2017 New Year Thanksgiving
“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Ps 46:10)
“As they make music they will sing, ‘All my fountains are in you.’” (Ps 87:7)
Dear brothers and sisters,
Peace be in the Lord! Recollecting the past year, the Lord’s grace was boundless! We are full of praises and extol till the very end our Father God who forever loves us. We rejoice to meet the coming New Year! Facing the new journey and the new challenges, we are full of faith to press onward boldly by Him! “The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” (Ps 46:7) On this New Year, we would like to share with you an article written by Dr John Song in his ailment – ‘A worker who is after God’s heart’.
A worker who is after God’s heart
God had raised many prayer groups in various places. They communicated with us by letters. Through these letters we provided food timely in the spirit and we encouraged them with what we gained from our prayers. Every night we had a small group of Scripture sharing. Through prayer we unfolded the Lord’s words and shed new light. We had prayed in the spirit for one hundred and thirteen days. This was explicitly the leading of God to advance deeply in the spirit step by step. We really saw which we had never seen and heard what we had never heard and gained which we had never gained. For many years, I saw the work of praying was more important than any kind of work. Its spiritual realm was unlimited.
Lately in my prayer, God wanted me to rent a house for the members of the Christian mission as a place for spiritual fellowship. This could be said as a monastery for Christians (later on named to Home of Grace for Christ’s Workers). May God train the workers personally through praying in the spirit, reading the Bible in the spirit and working in the spirit to equip a group of workers of the last period to accomplish the work of the last age. In my prayer in the spirit, I saw the workers of the last period ought to be the workers as below:
- Really ought to die completely – I no longer live, but Christ lives in me; to live is Christ and to die is gain.
- To gain the revelation from the Lord Jesus, not to preach but to be a prophet to prophesy – Not only is Christ revealed in his heart, but also formed in him and displayed in him and lived in him.
- Understand all the Scripture – build yourselves up in the most holy faith; not to use men’s wisdom to read the Scripture, not by the knowledge of theology to read the Bible or by the scientific method to read the Bible, but to eat up all the scroll as the meat and bones and really let the flesh becomes the Word.
- Be able to hear the whisper in the prayer – Be able to understand the leading of the Holy Spirit, be able to gain the revelation from above, be able to break the power of darkness, be able to have an intimate face to face fellowship with God, be able to have a share in the work of intercession with the Lord in the Most Holy Place and be able to gain the power before the Lord to demolish all the crafty schemes of Satan.
- Really be completely immersed by the Holy Spirit – Not only the legs be thoroughly immersed to run an obedient path; the knees be thoroughly immersed to pray unceasingly and delight in God; the waist be thoroughly immersed to be bold to witness for the truth; the hands be thoroughly immersed to be filled with miracles and wonders to follow; the mouth be thoroughly immersed to witness with power and to cut to the heart; the eyes be thoroughly immersed to be able to search all things; the ears be thoroughly immersed to hear the tiny whispers; the face be thoroughly immersed like the face of the angel; the brain be thoroughly immersed without any prejudice; the heart be thoroughly immersed to have the heart of the Lord and even the whole body is thoroughly immersed like Peter whose shadow could heal the sick.
- Full of a loving heart for the souls – When one sees an unsaved soul，one gets impatient. His love for the souls is to the utmost. He even imitates the Lord to deny himself for the flock. He is willing to lose the whole world to gain the souls just like Paul who preached the gospel as his obligation. He claimed woe to him if he did not preach the gospel. He even sowed his tents with his hands for the needs of his fellow men and obligated the gospel together.
- Exalt the gospel of the cross – There are many people who look down on preaching the gospel as the initial stage, unimportant and used a lot of philosophy, basic principles, laws and human tradition to build the tower of Babel. Thank God, the gospel of the cross is God’s power. But the educated will consider this foolish. There are people who only seek for miracles. But to us who are saved it is the power of God. By exalting the cross, we may attract millions to return to the Lord.
- A group of spiritual fellowship – With a group of spiritual fellowship as the rear guard, all the power does not depart from prayer in one accord and the prayer in the upper room. Before the Lord ascended to heaven He commanded the apostles to wait in one heart in Jerusalem. They were poured by the living water in the upper room and naturally the living water overflew from within! No one preached the truth of the church, but the church in the age of the apostles came into being. No one preached the Oxford fellowship, but there was the natural leading of the Holy Spirit to sacrifice completely. No one ever promoted the distant sermons, yet the Antioch mission was established. No one promoted the sermons by the border and desolate, but Philip went to the desert and fought a good fight. No one preached the organization of the church, but they were led by the Holy Spirit to set up the church according to the pattern on the mountain. No one preached the grace of the Spirit, yet they were able to speak the languages of nations. No one preached the livelihood of the parts, but they exercised loving one another. No one preached miracles and wonders, but these gifts followed them. No one preached the gospel of the society, yet they would relieve the widows. Their gains in the spirit do not depart from the persistent prayer in one accord in the upper room.
- Willing to carry the cross to run a lonely path – To bear a suffering spirit as the weapon and is not ashamed of the gospel. Imitate the death of the Lord and experiment the death of the Lord so then death is at work in them but life is at work in others. Be willing to go outside the camp to suffer with the Lord without seeking for fame and wealth. To hide deeply in the Lord and break the jars of clay so the Lord’s name may be glorified like the olives when the more they were pressed, more oil is crushed to make the church shine.
- Know the evil schemes of the devil – To know the disguised angel and to know the false prophets and the false Christ; truly possessing the spirit to discern and stand in the upper room to breach the gap of the church so that whatever is bound on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever is loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven. Be the pillar of the church at the age when the truth is desolate, without swerving, to stand straight and not crooked, and be pure and flawless in the truth. Though one is so courageous in the truth, he will not break a bruised reed or snuff out a smoldering wick till justice triumphs.
- Full of a loving heart to co-operate with the people in Christ and have partnership in the gospel – To share in one spirit to stand firm without building a tower of Babel for oneself, without forming a clique or a faction. Do not seek self-dignity but to make every effort to do what people consider as good making no distinction between what’s one’s own and what’s another’s. Only delight in the Lord’s gospel be proclaimed, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel regardless of one’s life.
- Pray watchfully and wait patiently for Jesus’ second coming – Do not care of the loneliness and darkness before one’s eyes but be filled with confidence to be able to rejoice greatly and sing in the night despite all kinds of trials.
Dear brothers, every day I pray for all the churches of China that God will edify this type of workers to work for the Lord at the last days. This is the kind of workers that I have comprehended in my prayer over one hundred days. If all the workers are willing to join together to go to a remote place to pray for a long period and labor by prayer in the spirit, they too will see what I have seen and gain what God wants them to gain.
Orally recorded by John of the Lord on 24 Oct, 1941
Dear co-workers and saints, let us pray fervently in one heart to plead God to nurture and bring up a big group of such workers who are after God’s heart to grab to save millions of souls to accomplish the gospel mission and welcome the second coming of Christ. Amen!
May we wish everyone great joy and thanksgiving for the New Year!
From Home of Grace for Christ’s Workers
at the end of 2016