Fellowship From the Brother Above – November 25, 2025 (Part Two)

By this point, leaders and workers of churches in various countries have believed in God for at least three to five years, and some have been leaders and workers for three to five years as well. However, you still cannot work independently and always want Chinese believers to continue supporting and helping you. What is the problem here? Why can you never be independent in your work and always rely on the help of Chinese believers? Although Chinese believers were responsible for your work before, their stature is actually not much greater than yours. In fact, their stature is about the same as yours. So why do you always rely on them? Is it because you have no sense of burden? If you have no sense of burden, can you do the duty of a leader or worker well? (No.) In the last days, God will make a group of overcomers both before and during the catastrophes. Before the catastrophes, He made a group of overcomers in China, and during the catastrophes, He will make a group of overcomers among God’s chosen people in various countries. Now that you have been elected as leaders and workers, God’s intention is in this. God wants to use this to perfect you and make you complete. If you can truly shoulder God’s commission, then you can be made into overcomers by God. This is so meaningful! So why can you not shoulder God’s commission at such a critical time? Tell me, which of God’s chosen people in various countries can be perfected? Is it not those who can do their duties devotedly? If you have no sense of burden, can you do your duty well? Can you shoulder the work to complete God’s commission? Can you bear testimony for God and be made into an overcomer? (No.) Then how should you pursue the truth to come to shoulder the work, complete God’s commission, and bear testimony for God? Do you have a path forward on this? If you do not, you cannot be perfected. Some people in your churches have a sense of burden in their duties and they also have the resolve to shoulder this work. However, in the process of shouldering this commission, you will be sure to encounter difficulties and problems. This requires you to constantly pray to and rely on God, and to constantly seek the truth and practice the truth, so that you may come to do your duty according to truth principles. In this way, you will slowly become able to do the work well. Will you not then be perfected by God little by little? No one can do the work well immediately upon starting. When I first started working, I didn’t know how to do it either. It was only through the guidance of the Holy Spirit that I gradually learned how to do work. So why is it that you can’t rely on God to enable you to shoulder God’s commission? Why can you not work without the help and support of Chinese believers? You must reflect on this matter carefully. If you can never shoulder God’s commission or work independently, it shows that you have no faith in God at all, that you do not pursue the truth, and that you do not truly love God. Why did God’s house let the Church in the Philippines work independently? It is because you have believed in God for quite a few years and have some stature, so you could become independent first. In addition, there are indeed not many suitable leaders and workers in the Chinese churches now. There may be some leaders and workers in mainland China who have caliber and work capability, but most of them have either been arrested and imprisoned by the CCP or are being pursued and are wanted. The CCP is utterly frenzied in arresting and persecuting Christians. To achieve their goal of arresting Christians, they do not hesitate to spend huge sums of money to purchase the world’s most cutting-edge surveillance equipment. The whole of mainland China is under its surveillance. Therefore, in this context, leaders and workers in the mainland who truly have truth reality and many years of work experience have long since been arrested and placed on wanted lists by the CCP. Can they still escape to do their duties overseas? They cannot. As for Chinese believers overseas, most of them have not believed in God for long, and some have never done church work. It is not easy to find people among these Chinese believers who have truth reality and who can be leaders and workers. Therefore, leaders and workers of churches in various countries should not rely on these Chinese believers. Their stature is about the same as yours. Most of you have also believed in God for three to eight years, and you also know how to do church work. If you can work independently, then hurry up and become independent. If you can shoulder the work, hurry up and shoulder it. Is this a good way of doing things? (It is.) If you always rely on the Chinese and do not know how to work without them, then your faith and sense of burden are too small, and this disappoints God’s intentions.

