LESSONS ON THE GOD-ORDAINED WAY

Lesson Seventeen

The Vital Groups (3)—The Start and the Practice

Scripture Reading:

S.S. 1:2-3 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine. Your anointing oils have a pleasant fragrance; Your name is like ointment poured forth; Therefore the virgins love you.

S.S. 1:4 Draw me; we will run after you–—The king has brought me into his chambers –— We will be glad and rejoice in you.

Rom. 15:16 That I might be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, a laboring priest of the gospel of God, in order that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, having been sanctified in the Holy Spirit.

John 15:16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give you.

Acts 2:47 Praising God and having grace with all the people. And the Lord added together day by day those who were being saved.

1 Cor. 12:24 But our comely members have no need. But God has blended the body together, giving more abundant honor to the member that lacked.,

I. The start of the vital groups—S.S. 1:2-4; John 15:2-5:

A. The vital groups cannot be formed by organization.

B. A vital group can come into being only by a saint who is desperate and absolute for the increase of the Lord’’s recovery.

C. Such a desperate saint would spontaneously contact others by the Lord’’s leading and gain some companion or companions for him to have a vital group.

D. They should definitely and absolutely fulfill the first four basic requirements:

1. Intimate and thorough fellowship that they may be blended together.

2. Thorough confession of sins, transgressions, defects, wrongdoings, etc.

3. Thorough consecration of themselves and of all that they have and do to the Lord.

4. Praying unceasingly that they may be brought into the infilling and the outpouring of the essential and economical Spirit.

E. They should pick up the burden and take action to contact others, either sinners or Christians:

1. Always taking care of two or three persons.

2. Not expecting to have a quick result, but setting a definite goal with a strong determination to gain at least one remaining fruit yearly.

3. With inexhaustible patience, unceasing intercession, and continuous labor.

II. The practice of the vital groups—Rom. 15:16; 1 Thes. 2:7; John 21:15-17:

A. To be a laboring priest of the gospel of God—Rom.15:16:

1. Before we go out to visit people with the gospel, we should have a time with the Lord.

2. After such prayer, we should go and labor with our companions.

3. We should give at least three hours a week to the Lord to announce Christ to people.

4. We should feed them, nourish them, and cherish them constantly week after week.

5. We have to do it constantly, patiently, and faithfully.

B. Learning to cherish people in the humanity of Jesus—Luke 4:18-19; 1 Thes. 2:7:

1. The first matter for a vital group is to contact people.

2. To cherish is to make people happy, comfortable, pleasant, and at ease in contacting you in every thing and in every aspect; just as Jesus did—Eph. 5:29.

C. Learning to nourish people in the divinity of Christ—v.29; John 21:15-17:

1. To nourish is to supply the all-inclusive Christ in the three stages of His full ministry.

2. Nourishing others not only by speaking to them but also by propagating the ministry books.

III. The increase of the vital groups—Acts 2:47:

A. The purpose of a vital group is for the increase, perfecting, and building up of the church—John 15:16; Acts 2:46-47; Eph. 4:12.

B. When the number of a vital group increases to ten or more, you should split it into two groups; and teach every group to practice vitalization.

C. The vital groups can live a normal church life, overcome the degradation of the church, constitute the Body of Christ, and consummate the New Jerusalem—Eph. 4:12-13, 16.

IV. The vital groups and the blending of the Body—1 Cor. 12:24:

A. Clustering stirring up the neighboring churches in mutual love, mutual care, mutual intercession, and mutual shepherding—Rom. 16; 1 Cor. 16:19-21; 2 Cor. 8:1-4; Rom. 15:25-27.

B. To reach the highest peak of the reality of the Body of Christ through the blending—John 17:21-23; Eph. 1:22-23; Rev. 1:20.

 

Excerpts from the ministry:

THE START OF THE VITAL GROUPS

The Vital Groups Cannot Be Organized

In this message we want to fellowship about how to start your vital group. First, you have to fellowship about how to start your vital group. First, you have to fellowship with your companion through desperate prayers for the Lord’’s blessing. We have shared previously that we need to look to the Lord for some companions. If you do not have a companion, pray desperately from tomorrow to get one. Without a companion, there is no way for you to start the vital group. (The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups, p. 44)

