WEEK 3 OUTLINE PROPHESYING FOR THE BUILDING UP OF THE CHURCH AS THE ORGANIC BODY OF CHRIST Message Three The Basic Constituents of and the Way to Compose a Prophecy Scripture Reading: Lam. 3 : 22-23; Jer. 15:16; Eph. 6:17-18a; Luke 1:45-47 I. The basic constituents of a prophecy A. The personal knowledge of the Scriptures: 1. We need to get acquainted with the Word of God literally. 2. We need to know the deep denotations of the Word of God. 3. We need to know the spiritual significances of the Word of God. 4. We need to receive spiritual enlightenment and see spiritual vision from the Word of God Eph 1:17-18; Acts 26:19. B. The personal experience of life. C. Not adhering to personal experiences, testimonies, feelings, thoughts, opinions, affections, and reactions to any persons, matters, and things. II. The way to compose a prophecy A. First, enjoy the Lord through contacting Him in a portion of the Word every morning Lam. 3 : 22-23; Jer. 15:16. B. Second, write down a short note of your spiritual inspiration, enlightenment, and enjoyment of the Lord each morning as a reminder of what you received from the Lord Psa. 119 : 147-148; cf. Lev. 11:3. C. Third, put all the notes, the "harvest" of your inspirations of the past six mornings together for a total inspiration on the last day of the week and compose a prophecy of no more than three minutes to speak in the church meetings on the Lord's Day. D. Fourth, practice speaking your prophecy especially with saints who can coach or tutor you on how to compose a prophecy with the proper length, form, and content 1 Cor. 14:29. III. Exercising to prophesy A. We need to exercise our spirit Luke 1:47. B. We also need to exercise our mouth (our tongue) and our voice (our sound) Acts 2:26; 1 Cor. 14:7-11. C. We need to exercise our speed, our gesture and our accent 1 Cor. 14:9-11, 40. IV. Some points to help us prophesy effectively A. We must know God s Word; and to know God s Word, first we must know the essence of God s Word being God and Christ (John 1:1, 14), God's breathing out (2 Tim. 3:16), spiritual milk (1 Pet. 2:2), our bread of life (Matt. 4:4), and spirit and life (John 6:63). B. We need to see that proper pray-reading lays a good foundation for prophesying. C. We need to grasp the meaning and function of pray-reading the Lord s Word: 1. Pray-reading is to pray with the words of the Scripture and over them, using the words of the Bible as our prayer to God Eph. 6:17-18a.
2. When we pray, we use our spirit; when we pray-read, our spirit touches the Spirit of the Bible, and we receive life John 6:63. 3. To pray-read is to eat, drink and breathe the Spirit and life in the Word of God Eph. 6:17; Jer. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:2; cf. 2 Tim. 3:16. D. We need to build up a habit of speaking the word of the Lord: 1. The only way to speak the word of the Lord is to live according to the Spirit cf. Acts 8:29-35. 2. In all the daily affairs of our daily life, we need to learn to speak the word. 3. If we do not practice speaking the word in our daily life, it will be very hard for us to speak much in the meetings.
