All of us have the second birth, and we have the second family. In the second family, we all need to have the second family relationship. The family is in the relationship. If the relationship of the family is gone, there is no longer a real family. Without the family relationship, we cannot feel encouraged about the situation in the church life. Without the reality of these matters, we cannot have the practicality of the church life.
The sisters need to be trained as serving ones, and they need to learn to be the mothers. Until there are the real mothers in the church life, the church life is not practical, and it is not up to the top.
The matter of being a mother will bring in many lessons, and it will put you on the real test in every way. You will see how you love yourself more than others, how you care only for yourself. All these things will be tested out and exposed. Without this testing, you could never realize how selfish you are and how much you are in yourself. These things would not be exposed until you pick up some as your children. These good children in the spirit would expose you to the uttermost.
You may talk about being broken. Many times I have said that the sisters need the husbands with some little helpers to break them, but the best ones to do the breaking are the children in the spirit. How much breaking will come if you pick up one to care for as a mother. We do need the grace to take this way. It is not adequate to be a brother or a sister in a general way. All the sisters need to be serving sisters, and whether or not we have children, we all need to be the mothers. This is the best way to receive the blessing, the growth, the spirituality, and the real enjoyment of the Lord.
When you become such a mother, everything in the church life would be practical. There would be no more vain talk. The sisters like to talk so much because they don't have children, and they don't take care of their children. If you would pick up a child and take care of that child, right away you will become very practical. No one else can help you so much to stay away from your natural disposition. Such a child will take you from the earth to the third heaven.
This message is not doctrinal, but it is more than practical. Just this little word, "Greet Rufus, his mother and mine," means a lot. "I commend our sister Phoebe." Just this short commendation is meaningful. The church life is here, revealed in this Scripture and revealed in the mother. All of the sisters need to become the mothers.
In God's account, the children in the flesh do not count. We need the second category of children, and we all need a mother to care for us. Our children in the spirit do count in the eyes of God.
No doubt Peter had some children in the flesh, but there is no record in the New Testament. When Peter was released from prison, he considered where he should go because he realized that there were many homes with praying groups. Eventually he went to the home of Mark's mother. This word indicates the intimate relationship between Peter and Mark. In Peter's Epistle, Peter tells us that Mark is his son. History tells us that Peter dictated most of the Gospel of Mark. Some expositors would call the Gospel of Mark the Gospel of Peter. A number of verses in Mark give an indication that it is Peter's word. Because Mark was Peter's son in the spirit, he inherited all of Peter's riches in the spirit.
Romans 16 is a chapter on the practical church life, not in doctrine but in practicality. Until we could see the real serving sisters and so many mothers, our church life is not practical, it is not on the top.
If you sisters would be serving as Phoebes and loving as mothers, I can assure you that the church would be seventy percent built up right away. Seventy percent of the building of the practical church life depends on the sisters. Without such a coordination with the sisters in this way, no matter how much the brothers would labor in the church life, there would be very little result as far as the building goes. When the sisters would be serving and would be the mothers, right away the church will be built up. Through this there will be a strong connection in the spiritual building, and a prevailing revival will spontaneously be brought in. Satan will be defeated. It will be fully proved how much depends on the sisters. Seventy percent of the practical building depends on the sisters. We all must pray that the Lord will have mercy upon the church that all the sisters will be Phoebes and will be mothers.
A message given by Witness Lee
in Anaheim, California,
March 18, 1975