The vital groups cannot be formed by organization. We can testify from our experience that the way of forming vital groups by organization does not work well. Anything that is organic cannot be formed by organizing. Something that is organic can come into being only in a spontaneous and organic way. We need a drastic change in our concept. We should not attempt to organize vital groups by neighborhood, geography, language, or some other factor. This in not the way to be vital. In forming the vital groups, the first thing that we need is to be vital. (1993 Blending Conference Messages, p. 145)

A Vital Group Can Come into Being Only by a Saint
Who Is Desperate and Absolute for
the Increase of the Lord’’s Recovery

A vital group can come into being only by a saint who is desperate and absolute for the increase of the Lord’’s recovery. A vital group begins with one person. It does not begin with nine or ten persons; it begins with one vital saint. We all need to tell the Lord, ““Lord, I want to be that saint, a saint who is desperate and absolute for the increase of the Lord’’s recovery.””

Such a saint must be desperate and absolute not merely to be vital; he must be desperate and absolute for the increase of the Lord’’s recovery. According to our experience, when we are desperate and absolute for the increase of the church, we have a burden to be vital. If we do not care for the increase but rather are content to see the number in the church remain the same year after year, there is no reason to be vital. We desire to be vital for a purpose, for a goal, and that is for the increase of the Lord’’s recovery. For this we need to be desperate and we need to be absolute. To be vital we need to begin by taking this matter as life or death. If we take anything as life or death, we are vital in that thing. We need to be desperate and absolute for the increase of the Lord’’s recovery; then we will be vital. (1993 Blending Conference Messages, pp. 145-146)

Such a Desperate Saint Would Spontaneously Contact
Others by the Lord’’s Leading and Gain Some Companion
or Companions for Him to Have a Vital Group

Such a desperate saint would spontaneously contact others by the Lord’’s leading and gain some companion or companions for him to have a vital group. A vital group cannot be formed by promoting or by giving a message or by exhorting the saints to form vital groups. A vital group can be formed only by a saint who is vital. By the Lord’’s leading such a vital saint will find some others to be his companions. These will then come together to have intimate and thorough fellowship and begin to vitalize one another. In this way the genuine vital groups will be formed and produced in the church life from within. May the Lord give us this kind of desperation and this kind of absoluteness. (1993 Blending Conference Messages, p. 146)

They Should Definitely and Absolutely Fulfill the First Four Basic Requirements

Intimate and Thorough Fellowship that We May be Blended Together

The first requirement is for the intimate and thorough fellowship that we may be blended together. The basis of our blending, the foundation of our blending, is our fellowship, and our fellowship must be intimate and thorough.

We need to have an intimate and thorough fellowship in Christ as the element and sphere by exercising our spirit with much and thorough prayer, concerning our status, spiritual condition, and present situation in and with the Lord. Such fellowship is the flowing, the current, of the oneness. We need to have this kind of fellowship for the sake of being blended together into one accord. The way to be blended is by much and thorough prayer, as fine flour of the wheat, with all the members of our group, with the Spirit as the oil, through the death of Christ as the salt, and in the resurrection of Christ as the frankincense, into a dough for the Lord (1 Cor. 5:6-7a; Lev. 2:1-13). If by the Lord’’s mercy we are able to experience such a blending, we will be absolutely different from what we are today. (1993 Blending Conference Messages, pp. 146-148)

Thorough Confession of Sins, Transgressions, Defects, Wrongdoings, Etc.

The second point is that we need to have a thorough confession of our sins, transgressions, defects, wrongdoings, etc. We need to confess the sin of individualism and individuality. We also need to confess our sinful nature, its defilements, its attachment to the contamination of the world, and its oldness, asking for the Lord’’s cleansing with His precious blood. All of these things concerning our sinful nature related to our fallen human being and our natural man become real hindrances to the blending, so our confession is a real need for the vital groups. We need to have the thorough fellowship, and we also need to confess all of the hindrances that we may be blended together into one accord. (1993 Blending Conference Messages, p. 148)

Thorough Consecration of Themselves and of All That They Have and Do to the Lord

We also need to make a thorough consecration of ourselves and of all that we have and do to the Lord. In order to be vital persons and have the vital groups, we must be desperate. We need to be the vital persons, the overcomers, to rescue the church from its degradation. The Lord will gain what He desires through His overcomers.

To be such people we need to put aside our personal interests, our care for the necessities of this life, and make a strong resolution and an absolute consecration to the Lord. Second Timothy 2:4 says that no soldier entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please the one who enlisted him. If we are going to be vital persons, we must clear away all earthly entanglements.

