Maturity in Life, Usefulness as a Vessel

In a word, if we are to become functioning members, we need to grow in life, we need to be exercised in our character, we need to be perfected in the Lord's word, and we also need to be equipped in the truth. We need to realize that in the church the first thing is that we have to exercise our spirit, and the second thing is that we have to exercise to speak, to exercise to prophesy. To exercise your spirit and to exercise to speak, both must be by prayer. Therefore, we have three crucial matters: we must pray, we must have the spirit, and we must have the word. Actually, these three are what we lack the most, and through the training we are willing to help everyone be strengthened in these three aspects. In everything we should consider: I have nothing and I can do nothing; I need to pray and come to the Lord. As long as you are willing to pray, you will have the opportunity to turn back into the spirit; if we pray, we are able to live in the mingled spirit, and that is full of anointing and is very enjoyable. When your spirit is set on fire and is released, then when you come to enjoy the Lord's word, there is the spirit in the word and there is life, and the word supplies people. If we are willing to have a good exercise in these three aspects, in the church we will surely be functioning vessels; when we come into the midst of the brothers and sisters, we will be able to help people receive life. Today the church is in great need of obtaining a large number of such functioning brothers and sisters.

Thank the Lord, over these twenty years the churches in Taiwan have been quite blessed. Many brothers and sisters from overseas have come back to attend the Chinese-speaking conferences and to visit the churches, and they all have a feeling: it is so good here! From the north to the south, from the south to the north, the church life seems to be the same everywhere; it all causes people to be supplied in their spirit, and it is all very fresh and full of love. The reason is that we have passed through more than twenty years of the full-time training, and in addition the middle-aged training; we estimate that more than three thousand five hundred saints have passed through such a training. Of course, we dare not say how successful this training has been, but in a word, if you follow this training, it will surely bring an immense blessing to the church.

There is one more point, and that is that we ourselves must be willing to give more, willing to do more, and willing to labor diligently. Although we are all advanced in years, we still need to exercise in this way. If you are a little more diligent, you will gain a little more; if you give a little more, you will gain even more. Doing a little more will never be a loss; if you are willing to do a little more, all that you do extra is yours. Our general disposition, our natural character, is unwilling to suffer loss; we think it is all right to do a little more, but we must not do too much. When we come into the training, we should do more; as long as I can do it, I will do more. If everyone can exercise in this way, then naturally everyone will be able to fully function, and things will go very smoothly. This is not simple at all; it truly requires denying the self and dealing with our soul-life. This is the cross-life. Thank the Lord, we have the divine life within us, which makes us willing to live such a life.

Once I went to visit Russia. Brother Wu Fuhua (吳復華), Brother Zhao (趙弟兄), an American brother, a Russian brother, and I—five of us—went to the Ural Mountains to visit the home of an Eastern Orthodox priest. There it was bitterly cold and frozen; outside there was heavy snow, and there was no heated bed. At night the five of us slept in a space the size of four tatami mats. The American brother gave his quilt to Brother Zhao and he himself slept wearing a raincoat. I said that I snore, so I would sleep last; you all sleep first, so that you will not be disturbed by me. They fell asleep at once, and when I listened—whether American or Russian, they were all snoring. After they had fallen asleep I went to sleep at peace, but the moment I slept they all woke up, all saying that they had been awakened by the sound of my snoring. Thank the Lord, everyone was open with one another, no one complained against another, and afterward we all fell soundly asleep. In a corporate life we need to lay aside the self and not feel that others have caused us inconvenience. All inconveniences can be swallowed; doing a little more will not be a loss, and if we exercise a little more in our character, give a little more, and do a little more, the Lord will repay us doubly.

This is the training. As long as you truly come to exercise, then through the outward environment we grow in the divine life; gradually the self is shed and gradually the divine life increases; we grow and grow and grow, the life matures, and naturally we have function. Without others telling us, we ourselves have a burden, and naturally we are able to function in the meetings and even dare to function. The four months pass very quickly. Here we exercise together with the brothers and sisters and pass through the training life together; this refreshes us in our spirit and makes us, this very person, useful vessels in the Lord's hand, even a blessing to the church. The brothers and sisters in the churches everywhere have quite many expectations of us; when you return to your locality, it will not do if you do not exercise your spirit, it will not do if you do not share in the meetings, and it will not do if you do not come to serve. This causes us to mature more quickly. Therefore, for the environment that the Lord has prepared, we thank and praise the Lord. We hope that the brothers and sisters will treasure such an opportunity, which causes us to have a renewed living—truly, it can turn corruption into something marvelous. By ourselves not one of us can do it, but thank the Lord, being mingled in the Body and letting the Lord do it, the Lord can make us more useful vessels today. May the Lord bless us.

(Fellowship at the Spring 2009 Commencement of the Middle-Aged Training)