THE PROPER AGGRESSIVENESS OF THE FULL-TIME SERVING ONES

Message Five
The Exercise and Practice of the God-Ordained Way

Scripture Reading: Rom. 15:16; John 21:15; Heb. 10:25; 1 Cor. 14:31.

I. The God-ordained way is the organic way of life; in the Lord’s recovery we are taking a new way, which is God-ordained—John 14:6; 15:1:

A. The new way, the God-ordained way, is not to do anything by art, but to sow Christ as the seed organically; the God-ordained way to build up the Body of Christ is purely a matter of life—Mark 4:26-29; Col. 2:19.

B. In our labor with and for the Lord in His ordained way, we need to be like farmers who have the expectation of a yearly harvest—1 Tim. 4:10; 2 Tim. 2:6.

C. The three means for the success of the God-ordained way are by prayer, by the Spirit, and by constant and regular contact with people; it is only by these three means that we can be prevailing—Acts 6:4; 4:31.

D. God’s eternal purpose is to have the Body of Christ, and the steps to arrive at this purpose are the begetting through the preaching of the gospel, our nourishing through the home meetings, our teaching through the small group meetings, and our building up through the church meetings—Col. 1:28-29; Eph. 4:12.

II. To preach the gospel is to practice the New Testament priesthood for the saving of sinners that they may become the members of the Body of Christ—Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9:

A. We need to preach the gospel in an organic way as the priests of the gospel; sinners are redeemed by receiving our preaching; when they are redeemed, they become acceptable sacrifices to God—Rom. 15:16.

B. We have relatives, neighbors, colleagues, classmates, and friends; we can even ask the brothers to recommend their acquaintances and make arrangements to meet them two weeks in advance—Acts 10:24.

C. We need to sow Christ into people, not just occasionally, but regularly according to a schedule; we need to make a schedule, giving the Lord at least three hours once a week for contacting sinners—Mark 4:3.

D. Before going to contact people, we should have a time of prayer to call on the Lord until we are filled with the Spirit essentially within and economically without—John 20:22; Eph. 5:18; Acts 1: 8; 2:4.

III. After someone gets saved through us, we should consider that he is our spiritual child; we need to feed the young believers as a nursing mother that they may grow in the spiritual life—John 21:15-16; 1 Thes. 2:7; 1 Pet. 2:2:  

A. After a child is born, he needs to be fed in a regular way; we can shepherd the new ones by calling them on the phone—1 Pet. 2:2.

B. A new one needs a lot of help; at the beginning, we should go to be with him at least three times a week to keep him, to retain him, to sustain him, to feed him, to strengthen him, and to comfort him—1 Thes. 2:7, 11.

C. The Lord charged us in John 15 to go to bear remaining fruit; in order to bear remaining fruit, we have to go to care for the new ones by shepherding and feeding them in a regular way—John 15:16; 10:10-11.

D. We should exercise to always have two or three new ones under our care year-round; we can have two as remaining fruit each year; we will bring them not only to the Lord but also to the church.

IV. Our group meetings also need to be carried out in an organic way; the group meetings are for mutual fellowship, mutual intercession, mutual care, mutual shepherding, mutual asking of questions, and mutual answering for teaching—Heb. 10: 25:

A. The group meetings are the best way to care for new believers; a group meeting can keep people, uphold people, and relate people; no meeting can be as practical as a group meeting in communicating with and blending together the brothers and sisters —John 21:15-16.

B. We need to open to one another in the group meetings; we do need to learn to open our ordinary, daily matters to our fellow believers; without this proper opening, there is no possibility to have the mutual intercession, mutual care, or mutual shepherding—Col. 3:16.

C. Fellowship in the small groups is all-inclusive in nature; in the small groups there can be teaching, which is related to the aspect of the truth; there can be shepherding, which is related to the aspect of life; and there can also be care and support, which are related to the aspect of practical living; in the small groups we can also preach the gospel.

