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Prayer: Lord, we thank You for Your mercy and for Your grace. Lord, without Your mercy we could not have gone on up to this day. Lord, we need Your forgiveness, Your washing away of all our dirt and defects with Your blood. Lord, we can stand here before You not on our perfection but on the blood that overcomes the accuser. We trust in Your mercy, and we trust in Your blood. Lord, this morning give us another chance for fellowship that we would be open to one another. We are open to You. Lord, come and fellowship with us, and grant us Your fellowship that we may have the freedom to fellowship with one another. Lord, give us understanding and save us from any kind of misunderstanding. Lord, give us a clear word, a clear understanding, and a clear receiving. May nothing be stumbling. Lord, save us from making mistakes. It is so easy for us to make mistakes. Lord, in our being there is the capacity to always make mistakes. We trust in You to deliver us that we may learn how to reject, how to deny, ourselves. Amen.
I hope that you would keep the outline of this chapter in front of you, hanging it on your wall or standing it on your desk. You should read it once a day for a month.
In the previous chapter we covered the first part of my word of love. In that part we covered four matters: ambition, pride, self-justification and exposing of others’ failures and defects, and not conforming to the death of Christ. To conform to the death of Christ relates to the self, the natural man, and the disposition. We must deny our self, condemn our natural life, and forget about our disposition by birth. Self, the natural life or the natural man, and disposition by birth are like three evil brothers. We all have our own disposition by birth. One person may have been born a quick person. His quickness is his disposition, and his quick disposition is by his birth. He did not learn it; he was simply born that way. Another person may be a slow person. He also did not learn his slowness from others; his slow disposition is by birth. This is the fourth “gopher.” These four “gophers”—ambition, pride, self-justification, and the self, that is, the natural man in our disposition by birth—are destroying us every day. I have realized this through many years of experiences. I have been serving the Lord with the saints since He raised me up to speak for Him in 1932. At that time a little church was raised up through me. I could not reject my responsibility to take care of that church. So from that year, sixty-four years ago, I began to be with the serving ones. In these sixty-four years I have seen many things, I have gone through many things, I have experienced many things, and I have suffered quite much. I have suffered from others’ ambition, pride, self-justification, self, natural man, and disposition by birth.
Our history spans not only sixty-four years but nearly two thousand years. I have experienced some things myself, and I have come to know the same things through my study of church history and the biographies and autobiographies of spiritual giants. Nearly all the biographies are helpful. I read George Müller’s autobiography. Actually, that is his daily diary, the daily record of his living. It is a very helpful book, and I received much help from it. I also read the biography of Hudson Taylor, which was written by his daughter-in-law. That also was very helpful. However, all the biographies and autobiographies are small windows through which I can see these four gophers—ambition, pride, self-justification, and the biggest one, the natural man, the self involved with the natural disposition. The outcome of all these four gophers is division. These, not other things, are the real sources of all the denominations. Hudson Taylor was a young missionary sent to China. He was working in Ningpo in Chekiang Province along the coast. After returning to England, as he was sitting by the seashore looking toward the east, he could not forget China. While he was sitting and praying, the Lord burdened him to go back to China but not to the coast. Nearly all the missions in China were only along the coast. The Lord burdened him to go inland, to the interior. That was wonderful, but Hudson Taylor still had his defects. He declared and proclaimed that the churches established by his missionaries were not denominational; therefore, they did not have a name. That was true, but they still called themselves the churches of the China Inland Mission.
We all have defects. Martin Luther was great, but his defect was also great. At first he was a hero, but eventually he was not a hero. He was afraid of persecution by the Catholic Church, so he relied upon the king of Germany. That defect initiated the beginning of the so-called national churches, the churches of a nation, especially in northern Europe. There are the church of Germany, the church of Denmark, the church of Sweden, the church of Norway, the church of England, and the church of Holland. All those national churches take their king or queen as the head of the church. The head of the church of England is the queen. Strictly speaking, whether you are Chinese, American, or German, to be an Episcopalian is to be a British subject. Today in Germany every citizen has to pay a church tax to the government. Luther, a great hero, made a great mistake.
