SPIRITUAL LIFE AND DAILY LIFE
Message One
Spiritual Life—Personal
Scripture Reading:
2 Pet.1:6 And in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control, endurance; and in endurance, godliness.
John 8:32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
Eph. 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Ministry Excerpts:
Having a Definite Goal and a Schedule in Pursuing the Truth
We should have a definite goal in pursuing the truth. In order to serve the Lord, one needs to know the truth and also to grow in life. We should not seek to be great when we work; we need to properly allocate our time. We should budget our time and prepare a schedule of what to do in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening for each day of the week. Otherwise, it is easy for our time to slip away. A schedule enables us to use our time effectively, and it causes our pursuit of the truth, our service, and our work to be definite. (The Vision, Living and Work of the Lord’s Serving One, msg. 18)
The full-timers should spend their mornings reading the Bible, studying the truth, or reading spiritual books for the pursuit of life. They should also spend some time to learn a foreign language. The more languages a servant of the Lord knows, the better. For example, if I had not labored diligently to learn English seventy years ago when I lived in China, I would be unable to deal with our present situation. The present need is for the full-timers to learn English, Spanish, and other languages. Those with a burden for Korea should learn Korean. Korea needs a group of Chinese brothers and sisters to join them in the coordination. This also applies to Japan. However, the most important languages are English and Spanish; English is the common language of the world, and there are many Spanish-speaking people in the world. In addition to this, the trainees must continue to improve their Chinese. Perhaps the Lord will use them in the future for the publication work. In any event, those who want to serve the Lord must spend time to learn languages.
The full-timers should use their afternoons and evenings for the work. They should use their time to go out and knock on doors if they do not have a prayer meeting or a small group meeting. They should go out five days a week in gospel teams of three saints. If one gospel team of three can gain five people in one week, the entire team of six saints can gain ten people. If the teams gain ten people in one week, they should be able to gain one hundred people in the first ten weeks. However, this number will be reduced because the full-timers will need to nourish the newly baptized believers in home meetings immediately after they are gained. They will also need to help these new ones form small groups. Hence, the full-timers will spend their time spreading the gospel through three activities: preaching the gospel by knocking on doors, nourishing the new ones in home meetings, and teaching and perfecting the new ones in small group meetings.
The full-timers are busy working from Tuesday through Saturday, and they are busy meeting on the Lord’s Day. Moreover, their pursuit is mainly corporate. Hence, they need one day every week to be calm before the Lord in personal prayer in order to contact and fellowship with the Lord. There is a genuine need for the full-timers to spend one day in personal fellowship with the Lord. In addition to this, they also have miscellaneous personal matters to take care of, for example, taking their clothes to be cleaned and buying personal items. These things should be done on Monday, on their day off. This does not mean that they cannot sit in a park or take a walk but rather that they should not go too far or exhaust themselves. A place that is close by and quiet is all that is needed to fellowship with the Lord. They can also visit their family to take care of family matters. In summary, the full-timers should not walk farther than a Sabbath day’s journey, because this violates the principle of rest. (Three Crucial Matters for the Increase and Building Up of the Church, msg. 21)
Having a Time of Reading and Praying in the Morning
There is a real need, especially for the new and young believers who have not been built up in this way, to daily spend some time with the Lord, at least half an hour a day. I would recommend that you have a morning time, but if that is not convenient, you can use other times. The best time, however, is the morning. If possible, you must build up such a habit to spend at least half an hour to be with the Lord every day. Make this your top regulation. During this time simply read the word, understanding it spontaneously, but mostly spending your time in prayer. Do not try to read too much, and do not try to understand too much. Rather, always spend more and more time in prayer. I do not mean that you should bring many items to the Lord. Instead, simply pray according to what you understand. As to your needs, leave that to the Lord’s care. We have the promise that if we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, our Father will take care of whatever we need (Matt. 6:33). You have to stand on this promise. Simply seek the Lord Himself; seek His kingdom, and seek His righteousness. Then forget about your need, or rather, leave your need to His care.
