THE PRACTICE HANDBOOK FOR THE DISTRICT SERVING ONES
SERIES TWO
THE GOD-ORDAINED WAY AND VARIOUS KINDS OF MEETINGS
Message Seven
The Prophesying Meeting
1 Cor. 14:26 What then, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.
3 But he who prophesies speaks building up and encouragement and consolation to men.
PROPHESYING FOR THE PRACTICAL BUILDING UP
OF THE CHURCH
Prophesying is for the practical building up of the church (vv. 3-5, 12, 26), the organic Body of Christ. Prophesying is not for the building up of a congregation, an organization. The way of one man speaking and the rest listening is the old way. The way of Christianity is to build a congregation, an organization, which is a façade. Everyone prophesying builds up a body—the Body of Christ, an organism. This organism can only be built up in the organic way by practicing 1 Corinthians 14:26 through the perfecting of the saints by the four gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4:11-16. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 4, “Further Light Concerning the Building Up of the Body of Christ,” msg. 3)
To prophesy in 1 Corinthians 14 is to speak for the Lord, speak forth the Lord, and speak the Lord into others, ministering (dispensing) the Lord to others (vv. 3-5). As proper, growing believers whose spiritual gifts are being developed, we must speak the Lord into others every day. If we practice this every day, we will all have something to share when we come together for fellowship. This will be the fulfillment of 1 Corinthians 14:26-whenever we come together, each one has.
Speaking for the Lord, speaking forth the Lord, and speaking the Lord into others is for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. With only one man speaking and the rest listening, a congregation can be built up, but the Body of Christ as an organism can never be built up. To build up the organic Body of Christ, all of us need to speak. …All the members need to speak for the Body of Christ to be built up. One saint can speak for two minutes, another for five minutes, and another for three minutes.
Suppose that we have two hundred meeting together always with one speaker. Regardless of how good, how marvelous, and how excellent this speaker is, many would become tired of his speaking after two years. Even the speaker himself may feel the same. Suppose that, on the other hand, two hundred meet together for ninety minutes, and everyone bears the responsibility to have something to speak for the Lord. If each one speaks for three minutes, thirty saints will be able to speak. This will be a refreshing meeting. Whenever a new one speaks, his speaking is especially fresh and refreshing. Everyone will say Amen to his speaking. To build every part of the Body of Christ, we all need to rise up to speak for the Lord. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 4, “The Excelling Gift for the Building Up of the Church,” ch. 1)
THE CHURCH MEETING HAVING
TO BE A PROPHESYING MEETING
To build up the church by prophesying, we need the bigger and higher meetings of the church. The church meeting must be a prophesying meeting. We need to labor together in the Lord and with the Lord so that we can have church meetings in which we all come together to prophesy. If the number in the larger church meeting is too big, we can divide this meeting into sections. In Taipei these sections are called district meetings. Each district meeting has about fifty saints. We should not set up a rule in this matter. This is not a law but is for the convenience of our practice.
For our present church life we need three kinds of meetings. We need the home meetings in the new believers’ homes to nourish and to cherish the new ones. We need the group meetings so that the saints can fellowship with one another, pray for one another, and take care of one another. In these group meetings the saints can ask questions concerning the truth and concerning life, and everyone can answer these questions. Thus, in the group meetings everyone asks, everyone answers, everyone teaches, and everyone learns. After meeting in the group meetings in a regular way throughout the year, all the attendants will be taught with the truth and will be built up in life. Eventually, we will all reach the high peak of prophesying for the building up of the church. Prophesying is the highest attainment in our church life. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 4, “The Advance of the Lord’s Recovery Today,” ch. 7)
THE BENEFITS OF PRACTICING TO PROPHESY
To practice to prophesy brings in many benefits. You have to treasure your speaking for the Lord, because the Lord treasures your speaking. You have to hate your silence. In Numbers 11:29 Moses desired that all the Lord’s people would be prophets. Then in 1 Corinthians 14:31 Paul said that we all could prophesy one by one. Surely both Moses and Paul would like to see church meetings on earth in which everyone speaks for the Lord.