I saw all these things. Among us, Brother Nee took the lead to read all these books. He exhaustively collected all the church histories, autobiographies, and biographies of the spiritual giants. In this way he collected all the views and could make a conclusion. I received much help from Brother Nee. I also have personally been in many situations, contacting the saints, both the saints in the denominations and the saints in the Lord’s recovery. I have seen a good number of Chinese preachers who gained a name, who became famous, and many of them came into the Lord’s recovery. On the one hand, they knew that the recovery had the truth, and they were right according to the truths that the recovery holds. On the other hand, these four “gophers” destroyed them, and not one has remained. Some remained for a period of time, but eventually they all left. The history among us proves that those who became somewhat capable, possessing a certain “spiritual capacity,” eventually became a problem.
Soon after I first came to this country, we held the first summer training on the matter of the kingdom. A certain brother who was a traveling Southern Baptist preacher came to every meeting to listen to the messages. He was convinced and, in a sense, was captivated. He left the Southern Baptist Church and came among us. It was he who first brought me to Texas in 1963. The doors in Texas were opened through him. The first meetings we held there were in the small town of Tyler. There were about five hundred people who came to listen to me, including some leading ones, and they accepted my teaching. They said, “This is right. We must be this kind of local church.” I stayed there for a short time, and while I was in New York, they called me and asked me to return. They said, “We have many here who are ready to meet as the local church, and we do not know how to do it. Please come to help us.” I went back to them, and I stayed in the home of a rich man, whose wife was very eloquent and active in loving the Lord, but eventually, I realized that they were not the ones who could take this way. The first group of people whom the Lord Jesus called did not have doctoral degrees; they were not like Nicodemus. According to the record of the New Testament, Nicodemus is mentioned only three times. He was probably not among the one hundred twenty. The first three of the twelve apostles—Peter, John, and James—were Galilean fishermen. Eventually, the one who brought me to Texas only stayed with us for six years, from 1963 to 1969. In 1969 he wanted to start his own way, using my teachings, especially from The Tree of Life. Even though he started his own way, he still came occasionally to Elden hall to pick up our outlines and to see what I was putting out. I gave him a small warning, but that was all. He is still active today. I have seen many such things. Now you have been brought into the Lord’s recovery. We thank the Lord for this, but if you do not cooperate with the Lord to deal with ambition, pride, and self-justification, and if you are not conformed to the death of Christ, the outcome among us will be division.
In 1964 in Los Angeles we met several different groups of people. One was a Pentecostal group, and one was an inner-life group that followed the teaching of T. Austin-Sparks. After they heard my messages, the leaders of these groups implored me, saying, “Brother Lee, now we realize the way we should take. Let us come together to practice the Body life according to Romans 12.” I said that this was wonderful, but if they were to practice Romans 12, they should not forget Romans 14. That was the first time this word on this subject issued forth from my mouth. I told them that if anyone wants to practice Romans 12 concerning the Body of Christ, they have to be reminded of Romans 14. In Romans 14 Paul is very liberal. According to Paul, we must receive all believers, whether they keep the Sabbath, the seventh day, or the Lord’s Day, and regardless of what kind of food they eat, whether they are vegetarian or eat meat. We must receive them because God has received them. This is to be very general. They said, “We will do it. We will be general.” Therefore, we started to meet together. Afterward, I had to go to New York to attend an interview with the immigration office for my permanent residence, and when I returned, some of them came to me. One said, “Brother Lee, a certain young sister in our meeting plays the tambourine. I cannot take that.” This brother said that he approved of playing the piano. I asked him, “In the eyes of God what is the difference between a piano and a tambourine?” He admitted that there is no difference. I said, “If you can accept the piano, why can’t you accept the tambourine?” One by one others came to me in the same way.
Generally speaking, there have been only two or three occasions of rebellion among us, but in actuality, there have been many. One brother who was very close to me often traveled with me, and he opened his home to me as if it were my own. However, when I began to have the life-study trainings in which I released thirty messages, he became dissenting. He could not agree with this way. He started to have the Lord’s table with young children, serving them the table in his home, and he claimed that his way was the right way to practice the church life. Eventually, he also gave up the recovery. I have seen many things like this. Now you can see why I want to give you this word of love. You must beware of four things: ambition, pride, self-justification, and the self, the natural man, the disposition. Every human being is a self-justifying person. We only know to justify ourselves; it is very hard to recognize others’ perfection. We were all born this way, but we must not let this “gopher” remain within us. We must reject our self-justification. This is the first group of problems in the church life.
