Month: December 2018

Excerpt from Working Saints Fellowship at 2018 Thanksgiving Day Conference in Charlotte, NC

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Transcript:

… I’m very burdened for this group of saints, and as one of the brothers pointed out, the working saints, it is really a reality that the working saints are the backbone of the Lord’s recovery. And in my observation of the saints and of the churches, many times the the young people are very active: the high school, the college students have a lot going on. They have college trainings and internships and college conferences, robust church life for the college students and even the younger than college students. And they can be very active in the church life. And then you look at the older saints — at least in the locality where I am — faithful older saints who serve in the practical service, day in and week in and week out. When we have our prophesying meeting, often the first ones to prophesy are the older saints, who have been around for 30 years, 40 years in the recovery.

But it is conspicuously obvious that there is a group that is at least not fully employed in the church life, and it’s the working saints. The ones who should be the backbone of the church life and should be bearing the bulk of the burden among the churches are somewhat retired. It’s strange how, very active is young people, active is older saints, but this period of time that we call working saints, often there is a kind of a retirement, a spiritual retirement that goes on. Or at least an under-employed situation among the working saints.

And I tell you I don’t think this is an accident. I believe the enemy knows this as well, that this group is really the critical and crucial group in the Lord’s recovery, the working saints. You know we have a lot of blessings in the Lord’s recovery. We’ve been blessed a lot, the Lord has blessed us with some wonderful factors in the Lord’s recovery. One is, like we’re enjoying this weekend, the word in the Lord’s recovery is so rich. The ministry is open to us, the word is open to us, there’s no shortage with the word, no shortage in the ministry. Besides just the plethora of ways to get the ministry: the books, electronically, songs, there’s all kinds of ways to enter into the ministry, it’s all in our hands. Besides that, we have such a oneness in the Lord’s recovery. I’ve been in the church life since I was eight years old and in my years I’ve never seen such a oneness among the churches. The blending really works! Certainly we need more blending, but we have some blending that has resulted in a oneness. There’s a oneness among the coworkers that is maybe unprecedented. There’s a oneness and blending among the leading brothers in the churches. We have a lot of positive things in the Lord’s recovery.

But if we have all of these positive things, saints, we have to ask ourselves — why is the Lord’s recovery not more prevailing in the United States? Why is it not? If we have the Word, we have oneness, we have the riches. We don’t have persecution in the United States to preach the gospel, we don’t have persecution to practice the church life. All this is so well laid out for us to flourish in the United States. Why have we not flourished? Why are there still too few churches? And why are churches so small?

I don’t claim to be the expert to answer this, but I have considered this: I think it has to do with the working saints as being one factor at least. There is a great, great temptation when you’re working, I know. I worked for 28 years and I know it is a great temptation. Everything that you will give to your job, they will take. Every hour you give them they’ll take two. There’s no limit to what you can give to your profession. And frankly the tide of the age is such that there is no limit to what you can give to your family, to your children! To practices and sports and music and all that goes on and on and on. And eventually what does that do to a person? Your job is demanding everything from you, your family’s demanding everything from you, well what’s left over for the church life? Go to church on Sunday morning?

And so for the next 30 years you’re around, you’re positive, you’re not against it, but the consecration isn’t there. And brothers and sisters I just say this because I know this from my own experience: unless we reconsider our living and reconsider — what are we doing here? What is our family for? What is our job for?

When I was in high school, Brother Lee shared the messages from Genesis about the pillar builders, and that was a big wake-up call in the Lord’s recovery because at that time I remember a lot of brothers — you know the stories, they were pool cleaners and yard maintenance guys, because they wanted to be available for the trainings and the conferences. This was the heart of the brothers. And Brother Lee said, “No, you need to get the best education, the best training the world has to offer you, and then lay it at the Lord’s feet.”

Well, we got the first part of it. A lot of brothers got educated, got the best jobs. But maybe we didn’t take the last part of his fellowship and then lay it down, and let our Tyrenean father die. We forgot that part of it. And we ended up with good jobs, making lots of money, with a nice house, and good family and children, living the American dream. And the Lord’s house lies waste.

Brothers and sisters, I realize we’re probably here talking to the choir, so to speak. Because if you’re at this conference you paid a price to be here, and if you’re here in this meeting today I’m sure you paid a price to be here as well.

But this group of saints in the Lord’s recovery must reconsider your living. This is just my feeling. You must reconsider: what are you living for? What is your family for? What is your job for? Between a husband and wife, to sit down and… you know sometimes we get so busy and the world is spinning so fast around us, you never stop and say, “Wait a minute! Is this the life we signed up for? We’re running to practices, we’re running to soccer and piano and this and that and working overtime. We can’t make the prayer meeting, we certainly can’t serve on Saturday morning, we can’t get to the ministry meeting because we just have too many….”

