Plan for Growth

“And the word of God grew, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem multiplied greatly; and a large number of the priests obeyed the faith.” (Acts 6:7, RecVer)

“But the word of God grew and multiplied.” (Acts 12:24, RecVer)

 The conclusion of the ministry of the word through the ministry journey of the apostles in the Jewish region is that the word of God grew and multiplied. Similarly in the gentile region, the word of God grew and prevailed. 

“Thus, the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.” (Acts 19:20, RecVer)

This is the testimony recorded in the Bible concerning the way to increase the number of disciples. Yes, it was purely through the ministering of the word of God. The same principle applies today.  The issue of the constitution of the truth in the saints is for the building up of the Body of Christ and also for the increase of the church.

Since last Tuesday, the coworkers and full-timers serving ones came together for a time of fellowship and training. One of the burdens of the training was the increase of the saints in the churches inwardly by the constitution of the truth and outwardly too by the increase of the word of God.  For this, the brothers serving in the local churches should pay much attention to the enjoyment of the word of God. One new way to dive into the depth of the truth is the way of pray-reading, studying, reciting, and prophesying. In this way, the saints can be constituted with the truths which will enable them to grow in life and issue in the building up of the Body of Christ which in turn will be manifested as the increase in the number of the believers added into the church. 

For this increase to be practical, there needs to be a proper plan. Our God is a God of planning. Therefore, the responsible brothers must make a five years plan, stage by stage. Even for the church where I am, we made plans for the coming six months and the coming five years with the goal of reaching a hundred saints regularly meeting by next year. If the fellowship from the brothers were to be adhered to strictly, this goal can be achieved. This plan has to be worked out to become a reality. 

I do believe this is a confirmation from the Lord through the Body as we have been praying for the increase in the local church here. Especially in my family prayer, this has been one of our daily prayer burdens, to increase first to a hundred saints regularly meeting. In answer to that prayer, the Lord is now showing us how that prayer can be answered. It is God who answers prayer and it is also God who would execute all the plans, but man must cooperate with God and co-labor with Him step by step until the entire plan is accomplished.

Included in this plan is also the matter of desperately laboring on the saints and the new ones. While expecting the Lord's blessing for the increase, the saints must also live a normal Christian life in normal church life. In such a normal church life, the saints will shepherd one another and shepherd the new ones. Shepherding as a result of the enjoyment of the word of God is the best way to gain an increase in the church life. Shepherding includes laboring faithfully without any selection on who to shepherd, we must simply shepherd the saints, good or bad. The Lord will surely bless such faithful labor in shepherding.

The constitution of the word of God and the laboring in shepherding will make the plan accomplishable. This is the new way we are taking, in fact, I am taking, in my serving in the Body in my local church. All my other brothers will follow suit and we will be recipients of the Lord's blessing for His testimony in Gurugram.

Lord, bless the plan for the church through the constitution of the truth and the shepherding of the saints.