THE FOURTH PART: THE PATHWAY OF THE LORD’S RECOVERY
God-Ordained Way
Message Thirteen—Strengthening the Vital Groups to Make the Vital Groups
So Beautiful and So High
Scripture Reading: Rev. 3:18, 8; 4:5; 5:6; Eph. 5:18; 1 Thes. 5:17; 2 Tim. 1:6; 1 John 4:10-11, 21
I. Our groups must be vital groups; Making a resolution to be an overcomer, a vital person, to carry out the God-ordained way—Judg. 5:15; Rev. 3:19b: (Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, msg. 23; The Problems Causing the Turmoil in the Church Life, ch. 4)
A. We must resolve to deny ourselves and be the overcomers for the Lord, for the recovery, and for the Body—Judg. 5:15; Matt. 16:24; 1 Cor. 15:58; Eph. 4:12. (The Problems Causing the Turmoil in the Church Life, ch. 4)
B. An overcomer is a vital person; A vital person, an overcomer, is a praying person—1 Thes. 5:17: (Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, msg. 23)
1. 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”—Eph. 6:18. (The Problems Causing the Turmoil in the Church Life, ch. 4)
2. We need to be vital, and to be vital is to have the real burden for prayer; there is the need of the real prayer among us—Jude 20; James 5:17; 1 Thes. 5:17. (Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, msg. 23)
II. We have to be vital at any cost; we must learn diligently and practice absolutely to be vital—Rev. 3:18; Matt. 25:8-9; Eph. 5:18; 1 Thes. 5:17: (Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, msg. 25)
A. Today the way to become vitalized is to answer the Lord’s call to be an overcomer; we have to be vital, which means that we have to be living and active; learning to be vital—Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21. (The Training and Practice of the Vital Groups, msg. 1; 1993 Blending Conference Messages concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need, msg. 7)
B. In order to be vital, we should be ones who are in the intimate and thorough fellowship with the Lord, without anything between the Lord and us; if we are not such persons, we are not qualified to contact people for God’s economy—1 John 1:3, 6. (The Vital Groups, msg. 15)
C. We must have a thorough confession all the time of our failures, defects, wrongdoings, practices of the flesh and of our natural man, our offenses toward God and men—1 John 1:5-9. (Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, msg. 25)
D. We also need to make a thorough consecration of ourselves and of all that we have and do to the Lord; if we are going to be vital persons, we must clear away all earthly entanglements—Matt. 26:6-13; Heb. 12:1. (1993 Blending Conference Messages concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need, msg. 7)
E. Also, we need to pray unceasingly that we may be brought into the infilling and outpouring of the essential and economical Spirit; the secret to being filled with the Spirit inwardly and outwardly is our prayer; we need to be desperate in our prayer—Acts 2:1-4; 13:52; Eph. 5:18: (1993 Blending Conference Messages concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need, msg. 7)
1. There is no other way to be vital except by prayer; we have to pray and get into a prayer life. (Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, msg. 22)
2. We need to pray, “Lord, make me vital! Make me living and active! I want to be a factor for the increase of the Lord’s recovery.” (1993 Blending Conference Messages concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need, msg. 7)
3. We also should pray desperately, “Lord, fill me up. Transfuse Yourself as the Spirit into my being, my constitution, and pour Yourself out as the Spirit of power upon me.” (1993 Blending Conference Messages concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need, msg. 7)
4. In order to be brought into the infilling and the outpouring of the essential and economical Spirit, we need to pray unceasingly (1 Thes. 5:17) by exercising our spirit (1 Tim. 4:7) to redeem the time (Eph. 5:16)—cf. 1 Cor. 14:16. (1993 Blending Conference Messages concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need, msg. 7)
III. We must have the vitality to vitalize those whom we contact; we should contact the ones whom we feel can be made vital and whom we can bring into our vital groups—Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:15; 2 Tim 1:6: (The Vital Groups, msg. 15；Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, msg. 24)
A. I believe that the way to help us be more vital is for us to contact others; to contact the meeting members who are not yet vital; we need to pray and choose someone whom we can contact—1 Tim. 5:1-2. (Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, msg. 24)
B. We may also feel led by the Lord to recover certain backsliding ones; in recovering a backsliding one, we should not talk too much; instead, we should go to visit him again and again; we should be prepared to take one year to recover one person. (Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, msg. 24)
C. We should pray thoroughly for our visiting of people and for those whom we visit and contact; we should not contact someone without praying for him; we should pray adequately and desperately for the people whom we contact—Eph. 6:17a, 18. (The Vital Groups, msg. 15)
D. We must be vital persons; we must practice visiting people for the gospel once a week for two hours; If you go out faithfully and consistently every week for two hours, you surely can gain one person as remaining fruit in a year—Matt. 28:19; John 15:16. (The Problems Causing the Turmoil in the Church Life, msg. 4)
E. You should also lead your contact to make thorough confessions to the Lord and also help him to pay the price at any cost as you have done: (1993 Blending Conference Messages concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need, msg. 7)
1. By this way a small group would spontaneously come into existence which will be vital, living, and active in the Lord’s interest. (1993 Blending Conference Messages concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need, msg. 7)
2. When the number of such a vital group increases to ten or more, you should split it into two groups and charge every member in this kind of group to practice the vitalization along the same track as you have been doing all the time. (1993 Blending Conference Messages concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need, msg. 7)
IV. We must do everything we can to strengthen the vital groups; we should spend every drop of our blood, every bit of our strength, and every minute of our time to strengthen the vital groups, making the vital groups so beautiful, so high, and so attractive—Rev. 3:8; 4:5; 5:6: (Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, msg. 24)
A. We must have a living, active vital group; if our vital group meetings are full of truth, are living, and if we intimately love one another in the group, this will be a big attraction—1 Tim. 3:15; 1 John 4:10-11, 21. (Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, msg. 24)
B. The most attractive thing is the thorough fellowship; in your vital groups, you must always practice the thorough, intimate fellowship; this brings in the mutual care in love—1 Cor. 6:17; 1:9; 1 John 1:3. (Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, msg. 24)
C. The church social life in the recovery leads to light, to the deeper and higher truths, and to the divine life; the group meetings which are living, attractive, and full of activities will be used by the Lord to gain others for the increase and building up of the church. (Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, msg. 24)
V. “We all must rise up to be vitalized and endeavor to rid ourselves of any kind of deadness and lukewarmness. The only way to accomplish this is to be desperate and absolute to practice all that the Lord has shown us concerning the vital groups. The vital groups are the only thing that can renew the Lord’s recovery and bring in the prevailing increase.” (1993 Blending Conference Messages concerning the Lord’s Recovery and Our Present Need, msg. 7)