THE PROPER AGGRESSIVENESS OF THE FULL-TIME SERVING ONES
Message Three
Being Equipped with and Constituted with the Truth
Scripture Reading: Neh. 8:1-18; 1 John 1:8; 2:4; 1 Tim. 2:4; Rom. 12:11
I. In order to be reconstituted with God, to be the testimony of God, the expression of God, we must be reconstituted with the word of God by daily reading the Bible and the ministry that opens up the Bible—John 5:39; 2 Tim. 3:16:
A. In order to be reconstituted and inoculated, we need to come back to God by coming back to His word, both the written Word and the interpreted word—Neh. 8:1-18.
B. In order to be reconstituted and inoculated, we need to labor to get into the healthy teaching of God’s economy through the unique ministry—1 Tim. 5:17.
C. The healthy teaching not only ministers the life supply to the believers and heals the spiritual diseases, but in so doing, it also brings the church into a sound condition with a good order—1 Tim. 6:3; Titus 1:1, 9.
D. To be constituted with the truth is to have the intrinsic element of the divine revelation wrought into us to become our constituent, our intrinsic being, our organic constitution—1 John 1:8; 2:4; 2 John 1-2; 3 John 3-4.
II. Brothers, our eyes need to be enlightened; we need to discard the old ways and forget about trying to give better messages; I hope that all of us will aggressively use the truths in the Lord’s recovery—John 8:32, 2 John 1:2:
A. The economy of God is His household administration, dispensation, and plan—1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 1:10; 3:9.
B. God’s dispensing: In order for God to attain His plan and purpose, a process is needed; this process is God’s dispensing—John 12:24; 1 Cor. 15:45b; John 3:29; 1:14; 12:24.
C. The Triune God: The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three substantially, yet they are one essentially—Gen. 1:26; 2 Cor. 13:14; Isa. 9:6; Rev. 1:4-5.
D. Christ: In His divinity, He is the mystery of God, and in Him all the fullness of the entire Godhead—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—dwells bodily; in His humanity, He became flesh, partaking of blood and flesh and taking the likeness of the flesh of sin—Col. 1:15; John 1:14, 18; Rom. 8:3; John 12:24; Rom. 8:3.
E. The Spirit: God has been incarnated, accomplished the all-inclusive death on the cross by passing through the human living, and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit; this life-giving Spirit is the ultimately consummated Triune God—Gen. 1:1-3; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 1:4; 4:5; 5:6.
F. The Church is a called-out congregation, the Body of Christ, the house of God, God manifested in the flesh—Eph. 1:22-23; 2:19, 21-22; 1Tim. 3:15~16.)
G. The New Jerusalem: The divine dispensing of the divine Trinity is for the producing of the bride of Christ; the believers who are regenerated, who breathe in Christ, drink Christ, eat Christ, and grow with Christ become the bride of the Bridegroom, Christ—John 3:29~30; Rev. 21:2; 22:1~2.
III. You must exert some effort to be solidly equipped in the truth; this is my main burden for you; for this reason, we need to learn how to make use of the rich material in the Lord’s recovery in a living way, not in a formal, rigid way— 1 Tim. 2:4; Rom. 12:11; 2 Tim. 3:17:
A. Man being created with an innate ability to love the truth; it is very important for a person who works for the Lord to study the word—2 Tim. 3:15.
B. You should not be loose in any way during your first five years of full-time service because these are the most crucial years of your service; you must lay hold of these five years; what matters is not what you do but how much you learn; the most important thing is to learn the truth and the experiences of life—Eph. 5:16.
C. We need to progress in the study of the truth; although the Bible does not change, we can advance in our knowledge and study of the Bible and in our interpretation and application of the truth—2 Tim. 2:15.
D. There is the necessity of exerting effort to thoroughly study and teach the truth; we have opened up the treasure stores, the mines, of the truths in the Bible and have put them before you; there is still much more for you to dig—1 Tim. 2:4.
