From chapter nine of The Ministers in the Lord’s Recovery – Genuine Ministers of the New Covenant
That our brother’s ministry triumphed in every place he visited is confirmed by a note that Brother Lee wrote in 1977 on Joshua 1:5-7, which reads, “When I was called by the Lord to serve Him with my full time in 1933, He gave me verses 5 through 7 as a promise. Since then, for over forty years, this promised has been all the time fulfilled to me.”85 The verses are as follows:
No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you nor forsake you. Be strong and take courage, for you will cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them. Only be strong and very courageous, being certain to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you. Do not turn away from it to the right or to the left, that you may have success wherever you go.
In view of the history of the Lord’s prevailing move among us, we bear witness that no opposer or dissenter was able to defeat Brother Lee’s ministry in all the years he ministered, from 1933 to 1997. As the Lord was with Brother Nee, so also He was with Brother Lee. The Lord never failed or forsook him; instead, our brother was empowered in the Lord’s grace to bring many of His children into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the good and spacious land (2 Tim. 2:1; Col. 1:12; 2:6-7; Josh. 14:1; Phil. 1:19; Eph. 3:8; Col. 1:12; 2:6-7; Heb. 4:8-9; Matt. 11:28-29; cf. Deut. 8:7-10). Wherever he went for the Lord’s ministry, he had success. Just as Joseph was “a fruitful bough” whose “branches run over the wall” (Gen. 49:22), so also Brother Lee was an exceedingly fruitful bough whose branches spread Christ over every wall of restriction raised up by the opposers, magnifying and ministering Him in all circumstances (Phil. 1:19-21; 4:22).
The triumph of Brother Lee’s ministry was not only the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to him in Joshua 1:5-7 but also the realization of an extraordinary God-given dream. One night, shortly before he was imprisoned and tortured by the Japanese military police in 1943, he dreamed of a gentleman who was taking a peaceful walk while carrying a cane. Suddenly, he came to a steep downward slope with four crooked steps. He descended the slope step by step with fear and trembling, leaning on his cane. When he reached the bottom, a German shepherd, whose color resembled that of a Japanese military uniform, pounced on him. However, although the gentleman was frightened, the dog did not harm him. After the dog left, he looked ahead and saw “a broad highway very straight and stretching on boundlessly, and the sun had just risen from the east.”86 As soon as he saw the broad highway, the rising sun, and the boundless, bright horizon, his heart felt free and released, and he “strode fearlessly onward.”87 Afterward, the Lord gave Brother Lee the understanding to interpret his dream. Brother Lee was the gentleman, and the cane signified the Lord’s grace, by which Brother Lee was walking (2 Cor. 1:12; 12:9; 1 Cor. 15:10). The four steps referred to the last four years of the Sino-Japanese war, which were a very difficult time for China, and the German shepherd signified the Japanese, who would trouble him but would not be permitted to harm him. This interpretation greatly comforted Brother Lee, for he realized that the Lord would preserve him despite his imprisonment, and that after this hardship the Lord would open for him a broad highway with a boundless future. In 1983 Brother Lee testified that the Lord’s rich blessing on his labor in Shanghai in the 1940s, in Taiwan and Southeast Asia in the 1950s, and in the United States in the 1960s and onward proved that his uncommon dream in 1943 was a genuine vision that had been and continued to be fulfilled in the Lord’s recovery, and that every day he “was walking on this broad highway step by step.”88 Not only did Brother Lee remain in this dream until he passed away, but he also brought many saints to see what he saw and participate with him in the Lord’s triumphant ministry. We believe that by the Lord’s mercy, many of these saints will continue in this dream and walk on this highway until the Body of Christ is built up unto the bright day of the Lord’s second coming.
For this reason, long after Brother Lee went to be with the Lord, the Lord’s move today in His recovery is still prevailing, and the entire earth is open to the spread of the divine truths in the holy Word presented by the ministry in the Lord’s recovery. Although Brother Lee departed to be with the Lord in 1997, his ministry has been continued by a group of his co-workers and propagated by countless saints in the local churches. Both the co-workers and the saints are captives of Christ who have been conquered by Christ through the ministry and are now diffusing the savor of the knowledge of Christ wherever they go. This is the fulfillment of Brother Lee’s earnest expectation expressed in 1982 that the young people in the local churches would participate in the new covenant ministry by scattering the incense of Christ in every place:
In my ministry I am not merely a teacher or a preacher—I am one scattering the incense of my Lord. I am beside myself with love for Him, and I desire to scatter His incense. Everyone in the Lord’s recovery must be a person scattering the incense of Christ. Wherever we go we should scatter this incense.
Some have wondered why a number of Christians in this country have been willing to receive my ministry. The reason is that I am scattering the incense of Christ. This is my unique occupation, my unique profession. My major in the heavenly university was scattering the incense of Christ. I expect that in the years to come many among us, especially the young people, will rise up to scatter Christ’s incense. Young people, your aspiration should be to scatter the incense of Christ.89
As Brother Lee gave message after message in conferences and trainings, he not only released points of truth but also scattered the incense of Christ to countless saints, including many young people, thereby imparting the Spirit of Christ as the divine fragrance into them (Rom. 8:9; 1 Pet. 1:11). Consequently, they were gloriously defeated by Christ and likewise became a fragrance of His sweetness. The Lord’s recovery has a bright future because of the saints who, under the genuine new covenant ministry, have been made captives in Christ’s triumphal procession, participate in His victory, and scatter the aroma of Christ in every place. Such ones will continue to carry out the new covenant ministry on the broad and bright highway until the bride is matured and the Bridegroom returns (Rev. 19:7; 3:11; 22:7, 12, 20).
85 CWWL, Bible Notes & Hymns, vol. 1, pp. 326-327
86 A Blessed Human Life, pp. 69-70
87 A Blessed Human Life, p. 70
88 A Blessed Human Life, p. 72; CWWL, 1986, vol. 2, p. 534; for detailed accounts of this dream see A Blessed Human Life, pp. 69-72; CWWL, 1981, vol. 2, pp. 99-103; CWWL, 1984, vol. 1, pp. 286-291; CWWL, 1986, vol. 2, pp. 531-534
89 Life-study of Second Corinthians, p. 158
 |
 |
 |
© 2023, David Yoon. All rights reserved.