To Preserve the Oneness, we must Destroy the High Places, Anything Exalted above Christ

In order for us to recover and preserve the genuine, all-inclusive oneness, we must destroy the high places, anything that is of division and that rises up to replace Christ in our personal life or in the church life.

This phrase, the high places, is mentioned again and again in 1 and 2 Kings; it seemed that, even though the king was good and followed God’s law, he still had the high places.

It seems that God hates the high places. The high places are involved with idolatry, lust, and division.

May the Lord shine on us and expose what are the high places in us and among us so that we would not build up high places but rather, destroy them and come to the unique place of God’s choice to worship Him on the ground of oneness and with the sacrifices He requires.

May we open to the divine word of God, the divinely inspired word of God in the Bible, and allow the truth in God’s word to shine on us, expose our condition, and uplift us to its standard.

The sins of Jeroboam and the way of Jeroboam are something that God hates so much that all the subsequent kings were introduced as either following Jeroboam in his sins or not, and the high places were mentioned again and again.

One thing that Jeroboam did was to set up two worship centres besides the one in Jerusalem, he put a golden calf in each, and he told the people not to go to Jerusalem but to go to Dan and Bethel to “worship God”.

Because of his ambition to keep his kingdom and take advance of the convenience of the people, Jeroboam set up two divisive centres of worship, and the people went after idols instead of worshipping God.

This is not just some history recording what the people of Israel went through; this is for our admonition today.

Look at Christianity as a whole today: it is full of “worship centres”, full of denominations and groups, and it seems that everyone gathers in the church of their preference.

If you are Chinese, there is a Chinese church, and if you are from an African country, there are “churches” that are predominantly from that country.

If you are Romanian, there are many kinds of Romanian “churches”, and if you are Korean, there is an abundance of Korean “churches”.

And if you are a little more spiritual and prefer to meet with some who emphasize the gifts of the Holy Spirit or the speaking in tongues, there’s a “church” that meets your preference.

Where is the CHURCH, the unique place of God’s choice where all believers drop their preference and come together at the place chosen by God and worship Him in the way ordained by God?

May the Lord have mercy on us and shine on us and on so many of His believers to bring us back to the genuine ground of oneness.

For the Recovery and Preservation of the Genuine, All-inclusive Oneness, we must Destroy the High Places

In portions such as 1 Kings 11:7-8; 12:26-33; 13:33-34; 14:22-23; 15:14; 22:43; 2 Kings 12:2-3; 14:3-4; 15:3-4, 34-35 the high places are mentioned again and again; high places were places that divided the children of Israel and replaced the unique place of God’s choice for their worship.

For the recovery and preservation of the genuine and all-inclusive oneness, we must destroy the high places.

Even king Asa, who had a perfect heart and was perfect before Jehovah, even he had the high places.

King Jehoshaphat also did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, but the high places were not removed.

Why would the Holy Spirit inspire the writer of these books to repeat the matter of the high places not being removed again and again?

There must be a spiritual significance to this, and we should pay attention and receive the admonition.

For us to keep, recover, and preserve the genuine, all-inclusive oneness, we must destroy the high places. High places were the places where the Gentile people worshipped their idols.

When the children of Israel entered into the land of Canaan to possess it, God commanded them to destroy all the high places of the nations they were about to dispossess (Deut. 12:1-3).

However, it seems that after some time these high places, the flourishing trees, the pillars, the Asherahs, and the idolatrous names were restored.

Actually, Solomon the King, the one who built the temple of God according to His desire and on the ground of oneness, took the lead to build up the high places once again.

Moses charged the people to destroy the high places, but Solomon took the lead to build them, and the kings that followed him continued to do this.

Solomon did this for the sake of “all his foreign wives” (1 Kings 11:8) who turned his heart; it was for his lust that he took the lead to build the high places. Oh, Lord!

To set up a high place is to have a division; the significance of high places is division.

