Scripture Reading: Hab. 3:2b; Prov. 29:18a; Acts 26:19; 2:42-47, 14, 38, 13:1-4; 1 Cor. 15:58
I. The Lord’s move today is for His people to enter into a new revival; a revival is the practice of the vision which we have seen—Hab. 3:2b; Hos. 6:2; Prov. 29:18a; Acts 26:19:
A. We need a new unprecedented revival—Hab. 3:2b; Hos. 6:2:
1. There is a thirst within God’s chosen believers to have a new revival—Hab. 3:2b, Hos. 6:2, Rom. 8:20-22.
2. In every age there is the vision of that age, and we have to serve God according to the vision of the age—Acts 26:19.
3. We can enter into a new revival by arriving at the highest peak of the divine revelation through the ministry of the age—Eph. 3:9.
B. There are four clear and distinctive great revival in the Lord’s recovery:
1. The first revival is related to the proof and the assurance of salvation—Mark 16:16; John 10:
2. The second revival is related to the overcoming life of Christ—Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20.
3. The third revival is related to the practiced church life and the practices of the church life—Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:1-13.
4. The main spiritual focus in the fourth revival is to offer up their whole being and their everything to the church.
II. In the year 1940, Brother Lee went back to Chefoo, he practiced the church life according to the blueprint that Brother Nee saw; at the end of 1942, the church in Chefoo experienced a great revival—Acts 2:42-47:
A. This revival was brought in through the practice of the church life together with the small serving groups. The practice of the church life brought all the saints into building and this caused them to be burnt and brought in the new revival—Eph. 4:16; Col. 2:19.
B. On the January 1st of 1943, the revival in Chefoo reached the highest peak, the situation was indescribable—Acts 2:42-47:
1. No announcement was made on that day for any meeting but the saints came from the morning to the evening to gather together and practice fasting. There is no schedule or arranged programme, nevertheless the Lord had done a lot of things on that day.
2. After a few weeks, our meeting is liken to what is recorded in Acts 2 and 4; day by day we met for 100 days and that was a hundred days of conference, every meeting was different and fresh.
C. The revival in Chefoo was great to the extent that 800 saints consecrated themselves—2:44-45:
1. That consecration was not once but a few times; first they consecrated themselves and next time they brought their wife and children, then their houses, land, contracts; after that, they consecrated stocks, savings, everything was consecrated.
2. They consecrated to an extent that after the meeting, the saints were divided into many groups, such as mechanical group collected sewing machines and gramaphone, stock exchange group collected stocks and bonds, bank group collected fixed deposit, cash group and property group. Every group was busy collecting consecrated items till midnight.
3. Every night people came even before meeting started, wept and brought something. The Lord dealt with every family thoroughly, miracles did happen on the saints.
D. In my whole Christian life, I had never seen a revival such as this; in every family there was no gossip or light talk; the saints were just talking about Christ, church and migration; every family members from the old to the young, parents and children were all stirred up— 12:11b.
III. In the spring of 1947, Brother Lee led the church in Shanghai “the whole church preaching gospel”; end of 1947, the church in Shanghai experienced a great revival, it was the greatest, strongest, victorious revival among us—Acts 2:14, 38:
A. The church in Shanghai experienced turmoil from 1942-1946, through the messages concerning the tree of life, the church was healed, some main and crucial saints in the church had repented— 2:1-2.
B. After I went to Shanghai in 1946, in 1947 spring I proposed to the elders “the whole church preaching gospel” following the practice of the church in Chefoo and the result was effective; after preaching the gospel, over a hundred got baptized and followed by seventy to eighty people—Acts 2:14, 38.
C. During the summer of 1947, the revival had reached the peak, there were more than a thousand saints breaking bread in sixteen to seventeen district.
D. The church in Shanghai was brought back through the revival in 1947 and eventually the ministry of Brother Nee was recovered and the revival was spread to the entire China; there was a locality which baptized more than seven hundred people in a day.
E. There were about eighty seeking saints came from different locality to Shanghai for the revival and joined the six month training conducted by Brother Nee. Training started from April to October 1948, after that they went back to each locality and churches was stirred up—Luke12:49; Acts 2:3-4.
IV. In May 1949, Brother Lee was sent to work in Taiwan. He brought the revival over to Taiwan. First few years there was one accord and the church spread very fast. It multiplied manifolds—13:1-4; 9:31:
A. At that time there were 50 saints meeting, I was very sad and was looking at ceiling all day long and was wondering ‘what am I doing here.’
B. The Lord gave me a feeling that there are much to do in Taiwan and it was a good place to set up churches and I officially started work on 1st of August, 1949—Rev. 1:4, 11, 20.
C. On the 1st of August, 1949, the Lord had prepared a small meeting hall for us. Within one year, the Lord blessed the church with thirty folds and increased to one thousand saints—Acts 6:7; 9:31.
D. Before 1952, the full-timers were only me and another sister; in 1952, there were one hundred and spontaneously the work in Taiwan grew.
E. There were churches in the Lord’s recovery from Keelung to Kaoshiung, east towards Hualian, Taitung and each big cities in Taiwan. These one hundred full-timers were spread to each locality to take care and propagate the work of the Lord.
F. Through mercy of the Lord, from 1956 to 1957, the numbers reach fifty thousand; in other words, the number grew from three hundred fifty to five hundred and hundredfold within six to seven years—6:7; 9:31; Mark 6:39-40:
1. The numbers keep increasing and we were considering how to take care of new ones and remembered the Lord divided the crowd into groups of hundred in the wilderness.
2. Following this principle, we started to gather in districts and small groups; during that seven years, the numbers grew hundredfold to fifty thousand.
V. At the end of 1962, there was a special meeting in Los Angeles; the numbers grew rapidly and there were many Americans, after that the Lord’s work started and ‘exploded’—Acts 6:7; 2:47:
A. The work in America begun from the Spirit, in a very short time the practice of exercising the spirit was fruitful.
B. In 1960, 1961, practices we can’t do in Taiwan but we manage to do it in America; in America, there were a lot of ‘sermon’ but we also focused on the spirit, thus we have the supply of life and blessing—2 Cor. 3:6, John 6:63.
C. There was a conference at Eric, Pennsylvania in 1969, I got an experience, as I was speaking and was not sure about the content of the message, I just exercise my faith and spirit—1 Cor. 4:13; 14:32; 2 Tim. 1:7:
1. Immediately the points regarding the seven Spirits in Revelation was manifested, every participant witnessed that the seven Spirits was new, fresh, powerful and living—Rev. 4:5.
2. After that we went back to Los Angeles, organized the 1969 summer training based on this title. That summer was the key and turning point of the Lord’s recovery in America.
D. In 1970, there were migrations. At that year there was a conference in Los Angeles and the attendee reached one thousand two hundred. At that time there were one thousand five hundred saints in the whole America. After the migration, in 1972, the number of saints grew to six thousand—Acts 8:4-5, 40.
VI. It is hopefully that the saints in the church rise up to pray for a new revival that has never been before. We are cooperating with God to be used by the Lord to propagate His Kingdom. This is not a small matter but needs our full participation; this is glorious and most pleasing service to the Lord—Hab. 3:2; 1 Cor. 15:58; Matt. 13:44, 46.
