Chapter 6
Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 12:4-6; Eph. 4:11-13;
“Lord, we give this message into Your hands. Keep speaking with us. Keep perfecting us. Keep us growing in life. Keep transforming us for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the Body of Christ, until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13). Lord Jesus, here we are, send us to do Your will, to do the work of the ministry. Unveiled this important matter. We want to be in spirit. We want to have spiritual understanding to understand Your things. Take us from our natural concepts and turn us to the spirit. Oh Lord Jesus, bless this time, Amen!”
Praise the Lord for the young people’s conferences. The Lord has blessed them one after another. But we are not just concerned about having good conferences. They need to produce practical results. We thank the Lord that the past young people’s conference have produced many practical results. After the Lord had shown us the vision of the boy with five loaves and two fish (Matt. 14:14-21), we have seen many young people begin to assume responsibility. They are bearing responsibility in their localities and in their region. They are also fighting in the army of the Lord on many different fronts. So we need to praise the Lord for everything the Lord has done in our midst.
These messages are not just for us to enjoy or even remember but they need to produce practical results. May the Lord prepare a generation that knows what it is to repent in the presence of the Lord, and knows how to get rid of old concepts, view points, and opinions. May we be the generation that learns like the little boy in Matthew 14. We need young people who are willing to be perfected by the perfecting of all the saints. We also need to learn how to live in the realm of love.
The Lord has taken us from the world, He has given us His own life, He shed His blood on the cross to redeem us, and He has regenerated us unto a living hope (1 Pet. 1:3). He has not placed us anywhere else, but He has placed us in the church life where we are protected and perfected. We are in the best place to be perfected. This place is the church life. The church life in a normal condition is typified by the church in Philadelphia (Rev. 3:7-13), which is the church of brotherly love. In an environment of love, all are perfected. No one is rejected. No one is a problem but all are members of the Body of Christ and are in the church to be perfected. Hallelujah for this!
When we have the base of repentance, the base of perfecting, and the base of love; we can build up something on this. We need to grow in life. All of us need to grow in life. Christianity thinks that merely being saved guarantees an entrance into heaven and takes care of all our problems. This is not true according to the revelation in the Bible. We were saved, we have received God’s life, and now it is time to begin to have an organic living with the Lord. Our life needs to grow so we need to seek growth in life. That is, the divine life needs to grow in our fallen human nature. When the divine life grows we are transformed. Transformation is a change produced by life growing. It is also a change of nature: the divine nature being added into us and our fallen nature being removed little by little.
Now we come to a topic of great importance: the ministry. Ephesians 4:11 says, “And He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers.” The Lord gave some gifted men who already have ministries to the church. The Lord gave them with the goal of perfecting us. They are not in the church to replace us but they are in the church to perfect us. This perfecting of the saints is for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the Body of Christ, until we all arrive.
The church life is the best place. The Lord has given the saints who are ahead of us as gifts to us for our perfecting (Eph. 4:11). They exercised their spiritual gifts and life grew in them until their gifts developed into ministries. They are now perfecting us with their ministries. None of these ministries were gained in a class room or through study of theology. These ministries came by the grace that is added when we exercise our gifts.
Ephesians 4:7 says, “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” So we can see that the more you use the gift the Lord has given you, more grace is added to you. When you use the abilities the Lord gave through the Spirit, God supplies you with grace. What is grace? Grace is God himself in Christ who is given and enjoyed by us freely. When we exercise our gifts, God gives Himself in Christ for our enjoyment as grace! Grace makes us grow in life! So we can say that the secret to grow in life is to use the gifts. The more you use your gifts, more grace is added to you and more life grows. Let us give the example of my hand: the more I exercise my hand, the more I use its abilities, more blood is sent to my hand and the flow of blood becomes more intense to supply the hand that I exercised the most. So the more you use the gift, the more the body sends life and grace; thus you grow! If you break your arm and have to have it in a cast, after two months you will see that your arm became thinner because you didn’t exercise your arm. Therefore we need to use our gifts in order for the life in us to grow.
So those who had exercised their gifts until they developed ministries were placed in the church for our perfecting. Hallelujah for this! In this evening I want to unveil this matter of the ministry. Not many realize that many of the saints should have a ministry. People may think that only the apostle Peter had a ministry. Some think that in these latter days, only brother Lee had a ministry. Watchman Nee had his ministry, but who am I to have a ministry? So much is spoken about the ministry, the ministry of this apostle, the ministry of that apostle… but many do not have the boldness to say that each and every one of us needs to have a ministry. God wants to unveil this matter.
Why are we perfected? These gifted men were given to the church in order for us to be perfected. Ephesians 4:11-12 says, “And He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ.” Why were they given? They were given for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry! So we are being perfected for what? The main goal is for the work of the ministry! You and I are in the church life, in an environment of love, being perfected for us to exercise the work of the ministry. In order for me to exercise the work of the ministry, I need to have a ministry myself.
God is saying to all of us that each of us needs to have a ministry! The ministry is not only for a few people, but for all the members of the Body of Christ! Therefore in the same way that these gifted men exercised their gifts, grew in life, and had their gifts transformed into ministries, we also need to be helped by these saints to exercise our gifts in order to develop a ministry. Do you have boldness to say to the Lord, “Lord, I want to have a ministry!”? This is what God wants from you!
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