In the Old Testament, there is the principle of the Nazarite. This is the principle we need to take today. (1993 Blending Conference Messages, pp. 148-149)

Praying Unceasingly That They May Be Brought
into the Infilling and the Outpouring of
the Essential and Economical Spirit

Also, we need to pray unceasingly that we may be brought into the infilling and outpouring of the essential and economical Spirit. The secret to being filled with the Spirit inwardly and outwardly is our prayer. We need to be desperate in our prayer. (1993 Blending Conference Messages, p. 149)

They Should Pick Up the Burden and Take Action to
Contact Others, Either Sinners or Christians

Always Taking Care of Two or Three Persons

After we become vital and are grouped together in the vital groups, we need to do something. First, we need to pick up a burden, and then we need to take action to contact people. .

After we pick up such a burden, we need to take definite action to go and contact others, either sinners or Christians. To be vital is not only to be living but also to be burdened and very active for the Lord’’s interest. Once we are living, we also need to be burdened and we need to take action to contact people. We should make a list of those who are unsaved among our relatives, friends, colleagues, and classmates, and we should begin to pray for them in a desperate way. While we are praying for them, we need to exercise our discernment according to the leading of the Spirit to select two or three from our list for us to work on for their salvation. We should have the loving concern of God’’s heart for the salvation of sinners, and we should be burdened not just to save souls but to convert sinners into members of the Body of Christ for the carrying out of God’’s economy. The Lord may lead us not only to contact sinners but also to contact some Christians who are seeking, backslidden, or dormant, and gradually, little by little and step by step, to lead them into the church life. We must believe that there are some people in our sphere of influence who are being worked on by the sanctifying Spirit to separate them unto the Lord. They need us to pick up a burden and to take definite action to go and contact them.

Not Expecting to Have a Quick Result, but Setting a
Definite Goal with a Strong Determination
to Gain At Least One Remaining Fruit Yearly

In our contacting of people, we should not expect to have a quick result. Rather, we should set a definite goal with a strong determination to gain at least one remaining fruit yearly, with inexhaustible patience and unceasing intercession.

To gain the proper increase through the practice of the vital groups, our concept needs to be revolutionized. We need to see and practice the way of fruit-bearing revealed in John 15. The real fruit-bearing in the Christian life is just like the vine. The vine does not bear fruit every day or many times a year. The vine bears fruit only once a year and only in a particular season. The fruit-bearing by the vine is both yearly and seasonal. As the living branches of Christ, the true vine, we should bear remaining fruit once a year.

With Inexhaustible Patience, Unceasing Intercession, and Continuous Labor

According to John 5:16, we have been chosen by the Lord and set by Him to go forth and bear remaining fruit. Fruit-bearing is our destiny, and to bear remaining fruit every year must be our definite goal with a strong determination…First. We need to abide in the Lord through unceasing prayer in intimate fellowship with Him(vv. 4-5)…Second, in order to bear remaining fruit, we need to labor diligently and pray desperately and unceasingly. We should exercise ourselves to always have two or three persons under our care so that one of these could be remaining fruit at the end of a year. (1993 Blending Conference Messages, pp. 145-153)

THE PRACTICE OF THE VITAL GROUPS

To Be a Laboring Priest of the Gospel of God

Before We Go Out to Visit People with the Gospel,
We Should Have a Time with the Lord

Before we go out to visit people with the gospel, we should [firstly] have a time with the Lord. Then we should pray desperately, ““Lord, I desire to go out to spread Your salvation with the dispensing of Yourself as life to these people in need of You. Lord, I cry out to You and I touch Your throne. Lord, I call on You. Lord, I remind You that You have given the commandment to me. Go with me.”” (The Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990; p. 98)

After Such Prayer, We Should Go and Labor with Our Companions

After such prayer, we should go and labor. Then whether or not we are able to reap someone is in the hands of the Lord. If we labor in this way, we will surely gain some new ones for the Lord’’s interests. Our rate of increase should be left to the Lord. The Lord desires us to be faithful by laboring and struggling, without expecting that much. We do not need to baptize the whole world because the whole world has not been chosen by God. We should just bear the burden to faithfully labor and struggle for the gospel. (The Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, p. 98)

We Should Give At Least Three Hours a Week
to the Lord to Announce Christ to People

We surely need to take care of our family and household affairs. This is something ordained by the Lord. But at the same time, we must give the Lord a tithe of our time. At least three hours on one day of the week can be spared for the Lord. These three hours should be given to the Lord to announce Christ to people. Once we have two or three new ones through our visiting of people, we do not need to go out to get more. We should just take care of these two or three. (The Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, p. 98)