WEEK 3 DAY 1 The Basic Constituents of a Prophecy (1) Matt. 4:4 But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God. Acts 17:11 Now these people were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. THE PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCRIPTURES Getting Acquainted with the Word of God Literally The first basic constituent of a prophecy is the personal knowledge of the Scriptures. To gain such a knowledge, we need to get acquainted with the Word of God literally. We should even memorize many crucial verses in the Bible. For example, we should memorize the first verse of books such as Genesis, Psalms, Matthew, John, and Hebrews. We should also memorize verses such as John 3:6, 16, and 36; John 14:26 and 15:26; and John 15:16 and Romans 15:16. In addition, we need to devise a particular way that will enable us to remember the book, chapter, and verse number of the crucial verses. (The Practice of Prophesying, p. 29) The Way of Reading [The way of reading] is to find at least twenty minutes to read several chapters during our lunch break, after leaving work in the afternoon, after dinner in the evening, or before going to bed...the way of reading enables us to pick up a general sketch of the Bible and accumulate something of the Bible within us for further nourishment. The way of being nourished and the way of reading are the common ways in which all the believers should come to the Word. These ways are good for the older ones, the young ones, and the new ones. We can all spend at least fifteen minutes to read and pray-read a few verses early every morning. Then we can find time to read a few chapters later in the day. If we make a decision to practice this, we will be able to do it. We need to choose life by making a decision to practice this. We even need to make a deal with the Lord to spend time in the Word every morning so that we will be accountable to Him concerning this matter. When we read the Bible, we do not need to understand everything. It is all right if we understand what we read, and it is all right if we do not understand it. We do not need to strain our mentality to try to understand the Bible. If we contact the Lord as we read, He will surely give us the needed understanding. Our Father knows our need. If we try to understand the Bible in a natural way, our effort will be a great frustration and a great disappointment. We should never expect to understand or try to understand. We simply need to continue reading. By reading, we will surely understand something, and we should be content to understand just that much. (Crucial Elements of God s Economy, pp. 14-15) Reading Sequentially First, we should read the books of the Bible sequentially. Some new believers read the Bible randomly. When they rise in the morning, they shut their eyes and open to any page in the Bible. If they happen to open to the book of Psalms, they read a psalm, and if they open to the book of Revelation, they read Revelation; they simply read whatever page they open to. If the page they open to contains a difficult portion, they may avoid it and go to another page. If they come to an easy portion, they may read for a short period of time. This is not acceptable. The Bible must be read consecutively and not randomly. Having a responsibility before God, believers should not randomly approach the Bible. We need to read the easy portions as well as the difficult ones. Even if we do not understand a portion in the Bible, we still need to read it. Hence, we should always read in sequence. For example, we should even read all the names in the genealogy in Matthew 1:1-17. We should read the Old Testament and the New Testament simultaneously. We should not wait until we finish reading the Old Testament before reading the New Testament. We should read the Old Testament consecutively beginning with the book of Genesis and at the same time read the New Testament consecutively beginning with the book of Matthew. ( Lessons for New Believers, pp. 83-84)
WEEK 3 DAY 2 The Basic Constituents of a Prophecy (2) John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life. Knowing the Deep Denotations and Spiritual Significances of the Word of God To have the personal knowledge of the Scriptures, we must know not merely the text of the Scriptures in letters, but the deep denotations and spiritual significances of the Word of God Knowing the Deep Denotations The deep denotation of the Scriptures can be found in John 3:16, which has been understood superficially by many believers for centuries. John 3:16 is one of the deepest verses in the Bible. To understand any verse of the Bible, we must take care of the context of that verse. John 3:16 is in a chapter of thirty-six verses. Thus, in order to understand this verse, we must take care of the entire chapter. The subject of John 3 is regeneration. In order to be regenerated, we need two things the cross and the Spirit. Verses 14-15 of this chapter say, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life." We can be regenerated because the Lord Jesus was crucified for us. Because we had become serpents