E. In reading the Bible you need to learn to find the main points and the general thought; when you read the Bible, you must learn to hit the mark; for example, when you eat chicken, you should eat its meat and not pay attention to its feathers, skin, and bones.
IV. After getting into it, we must have some proper way or the best way to help the saints in the recovery to get solidly educated in this New Testament ministry—2 Cor. 4:1; 1 Tim. 4:11, 13:
A. The notes of the Recovery Version and the Life-study messages do not replace the Bible but open up the Bible to bring us into its intrinsic significance according to the unique teaching of God’s economy—Psa. 119:130; Acts 8:30-31.
B. I have the assurance to say that whoever has read through five hundred Life-study messages properly has been an excellent believer; medicine, nourishment, and all kinds of vitamins are included in these messages”—1 Thes. 1:7.
C. Various kinds of other ministry messages include Collected Works of Watchman Nee, Collected Works of Witness Lee, Hymns, the Holy Word for Morning Revival, seven annual conference & training messages, all kinds of publications, etc.
Ministry Excerpts:
Man Being Created with an Innate Ability to Love the Truth
Man has an innate ability to love the truth. There are clear indications of this in the Bible. When the Lord Jesus began His ministry, He mostly preached the word on the mountains and in the wilderness. There were no luxurious or comfortable facilities, yet people came in flocks. When John Wesley was raised up in England, he preached on the streets. One of Wesley’s contemporaries, George Whitefield, who was considered to be more powerful than him, preached in the open fields. In those days there were no microphones or proper facilities. The preachers simply raised their voices and spoke loudly, and people went in crowds to listen to them. Today our speaking is weak. We cannot compensate for this weakness with money, knowledge, or capability. People do not want our knowledge, eloquence, or capability. Rather, they desire the supplying word. This innate ability to love the truth was created by God.
Setting Our Heart to Learn the Truth
This is the reason I encouraged hundreds of you to rise up and serve full time. You have responded, and the churches are willing to cooperate. What I am afraid of the most, however, is that you will fall into the same trap. Therefore, I hope that you can complete at least one course of the training in the Lord’s word. This does not mean that when you graduate, your brain will be filled with knowledge. Rather, it means that you will know how to use the Lord’s word, how to study the truth, and how to preach the word. This should not be too difficult for you since you are all at least college graduates. It all depends on whether or not you set your heart on this matter. Nothing is too difficult for someone who sets his heart to do it. There is nothing that you cannot do; it all depends upon whether or not you put your heart into it. If you put your heart into something, you can do it. This is what we mean when we say, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” The problem is that by nature man loves ease and hates work. Laziness is second nature to man. I am very concerned about this matter. I have a considerable amount of human experience, and I realize that all humans tend to be easygoing. However, you should not be loose in any way during your first five years of full-time service because these are the most crucial years of your service. You must lay hold of these five years. What matters is not what you do but how much you learn. The most important thing is to learn the truth and the experiences of life. You need to try to advance as quickly as possible in these two matters.