Is that the life that we dreamed about when we were in college? I don’t think so. I just don’t think that that is what we were aspiring to. We were aspiring to live to the Lord! We were aspiring to give everything to the Lord, we had patterns in front of us who did that, who gave everything to the Lord.

I just hope as a response, at least, you would reconsider your living today before the Lord in a very sober-minded way: how am I spending my time? I know when you’re young it doesn’t seem like it, but time is fleeting. The years start clicking by, and pretty soon you’ll be saying I retired last year.

Brothers and sisters, consider your participation in the church life, your function in the church life, your participation in the church meetings. I won’t ask, but I’d like to know: how many are in the prayer meeting of the church every week? Brothers and sisters, this is not a small thing. This is where the church is doing battle and fighting for the Lord’s interest on the earth.

I’ll just end with this: in a very practical way to respond, certainly to reconsider and re-consecrate your life to the Lord, and your family’s life, your children’s life to the Lord. But on top of that, saints, consider this:

Migration is a wonderful way to have a restart. It is a wonderful way to go from under-employed to fully employed overnight, to migrate to a new city. And I believe in the coming year even, and coming years, there’s gonna be more opportunities for migration to good cities, good places to live and raise families, but good places to go fishing. Good places to gain people.

And some of us, you’re young, but you’re already set, settled, and occupied. You’re already immovable. Don’t become immovable! Be available to the Lord’s move. Be available to migrate, to be uprooted, to leave all the things that are occupying you and have a restart, where you’re moving there not to make money. Yes, you’ll find a job, you’ll get a job — you’re moving there for the Lord’s interest.

There are two ways to move: you can move for a better job, or you can move for the Lord’s interest. And many of us have no qualms about moving for a better job. Oh of course, that makes total sense. Move to start the church in another city?! Why would I do that? I can’t do that! I have a job, I have kids.

Well, in the beginning, it was not so. That’s not our history. That’s not where we came from. That wasn’t the generation that I saw ahead of me. My parents, we migrated… my dad never met a migration he wasn’t burdened for. We moved and moved and moved. I went to a different school every year of my life until 11th grade. Not one move was for a better job. Not one move was for a better house. Not one move was for better schools. It was for the Lord’s move. That’s our history. That’s my history, but that’s your history as well.

Brothers and sisters, don’t let this age suck you in. Don’t let it occupy you. The tide of this age is strong one way. We are against the tide. We’re not living here to make more money. We’re not living that our kids would have every single perk available to them! That’s not what our life is about! We are here for the Lord’s recovery! We’re here for His interest on the earth and there’s a battle for you in this stage of your life. Amen.

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The Spirit arranges circumstances for us according to our need

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Date: July 26, 1948

TESTIMONY BY SISTER P. S.
…The Lord wanted me to work in the kitchen, but I felt that I was behind in my spirituality, and I wanted to serve the Lord in a spiritual way like other sisters. In the past I did not like to visit the sisters. But the Lord empowered me, and I have been able to go out to visit others. This has actually brought profit to me. In the past I felt that I was completely useless and that there was nothing in me that I could hand over or offer. Later I felt that I should hand myself over to Him because I belong to Him, whether or not I am useful.

BROTHER NEE’S COMMENT
From your testimony I can see that your spiritual life is a very simple one. If you are willing to hand yourself over to the Lord and commit yourself to His hand, He will take you up. But you have to be stronger than you now are before you can become more useful. One does not necessarily have to be in a spiritual environment before he can be useful to the Lord. The main thing is to accept God’s limitations and the Spirit’s discipline. In pursuing spirituality, we should not overlook the limitations that God has placed upon us. Many people think that the only way they can receive spiritual blessing is through the meetings and through listening to messages. Yet many times the Lord grants us great blessings through the environment He arranges. Many people have the concept that they will know God more as long as they can attend more meetings, listen to more messages, and remain in a certain spiritual environment. Little do they realize that they have more opportunity to know the Lord in a constricted environment. If a man rejects God’s limitations, he will lose his usefulness.

A man becomes useful in God’s hand by accepting the discipline placed upon him in the environment. The Holy Spirit disciplines and perfects man through the environment. A man should not pray just for opportunities to experience direct grace, while refusing the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Limitations in the environment often are great opportunities to receive grace. Working in the kitchen and doing housework for others are both means through which the Spirit disciplines a person. Many people want bright and glorious prospects but are not willing to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God. However, one often receives more grace through humbling himself under God’s mighty hand which lies behind the disciplining environment. A young person may find this lesson hard to take. He is full of self in his spiritual pursuit, and it is hard for him to accept the discipline of the Holy Spirit in his environment. But nothing affords us better opportunity in the spiritual pathway than the environment that the Holy Spirit has arranged for us.

