Seeing the Crucial Points of the Lord’s Recovery of the Church in the Present Age

The desire of God’s heart is to gain the church, his corporate expression, but throughout the ages the church has become degraded; we need to see the crucial points of the Lord’s recovery of the church in the present age.

The Lord has been working through the ages to recover His people back to His original intention. He wants His people to be His corporate expression on earth, a built up entity that expresses God and represents Him with His authority on earth.

The recovery or the church has been gradual and progressive, culminating with the Lord’s ultimate recovery in these days, and He is working to bring us back to His original intention and purpose concerning the church.

When the Lord gains a sufficiently built up church on earth, with many local churches where we proper church life is practiced under Christ at the Head, He can return to rapture His bride, which has been prepared.

Before the end of the first century, when the degradation of the church began, the Lord’s recovery of the church also began, and century after century the Lord has been recovering His people.

In particular, in the sixteenth century Martin Luther rose up to begin the reformation, and the sealed Bible was unlocked for all men to read and know God’s word.

Based upon what he saw in the Bible, he recovered justification by faith and an open Bible for all to read in their language, but unfortunately, he didn’t see or do much about the proper church life, but rather he got into union with the state to avoid the persecution or the roman Catholic Church.

To this day, the Protestant churches are not separated from the world, they didn’t remove the intermediary class, they are divided, they have organisation for unification, and they are in union with the world by having the head of the state be the head of the church.

The Lord did recover a lot with Martin Luther, but when it comes to the church, he had a great lack.

Later in the eighteenth century the Lord raised count Zinzendorf, who gave shelter to many refugee persecuted believers, and who began to practice a proper church life.

The Moravian brothers had a good recovery of the church, for they were separated from the world, they removed any distinctions of rank, they emphasised fellowship and coordination, they endeavoured to keep the oneness, and they allowed Christ to be the head and the Spirit to rule among them.

The Lord blessed these brothers, and they experienced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Later in the nineteenth century, the Lord raised a group of brothers in England who clearly saw that the denominations is not what God is after, so they started to meet as simply brothers in the Lord, partaking of the bread, and sharing of what the Lord has shown them in the word.

The Lord added to their number, and many among them were greatly used by the Lord to open up and expound the truths in God’s word. Because they took Christ as the Head, met as brothers, and practiced the church life in oneness, the Lord used this group of brothers for the benefit of the Body, and their writings have reached many if the Lord’s seeking ones around the world.

However, even these dear brothers were at one point starting to divide themselves based on receiving the believers, interpretation of the prophecies, and doctrines, and there are now many divisions among them.

Our Lord cannot be stopped, and He continued to recover the church according to his hearts desire, this time going to the virgin soil of China, where Watchman Nee was raised by the Lord.

Through Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, the Lord could go on and recover more crucial points concerning the church, and all the believers in Christ can benefit of the crucial points of the Lord’s recovery of the church.

Seeing the Crucial Points of the Lord’s Recovery of the Church in the Present Age

The Church taking a Locality as its Boundary and being under Christ as the Head

The Lord goes on in His recovery of the church in age by age, and in this age there are some crucial points of the Lord’s recovery of the church.

In the beginning of the twentieth century, as the Western world was saturated with the writings of the Brethren and there were denominations, churches, and divisions everywhere, the Lord rose up Watchman Nee in the virgin soil of China.

This young brother was first very much enjoying the writings of the Brethren, and later discovered that they were not that complete; as a result, he had a turn, even many turns. He also started meeting with some other believers outside the denomination, and the Lord greatly blessed their fellowship.

In 1933 and 1934 they saw a very important matter: the principle of the church taking the locality as its boundary. The Brethren groups took doctrines or interpretation of prophecies as the ground of the church, but the Bible clearly lays out the principle of the boundary of locality being the boundary of the church, the ground of the church.

The church should not take any doctrines, teachings, or people as the ground; rather, in one locality there should be only one church, and there is only one local church in one city. No matter how large or small the city is, we have taken the way of having only one church in one city.

This eliminates opinions and preferences, and it prevents division and confusion.

For example, since I live in London, England, there is only one local church in this city, and the boundary of the city is the boundary of the church. The church may meet in many places, but there should be only one church in London, UK.

Keeping the principle of one-church-in-one-city prevents “extra-local” unions, division, and confusion. This is one of the crucial points of the Lord’s recovery of the church in this age. When we keep this principle, the Lord Jesus is our Head, and the Holy Spirit has authority among us. The church in each locality should live directly before the Lord and be responsible directly to the Head, Christ (see Col. 1:18; 2:19; Acts 13:1-2); there’s no superior church, no headquarter church, no head church, and no federation of churches.

Thank You Lord for Your up-to-date move, for Your recovery in the present age. Thank You for recovering the matter of one church in one city, such a protection and safeguard against any division and confusion. Lord, keep us in Your word, keeping the principles You set forth in the word concerning the church, so that we may be the church that You desire to gain, Your corporate expression. May our living be before You, may we take You as the Head, and may we meet on the ground of oneness – one church in one city!

