THE PRACTICE HANDBOOK FOR THE DISTRICT SERVING ONES
SERIES TWO
THE GOD-ORDAINED WAY AND VARIOUS KINDS OF MEETINGS
Message Eight
Perfecting Others to Prophesy for Three Minutes
1 Cor. 14:1 Pursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.
31 For you can all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be encouraged.
EVERYONE PROPHESYING FOR THE LORD
FOR THE BUILDING UP OF THE CHURCH
Recovering the Matter of Prophesying
as Revealed in 1 Corinthians 14
The Lord wants to recover among us the matter of prophesying, speaking for the Lord, for the building up of the church as revealed in 1 Corinthians 14. A meeting in which one person speaks and all the rest listen is not without some benefits, but it is harmful because those who only listen reach a point at which they can only listen and cannot speak. The members of our body all need exercise. If instead of exercising our legs by walking, we only lay in bed, then after a year we may not be able even to stand, much less walk. In the same way, all of us who are saved are members of the Body of Christ, and we all have our organic capacity to function. We can all preach the gospel, feed the lambs, perfect the saints, and prophesy. However, if we only listen and do not speak for a long period of time, then our organic function to speak for the Lord will not be developed; on the contrary, it will be annulled. Therefore, our meetings from now on should not be only for listening but also for practicing to speak. If we have both listening and speaking, gradually even the ones who do not speak will begin to speak. In the end all will be able to speak, and everyone will be able to prophesy.
Prophesying is constituted with three matters. First, we must have the knowledge of the Bible and be familiar with the Bible. Second, we must have the experience in the Lord, not only entering into the truth in depth but also having the experience of life. Third, we must draw near to the Lord to have fellowship and union with Him. It is best if we draw near to the Lord in the morning by reading His Word and fellowshipping with Him. We do not need to read too many verses each morning, perhaps only seven or eight. Then we should choose two of the most meaningful of these verses to pray-read. If we spend fifteen to twenty minutes doing this, we certainly will have some inspiration, which we should then write down. If we enjoy the Lord in this way every morning for all seven mornings of the week and receive inspiration from His word, then on the Lord’s Day we can put together all the inspirations from the seven days as a written prophecy, and in the meeting we can prophesy according to what we have written. This is a good way, especially when we are still beginning to practice prophesying, and everyone can do it very easily. As long as we read the Lord’s Word and fellowship with Him every day, we will receive light from Him. Eventually, when we combine our knowledge of the Bible, our experience of life, and our spiritual light, we can prophesy for the Lord.
Taking the Lead in Practicing and
then Training All the Brothers and Sisters to Practice
I hope that the elders and co-workers would take the lead in practicing this way. Then they should train all the brothers and sisters to practice in this way. It is best if the brothers and sisters write out their prophecies and show them to some trainers for reviewing and correcting. Then after the prophesying on the Lord’s Day, there should be a time of evaluation. Although the saints have something written as a draft when they are prophesying, they should not merely read it in a stiff way but should try to speak normally. If they have some instant inspiration while they are speaking, then they can add a sentence or two. This will make their prophesying more living and more full of light. If we are willing to be trained in this way, I believe that we will all be able to prophesy after one month of practice. Then we can change our meetings from having one person speaking with the rest listening to having everyone speaking and listening to one another. There will be times when mutual speaking and mutual listening will not be enough to ensure that the meetings are rich and enjoyable and that each one has something to say. Therefore, the leading brothers will still need to be prepared. If the brothers and sisters are able to prophesy richly enough so that all the attendants are satisfied and fed, then that is sufficient. Otherwise, the leading brothers will still need to speak a word for eight to ten minutes at the end of the meeting. It should be a strong, rich, living message based upon the sharing of the brothers and sisters, and it should supply and satisfy everyone. Such a preparation is to fill up the lack in order to maintain and strengthen the prophesying meetings of the church.