Today, however, in our present situation, the speaking may be exhausted in less than one hour. The elders then have to consider what to do. When two hundred people meet together and their speaking is exhausted in less than one hour, is this not a shame to the Lord? Therefore, we must endeavor to prophesy one by one.
Promoting the Believers’ Interest in the Lord’s Service
Practicing to prophesy promotes the believers’ interest in the Lord’s service (v. 1). Sometimes the saints are forced to speak by being asked to speak, yet this does not stir up the interest of the believers as much as when someone volunteers to speak. When you volunteer to speak, you will be stirred up to speak more. If you speak in a meeting, that meeting, to you, is in the third heaven. If you do not speak in the meeting, and another brother or sister asks you about the meeting, you may say that the meeting was poor. The reason you say the meeting was poor is that you did not speak. But if you had spoken in the meeting, you would say that the meeting was in the third heaven.
Furthermore, if you would just say Amen three times in a meeting, that meeting would also be in the third heaven to you. If you would say Amen three times, at the beginning, middle, and end of the meeting, you would be stirred up. But if you attend the meeting and sit without saying Amen, you will say that the meeting was poor. This shows that the practice of speaking and prophesying promotes the believers’ interest in the Lord’s service. It stirs up your interest, and it also stirs up others’ interest.
Developing the Believers’ Capacity in the Divine Life
Practicing to prophesy also develops (cultivates) the believers’ capacity in the divine life (Eph. 4:16b). A boy may have many capacities by birth, but if he were restricted to lying on a bed, these capacities could not be cultivated. When we practice prophesying, our capacity in the divine life is cultivated, developed.
The first step in learning to prophesy is to be prepared. Each Lord’s Day morning, all the saints should come together to practice to prophesy. You have to consider what you will prophesy. For each of the messages I have given in this series, I have prepared an outline. Sometimes I prepare the outline a week in advance. When I have some free time, I pick up the outline and read it. This is part of my preparation for speaking. Sometimes I read the outline for a message before going to bed so that if I am awakened during the night and cannot get back to sleep, I can continue my preparation. As I am preparing to speak, I may discover that I need to use certain words, so I use a dictionary in order to find the proper usage of these words. All of this is my preparation for speaking. To labor to prophesy in this way is a real cultivation of our capacity in the divine life.
Manifesting the Believers’ Spiritual Function
to Enrich the Church’s Service in the Lord’s Economy
Speaking manifests the believers’ spiritual function to enrich the church’s service in the Lord’s economy (1 Cor. 12:7). Without the believers’ speaking, there is no way to enrich the church’s service. If the saints do not speak, the riches of the Body of Christ will not be manifested and used. In the poor, degraded practice of Christianity, all the functions of the believers are covered. But among us in the Lord’s recovery, the believers’ spiritual function should be manifested to enrich the church’s service in the Lord’s economy.
Some would say that they are not like other brothers who have been manifested to be very useful in the church’s service. Rather, they may feel that they are useless. Therefore, they do not like to become manifested. Actually, it is better for everyone to be manifested, whether they seem to be useful or not. When someone is manifested to be somewhat weak, this will cause the perfecting ones to spend more time on this one in order to make him useful.
In the full-time training we are doing this kind of work. We are laboring to transform the weak speakings into wonderful speakings. As the trainees come and speak, making all kinds of mistakes, their weaknesses are manifested. Then we know what kind of medicine to prescribe for them. As a result, the trainees will go back to their respective churches as different people. When they stand to speak, the whole church will receive the benefit of their function.
Building (Edifying) the Believers in Life and in Truth
Practicing to prophesy is for building (edifying) the believers in life and in truth (14:3). Every kind of speaking should have some amount of life and truth. Silence ministers nothing of life and truth to anyone. But if you speak something for the Lord, by the Lord, in the Lord, and with the Lord, there will surely be something of life and truth in what you speak. This edifies the believers.
