Search
In this chapter we will continue to consider the matter of mutual teaching in the vital groups. To speak in a natural way, to gossip, to murmur, and to complain are all quite easy, but to teach the divine truths is not easy. In the vital groups we need to reach the goal of carrying out the mutual teaching through mutual asking and mutual answering. The vital groups must be the teaching organ in the church life. We all need to be willing to pay the price to reach this goal.
The vital groups can be eighty percent of the church life mainly due to the mutual teaching. Of the eighty percent, sixty percent depends on the mutual perfecting by the mutual teaching. Thus far, we are still in the initial stage.
More than fifty years ago Brother Nee saw the light in 1 Corinthians 14 concerning all the believers prophesying in the church meetings (vv. 24, 31). Brother Nee published two books — The Normal Christian Church Life (first published in Chinese in 1939 under the title Concerning Our Missions) and Church Affairs (messages given by Brother Nee in 1948) — in which he spoke of this matter. In both books he stresses that the practice of one man speaking in the church meetings must be put down. In Church Affairs (ch. 4) Brother Nee says that all the saints need to continually “push against” the tradition of having a Lord’s Day morning message meeting in which one man speaks and all the rest listen. Eventually, he said, that tradition would be overthrown. Today, forty-four years later, we have still not fully eliminated that practice. Today as we are practicing the prophesying according to 1 Corinthians 14, the temptation may still rise up within us to return to the practice of one man speaking.
Since the end of the Second World War in 1945, very few renowned speakers have been raised up in Christianity, especially in the United States. Over this period of time the attempts of a few spiritual men to bring in a spiritual revival in America have not been successful. Even though I am very much for the increase in the churches, I would not place much confidence in well-known speakers and big works. In a certain sense, whether the number of saints in the churches of the Lord’s recovery is large or small is not very significant. What matters today is that all the saints need to get into the truths of the Bible. This is very difficult; it is not an easy way. In Matthew 7:14 the Lord Jesus told us that the way that leads to life is a constricted way and that few would find this way and walk in this way. This being the case, we may all be tempted to give up. We may give up, but Someone within us would not give up. The fact that few will enter through the narrow gate and walk the constricted way does not mean that the Lord Jesus will suffer a defeat. On the contrary, He will still succeed. The Lord expects to have a bride, and He will have His bride. Revelation 19:7 says that the day will come when the bride will be ready. Will we be included? To this question we should respond, “I will.” To say “I will” means that we are still endeavoring. We have not yet arrived, but we are still endeavoring to arrive.
If we mean business with the Lord to participate in the vital groups, from this point forward we must make up our mind with a definite determination that we will endeavor to get into the biblical truths. How we need to thank the Lord that today we have a Bible that has been not only translated but also interpreted. What we have is not perfect, complete, or fully consummated; nevertheless, what we have in the recovery today is vastly different from what I had as a young man. In my youth I tried my best to collect books that would help me to know Genesis, but I was not able to find many helpful books. However, today if you desire to know Genesis, there is a book called Life-study of Genesis that contains one hundred twenty messages on Genesis. If you read several messages a day in a quick way, without musing on what you read, you should be able to finish this book in approximately one month. I believe that it is possible for nearly all the saints, young and old, to do this. After you read Life-study of Genesis once, your understanding will be different. Reading the one hundred twenty messages on Genesis will make you different.
When you decide to do this kind of reading, you must also decide to cease all your unnecessary talk, your murmuring, your complaining, and your gossiping (Matt. 12:36; Eph. 4:29). When you answer the telephone, you should learn to keep your conversations to as few sentences as possible. In Jeremiah 15:19 Jehovah told Jeremiah, “If you bring out the precious from the worthless, / You will be as My mouth.” At that time Jeremiah was disappointed, and he complained to his mother and then to Jehovah (vv. 10, 18). It was then that Jehovah told Jeremiah, in reference to his speaking, to bring out the precious from the worthless. In Zephaniah 3:9 in His salvation to the Gentiles, Jehovah promised to “change the language of the peoples / Into a pure language.” This indicates that all God’s people need to have their language changed into a pure language. According to my experience, if we talk too much, our talk will annul our capacity to teach. If we will reduce our talk, our capacity to teach will be increased. If we would carry out the mutual teaching in the vital groups, we must terminate our idle talk and concentrate our entire being on one thing: learning the truth so that we will be furnished, equipped, and completed to have the capacity and also the capability to teach.
It is true that capacity comes by birth, but we all need to realize that we have had a second birth, and our second birth is still in the process of the delivery. Although you might have been regenerated many years ago, you need to realize that you have not come out of the womb yet; you are still in the “womb” of the Holy Spirit. This is why we need to be renewed (Eph. 4:23; Titus 3:5). Renewing is the continuation of our second birth. The result of being renewed is transformation (Rom 12:2). Transformation is the continuation of regeneration. We need to be transformed because we were not thoroughly and completely regenerated. Our regeneration is not entirely thorough. If our regeneration had been thorough, we would not need transformation. Transformation is the continuation of our incomplete regeneration. The more we terminate our unnecessary talking, the more we are reborn, and the more capacity we will have for the learning and teaching of the truths of the Bible.