Second, we must be right in following others. First Corinthians 1 was written to deal with the divisions in the church at Corinth. Verses 10 through 12 say, “Now I beseech you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be attuned in the same mind and in the same opinion. For it has been made clear to me concerning you, my brothers, by those of the household of Chloe, that there are strifes among you. Now I mean this, that each of you says, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ.” Verse 10 says that we should speak the same thing. How can we all speak the same thing? In 1 Timothy 1:3-4 Paul exhorts Timothy to remain in Ephesus to charge certain ones not to teach different things but to speak the same thing, which is God’s economy. God’s economy is the only thing that we can speak in the same way, and we must speak it in the same way. The entire book of 1 Corinthians reveals God’s economy. The second half of chapter 1 says that Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom (vv. 18-25), and this Christ has been given to us to be our righteousness for the past, sanctification for the present, and redemption for the future (vv. 26-31). Christ is all to us; this is God’s economy, the one thing that we speak.
Some in Corinth said that they were of Paul (v. 12). This was to follow Paul out of preference for him. Paul in his wisdom first condemned himself. It is as if he said, “Do you say that you are of me, Paul? No, I reject and condemn this.” Eventually, at the end of chapter 3 he said that he was of them (v. 22). Today someone may say, “Brother Lee, I am of you.” It seems that I should be happy because I have gained a follower to stand with me. However, this is wrong. Some liked to follow Apollos, and some liked to follow Cephas. Others were very proud and said, “You are of Paul, Apollos, or Cephas, but that is wrong. I do not belong to Paul, Apollos, or Cephas. I belong to Christ; I am of Christ.” To say, “I am of Christ” in the way of division was to make themselves different, even superior. Paul condemned even this kind of saying. He asked, “Is Christ divided?” (1:13). This shows that we must be right in following others. We cannot avoid having so many of us together, especially today as the modern conveniences make the globe seem small. Without gathering together, where is the Body life, and where is the practice of the church? We have to come together. But we have many different persons with many backgrounds and cultures, so we have to be careful. If you follow the wrong person, you will damage yourself, and you will damage that person. Your following of a person wrongly is a destruction to the one whom you follow.
You must be careful in following any co-worker whom you appreciate and to whom you are attracted. If you do not appreciate a person, you will not follow him. First, you appreciate someone, and then you are attracted to him. I have seen this among us here in America. I have spoken a word of love directly to these kinds of brothers. I have warned them to not do this kind of work. Wherever you go, you may become the superior one. You may be good; there is nothing wrong with that. You do have a capacity that might be higher than others’. However, you should avoid doing a work to attract people to follow you. We all have to see this. Such a one who makes himself attractive is wrong already, and if you are attracted to follow him, you help him to be wrong. You destroy yourself, and you also destroy him. I have seen this. I warned one person more than five times. I said, “Brother, you should not do this.” I warned him in a very private way, but now my speaking is public. I have spoken publicly to you because there is such a danger that you may appreciate certain persons. I do not like to hear that you appreciate me, that you feel I am right and you follow me. If you appreciate the truths I have put out, I thank the Lord, but if you appreciate me, that is wrong. Be careful in following any co-worker whom you appreciate and to whom you are attracted. To be one with another co-worker in this way is wrong. Regardless of what the reason is for this oneness, you are wrong. We all are one. We do not have parties. Do not say, I am one with Brother So-and-so. To be one with anyone in particular is wrong. To be one with all the saints is right.
First Corinthians 1:10 speaks of being attuned in the same mind and in the same opinion. Concerning the word attuned, footnote 4 in the Recovery Version says,
The same word in Greek that is translated mending in Matthew 4:21. It means to repair, to restore, to adjust, to mend, making a broken thing thoroughly complete, joined perfectly together. The Corinthian believers as a whole were divided, broken. They needed to be mended in order to be joined perfectly together that they might be in harmony, having the same mind and the same opinion to speak the same thing, that is, Christ and His cross.
To be attuned is to be joined together, as a piano is tuned to give a proper harmony and melody. Learn to be attuned, learn to be adjusted, and learn to be corrected. The harmony in the Lord’s recovery can be maintained only by dealing with the four “gophers”—ambition, pride, self-justification, and you yourself as the self, the natural man, your disposition by birth.