Now, let’s begin fellowshipping on how leaders and workers should work. Let’s start by explaining the term “leader.” A leader is someone who leads the way, someone who leads and guides people to enter the truth reality. The specific practice for a leader is, first of all, to lead God’s chosen people in eating and drinking God’s words, and to fellowship on your understanding of God’s words. If you have practical experience, you can also share your experiential understanding. This is what it means to lead God’s chosen people to eat and drink God’s words, and this is work that leaders and workers must perform. So, how specifically should this work be done? In every gathering, you must have the brothers and sisters eat and drink a few passages or a chapter of God’s words. Fellowshipping on God’s words requires the right approach. Sometimes a passage of God’s words can be read first, and then everyone can fellowship together on their experiential understanding of God’s words. After that, another passage can be read and everyone can fellowship again, and so on. If you have believed in God for only a short time and cannot share any experiential understanding of God’s words, you can let other brothers and sisters who have believed in God for a longer time and have experiential understanding fellowship first. You should encourage those who fellowship well to fellowship more and have those who have only a little or no experiential understanding of God’s words fellowship less or not at all. Fellowshipping on God’s words in gatherings is that simple. However, there is one thing that requires attention: Leaders must not be jealous of brothers or sisters. Never think, “I am the leader, and I had everyone eat and drink God’s words. If you share a better experiential understanding than me, and everyone looks up to you instead of me, then that simply won’t do.” If you harbor this thought, is this not a revelation of a corrupt disposition? Are you not being jealous of the capable? (Yes.) Can you still lead God’s chosen people in a normal way to eat and drink God’s words while relying on such a corrupt disposition to do your work? (No.) Therefore, you must correct your thoughts and attitude. When eating and drinking God’s words in gatherings, no matter who fellowships their understanding or shares experiential testimony, as long as they fellowship well and can bring edification to everyone, you should approve of and support them. If you adhere to this principle, you will have the correct mindset when hosting gatherings. You will say, “Although I am hosting today’s gathering and having everyone eat and drink God’s words, I do not have much experiential understanding of these words of God at the moment. Even if I fellowship, it won’t achieve results, so I will fellowship less. Any brothers and sisters who have understanding and experiential testimony of God’s words can fellowship more. Share the understanding you have gained so that other brothers and sisters can also be edified.” Is it good for leaders and workers to have such a mindset? (This is a good thing, because it means they can put aside their personal interests for the sake of the brothers and sisters’ life entry.) Does having this mindset not show love for the brothers and sisters? (It does.) For the sake of the edification of their brothers and sisters, such a leader does not engage in jealousy and disputes, and they allow anyone with experiential testimony to fellowship, and if they themselves have no experiential understanding, they do not fellowship. They do not care whether others look down on them, and so long as the gathering achieves results and is beneficial to the brothers and sisters’ life entry, they feel at ease and at peace in their heart. Is this not a person with conscience and reason? (Yes.) If you do not possess such a mindset and you become jealous when you see others fellowship well, how should this corrupt disposition be resolved? You must pray to God and reflect on yourself, saying, “Oh God, I am always focused on vanity and pride and do not protect the church’s work. Please enlighten and illuminate me so that I may know my corruption, selfishness, and baseness. I ask You to help me resolve my corrupt disposition.” Pray like this often, and gradually you will gain knowledge of your corrupt disposition, and you will feel that this jealousy is not a manifestation of normal humanity, and that it is detested by God. If you can see this problem clearly, will your mindset not be able to change somewhat? (It will.) Therefore, as a leader or worker, for the benefit of the brothers and sisters, no matter who fellowships well on their understanding or who has life experiential testimony, you must encourage them to