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Whether the church can be genuinely built up depends on whether the brothers in a coordinated service have the reality of the building. The saints have seen a vision of the building and have a heart to build the church. However, genuine building takes place when our spirits are blended together. Genuine building is not the ability to get along with others. That is superficial; it is not deep enough. Genuine building must be the blending of every member into one spirit and in one spirit. Only in this way are we saved from individual spirituality. The ability to be blended with others’ spirits is a real indication of not having individual spirituality.
Acts 1:14-15 says, “These all continued steadfastly with one accord in prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. And in those days...there was a group of persons gathered together, about a hundred and twenty.” Before the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples on the day of Pentecost, a hundred and twenty gathered together and prayed in one accord for ten days. During those ten days the disciples must have had individual prayer, but they probably had more prayer together than individually, because verse 14 says that they “continued steadfastly with one accord in prayer.” The disciples must have been blended in their spirit because they prayed persistently in one accord. They prayed for the same goal, the fulfillment of the promise of the Father. In verse 4 the Lord charged the disciples “not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father,” and in verse 8, concerning the promise, He said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” The disciples prayed together for ten days for this goal, and their praying together caused their spirits to be blended together and also caused them to be blended in the same goal.
Acts 13:1-2 says, “Now there were in Antioch, in the local church, prophets and teachers: Barnabas and Simeon, who was called Niger, and Lucius the Cyrenian, and Manaen, the foster brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. And as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for Me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” According to these verses, in Antioch there were five prophets and teachers who ministered to God in one accord. Ministering does not refer to the work they did or the things they accomplished but to their fasting and praying. In their ministering, the spirit of each one came forth, and thus their spirits were mingled into one in God’s Spirit.
Because the hundred and twenty were blended and built together before Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, and three thousand were saved when Peter stood with the eleven and preached the gospel (2:1-4, 14, 41). Because five prophets and teachers in Antioch were blended and built with one another through their ministering to the Lord, the Holy Spirit was able to speak concerning His need (13:1-4). The five were one in spirit.
When the Lord’s serving ones see this vision and desire to build the church according to the vision of this blueprint, the first thing that they need to do is pray and be blended together through prayer. Therefore, in the service meetings we should open our spirit in order to be blended with the spirits of the saints. Coming to the service meetings in order to discuss the service is not a proper view. When we see the vision of the building, we will bear the commission of this vision on our shoulders, but this is more than we can bear in ourselves. Therefore, when we come to the service meetings, we must open our spirit and bear the burden of the service together in prayer. We do not come to hold a meeting, to hear someone give a message, or to consider different situations. We come together to open our spirit and pray with the same burden before God, with a burden for the building.
Those who have truly seen this vision and are under this vision bear a burden when they are in the service meeting. They pray on their way to the meeting, and they pray in the meeting. They know that they cannot bear the responsibility as individuals and that every member is needed to bear the responsibility. Therefore, the service meetings should be filled with prayer. No matter when a brother arrives, he should start praying. As soon as another brother arrives, he should join the prayer. Then the meeting will begin with everyone praying together. It is not necessary to wait thirty minutes before choosing a hymn. When the prayer comes to a pause, a hymn can be sung. We should not have formality in our service meeting or in any meeting. Everyone should come to the service meeting with a released spirit in order to bear a common burden. This is genuine service.
This should also be the situation in the prayer meeting. We do not gather to have a prayer meeting, but we are praying when we arrive at the meeting. We should not sit and wait thirty minutes for the saints to arrive before we begin praying. Rather, prayer in the meetings is spontaneous, and it is prayer in spirit.
Instead of waiting for a saint to propose, inspire, or initiate something in the meetings, we only need to release our spirit and bear the burden together according to the inspiration we receive from the Lord and the vision we have seen. Our service is to pray for the vision of God’s building in the situation of the church and to pray to see the vision in our situations. We have not practiced this enough. The service meeting may be only once a week, but we should bear this burden in our spirit when we come together. If once a week is not enough, we should come together and pray every time there is an opportunity so that our spirits are blended together to bear the Lord’s commission. Otherwise, there is no need to have service meetings. We must drop the rituals and formalities in the meetings and pray as soon as we come to the meetings.
Furthermore, a brother who has seen the vision will be pressed by the vision to pray continually with other serving ones until they have thoroughly prayed concerning the vision. If there are several co-workers serving together, they should spend ten days together in order to pray. Perhaps they should pray with fasting on one of the days in order to be blended in prayer until one matter has been thoroughly prayed over and prayed through. Then those coordinating together will be blended in this matter, and they can go out to do the work of building. We should not think that seeing the blueprint qualifies us to go out and work. Seeing the blueprint without being blended with our co-workers can cause problems. We cannot simply take the blueprint and build. Those who build must first pray thoroughly and be blended with one another.
Even though we have different functions and different services, we must be in one spirit, in one feeling, and in one mind (Phil. 2:2). Prayer is the means to reach this condition. In the past we lacked this kind of necessary and indispensable prayer. We excelled in administration and arrangement but lacked prayer and fellowship. From this day forward every aspect of the work must begin with prayer. If we do not take this way, we have no way to carry out the work. We are not speaking of common prayer, that is, prayer that asks God to do things. Instead, the serving ones need to come together and pray themselves into the Holy Spirit so that God can work. We must believe that God will work. Our need is to pray with an open spirit. The serving ones should join together in spirit and pray for practical building step by step. This must be our practice.