If we practice this for a few years, the prophesying in the church will be rich and will have a solid base. Furthermore, everyone will be revived daily, get into the Lord’s word, and have a rich enjoyment of the Lord. Thus, the entire church will be revived. All will become the New Testament priests of the gospel, and all will do the work of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. No one will be lazy and barren. Everyone will be a member of the “clergy,” and no one will be a part of the laity. If we have three thousand believers who are like this—everyone being able to beget, nourish, and teach—and if each one can bring in only one new one each year, then we will double our number in one year; three thousand will become six thousand. If we can do this year after year, the church will truly flourish. Every believer is a New Testament priest of the gospel, with everyone preaching the gospel, everyone feeding the Lord’s lambs, everyone perfecting the saints, and everyone prophesying for the Lord. In this way the church will be built up. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 2, “The Ministry of the New Testament Priests of the Gospel,” msg. 5)
THE BASIC CONSTITUENTS OF A PROPHECY
The Personal Knowledge of The Scriptures
The first basic constituent of a prophecy is the personal knowledge of the Scriptures. To gain such a knowledge, we need to get acquainted with the Word of God literally. We should even memorize many crucial verses in the Bible. For example, we should memorize the first verse of books such as Genesis, Psalms, Matthew, John, and Hebrews. We should also memorize verses such as John 3:6, 16, 36; 14:26; 15:26, 16; and Romans 15:16. In addition, we need to devise a particular way that will enable us to remember the book, chapter, and verse number of the crucial verses.
To have the personal knowledge of the Scriptures, we must know not merely the text of the Scriptures in letters but the deep denotations and spiritual significances of the Word of God. Many people can understand certain verses such as John 3:16 superficially, but they do not know the deeper denotations in these verses. Nearly everyone can understand a verse literally, in the black and white letters, but one must have the insight, the deeper sight, to see the deeper denotations. Nearly all the verses of the Bible bear a deeper denotation. Verses such as John 3:16 not only bear a denotation on the surface, but they also contain something deeper. The Bible is deep, and no one can understand it completely. Underneath its surface are many secrets and mysteries. If we attempt to understand the Bible in a superficial way, we will not arrive at an adequate understanding. The depth of the Bible is endless.
The Personal Experience of Life
The second basic constituent of a prophecy is the personal experience of life. We must have the experience of life personally. Knowledge by itself is empty; our knowledge should be filled with our experience.
In the Christian life there are two categories of experience. The first is the personal experiences of the Lord’s doings and blessings in physical things and environmental occurrences. In the Lord’s Day morning meeting, many of the testimonies given are related to this category of experiences. Many saints experience the Lord’s merciful doings and the Lord’s blessings to them in physical or material things. These merciful doings and blessings, however, are not grace. Grace is not something in the physical realm. Grace is the Triune God Himself embodied in Christ and given to us as life for our enjoyment.
We need to have the second category of experiences, which are the personal experiences of God’s redemption and salvation, Christ and the church, preaching the gospel, nourishing the new believers (feeding the lambs) in the home meetings, perfecting the saints in the group meetings, prophesying for the building up of the church, and other experiences, by the exercising of our spirit in faith. We should have many testimonies concerning this category of experiences, the experiences in life. Even the healing of our physical body is something in the physical realm. It is better to hear a testimony of a brother who was in spiritual deadness for many years but got revived in the holy Word, became bubbling, and went out to visit people to get them saved. Such a brother may testify that before he was revived, he could not help others to be living, but since he has been revived, everyone he contacts is revived also. This is a prophecy according to the personal experience of life.
Not Adhering to Personal Experiences
In speaking forth a proper prophecy, we should not adhere to personal experiences, testimonies, feelings, thoughts, opinions, affections, and reactions to any persons, matters, and things. When we prophesy, we should reject our personal feelings, thoughts, opinions, and even affections. We should also stay away from our reactions to our spouse, our neighbors, the elders, and the brothers and sisters. To prophesy, in principle, is not to speak for oneself, not to speak forth oneself, and even the more, not to dispense oneself into people. Often we may dispense ourselves to people in our speaking in order to impress them with our experiences and affections. This kind of speaking is not to speak the Lord but to speak ourselves, and it is not related to Christ but to ourselves. This is not to prophesy but to promote ourselves.
To prophesy is mainly to speak for God and Christ, to speak forth God and Christ, and to dispense God and Christ into people for people’s nourishment and supply. Sometimes we may use our experiences to illustrate what we are speaking. In actuality, to prophesy is to release some spiritual vision as a revelation and some spiritual enlightenment as a light to shine over others, either to bring certain things of God to light, that is, to make certain things known to people, or to bring people into the enlightenment of God. These are the main principles that govern our prophesying. We should do our best to speak for God and Christ, and the less we speak of ourselves, the better.