fellowship more and support their fellowship. After they finish fellowshipping, you should also say to the brothers and sisters, “This experiential testimony shared by this brother (or sister) is very good. Their understanding is quite deep, and it is very edifying for us. Thank God! This is God showing grace to us and blessing our gathering!” If you support brothers and sisters like this whenever they share experiential testimony, then you have normal humanity, conscience, and reason. As a leader or worker, do not always harbor a heart of jealousy toward others, and do not always consider satisfying your own vanity and pride. Satisfying vanity and pride is meaningless. You should focus on satisfying God’s heart and the needs of the brothers and sisters in life. This is what is most critical and important, and it accords with God’s intentions. If a leader or worker becomes jealous when they see someone who is better than them, and they want to belittle, condemn, or even exclude and suppress them, is such a person not despicable and base? (They are.) They have a bad disposition, and they are deeply crooked, deceitful, selfish, and base. So, is such a person suited to serve as a leader or worker? (No.) No matter what aspect of work leaders and workers perform, they must cooperate harmoniously with brothers and sisters. Harmonious cooperation means working with brothers and sisters with one heart and mind. Of course, people all want to work with brothers and sisters with one heart and mind, but in practice, what mindsets are most likely to disturb you? What kind of corrupt disposition will hinder you from acting according to principles? (A mindset of jealousy and an arrogant disposition will hinder people from practicing the truth.) To resolve this, you must seek the truth to resolve these erroneous mindsets and corrupt dispositions. However, the truth is not something people can put into practice immediately just because they wish to. In the process of practicing the truth, various corrupt dispositions will disturb our hearts and cause us to produce various revelations of corruption, such as being jealous of the capable, being arrogant and self-righteous, belittling others and exalting oneself, and so on. Therefore, when corrupt dispositions hold sway within us, we cannot practice the truth or act according to principle. If people can gradually resolve this problem by seeking and practicing the truth, then they will have life entry. Do you now know what life entry is? Life entry means that a person can pray, rely on God to practice the truth and battle against their satanic dispositions and fleshly interests whenever a satanic disposition comes out to disturb them in their duties, or even governs them so that they do not accept or practice the truth, making them act only according to their own will. In the end, if they can gain some truths and triumph over Satan’s disturbances, then this is what it means to gain life entry. Being able to practice the truth means you have begun to attain life entry. When you have experienced spiritual battles time and again and become able to practice the truth, submit to God, satisfy God, and stand firm in your testimony for God, then you have true life experiential testimony. If you write down such life experiences in the form of an article, it will be good experiential testimony. If you can write down each of your life experiences to share with brothers and sisters, they will be moved when they read your experiential testimony, and they will say, “Your fellowship is so practical! I have this kind of state too. My corrupt disposition also keeps disturbing and hindering me like this as I do my duty and try to practice the truth, so that often when I want to practice the truth, I cannot. I want to cooperate harmoniously with brothers and sisters, but I cannot, and I always act based on corrupt dispositions. After listening to your experiential testimony, I too have gained knowledge of myself and a path by which to practice the truth. I am truly grateful to God!” Their being able to gain this knowledge will have been achieved by the life experience you shared. Does this not benefit and edify people? (Yes.) If you experience God’s work in this way, your life experience will become ever richer, and your growth in life will become ever more rapid. When you have gone through enough experiences to the point where your corrupt dispositions, incorrect intentions and pursuits, and fallacious thoughts and views are all resolved through your praying to and relying on God, and through your seeking and practicing the truth, then your life experience and the truths you will have gained will be abundant beyond compare, and your life will have reached maturity.