D. The Bible is necessary for teaching and shepherding; the best materials are the recovery version and the life-study messages—Rom. 12:7; 1 Pet. 5:2.

V. We need to teach the saints to prophesy, that is, to speak for the Lord and to speak forth the Lord, in the church meetings for the building up of the church —1 Cor. 14:1, 3-5, 12, 23-26, 31, 39a:

A. When we lead the new ones into the organic group meetings, they will spontaneously be educated and will be initiated into prophesying; we need to teach the saints to prophesy, then the new ones will be living and functioning members in the Body of Christ — 1 Cor. 14:1, 31; 12:27.

B. Before coming to the meetings, we should all prepare something, just as the children of Israel did not go to the feasts empty-handed but brought with them the produce of the good land— Exo. 23:15.

C. To be prophets, we must have a foundation in God’s word; moreover, our person must be right; if our person is not right, it will be futile even if we can prophesy well— 1 Cor. 14:3-4.

D. To speak the word of God we have to first speak of the Triune God; second, we have to speak of Christ who is the Triune God having become flesh; third, we have to speak of the Spirit who is the ultimate manifestation of the Triune God; fourth, we have to speak about the spiritual life; and fifth, we also have to speak about the church; these items are the major outline for the speaking for God in the meetings—1 Cor. 12:26.

VI. To carry out this way, we must budget our time and give the Lord certain hours every week to go to contact people to save them, feed them, shepherd them, teach them, perfect them, and eventually bring them up so that they can speak for the Lord; then the church will receive the building up—1 Cor. 14:4, 12, 26.

Ministry Excerpts:

Take the God-Ordained New Way

Now we want to fellowship concerning the God-ordained way, the fifth emphasis in the Lord’s recovery. Today in the Lord’s recovery we are taking a new way, which is God-ordained. The God-ordained way to build up the Body of Christ is purely a matter of life. According to the record of Genesis 1, God created the plant life, the animal life, and the human life. Eventually, in Genesis 2 the highest life is revealed, and that life is God Himself as the tree of life.

Genesis 1 is a record of life. It shows how the organic God of life created the earth in an organic way by producing life. First, He created the plant life, the lowest life. After creating the plant life, God created the animal life. This earth is beautiful in life, in the plant life and in the animal life. Last, God created man and told man to replenish the earth. Today the earth has been replenished by the Adamic race. That one man, Adam, eventually became a race of billions. Man’s replenishing of the earth took place in a gradual way. This is the organic way of life.

The artificial way is a quick way. Artificial things can be made quickly, but a child cannot be produced overnight. After a child is conceived, it takes nine months for it to be born. This is God’s way of life. In the Lord’s recovery we should not do anything in an artificial way by our art. We have to do everything in the organic way.

The New Way Being the God-Ordained Way

The new way, the God-ordained way, is not to do anything by art, but to sow Christ as the seed organically. The new way is organic. The old way is artificial. The old way of gospel preaching is not organic. There are two ways to have flowers. One way is by sowing a seed; then the seed grows. It takes time for the seed to blossom into a flower. Another way to have flowers is by art. Many beautiful artificial flowers can be made within a short period of time. These artificial flowers may seem very genuine. Even some genuine flowers may not look as nice as the artificial flowers do. Today many Christians preach the gospel to sinners mostly by art with no life. Artificial things cannot produce anything. However, if we sow a seed and one flower grows up, many more seeds will fall into the ground. Then the next year there may be thirty more flowers. Organic things produce life. (Five Emphases in the Lord’s Recovery, msg. 5)

The God-ordained Way Being the Organic Way of Life

We must take the organic way in our preaching of the gospel. When we go to people, we do not need to talk much. We need to exercise our spirit. Before going to contact people, we should have a time of prayer to call on the Lord until we are filled with the Spirit essentially within and economically without. When we are full of the Spirit, we can sow Christ as the seed into others with just a few words spoken by the Spirit. Because people have been enlivened by us, they will have the desire to enliven others. They will become a producing and begetting factor.