One whom you follow should be a person loving the Lord, living for the Lord, and renouncing his self, natural life, preference, and ambition. Regardless of how good one is and how high his spiritual capacity might be, you must ask, “Is this one to whom I have been attracted a person who all the time renounces his self, his natural life, his preference, and his ambition?” Ambition is sometimes hidden, but every man’s preference is always exposed. If one says he likes to do things in a certain way, that is his preference. Sometimes people have exposed their preference by coming to me and saying, “Brother Lee, you are too loose. We know what the right way is, but when the brothers fellowship with you and propose a certain way, you always agree with them.” This is true; I have often done this. Deep within I know what the right way is, but there is not only one way to do something. I have illustrated this by the way we drive a car. Once, three brothers intended to drive to Los Angeles. The first one proposed a way to go, the second one proposed a better way, and the third one proposed yet another way that would save time. The three argued for so long that by the time they finished arguing, they could have been there no matter what way they went. This is why I often say to others, “Simply do it any way.” It is the same in the way we take care of our training. People consider that this is Brother Lee’s training, but in actuality, I let others do many small things in any way they can; any way is right. In order to keep a peaceful spirit, we all have to learn how to give in. In order to keep peace, do not argue and have no preference. Do not think that it saves time to discuss everything first. Many husbands have learned this. Many times to discuss things with their wives takes twice as long as doing the thing. To discuss not only wastes time, but it often causes the husband and wife to become angry with each other. The best way is for a husband to say, “Dear, whatever you say is good; go ahead and do it.” It is not easy to be this way.
If you are a strong man, no one can change your preference. You insist that you are right and that your way is the right way. This is wrong. In the church life in the Lord’s recovery we all have to learn how to give in, even if it means that we suffer. You may ask, “Don’t we need to protect the recovery?” Dear ones, if you try to protect the recovery, that is your mistake. Can you protect the recovery? Brother Nee said once that no one can protect God’s glory. Only God Himself can protect His glory. Who are we? To insist upon your preference is a real damage to the recovery. Your intention may be to protect the recovery from mistakes, but in actuality, your insistence on your preference is the biggest mistake. To give in is right. We can do this only by the Lord’s grace. Without the Lord’s grace, who can give up his preference? No one can. Those dear ones especially who are born with a strong character must be aware of their strong character in insisting on their preference.
One whom you follow must hold the complete revelation of the entire Holy Scriptures properly without any twisting and deforming. The word twist is used in 2 Peter 3:15-16, in which Peter says, “Our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them concerning these things, in which some things are hard to understand, which the unlearned and unstable twist, as also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.” According to my observation, deforming is different from twisting. To deform the truth is simply to change it a little or add something. To put a small cap on my head, for example, deforms the appearance of my head. Do not cut off anything from the truth, and do not add anything to it. Take the truth as it is. If you do not take the truth as it is, you may say that you are not twisting the Scriptures. Yes, you may not twist them, but you are deforming them. Concerning one whom you follow, you must check how he handles the truth.
One whom you follow must be one who endeavors to keep the oneness of the Spirit, the oneness of the universal Body, by taking the unique ground of the local church. Everyone agrees with the speaking about the oneness of the universal Body. Who can deny this truth? In Christ we all are one Body universally. Universally refers not only to space but also to time. Paul lived nearly two thousand years ago, but we are one with him. Moreover, a brother in Germany lives thousands of miles away, but we are still one with him. This is universal oneness, in which we are one with all believers. However, even if you say that you are for the oneness of the Body, to not take the unique ground of the local church is strong evidence that you do not care for the oneness of the Body. In actuality, you are one with no one; you are one only with yourself. You yourself should first be clear about the oneness; otherwise, you will be deceived.
We must be strongly discerning in the accepting of the divine revelation according to the Holy Scriptures. The accepting of the divine revelation must be governed by three things. The first is the eternal economy of God as the basic principle. Many Christians today argue with one another, but very few know that in the Bible there is such a thing as the eternal economy of God. The accepting of the divine revelation must also be governed by Christ as the centrality and universality of God’s eternal economy. God has an economy, and Christ is the centrality and universality of this economy. In other words, Christ is everything in God’s economy.
I have spoken strongly concerning God’s economy in the last ten or more years, and I have published three or four books on God’s economy. The first, The Economy of God, was published in 1968. It did not speak of God’s economy as a plan but of God’s economy in our being concerning our spirit, our mind, our will, and our emotion. I spoke further on God’s economy beginning from Stuttgart, Germany, in 1984 and continuing on the East Coast of the United States and in Irving, Texas. This speaking was published as God’s New Testament Economy. Today if you would ask me to speak something basic, I cannot stay away from God’s economy. Anything that is basic must be according to God’s economy. The hub and the rim of the eternal economy of God is Christ. God has no plan outside of Christ. Christ is everything. The term Christ as the centrality and universality was used by Brother Nee since 1934 when he gave messages concerning Christ being all in all. I received much help from those messages.