If we practice to prophesy, we will carry out the God-ordained way for the building up of the Body of Christ and annul the old way related to Christianity (v. 12). The way to defeat the old way of Christianity is to speak. If we have a meeting full of everyone speaking, such a meeting defeats the old way of Christianity and is the victory of the Lord’s Body.
THE LOSSES OF NOT PRACTICING TO PROPHESY
We have seen the benefits of practicing to prophesy. Now we must see the losses of not practicing to prophesy.
Not practicing to prophesy cools down the believers’ interest in the Lord’s service. I am afraid of a meeting in which very few speak. Such a meeting will scatter the audience. Those who come to a meeting of silence will be discouraged from coming to a meeting again. This is because they are cooled down by the silence. Silence cools down, but speaking always stirs up.
The practice of one man speaking and the rest listening has annulled the capacity of the believers in the divine life. Every life has a capacity. All believers have the divine life, but if they do not speak, their capacity will not be developed. This is the reason for the poverty of today’s situation.
Not practicing to prophesy also buries the believers’ spiritual function. This makes the church’s service to the Lord poor in the Lord’s economy.
Another loss of not practicing to prophesy is that the believers are left unedified in undergrowth and in ignorance. When children are being raised, they need to speak all the time. Otherwise, they will be left in undergrowth and ignorance. Without the practice of speaking, there is no growth. But the more the children speak, the more they learn and are instructed by their parents.
The building up of the Body of Christ is with the believers. If all the believers do not speak, it is the same as tearing down the building. Not speaking frustrates and tears down the building up of the Body of Christ with the believers.
Not practicing to prophesy leaves the believers unattached in individualism. When I see certain brothers, I have a deep concern for them because they remain unattached in their individualism. They come to the meetings week after week, but they keep themselves in their individualism. The elders dare not touch these unattached brothers because they realize that they are very fragile, like thin glass, and are easily broken. As a result, they remain in their untouched individualism. They may have been kept in their untouched individualism for their entire life. If you remain in your untouched individualism, you will remain unattached to the Body. The only way to be rescued from this sickness is to speak.
If we do not speak, we repeat the story of degraded Christianity to annul the function of the members of Christ and to build up hierarchy instead of the Body of Christ. The silence of the saints may promote some ambitious ones to build themselves up as a clerical class, a hierarchy. Hierarchy is just the clergy.
If we speak, there are benefits; if we do not speak, there are losses. Our speaking for the Lord is a great thing. Therefore, we all must learn to speak. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Practice of the Church Life according to the God-ordained Way,” msg. 5)
THE PRACTICE OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
The preaching of the gospel, the home meetings, and the group meetings are all conducted during the week. On the Lord’s Day we should bring the new ones to the district meetings. A church can be divided into a few districts. The best number for the district meeting is around fifty. When we gain some new ones through the gospel, we should nourish and establish them in the home meetings. We should also care for them and perfect them in the group meetings. In this way, when they come to the church meetings, every one of them will be able to prophesy.
In order for the saints to prophesy, they need to enjoy the Lord’s word every day and be filled with the Lord’s word. Every district can select its own portion of Scripture. Every week the saints can go through one chapter, and they can divide the chapter into six sections. Every morning the saints can read one section and pick out two verses for pray-reading. If we want to have an overcoming church life, we need to live this life of morning revival. For this reason we must help the brothers and sisters to live this life of revival and overcoming every day. Every morning we need to have some enjoyment, and every morning we need to soak ourselves in the Lord’s word and be filled and saturated by the Lord’s word. After six days we will surely have a rich reaping. By the weekend we can compile our inspirations into a composition for prophesying. On the Lord’s Day we can bring this composition to the meeting. We should not read or recite it but should speak out with our spirit what we have prepared. This is to prophesy.
