Prayer: Lord, we are here by Your grace. We look unto You for a further visitation. Lord, we need Your fresh touch. Lord, we would not be knowledge seekers. We like to be Your seekers. We pursue You and we seek after You. Tonight, Lord, do bring us all into Yourself. Even in this training meeting, Lord, bring us all into Yourself. Oh, we need You! We need You even tonight. In this meeting, Lord, we need You desperately. Oh, come to touch us. Lord, we need Your touching. Oh, just touch us afresh that we may be fully brought into You. Grant us a clear direction. Lord, even clear up the situation that we may have a crystal flow of life. Oh, we don’t like to have any mixture. We like to have a clear flow, a transparent flow, of Yourself. Lord, lead us on and grant us the liberty and the freedom in fellowship that we may utter something out of You. Do speak Yourself out of all of us. Amen.
We need three brothers to tell us their realization concerning the Perfecting Training. Either in the way of a testimony or realization or analysis, tell us your feeling concerning this kind of training.
First brother: I just feel that these Perfecting Trainings that you have been sharing with us are really a graduate school. These Perfecting Meetings are not something on the basic matters of our Christian life. But this is something to help us grow in life after we have reached a certain point in life and in the church life and in the building. It seems that after we have been in Christ and in the church for some period of time, we grow to a certain point, and we become somewhat satisfied with our progress in the faith and in life. What we have seen in this Perfecting Meeting is that at a certain point there are elements in our being that become a kind of frustration. Unless we would pursue and break through some of these matters, we would not grow any more. Although the Lord is not satisfied with our progress, we may be satisfied. We come to a point where our growth in life levels off. I feel these Perfecting Meetings are a real incentive for us to realize that we have much further to go and also that we could see the frustrating elements in our being so that we could break through.
Second brother: I cannot help reflecting how these meetings began and the burden from which these meetings came. These were the three things that Brother Lee observed and presented to us in the very beginning of these meetings. First, that there was a shortage of the growth in life. It seems that we have been growing in the Lord’s recovery, but we have come to a point that we are frustrated in this matter. We are slowed down; we are somewhat frustrated in the growth in life. Second, because of the shortage of growth in life, there is the lack of the real and solid building up among the saints in the churches. Third, there is also a lack of the proper and adequate functioning of the saints. I feel these are the three reasons that gave rise to the burden within our brother. I believe also that these are the points that the Lord wants to get through for our growth, for the building up among us, and also for the proper and adequate functioning among the saints.
We began, of course, in the matter of culture, but as the meetings have progressed it seems that the leading of the Spirit is into deeper and deeper matters which are blockages within our being.
We went from the matter of culture into the matter of opinion. Although at first we thought this might be the depth of our problem, later we found out even that was still superficial. We saw that the Lord still needs to touch us in a more subjective and even deeper way. Then we began to touch the matter of peculiarity. Through all of the fellowship in the meetings there was one exposure after another. In a sense there was no answer but there was much exposure. Brother Lee told us that there is no easy answer or quick solution to these matters. Our rescue, first of all, is to realize that we have these problems, and second, our rescue is in our willingness to go to the Lord for His mercy and grace to be rescued in a genuine way out of these great frustrations. I would even consider the training on Philippians as a furtherance of this burden. All during the Philippians Training, I felt the Lord was continuing on this same line. In that training we saw that there is a psychological tumor that needs to be removed. Also we saw that within us there is the domestic logic and the national philosophy. Although I don’t fully see what these things are, the Lord has led us to this point. I feel that the fact we are all sitting here must mean that the Lord wants to get through. I feel we are in some critical times and in some crucial days. We really need to give ourselves again to the Lord for Him to go on further and deeper within all of us.
Third brother: I agree with what the brothers have said thus far. First, Brother Lee began to touch the matter of culture as something replacing Christ. Then he went deeper to touch the matter of our opinion frustrating us from experiencing Christ. Then he went on to say that culture is general and opinion is on the surface, but there is a root problem. In the recovery our need is to live Christ. We need to live Christ and to have His Body built. But there is something in us deeper than culture and deeper than our opinion which resists Christ. We have not realized it is there, and we do not know what it is, but it is there all the time resisting Christ. I am just barely beginning to see how much I resist living Christ. We saw that our problem is not so much outward sin or that we are not spiritual enough or that we are short of knowledge or that we are not overcoming. The test is: do we live Christ, and are we building the Body? When I check myself under this test I feel dissatisfied. This peculiarity that frustrates us or resists us from living Christ is something in us that we don’t know. It is invisible; it’s small; it’s real; even it’s hidden and concealed. In the last Perfecting Training he made a statement that it’s risky to be in the church life and not grow in Christ. This shook me up! I feel there is such a danger here—that I’m in the Lord’s recovery; I’m in the church life—yet it’s risky because if we don’t grow in Christ then automatically our peculiarity grows. I want to grow for God’s economy, but something else grows to resist my going on in the recovery.
These meetings have mainly left me with the sensation of how much we need the Lord’s mercy. One thing he shared that helped me was that to realize you have this problem is ninety percent of the cure. I have never realized like I do in these days that I don’t live Christ. I’m satisfied if I simply don’t sin. I believe this is really in line with the Philippians Training. Our need is to live Christ. Also this little word that we need to open up our heart and our spirit is a real help. I know I don’t live Christ and I feel frustrated in this, yet I feel this is where we are. We just pray that the Lord will bring us through. I feel, brothers and sisters, we all need to stand with the Lord and stand with our brother to take us through this problem. We need the Lord to get us through this matter of peculiarity so that we can live Christ and build the Body.