Lesson Book, Level 4: Life—Knowing and Experiencing Life, by Witness Lee

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V. BUILDING UP THE BODY THROUGH PROPHESYING IN THE CHURCH MEETINGS

The final step is to prophesy and help your new ones to prophesy in the church meeting so that you may build up the church, the Body of Christ. First Corinthians 14:4b says, “He who prophesies builds up the church.’’ [Prophesying in 1 Corinthians 14 is not predicting but speaking for the Lord, speaking forth the Lord, and speaking the Lord into others, ministering (dispensing) the Lord to others. What a precious and valuable thing it is to minister, to dispense Christ into others. We need to learn to speak Christ, dispensing Him into others.]

[First Corinthians reveals that we need to enjoy Christ as everything. What we enjoy will have an issue. The enjoyment of Christ firstly issues in the growth in life to produce materials for the building up of the church (3:6, 9-14).] [The enjoyment of Christ also issues in the development of gifts for functioning to build up the Body of Christ, prophesying being the excelling gift (1 Cor. 14:1, 12, 39a). To build up anything you need firstly the materials and secondly the skill, the functioning. Thus, the enjoyment of Christ issues not only in the growth in life but also in the development of gifts for functioning.] [Dispensing Christ by speaking Him, prophesying, is the top development of the gifts as an issue of enjoying Him.]

Whenever we call on the Lord and pray-read the word, we must have some enjoyment of Christ and some experiences of life. We should write down these revelations and experiences. On Saturday, we should use these notes to compose a prophecy. We also should help our new ones to do the same. On the Lord’s day, when the whole church comes together, you and your new ones will have a revelation or a testimony (1 Cor. 14:26). Then you and your new ones should prophesy or testify according to what you have composed concerning the Lord (Psa. 45:1). When you speak for the Lord this way you will build up the church, the Body of Christ. You will tear down the degraded system of clergy-laity, which the Lord hates (Rev. 2:6), to build up the church directly (Eph. 4:12). In this way, the prophecy (foretelling) of the Lord, “I will build My church’’ (Matt. 16:18), will be partially fulfilled by you.

If you and all the saints in the churches will rise up to experience life, to grow in life, to deal with all the hindrances by repenting and confessing, to maintain a strong spirit by calling and praying, to be enriched with the Word of God by pray-reading, reading, studying, and memorizing, to speak Christ every day in every place to every person, to live a normal Christian daily life, and to have a normal church life, then the Body of Christ will be built, the Lord will return, you will enter into the millennial kingdom as a reward, and finally, you will be the New Jerusalem for eternity. Hallelujah! This is the final issue of life. We all have to praise the Lord that He is the eternal, divine, and indestructible life in us to produce such wonderful results. Praise the Lord!

Questions

  1. What are the five steps to have a normal church life?
  2. Define the gospel. Is this gospel the goal of your life?
  3. What are the three foundation stones of a Christian life? Can you give two verses for each item?
  4. What are you perfected in? Have you perfected others?
  5. Compose a fifty-word prophecy out of this lesson and speak it to your class.

Quoted Portions from (Lee/LSM) Publications

  1. Living Uniquely for the Gospel, pp. 31-32.
  2. Further Light Concerning Building Up of the Body of Christ, pp. 6-8.

(Lesson Book, Level 4: Life—Knowing and Experiencing Life, Chapter 24, by Witness Lee)

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