. We should receive the perfecting from these ones. The gifted prophets among us should contact some of the dear saints. Then these saints can be perfected to prophesy. We all must have a new start in speaking for the Lord. The gifted ones among us can go to some promising saints to teach them to prophesy. After a number of weeks, a nucleus of saints can be perfected to prophesy by learning. By Practicing to Speak in All the Meetings and to Tell People about Christ The saints need to be perfected and instructed, and they must put their instruction into practice. They need to practice by speaking in all the meetings. They should also tell people about Christ to practice prophesying. THE NEED FOR THE HIGHEST MEETINGS OF THE CHURCH In order to practice 1 Corinthians 14, there is the need for the highest meetings of the church. To nourish and cherish the new believers, there is the need of mainly the home meetings. After a person believes in the Lord and is baptized, we need to go back to his home to have home meetings with him so that he can be fed and nourished. We need to be the nursing mothers, nourishing the new ones as our babes. To fellowship with, teach, and perfect the saints, there is the need of mainly the group meetings. The group meetings are a little bigger than the home meetings. A group meeting is a gathering of about twenty saints. In this meeting the saints can fellowship with one another, intercede for one another, and care for and shepherd one another.

5 The teaching and perfecting of the saints also takes place in the group meetings. In these group meetings, everyone teaches, and everyone learns. To build up the church by prophesying, we need the bigger and higher meetings of the church. The church meeting must be a prophesying meeting. We need to labor together in the Lord and with the Lord so that we can have church meetings in which we all come together to prophesy. If the number in the larger church meeting is too big, we can divide this meeting into sections. In Taipei these sections are called district meetings. Each district meeting has about fifty saints. We should not set up a rule in this matter. This is not a law, but is for the convenience of our practice. For our present church life we need three kinds of meetings. We need the home meetings in the new believers homes to nourish and to cherish the new ones. We need the group meetings so that the saints can fellowship with one another, pray for one another, and take care of one another. In these group meetings, the saints can ask questions concerning the truth and concerning life, and everyone can answer these questions. Thus, in the group meetings everyone asks, everyone answers, everyone teaches, and everyone learns. After meeting in the group meetings in a regular way throughout the year, all the attendants will be taught with the truth and will be built up in life. Eventually, we will all reach the high peak of prophesying for the building up of the church. Prophesying is the highest attainment in our church life. We may feel that it is too hard for us to enter into the fellowship in this book, but one day after our resurrection from the dead, we will go to Christ s judgment seat, and we will have to answer to Him (2 Cor. 5:10). Brother Nee wrote a hymn (not translated into English) that says for his life and for his work he is always under the light of the judgment seat of Christ. For today s life and today s work, we have to consider that day when we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We will be held accountable for what we have done and for what we have said. In Matthew 12:36 the Lord said, And I say to you that every idle word which men shall speak, they shall render account concerning it in the day of judgment. Our idle words, including our gossip, will be checked at the judgment seat of Christ. During the past four and a half years, I have reconsidered the entire Bible in relation to our practice. After so much reconsideration, I am burdened to present these four major items of the advance of the Lord s recovery today to the churches. I hope that we can spend a period of time to study the fellowship in this book with all the quotations and references of the Scripture. If we prayerfully consider the fellowship in this book, the Lord will speak to us, and this will revolutionize our concept concerning being a Christian, concerning the meetings, concerning the preaching of the gospel, and concerning Christian service. When the Lord recovers these four major items of the advance of His recovery today, that will be a big revolution to all of the Christians. OUR NEED TO ENTER INTO THE BIBLICAL WAY We need to enter into the biblical way, and we need to see what this biblical way is. God chose His people in eternity past. Then in time He sent His servants to call out His chosen ones, who become gifts to His church. All of us are gifts to the Body. In our physical body, the shoulders and the thighs are gifts to our body. Without our shoulders and our thighs, our body cannot survive. But we have to realize that even our little finger is a gift to our body. We may appreciate our shoulder, but only our little finger can comfort our ear when we have an itch

