Cooperate with God’s Move and Become Vital

Today’s Key Verses for Pray-reading

1 Corinthians 3:9

For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s cultivated land, God’s building.

Revelation 5:6

And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders a Lamb standing as having just been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

Ephesians 4:2

With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing one another in love,

Revelation 21:2

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Matthew 24:14

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Today’s Prayer Burden

It is dangerous to focus only on being spiritual while neglecting to cooperate with God in His move. This makes us extreme. We have found that the more we seek to maintain a normal condition in our living, the more we need a “moving” force and a forward-moving condition. Preaching the gospel truly has this effect: it preserves everyone and fills us with the vitality of life. We can become vital only by turning our church life into vital groups!

Today’s Prayer

Lord, may no one’s life remain at the level of what is called spirituality. May we cooperate with God’s move, experience the transmission and intensification of life through the seven Spirits as we preach the gospel, be transformed in life through blending with one another, and have life flow out in our coordination and multiply through our functioning. Cause everyone to rise up to preach the gospel, shepherd people, and perfect the saints. Bring in the widespread practice of the vital groups, reach the high peak of the building up of the Body of Christ, and prepare the bride!

Lord, thank You for bringing us into Your presence so that we can pray together and seek Your will. Continue to speak to us and shine on our inward condition. Show us that we cannot remain merely in spiritual feelings, outward pursuits, or meeting forms; we need to enter into Your move in a practical way, cooperate with You, and become vessels for Your move on earth. Lord Jesus, may the sevenfold intensified Spirit continue to shine on us, burn within us, and transmit and infuse You into us, so that our life may be supplied and equipped. Lord, remove our naturalness, inertia, and passivity. Cause us to rise up and act by faith, experience the Spirit’s operation as we preach the gospel, and enjoy Your presence.

Lord, may our life no longer remain in feelings but become living in action, flow out in coordination, and multiply through our functioning. Cause us to experience the transformation of life as we blend with one another. Remove the self, our naturalness, and our personal concepts. Enable us to bear one another, supply one another, and perfect one another in love. May we not merely gather outwardly but truly be blended in spirit and become materials for Your building. Lord, cause us to hold the Head, and let God increase within us so that the Body may grow and build itself up in love. Lord Jesus, raise up every brother and sister to preach the gospel, shepherd people, and perfect the saints. May we no longer be passive onlookers but living members who function in the Body of Christ. Lord, recover the reality of the vital groups, with not only the adhesive power of mutual love but also the driving power to preach the gospel, gain people, shepherd them, and multiply.

Lord, may the fire of the gospel continue to burn within us. May we offer our whole being, contact people actively, lead them to salvation, and continue to shepherd and perfect the new ones so that more may rise up to function. Lord, enable us to cooperate with You in God’s move, grow in life, supply life in our coordination, and experience the transmission and intensification of the seven Spirits in preaching the gospel. May the vital groups be practiced everywhere and continually multiply. Raise up more overcomers who are burdened and take responsibility, and join them together to reach the high peak of the building up of the Body of Christ and become today’s Zion. Lord, may we not be satisfied with individual revival but enter into the corporate building! May the current of the gospel surge more strongly, life flow continually, more people be saved, more saints be perfected, and more vital groups be raised up, so that You may obtain a glorious bride and return!

Ministry Fellowship

The need to cooperate with God’s move

To focus only on being spiritual or on spiritual gifts while neglecting to cooperate with God in His move is dangerous. This makes us extreme. We must be careful not to fall into the religious extreme of worshipping God while acting independently of Him, or into the spiritual extreme of casting aside all human responsibilities in order to obtain the outpouring of the Spirit and spiritual gifts. The right way to live and conduct ourselves is to walk according to the Lord who dwells within us. We are no longer separate individuals; we have been joined to the Lord, and this wonderful life-giving Spirit dwells in our spirit. Therefore, we need to learn to cooperate with Him. (Basic Principles for the Practice of the Church Life, ch. 2)

Today God moves within the overcomers by increasing in them (Col. 2:19). He is making them mature to attain to a full-grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13; Col. 1:28b). Maturity comes through our growth in life. In Ephesians 4 we see that we grow up into the Head in all things and that the whole Body causes the growth of the Body (vv. 15–16). This growth comes from God’s increase in us. That increase is God’s operation, and that operation is God’s move. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, vol. 14, The Experience and Enjoyment of Christ [6], message 422)

The seven Spirits as the supply and equipment of life

A person’s eyes cannot be separated from the person, because the eyes are that person’s expression. What we are within is expressed mainly through our eyes. Likewise, the seven Spirits are Christ’s seven eyes, through which Christ expresses Himself. As the seven eyes of Christ, the seven Spirits of God are for God’s move and building, expressing Christ in the way of judgment.