Although those of you who are serving full time have already graduated from college, you are still under thirty years of age. Your prospects for the years ahead are bright, and you still have much potential to advance. Therefore, you must treasure this period of time and endeavor to enter into the truth and to learn the experiences in life. What is important now is not how much you read every day but how much you learn and enter into the truth. You can never finish studying the Bible. I have been studying the Bible for sixty and a half years, and the more I study, the more I receive, and the more I sense that there is more to study. If time allows, I would like to have another life-study of the Bible that would be different from what we had in the past. Our study of the truths in the Bible will never end. (Vessels Useful to the Lord, msg. 1)
Needing to Progress in the Study of the Truth
Today in the twentieth century everything is improving. Although the earth itself cannot be improved, other things such as the means of transportation on the earth can be improved. Likewise, although the Bible does not change, we can advance in our knowledge and study of the Bible and in our interpretation and application of the truth. The Bible has been in the hands of Christians for almost two thousand years, and the revelation contained in it is progressing as the years go by. Today when we come to study the Bible, if we do not know how to use advanced methods to study it, we will fall behind and become out-of-date. When we undertake a task, we must not be complacent, sticking to old ways and resisting progress. In America I read a news article saying that the population of Taiwan is equal to one-third of the population of France, yet Taiwan’s production output is higher than that of France. The reason for this lies in the success of education in Taiwan. In the last forty years the Taiwanese government’s greatest contribution to its people has been the success and spread of education, which uplifts the level of people’s intelligence and increases their capability. Hence, Taiwan has been completely transformed into an industrial society. Likewise, today if we desire to work for the Lord, we must raise our level of education. If we do not advance, we will be taken over by others and be eliminated. I believe that in another two or three years we will have over one thousand full-timers. We must be clear that we cannot be like the outdated preachers in Christianity who study theology a little and learn about the Bible a little and then go out to be preachers with a very limited amount of Bible knowledge. We must strive to get into the depths of the Word. In the Lord’s recovery we have already had a very good beginning and have laid a very good foundation, all of which will be a big help to you. You should not think that we have finished the life-study of the entire New Testament and that there is only this much revelation in the Scriptures. No, the life-study of the Bible that we have completed is only the beginning. I have already said that if the Lord gives me another twenty to thirty years, I would like to write another set of studies on the New Testament. This task, however, has to be left for you to do. Nevertheless, I believe that what you presently have is enough to serve as an initiation. What you need now is to enter in and to study more deeply. Then you will be able to meet the need of this age. Today we can easily attract crowds of students through our gospel preaching on the campuses because the students are quite educated and will readily receive the high gospel according to logic and reasoning. In the villages, however, it may not be that easy to preach the gospel due to the people’s shortage of knowledge and lack of understanding. In any case, human beings all have the desire to pursue knowledge. If you study the biblical truths thoroughly and then present them to people, especially to the college students, they will fully appreciate what you say. On the contrary, if you are short of the knowledge of the truth, it will be impossible for you to preach the gospel on the campuses effectively. Hence, you must strive to pursue the truth. If you still do things today in the old way—graduate from high school, study two years of theological school, and then go out to be a preacher—that will not work. That way is an outdated way and cannot meet the need of this age. You must exert some effort to be solidly equipped in the truth. This is my main burden for you. (Vessels Useful to the Lord, msg. 1)
Reading the Word and Entering into It Requiring Us to Be Careful,
to be Skillful, and to Exert Effort
I have given you these examples to show you that reading the Bible is not a simple matter. Since our training is based on the four aspects of the revelation in the New Testament—truth, life, the gospel, and service (or the church)—I hope that you all would exert an effort to read the life-study messages and footnotes according to the sequence of the New Testament. If you do this, you will be powerful in preaching the gospel. If someone asks you a question, you will be able to answer him right away. Those who know that you are serving full time may think that you are a Bible expert, so if you are unable to immediately answer their questions and have to go back to study the Bible in order to do so, they will be disheartened, and you will not have as much impact with them. However, if you are able to quote the Scriptures and give a brief explanation, they will be interested in listening to you, and it will be easy for you to gain them. This has much to do with the extent of your scholastic pursuit and personal study. (Vessels Useful to the Lord, msg. 6)
The Necessity of Exerting Effort to Thoroughly Study and Teach the Truth
Today’s Christian theological seminaries teach theology but do not touch the deep truths of the Bible. They touch only the superficial things related to the Bible, such as the number of books and authors of the Bible, how many years it took for the Bible to be written, and where each book was written. They teach only shallow matters, such as the creeds and decisions made by the councils, biblical history, and biblical geography. Regardless of whether you have been saved many years or you have only recently been saved, most of you probably do not know that the truths in the Lord’s recovery are the cream of all the truths in the Bible. In Christianity you cannot find the expressions transformation, enjoying the Lord, dispensing, or economy. All of these truths are foreign to most of the believers in Christianity. They are ignorant of these high-peak truths, yet some were so foolish as to attack us. This is the pitiful condition of today’s Christianity. The truths among us are truly abundant. This is why you need to exert effort to get into them. You are the most blessed group of people in this age. You have graduated from college, forsaken your future, given up everything to pursue the Lord, and put all your time and energy into the Lord’s recovery. For this reason, I will do the best I can to help you.