The old way of preaching the gospel is to make people Christians by our art. Then they become something artificial. We should not preach the gospel by art, but by the Spirit. Then we do not “make” a Christian, but we produce a Christian; we beget a spiritual child. They have the same life, the same Spirit, as we do, and they will go to beget others. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:15 that we may have a thousand teachers but not many fathers. Paul told the Corinthians that he had begotten them in Christ and by Christ. Begetting others organically in Christ and by Christ is what we have to learn to do. The God-ordained way is the organic way of life.

For the believers to preach the gospel, to serve and worship God, to meet, and to build up the church, God has ordained in his holy word the following items as the proper way:

To Preach the Gospel Being to Practice the New Testament Priesthood

To preach the gospel is to practice the New Testament priesthood for the saving of sinners that they may become the members of the Body of Christ (Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9). We all are priests, but we may not be clear that the New Testament priesthood is to offer sinners to God. Without preaching the gospel, we could not gain sinners, and we would have no sacrifices to offer to God. Sinners are redeemed by receiving our preaching. When they are redeemed, they become acceptable sacrifices to God. In the Old Testament, all the priests offered sacrifices to God, and all those sacrifices typify Christ. Today in the New Testament, we offer the members of Christ to God. By receiving our preaching, the sinners become members of Christ, whom we offer as sacrifices to God.

If a person has been saved for a long time without having brought one person to the Lord, this is poor. This means that he is a priest without any sacrifices offered to God. Right after being saved, we should realize that we are New Testament priests who need to offer New Testament sacrifices to God. The New Testament sacrifices are the saved, redeemed sinners, who have become the members of Christ. Christ wants to have more members that He may be increased and enlarged. We need to preach the gospel in an organic way as the priests of the gospel. (Five Emphases in the Lord’s Recovery, msg. 5)

To sow Christ into others needs much prayer. Even when we do pray, however, we may pray in an inadequate way. In order to preach the gospel effectively, we should take down the names of our relatives, cousins, in-laws, and acquaintances. We may have twenty-five cousins and in-laws. We should not pray in a general way for them. The Lord needs to hear a definite name from us. We should pray, “Lord, in these three months, to whom should I go to enliven?” The Lord will lead us. We should not take too many names. We can concentrate on two or three, and we can pray for them day and night.

The Laboring by Praying and Fasting with Tears

All mothers know the labor and toil involved in delivering a child. In order to bring forth spiritual children, we have to labor by praying and fasting with tears. Maybe after one month of praying, we would go to see someone. Our going should not be a kind of following our own thought. Our going must be a following of the Spirit. The Spirit will give us the right time to go. If we go two days too early, our cousin may not have an ear to hear us. But two days later something may happen to him. God will do something to sovereignly prepare him to be a good listener. Then we can say a few words to sow Christ as the seed into him. This is the organic way we need to learn.

We need to sow Christ into people, not just occasionally, but regularly according to a schedule. We need to make a schedule, giving the Lord at least three hours once a week for contacting sinners. We do not necessarily need to knock on “cold” doors, on the doors of people whom we do not know. We have relatives, neighbors, colleagues, classmates, and friends. We can even ask the brothers to recommend their acquaintances and make arrangements to meet them two weeks in advance. During those two weeks we need to pray every day.

Feeding the Young Believers as a Nursing Mother

After someone gets saved through us, we should consider that he is our spiritual child. After a child is born, he needs to be fed in a regular way. We need to feed the young believers as a nursing mother that they may grow in the spiritual life (John 21:15; 1 Thes. 2:7; 1 Pet. 2:2). We can shepherd the new ones by calling them on the phone. A new one needs a lot of help. At the beginning, we should go to be with him at least three times a week to keep him, to retain him, to sustain him, to feed him, to strengthen him, and to comfort him. Then we can protect him, preserve him, and rescue him from many distractions because the devil is very busy.

