What is our burden? What is our responsibility? We must not just preach the gospel. We must bear the testimony of Jesus, as Revelation says (1:2, 9). We must be witnesses to Him, as Acts 1:8 tells us. We must bring forth fruit by abiding in Him, as John 15:5 and 16 tell us. This is the proper preaching of the gospel. There is no need to use any gimmicks. We must lay our gimmicks aside, just as Paul determined not to use excellence of speech. Our responsibility is to live Christ, to bear a living witness to Him in our daily life, to know nothing but Christ, the all-inclusive One revealed in the completing ministry of Paul and the mending ministry of John.
Then, whenever we come together, we are one Body and the one new man. There is no discrimination, whatever our background is. Praise the Lord for such a country as the United States! The other countries are made up of people of one nationality. Germany, for example, is composed of Germans. The United States is the only country that comprises all different races and national backgrounds; that is why it is called a melting pot. Is it not sovereign of the Lord that there should be such a nation right in the center of the inhabited earth? How good for the new man! Here there cannot be Greek or Jew, black or white, Oriental or Westerner, “but Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:11).
Our ultimate responsibility is to live Christ and to meet together in our locality in such a way that we may be the Body, the new man, the lampstand, and the bride. We meet in oneness. The Christ we live and preach is not divided. The Christ we testify is not divided. We live Him according to this view we have of Him. We live the all-inclusive, extensive Christ who is now the life-giving Spirit as the ultimate expression of the Triune God after many processes. And we meet together according to locality as the church, the church which is not only an assembly but also the Body, the new man, the lampstand, and the bride. We also practice the genuine oneness in every locality—one Body, one Spirit, one city, one church. Such a living is our ultimate responsibility.
The spreading of the Lord’s recovery must be considered part of our ultimate responsibility. When the Lord was on earth, He sent the disciples out two by two. When the church testimony was spreading, Paul and Barnabas also went out by two. I believe this is a divine principle. Suppose some are burdened to go to other countries. How will they make a living? It will be hard in a new country. I believe, however, that the rest who remain here could pick up the burden to support them.
Those who go out by twos to foreign countries may mostly go to study, to attend school, to learn the language. They can also contact people. Foreign students find it easy to contact other students and teachers. Out of these contacts they will be able to pass on Jesus Christ. There will be no need to be concerned about living expenses, because the saints here will support them. This will be easy to carry out, and it is the biblical way.
After a few years there could be a small testimony in many countries. The two in each place, as they are studying, or working, or just contacting people, could bring at least ten to the Lord. Then there would be twelve meeting together as a small lampstand. A lampstand is not big like a lighthouse; I believe the Bible uses the lampstand to signify the church to give the sense that the church does not have to be a big thing.
Suppose two brothers go with their wives to Athens, Greece. With four of them there, all studying and contacting other students, do you not believe that they can bring in at least ten within five years? Then there can be fourteen meeting there as the church in Athens! They will go there not like traditional missionaries but rather as the high-class witnesses to Jesus Christ. They will bring the high gospel to Athens. They will bring the deeper knowledge of the Bible. They will bring Christ. They will bring the testimony of Jesus, that is, the Body, the new man, the lampstand, and the bride.
I believe this may be the Lord’s way to prepare His bride (Rev. 19:7-8). Now that I have spoken to you, I have fulfilled my responsibility. Now the responsibility is yours. As you consider what you have read in these chapters of the world situation and of the Lord’s recovery, what will you do? Will you simply stay where you are and make a good living? Will you be content with good meetings? Good meetings are enjoyable, yet would the Lord not lead you out? Be sober and alert that the Lord may grant you the proper guidance—whether to stay or to go, where to go, and the way to go. If He leads you to stay, how much responsibility should you bear for those who go out in His name for His recovery by faith to other countries? A move like this is living; it is the Lord’s move in His Body.
This is the ultimate responsibility we must bear for the Lord’s ultimate recovery under the present ultimate world situation. We thank Him for this situation. We thank Him for the recovery. We thank Him for His grace, which will enable us to bear such a responsibility.
(The World Situation and God's Move, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee)