This week we will continue with The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups for the God-ordained way reading schedule for the churches in Anaheim, Cypress, and Orange. Detailed information including the full reading schedule is available at churchinanaheim.org/gowreading/.
This week we will be reading The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups, Chapters 7 and 8. This book is available for purchase from Living Stream Ministry. You can also read it online at ministrybooks.org. (Please note: Because the Introductory Word is counted as a chapter on ministrybooks.org, Chapters 7 and 8 are listed as chapters 8 and 9 there.)
The Training and the Practice of the Vital Groups Message Seven is on the need in the Lord’s recovery today to build up the habit of contacting people. The Lord as the Chief Shepherd must have flocks of shepherds under Him to shepherd His flocks. We all have to be shepherds who are burdened to contact people. Some practical instructions for contacting people include: picking up the burden and making a definite resolution to contact people, behaving properly when visiting people, listening to your contact, never debating or arguing, considering the amount of time to spend, making appointments, learning the right timing to ask someone to pray, contacting people in a practical way, sensing their need, having a goal to contact them continuously, discerning whether to make them a constant contact, and always praying for your contacts.
In Message Eight we need to pay attention to Ephesians 5:14, which says, “Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” The way to produce a vital group is by you yourself going to the Lord. If you keep going to the Lord, sooner or later, He will shine on you. Then you will fully realize where you are and what you are. Spontaneously, you will have a thorough repentance and thorough confession which will bring you into an intimate fellowship with the Lord. If you have started from here, then you need to get a companion. The vital groups need to be started from the root by going to the Lord directly by yourself. To go to the Lord is the first principle is carrying out the vital groups. The second principle is to receive the imperatives in the New Testament which tell us what to do. We are told to come to Him. This is imperative. Only one thing counts–for you to contact the Lord by yourself. Another principle in our fellowship with the Lord is to be sincere. The vital groups should be started by your going to the Lord. This is the sowing of the seed, and something will grow out of this.
Quotes:
From p. 71: “The Lord’s recovery in the United States has come to a point where we cannot go on further without the shepherding.”
From p. 73: “My burden is to stir you up that you may realize that today the Lord’s recovery needs you to rise up to contact people.”
From p. 84: “Today we are in a stage in which we need to be vital. We need to be living, burning, and fruitful. Who can do this for us? Only the Lord Himself. What we need in this stage is to go to the Lord directly.”
Week 13: June 10th through June 16th
If you have any questions or comments contact us at: gowreading@gmail.com.