To keep the oneness of the Spirit we need to condemn all the self-exalting views and drop all the divisive opinions. We all have some self-exalting views. Some of the saints may feel confident that they are more knowledgeable and can do things better than the elders of the church. This is self-exaltation. Every member of the church, whether old or young, has some self-exalting views. Whoever has a self-exalting view surely has opinions. No one is without opinion. We need to condemn all the self-exalting views and drop all the divisive opinions.
To keep the oneness of the Body in the one accord, we need to forsake all self-preferences and disregard all personal tastes. The sisters are often stronger in the matter of personal tastes than the brothers. Our self-preferences and personal tastes are a great hindrance to the keeping of the oneness of the Body.
Finally, to keep the oneness of the Spirit, we need to follow the Spirit’s direction and respect our fellow members’ feeling. Regardless of our view or opinion, we should always follow the Spirit. We must turn to the spirit to follow the direction of the Holy Spirit within us, and we must respect and take care of others’ feeling.
For the building up of the vital groups, we need to make, with much and thorough prayer, a corporate Nazarite’s consecration for the Lord (Num. 6:1-4). We need to do this until we are blended, until we become dough. All the members of a group should come together to consecrate themselves as one entity, as a group of Nazarites, to give the Lord a corporate consecration. We need to let the Lord gain our whole group as one entity for the carrying out of His New Testament economy. Our corporate consecration should not be to fulfill any kind of formal duty, but to serve the Lord according to the organic leading of the Spirit.
For the building up of the vital groups, we need to be overcomers in this age with much and thorough prayer. According to the New Testament principle, all the believers are and should be overcomers (1 John 2:13, 14; 4:4; 5:4-5), but the majority have become degraded. Thus, in the seven epistles in Revelation 2 and 3 the Lord called the overcomers.
We need to be overcomers in this age with much and thorough prayer, according to the Lord’s calling in His last words to the saints in the churches. The Lord’s calling of the overcomers in Revelation 2 and 3 was not only to the church, nor only to the saints, but to the saints in the churches. It is difficult for the entire church to be a corporate overcomer, but individual saints within the churches should be overcomers.
We need to be overcomers in this age to replace the degraded church. Because the church has become degraded, it is not what it should be; hence, there is the need of the overcomers to replace the degraded church.
For the building up of the vital groups, we need to pray much and thoroughly for the four steps of the God-ordained way. When we come together in the groups, we need to forget the old way and the old things in our prayer. We need to learn the new way and the new things, which are the four steps of the God-ordained way. The first step of the God-ordained way is to fulfill the New Testament priesthood of the gospel to seek, visit, and contact sinners for God’s salvation to make the sinners organic members of the Body of Christ and offer them to God as the New Testament sacrifice (Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9). The second step is to nourish and cherish the newborn babes in Christ in home meetings as nursing mothers (1 Thes. 2:7). The third step is to perfect the saints by mutual teaching in group meetings for the work of the ministry to build up the organic Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12-13). Finally, the fourth step of the God-ordained way is the prophesying by all the saints in the church meetings for the direct and organic building up of the Body of Christ as the organism of the processed Triune God (1 Cor. 14:1-5, 23-26, 31, 39a).
Day and night we need to pray for these four things. After several months of preparation we will pay our attention to the carrying out of these four things. Before that time we need much prayer. Therefore, day and night, morning and evening, we should not forget these four items. This is the purpose and the goal of our being grouped together. Our being grouped together is to make us a corporate Nazarite and the overcomers to replace the degraded church to carry out these four things.