One who serves the Lord must be one who also rises up. It may seem contradictory to say that we need to stop and then say that we need to rise up, but it is not. We need to restrain our opinions and stop our proposals, but we need to rise up to meet the Lord’s need and fulfill the demand in His work. The work of redemption was not accomplished merely by God Himself. God needed man in the person of Jesus Christ to work with Him to accomplish His redemptive work. In redemption, fifty percent is carried out by God, and fifty percent is by man. Without God, there could not be a redemptive work, but also without man, there could not be a redemptive work. The work of redemption was accomplished by the joining of God and man. God desperately needs the cooperation of man. Hence, no part of the work of redemption can be accomplished apart from man. Whenever God wants to do a work, He reveals what He wants to do to man and requires man to stop his opinions and all that he is; then God requires man to cooperate with Him. This cooperation requires man to rise up.
I do not know how much we understand or how deeply we realize this point. Before his conversion, Saul served God, yet he was full of opinions. On his way to Damascus, however, God met him, and he fell on the ground (Acts 9:4). He had been very active, but now he was unable to move. His entire being was stopped so that he could receive God’s revelation and see that his service should come only from God, not from man. God wanted him to see that all his efforts as Saul of Tarsus were according to man’s imagination. Hence, God met Saul on his way to Damascus to stop his entire being. However, this was not the end of God’s work. From that time forward, God enabled Paul to rise up so that he could meet His need and be of use to Him. This second requirement is often more difficult to deal with than the first. While it is not easy for us to stop, it is even more difficult to rise up. Even though it is not easy for us to stop, nevertheless, we still must rise up to meet God’s need and fulfill His demand once we stop. This is more difficult.
Among us there is a brother who has difficulty stopping his opinions and ideas. Whenever we discuss a matter with him, he has ideas and suggestions. For example, if we ask him to help sweep the floor, he replies that the windows need to be cleaned. If we ask him to clean the windows, he says that the floor needs to be swept. This shows that he is a person whose thoughts and opinions cannot be stopped. However, if he wants to serve the Lord, he must stop his ideas and thoughts.
This may be compared to the relationship between a servant and his master. If the servant acknowledges that he is a servant, he must listen to his master’s word. If his master wants him to sweep the floor, he must obey his master by sweeping the floor before cleaning the windows. A servant also may hear his master’s word and know that he needs to sweep the floor but goes to sleep after hearing the word. When he wakes up, he still may not move because he is waiting for someone to buy a broom. The person who is supposed to buy the broom, however, is waiting for someone to give him money, but the person who takes care of the finances cannot get any money because the person who opens the cash box is in the shower and cannot come immediately. This is not something I made up; it is an actual situation.
This shows that in the Lord’s service, it is not easy for one to stop, nor is it easy for one to rise up. When a person truly meets the Lord, he will stop his entire being and ask the Lord what He wants. If the Lord says, “Sweep the floor,” he should immediately sweep the floor with his undivided attention. He will consider everything related to sweeping the floor and give it his full attention. In the service of the Lord, there is a great deal of human opinion, yet very few meet God’s standard. According to man’s disposition, whenever people discuss something, they always have many opinions, but then they go home and sleep peacefully without any further consideration. This is truly troubling. This is one of the reasons that the elders in the church do not like people to express too many opinions.
If we learn these essential lessons, we will be very spiritual. If an elderly brother asks us to cook, we will immediately focus our attention on cooking. In dealing with this elderly brother, we must learn to stop ourselves and to rise up with our entire being. Only then can we meet the Lord’s need. Our problems are related to being unable to stop and then being unable to rise up. As a consequence, we have not been very useful in the Lord’s hand.
In the elders’ meeting, some brothers know only how to make suggestions but not how to work. With such brothers, we should ask them to work. Since they have made the suggestion, they should take the lead to carry it out. For example, when a brother says that the sun is quite bright in the meeting hall and that it would be good to hang some curtains, I would say, “Please do it.” After a few instances of suggesting but not working, the brother usually does not have the boldness to open his mouth to speak when we meet again. We do not need to reject the brothers’ suggestions, but we should always ask the brothers to do it themselves. This will help them learn the lesson of not giving their opinions lightly. If they think that something is feasible, they should do it. After it is done, we can comment on it. If it is not done properly, we need to change the method. After being dealt with two or three times, the brothers will not talk so freely again. The brother who suggested hanging curtains, for example, failed to hang the curtains properly three times, and he needed to be helped in the end. Since then, he has been a different person when he has suggested something.
The Lord deals with us according to this principle. For example, when someone asked Peter whether the Lord Jesus would pay the temple tax, he replied, “Yes.” However, did the Lord truly need to pay the temple tax? The Lord did not respond to Peter directly; rather, He asked him to go fishing in the sea (Matt. 17:24-27). I believe that Peter learned a great lesson through this experience. From that time on, he dared not to speak so loosely again. When facing the vast expanse of the sea while he waited to catch a fish with a stater in its mouth, Peter must have been greatly troubled. He must have thought, “All of this trouble is due to my speaking too much. When will I find a fish with a stater in its mouth?” Peter learned many lessons in a deep way. One who is learning to serve the Lord must come before Him and stop himself. What we should do is not determined by us but rather by His command. Then we must rise up to meet His need.