Brother Nee and I spent more than sixty years to study the truth. He began to pursue the truth in 1920, and in 1922 he began to publish periodicals that expounded the truths of the Bible. He carried out his ministry for thirty years until 1952. In 1952 Brother Nee was imprisoned. He remained in prison for twenty years until he went to be with the Lord in 1972. When I was in mainland China, a few brothers and I were under Brother Nee’s leadership. In 1949 Brother Nee sent me to Taiwan, and for the past thirty years since 1950 I have been publishing books in Taiwan. Over the past sixty years in the Lord’s recovery we have dug out nearly all the truths in the Bible—Brother Nee in the first thirty years and I in the last thirty years. I dare not say that we have dug thoroughly, but I can say that we have opened up the treasure stores, the mines, of the truths in the Bible and have put them before you. There is still much more for you to dig. If the Lord would give me the time to do so, I would rewrite the notes in the New Testament Recovery Version and conduct a life-study of the entire Bible once more. It is a pity that I do not have the time. Nevertheless, I praise and thank the Lord that Brother Nee and I have opened up the riches of the Bible to you. Now you need to dig deeper. We put our whole being into the study of the Word in order to get into its depths. You must dig into the Bible in the same way. (Vessels Useful to the Lord, msg. 8)
Reading the Bible in the Way of Hitting the Mark
In reading the Bible you need to learn to find the main points and the general thought. When you read the Bible, you must learn to hit the mark. For example, when you eat chicken, you should eat its meat and not pay attention to its feathers, skin, and bones. Chicken feathers, skin, and bones are essential to the growth of a chicken, for without them it would not be possible for a chicken to exist. When you eat chicken, however, you should eat only its meat. Let us use a fish as another example. A fish has a head, a tail, fins, and bones. To properly enjoy a fish, you have to know which parts to eat. Many Americans do not know which parts of a fish can be eaten, so they discard the fish head, the fish tail, and the fish bones. As a result, they do not get the proper enjoyment of the fish. When we read the Bible, we must learn to hit the mark. Whether or not we do this depends on whether or not we are focused on the main points and have the proper enjoyment. (Vessels Useful to the Lord, msg. 11)
The Need of the Truth to Build the Church
History has clearly shown us that the existence of a denomination, free group, or the genuine church life all depends on the doctrines. If there are no doctrines, there is no church. Since the Lord’s recovery has come to the United States, we have stressed very much that the building up of the church depends upon the experience of Christ, upon the life-giving Spirit, and upon the matters of life. Seemingly, I am saying something different now, but in the past I occasionally indicated that the Pentecostal movement could never have anything built up. The Assembly of God, the solid and big denomination built up by the Pentecostal movement, was established in 1914. After fifty years of their existence in 1965, I heard that through their practice they had learned to charge their theological students not to go out with the expectation that the so-called Pentecostal gifts could build up the church. They charged their students to realize that the way to build up the church is to put out doctrines or teachings. Therefore, in the Assembly of God meetings they do not practice speaking in tongues. Mainly, they preach the gospel and teach the doctrines for edifying the saints. This does not mean that they gave up the speaking in tongues, but that they exercise these gifts in their private lives.
I say this to show you that even in the past I occasionally indicated strongly that the so-called “Spirit” cannot build up the church, but the solid truth or the solid doctrines can. Certainly, what kind of church you will build up depends upon what kind of truth you teach. Since 1962 here in the United States we have stressed greatly that the churches are built up not by mere doctrines but by Christ, by the Spirit, and by life. Since 1962 a great many messages have been put out on the truth. If we had not put out any messages on the truth since the recovery came to this country and we had merely learned to pray and to exercise in the gifts such as tongues and healings, today’s situation would be very poor. In the past, we practiced in this way for a short time, and we found out that the issue was poor. Through the years, however, we have stressed Christ, the Spirit, and life. In all the messages what we condemned was the empty, dead doctrines of dead letters. However, we fully realized that to produce the church, to have the church exist, and to build up the church we needed to put out the solid, living truths full of Christ, full of the Spirit, and full of life. God’s way to carry out His economy is to use His holy Word.