In a meeting with fifty saints, at least half of them should be prepared beforehand. Everyone should be limited to three minutes of speaking, and everyone should take turns speaking. There should not be any prearranged order, but the speaking should be done in a spontaneous way. This kind of speaking in the district meeting will be very rich. We can prophesy this way week after week for fifty-two weeks in a year. The supply of the Lord’s word will then be rich among us. When everyone is supplied and edified, the problems and difficulties of the saints will be solved spontaneously through the supply of the rich word, and the church will be built up. This is the way that the Lord has shown us today.
The Lord’s recovery today is the recovery of the saints in the building up of the Body of Christ. For this reason there is the need for every saint to be able to prophesy so that the church can be built up in a genuine way. First Corinthians 14:31 says that we can all prophesy one by one. Verses 24 and 25 say that if we all prophesy, and if an unbeliever or one unlearned enters, he will be convicted by all and will be examined by all. The secrets of his heart will become manifest, and he will declare that God is really among us. Hence, for everyone to prophesy unto the building up of the Body of Christ is the proper way revealed in the Scriptures. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 2, “The Riches and Fullness of Christ and the Advanced Recovery of the Lord Today,” msg. 7)
PROPHESYING FOR THREE MINUTES
In these meetings the saints practice prophesying one by one. They limit the time of each one’s sharing to not more than three minutes. They all know this principle of three minutes and practice to keep it. In the district meetings they first have the Lord’s table, and then they prophesy for about sixty minutes. Within sixty minutes twenty persons can speak with a maximum time of three minutes per person. About one-third of the attendants prophesy in the district meetings without any prior arrangement or program. They all come together and follow the Spirit to prophesy. As they practice prophesying again and again, they are progressing, advancing. They have learned how to prophesy. They also have some brothers who act as coaches or tutors to coach and tutor the saints before they come to the meeting. This helps a great deal. To coach and to tutor the saints is one of the best ways to perfect the saints to prophesy.
If each one speaks three minutes or less, twenty to thirty will have the chance to speak. No one man can replace the riches of these twenty or thirty brothers and sisters. Their speaking will be an exhibition of the riches of Christ. The next week thirty more may speak, and fifteen of them will be ones who did not prophesy the previous week. Therefore, every Lord’s Day there will be twenty to thirty speaking, with new saints speaking each week. The many voices of the different saints will never cause people to be bored. A person who speaks a message can cover only a limited number of points. With thirty people speaking, there can be thirty points.
Suppose that the meeting begins with a new one prophesying. He may say, “I have been saved only about three months. I do not know what to say, but I can tell you from my experience that the Lord Jesus surely is lovable. He’s so sweet, and He is real in my daily life.” Such a short prophesying by one new believer would encourage all of us. To practice the universal prophesying in the church meetings is the way to release all the riches stored in all the members of the Body of Christ. Even the new believers have a little storage of the riches of Christ. When a new believer shares the riches he has, this becomes the opener to open up all the attendants to release the riches of Christ stored within them. (CWWL, 1989, vol. 4, “The Advance of the Lord’s Recovery Today,” ch. 7)
THE OPENING AND CLOSING WORDS
OF THE PROPHESYING MEETING
The Opening Word
Both the opening and closing words should be approximately five to eight minutes long. The opening word ensures that the meeting starts in a strong way with a definite direction and burden from the Lord. (2017 ST, msg. 2)
Moreover, there is one point that we need to pay attention to; that is, while we usually compose with a pen, we must now compose with our mouth. Thus, we must begin to exercise and learn to speak well. Whether a written composition or a speech is considered good or bad depends very much upon how it begins. Like a basketball or soccer game, if there is a bad start, it is difficult to continue in a good way. Hence, the beginning is extremely important. If there is a good beginning, whatever follows will be easy. This is a principle. Therefore, when we are going to give a message or prophecy, we need to carefully consider the beginning word or sentence; we should never consider this casually. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 2, “Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 2: Leading the Saints to Practice the New Way Ordained by the Lord,” msg. 8)
The Closing Word
The Closing Word Ensuring That the Meeting Concludes
with the Fullness of the Supply of Reality
From now on, all the responsible ones in the district meetings need to direct the rudder and supply the meetings; otherwise, they cannot be considered responsible ones. To be a responsible one in the district meetings means to be one who prepares a “dish” in case everyone else fails to bring their “dishes” to the meeting. It also means being one who can put out some “dessert” even if everyone else has brought something. The responsible ones need not be in a hurry to prophesy; they can save their prophecy for the end and give priority to others. In this way the district meetings will not be poor. A long message cannot supply people; everyone functioning is what supplies people.
