- Blending can be accomplished only by praying together with the exercise and release of the spirit, in which our spirit comes forth freely.
- We should learn to fellowship in a way that we can be known by others and prayed for by others, while learning not to over-share; this fellowship lays the foundation for us to be blended together through prayer, practical care, and shepherding.
PRAYER IN THE VITAL GROUPS
For the vital groups, the first thing is our prayer. Today we need to be blended together by much and thorough prayer. In our prayer we should not merely exercise our spirit but also release our spirit. Praying is the unique way for us to exercise our spirit and even the more to release our spirit. When our spirit is released, we can be blended together in this released spirit. Actually, when our spirit is released, there is no need to talk about blending. The released spirits are a kind of blending.
When we come together to pray, we need to release our spirit by praying short prayers. The long prayer is a prayer of composition. It is not prayer out of a burden. Short prayers fan our spirit into flame. The proper prayer always releases us. If we pray and our spirit is not exercised and released, our prayer is wrong. When you are released, when I am released, and when everyone is released, that is the real blending.
We need vital groups, not formal, religious, and dead groups. We need to pray, “Lord, make us vital in singing, vital in speaking, and vital in everything.” Our habit of being formal limits us in the meetings of the church. In our vital groups we should be living and exercised in our singing and praying.
CONSIDERING ONE ANOTHER SO AS TO INCITE ONE ANOTHER TO LOVE AND GOOD WORKS
Hebrews 10:24 says that we need to consider one another so as to incite one another to love and good works. This implies that we have a genuine care for all the members of our vital group. To care for one another means to consider one another. Today we may not care for others. When we consider one another, we incite one another to love and good works. We stir up one another. We do not really care whether or not a certain brother comes to the meeting or whether or not a certain sister is sick. The genuine care for one another needs to be recovered among us.
To consider one another in a practical way is to love one another. We say that we love one another, but in what way do we love? We may not care for anyone in a practical way. Love means practical care and consideration.
We need the intimate fellowship with one another with the practical care and shepherding. If a brother has lost his job, we should pray for him. We should also consider his material situation. This is real love. If we see brothers who are in need and merely tell them that the Lord will take care of them, that is not love. That is vain talk. We should care for one another, consider one another, in a practical way.
The first thing we have to do in the vital group meetings is to have a thorough fellowship together so that we can know the members of our group in an intimate way. The more thorough our fellowship is, the better. Do we know the occupations of the saints in our vital group and where each one works? Do we know the first and last names of every member of our vital group with their proper pronunciation? By considering these questions, we can see that our fellowship has not been thorough. To love one another involves a lot. We need to endeavor to know one another intimately in the Lord. We say that our group should be blended, but our blending has not been completed, because we do not know each other thoroughly.
Learning to Open to One Another in Twos or Threes
[Besides meeting with one another in a larger group], you may have two or three [you can meet with outside the meeting]. You two or three should come together and pray and get to know each other. In grouping together, the first thing to do is to know one another. Whenever you come together, you should ask concerning the present situation of each group member. We may say that we know each other, but actually we do not. When one of our family members is sick, we may avoid telling others. Instead of opening our situation to one another, we hide things from one another.
After opening to one another concerning our present situation, we should pray for one another and care for and help one another. This is a further step in the practice of the group meetings. After forming a group, you should not go the next day to visit people by knocking on new doors. Rather, the group members should pray together…When we come together to fellowship, we still do not fully open ourselves to one another. Thus, there has been little result from our fellowship.
Let us have more specific fellowship concerning how to [contact one another outside of the meetings]. First, we must pray for [one another]. If we want to bring someone to God, we must first go to God on their behalf. We should mention them by name to God…and pray for them often. Such prayer is necessary and should be specific. We should no longer have general prayers, saying, “Lord, revive Your church. Remember the brothers and sisters.” It is not that general prayers are not effective but that the effectiveness of our prayers depends on how specific they are.
