Quote:
Originally Posted by esostaks
I am simply trying to understand God`s view on local churches and understand whether I should meet with brothers there or should I continue to walk on my own during these difficult times because I have not been meeting believers on a regular basis for about 4 years.
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I have tried to answer this person's questions a few times and keep feeling that I am missing the point, somehow. But I wanted to keep trying because it is so much like my experience many years ago when I first began to try to orient myself towards God by believing into Jesus Christ the Lord.
The next question was after believing was "now what"? and the answer was "church" and the question that followed was "what church"? and very soon I found myself in
esostaks' very dilemma.
So let me start from the conclusion of the quote... I also have been "walking on my own" and "not meeting believers on a regular basis" for quite a few years now. But I don't feel alone. The Word, I feel, is opening up before me like some marvelous shining flower, more incredible than anything I could have imagined or dreamed. The center of the revelation is Jesus Christ. As you can see in my comments in the thread "The Psalms are the Word of Christ", Paul used this phrase twice and it pointed me toward the revelation of Jesus Christ in the OT text. Also Hebrews (see e.g. chapter 2) does the same thing. And Peter's speech in Acts 2 also explains how he could "see Jesus" the OT text. Everything good and real and true was pointing towards Jesus the Christ.
When you begin to "see" Jesus Christ in the text it literally transforms you. Now, as Paul wrote, the Word of Christ begins to dwell in you richly (Col 3:16). Witness Lee's footnotes said that the prayers of the Psalms were low, and Paul's prayers in Ephesians were high. But Paul in Ephesians (see ch. 5) pointed his readers back to the Psalms!
Did Jesus pray Paul's "high prayers" from the Epistle to the Ephesians or did Jesus pray the "low" prayers of Psalms? I believe that Paul saw Jesus inhabit the Word and express the Word and even become the Word made flesh tabernacling before us all, and in this Paul marveled greatly and praised God in his epistles.
So I guess my first point is that the Word points us to Jesus Christ, and second is that Jesus Christ told us the Spirit would lead us to all the reality of the Father's house. Not Watchman Nee, or Paul, or Witness Lee, but the Spirit of Jesus. So if you abide in the text a marvelous thing will happen. The Spirit will come. I cannot explain it: I just can tell you that the Spirit will come. And you will begin to see the Father's house emerge before you.
And you will not be "walking on your own" because the Spirit will be your constant guide. Will you obey? Will you abide? I cannot say, but the Spirit will nonetheless guide. Believe me, the Spirit is capable of overcoming our failures!
The third and final point is that all this is not for your amusement or "enjoyment", but so that God can use you. You will meet a non-believing person, looking for reality. You will meet a new believer needing help. You will meet an ancient and feeble believer, needing confirmation and support. You will meet someone who is lost and needs to hear the Name of Jesus. You will meet the hungry, the sick, the poor, the despised. And as you despair in your helplessness the Spirit will come in a rush of power to help you; the same power that raised Jesus from the dead will flow through you to the 'dead' ones around you. Then you will be serving God.
This, my friend, is the "new testament church life". It will fulfill and satisfy you beyond your dreams. It is right there in front of you. You already have it. If you keep looking for "the right church" you will be in for a long and disappointing search. One day, many years after leaving Lee's local church, I stopped seeking something new and better and different and began to seek God in the Word. At that point everything began to change.
Have I done a good job of it? Probably not. But I stopped looking for "Mr. Right". Mr Right is already here. His name is Jesus. He is clearly portrayed before us in the Word, not only in the NT but 'especially' in the OT. In fact, the entire NT could be seen as a brief outline telling you how to find the Christ in the OT!
His Spirit is here. The hungry poor ones are all around us. The fields are white for harvest. He told us, "Blessed is the one who is feeding others when the Master returns." (Matt 24:46, Luke 12:43).
The "proper church life" is right in front of us. It has been there all along. We just didn't know what we were looking for, and were easily misled.
And occasionally on Sunday morning I "go to church". But I don't go to despise, or judge, or be superior. I am just another loser on the "Jesus bus". So I go the same as everywhere else - I go to try and take care of 'my neighbor'; to try and feed and shepherd (see John chapter 21: Jesus speaking to Peter). There really is nothing else. Love God with all your heart and soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. And some of your neighbors go to church.