We look to the Spirit of the Lord to move freely and work particularly so that our meeting will be filled with Him. We do not want to have set practices. Rather, we are willing to hand everything over to the Holy Spirit, who is among us and is moving in all of us, that we may have the inspiration to pray, to testify, to release the Lord’s word, or to admonish. We give all this over to the authority of the Holy Spirit. However, we also ask the Lord to restrict man’s activities so that we can live under the Holy Spirit’s authority and give the Holy Spirit absolute freedom. Perhaps a brother who is a co-worker will be inspired to testify, release the Lord’s word, or give us some fellowship in the matter of following the Lord. We are all willing to look to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
In our gathering at this time we do not want to encourage any of you to do something, nor do we want to propose something. Rather, we have a burden before the Lord and desire to come before God with all the saints to wait and fellowship together. We do not know what the Lord desires to do or will do in this time of waiting and fellowship, but we are willing to open ourselves unconditionally to the Lord and give Him a free opportunity to do what He desires to do. Perhaps He wants to touch us inwardly one by one, turn us over one by one, or break us one by one, subduing us so that we will have a thorough dealing and consecration. This would be the best, and this is our greatest desire.
Perhaps the Lord desires to do an unprecedented work of revival in the church in Manila and gain the brothers and sisters here in a thorough, penetrating, full, and powerful way. Perhaps He desires to entrust us with the burden of spreading the work so that we will spread His gospel in every part of the Philippines. Perhaps He desires to give us an even broader commission to spread His work in every country and region of Southeast Asia. Whatever He desires to do is what we are hoping for and willing to receive. Hence, we have not made any decisions and are willing to humbly bow and wait before the Lord.
As those who belong to the Lord, we have received His salvation and have His life and His Spirit in us. Therefore, we should give the Lord sufficient opportunity to move so that He can work more in us. Hence, from this meeting on, we should all wait before the Lord and look to Him, opening ourselves to Him and telling Him, “O Lord, when You spread Your work, please also bring me on. When You move on, please do not leave me behind. Lord, may You bring me on as well.” We should all have this desire; this should be our constant prayer.
We do not want to give you too many messages, and hopefully you are not expecting to hear many messages. We should all come before God together, looking to the Lord, waiting for the Lord, giving the Lord the opportunity to move among us and have a way in us. We do not have any set goals, much less any agenda. We are simply looking to the Lord to manifest His desire and have His own way among us to attain the goal that He wants to attain. We do not know what the Lord intends to do; we have no assurance of how much He intends to do, nor do we have any idea which brothers He will actually gain. We only desire to come together with the brothers and sisters, looking to the Lord, waiting for the Lord, giving Him the opportunity, and letting Him work so that He may speak freely, take the way He desires to take, and gain what He needs to gain so that His desire may be carried out through us.
Recently, the Lord has shown us a principle concerning man’s unique status in the universe. We have clearly seen that for God’s plan in eternity past to become His accomplished goal in eternity future, it must pass through man. Man is the bridge between the two eternities. For God to walk from eternity past to eternity future, He must pass through man. Man is the way and the bridge. If God can go smoothly on this path and this bridge, God can go on His way quickly, God’s purpose can be accomplished early, and the day of the Lord and the kingdom of God can come soon. Conversely, if God encounters problems and obstacles on this bridge and cannot have His way in man, He will be brought to a halt, will be stopped, and will not be able to go on. God will have to wait. He will have to wait not for Himself to work, not for Himself to move, but for man to answer His call, to be touched, and to agree with Him and open the way for Him.
The Bible has given us this light. Before His ascension the Lord told us clearly to go into all the world and proclaim the gospel (Mark 16:15). Furthermore, the Lord prophesied, “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” (Matt. 24:14). This shows that the coming of the end is the coming of the Lord’s kingdom, which depends on whether or not the gospel has been preached in the whole inhabited earth. If the gospel is preached in the whole inhabited earth, the end will come, and the Lord’s kingdom will come. When the Lord ascended two thousand years ago, He wanted the disciples to preach the gospel in the whole inhabited earth (Acts 1:8). Would the Lord not want us to preach the gospel in the whole inhabited earth within ten years? Would the Lord not want us to preach the gospel in the whole inhabited earth in this century? I believe that we all would say that the Lord is desirous and willing. However, although twenty centuries have passed, until today the gospel has not been preached in the whole inhabited earth. Why is this? If the Lord is willing, why has the gospel not been preached in the whole inhabited earth? It is because the Lord cannot find a way, a bridge, on earth; He cannot find a channel for the gospel.
Man is the Lord’s way, the Lord’s bridge. The Lord has no way to go on today because no one is willing to be the Lord’s bridge, the Lord’s way. In Acts 10 the Lord sent an angel to tell Cornelius to invite Peter to preach the gospel to him (vv. 3-5). Here we must consider that if the Lord could ask an angel to speak this word to Cornelius, could He not have sent an angel to preach the gospel to Cornelius directly? Why did the Lord need to go through such trouble as to contact Peter? He only needed to tell an angel to announce some part of the gospel to Cornelius. Any part of the good news would have been acceptable; it would not have mattered. However, the Lord did not do this. Why not?
In His purpose God has established a very formidable rule. It is a great matter in the universe that God’s eternal plan is not accomplished through angels. God did not give this grace to angels; He did not entrust this to angels. In His plan God wanted man to be His way, His channel. God’s eternal plan must be accomplished through man. God desires to cross from eternity past to eternity future through man. Man is the way, the course. Hence, for the past two thousand years it has seemed that the Lord is not omnipotent; many times it seems that there are things He cannot do. In fact, He is limited by man. Our Lord is the One who “spoke, and it was” and who “commanded, and it stood” (Psa. 33:9). He can accomplish anything, whether small or great, in an instant. However, the preaching of the gospel throughout the world is the only thing that He has not yet been able to accomplish in the past two thousand years.
From the record in the Bible we know that God created the small earth in an instant, yet for two thousand years His gospel has had no way to be preached fully on earth. The reason for the slowness and the delay lies not with Him but with man. God is willing, but man is unwilling; God desires to move, but man would not move; God desires to spread, but man does not think it is necessary. God desires to work, but man does not have the burden; God commands, but man would not obey; God gives man the commission, but man would not accept it. Hence, for two thousand years the work of the gospel has had many starts and stops. It seems that it has started, but then it stops; it seems that it has begun running, but then it slows down again. The reason for this lies not with God but with man.
The church in Manila has been here for over twenty years, yet until this day the gospel has not gone forth from us very much. We live in the Philippines and among the Filipinos, yet we have not preached the Lord’s gospel to them. We have not only failed to preach to the local people, the Filipinos, but we have also failed to preach even to our own countrymen, the overseas Chinese. Our countrymen are everywhere, but the gospel is not everywhere. No one goes out to preach the gospel and establish churches. Is this because the Lord is not willing? Please remember, it is not the Lord but we who are unwilling. Does the Lord not desire to work? Yes, the Lord does desire to work, but He has encountered a problem, a limitation. This problem, this limitation, is man, because man will not cooperate.