Date: April 12, 1948, Monday, 6:30 p.m.Place: Hardoon Road, Shanghai
Brother Chu-en: Will the church in Jerusalem and the church in Antioch become another form of a "central'' church or "head'' church?
Brother Nee: Our work today does not begin from Antioch. Nor does it begin from Jerusalem. Our work today begins from the Holy Spirit. The basic question is the starting point of our work.
We have to realize that the church is a Body. As such, our work cannot be carried out individually; it must be carried out in a corporate way. Neither can we be a Christian individually. Perhaps a person is a well-behaved Christian. However, he must be put together with others before his real condition is made manifest. Only those who know the Body will deal with themselves and coordinate with others. A man may have the greatest achievements and may appear to be very spiritual, but this should not be mistaken as true progress and true spirituality. Only by working with others will we realize whether there is true progress and whether the self is truly dealt with. When the self assumes the throne, it sees no one but itself. But if the self is dealt with, we will see others and will not see ourselves.
We must always bear in mind that our life is a part of the whole. We must live together with the whole. There are severe disciplines in the Body. The way of the Body is the cross. Those who have not seen the cross do not see the Body. When relatives live far away from one another, they maintain good harmony. But when they move close together, they become enemies. When a person lives in a house by himself, there is comfort and bliss. But when two brothers live together, they have to learn to take the cross. The more people live together and the closer they are to one another, the more crosses there are. Sometimes a person is put in a situation where he has crosses all over him. What man considers as spiritual progress does not count unless it can pass the test of the Body. The only thing that will count is that which can pass the test of the Body. No matter how great a person's works are, how many gifts he has, and how much life he possesses, if he is not in the Body, none of these matters count. Only when a person puts himself among the co-workers and the brothers and sisters will he know how much he has been delivered from the self and how much he knows about the cross.
The first thing we have to know is the Body of Christ. Once a person sees the Body of Christ, he will see coordination spontaneously. In the Body the Lord has His assigned authorities. Who is an authority? Whoever has the ministry has the authority. Ministry is authority. We have to accept our own limitations. We must realize that we are only one minister before the Lord and that we have to work together with other ministers before we can meet the need. We should seek coordination. When one member cannot meet the need, he needs the coordination of the other members. Only by coordination can we receive the supply from the Body everywhere we go. A man needs the coordination of the other members. At the same time, he needs to accept the limitations of the Body.
Authority is the deputy of the Head. When the eyes see, it is actually not the eyes that are seeing but the head that sees. When the limbs move, they are not the ones that are moving, but the head that is moving. All the movements of the body are headed up by the head. What is ministry? Ministry is the movement of the Head. Whenever we are at odds with the ministry, we are at odds with the Head. In the Bible the overwhelming majority of authorities are deputy authorities. When we speak about submission to authority, we mean submission to deputy authorities. The real manifestation of authority is the expression of the Head. Submitting to authority is submitting to the Head. For this reason, God's children should learn submission.
Ministry is expressed in two things: gift and authority. The gift is the power of the ministry. It is also the expression of authority. A man cannot accept the gift while rejecting the authority. For example, on the one hand, the eyes have the gift of seeing. On the other hand, they have the authority, and other members have to accept them. If other members do not accept the eyes, they will not receive the supply of their gift. As long as you are a member of the Body, you have to accept the gifts of the other members. There is no need for you to repeat their gifts. Concerning the ministry, there is only the question of accepting; there is no need of repeating. What we have to do today is not a matter of repeating others' ministries, like duplicating with carbon paper. All we have to do is to accept.
We should always remember that we are only a member; we are not the whole Body. No one is all-inclusive. If a person is all-inclusive, he is no longer a member. The parts of a car are only the parts; they are not the whole. The parts cannot equal the whole car.
Although I am only a member, I can share the riches of the Body. Every member in the Body shares the riches of the Body. My fingers never complain that they cannot see. My ears never complain that they cannot walk. They never say, "Why can we not walk like the feet?'' The many gifts in the Body are there to perfect the saints. This is why there is no division in the Body, and there are no conflicting ideologies. Although the position of the hand dictates that it cannot be the speaking member, the hand is satisfied as long as the mouth can speak. The mouth speaking is the same as the hand speaking. The life that we received is a partial life; it is not the whole life. When we experience the riches of the other members in this way, the Body is perfected. Under these circumstances, how can the individual members be poor, and how can they be useless?
