Vital Groups

How do we have a genuine revival?

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“The only way to have a revival, a new beginning, is to be open. This is the only way to be fresh. We need to open and be released instead of being locked inside the self. It is very simple to open ourselves. For example, instead of being shut within our oppressed self, we can tell a brother that we feel oppressed and old. If we would open to one another whenever we meet together, there would be a revival among us. There are many serving ones in the churches. On the one hand, we know one another because we see one another nearly every day, but on the other hand, we do not know one another, because we are closed. I do not open my inner spiritual condition to you, and you do not reveal your inner spiritual condition to me. How can there be a revival among us under such circumstances?

…We should not think that the revival will come to us from heaven or from the abyss; it simply needs to flow out of us. The impression that we receive from reading the history of revivals in the church is that believers anticipate that revivals would descend from above. However, those who have experience realize that the power they thought would descend from above actually flows out of their inner being. Hence, the key to revival is being open. The power in us is an explosive force. As long as we are willing to open and let it explode from within us, we will have a prevailing revival.

It is right to say that we need to pray in order to have a revival. However, I must repeat that the key, the secret, of having a revival is not in our asking the Lord to give us something from above but in our opening to Him and letting Him flow out. Being open is the basic principle for allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us. The more we are reserved and closed, the less likely we are to receive grace.

…This is where our problem lies. When we come together for fellowship or in the meetings, we are closed. Most of the saints who come to the prayer meeting on Tuesday night come with a closed attitude. They have made up their mind not to open their mouth to pray. How can we have a strong prayer meeting? Perhaps in the prayer meeting and the bread-breaking meeting we should give messages concerning being open in order to encourage the saints to open. Some saints might feel reluctant to speak because they are not “inspired” by the Holy Spirit. However, as long as we are open, inspiration will come. The less we open, the more difficult it will be to open, and the more we wait for inspiration, the less inspiration we will receive.

We have a treasure in us, but it is locked up. It does not matter whether we are weak, strong, cold, or burning. When we are burning, this rich source is in us, and when we are cold, this rich source is still in us. This source never changes. The question is whether we would let it flow out.

When I was young, I liked to play with firecrackers. I would get about a dozen firecrackers and use a pin to open the paper wrapping around the fuse so that the gunpowder was exposed. Then I would set off a couple of firecrackers and let them explode. The sparks from these firecrackers would touch other firecrackers and kindle the gunpowder. As a result, all the firecrackers would explode. This analogy is fitting for Christians. Each of us is a firecracker, and Christ is our gunpowder. Our problem is that Christ is securely wrapped within us, and we are neither willing to be broken nor to open. We pray for a revival, but we keep ourselves tightly closed. Hence, we cannot “explode,” and even our earnest prayer does not avail. If we want to pray, we should pray that the Lord would cause us to open.

We must submit to the Lord and humbly ask Him to give us a vision. We should not merely have enjoyment, satisfaction, and a sense of sweetness in our pursuit of the Lord. We need to see that the Lord is in resurrection. We need a vision of resurrection so that we would be able to leap upon the mountains and skip upon the hills. In spite of the things pressing on our spirit and the difficulties in our environment, we need to see that the Lord is living and strong in us; He is leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills. If we would know resurrection and be open, we would be like unwrapped firecrackers. Once one firecracker explodes, it can kindle the others. If I am open, I can burn someone else until he is open, and then he can burn me. As a result, we will have a genuine revival.”

(The Law of Revival, chapter 2)

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We do not open up to others, because we are afraid to be known by them

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“… 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)

The church is a home, hospital, and school — not a police station

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“The church is not a police station to arrest people or a law court to judge people, but a home to raise up the believers. Parents know that the worse their children are, the more they need their raising up. If our children were angels, they would not need our parenting to raise them up. The church is a loving home to raise up the children. The church is also a hospital to heal and to recover the sick ones. Finally, the church is a school to teach and edify the unlearned ones who do not have much understanding. Because the church is a home, a hospital, and a school, the co-workers and elders should be one with the Lord to raise up, to heal, to cover, and to teach others in love.

Some of the churches, however, are police stations to arrest the sinful ones and law courts to judge them. Paul’s attitude was different. He said, ‘Who is weak, and I am not weak?’ (2 Cor. 11:29a). When the scribes and Pharisees brought an adulterous woman to the Lord, He said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her’ (John 8:7). After all of them left, the Lord asked the sinful woman, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ Then Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you’ (vv. 10-11). Who is without sin? Who is perfect? Paul said, ‘To the weak I became weak that I might gain the weak’ (1 Cor. 9:22). This is love. We should not consider that others are weak but we are not. This is not love. Love covers and builds up, so love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and to do anything for the building up of the Body of Christ.”

(The Vital Groups, Chapter 8, Section 4)

Do we want one or two leading ones to do everything for us?

