THE NEED FOR ALL THE SAINTS TO LEARN THE BIBLICAL TRUTHS
The vital groups can be eighty percent of the church life mainly due to the mutual teaching. Of the eighty percent, sixty percent depends on the mutual perfecting by the mutual teaching. Thus far, we are still in the initial stage.
More than fifty years ago Brother Nee saw the light in 1 Corinthians 14 concerning all the believers prophesying in the church meetings (vv. 24, 31). Brother Nee published two books—The Normal Christian Church Life (first published in Chinese in 1939 under the title Concerning Our Missions) and Church Affairs (messages given by Brother Nee in 1948)—in which he spoke of this matter. In both books he stresses that the practice of one man speaking in the church meetings must be put down. In Church Affairs (ch. 4) Brother Nee says that all the saints need to continually “push against” the tradition of having a Lord’s Day morning message meeting in which one man speaks and all the rest listen. Eventually, he said, that tradition would be overthrown. Today, forty-four years later, we have still not fully eliminated that practice. Today as we are practicing the prophesying according to 1 Corinthians 14, the temptation may still rise up within us to return to the practice of one man speaking.
What matters today is that all the saints need to get into the truths of the Bible. This is very difficult; it is not an easy way. In Matthew 7:14 the Lord Jesus told us that the way that leads to life is a constricted way and that few would find this way and walk in this way. This being the case, we may all be tempted to give up. We may give up, but Someone within us would not give up. The fact that few will enter through the narrow gate and walk the constricted way does not mean that the Lord Jesus will suffer a defeat. On the contrary, He will still succeed. The Lord expects to have a bride, and He will have His bride. Revelation 19:7 says that the day will come when the bride will be ready. Will we be included? To this question we should respond, “I will.” To say “I will” means that we are still endeavoring. We have not yet arrived, but we are still endeavoring to arrive.
If we mean business with the Lord to participate in the vital groups, from this point forward we must make up our mind with a definite determination that we will endeavor to get into the biblical truths. How we need to thank the Lord that today we have a Bible that has been not only translated but also interpreted. What we have is not perfect, complete, or fully consummated; nevertheless, what we have in the recovery today is vastly different from what I had as a young man. In my youth I tried my best to collect books that would help me to know Genesis, but I was not able to find many helpful books. However, today if you desire to know Genesis, there is a book called Life-study of Genesis that contains one hundred twenty messages on Genesis. If you read several messages a day in a quick way, without musing on what you read, you should be able to finish this book in approximately one month. I believe that it is possible for nearly all the saints, young and old, to do this. After you read Life-study of Genesis once, your understanding will be different. Reading the one hundred twenty messages on Genesis will make you different. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 3, “Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups”, ch. 19, pp. 525-527)
The church in Zamboanga 