The Lord has left no aspect of our need unmet in His Cross

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God must bring us to a point—I cannot tell you how it will be, but He will do it—where, through a deep and dark experience, our natural power is touched and fundamentally weakened, so that we no longer dare trust ourselves. He has had to deal with some of us very harshly, and take us through difficult and painful ways, in order to get us there. At length there comes a time when we no longer ‘like’ to do Christian work—indeed we almost dread to do things in the Lord’s Name. But then at last it is that He can begin to use us.

I can tell you this, that for a year after I was converted I had a lust to preach. It was impossible to stay silent. It was as though there was something moving within me that drove me forward, and I had to keep going. Preaching had become my very life. The Lord may graciously allow you to go on a long while like that—and not only so but with a fair measure of blessing—until one day that natural force impelling you is touched, and from then on you no longer do it because you want to do it but because the Lord wants it. Before that experience you preached for the sake of satisfaction you got from serving God in that way; and yet sometimes the Lord could not move you to do one thing that He wanted done. You were living by the natural life, and that life varies a good deal. It is the slave of your temperament. When emotionally you are set on His way you go ahead at full speed, but when your emotions are directed the other way you are reluctant to move at all, even when duty calls. You are not pliable in the Lord’s hands. He has therefore to weaken that strength of preference, of like and dislike, in you, until you will do a thing because He wants it and not because you like it. You may enjoy it or you may not, but you will do it just the same. It is not that you can derive a certain satisfaction from preaching or from doing this or that work for God, and therefore you do it. No, you do it now because it is the will of God, and regardless of whether or not it gives you conscious joy. The true joy you know in doing His will lies deeper than your variable emotions.

God is bringing you to the place where He has but to express a wish and you respond instantly. That is the spirit of the Servant (Psalm 40: 7, 8), but such a spirit does not come naturally to any of us. It comes only when our soul, the seat of our natural energy and will and affections, has known the touch of the Cross. Yet such a servant-spirit is what He seeks and will have in us all. The way to it may be a painful, long-drawn-out process with some of us, or it may be just one stroke; but God has His ways and we must have regard to them.

Every true servant of God must know at some time that disabling from which he can never recover; he can never be quite the same again. There must be that established in you which means that from henceforth you will really fear yourself. You will fear to do anything ‘out from’ yourself, for, like Jacob, you know what kind of sovereign dealing you will incur if you do it; you know what a bad time you will have in your own heart before the Lord if you move out on the impulse of your soul. You have known something of the chastening hand of a loving God upon you, a God who “dealeth with you as with sons” (Heb. 12: 7). The Spirit Himself bears witness in your spirit to that relationship, and to the inheritance and glory that are ours “if so be that we suffer with him” (Rom. 8: 16, 17); and your response to the ‘Father of our spirits’ is: “Abba, Father”.

But when this is really established in you, you have come to a new place which we speak of as ‘resurrection ground’. Death in principle may have had to be wrought out to a crisis in your natural life, but when it has, then you find God releases you into resurrection. You discover that what you have lost is coming back—though not as before. The principle of life is at work in you now—something that empowers and strengthens you, something that animates you, giving you life. From henceforth what you have lost will be brought back -but now under discipline, under control.

Let me make this quite clear again. If we want to be spiritual people, there is no need for us to amputate our hands or feet; we can still have our body. In the same way we can have our soul, with the full use of its faculties; and yet the soul is not now our life-spring. We are no longer living in it, we are no longer drawing from it and living by it; we use it. When the body becomes our life we live like beasts. When the soul becomes our life we live as rebels and fugitives from God —gifted, cultured, educated, no doubt, but alienated from the life of God. But when we come to live our life in the Spirit and by the Spirit, though we still use our soul faculties just as we do our physical faculties, they are now the servants of the Spirit; and when we have reached that point God can really use us.

But the difficulty with many of us is that dark night. The Lord graciously laid me aside once in my life for a number of months and put me, spiritually, into utter darkness. It was almost as though He had forsaken me—almost as though nothing was going on and I had really come to the end of everything. And then by degrees He brought things back again. The temptation is always to try to help God by taking things back ourselves; but remember, there must be a full night in the sanctuary—a full night in darkness. It cannot be hurried; He knows what He is doing.