Many people think that what they have is theirs, and that what others have is not theirs. However, we have to realize that individualism is the worst thing in the Body. In the Body of Christ individualism must be removed. The greatest test to the self is in the meetings, in the church, and among the brothers and sisters. On the one hand, we have to see that we are members individually. On the other hand, we have to see that we are a Body together with many other members. It is easy to deal with unbelievers. As soon as they walk through the door, they realize that they have the wrong address and have stumbled into the wrong place. But it is not so easy to deal with individualism. Individualism often creeps into the church without one realizing it. It is when a person is being coordinated together that his self is most severely dealt with. The minute a man lives in coordination, his self is dealt with.
We must see the Body life before we can consider the question of the church in Antioch. First, there is the Body life. Then we have the church in Antioch. For this reason we must have some make-up lessons, before we discuss the question of Antioch. If the reality of the Holy Spirit is present in the church, the question of central control no longer exists. However, if there is only approval by vote, planning, and resolutions in our work, instead of the reality of the Holy Spirit, we have nothing more than central organization; it will be Roman Catholicism.
Catholics say that there is only one church, that their priests are the only kind of people who can understand the Bible, and that their church is the only true church. It is true that there is only one church. But the way Roman Catholics interpret this oneness is not the right way. How can something right be wrong in the hands of the Catholics? We have to realize that it is right for the church to be one, but in the Catholic Church, there are human ideas, methods, and organizations. As a result, that which is right becomes wrong. Luther gave us two things: justification by faith and an open Bible. It is true that the Lord's recovery has made it possible for everyone to read the Bible, but this does not mean that everyone is able to interpret the Bible. Some do not have the gift of interpretation, yet they insist on interpreting the Bible. The result is errors. Some think that by putting together a few verses they can come up with a new doctrine. This not only produces wrong teachings; it also takes men out of the sphere of God's grace. Some cannot be subdued even when others point out the error in their teachings; they still insist on speaking. These people can never be taught.
God has set up teachers in the church (1 Cor. 12:28). The teachers interpret the Bible. In the church some have been set up to interpret the Bible. The meeting spoken of in 1 Corinthians 14 has the prophets as its center. Not everyone can interpret the Scriptures. In the meeting, when those who can interpret the Scriptures stand up to speak, the others should discern. However, this does not mean that the interpretation of one or two, or of a few, will ascertain a truth. The speaking is done by one or two, but the others have to discern. Even when the congregation is not able to discern, the words of the prophets must still be judged by the Spirit of the Lord.
Antioch was not a center, because it was not the product of an organization but the product of the Holy Spirit. Once the church is separate from the Holy Spirit and once it has lost its spiritual reality, it becomes the Roman Catholic Church. It is possible for Catholicism to be found among us. The basic question today is not the method of Antioch, but the kind of person we are. Are we a person living in the spiritual reality? This is the basic issue. Whether or not a local church can become a central church depends basically on whether or not that church is spiritual. This is the foremost issue.
Factually speaking, the church in Antioch could not have become a head church either. In fact, Antioch never exercised supervision over other churches. One local church cannot exercise supervision over another church. However, the work has the right to exercise supervision over a local church. The church in Antioch never exercised supervision over another church, but the apostles who went out from Antioch did exercise supervision over other churches. When a problem arises in a local church, the matter has to be brought to the attention of the workers. First Timothy 5:19 indicates that an accusation against an elder must be accompanied by the word of two or three witnesses. An accusation could not be based on rumors or hearsay; there had to be witnesses, and the accusations had to be presented to Timothy. Timothy was a worker. Therefore, he could deal with the problem of the elders in a locality. Antioch was only one local church. Jerusalem was also another local church. As far as being a church is concerned, the question of a head church does not exist. But as far as the work is concerned, it is something different.
