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While resting these few days, I have felt that we have neglected the spiritual warfare, caring only for the work, because we have been busy with our work and busy following the new move under the Lord’s leading. In particular, we have been negligent in prayer. Hence, I sense the attack of the enemy. He has even stirred up some who oppose the new way to pray against this way. For this reason I feel in my spirit that we should all be watchful. When we are busy with the Lord’s work, we must realize that we are engaged in a spiritual warfare.
The foremost need on the battlefield is to be watchful and alert in order to know what the enemy is doing and what he intends to do. The enemy always does things in a subtle and hidden way. I do not have anything particular to fellowship at this point, but I do want to unload a heavy burden. I hope the co-workers, elders, and full-timers will receive a burden from the Lord to spend much time before Him to pray corporately. Perhaps we need to devote this whole meeting to prayer. We will see how the Lord leads us.
Over the past two months I have been leading the meetings for the co-workers and elders. Every time we met, we were short of prayer. We had neither the spirit of prayer nor the adequate amount of prayer. Therefore, I am concerned that when the co-workers and elders meet together, there is a lack of prayers and, even more, a lack of weighty prayers. For this reason, recently when I was resting, I often felt a heavy weight on my heart. Deep within my spirit I sensed that this was an attack of the authority of darkness from behind. We have neglected this matter. I believe there may be some who are praying counter-prayers. Hence, we must ask the Lord to resist prayers that are directed particularly against the work we are carrying out, against the church, and against my leading. The prayers we utter before the Lord must stand against these counter-prayers. May the Lord cover us and not allow the enemy to have any ground to do damage.
We need prayers to fight the spiritual warfare. But we also need to pray for the various aspects of the work and the different needs in the Lord’s new move in this new age that have arisen because of our change in the system. First, we must pray for the approval of the construction of the meeting hall in Linkou. We have submitted the application, and it was received. Now is the time for the brothers and sisters to receive a burden to pray for this matter. This is a crucial juncture that determines whether we will succeed. If our application is not approved, we cannot build the meeting hall, and this will delay the Lord’s timing. I hope that all the churches, not simply the church in Taipei, will receive the burden to pray in one accord for this matter.
Second, we need to pray for the different kinds of meetings in our practice, such as the home meeting, the small group meeting, and the meeting for teaching Truth Lessons. We also need to pray for our general meetings, such as the big Lord’s Day morning meeting, the Lord’s table meeting, and the prayer meeting. I hope that the elders will bear this burden and press toward the goal of the new way together with the co-workers and full-timers. I hope that the Lord will establish all the meetings in a strong way through us and through His grace so that He may gain what He is after.
Third, this term of the full-time training will end on June 20, and the next term will begin in August. In these days we must pray for the number of the full-time trainees. I hope that by the beginning of 1988 we will have at least one thousand full-timers who have passed through the training and are ready to be sent to different towns for the propagation. Moreover, in this coming term of the training we will teach different languages, including Greek, English, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese. All these items require much prayer.
We need to remember that in God’s work, there is no such thing as sheer luck, no such thing as gaining without effort. Moreover, there is no guarantee that if we labor and endeavor, we will succeed. We must realize that we are engaged in spiritual warfare. We must fight and be watchful in everything we do and in every step we take. I hope that we would take this word. We have been called by the Lord in His grace to gather here and receive a burden. We must know that we need to struggle, fight, and take possession of every inch through prayer. The last two lines of Hymns, #892 says, “We should, we must, we can, we will, / Fulfill God’s purpose faithfully.” This should be our attitude. We should not listen to the lies from the authorities of darkness; instead, we should offer prayers to God in steadfast faith.
Whenever we pray together, I hope that everyone will pray, not praying simultaneously but one after another. Our prayers should not be too loud or lengthy. They should be short and living, adding to the one before, so that all the prayers can be joined together as one strong, powerful prayer. We should pray as if we are playing basketball, knowing how to pass and how to catch the ball. I hope that our prayers will meet God’s standard and requirement and be according to His desire.
I also beseech that we pray for the publication of our books. The compiling of the recent messages, especially Truth Lessons, is a very heavy burden. After finishing the Gospel of Mark, I resumed the compiling of Truth Lessons. I was exhausted. Last Wednesday afternoon while I was working on Truth Lessons, I suddenly felt very tired and had to stop before completing a lesson. I had used up all my energy and could not go on any longer. I had to stop to rest. This is because even though I know my own physical condition, I also realized that it was more than merely a condition in the natural realm. A spiritual battle was also being waged. The enemy was attacking and disturbing. On the one hand, in the natural realm, our strength and energy are limited, and we should not overuse our body. This is a fact. But on the other hand, in the spiritual realm, when this kind of thing happens, we should not rule out the attack of the enemy. Therefore, I hope that we will receive a burden to pray for this matter. May the Lord bless the books we put out so that they can be effective and greatly used by the Lord to reach His goal.
