The God Ordained Way And The Eldership

Today we need the intensified Spirit because of the degradation of the church. When the book of Revelation was written, the church had become degraded. The Lord became the intensified Spirit because of the degradation of the church. The history of the church tells us that even in the last part of the first century while the apostle John was still alive, the church had degraded from the Spirit to religion. The church had fallen from the living Spirit to dead religion. It was in such a situation that the Lord wrote this book to the seven local churches, using the title of the sevenfold Spirit. Under the degradation of the church, what we need is not religion or doctrines but the intensified Spirit.

"Concerning the God-ordained way, the New Testament is full of revelation. God wants us to serve Him, but in the New Testament no one is allowed to serve God according to his own concept. We have to serve God according to God’s concept. God’s ordained way has been fully and clearly revealed in the New Testament, yet Christians through all the centuries, from the last part of the first century down to today, have neglected it." In this book Witness Lee offers a detailed view of God's ordained way for His people to function in preaching the gospel to sinners, caring for new believers, perfecting fellow believers, and prophesying for the building up of the Body of Christ.

The practice of the God-ordained way in its four steps should be our experience. The first step is to fulfill the New Testament priesthood of the gospel. To preach the gospel is to get sinners saved to be members of the Body of Christ. The second step is to nourish and feed the new believers in the home meetings. The third step is to perfect the saints through the group meetings.... The fourth and last step of the God-ordained way is prophesying in the church meetings for the building up of the church, consummating in the organic building up of the Body of Christ. We should endeavor to build up the local church. Eventually, this building up will consummate in the building up of the Body of Christ.

This book is intended as an aid to believers in developing a daily time of morning revival with the Lord in His word. At the same time, it provides a review of the July 2002 summer training on the God-ordained Way. This training covered the book Lessons on the God-ordained Way. Through intimate contact with the Lord in His word, the believers can be constituted with life and truth and thereby be equipped to prophesy in the meetings of the church unto the building up of the Body of Christ.