WHAT IS THE CONDITION OF YOUR VITAL GROUP? (1)
The first question we need to answer is, “Have you started your vital group?” I trust that we have done something to start our vital group.
We need to practice the items of the God-ordained way so that we can do them in a consistent way with longevity. If we want to do anything with longevity, we should not practice it in an extreme way. Since we want to spend a time with the Lord every morning, we should always rise up at a certain proper time. If we rise up too early, we will eventually not be able to keep it up. I do not want to see anyone doing anything in an overexcited way. I have been serving the Lord as a slave and taking care of the saints for many years, and I have found out that excitement means nothing. Everyone who is overexcited dies quickly. If we can pray for fifteen minutes every morning, we should simply do that much. If we try to rise earlier or do anything more than this, it will not last long.
We pointed out that we need to go to the Lord individually to be stirred up in the first love for the Lord through repenting prayers. We need to make a thorough confession to the Lord. In our time with the Lord, we may say with tears, “Lord, I repent. I’m so sinful and dirty.” I have been practicing this for close to seventy years. We all have to learn the lesson in our prayer not to teach the Lord. Mostly we should not ask the Lord to do something for us. Instead, we should cry out desperately from the depths of our being, “Lord, I’m sinful! I need You, Lord.” The Bible even says that some beat their breast when they made their confession to the Lord (Luke 18:13).
If you are so sincere, honest, and faithful to the Lord, when someone asks you about your repentance, you might immediately begin to shed some tears. You would still be in the sensation of how sinful you are. Every sinner who gets saved should repent. There are many degrees of people’s repentance: Some repent shallowly and superficially. Others repent more deeply. Still others repent to the uttermost in a desperate and thorough way from the depths of their being. They may even beat their breast or roll on the floor while they are repenting and confessing to the Lord.
In the preaching of the gospel, we need to get people convicted and subdued. The ones who get saved should have the sensation and realization that they are sinful and need the Lord’s forgiveness. When an unbeliever prays with sincerity, “O Lord, I am sinful,” this means that he is being touched by the Lord. The way to be vitalized is to be stirred up in the first love for the Lord through repenting prayers. (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 2, “The Training and Practice of the Vital Groups”, ch. 4, pp. 294-295)
The church in Zamboanga 