I care for only one thing—to carry out what the Lord has charged us to do. We all need to rise up and put everything of the unscriptural practice of Christianity under our feet. The number one thing we should do in these days is to visit people in their homes. This is to follow the pattern of the Lord Jesus. We must go to visit people.
(CWWL, 1986, vol. 3, “Elders’ Training, Book 9: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (1),” pp. 38-39)
The Son of God came with the divine commission to seek the Father’s will and glory. We Christians are to live the same way. “Lord, thank You. I have the highest commission, that of living You out. How good it is that You are my life! What a privilege that I can take You and live You out! How I thank You!” Is not this life higher than having even three Ph.D.’s?
Young people, are you satisfied to be nobody? Rather, are you satisfied with the highest commission, that of taking Christ as your life and living Him? What a commission!
This is the Christian life and also the church life. It is no more I but Christ who lives in me. “Thank You, Lord, that You and I have one life and one living. The life is Yours; the living, mine. Hallelujah that I can have one life and one living with You!”
Do not be concerned about worldliness. Do not be troubled about your weakness. Do not be preoccupied with sins. When Christ is lived out, all these negative things will flee away. The more you try to deal with your sin, overcome the world, or gain the victory over your weakness, the more you will be troubled by these very things. You are not commissioned to overcome sin, weakness, or the world. Your commission is to live Christ out. When you see this vision and you are such a person, the Bible is for you. It will nourish and supply this life.
(Life Messages, Vol. 1 (#1-41), Chapter 40, Section 3)
“After we come together, we should spontaneously fellowship. The fellowship will bring in the need for intercession, and from this fellowship and intercession the mutual care, concern, and shepherding will develop. After that there will be some studying and teaching of the truth, with the rendering of some help in life…. All this must be done in an organic and spontaneous way. The mutual fellowship should be open and spontaneous. The mutual intercession also should be sincere and spontaneous…. This kind of organic meeting is what Hebrews 10:25 describes as ‘our own assembling together.’ Such a meeting is like a family gathering with spontaneous, mutual fellowship in which some may ask questions and others may all answer. There is mutual teaching and mutual learning…. Whether a person has been saved for a long time or for a short time, he can speak like all the others.”
(CWWL, 1989, vol. 2)
“If all the saints live Christ by walking according to the spirit, there will be a great increase in the church. Much gospel preaching will spontaneously issue from our walking according to the spirit. Several years ago I proposed that the saints in a certain locality go out at least once a week to contact others. Everyone listened and agreed, but eventually no one practiced it. I found that it does not work to charge the saints to go out regularly to preach the gospel. However, if the elders in a locality take the lead to walk according to the spirit, and they minister such a life to the other saints, the saints in that locality will also walk according to the spirit and regularly preach the gospel.
Our primary concern should not be how to do things such as preaching the gospel and shepherding the new believers. Instead, we need to see that God wants a people who live Christ by walking according to the spirit. If we practice to continually walk according to the spirit throughout the day, everything else will spontaneously issue forth from such a living…. Our gospel preaching and shepherding should not be activities but should be the issue of a daily life of walking according to the spirit…. All such aspects of the Christian life should be part of our living. For instance, a daily life of walking according to the spirit will issue in our functioning with a released spirit in the meetings. If we do not live Christ in our daily life, we will have no surplus of Christ to bring to the meetings. In order to exhibit Christ, we must gain Christ in our daily life by walking according to the spirit. If the saints are living Christ, they will spontaneously function in the meetings.
We need a clear view from the heavens to see that what the Lord wants is a group of people who walk according to the spirit. The Lord’s desire is not for many co-workers, elders, or activities, or much organization. As leading ones, we primarily need to walk according to the spirit in our daily life and help other saints to enter into this kind of living.”
(CWWL, 1982, vol. 1, “The Importance of Living Christ by Walking according to the Spirit,” pp. 388-390)
“… When we come together in the vital groups, we should release ourselves by opening up to one another. We may have been with one another for years, but we do not really know one another. Instead, we like to hide ourselves in certain things from the saints. I am afraid that not one of us is really open. All of us are pretending to be “good” members of the vital groups. We may show up on time and behave ourselves as nice ladies and gentlemen, but this is seclusion. We do not want to talk openly with the saints in our vital group because we are secluded. To talk openly with the intimate and thorough fellowship in Christ is to be released.
We do not open up to others, because we are afraid to be known by them. As a result, we cannot receive the inner healing from the Lord. We may be sick of “gangrene,” but we want to cover and hide our sickness from others. We need to realize that the other members of our vital group are our doctors. If we open ourselves up in a proper way to the other saints in our group, we will be healed. But instead of opening up, everyone is hiding. Some of us are released, but we are not absolutely released, because we are not used to being open to others. We are not open, but closed and secluded.
When we come together, we may feel that there is not much to do. I have said that the group meetings are eighty percent of the church life, and the first item of the group meetings is to come together to fellowship in an intimate, thorough, and spontaneous way. Maybe a sister would open up by saying, “I can’t tolerate my children. Would you tell me how to overcome my temper?” Why would we not open up to one another in this way? Instead of seeing a scenery of intimate fellowship in the vital groups, I see a very behaving scenery. Everybody behaves. No one wants to make a mistake. Everyone wants to be a “good boy” and a “good girl.” I have seen this for many years, and I am disgusted with this. I want to see a group of seeking saints coming together to gain the Lord Jesus.
But where can we see a group of saints practicing the New Testament revelation today? Who is denying himself? Who is being renewed, transformed, and conformed to the image of the One who has passed through death and resurrection? Gradually, we have drifted into practicing a routine church life, but where is the Spirit and where is the leading of the Lord? There is not much leading of the Spirit among us. Instead, you act by your way, and I act by my way. You pray by your way, and I pray by my way. Who is going to be adjusted? Who is going to learn? If we are not inwardly adjusted and transformed, then where is the church life?
We have lost the impact in winning the sinners because we are a group of behaving people. We do not have the real spirituality as the power from on high, as the impact. In nearly everything, we have lost our spiritual impact. This is why we need a strict training. Otherwise, there will be no remedy to our situation. We love the recovery, we love the Lord, we love the church, and we are so good. We behave ourselves so that we do not offend anyone or make mistakes in the church life. But this is not the church life. This is a kind of top social club. The church life, however, is a group of Jesus-lovers who seek after Him.
These lovers of Jesus are ones who, after being regenerated, go on to learn the lesson of denying themselves in everything so that they can be renewed. They are living, serving, and meeting not by their doing and adjustment but by the Holy Spirit’s leading. They are being renewed even in the way they deal with their children and in the way they talk to their spouse.
… We need to be transformed in everything. The Lord needs a group of people who have been regenerated, renewed, transformed, and conformed to the firstborn Son of God so that they can be built up together. This building is the Body and the practical church life.
I appreciate that the Lord has raised up so many churches on the earth, but the actual situation of the churches with respect to the practice of the God-ordained way is not that much up to the standard. This is why we need to raise up the vital groups. The remedy is here. In our vital groups, we must have much and thorough prayer to get ourselves blended with others in love. Whenever we come together, we should open up to one another to have an intimate and thorough fellowship.”
(Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, Chapter 15)
Livingly Wrong 