The starting point of the work in Antioch was the sending forth of two or three men. However, if workers are sent out by the work, the question of organization may come in. During our gathering this time, brothers from different localities have come on their own accord. Such a kind of gathering is not a product of organization, teachings, or doctrines. It is a product of the Body's need. There is only one Body. What is manifested in all the places is the same life. This life is the reality of the Body. The work is produced out of this reality. This is the Lord's standard. If we compare our work with the Lord's standard, we will see that we have surely come short. The Lord has shown us today that individual works can never come up to the standard of the Body. If we do not see this, insisting instead on our individual works, we will face a stone wall. All works that are not the issue of the Body life will sooner or later hit a stone wall. The Lord will lead us to the point where we have to take the way of the Body. He will lead us to the point where we will not be able to go on or even to live if we do not take the way of the Body. If a man falls into the river, surely he will cry out for help. In the same way, the Lord will force us to cry out for help to be rescued out of our individual works. This is the starting point of the work. The starting point of the work is the oneness of the Body.
The electricity that comes from the power plant is one, yet the places where it shines are many. Although it shines in many places, the electricity in these many places is under the control of the same power plant. Today the works in all the localities should be under the fellowship of the one Body. No place should set up its own bunker or defense line. Today we should express the life of the Body in the different localities. If we make the churches in our localities little kingdoms and territories bounded by their own "turf,'' we are wrong.
In the Bible there are only two groups of workers. Other than these two groups, God did not have His eyes on any other institution of Christian work. These two groups of workers are the group from Jerusalem and the group from Antioch. In addition to these two groups, there were other workers. For example, the book of Philippians mentions some others who preached Christ (1:15-17). Yet the Lord did not pay much attention to these ones; He only paid attention to the workers from Jerusalem and those from Antioch. Since the Bible pays little attention to these other ones, we pay little attention to them also. The Lord emphatically placed two lines in the Bible, composed of two groups of workers, the line of Paul and the line of Peter. For this reason, we have to be clear about these two lines.
The reason there are headquarters is that there is the lack of life. Once life is lacking, organization comes in. In the Body of Christ, organization is the heaviest burden. When a person is healthy, he does not feel the weight of his body. Once a person is ill, he feels the weight of his body. The more a person is ill, the heavier his body is to him. When a person dies, his body becomes the heaviest. It becomes so heavy that he has to be lifted up by others. When there is life, the body is a body. When life is gone, the body becomes a corpse. In the same principle, without life, headquarters appear. Once life is gone, there is the need for an organization to come in to arrange everything. As long as there is life in the Body of Christ, it will not be a problem even if this Body becomes very large. This is like saying that as long as there is life in the human body, a person does not feel the weight of his body no matter how heavy and big it becomes. But as soon as his body becomes a corpse, it becomes very difficult to lift.
Today we cannot make the truth concerning the local churches a method. If we make it a method, it will become very dead indeed. The question is not Catholicism or local churches. The question is whether the church is in doctrine or in life. I fear method as much as I fear Catholicism. The local church cannot become a method. Once it becomes a method, it will become very, very heavy. This is our basic problem today.
We cannot say that the Catholic Church is all wrong. If the Catholic Church would remove her idols, the oneness that she talks about would be right.
I still need to say something concerning the question of "handing over."
The matter of "handing over'' must never become our teaching. It is not a teaching, but a "make-up'' lesson. There is the need for this make-up lesson because the matter was not taken care of properly at the beginning. It is like a man riding on a train: he should first buy the ticket and then board the train. However, some people have boarded the train without paying for the ticket. As a result, there is the need for some kind of make-up measure. Tickets should be bought at the train station. After a man is saved, he should immediately consecrate himself (Rom. 6:6, 12-13), and he should not wait until a later date to make it up. But many Christians have not done this properly, and the church has not properly presented this need from the beginning. We can say that the church has given the believers a "bonus ride''; they boarded the train without paying for the ticket. But sooner or later, they still must pay for the ticket.