We must also learn not to speak any sentence that is not worthwhile. We need to restrict our speaking, especially toward our children and our spouse. Then we will realize that every day the Lord is building us up in one thing, that is, to speak for Him. If you will practice my fellowship for six months, your capacity to prophesy, to speak for the Lord, will be increased.
We also need to learn to speak in the “official” way. We need to learn to speak loudly, slowly, clearly, and “officially,” in a weighty way that imparts some definite points of the truth to others. Otherwise, our speaking will not convey anything definite to the hearers.
Whether we are old or young, we should not consider the meetings as a small thing. The meetings are not a small thing. They are gatherings in the Lord, with the Lord, and before the Lord. Hence, whatever we do, we must do it full of reverence, with a holy fear. In the meetings whatever we speak, whether in prayer, in calling a hymn, in offering praise, or in prophesying, we must do it “officially”; that is, we must speak loudly, properly, and slowly so that everyone can hear and everyone will listen and receive something. Otherwise, we will become a burden and a deadening factor to the meetings. To speak something in the meetings is absolutely different from speaking in any other kind of environment or circumstance. In the meetings our speaking is before God; thus, it is holy.
Too often our speaking is full of wasted words. In contrast, the speaking of the Lord Jesus in the four Gospels was brief, fitting, purified, clean, and without wasted words. When we stand up in the meetings to speak for the Lord, we must have the assurance that what we are going to speak is something with weight, with light, and with the life supply. Furthermore, we must learn to speak in an “official” way.
First, you need to make a decision to read the Life-study messages in order to learn the truth. I strongly recommend that all the saints read quickly through the Life-studies on Genesis and the fourteen Epistles of Paul. After reading those messages, you will be different. Second, you need to stop all your unnecessary talk. Under the Lord’s inner restricting, you should learn not to speak unnecessarily to anyone, but just to talk to the Lord. Often I have the desire to speak to my wife concerning a certain matter. However, many times the inward prohibition is there, telling me that I do not need to speak to my wife concerning that matter. Sometimes I disregard that prohibition, and afterward I regret and confess to the Lord, asking Him to forgive me for speaking something that is unnecessary. We may not say anything sinful, and we may not criticize anyone; we may want only to relate some information to people. However, often the Lord will inwardly prohibit us from doing this. If we will go along with the Lord and cut off our unnecessary talk, the Lord will use our mouth to speak His word. Our mouth will be sanctified for the speaking of the word of the Lord.
Third, whether we speak to our spouse, to our children, or to the brothers, we need to learn to speak only what is worthwhile. Fourth, we need to learn to be “official”; that is, we should learn not to speak lightly, but carefully, speaking every word in an “official” way.
In the near future we will train the vital group members to go out to contact people with the gospel. I do believe that we will gain some people. So immediately we will all need to know how to nourish the newborn spiritual babes that they may be kept and preserved. After a short time we will all need to bring these babes into our vital groups to perfect them through mutual teaching.
Although in the past we have baptized many people, our rate of increase has been very low. In the past eighteen years, since 1974, the number of local churches has increased substantially. At the present time there may be more than twelve hundred local churches on the earth outside of mainland China. However, the number of members in many of the churches is quite small. In Southern California there are now forty-nine churches, and the total number of saints is approximately three thousand. This means that on the average, each church has only sixty members. In spite of the increase in the number of churches, our rate of increase still has not been satisfactory. Therefore, we must find a way to change our present situation.
Today in the Lord’s recovery the greatest need, the primary need, is to gain the increase. A house cannot be built without materials. We need to save sinners through the preaching of the gospel that they may become material for the building up of the church as the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15). In general, the rate of increase depends on the way we labor in the gospel and also on the environment and the people. In Russia, in a short time of approximately one year, two large churches have been raised up, one in Moscow and another in Saint Petersburg. There the rate of increase has been very high because the way has been somewhat right, the environment is very favorable, and the people are very suitable. For a number of reasons the rate of increase in the United States has been much lower. The rate of increase among the churches in Taiwan has been similar to that in the United States. The churches in Taiwan have been in existence for more than forty years, yet the number of saints in the churches today indicates that the rate of increase has been lower than ten percent per year.
If we mean business with the Lord for His recovery, we need to consider our present situation seriously. We should not be comfortable concerning the present situation of the Lord’s recovery, especially regarding the matter of increase. With the exception of Russia, the situation everywhere — in America, in Europe, and in the Far East — is about the same with regard to the increase. We need to be aware of the present situation. We should not allow ourselves to be drugged, thinking that the situation among us is so wonderful. No doubt the recovery is wonderful, but some aspects of the recovery are not encouraging, especially the matter of increase. This is why in 1984 I went to Taiwan purposely to study this matter.
I feel that in order for us to be rescued from our present situation, we definitely need the vital groups. The vital groups are a matter of life or death. From now on, none of us should act, move, or do anything in the meetings lightly. When we speak, we must say something that is worthwhile, and we should say it “officially.” Otherwise, we should remain silent. Even when we are sitting still and are silent, we should do so in a stately manner, not in a light way. If we do things lightly, how could we have the Lord’s blessing? We need to bring this matter to the Lord and pray. The recovery is not only yours or mine; it is ours. Therefore, we all should consider it seriously as a matter of life or death.
