The problem of the church in Tainan is exactly the same as other localities. Our supply to the brothers and sisters is very limited. In recent days we have begun to feel that our vessels are too small; if we take care of one item, we cannot take care of another item. We do not visit those who have not come to the meetings for a long time, and our supply to those who come to the meetings regularly is very limited. In our daily church life, although we try our best to have good fellowship with the saints and give them a good leading, we are unable to supply them adequately. We feel that our vessel is too small, and we do not know what to do.
If we desire our small vessels to be enlarged, we need to pray. Man is limited, but the Lord is unlimited. The Lord can turn our limitedness into unlimitedness; this requires our prayer. Several have had this kind of experience; they had a great turn in this matter. For example, some people are not naturally eloquent, and they always stammer. However, after they pray before the Lord in tears, marvelously, they become very fluent when they stand up to speak for the Lord.
On the one hand, we should admit that we are limited and that our vessels are too poor; on the other hand, we should pray and look to the Lord that He would enlarge us. Everyone who has some real experiences in the Lord has experienced being enlarged. Our experience of the Lord involves enlarging; it does not cause us to become proud, but it causes us to be enlarged. The more a person has experience and learning in the Lord, the more he is enlarged. The basic principle of being enlarged is to be broken. The extent that a person is broken before the Lord determines the extent to which he has been enlarged. A person is narrow because he is not willing to be broken, and a person’s unwillingness to be broken causes him to become narrow. The more intense the breaking, the more a person is enlarged. This is a fixed principle. Thus, we need to pray.
When we lead the brothers and sisters, we should give them the feeling that our service is like fire burning in the thornbush. This is the vision Moses saw: fire was burning in the thornbush, but the thornbush was not consumed (Exo. 3:2-3). The fire was burning in the thornbush, but the fire was not using the thornbush as fuel. The thornbush was Moses, who represents us, and the fire is God Himself. When God uses a person, it is God who is burning in the person. Nevertheless, he is not destroyed or consumed by fire. Hence, in our service, we should not look at our condition. The more we look at our condition, the more we will feel like a thornbush; that is, we will feel that we are no match for Egypt and that we cannot stand before Pharaoh.
We need to see that we are in God’s hands, that it is He who is using us, and that it is His holy fire burning in us. It is His grace and His might; everything depends on Him. When Moses was called, the first vision he saw was the fire burning in the thornbush. Only then did he have the second vision in which he saw that he was fully leprous within (4:6-7). Anyone who has a desire to serve the Lord must have these two visions.
We need to see that we are a thornbush, which is useless, but this should not discourage us, because the fire can burn in the thornbush. This vision shows that no vessel is great enough to satisfy God’s demand. Moses was a remarkable person, but in God’s vision, he was just a thornbush. The Israelites could be saved by the fire that was burning in the thornbush, not because of the thornbush itself. When Moses stood before Pharaoh, it was a scene of the fierce fire burning in a thornbush, and Pharaoh could not withstand it. This is something that all serving ones should have; we should not continually turn to look at ourselves. The first few chapters of Exodus show a beautiful scene of a person who is nothing, who is just a thornbush, but who could not be defeated by anything of Egypt because of the fire burning within him.