For the new ones who have just come in, we do not need to ask them to hand themselves over. What they need is to consecrate themselves. There is a "handing over'' because their consecration was not done properly at the beginning. As a result, there is the need for such a make-up lesson. The standard of salvation is not high enough today, and many of the items a person should have acquired at the time of salvation have been lost. Strictly speaking, when a man is saved, he should be fully consecrated and should fully live for the spread of the gospel. As soon as a person comes in, we should lay the full demand on his shoulder. If we can do this, no one among us will still hold hands with the world after they are saved, nor will they have to come back at a later date to consecrate themselves.
When men thronged to follow the Lord in the Gospels, He presented His requirements to them. He explained that a man must take up his own cross before he can follow Him (Matt. 10:38; 16:24). The Lord never lowers His standard. On the contrary, He lifts the standard high. He says that man should follow Him, and that if a man is to follow Him, he has to do this and that. Let me emphasize that a man cannot go on after he is saved unless he consecrates himself. Unless he takes up his cross, he cannot go on. If we want to come to the Lord, we have to consecrate ourselves, and we have to take up our cross and give up the world and our individualism. All these things must be clearly dealt with when a person is saved.
The matter of "handing oneself over'' is a measure taken because nothing else can be done. It is like a man riding a train without a ticket. Since he cannot get off the train, the only way is for him to buy a ticket then. For now, we have settled for the term "handing over.'' One day, when everyone is consecrated as soon as he is saved, there will be no further need for anyone to "hand themselves over.'' But the things that should have been done on the first day have been lost. Everyone has boarded the train without a ticket; some have climbed into the carriages through the windows, while others have walked in without a ticket. Although they have boarded the train without a ticket, they cannot go on with their free ride indefinitely. Sooner or later, they will have to pay for their ticket. There is a difference between buying a ticket on the train and buying it at the station. Buying a ticket on the train is abnormal, whereas buying it at the station is normal. If everyone bought his ticket on the train, there would be no need for a ticket booth at the station. If everyone buys his ticket on the train, the ticket booth might just as well be moved into the train.
I am afraid that after some time the matter of "handing over'' will become a new terminology among us. It is possible that in the future the matter of "handing over'' will become a peculiar thing among us. If this happens, those teachers who come after us will write and ask us about the scriptural foundation for the practice of "handing oneself over.'' There is no such doctrinal term as "handing over.'' We borrow this term today because men do not have a proper and good beginning. If everyone begins in a proper way, there is no need to bring up this question any longer.
There is a big difference between a proper salvation and an improper salvation. One woman can give birth to a twelve-ounce baby, whereas another can give birth to a twelve-pound baby. The church should bear the responsibility in its ministry to help the new ones have a good beginning. There is a great difference between the way taken by those who have a proper beginning and those who do not. Among those raised up by the Lord throughout the ages, many have not had a good beginning. Once a person has a good beginning, he can go on in a proper way. As long as the beginning is clear-cut, he can go on properly no matter how little he understands and sees at the beginning. There are others who dragged their feet when they first came in. With such, their way cannot be straight. Once a person is saved, he should have a clear-cut separation from sin and the world. The question of money has to be settled. The question of consecration has to be settled, and the question of individualism also has to be settled. What the future holds for a person depends on God. After Paul brought others to salvation, he committed those who were saved to the grace of God (Acts 14:23; 20:32). There is no doubt that a person needs God's grace in the way ahead, but in the initial stage, there must be a clear-cut salvation. If the beginning is not good, the make-up lesson later will not be easy.
Brother Tang: Is it one thing to go to God and another thing to go before man?
Brother Nee: There are six lines to take in preaching the gospel. One can start from love, righteousness, judgment, sin, the world, or vanity. However, no matter which line you take, there is the need of the work of the Holy Spirit. The result of the work of the Holy Spirit is just one thing: to subdue a person. The real gospel is one that subdues and softens a person. All those who think that they are doing God a favor by believing in Him are unqualified ones. Once a person sees the gospel, whether it is through the preaching of love, righteousness, or judgment, he will surely be softened and subdued.
