In the beginning, there were four brothers and sisters who loved the Lord. They broke bread and met together.
Then they had this meeting, and when they were there, they followed the Lord.
They used the vacation they had and went to the countryside.
You say that God’s people should not be divided. We need to be free from division. This is the need.
He was such a hero among the young people because of what he had received and written about the Lord. But it was not accepted, especially by those older in the Lord, and they did not accept it.
In the year 1926, he came into Shanghai. There were a few brothers and sisters who had a vision.
Unfortunately, I do not have much time. The Lord specially compelled him.
When the meeting came, they put everything aside and started immediately in that very place.
They had only one wish: to return to the original purpose and the simplicity of the church. They did not wish to have any organization.
They wanted to be unified with all the brothers and sisters in the Lord, so they laid great emphasis upon this point.
In the beginning, what they preached was salvation and a little bit about the church.
Then they spoke about the cross and its objective experience. Then they came to the central purpose of God.
By the year 1934, they began to say that Christ is the center.
There were many other places in China where this movement spread. It was God Who gave this vision to the people, and this was discovered later on when they met together.
Even so, within the coastline there were some meeting together, and the testimony came all the way to Manchuria. But there was no organization.
At that time, the brothers and sisters truly loved one another. They paid a great price for the restoration of the gospel during the war with Japan.
The testimony of the Lord was borne by them. Everywhere in China there was this testimony of the Lord. There was no human organization.
Among the workers, there was only a spiritual relationship; there was no organization.
Even among the workers, they laid down their lives. So we really saw the blessing of the Lord.
In the late 1940s, during the war, we were all scattered around different places.
During the war with Japan, it was difficult to communicate. There were people in the occupied territory, and some were in places of freedom. So the fellowship was very, very rare.
After the war came to an end, all the brothers had an opportunity to be together at one time, and there was a great revival there.
They consecrated everything, and nobody said that it belonged to him.
But, in the meantime, there was an organization among us. Even though on the surface it was not acknowledged, in reality the organization had begun.
As I look back, this was the beginning of the falling away.
Because of the political turmoil, there is one thing we cannot deny: as much light and blessing as God gave to us, we took much pride.
We looked down upon those who were in the denominational churches. Because of a little reason, we fell.
We are no better than others. We need to know this. We need to learn from brothers and sisters, just as others learn from us.
Thank God. The Lord used this political change, and He changed also what we had anticipated for many years.
Our anticipation was that all the believers in China would be, not according to division, but in one unity. But we failed.
But according to the political change, it was made so. In that period of time, there was no denomination—just Christians. If you are a Christian, you are brothers and sisters.
This was the condition in China. How about what was happening abroad?
We had a little bit of work outside China—in the Philippines and in Hong Kong as well.
An elderly lady came from Hong Kong to visit us. She was in her sixties and was a nominal Christian, a church member.
She really received the message. After she heard the gospel, since she was going back to Hong Kong, she asked where the meeting was in Hong Kong.
The second day after she arrived in Hong Kong, she came to the meeting. We had some communication in the Lord.
After a short period had passed, two co-workers from China came to Hong Kong. So, in 1937, the work in Hong Kong began.
Many came out of China and went to Hong Kong and Taiwan, according to the mercy of the Lord, and the work started.
We can see people from the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand beginning to do the work of the Lord.
But then, most unfortunately, it marked the beginning of organization.
In the 1960s, division spread—not only in Taiwan, but also in Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.
The Lord raised us for the testimony of His unity, but the most serious thing among us was division.
In every aspect, the Lord used the matter for His purpose. But we cannot blame Him for everything. Within us, there is something false.
We had division, and division came to the point that what was done went over and beyond what the people in the world would do.
In 1970, when I passed by Hong Kong, there was much shame.
The brothers and sisters had no idea what we were doing here. They thought we were just another denomination.
For this reason, they thought this way was narrow, so they went to a broad way.
The original testimony was spoiled almost to the point of nonexistence.
But, praise the Lord, there was a remnant of the brothers, and in our hearts there was a burden.
We did not want to accept the condition. We sensed the call of the Lord. He called us to repentance.
It is just like the word of the Lord to Laodicea:
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
Many people think the Lord spoke to the Philadelphia church:
Hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown.
But the Lord’s hard condition concerning Philadelphia is this: you need to repent.
Then the word of the Lord says that you need to hold on, hold fast, so that no one takes your crown away from you.
I believe the Lord did not give up. If the Lord did not give up, how can we give up?
I believe the Spirit of the Lord, through those years, continued to work.
We trust that many brothers have in their hearts something that cannot be uttered—the same feeling. We know that today our condition is not right.
We would like to return to the condition of the first, if the Lord has mercy and can restore us.
Yes, we need to pay the price. We need to lay down ourselves.
Get rid of tradition. We need to humble ourselves before the Lord. We need to look to the Lord to revive that heavenly vision in our hearts.
Then we will see what we have never seen before.
If the Lord has called us, it is not without a special reason. We have a mission.
We can say, like Paul:
I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.
Let us bow our heads and pray.
Oh, Lord our God, we would like to be transparent before our brethren.
Oh, Lord, Your burden cannot be uttered. We pray that You will revive this testimony before Your coming back.
Lord, we pray that You would recover Your way and Your testimony.
Lord, care for Your own testimony. Oh, Lord, do not care so much for how we feel.
We come to You in the name of Jesus.