We need to spend time to read, to understand, and to pray over the word. By doing this, we will absorb the Lord into us and apply the word to ourselves in a living way. Then we will be nourished by the Lord Himself. The commandment that we receive will be the Lord Himself, and it will be an easy thing for us to do. To love our husband will be easy. It will be spontaneous. It will not be a burden or a mere commandment; it will be an enjoyment. We will enjoy the Lord to love our husband. It will not be we but the Lord who loves our husband through us. (Practical Lessons on the Experience of Life, ch. 13)
Among us we need some who not only know the truth but who can also compose and sing hymns. If we desire to work for the Lord, we need to study and speak the Lord’s word. To speak for the Lord, we must first know the Lord’s word; that is, we must know the truth. Next, our spirit must be a strong, praying spirit, and we need to practice praying unceasingly. Third, we must develop our speaking ability. Fourth, we must also be able to sing. (Vessels Useful to the Lord, msg. 1)
In Reading the Bible You Need to Learn to Find
the Main Points and the General Thought
In reading the Bible you need to learn to find the main points and the general thought. When you read the Bible, you must learn to hit the mark. For example, when you eat chicken, you should eat its meat and not pay attention to its feathers, skin, and bones. Chicken feathers, skin, and bones are essential to the growth of a chicken, for without them it would not be possible for a chicken to exist. When you eat chicken, however, you should eat only its meat. Let us use a fish as another example. A fish has a head, a tail, fins, and bones. To properly enjoy a fish, you have to know which parts to eat. Many Americans do not know which parts of a fish can be eaten, so they discard the fish head, the fish tail, and the fish bones. As a result, they do not get the proper enjoyment of the fish. When we read the Bible, we must learn to hit the mark. Whether or not we do this depends on whether or not we are focused on the main points and have the proper enjoyment.
The authors of the Bible did not include only “chicken meat” when they wrote the Scriptures. They included geography, history, and various people, matters, and events. When we read the Scriptures, however, we should not focus on these items; instead, we should endeavor to find the main points pertaining to life and spiritual principles, such as the meaning of salvation and the meaning of grace. After reading a particular section of the Scriptures, we should also try to speak the main points and understand the outline of that section. You who are learning to work for the Lord must learn how to speak properly. You must not only speak properly when giving a message, you must also speak in a logical and attractive way that is full of content when you are conversing with people one on one. (Vessels Useful to the Lord, msg. 11)
The Life within Us Being a Life of Prayer
It is a marvelous thing that the life within us is a life of prayer. If you were to ask me, “What is the primary function of the Holy Spirit within us?” I would say that it is to lead us into prayer. Whenever you yield some room to the Holy Spirit and obey Him a little, the inevitable result is that He leads you to pray. On the other hand, whenever you disobey or quench the Spirit a little, the prayer within you will immediately cease and the spirit of prayer will also disappear. Therefore, brothers and sisters, if you want to be a man of prayer, you must be one who abides in God and one in whom the Spirit of God has room. You must be in the Spirit of God and have continual fellowship with Him, i.e., the two spirits are flowing through one another. The greater the flow, the more prayer you have. You may flow to such an extent that not only can you pray in your room, but the spirit in you can also pray while you are in the car, on the street, or talking with people. Even when you stand up to minister, you can be ministering and still be praying, and when you talk with others and contact them, you can be contacting them and still be praying inside. (Lessons on Prayer, msg. 3)
The Singing of the Hymns Should Be an Overflow of Life and Spirit
Both Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 tell us that God’s word is not only for us to speak to others but also for us to sing to others (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). In the past singing has been our weakest area. I hope that from now on singing would be more prevailing both in the small group meetings and in the big meetings. Of course, some are born without a talent for singing. However, in our singing we should not focus on how beautiful the music is but on the release of our spirit. There are many of us who can sing well and who have been trained in vocal music. However, when we sing in the meetings, instead of paying too much attention to the music and the sound of others’ voices, we should pay attention to life and spirit. The singing of the hymns should be an overflow of life and spirit. If we touch life and spirit in our enjoyment of the Lord, spontaneously we will be filled with singing. (Vessels Useful to the Lord, msg. 1)
Pursuing to Know the Truth
No one can serve the Lord without a proper knowledge of the truth. Paul said that we need to cut straight the word of the truth (2 Tim. 2:15). If we do not know the truth, how can we cut straight the word of the truth? Therefore, in order to serve the Lord we must pursue to know the truth and be equipped with the truth. (Vessels Useful to the Lord, msg. 10)
