In the church, every time you encounter some business arrangements, you need to lay hold of this principle of handling matters. Even with purely business matters, you need to keep this principle. Suppose you are starting a meeting, and you need to make some chairs. You cannot call all thirty brothers and sisters together to have a conference on chairs. If you do this, it would be terrible; the church would become a social organization, and the authority of the Holy Spirit would be completely sacrificed. You need to find a few brothers who somewhat love the Lord and who have some better understanding of business affairs; you should contact them, ask for their viewpoints, and take up their opinions. After this, you should ask a few leading brothers and sisters to come for some fellowship. If you fear the Lord in your heart, and you are without any personal opinion, and if you are not autocratic, but allow the Holy Spirit to exercise His rule, the Holy Spirit will give you wisdom and will show you the best way even in matters like making chairs. By that time you can make a decision and can say to the brothers: "Of all the ways, Brother So-and-so's way is the best. Let us adopt that brother's way." This is the principle of handling business affairs.

Unfortunately, in some of the churches there is either a tendency toward autocracy or democracy. Under both of these situations, the Holy Spirit has no authority; as a result, the management of the church becomes a big problem. In the church, the Holy Spirit manifests His authority through some brothers and sisters who are more advanced. Once the brothers have acknowledged this principle, it can be applied to every matter. As to how to do the things and what to do, you need to first pray before the Lord yourself. Suppose you have already started meeting here. What kind of meetings should you have during the week? You as a leading responsible one should first pray before the Lord and touch His feeling. Then you should seek out a few among the brothers and sisters who love the Lord, and who are spiritual, to come together for fellowship and to listen to their feelings. At this time, the Holy Spirit will give you a judgment, and you will say, "Brothers, it is quite clear; we should have the Lord's table meeting once a week, prayer once a week, and also we should preach the gospel in a certain brother's house." All the business affairs in the church should be decided this way.

Once there are business affairs, there is the problem with people. You are starting a meeting now. Who is going to be responsible for arranging the chairs? Who is going to be responsible for cleaning? The principle is still the same. You cannot call a conference to vote; neither can you make the decision yourself. You must ask a few brothers and sisters to come to have a talk, and you must listen to their feelings. During the conversation, you will be clear within and will delegate the matters to those whom the Lord has confirmed. Not only so, even the way to clean and arrange needs to be fellowshipped among a few before handing these matters over to the responsible ones. This is a basic principle. If we have adequate fear of the Lord, under this principle and according to our spiritual level, the Holy Spirit will gain the proper ground among us.