THE STUDY OF THE PRACTICE OF THE NEW WAY ACHIEVING THE ULTIMATE RESULTS
I was a Christian in the old way for fifty-five years, and I preached in the old way for fifty years. In 1984 the Lord opened my eyes to see that the old way was partially scriptural and partially unscriptural. In the last four and a half years I have seen begetting, nourishing, teaching, and building in the Bible, that is, preaching the gospel, nourishing and cherishing, teaching and perfecting, and prophesying for the Lord. In addition to seeing these things, I researched them. I set up a training center in Taipei, which in actuality was a research center, where we spent much time investigating these matters one by one. A number of saints went there to be trained, but to speak honestly, they did not receive much genuine training. What they saw was merely a small amount of practice; it was not the ultimate result. Although they only saw the investigation, they considered that they had received the training, and therefore, after returning to their locality, they did exactly as they had seen, and they trained others to do the same. However, since that was not the final result of our research, they did not receive the real training. At the beginning of this time, I told people that we were still in the stage of investigation, a stage that was experimental in nature, and that we did not yet have the assurance about what we were doing.
However, after four and a half years of study, I now have the full confidence and the boldness to tell people that we have completed our study of the four steps of the new way. Every step is according to the Bible and has been determined by studying church history, comparing what others have done, and reviewing the practice among us for the last sixty years. Hence, I have great courage and boldness to definitely say that what has been presented in the previous four messages is absolutely according to the Scriptures; nothing is according to human opinion or ideas. We truly feel good and are happy about these things.
BEGETTING, NOURISHING, TEACHING, AND BUILDING BEING OUR LIVING
What shall we do now? To do anything does not depend first on the method of doing it but on what kind of person is doing it. The person is far more important than the method. Two people may be taught to do the same thing, and both may learn it. However, one person may be diligent, serious, thorough, and absolute, but the other one may be just the opposite—lazy, loose, sloppy, and careless. Even if they do the same thing in the same way, the results will be extremely different.
The church life in the Lord’s recovery today is very noble because here we are doing the work of the priests of the gospel. Apparently, every step is a work, but in reality, it is our living, which is the living of the priests of the gospel. In actuality, it is not that we are working but that we are living the Christian life. Our life consists not only of sleeping, eating, being clothed, exercising, studying, and working; there are other matters that comprise our life. First, we need to rise every morning to have a morning revival. Just as we need to wash our face in the morning, so we need to contact the Lord, and just as we need to eat breakfast, so we need to enjoy the Lord. Eating breakfast and enjoying the Lord in the morning are both equally a part of our living. Not only so, we go to work by day; that is also a part of our living. But at night we also must set aside a time to visit our relatives or friends to lead them to salvation. This is a very important part of our living. Then, we must regularly go to the homes of the new ones and meet with them to nourish them with the milk of the word in the Bible and cherish them so that visit after visit they may grow in life. This is also a part of our Christian life. Furthermore, we need to bring them to the small group meetings that they may have a taste of the mutual fellowship of the saints and at the same time learn the truth of the Lord. Thus, they have some amount of learning in truth and some experiences in life, and they also know how to come near to the Lord, fellowship with the Lord, and receive inspiration from Him so that they can stand up to prophesy, to speak for the Lord, in the meetings. This is not a simple matter. Therefore, in our living we must continue to pick up the burden to teach them, perfect them, and demonstrate to them how to prophesy, to speak for the Lord. We must tell them that to prophesy is not to talk about secular matters or merely about how our sicknesses have been healed. Rather, it is to release the truth according to the Bible and testify the truth according to the experience of life. Furthermore, when they speak, they should speak according to inspiration organically, not mechanically. To have the truths of the Bible, the matching experiences of life, and the inspiration is to be organic. This is the proper prophesying, the genuine speaking for the Lord. Every week we need to set aside a little time to help others to exercise in this way. This is also a part of our living.
(The Church Life in the Lord's Recovery Today, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee)
