This is absolutely different from any religion. Not one leader of a religion demanded that his followers love him. Only the Lord Jesus demands this. He asks us to believe in Him and to love Him. We must have faith in Him, and we must have love toward Him. It may be good that we pray for a few weeks, even when we come together for the prayer meeting: “Lord, show us this love, and grant us such a love.” We must learn to love the Lord. Then we will see that we are starting to grow. When we start to love the Lord, we start to grow. There is no other way. The only way for Christians to begin growing is by firstly knowing how to love the Lord.

First Corinthians speaks much about growth. If we read the whole book, we will realize that it is a book of growth. Eventually at the end it says, “If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed! The Lord comes!” (16:22). Then the next verse says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you” (v. 23). If the grace of the Lord is with us, then we will surely love the Lord. Together these two verses mean that the grace of the Lord is with us that we may love Him. There is no other way to grow.

A real revival is a revival full of the Lord’s love. Therefore, we ourselves must experience it. Then when we contact others, when we help others, we will know where to start. If we have never learned the lesson to experience the love, not only of the Lord but for and toward the Lord, it is very hard to grow, and we simply do not know how to help others to grow. If we do learn the lesson and we have this experience, then when we contact people, we will know where they are, and we will have an influence on them. We will realize who is in the light of such a love, and those whom we contact will be influenced to love the Lord. This is the beginning of growth. We cannot merely go to the brothers and say, “Oh, we have to grow.” To speak in this way is like speaking to the wall, “Wall, you have to grow.” We can talk in this way day and night, year after year, with no effect.

We need to pray that the Lord would touch the hearts of many saints. Among us we need this love. The seven epistles in Revelation 2 and 3, dealing with the fall of the church, show us that the source, the origin, of the fall of the church is the loss of the first love (2:4). When the love toward the Lord is lost, regardless of what we do for Him, the life eventually is gone. To receive life requires believing, having faith, but to have the growth in life requires love. Faith is for life, while love is for the growth of life. If we do not have love, it is hard for us to grow. Therefore, we ourselves must have this experience; then we will know how to help others.

If we do love the Lord, we will spontaneously offer ourselves to Him. When we love the Lord, there is no need for others to tell us that we have to consecrate ourselves. Of the sixty-six books of the Bible, there is only one that deals entirely with the matter of growth, that is, the Song of Songs. This book is a book of growth. Brother Watchman Nee’s study of the Song of Songs shows us all the steps for growth. The Song of Songs tells us that after a person is saved, she realizes the Lord’s love; this is the start. Then at the end of the book we can see maturity and building up. This shows us that growth starts with love, and when we have love, we spontaneously offer ourselves to the Lord. Therefore, I will not tell you that you have to consecrate yourselves, because consecration is included in our love for the Lord. If we do not have love, regardless of how much we consecrate ourselves, we still have not truly consecrated ourselves. The real consecration comes from love and goes with love. If we do not have such a love, our consecration is not real. This is the first main way to grow.
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