Suppose these three things are fully recovered. Are they God’s ultimate move? Is gospel preaching God’s ultimate move? Is teaching the Bible God’s ultimate move? Is meeting according to the Bible God’s ultimate move? What is God’s ultimate move? It is to gain a people who have Christ as their life. We must live Him. We must not have just a doctrine, but a real life in our daily living. It must be our experience that Christ is the flowing life within us. As He saturates and permeates us, He supplies us with all His elements. Incarnation, humanity, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection—all these are carried out within us in this permeation. While His life is saturating us, it kills the negative things within us and supplies us with the divine element. We need to know this, not just in a doctrinal way, but as a reality in our experience. Then we need to know how to be transformed and how to grow into maturity. Furthermore, we must know by experience what it is to be built up, in order that Christ may have a Body.
God is not primarily after gospel preaching, nor Bible teaching, nor scriptural meetings. He wants Christ as the embodiment of God to become your life, and you as a member of Christ to become a part of His Body. Then Christ will have His Body. Then in every locality the Body will be expressed as a golden lampstand. This is the preparation of the bride. Revelation 19:7 is yet to be fulfilled. It is when “His wife has made herself ready” that “the marriage of the Lamb is come.”
Where among today’s Christians is the bride being made ready? If you were to visit the different Christian meetings, you would realize how poor the situation is.
I am deeply burdened for you to see what God’s ultimate move is. Do not think I have no earthly cares. I have a wife, children, grandchildren, daughters-in-law, and sons-in-law. Sometimes I have to see a doctor for a physical problem. Yes, I have my share of troubles; that is part of my lot as a human being. But none of these is my real concern. My real concern is how to present to the dear saints the Lord’s ultimate move so that they may see it. I have a burden within. Where can the Lord get His heart’s desire? Surely not in the idol temples, nor in the Moslem mosques, nor in the Catholic cathedrals. The Lord has no way. Even the proper gospel preaching, Bible teaching, and scriptural meetings have been neglected. Who cares about them? And who cares about God’s ultimate move to carry out His eternal intention? Who even knows what God’s eternal intention is?
When there is an evangelistic campaign today, the sponsors often depend on their organizational methods, rather than the power which comes through prayer and the Word. They advertise, they invite famous people to attend, and they ask the various denominations to band together to promote the campaign. In this way they are able to gather large crowds. Great numbers may respond. After a few years, however, what becomes of all these people? Consider all the campaigns that have been held these past thirty years. Where are those who were supposedly saved in them? On the one hand, I rejoice in the Lord. On the other hand, I mourn. Where does the Lord have a way? Who are the people He can use? What people on this earth afford Him a way?
We must turn to the Lord and ask for His mercy. Even if our gospel preaching is adequate, our Bible teaching accurate, and our meetings scriptural, we still need to ask ourselves: Do we have the ultimate move of God among us?
There must be a good number, not just a few, who truly know how wonderful a Person Christ is. He must be our life, and we must live Him. We must be filled and permeated and saturated with Him. Our entire being must be infused with His feelings, His thoughts, and whatever He is. We must grow in life by being transformed little by little by His flowing life within us. Then we can be built up with our fellow-believers. In our locality there will be a lampstand. The bride will be prepared for Him to come back. It is this that the Lord is after today. I call it the fourth step.
For the first step, the spread of the gospel, God prepared the Roman Empire. For the second step, the return to the Bible, God prepared Germany. For the third step, the recovery of the gospel, the teaching of the Bible, and the proper meetings—God in the last two centuries used Great Britain. Finally, for the fourth step God has prepared the United States. All of the big points of human history match God’s move on the earth. Actually, all the major events of human history were prepared by God for His move on this earth.
(The World Situation and God's Move, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)