In this issue of The Ministry, Brother Lee speaks about some of the practical steps in implementing the new way, particularly in relation to the gospelization of Taiwan. This is an unprecedented task and a glorious enterprise. For a purpose like this, there is the need of a schedule and a plan. As long as we are human beings, we need schedules and budgets. In the Gospels and Acts, we find that both the Lord and the disciples worked with plans and arrangements. In His move on the earth, the Lord had not only a schedule but also an itinerary, according to which He carried out His New Testament service and fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies. Our plan is to visit the communities and campuses and build up the home meetings through prayer, the full-time service of one out of twenty saints, and the financial support from the remaining nineteen. The next three messages conclude the Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Hebrews given in the winter training of 1998. Message Twenty-two focuses on the crystals concerning the church in the book of Hebrews, which include the church as the living composition of the many sons of God, a corporate partnership with Christ, the house of God, the Sabbath rest, the new covenant and the heavenly New Jerusalem, the unshakable kingdom, and God’s flock. Message Twenty-three stresses the crucial matter of the Christian life being a race; we must run this race to receive the prize, the incorruptible crown, which the Lord will award to His overcoming saints who win the race. Message Twenty-four shows us that the goal and ultimate conclusion of the book of Hebrews is that we would enter within the veil and go outside the camp. The more we are in our spirit, enjoying the heavenly Christ, the more we will come outside the camp of religion, following the suffering Jesus. In the last section, we include a report from Armenia and Slovakia.

In this issue we will continue four lines of ministry. The first line--The History of the Lord's Recovery--contains chapters 5 through 8 of The Advance of the Lord's Recovery Today, which are in volume 4 of The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1989. These chapters cover the perfecting of the saints by the gifts, prophesying for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ, and how to carry out the New Testament priesthood of the gospel according to the Lord's up-to-date recovery. The second line--Words for New Believers--contains chapters 25 and 26 of Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures, Volume 2, and chapters 27 and 28 of Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures, Volume 3, which are in volume 3 of The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1932–1949. These chapters cover topics related to being led by the Lord, doing the will of God, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and preaching the gospel. The third line--Maturing in Life--begins with chapters 1 through 4 of a new book, The Kingdom, which are in volume 2 of The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1972. These chapters speak of the kingdom in the New Testament, the coming of the kingdom and its process, God's goal being the kingdom, and the seed of the kingdom. The fourth line--The High Peak of the Divine Revelation--continues with chapters 18 through 21 of God's New Testament Economy, which are in volume 3 of The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984. These chapters cover the Spirit of Christ, the anointing Spirit, and the seven Spirits.

In this issue of The Ministry, we include a message by Brother Lee to the co-workers, elders, and full-timers in Taipei concerning the practice of the new way. Because the homes of the saints are the life pulse in the practice of the new way, we need to endeavor with all the energy, strength, and time that the Lord has given us to recover a proper atmosphere in the homes. The first thing we must do is to make every saint’s home a home for meeting. Then we must learn the proper way to meet in the homes. We need to help every attendee to function, and we should use the proper materials in the meetings. In particular, however, we need to prepare for the meetings by praying and thoroughly confessing before the Lord so that we may be beside ourselves in the exercise and release of our spirit. Only by being “crazy” in spirit can we conduct a meeting properly and make it come alive. The next three messages in this issue are a continuation of the Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Hebrews and were given in the winter training of 1998 in Anaheim. Message Thirteen stresses the great turn from the realm of Christ’s earthly ministry to His heavenly ministry. Message Fourteen presents the definition and enactment of the new covenant, and Message Fifteen shows the execution and application of this new covenant. Last of all, we include several reports from conferences in England, France, Kyrgyzstan, and Holland.

In this issue of The Ministry, Brother Lee gives a word of encouragement and exhortation to the elders and co-workers in Taipei concerning the practice of the new way, reminding them to be “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58). As he reviews and previews the Lord’s move in the new way, he points out that the practice to realize our glorious future is a matter of building up the home meetings and the truth-teaching meetings, actively visiting the new urban communities, and building up a strong testimony on all the campuses. Moreover, in order to pick up the burden and to spread the work aggressively, there is the need to match God’s move with our material supply. For all this, we must be like those in Judges 5 who made “great resolutions in heart” and “great searchings of heart” (vv. 15-16). We must achieve something for the Lord, never burying the grace that the Lord has given us or the gains that our training has brought us. The next three messages in this issue are a continuation of the Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Hebrews and were given in the winter training of 1998. Message Sixteen stresses the fact that Christ is the reality of the new testament, the reality of all that God is and of all that God has given to us; therefore, Christ is the new testament. Message Seventeen shows us how the law of the divine life is the spontaneous power of the divine life; it is the natural characteristic and the innate, automatic function of the divine life. Message Eighteen presents the crucial experience of Christ shown at the incense altar within the tabernacle; it is by the prayer at the incense altar that we participate in Christ’s interceding life as the center of the divine administration. Last of all, we include the many reports of the Lord’s move throughout the earth given by a number of brothers at the Spring 1999 International Training of Elders and Responsible Ones in Ventura, California.

In this issue of The Ministry, we continue the speaking by Brother Lee concerning the God-ordained way as the present practice in God’s economy. In this message we see some practical steps to carry out the home meetings so that the church life becomes a part of the saints’ daily life. The churches should make a “census” of all the dormant members and be burdened to recover them house by house until they are firmly established and rooted in the church. This requires our diligent, thorough, and practical labor together with God. In addition, Brother Lee speaks a word on how the churches should care for the full-time serving ones among us. The next three messages are a continuation of messages given in the full-time training in Anaheim in the fall of 1997 concerning the grafted life. These messages begin to unveil the relationship between the grafted life and God’s organic salvation. Message Seven unfolds the matters of regeneration and sanctification. Regeneration is to bring God into man, to have God as life in addition to our original, human life. Sanctification is to be saturated with God organically; sanctification is for God’s “sonizing”; that is, sanctification is for sonship. Message Eight presents the matters of renewing and transformation. As believers we must be thoroughly and absolutely renewed so that we may be the new creation of God and for God. To be renewed is to have God’s element added into our being to replace and discharge our old element. Transformation as the issue of renewing is not an outward change or correction, but it is a spiritual metabolism; it is the metabolic function of the life of God in the believers. Message Nine shows us that conformation denotes the shaping of life; as the divine life grows within us and transforms us, it spontaneously shapes us into the form, the image, of the firstborn Son of God. Glorification, however, is the step in God’s complete salvation in which God will completely saturate our body with the glory of His life and nature. Lastly, we include letters concerning the Lord’s move in the Pacific Islands and Romania.