We would like to have death and resurrection put together within one hour of each other. We cannot face the thought that God will keep us aside for so long a time; we cannot bear to wait. And I cannot tell you how long He will take, but in principle I think it is quite safe to say this, that there will be a definite period when He will keep you there. It will seem as though nothing is happening; everything you valued is slipping from your grasp. There confronts you a blank wall with no door in it. Seemingly everyone else is being blessed and used, while you yourself have been passed by and are losing out. Lie quiet. All is in darkness, but it is only for a night. It must indeed be a full night, but that is all. Afterwards you will find that everything is given back to you in glorious resurrection; and nothing can measure the difference between what was before and what now is!

I was sitting one day at supper with a young brother to whom the Lord had been speaking on this very question of our natural energy. He said to me, ‘It is a blessed thing when you know the Lord has met you and touched you in that fundamental way, and that disabling touch has been received.’ There was a plate of biscuits between us on the table, and I picked one up and broke it in half as though to eat it. Then, fitting the two pieces together again carefully, I said, ‘It looks all right, but it is never quite the same again, is it? When once your back is broken, you will yield ever after to the slightest touch from God.’

That is it. The Lord knows what He is doing with His own, and He has left no aspect of our need unmet in His Cross, that the glory of the Son may be manifested in the sons. Disciples who have gone this way can, I believe, truly echo the words of the apostle Paul, who could claim to serve God “in my spirit in the gospel of his Son” (Rom. 1: 9). They have learned, as he had, the secret of such a ministry: “We… worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3: 3).

(The Normal Christian Life, chp. 13)

What does it mean to be blended?

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“When we blend together, we have the cross and the Spirit. Without the cross and the Spirit, all that we have is the flesh with division…. We may come together without much blending because everyone stays in themselves. They are afraid to offend others and make mistakes, so they keep quiet. This is the manner of man according to the flesh. When we come together, we should experience the terminating of the cross. Then we should learn how to follow the Spirit, how to dispense Christ, and how to say and do something for the benefit of the Body. To be blended means that you are touched by others and that you are touching others. But you should touch others in a blending way. Go through the cross, do things by the Spirit, and do everything to dispense Christ for His Body’s sake. We should not come to a blending meeting to be silent. We have to prepare ourselves to say something for the Lord. The Lord may use us, but we need to be tempered and crossed out, and we need to learn how to follow the Spirit to dispense Christ for His Body’s sake. Such a blending is not social but the blending of the very Christ whom the individual members, the district churches, the co-workers, and the elders enjoy, experience, and partake of. The blending is for the building up of the universal Body of Christ (Eph. 1: 23) to consummate the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21: 2) as the final goal of God’s economy according to His good pleasure (Eph. 3: 8-10; 1: 9-10).”

(CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “The Divine and Mystical Realm”)

What is the best way to take care of new ones?

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“To give the new believers and young ones a lot of teaching is not the proper way to take care of them. The proper way to foster them is to show them a pattern. By showing them a pattern you water them, supply them, nourish them, and cherish them. This is fostering. If you find that your experience is somewhat lacking, point the new believers to different people in the Bible, for example, to ones such as Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and David in the Old Testament and Peter, John, Paul, and Timothy in the New Testament. We can present the lives of Bible characters in such a way as to foster the growth of the young ones.

If we give too much teaching to new ones and young ones, we shall damage them. Every mother knows that one of the most important matters in the raising of children is proper feeding. Caring for children is ninety percent a matter of feeding and ten percent a matter of teaching. This also should be our practice in caring for new believers in the church. We must learn to have ninety percent feeding and ten percent teaching. Feeding involves the presenting of patterns either from the Bible or from church history. By reading the biographies of saints throughout the ages, we nourish ourselves and experience a kind of fostering. The point here is that the best way to feed others and foster them is to give them a proper pattern. If there is no pattern, there can be no fostering. Only by having a pattern can we feed others.”

