Those who took the lead in the recent turmoil did not care for the Body. They also misunderstood us. Such misunderstanding comes mostly from ambition. If a person did not have any ambition in a certain matter, he would not have any misunderstanding. If a person desires to gain something for himself and does not get it, he may feel that he has been mistreated. Actually, he was not mistreated by others, but was misled by his own ambition. The problem here is the desire to achieve something for themselves.
We must resolve to deny ourselves and be the overcomers for the Lord, for the recovery, and for the Body. We need such a resolution. We should pray, “Lord, I know You need the overcomers. Without the overcomers, You have no way to go on. Lord, I want to be one of these overcomers.” The overcomers see the Body, know the Body, and care for the Body.
We have to make a strong resolution. In Judges 5 Deborah highly appraised some of those in the tribe of Reuben among the people of Israel. She said that they made a definite resolution to fight for the Lord’s people (v. 15). Judges also tells us that God selected three hundred to be Gideon’s army based upon how they drank water. The three hundred who lapped the water into their mouth with their hand did not care for their necessities, while the others who bowed down on their knees to drink the water did (7:4-7). The overcomers are those who care for God’s interests above everything, including their necessities.
On the one hand, we have to make our standing clear that we do not agree with the divisions made by certain division-makers. This will help to calm down the situation among all the churches. On the other hand, we have to pick up a strong resolution by praying, “Lord, I’m going to mean business to live You for Your recovery, for the building up of Your Body. Lord, this is my job. This is my goal.”
We must be vital persons. We must practice visiting people for the gospel once a week for two hours. Suppose that you pick up a resolution by praying, “Lord, I am on this earth for Your recovery, for Your Body. Your Body needs the human members for Your divine constitution. If I don’t go out to get sinners saved to become Your members, then how could Your Body be built up? My going out is not for soul-winning. I am not for that. I am for Your Body. I have to go out to get members for Your Body.” After making such a resolution before the Lord, you can begin to contact people for two hours every week. There are many ways to contact people and many places you can go. You may go out week after week and gain no one until the end of the year. At that time, you may meet a man while you are standing in line at the bank, and as a result you may gain him and his entire family. If you go out faithfully and consistently every week for two hours, you surely can gain one person as remaining fruit in a year.
Not all the saints are able to practice this consistent labor in the gospel because of various circumstances and weaknesses, but perhaps forty out of one hundred can. If thirty of these gain one a year, this will yield a thirty percent increase. In this way it would be easy for a local church to gain a thirty percent increase every year. The Lord said that the seed sown on the good earth bears fruit and produces either a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold (Matt. 13:23).
A thirty percent yearly increase would be the highest in the history of Christianity. Do you believe that you can go out two hours each week, fifty-two times a year, and not gain one person? I believe that anyone who would do this would gain one person a year. To knock on doors means to contact people by any possible way.
We must be vital in order to gain sinners for the Lord. After we gain them, we need to feed them. To feed the new believers is even harder than gaining them. Then we have to perfect them by the mutual asking and answering of questions, the mutual teaching, in the group meetings. In order to do this effectively, we have to learn the truths. The recent life-study on Joshua, Judges, and Ruth did not come to me by accident. It came from over a half of a century of studying the Bible and accumulating the truth in the Bible. I am sharing this to impress us that we have to pay the price to learn the truths.
We need to gather the new ones together to form a little vital group, to mutually ask questions and mutually answer one another for the mutual teaching. The new ones cannot do this, so we have to set up a pattern for them by asking the proper questions. We may ask, “What is the first thing a believer should do after his baptism?” They will not know how to answer this, so we have to answer for them to set up a pattern. After we do this a number of times, they will learn how to ask and how to answer. This means that we need to pay the price to learn the truth and to learn how to speak. Then we need to help the new ones to practice the church meeting by prophesying to build up the Body. This is very high, but it is practical and workable. Whether or not we carry this out depends upon our willingness to pay the price to do it.
The Lord is a working God. He is still working today in His own way, and He needs people. We must enter into the intrinsic significance of the holy Scriptures to find out what the Lord says and what He wants. We have no right to invent anything. Rather, we discover things in the Bible. We should aspire to be patterns to the coming generation. Then the Lord will have a way. Otherwise He cannot have a way to build up His Body and to defeat His enemy, to destroy Satan. Satan is still working on this earth, walking about as a roaring lion and seeking someone to devour (1 Pet. 5:8). He is also active in the heavens (Job 1:6). Revelation shows that God is waiting for the overcomers to defeat him (12:10-11). Christianity cannot fulfill this work for God. Even the church life in the recovery carried out in a routine way cannot accomplish God’s desire. The Lord needs the overcomers.