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We should pray before the Lord for these special fellowship meetings and the work. As we pray, we should pay particular attention to several points. First, we need to pray that the Lord will lead these meetings. For these meetings we should unconditionally submit ourselves to the Lord, open to the Lord, and allow the Lord to freely move and lead us. We should ask the Lord to enable us to correspond with His leading and guidance.
Second, we need to pray for all the brothers and sisters. We should ask the Lord to prepare their hearts and work in their environment so that they can readily receive the Lord’s grace and His speaking and at the same time willingly answer His call and meet His need.
Third, we need to pray before the Lord for our circumstances, our families, and even the weather, asking Him to cause all these things to work together for our good and not become distractions to us in the meetings.
Fourth, we need to earnestly ask the Lord to raise up some saints and gain some who will be for Him. We should ask the Lord to gain some who will have a part in the work; some who will do business and make money for His kingdom; some who can administrate, lead, and shepherd in the church; and some who can truly coordinate and serve in the church. All this needs our prayer. We also need to be led to pray, whether in the meetings or in private, for a certain one or a few individual saints.
Fifth, we hope that in these meetings the Lord will lead us concerning the way to spread His work. If He chooses us and delights in us, we would ask Him to give us the burden and leading concerning the spreading of the work, not only in the Philippines but also throughout Southeast Asia. We are looking to the Lord that He would lead us in this matter; therefore, we should pray specifically for this.
These points are exceedingly important. I hope that we can all prepare and open our spirits to receive the burden of prayer. As we pray together, our words must be clear, and our voices must be loud. Furthermore, we should try to keep our prayers short.
Concerning the Lord’s work, we do not want to initiate any kind of movement or stirring up; that is the world’s way of doing things. We do not wish to follow the way of the worldly people, and even less do we wish to initiate any work by ourselves or stir up any matter. We have received grace before the Lord to serve Him as slaves. He is our Master, and we are the slaves whom He has bought. Hence, we are willing to prostrate ourselves before Him and wait for Him to express His heart’s desire to us. If He would have mercy on us and use us, we must tell Him from deep within, “Lord, here am I; send me.” This is not a movement or a stirring up; much less is it something that we want to initiate. Rather, we are waiting before God because He has an eternal intention. He is Jehovah of hosts (Isa. 6:1-8).
For many years we have had a strong feeling within that in Southeast Asia, including Taiwan, although the Lord’s name has been preached for a hundred years and there are many believers among the Chinese, the Lord’s work in this region has not had a proper beginning, nor have the Lord’s churches been properly established. Concerning the preaching of the gospel, we cannot say that it has been done well. Concerning the service of the church, we cannot say that it is strong. Concerning the overcomers in the church, we cannot say that there are many. All these situations have caused us to deeply feel that in order for the Lord to come back to the earth, this region must have a new beginning.
Perhaps some would ask, are we not the group of people whom the Lord would use? Is this region not the area that the Lord is blessing? Would the Lord give up all the people in this region? Indeed, these questions that we have within us are difficult to answer. Naturally, this causes us to feel that we should pray to the Lord, “Lord, we are here. If You work, we will follow.”
If the Lord is willing to work among us, or perhaps we should say, if we are willing to let Him work among us, there are four matters that we must see and that must have definite results.
First, all of us must be truly touched by the Lord. It is not simply a matter of being revived by the Lord through His grace; even more, it is a matter of truly being subdued from within and broken by the Lord. We must once again answer His call and say before Him, “Lord, we are willing to place our lives and our futures unconditionally in Your hands.” In order for the Lord to have a way to advance among us, we must let Him do a thorough work in this matter. If He cannot work thoroughly in this matter, regardless of how much we pray and hope, He will still have no way to go on among us.
The Bible shows a great principle, that no matter who sees the Lord’s need and the burden of the work and comes to pray before the Lord to ask Him to work, the Lord has only one answer: “You do it.” The Lord wants the praying one to receive the burden himself. After Isaiah saw the Lord, he had a desire before the Lord, and for this he beseeched the Lord to send people out to speak and work for Him. Consequently, the Lord sounded a call for Isaiah to hear. The Lord said, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” At this point Isaiah prostrated himself before the Lord and said, “Here am I; send me” (Isa. 6:8). We should never pray, “Lord, You do the work; You send someone else.” Such prayers can rarely be found in the Bible.
On the contrary, the Bible shows that whoever asks the Lord concerning a need will be sent by the Lord to meet the need. The disciples asked the Lord, “This place is deserted and the hour is already late. Send the crowds away that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” The Lord answered them immediately, saying, “You give them something to eat” (Matt. 14:15-16). Whoever asks of the Lord will be asked by the Lord to bear the responsibility. On the day of Pentecost approximately one hundred and twenty were praying for the Lord’s kingdom and looking to the Lord. The Lord did not choose or call people outside this group, nor did He thrust out or send others to work for Him. After they prayed before the Lord, the Lord’s burden and commission fell upon them, and they picked up this burden without any excuses. In the end these one hundred and twenty rose up collectively and did the work for which they had prayed (Acts 1:15—2:14). This principle can be seen many times in the Bible.