(Raising Up the Next Generation for the Church Life, Chapter 9)

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)

Featured

Old Way/ New Way

Featured / livinglywrong
 Old Way New Way
Caring for the meeting Caring for people
Being isolated in my home Opening my home to saints and /or visiting saints in their homes
Only staying in or thinking about my district/locality/state/country Blending, visiting, migration; praying for the Lord’s move all over the Earth; being Body-conscious
Being set, settled, and occupied Being open to migrate
Big meetings Twos and threes
Charismatic speakers Every member functioning
Scheduled activities / special events Everyday activities done together
Big Small
Meeting hall Homes
Individual spirituality Corporate building up
Criticizing the elders and/or other saints Being a pattern of the healthy church life
Spiritual giants Vital groups
Trying to become a five-talented member Investing my one talent
Regulating behavior Growing in the divine life
The principle of the tree: outward display, deeply rooted in the earth, a lodging place for birds (Matt. 13:32) The principle of the mustard seed: small, sojourning, good for food
Having meetings Wanting to be with the saints
Taking care of meetings Taking care of people (saints, new ones, unbelievers)
Hierarchy/clergy-laity Mutuality
One-directional working on a few “promising” ones Mutual caring among all
Top to bottom: having a top-down one-directional organized church structure Bottom to top: everyone actively initiating and functioning
Small to big: making one home meeting bigger and bigger Few to many: multiplying one home into many homes
Meeting once or twice a week Contacting saints regularly throughout the week (because I need them)
Dressing up and putting on a performance for the big meetings Being genuine with one another, getting to really know one another, loving one another
Brothers doing everything, sisters being left out (including husbands and wives) All members especially sisters functioning, couples and families serving together, brothers heading up and covering
Inviting new ones to our meetings and conferences Visiting new ones where they are, especially in their home
Only meeting with saints who are from my cultural background or language Being open to blend with all the saints
The 20% church life The 80% church life
Brothers being 2/3 of the saints Sisters being 2/3 of the saints
Looking to a “pastor” or leading brother to run the home meeting and give a teaching/message Every member functioning in mutuality in the homes, learning by asking and answering questions
Focusing only on college students All saints being cared for
Living to our children Living with the tabernacle (Christ and the church) as our center
Not letting others care for our children Caring for one another’s children so the sisters can make it to the meetings
Barrenness Corporate bearing of remaining fruit
Formulaic meetings (pray-eat-sing-read) Organic functioning of every member, following the leading and flow of the Spirit
Focusing on the Lord’s Day meetings Daily church life
Following our jobs Following the Lamb

What is the foundation of the church meetings? ​

/ livinglywrong

“THE HOME MEETINGS BEING THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH MEETINGS

When the church was established, three thousand people were saved, and later five thousand men were baptized (v. 41; 4:4). Altogether, at least eight thousand people received salvation. How did they live the church life? The church met together, but how did this many people meet? In other words, what was the foundation of their meetings?… What is the foundation of the church meetings? The eight thousand who were saved met in the temple and from house to house, from one house to another (2:46; 5:42). When they were in the temple, mainly Peter, John, and the other apostles spoke. But there was no way for Peter and John to meet with all eight thousand people, comprising a minimum of a thousand homes; the believers needed to meet from house to house.

Acts 5:42 says, “Every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and announcing the gospel of Jesus as the Christ.” Those who were saved for even a day or two began to meet in their homes, and they did not speak the teachings of Moses or Elijah. Every household was speaking what they heard from Peter in the temple.

The crucial point is that the meetings in the homes were the foundation of the church meetings. A big meeting in the temple was not the foundation. The believers who were produced by the speaking in the temple were brought to meetings in individual homes. In other words, the building up of the church did not depend on the big meetings in the temple; rather, the building up of the church depended on the meetings in the homes, the meetings from house to house.

In Acts 8, not long after the eight thousand were saved, a great persecution arose in Jerusalem. The believers all left Jerusalem, and only the twelve apostles remained. It is hard to believe, but the Bible says that “all were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles” (v. 1). The propagation of the gospel and the spread of the testimony of the church did not depend primarily on the apostles but rather on the newly saved ones who were dispersed. We have to believe that even in their dispersion, they were not able to hold big meetings because of persecution. It should be clear that big meetings were not the foundation of the church. The meetings from house to house, the meetings with three to seven people in the homes, were the foundation of the church. The big meetings are like skating in an ice rink; it is easy to skate in, and it is easy to skate out, but the home meetings can actually keep people. This light is very clear in the Bible.