When we preach the gospel, we have to present the proper way to others. The question of the world and our service to the Lord must be dealt with together. We have to see that the center of the gospel is God, not ourselves. It is not that we gain something for ourselves, but that God gains something for Himself. As soon as a person is saved, he has to realize that everything belongs to God. Our occupations are not ours; they are God's. The doctors have to see that their occupation is not to be a doctor, but to serve God. They are only working as a doctor on the side. If a man is not willing to take this way or to accept the Lord and be baptized, we will not force him to do so. But we cannot lower the standard. As soon as a person is saved, we have to tell him that from now on he is no longer an individual person, but a member in the Body. As such, he needs to learn to listen to others and to submit to others.
If the church will not take this way, it will always remain substandard. If Brother Tang drinks cow's milk today, no one will laugh at him. But if he still took his mother's milk, it would be a big joke. Strictly speaking, the church should have learned obedience already. But now it is going back to re-learn this lesson. Therefore, in order to take the straight way today, we have to put everything upon a person the day that he is saved. Those who are saved must begin in a proper way.
We must be a certain kind of person before we can produce that kind of person. The gospel demands not only that we preach it, but that we live it. The gospel not only must be heard, but also must be seen. No preaching can match the act of a martyr. More people are gained through an act of martyrdom than through the work of preaching.
There was a sister who was nineteen or twenty years old. For the Lord's sake, she was banished to Siberia. On her way in the train, she comforted her family and said to them, "Do not cry for me. Cry instead for those who do not have God. What I have far exceeds what they have. I am happy to suffer for the sake of my beloved Lord. The suffering that I endure can never match that of my Lord.'' A young thirteen-year-old boy sitting close by heard this word, and he was greatly moved to believe in the Lord. Later, he became one of the great workers used by the Lord in southern Czarist Russia.
Strictly speaking, we need men of Acts 2 before we can have messages of Acts 2. What we have to do today is not simply preach, but have an impact on others. If we preach the gospel in this way, a fleshly man will not even be able to come into the church, let alone to go on afterwards. If there are such men and there are those who live this kind of life, corporately there will be the impact and the influence, and others will catch on to the warmth and the joy. Life is a matter of consciousness and feeling. With some people, you can only shake their hands; you cannot touch their spirit or their real person. If a person has the things of God, others will only sense the things of God in him. If a person has the life of God, others will sense the life of God in him.
All proper ministers are burdened with a message. If a man has a ministry, he will always be burdened with a few strong words that remain with him. These few words become his burden. Sometimes the burden may appear very small, but the more the person explains it, the more words there will be. It is like woolen yarn; the more you pull it, the more yarn you see. Any ministry that is of any worth is a ministry with a burden. Within the ministry there is a specific burden.
When some people are preaching on the podium, their minds are always spinning. With others, only empty words come out of them. When others listen to their words, they do not receive any Spirit; they only receive sounds. All real ministries have a burden within their words. The ones speaking may come feeling heavy, but they should leave feeling light. When they speak, they speak with a burden from within. If a man does not have a burden, any preaching he conducts with his mind and thoughts will be useless. A ministry must have a ministry's burden. The greatest suffering is for a person to come with something but find no one picking up his words. In the end he carries back the same burden that he brought with him.
The problem of the move of the local churches must be solved in the Body. It is useless to try to solve it separately. The Lord must first have a way among us. Only when He has a way among us will He have a way among the churches. If He does not get through with us, He will not be able to solve the problems separately in the different localities.
