On the one hand, we are believers in the Lord pursuing Him personally, and on the other hand we are those who live a life for God’s purpose in the church life. We have seen a principle in the Bible, that is: the vital groups.
We cannot just “live the church life” in a general way, we need to be related to the saints, and specifically related to some immediate members of the Body that the Lord has put us with. If someone would ask you, Who are you built up with? Who knows you and your situation, and stands with you / prays for you every day? – what would you answer?
Well, we all have this need in us – to have companions – but the way we have a vital group is NOT by organization or human endeavor / zeal. The way we take is the way of life, that is, by us going to the Lord in a desperate way about our situation.
We personally want to be vital: living and active. It starts with me: in the Lord’s light I see that I haven’t been bearing fruit for the Lord for a while now, and I am not loving Him in a fervent way – I even know many things in the Bible and about the Lord, but why am I not burning for Him?
As we come to the Lord, there are some simple steps in which we can be made vital:
- We can be made vital through the absolute, clear, and thorough fellowship with the Lord continuously. First of all, we need to stop – even when we want to do something for the Lord. Stop first, and fellowship with the Lord. Have an absolute fellowship with Him, opening your whole being to Him, allowing Him to shine in you.
- We can be made vital through our thorough confession of sins, transgressions, failures, defects, mistakes, wrongdoings, etc. – those hidden or manifested – before God and, as there is the need, also before men. As we fellowship with the Lord, He shines on us and exposes us – we need to confess whatever the light exposes. Agree with the Lord, and confess! Also, confess before men the wrongdoings you did to them, as the Lord shines on you about it…
- We can be made vital through our absolute and thorough consecration of ourselves with everything we have, are, and do – to the Lord. After we dig away the dirt and confess our sins thoroughly, we just need to give ourselves to the Lord, allowing Him full access to our being. We just give Him our consent to operate in us; we give the Lord our permission to work Himself into us more, and to make us more living and active!
- We can be made vital through our unceasing and desperate prayer. After we consecrate ourselves, we live a life of unceasing prayer. To pray is to deny yourself and say, Lord, I can’t do it / be it / make it, but You can – therefore, I depend on You. We unceasingly pray by calling on the Lord’s name and opening our being to Him…
- We can be made vital through the soaking of the infilling and outpouring of the Spirit. As we fellowship with the Lord, we confess our sins, we have a thorough consecration, and we desperately pray to Him unceasingly, we are being infilled with the Spirit and there’s the outpouring of the Spirit on us as we go about and do things. We are being soaked with the Spirit within and clothed by the Spirit without.
This is all in the way of life, and it is so organic / normal. As the Lord shines on us in our thorough fellowship with Him, we start to confess whatever He exposes, and then we consecrate ourselves to Him. We then realize we need the Lord non-stop, so we pray unceasingly!
Through these vital practices in life, we are being filled with the Spirit, soaked and permeated with the Spirit. This is the way we become vital with the Lord. As we do this in a personal way with the Lord, He will send us a companion!
He will send us someone who is also desperate before Him regarding his spiritual condition and situation, and who is burning for Him. In this way, we become vital together – a vital group. In His timing, He will continue to add other saints to the group, to be living and active together.
It all begins with us stopping ourselves and just coming to the Lord – talking to Him first, talking to Him about our situation and condition, and opening to Him. Lord, may we take the way of life – make us vital!