6 inside of it. We may feel that we are small potatoes in the church life, but I can testify that many times it was the small potatoes who came to me to comfort me. I am saying this to help us realize that all of us are gifts to the church, Christ s Body. There are many gifted ones among us who have helped us by their speaking, but many times the speaking in the meeting that touches our heart is the speaking of the new ones. Many times when the new ones speak, it is like American dessert to me. It is so delicious and refreshing. The speaking of the older ones among us may seem common to us. However, the new ones, the new faces, and the new voices in the meeting always encourage us. All of us tend to get tired of seeing the same faces again and again. We like to see new faces, and we like to hear fresh voices telling us something new concerning our Lord. God s way is to have His people come together to have meetings of mutuality with all speaking for building up. According to the New Testament, the best time for this is on the Lord s Day. Acts 20 records that Paul stayed in Troas for seven days, but it does not give a record of their meetings during those seven days. What it records is their meeting on the Lord s Day (vv. 6-12). On this day they had the Lord s table and a special time for the apostle s speaking and conversation with them. It is good for us to come together on the Lord s Day, and we need ministry meetings to receive the perfecting from certain gifted ones among us. But according to 1 Corinthians 14, the church meetings should be meetings of mutuality. It is not good for us to come together just to hear one man speaking to us again and again. We would become accustomed to his voice, his gestures, and his other characteristics. Eventually, we would become bored of the same person speaking to us again and again. This is not God s ordained way for the meetings of the church. God s ordained way is that His people should come together and prophesy one by one. The church in Taipei has been exercised to take the biblical way, God s ordained way. They have about five thousand saints meeting every Lord s Day morning. They discovered that if all five thousand came together in a big hall, eventually the number of those attending the meeting would be reduced. Therefore, they divided these five thousand into over one hundred thirty sections. Each section has about forty to fifty saints. They call these sections district meetings. The church in Taipei has been in existence for forty years. A number of saints in the church in Taipei have been there from its very beginning in They were accustomed to meeting every Lord s Day morning with one brother speaking and the rest listening. They love the Lord and are steadfast and faithful, but none of them was accustomed to meeting on the Lord s Day with all prophesying. At the beginning of our practicing to divide into district meetings for the universal prophesying, it was not so easy. Of course, anything new is difficult, but gradually after a few months, all the saints became used to this way of meeting. In these meetings the saints practice prophesying one by one. They limit the time of each one s sharing to not more than three minutes. They all know this principle of three minutes and practice to keep it. In the district meetings, they first have the Lord s table, and then they prophesy for about sixty minutes. Within sixty minutes twenty persons can speak with a maximum time of three minutes per person. About one-third of the attendants prophesy in the district meetings without any prior arrangement or program. They all come together and follow the Spirit to prophesy. As they practice prophesying again and again, they are progressing, advancing. They have learned how to prophesy. They also have some brothers who act as coaches or tutors to coach and tutor the saints before they come to the meeting. This helps a

7 great deal. To coach and to tutor the saints is one of the best ways to perfect the saints to prophesy. We all have to be students learning to prophesy. We are in the New Testament age, living according to the New Testament principle of incarnation. Incarnation means that whatever God does, He does it with man s cooperation. In the New Testament, God does not do things by Himself apart from man. The Old Testament tells us that the Spirit fell upon certain people and they prophesied. In the New Testament, there is not such a record. In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul said that what he spoke was according to his opinion. Then he concluded by saying, But I think that I also have the Spirit of God (v. 40). Even though Paul said that his speaking was his opinion, his opinion became a part of the Bible. This indicates the New Testament principle of incarnation, the principle of God and man, man and God, becoming one. Paul s speaking in 1 Corinthians 7 is different from the Pentecostal way of praying, fasting, and waiting on the Lord until something falls upon us from the heavens. In 1 Corinthians 7:25 Paul said that he had no commandment of the Lord, but he gave his opinion as one who had received mercy of the Lord to be faithful. When Paul spoke this word, however, the very processed Triune God was speaking in him and with him. For us to prophesy we do not have to pray for three days so that something from the heavens will fall upon us. We need to contact the Lord from morning to evening by calling on Him O Lord Jesus. Whenever we call, O Lord Jesus, we have the sensation that Someone is with us. If we were to call other names, we would not have this sensation because there would be no response. But when we call, O Lord Jesus again and again, we have a sweet sensation within us of a living person. We can call, O Lord Jesus at any time and in any place. While we are washing our face, we can call, O Lord Jesus. When we call, we have an inward sensation of sweetness. When we call all day long from morning to evening, we are one with the Lord in a practical way. By this we can realize and experience the fact of being one spirit with Him. As such people who live a prophesying life, our speaking will have the indwelling Spirit as its contents. In addition