Speaking with the Spirit to Enliven Every Member

Today’s Main Verses for Pray-reading

The Spirit speaks to the churches

Revelation 3:13

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Christ gave gifted persons to perfect the saints

Ephesians 4:11–12

He Himself gave some as apostles ... and some as shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints ... unto the building up of the Body of Christ.

The members who seem to be weaker are necessary

1 Corinthians 12:22

But much rather the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

Each one ministers the gift he has received

1 Peter 4:10

Each one, as he has received a gift, ministering it among yourselves as good stewards of the varied grace of God.

Shepherd the church of God, which He obtained through His own blood

Acts 20:28

Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among whom the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers to shepherd the church of God ...

Proclaim the word in season and out of season

2 Timothy 4:2

Proclaim the word; be ready in season and out of season; convict, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and teaching.

Today’s Prayer Burden

May our speaking be one with the Spirit’s speaking today, enlivening people item by item and leading them like a trumpet. May it meet and supply today’s need for producing overcomers. Let the young people do it: may the unwilling become willing and the unable become able. The blind are useful, and the lame are useful too. May every member function and receive the enlivening of life. Then the church will surely multiply and spread organically. May we become corporate Nehemiahs!

Today’s Prayer

1. May our speaking be one with the Spirit’s speaking today and lead people forward

Lord, raise up a company of corporate Nehemiahs! Save our speaking from becoming empty doctrine. Make it one with the Spirit’s speaking today, a life supply that enlivens people and an up-to-date call, like a trumpet gathering and leading everyone forward. Lord, give us timely, living, purposeful words that work life into people item by item, strengthening the weak, awakening the sleeping, and causing the passive to rise up. May the words we speak meet today’s need for producing overcomers, enlivening one member after another and raising up company after company of overcomers as corporate Nehemiahs today!

2. Release the function of every member and perfect the young people

Lord, thoroughly change our way of leading and release the function of all the members! Save us from choosing only those we consider useful; teach us to use everyone according to his ability. Save us from holding everything in our hands and replacing others; make us let go and perfect them. Let the greater ones be used greatly and the lesser ones in a smaller way; the blind are useful, and the lame are useful too. Lord, let the young people do it themselves. Make the unwilling willing and the unable able; let them receive life as they function and be perfected as they bear responsibility.

Deliver us from the old way of caring for tasks but not for people. Turn our time toward prayer, shepherding, and supplying life. May every vital group become a company of corporate Nehemiahs in which everyone functions, everyone receives the enlivening supply, everyone can shepherd, and everyone can teach. Do not let a few maintain the church while the rest remain inactive. Make the whole Body living, organically built up, multiplying, and spreading continually!

3. Forgive us for using only people who suit our preferences

Lord, we confess that we often know how to do things ourselves but do not know how to bring others into function. We admit that we use only people who suit our preferences. We leave aside those who are weak or do not suit our taste, and in the end no one is used. Lord, forgive us. Your church is a family; everyone in the family must cook, whether they cook well or poorly. Change our concept. Save us from being barbers for many years without producing even one apprentice.

4. Turn our time to feeding, shepherding, and supplying life

Lord Jesus, have mercy on us. We cannot keep acting like a family that owns a house and spends most of its time repairing and cleaning it, while the children have no food, no books, and roam the streets. From now on, focus us on feeding the children, giving them enough to eat and room to exercise—in the God-man living and the shepherding of the gospel. Lord, may we devote most of our time to laboring in shepherding and supplying people with life. May everyone function and everyone receive the enlivening supply of life. Then the church will surely multiply and spread organically. May we become corporate Nehemiahs!

Ministry Fellowship

The church is a family, and everyone in the family must cook

In a family, the mother who knows how to cook should cook, and the mother who does not know how must cook too. The church is a family, and everyone in the family must cook, whether they cook well or poorly. This means that the greater ones should be used greatly and the lesser ones in a smaller way; the blind are useful, and the lame are useful too. In the past, co-workers, elders, and home group responsible ones used only those who suited their preferences. That was the problem. They did not use those who did not suit their taste, and they especially did not use those who were weak or not strong. As a result, no one was used. Our principle should be to use everyone according to his ability.

We should set out real food so that people can be fed

Every week we should supply the saints with the word so that the church can develop and have content. We cannot ask the saints only to pray-read and shout. Exercising the spirit is right, but we cannot do only that for all fifty-two weeks of the year. We should set out something real, just as parents put food before their children every day so that they can be fed.