After interceding, we need to contact [them] personally. We will know their true situation by contacting them. We will know their occupation, their family, their financial situation, any marital problems, their children’s education, and their spiritual condition. We can be clear concerning others only after we have personal contact with them. Such contact will guide our prayers and deepen our burden. Knowing [one another’s] actual situation is the base for intercession.
Practicing Fellowship to Lay a Foundation for Blending
If we would practice the blending, we should not forget the matter of fellowship. Fellowship is the basis for blending. Thus, we must practice the fellowship. By so doing we will lay the foundation for the blending.
We should not be afraid of being known by others. The more we are known in a proper way, the better. This will put down our pride, take away our boasting, annul our superiority complex, and even put aside our inferiority complex. However, most of us are not willing to expose ourselves. Instead, we prefer to cover ourselves by pretending to one another. Because of this, it is difficult for us to have an intimate and thorough fellowship that results in our being blended together.
Practicing Prayer that Issues in Blending
We should not do anything naturally, nor should we be silent. We should tell the Lord that we do not want to be silent or natural. This forces us to learn what it means to exercise our spirit. To exercise our spirit, we need a lot of dealing. We must first deal with our natural way and our natural person, our natural being, which includes our natural prayer and our natural speaking. Some of you, on the other hand, are naturally silent. If all these habitual ways are not broken in us, we cannot be grouped together in a vital way. To be grouped together is to be blended together. According to our experiences, there is no other way to be blended except by thorough and much prayer. We should not think that if we talk together, we will be blended. Blending can be accomplished only by praying together. We must be persons of prayer.
From the first day that the Lord Jesus began to call the disciples, He started the grouping. The Lord was like a big magnet, drawing the disciples to Himself to become a group.. Eventually, those who remained in an absolute way for God’s purpose after the Lord’s earthly ministry were the one hundred twenty. The Lord gained only one group, and this group prayed in one accord for ten days (Acts 1:14-15). They stayed together, they lived together, they ate together, and they lodged together for ten days, doing nothing but praying. Then they experienced the outpoured Spirit on the day of Pentecost. On earth at that time, there was only one group whose prayer touched the heart of God and His throne in the heavens.
Prayer is really powerful, but in order to be powerful, our prayer must be a prayer that touches the throne of God and the heart of God, and it must be a prayer that can move the very God. We do not want to go out to reach others until our grouping is consummated. Otherwise, we may go out but go out powerlessly as we did in the past. We need to pass through a period of time in which we can be blended with all the members of our group and allow the Lord to gain our group as one entity for the carrying out of His New Testament economy.
When we pray, we must have the faith that our released spirit will touch and open up the spirits of others. Each time we open our mouth to pray, we should believe not only that our prayer will be heard by God but also that it will touch the spirits of the saints. Once our spirit is opened and released, the spirits of the saints will be stirred up.
Being Open to Let the Spirit Come Forth to Be Blended and Made One
Being open means to let our spirit come forth; it does not mean to speak frankly with others and to point out their wrongdoings. This kind of “openness” only opens up a tomb and spreads death. The openness that we speak of involves the release of the spirit. When we are meeting together, our spirit should be open; when everyone’s spirit is open, the saints will be blended spontaneously. When we begin to pray, we may have different opinions concerning a matter, but as we pray and our spirits are released, we will become of one mind. When our spirits are in one flow and fully blended, spontaneously we will be one, and we will not be governed by different opinions.
Fellowship Questions
- For our prayer and blending in the vital groups, why is it important for us to know one another in a proper way? Checking with your own experience, do you see why this requires practice and learning?
- What do you think it means to let our spirit come forth? What kind of effect does releasing your spirit have on others?
- How does this reading affect your understanding of what blending is?
Excerpts taken from Fellowship concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, chs. 2, 9, 10–12, 17; Service for the Building Up of the Church, ch. 2; The Priesthood and God’s Building, ch. 4