As the members of the vital groups, we need to pay off our debt of the gospel (Rom. 1:14-15) to our relatives, who are our first inner circle, our closest circle of contacts. Many of our relatives are still not saved. We have to pray for them. Starting from today, the Lord may lead you to pray for them for six months. You do not need to pray too long. Every day after rising up, you may say, “Lord, my mother is still not saved.” This is your prayer. After work in the afternoon, when you get in the car, you may say, “Lord, my mother is still not saved.” Cry to the Lord in this way for half a year, and see what will come out.
In his autobiography, George Müller told us that he prayed for hundreds of people. Sooner or later all of these people were saved. He prayed for one person on his list for a long time, and that man was eventually saved after George Müller died. We have to believe that our concern for sinners is of the Lord. He chose and predestinated people, and now our prayer is required for their salvation. Thousands of people in our localities were chosen and predestinated by our Father God, but without any prayer, without any concern by God’s children for His chosen ones, He will not save anyone. He cannot save anyone until we pray. In principle all of us have been saved through someone’s prayer. I was saved through my sister’s prayer. We all need to pray for our relatives continually until they all are saved.
We do not need to pray long prayers. A number of us have a habit of praying long prayers with long sentences. Much of what we pray in this way is full of wasted words. The Lord desires to hear our genuine prayer, without our explanations and teachings. We should cry to the Lord in a simple and direct way for the salvation of all our relatives, one by one. This is the way to clear up our debt of the gospel with our relatives, our first circle of responsibility. Our neighbors should be considered as our second circle, and our classmates and colleagues as our third circle. The Lord told His disciples that they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem (the inner circle), in Judea (the second circle), in Samaria (the third circle), and to the uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 1:8).
This does not mean that while we are clearing up our debt of the gospel with our relatives, we do not need to contact anyone else. As we are laboring with the Lord in the gospel, He will sovereignly give us people. We should not forget the case in Acts 8 of Philip with the eunuch from Ethiopia. This eunuch was returning to his own country from his worship to God at Jerusalem, and he was reading the book of Isaiah. The Spirit led Philip to this eunuch for his salvation. That eunuch was not someone intimately related to Philip. If we are persons loving the Lord and willing to sacrifice everything for others’ salvation, the Lord will sovereignly bring us to those whom He has chosen and predestinated.
The Lord is hunting for those who will be His lovers. In order to be vital members of the vital groups, we must be lovers of the Lord. In our hearts the Lord should have the first place, the preeminence. We need to be those who live Him and who live to Him. If we are such persons, would not the Lord use us? Surely He would use us. Every day He would use us to contact people. As lovers of the Lord we will spontaneously be concerned for others’ salvation.
We all need to be burdened to pay off our debt. Paul said in Romans 1 that he was a debtor to those who had not heard the gospel from him (vv. 14-15). Paul was endeavoring to pay his debt of the gospel. He said that he owed people the gospel. We all owe our parents, relatives, cousins, in-laws, neighbors, classmates, and colleagues. We owe the gospel to every man.
We could tell someone that we owe him something. When he asks us what we owe him, we can say, “I owe you Christ.” Then we can speak about Christ to him. If we are persons who love the Lord and who are endeavoring to pay off our debt of the gospel, the Lord will use us to bring people to Himself. We have not yet become “crazy” to such an extent. I was saved through someone who was “crazy” in this way, who loved the Lord to the uttermost. She was a young sister who was six years older than I. We must remember that the people whom we beget will be like us.
In the Lord’s recovery, we are under His perfecting to make us useful members of His Body. Ephesians 4:11 and 12 tell us that He gave to His Body, the church, some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some shepherd-teachers to perfect the saints. Verse 12 says that we are being perfected unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ. Eventually the perfected ones will do the work of the ministry just as the gifted ones do. The apostle Paul stayed in Ephesus for three years to do this perfecting work (Acts 20:31). He said that he taught publicly and from house to house (v. 20). He also said that he admonished each one with tears (v. 31). From house to house means that Paul taught in all the homes of the saints.
Because the saints in Ephesus had received Paul’s perfecting, he was able to write the marvelous Epistle of Ephesians to them. He was present with them for three years to get them prepared so that he could write that Epistle. Chapter one of Ephesians reveals the dispensing of the Divine Trinity and the transfusing of the ascended Christ. Chapter two reveals the masterpiece in God’s new creation and the creation of the new man. Chapter three shows us God’s eternal economy and Christ’s making His home in our hearts. Chapter four unveils the divine mingling and the growing in the Body of Christ. It also shows us the building up of the Body by itself and the renewing in the Spirit. Chapters five and six show us the matters of union and fighting. Our marriage union with Christ is in chapter five, and our fighting the spiritual warfare for dealing with God’s enemy is in chapter six. This corresponds with Revelation 19. In this chapter we see the marriage union of Christ and His bride (vv. 7-9). Right away the bride and Bridegroom become an army to fight against and defeat Antichrist and his followers (vv. 14-21). Paul could release the book of Ephesians to the saints in Ephesus because they had been prepared and perfected by spending three years in his presence.
We surely need to practice Ephesians 4:12. All of our brothers and sisters in the Lord in the recovery should be perfected unto the work of the ministry, that is, unto the work of the building up of the Body of Christ. We are not merely winning souls in our preaching of the gospel. We are endeavoring to carry out Ephesians 4:12. Today God is seeking perfected ones. I hope that we would contact people and talk to people in a perfected way according to the principle of incarnation. We need to pay off our debt in the gospel in the way revealed in this message.