The Lord charged us in John 15 to go to bear remaining fruit (v. 16). In order to bear remaining fruit, we have to go to care for the new ones by shepherding and feeding them in a regular way. We cannot raise up a child in only three months. It requires much labor to raise up a new believer. We should exercise to always have two or three new ones under our care year-round. (Five Emphases in the Lord’s Recovery, msg. 5)

We should not think that only some among us are full-timers. All the saints are full-timers. We should be full- timers who work for Christ, who go to our jobs for Christ, and who do everything for Christ. If we labor in the way of always having two or three new ones under our care, we can have two as remaining fruit each year. We will bring them not only to the Lord but also to the church.

Having Group Meetings for the Perfecting of the Saints

Our group meetings also need to be carried out in an organic way. When we come to the group meetings, we should just consider ourselves as living members of Christ. We may look to the new ones to get the help. We should have the attitude that we do not know anything. We only know one thing—to exercise our spirit. In the meetings we should exercise our spirit constantly. Then when the opportune time comes, we can speak something. Our speaking is the sowing, and whatever we say is the seed, Christ. We should minister Christ and sow Christ into the attendants. The Christ whom they receive will grow within them. This is the new way ordained by God.

Anything we do apart from Christ as the Spirit is vain religion. To go to a group meeting without any Christ, without any Spirit, is religion. We should be burdened for the group meeting. We may be so burdened that we would fast by not eating dinner. Instead, we would go to our bedroom and pray in a thorough way. Then we will go to the meeting with Christ, with the Spirit, with a living burden, and with a living word. We will not go with any pretense, and we will not try to show others that we are superior. We will go as a common member, waiting and looking for the proper time that the Lord would assign to us. When that time comes and we speak, Christ will come out, and the living word will enter into people as the seed and the Spirit. Such speaking will enliven and beget others. This is the proper group meeting.

We need to feed the new ones and also help them to practice the group meetings. The group meetings are for mutual fellowship, mutual intercession, mutual care, mutual shepherding, mutual asking of questions, and mutual answering for teaching. This is for the perfecting of the saints that they may participate in the work of the ministry, that is, to build up the organic Body of Christ (Heb. 10:24-25; Eph. 4:12). We need to lead the new ones into this kind of organic group meeting. (Five Emphases in the Lord’s Recovery, msg. 5)

Teaching the Saints to Prophesy in the Church Meetings
for the Building Up of the Church

When we lead the new ones into the organic group meetings, they will spontaneously be educated and will be initiated into prophesying. We need to teach the saints to prophesy, that is, to speak for the Lord and to speak forth the Lord, in the church meetings for the building up of the church (1 Cor. 14:1, 3-5, 12, 23-26, 31, 39a). Then the new ones will be living and functioning members in the Body of Christ.

In our labor with and for the Lord in His ordained way, we need to be like farmers who have the expectation of a yearly harvest. However, today many churches have very little increase. If we would receive this fellowship and practice the God-ordained way, we will definitely bring new ones to the Lord. We should not expect all the saints to take this way. This is impossible because some are too weak or unable. At least one-third of the saints can practice this way. If each gains two new ones a year, there will be a sixty percent increase.

The Three Means for the Success of the God-ordained Way

I have given three means for the success of the God-ordained way: by prayer, by the Spirit (Acts 4:31), and by constant and regular contact with people. It is only by these three means that we can be prevailing. We must budget our time to contact people and pray for them. We need to pray for two or three and labor on them for about one year. Then we will gain some definite fruit.

While we are carrying out the God-ordained way to gain the increase, we should not neglect the church meetings. To carry out this way, we must budget our time and give the Lord certain hours every week to go to contact people to save them, feed them, shepherd them, teach them, perfect them, and eventually bring them up so that they can speak for the Lord. Then the church will receive the building up. (Five Emphases in the Lord’s Recovery, msg. 5)