The Spirit is life; the seven Spirits are for our receiving the supply of life and being equipped with life. The lamp becomes fire, the fire becomes eyes, and the eyes are the Spirit. First God shines within us; then He burns within us; then He transmits and infuses Himself into us. The result is the supply and equipment of life. Eventually, we function in the church, grow in life, and are built together. We become not merely the church but a functioning church, in which every saint can carry out his or her ministry. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, vol. 14, The Experience and Enjoyment of Christ [6], message 416)

Genuine coordination and building

Many times we think that the church is simply all of us pieced together and that this is coordination and building. Some in the church try to mediate and bring the saints together. This may look like coordination outwardly, but it is not. Genuine coordination is the blending in spirit of the part of you and me that has been transformed in spirit. This is real coordination. The extent of the building depends on how much we have been transformed inwardly by the Lord. The more we are transformed by the Lord within, the more we can coordinate with others. This coordination is the building up of the church, the new man, formed by Christ blending with the transformed part within the saints. (The Transformation of Life and the Building Up of the Church, ch. 5)

Experience the Lord’s presence in the move to preach the gospel

Some brothers and sisters may say, “My meeting life is very irregular. It is already a great grace to attend a small-group meeting; how could I go on the offensive?” According to our past experience, we have found that the more we seek to maintain a normal condition in our living, the more we need a “moving” force and a forward-moving condition. The more we try to hold on to what we have, the less we have; the more we try to preserve things, the more we lose them. But when we go out by faith to speak for the Lord, something wonderful happens: the Lord is with us, and our spirit is stirred up. The more we go out, the more our inner man moves; the more we go out, the more we have to say. Many of us have experienced this. In the past, seeing someone wear a gospel vest made us afraid and embarrassed. But one day, when we put on a gospel vest ourselves, the Spirit came, and we had boldness, a feeling, and something to say. This shows that when we go out, the Spirit of the Lord is with us.

Vital groups need both adhesive power and driving power

We need to see that small groups need not only adhesive power but also driving power. Love, care, and concern connect the brothers and sisters who are already there, but this alone is not enough. We also need a driving force. The human body needs not only food and rest but also exercise. Exercise keeps the cells of the body healthy and continually multiplying. In our small-group gatherings, preaching the gospel has this effect: it preserves everyone in a normal spiritual condition and fills us with the vitality of life.

The economical Spirit and God’s move

In Acts, the economical Spirit is for God’s economy. Therefore, if we would experience the economical Spirit, we must be in God’s move. If we are not in this move, we have no ground to claim the descending and outpoured Spirit. This is a precious view. We all want to experience the Lord, live with power, and be His witnesses. How can this be attained? We need to enter into the Lord’s move and place ourselves in God’s economy. When we go out and place ourselves in the Lord’s gospel move, we will see the Spirit of the Lord upon us and the economical Spirit with us. (The Increase and Spread of the Church, ch. 12)

The Body of Christ is realized when every member functions

What position are you giving these people today? If God truly deals with our self and our work to the point that we open a way for a thousand people to serve, the church will see for the first time what brotherly love is, and Philadelphia will appear. Philadelphia means brotherly love; all the brothers will come forth to serve in love.

Only when every member functions do we have the church, the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is not a doctrine; it is a living entity. We need to learn this: the Body of Christ is present only when every member functions. Only when every member functions is there the church. (The Way of the Church, message 5)

Turn the church life into vital groups

We can become vital only by turning our church life into vital groups. There is no other way for the church to increase. We may labor very hard on the old way, yet it is difficult to gain even one person, and more difficult still to keep that person. The only way that works is the vital groups. (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 1, “Shepherding the Church through the Practice of the Vital Groups,” ch. 1)

The blending of the vital groups reaches the high peak

In Revelation 14:1 the 144,000 overcomers are not merely in Jerusalem; they are on the peak of Zion. The overcomers, the vital groups, are today’s Zion. My burden today is to help you reach the high peak of the vital groups, the Zion of the overcomers. Although we may have a good church life, among us there is almost no realization, practice, manifestation, or reality of the Body life. This is the need in the Lord’s recovery today. (The Practical Points concerning Blending, message 2, May 1994)