The basic constituents of a prophecy constitute a very high standard for our prophesying. This is why there is almost no Christian group today that practices prophesying according to 1 Corinthians 14. However, if we cannot practice prophesying, it is a shame…. To prophesy with the basic constituents of a prophecy is difficult. However, we should do our best to speak. The messages released through this ministry are printed in publications and recorded on tapes. I believe that all these messages will remain and that one day Christians will practice what we are speaking here. In the same way, we too must have patience and do our best. Eventually, we will come up to the standard of prophesying with the basic constituents as revealed in the holy Word. (CWWL, 1990, vol. 2, “The Practice of Prophesying,” msg. 3)
LEARNING TO PROPHESY
To meet according to 1 Corinthians 14:26, we must desire and learn to prophesy. Prophesying is so that others may learn; hence, to prophesy requires learning. If we say something for others to learn, we have to learn first. We learn to prophesy through experiences. We have to love the Lord, live Him, and enjoy Him. We also learn to prophesy by being equipped with the Word (2 Tim. 3:16-17). We must get into the Word and become saturated with the Word until we are one with the Word. To learn to prophesy we need to pray unceasingly (1 Thes. 5:17-20). We need to pray ourselves into the Spirit. This kind of unceasing prayer will keep us in the Spirit all the time. We must be in the Spirit; otherwise, we cannot have God’s oracle. We must be in the Spirit; otherwise, we cannot speak something divine. We learn to prophesy by living and walking by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25). We also learn to prophesy by practicing. Our learning to prophesy is for attending the meeting of mutuality to fulfill 1 Corinthians 14:26.
THE PROPHESYING LIFE
Being Revived Every Morning
If we are going to prophesy, we need to live a prophesying life. First, we need to be revived every morning (Prov. 4:18; Lam. 3:22-24; Psa. 119:147-148). Proverbs 4:18 says, “The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, / Which shines brighter and brighter until the full day.” The way of the righteous is like the dawn that becomes brighter and brighter until noontime. Every twenty-four hours there is a new start, a dawn, a rising sun. This is according to the natural law in God’s creation. We have to go along with this natural law. Every morning we have to rise early to contact the Lord, to call on Him, and to be revived by Him. In Lamentations 3:22-24 Jeremiah says that the Lord’s compassions are fresh and new every morning. His compassions are like the fresh dew in the morning. Every morning we must enjoy this fresh dew to have a new start, a morning revival.
Living an Overcoming Life Every Day
In addition to being revived every morning, we must also live an overcoming life every day (Rev. 21:7). After the morning revival we should not stop contacting the Lord. We can live a victorious life by fellowshipping with the Lord moment by moment (1 John 1:6). We also need to walk according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4b), not doing anything outside of the Spirit. We should also speak the word (the Lord) all the time. Paul charged Timothy to proclaim the word in season and out of season (2 Tim. 4:2a). We should not say, “Now is not the time for me to speak to people.” Seemingly it is out of season, but even if it is out of season, we still have to speak the word. Such a prophesying life qualifies us to prophesy. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 4, “The Excelling Gift for the Building Up of the Church,” ch. 2)
THE EXERCISE OF PROPHESYING
Exercising Your Spirit
In the exercise of your spirit (Luke 1:47; Psa. 16:9), you must exercise your mouth and your voice at the same time. When someone exercises his spirit in speaking, he may shout. But do not consider that mere shouting is the release of the spirit. You must learn to exercise your innermost being when you speak. To lose your temper is a good illustration of releasing your spirit. When you speak in anger, without any consideration, without any fear, and without any care, you spontaneously release your spirit.
Exercising Your Mouth (Your Tongue)
and Your Voice (Your Sound)
When you prophesy, you must exercise your mouth, your tongue (108:1; Acts 2:26), and your voice, your sound (1 Cor. 14:7-11). When you speak in the meeting, you should not forget that you are speaking to the entire congregation. You are not speaking just to yourself or to the person next to you. For this reason you must exercise your mouth and your voice. After I give a message, I often stress that in the time for testimonies the saints should speak loudly. I have stressed this matter again and again, but I have seen very little improvement among the saints over the years. Many of the brothers and sisters still remain unchanged.
When we speak, we should exercise our voice, our sound, in a proper way. When someone does not exercise his voice in a proper way, he may speak without a definite direction, without striking a clear point, and in a halting manner. There may also be a number of obscure points in his speaking. If we exercise to speak with the proper sound and tone, the meeting will not be cooled down; rather, it will be stirred up by our speaking. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Practice of the Church Life According to the God-Ordained Way,” msg. 7)
Exercising Your Speed
In prophesying we also need to exercise our speed. In our speaking we must adjust ourselves. We should not speak too fast or too slow; rather, we need to speak with a good rhythm and a proper speed.
Some of the saints speak much too rapidly. Thus, it is difficult to catch what they are saying. However, some of the brothers have learned to insert a “selah,” a brief pause, at certain points in their speaking, thus affording their listeners an adequate opportunity to receive their word. This is an example of learning to exercise our speed.