by being bitten by the old serpent, the devil, Satan (Gen. 3:1, 13-15; Rev. 12:9a), the Lord Jesus died on the cross in the form of a serpent, that is, in our form. He died as our replacement so that we might have eternal life. Verse 6 of this chapter says, "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The Spirit mentioned here is the life-giving Spirit. Thus, we are regenerated through Christ's crucifixion and through Christ Himself becoming the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). John 3 also tells us clearly that regeneration is for the increase of Christ. The verses before verse 16 tell us the way in which we can be regenerated, and the verses after verse 16 tell us that the regenerated ones are the increase of Christ, and that this increase is Christ's counterpart, His bride. Thus, these verses reveal that the Lord Jesus came in the form of a serpent, that is, in the "likeness of the flesh of sin" (Rom. 8:3), in order to die for us, and after dying and being resurrected, He is now the Bridegroom waiting to have us as His bride. The marriage of the Bridegroom and the bride will take place in Revelation 19, but the preparation for the marriage is seen in John 3. John 3:16 says that God gave His only begotten Son not to man but to the world. This verse says that God loved the world, not that He loved man. The world is composed not of men but of "serpents." Every nation on this earth is a nation of "serpents." The world mentioned in John 3:16 signifies not the earth but fallen man, who has been swallowed up by Satan, the serpent, and has been made a satanic system. This is why the Lord Jesus said that He would be lifted up and would die as a serpent, as our Substitute. Thus, God loved the "serpents," and He gave His Son to these "serpents." Furthermore, His Son became a serpent so that all these dying serpents could be made alive by having the eternal life. This eternal life produces the believers in Christ and forms and builds up the Body of Christ as His bride. John 3:16 indicates further that the God who loved the serpentine world is triune. The fact that the Son is mentioned in this verse is an indication of the Triune God. The simple God does not have a Son; it is the Triune God who has a Son.This is the deeper denotation in John 3:16. Knowing the Spiritual Significances To have the personal knowledge of the Scriptures, we must also know the spiritual significances of the Word of God. Paul's knowledge of the spiritual significances of the Word of God can be seen in his interpretation of Genesis 16:15 and 21:2, as revealed in Galatians 4:22-26. According to the letter of Genesis 16:15 and 21:2, we can see two women: Sarah, Abraham's wife, and Hagar, his concubine. However, in Galatians 4:22-26 Paul said that these two women are figures: Hagar signifies the old covenant, which produces children unto slavery, whereas Sarah signifies the new covenant, which produces children who are free. With these two women there is a deep significance. (The Practice of Prophesying, p..34)
WEEK 3 DAY 3 The Basic Constituents of a Prophecy (3) Eph. 1:17 18a That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him. The eyes of your heart having been enlightened Receiving Spiritual Enlightenment More than fifty-seven years ago, Brother Watchman Nee received spiritual enlightenment on the meeting of mutuality in 1 Corinthians 14:26, and he stressed this truth very much. He saw that according to 1 Corinthians 14:26, when we all come together, each one must have something. In January 1937 in Shanghai, Brother Nee shared this in a special conference of a small group of co-workers, and those messages were compiled into the book The Normal Christian Church Life. Almost every Christian who reads 1 Corinthians 14 sees nothing in that chapter regarding the meeting of mutuality. However, Brother Nee received spiritual enlightenment. He also received spiritual enlightenment concerning the local ground of the church in Revelation 1:11. Seeing Spiritual Vision We must also see the spiritual vision in the Word of God, such as the vision of God's economy, God's dispensation, in Ephesians 1:10; 3:9; and 1 Timothy 1:4. The Greek word oikonomia in these three verses indicates a household administration in a large family for the distributing or dispensing of daily necessities to the members of the household. Joseph carried out such a distributing or dispensing for Pharaoh. Joseph was a steward appointed to carry out Pharaoh's economy in dispensing the rich store of daily supplies to his people (Gen. 41:55-57). We began to see the vision of God's economy fewer than twenty years ago. THE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF LIFE The second basic constituent of a prophecy is the personal experience of life. We must have the experience of life personally. Knowledge by itself is empty; our knowledge should be filled with our experience. In the Christian life there are two categories of experience. The first is the personal experiences of the Lord's doings and blessings in physical things and environmental occurrences These merciful doings and