Week 13 The Practice of Service
LESSON THIRTEEN
THE VITAL GROUP
Hymn 1234
Scripture Reading:
Acts 2:46-47 And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart, praising God and having grace with all the people. And the Lord added together day by day those who were being saved.
A DESPERATE SAINT WOULD SPONTANEOUSLY CONTACT OTHERS
BY THE LORD’S LEADING TO HAVE A VITAL GROUP AND INITIATE A THOROUGH
AND INTIMATE FELLOWSHIP WITH YOUR CONTACT
To have the vital groups should not be taken as a kind of movement. To be vital, to be vitalized, is an extremely personal matter. It is only possible to be vitalized if you yourself are pressed by the Lord to pursue Him desperately and absolutely in this matter. After being vitalized, you should not have a gathering of many saints to promote or to push this matter as a movement. After being vitalized, the only thing you should do is to seek the Lord’s leading concerning whom you should contact among so many saints. You should absolutely follow the Lord’s leading, and even His guidance, to contact others and fellowship with them, not more than two or three at a time. You have to give your testimony of how you have been pressed by the Lord to seek Him in the matter of vitalization. You have to initiate a thorough and intimate fellowship with your contact, which will usher you and your contact into prayers of desperation, which will be honored by the Lord.
MAKING THOROUGH CONFESSIONS AND CONSECRATION
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.
UNCEASINGLY PRAYING
Since you have been vitalized and have raised up such vital groups, you should pray for the church and the leading ones. As the Lord leads, you should give testimonies in the church meetings, but not in the way of condemning or of promoting or pushing. Avoid the thought to change the church’s way of meeting and service. Do not initiate any movement of changes. Prayer is needed, but any thought for any radical change must be avoided. After you get vitalized, do not despise anyone, especially the leading ones, the elderly ones, and the ones who are used to rendering help to others. Do not look down on the weaker ones, the indifferent ones, and the ones that seem to be without any care for spiritual things. In conclusion, you should not expect to see that the church is altogether uniform and unified according to your view and practice. The church is not artificial by man’s doing, but organic in the growth of the divine life with the growth of Christ in the believers. (1993 Blending Conference Messages Concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need, pp. 142-143)
Reference: 1993 Blending Conference Messages Concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need, msg. 7; Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, msg. 10; The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups, msgs. 6-7.
