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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 5:6-7a; Lev. 2:1-13; Matt. 16:24; Phil. 2:2; Eph. 4:3; Acts 1:14; 4:24; Num. 6:1-4; Rev. 2—3; Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; 1 Thes. 2:7; Eph. 4:12-13; 1 Cor. 14:1-5, 23-26, 31, 39a
There are two crucial matters in the New Testament that we all need to pay attention to: the oneness and the one accord. In the New Testament the first time that the oneness among the believers is mentioned is in John 17. In that chapter oneness is covered by the Lord Jesus in His prayer. The Lord’s prayer in John 17 followed His discourse in John 14—16, in which He released the mystery of the Divine Trinity. In the entire Bible there is no higher and deeper revelation of the Divine Trinity than the revelation released by the Lord Jesus in those three chapters. After the Lord completed His work on the earth in contacting His disciples, He was ready to die on the cross. It was at that juncture that He prayed to the Father. The prayer that He prayed was very particular. No mere human being could pray such a prayer. In His prayer to the Father, He used the word We (or Us), referring to Himself and the Father, with the Spirit also implied (17:11, 21-22). In verses 20 and 21 He said, “I do not ask concerning these only, but concerning those also who believe into Me through their word, that they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” Here the Lord prayed that all His believers would be one “in Us,” that is, in the Divine Trinity. This is the genuine oneness. The genuine oneness is simply the mingling of the Triune God with His believers. This oneness is also the Body of Christ, for the Body of Christ is the mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with His believers.
In Matthew 18:19-20 the Lord said, “Again, truly I say to you that if two of you are in harmony on earth concerning any matter for which they ask, it will be done for them from My Father who is in the heavens. For where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst.” Here the Lord said that if His disciples pray in one accord, their prayer will surely be heard and answered.
Now we need to ask, what is the one accord? One accord appears to be a less significant matter than oneness. Apparently, oneness is a great thing, whereas one accord is a smaller matter. It is easy to define oneness: oneness is the Triune God mingled with all His believers, and this oneness is just the Body of Christ. However, it is difficult to define one accord.
In Matthew 18:19 the Greek word sumphoneo is used for one accord. It means “to be in harmony, or accord” and refers to the harmonious sound of musical instruments or voices. Eventually, the one accord, or the harmony of inward feeling among the believers, becomes like a melody, like music. Every proper melody is harmonious. When we have the one accord, in the eyes of God we become a melody to Him. We become a poem not merely in writing but in sound, in voice, in melody. Our one accord must be like a harmonious melody. Such a one accord is the nucleus of the oneness. In other words, oneness is like a nut, and the one accord is like the kernel of that nut. In Acts 1:14 another Greek word, homothumadon, is used for one accord. This word is from homo, “same,” and thumos, “mind, will, purpose (soul, heart).” The word denotes “a harmony of inward feeling in one’s entire being.”
Today some Christians may claim to have oneness. I have heard some pastors say that since all the denominations have one God, one Savior, Christ, and one Bible, they are one. According to their concept, denominations are not divisions; they are merely means used by Christians to carry out their work. In their view denominations are like the different kinds of bowls and utensils that people use to eat their food. They argue that since different kinds of eating utensils, such as chopsticks and forks and spoons, do not divide people, denominations do not divide Christians. I am afraid that some of the saints in the recovery may not be able to withstand this kind of argument. After listening to such an argument, they may be subdued and agree with the claim that the denominations are not divisive. Those in the denominations may also turn the matter to us and ask, “Are you not a division? Before Watchman Nee and Witness Lee were on the earth, there might have been one thousand one hundred divisions, but now you in the local churches have become another division. Now there are one thousand one hundred and one divisions on the earth.” It seems difficult to know how to respond to such an argument.
My response to them is this: “Yes, you may have the oneness, but do you have the kernel? Do you have the one accord? The families who use forks and chopsticks for eating also use the same utensils to fight with each other. You may have oneness, but where is the one accord?” Some among the denominations may turn the question to us: “Do you have the one accord among you?” If we examine our situation, we will have to admit that even now we are not adequate in the matter of one accord.