blessings, however, are not grace. Grace is not something in the physical realm. Grace is the Triune God Himself embodied in Christ and given to us as life for our enjoyment. We need to have the second category of experiences, which are the personal experiences of God's redemption and salvation, Christ and the church, preaching the gospel, nourishing the new believers (feeding the lambs) in the home meetings, perfecting the saints in the group meetings, prophesying for the building up of the church, and other experiences, by the exercising of our spirit in faith. We should have many testimonies concerning this category of experiences, the experiences in life NOT ADHERING TO PERSONAL EXPERIENCES, TESTIMONIES, FEELINGS, THOUGHTS, OPINIONS, AFFECTIONS, AND REACTIONS TO ANY PERSONS, MATTERS, AND THINGS In speaking forth a proper prophecy, we should not adhere to personal experiences, testimonies, feelings, thoughts, opinions, affections, and reactions to any persons, matters, and things. When we prophesy, we should reject our personal feelings, thoughts, opinions, and even affections. We should also stay away from our reactions to our spouse, our neighbors, the elders, and the brothers and sisters. To prophesy, in principle, is not to speak for oneself, not to speak forth oneself, and even the more, not to dispense oneself into people. Often we may dispense ourselves to people in our speaking in order to impress them with our experiences and affections. This kind of speaking is not to speak the Lord but to speak ourselves, and it is not related to Christ but to ourselves. This is not to prophesy but to promote ourselves. To prophesy is mainly to speak for God and Christ, to speak forth God and Christ, and to dispense God and Christ into people for people's nourishment and supply. Sometimes we may use our experiences to illustrate what we are speaking. In actuality, to prophesy is to release some spiritual vision as a revelation and some spiritual enlightenment as a light to shine over others, either to bring certain things of God to light, that is, to make certain things known to people, or to bring people into the enlightenment of God. These are the main principles that govern our prophesying. We should do our best to speak for God and Christ, and the less we speak of ourselves, the better. (The Practice of Prophesying, pp. 35-38)
WEEK 3 DAY 4 The Way to Compose a Prophecy Jer. 15:16 Your words were found and I ate them, / And Your word became to me / The gladness and joy of my heart, / For I am called by Your name, / O Jehovah, God of hosts. Psa. 119:147 I anticipated the dawn and cried out; / I hoped in Your words. 148 My eyes anticipated the night watches, / That I might muse upon Your word. [FROM OUR REVELATION GAINED FROM THE WORD OF GOD AND OUR EXPERIENCE OF THE TRIUNE GOD DURING THE WEEK, COMPOSE A PROPHECY OF NO MORE THAN THREE MINUTES TO SPEAK] In order to learn to prophesy, we need to enjoy the Lord in a portion of the Word every morning. The way to do this is by pray-reading. Do not try to pray-read a whole chapter. This may be compared to eating a breakfast which is too large. We should choose a portion of the Word consisting of ten or fewer verses. Among these few verses there may be two verses which we especially enjoy, and we can concentrate on these. By doing this every morning we will receive inspiration, and we can take notes on the spiritual inspiration we receive. They do not need to be long notes; short notes with certain points as reminders are adequate. Then we should put all the notes, the inspirations of the past six mornings, together on the last day of the week to compose a prophecy for a three-minute speaking by exercising our spirit. Our speaking should not be too long or too short. Limiting our speaking to three minutes will help everyone to preserve the time in the meetings. (The Practical and Organic Building Up of the Church, pp. 86-87) If we do mean business to learn to prophesy, I would propose to you that every week you set aside two hours and come together with eight or ten to teach one another and to learn from one another. For this reason, every one of you should have a morning revival every day. There is a publication that is very suitable for this, The Holy Word for Morning Revival, which contains Scripture text, portions from footnotes, and portions from Life-study Messages for our pray-reading and enjoyment of the Lord every morning. When you have a morning revival every day in this way, you will surely have some inspiration which you may jot down. When the weekend comes, you may put together the portions that you have written down, read them over, and do a little polishing so that it will be approximately three minutes long. This becomes a very good draft for your prophesying. Doing this is something very basic, and it will be of great benefit to you. (The Up-to- Date Presentation of the God-ordained Way and the Signs Concerning the Coming of Christ, pp. 47-48) I told the saints to write down a short reminder of what the Lord inspires them with each morning. After Saturday morning the saints will have six notes