I see clearly that with our present condition, we need a second salvation. This is a great matter. The term "handing over'' is only our borrowed term. I do not wish that it be taken by others and used as standard terminology. Originally, man was rebellious, individualistic, and unwilling to hand himself over. Now through the work of the Lord, he is willing to drop everything and hand himself over voluntarily. Today, if a man wants to hand himself over willingly, he has to do it; and if he does not want to hand himself over, he nevertheless has to do it. Some may think that they cannot hand themselves over, but they should go ahead and try. Once a sacrifice is on the altar, the altar will sanctify the sacrifice. This is like some people saying that they cannot believe and that they have too many questions. But once they decide to believe, all their questions are solved. A person can believe even though he has many doubts and questions. As long as a person is willing, God can work on him. If a man thinks that he cannot hand himself over, all he has to do is to place himself in the church. The church will help him become able. If an individual has some problem, he can ask for help from the church; a few others can come along to help him to hand himself over. Today, as long as man makes a little move, God will move along with him. The handing over that we speak of today is not an individual handing over, but a handing over that is done in fellowship. Such handing over is a kind of committing of ourselves. It may seem that a person is only putting himself on the altar on a trial basis, and it may seem that God is only accepting such a one on a trial basis. Actually, whether or not a man considers his move a trial effort, God takes it seriously. He takes those who do it wholeheartedly, and He also takes those who do it halfheartedly. Today, when we hand ourselves over, we are committing ourselves to the Body. The Body is our greatest protection. In the coming days we shall see that those who do not live in the Body will suffer great loss. The supply of the ministry is in the Body. Once we are separated from the Body, we are cut off from the supply of the ministry.
The book of Acts indicates that when Paul was in Athens, he was provoked in his spirit and ill at ease (17:16). Yet when Timothy joined him in Corinth, he immediately received the supply (18:5). This is like a certain brother passing by your locality or a new one joining your meeting. Immediately, you can feel the supply. Sometimes, when a few brothers visit a locality, the supply follows them wherever they go. The brothers may not even need to say anything. All they have to do is to sit there, and the supply is there. A speaker will be able to release his burden as long as there is the proper audience. The thing that causes the most suffering is for a person to come with a burden and to go home with the same burden.
Since we are a Body, we affect one another. However, we are not very clear how we affect one another. Sometimes we feel that our fellowship with the Lord is particularly intimate. At other times we have some inexplicable feelings. The basis for these phenomena is the existence of a supply in the Body. There is a supply in the Body life. This supply is a reality. However, we do not know how this supply affects the members. In the Body we should not be a brother or sister who just consumes others' supply; we should have a clear realization of the Body. All our failures and weaknesses today are due to the fact that we behave as individual Christians. There are some things that we cannot explain very clearly today. In the days ahead perhaps there will be the opportunity for us to speak about them in a clearer and more precise way.
During the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, many Christians were martyred. At the same time many churches around the world had the feeling that something was happening. Many people were depressed in their spirit for many days, and they felt the need for prayer. This feeling was not something that came from physical eyes or ears. It was a feeling of the Body. Who can say that the faithful martyrs were not supplied during those hours by the effect of these prayers? Miss Barber was in England at that time, and she was oppressed in her spirit. She felt the need to pray. She found out what had happened soon after.
Whenever one part of our body becomes sick, the other parts of the body come to the member's aid and try to deal with the sickness. In the same way there is a supply in the Body of Christ. The Body life is not a term, but a reality. Many people think that the church is only a mysterious and abstract Body. They do not realize that this Body is a reality.
First Corinthians 11:29 speaks of discerning "the body.'' The Body denotes two things: the Lord's body and the Body of Christ. Verse 29 speaks of the body without making reference to either the Lord's body or the Body of Christ. Therefore, it refers to the Lord's body on the one hand, and to the Body of Christ on the other hand. Within this Body there are the riches of the Lord, and there are the riches of Christ. Every Christian can receive the benefits of the Holy Spirit and of the Lord's grace in this Body. The greatest lack among Christians today is the lack of the supply of the Body. May the Lord open our eyes to see this Body and to realize the supply in this Body.
Let us also consider the principles of offering.
The Bible speaks about offerings with respect to a few things. The first is material offerings. There is no set principle as to the amount one should offer. Some offer more; others offer less. Some time ago, a few brothers in Ku-Tien sold all their possessions. At that time I temporarily stopped them from doing this. There is no set principle to offering. Some offer everything they have. Christ says that a man must sell everything to follow Him. John the Baptist said that those who have two tunics should give one away (Luke 3:11). The Gospels tell us to care for the poor. In the Epistles we see that the church should care for the widows among us. However, a person must first care for his own household (8, 1 Tim. 5:16). Second Corinthians 8:15 says, "He who gathered much had no excess, and he who gathered little had no lack.''