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“If we would neglect the home meetings and only care for the big meetings, we would not need much practice. One or two leading ones would do everything for us. They would become the clergy and everyone else would become laymen. That is not the church life. There would be no way for the Lord to build up His Body. The building up all depends upon the home meetings. So all of us have to practice the filling of our spirit and the strengthening into our inner man. Then we will be full of the Triune God, full of His attributes, and we will be strengthened in our spirit. Then when we come together, everyone will be equipped to carry the home meeting on. This is the way. I hope that this would not be just a message to you, but rather a kind of instruction that you would practice. Practice daily to be filled in your spirit and to be strengthened into your inner man.”

(The Home Meetings, chapter 2)

Without home meetings there can be no building

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“And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart.” (Acts 2:46)

“[T]o meet in today’s Christianity way, to have the great congregations, is altogether natural, worldly, according to human society. I have never heard of any kind of movement or any kind of culture which invented this way of meeting in every home. Such a thing is only in the Bible [Acts 2:46].  At the very initiation of the church life the saints met from house to house. This is quite extraordinary. This is not following the natural way.

…You may ask, ‘Without the big meetings how could we have the increase?’ In the sixties when I came to this country, the evangelist Dr. Billy Graham was promoting small group meetings. Because Billy Graham found out that many brought to the gospel were scattered in the denominations and eventually became cold, he encouraged people to form small groups to have Bible study and to pray together. What he promoted was the same in principle as what we are talking about. Although thousands of people may be brought in without the small groups, how many of them could remain? There is no way. It is just like bringing the water out of a deep well and pouring it on the earth. All the water will sink back. We may get the increase, but without the small group meetings they cannot remain in the church to be built up.

…I say this especially to the leading ones of all the churches; what you have been doing is just to maintain a meeting situation of the church. As you do not have small groups, how could you have the building up? It is impossible…. After the meeting we have much contact with each other, but we still do not have much positive building because we are short of the home meetings. We must see the need of the home meetings. Without home meetings there can be no building.

…Do not say that you are weak, that you cannot overcome your self, that you cannot overcome your temper, that you cannot control yourself, that you cannot do this or that. Just set up a home meeting in your home. I have seen in many cases that when you set up a meeting in your home the Holy Spirit brings people to you. Gradually people will come. I would say that if you are a Christian, yet you do not have a home meeting, you are not up to the standard. You may know the Bible, be spiritual, be seeking, love the Lord, and so forth, but if you do not open your home, you are not up to the standard. Even a single sister could open her apartment for meetings. Every lodging of the saints, whether single or with a family, should be opened up for meeting.

…Are you going to be holy? Set up a home meeting. Are you going to be spiritual? Set up a home meeting. Are you going to know the Bible? Nothing will force you to seek the knowledge of the Bible more than setting up a home meeting. The home meetings will force you to seek after the proper, spiritual knowledge, and while you are seeking the knowledge for teaching others, you yourself will be taught, enlightened, and nourished. I can recall my own history. When I was trying to teach others I began to realize that I needed to be taught. The definite, single, and sole step for the Lord’s recovery to take today is to promote the home meetings. This is the unique way.”

(The Home Meetings, pp.12-13, 20)

How to overcome the degradation of the church

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“… I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sobermindedness.”  (2 Timothy 1:6-7)

“How can we overcome the degradation of the church? We must have a burning human spirit of love [2 Tim. 1:6-7]. Under today’s degradation of the church, we all need a spirit of love fanned into flame to be burning in spirit. Love prevails in this way.

According to my observation throughout the years, most of the co-workers have a human spirit of ‘power’ but not of love. We need a spirit of love to conquer the degradation of today’s church. We should not say or do anything to threaten people. Instead we should always say and do things with a spirit of love, which has been fanned into flame. This is what the recovery needs.”

(The Vital Groups, pp. 71,73)

Where is the reality of the Body of Christ?

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“Today in the recovery, we need to go on and on to reach the high peak of God’s economy, that is, Mount Zion…. Although Jerusalem is good, it is not the peak. In Jerusalem there is a peak, that is, Mount Zion, on which the temple was built…. The good situation in the recovery today is just like Jerusalem. However, there is no Zion. In the New Testament the overcomers are likened to Zion. In Revelation 14:1 the 144,000 overcomers are not just in Jerusalem; they are on the peak of Zion. The overcomers, the vital groups, are today’s Zion. My burden today is to help you reach the peak of the vital groups, that is, the overcomers’ Zion. Although we may have a good church life, among us there is almost no realization, no practicality, no actuality, and no reality of the Body life. This is the need in the recovery today.

The regular procedures of the church work in the Lord’s recovery today consist of four steps: begetting, nourishing, teaching (perfecting), and building. Begetting is to have sinners saved and regenerated to become the members of Christ (1 Cor. 4:15b; Matt. 28:19); nourishing is to feed the new believers for their growth in the divine life (1 Thes. 2:7; John 21:15, 17); and teaching is to perfect the saints that they may mature to be built (Matt. 28:20a; Eph. 4:12-16). The steps of begetting, nourishing, and perfecting are all for another higher step, that is, for the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12b, 16) in the local churches (Rev. 1:4a, 11). However, we need to ask ourselves, ‘Where is such a building? Where is the Body of Christ today? Within and among the many local churches, where is the reality of the Body of Christ?’ According to my observation, we cannot see the reality of the Body of Christ anywhere today.

