Day: February 5, 2023

In the Service

In your coordination with the brothers and sisters who work with you, you should also exercise faith and not have your own choice. You should not say, “I prefer to coordinate and serve with Brother So-and-so.” I can tell you that very often the companion you choose will end up hating you. Today you love him, but he will hate you in the future. It is really strange that none of the companions you choose will work. Therefore, in the matter of coordination you need to learn to leave it in the Lord’s hand and trust in the Lord. Take myself as an example. In these many years of serving the Lord I have not chosen any particular person to be my co-worker, nor have I selected any particular one to receive my training. I do not make my own choice as to whom I would work with, nor do I make my own choice as to whom I would train. Throughout all these years the Lord has been arranging everything for me; I just learn to trust in Him and to exercise faith rather than struggling by myself or having my own demands, choices, inclinations, and preferences. Of course, we should also not have any anxiety or worry, but we should believe that whenever we have a particular need, God knows about it. This is faith.

THE EXERCISE AND LEARNING NEEDED 
FOR ENDURING SUFFERINGS

Another thing that all of God’s serving ones should learn is to exercise to endure sufferings. This is also a most necessary item of the Christian character. This does not mean that we should create or seek out sufferings for ourselves; rather, it means that we should learn to suffer. What is a suffering? Anything that is not according to our desire is a suffering to us. As a northerner, I grew up eating food made from wheat and seldom ate rice. In the fall of 1934 I was invited to work in Pingyang, Wenchow, where it was impossible to buy authentic northern steamed bread, even with gold. At that time I had indigestion due to a serious stomach ulcer. This kind of illness is very sensitive to the fall weather. After I arrived in Pingyang, the saints served me rice every day. The strangest thing was that the rice that the southerners cooked was dry and hard, unlike the rice that the northerners cooked, which was sticky. Even before I ate the rice, I was scared just to look at it, and I wondered how I would be able to [426] digest it. During that time I gave messages two or three times a day, in addition to service meetings. Eventually, I had indigestion due to the half-cooked rice, and my body was weakened.

When the saints saw this, they took extra efforts to find someone to make steamed bread for me. At that time I had been eating steamed bread for thirty years, so the first day that I saw the smooth, shining surface of the bread that they brought me, I knew that the inside was still raw and not thoroughly leavened. I dared not say anything because it would have been improper to do so. When the saints served the bread, I just ate it. They said that the bread was the best local bread because it was made by the only person who knew how to make that kind of bread. I just had to eat it. This is what it means to suffer.

Brother Watchman Nee had a similar story. He was a southerner. He began to labor for the Lord in 1921 around the age of twenty. One time he was invited to work in Hsuchow, in Anhwei Province, north of the Yangtze River. The northerners did not have regular beds. They slept on brick beds warmed by a fire underneath. In order to provide hospitality for Brother Nee, the saints borrowed a bed that had a framework of metal strips without any bedding except a bed sheet. They told Brother Nee, “We borrowed this bed especially for you.” Thus, Brother Nee slept on a bed of metal strips, something he had never before experienced.

When we go forth to work for the Lord, we have to learn to commit ourselves to the circumstances. We cannot expect the circumstances to always be accommodating to us and working for us. This is impossible. Some of you will go to different towns and villages for propagation. You do not know what kind of circumstances you will be in, what kind of things you will encounter, and how much financial support you will receive. Everything is an unknown. Therefore, you need to live by faith and learn to suffer. You should arm yourselves with a mind to suffer so that you can be a good soldier of Christ. Peter also exhorts us to follow the Lord with the mind of Christ, a mind to suffer (1 Pet. 4:1). When a real soldier goes to fight at the frontline, the environment is beyond his control. Therefore, he has to get ready in ordinary times by exercising to endure sufferings.

We said earlier that anything that is not according to our desire is a suffering. For example, we may be afraid that others will snore, [427] yet it may happen that the one who sleeps on the same bunk bed with us snores terribly. We should not say that we cannot take it. Instead, we have to exercise. If we have such a mind, it will take us only a week’s exercise to be able to fall asleep. If we do not pay attention to a certain thing, we will not suffer because of it, but once we direct our attention to it, we will suffer. Hence, to learn to suffer is to learn not to be mindful of anything.

That time while I was eating the uncooked steamed bread, I was really not able to eat it, but I remembered that the Lord had said, “Into whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you” (Luke 10:8). So I prayed, “Lord, You said that we should eat what is set before us; now they have set before me something raw, so I should eat it raw.” Eventually, I ate it. Thank and praise the Lord that my stomach problem was not worsened, although I indeed became thinner. A month later Brother Nee had a conference in Hangchow, so I finished my work and rushed to that conference. When I arrived there the next day, he was speaking on the podium. Once he saw me, he said, “Alas! Brother Witness is as thin as a stick!” Afterward in the next meeting, he shared in the message that co-workers who go out to labor for the Lord should learn to suffer hardships.

We must learn to endure hardships if we intend to work for the Lord. We should not forget that as soldiers we must be ready to go to war, not to attend a feast. As a result, we need to get ourselves prepared. When we go out to spread the gospel, we have to prepare to go to the battlefield to suffer. We have to pave the way for ourselves in every matter. We need to take care of our living quarters and find a way to prepare our meals. In dealing with gospel friends or brothers and sisters we must learn to relate to them on their level. All these things require us to exercise faith and to learn to suffer.

In Bodily Illnesses

First, we must learn to exercise faith when we are sick. This does not mean that we are superstitious. When we are sick, we still have to see a doctor and take medicine. This is a two-sided matter. For example, every day God sustains us not by signs and wonders but through a normal diet. We should not think that since we trust in God, we can survive without eating, just like the Lord Jesus did when He was tempted by Satan for forty days. This is superstition. [422] On the other hand, we should not think that as long as we eat, we will be healthy and strong and will live long. In fact, even if we eat properly, we may still get sick, even with some fatal illness. Therefore, we must trust in God.