If among those in a group there is no one accord, what can the Lord do with them? This is why my burden concerning the vital groups is so heavy. I am very clear that we do not have the full and complete one accord among us. Therefore, in a sense it is hard for the Lord to move freely among us. If we are not in one accord, God has no way to answer our prayer. If God does not have a way to answer our prayer, what can He do with us? Without the one accord, it is difficult to get people saved, converted, and regenerated by the dynamic salvation of God. Thus, our inadequacy in the one accord is a sickness that is more than serious. We have been sick for years, yet we might have been unconscious of our sickness. We may come to the meetings, praise the Lord, and prophesy, but we may do all these things without being conscious of the fact that we do not have the adequate one accord.
Although I have studied the Bible for many years, I did not see until recently that oneness is like the body, and one accord is like the heart within the body. Our sickness is not just like a sickness in the outward, physical body; our sickness is like a sickness in the heart within the body. I am speaking the truth frankly and honestly, according to what the Lord has shown me and according to my pure conscience. We need to know what our sickness is. The sickness among us is that we do not have the one accord adequately. Therefore, we maintain only a oneness with a sick “heart.” In these past four or five years even this unhealthy oneness has been broken by the dissenting ones. They would not even care for the oneness. We are still here for the oneness, yet within us there is an inadequacy in the one accord. Because of this, it is hard for the Lord to answer our prayer, especially in the matter of fruit-bearing for the increase of the Lord’s recovery. For this, surely we need to humble ourselves before Him.
The grouping of the saints together in the vital groups is to recover us, and to recover us means to heal us, to cure us. We have become sick; thus, we need the healing. The healing that we need is to be grouped together in the adequate accord. The way to touch the sickness that is among us is to have the vital groups.
The word fellowship is used in the New Testament first in Acts 2:42: “They continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.” This verse mentions the fellowship of the apostles. Among the apostles there was an intimate fellowship. In the beginning of Acts the apostles were with a group of about one hundred twenty saints (1:15). We may say that that was the apostles’ group. Among them there was an intimate fellowship. The one hundred twenty stayed together for at least ten days. They ate together, prayed together, and did everything together. Surely they had an intimate fellowship. The day of Pentecost was a day produced by ten days of this kind of fellowship. Among us there is a shortage of such an intimate fellowship.
Our fellowship should be not only intimate but also thorough. We may know one another, but we may not know one another thoroughly. If this is the case, we cannot say that we have thorough fellowship with one another. In the vital groups the members first need to know one another intimately and thoroughly.
Fellowship is the flowing, the current, of the oneness. Ten days before Pentecost, on this earth there was a group of people who were in the fellowship; they were in the current, in the flow, of the oneness. According to Acts 1:14, they were also in one accord.
The intimate and thorough fellowship is in Christ. Christ is the element, and Christ is also the sphere, the limit, of that fellowship. That fellowship actually is Christ Himself, because Christ is the element of the fellowship, and He is the sphere of the fellowship.
The way to have an intimate and thorough fellowship is to exercise our spirit. Whenever we speak something in fellowship, we need to exercise our spirit. According to my observation, a number of saints have the teaching concerning exercising the spirit, but in practice they do not have the reality. For the proper fellowship we need to exercise our spirit with much and thorough prayer. In the vital groups we need to fellowship concerning our status, our spiritual condition, and our present situation in and with the Lord.
We need to build up an intimacy with all the members of our group. To do this, one sister may call another during the day for a few minutes of contact and fellowship. If we love one another, we will always feel that we miss one another. If we would contact one another in this way, we will see the difference. We will be enlivened and stirred up to love the Lord. Our hearts will also be softened toward one another, and we will be able to receive something from one another.
The Lord Jesus built up the oneness between Peter, John, James, and all the others who followed Him for three and a half years. They left their families, their nets, their boats, and their jobs just to follow the Lord every day. The outsiders might have thought that to follow Jesus was a waste. In their view, wherever He went, a group of people followed Him doing nothing. It seems that the Lord did nothing, but actually He trained His disciples for three and a half years. Every day when He spoke, He trained them. When He did not speak, He still trained His disciples. His silence was also a kind of training. At the end of the three and a half years the Lord Jesus went up to Jerusalem to die. While they were on the way, James and John and all the rest were quarreling concerning who would sit on the Lord’s right hand and on His left hand in His kingdom (Matt. 20:20-24). It seems that they did not gain anything during those three and a half years, but something was built up within them. After witnessing the Lord’s death, resurrection, and ascension, they became different persons. Among them there was the fellowship, the oneness, and the one accord. At that time they were ready, qualified, prepared, and equipped to receive the outpoured God upon them. The outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4) was the greatest thing that ever took place in the entire universe. Even the creation of the heavens and the earth was not as great. The Triune God poured Himself out upon these people who were in the oneness and in the fellowship and who had the genuine one accord. To build up such a one accord is not an easy thing. My intention is to build up this one accord through the vital groups within the next several months.
