Investing Our One Talent

God wants only the feeble ones

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“God does not want those who are strong in themselves. He wants only the feeble ones, the weaker ones, the women and children (cf. 1 Cor. 1:26-28; 2 Cor. 12:9-10). They can become His armies because the fighting is not in their hands but in His. God needs a people who are one with Him, a people who are submissive to Him, signified by the plaited hair (SS 1:11), and obedient to Him with a flexible will, signified by the neck with strings of jewels (SS 1:10). Those who are counted worthy to be overcomers will be the weaker ones who depend on the Lord (cf. Rev. 3:8; Rom. 9:16; Gal. 2:20).”

(Song of Songs 6:13, Recovery Version, footnote 2)

Do not try to be strong

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“In Revelation 3:8 we see the condition of the church in Philadelphia. Firstly, this church had ‘a little power.’ Many times we estimate the church in Philadelphia too highly, thinking that this church was strong and prevailing. Actually, it was not so…. While we estimate the church in Philadelphia very highly, the Lord says that she had ‘a little power.’ What pleases the Lord is not that we are strong, but that we use our little power to do the best we can. Do not try to be strong. The strong ones may not please the Lord as much as those who do their best with the little power they have. You can never surpass what the Lord gives you. Simply spend what you have received from Him. Do not usurp the Lord’s grace. None among us can say that he has received nothing from the Lord. Even the least among us has received a certain amount of grace from Him. You must spend that grace, using it to do your best. If you do this, the Lord will appreciate you and say, ‘Good. You have a little power, yet you have kept My word with the power you have.’ Do not seek to be a giant. The Lord is not happy with giants; He is happy with the little ones who have an amount of grace. Although that grace may be limited in its capacity, as long as we use it, spending it to do as much as we can to keep the Lord’s word, He will be pleased.”

(Life-Study of Revelation, Chapter 15)

Changing our concepts and habits to take the God-ordained way

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Link from LivingToHim.com:  Changing our Concepts and Habits to Take the God-Ordained Way (Part 1)

“Unless we have the right view and are willing to change our concept and our system so that every saint fulfills his function, we will not be able to multiply….” (Shepherding the Church and Perfecting the Young People, Chapter 3)

Excerpt:

We need to have 6 changes of concepts and habits (practices):

  • From meeting to people: from meeting-centered to people-centered
  • From big to small: from holding big meetings to gathering in 2s and 3s
  • From coming to going: from always asking people to come to going to visit people where they are
  • From “center to circumference” to “mutuality to mutuality”: from one-directional working on a few “promising” ones to mutual caring among all
  • From “top to bottom” to “bottom to top”: from having a top-down one-directional organized church structure to everyone actively initiating and functioning
  • From “small to big” to “few to many”: from making one home meeting bigger and bigger to multiplying one home into many homes — the principle of the mustard seed vs. the principle of the grain of wheat

The need of the one-talented members

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The Parable of the Talents: Matthew 25:14-30

“Whether or not a church can grow prevailingly does not depend on whether those who have received five talents come forth and serve or not…. The full responsibility rests upon the one-talented ones.

From generation to generation, all the difficulties lie not with the five-talented ones but with the one-talented ones. If the one-talented ones are all right, everything is all right. If the one-talented ones bury their talent, everything is finished.

The difficulty with the one-talented ones is that they have buried their talents in the ground, and as a result you can sense the weight of death in the church. You do not know how heavy it is. The five-talented ones are carrying the one-talented ones. How heavy is the weight of death!

At any time and at any place where there is a church, all the one-talented ones should bring forth their talents and do business. When all the one-talented ones bring forth their talents, there is a church in that locality.

You yourselves must take heed to see that whether or not a church is managed properly is not just a problem of you yourself, but more a problem of whether or not you have the ability to make all the one-talented ones bring forth their talents. All the problems in the church today issue from the one-talented ones.

The Lord has shown us that there is not one whose gift exceeds five talents. For a span of 20 years, the church may have only one with 5 talents. But every day the church can have 5 persons each with one talent. Any one of the children of God even in the poorest condition still has one talent. When you put 5 of the one-talented ones together, it equals one who has 5 talents. If all the one-talented ones in the church today would bring forth their talents, there would be no need of so many great gifts among us.

Just by the coming forth of the one-talented ones, let me tell you, the whole world will be conquered.

(EM quoting Watchman Nee from Further Talks on the Church Life, International Blending Conference in London 2016)