Read and pray: “But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ,” (Ephesians 4:15)
Since His ascension, the Lord has been ministering in the heavens. However, for this ministry to be carried out on the earth, there must be reciprocity on our part. Nearly twenty centuries have passed, yet very little has been accomplished on the earth. Therefore, as our age is drawing to a close, there is an urgent need for our reciprocity to the Lord’s ministry.
DOUBLE RECIPROCITY
The foregoing verses illustrate this reciprocity on our part. The references in Acts are related to a moving in life for the spreading of the gospel. In the time of Acts, the disciples advanced together with the Lord in life.
This was the case with Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, with Ananias and Saul, and with Peter and Cornelius. All three refer to advances in life that correspond to the Lord’s ministry in the heavens.
The references in the Epistles, on the other hand, illustrate growth and function in life rather than a moving in life. What is revealed in Ephesians and Colossians is not a move for the sake of the gospel, but the growth and the functioning of the Body.
One is to bring people to the Lord; the other is to build up the Body. In order for people to be brought to the Lord, there must be a moving in life; in order for the Body to be built up, there must be growth and function in life.
The moving in life to attract people to the Lord is outward, but the growth in life for the building up of the Body is inward. For both the outward and the inward aspects, there must be reciprocity on our part to the Lord’s ministry in the heavens.
RECIPROCITY TO THE MOVING IN LIFE
In Acts 8 through 10 the Lord moved the disciples outwardly for the preaching of the gospel. He ministered in the heavens in order to move certain disciples.
Suppose that at that time Philip had been out loving the world, Ananias had fallen into sin, and Peter had returned to Galilee to fish.
Then Christ would have been ministering in the heavens without any response on the earth. Praise the Lord that all three were ready to respond!
Philip
In response to the Lord’s heavenly ministry, Philip departed from Jerusalem to Gaza (Acts 8:26). His solitary walk in the desert was a response to the heavenly Christ. The Lord had a disciple there in the desert whom He could move. When He said to Philip, “Approach and join this chariot” (v. 29), Philip ran to it and heard the eunuch reading Isaiah.
Do you see Philip’s reciprocity to the heavenly ministry? In this way the Ethiopian eunuch was brought to the Lord. This was Philip’s reciprocity to the moving in life for the preaching of the gospel.
Ananias
The situation in Acts 9 was similar. Ananias must have been praying when he received a vision from the heavens. The Lord spoke to him through the heavenly television and guided him to Saul. Saul also was praying when the heavenly transmission reached him, and then he saw Ananias coming!
There was a wonderful triangulation of Christ ministering in the heavens, together with Ananias and Saul responding on the earth, all for the purpose of bringing Saul to the Lord.
Peter
In Acts 10 a Roman centurion named Cornelius was praying when an angel came to him and told him to send for Peter. Suppose Peter had been unavailable when the messengers from Cornelius arrived.
If Peter had gone fishing, the messengers would have returned empty-handed and disappointed. In fact, just before these men arrived, Peter also was praying when the heavenly television came to him.
An object like a sheet was descending from heaven, full of unclean animals. Peter heard a voice: “Rise up, Peter; slay and eat.” His response was, “By no means, Lord!” That wonderful television program was repeated three times!
While Peter was perplexed as to what it might mean, the messengers appeared at the gate asking for him. He followed them, and Cornelius, his household, and probably the soldiers as well were all led to the Lord.
This is the proper way to preach the gospel. It is a moving in life under the heavenly ministry of Christ. It is not a movement organized by a mission.
Christ as the Head exercised His headship to move the disciples here and there. They were alert, responding to His ministry in the heavens.
My hope is that the preaching of the gospel in the Lord’s recovery would be like this—an effective moving in life that corresponds to the heavenly ministry of Christ and is under His headship.
A testimony
Allow me to present an illustration from my experience regarding this matter. In July 1932, I had just returned home from my office work when a brother came.
Actually, he was looking for another brother, who, however, was not at home. Since it was not yet dark, I suggested that we go to the beach. While we were on the way, he asked some questions concerning spiritual matters.
I told him that it would be good to sit on the beach and talk about those matters. So we did, talking from seven until eleven o’clock. We spoke about baptism by immersion (our denomination practiced sprinkling).
As soon as we finished our conversation, he said to me, “You are the right person to baptize me, and I am the right person to be baptized. You must baptize me tonight!”
I was just a young man, about twenty-seven years old. I was not a pastor, an elder, or even a deacon. I backed away in fear: “No, no, no,” I told him, “I can’t. I am too young. I am not a pastor or an elder or a deacon. No!”
He rebuked me: “You only preach, but you do not practice. You have just told me who is the right person to be baptized, what is the right place, and when is the right time. I understand that this is the right place (the sea before us, full of water), this is the right time (a dark night), I am the right person to be baptized, and you are the right person to baptize me. How can you refuse?”
I was persuaded. Even though I had brought no change of clothes, we went into the water, and I baptized him. After that, we both were in the third heaven!
Two days later, on a Thursday, I was in the office and needed to remember his name. I could not recall how it was spelled. Since one of my colleagues knew him very well, I asked him how to spell his name. He became curious as to why I wanted to know and asked me what had happened.
“You want to know what happened?” I replied. “The night before last I baptized him in the sea.” He was astonished, but I also was when he said to me, “You baptized him! Well, I would like you to baptize me tonight!”
Since we had another colleague who also had been brought to the Lord, I said to him, “Let me speak with so-and-so first.” When I spoke with him, he was happy to join us. After work we three went to the beach, together with the brother I had baptized earlier. I asked him to do the baptizing, but he refused.
That troubled me. Why was I baptizing people as if I were a pastor? Nevertheless, I baptized the other two. Afterward, we were filled with joy. We wandered through the streets, speaking of the Lord’s grace. We made so much noise that a man behind us followed us and then asked, “Are you Witness Lee?” “I am,” I replied. “Why?”
He then told us that he had just come out of a prayer meeting in a missionary church where they were complaining that I had baptized one of their candidates. They said that I was neither an elder nor a deacon—how could I baptize people? Then he added, “When I heard them speaking, I decided that I wanted to contact you. I never imagined that I would meet you in this way. When will you have the next meeting?”
When Sunday came, there were eleven in our group. One week later, we began to have the Lord’s table. The Lord was exercising His headship to draw people. Although we were few, we had reciprocity to the heavenly Christ.
Since those days, much has been accomplished, not by an organization, but by His ministry in the heavens and by some of His disciples responding on the earth.
🌿 Enjoy more:
Hymn: Longings – “To Walk More Closely with Christ”
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