The problem today is not how much a person should offer, but the fact that money has laid hold of man's heart. In God's work no one can keep his money on the one hand and say that his heart loves the Lord on the other hand. The Bible says that where our treasure is, there our hearts are also (Matt. 6:21). In order for our hearts not to be ensnared by money, we have to let money go. If money goes out of our pocket, the heart goes out with it. If a man loves the Lord, he will be able to choose voluntary poverty. Voluntary poverty is the way for the heart to be released. Sometimes God will ask a person to sell all he has. Sometimes He will only ask a person to give what he has in excess. Whatever it may be, the heart has to be released. In Acts the apostle rebuked Ananias for keeping back what he had in excess (5:3-4). Today we should not have anything in excess. To have anything in excess is a shame in the church. The church should not see any excess. If there is any excess, it should be given away.
Sister Eva said that every time she went to bed, she would always consider how she could save something more from her spending in order that others could receive more. We need to take care of our livelihood, and we need to take care of our family. But that is not the issue today. As long as we set aside a portion from our income and lower our standard of living a little, we will be able to give away our excess.
Today, when we speak of handing ourselves over, we are not talking about what we have to do to take care of our money. Rather, we are saying that a person has to offer himself up for the Lord and for the gospel. Brothers and sisters who are engaged in an occupation, the Lord needs your ministry in your job! These few years we have been short of new co-workers. Formerly, at the peak we had about four hundred co-workers. Today we only have about two hundred; we are about two hundred short. In order to fill up the gap of these two hundred workers, there must be a group of people who would go to make money. Formerly, I dared not say such a word. But today I dare to say such a word. Some should go to make money and offer their money to the Lord's service. They should consecrate themselves to make money for the Lord's service. Perhaps such a one can make a million dollars, taking only what he needs to sustain his livelihood and giving the rest to the church. If you are only a spectator here, nothing will happen to you. But if you want to give yourselves for the co-workers' needs, it demands your life.
Of course, God does not want us to go to extremes. He wants us to be in moderation. First He wants us; then He wants what is ours. We have to come to Him first before we can bring what we have to Him. If we do not come, God will not accept what we have. All the brothers and sisters have to see that everything is for the Lord and that everything has to center around the Lord. We must have the same center. Although some function in their money-making ministry while others function in their ministry of the word, the center for both must be the same.
Other than material offerings, the Bible also speaks of the offering up of our occupations. The Bible shows us that many occupations are not suitable for a Christian to engage in. It is true that we have to make money, but we have to consider how our money is made. Some means of making money are not approved by the Lord. We can only keep the occupations that God approves, and we can never engage in works that God does not approve. Today some leading ones in some localities have wrong concepts about occupations. They bring these wrong concepts to the church. As a result, the church is ill-affected. May the Lord be merciful to us.
The Lord of all our works, we beseech for men on behalf of the church. Today the church is in a state of desolation. There is a lack of men in the church. May You grant us men, and may the church be filled with men. Give many gifts to the church. Be merciful to us so that there will be consecrated ones who will hand themselves over. May we find men who would submit under Your mighty hand so that we can serve You together with all the saints. In this age of desolation, we ask especially that You raise up not just young ones or co-workers, but a church that would uphold Your testimony. May more people put themselves into Your hands so that their jobs, positions, and living can become worthy of the gospel. May there be young ones raised up to work for You, and may all the brothers and sisters rise up to match the move of the gospel. We believe that You can fulfill the work of Your recovery. May You do a greater work, and may You raise up more men to give all their time to serve You and to go out with the gospel. We ask that You raise up a great multitude of men. We are not asking first for their money or their time. We are asking for their whole person. May there be some who would offer themselves to You in a thorough way, and may they do it right now. We pray that You would remove the desolation from us and give us men. Lord, be gracious to us; we are inquiring of You for men. Only You are worthy to gain us. Only You can cause us to serve You unreservedly and singleheartedly. We would pour out the water of the well of Bethlehem here on the ground. May none among us be a withdrawing one, a hiding one, or a spectator. May You be merciful to us. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
