HAVING A LITTLE POWER AND HAVING CONSTANT CONTACTS WITH PEOPLE (1)
Revelation 3:7-8 says, “To the messenger of the church in Philadelphia write: These things says the Holy One, the true One, the One who has the key of David, the One who opens and no one will shut, and shuts and no one opens: I know your works; behold, I have put before you an opened door which no one can shut, because you have a little power and have kept My word and have not denied My name.”
I want to stress this short phrase—you have a little power. Those in Philadelphia did not have much power. They just had a little power. This word was given to the best church among the seven churches—the church in Philadelphia, the church of brotherly love. The Lord first recommended Himself to them by telling them who He is—He is the Holy One and the true One who has the key of David and who opens and no one will shut, and shuts and no one will open. Surely He has a lot of power. Then Revelation 3 shows us the best church, the top church throughout the centuries. According to our concept, such a top church must be powerful, omnipotent. But how much power did this top church have? Only a little power. The Lord, on the other hand, is the One who has the key of David. He is powerful and full of authority. Yet the best church among His churches has only a little power. We should not expect that we will be greatly powerful. This realization enlightened me. I realized that we have only a little power, not much power.
The Lord impressed me that He is the One who has the key of David, being full of authority. He is the One who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one will open. But He did not demand that much of the best church. We would expect the top church, the church in Philadelphia, to have much power, but this is not the case.
We may also consider that our progress should be fast. But consider Jacob when he came back from Paddan-aram to the good land with his big family. It is recorded that when Jacob led his wives and children and livestock to meet his brother, he knew that he could not journey too fast. His progress in his journeying was very slow (Gen. 31:18; 33:14). We should not expect that we can go that fast. Surely I dare not say that I am fast, so I am very sympathetic with all of us. The Lord appreciated the church in Philadelphia and opened the door which no one could shut, because they had a little power, kept the Lord’s word, and did not deny His name. This comforted me. Most of us really love the Lord and seek after Him. But I cannot say that we are powerful. All of us have only a little power. (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 2, “The Training and Practice of the Vital Groups”, ch. 9, pp. 331-332)
The church in Zamboanga 