To preserve the oneness of His people, God required that they come to the unique place of His choice; the high places, however, were a substitute and an alternative for this unique place (Deut. 12:8, 11, 13-14, 18).

Sixteen times God said, The place which I have chosen; you can eat at home, you can enjoy this and that, but regarding the worship of the people corporately and the bringing of the offerings, they have to be at the place of God’s choice.

It seems that God doesn’t give us this choice; He doesn’t give us the choice into what name to be saved – we are saved only by calling on one name in heaven and on earth.

Today people want to be PC, politically correct, and they say that all ways of worship are OK, for they eventually lead to God.

But no, God is not politically correct in this way; He gives us no choice in the matter of the place where we can worship Him and the way to worship Him.

But because of the lusts of men and because of men’s ambition to have a position and a group they call their own “church”, there are many high places today, and therefore there is much division in the Body of Christ.

For the recovery and preservation of the genuine, all-inclusive oneness, we need to return to the place of God’s choice and destroy the high places.

To set up a high place is to have a division; God’s intention is to keep all His people in the oneness, and division is a high place that divides, separates, and scatters God’s people.

The high places are substitutes and alternatives to the unique place of God’s choice; His choice was that all His people would come to Jerusalem, but the high places are dividing God’s people.

Just as all manner of evil and abominable things were related to the setting up of the high places, so today in the New Testament age, all manner of evil is related to division.

And the most striking thing is that both Solomon, a good king, and Jeroboam, an evil king, took the lead to set up the high places.

We may not want to make division but we may be led by our lusts; this will lead us to set high places that replace the unique place of God’s choice. Oh, Lord!

The divisions among Christians today are related to lust, ambition, and idolatry.

May we be those who cooperate with the Lord to recover, maintain, and keep the genuine, all-inclusive oneness and therefore destroy the high places.

Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with You for the recovery and preservation of the genuine, all-inclusive oneness in the Body of Christ today. We are one with You, Lord, and we’re one in spirit with all the saints for the building up of the church in the oneness of the Spirit. We stand against anything that rises up to replace Christ. We exercise our spirit, Lord, and we allow You to shine on any element of division, lust, and ambition; shine and expose any high place in us. Destroy the high places in us and among us. We don’t want to have anything that replaces Christ and the church. Oh Lord, have mercy on us and have mercy on our fellow brothers and sisters in Christianity today. Expose the high places and cause us to see the vision of the place of Your choice so that we may destroy the high places and keep the genuine, all-inclusive oneness!

Beware of Anything other than Christ that is Uplifted or Exalted in the Church: we should have no High Place in the Church Life!

The high places in the Old Testament were connected to lust (in the case of Solomon, who was a good king), ambition (in the case of Jeroboam, who was an evil king), and idolatry (in the case of the people of Israel, who worshipped idols).

What is a high place? A high place is, on one hand, a replacement for the unique place of God’s choice, and on the other hand, it is something that is lifted above the common level.

A high place involves the exaltation of something above Christ. Even good things and excellent Christian practices can be elevated to the extent that they replace Christ in our living and experience.

In principle, every high place, every division, in Christianity involves the uplifting, the exaltation, of something other than Christ.

Christ should have the first place, the preeminence, in all things; in God’s eyes, Christ is first and preeminent, but He needs to be preeminent in us also (Col. 1:18).

But many times we uplift, elevate, and hold dear to some things or practices instead of Christ, the most preeminent One.

For example, some may elevate the practice of baptism by immersion to the extent that they separate themselves from the other believers in Christ based on it; this is how you have the Baptist denomination.

Some may uplift the presbytery, so there is the Presbyterian church. Others may uplift certain methods, so there’s the Methodist church.

All these are good things, they are not evil; they are scriptural things, based on the truth in God’s word, but they are elevated a little, so they become a dividing factor, causing Christians to be divided.

For example, some Christians may be in favour of playing the piano in the meeting, while others say that we could play the guitar; based on these two preferences, Christians get divided.

