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Stages In the Recovery
Our Wonderful Beginning
In 1962 the church life began in the United States with
brother Witness Lee fully charged and burdened by the Lord to minister the word
of God in this country. He
testified that he came with a "particular
commission to bring the Lord's recovery to the top Christian country".
Before coming to the U.S.A., Brother Lee served the Lord mainly in China,
Taipei, and the Philippines and helped greatly in the establishing and building
up of the local churches there. The
response to his ministry in the United States was immediate and many seeking
ones were contacted and added to the church, a substantial number coming from
around the country to Los Angeles to begin the church life.
(Before 1962, there were a few saints representing the recovery in the
United States, but the testimony accelerated and grew significantly with brother
Lee’s coming.)
The main burden our brother had at that time was to reveal
Christ as the life-giving Spirit with all His unsearchable riches to the seeking
believers. This burden began to be
meaningfully discharged in the first conference meetings held in the United
States in 1962, and the book The All-Inclusive Christ was published
comprising those messages. His burden for several years was very much along this
line as he ministered to the saints and to the churches that were raised up
under his ministry. His focus was
on the experience of Christ as life for the building up of the church.
Many people were attracted by the enjoyment of Christ in the meetings and
in the daily life of the saints in the local churches.
The testimony “we’re home” was heard often in the fellowship of
rejoicing brothers and sisters in the church life.
The Burden For the Truth in
Biannual Trainings
A significant turn was made in 1974 with the
introduction of trainings to be held biannually in Anaheim. Brother Lee had the
burden to establish the saints and the churches more in the truth of God's word by going
chapter by chapter through the books of the Bible. This he did until the last book was completed.
The full exposition of the Bible was finally accomplished in 1995, a
total of twenty years work. A line from a hymn appropriately describes our experience
with brother Lee during that time: “The
Lord has yet more light and truth to break forth from His word”. Virtually
everyone who attended those trainings or read the printed messages was greatly
helped and blessed as the Lord opened book after book of the mystery of God that
was “hidden throughout the ages” but revealed to New Testament
believers.
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