As the Holy Spirit operates in us, He must also arrange outward circumstances to match this operation. This is the only way for us to learn. The inward operation is part of the Spirit’s work, and the arrangement in our outward circumstances is also part of the Spirit’s work. We cannot eliminate the element of circumstantial arrangement from our Christian life just because we do not like it. Strictly speaking, a believer does not have many so-called “circumstances”; he only has the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Nothing happens to us by accident when we are under men’s authority. Everything that happens to us is part of the discipline of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit arranges circumstances for us according to our need. The inward working of the Holy Spirit is accomplished only in conjunction with the environment He arranges for us. As the Spirit operates within us, He knows the environment we need, and He arranges the most profitable environment for us. We have no way of knowing ahead of time what kind of environment the Spirit will arrange for us. Therefore, we cannot choose our pathway according to our own will. The Holy Spirit works within us on the one hand and arranges our environment on the other hand. Therefore, a Christian must submit to the inward working of the Holy Spirit as well as to His arrangement in the outward environment.

Our sister has been learning spiritual lessons in the kitchen and at home during the past years. This is the right way. It is better to serve the Lord in the kitchen than to seek for freedom from the kitchen in order to work as a preacher. If God wants us to remain in the kitchen, no place, not even the meetings, can match its excellence. The kind of spiritual training each person needs is different. Some need to suffer loss. Others need to go through sickness, troubles, calamities at home, or other things. All these things are the discipline of the Holy Spirit. We all need God’s limitations, and we all need to be disciplined by the Spirit before we can become useful to the Lord. We should learn to reap profit from all the discipline in the environment. We often try to push away the environment, but we should learn to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. The term environment may not be too good; we should call it God’s limitations or, still better, the Spirit’s discipline. Brothers and sisters, do not learn rebellion; learn obedience. If the time has not come, do not seek to be free from your environment. Some feel that they cannot serve the Lord in a constricted environment. Actually, this is the preparation that God has ordained for their future service.

After we have learned our lesson through discipline, God will first release us inwardly and then change our environment outwardly. If we are not released inwardly, we should not argue with the environment. If we do, we are arguing with God. We have to obey the Lord according to the environment that He has arranged for us. The environment often is a chain provided by the Lord. These sufferings and pressures are meant to train us. We should not complain, murmur, or rebel. Instead, we should accept the discipline that the Lord has measured for us. When God places us in situations where we cannot receive grace in a direct way, we should never struggle, complain, or murmur. Struggling, complaining, and murmuring have destroyed many people. We are like a vessel. When we are placed in a certain environment, we are being molded. Once we complain, the vessel cracks. If we continue to allow such complaints to come out of our mouth, the vessel actually will break and become useless. Brothers and sisters, we have to realize that the benefit we reap from submitting to the discipline of the Holy Spirit is far greater than we can fathom. What a pity that most of us have spent half of our lives fighting our environment. If a man does not have any argument with the Lord everything that comes his way will become a spiritual blessing to him. A person who does not know God’s acts will curse the day of his birth (Job 3:1). But one who knows the Lord’s acts will praise Him for everything that befalls him in his daily life and will reckon it as a God-allotted blessing.

We must learn to make our inner world the same as our outer world. We should be able to thank and praise the Lord for everything that we experience. The Bible says that in everything we should give thanks, because every environment is measured by the Lord for our greatest training. This is the reason we can give thanks in everything. Although we were not able to fellowship with each other for years because of the war, we have to confess that this was a discipline of the Holy Spirit under the Lord’s sovereignty. The Lord’s Spirit worked within us, and He also worked around us. If we have not experienced the former, we should have experienced the latter at least. The one thing that disappoints me the most is that I do not find much progress in the brothers and sisters. If we are willing to learn our lessons and submit ourselves to the disciplining circumstances arranged by the Holy Spirit, we will receive light and abundant life. Otherwise, we will remain poor.

God’s children should realize that the persons, things, and events that are around them are environments arranged by the Holy Spirit for their discipline. Let me repeat: We should not complain, murmur, or rebel under such circumstances. We have to realize that everything God has arranged is for our good. We have to bow our heads, fall in the dust, and worship God, saying, “God, all the environments that You have arranged are for me to experience Your grace.” If we do not stand on God’s side, we will not receive anything, and we will eventually become useless. There are two ways for us to receive grace. First, we can receive it directly from the ministry. Second, we can receive it through the disciplining environment arranged by the Holy Spirit. If we fight against the latter, we will lose our chance of receiving grace. But if we obey, we will find grace.

