Praying to Match God in His Move on Earth
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give you.” (John 15:16)
“He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” (1 Cor. 6:17)
Why do we need to pray? It is because we cannot do anything. We can never be elders, we can never be deacons, and we can never be evangelists. We just cannot do it. So we must pray, which means that we put our trust in the Lord. The second reason we need to pray is that we realize God must do something through us. Without us, even God cannot do anything. This is quite remarkable. Without us, the Lord cannot preach the gospel. Without us, He can never save sinners. Although we need Him, He needs us even more. So we have to pray because we cannot do anything and because without us God cannot do anything. The third reason we must pray is that God wants to mingle Himself with man. Therefore, we pray to open ourselves to Him that He may mingle Himself with us. When God and man are mingled together through priestly praying, God will flow out through man to do His work. (The Priesthood, in CWWL, 1966, vol. 1, p. 471)
Without man, God can do nothing. In His New Testament economy, God does nothing without man. God must have man to match Him, to be one with Him, to coordinate with Him. This is the basic principle of God’s New Testament economy. Christ is moving today throughout the earth, and He is moving with those who are one with Him. Christ, the embodiment of God for His expansion, moves through those who love Him. (CS Numbers, msg. 3, III.C.1-3b)
High School Sisters Conference
From March 15 to 17, sisters from across Southern California with gather at Oak Glen for the Spring 2019 High School Sisters Conference. The general topic is “A New Heart and a New Spirit.” Please pray:
- for the Lord to prepare the hearts of all of the high school sisters in Southern California;
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that through this conference they would know their spirit and its importance in fulfilling God’s purpose;
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that they would be open to deal with their hearts to have a proper relationship with the Lord;
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and that the issue of dealing with their hearts would be a personal seeking after Christ to develop an affectionate and romantic relationship with Him.
GTCA Cities in California – Palo Alto
GTCA is the carrying out of the burden to “gospelize, truthize, and churchize” North America. This long-term labor is part of the one, unique work of the Lord to build up the Body of Christ. More than 20 cities are targeted for ongoing care and labor in 2019. These cities have been selected based on local burdens and their proximity to nearby churches. In California, we have 3 target cities.
Palo Alto is 30 miles south of San Francisco, situated in the heart of Silicon Valley, and contains Stanford University. We have an on-campus Bible study with 5 to 10 new seeking Christians joining weekly. Moreover, with GTCA, we have reached out to the Palo Alto community with a good number of seeking contacts. Please join us in prayer:
- For the church in Palo Alto to become a living gateway for many seeking ones at Stanford and the community to enter into the church life.
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For the Lord to raise up two full-time brothers to be added to the campus team, since current serving brothers are limited by their work schedules.
FTTA-OL
The Online Full-Time Training (FTTA-OL) conducts the FTTA curriculum completely online. The hope that this online program will help the believers cultivate a habit of studying the truth through a lifelong pursuit. While some learners may complete all the courses in short period of time, the FTTA-OL is designed with the view that most saints will take one or two courses per year for the next fifteen to thirty years. More information is at http://www.onlineftta.org.
Each year is divided into 5 terms. The 2019 Term B is from March 13 to May 7. Pray for every enrollee to be a diligent learner to help others learn and dig into the ministry materials. By the Lord’s mercy, may more saints sanctify their time by studying God’s Word and being constituted with the divine truth.
Germany
Leading brothers from German-speaking churches will meet together from March 16 to 17 for their semiannual gathering to blend and to seek the Lord for His present move in German-speaking nations.
Please continue to pray for the growth, building up, and blending of the saints and the strengthening of the Lord’s testimony in Aachen, Bielefeld, Bochum, Leipzig, Hamburg, Heidelberg and Mainz, as well as in Zurich, Switzerland. In particular, pray for the establishing of a strong testimony in Bielefeld in the coming months and that the Lord’s blessing will be on the oneness of these saints as they prepare to take the ground as another lampstand in Germany.
United Kingdom
There are two blocks of weekend retreats scheduled this spring at Bower House in London. The first block takes place each weekend from March 16 to April 7. The second block takes place during all weekends in May. Each weekend includes some time for practical service to encourage blending and give participants an enjoyable taste of the prayer and fellowship that can take place during practical service. A range of services will be available, including gentle landscaping work, Bible packing and simple indoor cleaning, as well the option to use the time for fellowship, reading, or personal time.
May the Lord motivate as many saints as possible to attend at least one of these special weekends, together with friends, family, and gospel contacts, to blend with one another and learn to function together in pursuing the truth and in practical service.
Announcements
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Morning revival: Week 3 of Crystallization-Study of Numbers, vol. 1.
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This year’s LA Chinese-Speaking Retreat will be March 29 to 31 in Thousand Oaks.
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High School Conferences at Oak Glen: for sisters, March 15 to 17; for brothers, March 22 to 24.
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Junior High School Conferences at Oak Glen: for sisters, April 12 to 14 (registration due March 31); for brothers, March 19 to 21 (registration due April 7).
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College Conference will be April 19 to 21 in Anaheim. Early registration ends April 7; late registration ends April 14.
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Memorial Day Conference will be May 24 to 27 in Seattle, WA. Conference and hotel information is at https://churchinlosangeles.org/prayer. Saints from LA attending should RSVP by April 28 at http://tinyurl.com/memdayla (adults) and http://tinyurl.com/memchildrenla (children).
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Spanish language radio broadcast: Monday through Friday, 9:00 to 9:30 pm. LA County 100.3 FM; San Fernando Valley and Ventura County 90.3 FM.