The Life-Studies and Recovery Version
Through the past ten years up to the present time it has been fully proven among us that the most profitable writings and publications are the Life-study messages with the notes of the Recovery Version. I wrote these things, not for scholarly study for people to get a degree, but for life ministering, for truth releasing, and for opening up the books of the Bible. We do not need scholarly writings or any kind of books that build up peoples’ degree. That is not our purpose. To some extent, we would not agree with this. We are not for theology, but we are for “theos,” God. Our publications are not for any kind of “ology,” but just for God, the Triune God, the processed Triune God, and the Lord, Christ, Jesus, the Spirit, life, and the church. Our publications are for a living Person, not for any “ology.” We are not for the ology of God, the ology of Christ, the ology of the church, or the ology of the divine things. However, I do have a burden to publish things full of Christ, full of the Triune, processed God, full of the life-giving Spirit, full of life, and full of the church. The Lord’s recovery is just for the recovery of the processed Triune God to be dispensed into us, and the living Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church are the crucial contents of the Lord’s recovery. There is no other place to pick up other books which are so rich, so enlightening, and so nourishing concerning the recovery of Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church. Since this is the real situation and the real condition, I feel that we have no choice but to use the Life-studies, because we realize that this is the best way to bring people into the holy Word.
The holy Word itself says in Psalm 119:130: “The entrance of thy words giveth light.” Millions of copies of the Bible have been distributed. They have been placed in hotels, in homes, and in many places. Nearly everywhere you go today you find a Bible, but who has entered into the Bible? There has nearly been no entrance. Many have a copy of the Bible, but the Bible has been closed and nearly never opened. Now the Lord has given us a key, an opener. I consider our writings as the opener to open the holy Word. I believe that those of you who have read the Life-study messages can testify honestly that these messages with the notes of the Recovery Version have opened up a certain chapter or a certain book of the Bible to you. This is not to replace the Bible, but to bring people into the Bible. (Elders’ Training, Book 03: The Way to Carry Out the Vision, msg. 10)
Bringing the Saints into the Truth
Based upon this, I feel that for the long range for the Lord’s recovery in such a top country as the United States, which is full of culture, education, scientific knowledge, and biblical knowledge, the greatest need we must meet is to bring the saints in the Lord’s recovery into the truth to carry the Lord’s recovery on. For a country to be strong there is the need to bring its people into the proper education. If the people are behind in education, that country is also behind. The reason why the United States is a top country is because of its highest education. When President Nixon was in office, he encouraged the young people to study at the universities because many young Americans at that time did not want to study further after high school. The trend in the United States has changed, however. Such a big country needs many more people to receive the highest, up-to-date education. Otherwise, there is no way for a country to be among the top countries in today’s world.
Today we are here for the Lord’s recovery. For the long run, we surely have to help the saints in the Lord’s recovery to get into the top spiritual education. You must remember that we still uplift the living Christ, the life-giving Spirit, life itself and its riches, and the church in a living way. To promote these things, to carry these things out, and to bring people into these things so that they remain there, we need the Word and we need the truth. The standard of the Lord’s recovery depends upon the standard of the truth we put out. The truths will be the measure and the standard.
The Need of a Solid Foundation in the Word
The Lord’s recovery has been in the United States for over twenty years. During this time, all those who left the church and who caused trouble and became a failure never received a solid foundation in the Word. Everyone in the past twenty years who has passed through all kinds of tests and who was not only never shaken but also never affected are a real benefit to the Lord’s recovery. Whatever the storm was they remained steadfast and they went on with the Lord and are still here. They have not been a damage or a problem. Everyone like this is one that loves the Word and has a sound foundation in the truth. There is not an exception to this either on the positive side or on the negative side. All those who became a problem never had a solid foundation in the Word. (Elders’ Training, Book 03: The Way to Carry Out the Vision, msg. 10)