THE SMALL GROUP MEETINGS STARTING IN TAIWAN

In the Lord’s recovery we saw this light from the beginning. Thus, we encouraged the saints to migrate for the gospel…. In Taipei we first began to meet in one hall. When we gained more people, we met in several locations. When even more were added, we divided them into homes and then into groups for visitation and shepherding. These homes and groups brought in tens of thousands of people and were able to retain them. From 1949 to 1957 the number of saints in the churches on the island of Taiwan increased from four or five hundred to forty or fifty thousand; there was nearly a hundredfold increase. However, in 1958 we were distracted and started to go downhill. This downward slope was not steep; rather, it was a gentle decline. However, we have been going downhill for twenty-seven years.

GOING DOWNHILL BY PAYING ATTENTION TO THE BIG MEETINGS AND IGNORING THE HOMES AND GROUPS

When we began to leave the big meetings, which were according to the practice of the denominations, we began home meetings and small group meetings; it was not an easy mountain to climb. But before we could reach the peak, we were distracted and could not climb any further; instead, we went downhill. We went downhill to such an extent that we paid attention only to big meetings and eloquent speakers. Good speakers attract people, and the saints acquired a habit of listening to sermons. Before going to a meeting, we often would ask about the speaker. If “Paul” was speaking, everybody would go, but if “Mark” was speaking, many would say, “I don’t have the time to go.” Thus, the foundation of the church gradually shifted from small groups in the homes to speakers in a big meeting. This is like degraded Christianity.

MEETINGS WITH SPIRITUAL GIANTS NOT RETAINING PEOPLE

In Christianity there is little emphasis on home meetings or group meetings. Mainly, congregations hire a pastor who has a seminary degree, some human capability, likableness, and eloquence and who can speak on many topics. With such a pastor, the congregation will flourish and prosper, but if the pastor is not capable or eloquent, the congregation will dwindle. This is the general situation in Christianity; there is some growth, but the direction is ultimately downhill. It is hard to retain people by relying on gifted preachers or spiritual giants. When a great preacher comes, tens of thousands may come and listen, but when he leaves, everyone leaves as well. When the great preacher leaves, the thin ice that everyone is skating on melts.

People hold revival meetings in Christianity because they are deflated. The purpose of a revival meeting is to give a heart-strengthening injection. The foundation of today’s Christianity is not with small groups but with big meetings. When I was young, I went with my mother to a Sunday service for nearly twenty years. I never talked to anyone, and no one talked to my mother and me. Everyone was dressed up and sat quietly in the pews. There were hymn numbers posted on a board, and someone would begin the service by calling out these hymns. After the singing, someone would preach a sermon, and then someone would make announcements. Finally, there was a benediction to end the service. After the benediction everyone got up and left. I did not say anything to anyone, and no one spoke to us; we simply went our own way. There was no mutual fellowship, much less a steadfast continuation in the teaching of the apostles (Acts 2:42).

Sixty years ago the Lord showed us the mutual fellowship of all the members of the Body. This cannot be practiced only through big meetings. Even if we met in this way for ten years, it would not be easy for every member to be contacted. However, once we meet in a home, there is a need for everyone to speak. Even if we have never had a thorough conversation with another member, we will spontaneously have many such conversations in the homes. This is the advantage of the small group meetings.
….
HOME MEETINGS AND GROUP MEETINGS BEING THE FOUNDATION TO KEEP PEOPLE

Big meeting halls have their usefulness, but if we focus only on this aspect, we will not have the foundation of the church. Our current way is like skating in an ice rink, and it is easy for people to skate out the door. If we bring people to the home meetings and group meetings, they will be rooted and grounded. Only the home meetings and group meetings can keep people. This is God’s wise design; it is not a method conceived by man.

The Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, and He led the believers to meet from house to house. The beginning of God’s work always reveals what is best, because after His work is handed over to man, it begins to go downhill. The beginning in Acts was the best. Now the big meetings are like a skating rink, and many skate in, but many also skate out. In Acts there were meetings from house to house as a foundation to bring people into the church. Once a person met from house to house, he was surely kept. This is God’s wisdom.

