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The Steps of Intimate Fellowship, Prayer, and Visiting Others in the Practice of the Group Meetings
Verses:
1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God, and everyone who loves has been begotten of God and knows God. He who does not love has not known God, because God is love.
Ministry Portion:
In the church life today we often pretend that we know each other. Truthfully speaking, I do not know many of the saints. I do not know the names of many of the saints. In some cases I know the first name, but I do not know the last name. I may know the names of certain saints, but I do not know how many children they have. This illustrates the fact that we do not have a close, thorough fellowship with one another. We must pick up the burden to form the group meetings in a new way. First, according to the Lord’s leading, you must get a few companions. You and your companions must get to know each other thoroughly. You must know each companion’s age, the name of his wife, the number and ages of his children, the schools the children attend, and so forth. In other messages I pointed out that the first thing in the group meeting is fellowship so that all the members of the group may know each other in an up-to-date way.
The wife of a certain brother may be sick in bed, but not many of the saints may be aware of this because we do not have the fellowship in a group meeting. If we were in a group meeting, the first thing I would ask is how the other members of the group are doing. In the past we concealed our real situation, not letting others know what our situation was. We covered our real situation and pretended to be something else. By such a practice we deceived ourselves, and we also deceived others. As a result, we did not know each other’s situation. We pretended to know each other; actually, we remained separate. In this kind of situation it is impossible to be in one accord with the real impact. This was the reason that when we went out to visit people, they could easily realize that we were not one. To have the one accord and the impact, we must intimately know one another through fellowship.
In forming a group, the first step is to get a companion. The second step is to pray together and fellowship together in order to know each other in a thorough and intimate way. You may pray, “Lord, what is the next step that You want us to take?” When you ask the Lord such a question, I assure you that He will not tell you to go out and visit people. I say this based on my study of the new way in the past seven and a half years. If you met with your companion last night, and you meet together again this morning, the first thing to do is to let your companion know what happened to you between last night and this morning. In this way you and your companion maintain a thorough knowledge of each other. As a result, you will become one, and a real love and care will come in between you. The Lord may then lead you to get four or five additional companions. After this, the Lord may lead you to pray for a period of time. At this time do not go out; just pray. After praying for two weeks, you may be ready, and the Lord may lead you to go out to visit people. During the period of prayer, you should pray, asking the Lord to lead you to the ones whom you should visit. The Lord may lead you to study not only your own relatives, cousins, in-laws, neighbors, classmates, friends, and colleagues but also the close acquaintances of the other members of the group. The Lord will show you the ones who need to be visited. This is to knock on warm doors. In going, do not go by yourself or according to your feeling. You should not go according to your decision; rather, you should go by the group. At most, two or three from your group should go, but in order to find out who should go, you need to study your candidates and pray. (Fellowship concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups, ch. 3, sec. 2)
The church in Zamboanga 