We Should Feed Them, Nourish Them,
and Cherish Them Constantly Week after Week

We should consider them as our babes, feeding them, nourishing them, and cherishing them continuously, persistently, and constantly week after week. Some will grow and others will withdraw. Some will go away, but we still can go out to gain some other new ones. By again going out to visit people, we can bring a few others under our care. Once we gain a few others, we should feed them patiently, regularly, and constantly. This is not an overnight work. We must dedicate our entire life with at least three hours a week separated to the Lord. These three hours are not for the regular church meetings; rather, they are for announcing Christ to sinners, feeding them, and perfecting them until we present them matured to the Lord. The God-ordained way requires us to work in this way for our whole life.

If you labor and struggle consistently, two remaining fruit will be added to the church life each year from your labor. If today you are thirty years old, you could have as many as eighty spiritual children by the time you are seventy years old. Your spiritual children will also have children. Thus, you could also have many spiritual grandchildren. This depends upon your faithfulness, your labor, and your struggle for the long run. The God-ordained way is not just for you to become excited and burning for a short time of three months. It is a way of constant and persistent laboring and struggling. (The Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, pp. 98-99)

We Have to Do It Constantly, Patiently, and Faithfully

The God-ordained way is to go to visit people in order to sow Christ into them. But you have to do it constantly, patiently, and faithfully in the way of fulfilling your vow to the Lord for your whole life. Be assured that the church you attend will get the increase. The God-ordained way works if you work in a proper way. It works if you work constantly, laboring and struggling. It is an exhausting labor. We all need to labor and struggle in the God-ordained way so that the recovery of Christ and the church can spread all over the earth. (The Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, p. 99)

Learning to Cherish People in the Humanity of Jesus

We need to learn to cherish others in the humanity of Jesus and to nourish others in the divinity of Christ. To cherish is to make people happy, pleasant, and comfortable. To nourish is to supply the all-inclusive Christ in the three stages of His full ministry. Both cherishing and nourishing should be done by the divine and mystical life in resurrection, not by the natural life of man in the old creation. When we come to the four gospels, we see that the Lord Jesus is our best pattern. In His saving the sinners, He always cherished them first with the goal of gaining them. In Luke 15, the Lord as the shepherd laid aside the ninety-nine sheep to seek out the lost one. Upon finding this sheep, He carried it back home on His own shoulder (vv. 4-6).

In John 4, on the way back to Galilee from Judea, the Lord deliberately passed through Sychar to wait for the Samaritan woman by Jacob’’s well (vv.3-42). Many times the Lord is waiting for us so that He can gain us. At another time, He went to Jericho because He knew that a tax collector whose name is Zaccheus would be there. The Jews at that time did not like tax collectors. Yet the Lord cherished him and went to his house so that his entire household could be saved (Luke 19:1-9). (The Morning Revival—The Constitution and Spreading of the Divine Revelation in the Lord’’s Recovery (Chinese), pp. 84-85)

Learning to Nourish People in the Divinity of Christ

The members of a vital group need to learn not only how to cherish but also how to nourish others. Cherishing without nourishing is vain. A mother cherishes her kids to make them happy so that she can feed them with food. When we cherish others to make them pleasant, our goal is to dispense the life of God into them. The Lord is both the Son of Man and the Son of God; He came in His humanity to cherish man and in His divinity to nourish man. In John chapter eight, when the adulterous woman was brought to the Lord, He did not condemn her. This was His cherishing of her. Then He said to her,”” Go and sin no more.”” It was by dispensing His life into her that she would sin no more. This is His nourishing in His divinity (vv. 3-11).

To Nourish Is to Supply the All-inclusive Christ
in the Three Stages of His Full Ministry

Revelation 1 shows us that Christ as the Son of Man is the High Priest taking care of the churches as the lampstands (12). On one hand, He is dressing the lampstands by trimming the wicks of the lampstands; this is His cherishing the churches. On the other hand, with His divine and mystical ministry by love in His three stages, He is nourishing in His divinity that the churches may grow and mature in His divine life and become the overcomers in His sevenfold intensification. The members of the vital groups have to learn these two matters. When we visit people, invite people to our homes, or contact people before and after the meetings, we have to be one with Christ to cherish and nourish them.

Nourishing others not only by speaking to them
but also by propagating the ministry books

We nourish others not only by speaking to them but also by propagating the ministry books.