In the vital groups we need to be blended by much and thorough prayer, as fine flour of the wheat, with all the members of our group, with the Spirit as the oil, through the death of Christ as the salt, and in the resurrection of Christ as the frankincense, into a dough for the Lord (1 Cor. 5:6-7a; Lev. 2:1-13). To be blended is not merely to be put together as a couple, like a husband and wife. Being “coupled” is not as advanced as being blended. It is possible for a couple to be married for a number of years and yet never be blended. In human society there are often quarrels between husbands and wives, between brothers and sisters, and between children and parents because they have never been blended with one another.
The New Testament tells us, first, that we are grains of wheat. In John 12:24 the Lord Jesus was the unique grain. Through His death and resurrection He released His life into us, making us the many grains. This is very good. However, the New Testament goes on to tell us that as grains, we need to eventually become a lump (1 Cor. 5:6-7a). This means that we need to become dough. The making of dough requires the blending of grains of wheat, but before being blended, the grains need to be ground into fine flour.
The New Testament also tells us that we all eventually become a loaf (10:17). In a sense, the grains, the fine flour, the lump, and the dough are nothing until they become a loaf. After we become a loaf, we mean something and we are something in the hand of the Lord. The loaf is the group. At the Lord’s table we often praise the Lord for the loaf, the bread, yet in actuality we may not be a loaf. A number of saints among us may never have been ground or broken. Although we are grains, it is possible that we have never been broken and ground into fine flour. On the other hand, we may be broken, yet we may never have been blended together. Thus, we are far from being a loaf. The way to become a loaf is to be blended together in the groups. The loaf is the group.
The way to be blended is by much and thorough prayer, as fine flour of the wheat, with all the members of our group, with the Spirit as the oil, through the death of Christ as the salt, and in the resurrection of Christ as the frankincense. We need to pray over all these points with much and thorough prayer. We need to be blended into a dough for the Lord. Our becoming dough implies our being broken, our being ground, and our being blended. According to the type of the meal offering in Leviticus 2:1-13, to be blended requires the adding of oil so that the flour will not be dry. It is impossible to blend fine flour that is dry; oil is needed to make the flour moist. In the same way, we need the Spirit as the oil to “moisten” us so that we can be blended together.
To be blended together, we also need the salt, that is, the death of Christ, to kill all the germs within us. We need to realize that we have many germs in our being. All these germs need to be killed by the death of Christ. Then we also need to be in the resurrection of Christ. In the blending we need to experience the Spirit as the oil, and we also need to pass through the experiences of the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. If by the Lord’s mercy we are able to experience such a blending, we will be absolutely different from what we are today. It is not enough just to put people together and call them a group. That can be done very quickly. The proper grouping with the blending of the members will take time.
In order to be blended together, we need to confess the sin of individualism and individuality. Our individualism is a kind of principle, a kind of policy, with us. Every one of us has his own policy, his own human logic. Our individualism becomes our logic. The educational system in America educates the young people to be individuals. The logic of being an individual, or the logic of individualism, is a sin in the eyes of God. We need to condemn individualism and individuality. In our church life we may be full of individuality. We may not care for others but may care only for ourselves. Even though we may love others, we may not care for others. In loving others we may still care for ourselves. This is individuality. We need to confess this sin. As long as such germs remain within us, we cannot be one and we cannot be blended.
To be blended by the Lord, we also need to confess all our defects, shortcomings, wrongdoings, mistakes, transgressions, trespasses, outward sins, and inward evils. We need not only to confess these things but also to ask for the Lord’s forgiveness. The New Testament is full of the promise of the Lord’s forgiveness (Acts 2:38; 10:43; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; 1 John 1:9). The Lord is willing to forgive and even to forget (Heb. 8:12), but we need to confess. We should make a thorough confession so that we can be forgiven and justified. Then we can be blended.