of the inspiration that they received during the week. I shared with them that on Saturday evening they can pray-read these six inspirations. When the saints add these six inspirations together, they will have a total inspiration. They can then compose a prophecy with this total inspiration. Some of the brothers function as tutors or coaches to help the saints compose their prophecy. These brothers may advise them to adjust their prophecy so that it is close to three minutes long. If their prophecy is too short, they will be asked to lengthen it. If it is too long, they will be asked to shorten it. The brothers also help the saints with the form and content of their prophecy. (The Present Advance of the Lord's Recovery, pp. 61-62) PRACTICE SPEAKING THE PROPHECY WE HAVE PREPARED IN OUR HOME Moreover, there are secrets to proper prophesying. We can practice at home first. The husband may speak to the wife, and the wife may speak to the husband. After speaking to one another, they can criticize each other. This is a very good way of practicing, and it will improve our prophesying. It is like practicing piano; the more we practice, the more skillful we become. The less we practice, the harder it will be for us to advance. Hence, there is the need for constant practice even in the matter of prophesying. In the end, our posture, tone, air, and spirit of speaking will all become a genuine prophesying, instead of being merely a testifying or an ordinary speaking. If everyone would learn to speak for God and to speak forth God in this way, the Lord will surely be able to fulfill and recover the words in 1 Corinthians 14. (The Organic Practice of the New Way, p. 77)
WEEK 3 DAY 5 Exercising to Prophesy Eph. 5:18b but be filled in spirit, 19 Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord. 1 Cor. 14:9 So also you, unless you give with the tongue a word easy to understand, how will what is being said be known? For you will be speaking into the air. EXERCISING TO PROPHESY Exercising Your Spirit In the exercise of your spirit (Luke 1:47; Psa. 16:9), you must exercise your mouth and your voice at the same time. When someone exercises his spirit in speaking, he may shout. But do not consider that mere shouting is the release of the spirit. You must learn to exercise your innermost being when you speak. To lose your temper is a good illustration of releasing your spirit. When you speak in anger, without any consideration, without any fear, and without any care, you spontaneously release your spirit. Exercising Your Mouth (Your Tongue) and Your Voice (Your Sound) When you prophesy, you must exercise your mouth, your tongue (Psa. 108:1; Acts 2 : 26), and your voice, your sound (1 Cor. 14:7-11). When you speak in the meeting, you should not forget that you are speaking to the entire congregation. You are not speaking just to yourself or to the person next to you. For this reason, you must exercise your mouth and your voice. We should not forget that when we come to a meeting, we are coming to speak. Our singing and praying are also a kind of speaking. Even to say "amen" is a kind of speaking. Whenever we enter through the threshold of the meeting hall, we should learn to exercise our spirit. We should realize that to exercise our spirit and to exercise our mouth are part of our job whenever we come to the meetings. Whenever we meet together, we must exercise our spirit. Not only when we cross the threshold of the meeting hall, but also beginning from our homes and on the way to the meeting, we should exercise our spirit to speak to the Lord, to sing, to pray, and to praise. If while driving your car on the way to the meeting, you say in an exercised way, "O Lord! Amen! Hallelujah! " your spirit will be stirred up. (The Practice of the Church Life According to the God-ordained Way, pp. 87-88) Exercising Your Speed In the previous two messages we have seen that we need to exercise our spirit, our mouth (our tongue), and our voice (our sound) in the practice of prophesying. In prophesying we also need to exercise our speed. In our speaking, we must adjust ourselves. We should not speak too fast or too slow; rather, we need to speak with a good rhythm and a proper speed. Exercising Your Gesture In prophesying we also need to exercise our gesture. Although I have been speaking for more than sixty years, I feel that I still have not learned adequately to speak with a proper gesture. This is a difficult matter. To learn to have a proper gesture requires a lifetime of exercise. Having the proper gesture is a great benefit to our speaking. If we speak with little or no gesturing, our speaking will appear to be unnatural and lifeless, and it will not be attractive. If we speak with too much gesturing, our speaking will seem to be peculiar. We all need to learn to speak with a gesture that is very spontaneous. Exercising Your Accent In the practice of prophesying, we also need to learn to exercise our accent. In our speaking we must have some crucial points with some crucial words. We need to learn to accent our speaking. Shouting loudly is not always a proper accent to our speaking. Sometimes we should speak a certain point slowly to make it a crucial point that can catch people's attention. In our speaking we should care not only for our rhythm, our speed, but also for our accent. We should learn to speak with a proper rhythm and a proper accent so that our listeners can hear every word. In speaking we must take care of others' ears. Exercising to have a proper speed, gesture, and accent is a great help to our speaking. (The Practice of the Church Life According to the God-ordained Way, pp. 106-107)
