If the Lord is willing to work among us, or perhaps we should say, if we are willing to let Him work among us, there are four matters that we must see and that must have definite results.
First, all of us must be truly touched by the Lord. It is not simply a matter of being revived by the Lord through His grace; even more, it is a matter of truly being subdued from within and broken by the Lord. We must once again answer His call and say before Him, “Lord, we are willing to place our lives and our futures unconditionally in Your hands.” In order for the Lord to have a way to advance among us, we must let Him do a thorough work in this matter. If He cannot work thoroughly in this matter, regardless of how much we pray and hope, He will still have no way to go on among us.
The Bible shows a great principle, that no matter who sees the Lord’s need and the burden of the work and comes to pray before the Lord to ask Him to work, the Lord has only one answer: “You do it.” The Lord wants the praying one to receive the burden himself. After Isaiah saw the Lord, he had a desire before the Lord, and for this he beseeched the Lord to send people out to speak and work for Him. Consequently, the Lord sounded a call for Isaiah to hear. The Lord said, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” At this point Isaiah prostrated himself before the Lord and said, “Here am I; send me” (Isa. 6:8). We should never pray, “Lord, You do the work; You send someone else.” Such prayers can rarely be found in the Bible.
On the contrary, the Bible shows that whoever asks the Lord concerning a need will be sent by the Lord to meet the need. The disciples asked the Lord, “This place is deserted and the hour is already late. Send the crowds away that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” The Lord answered them immediately, saying, “You give them something to eat” (Matt. 14:15-16). Whoever asks of the Lord will be asked by the Lord to bear the responsibility. On the day of Pentecost approximately one hundred and twenty were praying for the Lord’s kingdom and looking to the Lord. The Lord did not choose or call people outside this group, nor did He thrust out or send others to work for Him. After they prayed before the Lord, the Lord’s burden and commission fell upon them, and they picked up this burden without any excuses. In the end these one hundred and twenty rose up collectively and did the work for which they had prayed (Acts 1:15—2:14). This principle can be seen many times in the Bible.
This shows that he who prays for the Lord’s work will be the one who is sent by the Lord. If there are several thousand or even tens of thousands of believers in Southeast Asia today, yet only a hundred or more of us have received the Lord’s mercy to lay everything aside and take the time to sit together before the Lord, opening our hearts, preparing our spirits, looking to Him, and depending on Him to do the work, this will prove and show that we are those whom the Lord desires to use. We cannot expect that the Lord will choose others outside of us; this is not in keeping with the principle in the Bible. The fact that we are here looking to the Lord proves that His desire is to use us. If we want the Lord’s work to have a free way on the earth, we must first let Him have a free way in us. If we would not let the Lord accomplish this matter in us, we do not know how much longer the Lord’s work in all Southeast Asia will be delayed.
Second, we need to ask the Lord, by His grace and mercy, to thoroughly gain the church in Manila. It is not sufficient for Him to gain only us; He must also gain the church in Manila. In terms of the churches in the countries of Southeast Asia today, Manila is the center; it is an important place. For the past few years the saints here have been the greatest in number, and they are the most blessed and have the strongest desire for the Lord. Hence, in order to spread the work in Southeast Asia, we must ask the Lord to gain the church in Manila. If the church in Manila cannot rise up, the Lord will immediately encounter a crisis. If we cannot get through in this matter, the Lord’s work will have no way to be carried out. This is a principle. Only when the Lord had gained Jerusalem could He spread outward. When the spread reached a certain extent, Antioch was gained, and only then could there be a spread to the Gentile places. In the same way, Ephesus had to be gained before there could be a spread outward. When the spread reached a certain extent, Corinth had to be gained in order for the spread to continue. Church history shows that the Lord’s work was able to spread in all directions only after He had completely gained Rome.
Because there has not yet been a central location, a base, in the islands of Southeast Asia that has been completely gained by the Lord, the Lord’s work still does not have a way to spread here. We have clearly seen that this base cannot be anywhere else but in Manila. Therefore, if the church here does not allow the Lord to gain it thoroughly, the Lord’s work will not have the way to spread much. In other words, the extent to which the Lord is able to gain the church in Manila determines the extent to which the Lord’s work can spread in Southeast Asia.
Third, we need to ask the Lord to give us a definite leading concerning the spread of His work in the Philippines, a country of islands. We have worked in this country for more than twenty years, but we can see clearly that our spread has been too slow and its scope has been too narrow. If the Lord has mercy on us, I hope that from today we can spread the work of the Lord’s gospel in this country, on the one hand, to the Chinese, and on the other hand, to the Filipinos. May the Lord grace us so that some among us will rise up, receive this burden, and go to the different parts of the Philippines. Some may go to the Chinese, and others may go to the Filipinos for the preaching of the Lord’s gospel and the producing of the Lord’s churches. At the same time, they should coordinate and serve together with the saints from other places. In this way there will be the service that expresses the Body of Christ in these islands.
Fourth, if the Lord enlarges our capacity, there should be a leading and a burden among us to care for the churches in the various regions of Southeast Asia. West Malaysia, Indonesia, East Malaysia, and Thailand are regions. Ceylon [presently Sri Lanka] also is a small region. There are already meetings in all these places, but they need to be strengthened, and the Lord’s work needs to be formally initiated. Hence, some of us must have this burden and receive this leading.
If the Lord works thoroughly in these four matters, what praise we will have before Him! This is our desire as well as our goal. We do not want to push, stir up, or use a movement to initiate these matters. However, we desire to wait before the Lord and let Him walk among us and work in each one of us until all of us rise up within and are subdued and gained by the Lord. In this way the Lord can raise up churches in all the regions of Southeast Asia. If the Lord’s work can spread in us, the work can spread also in all the regions of Southeast Asia.