Search
Prayer: Lord, thank You that You are the source, and You are our Master. We can come to You at any time to seek Your supply. We do need Your supply. Up to the present moment, we need Your supply so that we may know how to form the groups step by step and how to build them up, how to have everything increasing to be eighty percent of the church life. Lord, teach us and guide us, even in our fellowship with one another. Show us the way. This morning we trust in You for this matter. We still need more leading, more guidance. We need Your light, and we need Your revelation. We do not like to do anything that is seemingly right yet still so natural, out of our self-concept. Lord, deliver us from all these things. We desire to follow You to perform the Father’s plan, God’s economy, and to take care of the growth in life, to have the real spirituality. Lord, we do not like to be an unturned cake, but we do not know how to turn to the other side. Lord, help us. We need You in every detail. We need You to deliver us from trusting in ourselves. We do not like to have any trust in ourselves. We are fearful of this. Lord, we tremble before You that we might do something seemingly new yet altogether against You. Lord, defeat the enemy; he is busy. Whenever You do something, he is busy. We need Your wisdom to be aware of all his doings. Lord, destroy the enemy’s work, the work of darkness, the work of the spiritual forces in the air. Rebuke Your enemy and shame him, and bind all the evil spirits. Amen.
We may think that it is easy for us to form the groups, but actually it is not easy. This is the reason that we have hardly begun to practice the group meetings, although we have been speaking concerning the groups for a considerable time. It may be easy to contact some other saints and to get some companions, but it is not easy to form a group and to make it effective so that it can carry out the functions of producing, nourishing, and perfecting.
In addition to this, we have a very particular background. The recovery has been with us for more than seventy years. The Lord has shown us many things, and He has brought us into many situations and through many different kinds of experiences. We not only have such a background, but now in the recovery there are more than twelve hundred churches around the globe. We cannot go on to take the new way as we have seen it and yet forget our background and our present situation. On the one hand, we must find a way to take care positively of the formation of the groups, and on the other hand, we must find a way to care for the background and the present situation.
In Anaheim there is a church with approximately three hundred active members, including those in the English-speaking, Chinese-speaking, and Spanish-speaking meetings. If we are absolute and desperate to consecrate ourselves to the Lord for the new way and especially for the present step of forming the groups, yet we forget about the present situation, that is wrong. We cannot simply set aside the present situation and do something separate.
Our background is not a light or superficial background, because for many years we have paid attention to seeking the Lord, knowing Him, experiencing Him, living Him, growing in Him, and having Him increased and magnified in us. From the very beginning we were led by the Lord in this way, and we have never deviated from this kind of seeking. This is our background of spirituality. In addition, we have a further, deeper background; that is, we take care of God’s economy to have everything for the building up of His organism, the church. God desires to have the church, and we are endeavoring to reach His goal. Very few Christians take care of the church. Most Christians take care of only their work. Many Christians use worldly methods to promote and carry out their work. However, it is impossible to walk in the spirit and still be involved with worldly things. In Romans 8:4 Paul says that we must do everything according to our spirit. It is impossible to engage in worldly practices and still be according to our spirit. Other Christian groups may have large gatherings in which they use worldly attractions to please people. That is an action that does not take care of spirituality. We cannot do that. We do desire to gain the increase, but we do not want to bring forth children by incest. We do not want to produce Ammonites and Moabites (Gen. 19:30-38). We may get people saved by employing worldly means, but these saved ones may be Ammonites or Moabites. The Ammonites and Moabites were not allowed to enter into the holy congregation for ten generations (Deut. 23:3).
We need to learn the lesson. For more than seventy years the Lord has been keeping us from all kinds of pollution and defilement. We cannot go on quickly or easily, because we must take care of spirituality, the church life, the church ground, the oneness of the Body, and many other things. Therefore, on the one hand, we must take the new way, the God-ordained way, as the Lord has revealed it to us; and on the other hand, while we are going forward, we must take care of our background, our present situation, and the many churches around the globe.
After much consideration before the Lord, I feel led by the Lord to the conclusion that while we are endeavoring to take the new way, we should not change anything of the present situation. We should not change our present way of conducting the children’s meeting, the young people’s work, the prayer meeting, and the existing group meetings. However, besides caring for all the things of the existing local churches, the full-time elders and co-workers can devote more of their time to helping the saints take the new way. While they endeavor to practice the God-ordained way, they should still participate in all the different aspects of the work, including even the existing group meetings.
The formation of the new groups will require a great deal of prayer, and it will also require much laboring. The denominations depend on their activities, and the Pentecostals depend on their superstitious trust in the Holy Spirit. Both are wrong. The apostle Paul saw the Lord Himself (1 Cor. 2:9; 15:8), and he also received the Spirit (Acts 9:17). He received more divine revelations than all the other apostles. For this reason the Lord gave him a thorn to cause him not to be proud (2 Cor. 12:7). Nevertheless, in 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul tells us that he labored more abundantly than all the other apostles, and in Colossians 1:28-29 he says that he labored, struggling according to God’s operation which operated within him in power. The Greek words for labor and struggle were used in reference to athletes who contended in the Olympic games. All the athletes who contend in the games must labor and struggle. Paul was one who labored, struggled, and contended in carrying out his ministry. Therefore, we should not think that it is easy to form a group meeting. In fact, it is not easy. The result of our work depends on how much we labor. If we do not labor, nothing will be produced.
In seeking a partner to form a group, you should not select someone according to your natural preference. Instead, you should pray and wait. You need to pray for a few days, perhaps even for one or two weeks, waiting on the Lord to give you a proper partner. After you get one, the two of you need to pray yourselves into the oneness. You need to pray yourselves into the proper, spiritual, heavenly intimacy. Then, in order to carry out the group meetings, you need another four or five group members. To select these additional members also requires much prayer and labor.
