Keep the Flow of the Lord’s Recovery Moving in Us

Today’s Main Verses for Pray-reading

Follow the Spirit and go straight forward

Ezekiel 1:12

“And each went straight forward; wherever the Spirit was to go, they went; they did not turn as they went.”

Function as members of one Body in Christ

Romans 12:4-5

“In one body we have many members...” “So we who are many are one Body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”

Be faithful over a few things and enter into the master’s joy

Matthew 25:21

“Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful over a few things...”

Every part functions for the building up of the Body in love

Ephesians 4:16

“Out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply...”

Today’s Prayer Burden

Do not let the flow of the Lord’s recovery stagnate in us. Instead, let us consecrate ourselves absolutely, rise up and act, cooperate with God to turn the age, and participate in the church as a train speeding forward! “You are in the wrong place and have the wrong concept, so you may seem useless; but if you go to the right place, where people need you, you will be very useful.” Through the full practice of the vital groups, may every brother and sister turn from passivity to activity and from being useless to being useful, bringing revival in every locality, preparing the bride, and welcoming the Lord’s return!

Today’s Prayer

Lord, You have been moving forward throughout the generations. Have mercy on us so that we would not merely hear Your speaking and understand Your truth but also see where Your flow is today! Lord, remove every traditional concept, old practice, and natural insistence within us. Make us fully open to You and follow Your up-to-date leading! We do not want to labor by ourselves outside the flow. Bring us into Your flow; let it take over and lead us onward! Lord, we are willing to consecrate ourselves absolutely to You and no longer remain passive, watching, and waiting. Grant us a spirit of enterprise so that we may actively cooperate with You!

Lord, cause everyone to see that today’s world situation, the situation of Israel, and the development of the church are like three trains. We have no part in the ever-accelerating pace of the first two trains, but Lord, make us part of the church train as it speeds forward! Do not let us be satisfied with past experiences. Show us the challenge of this age, and cause us to jump aboard Your high-speed train of action. Accelerate our pace in prayer, in the living constitution of the truth, in living out the God-man life, in preaching the gospel, shepherding, practicing the vital groups, and carrying out the organic building up of the Body. May we keep pace with You as You turn the age!

Lord, remove the thought within us that we are useless, weak, or unable to do anything, and remove our long-standing passivity. Through the life supply, the perfecting of one another, and the practice of the vital groups, turn every brother and sister from passivity to activity, from uselessness to usefulness, and from a bystander into a vital person! Lord, may everyone rise up to supply life, preach the gospel, shepherd people, and perfect them! Turn from meetings to people, from large to small, and from coming to going!

O Lord, cause everyone to understand: “You are in the wrong place and have the wrong concept, so you may seem useless; but if you go to the right place, where people need you, you will be very useful.” Through the full practice of the vital groups, may every brother and sister turn from passivity to activity and from being useless to being useful, bringing revival in every locality, preparing the bride, and welcoming the Lord’s return!

Fellowship

Serve in the flow of the Lord’s work

If we do not work in the flow, we will waste time and energy. Our work will not have any result; in a sense, we will even be working against the Lord. Therefore, we must learn to serve the Lord in the flow. We need to abandon every traditional way of serving, even those that seem best. God is new and up-to-date, and His work is also new. He has a present work to do at this time. We need to submit ourselves to Him and learn to open ourselves to Him. Wherever the flow of the Lord’s work is, we must go there. The earth is large, the people are many, and the spiritual need today is great. We cannot meet the need of every person on earth during this period. Therefore, we must know where the Lord is flowing and where the flow is. Then we must get into the flow and let it carry us forward. We are not dragging the work along; rather, we are being carried forward by the flow. Once we are in the flow, it takes over, and no one can resist it. (The Proper and Adequate Service to the Lord, Message 2.)

The pace is accelerating; the three trains must arrive together

Today’s world situation, the situation of Israel, and the development of the church are like three trains moving toward the same terminus. The world situation is developing rapidly, and the situation of Israel is becoming more severe. If there is one thing common to the events taking place around us today, it is that “the pace is accelerating.” The first two trains are both picking up speed and will soon arrive. The question is how fast the third train is moving. The three trains must arrive at the terminus together; only then will the Lord return. (Brother Yu, “The God Who Acts,” June 14, 2020.)