I repeat, regardless of the time and place, we must be led by the Lord to cry out to Him and to call on Him to touch His throne — not merely the throne of grace but the throne of authority. I hope that each of us would pray from our spirit, and no one would be silent and not receive this burden.
Lord, release our spirit, give us the burden, and enable us to receive the burden and to stretch out our hands in faith to touch Your throne of authority. Lord, we believe that Your church needs the land in Linkou. We thank You for blessing Taiwan because of Your recovery. We still ask You to pour out Your blessing in so many ways. Bless this country, bless the government, and bless the officials. Give them the wisdom to make the right decisions. Cause them to have a deep realization that this decision is a blessed decision. Lord, we are not asking this for ourselves or merely for the church; we are asking this for You and Your interest. We are here to command You to fulfill this matter.
Lord, we also receive the burden to pray for the different church meetings. Since You are the One gathering us together, cause us to sense Your presence in all our gatherings. Now we petition You in one accord and touch Your throne of holiness. We ask You to hear our prayers. Pour out Your grace and blessing in every meeting.
Lord, we hide ourselves, Your work, Your recovery, Your church, and all the steps of the practice of Your new way in You and under the covering of Your precious blood. We ask You to draw the boundary around us with Your precious blood and not allow the authorities of darkness to overstep. Lord, cover us in many ways. We are touching Your throne of authority and opposing all counter-prayers. If there are some who oppose us before You, they are not opposing us; they are opposing Your new way and Your work. Lord, we ask You to act against all counter-prayers, resisting the enemy and fighting for us. Since we are here fighting the battle, we ask You to grant us the inner peace so that we may enjoy Your fighting and rest in Your fighting. May Your testimony, the testimony You have shown us, the testimony of the end time, be a living testimony, an anti-testimony, a testimony against Christianity, against its poison, against its traditions, against its oldness, and against its old ways. May Your testimony be a genuine living testimony.
Lord, we also ask You to enable all the co-workers, elders, and full-timers to receive the burden to pray unceasingly and labor faithfully before You. Lord, we will never enjoy rest before You have obtained Your rest. We want to see You resting in all the saints’ homes. We want to establish all the saints’ homes and make them Your resting place. Lord, perfect thousands of homes to be Your living testimony for the release and shining forth of Your truth. Build us up and equip us with the truth. Make us good soldiers to spread the gospel, the truth, and even the churches all over Taiwan. Lord, hear our prayer.
Lord, remember that we belong to You and have been set apart for You. Remember that we are here in Your name. Our prayers are also in Your name. Lord, we believe that for Your sake and for the sake of Your interest on the earth, You will answer our prayers. Amen.
We thank the Lord for giving us the time and the utterance to pray. We must believe that He has heard our prayers in His name. We need to continue to pray that the Lord will execute what He has heard and fulfill our desires before Him.
Regarding the teaching of Truth Lessons, I hope all the elders will carry this out in a serious way. We should try our best to put into practice every point we have fellowshipped in the previous two chapters regarding the teaching of Truth Lessons. I would emphasize again that every elder should take the lead to teach the truth by teaching a truth class in the meeting hall where he meets. If we know how to teach, we surely should teach, but even if we do not know how to teach, we still must teach, because elders should be apt to teach (1 Tim. 3:2). Some of us may not know how to teach at the present time, but as long as there is the heart to learn, eventually we will be able to teach. If we teach according to what I spoke in the previous chapters, we will see the result.
There will be forty days from the end of this term of the full-time training until the beginning of the next term. This time is also the summer vacation. There will be many activities for college students. I hope that we could have a definite plan and arrangement for the gospel work on the campuses. If possible, we should arrange for some of them to attend the summer training on The Conclusion of the New Testament. This period of time can serve as a bridge to the full-time training to increase the number of those who have the heart to go. I hope that we will pray for this matter and for the full-time training and its leading. These are crucial matters.
Another matter we need to pray for is the move of propagation in the communities. Before we begin the propagation in the towns and villages in 1988, we will focus on laying a good foundation in the communities of the big cities. This is a great matter. We all need to receive the burden to pray for the propagation.
