Furthermore, if there are those who have physical illness, they can share that matter briefly in the small group meetings. Perhaps the brothers and sisters will receive the burden immediately to pray for them. In this way, we can see that the small group meetings include shepherding and nourishing. For example, the church in Taichung has over seven hundred brothers and sisters. If we have ten or more to a small group, we can have over fifty small groups. All the ten or more brothers and sisters in each small group can shepherd one another and nourish one another. This will be more thorough than the care of eight or ten elders. For this reason, the function of the small group is all-inclusive.
The small group meeting should carefully avoid one thing. If fifteen brothers and sisters have been meeting for half a year, they will be very familiar with one another and will care for and love one another. After half a year, their number may increase to over thirty. At that time they should divide into two groups. However, everyone may be unwilling to divide. At that time we should be careful. Perhaps the natural affection has become too strong among them. We have to see that we only have love between the brothers and sisters; we do not have any tie in friendship. Everything of the natural affection has to be rejected. We only care for one another by the love in the Lord. Only then will the Lord have a chance to spread His kingdom.
If we truly desire to take the biblical way, we must pay the price to live a revived and renewed life. We should not depend on ourselves, but should depend on the resurrected Lord and His power, His authority, and His speaking. Every week we should consecrate two evenings for the Lord. We should do this not only for a year or two, but until we see the Lord face to face. This is not an easy matter. It requires much prayer on our part so that we will deny ourselves and will not trust in ourselves. Only by this can we persevere and put such a thing into practice.
The Lord Jesus spoke to the disciples the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. He said that the sower went forth to sow and that four kinds of results were borne. The seeds that fell by the wayside are the first kind. The birds came and ate them all up. This means that although the Lord sowed the seeds, some hearts are hardened by the traffic of the way. This typifies the heart of some being hardened by communication with the world. As a result, it becomes hard for the seed to get in (vv. 3-4). Second are those who appear to be good ground outwardly, but actually are shallow and rocky places. There being not much earth, the seeds immediately sprang up. But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they were dried up (vv. 5-6). In the third case the ground was the normal earth. But it was filled with thorns. The thorns typify the anxiety of the age, the deceitfulness of riches, and the temptations of the lusts (v. 7). When we have these three kinds of things, it will be difficult for the Lord’s word to have the ground in us. The fourth kind of result comes from those that fall into good ground (v. 8). The good ground typifies the good heart. It does not have the worldly traffic to harden it. Nor does it have hidden sins, the anxiety of this age, or the deceitfulness of riches. Only this kind of heart can receive the Lord’s word and can allow it to grow and bear fruit, even up to a hundredfold.
This parable of the Lord is very scientific. He pointed out laws from our everyday, practical lives. We cannot break these laws. Hence, we have to deny our self, trust the Lord, and depend on His resurrection power, His authority in ascension, His Spirit, and His word. In this way, our heart will have no worldly communication, hidden sins, or bondages of lusts. Instead it will be fully a fertile ground. Only then can the will of the Lord be accomplished. This is what the new way is striving for today.
Everything in this new way requires the Lord’s grace. Paul said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am...yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Cor. 15:10). For this reason, all of us have to know the grace of God, which is just the very God enjoyed by us in death and resurrection. Only when we are in this One can we be the top kind of person to take the new way that is humanly unattainable. This way is absolutely not in the old creation or the natural realm. Rather it is in the new creation and the realm of resurrection. This is why in everything we have to trust in the resurrected Lord, in His resurrection power, in His authority in ascension, and in His all-inclusive Spirit. May the Lord be merciful to us.
(A message given by Brother Witness Lee in Taichung on March 29, 1989)