This shows that he who prays for the Lord’s work will be the one who is sent by the Lord. If there are several thousand or even tens of thousands of believers in Southeast Asia today, yet only a hundred or more of us have received the Lord’s mercy to lay everything aside and take the time to sit together before the Lord, opening our hearts, preparing our spirits, looking to Him, and depending on Him to do the work, this will prove and show that we are those whom the Lord desires to use. We cannot expect that the Lord will choose others outside of us; this is not in keeping with the principle in the Bible. The fact that we are here looking to the Lord proves that His desire is to use us. If we want the Lord’s work to have a free way on the earth, we must first let Him have a free way in us. If we would not let the Lord accomplish this matter in us, we do not know how much longer the Lord’s work in all Southeast Asia will be delayed.
Second, we need to ask the Lord, by His grace and mercy, to thoroughly gain the church in Manila. It is not sufficient for Him to gain only us; He must also gain the church in Manila. In terms of the churches in the countries of Southeast Asia today, Manila is the center; it is an important place. For the past few years the saints here have been the greatest in number, and they are the most blessed and have the strongest desire for the Lord. Hence, in order to spread the work in Southeast Asia, we must ask the Lord to gain the church in Manila. If the church in Manila cannot rise up, the Lord will immediately encounter a crisis. If we cannot get through in this matter, the Lord’s work will have no way to be carried out. This is a principle. Only when the Lord had gained Jerusalem could He spread outward. When the spread reached a certain extent, Antioch was gained, and only then could there be a spread to the Gentile places. In the same way, Ephesus had to be gained before there could be a spread outward. When the spread reached a certain extent, Corinth had to be gained in order for the spread to continue. Church history shows that the Lord’s work was able to spread in all directions only after He had completely gained Rome.
Because there has not yet been a central location, a base, in the islands of Southeast Asia that has been completely gained by the Lord, the Lord’s work still does not have a way to spread here. We have clearly seen that this base cannot be anywhere else but in Manila. Therefore, if the church here does not allow the Lord to gain it thoroughly, the Lord’s work will not have the way to spread much. In other words, the extent to which the Lord is able to gain the church in Manila determines the extent to which the Lord’s work can spread in Southeast Asia.
Third, we need to ask the Lord to give us a definite leading concerning the spread of His work in the Philippines, a country of islands. We have worked in this country for more than twenty years, but we can see clearly that our spread has been too slow and its scope has been too narrow. If the Lord has mercy on us, I hope that from today we can spread the work of the Lord’s gospel in this country, on the one hand, to the Chinese, and on the other hand, to the Filipinos. May the Lord grace us so that some among us will rise up, receive this burden, and go to the different parts of the Philippines. Some may go to the Chinese, and others may go to the Filipinos for the preaching of the Lord’s gospel and the producing of the Lord’s churches. At the same time, they should coordinate and serve together with the saints from other places. In this way there will be the service that expresses the Body of Christ in these islands.
Fourth, if the Lord enlarges our capacity, there should be a leading and a burden among us to care for the churches in the various regions of Southeast Asia. West Malaysia, Indonesia, East Malaysia, and Thailand are regions. Ceylon [presently Sri Lanka] also is a small region. There are already meetings in all these places, but they need to be strengthened, and the Lord’s work needs to be formally initiated. Hence, some of us must have this burden and receive this leading.
If the Lord works thoroughly in these four matters, what praise we will have before Him! This is our desire as well as our goal. We do not want to push, stir up, or use a movement to initiate these matters. However, we desire to wait before the Lord and let Him walk among us and work in each one of us until all of us rise up within and are subdued and gained by the Lord. In this way the Lord can raise up churches in all the regions of Southeast Asia. If the Lord’s work can spread in us, the work can spread also in all the regions of Southeast Asia.
Once we see these four matters, we must have much waiting and prayer before the Lord. In our prayers we need not only to pay attention to these four main matters but also to see that within them there are many detailed items.
First, we must pray that the Lord will raise up people to be workers who will consecrate their time to the Lord, lay aside their careers, abandon their future, and give themselves wholly to Christ. After being raised up by the Lord, these people will truly live for Christ and work for Christ, not wanting position, the world, knowledge, or fame. They will care only for the Lord Himself, for His work, for His gospel, for His churches, and for human souls, while setting aside everything else, including their entire future. In order for the Lord’s needs to be met in this large region, there must be a sufficient number of people who are raised up by the Lord to answer His call in this way. We should pray definitely for this.