Exercising Your Gesture
In prophesying we also need to exercise our gesture. Although I have been speaking for more than sixty years, I feel that I still have not learned adequately to speak with a proper gesture. This is a difficult matter. To learn to have a proper gesture requires a lifetime of exercise. Having the proper gesture is a great benefit to our speaking. If we speak with little or no gesturing, our speaking will appear to be unnatural and lifeless, and it will not be attractive. If we speak with too much gesturing, our speaking will seem to be peculiar. We all need to learn to speak with a gesture that is very spontaneous.
Exercising Your Accent
In the practice of prophesying, we also need to learn to exercise our accent. In our speaking we must have some crucial points with some crucial words. We need to learn to accent our speaking. Shouting loudly is not always a proper accent to our speaking. Sometimes we should speak a certain point slowly to make it a crucial point that can catch people’s attention. In our speaking we should care not only for our rhythm, our speed, but also for our accent. We should learn to speak with a proper rhythm and a proper accent so that our listeners can hear every word. In speaking we must take care of others’ ears. Exercising to have a proper speed, gesture, and accent is a great help to our speaking.
THE PRACTICE OF PROPHESYING
In addition to learning and exercising, we also need to practice.
Pray-reading a Portion of the Holy Word
In our practice we first need to learn to pray-read a portion of the holy Word. We should not merely read the Word, nor should we merely pray it. We must pray-read the holy Word.
Paraphrasing a Short Portion of the Scriptures
In our practice we also need to learn to paraphrase a short portion of the Scriptures. For instance, John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In this sentence there are three independent clauses. In order to make these three clauses into a prophecy, we should first pray-read: “Lord, in the beginning. Amen. In the beginning was the Word. Oh, the Word! How wonderful! The Word, the Word. The Word was in the beginning.” This is pray-reading. This is also a good paraphrasing. In our pray-reading we can expound the Word a little: “And the Word was with God. Thank You, Lord, You are with God. You even were with God there in eternity past.” However, in doing this we should not go too far. We should come back to the Word and pray, “Lord, You are God. The Word was God.” If we desire to prophesy, we must surely practice this.
In recent years we have found a way to use a portion of the Word for morning revival. The practice of pray-reading and reading portions from The Holy Word for Morning Revival has been a great help to many of the saints. Many have testified that in the past, when they came to the meeting, they did not want to prophesy; they did not want to speak for the Lord, because they had no inspiration and no subject on which to speak. But since they began to use The Holy Word for Morning Revival, their spirits have been stirred up, their thoughts have been inspired, and they now have a subject on which to speak, with some material to eat, to digest, to paraphrase, and to pray-read.
The most helpful way in reading the Bible is to paraphrase. In my writing of the training outlines on the Minor Prophets, I had to give the subject of each book, the central thought of each book, and the revelation concerning Christ in each book. I have found that the best way to receive the proper understanding of each book is to paraphrase. When I paraphrased every verse of every chapter of every book, the light came. The Word itself is light. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet, / And a light to my path,” and verse 130 of the same psalm says, “The opening of Your words gives light.” The best way to enter into the Word and receive the light of its shining is to paraphrase the Word. Simply to repeat the words of the Scripture again and again, using the same wording, does not help much. We need to paraphrase: “O Lord, in the beginning. Oh, the beginning. Lord, in the beginning You were the Word. Oh, the Word. You, Lord Jesus, You were the Word.” This is to paraphrase. To paraphrase is to touch the “switch” and to turn the light on. When we paraphrase, we “switch on” the light. This helps us to understand the Bible, to receive light, and to prophesy.
Composing a Prophecy of No Longer than Three Minutes
from the Inspirations We Have Received
We also need to practice by composing our inspirations into a short message for our speaking in the practice of prophesying. If we will pray-read a portion of the Word and paraphrase it, we will surely receive inspiration. When I wrote the training outlines by paraphrasing the Word, new light came to me at a rapid pace. To pray-read and to paraphrase the Word are the best ways to receive inspiration.
In the Old Testament the practice of meditating on the Word is mentioned a number of times (Josh. 1:8; Psa. 1:2; 119:15, 23, 48, 78, 97, 99, 148), but in the New Testament there is no reference to meditating on the Scriptures in the Old Testament way. The Old Testament saints did not have the indwelling Spirit; thus, they had to meditate on the written Word. But today we not only have the Bible in our hands outwardly, but we also have the indwelling Spirit within us. When we pray-read the Word, we exercise our spirit, and the indwelling Spirit is stirred up by our pray-reading. The same thing takes place when we paraphrase the Word. In contrast, if we sit down to meditate on the Word, in not too long we may become sleepy. To meditate, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God,” is altogether an exercising of the mind. But when we say, “In the beginning. O Lord, in the beginning was the Word. Amen. The Word. Hallelujah, the Word!” this stirs up our spirit. Then the indwelling Spirit leaps within us, and the inspirations come.
