Rejecting any Traditional Way and taking the Scriptural Way to Meet by Living in Spirit

For the building up of the Body of Christ, we need to practice the scriptural way to meet and to serve, and we need to give up and forsake any traditional way in Christianity which may still influence us.

First of all, we need to realize that we are the Body of Christ, and together we are members one of another. Therefore, we need to daily drink the Spirit and be filled in spirit, and we also need to have a particular kind of living, a living that matches our inward being as members of the Body of Christ.

Without the biblical way for us to meet and to serve, the way that is shown in the New Testament, the Lord’s words in Matt. 18:16 concerning the building up of the church cannot be fulfilled.

If 1 Cor. 14:26 and Heb. 10:24-25 are not fulfilled among us in the church life, there is no way for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. This is why the Lord needs to have a recovery today, a recovery not only of what the church is, but also of what the proper church life should be to match the organic essence of the church.

When we come together, what should we do? In 1 Cor. 14 we are told that we all need to function in our measure by prophesying for the building up of the church. The way for us to build up the church is by prophesying.

If we are inwardly filled with the Spirit and we experience the Spirit in our daily living, the spontaneous result is that we will speak the Lord forth for the building up of the church.

We will not over function or function less than our measure, and we will not leave the gathering together; rather, we will consider one another so as to incite one another to functioning in our measure.

This is what the Lord is recovering today, the scriptural way to meet and serve, and we are learning to drop anything of the traditional way, so that we may take the Lord’s way.

The traditional way adopts the way of human society for religion — “in the customs of the nations” (2 Kings 17:8, NASB); the traditional way is natural, fitting man’s natural and fallen condition; the traditional way does not require man to be living and in the spirit; and the traditional way is religious.

Today we want to see more concerning what the traditional way is, and what the scriptural way to meet and serve is, so that we may live in spirit for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ in the local churches.

The Traditional Way to Meet has Annulled and Choked the Function of the Members of the Body of Christ

If you study church history you will realise that the traditional way to meet and serve practiced in denominations and Christianity in general has bound and annulled the organic function of the members of the Body of Christ for many centuries.

Simply attending church meetings, giving the yearly donation, and being present at the church meetings, where someone specially trained to speak gives a message or sermon to inspire people – all this is not what the Lord intends for His people to do.

Some may say that, since many believers don’t know the Bible very well, there’s the need for teaching to edify them, but if this is all we do – teaching others to edify them, then the function of all the members is annulled.

There are millions of members in the denominations but very few of these are useful, and very few function in the meetings. There is a clerical class of people who function, and they may even over-function, and they replace the function of the members of the Body of Christ.

When only very few function and the others passively attend meetings, how can the saints be built up in an organic way?

When the saints don’t function and don’t exercise their spirit, how can they be transformed in their soul and have the divine life in their spirit grow to spread in their soul and into all their being?

Where are the saints who expect the all-inclusive Christ to grow in them, those who are being built up together in spirit so that not only a local church but also the whole Body of Christ may be built up as the full expression of God?

The enemy in his subtlety has entrenched the traditional way to meet in the denominational churches, and most believers who are regenerated by the divine life are non-functioning members of the Body, and they stagnate in their growth in life.

It is really sad to realise that the function of the many members of the Body of Christ has been bound, annulled, and even choked for many years, and in a very real sense the Lord cannot have a built up Body, and the practical building up of the church cannot take place.

May the Lord expose the many aspects of the traditional way to meet that are still in our being, and may we be those who learn to meet in the scriptural way for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

If we have really seen what the Body of Christ is, we will not choke or annul the function of the members of the Body of Christ, but we will cooperate with the Lord for the release of the saints function.

We need to have the Lord’s light expose any traditional way to meet in us and among us, and we need to go before the Lord and tell Him honestly,

Lord Jesus, recover the function of all the members of Your Body. May so many of Your believers grow and develop in the divine life by daily opening to You and experiencing You as life. May all the saints function in the meetings by prophesying to build up the church. Lord, save us from meeting in a traditional way, and bring us up to date with You so that we may meet in a scriptural way, to build up the church as the Body of Christ! May we not bind or annul the organic function of the living members of Christ but release it for the building up of the Body!

Rejecting any Traditional Way and taking the Scriptural Way to Meet by Living in Spirit

The scriptural way to meet and to serve, as revealed in the Bible, is against any religious or social way to meet and serve – it is a spiritual way, and we meet by living and being in spirit.

We need to let the Lord shine on us and expose any old and traditional way of meeting and serving, and learn to meet and serve in the scriptural way by being in spirit.

The scriptural way to meet and to serve fits the taste of living and spiritual man, and it requires man to be living in and be in the spirit.

In the traditional way, we could just attend meetings as if we’re going to cinema, just to watch and be entertained or instructed; but in the scriptural way to meet, we need to exercise our spirit, be revived every morning, and live a victorious life day by walking by and according to the spirit.

For us to meet in the scriptural way means that we need to take care of our whole being and our daily living; we need to not only attend meetings but also live in spirit, exercise our spirit, be revived, and live according to the Spirit.

For us to have a prevailing way to meet and serve in the scriptural way, we need to maintain an uninterrupted fellowship with the Lord daily, hourly, and even moment-by-moment.

From the beginning of the day, early in the morning, we need to contact the Lord by calling on His name and pray-reading His word, so that we may be supplied with His riches and enjoy Him.

Then, throughout the day we need to learn to speak to people concerning the Lord and the word of God, ministering Christ to others through His word in season and out of season.

Living such a life, a life in the scriptural way to meet and to serve, requires that we pay a price, even a very high price. Such a living is against any religious life or social customs.

Living in spirit is not religious, and exercising our spirit day by day is not something that comes naturally or is a social norm; we need to pay the price of denying the self and living in the mingled spirit, and we need to pray much and receive grace from the Lord to live such a life in the scriptural way.

Christ, the Head, is the source of all our supply; we all as members in the Body have a particular measure, a particular function, and each and every member has an indispensable function in the Body.

In the traditional way of meeting and serving, the members of the Body do not function but rather have their function choked and annulled; in the scriptural way to meet and serve we all learn to exercise our spirit, live in spirit, and meet in spirit.

Each one part of the Body has to function in their measure, and this functioning of all the members builds up the Body of Christ. Our growth in life is the building up of the Body, and our function in our measure is the building up of the Body.

May we be those who reject any traditional way of meeting and serving, and may we be those who are taking the scriptural way to meet by living and being in spirit!

Lord Jesus, we want to reject any traditional way and take the scriptural way to meet and serve by live in spirit and be in spirit! We want to be those who are revived every morning and living an overcoming life every day. Keep us calling on Your name, pray-reading Your word, being revived inwardly, and living in the mingled spirit, so that we may take the scriptural way of meeting and serving in the church life. Lord, may we no longer inhibit You or limit You – may You have a way to grow in us, move in us, work in us, and spread in our inner being, so that we may live in spirit and build up the church as the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1987, vol. 3, “The Scriptural Way to Meet and to Serve for the Building Up of the Body of Christ,” chs. 1-5, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Church (2017 fall ITERO), week 7, The Status of the Church – the Body of Christ.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # As members of the Body / Christ we would manifest, / Each learning how to function / His fulness to express; / We would not be spectators / But each as members move, / None bringing death or damage / But each our profit prove. (Hymns #867)
  # By Your mercy, keep me in Your Body, / Taking the rich supply. / Through each member’s function in their measure / All the Body edify. [Eph. 4:16] (Song on being in the Body)
  # Serve and work within the Body, / This the Lord doth signify; / For His purpose is the Body, / And with it we must comply. (Hymns #913)