to living a prophesying life, we also need to learn to speak for the Lord. Regardless of how much a person loves the Lord, he cannot prophesy properly unless he learns the language of prophesying. He must learn the language in order to cooperate with the indwelling Spirit to prophesy. In Matthew 25 the Lord indicated that He gave talents to His slaves according to their ability. If they had not had the ability, there would have been no basis for the Lord to give them the talents. Human ability is constituted by a person s birth according to God s creation. God s creation plus human learning builds up an ability which is a base for the Lord, the saving One, to give us the spiritual talent, the gift. The prophesying gift is constituted by our ability which is according to God s creation. A brother may be created by God with a smart mind and with eloquent speaking ability. He is smart and eloquent in speaking because God created him that way. He has such a base to enable him to prophesy. As this brother loves the Lord and fellowships with Him, the Lord will come in to become his spiritual talent, and this will become a gift to enable him to prophesy. He still needs to advance by learning in the Word so that he can quote the Word. He needs to get himself soaked in the Word, to become fully familiar with all the biblical phrases and clauses. He also needs to endeavor to live in the presence of the Lord and to keep himself in a condition of not having any obstacle between him and his Lord. We should sing the hymn Nothing Between, Lord, Nothing Between (Hymns, #373). We should have a direct contact with the

8 Lord, and His presence should be so clear to us. Between Him and us there should be nothing as a veil or as a kind of darkness. We need to be so much in the light. We need to be persons who know the Word and who have the experience of life. If we are such persons, we can prophesy in any kind of meeting. If we all live such a prophesying life, all of us will be able to speak something for the Lord when we come together. If each one speaks three minutes or less, twenty to thirty will have the chance to speak. No one man can replace the riches of these twenty or thirty brothers and sisters. Their speaking will be an exhibition of the riches of Christ. The next week thirty more may speak, and fifteen of them will be ones who did not prophesy the previous week. Therefore, every Lord s Day there will be twenty to thirty speaking, with new saints speaking each week. The many voices of the different saints will never cause people to be bored. A person who speaks a message can only cover a limited number of points. With thirty people speaking, there can be thirty points. Suppose that the meeting begins with a new one prophesying. He may say, I have only been saved about three months. I do not know what to say, but I can tell you from my experience that the Lord Jesus surely is lovable. He s so sweet, and He is real in my daily life. Such a short prophesying by one new believer would encourage all of us. To practice the universal prophesying in the church meetings is the way to release all the riches stored in all the members of the Body of Christ. Even the new believers have a little storage of the riches of Christ. When a new believer shares the riches he has, this becomes the opener to open up all the attendants to release the riches of Christ stored within them. In this scriptural way of meeting, we will discover who the gifted persons are among us. This scriptural way discovers the gifted persons among us who can not only prophesy in the church meetings but also perfect others to prophesy. According to the New Testament, the Lord has given particular gifts to the churches. These particular gifts have their particular work and their particular usefulness like the Apostle Paul. When we have the church meeting on the Lord s Day, everyone comes to prophesy. It seems that we have not given the chance or the time for the gifted persons to function. Then we may feel that the gifted persons have become useless or jobless. These gifted persons, however, will not be unemployed. I expect that all the local churches will practice the new way to such an extent that every month the church will have a weekend conference. We can have a weekend conference of three days each month of the year. This can be a special conference for the gifted persons to function for the reaping of the new ones and the perfecting of the saints. During each month, all the dear saints can practice the priesthood of the New Testament gospel by going out to visit people. They can visit their relatives, friends, and classmates. If we have one hundred fifty meeting together, at least one-third can go out to visit people. When we visit people for the gospel, we do not have that much time to give them an adequate knowledge of the gospel truths. What shall we do? The church is rich. It does not only have many members who can go out to visit people but it also has at least two evangelists. We can set up a gospel preaching and reaping meeting every month for these two evangelists to speak to the audience. We can all bring our new contacts to this meeting. If fifty saints can visit people for one month, we can have at least fifty new ones in this meeting. Actually, these new ones are not so new. They may have already been saved and baptized, but they need to hear a series of messages on the Christian faith from these two evangelists. If they hear three long messages along this line, this will confirm them very much. They have all believed in the Lord

