The Meetings and Spiritual Exercise of the Local Church

Additional Quotes about the Local Church by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee

Witness Lee encourages the local churches to practice pray-reading the Word as the Spirit:

Paul in Ephesians 6 said that the Spirit today is the word. The Bible must become the word as the Spirit. This means your Bible must be one with the Spirit. Your Bible is the Spirit, and the Spirit is your Bible. How can we get this? There is no other way except by calling on the Lord, by touching the Lord daily and moment by moment.

…This is my strong burden I would fellowship with the elders. Every local church needs this. Do not invent many formalities. You yourself should practice calling on the Lord. You yourself should practice pray-reading the word as the Spirit. You need to practice the unceasing prayer. You need to practice never quenching the Spirit, but rather, fanning the Spirit all the time into flame. You need to practice not despising any prophesying.

(Witness Lee, Living a Life, 32-33)

Witness Lee says below that the believers are brought under the headship of Christ through pray-reading:

Today, for the Lord’s recovery in the local churches, we still need these two ministries. I am so grateful to the Lord that here in the churches, we have seen the priesthood and the kingship. The brothers and sisters know how to contact the Lord and to have a living fellowship with the Lord day by day. This is why we have the morning watch with all the pray-reading—it is simply to contact the Lord, to have a living fellowship with the Lord, and even to be saturated, permeated, and possessed by the Lord that we may really be one with Him in spirit. And it is by this that we all have come to recognize the authority of God, the headship of Christ. No human hand is ruling over us. There is no human control, but we do have the divine authority among us. The brothers and sisters are moving and acting under the headship of Christ. If you were to ask me who are the ones who take care of the churches, I would say I just do not know how to answer. What I mean is that we do not have the maneuvering of any human hand, but we do have a government, a divine government, a government under the headship of Christ. This is the kingship.

When someone asks how we have our meetings, how we start our meetings, and who takes the lead in our meetings, it is really difficult for me to answer. For the building up of the house of the Lord, we have the ministry of the priesthood as well as the ministry of the kingship.

(Witness Lee, Recovery of God’s House, 39-40)

Christ is the foundation and pray-reading is a means to build upon this foundation. Regarding this, Witness Lee says:

The oneness, the priesthood, the kingship, and the altar are the preparation for laying the foundation. According to typology, this foundation is nothing but Christ. They laid Christ as their foundation.

…Pray-reading is not our foundation. Pray-reading is a means to lay the foundation. Pray-reading is a means to build. We thank the Lord that in the past years we have seen much building by pray-reading. Pray-reading truly builds, but it is not the foundation. Our foundation is Christ alone.

(Witness Lee, Recovery of God’s House, 27-28)

In Spirit and the Body Witness Lee explains that pray-reading is a practice and not a basic doctrine of the faith:

We in the Lord’s recovery insist upon the basic doctrines that constitute the faith. If anyone does not hold to these basic doctrines, he is not a genuine believer, and he is not saved. However, apart from the basic doctrines, we do not insist on any other doctrines. Are things such as speaking in tongues, pray-reading, foot washing, and calling on the name of the Lord basic doctrines? Certainly not. None of these doctrines constitutes the faith. Whether or not you practice speaking in tongues, pray-reading, or calling on the name of the Lord does not affect your salvation. As long as you believe that God is one yet triune, that the Son of God was incarnated as a man, that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, that He was resurrected on the third day, and that He is coming again, you are saved and you are a member of the church. Someone may never pray-read or speak in tongues; yet if he has the common faith, he is saved. But if you do not believe the basic doctrines, you are not saved, even if your feet have been washed a thousand times.

…It is the same with pray-reading or calling on the name of the Lord. If you do not feel the need to pray-read, then don’t try to do it. No one will exclude you because you do not care to pray-read.

…We should not insist on any doctrines apart from the doctrines that constitute the faith. However, we still need to know the pure Word and walk according to it. We do not want to be sloppy or loose or remain under the influence prevailing among today’s Christians. I hope that we all can differentiate between these two categories of doctrines. The local church is built upon the oneness according to the Spirit and according to the locality. It is absolutely not built on doctrines such as the doctrines concerning the kingdom of the heavens, pray-reading, or the exercise of the spirit.

(Witness Lee, Spirit and the Body, 220-222)

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