We also need to confess our sinful nature, its defilements, its attachment to the contamination of the world, and its oldness, and ask for the Lord’s cleansing with His precious blood. Although we have been regenerated, we still have the old sinful nature with its defilements and its attachment to the contamination of the world. Our inward filthy nature is easily attached to the outward world. The reason that we are so easily attracted to the department stores is that within us something corresponds with the department stores. The department store managers have prepared the merchandise in their stores to correspond with our sinful nature. We all need to experience the death and resurrection of Christ to annul our sinful nature with its defilements and its attachment to the contamination of the world.
We also need to confess the oldness of our sinful nature. As long as we are natural, we are old. We need to confess all this and then ask for the Lord’s cleansing with His precious blood. We need the Lord’s forgiveness, and we also need His cleansing. Forgiveness is to justify us, whereas cleansing is to purify us, to make us clean. Then we can be blended.
We also need to confess our dispositional problems and our peculiarity in our character. We have many problems because of our disposition. All these problems prevent us from being blended together. We also have our peculiarity in our character. In general, a rough person does not have many peculiarities; the more fine a person is, the more peculiarities he has. The peculiar traits in our character also prevent us from being blended with others.
We also need to deny our self, our habit, and our old way of doing things (Matt. 16:24). This will afford us the way to be blended together.
After so much confessing, we will have no more confidence in ourselves and no more trust in our natural ability. All these things need to be dealt with; then we can be blended together.
Furthermore, we need to love all the members of our group with an equal love. It is common for us to prefer certain saints over others. This shows that we do not love all the saints with an equal love. Philippians 2:2 says that we should have the same love for all the saints.
To build up the vital groups, we need to keep the oneness of the Spirit, that is, the oneness of the Body, in the one accord according to the Lord’s desire with much and thorough prayer (Eph. 4:3; Acts 1:14; 4:24). Without the one accord we cannot keep the oneness. The one accord is the heart, the kernel, of the oneness.
To keep the oneness of the Spirit, we need to condemn all the self-exalting views and drop all the divisive opinions. We all have some self-exalting views. Some of the saints may feel confident that they are more knowledgeable and can do things better than the elders of the church. This is self-exaltation. Every member of the church, whether old or young, has some self-exalting views. Whoever has a self-exalting view surely has opinions. No one is without opinion. We need to condemn all the self-exalting views and drop all the divisive opinions.
To keep the oneness of the Body in the one accord, we need to forsake all self-preferences and disregard all personal tastes. The sisters are often stronger in the matter of personal tastes than the brothers. Our self-preferences and personal tastes are a great hindrance to the keeping of the oneness of the Body.
Finally, to keep the oneness of the Spirit, we need to follow the Spirit’s direction and respect our fellow members’ feeling. Regardless of our view or opinion, we should always follow the Spirit. We must turn to the spirit to follow the direction of the Holy Spirit within us, and we must respect and take care of others’ feeling.
For the building up of the vital groups, we need to make, with much and thorough prayer, a corporate Nazarite’s consecration for the Lord (Num. 6:1-4). We need to do this until we are blended, until we become dough. All the members of a group should come together to consecrate themselves as one entity, as a group of Nazarites, to give the Lord a corporate consecration. We need to let the Lord gain our whole group as one entity for the carrying out of His New Testament economy. Our corporate consecration should not be to fulfill any kind of formal duty but to serve the Lord according to the organic leading of the Spirit.
For the building up of the vital groups, we need to be overcomers in this age with much and thorough prayer. According to the New Testament principle, all the believers are and should be overcomers (1 John 2:13-14; 4:4; 5:4-5), but the majority have become degraded. Thus, in the seven epistles in Revelation 2 and 3 the Lord called the overcomers.
We need to be overcomers in this age with much and thorough prayer, according to the Lord’s calling in His last words to the saints in the churches. The Lord’s calling of the overcomers in Revelation 2 and 3 was not only to the church nor only to the saints but to the saints in the churches. It is difficult for the entire church to be a corporate overcomer, but individual saints within the churches should be overcomers.
We need to be overcomers in this age to replace the degraded church. Because the church has become degraded, it is not what it should be; hence, there is the need of the overcomers to replace the degraded church.
For the building up of the vital groups, we need to pray much and thoroughly for the four steps of the God-ordained way. When we come together in the groups, we need to forget the old way and the old things in our prayer. We need to learn the new way and the new things, which are the four steps of the God-ordained way. The first step of the God-ordained way is to fulfill the New Testament priesthood of the gospel to seek, visit, and contact sinners for God’s salvation to make the sinners organic members of the Body of Christ and offer them to God as the New Testament sacrifice (Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9). The second step is to nourish and cherish the newborn babes in Christ in home meetings as nursing mothers (1 Thes. 2:7). The third step is to perfect the saints by mutual teaching in group meetings for the work of the ministry to build up the organic Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12-13). Finally, the fourth step of the God-ordained way is the prophesying by all the saints in the church meetings for the direct and organic building up of the Body of Christ as the organism of the processed Triune God (1 Cor. 14:1-5, 23-26, 31, 39a).