….The highest peak of the Lord’s recovery that can really, practically, and actually carry out God’s economy is for God to produce not many local churches in a physical way but an organic Body to be His organism. We all have a physical body, but our body actually is not the reality of our being. My body is me, but it is not the reality of my being. Likewise, the churches set up around the globe are a physical frame, but among the churches there may be no reality of the Body of Christ. If we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that this is our situation today. Where is the reality of the Body of Christ?”

(Practical Points Concerning Blending, Ch. 2)

Mutual fellowship is better than merely listening to messages

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“The content of the small group gatherings involves mutual fellowship. In Greek the word fellowship conveys the meaning of flowing, being in agreement, linking up, and communicating. Hence, fellowship is a flow. For example, the circulation of the blood in the body is a kind of fellowship. Likewise, the electric current in a lamp is a kind of fellowship. When there is no flow of electricity, a lamp stands alone. But once a lamp is connected to the electrical current, it is connected not only to the power plant but also to other lamps.

As believers, we have the Spirit of God and the life of God in us. Today the life of God and the Spirit of God are flowing within us continually. We have this flow, and even those who have not been meeting for a long time have this flow. Many dormant saints say, ‘I have not been meeting for many years, and I am embarrassed to go back.’ This sense of embarrassment proves that they still have God’s life in them; they are still breathing. It also proves that they have the sense of life within them. Hence, there is still hope for them. This hope is related to the flow of life, which is also the fellowship.

When we gather together in the groups, we should believe that the Lord is in our midst. From the day we were saved, He came into us with His life, and He has never left. Furthermore, we can also stand on His promise in Matthew 18:20: ‘Where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst.’ We must acknowledge and grasp this privilege.

…. Each time we come to a gathering, it is not to conduct business, not to eat hot pot, and not to make friends or seek assistance. We come to seek the Lord Jesus, that is, to be gathered into the Lord’s name. Once we have this faith, we can say, ‘Lord, we thank and praise You. This small gathering is connected to heaven. You are on the throne, in our midst, and even in us.’ We must have this faith and make this declaration.

…. Mutual fellowship is truly better than merely listening to messages. Listening to messages is similar to eating only white rice during a meal; there is not much variety in flavor. When we have a meal, we always have other dishes in addition to white rice. The two-way traffic in fellowship is similar to pickled vegetables, which stimulate one’s appetite during a meal…. There may be strengthening prayers or testimonies that follow one after another. Following this fellowship, the entire gathering will open up. After half an hour of fellowship, everyone will be full and satisfied, and when they part, they will yearn for the next meeting.”

(Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 4: The Increase and Spread of the Church, ch. 8)

If we gather together only in big meetings, the proper church life will be hindered

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“The group meetings are the life line of the God-ordained way. As long as we have not touched the group meetings, we have hardly begun to practice the God-ordained way. Satan has deceived us, just as the serpent deceived Eve, through the practice of Christianity to pay attention to big meetings. However, the New Testament makes it clear that the first stage of the Christian meetings was in the homes. According to Acts 2:46, on the day of Pentecost the believers met from house to house. This means that they met in homes, from home to home. The Greek phrase translated ‘from house to house’ implies that wherever there is a home of a Christian, there should be a meeting. In all the Christians’ homes, there should be meetings. Although I stressed this again and again, today we may still prefer to have big meetings. If we gather together only in big meetings, the proper church life will be hindered. When clumps of grass are scattered about, they grow and spread, but when they are piled together, they die. We may prefer to have the facade of a big meeting, but the Lord is not for that. The Lord is for His spreading, and His spreading is in the homes.

…. I fully realize that our barrenness is due mainly to the lack of the group meetings. If we do not have the group meetings, it will be difficult to overcome our barrenness. We may still have some increase, but the rate of increase will probably not be high, and the atmosphere in our meetings also will not be high. A large tree without branches cannot bear fruit. The big meetings are like the trunk of a tree, but a trunk alone cannot bear fruit. The trunk needs tender, fresh branches. It is the branches that can bear fruit. In the church life the branches are the groups. We should not be individualistic but should live in the Body. According to the New Testament, to live in the Body, we need the groups. This does not mean that we should group all the saints into one gathering. According to Acts, it means that we should group the saints together in home meetings.”

(Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, ch. 1)

What does it mean to meet?

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“This is the start of the vital groups… we are in a stage in which we need to be vital. We need to be living, burning and fruitful…. How can we be vital? We have to run the race… we all have to run the race by contacting people… we should contact one another every day, every week, every month, and every year. When we contact one another we are meeting. To meet is to blend and to know each other. Our contact should not be formal and official but normal and living in every way.”

(The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups, ch. 4, 9, 11)