For this reason, even if we have only a cold, we still have to learn to trust in God’s healing. We should not seek miracles but should see a doctor and take medicine while also trusting in God. This is not an easy thing. With some, once they go to a doctor and take medicine, they give up their trust in God. With others, once they believe in God, they become superstitious and would never go to see a doctor. Both are too much.

When Brother Watchman Nee was young, Sister M. E. Barber was the person who gave him the most help. She never went to see a doctor or took medicine in her whole life, so she lived to only around sixty years of age. Even Paul told Timothy, “No longer drink water only, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent illnesses” (1 Tim. 5:23). We cannot say that Paul had little faith. I feel that M. E. Barber was a little bit too much. Otherwise, she could have lived longer and could have been more useful in the Lord’s hand. Therefore, for our benefit and the Lord’s, we must learn this matter of exercising faith.

In Material Supply

We must learn to exercise faith especially in the matter of material supply. It is true that the church and the saints will follow the Lord’s leading to supply us in love; nevertheless, we still have to learn to trust in God. Consider Paul’s case. On the one hand, he trusted in God, and God really supplied him. When he was in Thessalonica, the church in Philippi sent people “once and again” to supply his need (Phil. 4:16). When he was working in Corinth, the brothers who came from Macedonia filled up his lack (2 Cor. 11:9). Yet on the other hand, when he was in Corinth, he worked with his own hands as a tentmaker (Acts 18:3; 1 Cor. 4:12). Moreover, he told the elders in the church in Ephesus, “You yourselves know that these hands have ministered to my needs and to those who are with me” (Acts 20:34). Here we see a two-sided principle: on the one hand, Paul trusted in and received God’s supply; on the other hand, he worked with his own hands to meet the needs of himself and his companions. He did not refuse the supply from the saints even though he [423] made tents, nor did he give up his occupation even though he trusted in God completely. This is different from the way of Christianity. Therefore, whether we work by “making tents” to make money for our livelihood or we serve full time and receive the supply from the church and the saints, we have to learn to trust in God, believing that everything is planned by Him and trusting absolutely in His sovereign provision.

Second Corinthians 5:7 tells us that we walk not by appearance or sight but by faith. This is to say that everything is by faith. We should not complain, saying, “Since I have been serving full time, there has been very little supply.” We should not have such murmuring. Whether we receive much support or little support, we have to trust in God. This does not mean, however, that we simply trust in God and stop relying on the love and care of the church and the saints, even to the extent that when someone sends a monetary gift, we return the whole amount. If this is the case, God will not supply us any longer, and there will not be any more manna descending. The saints supply you because they love you, but if you think that they give because they look down on you and therefore you would rather starve than accept their offering, you are too proud. If you are this way, God will let you starve. Since you would not accept anything from others, God would not give you anything either. This is true. So we have to see this two-sided principle.

You should not murmur, saying that since your minimum living expenses require hundreds of dollars and you have received only a few dollars or even less for support (only enough to buy something to drink to quench your thirst), you might as well give that money to someone else. If you have such an attitude, God sees this clearly and may allow you to continue receiving an amount that is only enough to buy something to drink. Therefore, we should learn to have faith and not to murmur, trusting in the Lord’s sovereignty and believing that we are in His hands and are living for Him.

Stanza 1 of the Chinese version of Hymns, #473 says, “When one refuses all earthly bribe / And comes to live for God, / The boundless riches he receives / Are indescribable.” It is said that the writer of this hymn is Catherine Booth-Clibborn, the daughter of the founder of the Salvation Army. After singing this hymn, we should not say, “Where are the ‘boundless riches’? This hymn should say ‘limited riches.’ What good is it to have one dollar? This is not enough even [424] to pay for a bus ticket. A gift of a thousand dollars would be more acceptable.” I believe that the author of this hymn might have often received a supply of only several British pence, yet she still had such great faith. Therefore, we must learn to have faith. Do not be proud and say, “I will not rely on the church or on the saints; I will learn to depend on God.” To depend on God in the matter of material supply is very practical, because God is truly trustworthy. However, you should act properly and maintain a proper attitude. This requires much learning.

In the Environment

We should exercise faith not only in dealing with our bodily illnesses and for meeting our material needs but also for dealing with our environment in our service to the Lord. Our environment is changeable and complicated. Regardless of whether or not we are Christians, we cannot live alone, apart from human society. We have relatives, neighbors, and friends, who all are a part of our environment. Suppose that the Lord would exercise His sovereignty and allow our neighbors to be either crazy people or activists, the children in the neighborhood to always quarrel and be very noisy, and the couples to fight continuously. If this were the case, how could we have peace? If we were to move to another location, the environment might be even worse. Sometimes when we hire a nanny to take care of our children, she turns out to be a poor nanny. Then when we change to another one, the new one turns out to be even worse. There is a Chinese colloquial saying: “A soldier goes, and a sentry comes”; this means that when the military man leaves, he is replaced by a policeman. Regardless of how hard you try, you simply cannot find a good nanny. It seems that all you can find are strange or peculiar ones. This is very interesting.

Actually, in all these situations we have to see the Lord’s sovereign authority behind the scene. Instead of blaming the environment, we should believe in God and learn to trust in God’s arrangement. On the one hand, we need to believe in God, while on the other hand, we need to deal with the environment by faith. We should not argue or complain. For example, when you get on an airplane, do not fight for a good seat. You need to trust in God and learn to rely on Him in both great things and small things. This is the lesson that we must learn. [425]