…. I beg you all to pick up the burden to pray and to strive together. Do not belittle the small group meetings. Whether we can succeed, that is, whether the Lord can work out a way among us, depends on our efforts now. Otherwise, the Lord will have to look for some other people, and we will go downhill, becoming yet another group in Christianity.
….
SMALL GROUPS BEING THE WAY TO BUILD UP THE CHURCH

In the church all the brothers and sisters love the Lord, and based on this love for the Lord, I have the burden to lead you. Since you love the Lord, you must mean business with Him; your love for the Lord should not just be vain talk. The Bible shows that the Lord has only one way to build up His church, to reach His goal—the small group meetings. The building up of the church cannot be accomplished with big meetings. The big meetings of Christianity are like the age of the judges, who were like spiritual giants. When Samson rose up, it was good. When he died, Israel declined (Judg. 13—16). The age of the judges in the Old Testament prefigures today’s Christianity. If we pay attention only to big meetings and neglect the home meetings and group meetings, we are returning to the old way, reenacting the age of the judges and depending on spiritual giants. We must change our concept. We do not want judges; we want homes. Every home and every group must be strong, and we must be strong in order to have strong homes and groups.

It is preferable for a small group to have no more than twelve people. Five or six is the best, seven or eight is fine, and even eight or ten is good. Because we love Him and mean business with Him, we should daily pray, read the Word, learn the truth, see the light, experience Christ, and labor on Christ. Then when we come together, we will have experiences to share, rather than being an “audience” waiting for others to speak.
….
SIX COMMISSIONS FOR THE SMALL GROUP

First, we must change our concept; this is the most difficult thing. We must realize that the small group meetings are not a method or merely an additional meeting. We should neither uplift the big meetings nor despise them. We need to regard them equally. Presently, we need to stress the small groups because the saints still overemphasize the big meetings. We need to be balanced. We should not consider that recovering someone means to bring a person back to the big meetings on the Lord’s Day. Of course, this would be good, but it is not required. As long as a saint can come to a group meeting, this is good enough.

Second, the group meetings should strive to recover those who have not been meeting for a long time. In Taipei there are tens of thousands of brothers and sisters who have not been meeting. The three to four thousand who meet regularly should be in group meetings in order to recover those who have not been meeting for a long time.

Third, we need to preach the gospel widely. The home gospel must go out from the small groups. The community gospel must go out from the small groups. Even the campus work can go out from the small groups. The small groups are the foundation. When the small groups are not strong, it is hard to perfect people to help with the gospel on a campus. If the small groups are not strong, who can shepherd when there is a need for shepherding? If the small groups are not strong, the children’s work also will not be carried out. In order for a nation to be strong, its families must be strong. Likewise, for a church to be strong, the home meetings and group meetings must be built up as the foundation, the base, of our spiritual work.

Fourth, the small groups must be able to keep and uphold people and cause them to want to come back. We have to work on the small groups to the point that they have the power to attract and keep people. Fifth, we need to strengthen the riches in the small group meetings. The content of the small group meetings must be rich. When the small group meetings become rich, we will attain the highest goal of expressing Christ.

The small group meetings are not easy to build up. This great and high mountain is not easy to climb. When we change our concept and begin to recover those who have not been meeting for a long time, to widely preach the gospel, and to uphold, strengthen, and enrich the content of the meetings, we will reach God’s highest goal for the church—expressing Christ. May the Lord have mercy on us. May we all pray for this matter.”

(On Home Meetings, chapter 1)

Who is able to coordinate with others?

/ livinglywrong

“Those who can coordinate are those who deny themselves, reject themselves, regard themselves as nothing, and trust in God’s grace, power, and work in everything and for everything. These ones can easily coordinate with others. Actually, there is no need for them to endeavor to coordinate; they coordinate spontaneously and effortlessly because they are in God, not in themselves.”

(Life-Study of Ezekiel, p. 85)

In order to make us more valuable, God brings us through many trials and beatings

/ livinglywrong

“A piece of iron that is worth five dollars will be worth $10 when it is cast into a horseshoe. If it is made into needles, it will be worth $350. If it is made into fine blades, it will be worth $32,000, and if it is made into springs inside watches, it will be worth $250,000. Brothers and sisters, have you seen this? What is the difference between a piece of iron worth $10, $350, $32,000, and $250,000? It is the same material, but after many trials and much beating, it becomes stronger, more pliable, and more valuable. In order to make us more valuable, God brings us through many trials and beatings. In order to become a useful and valuable vessel before the Lord, we must not bemoan the things that God has allowed to come upon us. Instead, we should rejoice and rest. We should say to the Lord, “Father, I thank You, because everything You have allowed to come upon me is good.” If we submit to the will of God, our heart will find rest, and we will be filled with joy. Our mouth will be full of praise, and our burden will no longer be a burden.”

(General Messages, ch. 32)