A lengthy message may not supply people, but if in the last ten minutes of the district meeting a responsible one rises up to speak a finishing prophecy, it will be most edifying. The food we offer to people when they are hungry is the most delicious. They may be listening for forty-five minutes without receiving anything, but when a responsible one stands up to speak eight minutes, he can give them a sense of freshness and of being full of supply. I truly believe and have the assurance that this can be attained to. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 2, “Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 2: Leading the Saints to Practice the New Way Ordained by the Lord,” msg. 6)
The closing word ensures that the meeting does not end in emptiness and that the meeting concludes with the fullness of the supply of reality, so that the saints are filled with the pleasantness of the Lord’s presence and the satisfaction of the Lord’s words of spirit and life (John 6:63). Never let a meeting end in emptiness and without the supply of reality. (2017 ST, msg. 2)
Concluding a Meeting
Requiring much Consideration
In every district everyone is now exercising to speak, either to give a testimony or to prophesy. They are trying their best to exercise to speak a short word. This is good. Some speak with the help of a “cane,” using Truth Lessons, Life Lessons, or the Life-studies, all of which are helpful. However, the speaking is not rich enough. Hence, although all the brothers and sisters speak in the meetings, some speak on one topic, and others speak on another topic; at the end there is the need for a responsible brother to “tie a knot,” that is, to release a rich word to conclude the meeting. This is very necessary.
There are different ways to tie a knot; just as it is not simple to tie a knot, it is also not simple to conclude a meeting. Fifty years ago in mainland China, the suitcases and handbags that we carried on long trips were not as convenient and stylish as they now are. Today everything is so convenient. The luggage and suitcases that we carry on the plane from the United States to Taiwan vary in size and style and are all well equipped and elegant looking. However, when we traveled for a long distance fifty years ago, we had to tie a knot around each piece of the old-fashioned suitcase or bag in order to secure them. Sometimes the knot was not tight enough and became loose in the middle of the journey; sometimes, because of hastiness, the knot became tangled and was difficult to untie. Hence, a great deal of consideration is needed in regard to properly tying a knot.
With regard to our meetings, there is the need to tie a knot at the end, that is, to conclude in a proper way; however, this requires much consideration as to who should tie the knot and how to tie it. Not everyone can conclude a meeting, and not every conclusion is satisfying, supplying, and edifying. Hence, through careful study we have realized that in order to meet the long-term need related to the district meetings and group meetings, the concluding word of each meeting must have content. The content depends upon the speaking, not the testimonies. The Lord’s word is what edifies and nurtures people the most. While testimonies may be helpful to the saints, they do not adequately nurture the saints, because they do not contain much of the Lord’s word. The concluding word must have the truth as its basis; such a word imparts truth into the saints so that they feel solid within. Without the Lord’s word the meeting is not solid; with the Lord’s word it becomes solid and secure. (CWWL, 1988, vol. 2, “Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 2: Leading the Saints to Practice the New Way Ordained by the Lord,” msg. 8)
Discussion:
1. How to compose a prophecy draft?
2. How to stimulate saints’ spiritual appetite at the beginning of the prophesying meeting?
3. How to prophesy for three minutes?
4. How to encourage saints to prophesy?
5. How to give the concluding word at the end of the prophesying meeting?