9 Jesus, but they really do not know what the real Christian faith is. After hearing three messages on the Christian faith, they will be established. All the saints should go out to visit people to get the people ready. At the end of the month, we can have a gospel reaping conference to reap all these ones. Then the next month we can have a conference so that the gifted persons like the prophets and teachers can function to give messages on a certain vision. Suppose that year-round, we had a gospel reaping meeting every other month, and we also had some messages every other month to release something of God s revelation. If we practice in this way, we will see the riches released through the members of the Body Some of the dear saints misunderstand the new way. Some of the older saints may feel that they have become useless and put aside. This is absolutely wrong. If a family is going to flourish, it must have aggressive young people. The young people must be aggressive in studying to get a degree and to enter into some enterprise. When the young ones get some new knowledge, they may not be so happy with their older parents because they are so conservative. Because the parents do not understand computers, they may not want to use them. The young ones should not be bothered by their parents attitude toward computers. They need to remember who their parents are. If their parents say something, they say it with a good heart. It is good for the young people to be aggressive in the new way, but they need to be careful. Otherwise, they will be like someone driving a truck without a brake. A big truck without a brake is dangerous. On the one hand, the young people need to be aggressive to pick up all the new concepts and practices of the new way. On the other hand, they need to be cautious. I have no intention of not using the old ones. I love the old ones. How wonderful it is to have fathers in the church life! How lovely it is for a father to say to a son, Son, how is your work going? Remember not to go too fast. It should make us happy to have our father living with us. All the riches are here in the church life. We have the saints who can visit people to preach the gospel, doing the work of the New Testament priesthood. We also have the gifted persons such as the evangelists who can give messages concerning items of the truth such as Christ s redemption, the objective justification by faith, and the subjective justification by life. In the church we can have many young people going out with a burning spirit, and we can also have some older ones as the gifts who can teach the gospel truths to the uttermost. What a display of the riches in the Body! Everyone will be occupied in the new way. No one will have the chance to be idle. Today, generally speaking, only a minority of the saints are doing the priestly service. Other saints do practical work such as vacuuming and cleaning; this work is Levitical work. When we all get brought into the scriptural way, however, all will be functioning as priests. Some will go out to visit people for gospel preaching; some will go out to the homes to feed the young ones; some will go to have group meetings; and some will endeavor for the whole week to learn how to prophesy for the coming Lord s Day. They will spend the whole week to prepare a prophecy of three minutes to speak in the Lord s Day meeting. When we take this way, the saints will be developed to the uttermost, and more chances will be created for the riches of Christ to be released. This scriptural way will produce many, many gifted persons. Among one hundred fifty saints meeting together, there may be quite a few who are gifted persons. These gifted persons need to be discovered. They need to be developed and built up. If we practice the biblical way as ordained by God, all the gifts will

10 come to the surface. Whatever we have among us will be manifested, the gifts among us will also be manifested, and the saints will be perfected. Many new ones will be brought in, and they will be fed, taught, and perfected. They will be our second generation to do the same work that we have done. Then we will have a third generation and a fourth generation. The church will be built up in this way. A society is built up in a similar way. It is not built up by mass propagation. The many families in society each bear children, and the society is built up. God s way is higher than our way. He is much wiser than we are. Why should we follow the human-made way and not pick up the God-ordained way? We need to come back to the ordained map and follow the Lord according to this map. Then we will see His blessing. We are not so much blessed because we are not fully on His ordained way. In a certain sense, we are not obedient to Him. We behave ourselves according to our understanding and according to our choice. In practicing the new way, we need the Lord s help to practice with patience. I believe that at least one-third of the saints will be able to carry out the four major points of the advance of the Lord s recovery today. These saints can participate in the priesthood of the gospel in the New Testament, the organic building up of the Body of Christ, the perfecting of the saints by the gifts, and the prophesying for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ. Then all the saints among us will be occupied by a certain item of the New Testament service as ordained by God. Whatever we do in the God-ordained way will be very fruitful. People will be saved and brought in by us. These ones will be raised up by us and will be perfected. All the gifts, the talents, the abilities, and the capacities among us will be exposed and manifested in our meetings, and the gifted persons will be produced. This will take place among us in a gradual way. We must take God s ordained way according to His holy Word.