Do not give useless messages; meet and supply today’s need

You are like barbers who have worked for many years but have not produced an apprentice. We must change our concept; a crucial matter is the supply of the word. We do not need to give useless messages, speaking spontaneously about loving God today and denying ourselves tomorrow. We need a line of life and must consider how the work should go forward. If we cannot prepare something ourselves, we should search for it. We do not need pleasant-sounding messages; we need to meet and supply today’s need. ... If four brothers serving full time all functioned well, how much work could be done! You do not need to be concerned with who is responsible or with every system. Do the work, and whenever there is an opportunity, supply life. The service should be living.

Let the Spirit lead the meetings instead of following old ways

The elders must strive for universal feeding and shepherding. ... From now on, instead of focusing on the doors and windows of the house, we should discuss how to feed the children so that they can study quietly and make progress. This is our urgent need. Elders may spend hours in business meetings but pass over visiting, shepherding, caring for the saints, and supplying life briefly; their care for the saints is often mainly a matter of systems. The co-workers can be the same, doing routine work and following procedures. Our work should be very living. In the meetings we should not follow old ways but let the Holy Spirit lead; the Lord may use anyone to make a meeting living. The co-workers therefore do not need to arrange so much. Often leadership kills a meeting; without it, everyone comes alive.

Let the young people do it, so the unwilling become willing and the unable become able

If a young people’s meeting has no co-worker leading it and they do everything themselves, the unwilling will become willing and the unable will become able. The co-workers’ present way replaces the young people. The co-workers must truly resolve to let the young people do it themselves. However, they should not secretly urge the young people to do it; it may appear that the young people are acting on their own, when in fact the co-workers have prompted them. The co-workers must not keep everything in their own hands and make the young people passive. Even when the young people ask for help, the co-workers should not take over for them. They must let the young people do it themselves.

We should withdraw the co-workers, elders, and home group responsible ones from doing everything. In practical terms, whoever serves in a meeting hall should follow the same principle: bring people into function. This is fundamental. If people come to the meetings, use those who can be used and those who cannot. If people do not come or cannot be reached, co-workers who know how to labor should visit them. If four or five hundred people regularly meet in a hall, at least half should be brought into function.

The elders should spend most of their time shepherding and supplying people with life. ... We should not be rigid in our way of doing things. Dividing people into small groups is simple; we do not need to wait until everyone in Taiwan does it. Our present condition is too rigid and too regular, depending too much on methods and arrangements. These things must be broken down.

The word supply has two lines: enliven people and lead the church like a trumpet

The supply of the word has two lines. One line leads newly saved ones onward, enlivening them item by item as they learn about regeneration, the indwelling life, and following the inner sense. The other line is for leading the local church, like the sound of a trumpet. The church needs the word to supply and lead it forward. But this speaking cannot come from only a few functioning members; all the saints need to function. We cannot depend on rules and methods, doing things only when arrangements are made and doing nothing when they are not. This keeps us from following the Spirit within and developing the life within.

Let everyone function; even if mistakes are made, they will not go far

Some co-workers say, “Those co-workers who got into trouble were all brought up through Brother Lee’s work. If Brother Lee had been more careful, these things would not have happened.” Yet if, from the time I began the work in Taiwan, I had rejected this person and that person, many would have been stifled, and the church would not have multiplied much. It was as though I gave birth to twenty-eight, fourteen died, and fourteen remained. In any case, there are still many churches on the island of Taiwan. So let mistakes happen; they will not go too far.

Elders should spend more time shepherding and less time arranging business

The elders should do their best to spend time shepherding and less time arranging business matters. Once practical matters have been handed to the saints, let them arrange and carry them out. We should hold to these points and not return to the old way of keeping everything in our own hands and doing everything ourselves.

Eventually, every saint will learn to shepherd and teach

First, the co-workers and elders must see that the urgent need is to have universal shepherding, growth in life, and the supply of the word. These are the three things we lack most. We need to lead the church into universal shepherding and growth in life, and we need the supply of the word. We do not need routine messages; we need living words. In every church or meeting hall there should be one or two living messages each week. The co-workers need only to labor; they should never be routine. In service, the practical affairs of every church and meeting hall should truly and absolutely be carried out by the saints themselves. The saints should not only do the work but also take it up as their responsibility. The meetings belong to all the saints; the co-workers and elders are there to supply. Even the spiritual service belongs to the saints. Eventually, every saint will learn to shepherd and teach.

(Based on Shepherding and Perfecting the Young People in the Church, message 9.)