After the formation of the group is completed, the members should not go out immediately to knock on doors. This was our practice in the past, but it did not work out well. All the members of the group need to work together as one person. For this they need to come together to pray: “Lord, You lead us. You show us to whom we should go to knock on their doors.” If you will pray, the Lord will lead you first to study all the acquaintances of each group member, including their relatives, neighbors, friends, classmates, and colleagues. Make a list of them and study things such as their temperament, their character, and their family situation. By doing this, you will surely gain a clear view of those to whom you should go. Then you can contact them. Since they are your acquaintances, it may seem that it is easy to contact them. However, you need to find a way to contact them properly. Before you go to visit the first acquaintance, you may need to study his situation for a considerable length of time.
In the entire world, especially in the United States, all the merchants must compete in order to make money. They study others’ markets, prices, and merchandise so that they can find a way to attract buyers and make a profit. In Luke 19 the Lord likened our work to doing business. In verse 13 He said, “Do business until I come.” According to the parable given there by the Lord (vv. 12-27), we need to use the “capital” that He has given us to gain a profit for Him. However, in relation to the Lord’s work, many believers are lazy. They do not labor, yet they still expect to make a profit. In the Lord’s work we take things too easily. However, no worthwhile endeavor is easy. Even to make a decision concerning whom to visit for the gospel requires a number of days’ study.
In the past I said that one-third of the saints in a local church should go out regularly to contact people for the gospel and that, by doing this consistently, they could expect to each bear three remaining fruits yearly. If this could be realized, the churches would double each year. If we labor in this way fifty-two weeks a year, we should easily gain three remaining ones for the Lord in a year. However, if we take it easy and do not labor, we may not gain one remaining fruit in ten years. If we labor a little but labor wrongly, we still will not bear remaining fruit.
Some of the saints may take my word concerning the groups and attempt to practice it, but after a short time their practice may not have a positive result, and they may become disappointed. The probable reason for their failure is that they did not labor. Some businessmen are able to make money, but others are not. Many businessmen invest a great deal of time and money to improve their business. In order to do business internationally, many businessmen, especially those from the Far East, expend considerable effort to learn other languages so that they can communicate with those in other nations and export their goods abroad. Because of their labor, they have become very successful. However, when we come to the Lord’s work, we may take it easy. When we do not labor, we will not see a proper result. Merchants labor because they are desperate; that is their livelihood. However, we are not desperate. Whether we gain one this year or do not gain one, we can still live; we can still come to the Lord’s table to enjoy the Lord. If we do not bear one remaining fruit in five years, that does not seem to concern us, but if a businessman does poorly even for half a year, he may have to close his doors. I would like to impress you with the fact that the people of the world are busy, but in relation to the Lord’s work many of the saints are not busy. The worldly people are industrious, but many of us are not.
If you would labor according to my word, you will see the result. When you go out to knock on doors, a good number of doors will be open to you. You will not go to the doors in vain. Before going you must study the situation very much. You need to consider what to say the first time you contact someone and what to speak the second time. It is not adequate to merely take with you a copy of The Mystery of Human Life and speak the same thing to everyone whom you contact. You should not pray and study by yourself but should study with your group as a unit. After studying together, you should go to contact people. If you take this way, it will be easy to gain the increase; the increase is assured.
Once we gain some new ones, we need to study to find the way to take care of them. I have been considering what materials would be the best to use in the group meetings to teach people. We have both Life Lessons and Truth Lessons. Although these lessons are very well written, I feel that they are not so suitable, because they may be too much for the new ones to digest. Even The Holy Word for Morning Revival may not be suitable for the new ones in the group meetings. It is not good to feed people too much food; we need to give them the proper portions. In Hebrews 5:12-14 Paul mentions two kinds of food: milk and solid food. We should not attempt to nourish a child with solid food. Hence, we need someone to labor in order to write some suitable materials for the group meetings that will nourish the new ones with milk. In order to have the profitable teaching and fellowship in the group meetings, some materials that can serve as a guideline are needed. I hope that some of the brothers will be raised up by the Lord to compose some proper writings for the group meetings.
According to our present situation, we need to consider what would be the best time for us to bring the new ones to the church meetings. We all need to study to find out when the new ones should be brought to the church meetings. Because we have our present situation and our particular background, for the new ones’ benefit it may be better not to bring them to the church meetings for a period of time. After meeting in the groups for some time, they should be somewhat built up. Then we can consider and study whether or not we should bring them to the church meetings.
Another problem is how to carry out the teaching of the truth in the group meetings. We need to find a way to carry out the teaching year after year for those who continue in the group meetings and, at the same time, to take care of the new ones who are saved and brought into the groups month after month. It is not adequate to prepare lessons for just one year and then repeat them year after year. After a group finishes a series of lessons, they will need a way to continue. In addition, new ones will be brought in continually. We will need a way to teach them also. The matter of human education has been studied by mankind for six thousand years. Today nearly the entire world has adopted the same kind of educational system. However, the way of human education cannot be applied directly to the church life. Therefore, we need to study to find a proper way to teach the truth in the group meetings.
The human life is not merely one generation; it is generation after generation. Eventually, in the group meetings we will have different generations meeting together. Each generation must be properly cared for. This problem may not appear in the first generation of the group meetings, but eventually another generation will come up, and we will have to face this situation of how to care for the group meetings with the different generations.
I have mentioned all these matters to show that we will need much preparation for what is ahead. Through the group meetings we will no doubt gain the increase. However, we need to labor much in order to care for all the saints in the groups.
