Question: Many times you reach a point in your experience where you have genuine concerns. How can you have fellowship about these genuine concerns without being considered by others as negative and thereby causing another problem? This is a concern to me, and this is related to the freedom of seeking the Lord and the truth.
First, let us try to avoid any kind of trouble. Second, we must try our best to make everything open. If I see something in you that would not be so good for the recovery, I must pray for you and seek the Lord’s leading to go to you and open up the matters of concern. I should be able to do this without any kind of fear because we are brothers in the recovery, and we can fellowship about these things. I believe that all things have a way to be resolved by thorough and frank fellowship. Please do not do things behind anyone. If I did anything behind you, that would mean that I am not faithful to you or to the recovery. Actually, if I am faithful to you, I am faithful to the recovery. I would never do anything behind you. If there is some problem, I need to go to you to have some open fellowship.
Today there are many people in the Lord’s recovery. There are also a great number of co-workers and elders. We come from different countries with different backgrounds, and we have different kinds of understanding and thinking. To think that we would never have any trouble is a dream. Even between a husband and wife, problems cannot be avoided. What is the way to solve the problems in a family of only two persons? There must be a proper way and a wise way that does not damage their marriage life or hurt their feelings. But we have to be open. I should not do something behind my wife nor should she do something behind me. If we do not avoid this, we will kill the oneness.
If you feel or observe something concerning the Lord’s recovery related to a certain person, you should pray for him. Do not come to him in a rushed way. He is still human, and you are still in the natural life. We should be afraid of ourselves more than anything else. We should be afraid that we would do something in a rush to damage someone’s feeling and close the door for open fellowship. After praying for a period of time, we will feel led at the right time to go see this brother. Before we go to see him, we should not say anything to anyone because this kind of “pre-talk” opens the door for the devil to come in. If I have seen something about you that is not so fitting in the Lord’s recovery, I should not talk about this to anyone. I should pray to the Lord until He leads me to see you. Then we can open up to one another in love and in mutual understanding. We all have a heart for the Lord, and we all have the same goal to see that the Lord’s recovery would be properly going on. Thus, we should have and can have the mutual confidence. I can come to you with the confidence that you would fellowship with me to find a way to get the trouble resolved. I believe that all the troubles can be taken care of by this kind of open, frank fellowship in love. If someone comes to me in this way, I am grateful for this kind of openness.
Even with three brothers taking the lead in a certain locality there might be some troubles. How can these troubles be resolved? The only way is to have open, frank fellowship in love without fear. I do not feel that anyone is doing anything against me, and I am not against anyone, so we can have open, frank fellowship in love. Even though I was so busy in Taipei, I believe that if some of the brothers had come to me to let me know about some of their problems, I might have rendered some help to the situation. This may have required only two or three minutes. If you come to me, you should come without fear. I am not a tiger. I am just your brother. Some may feel that they are afraid of disturbing me and taking away my time. But when the troubles come as a result of not having the proper fellowship, my time is consumed with them. To deal with the troubles takes at least tenfold more of my time than if you would come to me. Your coming to me would save trouble, and to save trouble is to save time. When troubles like this arise, I receive many letters and phone calls. All the questions are concerning the past or the future. This is why I want to stress that the Christian life is not in yesterday or in tomorrow. The past is over, and we do not know what will happen in the future. The Christian life is today.
We should be frank and open, but we may feel in wisdom that we should not touch certain matters. If I need to say something, I say it openly to the person whom it concerns. If I realize that more troubles will result from my touching a certain matter, then I exercise my wisdom not to touch it. If I have the real concern, I will pray concerning it. I would not even tell my wife. I have always kept this principle. I exercised myself in this way with Brother Nee. I was with him for eighteen years. Everyone who knows about our relationship can testify that we did not have the slightest problem. Because I practiced this principle, I have avoided becoming involved in troubles throughout the years.
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