GRASPING THE MAIN POINTS TO PRAY-READ
In addition, when you pray-read, you need to look at the subject and the main points. The subject this morning is “The Full Knowledge of the Word of God.” Therefore, when you pray-read 1 Timothy 2:4, “Who desires all men to be saved and come to the full knowledge of the truth,” you should not dwell on the phrase “who desires all men to be saved,” because the subject is not salvation but knowing the truth. In this sense, pray-reading may be likened to playing basketball. In basketball the main thing is not dribbling but shooting. In pray-reading, when you “get the ball,” do not dribble the ball; just shoot.
When I came back to Taiwan, I saw that all the industries on this island had changed and that the export business had been revolutionized. However, the way we do things has not changed much. We cannot change the earth, which was created by God, but we can change the method of transportation on the earth. Likewise, we cannot change the truth, but we can change our way of practicing the truth. Therefore, this training is not for a specific class of people but for everyone. From now on there will be no class in the service of the church. We must hate class structure, and we must abolish class structure. When the class structure is abolished, there will be no religious organization and no clergy.
HAVING GOD’S WORD AND BEING ABLE TO SPEAK GOD’S WORD
Because of the change of the system, we have turned from big meetings to small meetings. In the small meetings our greatest need is the word of God. Everyone should know how to speak the word of God. A short time ago I was in a special conference in Berkeley, California. There I spoke five messages on “The Divine Speaking.” In these messages I taught and encouraged the saints to speak the divine word. When I returned to Taiwan, this was still my burden. I feel that the small group meetings have not been firmly established and are not rich because we do not have enough of God’s word, and we do not have sufficient experience in speaking God’s word. Using again the illustration of basketball, we all know that having a basketball is one thing, and playing the game of basketball is another thing. If you do not have enough practice in the basic movements and have not practiced enough to work together with the other team members, you cannot play a good game. In like manner, to have God’s word is one thing, and to speak God’s word is another thing. I believe that many of you who are in the meetings have God’s word, but because you lack practice in speaking, when you need to speak you cannot do it. These two matters—having God’s word and speaking God’s word—are our present need. If we cannot master these two things, it will be difficult to succeed in changing the system.
I do not expect the changing of the system to succeed in six months, but I do expect that it will succeed in three years. Anything worthwhile cannot be done successfully in one try. Anything that can be done successfully in a short time is probably not very worthwhile. Therefore, we need to have patience and perseverance. We need to struggle, work hard, and practice; then we will succeed in changing the system. Therefore, having come back to Taiwan this time, I still need to emphasize these two points: having the word of God and speaking the word of God. Every day we will have three training meetings, two in the morning and one in the evening. The subject of the first message each day will be “The Full Knowledge of the Word of God,” and the subject of the second message will be “Everyone Speaking the Word of God.” In the first message the emphasis will be on the word, while in the second message the emphasis will be on speaking. The subject of the third message will be “Meeting to Speak the Word of God.”
(The Full Knowledge of the Word of God, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)
