To serve the Lord and to serve the church, it is necessary for us to be in the Body and to serve in the Body, and it is also necessary to serve in our human spirit. We have already covered these two points. The third point of the service is that we need to serve in prayer, to serve by praying.
If we consider all the verses in the book of Acts related to the matter of prayer, we will see that the first group of Christians in the early days served the Lord by means of prayer. If we look into the content of all the verses, if we read and pray-read them, we will see that the serving ones took the way of prayer. We may be surprised how much the service in the book of Acts is a matter of prayer. The book of Acts is a long book, covering quite a long period of time, and it includes many serving ones: Peter and the other disciples who took Jerusalem as a center, and later, Paul the apostle with his co-workers who took Antioch as another center. In all the chapters you could not find one verse that tells you they had some plan, some program, some schedule, or even some convention or conference to have a discussion about organizing their service to the Lord. In every case all the different serving ones took only one way, and that was the way of prayer. Every part of their service, every bit of their work for the Lord, was initiated by prayer. This is a crucial matter. They had no other way, used no other method, and took no other means for the Lord’s work, for His service, but the unique way of prayer. Their way was absolutely different from the way of the religious organizations today. In the early days of the churches, the apostles and all the saints served the Lord in the way of prayer. We need to be impressed with the crucial point that they had no other way, no other method, no other means.
In relation to a practical matter among us, we do sense the leading of the Lord that some of the saints would move out from Los Angeles to some other cities next year, 1970. In our fellowship we have called this move of the Lord among us a migration. Many dear ones are ready to make such a move for the spreading of the Lord’s recovery in this country. However, I have a deep conviction within me that we all need to be very clear that the migration is not a matter of human organization, not a movement under the human hand, but absolutely something in the spirit. We need to be clear concerning many practical items—who should stay here in Los Angeles to maintain a strong testimony, who should go out to other cities, which cities should be covered, and who should go to which city. We do believe that this is the Lord’s move among us, but with each one of us it must be a matter in the spirit. The only way we can be clear concerning all of these practical matters is by prayer, not by the way of organization, not by the way of human assignment.
Those who are clear that they should move out need to pray very much about the place where they should go. No one can tell what the Lord will do, and no one can predict where the Lord will lead. We all must pray. It would be wonderful if the Lord would lead so that some could go out to cover all the leading cities of this country. However, in the initial stage He may grant the guidance to some of the brothers and sisters to cover only the leading cities along the west coast. Perhaps in the first stage the Lord would lead the saints to cover only some of the strategic points, and then maybe something further in the next stage. The whole matter is not in our hand. We are in the Lord’s recovery, and we need to drop the old way of religion and be delivered fully out of the influence of that old way.
In practical matters such as these related to the Lord’s move, we should not expect the leading ones or anyone else to tell us what we should do or where we should go. That way of organization is wrong, and we need to be delivered from the influence of that way, the old way practiced in religion. We need to come back to the pure Word to see the way taken in the early days by the first group of Christians in serving the Lord. There was no organization, no arrangement, no schedule, no plan, and no raising of funds. There was hardly any mention of money or finances, and no one exercised control over the situation. The conference in chapter fifteen of Acts did not concern the work, but the teaching, the doctrine, and the faith of the church.
If you take away all the schedules, the programs, the plans, and the conventions, the conferences, and the fund-raising, the talk about money, and the human manipulation— if you take away all these things, there may be very little left in today’s religious organizations. I believe that we are quite clear that we do not want to take that way in the Lord’s recovery. Although we may have no intention of following that way, I am nevertheless concerned that something of that old way still remains within us, unconsciously, subconsciously, influencing us. Due to such an influence, we may have some consideration within us that after a period of training in Los Angeles we would be sent out to another city. In our consideration, we would then make our training the same as a seminary, a Bible school, or a Bible institute. This is absolutely not the Lord’s way, and it is not the way we are taking. The Lord’s way is a way in prayer. How much we need a deep realization that the Lord’s way is absolutely a way in prayer.
In relation to the practical matters of who should go to which city, who will go together with whom, when will be the right time for some to go, and by what means some shall be able to go, it is altogether up to the Lord. Concerning these matters, we should simply pray. We should not expect some of the leading ones to make some arrangements and then make assignments. Actually, it would be easy for the leading ones to assign a certain number of families to this city, and a certain number to that one, but this is not the Lord’s way. How much we need to be impressed with the need to take the Lord’s way. The Lord’s way is absolutely a way of prayer.