Whatever secular people do, they do in groups. This is in keeping with the trend of the age. Hence, society today needs people like us who not only honor God but also, through the gospel, eliminate the corruption and darkness in society so that our society and nation would benefit. Therefore, we should clearly see before the Lord that we are a different group of people. We are not only different from the unbelievers, but we are also different from the believers in the denominations and in the Catholic Church. We have received many truths, we know and experience the divine life, and every one of us has a sweet history with the Lord. Although we might have fallen into a lukewarm condition because of the environment and all kinds of distressing experiences, we are willing to rise up again to put our Christian life in order and to live a life that follows the Lord according to His word.
If our eyes focus merely on the Lord’s demand, then it will be impossible for us to fulfill His demand. Luke 14 is an unbearable burden—we cannot do it and are unable to do it. However, what is demanded in the Gospels is entirely supplied in the Epistles. In Philippians 4:12-13 Paul said, “I know also how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to hunger, both to abound and to lack. I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me.” If Paul could say this, we can also say this, because the One who was in Paul is also in us today. We have learned the secret and are able to do all things in the One who empowers us at every time and in every place.
All the working saints are pillars in the church, and the church needs them. Perhaps they may ask what they should do. First, they need to establish home meetings in the new way. The small group meetings need to be strengthened, and the home meetings also need to be strengthened. In the past we had anywhere from one hundred to five hundred people meeting in a meeting hall. We trained and cultivated some saints to be those who stand on the platform and speak. Hence, for a few decades we did not have much increase in number. History tells us that Christians are very capable of charging forward and propagating. Christians are very capable of opening up new frontiers and territories. Paul was such a one. During his time Paul traveled to the Mediterranean Sea, but sadly, because he was imprisoned in Rome, he could not fulfill his desire to reach Spain. Today in this age of technology with such convenient means of transportation, we have no excuse for not accomplishing anything.
In this small island of Taiwan we have had tens of thousands of saints here for twenty to thirty years, but we still have not fully gospelized Taiwan. We cannot justify ourselves in this matter. This responsibility belongs to every one of us. This time the Lord is leading us to gospelize Taiwan but not by merely training a group of preachers. Rather, our goal is that every saint—whether the elderly saints, the younger saints, the working saints, or the saints who are housewives—would rise up to participate. We will not rely on big meetings or hearing good messages because these cannot do that much. We want to motivate everyone to establish home meetings. However, there is a need for pillars in the home meetings. All the working saints should be such pillars. Therefore, the first thing all of us working saints should do is equip ourselves. Then every week we will either meet in our homes or join the meetings at others’ homes. This will be our small group meeting. In our meetings we must share how we lived in Christ, read the Bible, prayed, and fellowshipped with the Lord that week. If we all give ourselves in this way, the meetings will be living, we will be able to bring our friends and relatives to be saved, and the saved ones will remain.
Second, we have to go door-knocking at least once a week. We should start with our friends and relatives. After we have visited our friends and relatives, we should knock on the doors of the surrounding neighbors. As long as we knock on people’s doors, people will be saved. After they are saved, we have to go to their homes to establish home meetings with them. In brief, as working saints we are required to do only two things: to go to a small group meeting every week and to speak or pray every time we go to the meeting. However, we should not speak in a lengthy way, nor should we give our history. Another thing is that we have to knock on doors or visit people to establish home meetings once or twice every week. If we do not have enough time, we may knock on doors one week and establish home meetings the next week. We must do this once a week for two hours each time. We should make a vow before the Lord to do these two things: establish small group and home meetings and go door-knocking.