The Administration of the Church is Local and the Fellowship is Universal

Based on the principle of having one church in one city, as the Bible shows us in 1 Cor. 12:27, 1:2, and Rev. 1:11, the administration of the church is local and the fellowship of the church is universal (see Acts 14:23; 2:42; 1 Cor. 10:16-17).

Each local church has its own eldership, a group of overseers whom the Holy Spirit has appointed and the Body has confirmed, and they take care of the administration of the church locally.

The administration of a local church is independent of the other churches, and it cannot go beyond the boundary of its locality, or else the church will lose its local nature.

However, the fellowship of the church should not only be local but universal, for the local churches are the local representation of the one universal Body of Christ. All the saints in the local churches are encouraged to fellowship and blend with other churches, for there’s only one fellowship of the Body of Christ.

To encourage this fellowship, there are regional and national conferences, yearly trainings and blending times, and all kinds of blending trips and conferences around the world, where the saints can go to fellowship and blend.

The churches in the different localities shouldn’t have an organization for unification, that is, join themselves together to be organized, thus to be a larger unified church; the administration of the church is local, but the fellowship of the church is universal.

All the churches should be directly under the ruling of the Head, Christ, and they should directly obey the authority of the Holy Spirit. We are not here for an ecumenical movement; we want to keep the oneness of the Body in an organic way, and so all the churches should be under the direct ruling of CHrist and the leading of the Spirit.

Emphasizing the Universal Priesthood, the Coordination in Service, and the Practical Service in the Church

If we look at today’s Christianity, the principle of the universal priesthood of the believers has been lost, for there’s a higher class of trained people who function all the time, while the majority of the believers are merely passive listeners.

One of the crucial points of the Lord’s recovery of the church in the present age is the universal priesthood, that is, every believer is a priest.

We reject the system of clergy-laity in Christianity and we see that we all are members of the Body of Christ, children of God, and priests to God; therefore, we all can approach God directly, we can enjoy God and experience God, and we all have a measure in which we can and should function in the church life.

When we all enjoy the Lord daily, and we encourage one another to do so, and when we experience Christ in a normal way, there’s something in each one of us that is being released for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

We realize that, when all the members of the Body of Christ function in their measure in full, the Lord can return, for the Body is built up and His bride is prepared.

Furthermore, we can function and should function not only by prophesying as seen in 1 Cor. 14, but we also need to coordinate in service in the Body, keeping the principle of the Body and serving together in coordination, not independently.

There are many aspects of the church and the church life, and there’s the need for service in the church; for this, we need to serve together in coordination through much prayer and fellowship, and we should avoid serving independently.

There is a lot of practical church service, and we all can participate in the service of the church. The practical service is not merely to get things done and take care of the practical needs; rather, it is for the saints to learn to coordinate together in spirit, and for the Body of Christ to be built up.

There are so many aspects of the church life in which we need to coordinate and fellowship, and this requires the exercise of our spirit so that we may live in spirit, walk in the spirit, and do everything in the mingled spirit.

The Lord has revealed to us in His word that He has a God-ordained way to meet and serve, which is by the universal priesthood of all the believers, and we practice this. May the Lord bring us on with Him so that all the crucial points of the Lord’s recovery of the church would be practiced among us!

Thank You Lord for revealing to us that we all are priests to God and members of the Body of Christ, and we all have a function and a measure in the Body! There is one Body in this universe, we express it here on earth as the local churches, and in the church life we all can function and serve! Thank You Lord, we can come forward to You to enjoy You, be infused with You, and minister to You, and we can prophesy for the building up of the church. Thank You we can serve in the church even in practical aspects, learning to coordinate with the saints and keeping the principle of the Body in coordination. Amen, Lord, recover us fully to Your original intention concerning the church!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, The Testimony and the Ground of the Church, pp. 232-235 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Church (2017 fall ITERO), week 2, The Original Condition of the Church, the Degradation of the Church, and the Recovery of the Church.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # One Body universal, / One in each place expressed; / Locality of dwelling / Her only ground possessed; / Administration local, / Each answ’ring to the Lord; / Communion universal, / Upheld in one accord. (Hymns #824 by Witness Lee)
  # Do you see them in the meetings, / Lifting up their voice on high, / Every brother, sister sharing, / Christ the Lord to magnify? … / Do you see the Lord is coming / For the church for whom He died? / In the churches He’s preparing / Now His holy, chosen Bride. (Hymns #1257)
  # All the saints must serve as priests, / That the living stones they be; / Each must priestly work perform, / Then their functions we will see… / Grant us grace, O Lord, that we / Treasure dear the priestly call; / In the spirit serve and pray, / That Thy church be built withal. (Hymns #849 by Witness Lee)