Jump aboard the high-speed train of the age

The train is moving forward now, so jump aboard. If you sit there saying that you will refit the train and make it high-speed, you will have to jump up and board it later. This is our challenge and the challenge of the next generation. If you sit there, twenty years will pass quickly; twenty years have already passed since Brother Lee went to be with the Lord. (Brother Yu, “Rise Up to Successfully Practice the New Revival and Jump Aboard the High-Speed Train of the Age,” fellowship after hearing gospel testimonies from various places, December 27, 2019.)

The rise of the vital groups and the blending of the churches are the way of the Lord’s move today

The rise of the vital groups and the blending of the churches are the way the Lord carries out His move today. It is right for the local churches to follow one another’s practice. This principle also applies to the raising up of the vital groups. We should labor to establish a model of the vital groups. (Witness Lee, Collected Works, 1993, vol. 1: Fellowship with the Co-workers and Elders in Southern California, ch. 2.)

God wants us to cooperate with Him actively through our will

When a believer sinks deeply into passivity, it seems to him that he is obeying God. But the evil spirits use his passive condition to accomplish their schemes. A believer may think that he must be passive in order to obey God and be fully united with Him in his will, not realizing that God does not need his passivity; it is the powers of darkness that want him to be passive. God wants believers to cooperate with Him actively through their own will. The Bible says, “If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know...” (John 7:17), and “Whatever you will, ask, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). God does not annul our will. The most terrible thing is for a believer not to know the principle of God being in man and working through man. God created man with a free will. He does not want man’s will to make demands or take action apart from Him, but neither does He want man to have no opinion and obey Him like a machine. If a person’s will is set on what God wills, God is satisfied; He does not require man to become a person without a will. (Watchman Nee, The Spiritual Man, vol. 3, ch. 2.)

Actively exercise the gifts the Lord has given

In Matthew 25:25, the slothful slave said to his master, “I was afraid and went off and hid your talent in the earth; behold, you have what is yours.” Fear is negative. We should be aggressive and exercise the Lord’s gifts. Going off to bury the Lord’s one talent in the earth is far too passive. We should be active in the Lord’s work. If we bury our gifts, we do not need to do anything. To be passive and inactive in serving the Lord is to bury our gifts and not use them. (Witness Lee, Basic Lessons on Service, Lesson 13.)

Every saint can be useful, and every member must function

Some sisters may say, “I am just a little sister; I am not useful.” But 1 Corinthians 12:24 says that God has given more abundant honor to the member that lacked. Some saints in the United States may feel that they are not useful. But if they were willing to go to Russia, they would be very useful. All the saints are useful in preaching the gospel. The thought that we are useless is a lie. It may seem that you are useless because you are in the wrong place and have the wrong concept. But if you go to the right place, where people need you, you will be very useful. (The Practice of the Church Life according to the God-ordained Way, ch. 10.)

The church may gain one person with five thousand talents in twenty years, but it can gain five people with one thousand talents each day. Every child of God, even one who seems very incapable, still has one thousand. Put five people with one thousand together, and it equals one with five thousand. If everyone in the church brought out what they have, the whole world would be overturned. The Body of Christ exists only when every member functions; that is also when the church exists. So we must cause even those whom we think are useless to rise up and serve; then a glorious church will rise up. I would rather see simple country believers serving than only three or five outstanding people preaching. If God deals with our self and our work to the point that we go out to make a way for the ones with one thousand to serve, the church will see for the first time what brotherly love is, and Philadelphia will appear. (Watchman Nee, The Way of the Church, Message 5.)

Live the God-man life, raise up vital groups, and build the Body of Christ

If we live this kind of life, we will surely go out to contact people and preach the gospel. A vital group is a company of people who live in this way. The vital groups should not be practiced as a mere form; they should be groups of people who live this kind of life together. By living such a God-man life, we will save people, edify them, and build up the local churches, even to the extent of building up the Body of Christ. If we practice what we have heard, a model will spontaneously be established. This model will become the greatest revival in the history of the church. I believe this revival will bring the Lord back. (Witness Lee, Living a Life According to the High Peak of God’s Revelation, Message 5.)