PRACTICING THE FOUR STEPS OF THE GOD-ORDAINED WAY
I have been speaking concerning the new way, the God-ordained way, for over five years. The brothers in Taipei have collected all my messages on the four steps of the new way and have separated them into four groups, one for each step. After seeing so many messages on each of these steps, they told me that their greatest need was not for me to give more messages, but for me to stir up some saints to practice all these things. They felt that if only a small number of saints, sixty or seventy, went out to practice, it would be enough to bring the church there into the new way. I told them that they were right. This is what we are doing in the full-time training; sixty to seventy are going out to practice all these things. This is also why, for this series of messages in the training, I have chosen the title The Exercise and Practice of the God-ordained Way. We have heard so much concerning the new way, but we may not be exercising to practice what we have heard.
In these training meetings I have repeatedly charged you, especially the full-time trainees, to practice in a very particular way. First you should go out to gain people, but at the same time, you have to exercise your discernment not to baptize more than you can care for. Then once you have baptized three or four, you should stop going out to gain more new ones. Instead, you should exercise to practice the second step; you must go back to have home meetings with those whom you have baptized in their homes. In these home meetings, you must feed them continuously for ten weeks, twice each week if possible. Then you can reduce your feeding from twice a week to once a week. I also told you that while you may be working on three or four that you have baptized, you may lose two or three. Then because you would not have enough under your care, you have to knock on doors to gain another two or three. In this way you will always have three or four under your care year-round.
After the proper feeding, you must take these new ones on further by bringing them out of their homes to meet with others. You should gather together all of the ones whom you have been feeding with other saints who live nearby to practice the group meeting. The group meeting is not only for feeding, but also for perfecting their spiritual function that they might learn to prophesy for the organic building up of the church.
You beget them, feed them, and perfect them with the goal that they all may grow up to prophesy. This prophesying is not to predict but to speak for the Lord, to speak forth the Lord, and to speak the Lord Himself into others for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ. These are the four steps that we have repeatedly covered for nearly three months. I have been observing the situation among us, and I realize that you are not practicing as I had expected. Very few are practicing these four steps in a definite way.
BEING DESPERATE FOR THE LORD’S INCREASE
Through our testing and experimenting, we have found that for every twenty homes we visit, we will get one baptized. However, to have this kind of success, you have to mean business with the Lord. You must exercise your faith and even exercise your God-given authority to pray, “Lord, this is the time for our team to go out to gain people for You. All men were created by You and for You, and we have the right to gain some tonight.” To pray in this way means that you mean business with the Lord and are endeavoring to make some profit for Him. Even more, you must be desperate to gain people. In the past some teams went out for a full two hours and did not gain one. Then as they were about to quit for the day, one member said, “Let’s try one more door. If we do not find one there, we can go home.” Then in that last home they baptized two. If they had not been desperate, they would not have gone to that last home and would have missed those two. If you all mean business and are desperate with the Lord, out of every twenty homes you visit, you may baptize one.
(The Exercise and Practice of the God-Ordained Way, Chapter 26, by Witness Lee)