The rich content of the outlines from the ministry messages can be likened to ten meals with which we should nourish others. Every member in a vital group should present the riches of Christ so that others may be nourished. Through the practice of PSRP, we digest and enter into these outlines. Then we will be able to nourish others with the unsearchable riches of Christ in three stages of His full ministry. (The Morning Revival—The Constitution and Spreading of the Divine Revelation in the Lord’’s Recovery (Chinese), p. 85)

THE INCREASE OF THE VITAL GROUPS

We all need to tell the Lord, “Lord, I want to be that saint, a saint who is desperate and absolute for the increase of the Lord’s recovery.”…We need to be desperate and absolute for the increase of the Lord’s recovery; then we will be vital.

You should also lead your contact to make thorough confessions to the Lord and also help him to pay the price at any cost as you have done. By this way a small group would spontaneously come into existence which will be vital, living, and active in the Lord’s interest. When the number of such a vital group increases to ten or more, you should split it into two groups and charge every member in this kind of group to practice the vitalization along the same track as you have been doing all the time. (1993 Blending Conference Messages Concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need, pp. 142-143, 145-146)

THE VITAL GROUPS AND THE BLENDING OF THE BODY

Such Clustering Stirring Up the Neighboring
Churches in Mutual Love, Mutual Care,
Mutual Intercession, and Mutual Shepherding

The clustering of the churches stirs up the neighboring churches in mutual love, mutual care, mutual intercession, and mutual shepherding.

Romans 16 and the end of 1 Corinthians 16 contain greetings to saints in different localities. By considering these greetings we can see that they express the mutual love among the saints in the churches. Then, in Acts 11:27-30; 1 Corinthians 16:1-3; 2 Corinthians 8:1-4 and Romans 15:25-27 we can see examples of mutual care among the churches. Such mutual care was demonstrated in the fellowship of the giving of material things. When the churches are clustered together, this kind of genuine mutual care among the churches is stirred up.

Also, through the clustering the saints hear of the needs among the churches and receive the burden to pray for them. This is an example of the mutual intercession in the Body of Christ stirred up by the clustering of the churches. When the churches cluster together, there is also the mutual shepherding through the mutual fellowship among the saints and the leading ones, so that the riches of Christ in each individual church are communicated and supplied to all the clustering churches. (1993 Blending Conference Messages Concerning the Lord’’s Recovery and Our Present Need, p. 49)

To Reach the Highest Peak of the
Reality of the Body of Christ through the Blending

It is common today that in the local churches what we can see is mostly the ““church”” in its meetings, activities, works, and services. But we cannot see much of the reality of the Body of Christ in resurrection, that is, in the Spirit, in the pneumatic Christ, and in the consummated God. So there is the need for us to endeavor to be absolutely in the resurrection life of Christ. We need to endeavor to reach in the church life the highest peak, today’’s Zion, of the reality of the Body of Christ until we consummate in the New Jerusalem, including Zion. Dear saints, this is our need. To have the blending is to meet this need. (The Practical Points Concerning Blending, p. 20)

HOW TO PRODUCE AND ESTABLISH
A VITAL GROUP IN THE CHURCH LIFE

The start of the vital groups—S.S. 1:2-4; John 15:2-5:

I. By one saint to be made vital––living and active:

A. Through the absolute, clear, and thorough fellowship with the Lord continuously.

B. Through the thorough confession of sins, transgressions, failures, defects, mistakes, wrongdoings, etc., hidden or manifested, before God and before men.

C. Through the absolute and thorough consecration of oneself with everything to the Lord.

D. Through the unceasing and desperate prayer.

E. Through soaking of the infilling and outpouring of the Spirit.

II. By contacting another seeking saint:

A. To fellowship with him or her according to the above procedures.

B. To make him or her vital and join with you as a group.

C. Both of you continuing to contact other seeking saints and making them vital to join with you and to increase your group.

D. Until your group reaches about ten, dividing it into two groups, and instructing each of the two groups to do the same thing as you have done with them. (Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, p. 253)

References: The Vital Groups, Msgs. 2, 4, 8, 16; 1993 Blending Conference Messages Concerning the Lord’’s Recovery and Our Present Need, Msgs. 2, 7; The Morning Revival—The Constitution and Spreading of the Divine Revelation in the Lord’’s Recovery (Chinese), Week 5; Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990, ch. 14; The Practical Points Concerning Blending, ch. 2, Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, ch. 25.