And other Christians say that we should make a joyful noise to the Lord and use a tambourine or even electric piano and guitars, with drums, etc; based on this, another Christian group is formed. Oh, Lord Jesus!

Anything that we uplift or elevate above Christ, anything that we hold on to and exalt above the Lord, will bring in division.

Even in the church life today in the Lord’s recovery, we need to beware of exalting anything other than Christ; no spiritual practice should be held or uplifted above Christ.

We treasure calling on the name of the Lord out loud, but if someone does not want to do it, we should not reject them or divide ourselves from them if they want to fellowship with us.

We love the Recovery Version of the Bible, and we treasure the rich footnotes and the vast ministry of brothers Watchman Nee and Witness Lee.

However, if some believers want to meet with us but they prefer to read a different version of the Bible and they don’t read the ministry, this should not be a dividing factor.

We love to read and pray, pray and read, the Bible, and we receive so much benefit from pray-reading the Word of God.

But if some saints who fellowship with us do not feel they want to pray-read in our way or even at all, this should not be something that divides us from them.

Even the way we conduct our meetings, being loud or being low volume in the meetings, declaring or not declaring things, all these things should not become “high places” that divide us from others.

We need to recover and preserve the genuine, all-inclusive oneness in our Christian experience and in the church life; for this, we need to destroy the high places.

If some believers come among us but do not do things the way we do them if they don’t call on the name of the Lord out loud like us, if they don’t say Amen as often as we do, and if they don’t pray-read the Word of God as we do, we should not criticize them or judge them.

Rather, just as the Lord receives them, so should we. We should not impose our way of meeting and worshipping on others, nor should we separate ourselves from them if they don’t do things the way we do them.

When we visit a certain locality, we should simply enter into the way they do things there and say Amen, for we’re here for the oneness of the Body to build up the church, so we destroy the high places and are one with the saints and with the Lord.

May we really be before the Lord in this matter and tell Him,

Lord Jesus, we love You supremely and preeminently. You are the first, the best, and the unique One. We give You the first place in all things by faith. We exalt You, we elevate You, and we hold You as the most preeminent One. We refuse to elevate anything or anyone above You. Save us, Lord, from having high places in our heart or among us in the church life. Save us from exalting a certain good practice above Christ. Save us from having a high place, anything or anyone that we elevate or exalt above Christ. Oh, Lord. Save us from exalting any Christian practice or doctrine above Christ. Save us from judging others based on the way we practice the Christian and church life. We want to recover and preserve the genuine, all-inclusive oneness by destroying all the high places and returning to the unique place chosen by God!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ricky Acosta in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1979, vol. 2, “The Genuine Ground of Oneness,” chs. 8-9, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Kings (2022 summer training), week 11, entitled, Apostasy, the High Places, and the Recovery of the Genuine Ground of Oneness.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – This precious faith of all the saints, / Is constituted solely / Of Christ and His redemptive work, / Which are unique and holy. / In this the saints are truly one, / Together all agreeing, / And it is from this common faith / The Church came into being. (Hymns #831 stanza 2)
  – Thus we must relinquish doctrines of all kinds, / Only keep the faith that oneness we may find. / In the Lord the Spirit we are one indeed; / Just to keep this oneness is our only need. / Truth we must be holding, which is Christ Himself, / That we be delivered from the sects of self, / That in all things growing into Christ the Head, / Built will be the Body and to fulness led. (Hymns #832 stanzas 3-4)
  – We are one in the spirit, by His life we are one, / We have left all divisions, Body-life has begun, / For the Lord broke all barriers, proclaiming, / “It is done.” (Hymns #1243, stanza 1)

View and enjoy Messages 8 and 9 in this book for further reference

The Genuine Ground of Oneness, Message 8: The Damage and Loss of the Ground of Oneness

The Genuine Ground of Oneness, Message 9: The Recovery and Testimony of the Ground of Oneness