It is good always to keep a small notebook in which to write the inspirations we receive. We should write something immediately after receiving an inspiration, even writing only one crucial word to use as a reminder when we do not have time to write more. After that, for our practicing of prophesying, it is good to compose a prophecy of no longer than three minutes from the inspirations we have received. If our prophecy is longer than three minutes, we can shorten it. If it is too short, we can insert something. We can even work together with other saints to practice and to learn.
When Mary, the mother of the Lord, came to see Elizabeth, her relative, both of them prophesied (Luke 1:39-55). Mary’s prophecy was a composition of short quotations from the Old Testament. This proves that Mary was very familiar with the history, the wording, and the points in the Old Testament. Her speaking did not result from an instant “inspiration” but issued from an accumulation of the word that had been stored in her being. If we have such an accumulation of the word, then while we are speaking, all that we have stored within us can come up within our being to meet our need.
Praying the Messages We Write for Prophesying
We also need to practice by praying the messages we write for prophesying. After we write a message for prophesying, we need to pray-read our writing. By doing this, it will become constituted into our being. Then we should go to the meeting and prophesy. I have the assurance that such a prophesying will be very good.
Seeking the Infilling of the Spirit
and the Outpouring of the Spirit
Finally, we all need to seek the infilling of the Spirit and the outpouring of the Spirit upon us as power from on high to be our impact (Acts 6:10; 7:55; 4:31). For this we must pray. Even while we are in the meetings, on the one hand we are listening to others, and on the other hand we should pray to get ourselves filled with the Spirit and to have the outpouring of the Spirit upon us to be our power and authority. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Practice of the Church Life according to the God-ordained Way,” msg. 9)
Perfecting the Saints to Prophesy
I told the saints to write down a short reminder of what the Lord inspires them with each morning. After Saturday morning the saints will have six notes of the inspiration that they received during the week. I shared with them that on Saturday evening they can pray-read these six inspirations. When the saints add these six inspirations together, they will have a total inspiration. They can then compose a prophecy with this total inspiration. Some of the brothers function as tutors or coaches to help the saints compose their prophecy. These brothers may advise them to adjust their prophecy so that it is close to three minutes long. If their prophecy is too short, they will be asked to lengthen it. If it is too long, they will be asked to shorten it. The brothers also help the saints with the form and content of their prophecy. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 4, The Present Advance of the Lord’s Recovery,” ch. 4)
You should also tell them that these compositions are simply memos. During the district meetings, they should not read from them. Rather they should speak them out as in ordinary speakings. During the speaking, if they have further inspiration, they should add a few words to them. In this way the saints will pick up the boldness in the meetings and will be able to speak for the Lord. Of course, the most difficult thing to learn in prophesying is to have the spiritual inspiration. If there is no inspiration, it will become mechanical, and the result will not be a prophesying. For this reason, the prophesying has to be living and organic. Brother Nee once said that if a speaker can never have instant utterance, his message will never be strong. A strong message requires instant utterance. In other words there is the need for instant inspiration, plus the utterance to express it. Hence, when we speak for the Lord, we have to pay attention to the instant inspiration. With the inspiration there is also the need for the utterance to express it. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 1, “The Organic Practice of the New Way,” msg. 1)
On the Lord’s Day morning the saints pray to get their spirit prepared. They go to the meeting with the prophecy they have prepared and with a living and ready spirit. When the saints come together in their districts on the Lord’s Day, each one has something. The saints are so happy to speak when they labor in this way. In the past we may have charged the saints to speak, to function, but they did not know what to speak or how to function. With this kind of practical perfecting today, the saints know what to speak, they are learning how to function, and they are looking forward to the meeting so that they can grasp an opportunity to speak for the Lord. The saints are ready to speak when they come to the meeting like runners ready to run in a one-hundred-yard dash. The saints in Taipei have been practicing this, and they have testified that this way to prophesy is rich, high, and living. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 4, The Present Advance of the Lord’s Recovery,” ch. 4)
Discussion:
1. How to help others to select a prophesying topic?
2. How to help others to compose a prophecy?
3. How to perfect others to exercise their spirit to prophesy for three minutes?