Day and night we need to pray for these four things. After several months of preparation we will pay our attention to the carrying out of these four things. Before that time we need much prayer. Therefore, day and night, morning and evening, we should not forget these four items. This is the purpose and the goal of our being grouped together. Our being grouped together is to make us a corporate Nazarite and the overcomers to replace the degraded church to carry out these four things.
If we would practice the blending, we should not forget the matter of fellowship. Fellowship is the basis for blending. Thus, we must practice the fellowship. By so doing we will lay the foundation for the blending. However, instead of practicing the fellowship, we have practiced hypocrisy for years; we have all been hiding ourselves under a mask. Without the foundation of intimate and thorough fellowship, there can be no blending.
We should not be afraid of being known by others. The more we are known in a proper way, the better. This will put down our pride, take away our boasting, annul our superiority complex, and even put aside our inferiority complex. However, most of us are not willing to expose ourselves. Instead, we prefer to cover ourselves by pretending to one another. Because of this, it is difficult for us to have an intimate and thorough fellowship that results in our being blended together.
Without the blending, the Lord has no way to go on with us. Blending is the Body, blending is the oneness, and blending is the one accord — it is all these things. But we prefer to remain untouched and unknown by others. Because we do not like people to know us, we have become very sensitive, and our being sensitive causes us to be very touchy. Such a condition has forced us to be very cautious in our speaking, for fear of offending one another.
Among us there is a great need for a breakthrough to allow the Lord to carry out the grouping. From the very beginning in the four Gospels, when the Lord Jesus sent out His disciples, He did not send them one by one; rather, He always sent them two by two, grouping them together. From the time the recovery came to the United States the Lord has not been able to carry out the grouping among us. A number of saints came into the recovery in a very strong way and remained with us, but at a certain point they left. That indicated that they were not willing to be grouped together in the recovery. We who have remained in the recovery all have the problems of our disposition and character that keep us separate from one another. Although by the Lord’s mercy we are still together, among us there has been very little grouping. Because of this, we do not have the impact. The impact is with the one accord, and the one accord actually is the blending.
If we do not have the one accord, God cannot answer our prayer, because we do not practice the Body. Our not being in one accord means that we do not practice the Body. According to the proper interpretation of the New Testament, the one accord is the one Body. We must practice the principle of the Body; then we will have the one accord. Although we may not fight with one another, we still may not have the one accord. Because we have remained together, we have seen the Lord’s blessing but only in a limited way. Therefore, we need to have the one accord to practice the Body.
It is difficult for us to open ourselves to one another, but it is even more difficult, after listening to one another’s fellowship, to speak something in response in a way that is frank and full of love. After coming together in our groups, we should be free to tell the others concerning our inward situation with the Lord. Likewise, the others should be free to respond. Because we are afraid to expose ourselves and are afraid of offending others, we pretend with one another and are unwilling to let people know our real situation. We need the intimate and thorough fellowship. Of course, we need to be careful concerning what we open to one another in public. In certain cases the public confession of sins has caused serious trouble in the past. I do not mean that we should open ourselves in a careless way. Nevertheless, we need to find a way to be blended. Otherwise, the Lord has no way out of our present situation. We need to be blended until we have an intimate love for the members of our group. If we continue to hide ourselves and keep a distance from one another, we will not have the impact when we go out to visit people. The people whom we visit will sense that we are not one.
Our situation today is very different from that of Peter, James, and John. When they were together following the Lord as His believers, they were genuine, as seen in the fact that they fought with one another. In Matthew 20, while the Lord Jesus was unveiling His death and resurrection to them (vv. 17-19), it seems that they did not hear what He was speaking. After the Lord Jesus finished His speaking, they had a contention among themselves (vv. 20-24). This indicates that they were very genuine.
If we do not practice the points in this chapter, there will be no way for us to be grouped. Grouping is an urgent need among us. We are trying to break through in this vital matter. We all need to pray much concerning the building up of the vital groups.
