This series of messages was given by Brother Witness Lee in the full-time training in Anaheim in the fall of 1989.
Prayer: Lord, we thank You for Your sovereignty, and we thank You for Your sovereign grace that we may have this training. Lord, we believe it is of You, yet we still put our trust in You. We have no trust in ourselves. We trust in You for all the trainees. Grant them Your merciful, gracious visitation every day. Lord, this morning we look unto You for Your speaking. Speak a word out of Your heart to our heart. We need Your word of life. Reveal life to us. Lord, do cover us, fight the battle, and condemn the evil one. We ask You, and we even give You the command, to defeat him in these fighting days. Lord, defeat the enemy. We bind him. O Lord, thank You. Give us a living word. Amen.
This is a very special and particular training. We have never had such a training as this in the past sixty years. First, I will not speak very much. I will only speak four times each week out of the eighteen to nineteen classes. I will speak Tuesday morning, Thursday morning, Saturday morning, and one evening. I hope this will encourage you rather than disappoint you.
Second, there will be ten other teachers to help you. They are willing to participate in this training for a period of sixteen weeks. Most of them will speak once or twice a week, while a few of them will speak as many as three times a week. So, including myself, you will have eleven brothers helping you.
Third, the visiting work which will be assigned to you beginning tonight will consist of four things: to visit people as the priests of the New Testament gospel, to feed and nourish the newly saved ones in the home meetings, to endeavor to build up small groups in order to perfect the new ones, and to raise up new churches in new cities. We have never had such a long-term training with such special daily practices.
In the visiting work, especially concerning the small groups, there is much to learn. Many of the so-called small groups which have been meeting for some time are too natural. For the most part they are not according to the way of the New Testament economy. Rather, they are according to the natural understanding. Some may say that they know what a small group is and that all that is needed is to group people together. I would say a strong no to this. The small group is the practice of perfecting the saints revealed in Ephesians 4:12; hence, it is a great thing. The small group is not only for your perfecting, but also for you to perfect others. However, before you can perfect others, you yourself must learn. This is why we will spend a lot of energy in this training to strengthen your learning.
In raising up new churches, we will assign some of you to new, nearby cities. You will be formed into teams of three persons each. Two new teams, six persons, will be sent to take care of a new city. Within the sixteen weeks of the training, I hope that a number of new, small churches will be raised up in those new cities. After the sixteen weeks of training are completed, when you go, another group of new trainees will come to continue the work. This is a particular aspect of the visiting work in this training.
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