At this juncture all the saints responsible for the districts must have specific prayers asking the Lord to quench their thirst. As those serving the Lord, our thirst must be quenched so that we can continue to serve. We must have the Holy Spirit. Then we can render help to others. It is best that two or three responsible ones come together to pray in order to freshly consecrate themselves, wait before the Lord, look to the Lord, and make a vow. We cannot rely upon methods, arrangements, and systems. If a person has a spirit and a soul, his body can be useful; however, without a spirit and a soul, his body would become a terrible thing. Similarly, when we serve in the coordination of the Body, we must have the Spirit and be strengthened in our spirit. Then our service will be living. If there is no Spirit but only arrangements for the elders and responsible ones, these arrangements will be similar to a corpse. Any arrangement without the Spirit is worthless. No one likes a corpse. If, however, there is the Spirit and there is also an outward arrangement, our service will be valuable. Our service must be carried out in the Body and with the Spirit.
Conversely, if there is only the Spirit without the Body, our service will be dreadful. We need to take care of both aspects. We do not agree with those who are super spiritual, neither do we agree with those who emphasize only outward methods. The Holy Spirit within needs to be matched with an outward method, principle, or arrangement. The Holy Spirit and an outward method, principle, or arrangement need to go hand in hand in the service. The light we see concerning these two matters is accurate according to God’s word. Hence, we must be careful and responsible before God. We have spent countless hours in His presence observing, waiting, and praying. We rely on the Spirit. We must pray and cry out to the Lord, asking Him to give us the Holy Spirit. Our service must have the Spirit. Only when the problem of our inward thirst is resolved will we have genuine service.
In Exodus 17:1-3 the children of Israel did not have water to drink; thus, their thirst needed to be quenched. In order to have their thirst quenched, Moses had to strike a rock (v. 6). As they were heading toward their goal of serving God, they encountered a number of problems. In this incident Moses needed to use a staff to strike the rock. This is the principle of the cross. Moses had to strike the rock in order for the rock to be cleft and for the living water to flow out to quench the people’s thirst. This demonstrates a principle: Whenever we want to experience the living water, we must pass through the breaking of the cross. We should not expect to serve after an effortless outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Genuine service is a service of the Spirit, a service that comes out of the cleft rock. Christ needed to be broken and cleft, and we also need to be broken and cleft. When Christ was cleft, the living water flowed out. Likewise, we also need to be cleft in order to allow the Spirit to pass through us and flow out of us.
After receiving God’s commission, the saints responsible for serving the Lord must prostrate themselves before Him, asking Him for the Holy Spirit. When we ask the Lord for the Holy Spirit, we must prostrate ourselves before Him to receive His breaking. We need a heart that seeks Him, waits on Him, and looks to Him. We should not expect that a power will come upon us instantaneously. Rather, we should ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten us, show us the problems we have, the source of any rebellion, the dealings that we need, and the areas in us that need to be broken. When we accept this breaking from God, we will have a genuine infilling of the Holy Spirit. When our person is broken, the Holy Spirit will flow in and flow out of us. If we desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit, we must receive the breaking of the cross. We must all take this way. Without a new revival and a new breaking, we cannot have a new service. We should not think that the Holy Spirit will come after we pray for two hours. Rather, we should pray that the Lord would enable us to see the part of our being that is the rock and the part that is the living water. When we receive such a breaking, the Holy Spirit will follow.
To quench thirst we need the Holy Spirit in our service; that is, we need to receive the living water. Thirst is an indication that the rock has not been cleft. As soon as the rock is cleft, living water will flow out. A rock that is not cleft means that there has been no breaking; hence, there also is no living water. We all must receive the breaking. God told Moses to strike the rock so that water would come out of the rock for the people to drink (v. 6). In our prayer we must see one way and one goal; the one way is the way of striking the rock, and the one goal is to be broken. Prayer causes us to see that we need to be struck and that we need to be broken. As soon as we receive the breaking, the Holy Spirit will flow.