(Collected Works of Watchman Nee,  Set 3 – Vol. 58: Spiritual Judgment and Examples of Judgment, Chapter 28, Section 1)

It all depends upon love

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[Luke 15] Verse 20 says, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and he ran and fell on his neck and kissed him affectionately.” That the father saw the son a long way off was not an accident. From the time the son left home, the father must have gone out to look and wait for his coming back every day. We do not know how many days he watched and waited. When the father saw him, he ran to him. This is the Father’s heart. The father interrupted the son while he was speaking his prepared word. The son wanted to speak the word he had prepared, but the father told his servants to bring the robe, the ring, and the sandals and to prepare the fattened calf. A teacher among the Brethren told me that in the whole Bible we can see God run only one time, in Luke 15, where the father saw the returning prodigal son. He ran; he could not wait. This is the Father’s heart.

To speak truthfully, we have lost this spirit among the co-workers, elders, and vital groups. We do not have such a loving spirit that loves the world, the worst people. We classify people, choosing who are the good ones. Throughout my years I have seen many good ones. Eventually, very few of the good ones remain in the Lord’s recovery. Rather, so many bad ones remain. In the beginning I also was one who classified them as bad, but today many bad ones are still here. If it were according to our concept, where would God’s choosing be? Our choosing depends upon God, who chose His people before the foundation of the world. The Bible says that God hated Esau and loved Jacob. If we were there, none of us would have selected Jacob. This man was too bad. We would have selected Esau, the gentleman. From his mother’s womb, Jacob was fighting, and when he was born, he grabbed his brother’s heel. Eventually, he did everything that caused Esau to want to kill him. His mother Rebekah knew this, so she sent him away to his uncle’s house, but when he went there, he did the same thing; he cheated his uncle by getting four wives from him. This is to live like a gangster. None of us would have chosen Jacob. It is not up to our choosing, our selection. It is based upon God’s eternal selection.

…I want to shepherd and disciple you from the Bible so that you can see this matter and have a change. I am discipling you to change your concept. The God-man concept is that Christ came to save sinners, especially the top sinners. He saves the “gangsters,” even the leader of the “gangsters,” Saul of Tarsus. Paul said, “Faithful is the word and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am foremost” (1 Tim. 1:15). Paul could say this because he was the top sinner opposing Christ. He rebelled against Christ, but while he was rebelling, Christ knocked him down, called him, and saved him. Jesus Himself said, “Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill…I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt. 9:12-13). That is why He was there among the sinners and tax collectors, eating and feasting with them, reclining at table and enjoying with them.

If we lose this spirit, whether we are elders, co-workers, or serving ones, we are finished. This is the main reason why we are so barren, bearing no fruit for so many years.

…Whenever we criticize others, we miss grace and instead suffer God’s resistance. We all must learn to shepherd one another. This does not mean that since I am shepherding you, I do not need your shepherding. I need your shepherding. We all have defects and shortcomings. Everyone has defects. Therefore, we have to humble ourselves to meet God’s grace. This strengthens our spirit to visit people and to take care of people regardless of whether they are good or bad. Regardless of what they are, we must go to visit them and keep visiting. According to their statistics, the Jehovah’s Witnesses knock on six thousand doors to visit people in order to gain one. They do this legally, but we do not. We have no such law forcing others to go out. However, I am trying my best to help the church to build up the vital groups with such a shepherding spirit full of love and care for others.

We need to have this kind of love and go to tell all the dormant ones who think that the church condemns them that the church does not condemn anyone. Rather, the church wants to see all the dormant ones come back. If they all would come back, I would weep with tears of thanksgiving to the Lord. The Lord can testify for me that I do not condemn anyone. We have no qualification to condemn anyone. Without the Lord’s mercy, we would be the same as the dormant ones. Therefore, we must love them. It all depends upon love, as the wise king Solomon said, “Love covers all transgressions” (Prov. 10:12). We love people. We love the opposers, and we love the top rebels. I really mean it. We love them and do not hate them. Who am I? I am not qualified to condemn or to hate. Am I perfect? Even the prophet Isaiah, when he saw the Lord, said, “Woe is me, for I am finished! / For I am a man of unclean lips, / And in the midst of a people of unclean lips I dwell” (Isa. 6:5). Who is clean today? If we criticize people and say something bad about them, we are not clean.

(A Word of Love to the Co-workers, Elders, Lovers, and Seekers of the Lord, chp. 2)