We must see that God is one, the Lord is one, Christ is one, redemption is one, salvation is one, the church is one, the work is one, and the testimony is one. Wherever we go, all these items are one. Those who cause trouble are those who think that they are capable of doing something and who try to accomplish something. Here I want to exhort all of you solemnly that you should never do such a thing. We have to realize that there is only one recovery. If we want to do something different, we are finished. I am not here boasting of my age, but I have traveled throughout the six major continents of the earth and have established numerous churches through the ministry that the Lord has given to me. My secret is that I have never been detached from the church. I am not able to accomplish so much by myself. If I were to be separated from the church, I would not be able to establish even three churches, let alone three hundred churches. Therefore, we all have to learn to labor in the church and to work with others.

LIVING A HEALTHY LIFE

Seventh, we need to learn to live a healthy life. Let me give a brief testimony. In my youth I never received guidance on how to live a proper everyday life at home, or on how to eat properly. I never knew what health and nutrition meant. Moreover, due to my hard-working disposition, I frequently went beyond what I could bear. Eventually, in 1943 when I was almost forty years old, I already had a serious stomach ulcer due to my excessive labor. After that, I became seriously ill with tuberculosis. I had ruined my body to such an extent.

As soon as I was sick with tuberculosis, I knew that I needed an extended period of recuperation without disturbance, or else I would die very soon. At that time it was common in China for people to eventually die due to inadequate rest. Therefore, I made a painful decision to put aside all my work and responsibility. After two and a half years of quiet rest, I was fully restored in my body, and in 1946 I was able to stand up and minister again. From that time until now, [458] I have been laboring continually for over forty years without having had any serious illness again.

During the period of my recuperation, I was under the supervision and care of some of the saints from Chefoo who were nurses and doctors. It was through their teaching that I learned a great deal about health. Since then, I have been living according to the knowledge of personal health that I had learned. This is why until today I am still healthy and strong and able to minister here.

I will mention a few simple points here, hoping that all of us will be sure to remember them. While I have not been strictly abiding by all these points in all these forty years, I have been practicing them most of the time, so even until today I am still very healthy. First of all, you should pay attention to your diet. Do not eat or drink carelessly. You should absolutely avoid fatty meat and red meat. Do not say, “I love pork leg with all its fat, so I eat a lot.” If you indulge in eating unhealthy food, you are committing gradual suicide. According to my experience, among the different kinds of meat, fish is the best, chicken is next, and then lamb and beef; it is better to avoid pork because it does more harm than good. The Bible can never be wrong. Leviticus prohibits the eating of pork (11:7) because it has no profit. Moreover, try your best to avoid any food that is deep-fried. If you have to eat some, try your best to remove the skin and eat only the meat. Some people especially love to eat the skin of fried chicken. By so doing, they are cutting short their life expectancy. Third, do not eat too many sweet things. Fourth, avoid eating any heavily seasoned food. Salted food is the worst. While you are still young, learn to eat food without grease and heavy seasoning, and over a period of time you will be accustomed to it.

Furthermore, while you should avoid overeating, you should not allow your stomach to be empty. Do not think that because you are still young, you are strong enough to hold yourself up. Eventually, you will fall sick. I am really concerned for a certain brother who loves the Lord. He has been laboring for the Lord faithfully, but because he is overly fatigued, the level of his white blood cells has gone up too high. Now he is in the hospital getting emergency care. Of course, I believe that the Lord will heal him, and we should also pray for him. I mention this as a warning to all of you. Do not think that since you are still young and have inexhaustible energy, you can [459] use it excessively all the time. We must always remember that we are limited.

In addition, be sure to drink sufficient water—at least twelve big glasses every day. Water is for the cleansing of our whole system; taking plenty of fluid keeps our system cleansed all the time. A study that was done in America on the young soldiers who were killed in the Vietnam War found that more than one-third of them had blood vessels that were blocked. This indicates that they did not eat properly and had taken in too much fat so that even in their twenties and thirties they already had the problem of clogged blood vessels. American foods are very nutritious, yet the probability of Americans having high blood pressure, heart disease, and strokes is also quite high. We should take this as a warning. Therefore, it is good to drink some water after each meal.

In addition, you must have at least half an hour of exercise every day. Any kind of exercise will do. You may practice shadowboxing, or you may jog or walk. Furthermore, there is no need to be so regimented; just let your body move around a little bit. After a meal, spend ten minutes to walk. Walking is in fact the best exercise. I spend at least half an hour walking every day. Whenever I feel uncomfortable, I stand up and take a walk, and after fifteen minutes of walking, I feel comfortable again.

In 1948 after Brother Nee resumed his ministry, he gave us some statistics. He said that due to the lack of knowledge about nutrition and due also to the poor living situation, out of the more than twenty co-workers who died at that time, only one was killed by the Communist Party, whereas ninety percent of the rest died of tuberculosis. Brother Nee said that it was for this reason that he went into the pharmaceutical business, for which he was condemned and opposed so much that he had to stop his ministry. He said that if it was wrong for him to go into business, he was forced to do so because he was just like a widow forced to remarry for the survival of her children. He went into business because he could not bear to see the co-workers dying one by one of malnutrition. As he spoke this word, everyone in the meeting, including himself, wept. Before that time I had never seen Brother Nee shedding tears. In fact, that was the only time I ever saw him weeping. At that time I was sitting beside him, and I also wept.

We do not have a financial problem in our present situation, [460] especially in Taiwan. However, we should not eat, drink, and enjoy anything as we like simply because we are wealthy. This is to commit gradual suicide. I hope that we could live to be eighty or ninety, even to over a hundred, so that we might be able to see the fulfillment of all that we have fellowshipped today. I wish to live on this earth and witness with my own eyes the truth of the Lord not only being printed into books through our hands but also being sent through us to every part of the world and prevailing in every place. I absolutely believe that this will hasten the Lord’s return because it is through this that the Lord will prepare His bride. I hope that we all can see the manifestation of such a situation.