THE RECOVERY OF LIFE
In the degradation of Christianity this life matter has been lost. As long as the life matter is lost, the expression of God is gone. The Lord’s recovery is just to recover the expression of God. It is not to recover baptism by Immersion or other kinds of truths or practices. Those are too small. Those are not so central. The central recovery of the Lord is to recover the divine life within us that God may have His expression among His people. This is the main item, the central thing, that needs to be recovered. We are here in the Lord’s recovery, in the church life, not for the recovery of certain doctrines or practices. We are here for the recovery of the divine expression of the Triune God. We are here for the central recovery of the divine life which we are possessing and enjoying and living by day and night. When we have this central recovery, we have all we need.
We don’t need any regulations. This central recovery regulates and governs us everyday. In the church we don’t have regulations as to what the members should wear, but surely the life within would not allow you to wear certain things. The recovery of the divine life within us for God’s expression governs us. Sometimes you may be tempted to dress in a certain way, but the divine life is within you regulating. We don’t have a regulation that says all the sisters in the church life should have their skirts a certain length. But sometimes sisters have burned their short skirts. Why would they do this? The living God within them who is their life required this of them!
A few days ago I went to the department store to buy a tie. I picked up the ties and looked at them. We don’t have a regulation in the churches of the Lord’s recovery which says not to wear fancy ties. I just simply don’t have the permission to wear such a fancy tie. Who regulates me? The Lord Jesus! It is not Jesus outside of me and not even Jesus on the throne, but the very Jesus who is within me. It is the living Jesus who is my life daily. The life within me regulates. Do you like to eat bitter things? If you put something bitter in my mouth, I would spit it out. But if you put something sweet in my mouth, I would swallow it. Within us there is a taste of life. Life works, life serves, life regulates. This is the regulation today in the church life. It is not in letters.
Every one who has Christ within surely wants to be buried under the water. He wants to get rid of himself. It is not that there is a kind of doctrine and practice concerning immersion. Rather, the life within causes us to want to be buried. Among all the saints in the churches in the Lord’s recovery there is no regulation at all. We only have the divine life within recovered to the uttermost. Also we have the Holy Word in our hand for the development of the inner life and for the light of our pathway. We don’t have any regulations; we only have the recovery of the divine life within us for the expression of God.
(Concerning the Lord's Recovery, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)