Second, we should ask the Lord to raise up people who can recognize the needs of the Lord’s work, some who can see that this work requires finances and financial support. May the Lord raise up this kind of people who have lofty ambitions, boldness, and courage to work for the Lord and make money in many ways so that the Lord’s work will not be limited financially.
Today there is a great need for workers, and there is also a great need for money. Everyone knows that in this day and age it is impossible to do anything without workers and without money. Without workers, there is no way to do things; without money, there is no way to move. The need for money cannot be met with only a little offering, nor can it be met by the giving of the brothers and sisters according to inspiration. Rather, it requires a group of brothers and sisters to see the need, receive the burden, and tell the Lord immediately, “Lord, since You have raised up this work and have many brothers and sisters responding by setting aside the world and laying down their future to work solely for You, I must stand up and do business for this need, making money and gaining material possessions to supply the need of Your work.” This must be considered a work, not merely an offering that comes from an inspiration. Rather, it is a responsibility, a job. This way of earning money for the Lord and doing business for the Lord must become a job to some.
People in the world are all earning money for their family, doing business for their children, and making plans for their own future. Everyone in the world is like this. Here among us there should be brothers and sisters rising up to do business, doing it even more successfully and making more money than the people in the world. However, this absolutely must not be for themselves, for their families, for their children, and certainly not for their own future; rather, it must be for the Lord’s work, for men’s souls, for the gospel, for the churches, and for the Lord’s coming kingdom. The Lord must raise up such people. If there is not this kind of cooperation, we can say that the Lord’s work has absolutely no way. Of course, we deeply believe that if the Lord performs a miracle, He can work things out, but the Lord must use man. If the Lord so leads, we must pay more careful attention to this matter in the fellowship from now on.
Third, we should ask the Lord for gifted ones who will administrate the church, shepherd the church, love the brothers and sisters, and love God’s children more than their own families, their own children. If the Lord raises up such people, all the churches also will be raised up. I hope that in every place where the church is, such people will be raised up. These people are what the Bible calls elders. Such elders must be raised up. If there is merely a gospel work but not the administration carried out by the elders, there is no way for a church to become strong. If the elders cannot be raised up, there is no way to push the work forward, for the work is carried out steadily step by step, locality by locality. For example, if the gospel reaches a certain place, some people are saved, and a church is raised up, this church must be handed over to the elders, and the spread will continue. If the elders’ administration is not proper, the work ahead will be easily shaken and dragged down, and there will be problems later on. If the administration in the churches is strong locality by locality, the work ahead will not be dragged down but rather will be strengthened.
For instance, because in the past two or three years the brothers in Taiwan have had sufficient strength, we can go forward and spread the work. We can go forward smoothly because there are not too many problems behind us. If there are problems in Taiwan, we will not be able to go forward; we will only be able to take care of the existing churches. We need the Lord to have mercy on us to help us see that elders must be raised up in the local churches; we need to ask the Lord to truly raise up such people.
In addition, there must also be deacons; there must be many such brothers and sisters raised up by the Lord. This is the fourth kind of people. They love the church, love the brothers and sisters, serve the church, and serve God’s children in the church. This kind of person must be raised up in great quantity — the more the better. According to our observation, there have not been enough of these people in the church in Manila up until now. The more of these people the church has, the better.
Fifth, we should also ask the Lord to raise up young people who have a heart for the Lord. Such young people must be raised up by the Lord as a group willing to be led, trained, and have a part in the coordination of the Lord’s work.
In the development of the Lord’s work every one of these five kinds of people is indispensable. There must be workers raised up for the Lord, moneymakers raised up for the Lord, elders raised up for the Lord, deacons raised up for the Lord, and many young people raised up for the Lord. Such people all have the heart to pursue spiritual things, the burden to consecrate themselves, and the desire to serve the Lord. They are willing to be led and trained so that they may be in the church’s coordination. If these five kinds of people all come forth, it will cause us to give the Lord the full praise. Hence, these four main matters and these five kinds of people are the target of our prayers.
We have heard enough messages. Today I hope we can work out some definite things, which should include the carrying out of these four main matters and the producing of these five kinds of people. May the Lord have mercy on us that in these days we would pray for these nine points, praying and waiting on Him again and again. We need to pray at every time and in every place, unceasingly praying and waiting on Him in this way. The One in whom we believe is the true and living Lord. The Bible says that the day of the Lord’s coming is near. If we believe that this is true and trustworthy, our attitude must change completely. You and I must pay attention to these nine points, allowing the Lord to have a clear way, allowing the Lord’s work to prosper, allowing ourselves to be broken, and allowing Him to gain us fully. This is the desire and attitude each one of us should have.