The accepting of the divine revelation must also be governed by the Body of Christ, which consummates the New Jerusalem as the divine goal of the processed and consummated Triune God. John 4:14 says, “The water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.” The Triune God is a fountain emerging to be a spring and gushing up to be a river flowing into eternal life. The fountain is God the Father, the spring is God the Son, and the river is God the Spirit flowing as living water into eternal life. For more than fifty years I tried to understand the phrase into eternal life, but I was unable. In recent days, however, I have come to know the meaning. Into eternal life does not mean to enter into eternal life. It means to become the eternal life. The flowing of the Father as the fountain, the Son as the spring, and the Spirit as the river eventually becomes the eternal life, which is the New Jerusalem. The entire Bible shows that our God is the flowing God. God flowed in the Father as the fountain, and the Father emerged, was manifested, to be the Son as the spring, and the gushing river is the Spirit. The issue, the consummation, of this flowing is the New Jerusalem. From Genesis to Revelation the entire Bible speaks only about this flowing Triune God, and the issue of Their flowing is the New Jerusalem. Just as a man is the consummation of the human life, the consummation of the divine life is the New Jerusalem.
The application of the divine truths must avoid uplifting any basic truths, such as the three sections of sanctification, the designation of Christ as the seed of David to be the firstborn Son of God, the acknowledgment of the fact that “I am of Christ,” etc., to cause divisions that divide Christ, including His Body (1 Cor. 1:11-13a). Some said that they belonged to Paul, some to Cephas, some to Apollos, and some, the “superior” ones, to Christ. However, Christ is not divided. You must be careful. You may teach the right truths, but to stress any one too much may be the cause of a division.
The application of the divine truths must also avoid neglecting any subordinate truths or stressing any of them, which leads toward the direction of division that divides the Body of Christ. Both to stress and to neglect certain truths may cause division. When we met in Elden hall, quite often Pentecostal people would come to us with speaking in tongues. The brothers would inquire of me about them, but I would indicate that there was no problem. We allowed them to speak in tongues because it is in the Bible. I have studied much concerning speaking in tongues. I learned that even before the New Testament age, people already spoke in tongues by the power of demons. A brother from Ghana told us that when he returned to his homeland, he saw the unbelievers there speaking in tongues by the demons. Some speaking in tongues is by the demons, while some, although very little, is by the Holy Spirit. The Pentecostals, however, do not discern this. Not only is some speaking in tongues by demons; some is merely by the human power to speak syllables. This is neither by the Holy Spirit nor by the evil spirits but simply by men themselves. Certain ones put their hands on your head and teach you to turn your tongue and say “Praise Jesus” very quickly. As a result, some syllables come out, which they claim is speaking in tongues. I analyzed this very much. Then I found out that this was only nonsense syllables, not a genuine tongue.
T. Austin-Sparks was a spiritual giant. He was very high. He was a top writer concerning eternal life, and we may even say that the line of eternal life in Christian writings stopped after his death. Once, I invited him to Taipei. He was very strong against tongue-speaking; he opposed it too much. The Pentecostal people, however, stress it too much. They make the tongue to be the whole body. They say that when they speak in tongues, they are happy. To be sure, speaking in nonsense syllables will make you happy and very relaxed. In my study of this, however, I found a good point: their intention is to contact the Lord, and sometimes spontaneously they did contact the Lord. We cannot deny this. From this I learned that not all wrong teachings are heresies. Some wrong teachings are simply wrong teachings. Therefore, we have to be careful.
Since I came to this country in 1962, I have seen and experienced many things. Because there are so many co-workers in this area, I feel burdened to speak this word of love as a warning to you. Beware of these four “gophers,” and be careful about following others. Actually, we should not follow anyone. Concerning following a person, the New Testament only tells us that Paul said, “Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). We follow someone because he has the revelation of God, the vision of God. I admit and I am bold to say that God brought me to Brother Nee. I followed him; I admit it. People shamed me, saying, “You only speak the things that Watchman Nee teaches.” I said, “That is right. That is my glory, not my shame.” I never met another Christian preacher who knew the Bible in this way. No one but Watchman Nee ever told me what the vision of God is, so I learned of him. Since coming to this country, I have always tried my best to keep on the central lane of the divine revelation. At times in my speaking I was a little careless, but after my message was polished and I read it again, I changed some of the things that I had said. I have been very careful in putting out my writings. In actuality, our leading is not a person but the divine truth, the divine vision.