WEEK 3 DAY 6 Building Up a Habit of Speaking the Word Deut. 6:6 And these words, which I command you today, shall be upon your heart; 7 And you shall repeat them to your children, and speak about them when you sit in your house and when you journey on the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up. BUILDING UP A HABIT OF SPEAKING THE WORD OF THE LORD In order to practice the scriptural way to meet and to serve for the building up of the Body of Christ, we have to build up a habit of speaking the word of the Lord. For the most part, we do not have the practice or the habit of speaking the word of the Lord properly. We do not practice applying the word of the Lord to our daily life that much, nor have we built up the habit of exercising to speak the word of the Lord regularly in daily affairs. For us to be saints who meet properly according to the holy Word, we need to build up a habit of speaking the word of the Lord in our daily life and in our daily affairs. The Only Way to Speak the Holy Word Is to Live According to the Spirit The only way to speak the Holy Word is to live according to the Spirit. If we want to speak the word, we must exercise to live by the Spirit, to walk by the Spirit, to do things according to the Spirit. We always have someone with whom we can speak. The husband and wife have each other, the parents have their children, and the students have their classmates. We all have the way and the time to speak the Lord's word to others. On the other hand, people have a lot of time to speak profane, vain words to others. Many would say that they do not have the time to pray, but they have a lot of time to talk on the telephone. When we do pray, we may pray only for a short time. But when we get on the telephone, we may talk for a long time. The reason for this is that our natural man has a lust for speaking natural things. There is a lust in our flesh for speaking profane, vain words to others. We must hate this lust, and we must do our best by the Spirit to put this lust on the cross. We have to turn from our lust to our spirit to live, to walk, and to have our being by the Spirit. We must hate our lust and crucify our lust by exercising our spirit. When we turn away from the lust that desires to talk in a vain way and turn to our spirit, our spirit will direct us to prayer. When we practice this, we are overcomers. This exercise will help us to practice speaking the word in our daily life. In All the Daily Affairs of Our Daily Life, We Need to Learn to Speak the Word In all the daily affairs of our daily life, we need to learn to speak the word. While we are doing things in our daily life, we need to learn to speak with others. Sometimes we may not have anyone with us. When there are no people to speak to, we can speak to the things around us. We can speak to the chairs, the flowers, the trees, and the animals. We should not stop speaking. Whether someone is with us or not, we should speak the Lord ' s word. When the sisters are cooking and no one is with them, they can talk to the oven about the processed Triune God. Always learn to talk in your daily life, but do not talk in a profane and vain way for your lustful enjoyment. You must change your habit to that of speaking the word of the Lord. If you want someone to accompany you when you go somewhere, get the right person to whom you can speak God's word. If you get the wrong person, you will not be able to build up the habit of speaking the divine things. You will be swallowed up by this wrong person. He will help you to speak things that are not so holy, and you will fall into profane and worldly talk. If we do not speak properly during the day, when we come to the meetings in the evening, we will be the wrong persons. If we have been talking in a worldly way all day long and we come to the meeting in the evening, it is hard to make a "U-turn." If our tongue is used to speaking worldly things for six days, on the Lord's Day our tongue will not cooperate with us to speak the holy word. If we are used to speaking worldly things during the week, how can we speak holy things in the meeting? Our speaking of the word in the meeting depends upon our habit. If I speak the holy word from Monday through Saturday, my tongue is used to that. Then when I come to the meeting on the Lord's Day, everything within my being, my mind, will, and emotion, is used to the speaking of the holy word. This is what I mean by applying the word of the Lord to our daily life. (The Scriptural Way to Meet and to Serve for the Building Up of the Body of Christ, pp. 177-179)