Question: How should a believer who has a harmonious marriage, obedient children, and an environment with no suffering or sickness pray if he wants to be broken?
Answer: We Christians should accept God’s breaking when it comes, but we should not ask for the breaking. Those who are in the Lord’s hand are not likely to have satisfactory circumstances. If one is satisfied with everything, he is probably an Esau, not a Jacob. If a brother’s or sister’s environment is very smooth, he or she should worship the Lord and be thankful. However, we should not trust that this smooth environment will last very long. Nonetheless, we do not need to ask for a terrible environment. The thought of asking for a terrible environment often comes from the devil, not from God. We should accept the environment measured to us by the Lord, but we should not ask for it. Similarly, we should accept His breaking but not ask for it.
Question: Some brothers and sisters are frequently sick, suffer persecution and affliction in their environment, and experience difficulties in their families. How should they respond?
Answer: Simply speaking, there are two sides. On the one hand, they need to submit under the mighty hand of God; on the other hand, they should ask the Lord to take the sufferings away if they are not of Him. Do not think that the Lord delights in making us suffer. We are willing to submit under the Lord’s hand, but we do not need any suffering that is not of the Lord. Suffering does not necessarily equal being broken. We should seek the Lord when we are suffering and ask Him why this suffering has come upon us, or what particular point within us this suffering is touching. If we are clear concerning what needs to be dealt with within us, we will accept His dealing in that point. This, however, is still a doctrinal explanation.
In experience, many people are perplexed when they pass through affliction. If they were clear, the affliction would not be very useful. Most of the time, people do not realize the purpose of affliction until after the affliction; they are not clear while they are passing through affliction. It is quite normal for them to be unclear.
Question: Is someone who always condemns his thoughts, whether good or bad, accepting God’s breaking?
Answer: This does not necessarily mean that he is accepting the breaking. If a person condemns himself because he feels to do so before the Lord, he should do so. However, this does not mean that he is being broken. Nevertheless, it is easier for such a one to be broken. Similarly, it is easier for a person who condemns himself, even though he does not have the feeling from the Lord to do so, to be broken. A person who often condemns himself, rather than justifying himself, often does not need to be broken through outward circumstances. A person needs to be broken through many outward environments because he does not condemn himself or because he overly justifies himself, overly depending on his skill and ability. A person who justifies himself and relies on his skill and ability forces God to use the environment to deal with him. If a person always condemns himself and rejects his skill and ability, he will spare himself from many troubles and many dealings in the outward environment.
Question: We know that in order to have good coordination, we need to be torn down and built up. However, if we have not been torn down or built up much, how can we have good coordination?
Answer: Tearing down and building up are daily and regular, not instantaneous, matters. If we have not been torn down and built up in a regular way, we cannot expect to have been torn down and built up when it is time to coordinate. If we have not been torn down and built up, how can we have good coordination? We cannot force ourselves. If there is coordination, there is; if there is not, there is not, even if we try to force ourselves. Coordination is a spontaneous matter of life; we cannot force ourselves to coordinate, nor can we pretend to coordinate. The degree of our coordination is determined by the degree of our daily tearing down and building up, in God’s hand. Without the tearing down and building up, there is no real coordination, even if we force ourselves to work something out. In response to this, some have said, “If we do not have the regular tearing down and building up, we should not try to coordinate with one another.” However, even this “not trying” to coordinate with one another is unnatural. It is man’s work; therefore, it is wrong. The extent to which we have been torn down and built up is the extent to which we can coordinate. We should not purposely try to coordinate or purposely try to avoid coordination; rather, we should act according to what is spiritually spontaneous.
Question: Does a person need to have a special calling or confirmation to work for the Lord?
Answer: This is a practical and also important question. In principle, everyone who is led by the Lord to serve Him should be clear concerning his calling. However, we would need a considerable amount of time to explain how to be clear concerning the Lord’s calling. In the 1952 issue of The Ministry of the Word in Chinese, there is a message that specifically speaks of the matter of calling (vol. 1, p. 426). That message is very thorough. Concerning this question, the brothers and sisters should look at that issue of The Ministry of the Word.