In February 1986 we had an urgent elders’ conference in which I spoke of the new way. Because the Lord’s recovery had become dormant, I was like Gideon, sounding the trumpet to collect a group of people to fight for the recovery. I had no intention to force everyone to follow me in the same way. I told them that they may not follow me, but they should not oppose. The next summer I told the saints that our leading actually is not a person, neither I nor Brother Nee, but it is the Lord’s revelation, the Lord’s word. Therefore, we have to discern very much concerning the matter of the truth. Then we will not damage the Body, damage ourselves, or damage the one whom we follow.
You must never try to get people to follow you. That is the serpent. It does not help you; it damages you. This also means that you should never follow any person; simply follow the Lord according to His Word and follow the heavenly vision. To this end, you must study His Word properly, without twisting or any kind of deforming. The full-time trainees must not say that they have come here to follow someone. They have come here to learn how to follow the Lord and to learn His Word in the proper way so that they can discern what are the basic truths and what are the subordinate truths. Some truths are like the trunk of a tree, and some truths are subordinate, like the branches. Moreover, some branches are bigger, whereas some are smaller. To understand and to accept the basic truths should be governed by God’s economy, by Christ, and by His Body. Concerning the subordinate truths, the branches, do not oppose, neglect, or stress any one in particular.
I was together with Brother Nee for eighteen years. During that time I never invited him to eat with me. Similarly, in our whole life together, Brother Nee invited me to his house only once; that was in 1948 when I stayed in his home in Foochow as his guest for one or two weeks. At that time he invited me to a certain eating place where we could observe the eating habits of the Fukienese, but while we were together, we simply ate and did not speak improperly. In contrast, a certain brother often brought his followers to a coffee shop to drink together and speak in an improper way. I warned him about this. We must not have intimacy or friendship. Intimacy is not lovely; intimacy in the typology of the Bible is honey. In the meal offering, honey was prohibited. The people could not put honey in the meal offering. Instead, they put in salt, which kills germs (Lev. 2:11, 13). We either do not love each other or we love by our natural life, which is honey. This corrupts us. I also believe that I never gave Brother Nee a gift. He only gave me two sets of books, Darby’s Synopsis of the Books of the Bible in five volumes and Dean Alford’s Greek New Testament. He gave these to me in 1933, and they helped me very much. That was his shepherding and perfecting of me.
I am simply opening a small window to show you what kind of person Brother Nee was. We never joked together. At most, he once said that a certain brother, who was always in his mind and never in his spirit, may have been “saved but not regenerated.” Among the saints, there are persons who seem to have a mind but no spirit. They know their mind, but they do not know their spirit. It is as if they have been redeemed judicially but not regenerated organically. Of course, this is not an actual fact, but there is this kind of person. This was Brother Nee’s meaning.
Prayer: Lord, in spite of all these defects and mistakes made by us, we are not disheartened, discouraged, or disappointed. Rather, Lord, we are very much encouraged by You, by what You are, by what You have done, and by what You are still doing. Thank You, Lord, that You are still moving among us throughout the globe. We look unto You for further mercy and further grace. We look to You for further experience of You in our spirit to be our abiding grace. Oh, “the Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.” We love this word of encouragement. Lord, we have no trust in our self. We are finished with our self-trusting. We trust in You. Lord, do saturate us and soak us to be everything within us, to be our faith, our joy, our peace, our rest, and our comfort. Thank You that You are our Shepherd without, and You are our Comforter as the life-giving Spirit within. We trust in You for Your recovery, for Your move. Lord, remember each one of us. We are on Your heart, and we are even on Your breast. Lord, never forget us. We thank You that You will never forget us. We are really on Your heart. Thank You, Lord, for Your mercy to have all the churches in Southern California. Lord, bless all the saints. Bless Your recovery. Bless all the churches. Bless all our service in the one work for Your unique recovery. Amen.
A facsimile of the placard prepared by Brother Lee for the co-workers who heard his word of love. Brother Lee advised the co-workers to place it in a visible location and read it every day for a month.