Now let’s talk about what the manifestation of life maturity is. This refers to a person being able to normally practice the truth and act according to principle at any time, without being affected, hindered, or disturbed by corrupt dispositions in the slightest. Is this easy to achieve? (No, reaching this point requires people to put effort into pursuing the truth.) Do you see any disturbance or hindrance from corrupt dispositions when I do my duty? It is relatively easy for me to practice the truth, and my acting according to principle is achieved with ease, without any need for me to battle or face any hindrance. But I did not achieve such stature when I first believed in God. For the first ten years of my belief, I was affected by corrupt dispositions just like you. It was only after experiencing ten or twenty years of God’s work and gaining some truths that I changed in these ways, became able to completely submit to God and act according to truth principles, and became able to practice the truth and be honest. Can you discern a single lie in my words? Is there a single word I speak that is adulterated? (No.) No matter what I say, I tell no lies and speak no words that are adulterated. For me, practicing being honest is easy and pleasant, and I don’t need to battle, nor am I hindered in any way. Now, for me, practicing all aspects of the truth is not difficult. For me, harmonious cooperation is not difficult, submitting to God and being considerate of God’s intentions is not difficult, and acting according to truth principles is also easy. These results can be achieved when a person’s life has grown and matured. However, in the early stages of believing in God, especially when people have believed for three to eight years, they reveal corrupt dispositions the most often and the most seriously. After people have continuously pursued the truth and experienced God’s work for ten or twenty years, they reveal corrupt dispositions far less, and practicing the truth and acting according to principle can be done easily and pleasantly. Why do new believers feel beset by difficulties and great pressure when they undertake some commissions? What is the problem here? It is because people’s corrupt disposition is truly dire. When people first come to believe in God, they have not yet experienced pruning, trials, or refinement, and they do not even know how to experience the judgment and chastisement of God’s words. It can be said that people are just descendants of Satan who remain completely untouched. Therefore, people find it very difficult to practice the truth, work, and cooperate harmoniously with others. No matter who they cooperate with, they are prone to fussing over every little thing, engaging in jealousy and disputes, and scheming against each other. They also always want to attain superiority, have the final say, and have others obey them and listen to them. People’s corrupt dispositions are truly dire, and they do not have a shred of normal humanity! So how should we measure whether a person’s humanity is completely normal? (This is mainly done by looking at whether they can cooperate harmoniously with others.) What is the key criterion by which to measure whether a person can cooperate harmoniously with others? It is based on whether they can see their own identity and status clearly and achieve true humility. When a person recognizes that they are just an ordinary created being, they no longer demand that others must look up to them, submit to them, and listen to them. Even if others look down on them, exclude them, or even judge and attack them, they can handle it correctly and be tolerant and patient. In this way, it is easy to achieve harmonious cooperation with others. If you have not come to realize this, then it is not easy to cooperate harmoniously with others, because you always think highly of yourself, think you are better than others, and always want others to worship and submit to you. In that case, your corrupt disposition is truly dire, your stature is truly small, and it will not be easy for you to do your work well, nor will you be able to shoulder work. For some people, the prerequisite for their doing work is that others must look up to them, worship them, and obey them. Only then can they do their work. Once someone does not look up to them or obey them, or if someone looks down on them a little, they think that others are not cooperating with their work, and they want to abandon their duty. This is like a mother who has several children. She demands that her children must call her “Mom” before she cooks for them, and if they don’t, she won’t cook for them. What do you think of such a mother? (She’s not a good mother.) Does such a mother exist? (No.) Then, as a church leader, why do you demand that brothers and sisters look up to you, worship you, and obey you before you are willing to work? How does this demand arise? (It arises from a person being governed by a satanic corrupt disposition.) This is a serious problem. You are unwilling to do your duty if people don’t look up to you or worship you, and you are only willing to do your duty if everyone looks up to you, approves of you, and worships you. In such a case, your performance of your duty is not to gain God’s approval, but to gain people’s high regard and approval. Which is more important: gaining the approval of God or people? (Gaining God’s approval is important.) Then why do some people always work to gain other people’s high regard and approval? Let’s take an