The Purpose of the Vital Groups (2)
If a brother sins against us, we need to deal with him first in love. If we cannot get through, we should bring with us one or two more to contact him. If we still cannot get through, we should tell it to the church, and if the church cannot get through, then the sinning brother will lose the fellowship of the church. But this is not all. We have to then pray in the way of binding and releasing, and we have to pray in harmony. Whatever we pray, our Father in heaven will accomplish to gain that person. [Matthew 18] Verse 20 says, “For where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst.” This is the reality of the vital groups. These two or three are gathered into the Lord’s name for His purpose, not into their names for their purposes.
Many times we feel that a certain saint is a hopeless case, and we stop with this feeling toward him in our small groups… We and the church may have no way with this brother, but should we give him up? The Lord Jesus said that we should let him be to us like a Gentile and a tax collector. But the Lord went on to say that we have to bind Satan. We have to bind the binding one and release the bound one by praying together in harmony.
We should not bring in any opinions by uncovering the fallen condition of the one for whom we are praying. We have to bind the binding one, Satan, and we have to release the sinning one, the one bound by Satan, through our prayer in harmony… When we pray in harmony for certain backsliding, sinning ones, our prayer to recover them becomes like music to the ears of the Father in heaven.
Our vital group may be reducing instead of increasing. Where are the others? Perhaps some have become degraded or backslidden, and others are offended. We may have a reason for each one’s no longer meeting with us, but would the Lord agree with our reasoning? The Lord would ask, “Where is your brother?” In other words, the Lord would not let us give people up. We should not give up on anyone. We have to go to the Lord again and again with prayers touching heaven by binding and releasing in harmony. Heaven means God. We touch God, and God comes in to do something. This is what it means to live the kingdom life.
If someone wrongs us, we should not be offended but still love him. We should not go to others to talk about his case. Instead, we should go to him alone. We should cover his situation by going to him directly. But if he would not listen to us, we have to take with us one or two more to see him. Eventually, we may have to tell the church. This is the way of the kingdom life in Matthew 18, but we do not practice this. When people sin against us, we talk to our spouse or other saints about it. This is wrong. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups”, ch. 1, pp. 62-63)
The church in Zamboanga 