example. There used to be a leader in the Local Church in China named Watchman Nee. He was the founder of the Chinese house church. He was a particularly gifted preacher. His sermons were more profound than those of other church leaders and famous spiritual figures at the time, and whenever he preached, thousands of people would come to listen. But he had a fatal flaw: He was too protective of his own status. He did one thing: When the gospel was flourishing, he wanted to open a biochemical pharmaceutical factory. Many co-workers advised him, saying, “The Lord’s intention is for you to shepherd the church. There are so many people in the church who need watering. If you do not shepherd the church properly and instead go and open a biochemical pharmaceutical factory, won’t this delay the church’s work? This does not accord with the Lord’s intention!” When Watchman Nee heard someone oppose him, he couldn’t accept it. He said, “A spirit of betrayal has appeared in the church. I will not argue with you about this matter. I will have the Lord vindicate me. If the Lord does not vindicate me, I will not preach.” Then he stopped preaching and participating in the church’s services. It was not until six years later, when his co-workers asked him to come out and preach, that he agreed to continue serving. Just because someone opposed him opening a pharmaceutical factory, Watchman Nee stopped participating in the church’s services, preaching, and working for six years. What great damage this brought to the church’s work! The brothers and sisters’ life entry was definitely affected. Was it right for him to do this? (No.) Why not? (He regarded his personal reputation and status as being higher than God’s commission to him. Once his reputation and status were damaged, he was willing to lay down God’s commission and betray God.) (Just because others criticized him, he laid down the church’s work for more than six years. This shows that he had no loyalty to God’s commission, no submission to the situations set up by God, and that he could not accept others’ suggestions to reflect on himself.) This is the correct way to see it. Then, when this matter came upon him, instead of reflecting on himself and knowing himself, he insisted that the Lord vindicate him. Is such behavior not rebellion? (It is.) This is a kind of rebellion. His insistence that the Lord vindicate him meant that he did not accept the pruning of his brothers and sisters, and that he thought he was right. Was this not arrogance and self-righteousness? (It was.) So did he accept the truth? (No.) If he couldn’t accept the truth, he didn’t truly submit to God. So how did Watchman Nee treat God’s commission? He always had his own adulterations and always wanted to carry out his own enterprise. In this, wasn’t he not attending to his proper duties? Wasn’t he being disloyal to God? (He was.) In fact, by carrying out his own enterprise while doing his duty, he was already betraying God and walking a deviant path. When his brothers and sisters exhorted him, he still insisted that the Lord vindicate him, and if the Lord didn’t, he would not serve or preach. As a result, he delayed the church’s work for more than six years. So tell me, did he really treat his brothers and sisters as brothers and sisters? If he really did, he would have been able to stand on an equal footing with them. As long as the suggestions made by his brothers and sisters were in line with the truth, he would have been able to accept them. Even if they weren’t completely in line with the truth, he would have been able to treat them correctly, and he wouldn’t have judged his brothers and sisters, much less delayed the performance of his duty and service to God because of this. This is the sense of reason that a person who serves God should have. But because of such a small matter, Watchman Nee laid down his duty and delayed his brothers and sisters’ life entry and the church’s work. This shows that he didn’t follow God’s will. In addition, he also demanded that God vindicate him, and that if God didn’t, he would not preach. Was he not clamoring against God by doing this? (He was.) This is clamoring against and threatening God. The nature of this problem is serious. Is it necessary for God to vindicate you? Is there any conscience or reason in doing this? (No.) Duties are responsibilities and obligations that people should fulfill themselves, but instead of doing your duty properly, you carry out your own enterprise. When brothers and sisters point this out to you, you do not reflect on yourself or repent to God, but instead insist that God vindicate you. Is there a shred of conscience or reason in this? Is this not the case? (It is.) Can you benefit from my fellowship on this matter? (Yes, we can learn lessons from it, and we can come to know that God’s commission is of the utmost importance and should be treated seriously. At no time can we lay down God’s commission to protect our personal interests. In addition, when cooperating with brothers and sisters, we must learn to accept others’ reminders and suggestions.) The mistake Watchman Nee made involved several issues. Is this clear to you? This mistake involves his character, how he treated the Lord’s commission, whether he was loyal to the Lord, the path he walked, and whether he was a right person. If you cannot see this clearly, then your understanding of this matter is too simplistic. Looking only at the surface of things won’t do; you still can’t see through to the heart of the matter.